Page 13

Mid Afternoon - Mid Winter : Home

Seeing Ilios casually lay down on my head, Krystallo started to creep outside the cave again.

"Brother, how could you just let that creature jump onto your head.." Her voice was a bit shaky.

Hearing her nervousness, I lifted my head up and looked at her. "It's not just a random creature, this is Ilios!"

"You named it?!"

"Of course I did! He's adorable, plus he's just a puppy so as long as the parents aren't around, it should be safe." I was still occasionally scanning the treeline to make sure its parents weren't gonna come kill me but it had been completely silent. -Did something happen to his parents?-

Krystallo gave me a nervous look. "But mom said-"

"I'll explain to Mother when she gets back. Just don't worry about it and come say hi to him!"

Successfully convincing her, she slowly started creeping towards him but when she got close, Ilios opened his eyes and glared at her. "That glare isn't normal brother!" She immediately retreated while shaking a little bit.

"Haah.. how could you be afraid of something so cute?" I looked up at him sitting on my head with a warm smile.

*Bang* Catching me off guard, the ground suddenly shook and a huge amount of snow was launched into the air behind me.

Whipping my head around to see what it was, I accidentally knocked Ilios off my head.

As the plume of snow fell back to the ground, I saw Mother with a huge, blood covered panther looking creature in her mouth.

"Haah, I cleared the mountain, so you ready to go look.

. up the.. mountain.." Her worlds steadily slowed as she looked at me, noticing the little puppy climbing up onto my back

-Oh it's just Mother..- When the ground shook so violently, I was worried it was Ilios’s parents.

"Vasilias, don't move!” She glared at Ilios with clear killing intent but he didn't seem to care at all as he finished climbing up onto my back before laying down again.

"Oh yeah, this is Ilios. Can I keep him, Mother?" Trying to give in to mothers desires I give the 'puppy eyes' look.

But Mother didn't seem to understand what I meant anyways. "Keep it? Like as a slave?"

"No, as a pet. He's super cute isn't he?"

"A pet? What's the point of keeping it if you don't put it to work? Plus compared to us it's an extremely weak species.. it's only a Frost Wolf."

"It's for emotional support, Mother." I tried to explain a little bit more, but she simply didn't understand.

"Haah fine, but you need to release it at the edge of the forest before night so its parents don't come here to look for it." Seemingly worried for the safety of Krystallo and I, she made a quick rule that I'd have to send it home to its parents every night.

I glanced at Ilios laying on my back. -That should be fine..- "Well, back to the original topic, can we go up the mountain now?" My eagerness to explore quickly returned when Mother returned.

"Yeah, let's go.. you too Krystallo."

Krystallo was still in the cave with only her head stuck out the door before reluctantly coming out after hearing Mother call her.

She had a guilty look on her face but I couldn't tell why.

“Leave your pet here Vasilias.”

-Ah right..- After thinking what to do for a minute, I walked over to the bison corpse and used my tail to pull him off my back and set him on the ground. "Here, you can snack on this if you want while I'm gone. I'll be right back though!"

Right as I set him down, I turned around to see Mother and Krystallo jumping off the ground to fly up the mountain. -This will be my first time flying!- A pure joy filled me as I'd finally get to experience flight, but I was slightly nervous.

I wasn't too worried about whether I could or not since dragons knew how to fly from their birth (thanks to the knowledge inheritance), but I was nervous nonetheless.

Walking up to where Mother took off, I spread my wings and followed my instinct. Finally mentally prepared, I flapped my wings down as hard as I could while jumping up.

*Fwoosh*

As I catapulted myself up into the air, I noticed the ground below me vanish and watched as I zipped past Mother and Krystallo.

"WHOOPS!" Quickly noticing what happened, I spread my wings to slow down as fast as possible before diving back down to Mother’s altitude.

Finally making it to Mother’s side, I noticed she was staring at me in shock.

I was getting ready to say something to break the silence but Krystallo did it first. "Hmph, I could do that too ya know.."

Even after Krystallo said that, we flew the rest of the way in complete silence.

Finally making it about halfway up the mountain, we landed on a fairly large flattened area.

-Is this it?- It was quite a lot bigger than I thought it'd be and was an area with lots of direct sunlight, and sheer cliffs on all sides of it, making it pretty safe.

-Its honestly perfect..- It was exactly what I was hoping for, the ideal spot for my next dragon sleep, but my endless curiosity was quickly sparked. "Mother, can we go all the way to the top?"

The mountain had a single tall peak, but I wanted to get a better view of the area since I didn't get a good look earlier when I flew too high.

Mother was clearly reluctant and wanted to dodge the question but she caved after a moment. "..sure.. But you must stick closely to me, there have been some pesky birds flying around recently."

I didn't think much of it and quickly followed her up the mountain.

The peak of the mountain was also very flat, almost as if the peak got cut off by something, it was an unusually flat surface around 100 meters across.

Getting a crazy idea I whipped around to Mother with a gleam in my eye. "Mother! Could I-"

"No!" She harshly cut me off with a serious look, completely anticipating what I was going to ask.

-Awe..- It was a bit disappointing but it was nothing to be sad over.

Turning away from her again, I walked back towards the edge of the peak and finally noticed the stunning view.

Looking down the mountainside, I could see the snow covered clearing in front of the cave and the edge of the bordering forest which stretched to the horizon.

There was something odd though. -Is this mountain out on a peninsula?- I could see cliffs around the edge of the forest followed by an endless ocean.

Walking along the edge of the peak to the other side, I noticed that the mountain simply dropped into the ocean.

"Mother is where we live, a peninsula or an island?" I asked out of curiosity without thinking.

"We live on a rather Isolated Peninsula. Since the cliffs are so tall and the forest has some dangerous creatures living in it, other intelligent species avoid it."

Krystallo immediately became worried and scared as she misunderstood. "Even dangerous to mom?"

"No sweetie, we dragons are the strongest of this world! Plus even though I'm.. older.. I'm also stronger than those my age, so you have nothing to worry about!" She leaned down and pressed her head against Krystallo to comfort her

Then, letting my curiosity speak again, I asked something stupid. "How old are you mother?"

She froze, giving me a cold glare before taking a deep breath and smiling. "Haah.. I'm a nice and ripe 98 years old!" Her demeanor changed as she lightly slapped me with her tail. "For future reference, never ask a woman her age. Okay sweetie?"

A chill quickly found its way down my back as I shivered. -G..good to know..-