So dark.
Yi Longlong blinked her eyes. When she became aware that she could not see anything in this piece of darkness, her first thought was not “Did the skies darken”, but “Did I go blind”.
After all, to a sickly person who was bed-ridden all year long, having an additional ailment wasn’t something difficult to accept.
However, she soon felt something was wrong.
The place she was in right now was small, tight and sealed. Although the air had some kind of fresh faintly sweet taste, in this very small space, it was not very possible to be comfortable.
And so, Yi Longlong’s brain began to spin, trying to figure out the problem. Who was bored enough to place a sick person at death’s door inside a box?
It wasn’t a few moments later when this thought flashed across, that Yi Longlong finally found out the changes within her.
Her body seemed to be not quite as huge, no, to be exact, it was hugely different.
Presently, her body seemed to be not quite human… there was no way to ascertain this in the darkness. The sealed, narrow space deepened her terror. Yi Longlong blanked out for a while, then began to diligently knock away at this thing encasing her.
No matter what, getting out was the first priority.
She lifted her “hand” and smacked this container imprisoning her, soft slender “hands” knocked on the smooth concave interior. This further showed that these “hands” were not like human hands. Yi Longlong strongly suppressed her uneasiness, don’t think about the body’s changes, just keep focusing on how to escape from this place.
Knocking with her “hands”, pressing with her body, and thumping with her head, she did not know how much energy was wasted. Yi Longlong finally heard a chain of crisp cracking sounds, and following that, a slit of light shone through.
Suddenly coming into contact with brightness after being in the dark, Yi Longlong subconsciously shut her eyes, opening them only after her eyes have become accustomed to the light.
Suddenly, expressively rich and intense colours flooded into her field of vision. Contrasting the monotonous depression, the magnificence of colours were close to being eye-blinding, giving Yi Longlong the urge to close her eyes once again.
It’s too dazzling. Having been in an all-white hospital ward for many years, it was mostly the white from the mattress and walls, and the black from the night. Being able to suddenly see this rich scenery gave Yi Longlong the misconception of being in a dream.
Cool and refreshing wind blew in the air, trees with jade-like leaves encircled a round lake. The wide and smooth mirror-like lake was comparable to a massive piece of azure gem. Under the beautiful sunlight, the gem’s luster sparkled spectacularly.
The deep blue sky, refreshing green from the trees, and also the clear lake, was like a still picture; heart-moving and full of life.
A small distance from the edge of the lake and trees, the ground was piled with numerous white cobblestones of all shapes and sizes, just like the embellishments surrounding a decorative gem.
Such a scene reminded her of the coming of fairytale kingdoms from her dreams, but when Yi Longlong gazed down, she felt as if she was having a horrible nightmare.
Snow white, soft and small, it could not belong to the shape of a human. With the curiosity of a baby1, it was presented to her eyes.
The cage that previously contained her, was half a snow white egg shell, with the rest of it splintered across the surroundings.
Just what in the world has she become?
Connecting her observations, her appearance was like some type of newborn beast.
Strongly suppressing the impulse to hysterically scream, Yi Longlong excruciatingly climbed out of the egg shell. Using an unaccustomed body, she shakily walked towards the edge of the lake.
If she was going to die, then at least she will die knowing what caused her death. At the very least let her know, just what has become of her.
The body of a newborn was fragile and weak. It was fortunate that the lake was not too far away from the shell. Arduously moving her four small legs, and painstakingly arriving at the side of the lake, Yi Longlong laid onto the snow white, round-shaped rock that was warmly basking beneath the sunlight, then carefully peered into the lake.
When Yi Longlong was small, she had once seen a popular children’s TV show called “Little Dragon People”. The opening song had a lyric that went like this: “My head has a horn, there’s a tail behind my back”.
Right now her situation was quite befitting the description in the song. Upon her snow white head grew two very small horns, a snow white tail behind her, and besides all that, there was even a pair of newborn wings growing on her back!
This was an infantile, snow white, newborn … Dragon.
Her appearance had several points of similarities with the dragons in Western fantasies from her memories. Only she was many times more harmless, and disregarding her small stature, she was completely white across the body. Ignoring the white body, her skin was very smooth. Putting that aside, nails that could not even amount to being sturdy grew on the infantile claws. The mouth didn’t even have a single tooth.
The reflection in the lake, like a pure white treasure with a pair of clear blue eyes, other than being cute or not cute, it completely lacked the majesty of dragons from the legends.
No matter what, it can be ascertained that Earth definitely does not have this type of creature.
Turning into a … dragon, isn’t this too nonsensical?
Slowly recovering from her shock, Yi Longlong became vexed by complicated emotions. First, no matter the reason for becoming like this, she didn’t know whether to be happy or sad about having this appearance. When she was still a person, due to her sickly body her life was spent mostly in a hospital. Every time she closed her eyes, she was mentally prepared for the day she would be unable to wake up from her slumber. Now that she is in possession of a new body, she has finally gotten rid of that fragile shell. She would have been extremely happy for this, but out of all things why wasn’t this human?
The white oval stone beneath her body was perfectly warm. Yi Longlong laid on top of it, spacing out. A while afterwards, she finally begrudgingly stood up and gazed all around her, hoping to find something to eat.
She was hungry.
Even if she wasn’t too happy with her current appearance, she could not just starve herself to death just because of that. While thinking this, her sensitive nose fuelled by her hunger smelled a sweet scent. This smell was similar to the smell from within the dragon egg. It seemed like something edible.
Following the smell, Yi Longlong found the source of it. It was actually the egg shell she came out from. White like a jade, the pieces of egg shell laid on the ground of white stones, giving off a glassy shine of brilliance and an appetizing smell. But looking at the egg shell, Yi Longlong could not help but question, is this thing edible? She hasn’t yet grown any teeth, to add to that.
Trying out her little paws, she picked up a small piece and brought it to her mouth. Yi Longlong sucked on it. The hard egg shell dissolved like fruity hard candy, intense flavours flooded her mouth and flowed down her throat, becoming sustenance for the body.
All of a sudden, Yi Longlong reminisced about the words from a friend with whom she briefly shared the hospital wards. “Being able to eat is a type of happiness.”
At the time, she was only eleven or twelve. Because she lived in the hospital for so long, resentment had begun growing in her heart. She resented being so unlucky as to live with such a body. How come other children could live freely without worries in their life, while she faced the endless medical treatments?
One afternoon, the big sister who was older than her by ten years was eating lunch while giggling. “Being able to eat is a type of happiness. With every mouthful I take, from the depths of my heart I thank the gods for letting me live another second.” Her face was completely blanched because of her illness, but her eyes still shone brilliantly and full of life.
That big sister only lived with her for around twenty days. She died when her illness acted up, however Yi Longlong had always remembered her words, even till today.
Does this count as being a new life?
Although this appearance did not appeal to her, this at least was another way to continue living her life.
To be able to have warmth, continue breathing and have a heartbeat. To be able to eat and think. This was already a type of happiness.
She sought contentment.
No matter where she was or what she had become, there were endless possibilities as long as she lived. Perhaps there is hope ahead.
Yi Longlong pondered while eating.