Late 5th Century AD.
Southern Britain, Kingdom of Wales — Territory of Ector.
It was deep into the night. Darkness had settled over the village, cloaking it in the same quiet stillness that blanketed the distant forests and mountains.
Only the moon hung in the sky — round and yellow, like a half-baked barley cake still warm from the griddle.
"Just a little longer. Just a little longer…"
Inside the stable, a blonde-haired girl lay on a pile of hay, gazing up at the moon, using its slow climb across the night sky to mark the passing time.
Roughly five or six minutes later—
Once the rising moon had passed beyond the window frame and slipped from her line of sight, the seemingly well-behaved girl, who always put on a prim and proper face in front of others, suddenly sprang up from the hay with a sharp whoosh.
She reached into the straw, pulling out three flatbreads she'd hidden earlier that day. Then, gently pushing open the stable door, she slipped into the night with a mixture of stealth and bubbling excitement — a girl on a secret mission.
"Bluey, I'm coming!"
She crept out of the sleeping village.
And the moment her feet touched down on the other side of the village wall, she took off — sprinting at full speed toward the forest path.
—Her speed was astonishing.
It wasn't just quick — it was inhuman. Not even the most agile predators of the wild could hope to match her pace.
In the darkness of night, she was nearly a phantom. Even the silvery moonlight failed to trace her, only catching fleeting glimpses of her retreating figure as she vanished into the forest.
At last, the girl disappeared into the shadowy woods.
This forest was already perilous during the day — by night, it was far more dangerous. Beyond the threat of wild beasts, there were steep cliffs and loose stones lying in wait, ready to catch the unwary.
But none of that seemed to concern her.
She moved through the treacherous forest trails as if walking on flat ground. She treated prowling predators like nothing at all… No, perhaps it was more accurate to say she was the fiercest beast in this entire forest. Being here was like returning home.
"Here we are."
After nearly half an hour of sprinting, the blonde girl finally arrived at the foot of a cliff.
It towered overhead — a sheer wall at least fifty or sixty meters high. A height no ordinary human could hope to scale. But she didn't hesitate for a second. She placed one foot on the vertical stone face and began to run straight up.
At the top of the cliff sat a flat plateau, and tucked into it, a well-hidden cave.
"Hey, Bluey."
With flatbreads in hand, she called softly toward the cave's entrance.
Five seconds later, a blue-and-white hatchling — no more than fifty centimeters long, with a chubby, tigerish head — peeked out from the narrow opening.
"Awo?"
At the sight of the flatbreads in her hand, the young dragon let out an excited cry.
"Awoo—!"
It flapped out of the cave, visibly thrilled — and not empty-handed either. Each tiny claw grasped a wild rabbit, freshly killed and still plump with weight — easily three or four pounds apiece.
"Eh? Rabbits? You caught those?"
"Awoo!"
"Really? That's amazing!"
The hatchling puffed out its little chest proudly, standing with its claws on its hips. The girl clapped, genuinely pleased by its growth. Sure, for a pure-blooded dragon, catching rabbits wasn't exactly a challenge — but to her, every step forward this hatchling took brought real joy.
How could it not? After all, she was the one who had hatched it.
…
That had been three or four years ago.
Back then, she was only twelve, accompanying the village folk into the mountains to quarry stone. That's when she stumbled across it — a round, snow-white rock unlike anything else.
At the time, she hadn't thought much of it. Just that it was pretty. So she took it home and left it in a corner of the stable.
But about a month ago… that "stone" suddenly cracked open — and a little blue-and-white dragon wriggled its way out.
It wasn't a rock at all.
It was an egg. A dragon egg.
"So dragon eggs… actually look like rocks?"
She'd wondered that at the time. But more pressing was what to do with a just-hatched, utterly clueless, and very hungry baby dragon.
Adorable — but also dangerous.
She knew raising a hatchling like this was risky. The mage who had mentored her warned that the dwindling magic left on this island likely wasn't enough to sustain a true dragon.
"Like a chick that never leaves the shell… there's no longer enough nourishment in this world for it to grow."
But she couldn't just let it starve.
Besides… whenever she looked at the little dragon, something strange stirred in her heart — a sense of familiarity, of duty, of tenderness… and a quiet, persistent loneliness.
She didn't understand why she felt that way, only that she couldn't bear to abandon it.
And so, after careful thought, she chose to hide the hatchling here, far from the village, feeding it daily with whatever flatbreads she could save.
Though by the look of things now, the little dragon no longer needed her handouts.
Fwoosh—
The girl gathered some dry branches and stacked them into a pile. The hatchling, well-practiced, opened its mouth and breathed out a stream of thin, blue flame.
The campfire flared to life, sizzling as the two rabbits roasted over it. The flatbreads were laid nearby to warm. The smell of roasting meat and toasted grain soon filled the air, and the girl's stomach growled in response.
"Awoo—"
The hatchling tilted its head, then dragged over a slightly charred rabbit and plopped it down at her feet with a claw.
"Eh? For me?"
She blinked, surprised.
She hadn't expected such generosity from the hatchling.
She was a dragon too — a red dragon in human skin — and knew exactly how much dragons valued their food. Especially when they were hungry.
Still… maybe this wasn't so bad?
She glanced at the hatchling's disdainful little face, which seemed to say, "It's just a rabbit. I'll catch more tomorrow."
That look made her chuckle. She picked up the roast rabbit and took a big bite.
"Mmm."
"Not bad at all."
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T/N: eheheh cute bluey