During the first night since Valeria has been left with Long Tian, since she was required to care for the child by herself, she had many new and novel experiences occur.
The next day after Long Tian was left with her, he began crying. She sat there, on the floor of her cave, looking at the baby in the bundle, wondering when it would cease its incessant mewling. After about an hour of it, she finally picked Tian up, and began to examine him, in an attempt to discover what ailed him.
“There are no visible wounds… he has yet to defecate or urinate… what could possibly be wrong with him,” she wondered aloud.
*GUURUUUU*
She heard his stomach growl. At that time, she realized the child had yet to be fed.
At first she attempted to feed Tian meat, but that failed upon her noticing that he had no teeth to speak of. Since she realized he could not chew the meat, nor fruits, nor vegetation, all of those options were eliminated.
She held Tian to her chest as she thought about what she should do. Then, Tian began to paw at her chest.
Unlike dragons, human babies are required to drink breastmilk from their mothers in order to assist them in their growth and maturation, by giving them necessary vitamins and minerals. Dragons, on the other hand, are born with a full set of teeth.
Upon realizing this, she cast a spell upon herself to allow her to produce breastmilk. After assisting Long Tian in drinking his fill she held him up in front of her, now unwrapped from his cloth.
“There seems to be something I am forgetting to do for you little one… What could it be though?” Valeria realized that she was missing something in this situation, something important, but for the life her, she could not discover what it was. Then, Long Tian’s face began to swell and…
*BLAAARRRRGHHHHHHHH*
Due to Valeria forgetting to burp Long Tian, the gas had built up inside him, and with his underdeveloped lungs, he had no way to force the air out, so instead, he released it in the form of vomit. And sadly for Valeria, she happened to be holding him up in front of her, so she got his present full in the face.
For dragons, they have fully developed respiratory and digestive systems upon hatching, so for Valeria, she had never had the experience of anything similar to that.
“Ah. THAT was what I was forgetting. Satisfied little one? But now, I am getting the feeling I am forgetting something else…”
As Valeria was contemplating this, she still held Long Tian up above her face, and…
*FFFFSSSSSSSS*
“Well. Now we know that the equipment down there works,” sighed Valeria, having just received a golden shower from her newest charge. She quirked an eyebrow at the baby before her.
Long Tian however, just reached out, patted her face and giggled. And Valeria, for the first time in many years… had the start of a smirk on her face.
During this time, in the corner of the same cavern, Valeria missed the twinkle of several sets of eyes observing this scene. The eyes all began to look at one another, and realized, they all had the same idea: “We should do whatever it takes to let her smile again.”
As Valeria brought Long Tian back down towards her, he began to close his eyes and fall asleep.
“Finally…” Valeria sighed to herself. After he had fallen fully asleep, she set the child down upon the cave floor, planning to resume her cultivation. However Long Tian had other ideas.
He began crying upon being placed upon the ground. Valeria quickly picked him back up, wishing him to cease his crying. And he did. Valeria was curious about it, and proceeded to place him back down upon the floor. Only to have the previous process repeat.
After 2 more times of the exact same process, she realized that, for one thing, the child in her hand didn’t have the tough skin of a dragon, nor their scales.
At this time, she recalled that, in most circumstances, humans had a second layer of skin, which they called “Clothes” on, to keep them warm, or for style, or for whatever other foolish reasons they could think of.
Dragons on the other hand, had no such need for those items, since even in their human forms, their wings and scales assumed the forms of robes, so they still had defensive measures in place, even if they were covered in flesh and not scales.
Valeria did not have a way to make clothes for Long Tian, and so instead, she held the child in one hand as she returned to her dragon form.
She was a deep golden color, with gold irises, and white streaks went down the side of her body, similar to those of lightning bolts.
Upon returning to her dragon form, Valeria realized that she could have frightened the child with her sudden change, however, contrary to her expectations, Long Tian just looked at her, not a hint of unease in his eyes.
Valeria was quite astounded at this, as to her knowledge, any humans witnessing a dragon for the first time would panic, scream, run about wildly, and defecate themselves.
Little did she know, that Long Tian had seen much more than that, and things much more shocking than that in the time he was with his parents, even if it was only for the first two weeks of his existence.
By the time he had reached his 3rd week, he had been brought to Valeria.
In the end, Valeria laid upon her back, and set the child upon her stomach, wrapping him in her wings to give him sufficient warmth.
Valeria herself, thoroughly exhausted for the first time in centuries, had fallen asleep as well.
The next day, Valeria took the child out of her cultivation cave, and took him to be introduced to the draconic clan.
“WHAT! YOU WANT TO ADOPT ONE OF THOSE… THOSE… THOSE… ABOMINATION’S RACE! HAVE YOU GONE MAD! DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT THEY DID THE PATRIARCH????!!!!” This was a common reaction amongst the elders of the Azure Dragons.
For the Azure Dragon clan, the clan itself comes before all else. If anyone bullies a clan member, the entirety of the clan will keep going for that bully until they get revenge.
After achieving vengeance upon the initial bullies, they proceed on to the powers behind said bullies, namely their family. And again, they keep attacking until they feel that sufficient vengeance has been visited upon them. For this reason, it is a widely acknowledged fact that if you can’t handle the eldest of the dragons, don’t even think about bullying their youngest.
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The death of the Patriarch wasn’t just the death of the Patriarch to them, it was like a brother, a father, an uncle, and for the eldest of the clan, a son had died. They took the matter deeply personally.
Valeria spent the next half day arguing with them, until…
“SILENCE! This discussion has gone on long enough! We will put it to a final vote! Those who are with me, stand to my side. Those against, with the elders!”
After a few minutes of shuffling around… everyone was standing by Valeria’s side. Even the Elders had moved to stand next to her.
“Wha…” began Valeria.
“Ah, you see, we already saw how you behaved with the child. If they are able to make you smile like that, for the first time in many years, then who are we to take that away from you,” explained the Elder that was most vocal against accepting the child.
Like that, two years had come and gone. During this time, Tian was truly accepted as a member of their family, and, since not often was a dragon born, he was doted upon like the baby of the family.
Funnily enough, the Elder that had previously been the most vocal, Verethragna, was the one who spoiled him the most. Although, it was a major headache for Valeria, since Verethragna thought a great way to spoil a child was to bring him all sorts of sharp and pointy weapons. At one point, he decided to give Tian a sword that a hero had previously used, that supposedly got stronger the purer one’s heart was.
When he gave it to Tian, and Tian swung it, he was shocked to see it cut a hole in space, and create a micro-black hole. Valeria was extremely displeased that day, since she had to spend most of her energy fixing the tear created for the rest of the day.
During that time, Tian was given to Valeria’s daughter, and his new sister, Freya. During this time Freya became very close to him. While all the dragons enjoyed playing with him and spoiling him, most of his time was spent either sleeping on Valeria, or playing with his sister Freya, or the Elder that decided to become his self-titled uncle, Verethragna.
Tian was a very mature child for his age, and was able to speak the common tongue, the language used on the continent of the humans. And, while he couldn’t speak it, he could understand the Dragon tongue so often used in the caves. He couldn’t speak it however, because dragons have different vocal cords from humans. When they speak in the human tongue in dragon form, it is due to them using magic to create the vibrations that emulate the human speech patterns.
Valeria had explained to Tian before that his real mother had to leave him with her, since she had a lot of problems she didn’t want him to get involved in. Valeria, of course, knew that Tian wouldn’t understand that, but told him anyways once he was able to converse.
Because of this, Tian thought that he was someone no one wanted to be around. He believed that everyone only played with him because of Valeria. When he spoke out about this, Verethragna became furious. He took Tian to the side of one of the caves, lectured him for ten minutes, until Tian started crying.
After that, Verethragna took Tian out of the caves, and played with him in the forest for the rest of the day, giving him plenty of sharp toys to play with. Normally, they would be getting constantly attacked by the beings in the forest, but most of them upon sensing Verethragna’s draconic aura that he was putting out, one which was shockingly at the Heavenly Duke second level!
In reality, he was not just an Elder of the clan, but was actually an ancestor of the Azure Dragon Clan! He was one of those figures that would normally be hidden in close-door cultivation, but in light of the death of the Patriarch, he decided to come out of cultivation to watch over the clan.
During the time he was playing with Tian, he was surprised to find out how strong Tian was. He had seen human children before, and knew this level of strength was not normal for one! Tian was already strong enough to lift 3-foot long swords that were made of meteoric iron, and weighed around 20kg like they were branches!
It was then that he realized that this child, was truly, not normal!
One day, Tian asked Valeria, “Mom, was does Uncle Verethragna try so hard to play with me, and give me cool toys?”
“Tian, your Uncle is actually very sad inside. His nephew, who was the one that I married, had died many years ago. Because of that, he wants to make sure that he spends as much time as possible with you, and that you grow up happily. Make sure to play with him just as much as your sister Freya, okay?” answered Valeria.
Tian smiled at Valeria and said, “Okay Mom, I will be sure to play with him a lot!”
He then ran off to go find his uncle to play with him. Valeria smiled at his departing figure. And so it went, until his 3rd year had come. Tian was playing hide-and-seek with Verethragna, and his mother was out handling clan business, preparing to introduce Tian to the other clans.
It was at this time that tragedy struck.