I fell asleep quickly, laying on my [soul cushion] even though the bed had its own cushions. As I lost consciousness I felt cobaltio nuzzle next to me.

Zatchel and I sat in front of a small pond, unmoving. The water was perfectly, unnaturally still, yet gave no reflection, dark and colorless just like the rest of our frozen world. Yet, though there was no warmth, nor cold, I felt warm sitting next to it.

Sayanica, it could be over soon.

I nodded.

There will be no going back. We might never see each other again.

I nodded.

Tears welled in Zatchel’s eyes. I guess it’s best...you can finally live again.

...

I don’t... he paused mid-sentence, then suddenly hugged me, I don’t want to leave...

“Saya...”

I shot from the bed, a hand on my heart, feeling as the emotions of someone else flooded away from me like a dam.

“Looks like that got you awake. You wanted to be woken up in thirty minutes, right?”

I shook off my dizziness, then looked to the speaker. It was Symantha, standing by the side of my bed. I nodded to her.

“One more thing, might I ask what that is?” She pointed to the outline of my [soul cushion]”

I slid off my bed, then picked up my slate from the nightstand. {That is my [soul cushion].}

“[soul cushion]? I’m quite unfamiliar with it.”

{It’s nothing important, it’s just a magic cushion that lets me sleep easily.}

“Is that so...”

I looked back, seeing Cobaltio awake, with his claws around his muzzle for some reason, so I retracted my [soul cushion]. It unraveled and flew to my hair, tying itself onto it.

Genuine intrest shone on Symantha’s face, “Oh, that is quite the amazing magical item! Who did you buy it from!?”

I wasn’t sure how to act towards her spontaneous interest. I considered keeping the circumstances from which I’d received it a secret, but saw no point in it. {It’s a gift from Seraph.}

She stared in silence, then looked me in the eye with a strange confusion, speaking slowly, “Is that normal...?”

Oh, I forgot that it’s apparently a legendary item...why was I given it again? Actually, wasn’t Seraph chained up when she gave it to me? Did that not stop her from blessing me with powerful items? I shrugged. {No clue.}

“I see...perhaps you should ask the bishop about it! I’d love to come with you to learn more about it as well!”

{I was going to meet him tomorrow.} wipe, write, {And thank you for the slate, it’s great!}

She relaxed a little, speaking with a less formal tone. “You’re welcome, Saya.” She coughed, placing a hand on her throat. “I have more to attend to before I can end my working hours, is there anything else you need before I leave?”

I shook my head, and she quickly left the room.

I looked to Cobaltio, who locked eyes with me with an eerily human expression of understanding. He seemed to grow more intelligent by the day.

After reluctantly asking passerbys for directions, I found my way to an innocuous house on the outskirts of the city. I wasn’t very comfortable walking the streets alone, passing so many people with levels far higher than me, but I didn’t want to live assuming everyone wanted to attack me. Besides, why would someone attack some random kid with no money? My mind reached back to the incident with the [demonkin], but I batted it away. He was probably just a pickpocket.

The house had a large lawn and a stable in the back. I hesitated for a moment as I stood in front of the door, too nervous to knock. In my village, people would be happy to help me, but in the city, a place where people could pass a dead body with no more than a glance, was there even a chance someone would help me? That was the east wing of the city, of course, so what about here, where the houses were more spread out, and people seemed well-to-do?

As I stared at the door, my heart beat faster and faster. It was just a random person behind it. What if I was rejected on the basis of being a stranger? All I needed was some help when it came to raising Cobaltio...I either had to steel my wits or leave. Yet even though there wasn’t any good reason not to ask for help, I couldn’t take a step towards the door without feeling anxious.

Cobaltio raised his head and sniffed the air. His eyes moved about the street with suspicion, then he suddenly leaped off of me and dashed towards the stables behind the house before I could reel him in. Even though I was quick to run after him, he outsped me on his all fours, ignoring the [soul cushion]. He leaped(probably with his [death wing]) through the wooden gate that led inside the stables, forcing me to chase him into it.

I climbed over that gate and finally picked up Cobaltio as he stood on two legs, scratching on a gate, this time almost as tall as me.

The stables smelled metallic, which had probably attracted Cobaltio’s nose, and were filled with the massive gates, each dwarfing over me.

He writhed in my arms, yapping at the gate with humanlike ‘yeea’s. I managed to keep him in my arms, though. After wrangling him into submission, I started towards the gate, interested to see what Cobaltio was yapping at, only to see the head of a massive creature crane over it. It was a fully grown, purple-scaled [drake], looking at me with the side of its head. I saw some of its glinting, reptilian body from behind the gate, shrouded in darkness.

Its head was as large as Cobaltio, and when it began to growl, there was no illusion of humanity in its voice. I froze up as it moved towards me, stretching its neck until its eye was only a foot from my face.

“See again?” I heard Cobaltio say roughly.

The [drake] moved closer to cobaltio, then sniffed the air...then it snapped at cobaltio.

CRUNCH.

Before I could even react, its mouth moved as quick as a whip, snapping at Cobaltio. As he was yanked from my arms by the legs, I heard the sound of snapping bones, a mortifying crunch that churned my stomach.

The instant I regained my wits, I drew my sword, fumbling it out of the sheath in my panic. Before I could take any action towards saving Cobaltio, lava-filled flames engulfed the head of the purple [drake] in an explosion, causing it to release the juvenile in surprise. Cobaltio, even with his hind legs wrecked, fell onto the ground with surprising serenity, which I guessed was his [death wing] stabilizing his flight.

The purple [drake] regained its composure, entirely unhurt, then tried to snap at Cobaltio once more, only to dodge my sword aimed at its throat. Cobaltio took the opportunity to escape and used its [draconic imbuement], sprouting two wings and soaring far from the drake’s reach. The [drake] stared at me with malice, then leaped over the gate like it was nothing.

Its full form was intimidating, to be sure. On its all-fours, it was far taller than me and bulkier than a carriage. Its tail whipped around the room with dangerous speed, agitatedly banging itself against the stone walls. It took a step forward, raising its long neck far above me, bearing its teeth. A collar chained it to some part of the stable, but it had a lot of slack. Its two eyes glared at Cobaltio and me with beastly aggression. It would attack the instant it sized me up.

I quickly sorted through each of its dangerous tools, coming up with a battle plan. It had claws that were far from sharp but quite deadly when considering its massive biceps, a tail it was unlikely to use unless its other tools failed, and of course, its jaw filled with blunt molars. Each of its weapons was more than capable of killing me if I took the brunt of their attack.

Killing it was a last resort since it was the property of the house’s owner. It was chained, though, so as long as I got far enough from the chain’s origin, I could get away. Would the small knots of iron hold up against the formidable, malice-filled monster, though?

The instant I stepped back, hoping to distance myself from the creature, it leaped towards me with its left claw, screeching in unreasonable anger. Reacting on reflex and memory, I dove beneath it before it could trample over me. Expecting a swing from its tail, I raised my sword in preparation to block an attack.

But it ignored me. It locked onto Cobaltio and dashed towards him with blinding speed, more than enough to catch up to him, even with his wings.

It ignored me?! Well, if you’re going to be a jerk, trying to kill my pet, I’ll beat you to the ground! Seeing no other way to stop the seemingly unstoppable creature, I dropped my sword and snatched the chain. As the beast bounded forward, it dragged the chain painfully through my grip. Using all the strength I could muster, I yanked the chain away from the entrance and planted my feet into the ground. Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t stop the monster, but even as it dragged me through the dirt, I could feel my resistance was affecting it, at least a little. It trudged its way to the entrance quickly, snapping the chain taught as it reached the front gate, and bit at a fear-struck Cobaltio, missing his tail by a hair.

I knew it wasn’t finished, though. A rampaging animal like that wouldn’t give up just because it was at the end of a chain. I continued to tug at the chain and watched as the [drake] backflipped. As I marveled at the awesome acrobatics, it desperately swung its tail at Cobaltio. With deadly momentum, the tail arced through the air and missed the young [drake], breaking through the air quick enough to knock him off balance in midair, despite not hitting. Cobaltio regained his flight just before he hit the ground. However, when the purple [drake] landed on the ground, it still wasn’t finished. Seeing that Cobaltio was still barely in range of its tail with the back of its vision, it propelled its back half the other direction with its hind legs, then swung its tail one last time towards Cobaltio.

However, it seemed Cobaltio had learned from the last attack and made sure to peer at its bloodthirsty kin from the corner of its eyes. Just as its tail was reeled to hit, he flapped his wings too fast for me to see, instantly spurring himself many feet into the air. A second after, the tail-swing passed by him without a chance to hit.

I reflexively prayed to Seraph for my pet to live as I grabbed my sword in preparation to fend off the purple-scaled reptile. [oathbreaker] or not, I wouldn’t be beaten by a meager beast like this!

I held my sword at guard, looking for an escape route. Behind me, a small window high in the stable was just large enough for me to fit through...If I could go through it, I would probably be able to avoid the creature. Otherwise, I could also escape through the front entrance.

I took a step back, baiting it to attack, and the sucker fell for it, immediately dashing at me again. It took one bound, then two bounds-I took two steps back, towards the gate to the [drake]’s living quarters. I couldn’t easily hurdle over the massive gate, but if it took a swipe at me and broke it...It took one more leap, and I ducked down, ready to dodge a bite or swipe.

It landed, sliding forward as it readied crash its claw into me...

From outside the stables, I heard a gruff, stern voice cry out, “Harmony!”

I instinctively dodged out of the sweeping slash, leaping backward, prepared with a retaliatory strike, but the purple [drake] had already paused where it stood. After some hesitation, it ceased its hostilities, lowing its claw. It turned its neck back to look at the speaker as it swung its tail to-and-fro with agitation.

“Come here, Harmony.” A gruff, stout humanoid in his nightdress stood at the entrance of the stables and motioned towards himself. The [drake] walked to him, but not before glaring at me with a short growl. Behind him, I saw Cobaltio looking at me with visible worry and exhaustion, flying above the fence, blood dripping down from his feet. The man looked at me now that his [drake] was passive. “Who are you?” he asked.

After reassessing the situation, I sheathed my sword and took out my new slate, writing on the glow-in-the-dark side. {Saya, age 13, level 9, [apprentice]}

“I see. And why do you appear to be traveling with...a flying [drake]?”

{He’s my pet.}

“And why are you in my stables?”

{He ran in suddenly.}

“Does your [drake] have dragon blood?”

I hesitated for a moment, then answered truthfully. {Probably.}

He glanced to Cobaltio then nodded, reaffirmed, placing his hand on his chin. “And why did you come to my house?”

{I wanted to ask you for help.}

“I understand. You damn well could have been quieter about getting my attention, though.” He sent his [drake] a stern glare, then motioned with his head. The [drake] annoyedly trodded back to its stall, giving me suspicious glances as it passed me, a motion I reciprocated.

“Now, come with me and I’ll help out your flying wyrm.”

Cobaltio suddenly lost his wings and plopped to the ground, too exhausted and crippled to move. The halfling clicked his tongue. “Plop.”