She turned around to see a tall man. He was covered in scars. Hilda knew those wounds. She had seen them each and every day for just over a month. She recognized the man immediately.
“It can’t be… Are you the dragon…?”
The man nodded. “My wounds have healed. Somehow, I was able to regain enough power to transform into a human.”
“…You didn’t leave?”
“Leave? Why would I? I haven’t completely recovered yet.”
“I thought for sure my selfishness had put you off…”
Sighing, the man said, “…It’s true you’re selfish, but that’s just how humans are. In fact, you’re more honest than most of your kind for saying it outright.”
The man offered her something he held in his hands. “I was stretching my legs after being cooped up for so long.” It was a bundle of firewood, all of it cleanly split and tied with thin rope. The dragon had been cutting firewood while Hilda had been working outside. “Chopping firewood is an onerous task for a woman. I’ll handle it from now on.”
Hilda took the firewood and said, “Y-you mean…you’re going to help me?”
“Until I leave this place.”
She was unbearably glad to hear that. Helping each other. That arrangement felt far better than just being needed. Tears beaded in the corners of her eyes once more, but they were surely of a different sort than she was used to.
Hilda and the dragon slowly grew closer, and they began opening up about themselves.
“Why were you dying that day?” she asked.
The dragon answered. “I was an experimental animal, kidnapped from Eden.”
“An experiment…?”
The dragon’s cloudy eye lowered. “I suppose this would be ten years ago now. A boy wielding the Power of God attacked me. Despite being a dragon, I could do nothing to oppose him, and he burned my throat. He set the whole island on fire and captured me.”
“…”
“Dragons’ bodies hold a variety of sacred mysteries. And I’m quite special. They examined every crevice of my body, down to the very last scale. Many of the experiments they put me through were painful, too. Those ten years of torture changed me. I ought to have kept my heart open to others, as God taught us, but that experience awoke feelings of loathing within me.”
Now everything made sense to Hilda. She had always wondered why the dragon had tried to take her in his jaws during their first meeting. After all, dragons were supposed to be creatures that followed God’s teachings and did not bear hatred.
“…Now I realize I have nowhere to go. My home went up in flames, so even if I did leave the kingdom… In that sense, it may have been fortunate you gave me shelter.”
“If you don’t mind my meager home…you may stay as long as you like.”
“I would like to hear about your past, too.”
“Huh?”
“Your circumstances have always weighed on me. It just doesn’t make sense that the village people ostracize you so. Why would a girl as mild-mannered as you be so reviled?”
“It’s not…it’s not a very pleasant story.”
“That goes the same for my background. It matters not whether it’s pleasant. I just want to know more about you.”
After some hesitation, Hilda began with a short statement. “I had an older brother. One whom I loved dearly.”
“By ‘had,’ you mean…?”
“He died.”
The dragon asked no more.
Living together, the woman and the dragon relied on each other.
The dragon did tasks that could be done indoors, like chores and sewing, while Hilda took care of tasks that necessitated going outside, like working in the fields.
The dragon said, “I think I should handle physical work.” Even if he was wounded, he was stronger than an ordinary human.
But Hilda stopped him. “It would cause problems if the villagers saw you.”
People would grow suspicious if they noticed an unfamiliar man around her, and the knights might find out.
The dragon gazed at Hilda’s hands. “I know that, but I feel the work you do is not fit for a woman.”
Hilda’s small hands were always dirty, and her skin was calloused.
“You’re always completely exhausted,” he added.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve been used to it for a long time.”
In the end, she didn’t ask the dragon to do any hard labor beyond chopping wood at night in the backyard. Hilda sensed that he was displeased with this arrangement. She felt bad about it, so when the dragon started going out at night, she never pressed him about it.
One evening.
Exhausted from working in the fields, Hilda came back to the room in her hut where the dragon waited. A pleasant, appetizing scent tickled her nose, smelling faintly of herbs.
The dragon was in front of the hearth with a pot over the fire. The source of the aroma was the soup inside the pot.
“Oh, you’re back,” said the dragon, turning to Hilda.
“What’s this…?”
“I tried making food.” The dragon scooped some soup out of the pot, transferring it to a wooden bowl. “I don’t know if it’s turned out well, though.”
He handed her the bowl along with a spoon. It was a stew of mushrooms and forest vegetables. There was a dash of herbs in it, for the scent.
Hilda accepted the soup from the dragon and brought it to her mouth. It tasted just as good as it smelled.
And that wasn’t all. The more she ate, the more her exhaustion fell away. She could feel strength welling up from within her.
“This is good. It’s absolutely delicious.” She couldn’t stop spooning it into her mouth.
“I’m glad,” said the dragon, apparently relieved.
After finishing the soup made from the blessings of the forest, Hilda realized something. “Was this why you were leaving the hut every night…?”
“I was going to gather wild vegetables. This is a good forest. Medicinal herbs and edible mushrooms grow here in abundance.”
Hilda knew the dragon had a wealth of knowledge about the natural world, having lived in an Eden, which was green and lush.
From that night on, the dragon began to cook for her. As a result, Hilda no longer passed out from exhaustion after finishing a day’s work.
Now she ended the day with some energy to spare. Thanks to that, she began to chat with the dragon in the few hours she had before going to sleep. Hilda would tell him about what happened to her every day. She would talk to him about the time she’d found herself watching a cute little bird hopping in the fields, about how the flowers that had disappointed her last year because they hadn’t bloomed had bloomed this year, that she’d happened to see some beautiful scenery after finishing work, and about books she liked.