Suspicions

The thought took root and sprouted in his heart like a seed, growing ever stronger.

Although this place was close to the volcanoes and had ample energy, it also seemed to hide too many unknown dangers.

Before Redd could fully think through the idea of moving somewhere else, a sudden sensation interrupted his thoughts.

He looked down at his feet and froze for a moment.

The solid, rocky ground seemed to be heating up slightly, giving off an abnormal warmth,

At the same time, a more persistent, subtler vibration than before began to reach him, like countless tiny ants crawling beneath his skin.

"This..." Redd's heart sank, and an ominous premonition seized him in an instant.

He hesitated no longer and rushed almost instinctively out of the relatively safe Dragonpit.

Outside the cave, the lingering glow of sunset was rapidly being swallowed by dusk,

But the fissure atop Fire Peak, already fractured across a third of it like an enormous scar, now seized his full attention.

Deep within the fissure, lava was no longer quietly seeping out in trickles. Instead, it began churning violently!

Dark red, viscous lava bubbled like boiling tar, sending up a scorching, pungent smell of sulfur.

Its rolling waves surged more violently than ever before, as though some colossal creature deep underground was awakening and trying to break free of the earth's crust.

"Damn it! Is this volcano... about to erupt?!" Redd's heart instantly raced, nearly leaping out of his chest.

He had never imagined that the volcano he depended on for survival would "respond" to them in such a dangerous way.

Sensing the abnormality in the ground and their master's alarm,

The three dragons who had only just settled down a little-King Ghidorah, the Black Dragon Ehm, and the Red Dragon Aegon-suddenly went on alert as well.

They growled uneasily, their enormous bodies rushing out of the Dragonpit one after another, their great wings spreading in the air with a low whoosh.

They all turned their heads toward Redd, their eyes filled with fear of the unknown and bewilderment.

Redd dared not hesitate any longer. At a time like this, even a second's delay could be fatal.

He quickly leaped up, then climbed as fast as he could, settling securely onto the broad back of the steadiest of them, the Black Dragon Ehm.

He took a deep breath, his voice a little hoarse with tension. "Take off! Get out of here! Hurry!"

The three dragons needed no further orders. Led by Ehm, their enormous bodies gave a powerful heave, their great wings beating up fierce winds as they rapidly climbed and shot into the sky.

Redd gripped the scales on Ehm's back tightly and looked down.

The ground's shaking grew more pronounced. Loose stones tumbled down Fire Peak like popping beans, clattering against the rock face.

The lava in the fissure surged out like a rampaging beast,

Forming a thick, flowing river of lava that began spreading down the side of Fire Peak.

Redd's heart rose into his throat.

He could still barely comfort himself by calling the previous earthquake a "coincidence," but this time, the rising ground temperature, the continuous shaking, the abnormal outpouring of lava...

All of it pointed to the same terrifying possibility.

Two such similar and ominous incidents made his unease grow stronger, even giving him an eerie feeling that someone was watching him and plotting against him.

But what could it be? What person or force was targeting them?

He could make no sense of it and only felt a chill down his spine.

Just as his thoughts ran wild, an even more terrifying change occurred below.

With a violent tremor that seemed to make the very earth groan,

The entire side of Fire Peak, along with the fissure, collapsed with a thunderous crash under the lava's erosion and the violent movement of the earth's crust!

The enormous landslide was like the coming of the apocalypse, dust and rubble blotting out the sky,

While the boiling lava rushed forth like a monstrous flood that had finally found an outlet,

Instantly swallowing the home they had lived in for more than half a year-the once warm and safe Dragonpit now vanished completely beneath scorching lava and scalding smoke and dust.

Up in the sky, Redd stared dumbfounded at the apocalyptic scene below, a bone-deep chill and intense unease welling up in his heart.

His home was gone. The home he had lived in for more than half a year was simply gone.

But this was absolutely not a natural phenomenon!

Such a precise, destructive "coincidence" made him almost certain that his earlier feeling of being "targeted" had not been an illusion.

"We have no choice but to leave..." Redd gritted his teeth, a trace of trembling in his voice. "Another volcanic peak... we have to move!"

He forced himself to calm down and began quickly assessing the surrounding terrain.

Finally, his gaze settled on another volcanic peak where the Red Dragon Aegon had stayed before.

Although he was less familiar with that place, it at least looked relatively stable for now.

He made his decision and immediately directed the three dragons to change course and fly toward the new volcanic peak.

A new dragon's lair, a new beginning, yet a lingering shadow and that unanswerable question haunted Redd's heart:

What exactly was tracking them?

After settling in again, Redd did not immediately let the three dragons enter the lair.

He had them stay outside the entrance. Without even getting off that broad dragon's back, he found a relatively flat rock platform beside the lair,

And had the three dragons stay there, planning to "lie in wait" right here, hoping he was merely worrying too much about all of this.

He stared unblinkingly at the dark mountains around him, silently repeating to himself, Don't come. Please don't come. Don't let it be what I'm thinking.

Time passed, second by second and minute by minute. He waited from the lingering afternoon glow until the sun sank behind the western mountains and the orange-red sunset clouds gave way to the deep blue curtain of night;

From the stillness beneath a sky full of stars until the late-night chill deepened and even the chirping of insects gradually grew sparse.

Nothing happened the entire time.

Redd's taut nerves slowly relaxed, and the unease in his heart gradually faded as well.

He even began mocking himself. Perhaps he had simply been too tense these past few days, and all the commotion from that volcano had made him a little oversensitive.

Controlling a volcanic eruption without a sound or trace?

Even in the high-tech era of his previous life, something like that sounded like a fantasy, existing only in fictional science fiction novels.

It seemed he really had become paranoid.

He looked at the three dragons-King Ghidorah's three heads leaned crookedly against one another,

While the Black Dragon Ehm and the Red Dragon Aegon lay in separate patches of shadow nearby-they had clearly relaxed as well,

Their enormous bodies rising and falling slightly with each breath, their eyelids growing heavier until they were all lying on the ground, fast asleep.

Watching them sleep soundly, Redd felt his own eyelids begin to droop, and drowsiness washed over him like a tide.