The next morning, when I was about to head up the mountain, Dario came along with a bow on his back.
"Even if I let you go alone, I won't be able to ask you in detail what you found."
It made sense.
I had become able to understand human language, but the only things I could reply with were cries and gestures. It was faster to take someone along from the beginning than to draw a picture on the ground and explain every time I found something.
The village chief didn't object either.
"There's no need to go far. First see how far you can get and still be back before the sun is high."
“I know.”
"Don't be reckless, Val. Your leg hasn't fully healed yet."
I nodded.
It still hadn't been decided whether the eight people who fled to this village yesterday would formally live here. This morning they had come out of their temporary shelter and were eating the food the village had given them.
Getting through a single day was manageable.
However, taking them in from here on was a different story.
They would need not only food, but water and a place to live.
Dario and I entered the mountainside behind the village.
Once we passed the area where the villagers gathered firewood, anything resembling a path vanished from under our feet.
"That way's steep."
Dario called out to me.
The roots of trees were exposed on the slope I had chosen, and many large rocks jutted out from between them.
It looked like it would be difficult for humans to walk.
However, since I had four legs, I could bring my body close to the slope and climb.
I hooked the claws of my front legs onto the rock and pushed off the ground with my left hind leg. When I put my weight on my right hind leg, the one caught in the trap, I still felt a dull pain.
I went forward one step at a time without jumping.
When I looked back after climbing for a while, Dario was following me while holding on to tree roots.
"For someone injured, you're fast in a place like this."
His breathing was a little ragged.
I waited there.
"…Being waited for is irritating in its own way."
In that case, I'll leave you behind.
When I turned my head thinking that,
"No, wait. That's not what I meant."
came immediately.
He was a troublesome man.
I waited for Dario to catch up and started climbing again.
When you looked up from the village, the mountain seemed like nothing but forest, but once you went inside, the terrain changed in fine detail.
A place where rocks were exposed.
A hollow carved out by rainwater.
Some slopes were thick with trees, while others were so sparse that the sun shone through.
There was even a narrow path that beasts had walked again and again.
“What are you looking for?”
When Dario asked me, I drew a wavy line on the ground with my claw.
“Water?”
I nodded.
“There’s a stream below.”
I knew that.
I pointed to the mountainside with my front leg, then looked towards the village.
Dario thought for a while.
"You want to see if there's another water source?"
I nodded again.
"If those eight people stay, there'll be more people using water. And if there's space to open up more fields, we might need it for that too."
I don't know the details of farming.
Even if water was found, it didn't necessarily mean the place was suitable for fields. Soil was needed, and if it was too far from the village, simply going back and forth every day would be hard.
So there was no need to decide today how it would be used.
See what was there.
Start from that.
After walking for a while, I stopped.
"What's wrong?"
The smell of damp earth mingled with the wind.
It also had a grassy odour, similar to moss.
I pointed my nose towards the ground and crossed the slope.
The ground in front of me dropped away sharply.
“Be careful. It’s hard to see down there.”
It was a small valley.
It wasn't so deep as to be a steep cliff, but going straight down the front would mean slipping.
I looked down from the edge of the rock.
There was a low ledge a few steps down.
I could get that far.
I spread my wings and pushed my body forward.
The membrane stretched taut in the wind.
Using my wings to keep my body from falling all at once, I landed on the ledge below, front legs first. I lowered my body to protect my right hind leg, which probably made me look a little awkward, but I didn't fall.
Dario didn't go down from the same place as me; he went around to a slope with a lot of tree roots a little further along.
“Those wings are convenient, aren’t they?”
For now, this is the only way I can use them.
I snorted instead of replying.
The ground became more damp as we approached the valley floor.
I listened carefully.
I heard it clearly this time.
It was water.
"I heard it too."
Dario stepped forward.
A thin stream was coming out from cracks in the rock.
It wasn't really a river. It was a small flow of water running down the slope between the stones.
When I brought my nose closer, Dario put his hand out from the side.
"Don't just drink it."
He stopped me.
"Even if it looks clean, something could be dead further up."
I see.
Of course I would have been concerned about that when I was human, but since becoming a dragon I had grown much more careless.
Dario investigated the area around the rock where the water was coming from, then looked ahead along the flow.
"It seems different from the stream below."
I followed the flow as well.
It continued down the slope, seeping into the soil.
"The question is whether the amount is always the same."
Dario said.
"If it's a place where the water only increases after rain, you can't rely on it too much. We should ask someone who's been to this area before."
I found water.
So it can be used.
It seemed it wasn't that simple.
We went down a little along the flow.
Eventually the valley became shallower and we came out onto a slope with few trees.
I stopped there.
It was strangely flat compared to its surroundings.
It wasn't completely flat land.
There were several steps of gentle slope, and stones were lined up at the edge.
"This… did it happen naturally?"
Dario crouched down.
He brushed the moss off the stones with his hands.
A row of low stones stretched out to the side.
It had collapsed in the middle, pushed up by the roots of a young tree.
"Maybe it's a sign that someone used this place."
Dario didn't seem convinced either.
I walked around.
I don't know whether the soil is good or bad.
There were quite a few stones mixed in, and a lot of thin trees growing as well.
It didn’t look like a place that could be used as a field right away.
"If it's just the distance from the village, it's not bad."
I looked back in the direction we had come from.
"But I wouldn't want to carry loads back and forth over the ground we just passed through."
I agreed.
I can climb over rocks and steep slopes.
If the villagers were to come here every day with hoes and baskets, they would need another route.
"I don't even know whether the land is usable. I'll have someone who works the fields come and look."
I nodded as well.
All I could do was find it.
There was no point in me deciding whether or not it could be used as a field, because I didn't know.
I climbed up a nearby rock.
The roofs of the village could be seen through the gaps between the tree branches.
It was closer than I thought.
However, although it was close in a straight line, the road a human could walk was winding.
When I looked up, I saw an even higher mountainside and a ridgeline beyond it.
The wind blew up from below.
I unconsciously opened my wings.
The membrane swelled, and a force pushed at them as if trying to lift my body.
My front legs felt lighter for just a moment.
Something jolted in my chest.
Now.
That's what it felt like.
"Val."
Dario's voice came from below.
"We're heading back soon."
I looked at the edge of the rock.
If I jumped out towards the village from here, it looked like I'd be able to glide quite a long way.
However, being able to glide and being able to fly are different.
If I lost height on the way, I'd fall into the trees.
And my right hind leg wasn't in perfect condition.
I folded my wings and climbed down from the rock normally.
On the way back, I looked for a different route from the one I had climbed.
Going in the direction of the water flow, there was a slope that looked like it could be walked by one person at a time.
There was a fallen tree on the way.
I tried pushing it with my shoulder.
It didn't move.
Its roots were entangled with soil and rocks.
"For that, we just bring an axe from the village."
Dario stepped over the fallen tree.
"You don't have to move everything."
True enough.
I eased off.
By the time we returned to the village, the sun hadn't yet reached its peak.
Still, my right hind leg felt heavier than it had in the morning.
It seemed better not to walk around the slopes any further today.
"Did you find something?"
Lina spotted us and ran over.
"We found something."
Dario answered.
“There’s a place on the mountainside where water comes out. There’s also a flat area that may have been used in the past.”
The village chief heard the voices and approached.
"Does it seem usable?"
“I don’t know.”
Dario answered immediately.
"Water comes out of the rocks, but I don't know if it's always the same amount. There are a lot of rocks on the flat land, and trees growing there. I can't judge whether it can be used as a field."
"Is the place far?"
"You can walk it. However, carrying loads on the path as it is would be difficult."
The village chief thought for a moment.
"Let's see if anyone knows about the water source."
One of the men who fled here yesterday, who had been listening nearby, looked over.
"Are there traces of stones lined up in the flat area?"
"Yeah."
"Then it might be an old field."
"Can you take a look?"
“Until I see it, I can’t say whether it can be used or not.”
The village chief nodded in response.
"Then I'll have Dario guide you in the afternoon. I'll also send one of ours who looks after the fields."
“I’m going too.”
said the man who had fled here.
“I’m indebted to you. If there’s anything I can do, I’d like to help.”
“Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“I’m not the one who’s hurt.”
That’s right.
Not all eight of them were in the same condition.
I tried to stand up too, but a dull pain ran through my right hind leg.
Dario saw it.
"You should rest."
I looked up.
"I already know the location. Now we're checking whether humans can walk it, so I'm all that's needed."
I couldn't argue.
To begin with, I couldn't argue in words.
I obediently lay down on the spot.
"You're unusually honest today."
That was uncalled for.
In the afternoon, Dario and the others left me behind and headed into the mountains.
I rested my leg outside the fence and watched the village at work.
The ones among the eight newcomers who could move helped with the clearing up.
It hadn't been decided yet whether they would be accepted.
Still, it seemed they had no intention of simply taking food and doing nothing.
Dario and the others returned before the sun began to set.
The village chief listened to their report immediately.
“How was it?”
The villager who went to look at the fields tilted his head.
“It’s not land that can be cultivated right away. There are quite a lot of tree roots and stones.”
“No good?”
"No."
The man thought for a moment before continuing.
"It's not that all the soil is bad. If someone used it before, there may be places that can be brought back with some work."
The man who had fled here nodded as well.
"Being close to the water helps. But I'd want to make sure the flow keeps up."
"What about the road?"
"If we clear trees in some places, we can manage for people to pass. Carts still won't work."
It seemed that finding one thing didn't mean getting one answer.
Still, until yesterday, no one had even spoken about the existence of such a place in the mountains behind the village.
There’s water.
There’s also land that may have been used by people.
From here, the people of the village would have to check whether it could really be used.
I moved my wings slightly while lying face down.
Something had felt strange since this morning.
It didn't hurt.
It was different from feeling tired and heavy.
I felt as though something was slowly spreading from the base of my wings across my back.
Did it have something to do with becoming a protector?
Was it because of the wind in the mountains?
Or was it just my body growing?
I didn't know yet.
I spread my wings once again.
The moment the membrane caught the evening breeze, I remembered how light I had felt on the rocks this morning.
I looked towards the mountain.
All I could see from there was Rue Village and a small part of the forest that spread around it.
There were still unknown places stretching far beyond.
If I could fly, what I could see would probably change.
For the first time, I felt that that day might be closer than I thought.
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