I Didn’t Find Treasure, I Found... An Eggy!?

On this sunny and nice day, in a remote village-

Boom.

“Hehe. Is she at it again?”

“Seems like it, but as long as she’s having fun. Why not?”

Not again... It’s so hard to control...

“Kurenai!”

Oh no. I forgot about the promise with my mother! Now she’s angrily walking over here... What do I do, what do I do, what do I do!? I need a good excuse!

“Look at the irrigation ditch...”

“...”

“Now it looks more like a pond! You promised us you wouldn’t test out your magic while helping us with the fields.”

“I... I-I didn’t. Yes! I just sneezed and lost control!”

Bonk.

She whacked me over the head with a massive daikon radish.

“Ouch! What was that for!?”

“Sorry, I sneezed and lost control just like you, right?”

Mmmmmmm... She didn’t even sneeze...

While rubbing the spot where she hit me, I looked at her with a pouty face.

“The villagers still haven’t managed to fill the other crater you made last time!”

“I’m... I’m sorry...”

“And now there’s another one...”

“I just thought I could help with watering the crops.”

I muttered.

“Haaaaah. I know, Kurenai.”

She hugged me tightly while patting my head.

“I’m overjoyed that you want to help us this much. But doing it like that is just too risky and dangerous.”

I nodded, sniffling.

“How about this? If you really want to help me right now, go grab the bucket and gather some water from the river.”

My eyes gleamed up at her.

“Okay! I’ll do it right away!”

Without wasting another second, I rushed over, grabbing the bucket and heading towards the river in the forest.

“What will I do with her... A kid her age should be playing around with other kids. Not constantly helping out everyone.”

After making my way through the forest following the usual path, I arrived at the river. It’s currently our village’s only clean water source.

Couldn’t we just use magic to create water? Yes, I asked my mom that exact question when I was younger. Then she put a cup on the table.

“Oh water spirits, lend me thy strength, and bless us with, water.”

So cool! Magic is so amazing! Mom just made water appear out of nowhere. It formed a bubble in her palm before dripping into the cup.

“Go ahead, try it.”

Without questioning it, I picked up the cup and gulped it down.

Bwueeeeeh.

“Hehehe. You see now? Water created by magic tastes worse than nothing.”

“Why is that?”

“Because it hasn’t been...”

... blessed by the goddess of earth. At least that’s what mom said. But how do you get her blessing?

Quickly filling up the bucket, it kept bothering me. So I decided to try something.

I raised my hand just like my mom did.

“What was the chant again?”

“Oh... w-water spirits? Lend me thy-thy strength!”

A tiny water ball appeared in my palm, slowly growing.

“And bless us with, water!”

I could feel my mana flowing into the ball.

“Yes! Now I just need to- Wait. I didn’t think this far ahead!”

No, no, no. It keeps growing! It’s already as big as my head!

In full panic mode, I had to make a quick decision, so I chose to release it.

Just closing my eyes and pushing it away from me, I prayed nothing bad would happen...

Rustle. Thud.

That didn’t sound good...

After slowly opening my eyes, my heart sank. The water ball flew into the forest and destroyed everything in its way.

“Surely it didn’t do too much damage, right?”

Hehe...he.

Slowly, I made my way towards where the water ball flew.

“I’ll just quickly make sure that it’s not that bad!”

While walking along the path of destruction I created, my heart rate rose.

“This feels like I’m an adventurer that’s out hunting! Maybe I’ll find some hidden treasure?”

Then I reached where the ball must have exploded. Everything was covered in water as if it had just rained. It looked so beautiful, but sadly I didn’t find any treasure.

With my shoulders drooped, I started making my way back.

“No treasure...”

Just then a faint glint hit my eye, making me jolt back.

“What’s that!? A monster? Come out, I know you’re in there!”

“...”

“If you won’t come out, then I’ll just come get you!”

Hyaaaa!

I jumped around the tree where the glint came from.

Eeeeeeh!?

“A massive black egg? What’s it doing here? I’ve never seen one like that...”

Looking around, I tried to locate its mother or whoever it belonged to. But to no avail... all I could see was mostly forest with... part of it being destroyed.

“It couldn’t be...”

Then, a dark thought entered my mind.

“What if that water ball...”

Frantically I tried looking for anything that could be related to the egg.

But I couldn’t find anything, and it was close to where the water ball hit.

“It’s my fault... that the egg is now all alone...”

“I can’t just leave it all alone. What if a big monster finds it!? No! I need to make it up to the egg.”

With my chest puffed out and fully determined, I proclaimed...

“Hereby I swear to guard you and become your mama, Eggy!”

Just then I noticed my surroundings getting darker.

“Oh no! The sun is going to sleep! I need to hurry back.”

Carefully picking up the heavy egg, I rushed back to the river to get the bucket.

“Almost nighttime... mom will be mad...”

I strapped the egg to my back. With the bucket in hand, I wandered back as night fell upon me.

“So dark, I can barely see anything.”

Then I saw a few torches ahead of me.

“Kurenai! Where are you?”

“Kurenai!”

“Mom, Dad? Oh no.”

I quickly hid the egg inside some bushes so that no one would find it. Then, picking up the bucket, I walked towards my parents.

“Mom! Dad! I’m here.”

“Kurenai!”

The moment my mom saw me, she sprinted towards me, hugging me so tight that I dropped the bucket.

“M... mom, I’m o...kay.”

She hugged me even tighter.

“M-mom... A... air.”

Thankfully, she noticed that I was kind of running out of air before suffocating me.

“Sorry!”

She did loosen her grip but wouldn’t let go completely.

“You really ought to stop worrying us like that, Kurenai.”

“I’m sorry, Dad.”

My mom sniffled.

“For now, you aren’t allowed to go out alone.”

“Wait! Why!?”

“It’s too dangerous for now.”

Huh?

“But there aren’t any strong monsters nearby?”

They looked and nodded at each other, as if they had just made up their minds on something.

“Listen, Kurenai. While you were in the forest, some royal knights came to our village and warned us.”

“Warned you? About what?”

“Yeah, apparently there have been attacks on nearby villages, leaving them burned to the ground. With no survivors.”

I just froze up as my dad continued to explain to me.

“They have recommended us to pack up our things and run away. But we don’t really have any place to go, so we have to stay and pray our village won’t be targeted.”

“B-b-but.”

“I know. At least they are going to station a few of the knights here, but at best they’d be able to stall for us to run.”

“Do they know who did that?”

“A red dragon.”

Just those few words alone were enough to make me go from frozen in fear to absolutely hyped and overjoyed.

“A red dragon!? Really?”

“Y-yes?”

My dad just looked shocked, as if his brain couldn’t keep up with what was happening.

“A real dragon! So then, they’ll have to send adventurers here, right? And not just any adventurers! It’ll have to be super strong ones!”

“Kurenai?”

“Just like in those books you’ve read me, Mom!”

“Hehehe. Are you really that surprised, honey?”

She hugged him tightly from behind.

“A little? I mean, just look at how much she’s dancing... over news like that.”

I can’t wait! Hopefully the adventurers arrive soon and beat that mean dragon up! And... I’d be the damsel in distress.

Just like all the princesses in those fairy tales!

Afterwards, I’d ask them to let me join and become a super strong adventurer myself!

Meanwhile, in an unknown location, inside a deep, dark cave.

Two big yellow eyes appeared, with a loud growl strong enough to shake the ground itself.