'Two more have arrived... They are far more powerful than the other six... Have they come to kill me? I know I shouldn't be in the human territories, but I haven't caused any harm yet, have I?' the Rock Dragon thought as it felt two new pairs of feet walking towards the canyon.

'I have no chance of recovering, so maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to offer my remaining essence to them? It's not like I could struggle even if I wanted to...' The baby dragon wanted to cry, but its eyes had been removed, so no pebbles would be shed in response to its overflowing sadness.

The infant tried its hardest to roll a little bit, but it only ended up causing its crumbling process to hasten.

'It's no use... All because of my rock colour, I need to die so pointlessly like this? What use is there in us dragons having so much intelligence if superstition forces us to kill our young, to kill me, just because I don't have enough potential to please the forgotten Ancient with these damned brown rocks of mine?!' the baby Rock Dragon cried in its mind.

If its vocal organs had been fully developed, perhaps it would have screamed in sorrow, but alas, it was only three-years-old this year, so while its mind was fully developed, its body was far from complete even if you ignored its horrendous injuries.

The dragon simply sat there as it felt the two powerful presences meet up with the weaker ones. Eventually, the two presences chose to enter the canyon, it would seem.

The infant lost track of them the moment they entered the canyon, which confused it. 'Did they jump in? Why can't I sense them anymore? Well, obviously they aren't touching the land, but how? A fall this high would kill anyone below the Divine-level, wouldn't it?'

Despite its intelligence, it was unaware of a lot of the skills in this world. As an example, fairly basic gravity magic could prevent one from dying on impact regardless of how high the caster had fallen from.

As the saying went: intelligence did not equate to knowledge nor wisdom.

It felt like an age to the creature before it could finally feel the two presences once more. They walked for a long time, but suddenly, they stopped.

'What is... what is this?' The baby dragon could feel something brushing up against itself.

Perhaps were it not so close to death, it never would have been able to tell, but it was certain that the presence with the smaller feet was somehow... feeling its magic. No, more than that. The presence wasn't only feeling its magic, but warping it at an almost unbelievably minute scale.

The infant was still reeling in shock minutes later when suddenly it felt its soul being scanned as well, although this time it was done by the second presence - the one with bigger feet.

'A soul oracle? Those people that play with souls like toys?' The infant's mind grew chaotic. It wasn't aware of how incredibly vast Lone's ability to sense souls actually was, but just the fact that he was a soul oracle sent the dragon into a panic.

'I don't want to be enslaved! I don't want to lose my mind to a vile soul oracle! If only I were an adult, then burning my soul would be easy!' The only thing that the baby dragon could hope for now, was that the rumours regarding soul oracles which it'd heard from its nest's elders before it was chased out were inaccurate.

Its dread grew as the presences came ever closer. Eventually, the infant could hear the two presences talking.

"Its body is crumbling..." the presence with larger feet whispered.

"You can see?" the smaller one asked.

"Not really? I did get a skill, yeah, but it's shit for now." The larger presence paused before it continued with, "Still, with it in this condition, couldn't a child easily kill it? There's no way you can have an intense fight with it like this, right?"

'So they are here to kill me... I'm glad... I'd rather face death than a life as a soul bound to serve as an eternal slave...' Relief washed over the creature.

"Yes. Oh well. We suppose our self-testing must wait for another day." The smaller presence seemed a bit disappointed.

The larger presence tapped its left foot against the ground a few times before it said, "Maybe not. Don't be so hasty."

"Hmm?" Intrigue filled the smaller one's voice. "Have you a plan?"

"I'm thinking about healing it. I probably can't remake its arm or its tail for now since I have no idea how its body works, I might be able to, but I'm not sure, however, I am confident that I can brute-force its life-threatening injuries with enough mana. We can see about those limbs after that," the larger presence claimed. "Well? Want me to give it a go?"

'What...? Is it truly possible to heal me? But Rockmother definitely said that she had cut my eyes out of existence, returning them to the land... Rockuncle did the same to my tail and my leg... As for my crumbling body, how could an attack from Rockfather be healed so easily? This person must be lying!' the baby concluded.

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"Do as you wish. We see no harm in trying," dismissively, the presence with tinier feet said.

"Cool. I guess you should stay here? I doubt I'll need any help, but if things go poorly, teleport me away, 'kay?" The baby dragon didn't understand the word 'teleport' that the larger-footed presence had said, but it sounded scary.

"If the impossible becomes possible, sure. We shall," the smaller presence replied.

'Why... Why do they sound so confident? They sound just like Rockbrother when he goes mineral searching... No! This is a trap! It's impossible for them to heal me!' It refused to believe their words on an instinctual level.

The baby dragon felt a hand softly touch its incredibly damaged and permanently scarred face. "Okay, here's how this is going to go down. I know you can understand me... probably. I dunno if your injuries have affected you to the point that you've lost your mind, but your soul seems perfectly healthy. Dragons are intelligent regardless of their age, so you're going to do exactly what I tell you to if you want to live, okay?"

The dragon had no idea how to respond to that, even if it could.

"I understand that you probably can't move right now, but I'm telling you this up-front: The second you can move, don't. I'm going to heal you as much as I can, but if I feel you lunging for my throat or something, then I'm gonna beat the shit out of you. Got it?" the presence said very arrogantly, but somehow, the infant felt... sincerity in its tone.

"I know dragons don't trust easily, but I'm gonna need you to trust me here. Don't react to any warmness, any strange noises, or any strange feelings. This is all normal," the presence ordered.

The baby dragon felt the presence moving its hand around carefully for a few moments before it pulled back.

"Hmm... Yeah, I've not got a fuckin' clue what's wrong with you. Ha-ah, this is gonna cost me a shit-ton of mana. Oh well, here goes nothing," the larger presence mumbled to itself.

A few seconds of silence passed before the infant suddenly felt an incredible heat spread through its internal organs.

Its slowly beating heart that had already half-crumbled, burst forth with a renewed vigour and regenerated! The lungs that were strained and struggling to keep the creature from suffocating, filled out like balloons before they expelled all of the dust and debris that had collected in them!

Similar experiences happened to the rest of the baby dragon's internal organs. Hours had passed before the warmth eventually stopped.

"Holy fuck... Really? Four-million just for the internal shit? Well, it was a bit less than I was expecting, but I was really hoping Sophie's luck would do me a solid..." the presence complained. "You can speak now, can't you? I enabled your vocal cords while I was at it... or vocal rocks... whatever the hell those're called for you."

"Ye... Yes... Hard... Ne... Need... Rocks..." The creature has no idea why this presence had restored its body, but the least it could do in response was answer the question. 'Is this all a dream? No, maybe I'm already dead... I don't understand how this is possible... Like this, I could completely restore myself in a few centuries, couldn't I? Rockgrandfather did the same thing after a subjugation force tried to hunt him down, didn't he?'

"Great. Rocks? A bit weird, but I'm guessing that's to you, what water is to us. Anyway, for now, I only have enough mana orbs for one of your limbs. I expected as much, but hey, its better than none. Choose which one; your tail, your leg, your left eye, or your right eye. I'll fix your deformations and scarring another time. As a reminder, you'll be fighting Sophie, so choose whatever will help you in combat the most, 'kay?" The presence seemed quite happy with itself.

"Why...?" The baby dragon asked with heaps of confusion in its tone.

"'Cause she wants to test herself. You're only a B-ranker, but you're still a dragon. She'll only use her swords and nothing else. I promise she won't kill you, so work with me here, 'kay?" it asked.

"No... Why... Help? Stories... Humans... hunt..." The Infant struggled to say what it wanted to since it wasn't used to talking, so it hoped that it would be understood clearly enough.

The presence was shocked into silence for a moment before it laughed. "I'm not a human, I'm a foxkin, but yeah, I did initially come here to kill you."

'A foxkin? What's that? What does it matter? Like I thought, it wants to kill me...' The infant felt its slowly building trust and hope in this mysterious presence shatter.

"Heh. I just felt a fluctuation in your soul. That's new. Anyway, when I saw your body - specifically your eyes, I felt sorry for you." The presence put its hand on the baby dragon's face once again. "My lover, Soph - well, Soph and Sophie. She's got a split-personality-turned-split-soul, so it's complicated. Anyway, Soph, her eyesight was permanently removed once before. I know you're a hunk of rock in the shape of a dragon, but I saw a bit of her in you, you know?"

The baby dragon sensed several emotions as it felt the genuine-nature of the presence's voice. His connection to the land also allowed him to detect the other presence tremble at the larger presence's words.

"And there's the fact that I have a daughter who's a dragon. I was gonna kill you if you'd massacred some people or something. It was our job to come and kill you, but I'm a man who lives by his own rules. Let me heal you, then fight Sophie with everything you've got, and I promise to keep you safe. How does that sound? Pretty good deal, no?" The presence claimed happily.

"Will... Make... Me... Slave...?" It hadn't intended for it, but the baby dragon's voice cracked in terror as it spoke.

It was scared. It wanted to believe the 'foxkin' - as it had called itself, it wanted to do as the 'foxkin' said, it wanted... safety. However, every fibre of its being was telling it to be wary. It wanted to refuse the 'foxkin'.

Humans and demis didn't have an official word for this, but for dragons, regardless of their race, they referred to this distrust of others as 'Regna', which meant 'Preservation' in an old and forgotten language long-dead to Altros, and which only existed before the system's involvement with the planet.

The 'foxkin' chuckled. "No. I won't make you a slave. You stay with me, I'll heal you. Simple as that. I don't know your story, you don't know mine. If you wanna stay with me after you're back to one-hundred percent, great. Garadia could use a friend who's the same species as her. You wanna go back to your nest or explore the world or something at that point? Great. Follow your heart."

The 'foxkin' paused for a moment before it added, "Dragons are powerful. I fought an Ancient one once. That was the single most frightening experience of my life. However, as powerful as your kind inherently are, you're just a kid. I'd be a pretty shitty teacher if I didn't look after an innocent kid in serious need, now wouldn't I?"

The Rock Dragon was stunned. It took it a while, but eventually, it muttered, "Thank... You... I'll... Trust... For... Now... Fight... My... Instincts... Please... Restore... My... Leg..."

Had the dragon still possessed its eyes, it would have seen a massive grin strewed across the 'foxkin''s handsome face. "One Rock Dragon leg, coming right up."