The Long Journey After Becoming an Ancient Dragon

Rubbing her eyes, Solsti silently shut the door and returned inside.
Coiling her serpentine lower body into a comfortable position, she lay down and closed her eyes, preparing to sleep. Tomorrow morning, she had to set out for the gathering place as early as possible. As for what she had just seen—she was sure it was nothing more than exhaustion-induced hallucinations.

It had to be a hallucination… Right?
Like hell it was! As one of the strongest hunters in her tribe, Solsti wasn’t old enough for her vision to be failing.
Why was there a humanoid figure wandering around in the depths of the Outer Zone at night as if it were nothing? The moment she saw it, she had been utterly dumbfounded—yet the figure had even greeted her first.

A hunter must remain calm under all circumstances. Solsti had responded with composure, even inviting the stranger to take shelter in her hut. But the figure had simply waved a hand dismissively and disappeared into the night.
Just like that… They were gone… Gone…
Wait a damn minute—where the hell were they going? Were they out for a casual stroll in the freezing cold of a nighttime sandstorm?

Solsti shut her eyes tightly and flicked her tongue out at intervals to keep herself calm. She had to rest properly tonight—there was no room for mistakes on the journey back to the gathering place from the second rescue shelter.
As night fell completely, the temperature began to drop. Even within the insulated rescue shelter, she could feel the shift in the air. Outside, the winds howled fiercely, sand grains striking the hut with sharp rattles, making it seem as if the walls might give way at any moment.
And yet, at this very moment, that unknown entity was still out there...

Solsti shook off her thoughts, coiled herself more tightly, and slowly drifted into sleep.
 
"Wow, another rescue shelter."

Amidst the sandstorm, Aino spotted yet another small hut—this time, a yellow one.
"Why haven’t I reached the gathering place yet? It’s just one shelter after another..." she muttered with mild frustration as she stepped into the empty hut and took a glance around.
There wasn’t much difference from the previous one, except for the writing on the walls.

"The gathering place is not far to the southwest."
This time, the message included the words "not far."
Finally, was she about to reach her destination?

Aino perked up with excitement. Without wasting another moment, she strode out of the hut, shut the door, and plunged straight into the storm.
By the time she finally laid eyes on the gathering place, the sky was still dim, but the weather had turned much milder.
The so-called gathering place was, in truth, an oasis. The nights here weren’t nearly as cold, and the winds were much weaker, preventing the formation of sandstorms.
Scanning the area, Aino quickly realized that the density of living creatures here was astonishingly high. A vast number of intelligent beings inhabited this relatively small oasis.

Well, that was to be expected. After all, the places she had passed through were completely uninhabitable. It was no wonder they were all crammed into this one refuge.
She wasn’t even sure how long she had been traversing the desert. Now that she was finally standing on solid ground again, it almost felt strange.
As she walked further in, she noticed some movement up ahead.

"Is that… a cactus?"
Yellow-green, covered in fine spines—clusters of them growing in various shapes and sizes. They looked exactly like the cacti in her memory.
Only, the scale was completely different.

Each of these cacti towered several meters high, densely packed together like a forest.
And at that moment, some upright-walking lizards were harvesting them using tools. They carried small ladders, carefully adjusting them to a stable angle before climbing up to cut away the most tender parts of the plants.
Since the vegetation was so dense, getting pricked by the spines was inevitable. But these lizard folk were covered in tough, scale-like armor, and mere scratches posed no threat to them.

Aino made no effort to hide her presence as she walked past the edge of the cactus grove. Soon enough, some of the lizard folk noticed her.
However, only a few of them paused to observe her—most simply continued their work.
It seemed that having a stranger enter the area wasn’t considered a big deal.

The gathering place was one of the few habitable spots in the vast desert, home to a mix of many different races. Unlike territories governed by specific species or established cities, this place was remarkably open and free.
As she wandered further, Aino gradually pieced together a rough understanding of the settlement.
First of all, it was extremely underdeveloped. As a small, makeshift refuge struggling to survive in the desert, it was completely isolated from the outside world—like a community of primitive people cut off from civilization.

The settlement was divided among several major tribes, each occupying different portions of the land. However, "occupying" wasn’t quite the right word—despite the territorial divisions, the tribes were deeply interconnected, and individuals freely moved between their areas.
When survival itself was a constant challenge, no one had the energy to be territorial.
Besides the large tribes, there were also many unaffiliated individuals who moved around the settlement at will—Aino herself would fall into that category.

Due to the high population density, there were people everywhere. Even though she understood many languages, some of the residents belonged to obscure species whose speech she couldn’t comprehend.
Not far away, a conversation by a needle-leaved tree caught her attention.
"I heard that young girl from your tribe went out yesterday morning and still hasn’t returned?"

"Don’t even bring it up. Solsti’s been hunting with the team since she was thirteen. She’s one of the pillars of our snakefolk tribe now, but this situation is..."
Judging by their voices, both speakers were older individuals, and they seemed troubled about something.
Curious, Aino walked over and saw a peculiar, scale-covered creature conversing with a snakefolk who was coiled around the tree. The snakefolk had wrapped their long body around the trunk with ease, keeping their upper torso elevated in the air.

A snakefolk girl who hadn’t returned overnight...
Was it the same one Aino had seen in the rescue shelter?
The scale-covered creature sighed and tried to offer some reassurance.

"Ah, don’t worry. She probably just spent the night in the yellow shelter and will return today."
Noticing Aino’s approach, the two stopped their conversation and turned to face her.
"Young lady, I don’t believe I’ve seen you around before."

The snakefolk loosened their coils slightly, lowering their upper body onto the tree trunk as they curiously addressed her.
"That’s because /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ I was wandering outside and only just entered the gathering place," Aino replied.
"Wandering outside?" The snakefolk frowned in suspicion. "Are you joking? You don’t exactly look like someone who can survive in the Outer Zone."

The desert was far too isolated, and in the eyes of its residents, only those with visibly strong, imposing physiques could be considered powerful. They probably didn’t even know what magic was.
In contrast, the outside world rarely underestimated someone based on their youthful appearance—many races looked young while actually being centuries old, and everyone understood that.
"By the Outer Zone, you mean the desert? Yeah, I came from there. And actually, I saw a snakefolk girl in one of the shelters."

The snakefolk was about to say something when the scale-covered creature beside them interrupted.
"Hold on. Let’s not jump to conclusions—we have never seen this young lady in the gathering place before."
Hearing this, the snakefolk seemed to realize something, and their gaze toward Aino turned more respectful and intrigued.

"You really came from the Outer Zone? Then you must be quite capable. Which shelter did you see Solsti in? She has long, deep brown hair, and her skin is quite tanned from the sun."
Aino thought for a moment before answering, "It was the second shelter I passed. I think it was a black one. There was a message inside saying the gathering place was to the southwest."
"The black shelter?"

Both of them gasped in unison and exchanged uneasy glances.
If what this young girl was saying was true, then Solsti was in serious danger.