9 – As the Dragon’s Son (4)
“Ah-ahhhhh!!!”
The knight threw me aside and rolled on the ground uncontrollably.
But there was no sign of the fire going out,
After a few struggles, he stopped moving.
His armor slowly melted away.
If ice had color, would it flow down like that?
“Uh, uh…”
A terrible smell filled the air.
It was not the smell of cooking meat,
The sight of the limp body quickly turning into ashes was miserable.
“Russell, watch out!”
Distracted by the horrifying sight, I could barely turn my head at my mother’s scream.
With the sword in hand, towards the charging knight.
“You evil thing!!!”
Even though he was wearing a helmet, I could feel something sinister in his momentum.
It did not look impressive, like a dark fairy tale trying to sound fierce.
Maybe I have become the villain in a fairy tale?
I was scared.
I fell on my backside,
I squeezed the remaining strength in my arms and legs to push the ground away.
Yet, the distance between the knight and me was closing too fast.
“Ah, uh, that-“
I wanted to reach out my hand and say the words to shoot the fire,
But his recent appearance was too horrifying.
I couldn’t think of anything that would instantly dissolve the knight, who was flying towards me with full force.
“Guh…?!”
It was expelled as if squeezing the breath out instead of words.
Desperately, with hands trembling.
“Die, you mons – “
But before he could bring the weapon down on me.
Before the villain’s final moments arrived.
Something red and sharp pierced through his belly, spraying blood.
“Uh, ugh…”
Before that groan could continue,
In an instant, he was thrown to the other side, where the trees were abundant.
As the elongated tail rapidly shortened and what had been blocking my view completely disappeared.
I could finally see my mom again.
Rushing towards me in a hurry, covered in blood.
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“Oh my goodness, Russell, are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“Uh, Mom, blood – “
“I’m okay! I’m not hurt, right? Huh?”
I couldn’t stop my mom’s arms from probing my body with frantic concern, smearing the crimson liquid all over.
I stood there dazed until she confirmed there were no injuries.
“Yeah, you’re fine.
I’m sorry, Russell. I’m sorry.
I should have prepared for something like this to happen.
It’s my fault, I’m inadequate, I…”
I couldn’t find a chance to hold on to my swirling head in the midst of the chaos, as my mom clung to me,
I ended up flying into the cave just like that.
My powerless arms and legs were trembling unsteadily.
“Hold onto Mom tighter, okay?
Focus your eyes…!”
I tried to respond to something, but only a feeble groaning sound came out,
And trying to move my fingers felt like there was nothing beneath the skin.
I knew it was dangerous, but for some reason, I couldn’t follow my mom’s words.
“Russell, wake up, Russell!”
Even though my mother told me to keep my eyes wide open, drowsiness kept pouring in.
My head kept swaying in the wind.
“Russell, Russell!”
Despite my name being called repeatedly,
My head grew heavier and heavier.
Even though I tried my best to listen to my mother’s words,
My body couldn’t follow them.
I had never felt this sleepy even after studying for a long time.
I had never found it so difficult to read a book secretly in the middle of the night.
It was strange.
As I felt the sounds fading away,
I eventually lowered my head.
***
When I opened my eyes again, I saw a faint light.
As I was about to turn my head towards where it was coming from,
I could only let out a shallow groan.
My throat hurt.
To be more precise, the area around my throat.
So, I blinked my eyes slowly and decided to look around.
“Did you wake up?”
Did she notice that I had woken up? A pair of yellow eyes sparkled in the darkness.
My mother, with a red aura in her hand, shone a light on me.
A shallow warmth flowed in as if it were being infused.
“…How’s your body?
Is there no pain? Or is your strength not returning properly?”
With a voice as soft as the wind, my mother removed the towel from my forehead.
I was trying to smile, but my eyes remained frozen.
My parched lips were slightly cracked and had lost their redness.
…It was a face I had never seen before.
I thought I might understand what it meant.
“Mom, are you okay?”
So I asked.
It was Mom who had been surrounded by more reporters than me and had come under attack.
If the dragon in the story was indeed my mother,
then she might have been unjustly treated.
“…I’m fine, not me.”
“Mom is that dragon, right?”
So I asked.
Mom’s eyes were shaking violently.
The eye corners that were always clear and sharp had become blurred.
“What are you talking about?”
“The dragon story you told me.
The one I heard and cried about when I was ten.
It’s your story, right? Isn’t it?”
Trembling, I took a deep breath,
but when I exhaled, Mom closed her eyes completely calmly.
“What do you want to do?”
There was no confusion in her words.
In her lifted eyes once again, there was no emotion.
Slowly rising from the darkness, Mom had transformed into something too large and immense to be called human.
“If I’m scared.
If I’m hated.
If I dislike myself for killing our kind and setting a huge fire in the forest,
I will become a different being for you.
You will see me, like humans remember me.”
A growling throat.
The sound of my breath as I inhaled.
Something long and massive enveloping me.
“You will remember me as a wicked dragon who swallowed up countless lives, set them on fire, and melted them.
If you do that, you will return to where you belong.
As a young human.”
The humid and sticky air rushed onto my face.
A sensation of heat and discomfort covered my entire body.
The eyes that gazed at me were no longer human.
Is this a dragon?
“…I’m sorry for not granting your wish.
It was my mistake to think that I, as such a being, could grant your wish.
But, if it’s something else, I can certainly fulfill it.
So.”
With an air of finality,
As if he could read my mind,
The dragon closed its yellow eyes and spoke to me.
Too easily, and too lightly.
…Mom, she might not have been that impressive after all.
“When did I ever say I’d change your wish?”
Without even reading my thoughts,
To the dragon who had no idea what I was thinking,
I tossed my wish carelessly.
“What did you say?”
“Mom.
That day, I thought it was so pitiful to become a dragon.
People died because of the fire, but Mom was feeling sorry.
Originally, Mom wasn’t the one who killed people first.”
“But apologizing won’t resolve everything…”
The voice was still mixed with growls,
But it was a voice I couldn’t mistake.
Just before falling asleep, as always, singing me a lullaby.
The soft voice that used to tell old stories.
“Did I kill people, Mom said she hated me?
It was the knights who first drew their swords and tried to kill.
Those people who came first, without listening to or believing Mom’s story.”
“But, but…”
“And even if Mom was wrong,
Even if the ‘evil dragon’ that the knights hate is true,
Mom is the one who saved me.”
Suddenly, I approached the dragon in front of my eyes and gently stroked its snout.
And then I leaned forward and hugged its face.
Just like Mom used to do to me.
“No matter how good those people are,
Even if Mom is really a bad dragon,
Drakea Rosaria is the dragon I know,
And the mom I know.”
For a long time, Mom didn’t say anything.
Her yellow eyes still fixed on my face.
She was trembling, as if hiding something.
“…So, Lord Drakea Rosaria,
Please grant my wish.
To become a family.”
That’s why I said to her again.
The request that hasn’t changed since I was little.
The daily life that I hope to continue.
With the desire to continue the happy times together,
I said to the red dragon who I still think of as my mom,
And will continue to think of in the future.
“Really…
Truly.
In a country like this,
Even if you were to become a part of my family, would that be acceptable, human child?
I set the forest ablaze,
I killed humans,
And I inflicted further pain upon the innocent.
Receiving resentment from the descendants of countless humans,
Chased eternally by those harboring bitter grudges,
I, who couldn’t even fulfill the role of a mother, and almost led you to death,
Would it be alright if you became a part of your family?”
Then, she replied.
With heavy drops of tears that wouldn’t gather in my palm, flowing from her eyes,
She drenched me, trying to wipe them away,
The red dragon asked me.
“If you are with me, you will share in the blame.
You have already stained your hands with blood, so you will be hunted alongside me.
If you choose to be with someone like me,
You too will be pointed at as evil and branded with a mark.
Even as the years pass, you will not be forgotten,
You will wander, even losing your name.
In spite of all that, will you still be with me?”
But this time, it wasn’t the sound of a beastly, throaty howl,
It was filled with the same kindness she had shown me when she had welcomed me into the cabin.
However, it wasn’t that dignified posture of boldly standing, reaching out to embrace me.
With her body trembling constantly, the dragon leaned on me.
Before I knew it, she had grasped my hand with her human hand,
And with her tail, she wrapped my waist and arms,
Drakea Rosaria asked me.
“In a country like this,
Would you consider me as family?”
Becoming so chaotic that I couldn’t even tell who the person pleading was,
In this place that feels completely reversed where anticipation was present.
I looked into those yellow eyes and said,
“The day grandmother died.
On that cold winter day when there was no one left by my side.
The one who took me away was my mother.”
Is that the answer?
My mother hugged me tightly and silently cried for a long time.
Stroke my head, wagging her tail.
