As Zycor walked down the stairs, he saw Baz and Mylon sitting at the bar and conversing with Aislin. As he neared the bottom of the stairs, Baz noticed him. “Well, this has got to be a new record for you. Ya know, how fast you woke up and all.” Baz chuckled, poking fun at how Zycor tends to stay unconscious for days on end.

Nudging Baz, Mylon reiterated, “I believe what he means to say is, ‘we are glad to see you awake so soon.’ That aside, we heard you told Aislin and Adria about your egg.”

Interrupting, Aislin remarked, “Yeah, and I stand by the fact that an omelet made from it would be legendary.”

Baz looked over at Aislin who looked at the former. After a moment they both gave a firm nod, acknowledging their matching thoughts. Rolling his eyes, Mylon further inquired, “So, did you ever figure out what kind of egg it is?”

Zycor shrugged and responded, “I don’t know, mom said something about it looking similar to a dragon egg.”

Baz burst out into laughter as Mylon put his head into his hands. Mylon sighed, “You know… hearing that should surprise me. But it doesn’t, and I am not sure who that says more about.”

Zycor turned to look at Aislin and asked, “May I have my egg back?”

Aislin shrugged and handed it to Zycor over the counter. As soon as Zycor grabbed it, the egg began to twitch. Aislin's composure instantly broke and she yelled, “Oh hell no! I refuse to deal with a fucking baby dragon in the guild hall! These adventurers are already enough! Get it out of here!”

Zycor hurried outside, Baz and Mylon following close behind. Once they had made their way a good distance away from the guild hall into the wastelands, Zycor put the egg down on the ground.

Baz readied his axe as he chuckled, “I haven’t fought a dragon before! Wonder how it would taste grilled.”

Keeping his focus on the egg, Zycor responded, “You didn’t get the unfinished product, and you won’t get the finished one either.”

Baz scoffed, “We’ll see what you say when that thing is trying to eat you.”

As they finished their banter, the egg began to crack. After two more internal hits, a little lizard head emerged from the top of the egg. It was covered in gray dragon scales, but its appearance appeared to differ slightly from a true dragon. The creature observed its surroundings until it finally focused on Zycor. Both the creature and Zycor just looked at each other until the creature rocked itself forward. As it fell face first into the ground, the trio untensed a bit as they looked on with confusion and curiosity.

The creature retreated back into the egg and, after a moment, a small, scaly hand, that seemed to resemble a human’s, reached out. Another hand followed, both of which grabbed hold of the edges and broke them, making the exit bigger. The party stood completely perplexed and uncertain as to what they should do. Zycor wanted to help the creature, but Mylon stopped him and shook his head. Zycor gestured toward the egg, which the creature was having a hard time getting out of. Mylon sighed and decided to back off, what’s the worst thing that could happen?

Zycor reached out and broke the rest of the egg open. Sitting on the ground, the creature looked around until it fixated on Zycor yet again. As the two stared at each other, the creature cocked its head in curiosity. It was covered head to toe in gray scales. Getting a closer look, its hands didn’t resemble a humans at all, they were standard three fingered lizard hands. As Zycor continued to inspect the baby, he saw a small pair of wings on its back.

Baz and Mylon looked at each other uncertain as to how they should proceed. Mylon finally spoke up and warned, “Ok, I think that’s enough interaction, Zycor. It’s important that we don’t engage with it too much. It may not be behaving as a newborn dragon right now, but that could change.”

Completely ignoring Mylon, Zycor began to speak to the baby, “Hey there little guy. You ok?”

The creature cocked its head to the other side. Annoyed, Mylon angrily sighed, “I really don’t know why I thought you would listen to anything I say, let alone a warning.”

The creature reached its hand out towards Zycor. As if on instinct Zycor went to give the baby a soft hi-five. As the two’s hands were about to meet, Adria came out and began, “So, I heard that the egg hatched, do we know what came out of-.”

As she looked over toward Zycor, Adria saw him about to touch hands with the creature. The color instantly drained from her face as she screamed, “DON’T TOUCH ITS HAND!”

Unfortunately Adria was too late, Zycor and the creature's hands had already met. When nothing happened immediately, Zycor looked over at Adria. Wanting to mess with his mom, Zycor remarked without moving his hand, “So, when does my hand melt?”

Adria, not in the mood for jokes, yelled, “This is far more dangerous than what you realize! You are not ready for what happens next!”

Confused, Zycor began to ask, “What are you-.”

Before he could finish, a blue circle appeared below Zycor and the creature followed by a wall of faint mana erupting from the edges of the circle, enclosing the two of them. “Shit!” Adria cried.

The wall began to generate a strong wind, pushing Mylon and Baz back towards Adria. Baz shouted, “What the hell is that!?”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Adria panickedly replied, “They are currently creating a pact! Normally it’s not much of an issue, but with a newborn monster it’s a toss up on the terms. Instead of being able to verbally hash out the conditions, they have to agree on the terms without communicating. Worse case scenario, that creature will create a one hundred to zero pact with Zycor unknowingly accepting, killing him instantly.”

Baz and Mylon looked at each other then back to the pact zone. Through gritted teeth Baz complained, “I swear to the goddess if that kid dies right after we came to an understanding, I’ll bring him back so I can kill him again.”

Mylon gripped the hilt of his sword tightly as he dug it into the ground to hold himself in place. As he stared at the zone he thought to himself, “You better make it out of this.”

Zycor looked around the zone confused, unaware of what was happening. He couldn’t hear anything from the outside, it was eerily calm. When he tried to separate his hand from the creature, he found himself unable to do so. As he looked back at the creature he saw it was looking around in a panicked state. He took a deep breath and began talking to the baby, “You’re scared, aren’t you little guy?” The panicked creature looked at Zycor. He was able to give a soft smile, putting his free hand on top of the baby's head. Zycor continued, “Don’t worry, I will protect you. Though, I seem to be having an issue with protecting things recently. Despite that, I promise I won’t leave you.”

It was unclear if the creature understood what Zycor was saying or not, but the creature soon began to settle down as it began to close its eyes. As it finally relaxed, the pact zone began to feed into both the creature and Zycor, momentarily showing a tether between their hearts. The mana from the pact rapidly dispersed seconds later, knocking Baz and Mylon back again. Adria threw up a barrier made of mana, but was still nearly knocked off balance.

Zycor sat with the baby creature on his lap, still petting it. Zycor remarked, “I should probably give you a name, huh? Well, I am not super good with names, but how's about Novos?”

The creature looked up at Zycor as the latter removed his hand. The creature chirped and then began to stretch. As it did so, its scales changed to a deep blue color. After all the scales had changed, Novos climbed up Zycors arm and wrapped himself around the back of Zycors neck and decided to take a nap.

Zycor stood up and turned to face Adria, Baz, and Mylon. He proceeded to give them a thumbs up. Adria let out a heavy sigh of relief as she leaned up against the guild hall. Baz and Mylon marched over to Zycor. As they approached Zycor put his finger up to his lips to hush them. Baz began to silently inspect the new pet as Mylon began quietly scolding Zycor, “What the hell were you thinking?! It’s because you never think about the potential risks that your actions might have that we end up in situations like this! What would you have done if you lost your hand?! What if you died, huh!?”

Finishing his inspection, Baz asked, “Are you sure we can’t eat it?”

“You cannot eat Novos,” Zycor flatly responded.

Distressed, Baz exclaimed, “Oh goddess, you already named it!? There go my plans for dinner tonight.”

Hearing Adria approaching, Baz and Mylon moved aside. Zycor began to panic as he tried to think of excuses, but before he was able to say anything Adria tightly embraced him. Novos, startled, quickly opened his eyes, but after familiarizing himself with the situation, quickly returned to his nap. As Adria held Zycor close she muttered, “You really are a reckless fool, you know that?”

Managing to free his arms, Zycor hugged Adria back as he dug his face into her embrace. Finally having a moment to breathe, all of the fear he had experienced during the event caught up with him.

After settling down, everyone re-entered the guild hall. The few adventurers that were there looked at the four of them with confused looks. Clyde asked the question that was on everyone’s mind, “Hey Zy, what’s that on your shoulder?”

Zycor pointed at Novos, who was still asleep, and replied “This is my new companion, his name is Novos.”

One of the other adventurers quickly stood up and shouted, “Companion my ass! That thing is a dragon!”

The other adventurers quickly realized what he was talking about. Minus the horns, Novos looked just like an infant dragon. And with panic beginning to set in, no one questioned it. Before everything spiraled out of control, Adria briefly flooded the room with mana. Once everyone was no longer panicking due to Novos, Adria Explained, “Now that I have your attention, I would like to set you all at ease. Although I am not certain as to what this creature truly is, I can confidently say it is not a dragon and merely resembles one. Besides, Zycor already managed to form a pact with it, so it shouldn’t go berserk even if it was a dragon.”

A wave of relief washed over the adventurers as they finally noticed the distinct lack of horns. As they began to converse amongst themselves, they talked about how a dragon hadn’t been seen in decades and how exceedingly rare sightings of infant dragons are.

As everyone returned to their previous tasks, Adria turned to Zycor and mentioned, “Ah yes, before I forget, I wanted to let you know that I have asked an old acquaintance of mine to come help you train, Just as you wanted. Though, she can be rather… difficult to deal with. I can only hope you are able to get along with her better than me.”

Zycor’s eyes lit up as he excitedly questioned, “Really?! When will she be here!?”

“Relax sweety, I know you are excited but I only sent the letter today. It will be a while until she receives it, let alone arrives here.” Adria softly responded.

Zycors excitement waned for a moment before he managed to bounce back. He continued his line of questioning as he asked, “What’s her name? And how did you meet her?”

Thinking back upon their first meeting, Adria almost instantly became exhausted. Adria let out a small groan before she replied, “Her name is Silvan. As for how I met her… you will have to ask her about it. My head hurts just thinking about that hyperactive, happy go lucky, bubbly, never-thinks-about-the-consequences spider.”

Excited to meet Silvan, but realizing that further questions would yield nothing of note, Zycor decided to drop the subject for now.

As Adria began to leave she paused momentarily and commented, “Oh right, A letter from Mr. Hickens arrived today, he was asking to see you. Why don’t you head down there to meet him.”

Adria turned to Mylon and ordered, “Mr. Audouin, I am assigning you as his chaperone. In light of recent events, it would appear that Zycor is rather prone to getting himself into trouble, so please do your best to prevent it.”

Mylon let out a sigh, “Fair enough, not like I can just say ‘no’ anyways.”

Adria waved the two of them off as they left the guild. Aislin walked up beside Adria and, in a hushed voice, asked, “Are you sure it’s ok to leave that infant creature with Zycor? I don’t know what’s worse, knowing Zycor has a pet, or the fact we don’t even know what the pet actually is.”

Adria, putting her hand down, confidently explained, “It will be ok. They made a pact with each other, so they are in it for the long haul now. Besides, it appears the infant has taken as much a liking to Zycor as Zycor has to it. I doubt it will do anything to harm him.”

Aislin shrugged and turned to go back to work as she sighed “Whatever you say, boss.”