Kai uncurled his body, his scales causing a light, hissing noise as they scrapped against the vines that loosely wrapped around his frame.

Since falling asleep with a full stomach of rabbit flesh, his size had increased a considerable amount, now roughly the size of a cow, yet this wasn't the most noticeable change in his appearance.

Two bat-like wings, sharp spikes at their tips, knocked against the cramped chamber walls and the spines that had previously run down his back now extended to the end of Kai's head and the tip of his tail.

Stagnant essence, the final remnants of waste from his adaptation, steamed from Kai's nostrils as his muscles tensed and relaxed.

While he was now conscious, his mind had yet to fully awake and so, the sensations coming from his repaired wing, which had previously been all but missing, didn't even register.

"You're awake!"

The Dryad's panic filled voice erupted in the young dragon's mind. "You must help. They are trying to kill me!"

Before Kai could even process what the dryad had said, she wailed in terror before continuing. "The Woads, they sent their hounds to kill my rabbits and distract my defences while they tunnelled into my core room. They are going to take my core and refine it as they have done to my sisters."

The dryad sobbed. "By the gods, if my core is removed for more than a day, I will die. I don't want to die. I haven't done anything to them. Why can't they leave me alone."

Kai's thoughts struggled to keep up with the barrage of information. Not only was the Dryad communicating at the speed of thought, but his senses were being overloaded.

Smells and sounds he had never encountered before bombarded his vastly improved senses causing the young dragon to wince in pain.

Seeing Kai unresponsive, the dryad was nearing hysterics, the momentary hope she had when she sensed that he was away, rapidly fading.

She had all but given up on waking the sleeping dragon, even going as far as to try and stab him with her roots and so had focused solely on her defences.

Vibrations in the ground, accompanied by the boom of explosions, caused dirt to fall from the ceiling.

"They have beaten my last defences. I have no more essence to stimulate new growth," sobbed the dryad, before her voice spilt into multiple versions and bombarded Kai's conscious. Most of them were screaming at her assailants, either cursing or pleading, but a few continued to implore Kai to save her.

Suddenly, the voices merged into one, and a mournful scream filled with terror caused Kai's mind to almost collapse before abruptly cutting out.

Kai's pupils abruptly shrunk, all vestiges of sleep gone as the information in his mind finally formed into a coherent thought.

Since the dryad had started speaking, only five or so second's had passed, and thus, he had yet to process what was going on entirely.

He was already enraged, going off pure instinct and having just awoken but now his intelligence had returned, Kai felt as if he would explode at any moment.

The dryad, the creature that had offered him shelter and safety, even protecting him from the humans that had followed his tracks, was in danger.

"Dryad?" Kai's voice echoed in the small chamber, the sudden silence unnerving the dragon.

"Dryad!"

No response came, and Kai felt a small spark of ember ignite in his chest.

A spark of flame slipped through the dragon's teeth with his next breath as the golden hue of his eyes slowly corrupted into blood red.

Since Kai's birth, the dryad had been the only creature that had shown any care towards the young dragon. She had kept him warm, talked to him and seemingly valued his presence.

Now he had sorted his ancestral memories; Kai knew that the dryad had been only acting in her best interests while being slightly manipulative, but what did that matter. Her actions had only benefited him so far and had left a positive impression.

Excluding the rabbit, which had been a negative relationship anyway, she was his first bond, and even though Kai had only known her, at least consciously, for a short time, now she was in danger, he realised how much that meant to him.

'They are going to take my core and refine it.' The Dryad's words echoed in his mind's eye, the burning ember turning into a small blaze.

Memories of dragons being slaughtered, their parts hacked away and refined by the mortal species caused his soul to shudder in fury.

The dryad, the first creature that not only wasn't hostile but had been kind to him, was going to suffer the same fate as so many of his kind, especially in the final days of the war with the gods.

He knew that the dryad had taken care of him, talking to him and keeping his body temperature stable while his body adapted and subconsciously, at some point, he had bonded with her.

A beings first bond was incredibly important, and a dragon was no exception.

Something Kai hadn't even had with his mother.

Kai's mother's death flicked through his mind, his eyes turning more and more red.

He had seen the bits she deemed necessary enough to imprint onto the bloodline, the feelings she had projected, knowing that if her egg survived, it would one day recover them and know of her.

Her boundless love, pride and desire.

A desire to live a happy, unrestrained life.

She had been stolen from Kai, taken by the greed and selfishness of others. He couldn't blame those guilty, at least humans as they were long dead but it didn't stop the pain.

Kai's eyes turned full red, strikingly similar to those of his mother.

Now, in the silence that the dryad's voice had filled for months, he had suffered a loss once again. The dryad had been taken.

Dragon's were naturally possessive, and the moment Kai linked the dryad to something that was important to him, his instincts exploded in full force.

If what the dryad had said was correct, he had a day to return her core to its chamber.

A roar, much more tyrannical and overpowering than the one Kai released when he escaped the cave caused the entire chamber and tunnel system to shake, small clods of dirt falling from between the roots that held up the ceiling.

The tunnels were too small for his new form, but that didn't matter to the enraged dragon, and he quickly ploughed through them like a fish swimming through water.

At an intersection, the separation between Kai and the rabbits, a lone dog sat trembling. It was supposed to be guarding the entrance to rabbits quarters, not letting any escape while its pack killed and ate their fill yet at the moment, it was shivering in fear.

The roar that had exploded from the tunnel to its left moments before had shaken its soul, and instinctually, the dog felt as if it was standing before an endless abyss.

A flash of red was the first, and last things, it saw as Kai slammed into the dog's body, his teeth removing the dog's head and a significant portion of its upper chest before its mind could even register the event.

Blood sprayed against the walls, quickly soaking into the dirt, as Kai swallowed and, without slowing, smashed onwards into the rabbit's den.

Moments later, the surrounding area was filled with terrified howls, whimpers and screams of the pack before, less than five breaths later, falling to a deathly silence.

Close to the dryad's tree, a slim, blue female dressed in furs, had just emerged with a white crystal cradled in her arms.

Nearby, three brutish male giants with the same blue skin, tribalistic tattoos littering their body and two more females stood frozen. Their blue eyes glued onto the entrance of the burrow.

"What was that?" whispered one of the females, her eight-foot tall, streamlined frame, crouching as she crept backwards. "This tree wasn't meant to have a protector."

The twelve-foot tall males, who if they didn't share the same characteristics, could easily be mistaken for another species, stepped in front of the females, readying their large, ice axes. "We have what we came for, let's regroup with the others."

"What about the pack?" said another female, a bow slung across her back.

"If they live, they will return. If those mutts are weak enough to die against a nature dryad, they have no use to us," responded the female carrying the white crystal.

Suddenly, the earth shook as a loud thud caused the ground to lift slightly.

The dryad had reinforced the entrance to the burrow with its roots, imbuing them with essence and nature energy so when Kai had attempted to smash through like the tunnels below, he had been forced back.

Another loud thud, the area around the entrance cracking as it lifted, caused the Woads to back away, their eyes wide in astonishment and a tinge of fear.

Moments later, the group shuddered as one as a bone-chilling, enraged growl caused the earth to almost visibly ripple.

The stench of blood was heavy in the air, something the Woads knew to be killing intent directed at them.

"Ru-" One of the male's was only halfway through his first word when the ground around the entrance to the burrow exploded in flames, flinging dirt and stone high into the sky.