BLUE- ѕ.ℓєνєℓιиg χ σ¢

ωнιтє-넷-fσυя

(WHITE)

☆★☆★

.

тнє fιяѕт вℓσω ωσυℓ∂ нανє ¢ανє∂ ιи нєя ѕкυℓℓ.

Yet it didn't, smashed aside by a blood-spattered, white wing. The ogre dropped to the ground with the crack of bone, thrown aside easily by Chin-hae's strike. The dragon reached for her offspring, letting it wiggle it's way to the spot between her two horns.

And she dropped her head, one emerald eye meeting hers. 

"Why, human?"

Dae blinked in confusion, her head cocked on the side. "Why what, Chin-hae?"

"My hatchlings."

Ah- so that's what they were called. "They're cute," She muttered to the stone at her feet. "And it seemed like they needed help."

The other pair of hatchlings crawled from beneath a small cave in the stone, joining their sibling on the crown of their mother's horns. Staring at her with curiosity, now, instead of fear. She extinguished the flames dancing in her hair.

Chin-hae dropped her great head first.

"You're small enough to fit as well, little ant."

Dae knew what this was; a peace offering, and an opportunity. With a smile, she pulled herself up onto the dragon's back- and, to her surprise, one of the dragon shuffled to coil it's tail around her shoulders, nesting itself into her hair and beginning to hum.

Another laughed, and spoke;

"Sorry about that. li-ra is a little clingy, y'know."

The small hatchling- li-ra- coiled around her neck, lifted her head and growled at her sibling.

"I am not clingy. You were the one who cried for ma when we were lost, weren't you, Kei-rin."

Kei-rin turned to the other hatchling. "I didn't cry. Dak-ho was the one who cried. He's a male, though, it's his right to be weaker."

Dak-ho opened his mouth wide and hissed, leaping at Kei-rin and sending them tumbling to the ground, and caught, bouncing on their mother's wing. With a giddy laugh, Dae found herself pulled along with the small dragon that was coiled around her neck, Chin-hae's wing acting as a trampoline, sending the pair up-down, up-down.

A rumbling laughter filled the passageway.

"Hurry, little ones. We must find a new resting place now, quickly," Chin-hae murmurs, but the amusement in her voice gives her away.

☆★☆★

The new cavern they find is even larger than the other one, with room for Chin-hae to move unobstructed. The dragon stretched and the crack of her spine echoed, almost jarring.

"Ah. That's so much better," She sighed, horns grazing the roof of the cave.

"Little ant, where would you like to sleep?"

Dae shrugged. "I don't mind. Anywhere should be fine."

She wasn't fussy. She'd slept in worse places, after all -when she used to try to run away from the family that followed her wherever she went, the only bed there was was one of cold concrete.

And the flames would always find her. Wrest her back to the pain of her home once more, back to being invisible. Back to being weak.

She used to want to be a singer- but now her voice was too hoarse with disuse, her arms too scarred, her limbs too thin to do so.

Her family set her aflame, and there's nothing but ashes left.

A wing wraps around her- or more like it, drapes itself over her face. Li-ra pats her shoulder with one small claw.

"Pat. Pat. Pat. Don't be sad, little blob thingo."

Dae blinked. Scowled at the hatchling. "Little blob thingo?"

The little dragon's brow wrinkled in confusion. "You have no scales, so you must be a blob. Aren't you?"

With a sigh, Dae shook her head. "I'm a human. My name is Dae."

"Ma calls you an ant. You're an ant human?"

Dae sighed and wrestled the small wing off her shoulder. "I'm hungry. Let's go and find something to eat," she muttered.

Chin hae nodded, gesturing for Dae to climb up onto her back. She did so, joining the hatchlings, and they ventured out of the cavern and into the never ending dark of the gate.

Strangely, she felt safer with these dragons more than she ever had with  her family, she realised.

☆★☆★