The egg shook and wobbled as the mini Dragon inside it tried to break its way out. The cracks widened and the thin rivulets of liquid changed to a river as the contents rushed out. He saw something moving through the crack and a claw peeked out and broke off a small chunk of shell. A faint crunching was heard inside before the claw returned and quickly demolished the shell in a matter of minutes. The baby Dragon waddled out of the egg, covered in a thin film of goo.
Mama Dragon reached out a massive claw and effortlessly crushed the egg, which the baby promptly rushed and devoured. The egg finished off, it started to look around and familiarize itself with the cave. As it's little head turned towards him it burst into motion, clumsy limbs scrambling across the stone and bowling him over. It let out a high pitched squeal and burrowed its head into his chest, covering him in the goo as well.
Mama scraped them off of the ground with her wing, dropping them in a roll near where she usually laid. She settled down with her front legs around them and created a canopy with her wings, bringing her head in close. Her eyes were almost entirely pupil at this point, the darkness dancing with specks of glowing gold. She extended her tongue and began to lick the goo from her baby, and Kase. He tried to fight against the tongue, but relaxed and let it happen.
The baby snuggled into him as the tongue rolled it this way and that, soon enough falling asleep with quiet wheezing snores. Kase followed shortly after, the soothing warmth of the Dragon surrounding him lulling him into unconsciousness.
The next few weeks passed quickly, Mama Dragon consistently left Kase and the baby alone to go hunt. Kase would play with the mini Dragon and drive away any of the things that tried to enter the cave. At one point a group of man-things tried to rush the cave, but were driven off by a rush of fire from Mama returning. The baby was eating most of the meat that its mother brought back, and Kase wasn't sure where it was all going at first. But when the mini Dragon started to grow and was suddenly standing at chest height, he figured it out.
The new resident of the cave was very playful, and very energetic. Kase found his rock towers knocked over and occasionally chewed on, at one point the baby had pounced on his back and knocked him into the stack. He had expected the bruises to be really bad, but he barely had a mark. He gave up on his rocks on the third day, opting instead to play with the mini Dragon. He wasn't sure how one was supposed to play with a tiny force of nature, but he found quite a bit of success just mimicking it.
It would swipe its claws and tail at him, never really leaving a mark but the hits still stung. Kase didn't have a tail, but he joined in the claw swiping, he doubted his overgrown fingernails really counted as claws but the baby didn't seem to mind. As it got bigger it started to incorporate bites and headbutts into the play, never breaking the skin but occasionally leaving bruises. Kase was impressed at the restraint of such a young Dragon, but still got into the play as much as he could.
Nights had changed considerably however, instead of sleeping alone on the bare stone, he would cuddle up with the baby in the protective embrace of mama Dragon. He woke up every day feeling better and better, stronger and faster, more him for lack of a better word. The baby stopped growing quite so fast and seemed to plateau, just able to look him in the eyes standing normally.
Kase had changed quite a bit in the care of the Dragon, growing taller and more muscular, but not all of the changes were physical. He had changed mentally as well, although not to the same degree. Perhaps the greatest change he went through came around the third month he spent with the Dragons. Kase finally gave up on ever seeing Xey again, he wouldn't see his siblings again, and he wouldn't see his mother.
As odd as it sounded, the revelation was almost freeing, a weight he had been carrying mentally being finally dropped. He surrendered himself to the flow of his new life, gradually releasing his troubling thoughts and worries. Kase truly blossomed then, besting the baby Dragon just as many times as he lost during their playtime. He stopped caring about the meat being cooked, instead joining his scaly sibling in tearing into the raw flesh mama Dragon brought back.
As spring crept over the edges of winter they expanded the radius of their play. Running around among the trees and boulders that surrounded the cave. Kase and Baby's play at one point brought them to a small rushing stream, which nearly made him weep with joy. For the first time in nearly half a year, he was able to take a bath. Granted he had to contest with Baby not wanting to stop playing around, but he finally felt clean.
He made regular trips to the stream to clean himself, unwilling to stay covered in grime for even a second longer than usual. The water should be exceptionally cold, but never seemed to feel anything short of refreshing. Truth be told, he hadn't been cold since the Dragon adopted him, neither the snow or still frosty water seemed to affect him. That had made him curious, but since he couldn't ask the Dragon, well, anything, he put it out of his head.
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Baby on the other hand, seemed inclined to put anything and everything into his head. For what was supposed to be an incredibly powerful and magnificent magical beast, it sure liked eating things it shouldn't. Rocks, sticks, dirt, rocks again, he just kept eating random garbage. Kase worked on teaching the mini monster what was and wasn't edible.
One particularly warm spring day towards the end of the season Kase once more came face to face with the big cat. He looked up from the crystal clear surface of the stream, only to freeze when he met the bright yellow eyes. It stared at him unblinkingly for a very, very, long moment. Before lowering its head. Kase hadn't noticed at first, but it had been carrying something in its mouth, which it now dropped to the ground.
Kase risked glancing down at it and saw a bloody haunch of some kind of creature. He looked back up at the cat, staring it down as it bobbed its head and turned away, disappearing among the trees. Kase let out his long held breath and was thankful he hadn't been wearing his pants, and that he was already bathing. He finished up and scooped up the meat the cat left, examining it while he walked back to the cave.
When he returned he presented the meat to the napping mama Dragon, who sniffed it for a bit then laid her head back down. Seeing that she didn't want it, or think it was dangerous, he started eating. Breaking through the skin he used his teeth to pin the flesh and tear the fur off of it, revealing the lean red meat beneath. The meat was good, grassy and lacking in fat, but still very juicy. He separated the two leg bones and gave the larger of the two to Baby, crunching into the smaller one himself.
He sucked out the marrow and reclined on his rock pile, nibbling on the harder outside while he relaxed. Baby finished off his bone and came at Kase to beg for his, Kase responded by sticking out his tongue. Baby mimicked the action and Kase chuckled before throwing him the half a bone. Kase idly picked up a rock and made a scratch on the wall, he still wanted to know how long he was here after all. He yawned and started to doze, the comforting weight of Baby crawling onto his lap helping him drift off.
The sun beat down upon the trees, ripping away what fragile moisture they had managed to collect. Dry leaves drifted to the ground and collected among the roots breaking up the cracked ground. It hadn't rained for nearly an entire month, the land was suffering and even the animals in the area were struggling to survive. But the worst result of the prolonged drought was that Kase's bathing stream had run nearly dry. It had been reduced to a bare trickle passing over a thin strip of mud.
Kase had built a small dam to allow the water to collect, but it was barely enough to drink. The summer was truly a nightmare, but one which he seemed oddly immune to. He had passed it off during the winter, and spring was pleasant enough, but with the blazing heat of summer had come a realization. Kase was immune to temperatures now. At least to the degree it could hurt him anyway. He could still feel when it was cold or hot but the extremes felt… muted, like they didn't really matter.
He heard the quiet crack of a twig, followed by the much louder sound of dry branches and bushes being destroyed. A loud pulse of bloodthirst pelted his back from the attacking monster and rather than run, he spun to meet its charge. Gleaming claws speared towards his chest and teeth of polished ivory tried to close on his head. His hands grabbed the straining talons while he threw his upper body backwards and away from the snapping jaws.
His foot planted in the scaly under belly assisted his movement as he tossed Baby over his shoulders. The miniature Dragon smashed into a particularly sick looking pine tree, snapping the withered trunk in half. He didn't wait for the larger predator to recover and burst after it, swinging his long nails like talons of his own. The Dragon tried to meet his attack but he twisted his elbow to redirect his swing under the interception.
His nails made contact with the blue-green scales and he felt a small amount of give. He hooked his fingers and broke through the surface of the scales, pulling with his full bodyweight until there was a loud ripping sound. He staggered back with the Dragon skin clasped tightly in his fist and grinned at the surprised Baby. It charged him again and he responded by throwing the skin into its face and leaping over the charge. He grabbed onto the joints where the wings connected to the back and reached with his left hand.
He used as much force as he was capable of and his fingers once again pierced into the skin. With a wrenching yank he tore another strip of skin away from the struggling Dragon, using it to wrap around the left wing to keep the beast from going airborne. He leapt off the back just before Baby could think to smash him into a tree and grinned.
“You seem to be struggling brother!”
The Dragon didn't respond, instead twisting its head sideways to start chewing at the skin trapping its wing. Kase bent his legs to a crouch ready to explode forward to finish this altercation when a heavy growl vibrated through the air. He turned to see Mama staring at them, she twitched her head back towards the cave and Kase nodded. She began to walk away and he walked up to Baby to finish helping it shed.
“Well the game was fun while it lasted.”
Baby growled in response and Kase decided it meant, ‘Yeah it was! Please help me get this stuff off though.’
He and Baby worked together and had the old skin off in short order, revealing the glistening green scales underneath. They moved back to the cave and following Mama's directions stood in the odd bowl she had dug out. She stared down at them and made an odd crooning sound, then she made direct eye contact with Kase. She closed her eyes for a heartbeat then opened them and looked at him. Well versed in Dragon pantomime by now he complied and shut his eyes.
He wasn't entirely sure what she had planned or what the odd bowl was for, but she hadn't hurt him yet. He put a hand on Baby to feel the smooth scales as he waited for whatever was going to happen. He heard the Dragon inhale and for a moment was afraid she was about to breath fire at-
The temperature dropped. Kase wanted to move but he was paralyzed, he opened his eyes and saw exactly what he had feared. The Dragon released the flames building in her chest and he watched it pour towards him in slow motion.
His entire world turned to flames.