This is the side story of the dragon’s fang in their childhood. I’m still working on it but I just wanted to release the first chapter to see if it’s looking well.
Please have fun!
——————————————————–
As his hands burned from the cold, the little kid crawled from the snow gritting his teeth, cursing the men who left him beaten up. His blood painting the pure white a bright crimson red, the kid looked up to the sun and smiled.
“Haughty idiots…” His giggles got masked by the screaming winds, “winter is almost over. I just have to hold for a bit longer.” He encouraged himself as he stood, his frost-bitten fingers drew something from the midst of snow. A dead chicken and a small pouch filled with rice.
The kid slowly crawled to a nearby shed where he hid, his teeth grinding against each other and his arms shaking uncontrollably. He could barely feel them and there were already blue and purple.
Gathering all his strength, the kid gulped down some of the rises as it was and stood up. Walking outside as he gathered his breath, his goal is the top of a mountain.
Looking around him, no one dared to be out in this storm yet he was, something greater was moving him, a heat swelled from inside his heart enough for him to forget the cold.
After climbing the mountainside to not be seen, he knew his reputation well. He will be stoned the moment someone lays their eyes on him. Eventually, he reached the top, a run-down shrine stood there, the doors were broken, and the long-dead sakura tree standing by its side hadn’t bloomed in decades.
The kid glanced around to check if anyone was out, he was lucky they seem to have stayed inside due to the cold. “Good, she isn’t here!” The sighed in relief, he slowly approached the door and dropped the rice and the dead chicken there, and quickly left, leaving a trail of his blood.
The shrines door slowly cracked open and a little girl peeked out, her withered face and arms trembled in the cold, what she was wearing could only be described as a worn-out rug. She looked around, quickly noticing the blood trail. She looked down and spotted the dead Chicken and the rice.
“Was it him again?” She whispered to herself, the loud growl of her stomach quickly cleared her thoughts. Tip, tap, a bunch of other kids appeared from behind her to see what was out. Their condition was just like her, “Miko-neesan, it’s cold!” One of the kids cried, she quickly grabbed what she found at the door and strolled inside. Praying for the safety of whoever was still leaving an offering at this abandoned shrine.
…
The kid who was still watching from afar gritted his teeth, at his failure. “She never looks better, I know it. This isn’t enough!” He banged his hand on the tree, quickly rushing down to look for more.
On his way back to the shed, the kid heard the enthusiastic voice of another kid. “NOT YET!” He stooped to check, “NOT YET! NOT YET!”
A kid his age was standing shirtless in the middle of the snow swinging a wooden sword. His body was well-toned for someone his age, the snow under his bare feet had melted from the heat.
The kid looked at his healthy peer and looked at his own broken body, Tch! “This was I can’t ever show my face to her!” He cursed and ran away.
The kid that was training looked at the trees and smiled, “Such resilience, such fortitude, even he looked at death’s door he still had could move, I wish to reach his heights!” He said out loud, sadly his words were never heard because of the loud storm.
“Takeshi! Get back inside!” The scream of a man called him, the kid turned and replied, “NOT YET! I still haven’t reached my limit!” He kept swinging like a mad man.
…
Our kid reached his shed in pain, quickly falling on the cold wood unconscious. The exhaustion and pain finally took him out.
The next day he woke up to the golden rays of the sun hitting his eyes. To him who never experienced what it feels to stand beside a fire, this heat was his only blessing. He painfully stood and walked to stand in the sun.
“It’s sunny today, luck seems to smile on me for once!” He smiled at the bright sun, encouraging himself to move.
Slowly he made his way to the town, not getting close as the people know him, he just stayed on the outskirts eyeing the farms and the travelers. What should he go after today, the travelers were no good as in each group there was at least one holding a Katana at his waist.
“Damned samurai, go stand by the lord’s side and leave us alone!” He spitted to the side and cursed, quickly getting closer to the farms to check them.
‘I need to get more, at least two chickens, not a full bad of rice!’ He only eyes what he could carry, there was a limit and he knew better. Sneaking from tree to tree, sometimes crawling in the snow. The kid quickly reached the fence.
No one was around, even though it was day, it was still freezing outside, people won’t just be strolling around. The chicken coop was to his right and the warehouse to his left.
“Those feathery bastards are noisy, I better secure the rice first.” He mumbled as his lips were too frozen to move normally. The kid sneaked to the warehouse, the door was locked so he looked for another way in.
“Shit, they locked it well this time!” He cursed as he found all the windows locked, there was no easy way in and he didn’t have the means to break the lock.
Steeling his resolve, the kid made his way to the house. It was a risky move if he was caught he might even get killed this time. Yesterday he was spared just because the people who caught him didn’t want to dirty their hands and just left him to die of cold.
The house wasn’t fancy yet it was several times bigger than his shed, he know very well that this house wasn’t rich, he was just that down. Looking around him and listening carefully, he could hear the chatter coming from the inside, a faint warm smoke was oozing from one of the closed windows.
He slowly approached the only wall he didn’t hear noise coming from, looking around him, he was alone. He then tried to peek through the window. Inside, an old lady was sleeping in her bed peacefully, by her side laid several braids of garlic and onion.
‘She fell asleep after working?’ The kid wondered, someone seem to have covered her after she fell asleep. He imagined the girls at the shrine sleeping and himself covering her with a warm blanket. His blood started to rush and he got energized again, quickly entering the room and snatching a braid of each. As he was leaving, the old lady opened her eyes and spotted him.
“A…A thief!” She screamed louder than what her age allowed her, scaring the kid to the bone. He could hear the heavy footsteps rushing toward the room. He quickly ran away.
CRACK! A man violently slid the Shoji doors and left holes in them where he grabbed them.
“Mother, are you alright!” He screamed, “I’m fine, he took some of the braids!” She cried.
“It’s got to be him, that accursed Daraku kid!” He growled as rushed out to give chase.
…
Daraku was running as fast as he could, ‘I can’t just give her onion and garlic!’ he made a detour for the chicken coop, shaking the door as hard as he could until it opened, he rushed to grab two from their wings and made a quickly got the hell out. He could see the man behind his scrambling to catch the feeling chickens.
Daraku smiled as he saw his chaser stop, at that moment he saw something dreadful. A woman far behind the man was drawing her bow, the blood drained from his veins.
Archers were known to snipe people from atop running horses, he was a sitting duck if she was skilled enough.
The arrow came whistling as if chanting the kid’s life away, Daraku only regretted not having the courage to stand in front of that girl at the shrine. If he just had some backbone he could have talked to her at least one time before he died.
ZAZAZA! A weird noise was heard and the arrow changed its direction at the last moment, Daraku looked to the side and saw a little girl pointing a wooden stick in his direction, by her side was an old hag who wore a funny forging outfit.
He sadly didn’t have time to think about it further and just kept running, there was only one thing in his head. Getting back to that shrine no matter what!
He grinned at his haul, today it was two chickens and two braids of garlic and onion. He could only imagine how the girl at the shrine would look after she gets better.