8 – As the Son of a Dragon (3)
“Russell, wake up. The sun has already risen.”
Feeling her long fingers combing through my hair, penetrating deeply.
I waited for the ticklish sensation to disappear.
“Russell, I know you’re very tired, but didn’t we agree to go for a walk with Mom today?”
With a thump, my cheek was covered by her large hand, being caressed.
A little bit of sweat began to appear.
No, am I getting hot?
The sensation of my skin becoming burning hot was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.
“Uh…”
Wiping the sweat from my damp cheek, I eventually had no choice but to get up from my spot.
Because I knew that until then, my mother had no intention of letting go of my hand.
“I’m tired, Mom…”
“But it’s all for you. You wanted to use magic, didn’t you? Maybe this will help.”
Even now, at fifteen years old, I still couldn’t use magic.
Although it had already been a year since I began easily reading books filled with characters,
And despite hearing countless stories and secrets from my mother,
I still couldn’t properly conjure a single flame with my hand.
“Now, go wash up quickly – you know where we need to go, right?”
“Yes, Mom. Even though I’m not a little kid anymore.”
“Oh, just five years… five years? It feels like time passed so slowly -“
“It’s been five years. And I’ve grown a lot, see?”
My forehead, which used to touch my mother’s belly button, now reached her chest.
Of course, I still had a long way to go to catch up to her height.
“hehehe. If you eat your carrots well, maybe someday you’ll be this tall too.”
Pushing the blankets off the bed and feeling the warmth and sensation of my head being patted by her youthful hand.
“Ing!”
She screamed with a cry, returning the bulging pillow to its original position.
“It’s not that I don’t eat…”
“I need to eat more. It’s not enough to just put a few pieces in my mouth every time.
Mom is waiting in the kitchen, so I need to hurry and come out.”
“Got it.”
Even though it had been five years since we met, Mom still saw me as the child from back then, which was a bit frustrating.
But I knew it couldn’t be helped.
Even today, whether she was in a good mood or not, Mom disappeared beyond the door, wagging her tail.
She lived much longer than me,
Spent much more time.
“When will I be able to use magic like Mom?”
“Ing… Ing?”
I gently stroked the head of the pillow that still only whimpered,
Stretching and basking in the bright sunlight.
“I know, too.”
Today was a day to go for a walk.
It was time to leave the space created by Mom’s magic and study nature.
“It’s still a long way off. I can’t even light a fire, let alone use magic.”
It had been five years since I learned and saw many things by Mom’s kind side.
Watching countless days and nights pass,
Avoiding the cold winters and hot summers within this cave, our time together was at that level.
However, the more I studied, the more I realized how different Mom was from me.
And how lacking I was.
Just the horn on my head,
That warm and sturdy tail,
That face much more beautiful than the princesses in books.
Is that all?
Moving dozens of knives and pots, cutting boards and ingredients all at once while cooking.
Summoning a flame ball as hot as the sun in my hand,
and from the very nature of this space.
Every one of them, like me, a ordinary human, felt like a waste to compare.
“Ink, ink!”
Tapping my back,
stroking the pillow to urge me to get up quickly, I got up from my seat.
“Okay, I got it.”
The more I studied, the more I realized the fact that I was lacking in something, and it wasn’t exactly refreshing.
My mother continued to support me, but the lack of progress was getting to me.
I couldn’t dare to suspect my mother, so I began to suspect myself.
“Huff…”
If I could learn something properly on this walk, that would be great.
***
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen the world.”
Stretching and yawning, my mother’s face looked refreshing.
Passing through the cave I had entered, flowers and leaves were welcoming me in the blooming mountains.
“How about it? Can you feel the freshness of nature?”
“Yeah, being with you feels much better than -“
As I came out into the world, I struggled to find the right words.
It felt very chaotic.
The nature I saw in the house I was with my mother was always cool and warm.
But when something flew and hit my face – it was a flying beetle.
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I had never seen it in that cave.
The slight collision felt very unpleasant.
The subtly humid air didn’t suit me either.
“Are you confused? Of course.
I must have missed something in the nine years I taught you.
I mean, it’s possible that you don’t know nature.”
Holding my hand tightly, my mother sat down near a flower.
And she lightly smelled its fragrance, making me feel it too.
“Are you a flower? This forest, everything living here?”
“Naturally…?”
“Is that so? That’s why using magic may have been difficult for you. It’s a bit strange not to know what nature really is while borrowing strength from it.”
Rather than just a sweet fragrance from the flowers, it felt like something heavy. This place was not only refreshing and pleasant but also had an obstructive quality to it. Maybe it was because of the heat, or perhaps it was because nature wasn’t inherently as friendly as it seemed, just like winter. I pondered that for a moment.
“Hmm…”
While silently feeling my mom’s touch, her gentle hand petting me, I observed the green forest gradually darkening. Clouds intermittently covered the sun, and shadows danced in accordance with the sunlight. I was startled by the chirping birds, attentive to the scurrying creatures, and something held me back as if I were enchanted.
“It’s good to concentrate, but don’t stray too far. Nature is a living labyrinth. You’ll learn a lot in the future, but if you get too lost in it, you might find yourself lost.”
Being forcibly embraced in a warm embrace, I stared at the deep and dark path before me. Beyond the dense undergrowth, there was undoubtedly a path, but there was no clear passage in front of me. Shaking my head slightly in wonder, I looked ahead again.
“Russell.”
All I could see there were trees. The path had never existed in that place.
“Mom?”
“You saw me sooner than I thought. Are you okay?”
If my mother weren’t here, where would I have gone?
If my mother hadn’t stopped me, what would I have tried to do?
A chilling cold seeped into the shadow where I stood.
“Y-yes.”
“Calm down. Take a slow breath and breathe with me.
That’s right. Keep repeating.”
“Just now, that path—”
“Don’t worry about it.
It’s better not to even think about going beyond.”
The dark and deep path felt like a corridor in my mother’s mansion.
But something was different.
At least my mother’s corridor would have shown me the way, but ‘that’ wasn’t it.
“Lean on your mother. Come on.
It might be best to rest for today.”
So, with a tingling sensation in my shivering back, I entrusted myself to my mother’s warmth.
What warmed my slightly shivering body was my mother’s finger pressing on my forehead.
Focusing on that, I tried to forget what I had seen.
Leaning against the tail she wrapped around me.
***
“Hmm?”
How long had I been walking, leaning on my mother’s arm in a daze?
Suddenly feeling something odd in my halted steps, I raised my head, and there were several knights there, clad in armor.
“…The Knights? How did they end up here?”
Mom’s growling eyes didn’t seem too friendly either.
Similarly, the knights in front of me were brandishing their swords while looking at my mother.
“Do not approach any further, Dragon of Malice…”
The one at the forefront pointed his sword precisely at my mother and uttered a strange name.
Simultaneously –
“Silence.”
A soft yet heavy voice was heard once, and then everything fell silent.
Even the sound of the wind brushing against the leaves.
Even my shouts.
“─ !!!”
I desperately called for my mother, but she only held me tightly.
She didn’t say anything to me,
She didn’t even look at my face.
It was strange.
Who were they for my mother to look at me with such a terrifying gaze?
The warmth that used to be there when she looked at me was gone.
She was always the one to answer my questions.
I couldn’t hear, but I could see.
The knights slowly surrounded my mother and pointed at me, saying something.
The more they did that, the more forcefully my mother held me.
Spreading her wings wide,
Enveloping me.
And then, finally, it happened.
A sword flew in front of my eyes,
My mother melted it into a blazing fire with a swift motion and kicked it away.
Because of that, I, who had lost my wings, sat down where I was,
In the suffocating world, I didn’t even know what was happening properly.
Hands touched my neck, holding me.
But they were too cold and rigid to be my mother’s.
Someone in armor was holding me.
I tried to struggle, using all my strength to break free, but perhaps my strength was lacking.
I was caught and dragged away just like that.
“─!!─!!!”
I tried to shout to my mother, but I doubted if I was even making a proper sound.
My mother, who was already surrounded by five people, was spewing fire around wildly, growling,
But she didn’t seem to be looking towards my direction.
However,
“Russell, Russell!!”
Did she finally recognize me as I was getting further away?
Rustling bushes,
Clanging armor,
And my mother’s voice desperately calling out my name came back to me all at once.
Flapping her red wings, my mother tried to come towards me,
But she was suddenly caught by ropes made of light and thrown to the ground.
The face with tightly closed eyes looked really pained.
“Do you really think you can be a child? To a dragon like you, a human child?”
“I told you not to call me by that name…!”
A flash of yellow eyes.
I was momentarily scared by the voice that sounded like a wolf’s growl I had heard outside the house,
But what scared me more were the knights who held onto me.
With their faces covered by metal plates, these people who held onto my mother and swung their swords were terrifying.
Why in the world were they doing this,
Why were they doing this to my kind mother, and to me, I couldn’t understand.
The sight of my mother struggling while being held, struggling to cast magic, was pitiful.
Having her tail tied by the ropes and her hands, which were performing magic, held down, it kept hurting my heart.
“Mom, mom!!!”
“Stay still, little one – that’s not your mother.
If you knew how many people they’ve killed,”
“Shut your mouth!”
Throwing away the knights who held onto the ropes in all directions,
My mother’s appearance, with scales appearing on her face, was becoming strange.
The appearance of the giant dragon I saw when I was young.
Arms and legs covered in red,
Wings so huge that they could cover the sky.
Even a long tail that could be considered a very large serpent.
With a body larger than before, my mother was throwing the knights one by one.
“Give me back my child.”
When the surrounding knights finally made moaning noises on the ground,
My mother, who no longer had a human face, approached me.
She wasn’t as giant, but she wasn’t human either.
Not as big as a mansion,
But she looked down at me with a height that was about half of a straight tree.
“Do you think that thing is your mother, little one? Huh?
That’s a monster. It’s the evil dragon that burns people and devours villages.”
The knight who clutched me let out those words that passed through my mind in an instant.
The story of the dragon that my mother told me.
Burning people and being forever chased by them.
“…Russell,”
Breathing heavily, my mother reached out to me.
With claws that were sharp, covered in blood.
It was not an illusion that they seemed to be trembling.
It was the face of a dragon, but it was clearly distorted in a noticeable way.
But what was blocking it was a single sword.
“Step back, you filthy demon.
If even a single finger moves, then you could harm the precious things to you at that time.”
“Just as you promised to protect humans,
Your actions are despicably vile.”
My mother hesitated as she looked at the sword that was slowly approaching my neck.
She couldn’t stop the knight who held me and took a step back.
“Russell, everything will be fine, soon -“
“We got him!”
The noose was tightly wrapped around my mother’s neck as she tried to reassure me.
However, that alone was not enough to pull down the massive figure.
In an instant, blood gushed from the knight who had thrown the noose, and at the same time, my body was firmly held by the waist and pulled away.
“Mom!”
“It’s not your mother! The one who harms people without a second thought is that dragon!”
Instead of feeling comforted, those words only made me more uncomfortable.
Mom didn’t want to harm people.
If the story was really about her, then the one who set the fire was a different dragon.
“No! My mother is a kind dragon! It can’t be true!”
“Damn, this child…!”
To prevent them from taking me away, my body was bitten relentlessly, and my head throbbed in pain.
The handle of a sword was shaking in front of my eyes, firmly held in the hand of the knight who had promised to save me.
“I don’t want to! It hurts!”
“It’s for your own good, so be still!”
For my own good.
A lie.
Without even knowing Mom properly from the beginning, these knights were distancing me from her and causing her more pain.
My forehead started to burn.
I was getting angrier at the disappearing figure of my mother.
Even my palms seemed to tingle as if they wanted to release something.
So, I placed my hand on the knight’s back and started gathering strength, just like when Mom taught me magic.
From my forehead to my throat, from my throat to my hands.
With all my heart, I shouted.
“Blazing like the scorching sun,
Strong as the ember swallowing coal!”
As soon as, with a sinking feeling, my hand touched the article, it was engulfed in flames.
“This is un-ahh- extinguishable!!”
It was a red flame, just like my mother’s color.
