Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest

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As they agreed with me, we stepped forward without wasting another second. The dark woods greeted us with their eerie atmosphere, the place’s entirety was all-encompassing in a way. Last time, we had passed through a large road separate from the trees, we were only surrounded by them.

This time we were stepping directly into the dangerous nest of Owl Bears, we could get gored the moment we reach their nests, or even before that…

Of course, if we were actual weaklings.

But that is not the case with us, nope.

“Goldie, please shine very brightly.”

“Eh?”

He looked at me with a face filled with shock and disbelief. Yes, this is the thing I asked him to do for me the moment we stepped into this place.

“Please?”

“Wait, what? You want me to shine very brightly?!”

“Yep, please shine the brightest for me.”

“…”

“…”

We stared at one another for a good ten seconds; he wasn’t doing it…

I see.

“Do it now.”

“Don’t think I don’t know your intentions already, master! And I don’t want to be freaking bait! Please spare me the agony! I don’t want to get eaten by Owl bears!”

“You won’t! Weren’t you saying you were so strong before? Why are you so scared now? Please just help out Goldie!”

“I-I have helped enough!”

“No you haven’t! You spent the whole time inside mud without helping, and now that you can finally do something of significance, you’re going to just cry and act like a coward?”

“B-But…!”

“Aren’t you a dragon, Goldie?! This is what dragons do, they’re brave and strong, and aren’t afraid of stuff like this! You have to be strong like a dragon, get it?”

“I-I understand but even then this is a bit too much!”

“No it’s not too much Goldie, we got your back and you’re super strong, right?”

“…Am I?”

“…Of course you are! Jesus Christ, I think I finally figured out why you never fought, it’s not that you’re a coward… you don’t trust yourself, you don’t even believe in your own strength, why are you like this, Goldie?”

“…”

Goldie looked down for a moment, as if he recalled something…

Huh, maybe I was too harsh there, now I feel bad.

“…Okay, sorry, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. Maybe I was too harsh on you.”

“Eh?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be bait instead, it doesn’t really matter.”

I stepped forward, channeling light.

“Wait, what? Elayne you can’t be the bait!” Mark said. “You’re pregnant!”

“It’s fine, the Owl Bears are super weak either way, we just have to make a big fuss here and they’ll come running to defend their territory,” I smiled. “Goldie, stand behind me. I got this.”

“…”

As I told him to just stand behind me and as I prepared for this…

“No, wait, okay, I will do it.”

“Oh? Really…?”

He ended still offering his help? But I was sure he would just stare there in silence or something.

Was showing him kindness what worked at the end? But every time I did it before he acted all cocky.

“You know, I once had a mom and a dad…” Goldie sighed. “When the Forest of Beginnings was big, when the lake was enormous, back then, when the entire continent was our land. We were the Golden Koi Dragons, powerful guardians of Spirit Lakes and Rivers. We were revered as gods sometimes… mom and dad were so strong back then.”

“Goldie…” I muttered, realizing he was actually open up.

“But… I… I couldn’t help…” he sighed, his big eyes shedding a few tears. “Back then when the Yggdrasil tree was infected by the Demon King of Miasma, I could only stare as the world around us began falling apart… my parents told me to run, to dig deep into the lake’s mud and never walk out of there until they returned… they went there and fought that monster, his army…”

I stared at his eyes, almost as if I could imagine what he was thinking, his memories almost manifesting in my own mind.

Was this our bond as master and familiar?

“But mom and dad never returned… I was left there, in the mud, and I was so afraid, I slept for hundreds of years…” Goldie sighed. “Until I realized everything had already happened, mom and dad were nowhere to be seen, and even the Queen of Fairies, although she survived, was already an adult…”

“She was the one that told me what happened to my parents… they were… they were killed… And I couldn’t do anything but hide! You know?! It’s… after that I felt like life was pointless, the only good thing I was for was hiding inside my mud and never walk out of the lake… I didn’t want to do anything else either way anyway!”

“I was afraid… of the world… of how it all could change so quickly, while I couldn’t do anything… I ended becoming the last Golden Koi Dragon, and even then, it felt… pointless, I had never a purpose. I grew into an adult, I had power as a dragon, but never used it for anything, even when the forest was in peril again, and even against the same foe that took my parents… I didn’t fight; I was too afraid to face him… I-I…”

I walked to his side, hugging this big, sad fish.

“It’s alright Goldie… you don’t have to continue… Maybe as your master, I was able to see through it,” I nodded with a smile. “Your past… it is painful, maybe I just didn’t know that, and I ended judging you wrong… its usually not like me to do that, so I’m sorry.”

“Master…” he cried. “Despite being a big fish-like dragon, you hug me? Am I do not weird or disgusting to you?”

“Of course not! You’re adorable if anything, haha,” I giggled, petting his head. “I just sometimes wished you were braver, but that’s not something that can change from one day to another, right? It’s something we develop on our own through many experiences and so on…”

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