บท 22: Day 2 - The Dragon's Lair!
"Why are you leaving???"
Ale shouted the moment Rudy came into his line of view. The guy was startled, very much.
"W-what?"
"WHY ARE YOU LEAVING?!"
Ale shouted at the top of his lungs, brows furrowed, his intentions of coming down to apologize completely unclear.
"Umm.. Are you okay?"
Rudy looked concerned as he checked Ale's condition. Cheeks flushed red, water dripping down his hair, shirt buttoned asymmetrically, it was a mess.
"Me? Nothing's wrong with me! What's wrong WITH YOU?!"
"Me? Young master, did you slip and fall in the shower? Is your head okay?"
"What? No, what? Why are you calling me 'young master'?! See! I knew something was wrong!"
"But it's you who did not think of or consider me your friend. I'm just maintaining that boundary."
*Sigh*
"Okay. I was wrong. I'll apologize. But you can't just decide to end things one-sidedly."
"End things? Again, what are you talking about?"
"Don't act dumb! Why're you leaving me behind?! I wanna go! With you guys!"
Ale puffed up his cheeks like a pufferfish and voiced his complain. It wasn't fair. He was hurt. Although he didn't treat them as friends, they were still people that mattered a lot to him, people that he deeply cared about.
Rudy looked at the hysterical being in front of him and was left speechless in shock. This was the first time Ale showed such pure, raw emotions in front of them.
This was first time he felt like he was actually talking to him. Although he still didn't understand why he was angry, or sad, or sulking. So he decided to do what most normal people would do at that situation.
Calm the pufferfish down.
He took a step forward and placed both his arms on Ale's shoulder, fixing him in place. And then, he took a deep breath to calm his own self down first.
"Calm down.. Deep breaths.."
He calmed Ale down like he'd do a baby and then looked him in the eye.
"Are you calm now?"
He asked, received a unwilling nod in reply.
"Okay. Good. First of all, I'm not leaving you behind."
"What...?"
"Yes. I don't know where you got that idea from, but I never had any intention of leaving you guys behind, nor ending anything one-sidedly."
"But he said-!"
Ale came to the realization a tad bit too late. Since he had that incident with Rudy in the morning, he just interpreted Kevin's words accordingly in his mind. That guy never said anything about Rudy leaving them behind after all.
"I'm not leaving, Ale. Unless you ask me to, I'm not leaving or ending things with you."
He patted Ale's shoulder a few times and gave him some time to let that sink in. While doing that, he also managed to add a little extra to that conversation.
"Also, even if you try to end our friendship, or don't consider it a friendship at all, that won't change anything on my side. I'll always consider you an important friend of mine."
With that, their little skirmish came to an awkward yet somewhat wholesome end. Of course, the walk back to his room was more embarrassing that Ale would've ever imagined.
Everyone gathered downstairs kept staring at him with weird gazes, stares filled with emotions that were unknown to him. His already red cheeks turned into a shade similar to roses, or tomato, depending on the viewer.
'Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa------'
He screamed internally the moment he entered his room and locked the door. Thankfully, the trio from his room was also downstairs so he had the whole room to himself to wallow in embarrassment.
After that, things returned to their peaceful state again. They left the inn after having their breakfast, a little sudden since this wasn't planned. But Rudy said he sensed something unusual, so they all left in a hurry.
'Unusual... I wonder what it is.'
Ale followed the group from the back, quietly since he was still embarrassed about the whole thing that morning. And the others left him be after seeing his cheeks which still somehow managed to stay rosy.
After walking and hiking the mountains for a whole day and having their lunch in the middle of nowhere, they finally managed to reach the cave that Rudy was searching for.
There was a small hole in the mountain, their bodies fitting barely in it. It was unlike what they had in mind, after all, this was no space a dragon could fit its body into.
"Are you sure this is it?"
Ale asked as he couldn't bear the silence any longer. His words echoed on the narrow yet long way into the mountains core. The others were also thinking the same thing, but they didn't want their words to sound like they were doubting Rudy.
"I'm sure it is. I can feel it more clearly now!"
Rudy spoke loudly from the front, in case his words didn't reach all the way to the back. And soon, like a reply to his words, they could see a bright golden light at the front.
"That must be it!"
They hastened their pace and soon exited the narrow road. On the inside, it was just like what a seven-year-olds imagination of a dragon's lair would be.
"Holy crap.."
"Is this for real?"
"Someone pinch me, so I know I'm not dre-ack!"
"There. You're not dreaming."
Mountains of gold coins, treasures, diamonds and other valuable jewels, magic stones, magical artifacts, scrolls etc. laid bare in front of their eyes. It was so bright and shiny that they were having a hard time keeping their eyes open.
"Just what you'd expect from a dragon."
"But there's no dragon."
"The whole place looks like it's under a spell."
"Yeah, probably one that keeps the place neat and clean."
They all looked around in amazement, not knowing what to do with this unbelievable discovery.
"There."
Suddenly, Rudy pointed to a certain direction behind the mountains of jewels and started heading that way.
There was a circular hole in one part of the wall, and there, inside a nest that was probably made of the softest materials on earth, laid an egg the size of a small rain barrel.
"Is that.."
"An egg?"
"A dragon's egg?"
"What a pretty colour."
The dimly shining turquoise color of the shell captivated everyone's eyes as they approached the egg one by one. It looked so beautiful and precious that they were all hooked for a while.
"Ah.. Looks like this place has a new owner."
Ale spoke quietly as he touched the shell of the egg softly with his fingers. It was cool to the touch and had a very smooth texture.
"We should take our leave after taking what we need. No need to bother the little guy."
"Yeah. That sounds reasonable."
"I hope he forgives us for taking some of his items."
"I'm sure he won't mind, since there's so many."
"Haha.. that's true."
They quickly took a look around, gathered anything that looked like it'd be useful, and then decided to leave the place.
"Ah.. Just a moment."
Ale took out a soft and fluffy blanket from his space ring and covered the egg up carefully.
"I heard dragons love warm places. But the egg is so cold."
"Well.. It should be okay since it's a dragon."
"I hope so-OW!"
Ale stopped mid-sentence and pulled his hand away from the blanket in a hurry. He quickly put it in his mouth as if he was hurt.
"What's wrong?"
"A needle. Who'd put a needle in the blanket?!"
Ale wondered, shocked, as he carefully took out a small needle from the blanket.
"Ah.. It must've been left behind by mistake by the manufacturer."
"How careless."
"Is your finger alright?"
"I guess.."
While these two were busy discussing minor things like that, what they failed to notice was the small drop of blood that dropped from Ale's finger on top of the egg.
Before they could finish their conversation and leave, the egg suddenly started vibrating. The dim light that was being emitted by the egg started to shine brighter with each passing moment.
"What... What's happening?"
"Egg.. Something's happening to the egg."
Crack!
"No way.. Is it hatching right now?!"
"Hoooly crap! We're seeing the birth of a dragon!!!"
"Everyone back away. It could be dangerous."
"Dangerous? What can a baby dragon even do?"
"I dunno? Destroy the frigging mountain?!"
They all backed away slowly so as to not cause a disturbance to the dragon. And Ale, as surprised as he was by these sudden events, he knew for sure from the knowledge of the future that no dragon was ever mentioned even ten or fifteen years from the present.
Neither did he remember ever hearing about the hatching of a Dragon's egg like this. This was an event that was never mentioned in the future. And there was only one thing that was different from the future. Him. His presence.
'Am I the cause? Oh no.. Do I need to take responsibility for it as well? I don't right? Oh my god...'
As they watched the egg crack little by little, each person could hear their own heartbeat which had accelerated as a result of all this tension and excitement.
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