REFDL 2

An explosive lion’s roar erupted from the tiny body. The sound was cute, but the volume was immense.

The siblings were startled and nearly fainted. The second sibling rolled around and nearly tumbled out of the nest. The terrified dragon parent blocked the nest’s edge with his tail. The reptile’s vertically slit pupils dilated in shock.

Ha!

I puffed out my chest. Though currently smaller than average, I did my best to show I would be a great dragon someday.

The parent dragon snorted once, then turned his head around. Then, with a few gulp-gulp sounds, he spat thick porridge onto the nest floor. The dragon siblings rushed forward and swallowed the porridge. My human’s physiological revulsion clashed with my dragon’s appetite.

Once again, I felt the piercing gaze of the parent dragon. I compromised with reality. Finding an egg that had miraculously survived intact within the vomit was pure luck.

I quickly approached and snatched one egg. Perhaps my roar had worked, because my siblings simply bared their teeth and growled once before returning to their own meals.

I cracked open the egg and ate its contents. That single egg alone filled my stomach.

So this is the advantage of being small.

I swiftly grabbed another identical egg. Then, I hid it behind a small bush where I’d been hiding, waiting for the parent dragon to return.

After all, I couldn’t guarantee another egg would be mixed in the next batch of porridge.

With their bellies full, the siblings stopped biting each other. The parent dragon had also issued a warning. What reached my ears was just a simple growl, yet strangely, I understood its meaning.

The parent dragon, who had licked his young with his long tongue, spent the night with them and flew off somewhere again before dawn broke.

***

That sense of pride lasted only until the next day.

In just three days, the size difference between my siblings and me had nearly doubled.

Crack…

This is insane…

From then on, I couldn’t venture outside of the bush even when the parent dragon returned.

My siblings grew more and more vicious as time passed.

Fortunately, I’d hidden one egg beforehand. Otherwise, I’d have starved from the third day onward.

Saying they were vicious might not convey the full impact, but the ferocity of a dragon hatchling could be summed up in one sentence.

After three days, my siblings went from three to two.

‘…….’

With the parent dragon late, hunger had turned them ferocious, and they quickly began fighting each other.

As their bodies grew larger, their teeth and claws became harder and sharper. Naturally, their attacks were far more deadly.

Thus, the sibling next weakest after me was eliminated in the fight.

Grr!

With a death rattle, the fallen dragon was devoured by its siblings. I watched the scene from between the bush.

Oh. Holy shit…….

Holding my breath was a given; my legs went weak, and I even soiled myself in the corner

Soon, the parent dragon returned home. He discovered the remains of his dead young.

Grrrrr.

He mourned the death with an unpleasant wail, then licked the remains and swallowed them in one gulp.

The yolk I ate yesterday threatened to come back up.

Fortunately, the parent dragon didn’t come looking for me. He didn’t try to swallow me like the dead sibling. The dragon just sighed, looking at the spot where I was hiding, then acted as if I was a non-existent hatchling.

Culling.

The word rolled around in my mind.

***

The morning of the fifth day arrived.

I opened my eyes, sniffling. The howling gale had calmed slightly. It was good news, but my mood didn’t improve much.

I felt anxious and hopeless.

If this keeps up, I’ll starve to death in a few days…

But no solution came to mind. As I licked an empty eggshell in hunger, a sudden chill ran down my spine.

Now I saw the bush that had shielded me had shrunk to half its size. The night’s gale had scattered it. Through the sparse barrier, I made eye contact with one of my siblings, drool dripping from his mouth.

Kee-kak!

Had their brains grown along with their bodies? They belatedly remembered the existence of their long-forgotten youngest sibling.

Damn.

I hesitated, then backed away. I turned and started running.

Kee-aak!

…I shouldn’t have done that.

My action ignited their hunting instincts.

But I couldn’t just stand there!

There was never any choice in the first place. If I had stayed put, they’d have slowly approached and bitten me!

No matter how spacious, the nest had its limits.

Damn it!

I turned around at the dead end. The two siblings, their eyes bulging, gaped wide. Objectively, they were only the size of large dogs, but to me, a small to medium-sized dog, they felt like T-Rexes.

I had no choice but to flap my wings and leap up. Flying was still beyond me, but I gained enough momentum to bounce out of the nest.

It wasn’t a thoughtless leap. The nest was on a ledge jutting out from the cliff. While three sides faced sheer drops, the spot where it met the cliff offered a tiny foothold.

I planned to hide there.

Keeeeek!

…I hadn’t anticipated those damn siblings would follow me over the edge of the nest!

Eek!

The moment I landed, I scanned my surroundings. Along the cliff’s edge, like stepping stones, there were quite a few small ledges jutting out.

Damn it…!

I closed my eyes and opened them again.

I’m not a slipper, I’m a dragon!

I jumped toward a small, protruding ledge fragment right in front of me.

I desperately flapped my underdeveloped wings.

I slid a long way after landing, but at least I made it safely. My heart was pounding. Once I got there, the foothold was even smaller. It was barely big enough for someone my size to stand on.

The two siblings who had followed me over the nest shook their heads up and down, grunting.

The hot-tempered siblings were absolutely furious. The eldest, unable to control his temper, pressed his back tightly against the nest.

…No way.

He came dashing over and made a huge leap toward my foothold.

Crack!

The moment the creature, weighing more than double my own, pushed off to jump, the edge crumbled like it was made of dust. Losing his balance, he didn’t even make it close to the ledge before tumbling straight down the cliff.

Seeing this, the other one seemed to give up on following, grunting angrily before turning back toward the nest.

‎

‎

‎

The parent dragon returned. The smell of blood wafted in the air. His body were covered in puncture wounds and bite marks, as if he’d been attacked. I was shocked.

For a dragon of that size, one that looked powerful, to sustain such injuries?

Feeling something was off, I held my breath. Then the dragon spotted the one remaining hatchling. He paused only briefly.

Grrr!

He vomited porridge.

Just as the sibling began his first leisurely meal the parent dragon noticed me, leaning against a fragment of the ledge.

Grrr?!

Even he seemed startled and flustered, his pupils dilating briefly. He stared at me for a while.

‘…….’

But in the end, he did nothing and went to sleep. It was fortunate the wind had died down.

……ugh!

The night spent outside the nest was far colder and more desolate than I had imagined.

***

Grrr!

Kweeeek!

Startled by the midnight roars, I jerked my head up. Under the full moon, the forest canopy rippled silver.

In a world fallen into black and white, waves of leaves tangled in dark and bright colors swayed endlessly.

…The atmosphere feels strange.

The moment I sensed something was off.

From the shadows of the canopy, a green giant with bumpy skin and a giraffe-like monster with a silver-gray mane surged up simultaneously.

The giraffe’s teeth, resembling those of a deep-sea creature, sank into the giant’s forearm. The giant smashed the giraffe’s body repeatedly with the wooden club in its other hand. Even the parent dragons awoke to watch the life-or-death struggle between the two.

The winner was the giant.

Gwaaah!

The bloodied giant let out a roar. Unable to contain his rage, he slammed the club down. Each blow snapped and shattered trees.

It was terrifying. The unseen giraffe’s corpse was surely pulped beyond recognition. A large clearing was carved where the two had fought.

From above, it looked like a patched scar.

A patch amidst thick, lush hair.

The fight ended. Perhaps displeased by the commotion, the parent dragon spread his wings in the nest and roared . A cry as majestic as the one heard on the first day shook the vicinity.

The startled giant looked up abruptly. Grrr. Grrr. The creature apologized in a bear-like voice. Oh dear, I’m so sorry. This was your front yard? I got so excited and made a mess in the dead of night…

Grrrrr!

The giant fled without looking back. The parent dragon snorted and lay back down on the nest.

‘……My only hatchling.’

The dragon had said that just now. Someone had woken his only hatchling.

Hidden by the edge of the nest, I couldn’t see, but my sibling seemed to have woken from the commotion too.

Strangely, I felt a pang of sorrow. Even though I considered myself human, I felt it. Sniffling, I curled up small.

The next day.

The patch of crushed and broken trees had vanished. As always, the deep green canopy met the morning sunlight.

I wondered if I’d just dreamed it all last night. But seeing the monstrous birds constantly flying to the spot where the giraffe had fallen yesterday, I knew.

The forest had repaired the broken and uprooted spots itself. In just one night.

A chill ran down his spine. It was a different kind of eeriness than the bloody battle the giraffe monster and the giant had fought last night.

I buried my face between my front paws, lifting only my eyes.

The peaceful and beautiful image of the forest felt completely different now.