The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 17

I jumped out of my bed and carefully rummaged through my robe to locate the gem that Sylvia entrusted me with.

"H-haha...Holy shit..." I breathed out as I fell back on my butt, staring at what used to be the rainbow-colored gem.

"Kyu~!"

The stone wasn’t a gem...

It was an egg!

And what used to be an egg was now something that I couldn’t put into one word.

The first thing that had come into mind was that it was a dragon. It looked sort of like a dragon to me, but at the same time, it didn’t. It was all black. It kind of reminded me of a small kitten but with scales. It was sitting on all fours, studying at me with its head tilted to one side. The sclera that would usually be white in the human’s eyes was black, like Grandpa Virion when he uses his second form, except its irises were a bright red instead of yellow. The pupils were sharp slits that would normally make it look menacing, but with the body of something akin to a small feline animal, it just looked adorable. The most noticeable difference between a dragon like Sylvia and this little... thing was that it had two horns on its head. The horns looked identical to the illusion that Sylvia had been before she revealed to me that she was a dragon. It curved outward around its head and then, sharpening into a point in the front.

Its head was shaped like a cat’s but the snout was a just a little bit more pointed, otherwise the same. The tail, though, looked exactly like Sylvia’s tail. It was a reptilian tail that had two red spikes at the end. Along the spine of this hatchling were also small red spikes that matched the color of its eyes. It didn’t have wings but where the wings should be located were, instead, two small bumps.

I could see that its belly didn’t have scales, though; it looked sort of leathery.

The newly hatched creature suddenly let out a toothless yawn, toppling on its back after losing balance.

And in response, I was flushed with the overwhelming urge to embrace this creature.

"Kyu?" It locked its sharp eyes at me with intelligence that didn’t match its appearance.

"H-hi there little fella, I’m Arthur." I stretched my hand out towards it as if it were a dog that needed to know my scent.

"KYU!" It jumped off of the chair and onto my lap, gazing up at me.

I could feel my hands twitch as I suppressed the urge to squeeze it. Unlike the majesty and fearsomeness that Sylvia had, this creature was dangerous in a different sense.

Unable to hold in the urge, I carefully petted the adorable menace. The scales were surprisingly soft and the red spikes that ran down its back felt like rubber. I guess young animals, whether humans or monsters were all squishy and soft. It started purring, closing its eyes.

I could feel the tension on my face melt as I let out a soft laugh. "Hehe..."

It rolled onto its back, asking for a more thorough rub. The belly felt like a very soft leather, making it very smooth to rub. I took a closer look at its claws and found it interesting that it looked closer to paws than actual claws. The only thing that was hard were its horns, which were surprisingly sharp as well. I couldn’t help but compare it to the beak a bird would use to crack itself out if its shell.

"Aren’t you just a cute lil fella?" My smile widened while petting this adorable newborn, to the point where it seemed intoxicating.

After a little bit, I couldn’t help but think of what to name it, which made me realize I didn’t even know the gender of this mysterious creature.

"Kyu~!" Suddenly the newborn shot its tongue out and licked the underside of my left forearm.

"Ah!" I reflexively tried to move my arm back from the scorching sensation, but before I could, a glowing black light began enveloping my arm.

The prickling pain subsided fairly quickly so I just waited. The creature pulled its tongue back, revealing a black marking on my forearm.

It looked a lot like the tribal markings that covered Sylvia before she passed on her will to me but the shape of this pattern was that of a wing. Just one open wing, but it was made up of several dashes and sharp curves that branched out, making it look very intricate and mysterious.

I was only eight but I already had a tattoo. I’m such a rebel.

’...Mama~?’

The creature was looking up at me with its mouth closed.

What? I obviously heard a voice just now.

’Mama?’ This time I heard it clearly in my head.

Was this...telepathy?

Shaking my head helplessly, I responded vocally, "I guess I’m your mother. But I’m a boy so you should call me papa."

’Papa!’ It suddenly jumped up and licked my nose.

I’m a rebel with a tattoo and a child.

After communicating with the creature for a bit, I had come to realize a few things. I guess after the mark had appeared on my forearm, a sort telepathic connection was established. The voice I heard in my head from the creature sounded like a girl’s so I’ve decided to name her Sylvie after her real mother.

"Syeevy?" she responded with her head tilted.

Picking her up and bringing her close to my face, I smiled at her, "That’s right! Your name is Sylvie."

She nuzzled her nose to mine while closing her sharp eyes.

Another thing I realized was that Sylvie had a pretty high intelligence for a newborn. She already seemed to have the mental capacity of a 2-3 year-old child. While we’re communicating telepathically, I knew she’s not necessarily talking to me in English but I just understood it as that. It was a very odd feeling, not knowing the words she’s actually saying but knowing what she meant. Besides simple words like "papa", most of the thoughts she communicated with me come through as emotions. I was able to get the gist of what she meant by how she felt.

"Okay Sylvie! I need to wash now. Do you want to come with me?" I said while setting her down.

"Kyu?" She tilted her head again while she looked up at me. I felt like she was asking me what "wash" was so I just laughed and took her with me.

Getting into the shower, she seemed to cry out ’NOOOOOOO’ as she wailed a shrill "KYUU!"

"I guess you don’t like water that much, do you Sylvie?" I chuckled, setting her down out of the shower.

Sylvia shook herself off like a wet dog and plopped down on the floor next to the shower, her tail wagging, observing me as I finished washing up.

Her behavior sort of reminded me of a mix between a dog and a cat. Never would I imagine her lineage to be that of a mighty dragon. Of course, this was assuming that she actually Sylvia’s child.

That got me thinking though.

Was Sylvie really a dragon? She sure looked kind of like a baby dragon...

Why was she completely black when Sylvia was pure white? What baffled me the most was the fact that Sylvie had horns eerily similar to that horned, demon king illusion that Sylvia was at first and also to the demon that confronted her.

I got out of the shower and dried myself off. No use thinking about all of this now; how was I going to explain this to Gramps and Tess, though?

As I got out of the bathroom, Sylvie toddled behind me, ’kyu’ing me to not leave her behind.

I gathered up the pieces of the shell that Sylvie came out from and set it aside. Then I wrapped the feather that was encasing the stone around my forearm to cover the marking that little had Sylvie left.

Four months. In four months, I would be able to see my parents. I wonder if they’d still recognize me.

Sylvie must’ve felt the longing emotion of my parents because she cuddled in close to my face and licked my cheeks.

"Thanks little Sylv." Petting her horned head, I fell asleep.

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"KYAAAAAA!"

"What is it? What happened? Who’s there?" I jumped up on my bed, using my pillow as a makeshift sword, bed hair ablaze.

"Omygosh! What is this? It’s so CUTE! Kyaa!"

I turned my attention to Tess who was holding onto the squirming Sylvie.

"Kyu!!" It cried. ’Papa, help!’

Letting out a defeated breath, I fell back into bed.

Come back my beautiful sleep...

"Her name is Sylvie and she just hatched from her shell yesterday. You should let go of her, though. It looks like she doesn’t like being strangled," I muffled through the pillow that I covered my head with.