Casen was greeted by an unfamiliar white ceiling and pain that assaulted his senses to the core when he woke up. He could feel that the wounds he suffered from the clash were mostly healed along with his left arm that suffered the most but he was still covered in deep cuts and gashes.
Sitting up with difficulty he winced and held his throbbing and aching arm which was somehow wrapped in bandages that weren't damaged. Looking at his body which was like his arm, also covered in bandages he recalled the events before everything went dark.
'I lost myself in my anger.' He had a bitter expression. The flaws of his awakening made his emotions hard to control and that negative emotion was one that was enhanced the most. To add insult to injury, he was even rude to the woman who was only trying to stop the situation.
Although he could make out what happened, it was blurry for him and some parts were hard to recall.
His gaze changed to look at the room he was in when he saw a woman with white hair already staring at him with her arms crossed while she sat in a chair beside the bed. She was anything but happy based on the pressure she was exerting.
"What did you mean by saying the red dragon 'owed you his heart'?" Her lavender eyes, slit like his own, were staring right into his. He tilted his head with furrowed eyebrows as if to ask what she meant by her question.
"Exactly as I meant it, he owes me his heart. I want to eat it." His tone was even as if it was obvious what he meant.
"Dragons don't eat other dragons' hearts."
"He owes me, I intend to have him pay." He stretched his arm, feeling his elbow pop as he did so.
"Didn't he already pay by letting you bring him close to death?" She narrowed her eyes.
"If he showed his claws in intention to kill he should've been prepared to lose his life, right?" He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, but he overestimated himself and was about to fall over if it weren't for the woman standing up and supporting him.
"Thank you, and I also apologize for being disrespectful. I lost myself in my anger." He straightened his back and met her eyes again. Her voice was strangely familiar as if he had heard it before. "Have we met before?"
She just smiled and shook her head. "Your apology is accepted and no we have not."
"I see, then do you have the heart?" He asked as his stomach growled. He was hungry and because of his fight, the energy he had before was depleted.
"I'll bring it to you if you can answer some of my questions. Can you do that?" She forced him to sit back on the bed and remained standing in front of him.
Unknowingly his eyes sparkled at the positive response to him receiving what he wanted, he was curious about the taste. Human hearts tasted of salt and iron, it wasn't the most pleasant sensation but it had its own addictive quality.
Looking at his eyes she chuckled lightly. It reminded her of a child receiving a toy. The two of them began talking, the woman asked him about his arm and he told her the events up to when he first woke up with it.
Without realizing it, he began to talk to her about his entire journey so far from the Neutral Continent while his tail was swaying behind him showing his brightened mood.
The woman who was listening quietly had a smile on her face the entire time, completely different from the frown before. She didn't mind that he trailed off, it delighted her in fact to see him so unreserved despite being in an unknown territory.
Just as he was about to explain every little detail about how he beat up the dragon, another woman barged in and destroyed the door to utter pieces. His mouth was left hanging open.
It wasn't that he didn't react, he couldn't. He was so engrossed in the conversation that he didn't feel a presence approaching. The two of them stared at the added company as silence took over the room entirely.
However, Casens' stare was because he felt his blood stir in her vicinity. He didn't feel any danger from this woman despite the way she had come in, instead, he felt an overwhelming amount of warmth added to the comforting scent of blooming roses in spring. It made him feel dizzy and for some reason nostalgic, this woman also had the same hair and eye color as him.
In the deafening silence, the woman beside Casen cleared her throat. "You brought the heart, yes?"
The red-eyed woman snapped out of her daze and took out a heart that was a little larger and darker in color than a human's. "Ah yes! Here!" She approached Casen quickly, practically appearing right in front of him but he was still stuck in his daze to notice the heart that he so badly wanted in her hand.
With her up close a memory hidden deep in the corners of his mind was brought forth. It was when he had just been born and he was being held delicately in this woman's hands while she had a beautiful smile on her face as if he were the most precious thing. The scent, the warmth. It was all the same. The reason for his blood to stir was because it inherently recognized her as his mother.
He knew who she was, he wasn't stupid enough not to see the similarities between them and put two and two together but what should he say? He couldn't find the words, so he pushed the heart in her hands away and enveloped her in a tight hug, ignoring his bodies condition.
His emotions were in a whirl but the only thing on his mind was how she must've felt. From his only memory of her, she didn't seem like someone who'd abandon their child and that was enough for him to let go of his resentment, dragons were possessive after all, and allowing him to sink into her embrace made his worries wash away.
When his mother approached him with the heart she expected him to come back to reality at the sight but the silence that the other woman had attempted to break filled the atmosphere again and both of them grew increasingly anxious.
Both could hear the abnormal beating of his heart and were waiting with bated breath at what he could be thinking about. They knew that the blood in dragons reacted differently to their family and his mother was worried he'd hate her for not being present but as long as she was able to watch over him and protect him from afar, she'd be happy.
But when he hugged her as if she were about to disappear at any moment, being afar wasn't enough. Casen didn't realize that what he knew of dragons was watered down when compared to his mother.