The Dragon Keeper - Chapter 1

1

“We welcome the Dragon Lord!”

A clear dragon cry split the heavens.

Auspicious clouds billowed, golden light filled the sky, and a young black dragon, not quite one zhang long, slowly descended.

The Dong family had raised dragons for generations. They hurried into the courtyard to await their lord’s choice of a new Dragon Keeper.

The black dragon raised his head. Silver rippled across his dark scales, and the weight of an ancient power radiated from him.

Then the tip of his tail passed over the assembled family and pointed at… a round, plump little toddler munching on a peach?

While everyone else stared, little Dong Rao set off on her short legs. She stumbled and was about to fall flat when a black tail darted around her small belly and steadied her.

She promptly dropped her peach and hugged the dragon’s tail.

The tail did not pull away. It ended up thoroughly scented with peach.

And so Dong Rao became the seventeenth Dragon Keeper.

Humans could not bestow names upon ancient divine beasts. Instead, dragons were designated in the order of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. This black dragon was therefore called Gengchen.

According to the Dragon Keeper’s Handbook, dragons were powerful but solitary, and they struggled to reproduce. A Dragon Keeper could sense a dragon’s presence and feelings, find sweet springs and spirit waters for it, and help it grow through successive moltings.

Once a dragon survived its lightning tribulation and its inner core became a dragon pearl, it could take on the golden body of a dragon god and receive humanity’s incense offerings.

But the new Dragon Keeper was only two. Raise a dragon? She could not even read!

And this particular dragon was exceptionally withdrawn. He did not like anyone coming near him.

Dong Rao seemed oblivious to his coldness. She would patter over and fling herself onto his tail with a little roar. When he flicked it impatiently, she swayed along with it, giggling all the while.

During the black dragon’s first molting, he thrashed in discomfort through the night.

Five-year-old Dong Rao haltingly read him a travelogue until both girl and dragon fell asleep.

He grew fast. Already more than two zhang long and thicker than Dong Rao’s body, he carefully curled around her. The tip of his tail pinned down her little quilt so she could not kick it off.

At seven, Dong Rao began to grow curious about the outside world.

After a rainstorm collapsed many houses in the mountains, she raced over with her dragon. Strong as an ox, she lifted a fallen roof beam in one hand and rescued a basket of sweet potatoes with the other.

The black dragon squeezed in behind her, lifting her hem in his mouth and sweeping loose stones aside with his tail.

The old woman they rescued kept giving them both a thumbs-up.

Later, as the dragon grew bigger and bigger, they tried to pass through the hollow of an old mountain tree. Dong Rao made it through. The dragon got stuck.

She hugged his head and pulled with all her might. He did not budge.

As the sky darkened, her eyes reddened and her lower lip trembled. She was about to cry.

Then she heard a quiet sigh.

White light flashed. The dragon vanished, and a beautiful boy in black stood before her, his face cold.

“Idiot.” His voice was scornful, but he took her hand with the utmost care.

She clasped his hand naturally, staring at him without blinking.

He glanced at her. “Watch where you’re going.”

“Oh.”

Before long, she was skipping again. “Gengchen, you’re so handsome!”

“Hmph.” He turned his face away, his ears red.

After taking human form, Gengchen often went away. Every time he returned, he was a mess, sometimes with blood on him.

Dong Rao had grown taller and leaner. She looked slender, but no one could match her strength. Armed with a brush and soap pods, she scrubbed her dragon while scolding him.

The dusty black dragon was firmly installed at the water’s edge, his enormous body submerged and his head resting on a boulder. Watching the girl bustle about, he gently patted the water with his tail. He seemed rather happy.

Dong Rao knew he had secrets. If he did not tell her, she would not ask.

She would stay beside him until the day he became a god.

But then he disappeared.