A/N: Thanks for all that support guys! Really appreciate it! Here's the second chapter: Mother. Leave a comment below on what you think about it and happy reading! Thanks!
PS I don't think I'll be able to dish one out every single day so expect maybe three per week. But hey, bonus chapters, right?
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“When you see a wyvern, fight.
When you see a dragon, run.
How do you tell the difference?
Just look at the three eyes.”
-Adventurer’s Guide to Survival
I was high up on mother dragon’s snout. I had peeked my head over to check out how far up we were and we were very high. Mother dragon was very, very big. She must have been at least 10 stories tall! If she was 10 story tall, then this cavern must be huge. I looked up at the ceiling that stretched beyond what I can reach, even with mother’s help.
As I was peering over the edge, my siblings were holding on for dear life. They were screaming and squeaking in fear every time mother took a step for the earth quaked under her might. I looked at one of the stalactite hanging down from the ceiling and wondered if I could pull it down using those invisible tendrils.
So I willed it like I had done so many times in the past, reaching out to the hanging rock formation, trying to pull it down. I felt the vacuum tendril leave my body and weave its way towards the rock before sucking it in like it was one of the lights. A wave of strengthening hit me like before. Needless to say, I was quite surprise since the rock wasn’t one of the light. Perhaps the rock was made out of the light? I pondered upon the question and decided to explore the answer some more by eating some rock formations and different plants that would should up here and there.
As I was absorbing different materials, we finally made it to our destination, a huge room filled with carcases of different beasts of various sizes. Mother lowered her head and signalled us to get off and followed her. One by one, with me leading the group, we hopped off her snout and waited for further instructions.
Mother proceeded into the room and we followed along like ducklings following their mother. The room was very large, larger than what I call the hatchery. It was very cold in this room, much colder than what it is outside. I looked around and searched for the cause of this event but I found nothing out of the ordinary other than four strange looking circles drawn across the four sides of the room. Carcasses laid everywhere,the cold preventing it from rotting. It was seriously cold in here comparable to being dunked into ice water.
As I stared at the strange circle markings, I smelled something delicious, like it was made out of the light. It had a very addicting smell, like the smell of popcorn, sweet and savory. I looked at my siblings but they didn’t look as ravenous as I did. It can be possible that I am the only one who can smell the lights.
Mother nudged us and pointed her snout towards the carcass of a giant boar-like creature. It had giant tusks of white, it’s body was insulated by warm, thick fur and a layer of juicy fat, and it’s flesh was simply delicious. The four of us dug into our meal, ravenous from not eating since our existence. The flesh was soft and melted in our mouths and its juice would seep out with every bite we took. It was the best meat I had ever eaten though I have to admit that I hadn’t eaten anything before. There could be something tastier than this boar.
As I devoured more and more of its flesh, the smell of the light grew stronger and stronger until it started to slowly control me. At first, I was able to resist the urge to find the source of the scent but as time went on, I started to lose ground, until I was madly digging into the boar’s chest. After a few minutes of digging and wasting precious food, I was greeted with a crystal. It was glowing fiery red and was as big as my head, in other words, it wasn't very big.
The red gem emitted a scent like cotton candy. It was tempting me to swallow it, to devour it, to taste its sweetness, to let it melt in my mouth so I gave into the temptation. I swallowed the entire gem whole, my jaws can open surprisingly wide. As soon as it entered my mouth, it melted into a thick, sweet liquid similar to honey. I swallowed the ambrosia and a feeling like that of the light washed over me except it was many times stronger.
I slowly made my way out but I found it very slippery. I kept slipping off the wall of flesh and falling on my butt. After a few dozen tried, I gave up and sat down, trying to think of a better way out. Then it hit me, I'll just dig a horizontal hole!
So I prepared my claws and teeth for another round of digging but before I could begin, the top of the beast was ripped away, revealing the stony ceiling filled with spiky rock formations of death. The perpetrator stuck her her massive head in and opened her massive jaw, revealing razor sharp blades for teeth all pointing towards a dark abyss.
“I am not food!” I tried to scream but like the last attempts, I let out, in my opinion, a very loud squeak. Perhaps mother was deaf for despite my loud protests, her jaws came closer and closer. I tried to scurry away as fast as my four stumpy legs could carry me but I was too slow. Her jaws came in like lightning, snapping onto my tail before lifting me high into the sky.
I thought it was the end for me so I closed my eyes while tears started to form, waiting for the inevitable but what I thought inevitable was evadable. My six limbs were kicking, trying to resist death but her grip was too strong, I couldn’t break out of it. Fortunately, it was not tight enough to close off circulation, a rookie mistake!
I focused my tendrils to help pry open the mouth. As they were being released, I looked down and saw the giant carcass as a small little dot, an indication of how far up I was. My legs immediately fought even harder while my face was drained in blood, distracting me enough to release my hold on the tendrils.
Suddenly I felt myself descending and before long, I felt the earth beneath my feet. Mother dragon released from her jaws and, with a plop, dropped me onto the floor. I turned around and growled at her, showing my displeasure of her endeavor. She replied with a series of growls of her own that shook that entire cavern but it sounded more like a laugh than a threatening voice. Nevertheless, it was quite the frightful experience, feeling the entire earth shake before my feet.
My siblings looked up and I can see fear in their eyes as they cowered behind the corpse of the beast. Unfortunately the red one ate too much and couldn’t get up, he was laid down on his back while his stubby little eggs were squirming around.
Thinking that we were finished with our meal, and we probably were, mother signaled us to climb on board her snout. And after a little while and a lot of wobbling and falling, we all finally made it on top, even the red one though I did carry him with my tendrils.
Mother lifted her head high and walked out of the cold room and into the warmer hallway. As she rumbled through the cavern, I noticed that there were many different rooms all along the walls of the halls. Each room served a different purpose, I think. Well, they had different things inside ranging from huge pieces of paper laid across a giant stone table to giant nests with different colored eggs.
I was quite surprised that I didn’t notice these rooms before, after all, they were marked with giants holes in the wall. I guess I had given too much attention as I was eating those stalactites.
As we passed a few more holes, we stood face to face with a hinged wall, that I believe is called door, based upon my knowledge. It was quite austere without any jewels or precious metals decorating the piece of wood, only having a black paintjob and rusty hinges. I cringed as she opened the door, or more like pushed through it.
Inside was very much like any other cavern except there were two waterfalls on each side that fed into a river flowing around an arena-like platform. There was a sizable gap between us and the platform with a fairly large drop down to a rushing river. This wouldn’t pose much of a problem if there was a bridge but there was no bridge.
I knew what was coming and I gripped hard onto mother’s scale. Seeing me hold onto mother tightly, my siblings followed my lead and started to grab onto mother except Red because he was lying on his back with his oversized belly on top. I sent out my invisible tendrils and tied him down along with all my other siblings just before mother leapt over the gap.
And let me tell you, it was frightening, especially without seatbelt or some kind of safety mechanism. Thankfully we had my tendrils but without that, I don’t even want to think about it. Our bodies started to ascend into the air but my tendrils kept us from falling off. Suddenly, I felt my body trying to leave mother’s snout but the tendril pulled us down with her. I felt a powerful force from inside my chest, trying to get out. My heart was beating rapidly as we fell from who knows how high up and my stomach churned. We, my siblings and I, were squeaking in fear.
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Mother landed with a bang, shaking the entire cavern, perhaps even the entire world. Some of the stalactite fell from the ceiling, forcing us siblings to dodge them. Well, I just absorbed them as they fell. And it felt great!
I propose we should do it again! But how do I get this message across to mother? I pondered upon the question until mother suddenly lowered head, gesturing us to get off. We were in the middle of the platform and when I looked up, I noticed that there was a huge gap like a giant dragon had clawed out the earth, letting in a generous amount of light from a giant light, very similar to the ones I had been eating but much, much brighter.
In front of us was a dragon I had not noticed before. He or she was dressed in golden scales, reflecting the light from the bright light, making her seem much more holier than she would really be. To my surprise, she had four wings instead of the standard two. I think it must mean something important though that’s not very fair since the number of wings is determined from birth. It could be a birth defect for goodness sake!
Around her were two stones that had strange symbols on them. It read, “Zkhq wkh zklwh ulvhv wkh eodfn zloo idoo. wkh zluog pdb hqg ru pdb eh vdyhdg. Wzr srvvlelolwlhv exw rqob rqh dqvzhu. Ilqg lw zlwklq wkh hpshuru’v era.”
As I tried to decipher the strange language the dragon said to mother. His or her voice was strangely calming, contrasting the very kingly and intimidating body. Mother responded to the golden dragon with some words of her own, I think. It could be random grunting and roaring but it did sound like intelligent conversation.
Mother then nudged me forward, gesturing me towards the golden dragon. I obeyed her and walked forward. The golden dragon moved closer to me, and by closer I mean right in front of me, and closely examined me like I was some kind of merchandise. Which I hope I am not.
Her golden reptilian eyes moved back and forth, burning every detail of my body into her mind. Her scaly lips angled into a smile, revealing her sword-like teeth, giving me a chill down my spine.
Her chilling smile left me as she raised her head back to its original position after finishing her inspection of me. She snorted out some words and started a back and forth conversation between her and my mother. Not that I understood what they were saying. But it did look quite intense as they raised their voices, perhaps that was the norm?
Then mother let out a deafening roar, not like the one where she was laughing but one where there was some killing intent mixed into it. It sent a wave of fear and domination over me and siblings as backed away from mother, hiding behind our wings.
The golden dragon released a roar of his/her own, this time with even more force behind it, nearly blowing me away from the energy it carried. Mother looked like she was about to roar an even louder one but that was not a good idea considering the amount of stalactite that were about to fall. If one were to hit us, it would be very detrimental to our health. Symptoms of being hit by a ten ton rock may include death and life-lasting injuries or maybe even both.
I knew I had to stop them so I did it the only way I knew how, I screamed and threw a tantrum while sending out my tendrils in a berserker rage, devouring everything within its grasp. My screaming wasn’t very loud and hardly got the adults’ attention so I decided to enforce it with one of my light. I willed it into my throat to release more energy and push the air out with more force, of course, just enough to get their attention and not enough to cause a catastrophe.
My little, or rather big, squeaking resonated across the entire room, grabbing the attention of the two adults. They turned to look at me with surprise in their eyes then back at each other. Mother bowed her head down before taking a few steps back. The golden dragon nodded to mother like he/she was reassuring her of something before facing me.
Her/His golden eyes stared at me while my-not-sure-what-color eyes stared straight back, unmoving, like we were in the middle of a staring contest. His/Her gaze was very uncomfortable, like it was trying to molest my body. It just felt very icky. As I gazed at her/him, she/he suddenly opened her/his mouth and let out a blast of white flames straight towards me.
“HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK! MOTHER COME BACK! ARGUE SOME MORE! THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA!” I tried to scream as I squeaked in panic. I tried to escape the vicinity of the flame on my four stubby legs but the area affected was too big and I was too slow. I did the only thing I knew how to do, absorb it. I took out my ten, now eleven, tentacles and wrapped it around within a radius of five meters around me. As the flames approached, my tentacles started to absorb the blast and the energy and fed it into me. It was amazing, delicious, scrumptious. A warm and comfortable feeling started to spread throughout my body originating from my chest
I didn’t feel any heat, much less burned, inside my little protection dome. The fire lasted for a few minutes before dying down but I was already in a state of euphoria. It felt so good and I felt so powerful afterwards. In fact, I felt powerful enough to take on the golden dragon. Of course, my mind wasn’t thinking straight, it was like I was on drugs.
I willed the light to form a dense light beam in front beam and I released it towards the golden dragon. He/she was taken back by the retaliation and immediately dodged, or at least tried. You can’t move faster than the speed of light, silly dragon. The beam of light hit him/her straight in the chest and exploded in a sphere of white light, throwing the golden dragon back a tens of meter. Mind you, this was a huge accomplishment, considering the golden dragon was as long as thirty school busses and at least fifteen stories tall. He/she was much bigger than momma.
I rolled around on the floor laughing (squeaking) at the dragon’s demise. His/her crash had sent up large clouds of dust that covered up the entire platform. In fact, the entire cavern rumbled as he fell, throwing down some stalactites, contrary to what I had planned to do. Oops.
I turned and look at mother. Her eyes were filled with shock and fear. Wait, fear? Who did she fear? She immediately rushed towards the area where the golden dragon fell and into the clouds of dust.
I was curious as to what she was doing so I followed her, of course not on my legs but rather with the light. I willed myself into the air and forward and flew towards mother. I couldn’t see much within the dust so I unravelled one of the vacuums and sent the ten million different tendrils out in each direction, seeing if they can find something.
Eventually, I felt a large object that felt like mother to my left so I rushed towards it. As I neared, I found two bodies, one was struggling to stand while the other one was assisting it in its actions. I immediately moved forward and saw the golden dragon struggling to his/her feet. On his/her chest was a bloody wound, golden blood leaked from where scales were missing, her bloody flesh was exposed to the outside, and her scales did not shine as bright as they used to. Though the last one may have been due to the dust cloud.
Nevertheless, I had injured the golden dragon. Perhaps it was just too weak? Or maybe it was that light? It was quite a bit of energy. But those were just excuses I was making to cover my guilt. Perhaps I can fix it? I approached the injured dragon and willed the wound to heal. Light erupted from my body and shot into the wound. The injury glowed white, illuminating the floating dirt around us. The ripped flesh started to mend itself, growing back together like a sped-up nature documentary, followed by the skin, that grew back in patches, and finally the scales that grew much like the skin.
I walked up to the dragon’s chest and licked it. It didn’t have a taste but was warm to the touch, a sign of recovery. The golden dragon lowered its head and stared at me. The golden eyes portrayed feelings of surprise and happiness, sadness and forgiveness but there were no traces of anger. None at all. It was as if he/she could not feel anger towards me, or rather cannot stay angry at me.
Then a thought struck me, perhaps mother wasn’t my mother? Maybe this golden dragon is my mother?
I tried to ask her with a little squeak.
And she replied, “Yes, son. Let us go home.”
Her voice was smooth and beautiful, like the sound of lullaby, much like the song I heard when I was still in the egg. Wait- was that her? But wait, did I just understand her language?
I stood there shocked at her reply. I mean, I knew they were speaking some sort of language but I couldn’t understand it just a few minutes ago! How in the world did I understand it now? So many questions to answers but so little time! Wait, aren’t dragons immortal? AGH! Another question!
As I stood there questioning my very existence, my true mother, the golden dragon, swallowed me whole.