As I woke up, my eyes groggy and my body battered, I moaned in exhaustion. Pushing my hand against the snow, I try to get up, only to trip on my face once again. With a face full of snow, I feel wide awake, and manage to get to my feet.
“Woah. Still dizzy.” As I steadied myself, I noticed that where my shoulders and arms are exactly where they should be.
“Huh? What’s going on?” I thought to myself, and my memories of the previous events hit me all at once.
Before I could really process any of it, a loud noise of air rushing through canyons blew right next to me, even louder than the gales of the snowstorm. Looking to my right, I freeze. The Azure Dragon, The S Ranked Monster that killed the Eagle in moments was staring right at me!
I felt my legs shaking, and they soon gave, my rear gracing the snow once more. Mouth agape, I could not move in the face of the behemoth before me. There was no fighting or escaping from a monster like this. And yet, it remained still, unmoving as the mountains.
“l34km3rf6 lf1g56gfb 43gt90gshb?” It said a bunch of random gibberish to me, in my mind.
I continued to stare at it, too scared and confused to do anything else. It slowly moved its hand, pointing its claw, which was larger than my entire body, at my head. When the claw approached my head and made contact, I felt my senses explode as if I possessed the senses of a thousand eyes and ears! In that same moment, that overwhelming sensation vanished, soon replaced with two feelings.
Curiosity and protectiveness.
I felt the great beast’s curiosity in me directly, wondering how I ended up here, what happened to my parents, and why I could not speak to it. I also felt a protective warmth, as if it saw me as an unknown child that fell into a pit of snakes. The Azure Dragon believed I was a lost, stray dragon youngling.
I knew I could send my thoughts and feelings directly to it, just like it did to me. A knot in my heart that I didn’t know I had began to unravel, the fear and pain I suffered since my mother died at the hands of the Black Hunter Spider all came crashing down on me. I hugged the claw with all of my strength, and I wailed, flooding the connection with the weight of my struggles; desperate for someone to lean on. And the dragon silently took in all that I felt.
***
Eventually, I calmed down and my tears ran dry. After reliving all of my experiences and flooding it through the connection, I felt the dragon’s warm reassurance and pity, as well as its confusion. Not surprising, since the only thing I had sent through the connection was an unorganized mess of fear and pain that made no sense at all. After a brief pause, I decided to share only the memories I had since evolving into a drakeling, fearing what the dragon would do if it learned I was not originally one.
Slowly, I went over my fights with the creatures of the first layer, my confrontation with the black hunter spider, my defeat against the human mage, my encounter with the Goddess of Fortune, and my attempt to escape the third layer and the frost eagle.
The dragon remained silent for a while, and then began to send knowledge of a language through our connection.
Language Detected: Draconic Akashic
Language Learning Progress – Draconic Akashic 12.76%
Language Learning Progress – Draconic Akashic 27.29%
…
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Language Learning Progress – Draconic Akashic 100%
Draconic Akashic Language Learning Complete; You can now speak, read, and write in Draconic Akashic!
“Can you understand my words now, young child?” said the dragon.
Emotionally drained, I could not bring myself to care about speaking my first words to another.
“Yes, I can understand you. Thank you for saving me from the frost eagle.” I said, truly grateful to the gentle dragon.
“…I should have realized that you never knew your parents because you did not even have a name, so I apologize for making you relive difficult memories. My name is Azoth. Dragons place great value upon their names, and a lack of one can only mean that your parents did not get a chance to give you one. It took me a while to realize it because such a scenario is extraordinarily rare.” The dragon explained.
“Now that you are safe, what do you intend to do now?” It - Azoth asked me.
“The most obvious course of action would be to return to the meeting point with the servant of the Goddess of Fortune on the first layer. Then, I would go to meet with her, and ask her why she saved my life and why she wishes to meet me.” I said.
“And after that?”
I remained silent for some time and came to a conclusion rather quickly.
“I want to get stronger. I don’t ever want to experience the suffering I endured being a weakling in the abyss. I want to know more about the world. My ignorance cost me dearly many times, and I am thoroughly sick of it. I want to learn about magic, the thing that allowed a human to defeat me and the eagle to slay titanic monsters like the frost rex and the yeti.”
“I see. These are goals befitting a dragon. If you would like, I can share with you my knowledge of the world and magic, solving your issues with ignorance of the world and magic – and granting you strength beyond your rank, if you would ask it.” Azoth said, patiently waiting for my answer.
Again, I sat down to think on it. Eventually, I had my answer.
“Thank you, but I refuse. Thinking back on the crises I faced, what kept me alive was my intelligence and planning, not my skills or abilities. I am certain that I could have found other solutions to problems facing me if I was weaker, but I would have died if I did not think things through. Taking your knowledge would just be gaining these abilities, but I would not take your experiences.”
“Most of all, that would just be relying on you once again. Like I said, I want to gain strength, but I want it to be my own. Only my own power will protect me.” Determined, I answered Azoth.
For the first time, a grin showed on Azoth’s face. Amusement and pride flowed through the connection, and Azoth gave me a response.
“Well said, young child. I offered you my knowledge thinking that you no longer wanted a life of strife and only needed the means to keep yourself safe. But this kind of knowledge will never give you true strength. No two individuals share the same path, and by taking part of mine, you would squander your own potential.” Azoth said.
“That said, there are things that must be done first.” Said Azoth, casting a great magic on itself.
Circles with countless arcane shapes and symbols began to spin around Azoth, and the great dragon began to rapidly shrink in size, form changing into a humanoid figure. Soon enough, a human woman the color of snow wearing robes just as white stood before me.
“Wha- huh?!” I stuttered, shocked at the sight before me.
“What is so surprising, child? Are we not going to meet the Goddess of Fortune’s follower?” she said, as if my shock was strange.
"She was definitely enjoying this. Damn it!" I thought to myself but was wise enough to not say it or send it through the mental connection.
Biting down my frustration, I rapidly asked Azoth a series of questions.
“How did you turn into a human?! Why are you coming to meet with the Goddess of Fortune’s follower with me?! And what do you mean by ‘things that must be done first’?!”
Azoth chuckled, then she responded.
“Silly child, a little trick like this one is nothing special for anyone with enough understanding of magic. It simply will not do to leave a child as young, weak, and traumatized like you out there in the world. I will remain by your side until we find your parents, so I can give them a good beating for failing so miserably in their duties. Until then, I will make sure to teach and guide you about things only a dragon’s parents would teach, such as sorcery and how draconic society works.”
Before I could object to her words, she continued speaking.
“And don’t worry, I will not give you my knowledge of these things through a telepathic connection. I will merely guide you and point you in the right direction, but the one doing the work and gaining the experience will be you. And I will not take “no” for an answer. Until you are powerful enough to fight against me for at least 10 minutes or we find your parents, I will not leave you be.” She said, and I nearly choked on my own words.
Azoth smiled, then she spoke again.
“Ah, I almost forgot the most important thing. You need a name.”