" You stupid, ungrateful little wrench! "
A slap across my face sent me flying to the ground. The reason for it? I accidentally spilled water on the floor.
" Can't you do anything right? I don't know why I still keep you! "
Blow after blow of painful kicks and punches landed on my body. My parents hated me, they still do and they never hesitated to let me know.
I was not the child they wanted. They wanted a boy, not a girl. Sadly, my gender is female. But I have accepted the fact that my parents will always hate me. So why am I still living in this hell hole of a home?
Well, I believed that in somewhere deep down their hearts, my parents loved me. Afterall why would they still keep me if they hate me so much.
That belief however shattered two weeks after my baby brother was born. My baby brother was everything I'm not. Sweet, gentle, cute in their eyes and most importantly he is a boy.
I will never forget the day I was abandoned. The day they left me behind. Intentionally. They took me out, out of civilisation and left me there, not even looking back. Not. Even. Once.
I cried that day, I cried a lot. In fact, I cried so much that I am so sick of it.
" Stop crying! " I told myself, " They don't want me, I don't need them either! "
On that day, I promised myself never to cry, never cry for stupid things like family. They are not worthy of my tears.
I don't need anyone. Families are meaningless, trash, rubbish. I don't need any of it. Never again, I told myself, never will I experience this pain.
I wandered around the area with tear stains all over my face and before I knew it, it was night time.
It was really cold that night and I knew that there were more to come in the future. The thin clothes I wore did not help at all, my ' parents ' did not even bother to give me any thick clothes to wear or anything that would help me survive out here. I'm pretty sure they were thinking, " let that little wrench die!" Oh, I feel the love.
The cold eventually started getting to me and my slow walking quickly turned into running, hoping that it would keep me warm, for now.
I kept running, wanting to find shelter as soon as possible. Since it was so dark, I really hoped that I could find it.
I ended up tripping on something sticking out from the ground and my face hit something... VERY HARD! it hurts like crazy!
I got up, bearing with the stinging pain on my face and touched the object that I had the ' luck' to ' bump' into. It was vertically upright. Most likely a rock wall or the foot of a mountain, I deduced. Which got me thinking that there had to be a cave of some sort.
So I moved sideways, trying to look for an entrance that hopefully existed, while making sure I was still in contact with the wall.
After shuffling sideways for some time, I noticed something not right about the wall my hands are on... It was warm..., not like the cold one I had my hands on before... Intrigued, I started tapping on the wall.
" tap! tap! tap!" " tap! tap! tock! " " tock! tock! "
I was filled with hope. That sound indicates an empty space behind the wall. It could even possibly be a cave! That also means that I was pretty close to it.
More time passed and I kept tapping the wall, again with the " tock" sound. And I still could not find the cave entrance. As time passed again... the flame of hope in me started to dim...
But... Just when I was about to give up, my hand, the one doing the tapping, met empty space instead of a wall, which I had expected.
Warm air swooshed past my body. Like a fly attracted to light, I was attracted to the warmth... and wandered inside.
I then noticed that the deeper I went in, the warmer it gets. My cold, shivering self happily thanked that fact. Desperate for even more warmth, I went deeper and deeper inside...
That was when I made a shocking discovery...
There were growing red crystals all around me and the best part was... they gave off heat... and light...
" Fire lacryma! " I shouted out loud in awe. My voice bounced off the cave walls as echos. I have heard of magical lacryma before after eavesdropping on my ' parents ', not that they know anyway...But I had never seen one in the flesh... because quote " girls don't get the privilege. "
When a surprise comes, another comes following. There lying in the middle of a pile of lacryma was breakfast!
The egg, AKA breakfast, sat there innocently. It also had several strange markings on its surface. Seriously, the only thing that made it look like an egg was it's shape. The size totally threw me off. It was about as big as me. And all I could think of was having a big, satisfying breakfast tomorrow.
Even after riding the long emotional roller coaster, I wasn't tired... at all... Instead I went exploring even deeper and deeper inside. And of course, try my luck and hopefully find lunch... and dinner...
Well, my luck for today wasn't that bad... I managed to find lunch!
It was another egg. And it sat there, peeking out of its hiding spot. Trust me, it wasn't easy but I found it in the end. And its size was even bigger than breakfast! This egg also has similar markings on its surface like breakfast.
Sadly... I could not find dinner. But I was seriously considering whether to save the bigger one for dinner since breakfast looked quite big, maybe... it could last me until dinner... Yes! Tomorrow's breakfast and dinner settled!
It was then that I finally took a good look at the area that I was in... only to find out that I was no longer at the fire lacryma place.
Instead I was standing in front of... what looks like a pool of crystal clear water... It looked so refreshing and clean that I felt thirsty... very thirsty.
I was entranced by the water, it was even clearer than the water I used to drink. I was so distracted that I didn't even realise that I was getting closer and closer to the edge... until I felt no solid ground under my feet... and dropped straight into the pool of water. I did not realise that the water was at the bottom of some hole.
" SPLASH"
The water was really cold, close to freezing. I needed to get out of it fast. I kept kicking my legs to keep my head above the water as I looked around to find something that could get me out of that water before I lose too much body heat and die. No! I'm too young to die! Not that anyone cares, anyway...
However, to my luck, I spotted a series of rock formations that forms a staircase for me to walk out.I quickly swam towards that staircase and got out of the water. I was wet, cold and shivering.
I ran up the staircase, towards the egg I found earlier, which I dub with affection ' dinner'. Then I tried to get back to the warm place, with my body being very uncooperative.
So I lugged my suddenly heavy self and extra baggage known as ' dinner' with much difficulty, luckily I could still feel the warmth being emitted from the fire lacryma.
Finally reaching the warm place, I took off my wet, soaking clothes, squeezed out the excess water and placed it near a pile of fire lacryma, not wanting to burn it, just dry it. I do not want to go half naked... Not here...in fact not anywhere! I mean what will people think!
After placing dinner next to breakfast, I found out something weird about them after placing my hands on both of them at the same time. Dinner felt cold and breakfast felt warm. But I didn't really care at that point in time, so I just shrugged off the feeling that breakfast and dinner were not just ordinary eggs and left it at that.
I curled up next to another pile of lacryma not too far from my clothes. Also keeping a certain amount of distance between me and the lacryma, I do not want to wake up with burns on my body. I am not fire resistant afterall.
Lured by the warmth of the fire lacryma, I slept peacefully through the night with no nightmares that my ' parents ' might hurt me in my sleep...
I woke up the next day, feeling refreshed and energised. And boy was I hungry, I sneaked a peek at breakfast, just in case it suddenly grew wings and flew away from me.
It didn't, thankfully... That's when I noticed something I did not want happening...
Breakfast was shaking and twitching rather violently. Got me worried too... It might hatch into something inedible... And there goes my breakfast...
Deciding not to think about losing breakfast, I wondered whether to use the fire lacryma to start a fire or just do it the old fashioned way. I honestly did not know how to use fire lacryma... or any other lacryma.
I mean...do you touch it then fire appears? Or do you just stare at it? Maybe even use willpower to light it up? I don't know...
Honestly, I tried using the lacryma to make a fire but... there's no fire! So I gave up and went off to gather wood, to eventually cook breakfast...
With a delicious breakfast waiting for me, I wandered out of the cave into the forest. Finding the wood isn't a problem. I mean, it is a forest after all with lots of trees...
Trying to find my way back was a challenge. My sense of direction was not the best at that point of time. After several cases of using trial-and-error method, I finally succeeded in getting back to the cave. What I witnessed there afterwards definitely went on my list of ' stuff I should never forget ' . Right after the first spot of abandoned by ' family ' .
At first, I did not see anything. I just heard a noise that could only be made by monsters. Then I heard it again and it was much closer than before. This time, I could guess what exactly made that sound...
It sounded like the... roar of a dragon... not that I met one before...
Suddenly, the trees that were surrounding the cave entrance went ' boom ' like kami hated them and wanted them to perish. Oh, how I wish that would happen to some people I know...Sign... That's life... At least, I am not hurt.
Bits and pieces of wood flew up to the sky before dropping back to the ground again. Some trees even turned to splinters! My jaw dropped. And I was like ' WOW! ' ,completely amazed! Then I looked at the pieces of wood on the ground. My only thoughts then was " Damn! I should have woken up later, then I don't need to go out looking for wood when it's right in my face." I was anime crying while banging my head against the wood I carried beforehand.
I looked at the destruction again, again what I saw went on my list of ' stuff I should never forget '. I saw a dragon... heading this way!
My mind went blank... then switched to panic mode, completely disconnected with the rest of my body... What to do when you see a dragon? What should I do now!? was the question going through my head. Honestly, I didn't think I would meet a dragon here or even when I die. My mind was still in panic land and was not even close to finding the exit. As a result, I just stayed where I was. That is until I felt wind blowing pass the top of my head...
I blinked a couple of times at first, confused by the appearance of wind when the wind direction was east... Then I felt the wind again... this time my whole body felt it... and when I turned around, I got the shock of my life of 6 years... The dragon was directly behind me, watching me with ferocious yet cold and calculating eyes.
That was when my mind returned from panic land, a bit late but at least it returned...
I screamed... at the sight of the dragon, not from fear but more of shock and surprise, then promptly fainted...
I woke up again... and my head hurts a lot too... I think I hit something on the way down to the ground when I fainted. I looked around me. Strange, I don't remember being inside the cave when I fainted. Then, I recalled what exactly was the cause of me fainting.
And I found the reason staring at me again from the other side of the cave. The glow emitted from the surrounding fire lacryma allowed me to see the dragon in much more detail than I saw before I fainted.
The dragon was predominantly covered with black and white scales with a few grey streaks along its legs, back and sides. Black on its back legs, back and wings while white on its front legs, belly and the webbing between its wings. The tail was a mixture of all three colours, there were lacryma crystals littered on the top of it and the tip was one sharp point, which I think was capable of killing. Dangerous and sharp spikes ran down its spine and it had two horns pointing upwards with webbed fins under it, ears, I thought.
It was staring at me just like the first time we met. With ferocious yet cold and calculating eyes. The silence was getting awkward... I had to break the awkwardness... somehow.
" Erm, were you the one who carried me in here, after I fainted?" I asked politely, I didn't want it to eat me because I was rude and lacking in manners.
The dragon seemed to be in deep thought as it took a few minutes to answer me with a " yes, I did." I replied with a " thank you".
Well, the awkwardness was coming back from its short vacation after that ... So I asked question after question, always getting a " yes" or " no " answer. Like " do you live here? "
" Who are you and why did you help me? " was the million jewels question.
That seemed to break the ice. The cold, calculating gaze lessen and it's ferociousness softened.
" well, little human," the dragon's deep, baritone voice echoed in the cave. It's a he, I thought to myself. It paused for a while for effect, I think, then it continued, " my name is Ryuuki , the energy dragon. The reason I helped you wa-"
Then... " BOOM! " cutting off Ryuuki's sentence effectively. Both dragon and I looked at the smoke beside me with my shocked eyes and a rather funny face as amusement could be seen in his eyes. I think breakfast just exploded... Damn, now I don't have breakfast anymore. As the smoke cleared... I looked at the pieces of egg shell on the floor and... what looks like a cat sleeping peacefully, completely undisturbed in the midst of the egg shells.
" hmm, it looks like this creature inside the egg went through an exothermic reaction, where energy is given out to its surrounding which is the egg shell until it comes to the point where the shell cannot keep up with the amount of energy output from the creature and exploded."
I tried my best to understand whatever it was that Ryuuki was saying, but my mind of six years old could not understand...
" eso-tha-mi" I couldn't help pronunciating it wrong with my inexperienced tongue.
Ryuuki sighed, and said the complicating word again.
" ex-o-ther-mic" he even broke it down for me, which helped a lot.
I repeated the word and this time I got it right! I was happy with this achievement. Then I looked back at the still sleeping cat. What should I name him? I can't call him breakfast. So with reference to my newly learnt word, exothermic, should it be Thermic? Nah, sounds weird... Maybe Exo... sounds ok for a name.
I gently picked up newly dubbed ' Exo ' from its curled up sleeping position, turned to Ryuuki and said,
" let's call him Exo." Ryuuki seemed to approve that name as he just acknowledged it with a nod.
Exo was predominantly yellow with a white underbelly. It also had cute pointy cat ears that twitched when I poked it.
Which reminded me about dinner. Dinner and breakfast were similar. Does that mean dinner would also be something like Exo?
Bursting with curiosity, I asked Ryuuki but he didn't know and was rather curious to find out too. So we kept looking at the other egg, hoping for a reaction of some sort.
First, there were a few small cracks appearing on the shell, then the number of cracks increased up to the point where the shell just disintegrated into dust. And in the middle of the dust laid another cat... sleeping ...again.
I looked to Ryuuki for an explanation. And he told me,
" well, this is the opposite of exothermic reaction. In which energy is absorbed from its surroundings like that egg shell until the point that the shell has no more energy left to keep its structure of an egg and falls off as dust. This reaction is called the endothermic reaction. en-do-ther-mic."
He repeated the word again for me and I managed to say it correctly. Again what to name this cat? With reference again from the new word, endothermic, I decided to call the cat Endo. And Ryuuki approved. I have good naming sense.
Unlike Exo who was mainly warm colours, Endo was mainly cool colours. Endo has dark grey fur and white belly with round ears, not the pointy ones. But still cute, nonetheless.
I left my two adorable cats next to me. Endo and Exo, shifted closer to me and continued sleeping on without a care in the world.
I turned back to Ryuuki since he still hasn't explained why he helped me.
He continued to where he was before he was interrupted.
" The reason I helped you was because I don't think it is right for me to just leave you when I am the cause of you fainting. Also I do not want to leave you outside there in the wild. It is dangerous for a little human like you. From what I know about humans, I believe little humans like you should be at home where it is safe. So why are you out here?"
I couldn't believe what I was hearing... This dragon showed me kindness, he showed kindness and empathy to someone completely unrelated to him, unlike those whom I used to call ' family '. I didn't have friends because my ' parents ' would lock me up in the basement, cutting off all connections to the outside world. Someone from an entirely different species cared for me more than those whose blood I carry. Without realising it, tears flowed from my eyes and I couldn't stop it...
Ryuuki looked shocked at my tears. He didn't seem good at comforting humans, let alone a little human girl. So he just let me continue crying until I stopped before asking me " what's wrong?"
I told him what happened to me ever since I was old enough to start understanding the world around me up to this moment. Ryuuki was disgusted and angry with the way those scum, as he called them, treated me.
He told me that not even the animals would leave their young until they're old enough to take care of themselves. Even then, parents would still fuss over their grown-up children. And that those scum were lower than the lowest of the low.
At some point of discussing what else could be lower than that, Endo and Exo woke up.
Exo had a very bright ...explosive personality. He said " HI!" with a very upbeat and cheerful voice. While Endo was very shy and withdrawn from the world but she was very observant. She said hi softly and asked who are you? And Exo followed up with a " yeah, who you? Are you mama?" Both Ryuuki and I were stumped by the fact that they were two talking cats!
I was about to say that I wasn't their mama but I saw tears in their eyes. They were scared... I mean so would I when I open my eyes for the first time, confused and scared, knowing nothing about the world and I would really want my mama...
I'm sure they want mama too... and there is no cat in sight that could take that role, so I took the responsibility and told them that I'm their mama.
Their tears dried up and they tackled me with a hug. I didn't fall over, just hug them back while smiling. They snuggled closer into me while saying "mama!" with lots of enthusiasm. I giggled, cooing at the cuteness of the two talking nekos then
" you're Exo and you're Endo." I told them while softly patting the tops of their heads respectively.
I pointed to Ryuuki and told them his name and title of energy dragon. I stopped when I was going to introduce myself. I didn't want to use the old name I had before, I didn't want the painful memories associated to it.
In the midst of thinking, three growls filled the air. One from me, the other two were from Endo and Exo. Endo and I blushed, embarrassed by the sound of hunger. So Ryuuki went out for a while and came back with lots of fish and fruit pierced through the sharp tip of his tail. That's when all of us discovered Exo's obsession with fish. He ate them raw while I grilled mine. Endo was more inclined towards fruits than fish. And Ryuuki didn't eat anything.
He showed me the different types of lacryma in the cave. There was fire, water, lightning, wind and earth. Those were the normal ones. The special, rare lacryma could only be made by him or some miracle dropped from the sky. Those special lacryma include mixed breeds like iron shadow or fire lightning and different hybrids. The really rare ones were dark and light lacryma. The only lacryma that he couldn't make was dragon lacrymas. Those lacryma could only be made only by each indiviadual dragon. Like fire dragons could only make fire dragon lacryma, not any other dragon lacryma. Same applies to all dragons.
He also told me that as the energy dragon, he is able to absorb energy from its surroundings and use it in battles or as food. When the energy is not used, it would travel to his tail and solidify into lacryma crystals. Which explains the vast amounts of lacryma in the cave...
Ryuuki then asked me whether I would like him to name me after the cats fell asleep with a full belly. I was okay with it since he was the kindest soul I have ever met in my life.
He named me Keiko, as a blessing to him and the cats. The cats call me " mama Keiko". Ryuuki became my father. He taught me ancient magic. The dragon slaying magic...
That was the start of my new life as the daughter of Ryuuki, the energy dragon, as the energy dragon slayer... I was happy until I experienced the pain that I never wanted to feel again.
On 7/7 X777, my father left without a word... After that, I changed from a naive young teen to a cold and emotionless adult. Emotions are a burden, they would only cause pain and suffering, so I cut myself away from the world, only letting Endo and Exo see my real self when no one is present. I swear that I will find my father...