EPISODE 1: THE DRAGON’S CURSE
Years ago, Antapani was nothing more than a silent witness to the miserable lives of Arnol and Rini. They lived in a small shack with bamboo walls full of holes. Every time it rained, Rini had to rush around placing basins in different corners to catch the water leaking from the roof. As a laundry worker, Rini spent over ten hours a day kneeling in front of a tub, scrubbing the rough clothes of her neighbors until her palms were cracked, red, and often bleeding from the harsh, cheap detergent.
Arnol was a man whose soul was slowly being eroded by a deep sense of inferiority. As an unskilled laborer who was more often unemployed than not, he had to swallow the insulting stares of the marketplace merchants. He was sick of seeing his wife come home with a slumped back from exhaustion while he could only provide the bare minimum. The envy he felt seeing the luxury of others turned into a boiling poison in his mind.
“I am tired of being trash, Rini! How much longer do we have to crawl like worms?” Arnol shouted one night. His voice was hoarse, his eyes wildly staring at the plastic plate on the dirt floor containing only a few scraps of leftover rice.
Rini could only wrap her arms around her husband’s shoulders while sobbing. “Be patient, Kang. Good fortune will come if we keep trying.”
But for Arnol, the word patience no longer held any meaning. That very night, carrying nothing but rage, he left the house. He walked for dozens of kilometers through the cold night mist toward the edge of Banjaran. His destination was a place humans feared most, the Dragon Valley. An ancient ravine whispered to be the home of a power that knew no mercy.
At the bottom of the dark, sulfur-smelling valley, Arnol bowed down. He screamed into a cave opening that breathed out a glowing, searing heat. “Take whatever you want, but make me rich! Make them all kneel before me!”
From the darkness emerged a pair of vertical yellow eyes glowing like embers. The dragon’s voice was heavy and vibrating, as if the ground beneath Arnol’s feet was shaking. The dragon offered two deadly choices for the pact.
“I will give you wealth you can never exhaust, human. But your blood will belong to me. Listen carefully, if the child born from your wife’s womb is a girl, she will die. But if it is a boy, he will take the form of half-human and half-dragon.”
Arnol did not think twice. His mind was filled only with images of gold and luxury. Without a single thought for Rini’s feelings, he immediately nodded in agreement. “I agree! Do it now!”
In a short time, a terrifying miracle occurred. Arnol suddenly possessed an impossible amount of wealth. They moved into the grandest house in Antapani, a palace with white marble floors and golden pillars. But for Rini, that house felt like a beautiful graveyard. She felt no happiness at all with the sudden riches. She sensed a darkness following her husband. Arnol became quiet and grew restless every time he looked at Rini’s growing belly.
The night of the delivery arrived as a great storm hit. Lightning flashed repeatedly, illuminating the luxurious room where Rini struggled. When the baby was born, it wasn’t a baby’s cry that was heard, but a low, haunting growl.
“Astagfirullah! Arnol, what is this?!” screamed Mak Odah, the midwife. She backed away, her face pale with terror until she hit a cabinet.
Rini, still weak, tried to lift herself from her soft pillows. “Where is my child? Give him to me!”
But as the baby was placed in her arms, Rini’s heart felt as though it stopped beating. The baby cried, but the sound was more like a low snarl. The skin on his arms and back was not smooth. There were hard, jet-black scales that shined under the light of the crystal chandelier. His sharp yellow eyes stared up at the ceiling.
“Arnol, explain this to me! Why is our child like this?!” Rini shrieked, her cries filling the room. She was confused, frustrated, and scared to death.
Arnol only stood silent in the corner, not daring to look his wife in the eye. Rini did not know that the marble luxury beneath her feet was the price paid for her child’s monstrous appearance. Even though her heart was shattered and she was utterly bewildered, Rini’s maternal instinct won. She held the baby boy, named Deri, and wept uncontrollably.
The next five years were a living hell for Rini. Although they were wealthy, Rini felt like a pariah. Every time she dared to carry Deri outside for some fresh air, she had to face a wall of hatred from the neighbors in Antapani.
“Look at Rini, taking that demon child for a walk again,” a neighbor whispered bitterly as Rini passed.
“Don’t get close, or we’ll catch their bad luck. Look at that, she has a beautiful face but gave birth to a monster!” another resident shouted while throwing trash at them.
Rini’s mental suffering was indescribable. At home, she was ignored by Arnol, and outside, she was treated like a plague-bearer. Every night Rini stayed awake, crying silently as she stroked the rough scales on Deri’s back. She felt her soul slowly dying from the endless shame and sorrow. The mental pressure finally broke her body. Rini fell gravely ill because her spirit had given up.
Finally, when Deri was five years old, Rini took her last breath. She died in deep sadness, unable to endure the world’s insults any longer, leaving little Deri standing in confused silence beside his mother’s cold body.
As soon as Rini was buried, Arnol dropped all pretense. The disgust and shame he felt looking at Deri drove him to act cruelly. He dragged Deri into the car and drove him far into the deep forests of Arcamanik, a place rarely touched by humans.
“Get out! Find your own food here! You are not my son, you are a curse!” Arnol barked as he shoved Deri onto the wet ground. Arnol immediately sped away without looking back once.
Deri cried with all his might as he watched his father’s car disappear. “Father! Don’t leave Deri!” he screamed until his voice was gone. He began to walk through the thick trees, searching for life. His tiny feet were scratched by thorns as he kept calling out for his late mother. After walking for miles without direction, Deri collapsed, sitting down from sheer exhaustion.
He leaned against a massive tree that was perhaps a hundred years old. Having no strength left, Deri curled up and fell fast asleep, unaware that in that very place, his fate was about to change.
