Chapter 6: The Knife and Amber
“I’m home, Lax!”
Bursting into the mountain cabin with joy bubbling inside her, Charlotte was immediately tackled by Lax, who had obediently waited for her return.
After looking around the room and confirming that Lax had not made a mess, she thoroughly petted him from head to back to wings to bottom.
Just because they could not communicate with words did not mean she should spoil him endlessly.
That was Charlotte’s philosophy on raising children.
And so, whenever Lax behaved properly, she praised him wholeheartedly, and whenever he did something wrong, she scolded him without hesitation.
Lax was a clever child, and after turning two, he rarely misbehaved anymore.
Though every now and then, he still lined up the mice he caught by the front door, and whenever that happened, Charlotte properly scolded him for it.
—You mustn’t take lives for fun if you aren’t even going to eat them!
Lax’s upbringing was vastly different from that of ordinary dragons.
And so, completely absorbed in each other, the two of them—one woman and one creature—failed to notice someone approaching the cabin.
That was why they were utterly shocked when the door suddenly burst open and a figure came tumbling inside.
“Gyaah!?”
“Kyaa!”
The two froze while still clinging to each other.
Lax’s cool stomach pressed tightly against Charlotte’s cheek.
“Ow…”
The intruder had literally rolled into the cabin and was now sprawled across the floor, groaning in pain.
Apparently, he had banged his knee somewhere.
“Oh dear, are you alright?”
Charlotte hurried over to him in concern.
However, when she leaned closer to inspect his injury, she was suddenly met with a short knife thrust toward her.
“Gyaaaahhh!”
Lax roared angrily and tried to leap at the boy.
Charlotte desperately stopped him.
“Stop it, Lax!
He’s just a child!”
Yes, the one who had barged into their tiny home was a young boy with soft cheeks, still far from grown.
As Charlotte disinfected his scraped knee, she asked why he had done such a thing.
Was he perhaps a merchant’s child?
He was dressed remarkably well.
At first, the boy remained stubbornly silent like a clam, but after tearing up from the sting of the disinfectant, Charlotte rewarded him for not crying with a cookie.
Only then did he finally seem to relax.
Though this was an ordinary sweet cookie rather than one with herbs mixed in.
“I heard there was a witch living in the northern forest.”
Sitting across from Charlotte at the table, the boy spoke while carefully watching her expression.
His gaze slowly drifted downward until he found himself staring intently at Lax sitting in Charlotte’s lap.
Charlotte, who had never even imagined that she herself was being called a witch, tilted her head in confusion.
“I’ve lived in this forest for about three years now, but I’ve never once seen a witch.”
At that, the boy’s brows furrowed sadly.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
When Charlotte answered with a smile, the boy’s shoulders slumped even further in disappointment.
Charlotte had expected him to feel relieved that no witch existed, so his reaction left her puzzled.
“Why?
Is there some reason you needed a witch?”
Leaning forward to peer into his face, Charlotte asked gently.
The boy hesitated before finally beginning to speak.
“Well…
My mother is suffering from a terrible illness.
Every doctor in town says they can’t cure her, and one of the servants said that maybe the Witch of the Northern Forest could do something…”
“I see…”
Charlotte gently patted the boy’s head as he lowered his gaze, trying not to cry.
He had glossy blond hair and amber-colored eyes like hardened honey.
Charlotte wanted somehow to grant the wish of this brave little boy.
‘But I don’t have any special knowledge, and I don’t even know where this Witch of the Northern Forest is supposed to be…’
Charlotte agonized over what to do.
She could manage simple treatments with medicinal herbs, but there was no way she could save a patient abandoned by the finest doctors in town.
As the two sat there looking gloomy, Lax suddenly jumped from Charlotte’s arms.
Then, to everyone’s shock, he bit down hard on his own hand—or perhaps forepaw.
“Stop it, Lax!
Why would you do that!?”
Even when Charlotte tried pulling his arm away, Lax stubbornly refused to stop.
And by the time he finally released his bite, teeth marks and blood had appeared on his smooth little hand.
“How awful…”
Charlotte felt like crying.
She had always believed she understood all of Lax’s feelings, which made his sudden incomprehensible behavior all the more shocking.
While glancing worriedly at Charlotte, Lax held his injured hand out toward the boy.
“Huh…?”
“Gyua!”
Red blood dripping from the wound fell onto the boy’s knee.
And then, astonishingly, the scraped injury healed before their eyes.
The two of them stared in shock and rubbed their eyes repeatedly.
Only Lax looked proud, fluttering all four of his wings as he flew around the room.
“Could it be…
Does Lax’s blood heal human injuries…?”
Though still uncertain, Charlotte collected some of Lax’s blood into a small bottle and handed it to the boy.
Perhaps it would cure his mother’s illness.
Perhaps it would not.
No one could know for sure, but Charlotte at least offered a prayer to the heavens.
‘Dear God.
Please don’t take this child’s mother away from him.
He may jump to conclusions a little too easily, but he’s a brave and wonderful boy who came all the way into the forest alone for his mother’s sake.’
When it was time to part, the boy waved at them with a conflicted expression.
“If my mother gets better, I’ll definitely come thank you!
I promise I’ll come back again!”
Charlotte and Lax kept waving long after the small boy’s figure disappeared into the distance.