i'll save you when you're weak

Part 1

Everyone has their limits.

A point they reach where they're no longer able to cope with the reality that life had provided them with and they resort to extremes that they would normally never consider under a healthy state of mind.

Kim Rok Soo had probably hit that limit at his parents' funeral. But it was a sort of muted impulse that caused him to just accept his surroundings.

As his uncle's abuse hit its zenith he found himself spending longer and longer stretches of time away from home, staring up at the night sky and wondering if there was any point in returning back.

He was just a child.

He craved safety, support, security, food, and a general human dignity that even most toddlers were granted.

Maybe in a way he was still that child standing beside his parents' caskets, numbly accepting that life wasn't fair and no amount of crying or screaming would change his circumstances.

But still, everyone reaches a breaking point.

There wasn't anything unusual about the day. His uncle spent the majority of the day gambling, only returning home between losing streaks and taking his annoyance out on Kim Rok Soo when he spotted him.

There was no food in the tiny apartment but there never was. And his uncle had left the door open after drunkenly stumbling away for the third time in the day to return to the pachinko parlor.

Kim Rok Soo wasn't trapped in the apartment. If anything, his uncle preferred it when he made himself scarce, but there was something about that invitingly open door that spoke to him.

His body ached. His heart ached. He wanted to endure it like he was supposed to. He wanted to be stronger and braver and smarter like a protagonist from a novel.

But he was just a child and it hurt.

It was an indignity to him to run away. Not the greatest one he'd endured but one that would weigh on his heart.

He wasn't strong enough to handle it.

He couldn't cope.

He couldn't handle another moment.

His feet were moving before his mind really processed his plan, his thoughts numb to anything but the sensation of gravel under his feet. He didn't know how far he'd run. He didn't know where he was. He'd fallen down a few times during his desperate escape but he didn't stop even for that, stumbling back to his feet with bleeding knees and running all the harder. By the time he'd had another conscious thought he didn't recognize any of his surroundings.

He took that as a sign to run more though.

He ran himself past exhaustion, the scrawny body of a boy who normally had to dumpster dive for a meal wasn't an athletic person by any stretch but he ran faster and longer than he'd ever run in his entire life without any mind for how his muscles screamed at him to stop.

He didn't see the car coming.

Honestly, the car barely grazed him, the collision was enough to send his body tumbling but the driver's desperate maneuvers and the screeching brakes were enough to spare his life.

Kim Rok Soo felt like his body was in the air for a bit too long though.

Everything hurt.

He just wanted an escape. He couldn't do this anymore. It was too much to cope with and he wasn't a brave or powerful protagonist. He couldn't handle the pain anymore.

Strangely when he hit the ground it didn't feel like concrete or asphalt. Dirt...? Grass?

Kim Rok Soo didn't bother to open his eyes.

His body was shutting down whether he agreed or not and he didn't have the strength to deal with whatever new hell he'd found for himself.

With a pathetic whimper, Kim Rok Soo fell into a fitful sleep haunted by every nightmare of endless pain he'd ever experienced. The hypertension of constant abuse disallowing him from relaxation even in his dreams.

Raon Miru stared down at the small child who had appeared before him on the forest ground. It wasn't teleportation magic, Raon would have sensed that, it was merely that one moment there was no child and then there was an injured human child lying on the forest floor.

It was highly suspicious but Raon was a compassionate dragon. Growing up in the castle his mother had prepared for him enabled him to feel a sense of happiness and community that brought out his friendly personality.

And he liked humans, for the most part, some of them were horrible. The man who stole and killed his brother before he'd ever been born was a monster whom Raon would one day find an appropriate end for. But the rest of humanity was pretty okay by Raon's standards.

He definitely didn't want this tiny human to perish, even if the state of their arrival was deeply suspicious. And the boy definitely wouldn't survive here alone even if he wasn't injured, the Forest of Darkness was a Forbidden Area for the humans for a reason.

Gently, so as not to aggravate his injuries or wake him from his rest, Raon picked up the poor child and gathered his mana for teleportation. He could go home but his mother was resting for the time being in order to maintain her faint existence in this world and Raon wasn't entirely sure how to handle injured humans.

He'd have to visit goldy gramps. Raon frowned down at the child as the teleportation spell took hold.

Really... who would do this to such a small child? If he ever found the culprit, he'd add him to the list of humans that ought to be dealt with using extreme prejudice.

"It's okay. You're safe now, weak human."

Raon might have imagined it, but he could swear that some of the tension left the boy's unconscious face in response to his words.

Yes, he'd definitely find a way to protect this child. And feed him lots, he barely weighed anything at all and it scared Raon a little bit. Human children were certainly light but they weren't supposed to be this light.

"I'll protect you." He promised.