That day and the next passed without any issues. Dakota talked a lot with Kwil and found himself really enjoying her company. She was by far the wisest person he'd ever spoken with, and much of their conversation was therapeutic for Dakota. In addition to teaching him the ritual, Kwil finished sorting through the pile of magic items, helping Dakota level his [Identification] skill and his [Detect Magic] spell along the way. Dakota spent a number of hours feeding and playing with the drake. He felt that they were getting along pretty well.

On the evening of the third day, Kwil got their attention. "I will be leaving for a time. The two of you are safe here. Get some sleep, and tomorrow you should perform the ritual." Kwil leaned her huge head down and nuzzled her daughter. While doing so she spoke into Dakota's mind, "Like any child, she will challenge you. You mustn't let her sense fear from you. You are not her companion; she is yours. It is a partnership. There are fates worse than death. Being the lesser companion to a wild drake would be one of them." Rising back to her full height, Kwil looked down on the two and nodded before vanishing.

The drake immediately ran to where her mother had been, sniffing around for her. Dakota walked over to his pack and pulled out more of the butchered worm meat. Turning to look at the drake, he whistled and yelled, "She's gone for now. Come eat."

The drake looked around for another moment before walking over to Dakota and lying next to him. Dakota tossed her the meat. As she swallowed, he reached out and scratched her scales on the side of her snout. After spending a while feeding her, he walked to his bedroll and lay down. A few minutes later, he felt the drake lying near him. He opened his eyes and saw that she was staring at him from just a few feet away.

"It'll be okay," Dakota smiled, "you and I are going to do just fine together. We just need to come up with a name for you."

Dakota woke the next day to a noise he didn't recognize. He had fallen asleep talking to the drake, suggesting different names to her. When he looked around for the source of the noise that had awakened him, he saw the drake had his pack in her mouth and was vigorously shaking it. Standing, he called out to her, "Put that down before you break it. I don't understand spatial bags enough to know what'll happen. I might lose all my stuff. Or it could explode or something."

The drake ignored him and kept shaking the bag. Dakota started walking toward her. "Hey! Put that down!" The drake spun on him and growled in his face. Without missing a beat, Dakota smacked her on her nose and yelled, "No!" The drake took a step back and eyed him, seemingly surprised by the gray dwarf. Before she had a chance to do anything else, Dakota walked forward and grabbed his pack, and tugged on it while ordering the drake in a stern voice, "Let go." The drake opened her mouth and let Dakota pull his pack out. He knelt and examined it, and it looked fine. The enchantments must have protected it. As he was doing so, he felt hot breath on his head and looked to see the drake looming over him, evidently having decided she didn't like how things had played out. Dakota didn't need the hunter's senses that he'd been training to know he was in a dangerous situation. Slowly standing up, he maintained eye contact with the drake. He made no other movement. He said nothing. The two just stared at one another. The weight of the moment was felt by both though only one knew death was the likely consolation prize if he lost, and that knowledge gave Dakota the push he needed to stand fast. Finally, after the longest few minutes of his life, the drake turned and walked away.

Dakota saw he had a few notifications flashing in the corner of his vision. He pulled them up

[Willpower +1]

[Willpower +1]

[Luck +1]

Dakota stood there watching the drake walk off while the text hovered in his vision. Evidently, the universe was rewarding him for surviving. He felt like if he moved at all, he'd collapse. So he just stood there and took some deep breaths. Once he felt under control, he knelled down and grabbed his pack. He walked over to where the drake was and started pulling meat out of the pack and feeding it to her. She ate what she was given, but Dakota could tell something was different between them. He didn't know if she was just pouting or if something was actually wrong. He worried it might affect the ritual he had to do. After feeding the drake, he stood next to her neck and stroked her scales while talking to her softly. "I know you've only known me for a few days, but we're going to be family. And it's my job to teach you. It's your job to listen. I don't know how much of this you understand. I don't understand all these scores and prompts this world has. But I hope you can understand that I'm going to protect you and teach you. I’m going to introduce you to my brothers and they’ll try to teach you bad habits. And we’re all going to be a big family."

As he continued to talk and stroke the drake, she started to rumble. Dakota thought she was growling, but he quickly realized she was purring. He couldn't help but smile at that. "I guess it's about time we try this ritual. What do you say?"

Dakota spent the next fifteen minutes drawing out a ritual diagram on the ground. He finished it in less than ten but kept going over it to make sure he didn't make any mistakes. Once he was sure, he stepped into the middle of the circle and started to meditate, drawing in the ambient mana and then pushing it into the ritual diagram. Once it contained the mana needed, Dakota focused on the outcome he wanted. As he did so, the ritual diagram started to glow. Dakota held out his hand, and words in a tongue he didn't understand came from his mouth. The drake leaned over and touched Dakota's hand with her snout. As soon as the contact was made, the magic of the ritual flared and was sucked back into Dakota, through his core, and out his arm into the drake. There was a moment when time seemed to pause. No prompt appeared before him, but it felt as though the magic itself was asking if he really wanted to bond his soul to the drake, to which he agreed.

Then an awareness pressed against his. It was enormous. It was crushing him. It was the drake. Dakota didn't understand how, but he instinctively pushed back. The drake's mental strength was impressive, but it was that of a strong-willed child. It had not been tested and stressed by the trials of life. Dakota might not have been as strong, but life had put him through far tougher tests than this. Now that he had survived the initial push, he knew he could withstand for as long as he needed. Minutes passed slowly and but Dakota remained solid. Evidently, the drake could sense the same as she finally drew her mind back. Dakota could still sense her, but she was no longer trying to dominate him. He knew he could attempt to dominate her. He knew that he likely could succeed. But that wasn't the type of relationship he wanted. He wanted a companion, not a slave. Evidently, that decision was what the universe was waiting on because as soon as he made it, the ritual completed, and he collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

[You have a new companion!]

Dakota wiped the alert away as he sat up, but a new prompt took its place.

[Your companion doesn't have a name. Would you like to name your companion now?]

Looking around, he was able to see the drake was lying nearby, watching him. She didn't have the facial muscles to smile, but he could swear that was smiling. As he stared at her, he realized he felt her emotions through this bond. Dakota focused on sending her the happiness he was feeling.

"What do you think about the name `Lizzy`?"

The drake gave him an odd expression, and Dakota felt incredulity coming through their bond.

Dakota started laughing, "Just kidding. I thought about this last night. I would like to name you Sage Rose. We can call you Sage for short."

Dakota didn't feel anything from their bond at first. Evidently, she was thinking it over. After a moment the drake seemed to nod and he felt satisfaction through their bond.

"I had hoped you'd like that one." Dakota said as he mentally clicked yes on the prompt to name his companion. After that another prompt appeared.

[Congratulations! You have formed a companion bond with Sage Rose. As companions, you and Sage Rose will share experience earned with one another, allowing you to grow together. Upon level up, Sage Rose will earn two stat points. One point will be auto assigned to athletics. The other point will be a free point available for you to assign where you wish.]

[You will be able to assign any free stat points that your companion earns. This may change in the future.]

Dakota dismissed the prompt only to have another take its place. This time showing Sage Rose's status screen:

Status

Name

Sage Rose

Class

N/A due to race

Race

Drake (Dragon)

Level

N/A

Languages

Draconic

Attributes

Health

Stamina

Mana

168

180

67

[Stats]

A

L

M

S

42

5

20

15

[Notice: Your companion has free stat points to allocate. Would you like to allocate those now?]

[Current free points awaiting assignment: 4 ]

"Awesome! Well, your mom said intelligence was important for you so let's toss a couple points over to mental and see what that does."

Dakota felt a curious emotion from Sage and saw that she was watching him, but her tail was starting to sweep back and forth behind her. He quickly acknowledged the prompt and put two points into Mental, raising it to 22.

Turning to look at Sage, Dakota said, "I just added some points to your mental stat. Can you tell the difference?"

At first, Dakota felt gratitude through their bond. Then he heard a word as if it was spoken directly into his mind. "Hungry." At that, Dakota started laughing. "I should have known that would be your first word. I'm going to go ahead and add the other two as well."

Dakota and Sage spent the rest of the day eating and talking to one another. Toward the evening, Dakota was sorting through his pack when he sensed something was off. He looked around the massive cavern he was in but didn't see anyone. He quickly stood and yelled out for Sage, but she didn't answer. As he started to walk toward Sai's house, though, a green tail came out of nowhere and tripped him.

Rolling over, he saw that Sage had managed to sneak up behind him. In a mostly empty cave. "Stupid magic" he though. Through their bond, he could tell she was laughing. He opened his mouth, about to yell at her for tripping him, but right about then, Sage leaned down and licked him in the face with a tongue half the size of his body. At this, Dakota started laughing. He jumped up and started chasing Sage.

"You think that's funny? Just wait until I catch you. I'll show you something my brother Arden taught me. We'll see how you like having your eyeball licked!"

The duo were still running around chasing one another when Kwil walked into the room in her human form. Not wanting to disturb their fun she just stood back and watched the two play. It nearly brought a tear to her eye. "Perhaps the gods knew what they were doing this time," she thought to herself.