Did I or did I not say climbing a mountain at night is an irrational act? Below us was the village . Dragon Mom would be seen if she transformed there . I couldn’t divulge the news about the dragons; otherwise, something might happen to the dragons . Not to mention encouraging unnecessary panic . That was why the two of us trudged through the snow that was at calf level . We grabbed onto the snow that literally froze our fingers and struggled up step by step .  Dragon Mom trekked ahead of me . I tightly grabbed onto her belt so that I wouldn’t slide down .

Dragon Mom was in a big rush . I could tell that from her erratic steps . I knew how anxious she was . She managed to feel the joy of knowing she had kin still around and went through so much to finally find them . We thought it was already over . We never expected that our dream that was finally in sight would be drowned . Dragon Mom didn’t want to give up nor was she willing to admit defeat . She desperately climbed up, struggling to try and reach halfway up the mountain .

I climbed up with Mom step by step . I could feel her quivering with fear . Mom must’ve been very scared . She should’ve been aware of what happened, but just refused to admit it . She was trying to lie to herself, yet she failed to convince herself . I didn’t know how to comfort her . Words of consolation were pointless at that point . She needed to see her kin . Only then could she feel rea.s.sured . I didn’t know how the village and the dragon’s valley looked . I had no clue how much damage was done by the flood . I didn’t know if the dragon race was still alive or not .

The snow beneath us suddenly changed . Dragon Mom stopped for a brief moment to look down at her feet with puzzlement . She then crouched down to reach into the snow . I, too, felt something was slightly odd underfoot . The number of rocks around us had drastically decreased . There was a path that could fit two people . If we headed up then, we’d see a small, level area of land .

I brushed the snow away, revealing what was below . This snow was different to other places . It felt as though the snow there hadn’t been acc.u.mulated for a long time, therefore had yet to consolidate . After moving away the thick layer of snow, I saw the land that was originally there .

The land there wasn’t originally brown land but black slate . It was obvious that the black slate wasn’t natural slate but the remains of human life . The moonlight illuminated the snow and black slate . It seemingly had an ice-cold aura that numbed all of my nerves .

Dragon Mom blankly stood up and slowly continued up . It seemed to be bright in front of us . It was as though a huge person smashed open a huge hole in the snow . It was a huge level entrance opened in the face of the mountain .

“I see,” I said to myself .

The area should’ve been where the village originally was . Fortunately, they moved prior to the flood . The flood that virtually came out of thin air didn’t drown their homeland . Over time, the water condensed again, becoming the layer of ice and snow that covered the original land of the village and its houses . Having said all that, it was evident that a number of houses had been washed below, leaving just the ground . The frozen village resembled frozen time . It was quite a sad sight .

Dragon Mom blankly walked over to the ruins of the anthropoids, stood there and s.p.a.ced out . She looked at the condensed layer of ice and the houses that knocked down the houses . I had no idea what she was thinking, but I could sense her pain and despair from her back alone .

“It’s all right, Mom, it’s all right . This isn’t that valley in question . If the flood came down from here, the area behind it may be fine . Let’s go to the rear to check it out . Let’s go to the rear, Mom . Let’s go check out the valley . Let’s go, let’s go . ”

You could say that I pleaded Mom to leave . Her sadness penetrated her body through to the surface similarly to a flood . The sight of it agonised me . This place was clearly just an anthropoid village, yet Dragon Mom was as depressed as if she saw her race’s graveyard .

I grabbed Mom’s hand to lead her away . She didn’t resist . Instead, she obediently turned and left with me . The Dragon valley was to the rear . It’d soon come into sight if we went along the empty s.p.a.ce . The dragons should’ve been inside the valley . Alas, the path was frozen, thereby sealed; the snow blocked it . It was akin to a door of ice . We couldn’t go through it .

I looked at the vacant land and the mountain path blocked by the snow . A sad solution came to mind . I looked overhead and, in a soft voice, said, “Mom, transform into your dragon form . ”

“Son…”

I looked at Mom and spoke in a calm tone: “Once you’ve transformed, fly up and scan it . ”

Mom looked at the collected snow and slowly lowered her head . We already knew the answer for ourselves . I didn’t want to make Mom hold it in any longer . She should’ve felt slightly better if she transformed into a dragon in that moment . Searching for her own kin’s grave in her human form was somewhat reckless . Although we already knew what we were going to see, it was better to let Mom visit her last kin’s graves in her dragon form .  The snow was their grave .

Dragon Mom gradually enlarged herself and then stood on the level ground . She immediately shrouded the entire s.p.a.ce resembling a flattened span of land . I carefully climbed onto her back . Mom stretched her wings out and took flight, sweeping up a gust of snow . Her shadow contrasted the white snow in the sky . The snowflakes were akin to Mom’s crystal-clear tears dropping from the sky .

The wild wind next to my air brought along snow that hit my face . I heard the sound of my scales shrinking, but I was in no mood to worry about myself . I narrowed my eyes and looked at the gradually rising mountain and also the valley, we had searched for ten days . It should’ve been a lake by the time we arrived .

We went around the left and right of the mountain . The centre was where the dragons were supposed to be living, but it had turned into a lake of water akin to a tea drop in the mountains staring at me .

Mom silently flew . She, too, saw it but didn’t comment . She didn’t even cry out . She just silently flew around the huge lake . Just hours ago, Dragon Mom was cheerfully imagining what she’d do upon meeting her kin . She excitedly told me stories about dragons . She told me what the dragon race had to pay attention to . In the end, the home we looked forward to seeing and the stars we crossed by were a lake of water .

“What does this mean for Dragon Mom?” I pondered .

Above us was a glistening sky . Below us was the burial of Mom’s kin . The s.h.i.+ny stars appeared to be right in front of us . It was as though I could pluck them with my hands . The sky felt closer than home to Mom .

Mom gradually descended . Perhaps she was tired of flying . I hopped off Mom’s back . Mom gradually reverted to her human form . She wore a very calm expression . She was so calm that I was afraid . She looked at the lake in front of us that was gently swis.h.i.+ng . She didn’t speak, cry or shout . She didn’t roar toward the sky, either . She just looked at the pretty lake as if she was a tourist .

I went over to Mom’s side . I took hold of her hand and looked at her calm face with concern . Softly, I comforted her: “Mom, cry if you want . Let it out… I didn’t think this would happen… I didn’t think this valley would be in this state… Wait… Wait… Mom… Mom… It might be somewhere else . It might not be this valley… Mom… There might still be hope… There might be…”

Mom extended forth her arms and gently hugged me . She stroked my head and whispered next to my ear in a shaky voice, “Son… Mommy… Mommy doesn’t have any other family anymore… They’re gone… They’re all gone… Mommy only has you now… You’re Mommy’s only family now… . They’re gone… They’re all gone… Mommy… Doesn’t have any more family…”

Mom’s ice-cold tears fell through the cold air and landed onto my neck . I tightly hugged her and stroked her quivering back . Voice soft, I said, “It’s all right, Mom, it’s all right . There are definitely more . There’s definitely some other place where they are . The dragon race didn’t go extinct from war, which meant that they might not have been killed by the floods . I’m sure they’re still alive . I’m sure they’re still alive . Let’s look again, Mom . Let’s keep on looking . I can still search for a few more decades . I’ll definitely search for them with you . Even if we never find another, you’ll always have me . I’ll always be your son…”

“They’re… all gone…? Could the last horde of invincible dragons that ruled the continent really have sunken to the bottom of the flood? Could all of her dragon kin, be it the ones who were once with her or this group that escaped the desert, truly all be gone?’ Are you saying that my Dragon Mom is forever the last dragon? Is there no place on this continent that belongs to the dragon race? Are they that against being with Mom?” I contemplated .

Roar!!! Dragon Mom couldn’t hold her grief in any longer and roared out from behind me . It was such a sad roar . It was the roar of dragon, one of despair and agony . She roared with all her might . Frankly, you could say that Mom’s heart had shattered…

Roar!!!

Mom and I froze in place and looked to the sky, feeling stupefied . We looked left and right . That was a dragon’s roar; however, the voice that was seemingly responding to Mom’s roar came from every direction…