Under the Red Dragon

Today is a beautiful, sunny day. The temperature on the grassland, under the gentle afternoon sun, remains pleasantly warm, invigorating many of the animals that live there.

Numerous rivers crisscross the grassland, fed by ample rainfall, and low-lying areas have formed into marshy hollows.

Many plump hippos emerge from the riverbeds, venturing into this aquatic playground to frolic.

Numerous animals come to drink, unafraid of these seemingly massive hippos, standing comfortably nearby to quench their thirst.

They must hurry to replenish their fluids because hippos are veritable dung factories, and this rare, safe, and clean water source will soon be muddied by them, leading to illness if ingested.

The shadows of young dragons are cast upon the land, the assembled dragon shadows covering a large area of the grassland.

The shadow quickly sweeps over the animals drinking, as the dragon flock does not hunt near water sources.

The young dragons, pursuing their prey, soon dive down alongside Kalon.

The white dragon, Germot, lags behind the flock. He is the most timid of the young dragons, always preferring to hide behind the others, even when facing defenseless prey.

Hunting has become easy for the young dragons now. The collective is an undisputed overlord of the grassland, especially under the leadership of the strong red dragon. These young dragons easily become more aggressive.

Soon, several white-headed bison are captured by the dragons, but the young dragons do not stop to eat there. Instead, they carry their prey to a place not far from the Dragon Nest Mountains before landing again.

This place is where the dragon flock eats, not because these young dragons have some strange sense of ritual, but because this place is special to the dragon flock, or rather, special to Kalon.

They eat here simply to leave more of the dragon scent in this place.

Germot, the white dragon, suddenly craving a change of pace, volunteers to remove the fur and internal organs from Kalon's prey, earning the red dragon's fiery assistance.

The red dragon controls his volatile dragon fire, making it gentle, which undoubtedly helps him practice controlling the flames.

The softened flames envelop and lick the bison's body, slowly roasting it until fragrant and charred, leaving only a hind leg with a large chunk of meat untouched by the flames, still raw and bloody.

But Germot is not surprised because the young dragons know that Kalon will use the 'processing fee' to feed his little pet.

Kalon, with the bloody bison leg still in his mouth, walks towards a place not far from where the young dragons are eating.

There stands a solitary green banyan tree on the grassland, its lush canopy providing excellent shade from the sometimes-scorching sun.

Usually, such places belong to powerful beast clans or are exclusive to some ferocious animal. But conversely, this place is occupied only by a female leopard who isn't even strong among ordinary beasts.

This female leopard is clearly old, now appearing somewhat aged.

The sagging cheeks of the leopard lying under the tree make her look like a toothless old cat, and her once-bright eyes have become somewhat cloudy.

But when she sees Kalon approaching, this female leopard does not run away. Instead, she moves her no-longer-agile body and slowly walks up to Kalon, nudging the red dragon's forelegs, and then lies down, exposing her pale belly to show submission and obedience.

Kalon gently places the bison leg on the ground, indicating that the female leopard can eat freely. The leopard scrambles up and begins to enjoy the feast with purring sounds.

Anna is the name Kalon gave to this female leopard, and Anna grew up under Kalon's watchful gaze.

The red dragon has always had a fondness for these big cats with beautiful fur. When he discovered this creature in his territory, he kept an eye on her.

Anna's family seems to be an oddity among beasts, starting with Anna's mother. This family of leopards seems to possess far more emotions than ordinary beasts.

Generally, after a mother leopard raises her young, she will drive them out of her territory, and even solitary dragons do the same.

But Anna's mother left alone after raising Anna, leaving this safe territory to her offspring.

Perhaps it was because Anna was too lazy; her mother was no longer willing to endure Anna's freeloading but was unwilling to drive Anna away.

Because of her laziness, Anna, who only cared about sleeping all day, did not even learn hunting skills. Forced to live alone, Anna could only start learning hunting skills on her own.

But many times, she still had to go hungry, only able to scavenge what was left by other animals.

Kalon watched like he was watching Anna's life documentary, watching the leopard Anna from her initial clumsiness in hunting alone to later learning superb hunting skills.

Later, Anna started freeloading again, or rather, freeloading off her husband. Anna met a male leopard and returned to her lazy ways, only knowing how to sleep all day.

But perhaps influenced by Anna and inspired by the beast's heart, this male leopard was also different.

He would attack and punish beasts that offended the female leopard for Anna's sake. He also allowed Anna to eat with him, sharing food with the female leopard, and bore offspring with Anna.

Because this male leopard was reliable, Kalon also gave him a name, Reliable. Unfortunately, Reliable died.

Only after Reliable's death did Anna take on the responsibility of raising her cubs, but when she raised her two cubs, she began freeloading off her cubs.

After her two leopard offspring grew to their peak, they also became tired of this lazy mother, but they did not drive away the already weakening Anna. Instead, they left this land like their grandmother, and Anna has lived here ever since.

The female leopard has never been afraid of Kalon because she always sees this big guy who is quite friendly to her in her daily life.

Kalon watched Anna eat slowly. This female leopard was old. For Kalon, it was just a transition from hatchling to young dragon, but for this leopard, it was most of her life.

The no-longer-strong leopard's claws and teeth are no longer sharp, making it difficult to catch prey, so Kalon now brings some prey over every day.

At this time, two young leopards sleeping under the tree woke up. They ran over happily, playing and frolicking at Kalon's feet without any fear.

These are the cubs Anna had with another male leopard. Anna once carried them, wanting to give them to Kalon.

Perhaps Anna also sensed Kalon's companionship and loneliness. The female leopard, about to step into death, chose to give birth to a final litter of cubs to give to Kalon.

Kalon refused. The red dragon looked at the gradually setting sun, thinking that he and the dragon flock would rule this land for a long time and that he would watch over and protect Anna's family for a long, long time.

The black dragon, Rosani, looked at the red dragon draped in twilight, and asked, puzzled, "Why does Kalon love these beasts so much, weak and short-lived as they are?"

"Perhaps it is because these beasts, like humans, possess complex and rich emotions for family and blood relatives," the blue dragon, Dos, said, looking like a wise man, although he felt that using the words 'family' and 'relatives' for beasts was too anthropomorphic, but the blue dragon thought it was appropriate to use them on Anna.

These young dragons also often followed Kalon to watch documentaries, and several male dragons were even called by Kalon to pee under that big tree.

"Why does Kalon like these emotional beasts?" Rosani always seemed to get caught up in details. The psychology of many dragons is always closer to that of beasts.

"That's because Kalon also has complex and rich emotions, you idiot," the red dragon, Kleinaya, scolded impatiently. She raised her dragon claws high, intending to drop her claws on the black dragon's stupid head to enlighten him if Rosani asked another question.

Rosani shrank his head and muttered in confusion, "Emotions?"