A thriving hatchling? What did she mean? Me? Surely not?
I asked in confusion, and Grandmother approached me as I sat comfortably and stroked my head. I closed my eyes and slowly savored her gentle touch.
Hehe, I feel like a puppy being petted.
Grandmother spoke as she stroked my head.
“That's right. An exceptionally thriving hatchling. There aren't many hatchlings who spend as long absorbing nutrients inside their eggs as you did, then spend so long storing those nutrients and building their bodies afterward. Few hatchlings hold out until they've consumed every nutrient and the inside of their egg dries up. And ones who spend as long doing nothing as you did, making all those nutrients completely their own, are very rare indeed. That's why I called you a thriving hatchling. Anyway, one born that way really is different. Standing in just an hour, no less. Your mother wasn't like that. It took her a day and a half just to stand. It was so funny, I still laugh about it.”
“Mooom! Don't say things like that!”
Mom flared up at Grandmother's words.
Ohhh...... You laughed at me so much, and now it turns out you took a whole day and a half to stand? And you still laughed at me? A frog forgetting its days as a tadpole, all right—though I should say a dragon forgetting its hatchling days, shouldn't I? My poor heart, wounded by all that ridicule......!
But was that really how I'd become a thriving hatchling? With no one to compare myself to, I'd thought I was ordinary, hadn't I? Anyway, they say life (a dragon's life?) is like the old man's lost horse, with fortune and misfortune turning into each other. The strangest things really do help me, don't they?
I'd merely assumed I was inside some medical device and stayed there until it was dried out, then come out when I couldn't bear it anymore. After that, unable to believe I'd reincarnated and overwhelmed by the shock, I'd spent several days in a daze. And meanwhile my body had been cultivated—am I a vegetable?—into an exceptionally thriving hatchling? Haha, what a ridiculous story.
But if I'd been like that, did it mean other hatchlings hadn't? Curious, I asked Grandmother.
“Grandma, aren't the other hatchlings thriving hatchlings?”
Honestly, I could have phrased it more carefully and asked seriously, but I had to stay in character. I was a baby. I should sound as much like one as possible.
When I asked so simply and adorably—ugh! Even I hate it!—Grandmother nodded kindly and spoke.
“That's right. I don't know what the other hatchlings are in such a hurry for, but they struggle out of their eggs without even properly consuming half the nutrients, then shriek and try desperately to move. So many end up underdeveloped...... Your mother alone was famous for her impatience. Indeed, for a thriving hatchling like my grandson to be born of that bloodline is something of a miracle, you might say? It's the Divine Dragon's blessing.”
“M-Mooom!”
Pfft, is that so?
Well, it made sense. When I first regained consciousness, the egg had been full of nutrients. By the time I started feeling bored and wanting to leave, about half remained.
Apparently, it was common for hatchlings to consume only enough nutrients to break out, then smash their eggs and emerge as soon as they had the strength.
And it seemed just as common for them to scurry around before properly absorbing what they'd consumed, failing to build their bodies adequately.
Then struggling this hard to stand and walk wasn't embarrassing at all!
Wahahahaha! Have more confidence! Rainisis!
I was deeply moved by my own effort and patience.
A day after standing, I'd taken 2 steps. Now, a week later, I could scurry around the lair!
Gwahahaha! I'm happy. So happy! Happy enough to dieee! At last, I could explore the lair that had been my entire world!
Mom's lair was a vast cavern that looked about 500 meters across. According to her, even if she returned to her true form, stretched herself out from head to toe, and spread her wings all the way to either side to sleep, there would still be a little room left. That should give you some idea of its size. She also said her head wouldn't touch the ceiling even if she stood up.
For reference, I estimated Mom’s length at about 450 yards in all: 150 yards for her body and head, 150 for her torso, and 150 for her tail, with 1 yard being approximately 91.44 centimeters. Standing, she boasted a height of around 350 yards. Each wing was probably 225 yards long, as though sized to match her body length exactly. This immense space was big enough for a giant like Mom—Mom...... sorry. They say your proportions are quite good for a dragon, but you look enormous to me.—to lie fully stretched out. And she said the combined space of the storerooms, where she’d sorted her possessions by kind, was about as large as the lair itself.
How far could I get by scurrying around? One circuit of the lair took almost an hour. My steps were still unsteady, and I fell 6 or 7 times every 100 steps, so scurrying around like this was good training. Anyway, I practiced walking and running over and over—repeated practice is the shortcut to success. Huh? What nonsense am I spouting?
My practice method was very simple. All I did was circle along the lair's walls while Mom watched steadily.
Oh, Mom was watching so she could burst out laughing if I fell. Perhaps she'd given up her dignified, delicate image after that day, because she'd become remarkably cheerful and lively.
Honestly, I like this better, too. There's no reserve between us, is there?
There was a place I always had to pass as I scurried around. I'd named it ‘Storeroom Village.’ About 100 tunnels, spaced 30 meters apart, led to the storerooms. Each tunnel entrance was the same size, about 3 meters across, but looking inside, I could see differences in the distance to each storeroom door and the bends along the way. I guessed she'd put quite some thought into using the space.
Curiosity made me want to take a look, but I gave up after Mom told me this.
“Rainin—this was Mom's pet name for me—if you enter a storeroom even once in your current form, you'll go crazy wanting to go in again, won't you? That's how splendid, beautiful, and wonderful my collection is...... Ahem! Ahem! Anyway, treasure and things like that are highly addictive. So you'll have to wait until you can use Polymorph.”
She was certainly right. Human or dragon, it was natural to want to look at and touch lovely things. And however human my soul and mind might be, my body was a dragon's. I doubted I could resist its desires. A dragon's desire for treasure was apparently almost instinctive, so I'd wait until I could use Polymorph and just practice walking for now.
—2 months later.
At last, I'd learned to walk. Ahh, that really took ages. I never thought it would take so long. No, indeed. It took me 2 months to master walking completely. Now I could plant my own feet on the ground and walk anywhere I pleased.
I was a little over a year old now, but I should probably just call myself one, shouldn’t I? About 3 months had passed since I’d received my name to commemorate the anniversary of my birth—my first birthday party, I suppose you’d call it?—.
For reference, time here used base 60, just like on Earth. A minute was 60 seconds and an hour was 60 minutes, but a day lasted 30 hours, a month had 30 days, and a year had 16 months in all. There were 4 seasons here, too, each lasting 4 months. Hmm, isn't that far too long?
Only now did I get an explanation of our biological growth as dragons. As for how I came to hear it, it began with a conversation between Mom and me.
“Mom, when can I use Polymorph, and when do I become an adult dragon?”
“Oh my! You're supposed to be a ‘hatchling,’ and you don't even know ‘that’?”
When did you ever teach me? Teach me first before saying that! Apparently, it hadn’t occurred to Mom at all. She looked startled and kept repeating, “Oh my. Oh my.” I spoke with a look that said she was pathetic.
“You're supposed to be my ‘mom,’ and you haven't even taught me ‘that.’”
Mom thought it over, then apparently remembered that she'd provided no education whatsoever. She turned her head aside, scratched it awkwardly, and spoke.
“I'll teach you.”
That was how it happened.
Mom's briefing(?) went as follows. A dragon's average lifespan was 10,000 years, and adulthood came at 1,000. So, on the scale of a 100-year human life, you became an adult at 10?
Oh, and 10,000 was only an average, one from 3,000 years ago at that. The prevailing view was that it was much higher now. Back then, there had been lots of humans running around calling themselves dragon slayers and whatnot.
In fact, the current average lifespan was 12,000 years. The longest-lived dragon was the previous Lord, who'd passed 15,000. Oh, while we're at it, let's hear Mom's opinion of this Lord who held the longevity record.
“Gorging on years, refusing to die, and slickly staying alive. What a sight.......”
They seemed to have quite a history. Anyway, adulthood came at 1,000. That meant I still had 999 years left until I became an adult dragon.
Ugh, that's a long time. But if I kept learning and learning, I'd become an adult someday. And the age for Polymorph was 100. At 100, you could use Polymorph. When I asked why we had to be a whole 100 years old, she said it had to do with the Dragon Heart.
Dragon Heart.
In fantasy novels, a Dragon Heart was an essential thing(?) for a dragon, an organ so important it was called the dragon's heart. I thought it was mainly used to store vast quantities of mana.
But I didn't know whether that was true here, too, so I asked Mom. Her detailed explanation of the Dragon Heart went like this.
“The Dragon Heart is a sort of gateway that brings us our ‘power,’ so it's the most important thing a dragon has. Why else would we call it the ‘Dragon Heart’? But humans have got the wrong idea and think it's some gigantic storehouse of mana. Ridiculous. Mana isn't fixed. It can never be bound to one place.”
Mom held up her index finger.
“Then comes the question of how magical weapons are made. Magical weapons are set up so that mana passes in and out of them. Mana flows and flows, but you can make it flow ‘through’ a particular place. Well, humans spout nonsense about this being ‘fixing mana in place.’ Understand? Even a magical weapon can't be used in a space without mana.”
Her finger traced circles.
“Our Dragon Hearts are like exceptionally powerful mana concentrators. They channel a concentrated flow of mana through us at all times, 30 hours a day, letting us use magic whenever we need it without even concentrating. And since mana itself represents the power of nature, they circulate nature's power through our bodies so we don't get sick or suffer from poison.”
Her finger wagged from side to side.
“A Dragon Heart isn't a lump of mana. It's more like a cure-all that gives you longevity. Then comes the question of whether we'd live even if our Dragon Hearts were removed...... Of course, if ‘only the Dragon Heart’ were taken, we could probably live another 1,000 years or so. Dragons are naturally long-lived, and with a Dragon Heart on top of that, we live an awfully long time.”
She pointed at her neck.
“But the Dragon Heart is here, where the neck begins at the torso—in human terms, where the thyroid gland is, in the hollow at the base of the neck.—To remove the Dragon Heart behind the windpipe here, you’d have to cut through the neck.”
She mimed cutting her neck with her finger.
“So no dragon's crazy enough to have a Dragon Heart surgically removed, and none would sit there with eyes wide open and let it be taken without resisting. If one did, they'd be a disgrace to the dragon race. An extermination squad would be sent out to kill them at once. But for a single being to have enough strength to take a Dragon Heart from a dragon, it'd have to be at least Archangel class, I imagine? There aren't even any human dragon slayers these days, so you needn't worry much.”
This time her finger moved back and forth.
“Oh dear, I've gone off track. Yes, the question was what Polymorph has to do with the Dragon Heart? When you're first born, your body contains a space for a Dragon Heart. Once you're named, a Dragon Heart begins forming inside your body while you sleep. Hatchlings' frightening powers of understanding are connected to the Dragon Heart. It wakes the brain and sharpens the senses.”
Her index finger tapped her head.
“Anyway, as the Dragon Heart forms, more and more mana passes through it. But it needs 100 years to mature before you can move mana at will and change your body into something like a human's. That's when Polymorph becomes possible. Since you're a thriving hatchling, perhaps 70 or 80 years will do.”
She pointed at me.
“The Dragon Heart is fully formed at 1,000 years, when you have your coming-of-age ceremony. After that, the amount of mana passing through it increases very slightly with age, but the Dragon Heart itself doesn't grow anymore. I suspect the incredible understanding hatchlings show, twice that of adult dragons, is a sort of side effect of the Dragon Heart's gradual growth. But it's beneficial, so there's no reason to stop it. Do you understand now? About the Dragon Heart?”
Whew! That was incredibly long. Receiving a name caused a Dragon Heart to form, and vast amounts of mana circulated through it in a concentrated flow, making magic easier to use.
Did that mean it was an organ whose mana kept the body healthy and sustained a dragon's enormously long lifespan? Putting all that together, it amounted to, ‘A Dragon Heart is very good, so take good care of it.’ That was vastly longer than any explanation Mom had ever given me.
According to Mom, a dragon had to build the basic foundations for life as a dragon during its hatchling years. That meant starting with the basics. Until I turned 100, I had to learn the fundamental ways of dragon life.
Etiquette toward senior dragons, how to deal with other races, how to increase my treasure, combat techniques, and so on......
The most important were walking, flying, and the Fear (Fear) unique to dragons. Since I’d already mastered walking, should I learn flying and Fear now? Hmm, which should I learn first? I decided to sort out my thoughts while walking.
Aaaaagh! THUMP! I fell again. Damn it......!