In the grotto YuJu sat facing a guilty-looking Anput with a bored look of his own, hours had passed and he'd yet to get an answer from the little hound about her reasoning

'Thought communication doesn't help if the other party cant form thoughts properly to begin with'

Sure she could make out simple words or their equivalent in emotion but that was all there was to it, explaining why looked to be an impossible task for her newfound intelligence, hell it was hard to even get the question through after a couple of hours

'Orders seem to work, questions not so much''

At least he got that straight

"Alright, moving on to these little guys"

Patting the hound so she wouldn't remain guilty he went about checking the remaining eight living Dreneonates

The little lizards were drunk as hell, this alcohol loving trait was found among all of their clumsy kind, a glaring flaw that wouldn't disappear until they took full form

"Hicc! Puff!" "Easy there"

Avoiding the small burst of smog he extended his bony fingers through the cage and nudged the scaly little beast a few times to expose parts of its body

"Dark green scales, muted black iris, much greener scales under the chin and cheeks, add those to the smoggy breath it blew at me just know and we have a Swamp Creeper on our hands"

Even though it was not yet full-grown he could differentiate between most of them from the telltale signs

"It isn't the best pick as a guardian, too hard to keep communicating with its kind and this one needs to stay in packs, these shortcomings can be made up for with a few skills though, I just need to find the right guild to house this bugger"

Giving the little fellow a few pats with his bare bones he stepped toward the next one, checking it in the same way he did the first

"Metalic shiny silver scales, blue eyes and no blemishes or breath, hmm looks like an Armoured Vaulter, then again the scales are a bit too shiny, perhaps a Silver Sovereign?"

It was only the second one yet he was left guessing between two optional full forms

"If it's an Armoured Vaulter then that's okay, a Silver Sovereign though….I hope it doesn't turn into that"

Sure the latter sounded way cooler than the former, and it was really so for a Silver Sovereign could control surrounding metal to their will, sadly the downside was that it...could only control metals to its will

"Sounds and acts like a mighty dragon but is always achieving lacklustre results compared to the rest of the Dreneonates"

Glancing at the cage next to it he saw the same type with the only difference being the less shiny scales

"That's an Armoured Vaulter for sure, the one next to it looks like a Scorched Scorpius"

It was easy to tell, especially with how its tail became bloaty the further it went ending with a pointy end, still he checked them too so there wouldn't be any surprises

The fifth one looked to be the most ordinary of them all, it had pale green scales and a few brown markings on its body, no breath and no other special features

"Oh, this one might make a good gift to Aminta"

Even with the ordinary looks YuJu favoured it the most so far

"Wood Wonder, another way to say natural disaster"

Recalling all the trouble just two Wood Wonders could cause to the entirety of Hortus brought both a pained and a happy smile to his face

"I'm not sure if I should give it to her yet especially knowing who will be raising this vicious forest keeper….Haah, they need time to bond though and we are short on time the most"

He moved on to the next one quickly, if not he just might go back on his decision and keep the little guy

Identifying the other three was done in a flash just like the rest, there weren't that many Dreneonates and even fewer varying types and since every one of the eight here was part of the legion that attacked them there was no reason for him not to know their exact type

"So we got ourselves a Swamp Creeper, two Armoured Vaulters or one and a Silver Sovereign, one Scorched Scorpius, one Wood Wonder, a Scavenger, Noble Tempest, and a Colossus"

By the end of his words there seemed to be some dissatisfaction forming on his face

"Of the many types there were I got these? What shabby luck"

His gaze passed by the mini dragons one by one, lingering especially on the black and red Scavenger dangling itself from the top of the cage

"A Scavenger of all things? What the hell is a lonesome Scavenger going to achieve?"

Perhaps it was the depressed mood that he was already in that caused the constant complains, then again if anyone else suffered losses one after the other they would already be in tears

Noting the pessimistic mentality YuJu took a deep breath in an attempt to suppress all emotions back into the void that was his heart, successfully shoving away any mood swings and going back to his usual demeanour

"Aaron"

He called for the giant four-armed Orelic while throwing the greed pouch to the side

"Dump all the corpses in here, leave only your fellow brothers out, we'll be needing them in a while"

The obedient rock obeyed and started grabbing randomly at the dead pile and throwing them into the pouch to be devoured in its limited dark expanse

"Anput, can you revive those big guys over there?"

Pointing her to the fallen and crumbled rockets he questioned, already expecting her negative response

"Wu wu.."

Sure enough, she shook her dejectedly

"Don't worry little one, I knew they couldn't be revived since they have been dead for a while, don't be down about it"

Rubbing the poor hound till she cheered up a bit he turned his eyes to the sleeping Ellis

'Hmm, let her sleep some more, a good rest she deserves, meanwhile….I need to think about what to do now that I'm going back to Hortus empty handed'

With no mighty sword he couldn't waltz in and start messing with a few factions as he'd intended before, it seems there was a need for new conspiracies to be woven

As such YuJu continued patting Anput with his skeletal fingers, thoughts all over the place in a bid to salvage those well planned schemes