little one, thank you for bringing me happiness (Part 1)
aka You got reincarnated as a baby dragon in the world of Mahoyaku and somehow became a wizard's familiar.
Prologue
Children's story books are filled with wonder, fantastical worlds, and exciting tales of adventure. And objects like these, which are filled with the pure and innocent feelings of children would no doubt be capable of something strange and magical -- especially with the moon amplifying its power.
On a quiet night, as a little boy sleeps peacefully, one of the books in his room starts shaking from its place on the shelf. It drops to the ground and opens, the pages frantically turning. It stops at a specific page with the image of a baby dragon sleeping peacefully on a cloud. It opens its eyes and proceeds to jump out of the book; fantasy turning into reality. Awareness emerges from its big eyes before they widen in panic. It looks around frantically before jumping out of an open window.
The next morning, the little boy sees one of his favorite story books on the floor. In one of its pages was an image of a blue sky. But it's strange -- why is there an empty space in the middle of the image?
Oz finds you buried in a pile of snow near his castle. He sensed some strange magic lurking about and went out to take a look. He never expected to find a baby dragon half dead in the snow. Oz considered just leaving you there and letting nature run its course… but your desperate cries stopped him. He looks back and sees you looking at him, eyes burning with a will to live regardless of how you're basically turning into a popsicle under the North's harsh conditions. (He remembers Arthur. He remembers the dying child in the snow. He remembers warmth, happiness, laughter and how those happy days disappeared in the blink of an eye. Oz burned everything that reminded him of that child and he regrets it. He misses Arthur. His heart is aching.)
Oz
When you wake up, you find yourself in an unfamiliar room. You hear the crackling of a fireplace and the sound of a book's page turning. Oz sits near the fireplace, quiet and still. His eyes, which were gazing at old pages of his book, turn to you when you rise from the mess of blankets and pillows. You flutter your wings before approaching him, still unsteady and weak. You collide onto his face and slide down to his lap, clutching your head in pain as you look up and give him a small squeak filled with gratitude. Oz thinks you're very strange.
The first thing he did after you recovered was to send you back to wherever you came from. You look like you've only hatched from your egg recently, so the mother couldn't be far. He doesn't want to deal with a rampaging dragon thinking that he stole its child. When he does find a dragon that might be your parent… To put it simply, you freaked out. A shrill scream comes out of you as you jumped behind Oz and clung to his ponytail. You frantically climbed up his mass of hair using your little paws and hindlegs before smacking to the side of his face and holding on like a koala bear.
You blamed your newly acquired animal instincts for the breakdown because all of your senses are screaming at you to run away. The dragon was huge. Easily towering over the highest skyscrapers you've seen in your original world. It's talons were sharp and can probably tear you to ribbons and its flaming breath would surely incinerate you if you got too close. In short, you had an awful time. When Oz comes back home, he is greeted with the sight of his teachers and Figaro chatting by the fireplace. (Another surprise visit. Oz gets them often from them after Arthur left.) And in return, they are greeted with a very distressed baby dragon on top of Oz's head.
Oz lives a very quiet life in his castle. He doesn't do much so whenever you're bored, you're either exploring his castle, or dragging Oz to go outside and touch some grass (snow?) because staying inside and staring at the fireplace all day can't be good for him. Oz complies with your demands more often than not. All you need to do is tug his ponytail. (You can't resist, alright? It's so soft--)
Snow and White adore your presence. They really do seem like doting grandfathers with how they coo at you, give you headpats and hug you close. Figaro's more distant, preferring to observe you and your amusing antics. You were wary of him too so you didn't mind his distance. You preferred it in fact. But when you see him staring off into space with a lonely look in his eyes, you figured that being a little affectionate wouldn't hurt. He looks like he needs someone's presence anyway, so you fly up to him and you nuzzle your cheek against his. The look on his face was priceless. (You did have to deal with him attempting to take you as his own familiar after that though. Oz has a surprisingly strong grip.)
You cuddle up against Oz whenever it is time to sleep. You're warm, so you make a pretty good heater. To the point that Oz finds himself holding you close after he wakes up. Sometimes, in the early hours of the morning, Oz just stares at your sleeping form, wondering how a creature like you managed to just come into his life and stay for so long. Before he knew it, the phantom images of Arthur ceased to haunt him. Of course, you could never replace the child he raised, but your presence made his days… more comfortable? Warm? It's a shame that you weren't awake at that moment. If you were, you would have seen that tiny smile on Oz's face as he imagined Arthur meeting you.
Riquet
You, quite literally, crash into Riquet's life. He meets you one night after finishing his prayers before bed. His prayer was trivial at best, perhaps just a silly, little wish of a lonely child -- he wanted a friend. And a few moments later, he hears his window breaking. There, on his floor surrounded by broken glass was a small creature with cute little wings and adorable doe eyes.
Honestly, you just wanted to practice flying. You had no intention of crashing into some poor soul's window in the middle of the night, but here you are -- being poked, prodded, and squished by a very curious wizard child. A group of acolytes came a few minutes later after hearing the commotion. They weren't too thrilled about seeing Riquet with some unknown creature but after hearing Riquet's protests of how you were a "gift from God" and that "God answered his prayer", they couldn't do anything.
The Church leader reluctantly agreed to let Riquet keep you under strict conditions: you must be collared and watched at all times, you must not interfere with Riquet's duties, you are not allowed to go outside, blah, blah, blah… To summarize, you were a prisoner. It would be easy for you to get out and never come back, but there was no way you would leave Riquet all alone -- not when he was still so young and obviously longing for a companion; so you stay and comply with their stupid rules.
It was kind of surreal how you were experiencing Riquet's childhood. The game's story made it clear how his childhood was fucked up -- how he was locked up in some hellhole while the adults manipulated him and drilled their beliefs into his mind. But it felt so much worse when you see the abuse happen in front of you. It made you sick. And worst of all, you couldn't do anything about it, otherwise they would take you away.
You do the only thing you can for Riquet -- provide him comfort. You let him hug you after a long day, you listen to his ramblings about the outside world and what he imagines it to be, you pray alongside him -- closing your eyes and shouting to some higher being up above to make time go faster so he can get out of here and meet the friends he deserves to have. You nuzzle your cheek against his when he cries silently in the middle of the night, promising that you'll always be with him. Your words come out as little squeaks, but you hope your sincerity and well wishes reach this poor kid that didn't deserve such a hard life. The one in front of you right now wasn't the sassy Riquet who can scold the strongest wizard in the world. This Riquet was barely ten years old (he's so small, you thought he was younger), deprived of a happy childhood.
Riquet's a bit clumsy with taking care of you, which is understandable. You weren't a common household pet and he was a kid. So you don't mind if he feeds you way too much or brushes you a little too hard whenever he needs to clean your fur and wings. Learning how to fly is… a challenge. Mostly because Riquet thinks that you would learn more quickly if he throws you off from a high place. You swear that your soul nearly got reincarnated again during the first time it happened. You did manage to flap your wings and catch yourself before you turned into a pancake, but it wasn't worth the trauma. After that, you vehemently refused to come with him whenever he mentioned flying.
When the mark finally appeared on Riquet's forehead, you almost cried tears of joy. You soothe his worries by nuzzling against his cheek with yours just like always and when he steps outside of that stupid church, you can't help but say "so long motherf*ckers!" It came out as a long squeak again (which is good because you don't want Riquet to learn bad words). And if some god finds your behavior disrespectful then they can smite you or whatever. You don't care. You're just happy that Riquet is finally out of that place and he'll never ever come back.
