NOVEL WEB (RAAD vol2) Chapter 68: Life on the mountain (part 2)
It's been close to a month or so since I came back from my naming ceremony and had my friendly spar with my siblings. In the weeks, life continued normally on the floating mountain, the only thing noteworthy was that my father never showed up ever since I went back.
This meant that the duty of bringing food was now divided between us siblings. We took turns each day bringing a game that was divided amongst all of us, mother was the only one that didn't partake, she didn't eat nor did she hunt instead she spent her days lazing around in the cave while occasionally basking under the sun.
I on the other hand did not spend the past month ideally, I had learned a lot from my mother. Every day I would ask her a bunch of questions to which if she was in the mood would answer, if not she would simply ignore me and continue her nap.
The main thing that I was able to clear out and somewhat understand, was the conflict between us Dragons and the Gods. To my surprise, according to my mother, Dragons were considered as divine if not more than the deities of this world, we were the direct descendants of the Dragon King which in turn meant that we Dragons consider ourselves to be superior to all the other races, in our eyes, the gods were no different than another low race.
This came as a bit of a surprise at first, then I remembered Amanita's corpse which was surrounded by countless Gods who teamed up to kill him, and It all made sense. I never truly understood what roles the Gods had in this world as my mother continued to refer to them as useless lazy backstabbing bastards who should all just drop dead.
Any subject which included the Gods irritated her to no ends, I had learned that the hard way when I kept pushing her for more answers regarding them, only to be sent flying out of the cave with the flick of her tail. Ever since then, I have learned that It was best to only ask a couple of questions about this particular subject, before switching the conversation to a more pleasant one, for example, how strong Dragons could get.
What I did learn from this was that the relationship between the Gods and Dragons was never an amicable one since the beginning of time. The conflict turned deadly, however, when according to my mother, the Elven Goddess, and the Demon God launched a war against one another where they had descended into the mortal realm and broke the flow of mana putting the world in danger.
That was when the Dragon King himself had intervened slaying both of them on the spot for their insolence. For some reason, her story coincided with the dream I had before of a giant black dragon launching a Dragon breath that pulverized an entire battlefield.
This gave me a lot more to think about since I was convinced I had met the Dragon king before in my dreams and in that dark shadowy realm full of glowing eyes. My recollection of the matter was still vague, yet I was sure I had witnessed something outrageous back then.
I let out a sigh as I stood up from the soft green grass and stretched my limbs. 'Ah, that feels good.' I yawned lazily, while my eyes scanned the land below. I was standing at the edge of the mountain overlooking the large forest below with a bored gaze.
The sun was high in the sky, It was almost time for the hunt, and coincidentally, today was my turn to go. 'Guess it's seafood for today,' I mumbled as I raised my head to peek at Green who was happily circling the mountain peak.
'Wait, tomorrow is already Ynos's turn, shit!' I inwardly cursed, my stomach protested at the thought of another meal brought by him. His taste in food was, bizarre to say the least, everything he brought back was repulsive and almost inedible.
Essie usually brought back some sort of tasty birds, the whole squad looked forward to the meal when It was her turn, Immy and Sidus would bring back a variety of games, from boars to bears, and even the occasional monsters, though all of them were tasty, my specialty, on the other hand, was seafood, while Ynos seemed to have a thing for giant slimy bugs.
A shiver ran down my spine just recalling his past hunt, I shook my head ridding myself of that image before I quickly jumped off the edge. The familiar feeling of weightlessness overtook me as I felt the air howl in my ears, I closed my eyes for a second simply enjoying the feeling before I opened my wings and launched myself in the direction of the large lake.
Mother did not move the mountain much after father left, we simply remained in the air a few kilometers north of the large lake, hence why the trip was short since I was already quite familiar with the terrain. 'Hmm, what should I bring back this time? Can't go wrong with the shark, but still, I brought that back last time, weird how it didn't help them grow taller though,' My mind was full of useless thoughts as I arrived at the lake.
I circled it a couple of times, making sure there were no monsters at the shore or in the area surrounding It. I learned the hard way that It's best to clear the area first before I go out for a hunt. I had been previously attacked by a group of flying monsters who tried to steal my prize, they didn't pose any real threat to me especially considering the location near the water, though It was very annoying due to their large numbers.
And so, after making sure that the area was clear, I lowered my altitude and dived headfirst into the water that greeted me in Its embrace. It felt like I was back home again, I swam about happily for a while enjoying the sensation before I moved to track down my prey.
I made up my mind as my mana senses picked up a particularly large monster I had yet to try. It was a sneaky one, as soon as It felt my presence around It, the monster would hastily retreat to the far ends of the lake effectively moving out of my range, not this time though, this time my mind was set on finding out just what sort of monstrosity It was.
The water bent under my will and helped push me forward like an arrow let loose. The monster must have sensed by the danger, yet It was too late for it, I was already there. My eyes momentarily widened at the sheer size of it, I underestimated just how big It was, It was easily the same size as my father!
The monster had a scaly head with two small eyes that didn't seem to fit Its large frame. A large spiked shell on its back and a long tail. Instead of claws or arms, It had fins. As soon as the monster's gaze met my own, despite our huge difference in size, It began to panic.
Its body suddenly froze as a low growl reverberated through the water causing my eardrums to hurt. I frowned as I sensed it trying to struggle against Its instincts, trying to fight for Its life. "I'm sorry big fella, It's nothing personal," I spoke before the monster was suddenly decapitated without a hint of struggle. It was not fair, I knew that, but then again In the water, I was invincible.
I shrugged as I used the water mana to help me drag the abnormally large body out into the air. There was no way I could carry all of that by myself, hence magic would do the trick. As soon as the monster corpse came out of the water, It cast a large shadow on the land below which made me pause for a second.
"Maybe this one is a little overkill," I inwardly muttered.