Chapter 44: Chapter 44

She heard the sound of something approaching through the grass and trees. The sound of rustling, crunching footsteps and rumbling, low-pitched cries.

I’m screwed.’ Humming hugged the trembling children closer and squeezed her eyes shut tight.

The menacing footsteps drew near. It seemed that the three monsters in the cave weren’t the only monsters in the vicinity. A huge shadow fell over Humming’s head. Sensing something above her, Humming looked up and her fear-filled eyes met the crazed ones of another monster. Just like the ones in the cave, the drooling monster was riddled with wounds to the heart and had flipped eyes.

He was half crazy.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The salivating monster attacked with its mouth stretched wide open. In an instant, the teeth of the monster were almost upon the nape of Humming’s neck. At that moment, the giant egg that the children were holding sent out a roaring, thumping wave of light. Humming, who had been hugging it along with the children, also felt the pulsation from the egg go through her heart. And at the same time, the monster was pushed back as if it had been kicked by something.

“Huh?”

The monster that had been pushed backwards was stunned into stillness for a second. Humming, who was still tightly embracing the children and egg, was equally astonished. The surprise didn’t last long though. The monster rose up, and snarled, clearly agitated. The light had only made it angry. Before Humming could figure out what was going on, the monster rushed at her again. She couldn’t take her eyes off the monster running at her with ferocious teeth and this time, she truly felt she was going to die there.

Whoosh!

A cool blade pierced through the monster’s heart.

Paah!

A familiar voice approached Humming as she stared blankly at the monster’s blood bursting from the wound like a fountain. “Humming, are you okay?”1

From behind the fallen monster, Humming saw a familiar figure sweeping back her hair that’d been messed during her rush here. The person who Humming had been calling so loudly for had appeared at the most optimate time.

“Ka- Kalia!”

The body of the monster had collapsed lifelessly at Kalia’s single fatal strike. Kalia approached Humming, not paying any attention to the monster’s fallen body. Fortunately, Humming didn’t seem to be hurt anywhere. During the twenty minutes she’d been gone, dark circles had formed under Humming’s eyes though, probably from severe shock and heartache.

“I am fine, but this child is very injured. Uh, what do I do?” Humming looked intently at Kalia with her tear-stained face.

“Oh my God…” Kalia looked over the disheveled state Humming was in.

She was proud and sorry to see that Humming was still tightly holding the two children in her embrace despite her very obvious fear, evident in her eyes and trembling hands. Kalia patted Humming on the head, as if to tell her everything was okay now, and turned to closely examine the children’s wounds. Although the wounds did not appear to be deep, demonic energy seemed to have seeped into the wounds. They had shed quite a bit of blood and their faces were deathly pale.

‘Do we have any antidote?’ Kalia bit her lips as she pondered, face hardening.

Who would have guessed that there would be these evil things in the Fairy Forest?2

She had only brought simple hemostatic medicine and a wound healing agent just in case. Who would have thought she’d run into chimaeras. But, right now, removing the poison from the monsters was the most urgent thing.

A low sigh came from behind Kalia, who was chewing on the inside of her cheeks.

“Oh, my…”

Perhaps the Fairy King had been following Kalia but nonetheless, he drew the spirit stone from the monster’s fallen body and purified the murky stone.

“The wounds are serious,” He noted.

He muttered a spell and the once turbid stone cleared. Crushing the stone in his palm, the core became dust and scattered into the air.

“Are those the kids you came to pick up?” After the purification ceremony, the king asked Kalia.

The figure of the king standing against the red and purple sky was large and majestic. Bottomless dark green eyes looked down at Kalia and the children.

Kalia nodded lightly, and replied yes.

“They accidentally came into the woods.”

“…Dream fairies often reside at the edge of the forest, especially the ones who love to deceive children.”

His eyes rested on the child’s wound, which had turned a dark red. “This happened because the children of the forest like playing around too much. The human child received a wound he shouldn’t have.”

With a whisper from the king, a small bird spirit emitted a white light that permeated into the child’s wound. The black poison drained, and soon, the child’s wound stopped bleeding. The wound healed at an astonishing rate, almost in an instant.

His power was different from magic. The power to heal the wounds came from directly summoning the energy of nature. Among the fairies, the ability to wield the powerful force of nature’s energy manifested only in those of the royal bloodline. The child’s breathing gradually stabilized.

“Thank you, my king.”

In response to Kalia’s greeting, the king looked down at her without saying a word. Soon, his eyes reached the round egg that the child was hugging.

“But, you have found something even more troublesome than a monster.”

Following the narrowed gaze of the king, Kalia’s eyes also landed on the round egg that the child was hugging desperately.

‘What is that?’

For a long time, she looked at it with puzzled eyes. A faint wave of energy emanated from the egg in the child’s arms, as if conscious of the king and Kalia’s eyes. As if their gazes made the egg very uncomfortable. The sleeping child tossed and turned as if he felt the waves from the egg. Thanks to this, the egg’s appearance was revealed more clearly.

Kalia’s eyes slowly widened as realized what it was and muttered its identity like she was groaning, “Dragon’s egg….”

“Why is that here?!’

Kalia bit her lower lip and pressed a hand to her forehead, as if resisting the urge to scream.

Her head suddenly hurt very badly.

How…

How the hell did a living dragon’s egg get there?

***

Although dragons were very secretive and rare, one could come across more frequently than expected. They would appear only once or twice a decade, or polymorph to appear before humans. Though they rarely made themselves known, everytime they did, it was a definite presence.

Likewise, ‘dragon eggs’ are often available on the market. Sometimes, they appeared in auction houses. Other times, they were accidentally picked up in caves, like the one the children were holding. But, most of these eggs were either very weak or already near death.

There is a ridiculous story about why they appear among humans.

Dragons were a powerful race, vigorous3 and possessive and capable of thinking, having emotions, holding grudges, loving and also being destroyed by love too. 4 The only difference between them and humans is the fact that their lifespan is close to eternity, they are far more arrogant than humans, and their population is very small. So, similar to humans, dragons did not have a set mating period. If you want it, love it, if you don’t want it, throw it away. They lived with this sort of mentality. Them being such energetic creatures5 was actually a source of trouble as there was no such thing as contraception for dragons. Thus, they laid eggs easily.

Dragons laid 2 or 3 eggs at a time. The real problem is that if any of the eggs are born weak, they are thrown away mercilessly. There was a high possibility that this egg was also abandoned. The method can be said to be cruel, but it had also been their way of survival for a long time.

Weak dragons are easy to be exploited by those with evil powers or intentions; those captivated were usually miserable. This arrogant race couldn’t stand being used by anyone. Nothing was more humiliating and disgraceful to them than that.

It was a known fact that weak eggs would most likely die within three days if they were not supplied with magic from their mothers. But, the strange thing was, this egg was not one with a weak vitality.

“To throw away an egg with this level of vitality… It’s strange, but… if there’s no mother, the egg’s death is already decided.” The Fairy King looked down at the dragon’s egg, his gaze cold.

An intermediate being between a devil6 and a spirit. Children of a depraved God, born in a crack between space and time.

That was what a dragon was.

They are an existence opposite to that of fairies, who inherit the pure power of nature. In a way, they were beings who shared the same blood, but they were like enemies to each other. They have the same maternal ancestor, but their paternal ancestor was of a different race. The two races do not openly bite or attack the other, but fairies and dragons try not to relate to each other as much as possible.

However, it was not strange that a dragon was found in this very Fairy Forest. The Fairy King, who had been coldly looking down at the egg, beckoned and the egg that had not budged until now, came out of the child’s arms. As the egg floated into the air, the king grabbed his giant spear.

At that moment, the hatchling, that had been curled up inside the translucent egg, squirmed and moved. From the outside, they could see its thin wings shiver, the head twist back and forth and its little hands and feet wiggling. The hatchling in the egg started struggling incessantly as if it had sensed the king’s murderous intention.

“That egg was protecting us. You can’t…” Even as she trembled, terrified under the immense energy swelling from the Fairy King, Humming struggled to make a move to stop him.

It was then that Kalia, who had been looking at the hatchling wiggling in the egg, moved, “We will take this egg.”

She stood in front of him.

“Who told you to intervene?”

“We will take this egg with us.”

The king stared at her with cold eyes that she had never seen before.

Kalia did not back down. Her stomach vibrated once again. As she felt Shasha struggling and moving in her stomach, she had no choice but to stand in front of the egg. Dragons and humans were not the same. Nevertheless, Kalia saw herself in that abandoned egg.

Would this egg have wanted to be thrown away? The egg did not ask to be born as a dragon egg. This hatchling did not choose anything.

The same was true of Kalia. She didn’t choose to be born an abandoned child but since she was born, she still struggled her hardest in order to somehow survive. To grasp and fulfill the meaning of life with her own two hands.

She couldn’t choose when, where and how she was born, but at that moment, she could choose to not let this hatchling die and made sure it didn’t suffer through the same circumstances she did. She didn’t want to let it die and just wanted to make sure it was born safe and sound.