Chapter 252: The Price of Survival

Renee groaned as she came to. Pain pulsed through her body in uneven waves, and her ears rang so loudly she could barely hear her own breathing. The ground felt unsteady beneath her palms, almost as if the world were tilting every time she tried to focus.

Before she could gather her bearings, a voice rose from the haze.

Sinister. Gloating. Too delighted to be anything normal.

“What do we have here? How could you hide from us like this? To think we almost gave up on finding someone like you. We almost returned with nothing.”

A cold shiver crawled up her spine.

She blinked until the blurred outline ahead sharpened just enough to make her heart thud violently. It was not a person. It was not a recognizable creature either. It was some terrible hybrid of beasts, stitched together by malice rather than nature.

This wasn’t some gryphon or a manticore; this was just… repulsive.

Its face resembled something feline, but the jaw was wrong, stretched too wide with uneven rows of teeth. Its body was a twisted patchwork of leonine muscle, reptilian scales, and hairless patches of cracked skin. A barbed tail lashed behind it while mismatched wings, too small for flight, twitched at odd angles. Each limb seemed to belong to a different monster entirely.

And it was smiling at her.

Or at least that was probably a smile, one that a predator would have upon seeing prey.

It stepped closer, and the soil cracked beneath its claws.

The monster reached for her, its shadow rising over her as if to swallow her whole.

Renee couldn’t move. Not that she didn’t try, but for some reason, her feet felt literally glued to the ground. She could only screech in her mind, not even able to open her mouth.

Then a body slammed into her, knocking the breath out of her lungs.

Lawrence.

He had moved before she even registered his shout.

He blocked the strike with his own body.

The impact echoed like a dull explosion, so loud she thought it might split her skull. She felt the warmth of his blood splatter across her arms. His knees buckled as he sagged against her, breath shallow and shaking.

The creature clicked its tongue with disappointment.

“And what was that supposed to do?”

Of course, it didn’t mean anything for the monster who simply dismissed the human as a fly.

But for Renee, something inside her snapped.

All the fear she felt earlier vanished, replaced by something old and instinctive, something she had only ever felt brushing at the edges of her mind during her worst terrors.

Wrath.

Because in her heart, nothing could be worse than this.

She couldn’t recall what really happened afterward. At least not completely. Pieces slipped in and out of her memory like fragments from a nightmare. Screams that might have belonged to her, to her family, or to the attackers. A rush of violent heat. Claws meeting flesh. The ground trembling under the force of her fury.

Apparently, she’d been through all that and probably more.

Later, the survivors of her clan would tell her the truth.

They would tell her she had fought like a creature possessed. That whatever had struck Lawrence ignited every dormant instinct in her.

That she tore through the attackers so fiercely that even the strongest among them faltered. They would say that she had been so wounded she shouldn’t have been able to stand, yet she kept moving long after her body should have given out.

She had become a walking corpse.

A drake fighting on instinct alone.

She had fought until nothing threatening around her was left alive. Only then had she staggered back toward Lawrence’s fallen form, barely recognizable from the blood that coated him. She made it just far enough to touch him before her legs finally gave way. They collapsed together on the ruined ground.

Renee recounted it gently for her son, but Riley still felt the weight of it settle deep in his chest. It struck him hard. Hard enough that he felt his eyes sting, and a tear slipped free before he could stop it.

Who knew he could be such a crybaby? He thought as he tried to distract himself from other thoughts.

Not that he succeeded, when it just bothered him a little too much.

Was this the reason they never really heard about their maternal relatives? Was this why there were barely any mentions of them? Had they truly all died like that?

His thoughts spiraled, twisting inward until he could scarcely breathe.

But then his mother spoke again, this time in a tone that pulled him back.

She leaned slightly forward, her voice soft.

“But you know what, son? It was also on that tragic day that your dad and I first met you. And the only reason we’re even able to speak like this today was because of your sacrifice.”

Riley blinked.

It took him a moment to realize she was talking about him.

Huh?

“Me?” he whispered, completely thrown.

Renee nodded, then began to recount how the same people who should have perished that day ended up opening their eyes to something completely unexpected.

“Yes, you. Because who wouldn’t be surprised to wake up to a literal egg?”

“!!!”

“Son, you could just imagine my confusion when I awoke to concerned and crowding faces, only to realize I couldn’t even stand because an egg that weighed a ton was resting on my abdomen.”

“EH?” Riley was bewildered. Then the horror truly hit him.

If that was him as an egg… then did he just get called fat?

His face must have shown all of his emotions because his mother quickly added, “It’s not what you think, but yes, that egg happened to be you. And at that point, we had no idea what all of that really meant. Only that the egg looked like it was starting to hatch.”

Riley’s mouth opened in disbelief.

Hatch? On her? On top of a dying woman? What kind of entrance into the world was that?

Renee continued, voice softening as memories resurfaced. “Then again, my account wouldn’t be as reliable because back then, I couldn’t even distinguish hallucinations from reality. It was one of those times where you just hope you won’t wake up if it was only a dream.”

“I was simply relieved that the people I thought I would never see again were crowding around me. And when I saw your father’s face with those eyes, worriedly staring at me, I pretty much fainted in relief.”

Riley blinked hard. That sounded about right. As someone who had been fainting like it was no one’s business, he’d never be fit enough to judge.

“It was only after I woke up the second time around that they finally told me about the tale of Lawrence and the egg.”

“The tale of Lawrence and the egg?”

She nodded. “See, you’ve practically brought your father back from the dead.”

“!!!”

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