Dragon Maiden - Chapter 1

My mother’s whole life revolved around eating and sleeping.

Sleeping with all sorts of males.

Whenever she laid eggs, she never bothered to hatch them-she just let them fend for themselves.

But this time, she laid a person: naked, with hands and feet, able to move and cry.

Suddenly, she didn’t know what to do.

She poked and prodded me for a long while, muttering to herself:

“No claws, no teeth, not even a shell.”

My mother tried tossing me up into the sky.

When she saw me falling straight down, she hurried to catch me.

“Can’t even fly.”

Luckily, I was her own child. Though confused, my mother knew she couldn’t let this little human survive on its own.

So she took me flying with her.

Sometimes she carried me in her mouth, sometimes balanced me on her head.

Wherever she went, she brought me along.

Even when she transformed into human form and came to the Mortal Realm to enjoy delicious food and drink, she never forgot to tuck me under her armpit.

Until one day, an old lady, her fingers trembling, asked in a quavering voice:

“Miss, w-what is that you’re carrying under your arm?”

My mother, gnawing on a beef bone, mumbled indistinctly:

“It’s a person. I laid it.”

The old lady nearly fainted on the spot.

Only then did my mother realize that when the little human wasn’t crying, it wasn’t sleeping-it was about to starve to death.

When the old lady explained that a little human needed to be fed milk every hour, my mother was utterly baffled.

“Why can’t you just have your daughter-in-law feed her more? I eat once and I’m full for sixty years. I don’t need to eat again.”

The old lady gave my mother a long, searching look.

Then she drove her out.

“No wonder she doesn’t even know how to feed a child. Turns out she’s a fool.”