Malphegor
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LOTR: TMCP Ch. 120
🕑 Added 2025-07-24 01:18:03 +0000 UTCWhile the residents were still pondering this concept called "beauty," Garrett had already returned to the keep early and was packing everything he might need.
A sword, pickaxe, axe, some provisions and materials, some valuables, healing potions, golden apples...
And as a last resort: TNT.
If Saruman had turned to darkness prematurely, he didn't mind playing the role of an unwelcome visitor.
With everything prepared, he enjoyed a good night's rest and woke feeling refreshed and full of energy. Then he encountered something that energized him even more.
The lava pool used to incubate the dragon egg was showing signs of activity.
Early in the morning, during his usual inspection of the sealed lava chamber, he suddenly heard a crack, a tiny fracture had appeared on the eggshell.
Startled, he immediately approached to examine it more closely.
The glow from the lava shone through the eggshell, vaguely illuminating a lively creature moving within.
Watching the struggling form inside, he felt the urge to assist it. But by nature's design, egg-laying creatures should break free on their own, it demonstrated their physical fitness, which was crucial for survival in the outside world.
So this was something it had to accomplish by itself.
The hatching process took an entire day, and he remained beside it throughout. Until the sound of the eggshell finally cracking apart was heard.
A weak screech came from within the shell. A small, translucent creature with two tiny wings emerged, opened its wing membranes, and struggled to open its eyes.
As it received information from the outside world for the first time in its life, a tall, armored figure stood before it, blocking the surrounding heat, and spoke something it couldn't understand:
"Wanna eat fish?"
[Infant Fire Dragon 10/10]
The newborn little one was very fragile. It stumbled as it crawled toward Garrett's feet and then plopped its entire body onto his boot, as if only by doing so could it feel secure.
After adjusting its position, the hatchling began to look around, its bright little eyes curiously taking in the world.
A sealed chamber formed by brilliant red lava and pitch-black obsidian, this was its birthplace and the extent of what it could see for now.
Garrett looked down at the small creature, recalling what he knew.
In Middle-earth, dragons were evil beings created and bred by Morgoth for war, an unprecedented species born of malice. Corrupted by dark power, they were naturally greedy and cunning, masters of deception from birth, harboring hatred toward the world and possessing an obsessive desire for gold and treasure.
Because of this, their very existence symbolized evil, entities incompatible with order and goodness.
But this one...
He picked up the fire dragon resting on his boot and held it in his palm.
The little fire dragon curiously raised its head to look at the large face before it.
In those tiny eyes, there was no malice, only wonder and appropriate confusion.
Unlike Smaug's menacing and sharp appearance, this hatchling looked translucent, with soft coloring, none of the cruelty or evil that a wicked dragon should possess.
If it truly were one of the dragons created by Morgoth, it wouldn't have calmly laid at Garrett's feet upon seeing him, it would have lunged to bite and devour.
Maybe this was a dragon that had been purified by some kind of power.
He took out a cooked fish and placed it near its mouth. The little one instinctively sniffed it, then looked up at him in confusion.
He opened his mouth.
It imitated him and opened its mouth as well.
Garrett took another cooked fish and took a bite, swallowing it.
Now it understood. It lunged forward and began nibbling on the fish before it, bite by bite.
When the fish entered its belly and that fundamental need of life was fulfilled, the little fire dragon experienced, for the first time, the pleasure of eating and feeling satisfied, such an intoxicating sensation for any living creature.
Watching the hatchling eat so eagerly, Garrett, driven by curiosity, took out a gold ingot and placed it nearby.
However, the little one didn't even spare it a glance and kept its full attention on the fish. Only after finishing the entire fish, its tiny belly visibly swollen, did it burp and finally glance at the gold ingot.
It merely sniffed it once, then lost interest and looked back up at Garrett.
The two locked eyes, a wide-eyed staring contest.
Oh no.
Garrett's heart skipped a beat.
It was imitating him.
Raising a dragon before raising a child, was that even wise?
He took out another gold ingot and pretended to bite it. The little fire dragon followed suit.
A moment later, a clear expression of pain appeared on its tiny draconic face.
From that moment on, it developed an aversion to gold.
This dragon, whatever Garrett did, it copied without hesitation.
Putting the gold away, he took out two cabbages, picked one up, and began crunching on it.
The little one approached the other cabbage, sniffed it, hesitated slightly, then started munching as well.
Moments later, the cabbage was gone.
Confirmed, it truly copied everything he did, and thankfully, it wasn't a picky eater.
At the hatchery, Garrett began some basic behavioral training.
As the moon set and the sun rose, it was around noon the next day when Garrett finally walked out from the obsidian-encased hatchery with the little fire dragon cupped in one hand.
For the first time, the fire dragon saw the sun, the grass, and other people. It was so amazed that it couldn't help but spread its wings and let out two chirps.
Those two tender cries instantly drew the attention of several people nearby.
No matter the time, in Wayfort, the first thing people noticed was always their lord himself, only then did they take note of what accompanied him.
As a result, their first reaction was to greet him.
"Good day, my lord."
But as those words were spoken, the speaker suddenly noticed the creature Garrett was holding.
"A d-dragon... a dragon!"
The resident's shout clearly startled the little one. Its neck, which had stretched out in curiosity, quickly recoiled, and its body curled up.
But the residents reacted even more strongly than the dragon. The moment they saw the baby fire dragon, they all instinctively took a step back. If it hadn't been in their lord's hand, someone might have already reached for a weapon.
"No need for alarm," Garrett said calmly as he gently stroked the dragon's head.
"This is a more docile dragon that I'm raising. Unlike the evil dragons of legend, its nature is innocent and free from those bad habits."
"It has no interest in treasure, and it doesn't eat people. In fact, it prefers cooked fish and vegetables."
As he spoke, he plucked a cabbage leaf from a nearby garden and held it out to the little one.
The hatchling played along perfectly, crunching on it immediately.
A... a vegetarian dragon?
The residents' jaws dropped. They looked at each other in speechless amazement.
Dragons in poems and legends were always described as evil and powerful, devourers of men, able to burn cities to ash with a single breath, and stir tempests with a single flap of their wings.
For ages, this had been the image of dragons, even if most people had never actually seen one.
To witness this in person was truly eye-opening. After all, who would have thought that a dragon could enjoy cabbage?
