Dragon Luna
There was not a single day in the year free from blizzards on that mountain of bitter cold.
People fastened every sort of tale to the mountain and let the rumors swell until they took on lives of their own.
The thunder that roared like a beast’s cry was said to be the howl of the dragon Luna as she guarded the ice mountain.
The cold, transparent, beautiful ice-snow was said to be the tears she shed.
Story after story grew flesh until at last they became legend, and no one could say any longer what was true.
In time the mountain became an object of prayer, and people spoke its name with reverence.
Highluna.
Waaah—
“What the—?!”
A baby’s cry…? Impossible. Am I hearing things now?
Waaah——!!!!
A high, piercing human infant’s wail that seemed ready to punch straight through the mountain’s blizzard itself.
“Ugh…!! It’s so loud!! What in the world is going on?”
The fools who used to climb the mountain had long since vanished; lately the only living things that crossed her eyes were the monsters that made the slopes their home.
And there was no chance some idiot would haul a baby up here…
Bah, what a bother! This has nothing to do with me!
Day after day they climb my mountain as they please, get themselves bitten to death by my children, so I even laid down blizzards to keep them out! Things had finally gone quiet—I was enjoying the peace—and now someone’s left a baby…
……
..
She woke from a light sleep and unfurled her wings, preparing for a flight she had not taken in a long while.
Flap—
Wings so clear they looked like ice, so delicate they seemed ready to shatter at a touch. No wonder legends clung to her.
Oof… these old bones… It’s been ages since I last took to the air… About here, I think…
What met her eyes was a sight strange even to one who had lived far beyond the span of human reason.
A man and a woman, frozen solid, still cradling a child between them.
Parents… is it?
..
And yet—what was this?
From the ground rose the cold, hard chill of ice that should have frozen any living body solid, and there was nothing at all to shield the child from the mountain’s countless monsters.
Yet far from freezing, the infant was wailing at the top of its lungs, and the monsters had left not even a single track near it.
This aura…
A sinister black energy wrapped the child as if trying to protect it.
“It is clearly ‘darkness’ that surrounds him… yet I sense none of that power from the child himself…”
Stranger still… something that did not belong to this world was mixed into the infant’s presence.
“And yet it does not feel like a summoning from this world either…”
But the strangest thing of all was this:
“Has the child somehow absorbed the life force of both parents…? Is he some sort of cursed child?”
Even this body has never seen the like in all its long life…
Just then the crying infant looked up at Luna’s face and fell silent.
“So you find me frightening as well, do you?”
The child who had stopped crying suddenly stretched out a hand—
“Wh-what…?!”
—and tightly grasped Luna’s finger.
A whim, perhaps. She had lived her entire life among the mountain’s monsters.
The subordinates with whom she shared her power.
But this sensation was different.
From the place where the child’s hand met hers came a strange feeling she had never known before.
It was warm.
Neither a dragon’s breath nor the mountain’s magma had ever given her a sensation like this.
The warmth spread from her fingertips to her arm, to her chest, to her legs, and then through her entire body.
She stared blankly at the child for a moment, then spoke.
“How warm you are…”
Warm. So very warm.
“If that is how you wish to live, then I shall take you in. Yes… a name… that will do.”
She lifted the child carefully and stroked his cheek as she spoke.
“Your name shall be the son of the great dragon Luna of Highluna—‘—’.”
……
……
Hah… hah…
That nightmare again.
I am still trapped in the nightmare I can never wake from, no matter how many times it returns.
A full week has already passed since Master vanished, and I have been searching for any trace of her like a madman.
I believed—truly believed—that she, stronger than anyone I had ever known, could never have fallen so easily.
Yet the violent signs of resistance and the blue blood spilled everywhere thoroughly denied that belief.
There had clearly been a battle while I was away in the capital.
I do not want to imagine it… but if they truly captured Master, the kingdom would never stay silent.
The subjugation of Highluna’s dragon… whether they held a parade or used it for diplomacy, word would have reached me somehow…
There was no way to explain it.
Where… where are you, Master… Luna of Highluna…
…… Highluna. Why did I not think of it sooner…?
Highluna is no mountain a human can casually climb.
If Master is still alive… would she not be in Highluna, the safest sanctuary she knows?
Yes… perhaps… I have chased every trace of her and found nothing.
In the pitch-black darkness I have finally found a single thread of hope.
Please… please… let me be right…
Something is strange. The village at the foot of the mountain is under military lockdown, and there are clear signs that people have climbed the slopes.
This is a mountain buried in monsters and cold. I know how to ascend it, but could ordinary soldiers manage the same?
The monsters of Highluna… Master has an extraordinarily warm heart, yet that has nothing to do with their nature.
Every monster of Highluna was born to protect the dragon Luna; they are closer to spirits than beasts.
No tamer, however skilled, could control numbers like these.
The fact that every monster shelters Master is what makes her invincible within Highluna.
I grew up under her protection and even became friendly with them…
..Grrrrrr…?
That sound…!
“Bella!!”
A white wolf stands with every hair on end, fully on guard.
Bella, the one I used to play with as a child…? She looks even bigger than the last time I saw her…
“Bella, where’s the rest of the family? Why are you alone?”
Whine… whine…
Perfect timing.
“Bella, give me a ride…”
Before I finish speaking, my viewpoint rises higher and higher; she leaps into the air, spins once, and—
Thud—
Bella seizes me in her jaws and tosses me onto her soft back.
“Woof woof.”
“Ah… does that mean you’ll carry me, Bella?”
“Awoo~”
As expected of a white wolf—quick judgment, high intelligence.
Even knowing the shortcuts, the speed is nothing like when I climb on my own.
“Thanks, Bella. Looks like those snacks of Master’s I used to steal for you as a kid paid off.”
“Grrrr.”
How long has Bella been carrying me? The landscape that comes into view feels unnervingly wrong, even allowing for how long it has been since I last saw it.
We have already reached the mid-slopes, yet there is not a single trace of a monster.
Did the soldiers come to the village because the monsters went down?
No—if that were the case, the village soldiers would show signs of battle.
Ordinary soldiers could never look so unscathed after fighting Highluna’s monsters… rather, it looks as though they were transporting something.
Unease coils tight in my chest.
“Bella, run!”
Please let it not be what I am thinking.
Bella’s sharp, powerful claws dig into the hard, slippery ice and drive us upward.
The higher we climb, the weaker the blizzard becomes.
A small kindness Master once arranged for the child I used to be.
Bella suddenly stops as if she has found something and begins to bark.
‘Woof—woof!’
“Bella, what’s wrong? Why did you stop all of a sudden…”
……
Through the snow, fur so white it is hard to tell apart from the snow itself, and sharp fangs protruding.
Between that pure white fur, blood frozen red.
Corpses the weakened blizzard has not yet fully buried.
“What the hell is this… which bastards did this…”
When I examine the monsters’ wounds, something is off.
The monsters of this mountain never harm one another. Their entire purpose is to protect Master…
Yet looking closer, the wounds are strange.
Deep bite marks, as if they tore into each other… there is no explanation unless someone deliberately made them do it.
“Why would anyone do something like this…”
I have to control my emotions.
I must not rage. Keep the head cold. Finding Master comes first.
While I grind my teeth and swallow the fury, a dragon’s roar that could split eardrums rolls across the entire mountain of Highluna.
Kuuwaaaaaaa—
It is unmistakably Master’s roar. Thank the gods—she really is in Highluna.
“Bella! Faster! We have to get to Master!”
She is at the summit—I know it!
By the time we reach the peak, a familiar face comes into view.
“Aaron… you mustn’t… go…”
“Knight…? What are you doing here?”
The knight is in terrible shape. More than that—why is this woman here? No, how did she even get here…
“Shut up! I don’t know how you got here, but if you get in my way…”
Above the ridge, Master’s beautiful, transparent wings come into sight.
I have no time to spare for this woman. In a moment I will see Master again.
I run at full speed.
The Master I love most in the world is right there.
And then, at last, she stands clear before my eyes.
Transparent, beautiful wings that look ready to shatter like ice at a touch.
My Master’s wings had not shattered; they had been broken.