"I had a dream about the past..." (Zavilia)
When I muttered this absentmindedly, Fia laughed sheepishly.
"Oh my, Zavilia. When was the time when you were 0 years old?" (Zavilia)
She continued to giggle, which made me laughed too.
Being with Fia was always fun. It's fun, warm, and safe. So, I remembered my past, which was so different...the long time I spent alone, and I was reminded once again how worthless it all was.
Hey, Fia. The two thousand years I spent before I met you were all worthless, you know...
——When I was born, I was a nameless, one-winged blue dragon.
Dragon species were egg-laying.
And I was no exception, born from an egg.
However, what was special was that it was a double yolk egg—in other words, a twin egg.
Humans appeared to be able to give birth to healthy twins, but that's not the case with egg-laying twins. This was because the size of the egg was fixed, and the amount of nutrients it contained was also fixed. And it was not supposed to be twins. This meant that there was not enough nutrition in the egg for two.
So, I thought inside the egg. How could they grow well with half the nutrients? The answer was simple. Grow small.
I managed to skillfully adjust my body size and continue to stay smaller than normal. Therefore, even with little nutrients, we were able to grow to the point where we could hatch.
Unfortunately, it was my twin brother. He continued to grow without a second thought, until he was as big as a normal baby dragon. If he shared nutrients with me, he'd never be able to grow long enough to hatch. So, my brother ate one of my wings so that he would grow big enough to hatch.
I remembered the morning I was born. It was a blessed, thunderous, spring day.
The moment the eggs hatched, my dragon mother was there by their side. My dragon mother carefully removed the pieces of shell that were clinging to the head and body of my dragon brother that had been born earlier, and gave him a name along with words of blessing.
A name became a power. My brother was given a unique name and was given some of the mother dragon's power. At the moment of naming, my brother's body began to glow from the inside and grew twice as big. Its body color, which had been pale yellow, turned a vivid blue. Gazing enviously at my older dragon brother, I spread my only wing, pressed my head to tail flat on the ground, and waited for my turn. Without realizing that it was something that could never be given to me.
My dragon mother took a quick look at my lone wing, then didn't pay it another glance. Then they left me alone in the cave and went off with my dragon brother. Pieces of shell were stuck to my head and body, the base of my torn off wings was throbbing with pain, and my undernourished body was crying out in hunger, but still, I maintained the same position. I somehow felt as if my mother dragon had returned, removed the shell from my head, and given me a name.
I waited a day, I waited two days, I waited three days. The rain continued to fall the whole time, and I didn't move, just listened to the sound of the rain. Perhaps that experience remained a vivid memory for her. Dragons instinctively loved the rain, but I still hated it. When I heard the sound of rain, I was assaulted by the sensation of insects crawling around inside my body.
But even though I was overcome by a sickening feeling at the time, I still left the cave and walked out into the rain, which I hated. The rain, lukewarm due to the spring wind, fell all over my body. But I had to keep walking in this unpleasant, disgusting rain.
I knew my own limitations. If I didn't eat for one more day, I'd probably not be able to survive and die. And my dragon mother would surely never return.
Finally, I understood.
The injured baby dragon had little chance of survival, as my dragon mother had other young, including a brother. My dragon mother avoided the risk of raising a chick like me, who might or might not grow into an adult dragon. It's more efficient to raise just one, my dragon brother.
So I had to survive on my own. It was deemed unlikely that the dragon would survive even with the mother dragon's assistance, and so this one-winged body was cut off. I was given neither a name nor powers, so my body remained small.
What on earth did I look like at that time? There were no dragons that could not be given names, so there were no baby dragons as small and pale as me. Such a tiny, vague thing, with only one wing and an unbalanced body, hopped around. I couldn't even fly. The best I could do was walk awkwardly and unbalanced.
I was lucky that I didn't look like a dragon. Or that my dragon mother didn't give me a name. With a name comes power and memories. If I had the memories of being a dragon, I would have been forced to act with pride. Alternatively, if I appeared to be a dragon, other monsters would have forced me to act like one. But since I was neither, I simply acted greedily in order to survive. I sipped muddy water and scavenged for the carrion that other monsters had left behind. I had no idea what it tasted like. But as long as I could get the nutrients I needed to survive today, that was enough.
And I survived for a year. I could no longer be called a baby. I had grown large enough to overpower mid-level and low-level monsters. I still only had one wing and had never flown in the sky.
Another year passed and I finally arrived at the Blue Dragon's nesting grounds. I had been heading to this place for a long time. It took me two years to get there, but considering the current situation where I still didn't have a clear location, maybe that was a satisfying amount of time.
The place was deep in the forest, filled with many dark caves favored by dragons. Upon noticing me, the young dragon on guard duty let out a threatening cry. However, once they confirmed that my body color was a faint shade of blue, the tone changed to one welcoming their companions. Dragons form groups according to their species. A young stray dragon like me was usually invited into a group unless there was some serious problem.
The group consisted of about 10 blue dragons. The leader was a particularly large dragon with a scar above his right eye. Unfortunately, my mother and my older brother were not in the group. However, since I had never seen either my mother or my brother since I was born, I no longer cared about these two. All I wanted at the time was to live with the others. Dragons generally lived in groups. They were created to feel safe and comfortable living with others.
I spent 10 years there. My pale skin and one-winged physique caused me some harassment and scorn from my peers, but it didn't cause me any problems. I had a place to sleep, food to eat, and the security of having friends nearby.
Dragons lived in a hierarchical society, with males being ranked according to their status. I was ranked last but I wasn't unhappy about it. As the lowest ranking member, I was called upon to hunt all prey, so I had many opportunities to gain practical experience in combat, and thanks to that I grew stronger and stronger. Maybe that after about 10 years, I was probably the second most powerful after the leader. The other comrades also seemed to be somewhat aware of my strength, and whenever they got into a difficult situation during battle, they would always call on me. Each time this happened, I felt very happy, both because my friends relied on me and because I was able to actually help them.
Therefore, I didn't care about ranking, and I had no intention of challenging other male dragons to a pecking order in order to raise my own rank.
Our nesting ground remained peaceful like that, but one night we were attacked by a flock of Fenrirs. Fenrir was a gray wolf monster, one of the strongest and most powerful monsters. The problem was that they moved in groups.
The number of animals in a herd should be at most 10, but that night the herd was over 20. They must have a very strong leader. We were attacked while we were sleeping and were at a disadvantage. While were sleeping, either alone or in pairs, we were surrounded and attacked by Fenrirs, several times more than our number.
Our leader decided then and there to abandon the nesting ground. He opened his mouth towards the sky and let out a roar of determination. Hearing this, the blue dragons soared into the sky one by one.
All that was left on the ground was me, who couldn't fly, the leader who continued to roar, and the blue dragon that had been attacked by Fenrir and had lost his chance to fly.
Perhaps the leader had underestimated Fenrir's coordinated attacks. He should have first leapt into the air and then roared his signal. As the leader continued roaring, several Fenrirs leapt at him at once. Then several more. And then several more. When he came to his senses, the leader's entire body was covered in Fenrir, and the next moment he had been pulled to the ground. I hurriedly ran over to the leader and pulled away Fenrir and the others who had clung to him.
Over the past 10 years, I'd gotten stronger. Being only one winged is a huge disadvantage. To make up for this disadvantage, I had trained my claws to be sharper than any dragon's, so that I could tear apart an enemy's throat with ease. My fangs were also sharp, so that I would be able to bite off an arm or a leg of someone like Fenrir.
But the enemies were too numerous. When I tore the last Fenrir away from the leader—more accurately, when Fenrir let go of the leader as if finishing him off—the leader was barely breathing. Anyone could see that the leader wouldn't have much longer. I looked into the leader's face, trying to hear his final words.
——At that moment. The chief gave me his blessing.
Twelve years after I was born into this world, this was the first time I had been blessed.
My body became filled with warmth and began to glow from within. The leader, knowing that he was nearing death, had me inherit all of his name and powers.
——And perhaps this was possible precisely because I had no name. A leader near death and me, a nameless dragon. This rare coincidence led to me getting the leader's name.
Zavilia. That became my name.
Author's Note
Thank you for reading.
Thanks to all the support I received, I've decided to publish this as a book.
Thank you very much.