The Beginning After The End (Early Years Book 1) (15 page)

I jump back into bed, feeling too
lazy to take a shower right now.

“I’ll just lay down for a little
and then take shower.”  I mutter to myself.

*Rustle* *Rustle*

I wonder if it’s windy tonight.
 I usually don’t hear the rustling of leaves.

*Crack*

Okay… that’s an unusual sound

I sit up and look around.
 Trying to locate where the sound is coming from.

*Crack* *Crack*

I look towards where I left my robe
on the chair.

“Kyu~” “Kyu~”

Kyu?

My robe was making “kyu~” sounds?
 I furrow my brows, trying to assess what’s going on.

*Crack! * “Kyu~!”

The stone!

I jump out of bed and quickly
rummaged through my robe to locate the gem that Sylvia entrusted me with.

“H-haha…Holy shit…” I just fall
back on my bum, looking at what used to be the rainbow colored gem.

“Kyu~!”

The stone wasn’t a gem.  It
was an egg.  A freaking egg…

And what used to be an egg was now
something that I couldn’t put into one word.

The first thing that came into my
mind was a dragon.  It looked sort of like a dragon to me, but at the same
time, it wasn’t.  It was all black.  It kind of reminded me of a
small kitten but with scales.  It was sitting on all fours, studying at me
with its head tilted to one side.  The sclera that is usually white in the
human’s eyes is black, like Grandpa Virion when he uses his second form, except
its irises are a bright red instead of yellow.  The pupils were sharp
slits that would normally make it look menacing, but with the body of something
akin to a small feline animal, it just looked adorable.  The most
noticeable difference between a dragon like Sylvia and this little… thing was
that it had two horns on its head.   The horns looked identical to the
illusion that Sylvia was before she revealed to me that she was a dragon.
 It curved outward around its head and then, sharpening into a point in
the front.

Its head was shaped like a cat’s
but the snout was a just a little bit more pointed, otherwise the same.
 The tail, though, looked exactly like Sylvia’s tail.  It was a
reptilian tail that had two red spikes at the end. Along the spine of this
hatchling were also small red spikes that matched the color of its eyes.
 It didn’t have wings but where the wings would be located were two small
bumps.

I can see that its belly didn’t
have scales though.  It looked sort of leathery.

It yawned, revealing only gums.

Why do I have the sudden urge to
hug this monster?

“Kyu?” It looked at me with
intelligence in its eyes.

“H-hi there little fella, I’m
Arthur.” I awkwardly wave at it.

“KYU!”  It jumps off of the
chair and onto my lap, gazing up at me.

My hands twitched, wanting to
cuddle with it.  Erg! My manliness! Endure! This monster is dangerous in a
different sense.

Unable to hold in the urge, I pet
this adorable menace.  The scales were surprisingly soft and the red
spikes that ran down its back felt like rubber. I guess young animals, whether
humans or monsters were all squishy and soft.  It started purring,
closing its eyes.

Fucking adorable.

It rolls unto its back, and I rub
its belly.  The belly feels like very soft leather, making it very smooth
to rub.  I take a closer look at its claws and find it interesting that it
looks closer to paws.  The only thing hard was its horns, which were
surprisingly sharp.

“Aren’t you just a cute lil fella?”
I can’t help but smile while petting this adorable newborn.

After a little bit, I start
thinking of what to name it, which makes me realize I don’t even know the
gender of this mysterious creature.

“Kyu~!” Suddenly the newborn sticks
its tongue out and licks the underside of my left forearm.

“Ah!” I reflexively try to move my
arm back from the scorching sensation, but before I see a glowing black light
surrounding my arm.

The pain fades so I just wait for
the glowing black light to fade.  The creature pulls its tongue back,
revealing a black marking on my forearm.

It looked a lot like the tribal
markings that covered Sylvia before she passed her will unto me but the shape
of this pattern was that of a wing.  Just one open wing, but it was made
up of several dashes and sharp curves that branched out, making it look very
complicated and mysterious.

I’m only 8 but I already have a
tattoo.  How cool.

“...Mama~?”

The creature was looking up at me
with its mouth closed.

What?  I obviously heard a
voice just now.

“Mama?” This time I heard it
clearly in my head.

What in the name of…telepathy?

Shaking my head helplessly, I
respond,  “I guess I’m your mother.  But I’m a boy so you should call
me papa.”

“Papa!” It suddenly jumped up and
licked my nose.

Haha… I’m only eight though.

After communicating with the
creature for a bit, I came to realize a couple of things.  I guess after
the mark appeared on my forearm, a sort telepathic connection was established.
 The voice I hear in my head from the creature sounds like a girl’s so
I’ve decided to name her Sylvie after her real mother.

“Syeevy?” she responds, her head
turned.

Picking her up and bringing her
close to my face, I smile at her, “That’s right! Your name is Sylvie.”

She nuzzled her nose to mine while
closing her round eyes.

Another thing I realized was that
Sylvie had a pretty high intelligence for a newborn.  She seemed to have
the mental capacity of a 2-3 year-old child.   While we’re communicating
telepathically, I know she’s not necessarily talking to me in English but I
just understand it as that.  It’s a very weird feeling, not knowing the
words she’s actually saying but knowing what she means.  Besides simple
communications like “papa”, most of the thoughts she sends me come to me as
emotions.  I get the gist of what she means by how she feels.

“Okay Sylvie! I need to wash now.
 Do you want to come with me?” I say while setting her down.

“Kyu?”  She tilts her head
while she looks up at me.  I feel like she’s asking me what  “wash”
was so I just laugh and pick her up.

Getting into the shower, she seemed
to cry out ‘NOOOOOOO’ as she wailed a shrill “KYUU!”

“Hahaha, I guess you don’t like
water that much do you, Sylvie?”  I say, setting her down out of the
shower.

Sylvia shakes herself off like a
wet dog and just lays down, her tail wagging, looking at me while I finish
washing up.

Her behavior sort of reminds me of
a mix between a dog and a cat.  Never would I imagine her lineage to be
that of a mighty dragon.

That got me thinking though.

Was Sylvie really a dragon?
 She sure looked kind of like a baby dragon…

Why was she all black though when
Sylvia was pure white?  What baffled me the most was the fact that Sylvie
had horns eerily similar to that horned, demon king illusion that Sylvia was at
first.

I get out of the shower and dry
myself off.  No use thinking about all of this now.  How do I explain
this to Gramps and Tess though?

As I got out of the bathroom,
Sylvie toddled behind me, ‘kyu’ing me to not leave her.

I gathered up the pieces of the
shell that Sylvie came out from and set it aside.  Then I wrapped the
feather that was encasing the stone around my forearm to cover the marking that
little Sylvie left.

Four months.  In four months,
I’ll be able to see my parents.  I wonder if they’ll still recognize me.

Sylvie must’ve felt the longing
emotion of my parents because she cuddled in close to my face and licked my
cheek a couple of times.

“Thanks little Sylv.” Petting her
horned head, I fell asleep.

____________________________________________

“KYAAAAAA!”

“What is it? What happened? Who’s
there?” I jump up on my bed, using my pillow as a makeshift sword with bed hair
ablaze.

“Omygosh! What is this?  It’s
so CUTE! Kyaa!”

I see Tess holding unto the
squirming Sylvie.

“Kyu!!” It cried.  'Papa
help!'

*Sigh*

I lay back in bed.  My
beautiful sleep.

“Her name is Sylvie and she just
hatched from her shell yesterday.  You should let go of her though.
 It looks like she doesn’t like being strangled.” I muffle through the
pillow that I covered my head with.

It’s too early in the morning.

Sylvie finally freed herself from
Tessia’s grasp, glaring at her while she hid herself behind me.

“Grrrrr~” She growled.

“Don’t worry Sylv, she’s a friend.”
I say while petting her head.

“She’s adorable!” Tess was still
drooling over the growling Sylvie.  I can see hearts come out of her eyes
as she’s inching herself closer to us, her hands ready to hug Sylvie to death.

“Okay, now you just look scary
Tess.  Get out of my room so I can change.”  I order her while
pushing the perverted princess out of my room.

I change into a loose robe and
pants.  While I’m putting on my shoes, Sylvie jumps onto my head and
nestles herself, hitching herself a ride.

“Kyu~!” She sure sounds happy now.

I walk downstairs, saying good
morning to the confused and shocked maids that see the creature on my head.

They all end up having the same
expression as Tess though and both Sylv and I start fearing for our safety.

“Gramps! We’re here!” I shout at
Grandpa Virion sipping tea while reading something.

Turning his head, he smiles, “Ah!
Art you’re here! Why was Tess fussing about some sort of pet that …”

He drops his cup and gapes while
his eyes are glued to the horned black lump sitting on my head.

“T-that’s
…”
He continues to stutter something incomprehensible.

“D-dragon!” Finally managing to
shout, his eyes never leaving the top of my head.

“Er… Yeah I think that’s what she
is.  I’m not entirely sure though.” I just scratch my cheek.

“Kyu?” Sylvie just tilts her head
in confusion, not knowing what’s going on.

Tess comes through the door into
the courtyard now and she’s bouncing up and down.

“It's a Dragon?  But it's so
cute! Art! Can I hold her? Can I? Can I?”  She says, eyes sparkling.

“Grrr~” Sylvie just starts hissing
at her and her claws start stabbing into my scalp.

“AH Ow ow OWOW! Sylvie your claws!”
I try to peel her off my head but she doesn’t budge.

Grandpa Virion is still half dazed
by the dragon that’s on my head, finally speaks up.

“H-how did you get a dragon’s egg?
How did you get it to hatch?” He was shaking his head now.

“The dragon that left me her will
entrusted me with a stone that I thought was just a valuable gem.  I
didn’t even realize until it hatched that it was an egg.  What do you mean
by get it to hatch?” I was confused now too.

“Dragon’s eggs don’t hatch just
through the passage of time brat.  The dragon inside must feel that
something capable of protecting and loving it is close by in order for it to
hatch.  Even then, there must be a very close bond between them.” He
described.

Trying to think of what might have
triggered the hatching, I instantly came to the conclusion.

“Activating the will! Gramps! I
think that’s what made her come out!” I exclaim.

He scratches his chin and nods, “I
think you’re right.  But I’ve never heard of a dragon hatching next to
anything outside of its parents.  No use thinking about it now though!
Brat! Be sure to keep the hatchling close by at all times.  Although I
knew it was a breed of a dragon immediately, that was because I’ve witnessed
one before.  Most people won’t know that creature is a dragon, so it
should be fine just feigning it off as a sort of rare mana beast.”

After that matter was settled, I
placed Sylv on the ground beside me while I began training.  The next step
in my training now, that I would do for the next four months, would be learning
to utilize the power of Sylvia’s will that she left me as well as condensing my
mana core into the next stages.

“Accessing the first phase is pretty
simple.  While your mana core is only dark red, your body right now should
already be beyond that of a dark orange stage mage.  After the ceremony,
you should feel a small compartment inside your mana core that holds the will’s
power.  That is where your beast’s will is stored.  The more drops of
will you are able to transfer out from that small compartment into your mana
core, the further phases you’ll be able to reach.  Brat! Try manipulating
a drop of will into your core.” He instructs.

I follow his orders and I suddenly
feel a bright gush of something more powerful than mana come seep out of my
core and into my body.

“Good! Let’s fight!” He shouts,
utilizing the first phase as well.