Chapter 8 — Little Snake Finds His Family

I shrink my neck.

“So how did you react at that time?”

Mom laughed.

“He was stunned on the spot.”

“Later when my mother asked, he said he had never seen a Silver Frost Dragon compete with a bear for fish.”

“The Southern Dragons pay great attention to rules.”

“Before eating, you must use magic to make the fish faint, then slowly slice it, put it on a plate before eating.”

“Why such trouble?”

Nhan Triet's voice came from behind, deep.

“Wouldn't it be more refreshing to eat it directly?”

“This statement of yours is exactly the same as your father that year.”

Mom smiled, turned her head to look at him.

“After living with mother for a long time, father and son also learned how to eat fish directly by mouth.”

“The first time he ate like that, the three aunts in the clan were scared to death, saying: 'Van Do, how did you learn to look so rude?'"

In my mind, the image of a beauty with long silver hair and a picturesque face appears, sitting on the bottom of the sea holding a fish and chewing until her face is full of crumbs. I couldn't help but laugh, then choked on a mouthful of seawater. Ngan Triet swam from behind. As he passed by, the tip of his tail gently touched me. I raised my head to look. He still remained expressionless as he swam forward, but the two small tips on his horns lit up again. Is the type of light:

“I know what you're thinking, but I don't want to say it.”

We swim again for three more days. The water temperature is so cold that we start to shiver. Mom discovered it, swam to my side, and used her body to wrap around me. Her body was warm, like a small swimming volcano. I poked my head out from under her scales and looked ahead. In the distance, a dazzling white object appeared in the sea water. It's ice. Large pieces of ice hung down from the sea surface, stretching deep into the water, like rows of giant white teeth. Mom's speed suddenly slowed down. Her tail is stiff. Breathing also becomes heavy.

“Right ahead.”

She said.

“The trench that your father and I led the hunters into is located under this ice plateau.”

I curled up on top of my mother's head, the tip of my tail tightly squeezing one of her scales. Ngan Triet swam from behind. Rarely does he not have seaweed in his mouth. He stretched out his claws and gently placed them on his mother's tail. Mom looked down at him, then looked back at me. Something was swirling in his pale yellow pupils.

“Let's go.”

She said. We swim for a long time. For so long that we thought this sea trench had no bottom. The two sides of the ice wall are getting narrower and narrower. The narrowest spot is just enough for my mother to lean over and squeeze through. The tip of my tail almost rubbed against the sharp corners of the ice wall. Mother bowed her head and looked at a hidden corner at the bottom of the ocean trench. There is a crack there, narrower than the others. There are several long scratches on the ice surface next to the crack. It's the mark left by a dragon's claw. Mom looked at those scratch marks for a long time.

“Those are the marks of your father's nails.”

“In the past, whenever he was stressed, he used his claws to scratch things.”

“Scratching on the ice.”

“Scratch up the coral.”

“Scratch…”

Her voice choked.

“Also scratched my mother's back.”

My biological mother! Is it appropriate to say this in front of me and Ngan Triet? We are still just two immature dragons! Ngan Triet swam to the edge of the crack and lowered his head to look inside. The crack is very narrow, only enough for a small snake to pass through. He turned his head to look at me. I twisted my body and swam inside. The crack is deeper than we thought. The inside is winding and winding, filled with sharp ice and crushed rocks. I bend my body through every little slot. Occasionally the tip of the tail gets cut by ice chips, it hurts a bit, but we don't pay attention. When swimming to the deepest place, I suddenly stopped. At the end of the crack is a circular space. A few broken night pearls were inlaid on the ice wall, emitting a weak light. In the middle there is a small depression, shaped just enough to hold an egg. Next to the depression is a line of text. Carved on the ice surface, crooked and crooked, you can tell they were carved with dragon claws.

"Eldest child, take good care of your sister. Don't break the eggshell. Wait for father to return."

I looked at that line for a long time. Then use the tip of the tail to touch the final stroke. The icy surface is bone-chillingly cold. The moment he touched it, the spiral scale below his left eye suddenly became hot. I pulled back the tip of my tail, turned my head and screamed at my mother:

"Mom, come quickly! These are the words left by dad!"

Hearing my call, the mother's whole body from the tip of her tail to the top of her head trembled strongly. Without saying a word, she immediately crawled towards the crack. But her body is too big, only her snout can fit inside.

"Child! Come out and talk!"

She waved her tail impatiently.

“What did he write? What did he write?”

I crawled out of the crack, curled up to the tip of her nose, and read every word:

"Eldest child, take good care of your sister. Don't break the eggshell. Wait for father to return."

I felt something warm fall on top of my head. Big drops. It's my mother's tears. She opened her mouth, wanting to laugh and cry at the same time. The whole person trembled violently. Ngan Triet swam over and stopped on the other side of her. He stretched his claws across my mother's spine, the tip of his tail gently touching my tail. We stop deep in the ocean trench. A family of three crowded into a group and stayed there quietly for a long time. Then mom sniffed. Tail swinging. His voice still had a choking smell, but was more stable.

“Let's go. Let's go find him.”

Ngan Triet nodded and swam to the front.

“This time I will open the way.”

I slipped off my mother's head, swimming in the middle myself. Mom is behind me. Ngan Triet is in front. One dragon, one snake, one dragon. We turn around and leave the deep crack, swimming to a deeper place in the ocean trench. Ahead is a dark road, leading to nowhere. But it's okay. The scale below my left eye continued to heat up. The words my father left behind are still engraved on the ice.

“Waiting for father to return.”

We're here. ## 12 Ngan Triet swam ahead. The pace is neither fast nor slow, just enough so we can keep up.

“Little sister.”

Ngan Triet suddenly stopped, without turning around, calling out. I swam up and stopped next to him. He was looking at a spot on the ice wall ahead, his light gray pupils slightly narrowed. I followed his eyes. On the ice wall there was a darker mark, slanting across the ice surface and then breaking at the edge.

“It is the blood left behind by the Silver Mist Dragon Clan in recent years.”

Ngan Triet said. Mother swam up from behind, approached the blood stains, and confirmed:

“It's his.”

“How do you know?”

“The Silver Mist Dragon's blood, when frozen in ice, will reflect a layer of silver light.”

Mom stretched out the tip of her claw, just half an inch away from the blood stain.

“Look. The light reflected at this edge is different from the surrounding ice surface.”

I move closer. Sure enough, the outer edge of the bloodstain emitted an extremely pale silver light.

“Blood flows out and then clots, not blood that is drawn out before death.”

“He's still alive!”