Chapter 7: A dangerous father
'A knight is a living form of chivalry, an exemplar of virtue to all. A knight's words shall be
kind and well thought out with nuanced perspectives, for this has always been the primary
method to restore fairness, safety and a loving society. Yet because the tyrant will come with
swords, gilt in the pockets of those who have no code, the knight carries his own excalibur in
the name of the king.'— Tales of a wandering knight.
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Huge! That was the first thought that crossed my mind as I gazed at the enormous Dragon in front of me. He easily dwarfed our mother by a head or so. His eyes were of a dark obsidian color,
reminiscent of a boundless void.
His crimson scales were littered with scars that spoke of the various battles he must have witnessed. Faced with his stare, I unconsciously lowered my head in submission.
When confronted with absolute power, there is no room for defiance. The colossal crimson-scaled Dragon in front of me was, without a doubt, my father.I wasn't the only one in awe of his presence, my younger siblings did not seem to fare any better. While I had managed to force myself to remain standing on my feet and simply lower my head, they on the other hand had collapsed with their heads buried into the ground.
My mother, who had been enjoying her nap until now, opened her lone eye and stared at my father. For a moment, the two Dragons did not move as they simply stood there motionlessly with their eyes locked on each other.
I didn't mind and thought nothing of the public display of affection between my parents. A closer look, however, proved that the two giants were communicating with each other through some means unknown to me.
The reason why I came to this conclusion was due to the foreign ripples I was able to somehow sense in the air between my parents, which was why I assumed they were communicating. Add to the fact that they simply stood there staring at one another without moving.
I could be wrong, but for now, this was a fact that remained to be proven. While thinking about such matters, my mother suddenly laid back down and closed her eye, ignoring all of us. It seemed their conversation had finally come to an end.
My father, the large crimson dragon, then turned his attention back to us. He seemed to study us with his dark gaze in interest, and I could swear I felt it linger a bit longer on me.
He then slowly brought his enormous opened paw down and settled it in front of us. 'Does he want us to hop in?' I thought.
I cocnluded that there was no other explanation as my eyes met with my father's expectant gaze. Just in case, I turned around to glimpse at my siblings, and as expected, none of them dared to raise their heads.
'Now what?' I wondered. Green was still nestled against my side, her head buried under my wing.
'Here goes nothing.' Seeing no way out, I slowly began to make my way onto my father's outstretched palm, while dragging a reluctant Green with me. As I climbed on top, Green seemed to struggle keeping up, so I squatted down and gently grabbed her by the back of her neck with my mouth, all the while trying my best not to use my sharp teeth.
Her eyes widened like a frightened cat’s as a yelping sound escaped her mouth. I didn't pay her much heed as I climbed onto father's outstretched palm. Once on top, I gently settled her down, before straining my neck to meet father's gaze.
His eyes brimming with intelligence, looked pleased as he nodded. This only served to make me more curious. Dragons here did not seem to be the same as those I was familiar with.
The giant dark cave I was born in did not contain any hoards of treasures, no giant mountains of gold. I didn't see any captured princesses, nor any knights' remains.
The cave was completely bare. It was frankly quite underwhelming for such a place to be the hideout of a majestic Dragon family. Yet as I stared at my father's intelligent eyes, a thought sprung to my mind.
Things were not as simple as they seemed. My father then moved his gaze to my still collapsed younger siblings, a cold glint flashing through his eyes.
I did not know why, but seeing that caused a dangerous feeling to rise from the pits of my stomach. Without even thinking, I hastily opened my mouth and roared at my little siblings.
White was the first to come back to her senses. As she raised her head, our eyes suddenly met. She seemed surprised for a second, seeing me alongside Green standing on top of father's palm, but quickly regained her bearings.
She then abruptly rose to her feet, and to my surprise, turned towards Golden boy and Blacky and roared, causing them to raise their heads as well.
After doing that, White didn't turn to look back and dashed towards us. Blacky looked stunned, before he in turn also ran after her. Golden boy was the last to follow as he dumbly stared at me and Green for a few seconds, before hurriedly scrambling after everyone.
Soon, all of us siblings were standing on top of father's opened palm. White silently made her way next to me and stood with vigilance. Even the proud Blacky etched closer to us, while Golden boy, seemingly unaware of the serious mood, was still trying to get closer to Green, who was hiding under my wing.
I didn't know if what I did had been the right decision, yet in that split second when father's gaze had fallen on them, his eyes had suddenly exuded an extremely terrifying coldness.
In my previous life as a human, I had never been faced with such aura, yet I was still able to clearly sense the murderous intent behind it, a killing intent directed at my siblings.
'It seems like my father is a dangerous one,' I thought as I steeled my resolve for what could come in the future.
With all of us settled on his palm, my father's giant wings flapped, causing the wind to whip about and rocks and debris to fall as we slowly took to the air. We were flying! And from the looks of It, our direction was the outside world.