"Can our baby walk now? Let’s see, let’s see. How well can you walk?"
He was probably more a child than a baby now, but I deliberately lifted my voice an octave like a pediatrician.
The Tymer cub spun in place once, proudly showing off the now-healthy hind leg.
"Aigoo, look at you. Our baby is amazing. You’ve grown so much meanwhile. You’ve gotten unbelievably handsome, haven’t you?"
I showered him with praise and rubbed his brow and under his chin the same way.
He wriggled his neatly tucked forepaws, spreading his toes wide and closing them again. At the same time he bounced each paw up and down in turn.
Bigger than most, yes, but unmistakably kneading like a cat.
"Arrr–rrrng...."
I was enjoying the mother and cub’s affection when Kallen spoke in a wistful voice.
"Tymer, what brings you to a place this cold?"
Come to think of it, we’d first met Tymer in the humid eastern tropics. Monster or not, her coat was short; the northern cold should have been hard on her.
I tipped my head and looked up at the mother.
"Grng, grrrng...."
She butted her brow into me again, twice.
I didn’t have an interpreter, so I couldn’t understand monster speech, but the meaning came through intact.
"You followed me? Because you thought I might be in danger?"
"Grng...."
Ah... there it is. Humans forget grace; monsters repay it.
And she was a feline territorial animal besides. She’d left her own range to follow me here and guard me.
I stroked Tymer’s face as she pressed into my chest, letting the apology and gratitude speak through my hand.
Only then did I notice the nose against my abdomen had gone cold.
"Sweet thing, why did you chase me all the way to this cold place, hmm? How are you going to live in a harsh world if you’re this good?"
I told Tymer what I wanted to say to every animal—and every monster—in this world, letting her be their representative.
"You only need to live healthy and happy. That’s enough."
"Gru-rrrng."
"Thank you so much for saving us, Tymer. You don’t need to worry about me anymore. You saw a dragon last time, right? The dragon that’s incredibly strong. He’s coming to pick—"
"Hyung!"
Rami shot out of my inner pocket and cut the flow of conversation.
Relief came first at the messenger I’d been waiting for all this time.
"Rami! The dragon?"
"Hyung, hyung!"
Rami scrambled up onto my face. With those tiny forepaws she pat-pat-patted my forehead.
She’d never done that. I peeled her agitated little body off and met her eyes.
A bad feeling brushed past.
"What is it, Rami. Did something happen to the dragon?"
"Hyung, hyung! Hyuuung!"
She seemed to be flagging an emergency, but I couldn’t tell what she meant.
I set Rami on the ground and asked again, slowly.
"What happened to the dragon? Draw it on the ground if you have to."
"Hyung!"
Instead of drawing, Rami sprang up with all four feet at once, boing-boing.
In her brief airtime she flailed her feet, doing her best at body language with short legs.
The problem was I still couldn’t understand any of it.
"Rami, calmly...."
"Hyuuung!"
And as always, it was the great reptile who answered the little reptile properly.
"KRAAAAH!!!"
From far off in the forest, a dragon’s roar shattered the air.
Tymer instantly lowered her torso into a guarded crouch.
The cub couldn’t even manage a purr; it pressed tight to its mother and cringed.
"Kyahhh!"
"Ugh—what is—"
At the sky-shaking noise, Kallen and Margon clapped their hands over their ears and dropped down.
A sand-laden wind swept us from afar.
Conifers that had grown reckless and tall swayed in huge arcs, and the birds resting in their nest-trees took wing all at once.
With a single roar, the dragon was kicking up a storm through the entire forest.
I stared at the commotion, dumbfounded, then asked in a drained voice.
"...Rami, did you actually deliver what I said?"
"Hyung, hyuuung!"
Rami cried as if wronged.
I hummed under my breath and weighed the odds.
The probability Rami had botched my message, versus the probability Varen wouldn’t listen to my message. Which was higher?
"Right... the one who won’t listen to me isn’t going to listen to you either."
"Hyuuuuung!"
I pressed my throbbing forehead and looked toward the source of the sound.
The dragon’s roars boomed through the woods, and my vision went dark.
“Give me my Ceryl!!!”
But then Varen’s voice—heard only by me—followed. My face flushed hot at once.
Thank goodness I was the only one who could understand something that mortifying.
Embarrassment aside, that wasn’t the issue.
"Do you know how carefully we’ve been hiding all this time? I’m going to lose it."
A month spent combing the forest for Varen’s safety—gone in smoke. My face scrunched on ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) its own at the thought of my hard labor evaporating.
And despite the thunder of his roars, the distance felt far.
Even if I sprinted flat out from here, nearby Dragon Hunters would strike first at Varen.
"Gr–rrrng...."
Sensing the bind, Tymer scraped the ground with a forepaw and called me.
She dipped her head low—a clear signal to get on her back.
She was big enough to carry ten people, but the thought of working my sweet girl that hard made me hesitate.
"KRAAAAH!!!"
As if to hurry my indecision, Varen roared again. It sounded like he was crying for me to come soothe him.
I set my jaw and was about to mount Tymer when a golden dragon rose into view above the high conifers.
I had told him a hundred times how dangerous that was. I had scoured the forest to find a safe runway.
Varen was attempting flight.
"Hah—r... real dragon...."
Margon, who had only just gotten to his feet, dropped back down with a thump.
Even Kallen, who’d grown close to Varen, flinched at the sight of a dragon for the first time in a while.
It was an entrance that drove every living thing in the forest into fear.
But to my eyes, it was a little different.
His great wings beat and made the forest lurch, yet the heavy dragon’s body didn’t climb cleanly.
Sure enough, Dragon Hunters hidden to the east, west, north, and south began to move.
They didn’t miss the moment the dragon tried to glide; dozens of crossbows fired at once. All at the same target.
“Grrr—!”
"No, no! You have to climb higher!"
I shouted myself hoarse at the sky, but it didn’t reach Varen.
Even if he heard, it wouldn’t make his body obey.
Under the rain of bolts, the golden dragon thrashed his wings.
“Let... go!”
They were crossbows, yes, but built for dragon hunting; each bolt was as thick as a log. Most still couldn’t pierce Varen’s steel-hard hide.
Instead, the nets on their tips snapped open in midair. Not big enough to bag a monster in one go, but more than enough to foul an already heavy dragon’s flight.
“Ugh!”
His pain-soaked groan punched the air out of me.
I froze, useless, as all manner of cast spells slammed toward Varen.
There must have been a mage hidden in the forest—strange magics flared in rainbow colors. It looked like fireworks erupting around the dragon.
Swoooosh—KA-thoom!
This time the sound wasn’t bolts but missiles.
Crossbows made far stronger with the help of magic. A mana-laden weapon punched through between the dragon’s wing bones, where the fascia was thinnest.
Once a weak point opened, the capture harpoons flew as if they’d been waiting. Thick ropes were fixed to their ends.
“Ugh—gh... No—grk....”
A tug-of-war tightened between the dragon flailing in the air and the hunters trying to drag him to the ground.
A dragon hunt I’d only read about in books was unfolding before my eyes.
And it was aimed at my dragon.
"Varen...."
Without ever truly flying, the golden dragon finally crashed to the ground.
I stared, blank, and before I knew it I lifted my palm and slapped my cheek hard.
Instinct moved where reason had run out the door—wake up.
"Wh-what do we do! The dragon got caught! What do we do, Ceryl!"
My only companions kept tugging my attention off target.
I squeezed my eyes shut against the noise and focused. I’d clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms.
Think. Do not stop thinking.
What can I do. How do I get Varen out.
“Gr... let go of this! Ceryl... Ceryl is in danger. I have to get... to Ceryl....”
Varen’s voice shot straight through my skull; my chest ached.
With my eyes closed I could picture him, bound by Dragon Hunters.
That house-sized body, caught by mere humans. He had powerful legs and jaws, a tail that could sweep anything away.
“Ugh, Ceryl... Ceryl Aylos...!”
I had hoped Varen wouldn’t follow the original setting—wouldn’t become a mad slaughterer.
I shackled him with the word “promise” so he wouldn’t kill indiscriminately.
Maybe that was my arrogance.
As a result, Varen Dravergh—who could burn the world—had been caught, unable to shake off a few hunters.
"Tymer, take me up that tree."
"Gr–rrrng."
I gripped the mother’s lowered head and climbed. Straddling her nape, I spread my legs and clenched the short mane tight.
Great feline predators are masters of trees. Tymer unsheathed razor claws and sprinted up a conifer twenty meters tall as if it were level ground.
Gravity hauled at me, but I braced all four limbs and clung to the scruff.
In the blink of an eye we reached the crown, and far off I caught sight of the fallen golden dragon.
