The baby dragon raised its head at the trembling felt from Naro’s arms holding its body tightly. After looking at Naro’s pale face, it rolled its eyes to look at the beast that had appeared before them.
At that moment, the baby dragon’s eyes gleamed fiercely.
“Wh-what should I do…?”
Dangerous. That one thought was all that came to mind. Naro was very flustered right now. For several years, he’d climbed up and down this mountain like his own home, but he’d never encountered a beast even once. He hadn’t heard from the village people that wild beasts appeared on this mountain either.
Naro’s legs trembled more severely than before. He looked at the baby dragon sitting obediently in his arms. It wasn’t just himself in danger right now. He was shouldering one more life. So he had to run away somehow.
Naro gulped and put strength into the hand holding the baby dragon. At the same time that cold sweat flowed down his face and dropped onto the dirt with a plop, Naro turned around and ran like crazy. He could feel heavy footsteps following along with a roaring cry from behind.
“Huff…”
He mustn’t look back. Not only was there no time to look back, but if he did such a thing, he would surely be caught up to. For now, he just had to somehow escape the mountain and get to the village. Usually beasts didn’t try to leave the territory they lived in, so if he just reached the village, it wouldn’t chase any further.
“D-dragon. Don’t worry. I’ll definitely protect you.”
Naro kept muttering that he’d protect it to reassure the baby dragon staring up at him intently. Sweat poured like rain. His heart repeated expanding and contracting as if it would burst right away.
But where he was now was inside the mountain, and unlike the entrance where the path was well-paved, the road was rough. His body got scratched here and there by protruding tree branches. Naro didn’t stop running even while enduring the pain.
“Ah…!”
However, his foot ended up catching on a long tree branch. Naro’s body toppled forward greatly and fell.
“Ugh!”
Along with him, the baby dragon that had been in Naro’s arms also rolled on the ground. Naro tried to get up quickly by pressing on the ground, but he couldn’t move as extreme pain was felt from his knee.
“D-dragon. Come here.”
Naro reached out his hand toward the baby dragon. At that moment, the sound of the beast scratching its throat could be heard from behind.
“…”
Naro’s head turned with a creak. The wild boar that had chased right up behind was stomping its feet with an even more ferocious air than before.
Naro held his breath and turned his head again, this time looking at the baby dragon.
“Run away!”
“…”
“H-hurry. You understand my words. So run away from here, quickly!”
The baby dragon’s eyes touched Naro’s sweat-drenched face. The eyes that had been watching Naro trembling in fear soon captured the wounds all over Naro’s body.
The dragon’s eyes gleamed threateningly. Ignoring Naro’s shouts, the baby dragon passed the fallen Naro and headed forward.
“What are you doing! It’s dangerous if you go that way…!”
The baby dragon had only recently recovered. It had barely escaped the crisis of almost dying, so he couldn’t let it get hurt again. Naro grabbed his injured knee and tried hard to catch the baby dragon. But the baby dragon had already approached close to the beast.
The wild boar looked down at the dragon and became even more excited. It looked desperately focused on devouring the prey right before its eyes.
Naro felt his breath getting choked. If he left it like this, the baby dragon might die. Then he would be alone again. Naro recalled the body warmth he’d felt when he held the baby dragon earlier and led his aching leg to run to the dragon.
At the same time, the beast also charged at the dragon. However, the wild boar stopped right in front of the dragon. Not only did the beast that had been acting like it would gore the existence before it with sharp tusks at any moment stop standing still, it began to slowly step backward.
The baby dragon did nothing. It was just quietly glinting its eyes while only looking at the beast before it. Perhaps sensing something in that, the wild boar began making pitiful crying sounds as if it had faced some terrifying scene.
As the dragon’s pupils split vertically with a slash, the beast turned its body completely toward the path it had come from and ran out—unmistakably fleeing.
“What on earth…?”
Naro stood blankly in place for a moment. At the unexpected situation, he first approached the baby dragon.
“Dragon…”
The moment he met the dragon’s eyes, goosebumps rose all over Naro’s body. He didn’t know the reason. Just that the baby dragon’s gaze right now was very unfamiliar and frightening. It was a feeling that touched the fundamental fear deep in his heart. But that was only for a moment, and as soon as the baby dragon saw Naro, it returned to its original gentle and clear face and hugged his leg tightly.
Relief spread throughout his whole body at the warmth felt from his leg. Just as Naro crouched down to stroke the dragon’s head, sudden sharp pain came over him.
“…Ah.”
The baby dragon that had been enjoying Naro’s touch pleasantly began licking the wound on his knee.
“I’m okay.”
Naro roughly brushed off the dirt on his clothes and stood up while holding the baby dragon.
“Thank you. I’m alive thanks to you.”
Naro held the baby dragon tightly in his arms. The dragon wagged its tail left and right while continuously rubbing its head against Naro’s neck and shoulders.
“Let’s go home now.”
The baby dragon nodded its head greatly. Naro, who had almost had a major accident, safely returned to his small nest with the dragon. Though he was tired from running around the mountain and wounds had formed here and there on his body, the path returning together while feeling someone’s warmth was neither difficult nor painful at all.
* * *
A week had passed since experiencing that incident on the mountain. Naro told Garnet, the village chief, about what happened on the mountain right away.
It was to share information in advance in case village people like himself climbed the mountain and encountered a frightening beast.
Garnet, who heard Naro’s story, first felt relieved that Naro was safe, and then expressed puzzlement. Because he’d lived in this village for a long time but had never heard that such a beast appeared on the back mountain.
For now, Garnet reassured Naro that he’d tell other people too.
In any case, after experiencing that incident, Naro felt he’d become even closer with the baby dragon. Originally, when it was always time to sleep, he’d put the dragon to bed in the bed he’d prepared separately. Of course, even so, it would burrow into the bed again in the middle of the night.
But these days, when it was time to sleep, Naro directly brought the baby dragon and lay down on the bed together. Whether the dragon liked that very much too, before falling asleep it would continuously wag its tail and tickle Naro’s feet.
And every time he woke up in the morning, the baby dragon would lick Naro’s face, especially his lips among other features, many times.
“Mmm, okay. Good morning.”
Thanks to that, this morning too Naro’s lips were drenched with the baby dragon’s saliva. Naro now familiarly exchanged morning greetings with the dragon and officially started his daily routine.
Today too, after eating breakfast, he went to work at the pharmacy on time. Of course, with the baby dragon by his side.
Throughout the morning, he spent time frantically selling medicinal herbs to people who came and preparing ordered items.
“Should we go home to eat lunch now?”
The dragon’s eyes sparkled greatly. As Naro smiled pleasantly and stroked the baby dragon’s head, the bell hung on the shop door rang. It was the sound of a customer arriving.
Naro naturally looked at the dragon. Now without being told, the baby dragon went into a corner spot on its own and sat obediently.
“I’ll be right back.”
Naro whispered quietly to the dragon and went outside.
“Welco…”
“Naro, I’m here.”
Naro barely swallowed the sigh he was about to squeeze out. It was none other than Anton who lived in the neighboring village. He recalled the sight of him stubbornly insisting and causing a scene at Ron’s shop in the plaza last time, demanding things be put on credit.
“Anyway, since it’s a place that sells medicinal herbs, the smell really isn’t great. Does this place really do business?”
The unwelcome customer Anton looked around Naro’s shop widely and wrinkled his face.
“What brings you here? Did you come to buy medicinal herbs?”
“Huh? It’s not that. Naro, didn’t you almost have a big problem meeting a wild boar on the mountain a few days ago?”
He’d probably picked up the story that spread from the plaza somewhere again.
“Yes.”
“Then let’s go to the mountain together. I’ll catch that wild boar bastard and teach it a lesson!”
“It’s okay. There’s no need.”
Naro felt uncomfortable with Anton. At first, since he didn’t know Anton’s true nature, he just thought he was a kind person who acted favorably toward him. But as time passed, he felt something strange. It wasn’t just once or twice that he’d been displeased by Anton constantly trying to touch his body every time they met.
Around the time when Anton was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, coincidentally the village people told him in detail what kind of person he was, and Naro distanced himself from him after that.
But he didn’t know he’d come all the way to the shop like this. That encounter in the plaza last time must have backfired. Because he’d tried his best to avoid him since distancing himself.
