𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞 ▶ 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗛.

20 : Vitality of Heart

Goosebumps rose along his exposed skin, causing Cale to plunge his hands into his pockets in an attempt to fight of the chill. Frantically, a voice called out behind him, their pitch rising in panic.

"No! If you get hurt, the pretty lady will be sad!" The Black Dragon shot out from the path Cale had come from, wings flapping with nervous energy as he hovered in the air at the edge of the cavern where the wind was weaker.

The dragon was about to call out to the redhead human again, a scathing complaint about his impulsiveness on his tongue, when his mouth opened in confused shock. A large shield, sprouting silver wings at its sides.

appeared in front of Cale. Its wings shone brightly with a holy light as it cut the through the winds path, as it protected him. Turning around at the shout, which had been muffled by the wind filling his ears, Cale's eyes opened widely as his gaze landed on the dragon.

"The hell you're doing here kiddo?" Cale's voice rose in a startled yell.

Cale watched in disbelief as the Black Dragon looked away quickly, slowly descending to the ground, his head hung low and his shoulders hunched, as he crawled back towards the path.

"I was-" the dragon flicked his eyes towards Cale as he paused, before quietly continuing. "-just passing by."

The truth was, the dragon had watched the redhead and ravenette human leave their inn before making their way through the streets towards the bottom of this small mountain. He'd then silently observed their conversation, before the redhead human had continued alone.

The redhead, the black dragon remember him very clearly, that night. The redhead along with another person was the one who destroy the whole cave.

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Cale rolled his eyes as he frowned. The old man's lamenting voice was annoying. Rather than sounding sincere about wanting his friends to live again, it sounded more like he wanted to die. However apart of Cale understand him.

"Living itself is a source of a sin." The redhead said. Cale Henituse was just like that before, He wants to die. Why? It was simply because he doesn't find the value nor do reason to live. But then Kim Roksoo came.

Roksoo came into his life, she gave him a the value of living, SHE was reason Cale was living. Kim Roksoo was the epitome of Gods gift. since basically Azrael (G.O.D) sent Roksoo as a gift for Cale. A gods gift that Cale Henituse will forever value.

The worse thing is that, only Cale could hear the old man's voice.

'I piled the rocks. I piled them up hoping that I could turn back time, hoping that I could be happy. But then I destroyed it. I hated my selfishness, for thinking about my own happiness after betraying my comrades and running away.'

Cale sighed. The old man was frustrating him with his ongoing self-pity, biting out a blunt statement. "It's human nature to be selfish." If the (this) ancient power is a human, Cale would've have slit his throat open earlier.

The old man's voice disappeared. Cale narrowed his eyes. Is it over? Had the old man finally stopped talking. Just as he was about to smile, the old man's sobbing voice continued.

'My older sister said the same thing. She was a really wonderful older sister. She was more reliable than anybody else. Ah, my older sister!'

The old man began to cry, making Cale's skin crawl as he impatiently tapped his foot. He didn't want to continue standing here as the old man revealed his deepest regrets.He just want to finish this quickly and go back into his Darling Rose.

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

Cale swiftly turned on his heels with his arms crossed as he looked down at the dragon with a serious expression.

"You."

The dragon flinched, before turning his gaze up to the cavern's ceiling, acting like he hadn't just been caught blatantly following after Cale despite his own announcement that he would go far away from humans.

Cale continued to stare silently at the dragon. When an explanation wasn't forthcoming, Cale walked towards him before stopping in front of him and crouching down so they were at a similar eye level.

As if he was throwing a rock into a lake, just to see where the ripples would go, Cale stoically asked the dragon a question.

"Do you want to come with me?"

The dragon brought his gaze down to look at Cale blankly, before turning his gaze, his tail swishing side-to-side slightly as he answered. "Just protect that weak pretty lady." He quickly flicked his eyes to Cale before landing his gaze back on the wall as he began to turn invisible. "But I still don't like humans."

Cale watched the dragon disappear under his invisibility magic, before snorting. What a fickle punk. Standing up, Cale looked around the cave. There were no longer any violent wind storms raging about and the rock tower lay in pieces on the ground.

Turning his back on the sight, Cale made his journey back out of the cave. Looking out at a nearby patch of grass, Cale called out. "I can see you standing on the grass."

Four imprints were embedded in the grass, each representing one of the dragon's four paws. However, they quickly disappeared after Cale's call as the dragon flew upwards. However Cale can still feel the presence of the dragon

"Just so you know.. you'll be always welcome to come along with us, Kiddo." The redhead said before walking away. Unaware of the impact of his words to the black dragon.

Walking back down the mountain, Cale could see Roksoo spring to her feet the moment she'd sensed Cale's arrival. Roksoo had begun to smile when she saw Cale walking towards her, however, her expression got stuck halfway and reverted into a frown as she scanned Cale's appearance before hesitantly asking.

"Did you roll around the mountain?"

To Roksoo, Cale looked like he'd ended up in a scuffle with something; his trousers were streaked with dirt with small rips in places; his shirt's cuffs were muddy and frayed; whilst his hair looked like he'd been dragged through a hedge backward

"I dunno Darling, what about you?" Cale responded back in a flat tone before Roksoo looked down in her appearance. Roksoo was sitting at the ground earlier, while waiting for Cale completely not caring whether it will dirty her dress.

The two of them stared at eachother's appearance before bursting into laughter, "Aigoo, Geno will not be happy if he saw us." (Couple goals)

The two began to walk back through the streets hand in hand, not caring whether some people are looking at both of them. Given by their current messy appearance.