Chapter 103: The Little Girl and the Cave Salamander (Part One) (Fourth Update)

On the same morning, far away on the Western Continent, a little girl was running out the door, crying. Shortly after, an Asian man stepped outside and stood at the doorway. Watching the small figure of the girl running away, guilt flickered across his face, but he quickly suppressed it. Instead of chasing after her, he turned back inside, smiling faintly at a blonde woman and a baby boy just a few months old.

“It’s nothing, don’t worry. Lucy is just throwing a childish tantrum. She’ll understand when she’s older.”

“Mm,” the blonde woman nodded, forcing a smile, but a trace of sorrow lingered in her eyes.

———

On a low grassy field, the little girl ran crying, her unstable footing causing her to fall hard onto the grass. Her forehead struck a patch of hard earth, a thin trickle of blood appearing immediately.

“Waaahhh…” The pain on her forehead, combined with her heartache, made her sobbing grow louder.

“Daddy doesn’t love me anymore, Mommy doesn’t want me, and my classmates don’t like me either…”

“I don’t want this…”

“I want Mommy…”

On the grass, the girl howled loudly. Her once clean and adorable dress was now soiled with dust and stained by crushed blades of grass. Sitting up, she wept bitterly for more than half an hour, her voice growing hoarse before she finally quieted.

Staring at the empty field, she looked back longingly—but the place behind her was empty, and her yearning turned into despair and gloom. Sitting there on the grass, she felt like a child abandoned by everyone. No one cared for her, no one liked her, and no one was willing to keep her company. She was like an orphan isolated from the world.

That sense of confusion and unease filled her entire heart. Even though she had a family, she felt homeless in that moment. Unconsciously, tears she’d fought so hard to hold back trickled once more down her cheeks.

“No! I don’t want this!” Her tender face was full of weakness and unwillingness.

———

She sobbed quietly, her rosy cheeks swollen and red. She didn’t know how long she had cried on that grass until she suddenly thought of the little salamander by the stream—her “little dragon.”

Exhausted but hopeful, she finally stood up. Wiping her cheeks, her face was streaked with tears and dirt, but she didn’t care. With her tear-streaked, swollen eyes, she slowly ran again, heading toward the last sanctuary in her heart.

Passing through sparse, low trees, she reached the familiar stream. But as she looked at it, she froze.

The warm stone cave where the salamander once dwelled was gone.

She stood there for over ten seconds, trembling at the corners of her mouth, nearly despairing.

“Ah!”

“No, no!”

“Little dragon! My little dragon!”

“I don’t want this!”

“Little dragon, where are you?”

She cried out hoarsely in pain, rushing recklessly into the stream. As she stepped into the water, she tripped over a small hole and fell in, splashing water everywhere.

Despite this, she climbed back up and frantically overturned every warm stone she could see.

The blows she’d suffered that day were the most intense in her short life of less than seven years. She could endure bullying from classmates, but when her father told her he had divorced her mother and was now bringing home a stepmother, it shattered the last fragile hope she clung to.

Now, the disappearance of the salamander robbed her of the final comforting lifeline for her soul.

Despair.

A despair she had never known before washed over the little girl’s heart.

The thought of ending it all began to creep into the mind of a child who should have been enjoying a happy childhood.

Exhausted from crying, she had little strength left. After falling into the water and flipping a few small stones, she collapsed weakly, sitting in the stream.

Her eyes glazed over, empty as they stared at the gently flowing water.

Tears had dried; her throat was completely hoarse.

Like a doll emptied of spirit, she stood silently there.

Everything seemed to be coming to an end—a story destined to conclude in tragedy was nearing its final moments.

But then—

Beside the girl, suddenly, in the shallow, ordinary stream water, a watery form emerged.

The girl stared at the floating column of water, her eyes still vacant.

She should have been frightened by this eerie sight, but she remained expressionless.

Her gaze unfocused, she met the eyes of the upright water column.

Then, the column began to lose its translucent, watery clarity.

For a moment, the massive, imposing head of the salamander appeared before her.

Though its head seemed large and majestic, its lively, joyful eyes made it look very young.

Its entire body was pure silver-white like snow, as it joyfully circled the girl.

Even before she had fully recovered, it pressed its head gently against her face.

At the same time, it extended its tongue to lick her cheek.

So cold.

That was the sharp sensation the girl felt when the salamander’s tongue touched her face.

The cold was like having an ice cube pressed against one’s back in the height of summer.

Startled by the chill, the girl’s vacant, unfocused eyes suddenly cleared.

She looked at the gleeful giant before her and, for a moment, believed it truly was her little dragon.

“Little dragon? Is that you?” Her trembling lips parted in a hoarse voice.

The salamander responded with its joyful, big tongue.

“Ah! So cold!”

“You are—you are my little dragon!” The girl exclaimed in disbelief, her face lighting up with joy.

Before she could say more, the salamander nudged its head into her arms, knocking her down into the stream.

Then, a clear, tinkling laughter echoed through the air.