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Henry gasped as he woke up all of a sudden from the nightmare with a sweaty face.
Amari woke up also all of a sudden, shaking her head and ears.
"I...I'm sorry that you had to see al that. Everything that I've seen was too much for me that I pretended-" Henry said when Amari cut him off.
"(~It's fine. I now understand that all of you fell pain like us...the pain when a loved one is lost.~)" Amari crooned as she nuzzled Henry's face.
"(~Have you ever lost someone?~)"

. . .

"I...don't remember that much. My dad said that my mom died in a military accident, but...I really...."

Oh mom...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Flashback~

Henry was 10 years old when he was still with his mother.
One of those memories was when both were at the park, playing under the trees. His father was dealing with something else like soldier training, so his mother had to take care of him during his absence. Of course, she was also a soldier. But she was the only one who spent most of the time with her son.

"Gotcha!" Henry said as he jumped out of a bush and tackled his mom's leg. His mom laughed and said "Ok. You got me. You win. You've proven to be an ambush unit. Now it's my turn to hide.", then Henry covered his eyes so that his mom would hide while the countdown ended.
Before he got to ten, he heard the chirping of a bird somewhere near him. The sound was coming from the side of a tree, and Henry went to look. Down in the grass was a baby sparrow, limping away with a bent wing.

"Mom! Come quick!" Henry called out. A few seconds his mother came to where he and the baby bird was. "What is it, son?" she asked. "What's wrong with it?" Henry asked when he pointed at the bird's wing. His mother looked up at the tree and spotted a nest. "It must have fallen from its nest and broke its wing. This is really sad, but things happen. The only right thing to do is to let it go alone." his mother explained.

Henry looked up at his mother with sad eyes and said "You mean...we're going to let it die? No! No!! Can't we at least help it? It's little, like me. Can't we help it get better?".

. . .

After a thoughtful moment, his mother took out a piece of string and picked up a small twig. "Pick it up gently. Hold it carefully." his mother ordered, and Henry obeyed. She then tucked the wing of the bird in a closed position, placed the twig on the wing and wrapped the string onto the wing.
"It's now your responsibility, son. You have to feed it and take care of it. Will you do that?" she said. Henry looked up at her and said "I promise." with a happy determined face.
"I know you will, my small love." she said, smiling.

That was the last time he remembered of him being together with his mother.
That night he heard his parents arguing about something from the living room. He couldn't be sure of what they were talking about, but the next day they weren't at home. Only Gideon was there to take care of him until his parents returned from a so-called "strike mission". The days went by with no news of his parents coming home or their whereabouts.
Until one day only his father returned. Henry's mother was nowhere to be found. Simon sat in the living room table, weeping. Henry remembered walking up to his father and asking, "Daddy? Where's mom?". His father looked at him, got up, hugged his son, and said in a shaky voice:

"I'm sorry, son. I'm afraid she's never coming back."

Those words were confusing at first before his father continued his explanation about what happened. Apparently, her fighter jet was shot down by a dragon —a night fury— near the dragon's nest.
His mother's death impacted him so much, that after a week he was no longer himself anymore. The energetic and cheerful version of Henry was lost after so many months. After 1 year, he tried to hold back his grief when the date of his mother's passing arrived. At school, he never raised his hand or participated in clubs anymore. His quiet form attracted bullies, who made fun of him for being the "quiet one". Eventually, he got fed up of the taunts that sometimes he suddenly snapped and laid painful blows on his harassers. But his father and other grown ups weren't pleased of this.
After that Henry didn't know what to do with his father's advice of being strong like the rest. So he asked his father if he could get access to the military junkyard to make his personal mecha, to which he responded with a yes. Still, Henry couldn't understand why his father prohibited him from going out during a dragon raid or why he didn't notice the efforts his son made to become strong. Then he realized that being strong physically wasn't the right answer. That's why Henry was holding back his powerful side; he didn't want to forget his mother.
Right now, he couldn't believe he had held back such grief and sadness after so many years.

Until now.

Flashback end~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*drip**drip*

When he looked down on the smooth floor, Henry noticed that small water droplets had fallen from his eyes.
'Am I....am I really...crying?' Henry thought as he touched the side of his cheek.
Yes. He was crying.
Then he felt something soft and fluffy hug him, and a large splash of salted water drip on top of his face.
It was Amari. And she too was crying. She had wrapped her talons and wings into a hug.
"(~I'm...I'm so sorry about this. I feel so sorry about what you...have gone through.~)" she said through the mindlink with a sad croon. Henry was shocked at this. But he hugged back and continued to cry.
Who knew dragons were so compassionate?
———————————————————————————————
Akio woke up to the sound of crying coming from Amari. When he stood up and went over to her and the human, he found them crying.

"What's the matter, my love? Why are you and him crying?" Akio asked as he nuzzled his mate's neck.
"Poor Henry. I feel so bad for him. He's lost his mother because of us. Akio...What we dragons are doing to them, isn't just harming them physically. We are also harming them emotionally. We can't let the fighting continue. We must show the rest of our kind what the humans feel...and what we also feel." Amari said as he turned to face Akio.
"Don't worry. Once we return to our home, we can work something out with all of the dragons." Akio promised.
"Do you really promise that?" Amari asked.
"I promise. I'll do anything for you, my love." Akio said as he hugged Amari.

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