Beneath the Red Dragon

Chapter 17: Chapter 16: Anna on the Prairie

Today is a sunny day, and the temperature of the grassland remains warm under the gentle afternoon sunshine, prompting many animals living on the grassland to become active.

Nourished by abundant rain, the grassland hosts numerous rivers, and the low-lying areas of the grassland have formed several depressions.

At this moment, many fat hippos emerge from the riverbed, waddling into this water park for some frolicking.

Many animals coming to drink water are not afraid of these seemingly massive hippos, standing beside them calmly and drinking at ease.

They need to seize the time to replenish water because hippos are indeed like manure-producing machines, and this rare, safe, and clean water source will soon become murky from the many hippos, making it hazardous to drink.

The silhouettes of the juvenile dragons were cast on the earth by the sunlight, and the shadows of the assembled dragon group covered a substantial area of the grassland.

The shadow quickly swept over the animals that were drinking with their heads down, for the dragon group does not hunt near water sources.

The juvenile dragons pursued their prey and soon dove down accompanied by Karon.

White Dragon Gomot, however, landed at the back of the Dragon Group, being the most timid among the juvenile dragons, always preferring to hide at the back, even when facing prey that cannot resist.

Now it has become easy for the juvenile dragons to hunt for food. As an undeniable overlord of the grassland, the pack of juvenile dragons, especially under the leadership of the mighty Red Dragon, easily becomes more aggressive.

Soon, several white-headed buffaloes were captured by the giant dragon, but the juvenile dragons did not stop to feast at the scene, instead, they carried their prey to a place not far from the Dragon Nest Mountain Range before landing again.

This place is where the Dragon Group feeds, not because these juvenile dragons have any peculiar rituals. It’s special somewhat for the Dragon Group, or more precisely for Karon.

Their feeding here is simply to imprint the scent belonging to the Giant Dragon more in this place.

Craving a change of flavor, White Dragon Gomot took the initiative to help Karon with skinning and removing the viscera from his prey in exchange for the aid of Red Dragon’s dragon fire.

Red Dragon, controlling the usually violent dragon fire, let it become gentle, which undoubtedly also helped exercise the Red Dragon’s ability to control flames.

The fiery and softened flames licked and roasted the buffalo slowly into a fragrance, leaving only a hind leg with a big chunk of thigh meat untouched by the flame, remaining raw fleshy.

But Gomot was not surprised because all the juvenile dragons knew Karon would again use the collected fee to feed his little pet.

Karon carried the buffalo’s hind leg, still marked with crimson veins, in his mouth, walking to a place not far from where the juvenile dragons were feeding.

There’s a solitary green banyan tree growing on the grassland, with thick foliage that can well shield against the sometimes excessively scorching sun on the grassland.

Usually, such a place would belong to powerful beast groups or might be exclusive to some ferocious animals. Contrary to this, the occupant of this place is only a female leopard, which, among ordinary beasts, isn’t even all that strong.

This female leopard is obviously aged, appearing somewhat decrepit now.

The female leopard lying under the tree, with drooping jowls, looks like a toothless old cat, and its eyes, once bright, have begun to grow a bit cloudy.

Yet seeing Karon walk over, this female leopard surprisingly did not run away. Instead, she moved her now less agile body slowly toward Karon, rubbing against the red dragon’s forelimbs, and then lay down exposing her pale belly in a display of submission and compliance.

Karon gently placed the buffalo leg he was holding onto the ground, signaling to the female leopard that she could feast freely. The female leopard scrambled up in one motion, and with a purring sound, began to enjoy her meal.

Anna, that’s the name Karon gave this female leopard, and it was under Karon’s watchful gaze that Anna grew up.

The Red Dragon always had a fondness for such majestic furred big cats and upon discovering such a creature in his territory, he began watching over it.

Anna’s family seems to vary from ordinary beasts, starting from Anna’s mother. The family of leopards appears to possess emotions far richer than those of ordinary beasts.

Generally speaking, after raising young cubs, the mother leopard would chase away her offspring from her territory, which is also true for those solitary giant dragons.

But after raising Anna, her mother left by herself, leaving this safe domain to her offspring.

Maybe Anna was too lazy, and her mother no longer wanted to bear the burden of Anna’s freeloading, nor was she willing to drive Anna away.

And because of laziness, Anna, who spent whole days just napping, didn’t even learn the skills necessary for hunting, forcing Anna, who lived as a lone leopard, to start learning hunting techniques on her own.

But many times, she’d still go hungry, having to scavenge what was left over by other animals.

It seemed like watching Anna’s life documentary for Karon, seeing the leopard Anna develop from clumsily hunting on her own to later mastering her acute hunting skills.

Then, later, Anna started freeloading again. Or more accurately, mooching off her husband. Anna met a male leopard, returning to her lazy ways, knowing only to sleep all day long.

But perhaps influenced by Anna, this male leopard also behaved unusually, inspired by the inner beast.

He would attack and punish the beasts that dared to offend the female leopard for Anna, allowed Anna to feed alongside him, and bore offspring with her.

Because this male leopard was reliable, Karon named him Reliable. Unfortunately, Reliable died.

It was only after Reliable’s death that Anna took up the responsibility of raising the cubs, but after rearing two cubs to adulthood, she started freeloading off her offspring.

When her two leopard offspring reached their peak, they too grew tired of their lazy mother leopard, but they didn’t banish the now-weakened Anna, choosing to leave this territory, just like their grandmother did, leaving Anna to live on like this till now.

The female leopard never feared Karon, as in her daily life, she frequently encountered this friendly giant figure.

Karon watched as Anna slowly ate; for Karon, what was merely a transitional period from hatchling to juvenile was, for this leopard, most of a lifetime.

No longer strong, the leopard’s claws and teeth were no longer sharp and capturing prey was difficult, so Karon now delivered a portion of the hunt to her every day.

At that moment, two young leopards sleeping under the tree awoke and happily ran over, playing with abandon under Karon’s feet.

These were Anna and another male leopard’s offspring, once carried by Anna and presented to Karon.

Perhaps Anna realized Karon’s companionship and solitude; approaching death, the female leopard chose to bear one last litter and sent them to Karon.

Karon refused. The Red Dragon gazed at the slowly setting sun on the horizon, pondering how he and the Dragon Group shall rule this land for a long time, and equally long will he keep watching over Anna’s family.

Black Dragon Rosani looked at the Red Dragon draped in the dusk and, somewhat bewilderedly, asked, ”Why does Karon love such beasts, weak and short-lived?”

”Perhaps because these beasts possess complex and abundant emotions regarding family and blood relatives similar to humans,” Blue Dragon Doss replied with a wise demeanor, though he felt the use of ’family’ and ’relations’ for beasts anthropomorphic, but regarding Anna, it felt appropriate.

These juvenile dragons also frequently followed Karon to watch the ’documentary,’ among which several male dragons were even summoned by Karon to urinate under that big tree.

”Why does Karon favor these beasts with emotions?” Rosani seemed at times inclined to get into a mental rut, resembling more closely the psychology of beasts than most giant dragons.

”Well, that’s because Karon possesses complex and abundant emotions himself, you idiot.” The Red Dragon Kleyna retorted impatiently, raising her dragon claw intending to knock some sense into Rosani’s foolish head if he asked again.

Rosani shrank his head in bewilderment, muttering to himself, ”Emotions?”