The Dragon Keeper - Chapter 2

2

Usually, he was gone for three or five days. This time, it had been a month.

Whether he was too far away or injured, Dong Rao could sense only the faintest trace of him.

Dragons were born powerful, but across all of history, precious few had lived to become gods.

She wanted to look for him. For the first time, though, she realized she was only mortal. She did not know where to look or how to find him.

Dong Rao fell ill.

She had rarely been sick as a child. Now she burned with fever for days and grew much thinner. Her family took turns visiting. She still smiled at them, but she was always staring blankly out the window.

Gengchen returned at night.

As though she had suddenly sensed something, Dong Rao sprang out of bed and pushed open the door.

The boy in black stood in the bright moonlight.

He was weather-beaten, still unable to conceal the fierce violence clinging to him. Large dark bloodstains marked his robes. A long streak of blood ran from his forehead to the corner of his eye, like a dried red tear.

His eyes were bloodshot, his brows tightly drawn. Like a trapped beast, he stared at her with burning intensity.

“You’re… ill?” Even his voice was hoarse.

“Where did you go?” she asked instead of answering.

Silence.

He did not know what to tell her. That he had gone to dig up a tomb and been trapped inside? That he had spent more days and nights than he could count killing its guardian beasts? Or that he carried a hatred he could not extinguish?

“Where did you go?” She raised her voice, determined to have an answer.

Her eyes were red. She had bitten all the color from her lips.

Gengchen still said nothing.

But that was an answer in itself.

She closed her eyes briefly and took a step back, whether in retreat or disappointment.

His hand went out instinctively. Then he saw the blood covering it. He could only clench it stiffly into a fist and slowly lower it behind his back.

“Gengchen! I hate you! I’ll never speak to you again! Go and die!”

Unable to hide the tears in her voice, Dong Rao turned away.

Gengchen froze. A boundless blizzard rushed into his chest, tearing open a wound and chilling him until he shook.

As if held by a spell, he could not move. He could only bow his head and dig his fingertips into his palms, concealing his sudden panic and helplessness.

Then came a hurried patter of footsteps, and a warm embrace crashed into him, breaking through the endless snow.

Dong Rao threw herself against him and held him so hard that he stumbled back two steps before regaining his balance.

She buried her face beside his neck. It was wet at once.

“Gengchen! I hate you!” she sobbed, trembling.

He struggled to raise his hands. He wanted to hold her tight, but he was filthy and disheveled, still covered in the monsters’ dirty blood.

She would not like that.

So he held his arms stiffly around her without quite touching her, restrained and aching with attachment.

“But… I’m sorry.” She clung tighter, hurt and miserable, with a depth of feeling almost too faint to detect.

“I take that back. I won’t stop speaking to you. And you… you won’t die.”

Time seemed to stop. Beneath the blizzard, a fierce fire burned. Something filled the crack in his chest, gentle and painfully tender.

“I’m sorry… It won’t happen again.” The spell holding him finally broke, and he forced out his belated apology.

I’m sorry.

I hope that when that day comes… you won’t hate me either.