The Child of the Azure Dragon

The colossal body of the Azure Dragon. Crimson blood occasionally trickled from the long form wrapped in deep-sea blue scales. At a glance, it looked agonizing, yet the owner of that body showed no reaction.

“Aaaah…!!”

Instead, the one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fidgeting in distress was a young girl. A child of about five, with black hair tied in twin tails and striking blue eyes. Rachel had climbed onto the Azure Dragon’s body as it floated upon the sea, utterly at a loss for what to do.

“S-so…! God… sir!”

She tried to call out to wake the dragon, but then realized she didn’t even know his name. Though they had met several times over the past few days, they had always been alone together, so there had never been any need to call him by name. At most, she would simply begin with “Um…” The girl learned the feeling of regret in that moment.

I should have asked his name.

In the end, she recalled what he had done for her and Jonon and began shaking his body while calling him “God sir.” Of course, a five-year-old child merely tapping one of an eighty-meter dragon’s scales could hardly be called shaking.

Rachel had no idea how the dragon had ended up like this. When she had pushed through the torrential rain and reached the cliff, he was already in this state. The mysterious phenomenon that dragged the sea itself to pull the dragon up to the cliff had simply led her to climb onto him without thinking.

She quickly scanned his body. Blood seeped from countless small wounds across his form, and his complexion looked terribly pale—far more haggard than when they had first met. Rough, labored breaths escaped from nostrils half-submerged in the water.

He looks like he’s in pain.

He truly seemed to be suffering greatly. So Rachel decided she wanted to heal him. When she had gone to rescue Jonon before, the dragon had told her to remember what she had done the first time they met and do the same.

Rachel was still a child. She didn’t understand what kind of power she possessed. But she could grasp basic cause and effect. Jonon had been hurt. The god told her to do what she had done when they first met. Then Jonon got better. So if she did the same thing now…?

Thus, Rachel squeezed her eyes shut. She placed both hands on his scales. Focusing every ounce of sensation into her palms, she pictured the golden orb from that time and prayed for his recovery.

Golden light should have bloomed from her hands… but it didn’t.

“H-huh? It’s supposed to work! It has to come out!”

Rachel was a child. When her carefully laid plan crumbled from the very first step, she panicked completely. Having pinned all her hopes on that single action, her hands began trembling the moment she lifted them from the scales.

“It’s supposed to work… This has to work…”

She kept patting the scales again and again like someone knocking on a blanket, desperately repeating the action the dragon had described. Yet still, no light appeared.

“It’s… not working…”

Sniffle.

Eventually, Rachel began to sob. The two years of life on the run had left her with fewer tears than other children her age. But even she could not hold them back in this moment. That was how precious the being she had known for such a short time had become to her.

He had saved her when she nearly fell from the cliff. He had played with her while Jonon was away. And in the end, he had rescued Jonon. So Rachel wanted to repay him.

But her hands refused to listen to her will.

“Hurry up and shine…!!”

Sniffling and pounding on the scales, Rachel suddenly heard a sound from somewhere. It was a sound she had never heard before. No—something an ordinary human could never hear.

It was the sound of sunlight flashing. The sound of clouds drifting across the sky. The sound of tiny droplets rising into the heavens. Soon came the flutter of a distant flag, the echo of a wind instrument made of pipes swirling like a distant refrain, and the slow creak of a sturdy wooden door opening.

Slowly, Rachel’s gaze lifted upward.

She was no longer in the middle of the sea. This was a space where clouds, sky, cosmos, and sun all blended together. Rachel found herself sitting in the middle of a massive cloud. In the distance, other clouds held wooden structures of a style she had never seen before—strange architecture utterly unlike anything on the continent.

She had once glimpsed trees with needle-thin leaves in the north. Some of the tower-like structures resembled those trees. Clever Jonon would have understood what they were at once, she thought absently while looking around in bewilderment.

“Where… am I…?”

Rachel murmured in a daze. It felt like the heaven from the fairy tales she had once read. At the same time, the terror of being alone in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this isolated place began to shake her heart.

The sudden, gentle voice embraced Rachel’s trembling heart. Startled by the sound coming from behind her, she whipped around. There stood a woman gazing directly at her.

She wore clothing Rachel had never seen before—flowing like a princess’s gown yet devoid of jewels or ornaments, giving it a soft, mystical quality. Atop the head of the woman who smiled so gently was a pair of small horns.

…They look a lot like God sir’s horns.

When the woman tilted her head in mild puzzlement, Rachel snapped back to her senses and hurried toward her.

“U-um…!”

The woman’s eyes grew icy cold as she muttered to herself. But Rachel, unaware of the shift in her gaze, spoke up.

“Please help! There’s an injured person!”

“Ah, well, not exactly a person…! It’s a long god sir, and he’s bleeding… sniff…!”

At ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the sight of Rachel suddenly bursting into tears, the woman paused, then softened her sharp gaze.

Rachel had no idea what she was talking about, but the woman paid that no mind and gently placed a hand on the girl’s head. Her hand was white and delicate, just as expected—soft. Rachel flinched for a moment, but the woman simply stroked her hair with tender care.

“Uweh…?”

“Y-yes!!”

The woman nodded as if she now understood the entire situation. She pulled Rachel into her arms while still seated on the cloud so their eyes could meet properly.

“Rachel…”

Rachel couldn’t understand the woman’s words. She simply stared up at her with tear-filled eyes. The woman let out a small laugh and gently wiped the corners of Rachel’s eyes.

Though some meaning was missing from her words, the woman seemed to understand perfectly and nodded.

“Thank you so much!”

At Rachel’s polite thanks, the woman smiled brightly.

Rachel naturally stepped into the woman’s embrace at her call. The woman leaned close to the girl’s ear and whispered something.

With those words, the woman snapped her fingers. Rachel’s eyelids grew heavy.

The next moment, Rachel opened her eyes. Before her was not the sky or the woman, but the sea and the dragon.

The moment the dragon, whose every wound had been completely healed, opened his eyes, Rachel unconsciously spoke.

“……Dragon sir!”