'ιт тσσк σиℓу α мσмєит σf мємσяу вєfσяє ѕнє ∂яσωиє∂ ιи тнє тι∂є σf вℓυє σи¢є мσяє.'
She's over him. Right?
...
Not everyone can be an S-rank.
E-ranked Dae jong-in is the failure of her family. The younger sister of the 'ultimate soldier', she serves...
It curled around her, brushing her skin. Dae breathed it in, her chest moving up, down,up,down,up-
She woke.
And before her sat a tiny ,serpentine dragon, just a little larger than the size of her head. It writhed at her feet, squeaking, as another jumped around, trying to catch it. Another rolled into the pair, sending the three into fits of squeaking that seemed like laughter. They played, oblivious to her presence until she shifted a little and they sprung up like a pair of meerkats.
A shadow loomed over her, unfathomably large. Snow-white scales glinted as the dragon- presumably the parent, lowered it's snout to her level, eyes like a pair of emeralds glinting at her.
Somehow, she could not find it in herself to be scared.
But she was surprised when the dragon began to speak. Although the voice was rumbling and deep, she knew immediately that it was a female.
"You have met with the Orcs, I see. Eloquent creatures, are they not?"
Dae nodded. "Yes. Who are you?'
The dragon's eyes seemed to widen, a stange, serpentine smile snaking across her face.
"Who, you ask? Do you not mean what?"
"You are obviously a who, miss-"
"Chin-hae." The dragon seemed to be amused, a crest of gold rising along the smooth line of her backbone as she laughed. It was like thunder rumbled through the cavern, rolling off the walls.
"It is the first time that I have met a human before. I know you only as the preferred sustenance of the Orcs, and one that fights back."
"Yes. I am the only one of my kind left here. The rest of my kind were eaten."
Dae swallowed the lump in her throat and watched three tiny dragons clamber beneath their mother's wing.
"My name is Dae. If I may ask, where are the rest of your children? From my knowledge of your kind, there should be at least three more."
The dragon sighed, a long breath whistling through dilated nostrils.
"The Orcs found them and killed them."
She had thought as much. She closed her eyes.
"You must be angry."
"You must have no hope left."
With a laugh, she confirms the statement. "I am going to die, am I not?I am weak. No-one will miss me from where I came from, so there is nothing left for me to do, is there? I will slowly bleed out at this r-"
She glanced at her stomach and her jaw dropped open. The wound had scabbed over, the sides slowly healing. Chin-hae snorted.
"It was merely a flesh wound. It was shallow, Miss Dae. You thought it seemed bad only because your fear was playing with you. "
The comment chafes but she lets it slide with a sigh.
What is she going to do now?
Her question is answered by the rumble of Chin-hae's cold, resigned voice.
"It seems as though you may need to stay with us for a while. Be careful though, little ant -if you threaten us, I will step upon you."
...
σи тнє ѕє¢σи∂ ∂αу, ѕнє ωαкєѕ тσ α ѕ¢яєαм.
The orcs had followed her scent, she concluded frantically, jumping to her feet. Her wound protested the sudden movement but she disregarded it, peering past the edge of the small alcove in which she slept.
On the first night that she had stayed with the dragons, Chin-hae had grazed the wall with the tip of her spiny tail, carving out a small space in the wall of the cavern with ease and gesturing to it with one of her wings.
"You'll be sleeping there for the moment," She had said.
Dae wondered if she would not sleep there another day.
Blinking her sleep from her eyes, her eyes darted around the cavern. The three little dragons huddled in their mother's shadow. Chin-hae had stretched her immense wings wide, their tips kissing the roof of the enormous cavern. Her delicate mouth was wide, cruel teeth exposed like glinting spears, her canines glistening with a black, lethal poison.
Her scales gleamed in the light of the torches, casting shadows of battles and death and glory over the walls.
