Chapter 8: Chapter 6

“Ready, Dewl? Let's have a competition who will get the most fish today."

*KUA*

Sunny day, with a cloudy blue sky, and white hilly plains. After it snowed in the mountains for the first time this year, the ground turned completely white. It was as if a white carpet had once again unfolded covering the entire plains. To be honest, the ground here had always been filled with frozen white sand. So, no matter how big the snowflakes that rained down on them, they would only pile up a layer of white carpet. It doesn't make much of a difference at all.

It was a land on earth that was always eternally white, a place with many high hills, which rose high above the surface of the earth, and which always bore eternal frost. A place so cold and a place that has eternal snow. There was no way any existence would be so happy living in an environment like this.

Except for these two existences.

They were two existences that were extremely excited when the blizzard died down. Coming out of the hole that became their nest, they ran side by side. No, it would be more correct to say that they came out of the cave differently. One was gliding with an ice board on both feet and the other was flying merrily beside the heads of the other existences. They were a human girl, who was gliding on an ice board she made, and the other was a strange creature that flew like a bird. But it's not a bird. The creature had a body similar to ancient reptiles such as dinosaurs, but it had white, silky, and soft fur. Plus, with its two broad wings and a long white tail, it looks like a flying reptile.

Its name is Dewl, a gift from that human girl. Like family, they look very close. The two of them had always lived side by side on this snowy mountain. They can also understand each other even without a language intermediary as if they can talk from heart to heart.

Two years old, the creature called Dewl was already the same length as the human girl's height. As the human girl glided away, Dewl would fly a short distance over the human girl's head, ostensibly to keep them close.

And so, on this sunny morning, after a heavy snowfall last night, they went about their usual activities without suffering from any problems with the weather. The human girl was only wearing clothes with lots of openings and was barefoot while treading on the ice, while Dewl was flying normally with what it was born with. They went towards a lake whose surface had now completely turned to ice. And without the slightest bit of discomfort, they slid into the middle of the icy lake in high spirits.

“First, I will open a hole here as a starting line, Dewl. We will jump together and after that, it is freedom for ourselves to swim to find as many fish as we can. The fish are put up here separately, all right. Don't eat it right away or you'll reduce your chances of winning!”

*KUA*

"Okay, let's get started!"

*KUA*

And just like that, they suddenly jumped into the cold water without any hesitation. Just to play around looking for food in the form of lake fish.

***

True, in the end, I somehow decided to continue living in the cave that I had previously discovered in a certain mountain range. Because this place is very comfortable and can fulfill my three important needs. First, a place to live with a cool atmosphere. Second, it is close to food sources and has a large water supply, in other words, close to the lake. I just needed to slide to go, which didn't take long at all to get there. And lastly, this place also seemed extremely remote from the human territory. Plus, now I came up with an idea to make my place more comfortable than it is now and a way to prevent mosquitoes from climbing the mountains. I got it when I remembered how my mother set up her basement to keep the temperature at her comfort point. So I constantly make my body absorb heat to lower the temperature a bit and create water vapor to form thick clouds around the cave I live in. It takes months to create a truly ideal environment, but that process will speed itself up when winter comes. So, I just need to maintain it afterward, which doesn't consume much energy. It's also great as a workout routine for me to manage my energy expenditure.

That's why I discouraged myself from heading north and instead settled in these mountains.

But the biggest reason why I'm not moving is because of something too.

That was the time two years ago. When I find eggs.

At first, when I was still lulled by greed, my stomach was happy to find a preserved egg. Not decaying fossils, nor egg-shaped rock. I suspect it is because the color of the egg white is still maintained without fading. And it also looks like it's still fresh. Not fresh because it's covered in ice, but fresh because it feels like it can still hatch. I don't know what it is, but my instincts give me that feeling.

However, I continue to live by the principles of the jungle. Because of that, I intended to eat it no matter what kind of egg it was and without even needing to think about why an egg could be that big. And so, using my ability, I took control of the ice enveloping the egg and manipulated it to separate itself from the egg, so that I could get the whole egg.

But for some reason, while I was channeling my power into the ice to take over and manipulate it, a few moments later the egg suddenly glowed brightly. Like responding to the greeting and as if it was excited when it was released into the world.

“Eh... what's this? What happened?"

I was shocked and could only stare silently in panic as I shrunk my vision with one hand, trying to reduce the amount of intense light entering my eyes.

And so, suddenly the hatching process started without my permission.

First, with a slight shake, cracks start to appear on the leading edge. Spawns something like a head snout. The light also started to dim when that existence came to take its first breath of air. I could tell at a glance that it wasn't a bird, because after all the snout didn't come from the beak of any bird. With baby teeth sticking out of its lips, it might have been some kind of reptile like a crocodile, a snake, or something like that. But with a different size.

It was with its weak strength, trying to open the remnants of its shell. And as a result, cracks started to spread around the circumference line of the egg. It pushed with its gentle force to drop its outer shell and detach its head. And the creature had finally managed to carve its face into the world that greeted it. Slowly, next were its hands that stretched out to form a pair of leather wings growing from its back. With a few thin white hairs covering it, it tried to spread its wings with great difficulty, only to find that it ended up slamming its own body gently into the ground. Again, through its strength, it tried to get up on its two feet. Now, the creature will show you how to crawl out of the egg, to try to get its feet on the ground for the first time. Finally, clumsily, it managed to separate from its eggshell with a bit of glee. Although it looks like the creature still needs a little more time to get used to walking.

And then, it looked at me curiously, as if it recognized me as something that would take care of it.

“H-how cute...”

Whatever thoughts that had previously been pooling in my brain, immediately ran away replaced by the cute charms of this creature. With its feeble gait, it was still trying to crawl on its two wings, which served as its arms, and its two legs. The way it walks is unsteady, that's what accentuates its cuteness.

My instinctive feelings were somehow immediately moved to give affection to this creature. Maybe because we are both alienated by the environment, I feel that I and that funny creature are compatible. Who had to live alone without any support since childhood. It was just that, ever since the creature was born, no, ever since it was still in the form of an egg, it had been left alone. Unlike me who at least had a mother's affection from an early age. It didn't have anyone who would fill the role of its parent. But there's no need to worry because I'm going to take on that role for the sake of this cute creature.

This creature had an appearance that I did not recognize as any Earthling. It might be because of my lack of knowledge, but through reasoning, I know that there can't be a being like this on earth. Perhaps some ancient creature preserved in ice or some strange Wyern-like creature that invaded the earth. Nevertheless, whatever it was, my instincts told me to come to this creature and care for it like family.

It's just an impulse.

But who would not agree to take care of these cute creatures? Nobody would have the heart to hurt it. It will only bring out the nature of motherhood for anyone who sees it. I wouldn't have the heart to kill it, much less eat it. So, I've decided, I will take care of this cute creature with all my heart.

*KUA*

A call came when this cute creature looked at me like I was its mother. I reached out my hand and it came up to me with its muzzle to kiss my fingers.

"That's right, from now on we are family. As for your name… how about a Dewl?”

*KUA*

Raising his sonorous tone once again, I took it as a sense of approval that surpassed joy, as if we could already understand heart to heart.

"Do you like it? Well done... then let me introduce myself, my name is Amy. Glad we met. It's like fate connected us. From now on we will be the best family couple, you agree, Dewl?"

*KUA*

And that's how I decided to stay longer in this cave while taking care of Dewl until it reached the age of two plus.

***

You are reading story The White Witch From The North at novel35.com

"Uwahahaha... I caught a lot today..." I said while spilling the catch onto the frozen surface of the lake.

*KUA*

A strange, white-furred reptile figure also emerged from the surface of the water and spat out a large amount of frozen fish.

"Whew!... You got a lot too, Dewl? I didn't expect it. Does this mean we're in a draw, Dewl?"

*KUA*

Currently, we are racing to find as many fish as possible. It is normal for us to involve games in our daily activities. Have fun enjoying the day, without worrying about the world anymore. Chasing, laughing, and having fun are what we always do every day. Like two siblings who always play together.

I don't know when we are like a happy family and always live together. Maybe it's because Dewl's antics always get me carried away. But it's true, since Dewl's presence, my life feels more colorful. It feels like I have siblings to share a laugh with.

Boredom, never again I feel. And the feeling of loneliness, somehow forgotten. Thanks to the coming of the Dewl, I no longer live in solitude.

"That's enough. Come on, let's collect these fish, Dewl. Help me carry these to the cave, okay."

It's been a long time since I trained myself how to swim. Because, if I want to catch fish running underwater, swimming is an efficient skill for deep underwater hunting. Unlike the previous river, this lake is quite deep. To be able to see more clearly the fish swimming under the depths of the lake water, I had to go down too. Even though I've never learned to swim before, I have to force my body to get used to it. At first, there were many failures in the end I almost drowned. Luckily, while I was completely consumed by the panic of drowning, a solution occurred to me to prevent me from drowning, which was to create a block of ice that would function as a float. That's how I learned to swim at that time and made me who I am now as a child who can swim.

Dewl for some reason also followed me, like a duckling in the imitation phase, Dewl also followed me to practice swimming. I don't know if Dewl is a species that can swim or not. I think it's some kind of flying animal species because it's a winged animal. But seeing it having so much fun entering the cold water made my assumptions a little off the mark.

At first, I was worried because the water here is very cold. Unlike me, Dewl probably couldn't survive in that cold water. But what surprised me was the fact that Dewl was fine. I thought, does Dewl also have the same cold affinity as me? Its fur is also just as white, just like my characteristics.

I didn't realize it before either, but if I think about it, Dewl also continues to live with me, sleep together, and do many activities in the cave full of ice crystals. It's too late to say, it seems Dewl is a kind of creature that can endure cold realms.

And shortly after that, other facts also surfaced to reinforce the notion that Dewl has the same affinity as me.

It happened when we were pretty good at swimming and hunting lake fish together. As usual, I will freeze the water around the swimming fish to make instantly frozen fish. Lately, I've gotten better at it so I can quickly freeze it without letting the fish escape.

Dewl who was watching me also noticed the frozen fish. Trying to sort out the incident, it tilted its head. Usually, Dewl just catches fish through its mouth and eats them straight away. But this time it was a little curious about how I catch fish.

“Oh... I caught a fish and froze it. So you just try to catch the fish with your mouth and then bring it to me. Let me freeze it.”

*KUA*

But Dewl immediately jumped into the water, as if it understood what it had to do. I also dove into the water to follow it, while looking for other free-swimming fish to freeze it.

And when we found a fish at a considerable distance, Dewl went straight to the fish. I thought Dewl would use its mouth to catch fish so I let it do its own thing instead of me. Some also let the Dewl hunt by instinct. As a predator, Dewl needs to hone its hunting skills.

Opening its mouth, Dewl tried to pounce on the fish and bit it with its sharp teeth. That's how it seems to me.

But something was strange, Dewl didn't try to pounce on the fish quickly, instead, it stopped right in front of the fish while still opening its mouth. Confusingly, something came out of its mouth and made the fish and the water around the fish start to freeze.

Frozen breath? Did Dewl just let out a frozen breath?

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Dewl issued something like cold air from its mouth and everything in its path then froze.

“Dewl, can you freeze the fish too?”

*KUA*

Dewl replied, as if proud of its achievement.

“What exactly are you, Dewl?”

I've had a bit of a guess. Since hatching, I've known that Dewls aren't normal creatures that live on any earth. So I thought, it might be a primordial being that traveled through time or an extraterrestrial like Wyvern that invaded the earth.

Being able to exhale frozen breath, does that make the Dewl a species of the dragon? As far as I know, only a kind of dragon has that kind of breathing ability.

“Dewl, are you of the dragon type?”

*KUA...?*

Dewl tilted its head as if it didn't understand.

But I'm sure. Only fantasy creatures like dragons had that kind of ability, be it fire breath or ice breath.

By following my mother's story, and the fact that there is a strange creature named Wyvern that appears on earth, as well as from some implied meaning embedded in my knowledge, I have a few conclusions that lead to something strange on earth. Like an invasion of monsters from another world to earth. Or maybe it's because of some kind of distortion between two dimensions, like the template in the mother's story that I often read.

After all, only fantasy settings have dragons. Earth has no such things. My mother once said.

“Hahaha... It's just a fantasy, Amy. Fiction story. Dragons are some kind of creatures from the fantasy world that mother told you about, right? On this earth, where can there be beings like that who can use magic.”

With that, I can already draw some conclusions.

"Let's go home, Dewl."

*KUA*

I got out of my past thoughts and headed home.

You can find story with these keywords: The White Witch From The North, Read The White Witch From The North, The White Witch From The North novel, The White Witch From The North book, The White Witch From The North story, The White Witch From The North full, The White Witch From The North Latest Chapter