小嫂子的味道

I turned my head around quickly, her eyes were still closed; she was not awake, yet she was in the middle of the air with nothing to hold her.

This was bad, as bad as it could get.

Before even knowing about it, I was holding the klauth\'s scales with my right hand while I stretched out my left one to grab hold of Roe. It was then that I saw that my left hand was lacking a thumb and a little finger. I didn\'t know whether I could grab her with only three fingers or not, but I had no other option.

I pushed my leg against the klauth\'s tail and moved my body as far as I could from the klauth\'s skin without having to compromise on the scales I was holding. All this happened in less than a second. I was acting more on instincts and less on actual thinking.

I was close, just a little push and I would\'ve grabbed her leg. But I couldn\'t.

\'This was bad, as bad as it could get,\' or so I\'ve said before. But I was wrong, completely wrong. Things could get far worse than this, and they did.

The wave of unconsciousness hit me again and my body almost went numb and my vision blurry. It was the lack of oxygen in the air, it was getting harder to breathe and the amount of oxygen in my blood was decreasing at an alarming rate.

No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn\'t grab hold of Roe. My body didn\'t move, or perhaps I wasn\'t able to make it move would depict the turn of events a bit more accurately.

My consciousness only returned when Roe was far too away for me to reach, even if I tried to jump and grab her. I wasn\'t able to do a thing as I watched her fall down toward the ground, while she was sleeping like a princess with her eyes gracefully closed.

She looked as if she was falling onto a bed of cotton and fluff, though I knew it was just my mind playing tricks on me.

A stream of tears rained down from my eyes, but I was too occupied at the moment to be aware of that. Maybe I screamed her name at the last moment, but I\'m not too sure of it. The memories around that part are a bit hazy.

All I remember is that I watched her like that till she disappeared within the clouds, and after that, my mind and survival instincts forced me to climb back on the tail of the klauth and wrap myself around the scales.

I was feeling…something I could not describe. It was like I\'d been wasted. It didn\'t matter how much I wanted to jump off this dragon and reach Roe and hold her within my arms, despite the consequences I would face. It didn\'t matter how much I wanted to save her, my mind wouldn\'t let me.

And that was because the burning and smoldering feeling had lit up once again, the flame of vengeance was brighter than it ever was. This was also a result of the war waged by the five kings, hence they would pay the price for it. For that I had to stay alive, I couldn\'t die here if I wanted to make them suffer.

As this was also added to the things I wanted to take revenge for, I held myself close to the klauth. The wave of unconsciousness returned, and this time it was stronger than it had been before.

My vision turned blurry, and I lost control over my body. I wanted to keep seeing what was ahead of me, but my eyes slowly shut closed and entered a deep slumber inside my mind and I lost track of time and space.

This time, my consciousness did not return until much later…

***

"Let\'s stop there for now," Req said, turning her head toward Zero. "I\'m getting hungry," although technically she could not get hungry since she was a spiritual life form, the desire to eat remained.

"Well, I also had a few questions, so there\'s no harm in stopping here I guess," Zero replied as he slowly hopped off the bed and wore his slippers.

He picked up the package of food he\'d bought beforehand from the cafeteria and headed inside the kitchen to warm it up. Req watched him move, but she herself didn\'t get up from her place.

Inside the kitchen, Zero took the food out from the paper package and poured the contents into a pan. Then he lit the burners and set them to heat up while he unpacked the donuts he\'d bought for Req and set them on a plate. In between, he stirred the stew he had poured into the pan a few times to keep it from burning.

It was not possible for something as such a stew to get burned until you were in pretty harsh conditions, but Zero was not much of a cook, and he was aware of this fact better than anyone else. Thus, he chose precaution over cure.

A few minutes later, he came out from the kitchen with a bowl of piping hot stew and a plate of chocolate donuts. He set the bowl on the desk near his bed and offered the plate of donuts of Req.

She took it from him with a smile on her face. She liked donuts, Zero knew that. But this time her smile was not natural but forced, to an extent that Zero was able to see it pretty clearly. However, he decided not to mention it.

Partly because he already knew the reasons. Right now, Req was too immense in the story she was telling. Right now, she was living her past and present both at the same time.

Zero sat on the bed and settled himself in the place he\'d left before, then he carefully picked up the bowl of steam and stirred the contents before picking up a spoonful. He blew air at it to reduce the heat and then ate it. He repeated this several times while Req took mouthfuls of her donuts.

Both ate in silence for a while, but then when Zero\'s stew was half-finished, he broke the quiet.

"What were the klauths doing down from the mountains?" he asked.

Req looked thoughtful for a moment, but she was not thinking about the question, but the one who\'d asked it. In all honesty, she had expected Zero to know this much. And she was right. Zero knew the reason, this was just the build-up to the question he wanted to ask. This was his way of inquiry.

"They were down there because it was their mating season, and the dragons had come down to light the grounds on fire and demonstrate their strength to the females," she replied after a while.

"But previously you said it was just folklore, and no one had seen them do that," he mentioned.

"Yeah, I\'ve said that no one had seen them do that. Because those who did were not able to make it out of there alive. Although the chances of even that happening were quite low. People like me, those who lived near the mountains, knew that it was more than just folklore. That\'s why no one settled too close to the mountains."

"However, the knights from the Askington kingdom did not know about this. Hence, they did not hesitate in setting camps near the base of the mountains," Zero finished her sentence, to which she nodded in confirmation.

The silence was just about to make its return when Zero took it down with another question.

"Back when we were fighting the klauth in the labyrinth, you said that you\'d seen a klauth that was four hundred thousand years ago. Was it the one you were climbing on?" he asked.

Req shook her head. "No, that encounter happened much later in my life. Though the locations were the same," she replied.

"Then what was this? You also said that the klauths were an endangered species, but according to this story, there were around three of them randomly breathing fire at some place. You are contradicting yourself," Zero said.

"Yeah, I know. And I\'m not contradicting anything, both things are true," she replied.

This left Zero in a perplexed state where he could not help but ask.

"How?"

A smile shone on Req\'s face, and though this was a small little smile that could easily go unnoticeable, unlike before it was a genuine one.

"For that, you will have to wait and hear the rest of the story," she said.