CSS Chapter 5: N and O

Chapter 5: N and O

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: UA

 

Nests

To avoid going to Frost Plain volcano, Xue Qiu thought of a series of excuses: stomachache, heatstroke, melancholy, mourning for his brother… But it didn’t work.

Ren Yun wanted to go back to Frost Plain volcano and insisted on taking Xue Qiu with him. Since he saw Golden Dragon Guangji last time, Xue Qiu has a bad impression of ‘Frost Plain volcano’ and thought it is definitely a terrible place.

But Ren Yun was determined not to leave him alone. First, Xue Qiu didn’t know any places, so far he can’t distinguish the Southeast from the Northwest; second, although Xue Qiu is obedient, he is a white dragon after all, so it is too dangerous to leave him alone in the city.

“Well, I’ll give you three choices. You can choose,” Ren Yun said, holding Xue Qi’s shoulder. “First, I’ll temporarily leave you in the custody of an old acquaintance. He’s my elder, an old blue dragon, you’ve met him. Second, I will take you to the North Maple Forest and leave you in a cave in the mountains where there are three red dragons and half-blooded dragons. They will take care of you for me. Third, I will come back in a few days.”

With his head tilted, Xue Qiu asked pitifully, “Can’t I play here alone…”

“No.”

“Then I… I’ll go with you…”

Ren Yun touched his head with satisfaction, pulled him into his arms and rubbed it.

In Xue Qiu’s opinion, although the Frost Plain volcano was terrible, at least Ren Yun was around, so he wasn’t too worried.

Frost Plain volcano in the far south, is the ancient volcano in the cold wilderness. Thousands of years ago, the volcano erupted. At that time, the ice sheet dissolved for a long time. After several hundred years, the ice and snow reformed, and the ash blackened the glaciers. On that ice sheet, the place near the volcano is still relatively hot, and in the distance is the endless ice sheet. The temperature of the caves inside the volcano is suitable and unchanged all year round.

This is where the Dragons meet. Only the young dragon would find a comfortable mountain to live in on the mainland and indulge in wealth and power. The older dragons, even the ancient ones, have stayed in the Frost Plain volcano since ancient times. They lived and occasionally multiplied here, forming a lifestyle quite different from that of terrestrial dragons.

At first, Ren Yun was worried about Xue Qiu’s inability to adapt to long-distance flight. He had been looking for his brother Frost Thorn all over the place by himself, and his physical strength was quite good.

For Xue Qiu, the hardest part was not to cross the sea, but meeting other dragons on that ice sheet.

In the Frost Plain volcano, any guard’s age was several times his age, and the frightening momentum around his body was even more frightening. For example, they were met by a huge green dragon. The green dragons of Frost Plain volcano are different from those on the vast land. The dark green scales of the dragon were calm in color, their speech were polite and gentle, although he liked to add a few sarcasm to every point.

For example, he would say, “This little guy is too small. Can this thing be called a dragon? I thought it was a little snowball.”

Ren Yun replied, “He is a snowball.” ¹

“My name is Xue Moxibustion!” Xue Qiu protested, shaking his white wings.

The Green Dragon chuckled and replied, “Oh, it’s Xue Qiu. My name is Aslina Tepel.”

Xue Qiu couldn’t easily repeat his name and say hello to him as a courtesy. After a few minutes, he didn’t remember the name of the green dragon at all.

Xue Qiu was amazed by the huge caverns inside the volcano. The structures here are as complex as the residence of human beings or dwarfs. The stones are carved into various arches, domes and bridges. Moreover, each room and passage is suitable for the largest dragon to pass through. It is just like a human dungeon magnified countless times.

Here, Xue Qiu can see the priests in the distance. It is said that he was the silver dragon in ancient times, and was the same age as the magic dragon. It is even said that he once fought with Shen’an.

When Xue Qiu was a child, he heard his parents and brother talk about that legend. The soul of the dragon was eroded and degenerated, and changed from silver to withered bone, bringing death and disease This was a warning story that has been handed down among dragons.

When he was a child, Xue Qiu had imagined the silver dragon, he basically thought of them as sleeker white dragons. When he first saw Ren Yun, Xue Qiu felt for the first time how different the two kinds of dragons, which are both subspecies of the Cambrian system, were.

He had never seen a silver dragon except Ren Yun, so he imagined the sacrifice of the fog as a golden dragon, a silver version of the Golden Dragon. They all seemed terrible anyway.

However, they are different from Gold Dragon Guangji and Ren Yun. The Halberd looked serious, gorgeous and majestic, while Ren Yun’s eyes are very gentle. The Worshiper of the Fog is a silver dragon bigger than Ren Yun, his scales are like silver covered with frost, and his eyes are like diamonds reflecting multicolored luster. His dignity is not as compelling as the Golden Dragon, but much more terrible than Ren Yun, enough to make Xue Qiu dare not look up.

The worshipper slowly approached, and Xue Qiu hid under Ren Yun’s wings. When the silver dragon rubbed their necks gently, Xue Qiu poked half of his head out to peep. It was hard for him to imagine that such a big dragon still had a family relationship. It was said that Ren Yun was raised by the priests.

The next few days, Xue Qiu had a pretty boring time. Ren Yun went to help the other dragons deal with things. Xue Qiu didn’t know what it was. In short, Ren Yun couldn’t play around with him. The priests have explained that Xue Qiu, the white dragon, has absolute freedom and can go around at will, but Xue Qiu was not bold enough to do so.

At first, he walked close to the sides, and then slipped curiously to a dense cave. As a result, he became surrounded by a group of blue and bronze dragon guards. Those guys asked questions and comments, and Xue Qiu was so scared that he almost didn’t listen to them.

“Is he stupid?” A blue dragon asked his companion suspiciously, “We have asked him for a long time, and he has continued being like this…”

Several other dragons said one after another:

“Maybe it’s stupid.”

“Is there a white dragon that is not stupid though?”

“Maybe, but I haven’t seen it. At the easternmost end lives an ancient white dragon. His family can’t tell a deer from a blue sheep…”

Xue Qiu took the chance and left. In fact, he couldn’t tell a deer from a blue sheep. He had never seen a blue sheep. Whatever it is, you can eat it! Xue Qiu thought bitterly and unconsciously walked to another cave.

Xue Qiu met the green dragon who was the guide again. When Ren Yun was not around, his attitude was much worse. After that, Xue Qiu also saw the brawling of bronze dragons, the transformation of golden dragons into humans, and rows of small caves for human beings or other races.

When Ren Yun finished his work and wanted to find Xue Qiu, he couldn’t be found everywhere. Several dragons said they wanted to see the little white dragon, so they helped Ren Yun look for him together.

After searching several passages and caves, they found the small white dragon in a cave full of broken crystals.

The dragons of Frost Plain volcano were not obsessed with wealth. The things in the crystal cave are actually stored as magic research materials. Xue Qiu’s whole body was in a mound on the broken crystal, with only his tail exposed.

He has been wandering here for a long time, wondering why there is no treasure in such a vast place where there are so many dragons. Of course, he didn’t have the courage to manipulate other people’s treasures. He just wanted to see it.

Ren Yun stood at the entrance of the cave and called Xue Qiu. Xue Qiu didn’t respond. So Ren Yun stretched out his front paw, grabbed Xue Qi’s tail and pulled him out of the crystal heap.

With the sound of crystals falling, Xue Qiu was crying and struggling. When he woke up, he was carried by Ren Yun.

Behind Ren Yun stood a row of dragons of different sizes: the priests, the Golden Dragon Halberd, the guide green dragon, and a row of similar blue dragons. There were also several bronze ones.

“How small! How lovely.” An old lady, a red copper dragon was approaching.

The other half-blood dragon, who could not see any color, leaned over with his eyes shining, “Silver dragon Ren Yun, can I touch him?”

“Give me a hug, will you?” Said the old red dragon.

Ren Yun put Xue Qiu down and put his wing around him. “You scared him to death…”

Three days later, Ren Yun and Xue Qiu flew over an ocean and were resting on a large reef.

“Ren Yun, I find that your home is different from what I imagined.”

“Oh? Why do you say that?”

“At first, I thought the dragons there would be very cold, cruel and hostile to me. I thought they would bully me with their size. But I’m not afraid. I’m a hunter who has experienced many adventures with you. What kind of danger have I not seen in this world?” Xue Qiu looked haughtily up his neck, as if he had forgotten how he pretended to be ill.

“Then I found out… Your family is a bit scary indeed,” he continued, “but not in that way.”

“What is it, then?” Ren Yun asked.

Xue Qiu shrunk his wings in pain and said, “It’s… The old red dragon, Delegnie, her temperature is too high, too terrible, but she always likes to rub me hard! There is also the priest. My God, he said he would teach me the magic words of dragon language, I can’t remember what. His eyes made me shiver all over…”

With a smile in his eyes, Ren Yun touched the thorn on Xue Qi’s back, “You know, they just haven’t seen a child for a long time. They’re a little excited. In fact, so am I. I’m always surrounded by brass dragons-”

“Child? Aren’t you a child, too?” Xue Qiu looked at the silver dragon.

“They… It’s like a human home, “Ren Yun said. “In my ancestral home, there’s a couple of old people, some elders, and I’m like a young man who’s in the city guard or takes risks.”

During the journey, Xue Qiu had met human families. He thought about it, and they were very similar.

However, Frost Plain volcano is not Xue Qiu’s home. Xue Qiu’s home is in the unknown mountains. His parents have gone their separate ways, and his brother has died at the hands of frost giants.

“Did they scare you?” At this point, Ren Yun asked, “Would you like to go home with me if I had a chance in the future?”

“Go home? Can Frost Plain be my home?”

“Of course,” said the silver dragon, with his tail around the little white dragon, lowering his head to keep his sight level with him, “Where I am, is your home.”

 

Ocean

This account is collated from Captain Denny’s log book and the poetry of the ship’s poet Goering:

It was a calm day, and the freighter Bluebird passed through the dangerous seas smoothly, and in another day, she would reach the port of White-wax forest. However, the ocean was more irritable and changeable than any tyrant of any time. After the sun had set, the watchman found a storm cloud approaching in the distance.

The crew of the Bluebird are well prepared. They have a wealth of sailing experience and are ready to deal with the crisis. As the storm clouds approached, the sea and sky became darker.

The Bluebird was tossing and rolling in the storm, and Captain Denny calmly commanded, and the crew were not frightened by the storm.

A few flashes of lightning burst not far away, and the roar seemed to be near my ears. I don’t know what happened next. All of a sudden, the crew felt an inexplicable shudder, as if there was something terrible around them.

The experienced sailor and the Captain heard a great noise – something huge fell into the sea in the distance, and The Bluebird was separated from it by the rough sea, and the Captain couldn’t see what it was.

“There’s something under the water!” With a scream from the sailor, everyone began to pay attention to the vicinity.

The wind was high, the waves were fierce, the night was dark, and the boats were tumbling up and down. When lightning lit up the night sky, the sailors found something circling around the ship. It disturbed the sea water, in the flash of lightning, even the rainstorm could not cover the turbulence caused by it.

Captain Denny was surprised, “Dragon turtle!”

He knew what it was, and hastened to direct the sailors into combat readiness. The ship had been moored at sea, but now he planned to risk full speed to get out of the area.

The tortoise is a kind of huge magic creature. Its wild nature made them extremely dangerous. It had territorial consciousness, greedy and vicious, can emit lethal steam, and even bite or capsize large ships.

Some sailors unconsciously grasped their weapons, but neither spears nor bows or arrows could do any harm to the tortoise in the storm.

The turtle’s first attack failed to capsize the ship, but it was enough to frighten the sailors. A spear was thrown at the hard, pale green spine that was exposed in the sea. The spear disappeared in the waves, and the tortoise dived temporarily to prepare for the next attack.

“There’s another one!” Then the sailor cried out in despair.

With the help of lightning, they saw another huge shadow under the water rapidly approaching, also shining silver. Just when they thought the ship was about to be hit, two huge figures burst out of the waves less than a chain’s distance from the bow.

The sailors were stunned by the tumbling waves that hit the deck. It was a silver dragon.

His hind legs held the body of the pale Silver Green Tortoise, dragging its half body out of the sea, and away from the ship!

Even the silver dragon couldn’t grab a giant tortoise. The tortoise raised its tail and swung it to the neck of the silver dragon. The silver dragon quickly dodged, but lost its balance and let go of its claws. After the turtle broke free, the first thing he did was not to dive deep, but to turn his head, open his mouth, and spray a stream of hot steam towards the silver dragon.

The steam looked like fog in the rain, and the people on the freighter could almost feel the heat.

They couldn’t see if the silver dragon was injured. They only saw a flash of lightning rushing out of the huge wave and shooting the turtle’s head from the side.

After a closer look, people found that it was not lightning in the waves, but a smaller dragon. His flying speed at that moment was almost like a bright-white magic ray.

The little white dragon did not hit the tortoise. Instead, after blowing out a burst of cold air, the little white dragon made a sharp turn around the other side of the tortoise.

The sailors had never seen a dragon before. They thought that the dragon should be huge, at least as big as their boat. They never thought such a small and sensitive dragon existed.

When the tortoise turned to chase the little white dragon, the silver dragon appeared from another big wave. He leaped at the tortoise, and the huge wingspan resisted the storm, dragging the tortoise to the front of the darkness.

At the same time, a strange but solemn voice sounded – a dragon language, according to the poet on the ship, but he did not quite understand the meaning.

The sailors could not help cheering and shouting for the silver dragon. They thought it was the messenger from the Lady of the Day to save them.

Suddenly, someone exclaimed – the little white dragon just now came to the stern of the boat. It clung to the hull of the ship, its wings struggling to flap, trying to drag the cargo ship.

For such a small body, it is impossible to pull a boat. At best, it can only slow down the speed of the ship being pushed by the waves.

At first people were afraid, puzzled, but they soon found out what it was after.

Ahead, the huge Silver Dragon roared. His strong claws seized the turtle’s throat and pressed it firmly against a large protruding reef. If it wasn’t for it’s help, the freighter would be pushed to the reef by the waves.

The silver dragon puffed up his chest and tightened his neck. A cone-shaped mist came out of his throat.

The tortoise lay on his back on the edge of the reef. The bulge on his back stuck with the jagged rocks. It seemed to be paralyzed, and its eyes moved slowly, but could not move.

Then, the silver dragon soared briefly and landed in front of the cargo ship. Together with the little white dragon, he pushed the cargo ship away from the turtle and the reef.

The storm lasted for several hours, and the lightning subsided and the rain weakened.

The thick clouds spread slowly, revealing the broken stars in the night sky.

In the dark, the sailors could see a big and a small dragon spiral up, until they disappeared in the upper layer of the clouds.

The crew took turns to rest until dawn. At dawn, the watchman was surprised to see that the two dragons were flying in the sky not far from the cargo ship.

As the sun rose, the silver dragon sped up, and the snow-white dragon followed closely.

They faced the golden horizon and flew away from the watchman’s view.