Early Evening - Late Spring : Home

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*Splash* *Splash* The distant noise of waves slamming into the mountain filled the air as I watched the sunset from the mountaintop. -It’s always beautiful.. no matter how many times I see it…-

As the horizon slowly turned more orange, the ocean turned to gold. It was a view that was quite ordinary for this world, but every time I saw it, I just got entranced.

Watching the distant, choppy waves ripple the reflection of the sky was simply enchanting.

But that didn’t mean my mind didn’t wander. -I wonder what the oceans in this world are like…-

Looking down the mountainside towards the colossal, tsunami-sized waves crashing into the mountain, some memories from Earth surfaced in my mind, but they felt.. distant.

Back on Earth, I had many fond memories of the ocean, but that fondness simply felt unfamiliar now.

When I was still taking lessons from Mother, she would always reinforce the fact that the ocean was a terrifying place and constantly tell these legends and stories about how all these mighty, and well-known dragons would die or get lost in the depths.

For a long time, I just thought it was her being protective and wanting to keep me out of trouble, but after hearing so many of them, they stopped sounding like legends. -But it really makes me wonder what all is down there…-

Time continued to pass as I laid there and idly thought about the countless horrors that could be dwelling in the depths until the sun completely set, and night had washed across the sky.

After a while, I found myself almost falling asleep to the soothing sounds and misty breeze from the ocean.

But just before I could drift off to sleep, I felt a couple auras approaching. -Hm?- Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Mother crest the edge of the mountaintop with Ilios in tow.

She was wearing her usual, motherly smile but seemed a bit more refreshed and carefree than usual.

Before I knew it, a smile came to my face. "How did you sleep, Mother?"

"Quite well, thanks to our all-powerful protector." She smiled warmly at Ilios as he ran up and jumped on me.

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"Haha, he’s only been getting stronger recently, I'm afraid he might catch up to me eventually."

"Hoho~, that means you should get into a training routine." Letting out a lighthearted chuckle, she walked up and laid next to me with her wing drooped over me. "Jokes aside, although I would love for you to train and grow into one of the strongest dragons in existence, I will support you no matter what your endeavors are."

My chest started to warm up in an instant. "T..thank you, Mother, but I think becoming strong is a requirement for my goal."

"Hoh? What kind of goal do you have?"

I glanced at her and questioned what I should say before eventually speaking. "It's an odd goal, but.. I want to answer some of the questions about the universe… I want to understand how everything works." Reluctantly glancing back up at Mother, I expected to see a look of confusion, but instead saw a look of fondness.

It was an expression I knew all too well. "For the longest time, I would question why people would come up with those weird theories about how things like the air moved, you got me into ‘stargazing’, I really started finding them fascinating." Her eyes had a beautiful gleam in them as she looked up at the night sky with a look of curiosity. "I started to question if the way I was told things worked was really factual..."

I felt a mix of pride and passion as she spoke.

"When you first told me all the dots in the sky were stars like the sun, I didn’t believe it… But the longer I stared, and the longer I looked.. the more plausible it sounded…" She stared up at the stars for quite a while before finally lowering her gaze with a relaxed sigh. "Haah… Now that your father is back, let's get back into our nightly stargazing routine, alright?"

I felt a childish excitement surface in my mind upon hearing her say it. "Alright! I'm guessing Father will be watching over Krystallo?"

"Mhmm. He needs to be responsible for his fatherly duty, does he not?"

"Haha, you aren’t wrong, but at least he’s putting in the effort." Thinking back to our conversation earlier, I wanted to laugh. "He has a ways to go though."

"Haha, that he does, but I think he will get there in due time. I can’t exactly say his lack of parental skills is totally his fault either, he wasn’t exactly raised like most."

-Hm? Isn’t Father from a big noble family? Why would he be raised poorly?- I gave mother an odd look, clearly showing my curiosity until she silently shook her head. -Now that I think about it.. outside of his adventuring stories, I never heard about his past…-

But as I looked back out over the ocean, I decided to try and throw out any urges I had to actually ask him about it. -If he wants to.. he can tell me in his own time…-

Mother and I continued talking for quite a while after that, stargazing deep into the night while listening to the melody of the distant crashing waves.

Eventually, our discussion slowed down again, and as the morning started to approach, Mother finally made her way back down the mountain to talk with Father.

But that left me alone with Ilios on the mountaintop once again. "Haah…" -What to do…-

I contemplated quite deeply about it for a while, but eventually, an idea came to mind. -Mother mentioned training as a joke earlier, but…- Looking down at Ilios, I thought my idea didn’t seem too terrible.

"Hey, Ilios. Do you want to play tag?"

His ears perked up instantly, bringing a wide smile to my face. -It can't hurt to make the training fun, right?-