A Dragon That My Cat Brought Home

Title TN: They use the abbreviation of Cat with Hidden Powers.

I went to the kitchen, drank a bowl of cold water or gulped, and then caught my breath. The scene I had just seen flashed vividly in my mind.

As I was gasping for breath, someone grabbed my sleeve. When I looked down, Baek-ho and Blue Dragon were looking up at me with worried faces. Blue dragon fluttered at the height of my waist, clasping my sleeves with its small front paws. The round, amber-colored eyes overlapped with those I had just seen in my dream.

Yeah, it's really unbelievable, but I think I have to believe it now. What my sister said before is correct. A fantasy of reality that came to the writer of a fantasy novel.

After I calmed down, I sat down in front of my laptop. Baek-ho and the blue dragon sat next to me as if they were guarding me. Blue Dragon on my left, Baek-ho on my right.

Last time, I thought I wrote ‘be careful’ by accident but this time it is clear. ‘I leave him in your care’ was not written by me. The blue dragon I saw in my dream, the blue dragon's mother dragon. This is her message to me.

I stroked the blue dragon's head. My little one, that's how you came from your world to ours.

I don't know, but for some reason our white tiger felt that you were coming or came, so he ran out into the rain and picked up you, who just woke up from the egg. You grew up in the form of a cat following Baek-ho, who was the first to find you.

I patted Baek-ho's butt. Baek-ho. You did good. Who knows what our little boy would have been like if you hadn't picked it up.

I understand that when I fell asleep while I was writing her, I was called to her in the form of her dreams and came to see scenes from her past. She knows she left my monitor telling me to be careful.

But is there any way to communicate from my end?

I was looking at the monitor and tried to write something under her message.

What do you say? I can't even write "Hello". Blue Dragon's mother? do you see. Can you hear me? it's all so awkward now but in the dream everything was natural.

I am the one protecting your hatchling. What am I, a kidnapper?

Let's write this.

– Can you read this?

I waited for a while, but there was no response from the monitor. Hmmm, I can't communicate directly like this, can I just intervene when I'm writing a sentence?

I copied and wrote a few lines of the sentences above, but nothing happened. I wonder if it should be a new sentence, so I try to write a few lines as soon as I can think of it. Do I have to be completely immersed in my writing?

“Oh, I don’t know. It seems that there is no connection from my side.”

I lay flat on my back. Yeah, it can't be that easy to communicate across dimensions. Anyway, it looks like the writing is not going to work. 

“Piyah~”

The blue dragon climbed over my chest and shoved his head under my chin and groaned.

“Blue dragon, your mother seems to have sent you here for fear of danger. She seems to love and care about you a lot.”

“Pirong?”

I put blue dragon on my chest, stretched out my hand and fumbled for the phone.

– Hello?

“Mom, it’s me. Sorry for not calling you often. How's father's health?"

People must learn You learn from your subordinates, and sometimes you learn from dragons as well.

******

Han Kyung-seok refreshed SS Media's homepage several times in the morning and repeated it again and again. He knew that his work had won the Rookie of the Year award, as he had been personally contacted by the organizers.

It would have been better if it had won a better award, but honestly, it was the first fantasy novel I ever wrote, so what if I didn't win the award? It could have been better, but this is quite good. Yeon Myung-hoon, Shin Yu-ri, this is what kind of person I am.

The reason I keep refreshing even though I know the result is because I want to know the result of Myung-Hoon's application.

Finally it popped up, the announcement was made. The results of the writing went down. Target, unknown name. Okay, first of all, it wasn't the grand prize, and there was no Myung-Hoon among the three Excellence Prize winners. My heart felt lighter. He turned his attention to the Encouragement Award category, which selects five people.

Shit! The feeling of excitement subsided as if covered in cold water. In the second place for the Encouragement Award, there was a pen name that Myung-Hoon had been using since college. Short pencil.

It doesn't even seem like a pen name. Kyung-seok grumbled in anger. It's always like this.

Since high school, we went to the 100-day market together, and when Myung-hoon won the gold medal, he was the silver medalist. If Myung-hoon won the silver medal, he himself was the bronze statue. Occasionally there were other results, but in most cases Myung-Hoon was lucky and he was unlucky.

He thought he could come back now after Myung-hoon went into a slump. Keong-seok snorted for a while, then stood up.

Myung-hoon already has a few years of experience in fantasy novels, right? Perhaps the judges knew Myeong-hoon's pen name. He's an established writer, so he'll probably have an advantage. Still, I was only able to win the Encouragement Award. I also had a short preparation period, and it was the first fantasy I ever wrote, and I won the rookie  award, so of course I’m better. If I actually try I can beat beat Myung-hoon.

******

“Congratulations Myung-hoon.”

"Thank you. Yuri.”

“Bro. Poured out tap water in a bowl and prayed for you. It’s a pity that it’s only an Encouragement Award, but congratulations nonetheless.”

"Thank you. I thought it would be difficult to win the prize because the subject matter was not popular, but I am satisfied enough because it is an encouragement award.”

It really is. Even if I didn't say it out loud, I don't know how much pain I've suffered while wandering in the slump that hit the bottom for the past two years. I thought a lot about whether I should find another way, and how many times I lost confidence in my writing and erased everything I wrote all night with just one click.

I can't tell you how happy I am to get a good result in this contest, which I applied with the intention of trying one last time. It gave me the strength to continue writing.

“Why do you have such a troubled look on your dog’s face Kyeong-suk?”

“No, it’s just not a big deal, and I’m embarrassed to even talk about it, so that’s why.”

"What?"

“Actually, I also won a prize in that contest. Myung-hoon is also writing fantasy, but I didn’t know too much about it, so I didn’t want to do it at first, but I wrote a little bit of it for fun, and won the Rookie of the Year award. Had I known it would have been like this, I would have put a little more effort into it.”

"Really? Congratulations. hey. I didn't see your name, did you use a pen name? What is your pen name?”

“It seems like they all use a pen name, so I just picked one. It is called Papyrus.”

“Hey! Congratulations to both the Papyrus writer and the Short Pencil writer. I'm really proud to see two winners appearing on our bookmarks. In particular, Papyrus writer, after ignoring genre fiction like that, you have changed your mind.”

“I just used it for fun. The kids who don’t even know the basics say you and I write genre novels, so I thought I’d show you something good.”

I said, suggesting a beer mug to Kyeong-seok.

“You say you just wrote it for fun but can someone who has been writing as long as you say something like that? Even if people write it for fun, only the ones who wrote the best story wins the prizes. .”

While Kyeongseok was speechless and hesitant, Hae-in asked by pouring the pasta into the bowl.

“Bro. What is your special award? Was that a bigger prize?”

“Oh, what? OSMU is an extra award given to works that can be made into webtoons, games, or dramas. Mine is the story of a cat with hidden power. He said that he was selected because it was perfect for webtoons.”

Kyeong-seok's face, who was holding a beer mug, was distorted uncomfortably. A special award? I knew it was there, but it was at the bottom, so I didn't check it until there. I saw Myung-Hoon's pen name at the Encouragement Award and didn't look under it, is that a double award? Shit! Lucky son of a bitch!

After the bookmark meeting, I came back drunk and rolled around on the floor, hugging Baek-ho and blue dragon.

“Guys, your brother has won the prize. There are two awards, the Encouragement Award and the Special Award. Thank you so much. it's thanks to you guys Now I can write with confidence again. I am a little proud of my mother and father.”

“Mi-meow~”

Baek-ho escaped from my arms as if annoyed and took refuge in the cat tower. You did it a few days ago and you are looking at whether you are doing it again today. In fact, on the day I received the notification, I hugged them for half a day, and on the day of the announcement, I hugged and slept for a long time, so I guess it’s understandable why he doesn’t want to be hugged?

“Peep Peep lol~”

The blue dragon is not bothered at all and still responds enthusiastically. Thank you little one Yes, hyung will write hard. Shouldn’t I do that so I can try to communicate with your mom?