Book 15: Chapter 65
Did I or did I not say climbing a mountain at night is an irrational act? Below us was the village. Dragon Mom would be seen if she transformed there. I couldn’t divulge the news about the dragons; otherwise, something might happen to the dragons. Not to mention encouraging unnecessary panic. That was why the two of us trudged through the snow that was at calf level. We grabbed onto the snow that literally froze our fingers and struggled up step by step. Dragon Mom trekked ahead of me. I tightly grabbed onto her belt so that I wouldn’t slide down.
Dragon Mom was in a big rush. I could tell that from her erratic steps. I knew how anxious she was. She managed to feel the joy of knowing she had kin still around and went through so much to finally find them. We thought it was already over. We never expected that our dream that was finally in sight would be drowned. Dragon Mom didn’t want to give up nor was she willing to admit defeat. She desperately climbed up, struggling to try and reach halfway up the mountain.
I climbed up with Mom step by step. I could feel her quivering with fear. Mom must’ve been very scared. She should’ve been aware of what happened, but just refused to admit it. She was trying to lie to herself, yet she failed to convince herself. I didn’t know how to comfort her. Words of consolation were pointless at that point. She needed to see her kin. Only then could she feel reassured. I didn’t know how the village and the dragon’s valley looked. I had no clue how much damage was done by the flood. I didn’t know if the dragon race was still alive or not.
The snow beneath us suddenly changed. Dragon Mom stopped for a brief moment to look down at her feet with puzzlement. She then crouched down to reach into the snow. I, too, felt something was slightly odd underfoot. The number of rocks around us had drastically decreased. There was a path that could fit two people. If we headed up then, we’d see a small, level area of land.
I brushed the snow away, revealing what was below. This snow was different to other places. It felt as though the snow there hadn’t been accumulated for a long time, therefore had yet to consolidate. After moving away the thick layer of snow, I saw the land that was originally there.
The land there wasn’t originally brown land but black slate. It was obvious that the black slate wasn’t natural slate but the remains of human life. The moonlight illuminated the snow and black slate. It seemingly had an ice-cold aura that numbed all of my nerves.
Dragon Mom blankly stood up and slowly continued up. It seemed to be bright in front of us. It was as though a huge person smashed open a huge hole in the snow. It was a huge level entrance opened in the face of the mountain.
“I see,” I said to myself.
The area should’ve been where the village originally was. Fortunately, they moved prior to the flood. The flood that virtually came out of thin air didn’t drown their homeland. Over time, the water condensed again, becoming the layer of ice and snow that covered the original land of the village and its houses. Having said all that, it was evident that a number of houses had been washed below, leaving just the ground. The frozen village resembled frozen time. It was quite a sad sight.