The lake was a mirror of the blue sky, pooling in the crater of the cloud-wreathed mountain. Jinsol swished his tail and scattered the reflection into ripples.

His brother, Shiyoon, scrunched his snout, but didn't bother to complain nor even open his eyes. The water settled to glass smoothness and the two dragons continued floating, basking under the spring sunshine.

Breezes intensified into gusts and the peach trees around the lake stirred and then quavered. Two more of their brothers, Junsang and Chungho, arrived with the whirlwind; their long, serpentine bodies descended in a headlong spiral before they landed with splashes like crashing waves.

A chunky golden necklace was caught in Chungho's proud grin.

"And how many does that make it?" Jinsol arched his brow as he eyed his younger brother.

"A thousand? Ten thousand? However many, it's still not enough!" Chungho declared. He tried wearing the necklace as an anklet, but the chains ensnared his claws and he had to content himself with slipping it on his tail. "I still want more and more jewelry for my hoard."

Shiyoon cocked his head doubtfully. "I'm dubious of your indiscriminate collection. For my hoard of musical instruments, I only want the very finest--crafted by famed artisans or with the rarest techniques and materials. But I have no interest in mediocre instruments, so the size of my hoard should remain small."

"It would be impossible for me to do that for my hoard," Junsang mused. "I wouldn't know if a book is good unless I read it. And even the ones that aren't masterpieces could still be enjoyable as entertainment, or useful as a record of ages past."

Jinsol heaved a theatrical sigh. "It's hardly that complicated." He nodded at Shiyoon. "Collect what you want--" He turned to Chungho. "But have standards--" He looked lastly at Junsang. "And stick to them! As for me, I only collect the most beautiful things. If I find it impressively beautiful, then I must have it."

"I question some of your choices, elder brother," Shiyoon mumbled.

"But of course, my dear younger brother. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder." With a wink, Jinsol added, "That's why there's no accounting for your taste."

Shiyoon rolled his eyes before shutting them, his snout dispersing a floating blanket of peach blossoms as he drifted through them.

"And did you snatch that treasure from some yellow-bellied libertine?" Jinsol asked Chungho.

The latter shrugged. "I didn't steal it. Junsang and I disguised as humans and went to the market; I bought it there."

"Bought it?" Jinsol's indignant snort sprayed water from the surface of the lake. "Where is our majesty as dragons? All beasts bowed to us and humans trembled before us, we took what we wanted, when we wanted it. Now we resort to buying to fill our hoards?"

Eyes still shut, Shiyoon submerged his head lower in the water.

"It hasn't been long since we woke up," Junsang reasoned. "It's quieter now, but Shengxin's reach seems to have expanded..."

For a moment, the only sound that can be heard was the rustling of peach trees. As if he hadn't paused, Jinsol continued, "Soon, we'll be using our claws to till the soil, and sowing like fangless human farmers."

"That's a bit of an overestimation," Junsang quipped.

Taking flight, Jinsol shook the water off his pristine white scales, earning protests from the younger dragons. "It has been a while since I added to my collection of beauties, so I'll go take treasure the proper way."

"Brother Jinsol," Chungho called out. "Can't that wait for later? We really should plan and start to prepare, you know, for Narae's memorial."

As the three younger dragons glanced at Jinsol, another spell of silence almost fell, but he brushed it aside with cheery agreement. "Of course my dear sister's memorial is important. But that child loved hunting for treasure more than any of us, and I know she would like to see me enjoy a new beauty."

"Aren't you just making excuses to do what you want?" Shiyoon drawled.

"Of course not!" he insisted. "I know her better than anyone. She loved her simple joys, so as long as we serve braised short ribs and honey skein candy, she'll be happy. She doesn't even like dumplings, which is a good thing because they’re too fussy to make. There's no need to fret over it.”

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"Then relax with us instead of heading out," Chungho coaxed as he bobbed on the lake.

Jinsol rounded at him, his mouth curling downwards. "The only reason you feel restful is you have a shiny new treasure."

The younger dragon sunk his head until just below his eyes, hiding his sheepish grin.

"You should set a more sensible example for the younglings," Shiyoon muttered, referring to their three younger brothers. "Instead of doing dangerous things when we haven't recovered to full strength or have full knowledge of how things are like now..."

"It’s fine," Jinsol sing-songed. "The best way to get stronger is to cultivate the body with exercise, and the best way for us to get more information about the world outside is to go out and see it. I'll be back before the younglings even realize that I was gone."

Jinsol glided above his brothers in a showy circle, before he soared past the walls of the summit caldera crowning the mountain that towered over the landscape of Geunhwa.

The clear sky and billowy clouds veiled his body, his scales blending in the sparkling blue and white. Even as the forests below gradually gave way to farmland and villages, the humans catching sight of him would only gape for a moment and then look away. As if he were a mere mirage.

After their hibernation, humans had come to think that their kind had died out, or even disbelieved their existence altogether. And Shiyoon, Chungho, and Junsang all seemed inclined to keep it that way, living in the seclusion of their mountain, concealing their true nature on the rare occasion that they venture out.

Would the time come that I have forgotten how it was like to fly carefree as humans stared in awe?

Jinsol thrashed his tail and swooped closer to ground, blowing off the straw hats of a group of farmers and drawing squeals from the children playing at the edges of the rice fields.

"What a big kite!"

"No, it's a giant serpent!"

"It's a dragon!"

"Don't be silly, dragons don't exist--?"

Baring his piked teeth in a smirk, Jinsol shot up again. He weaved through the clouds, over and under, in a turbulent dance. The luminous puffs were churned into roiling heaps of gray that gushed fat drops of rain.

He swept down again to watch the farmers' befuddled faces crack into smiles as the rice paddies fill, and the children cheer and skip.

"That was a dragon? Woooow!"

With one last flashy wave, he ascended past the rain clouds and flew to sunnier skies. The landscape became more crowded, with bigger clusters of human settlements.

He espied a small caravan passing through a peasant village, but it wasn't until he hovered nearer that he grinned; lacquered red wagons and lithe horses with hides like molten gold. A caravan of someone important and wealthy--no doubt carrying valuable treasure.

He pounced, the shrieks of the villagers drowned by the neighs of the horses, and he snapped his jaws to whip the creatures into a frenzy. Their human drivers tried to calm them, but seeing him circling overhead, they themselves fled, screaming.

A crack of his tail splintered the poles of the wagons, separating them from the horses. The handsome beasts escaped, but Jinsol scarcely noticed, as heavy wooden chests crashed on the dirt road and burst open. Out spilled gold and silver jewelry studded with precious stones, a rainbow of silk and satin bolts, personal tools carved from jade. Dainty robes fluttered in the wind of his movements, before settling on the ground.

"Bridal gifts?" he hummed. "And fit for a princess..." He plucked items that sparked his fancy; jeweled hairpins and silk flowers, a white jade comb, silk brocade gowns in Sheng style, among others. He tossed them in one of the chests, which he grasped in his claws.

Hearing the buzz of many murmurs, he glanced at the villagers, who were peeking from their huts. With a sweep of his tail, the chests tumbled towards them and they ducked and screamed, then the sight of the strewn treasures had them all flocking.

Chortling, Jinsol meandered towards the coast and upon another peasant village. At the beach was a rundown altar of stone. A shrine for dragons. There were offerings on i:; stale tteok, rather withered fruits, scraps of silk.

Odds and ends that I'd sooner cast in a trash heap…

But there was also a whole pig carcass, freshly pink, offered by a young man bowing to the altar. "Please bless our fishing trips, dragon lords, I've been heading out with my father, but I’ve only made mistakes... I just want to be able to make a living..."

Jinsol lunged, jolting a yelp from the young fisherman. His voice a deep rumble in his chest, he declared, "Hmm, you make a decent offering, human."

He seized the pig in his claws, then gestured with his tail, arcing from the sea to the shore.

The fisherman stared at the calm water, squinting uncertainly when nothing happened.

"Just you wait," Jinsol huffed.

There was a glimmer in the distance, drawing closer and closer. A surging swell crashed past the shoreline, over the altar and the fisherman.

The young man sputtered, spitting out a wriggling fish. Flopping in heaps around him were fish--a greater number than a flimsy fishing boat could bear. As Jinsol spiraled to the sky, he could hear the whoops. "Thank you, lord dragon! Thank you!"

The exclamations were cut off by a yip of pain, then scolding rang throughout the beach. "What did you think you were doing, offering the pork?!"

Jinsol peered down to see an older woman, likely the fisherman's mother, twisting his ear. Even as he indicated the fish, the woman yelled that the pig had taken months to raise.

"I suppose pork would be much more valuable in a fishing village than fish," Jinsol mused, as he rode the winds back to his mountain home, claws heavy with both treasure and food. "But I'll bless you with bountiful fishing for the rest of your life, young man. Meanwhile, this will make a pleasant addition to dinner, for my brothers and I."