Arad was a being driven by instincts. While the ego of a dragon grew along with them, their instincts was a fundamental fact ingrained in them since their births.
The ability to recognize whether they are the predator or prey solely laid on these instincts.
Arad has only met animals that wandered into the cave. He hasn't seen a single human being. That all changed one day.
He was going through the book his mother left when he felt that presence at the entrance of the cave.
Panic gripped Arad as a numbing sensation spread from the tip of his claws to every inch of his body. He hid paralyzed under his mother's cold body with his breathing becoming hard.
Arad, who was intimately familiar with the powers of the world, didn't feel an ounce of power from the figure that entered the open space. But he couldn't dismiss the being as a powerless person. Rather Arad was sure this figure was strong. His instincts warned him as such.
The figure was covered by a black cloak, its hood hiding the face of the invader who walked in. Arad felt an ambiguous presence from him. At a first glance, being close to that person, Arad felt warm. As if he was bathing in refreshingly hot water.
But when he delved deeper, Arad could feel a cold and oppressive aura forcing down on him. As if he was facing a snow blizzard that dragged him deeper into the cold snow. Together with the refreshing, warm presence that unconsciously relaxed the people around the figure, the intimidating atmosphere created a mysterious sensation around the figure.
Arad held his breath and watched in silence as the figure swept a glance across the den. The stranger faced his mother's corpse and the lips that Arad could see was drawn into a thin line. Arad couldn't help but think that the stranger was sad about his mother's death.
Then a tingling sensation ran through his body, as if some unknown force was peering right into his soul and body. At the same moment, Arad felt as if his heart was logged in his throat when the stranger turned to face right at where he was.
The figure clad in the black cloak knelt down on the grassy earth right at where Arad was hiding and lowered the hood. At that moment, their eyes met. Arad only had one thought as his gaze laid upon him.
'Ah! His eyes are prettier than the night sky showed in the orb.'
As soon as that thought came to his mind, Arad facepalmed. Two months old baby dragon's ears were caressed a soft giggle. Then only he was reminded of the fact that he wasn't alone. He felt his cheeks betray him as they reddened in colour.
'Stupid cheeks and stupid me,' he scolded himself for letting his guard down. To show that he was a proud dragon, Arad growled bearing his teeth. Arad thought that he will show the stranger what a majestic being he was.
Meanwhile Kai had a hard time trying not to coo at the baby dragon. He wanted to scoop up the baby dragon and wrap him in blankets to hide away from the world. If Kai scooped him up, the white dragon would have fit very snuggly between his cupped palms.
'He's so tiny and adorable.'
Despite Kai's thoughts, only a gentle expression remained on his face. A gentle smile crossed his face as he stared in amusement at the baby dragon.
Moreover for some reason, Kai felt an instant connection with the dragon the moment their eyes met. Something that was beyond the physical body and the tangible plane of this world moved within both Arad and Kai. Kai wasn't sure what it was. But before he could continue that train of thoughts, he was interrupted.
Grrrrrr. Gwrrrr.
The baby who couldn't stand without wobbling, started to growl at Kai bearing his teeth at him. Kai managed to stifle another coo that tried to slip between his lips. Amusingly enough an image of a shaking puppy that growled at a lion came to his mind at this situation.
*******
It has been a few days since Arad encountered the strange human. After the initial meeting, the human walked to a corner near the entrance and spent his time there.
After seeing how the human was spending his day, Arad could only think of one thing.
'That human is a weirdo.'
That sentence summed up how Arad saw Kai. At first he didn't find anything unusual. After introducing himself the weird human set up a camp at a corner.
Arad observed as he cooked a prey and ate it. Kai had apologised for trespassing and stated that he would leave in a few days. Then he laid down and slept there without a care.
Arad was determined to stay up all night and not let his guard down. As Arad watched Kai sleep peacefully without moving from the spot he laid down, the azure sky of the dragon's den to dark.
The stars lit up the sky with their twinkling lights and a cold atmosphere permeated throughout the open space. With that weariness in Arad's body grew to the point he couldn't keep his eyes open.
Despite his eyes drooping heavily with sleepiness, Arad relentlessly thought one thing.
'I will catch him when he tries to hurt me. He will definitely hurt me.'
As the breathing of the dragon became deep and slow, a serene expression crossed Arad's face.
"I wiv catph hipm." (I will catch him)
The baby who couldn't properly pronounce the imperial language murmured in sleep. A long shadow was drawn towards him during his murmuring.
The shadow covered the enterity of the baby and reached out a dark hand towards Arad. Then that shadow silently draped a blanket over the baby and retreated.
When he came to, he was cozy and warm unlike the usual cold that surrounded him in the morning. Arad wanted to burrow more into the warmth. He felt like he was swaddled with a blanket.
In the next second, Arad's eyes snapped open wide. He felt as if he was doused with cold water. Arad remembered clearly that he didn't own any piece of clothing, much less a blanket. That must mean the blanket belonged to the human.
'Did he wrap me with a blanket, so he could muffle the noise I make to move me somewhere else?'
A frantic thought popped up into his mind, the sleep addled mind didn't help to understand the situation better either. Eventhough he knew that he couldn't defeat the human, he made up his mind to at least put up a fight.
He was smart enough to know that the humans won't kill him if they found him. But for some reason his instincts warned him that he was better off dead than alive to be caught by humans.
He raised his head and turned towards where he could tell the human was. He was going to confront the human. So he took a deep breath and opened his mouth, only to stop dead on his tracks. Arad's eyes widened in shock and his mouth gaped open in bewilderment.
"Wat in the wuld is he doin ?" (What in the world is he doing ?)
Arad unconsciously spoke in a low voice.
The human was dancing with a tree branch in his hand. He was moving seamlessly from one step to the next step. Arad, who had no prior knowledge about swordmanship, could only guess that the human was dancing with a fallen tree branch. That's how Arad misunderstood Kai within the first days of meeting.
After that he scanned the surrounding. What he found was surprising. Kai and Arad hadn't moved from the dragon's den. Arad was swaddled with a blanket like a cocoon. Kai was doing weird things with a tree branch. From all of these observations, Arad came to one conclusion.
'Kai only wrapped Arad with a blanket because he was cold. Not because he wanted to kidnap him.'
Of course Arad was still wary and didn't trust Kai completely. But his heart felt full and a pleasant feeling filled his heart to the brim. It was his first time experience this warm feeling.
Ever since Arad met Kai, he experienced many new emotions. To him, it was like a whole new world. Arad kept wanting to experience these new emotions together with Kai no less. But still, he had a question to ask Kai.
Arad drew the blanket more towards him and gripped it tightly between his tiny paws. He cleared his throat to catch Kai's attention.
"Good morning!"
The weird human greeted him with a gentle expression on his face.
"Go...goot morwin." (Go...good morning)
Faced with an unexpected greeting, Arad stammered a reply and blushed in embarrassment at the incorrect pronouncing of the word.
He lowered his gaze to the floor feeling mortified in front of someone who displayed sophistication and elegance unconsciously in his movements.
He startled when he was gently grabbed as if he was something very precious and placed carefully on Kai's lap along with the blanket still wrapped around him. When Arad was drowning in mortification, Kai had approached him without Arad noticing and knelt down near him.
Arad's widened eyes focused entirely on the weird human. He was so surprised by this gesture that his mind immediately went blank. More than that, the warm sensation he felt earlier surged again more intensely than before.
Gloved fingertips slowly pressed on his head and rubbed his head affectionately. Arad felt that if he hid in Kai's arms, Kai would protect him from the entire world.
"What did you want to say ?"
Kai asked softly with utmost patience.
To Arad, who knew no affection and love other than the one message and the treasures his mother had left him, being cradled like the most precious being in the world was such an absurd motion.
Arad thought that someone so bright and lovely like Kai wouldn't understand the feelings he evoked inside the orphan dragon, not knowing that Kai himself was familiar with such emotions.
Actually Kim Su-bin, who became Kai Morgan, was more than familiar with such sentiments. Kim Su-bin and Kim Ye-hyeon, who was his elder brother were children that lost their parents to a car accident.
Kim Su-bin lost his parents when he was only five years old. To a person, who basked only in the care and love of his brother, expressing emotions was a strange and unfamiliar notion.
Despite that, he was also someone who could understand the workings of a mind of an orphan. He, himself never had a parental figure after all for the most of his life.
So Arad's struggle to accept affection was a familiar sight to him. He was patient because of that.
Arad, who didn't know about this but was extremely grateful to Kai for waiting patiently for him to gather his thoughts, felt immensely relieved.
His heart warmed again despite the wariness he had towards Kai.
"Wai ?" (Why ?)
Arad asked hesitantly. In spite of the poor pronunciation and vague question, Kai understood what the baby had asked.
'Why are you being nice to me ? Why are you treating me like this ?'
However instead of answering Kai posed a question of his own to Arad.
"Are you happy surviving like this ?"
For some unknown reason, Arad felt shaken to the core. No, it wasn't unknown. He knew exactly why he felt suffocated with overwhelming sadness and agony.
There wasn't a day he didn't imagine himself spending a life that was so different from the current life he led.
Barely filling his stomach with mana, enduring the paralyzing fear of the unknown future and withstanding the cold until his whole body went numb.
Arad couldn't call something like this living. It was merely surviving. Arad felt his breath hitch and his vision was blurred.
"What's the point of surviving like this if you aren't content with it ? All of this is meaningless if you can't even enjoy the small luxuries."
Kai remembered his adult self as Kim Su-bin, who didn't even know how to enjoy the smallest of luxuries like food or comfort items.
Although he had survived as a child with meager scraps of food, he didn't know how to appreciate the real taste of the food as an adult. He didn't know how to enjoy a hot bath on a cold day, because he didn't see the point of it as his body had already gotten used to the cold showers as a child.
So Kai didn't want Arad to end up like him.
"You should live happily if you are going to live."
Kai told Arad what he wished someone would have said to the younger him back then.
Of course Kai wasn't naive to think that everyday you spend will end up as a joyous day. It's human to feel negative emotions like the anxiety of the unknown and fear of failure. But it was also the human nature to be hopeful about a better future.
Hope.
That's how he had survived until this day no matter what curve ball fate threw at him.
Sniffle. Hiccup. Sniffle.
The overwhelming sadness the baby endured burst open. Tears flooded down the baby's cheeks as he couldn't endure anymore. A sombre atmosphere settled in the den as the wails and the sobbing of a baby dragon echoed in the dragon's lair.
Eventhough he felt as if jagged knives were stabbed into his heart, Kai didn't show his sadness to Arad. What the baby needed right now wasn't someone to cry with him, but a person who could steadfastly protect and comfort him. Someone he could rely on.
So Kai continued to pat the baby dragon's back and wrapped his arms securely and tightly as if to shield the baby from the harsh world. He comforted Arad and rubbed his back soothingly.
A week later at the port of Gareth, a figure shrouded in a black cloak can be seen standing next to a sailor of a ship with few others.
"These gentlemen are the ones who hired me. When I said that you wanted to visit the isles of Blanche, they said you could join them on their ship."
Jack, the sailor said jovially as he motioned with his hands towards the people standing next to him.
They could only see the round cheeks with baby fat, the straight and thin nose and thin red lips of the person, whose face is hidden by the hood of his cloak. The petite figure with his porcelain doll skin colour and the gentle expression on his face looked so delicate.
The cloaked figure looked so tiny and adorable swaddled in the big cloak. The calm and pleasant atmosphere around him, brought a surge of protective warmth to the people who saw him.
But despite his calm outer appearance, inside of his mind was a mess. It was because of the two pairs of eyes that he could see, watching him with interest.
The violet eyes of the royal family of the Emmanuel empire and the ice green eyes of the mage of the magic tower.
They belonged to the imperial prince Michael De Emmanuel and the master of the magic tower, Enzo Hale. Two of the three male leads of 'God's grace.'
'Why are they here ?'
In contrast to his pleasant expression, Kai's mind was revolting with panic stricken thoughts.