A Dragon That My Cat Brought Home

‘Cloud Animal Hospital.

My sister named the hospital this way because the name of our family's first dog was called Cloud.

My sister is 8 years older than me, so she was already in elementary school when I was born. At that time, our family had a dog called Cloud. It is a common native hybrid dog with white hair on the chest and a black body. He was older than me because he said she had raised him since she was 4.

Cloud died when I was 6 years old, so I only have vague memories. When I think of Cloud, I only think of memories that my body remembers, such as a warm tongue, a soft and moist nose, and a slightly agonizing yet sweet body odor.

But to my older sister, she was a precious friend who grew up together from the age of 4 to 14. Maybe he was more like a brother than me, who was much younger than her.

We went through rain or snow to greet her off at the bus station, and when she went home from school, the Cloud and I were waiting at the bus station. Even now, as an adult, my older sister cherishes her memories of Cloud.

‘Ring'

The door to the cloud animal hospital opened with a light bell.

"Welcome, Myung-Hoon. I heard Baek-Ho adopted a baby."

A familiar nurse, nurse Park, greeted me with a smile. I greeted him too, but I answered quietly.

‘Yes, ······. But I'm starting to doubt if it is a cat.'

"Meow~~."

Sky came out to greet me one beat later than Mr. Park. Sky is a hospital cat. She is a beautiful Persian chinchilla with white fur and golden eyes, but when she had to undergo surgery for a mammary tumor, her guardian left her in the hospital and cut off contact.

My older sister was resentful and performed the operation arbitrarily, and Sky recovered safely after that and became a hospital cat. Its original name was ‘Antoinette,' but my sister changed it to ‘sky,' which matches ‘cloud.' Sky, who has recovered, is enjoying the love from the staff and guests and is doing her best as a hospital mascot.

"Is Myung-Hoon here? Bring the little one in."

I went into the treatment room and told my sister that the little boy played in Baek-Ho's water bowl, and his hair didn't get wet.

"That's right, you're a strange little boy. I'm going to do some testing, so would you like to wait outside?"

Waiting while playing with Sky in the waiting room felt like a very long time. The little baby doesn't have any problems, right? There are rumors on the Internet that they thought it was a cat and raised it and raised it, but it is a wildcat. But what is the real identity of our little boy?

"Myung-Hoon, come in."

My sister called me to the treatment room, so I went in quickly.

"How was it? Is the baby okay?"

After a moment's moxibustion, the older sister opened her mouth.

"First of all, this is not a phoenix."

‘It's a male.'

"He looks very healthy. You and Baek-Ho took good care of it. As a result of the fecal examination, there were no parasites, and just in case, I took a picture of the infectious disease kit; it was clean. The feces looked like normal cat feces, even under a microscope. Blood tests are normal."

"Yeah, that's good."

"However,······. I really don't know its real identity. It's very similar to a cat, but it's somewhat unreasonable to think of it like a cat."

"········"

"I took an X-ray, and it came out strangely hazy. If you're too young, there are cases where the abdomen doesn't come out well, but for some reason, it doesn't come out well overall. Still, I've seen it, but the skeleton is similar to that of a cat, but it's a little different. But it's still not growing, so we'll take another X-ray after it's a little bigger, and then we'll talk about it. And······."

My sister grabbed the front foot of the little boy rolling around on the treatment table and pushed it out in front of me.

"Did you look closely at his feet?"

"?"

"It looks like it's webbed."

Startled, I looked closely at the little boy's feet.

"You're right. It looks like it's webbed. This definitely was not there a week ago."

The tiny, plump paws were, at first glance, the paws of an ordinary kitten. The top of the foot is covered with thick hair, and the sole of the foot has black and soft flesh balls. They are black paws, commonly referred to as grape jelly by cat owners.

If you lightly press on the soft instep, the toenail comes out. Ah, there were webs like thin membranes that could barely be seen between those toes.

"As expected, an otter……?"

"no. It's completely different from otters. The hair is a bit similar."

The older sister stroked the little boy's head with her fingers.

"And this lump on my head."

"········"

"It looks like horns."

Horns…are you talking? Is that flying on the head of a bull or a deer?

In the past, I saw an article on an overseas topic saying that there was a cougar with horns on its head and that it was killed by a demon. At that time, my sister said, ‘What is the devil's joke? He must have had a teratoma tumor'.

"Hey, then, sister, is our little boy also deformed? A deformed cat?"

"No, what's more, likely is…."

The older sister, immersed in thought, tickled the little boy's chin with her finger, and the little boy groaned and turned his stomach over.

"It sounds absurd, but maybe it's like some other creature pretending to be a cat?"

I let out a laugh.

"Ah, that's not it. Even if it's a deformity, it's another animal that pretends to be a cat, so the nine-tailed fox even turned into a cat?"

"No way, so just like how a chameleon changes color, this animal changed into a cat? That's something that happens in cartoons, isn't it?"

The older sister laughed at herself. The older sister hugged the little boy and rubbed her face.

"Forget what I just said. It's such an innocent and lovely life, but you'll know when it grows. Just grow up healthy and prosperous."

The boy rubbed his little head against my sister's cheek while making a grungy motorcycle noise.

On the way home, I bought a human baby bathtub. When I came home, I got warm water in the bathtub and put the little boy in it. The little boy said it was good and played with the water. It swims around, moving its tiny feet like a wind-up toy boat.

When in the water, the little boy's bluish-gray fur shimmered with a stronger blue glow. The back is dark, and the chest and belly are pale purple.

When I touched my head, I felt a sharp bump like the tip of a toothpick. Yes, our cats are different from normal cats. But what about Isn't anything else wrong?

"Because he is a male, he is a blue dragon. Child, from today on, your name is Blue Dragon. Isn't that a brave name that goes well with Baek-Ho?"

As if I was right, Baek-Ho meowed, and the blue dragon answered the meow, hanging from my hand with its short front paws sucked on my finger.

"Oh, it tickles!"

Little Blue Dragon's teeth started growing!