Chapter 2: To be young is to be foolish
T/L: shuāng yè hóng xí E/D: k.u.ma & Kiskaiya
As the saying goes, if a young man is not foolish, he is not a young man.
That could not have been more true to describe Sammy Griffin, because he actually believed that there were dragons in the world.
“Don"t just toss your children to their grandparents to raise!”
When Sammy was in primary school, Mrs. Griffin, Sammy"s mother, was anxious about it: “I am really stupid, really! I knew Sammy"s grandfather liked to tell the children the story of the dragon slayer and dragons over and over again, but I still told Sammy to listen his Grandpa. And now he"s clamoring daily about buying a big sword every day to kill the dragon and save the princess … “
Grandpa and grandma didn"t want to take the blame for it: “We also told Duke and Dunbar about the story, why didn"t they believe it?”
All in all, whether it was due to his grandparent"s meddling or his inborn nature, Sammy was a natural fool.
From small to large, he firmly believed that "dragons exist" and he was the ‘the dragon slayer destined by fate".
It was even more ridiculous how he tried to find and kill the dragon.
When Sammy was eleven, he suddenly took his bag and planned to run away from home. Before going out, he seriously said, “I have to finish my mission to stop the evil dragons from harming the world.”
Sammy"s mother was so stunned, she froze with the pan in her hand. She didn"t know what was wrong with her little son.
Dad, Mr. George Griffin, was relatively calm. He seriously expressed his understanding of Sammy"s behavior and pointed out that Sammy"s luggage was a bit light. He then proceeded to prepare more essentials for the young dragon slayer. “Bring more pumpkin pie so as not to be hungry on the road, and some juice and milk. Do you want some chocolate or bread?”
Then, his two brothers also came to join the farce.
Big brother Duke said: “You need to bring your toys along. There won"t be any plush bears or plush frogs and you might cry at night.”
The second brother, Dunbar, also said: “Water cups, building bricks, blankets, coats, and dragon encyclopedias.”
In the end, the dragon slayer was conquered by his own baggage and had to stop his expedition.
Ah, the path to becoming a real dragon slayer is hard…
After that, a few years pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye.
When Sammy was sixteen years old, he reached the age where first love began to bud. He fell in love with a beautiful older girl from his school.
The girl was only two years older than him, tall and beautiful like a model. Under normal circ.u.mstances, there"d be no way she would go out with Sammy.
But the Griffin family was a big family. And while they weren"t famous family, they did everything to act their part. Thus, while his brothers were only Duke and Dunbar, if they added his cousins to the count, there were a total of eight Griffins in his generation.
What did it mean to have eight brothers?
Every time something happened around his family, a large group of people moved, similar to a small gang.
That girl got tricked by this false appearance and when Sammy pursued her, she was so scared she instantly agreed.
One day, she invited Sammy to her house while hinting "My parents are not home".
Sammy happily accepted the ‘invitation".
The parents were away and only a young boy and a young girl were left alone in the house!
It would be a lie to say that Sammy"s thoughts were pure.
But humans were not ruled by their instincts. And even if they know what"s going to happen next, they just can"t do it directly. So, the older girl suggested they watch a movie.
And the movie they chose was a thriller about monsters.
Hey girl, so you understand what that means?
Even now, Sammy still remembered that day clearly, and he remembered the movie"s name “Dragon of Destruction.”
A copycat movie that was rough around the edges, it was about humanity seeking their own demise by awakening a sleeping dragon. Then, the dragons ma.s.sacred the humans and reduced the city to ashes. Eventually, the hero came forward to kill the dragon.
The plot of this movie can basically be regarded as nonexistent, while the acting wasn"t much better.
The movie only had one good point – the dragon looked very realistic.
Therefore, when the dragon roared, Sammy was completely mesmerized.
He forgot everything, even the beauty beside him. He stared at the dragon, completely fascinated. Seeing its claws crush the high-rise buildings, watching its wings blow away hundreds of people, looking at its spew flames, and engulfing New York in a burning fire … That was so cool!
Two hours later, the girl who was originally wearing a s.e.xy dress put on her coat and expressionlessly patted his shoulder: “Hey.”
Still immersed in the fantasy of the dragon, Sammy looked up in confusion: “Ah, what"s wrong?”
She then said: “My parents will be home soon, you should go.”
Sammy: “Ah, alright.”
The next day, he went looking for her and then ran up to her like a puppy.
She crossed her arms over her chest: “What do you want?”
Sammy excitedly said: “Are your parents at home today? If they"re not, we could continue to watch movies together! "
Older girl: “…if that"s all you have to say, f.u.c.k off!”
And then…
Nothing then.
A dragon slayer just needed a dragon, nothing else!
Girlfriend? What"s that?
However, the dragon movie had left a huge impact on Sammy.
He felt that if dragons had already gone extinct, it would be too difficult to find a real dragon. Even if he wanted to look for them, he would have to go to inaccessible places or the wilderness. And if he really wanted to go to such a place, he would have to face his mother"s tears, his father"s disappointment, and the endless bickering of his brothers…
Thus, the sensible Sammy had to make sacrifices.
He gave up trying to find a dragon to slay and transferred all his energy into the art of film instead. He still wasn"t giving up his dream – but he figured if he couldn"t find a real dragon to slay, he just had to create a fake one!
At the time, D*sney was planning a training program to help the dreams of young boys and girls .
By sheer dumb luck, Sammy was chosen to go. But,the teacher only showed a hundred different ways to paint Snow White"s skirt; so, while the teacher wasn"t paying attention, Sammy painted dragon scales instead. Sometimes as stars and sometimes as shields.
Anyways, everyone believed in fairy tales when they were a kid.
But in the eyes of the Griffin family, Sammy"s childhood period was too long! He was already twenty years old and still believed in fairy tales! He believed in dragons, the power of friendship, that justice always prevails over evil, and that all humans were inherently good.
Because he had this kind of personality, when he decided to meet this strange online friend, no one was relieved.
A week later, just when Sammy was preparing to drive to the airport and pick up his "friend", Dunbar ran over and jumped in the front seat: “I"ll go with you.”
Sammy thought that it was unnecessary, but he didn"t object.
But after they arrived at the airport, just when asking Sammy about the flight information of his friend, his second brother was left speechless: “An international flight? Why didn"t you mention your friend was a foreigner? Which country is he from?”
“I didn"t tell you? Well, it"s not really important. " Sammy replied casually.
However, after his brother"s persistent questioning, he still took out his mobile phone to look up the chat history: “Ah, a small country I"ve never heard of called Zhuagen.”
“Wait, what? "
Dunbar racked his brain, suspecting that he might have slept through his previous geography lessons: “Zhuagen? Is there a country like that on Earth? "
—— Is there a country like that on Earth?
At the same time, the immigration staff taking a look at Michael"s pa.s.sport also absentmindedly asked this question.
“Uh……”
In order to blend into human society, Michael had turned into a very ugly (by his standards) human shape. After paying ten scales to his mother"s friend for help getting through the exit formalities, Michael was dumbfounded. He frowned and asked softly: “It doesn"t exist?
The staff immediately returned to their senses with a little bit of awkwardness.
After all, it was pretty rude to bluntly tell a person that their country didn"t exist. What made the staff member feel even more uneasy was that the person in front of him was just too handsome; thick red hair like a flame, unlike anything he had seen; a handsome face like a Greek G.o.d; plus two meters tall with a condescending gaze, combined with a n.o.ble temperament and an aura of majesty which made people feel that even a hint of rudeness towards him was a sin.
The staff couldn"t help but cover up his blunder with a cough: “I… I will check once more.”
He immediately looked down at the computer screen; while he furiously tapped away on his keyboard, he couldn"t help but whisper: “I am very sorry, this is the first time I"ve heard the name of this country. I heard that there are many small countries in Africa noone has even heard of… Hey, wait, found it! There really is a country called Zhuagen!"
While the staff member was surprised that Zhuagen country really existed…."
On the other side of the airport, Sammy, who came to pick up his friend, and his second brother, were also looking around.
After looking around for half an hour, they finally saw the landing time marked “Zhuagen to the Mi” on the display screen.
“There is really a country called Zhaugen,” Dunbar couldn"t help but mutter to himself.
“Our blue planet is so big, so there are bound to be some small countries that are not well-known. It"s only normal.” Sammy answered heartily.
“Alright.” Dunbar did not want to continue to get caught up in this boring geography lesson with his little brother.
Instead, he turned to ask: “Do you know what your net friend looks like? How do we find him later? Do we need to write his name on a sign in advance? "
“Wait, he left a message saying that he is very easy to recognize. He is red, so I guess he has red hair? He also sent me a photo."
Sammy continued as he rummaged through the mailbox on his cell phone: "I received it when I was in a meeting yesterday, but I was too busy at the time and didn"t have time to look at it. I remember that the t.i.tle of the email was his name… Yes, Michael, Michael"s photo… Ah, found it! "
Then he smiled and opened the photo: “Speaking of which, this is my first time seeing an online friend, let me see…”
Halfway through the words, he suddenly stopped.
Silence filled the air.
Dunbar, who was waiting to hear the rest, couldn"t help but look at the phone with suspicion while still rambling on and on: “What happened? Is he very ugly? That"s not right. When making friends, you can"t just look at their picture to see if they"re beautiful or not. You should confirm that the person is really good-looking, not photoshopped, and then make friends with him. This is why making friends online is unreliable. How ugly is he, really? “
But when he next to Sammy"s and looked at the photo, he was also silent.
After a few moments, Dunbar laughed loudly: “Ha ha ha, Sammy! Admit it, you"re being played!"
He laughed until tears came out: “This is your net friend? Haha, is this really the friend you came to pick up?! "
Though, it had to be said that this photo fit Sammy"s sense of aesthetics perfectly.
A gorgeous colossal dragon stood upright in the lush woods, as if taking a pa.s.sport photo. Its two big wings folded behind his back, the front paws placed in front of its chest, and big shining eyes that looked timidly into the camera. There was also a huge, b.l.o.o.d.y mouth filled with fierce white fangs that seemed to be laughing at the camera, but the expression gave off a feeling of… Shyness!