It felt good being back out in the open again. Richard also appreciated true variety. In the slime forest, he ate slimes and flowers, and in the caves, it was generally saber tooth rats and boa concrushers, and rarely anything else. He actually caught a rabbit here! That was a pleasant surprise, a sentiment shared by Panda and Krackle.

  Krackle had begun settling into the ke, as she discovered the joy of being submerged inside of a ke, though she stuck to the shallow side, as the ke went deep, unsurprising considering the ke was in monster territory, and pces dense in mana often had bigger geographical locations and structures.

  Panda found the trees highly advantageous to him, as cmbering around a cave was far harder than the woods, a location far more suited to squirrels.

  They’d even devised a strategy of driving or luring monsters to the waters edge and while distracting monsters, Krackle could sneak in from behind before striking, grabbing and dragging the being into the water where either Richard would let loose a barrage of thunder attacks, frying the monster, or just letting Krackle finish the job.

  Speaking of the flowers, he decided to share some with Alexandria as an offer of goodwill, as thanks for her supervision. At first, she was grateful, but refused. Until she realized they were caveshines that is, which she then gratefully received, promising to grow more for them. It was nice she offered to do so. She probably felt bad about simply just taking them though. They are known to be rare after all.

  The forest here was a lot less intimidating than the forest he had been first born in, but was arguably more dangerous. He encountered gdius lupins, which could be read as saber wolves, or bde thieves, and both were accurate.

  Richard had read that they were immense pains for adventurers to deal with. They didn’t usually set out to kill people, but they did set out to steal bdes, as apparently the bigger bde you had, the more impressive of a mate you were.

  They were rare creatures and usually considered high level d rank creatures

  Richard asked Alexandria, curious if they were common around here.

  Previously, he had been hunting in the new forest, when he encountered his first gdius lupin, a fiery red wolf with piercing amber eyes, which complemented the red fur. It had been holding a dagger in its mouth, and a rapier buried within its tail.

  At first the wolf merely stared at him, with its fur bristling, until it seemingly sniffed something, stiffened for a second, then called down, seemingly no longer regarding him as a danger, and walked by him ignoring him.

  Richard had initially considered picking a fight, but given how it had merely ignored him, Richard had decided no to. It was conscious enough to analyze and decide him not a threat, and let his guard down, and Richard just didn’t feel like fighting him.

  Richard didn’t like to betray people after they showed trust in him.

  Alexandria’s face brightened up at the mention of the gdius lupins.

  “They’re migrating again? Wonderful! I always enjoy when they cross through my territory. I happen to even have an old friend amongst them.”

  Richard could figure from this comment that bde thieves were a reoccurring thing around here, and he assumed it was a migration, perhaps once a year. It was known that bde thieves were not a prominent species in the woods, so it seemed they moved pce to pce.

  She also had a friend amongst them, so Richard was inclined to believe one of them was a higher race, given that monster packs were usually led by a higher race, and he doubted that Alexandria’s friend was merely one of the pack.

  Then again, he didn’t really know much about bde thieves beyond what was prominently known, so perhaps they were more intelligent than people were aware.

  As Richard spent more time with Alexandria, he learned plenty more from her.

  She told him the reason he felt such a distinctive attraction to her was because her bloodline was far stronger than his, and usually dragons with lower bloodlines felt equal parts fear and reverence and sometimes even disgust when facing a draconic being with a higher bloodline

  However, Richard seemingly cked this inherent fear and disgust, with his fear less bloodline based, and more human instinct, as due to his human soul and prejudices, it seemed he to a certain extent cked dragon’s pride. At least, that’s what Alexandria thought. She admitted it was a theory more than anything else, as a dragon with a human soul was a unique experience for her.

  Richard wasn’t sure what it was, but didn’t care.

  At the end of the day now, Richard would bring a kill to a cave that Alexandria, and now Richard, Panda and Krackle called home, and sit down, having conversations, talking about how the day had been, and what interested him, all the while Alexandria curled up and listened.

  It made Richard happy to some extent, having someone older and wiser who would listen to him just to tell her how his day was. Like a mother perhaps. But it also reminded him of Lyssandra

  Lyssandra…

  The thought of the dragonewt who had been there for Richard all his life hurt him a little bit, as he worried how’d she taken his death. He’d promised himself that he would go to the human world once he was strong enough, to see Galileo, to see Lyssandra again.

  He was strong now, compared to his weak self. He could finally do all the things he had wanted to do for her once. He could braid her hair and clean it, help feed her like she did for him, buy clothes for her like she did for him, protect her like she always protected him…

  But not yet.

  Not until he was strong enough that he was sure he could not only protect her, but himself.

  With power came the greed and envy of others. He was a dragon, and dragons were valuable resources.

  Even so, he woud still grow stronger and dive into the heart of danger that was human cities, so he could see his friends again.

  ‘just wait for me Lyssandra…’ thought Richard as he succumbed to sleep.

  extra

  Ichknov is a abyssal skeles wyrm, taking the form of a pitch-bck serpent, capable of darkness manipution, illusion production, and many, many things involved with the abyss. Ichknov's name is not derived from any modern nguage, but a very old and forgotten one, and her name means nightmare. Which nguage was it? No clue. I've got a few million nguages buried in this skull. There's no way in any realm I remember which people it was from, no matter how many memory potions you give me.

  Ichknov tells me I named her in a drunken stupor, so that's that. Honestly, it might not even be a nguage. Don't tell her that. She quite likes the name.

  Amon is a sor fre obelisk skink, capable of emitting a blinding light so bright that it can be seen a few miles away. He makes a great lighthouse. Oh, and he has a wonderful control of fire and sor power, which he absorbs through his obelisks and redirects towards his foes. He also shoots serbeams out of his eyes, like those little lizards that shoot blood out of their eyes. No, I was not mimicking su**rman. Amon's blood is essentially boiling va. And it was done 50 years before superman.

  ... Molitov does have zer eyes though.

  Anyway, the obelisk in the name refers to the two lines of obelisks that line Amon's back, and in contrast to his bright ass skin, is pitch bck.

  Ichknov likes to wrap around Amon's right arm, and together they provide one hell of an eye sore for enemies, with waves of darkness and blinding lights reducing enemies to doddering fools. They work together so often, that everyone thinks they're one creature. You could say they are, considering they're a couple, metaphors and all that.

  ... Their kids will be absolute nightmares.

  ... Why didn't I name Amon Ra? Well I thought Amon was fine at the time.

  ...

  .... I could call them Ichknov Ra as a couple name? It does sound cooler that way doesn't it.

  ... Excuse me, I have a visit to make.

  -- Grant,pyer 0, running off to convince an old friend to change his name for a cool power couple name