Early the next morning, the golden morning sun had just leaped over the horizon.
Puff!
Izo's head burst up from the snowdrift. Snowflakes scattered and danced in the air like winter dandelions blown away by the wind.
The sunlight streamed down, making his diamond-like dragon horns glisten brightly.
The snow pile in front of Izo bulged, and Eva poked her head out from within.
“Morning, dragon.”
Having spent the entire night engraving Comprehend Languages into his passive skills, Izo was finally able to understand his partner's words.
“Morning, Eva.”
Hearing Izo's greeting, she stood up, shook off the remaining snow on her body, fluttered her wings a few times, and flew onto a branch.
“Vrrr—!”
The sharp, low-frequency cry pierced through the icefield. One by one, the Snowrot Birds awoke, breaking through the snowdrifts in flocks and taking to the sky.
Swirling endlessly, they shifted like a soft curtain one moment and a thick dark coat the next.
Inside the cave, Leodero and Vivian's brows furrowed tightly as a look of terror washed over both their faces at the same time.
“Ah!”
The two dragons gasped awake simultaneously, their expressions contorted as though they had just suffered a terrible nightmare.
Vivian, who was an extremely restless sleeper, had somehow shifted next to Leodero.
She turned her head to look at Leodero on the ore pile. Seeing his terrified expression, Vivian felt a bit puzzled:
“Did you have a nightmare, too?”
“You didn't dream about Mother, did you?”
Leodero's throat bobbed. He hadn't quite recovered yet, but he still looked at Vivian tremulously, a flicker of anger in his eyes:
“I was eaten by that stinky dragoness...”
Hearing this, Vivian froze for a moment, finding it somewhat unbelievable:
“No way... did we both have the exact same dream?”
Dragons rarely dreamed. Whenever they did, it was usually some kind of revelation—let alone two blood-linked dragons having the exact same dream.
“I plan to go back and take a look. What about you?”
Leodero's gaze gradually turned resolute.
“Are you crazy?! The dream literally told us there's danger back there, and you still want to go back?”
Vivian shook her head repeatedly at Leodero's suggestion.
“That's precisely why we have to go back and check!”
“Otherwise, if we don't even know what the danger is, what are we supposed to do?”
“Besides, that stinky dragoness is still there...”
Leodero still had some affection for his mother. After all, she was the only one who had rescued him several times from Izo's "evil clutches."
“Ha, she already kicked you out, and you're still thinking about her?”
“If you want to go back, go back yourself! I'm definitely not going!!”
With that, Vivian walked out of the cave without turning back.
Stepping outside, Vivian couldn't help but marvel at the flock of birds in the sky:
“Woah! Izo, look! Look! They even do morning workouts!”
“They're so hardworking~”
“Too bad. No matter how hard a Snowrot Bird works, it's still just a Snowrot Bird.”
“Unlike us dragons, who grow stronger even if we do nothing at all.”
Vivian's words were dripping with dragon arrogance and mockery, sounding as if she were ridiculing those stinky birds in the sky, or perhaps complaining about them disturbing people's sweet dreams instead of sleeping so early in the morning!
“There are plenty of lazy dragons on the icefield killed by Snowrot Birds, especially white dragons.”
Faced with such an arrogant attitude, Izo naturally chose to "strike hard." He certainly wasn't going to coddle Vivian.
“Say whatever you want. Dragons are stronger than Snowrot Birds, that's just a fact.”
Izo looked helplessly at Vivian, who was still throwing a tantrum over a minor incident from last night.
He couldn't hit her, nor could he scold her.
Ever since they were little, Izo had known that once his little sister set her mind on something, she was even more stubborn than that brat Leodero.
Two years ago, they had gotten into an argument just like this over something. In a fit of rage, Izo tricked her out of the dragon nest and beat her half to death.
Yet in the end, she didn't utter a single sound, refusing to yield even an inch, as stubborn as an ore dragon.
In the end, out of sheer helplessness, Izo initiated an apology, which temporarily smoothed over their relationship.
Honestly, neither of Izo's younger siblings acted anything like white dragons.
Although Leodero was a bit dumb, he was diligent when it came to pursuing power. Conversely, Vivian was smart enough, yet didn't care about strength in the slightest.
They had probably been heavily influenced by Izo, which caused their outlook on dragon life to stray so far off course.
When neither side could get through to the other, silence became the best response.
A massive flock of Snowrot Birds circled in the sky, chirping incessantly:
“Morning! Bird!”
“Morning! Have you eaten?”
“Bird is hungry, bird is hungry too.”
“Morning, where are you going?”
“Morning.”
For the first time, Izo felt these little creatures were excessively noisy.
He simply turned off the Comprehend Languages spell, deciding to activate it only when needed.
Although Izo was still a young dragon, he had long passed the age of being carefree. The first thing he thought about upon waking up each day wasn't what to eat, but where to find food.
In the resource-scarce Northern Territory, going hungry remained the norm even with the help of the Snowrot Birds.
The good news was that he didn't feel hungry today, though he felt mentally weary, as if he hadn't slept enough.
“Eva, I'm going back in to sleep a bit more.”
“If you find food, or run into someone hard to deal with, remember to call me.”
“Okay, dragon.”
With that, Izo headed back toward the cave to get some more sleep, while the Snowrot Birds split into team after team, fanning out in different directions to explore.
“Ahhh!!!”
Not long after stepping back inside the cave, Izo heard Leodero's howling.
Leodero was sticking out his massive belly, raising his rear end, and roaring, clearly looking constipated.
“Argh!!”
His face flushed red as he exerted his entire body, but the Silver Crystal inside his stomach was like a stubborn rock, showing no intention of coming out.
Seeing that straining was useless, Leodero gave up and collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily.
“If you want to take a dump, do it outside. Don't do it in here.”
Izo pinched his nose with a claw, speaking with a look of disgust.
To be honest, there was no strange odor in the cave. A dragon's digestive system was extraordinarily powerful, and no bacterial flora could survive inside a dragon's body.
Naturally, dragons didn't need them to regulate their immune systems either.
In fact, anything eaten by a dragon and then excreted would be far cleaner than if it were left exposed to the open air.
Izo was acting this way purely out of a mental aversion to germy things.
“What difference does it make where I do it?”
Evidently, as a juvenile dragon, Leodero possessed no concept of shame.
“It looks disgusting. Get out now, or I'll beat you.”
Izo's way of talking to Leodero was far more simple and direct, as Leodero was the classic type who only responded to tough treatment.
“Tch...”
Cowering under Izo's overbearing presence, Leodero could only waddle toward the mouth of the cave with his bloated belly.
“By the way, Izo, I plan to go back.”
Having crawled halfway out, Leodero suddenly remembered something.
Rate on N.U.
