I remember it was a century ago. It was a fairly normal evening that I received an order from the elders to investigate an abnormality not far from the village where I lived.

I later found out to my dismay that the order fell on my head due to the elders’ reluctance to visit the territory of feral beasts. But nonetheless, I did not mind. I couldn’t refuse their orders even if I wanted to anyway. And my naivety as well as their pretend praise led me to believe I was quite an animal charmer.

So I went there to identify the problem.

It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t afraid on my way there. Even from a distance, I could feel the evil aura of a lunar curse. Not to mention, the amount of beast carcasses along the bodies of water. And the rotting stench was more than I could withstand. It was safe to assume the root of the problem was near the water sources. So I followed upstream as I tried my hardest not to puke.

The beasts that were still alive did not mind my presence. Mayhaps they could read my good intentions. But there was something strange about their behaviour that I did not pick up on right then. I kept following the stream until I reached a relatively small waterfall.

Right then and there, I realised in my bones that I had reached the source. But it was strange. It didn’t come from the waterfall but somehow the water below my feet was infused with curse energy. So I went closer to the falling water.

I felt my skin stinging despite the layers of protection I casted, but I did not falter. The more I approached the falling water, the more intense the atmosphere felt. I gripped my old brittle staff tight in my hands before I went past the veil of water. Much to my surprise, there wasn’t a wall of stones but a cave. A relatively large one at that.

I felt hesitant to go inside of it despite knowing that the underlying cause was right before me. But I braced myself knowing I can’t go back without doing anything helpful. I must go inside, I told myself.

With my old staff, I summoned an orb of light to guide my steps inside the cave. With careful, calculated moves, I ventured inside the cave only to find…a dragon?

My pupils shrunk.

What is…a dragon doing here…

I was frozen in place with a mixture of fear and panic. It was hard to make sense of everything I was seeing. Was I hallucinating because of the curse? I asked myself. The dragon was mid-sized and was as dark as those medicines my mother used to brew everyday.

Most importantly… the curse was…coming from the dragon…?

There were more than a couple dozens of questions circling inside my mind but I quickly brushed them off and focused on what was before me.

Till this day, I still didn’t know what made me get over my fear and approach him. As I took a closer look at the slumbering dragon, I quickly realised that the curse was indeed coming from within the dragon and was dissolving into the stream causing all these problems. And the reason the beasts were so tamed was not because of me but this dragon.

I was conflicted to say the least. The order I was given was to ‘search the problem and solve it’. But…What was I supposed to do in this case? If the dragon was the curse itself, was I supposed to eliminate it? But…priests aren’t allowed to take others’ lives. Then maybe…I should…remove it from the dragon?

But…that would mean that I was saving a dragon–a nemesis of my kind.

The best thing to do in that case was to return to where I came from and report it to the king.

But I didn’t.

I stayed.

I stayed because of his pleas for help. I was swayed by those begs. I couldn’t resist. Not when someone was begging for salvation before me.

I was a priest. And a priest is supposed to cure curses and help people.

Even if that someone was a dragon?

Even if that someone was a dragon.

Before I knew it, I was praying for strength to heal from her divinity. The curse was peculiar, I realised upon appraising it. It was almost ancient.

To tell the truth, I only had the willingness to help, not the skills. Undoing lunar curses was something I was still learning about. Especially something as ancient as this one would require more than a few centuries of experience and knowledge. But I wasn’t going to give up now.

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So I summoned my grimoire bestowed by his radiance. Flipping through those pages in search for any clue. I was a young priest but not a dumb one. Mother always told me I had a talent for solar magic and I trust no one better than my own mother.

I held my staff in front of me as I chanted incantations to decipher the ancient magical language into something more digestible. Undoing curses was similar to that of solving word puzzles. With enough care and precision, even ancient curse languages were like a breeze to reverse. Or so I thought.

I counted.

It took me 17 hours of continuous deciphering to undo the ancient curse before it was finally dissolved by the last brink of my solar magic.

I immediately collapsed on my knees. My breath and mind were all over the place, I remembered. It felt like the last remaining of my brain had turned into soup and my legs felt like overcooked noodles, ready to break into pieces anytime soon.

The curse was undone. And I did it on my own. The senses of accomplishment and relief washed over me and I smiled willingly for the first time in a long while.

Now what was left was the dragon itself. A dragon in Huavlin…How did it even get here without anyone noticing? The land of dragons was far far away from my home. Something was not right. How was I going to explain this to the elders? Would they even believe me?

It was then that a thought crossed my mind.

No one has to know.

It wasn’t a sin. It wasn’t forbidden to leave things out. I was just able to simply say the curse was taken care of, which wasn’t a lie itself. But the part where the dragon was in Huavlin, I could leave that out.

So I did.

I returned home hastily later that day to report to the elders about the status of the curse. They were convinced the curse was due to magical residue imbalance but I knew that it was truly man made. But I hushed myself. A man made curse in the realm of light elves wasn’t going to be left uninvestigated after all. And I couldn’t afford to take the risk of the dragon being found.

I was unable to sleep that night, tossing and turning on my bed, wishing the goddess would bless us with her light soon. When the morning finally came, I rushed to do my daily tasks and prayers before I went back straight to the cave. The dragon was still unconscious it seemed. And without a doubt I could tell the curse has weakened him vastly and that he was at a brink of death. Had I been late for a few days, I doubted he would still be breathing. And I was curious about many things; who cursed him and why? The dragons are the followers of the moon goddess. Why would someone use a lunar curse on their fellow follower of the moon?

I pushed away my thoughts and braced myself to assess the condition of the dragon. I hesitantly approached the dragon and daringly placed my hand on its head before I used appraisal magic on it.

Internal damages, broken wings and legs as well as painfully stripped away scales and signs of malnourishment.

I knew I had to do something. Letting him die was the same as killing him. And I was not a murderer but a healer.

So I healed him.

Everyday after my daily duties as a priest, I went to the cave and nurtured him back to health. Tended to his wounds and transferred energy to his body. For a few weeks he stayed asleep. At this point the remaining residue of the curse was fully gone and his broken bones started to heal with the aid of my magic. But I was afraid of one thing. What would I do once he woke up?

Then the day came…

I realised he regained his consciousness when I was sitting by the waterfall. His breathing was strained and his stomps were heavy as moved around inside the cave. From that day on, I did not enter the cave.

But I couldn’t just stop now.

Everyday, I brought fresh meat and sheep blood for the dragon and left it near the entrance of the cave. And he finished them every time. By this point I’m sure he had noticed my presence already but refused to face me. I knew he came out of the cave often–I could see his tracks near the waterfall whenever I returned in the morning. Perhaps he wasn’t particularly a morning dragon.

I kept this routine of nursing him back to health for a couple months until that very day he was secure enough to come out of his makeshift den. I was sitting near the water, lost in my thoughts when I noticed heavy stomps getting closer to me. He finally chose to approach me…

As delighted as I was to see him in such great conditions, I was afraid which led me to be frozen in place, facing away from him. He was still a dragon in my eyes after all. We stayed at a distance away from each other for some time. I could feel his flesh piercing gaze on my skin which terrified me more. But I didn’t sense any bloodlust or malice, thus I didn’t flee.

This new routine went on for a few days before one day I arrived at the entrance of the cave, doing my usual manner of bringing him food. When I looked inside the cave, it was utterly empty.

Had he left this place? I didn’t know.

Just as I was about to leave. I felt heavy breaths right over my shoulder.

I felt him right behind me, blocking my path.

It was also the day that I did not bring my old staff because I had grown much accustomed to not feeling the need to use it. Not being able to protect myself in case of emergency added to my horror as I stood there unmoving; heart pounding in my chest as if someone was hammering it. After standing there for what felt like hours, he growled.

“Why did you save me?” It was his first words to me, I remember it as clear as crystal.

I felt my body becoming less tense from his question yet I did not have an answer. I stayed silent for a while, thinking of a way to respond. I did not have a particular reason why I saved him from the curse. I didn’t know myself but I couldn’t bring myself to admit it. So I said, “I’m a priest. That’s what I do.”

“You saved me, a dragon, because of your sense of duty…?”

“I… I did.”

“Why aren’t you scared of me, little one? You think I won’t burn you to ashes merely because you saved me? Answer me, elf.” he asks.

“If…you wanted to harm me. You would have done so earlier.”

“Maybe I am just waiting to replenish my energy before I do.”

“Then…Why am I not set ablaze now?”

To my question, he only replied with a low growl.

“Tell me your name, elf…”