I Became the Mother of All Dragons
After boldly shouting those words…
“What… what do I do now?”
The silence and standoff dragged on for a long time.
Part of it was because I couldn’t bring myself to speak after seeing something so enormous right in front of me.
The other part was that the mountain-sized dragon simply stared down at us with its three pairs of eyes, showing no immediate intention of doing anything.
At least, that was what I desperately wanted to believe.
Its head alone was large enough to flatten a small hill without effort. The neck, shoulders, and six pairs of folded wings stretching behind it were so massive that, from a distance, they blended into the canyon walls.
Alduin is big.
Masor is big too.
By my standards both of them are plenty large and dangerous—creatures that force me to set new rules every single day just to live alongside them.
Yet the dragon before us made even Alduin look small.
If Alduin was the size of a house, this one was a mountain.
A mountain covered in scales, a cliff sprouting teeth, a canyon given eyes—that was exactly what it looked like.
“…….”
I let out a breath with extreme care.
It felt as though one wrong sound would bring those three pairs of eyes even closer.
Beside me, Masor had folded his wings and lowered his body.
Normally he would have turned invisible, but this time he stayed visible.
With every steel-colored scale on full display, he pressed close to my side and stared straight at the mountain-like dragon beyond the mist.
Rustle.
A short, low sound of shifting scales broke the quiet.
It was the sound of tension.
I thought to myself, So our second child makes less noise when he’s nervous.
The very next thought arrived immediately after.
Why am I learning this information right now?
Alduin stood in front of me.
His black body half-blocked the space between me and the giant dragon. His golden eyes never once looked away from those three pairs of eyes.
There wasn’t the slightest trace of fear.
The lowered posture wasn’t a retreat.
He had positioned himself so I could stand safely behind him, ready to launch into the air or unleash fire the instant it became necessary.
Heat flowed in a low current beneath his scales.
Alduin’s warmth gently pushed the air aside, and the mist trembled faintly around his black form.
“Ald.”
I spoke, barely moving my lips.
“No breath.”
Alduin’s eyes flicked sideways for the briefest moment.
Grr.
“Don’t give me that look that says ‘why are you saying that again?’”
Rrr.
“The one who vaporized a forest and a lake yesterday doesn’t get to make that face.”
Alduin let out a low, dissatisfied rumble but didn’t gather heat at his jaws.
For now, he had listened.
He really is obedient at times like this.
The terrifying part is separate.
Masor gave a tiny rustle beside me.
I spoke without turning my head.
“Second, you don’t get to laugh either.”
Rustle.
“One mistake from any of us right now and the name of this entire mountain range could change.”
The moment I finished speaking, one of the giant dragon’s wings moved ever so slightly.
It was truly minimal—just the outermost tip of a folded wing brushing the air.
Yet the mist on the mountainside parted to both sides, and a dull roll of thunder rose from the canyon below.
I reflexively clutched Alduin’s scales.
“See? One wing movement from that side and the weather changes.”
Grr.
“You have nothing to say to that.”
This time Alduin stayed quiet.
A storm swirled faintly around the giant dragon’s jaws.
It hadn’t even opened its mouth wide, yet the interlocking teeth above and below were visible through the mist. Between them, wind, raindrops, and blue lightning circled with slow, deliberate grace.
I couldn’t tell whether it was breathing, a warning, or the prelude to a breath attack.
But one thing was certain.
If anything emerged from that maw, ordinary living things shouldn’t even consider the possibility of survival.
While I was thinking that, the one who broke the silence wasn’t the giant dragon.
It was Alduin.
His body lowered very slowly.
At first I thought he was simply adjusting his stance.
But the next instant his black wings spread wide on either side.
The huge wings pushed the mist away and laid a long black shadow across the mountainside.
“Ald?”
Alduin gave no answer.
“Alduin.”
A terrible premonition crawled up my spine.
“Wait—”
Alduin’s claws pressed down on the rock.
A low crack appeared in the stone.
My eyes flew wide.
“Hey!”
Alduin launched into the air.
Boom!
The rock shook as if it had exploded. The black body soared above the mountainside.
The wind that followed a beat later nearly knocked me flat. If Masor hadn’t tilted his body to brace me, I would have tumbled across the ground.
“Alduin!”
Alduin rose higher.
He couldn’t possibly reach the height of the giant dragon’s head. That creature’s size couldn’t be matched in any normal way.
But Alduin wasn’t trying to match height.
Wings spread wide, golden eyes locked squarely on the mountain-like dragon, he hovered in the air above the ridge.
The sight was strange.
Alduin clearly looked small.
He had no choice but to look small beside that colossal being.
Yet he didn’t look weak.
The moment heat boiled beneath black scales, red light swirled between his wings, and those golden eyes blazed like the sun itself, I remembered exactly why higher monsters fled the instant they met his gaze.
Alduin’s neck tilted back.
I shouted immediately.
“No roaring—!”
It was already too late.
“□□□□□□□□□□□□□!”
Alduin’s roar tore across the mountain range.
The sky’s mist ripped apart. Puddles on the ground trembled. Small stones rattled down distant slopes.
“Eek!”
I clamped both hands over my ears.
Masor hurriedly lowered himself to shield me, but the roar’s resonance still drove straight into my bones.
My ribs vibrated. My heart skipped a beat. My hair whipped backward.
“Hey!”
I yelled through my covered ears.
“Why did you roar all of a sudden!”
Alduin didn’t listen.
Or rather, he seemed to hear but chose not to respond.
Masor must have understood the meaning too; he quietly lowered his head beside me.
Rustle.
It wasn’t his usual reply.
I looked up at Alduin, then back at the giant dragon.
All three pairs of eyes were now fixed on Alduin.
The mountain-like dragon remained motionless for a long time.
The storm still swirled at its jaws. Blue lightning continued to spark faintly between its teeth.
I felt my heart sink.
What if that really was the start of a breath attack?
A storm breath full of lightning, fierce wind, and raindrops.
Even if Alduin was stronger, I was standing right here.
Masor was here too.
Our luggage, the pot, and my precious dried meat were all here.
“Alduin!”
I shouted again.
“Come down!”
Alduin remained floating in the air.
With a single wingbeat he pushed back the wind and continued staring the giant dragon down.
“Hey, the opponent is literally mountain-sized!”
Grrrrrrr—
A low rumble continued inside Alduin’s throat.
So what?
It sounded like that was exactly what he was saying.
“That’s not the point!”
While I was practically wailing, the giant dragon moved.
Its enormous head descended very slowly.
At first I thought it was an attack.
It was impossible not to think that.
A cliff-like face came down. Three pairs of eyes drew nearer. A shadow as if an entire mountain were tilting swallowed us.
I reflexively stepped back.
Masor moved in front of me. Alduin spread his wings even wider in the air.
“No breath!”
I didn’t even know who I was talking to.
Was it Alduin? The giant dragon? The entire world?
But the giant dragon did not attack.
Its head continued lower.
Slower.
Lower still.
And at last, the mountain-like dragon bowed its head.
“Huh?”
I stood there with my mouth open.
The giant dragon was bowing toward Alduin.
Six pairs of wings folded slowly.
The storm around its jaws subsided. The lightning between its teeth vanished.
The fierce wind calmed. Raindrops scattered back into the mist.
The sight was nothing like a defeated beast baring its throat.
It looked like an ancient guardian that had finally confirmed what it had been waiting for and was now showing proper respect.
Alduin descended slowly from the sky.
Black wings folded. He landed heavily on the rock beside me.
Thud.
I ran straight over and smacked his front leg.
Of course, from Alduin’s perspective it probably felt like nothing more than dust brushing him, but the feeling mattered.
“Hey!”
“Grr?”
“You scared me half to death!”
“Grr.”
“I told you not to roar!”
“Grr……”
“Why do you look so wronged!”
Alduin gazed at me with a slightly aggrieved expression.
It was the face of someone who had simply done what needed to be done.
Seeing that face, I clutched my head.
“Okay, fine—it was cool.”
Rrr.
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
Alduin’s eyes wavered.
“Wait… was it?”
My headache grew worse.
Masor rustled beside me.
I turned immediately.
“Second, stop laughing.”
Rustle.
“If you had spread your wings and joined the intimidation I would have fainted on the spot.”
Masor quietly averted his eyes.
At that moment a low sound emerged from deep inside the giant dragon’s throat.
Kurrrrrrrrr……
The rocks vibrated.
The mist trembled.
It felt less like a voice and more like thunder trying to imitate human speech.
Mixed within it were human words and unfamiliar resonances.
“O King, Vauren alta rion, you have returned.”
"O King, Vauren alta rion, you have returned."
I froze where I stood.
It wasn’t human speech.
I couldn’t understand the meaning.
Yet the words lingered in my ears.
It was an ancient resonance difficult for a human tongue to replicate, a pronunciation like wind and fire colliding inside the same sound.
I slowly looked at Alduin.
“King?”
Alduin lifted his head as though the statement were the most natural thing in the world.
“Grr.”
“You?”
“Grr.”
“You’re the king?”
Alduin blinked.
I lowered my voice.
“The same you who got caught stealing my dried meat?”
Alduin’s golden eyes wavered.
Masor’s scales rustled.
This time there was no attempt to hide the laughter.
“Second.”
Rustle.
“Stop laughing.”
Rustle.
Masor obediently closed his mouth.
This time the giant dragon’s three pairs of eyes turned toward me.
The moment that gaze descended I straightened my posture without thinking.
For some reason it felt wrong to hide behind Alduin.
It was terrifying, of course.
Anyone who could face a mountain-sized dragon with three pairs of eyes fixed on them without fear wasn’t human.
But the dragon showed no hostility toward me.
Instead its enormous head lowered even further.
If a mountain were to kneel, would it look like this?
The mountain-like storm dragon bowed its head toward me this time—far deeper than the respect it had shown Alduin.
I stood frozen.
“Why… why are you bowing to me?”
Again a thunderous voice rolled from inside the giant dragon’s throat.
“O Mother, Serai neth mora, we have waited.”
"O Mother, Serai neth mora, we have waited."
Once again I couldn’t understand everything.
I clearly caught the human words.
O Mother.
We have waited.
Those two phrases alone were enough to make my head throb.
I couldn’t parse the strange resonance woven between them, but I could tell the words were not empty.
I blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Then, very slowly, I opened my mouth.
“O Mother?”
I possess the soul of a man from before, you know.
The strength nearly left the hand gripping the leather strap.
“Me?”
The giant dragon remained motionless with its head bowed.
Its three pairs of eyes blinked slowly.
“All young breaths, Vaelun mora, have waited for you.”
“Hold on.”
I raised my hand immediately.
“I can’t understand the strange words in the middle, and even the parts I do understand are ominous enough.”
Alduin made a strangely proud face beside me.
I turned to him at once.
“Why do you look so smug?”
Rrr.
“I still haven’t wrapped my head around the fact that you’re the king, you know?”
Alduin’s eyes sparkled.
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
The golden eyes wavered.
Masor sat quietly beside me.
Rustle.
I turned my head.
“Why are you looking at me like that too?”
Rustle.
“Don’t you start accepting it either.”
Masor offered no reply.
That silence annoyed me even more.
The giant dragon slowly turned its body.
Just that single movement made the entire mountainside tremble.
When its claws touched the rock, the footprint sank again like a small pond.
The six pairs of wings spread slowly.
I shouted reflexively.
“Wait, what are you doing!”
Alduin immediately stepped in front of me.
Masor half-lifted his wings, then hurriedly adjusted the angle after catching my gaze.
“Masor, watch those wings!”
Rustle?!
“You can’t protect me by slicing me in half!”
Masor folded his wings in a hurry.
Meanwhile the giant dragon did not attack us.
Its six pairs of wings spread across both sides of the canyon, and between them a storm was born.
Wind formed.
Rain formed.
Blue lightning tore through the mist.
Yet the storm was not aimed at us.
It was aimed at the mountain.
Precisely at the giant mountain-range wall that had been blocking our path.
Whooooooooosh—
The wing moved once.
The mountain cried out.
I genuinely thought it was going to collapse.
“Insane. What is that thing doing!”
But it did not collapse.
With the sound of shattering rock, an ancient crack appeared in the mountain wall.
It looked like a gap that had existed from the very beginning.
A colossal fissure hidden by thick mist, rock cliffs, and storms.
The giant dragon’s claw slowly traced downward along that crack.
Crrrrrrrrrack—
The mountain split open.
The cliffs pushed apart to left and right, revealing a path that had been concealed between the stones.
It felt less like destruction and more like opening a door.
The entire mountain moved like an enormous gate.
Mist pooled between the rock walls poured out, and from within, warm wind surged forward.
I watched the scene with my mouth hanging open.
“…It was a door?”
A door of absurd scale.
A door hidden by the mountain range itself.
The realization that the being capable of opening it was the dragon before us sent a fresh chill down my spine.
The giant dragon’s voice rumbled low.
“Behold, Vaelun sira morath, young breaths.”
“I still can’t understand you.”
I muttered almost on reflex.
“But I get that you want me to look.”
I slowly turned my gaze into the canyon.
And lost all words.
Inside the canyon lay another world.
Outside there had been only mist, storm, and wet rock. Inside the gate it was strangely warm.
High cliffs encircled the space like a nest. Warm air currents drifted gently between them.
Nests filled every crevice in the rock.
Large nests.
Small nests.
Nests hanging from the cliffs.
Nests nestled in depressions on the floor.
And inside those nests were eggs.
An overwhelming number of them.
Black eggs.
Blue eggs.
White eggs.
Eggs with red patterns.
Eggs wrapped in golden lines.
Eggs where faint light glowed inside translucent shells.
Some were larger than a human body. Others were small enough to cradle in my arms.
Hatchlings moved among the nests.
One wore an eggshell on its head like a hat.
One tried to spread its wings, tripped over its own feet, and rolled.
One still had soft-looking scales.
One had horns so tiny they looked like forehead bumps.
One couldn’t control its tail properly, kept bumping the egg in the next nest, and got bitten by another hatchling.
Some still couldn’t open their eyes properly.
Some hid behind rocks the moment they saw me.
Others stretched their necks out fearlessly to stare in our direction.
Peep.
A small cry came from somewhere.
That single sound triggered the rest.
One by one the hatchlings inside the canyon lifted their heads.
Peeep.
Kii.
Rrr.
Rustle rustle.
All the cries were different.
Yet they strangely resembled the sounds Alduin had made as a baby, and the quiet noises Masor made when he cried beside me.
I stared at the scene, unable to speak for a long time.
There were so many.
Far too many.
Raising just one Alduin had already felt like the house would burst. Adding Masor had forced me to reconsider the entire cave layout.
Yet inside there were eggs piled like mountains and hatchlings in every nest.
I slowly turned to look at the giant dragon.
It remained with its head bowed.
Its three pairs of eyes watched me quietly.
Alduin was watching me.
Masor was watching me.
The hatchlings inside the canyon—from behind rocks, inside nests, between cracks in eggshells—all of them were watching me.
“…….”
I stayed silent for a long while.
Then, very slowly, I opened my mouth.
“Wait.”
My voice came out strangely small.
I drew in another breath.
“You’re not telling me…”
Alduin tilted his head.
Masor’s scales made a soft sound.
Rustle.
The giant dragon’s three pairs of eyes did not blink.
I looked again at the staggering number of eggs and hatchlings inside the canyon.
Then I clutched my head with both hands.
“You’re not telling me to raise all of them, right?”
At that exact moment, one small hatchling with an eggshell on its head misstepped in my direction.
Roll.
It flailed its short front legs, trying not to tumble out of the nest.
I reflexively stepped forward.
“Whoa, hey, be careful!”
Alduin let out a low cry.
Rrr.
Masor rustled.
The giant dragon lowered its head even further.
And once more, in a voice like thunder, it spoke.
“O Mother, Serai neth mora, I beg you.”
"O Mother, Serai neth mora, I beg you."
I froze completely.
“…….”
It was real.
I covered my face with both hands.
“Aaaah…”
Two were already going to kill me.
Now it was hundreds.
“The road ahead is paved with suffering…”
And just like that, all at once…
I became the mother of dragons.