(2) The First Step in Learning Was a Literal Step.
Some time had passed since I'd received the name Rainisis—or rather, pieced it together myself. Thanks to spending every day eating and sleeping, I was growing so quickly that even I could see the difference from one day to the next, and my intellectual capacity seemed to be expanding and deepening along with me.
For dragons, intelligence felt less like a special talent and more like an innate physical ability. As they grew, its reach expanded, apparently opening up the so-called ‘unexplored regions of the brain’ automatically.
That must have been how dragons possessed such frightening powers of understanding (the ability to comprehend and judge things logically) that they could learn their own language after hearing it only a few times, without studying it. When I received my name and returned to Mom’s lair, I could sense something different. Objects around me, nearby presences, and the flow of some unknown energy came to me naturally, though I’d neither sensed nor paid attention to them before. It fascinated me so much that I decided to ask Mom.
“Mom, Mom!”
“Hmm? What is it, Rainisis?”
“Um, something feels strange.”
I tilted my head with a curious expression, and Mom smiled—no matter how often I see a dragon smile, I can't get used to it. It feels like a lizard grinning. Snakes grin in old cartoons, and it keeps reminding me of that—and gently asked me a question in return.
“Hmm, are things around you looking clearer, or are you sensing some strange sort of flow? Or are you just feeling unwell?”
“The first one. I can feel something strange, and things around me seem easier to see. Is something wrong?”
Mom was smiling even with her eyes now—in other words, with her whole face. Synonym: beaming—as she spoke.
“Hohoho, that's because you've received your name.”
“Huh? My name?”
My name? What about it? Isn't a name just something you receive when you're old enough? But receiving one shouldn't suddenly open up new intellectual territory, should it? Could that really be what a name means to dragons?
Mom drew it out, looking as though she couldn't decide whether to explain, and I was burning with impatience.
Argh, damn it! Just tell me already!
I managed to get an answer by conveying my intense curiosity through an assault on Mom's entire body with my eager, adorable, sparkling gaze—ahh, I hate this. Exploiting a baby's body like this, too.
“Hmm, I'm not sure you'll understand. Still, you're so curious that I'll tell you. Exactly a week ago, you received the ‘name’ Rainisis, didn't you? Hehe, did you notice how I stressed the word name? For humans, dwarves, and elves, names are just ways of referring to themselves, aren't they? Oh, I'll explain humans and elves and dwarves later. But names are very important to us dragons. A name doesn't just represent you. It's also a medium through which you can draw out your power.”
Mom paused there and gave me a look asking, ‘Do you understand?’ But honestly, I hadn't understood a word she'd said.
A name wasn't just a proper noun, a way of referring to yourself, but also a medium for drawing out your own power as a dragon? What did that mean?
Mom saw my expression and explained again.
“Oh? You don't understand? Then I'll explain in more detail. My adorable baby received the wonderful name Rainisis, didn't he? Word that you came up with it yourself has really been spreading lately. It soon reaches Achus, the chief of our Red Dragon clan, that senile, stupid dragon, and then it's passed on to the Lord of all dragons. The Lord writes your name in the hatchling section of the dragon register. Once that happens, you officially become a dragon hatchling and can receive the ‘power’ bestowed by the Divine Dragon, the god of all dragons. That ‘power’ is our life, our magic power, and our abilities. For the first year after birth, dragons build up their basic bodies and prepare to grow into hatchlings. And the moment you receive a name and it's entered in the register, you gain a vessel for the knowledge you'll learn until you become an adult dragon. In other words, for us dragons, ‘name equals power.’ Do you understand now?”
Ohhh, I get it. For races other than dragons, a name is just a proper noun. For a dragon, it's both a proper noun referring to the individual and a channel through which the power they'll gain and use passes.
And as a hatchling, I had to build up power and knowledge until I became an adult dragon. The name opened up regions of my brain so I could gain even more knowledge and power! Haha, that's impressive, isn't it? Who knew a name could be so amazing?
I nodded and spoke.
“I understand. So that's what it means. Wow, that's amazing!”
“Hehe, is it? I'm glad you understand......”
Looking at Mom's expression as her voice trailed off, I could tell what it meant. Grrr! It was as though she were saying, ‘He's a child, all right. He doesn't want to admit he doesn't understand, so he's making excuses. Awww, how adorable.’
Grrr! Why are you doing that?! I understood! I understood what you meant, clearly, definitely, perfectly! Stop looking at me like thaaat!
Once I learned what a name meant, I swore I wouldn't let this absolute understanding I'd acquired go to waste. Mom had explained further that once I underwent the coming-of-age ceremony to become an adult dragon, half of this absolute understanding would vanish.
That would still seem like genius to other races, but to a dragon, it was half their childhood capacity. Something a hatchling could learn in a day would take an adult dragon 2 days.
Haha, how absurd is that? I appreciated being given this understanding, but to have half of it hacked off in one great chunk when I was grown!
But shouting, screaming, and throwing tantrums wouldn't change it. What couldn't be changed simply couldn't be changed.
It was practically an absolute law of the dragon race, so I changed my thinking and decided to make the greatest possible use of this understanding while I had it.
Milk it for everything it's worth, and keep milking it until I won't regret having it taken away later! Then it won't feel like a waste! Wahahahaha! Let's learn! Let's learn all we can! Learn!
My first setback after thinking that came less than an hour after making my resolution. Why? I was nothing more than a ‘baby’ who couldn't even walk properly, let alone fly!
Graaagh! Damn it!
To learn anything at all, I first had to be able to move properly (movement meaning the act or manner of moving one’s body). And the most basic prerequisite for that was the ability to ‘walk.’
That was why I started practicing. I'd thought I'd taken my first steps 20 years before reincarnating, but walking involved keeping the body's center balanced level with the ground. No amount of extraordinary understanding or memories of a previous life could accomplish that alone.
Walking was something the body did automatically. This was the moment I truly realized that, among the bodily functions the body remembered but the mind couldn't explain, walking was the most subtle and profound. How much harder would it be in this situation, with a soul and body fundamentally different from each other?
Really, how many people could give a proper answer if asked to explain how they moved their bodies? Few people would know the principles behind bending an arm or straightening a leg. At least, unless they worked professionally with biological nervous systems, they wouldn't find it easy to explain.
But even without understanding it, we could do it because ‘it just happens.’ The brain controlled all bodily activity. When the brain sent an order to ‘bend the arm!’ that order became an electromagnetic signal (a pulse) and traveled along the nervous system throughout the body to the muscles of the relevant part. That part received the order, contracted or expanded its muscles, and moved.
The brain merely gave orders. If the order was reasonable, the body moved. If it was excessive or unreasonable, the body would try its hardest to carry it out.
But if the order pushed too far, the relevant body part would certainly be damaged. Or if the task was completely unfamiliar but quite possible, the body would stumble through it, trying to do it somehow. Through trial and error, it would discover and remember the ideal way to handle it. The next time the same order came, it would do what it had done before.
Perhaps ‘walking’ was a prime example. When the body first stood up, its center moved higher than it had been while sitting, making it harder to stay level with the ground.
For humans, balance was generally maintained in the ears. The semicircular canals in the ears adjusted the body's balance for whatever posture it assumed. If that failed, a person fell with a THUMP! If it succeeded, they could maintain the posture.
I didn't know where a dragon's semicircular canals, or whatever organ maintained its balance, might be—probably in the ears, as with humans. The body's instinctive priority was to protect the brain, so the balance organ was likely to be near it. A nearby organ could respond quickly, after all—but I knew I'd have trouble keeping my balance when I stood.
After spending all my time sitting, I decided to try standing for the first time. Since my tail made up half my body, keeping my balance probably wouldn't be too hard. If I used it as a prop, I ought to manage somehow......
But a dragon's weight distribution was very different from a human's—obviously. First, dragons had extremely long necks. My torso still made up quite a large proportion of me, but looking at Mom made it clear.
If you divided an adult dragon into 3 large sections—ugh, that suddenly sent a chill through me—it would be one-third head, one-third torso, and one-third tail. With a neck that long, a dragon's head was an enormous distance from its torso. And though mine were still fairly small, the wings that would soon support my body and carry me through the wide sky weighed a tremendous amount, too. Standing as I was now would shift most of my upper body's weight backward because of my wings. That was probably why my tail was so long. A long tail could get you caught(?) but it was useful for balance.
I stopped thinking and decided to try getting up.
My prediction was exactly right. At least, there wasn't much trouble getting to my feet. Though my lower body stood firmly on the ground under the weight of my wings, my upper body leaned slightly backward. My neck stretched far forward as if trying somehow to pull my upper body along, making for a ridiculous pose.
But just standing like this was impressive for now. If I forced my upper body forward, I'd tumble straight onto my face.
This was the fruit of an effort that thoroughly deserved encouragement and praise! But when Mom saw me standing, instead of encouraging or praising me, she laughed so hard the lair nearly turned upside down. Perhaps the lair was too cramped for her to laugh comfortably, because she used Polymorph to take human form, as she had when we'd gone to receive my name, and rolled around the lair laughing.
“Ohohohohohoho! Look at that! You're, you're...... so adorable and funny! Ohohohoho! Ohoho, hohoho! R-R-Rainisis! Hohoho! Just lie down! Are you trying to make your mother die laughing? Ohohohoho!”
Mom, your dignified image is going up in smoke.
Mom kept rolling around the lair without a shred of dignity, laughing as though she’d bring it down—amazing. How can she laugh just as loudly in human form as in dragon form?—and I tried hard to ignore her and take a step forward, only to find the world suddenly spinning. Huhhhh? Aaaagh! CRASH!
“Ahahahaha! ......Ahahahaha!”
Whether Mom was laughing at me or laughing because I was cute—I’m certain it was the former. Goddammit!
Anyway, the moment I put my right foot forward, my center of gravity shifted backward and I flopped over onto my back. I groaned and got up, and Mom watched what I was doing with another great burst of laughter.
All right, brace the tail hard! One, two! Aaaaagh! THUD!
“Pff...... Hehehe, ahahahaha! Ahahahaha! Ohohoho!”
This time I'd shifted my center of gravity too far forward and fallen on my face.
Mom tried somehow to hold back her laughter, but in the end she couldn't and pounded the ground as she laughed.
Aaaagh! Mom! Have some dignityyy! I strained with another groan and stood, and just as I was about to try again, I heard a voice other than Mom's.
“Oh my! Rainisis! You can stand up now! You adorable thing......”
I turned toward the voice...... and instantly lost my balance and fell flat.
Grrr, what a disaster!
Though it hurt, I turned my gaze toward the voice and found Grandmother there, in human form through Polymorph.
Mom burst into ‘Ahahahahaha!’ again, and Grandmother looked at her disapprovingly before speaking.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk...... You don't remember what you were like, and now you're laughing at your own child...... A frog forgetting its days as a tadpole. That's you exactly.”
“M-Mom! Don't talk about that! What'll happen to my image in front of my child?”
Mom flared up at Grandmother, and I looked at Mom as though she were pathetic.
That image was shattered ages ago, Mom!
Grandmother let out a deep sigh and asked Mom a question.
“So, when did he start practicing standing?”
“Hmm, about an hour and a half ago?”
“Whaaat? Is that true?”
Grandmother was greatly surprised by Mom’s answer. Almost astonished, in fact, while I wore an expression that said, ‘What’s wrong with that?’ She turned her gaze to me, collected herself, and spoke.
“Yes, a thriving hatchling really is different.”
“A thriving...... hatchling?”