After half a day went by walking in silence, they finally reached a large clearing. This was the first time in days they had seen the sun. The forest was plenty bright, but direct sunlight was nowhere to be seen. This find would've been a lot more exciting, had the sun not already receded behind the trees.

It didn't matter to Parker, who now could finally be sure which way was north. As it turns out, they'd been walking north the whole day, which was a huge relief. The less time he had to spend walking around this forest, the better.

The orc stood at the treeline, took a deep breath, and stepped into the clearing. Then she took a few more steps in and took another breath. She repeated this process two more times before finally loosening up. After that, she was ecstatic. She grabbed Sparky off her shoulders and tossed him up into the air, catching him and throwing him again. The third time, he decided he'd had enough and tried gliding away. Parker hastily opened his notebook and pencil. With all the time he spent with it, this was the first time he'd gotten the chance to draw a dragon mid-flight.

Parker was like lightning with how quickly he sketched down Sparky's form. In the few seconds the dragon glided down to the ground, he was able to see the small tail rudders twitching and flexing, trying as hard as they could to keep Sparky upright. His wings were spread open and legs pressed to his belly. Parker wasn't able to get a detailed drawing of the wings spread mid-flight, but he would be able to supplement it with his previous depictions.

Sparky was not the best flyer yet. After gliding for a few moments, he started tilting at a dangerously steep angle and began tumbling through the air. Neither Parker nor the orc could reach him in time, and he slammed into the dirt.

The orc rushed over to help, but before she reached him, he was back up as if nothing had happened.

Parker crossed his arms and scoffed. "Such a great caretaker, you are."

The orc huffed.

"Well, you could've caught him if you hadn't been staring at your notebook. Besides, do you know what this means for me? My idea worked! I can finally get out of the forest!"

"Well, you do realize we're still in the forest, right? This is just a clearing."

Parker had offended the orc. "Well, I know that! But I've never even been able to get a few yards away from the treeline without choking! This is a big deal for me!"

Parker stood for a few moments, scratching his chin, "Say, you just mentioned how your idea worked… Did you not know it would?"

"Well, I mean, I was pretty sure."

Parker's eyes went wide with shock. "You mean you were willing to kill me to get Sparky, and you weren't even sure it would work?

The orc turned her head away.

"Well, they said only orc chieftains could wear the rings, and that it wouldn't work for anyone else. I know they were only saying it to scare people away from stealing them, but I was still worried it might be true. And I didn't kill you, so I don't know why you're so upset about it."

"Well, you TRIED! Remember that axe you threw at me?!"

"Oh, please. If I were really trying, it would've hit you."

"You know what, whatever. It's fine. I don't care. I'm tired, and we still need to set up ca-"

Parker's jaw dropped when he saw Sparky's work. While they had been arguing, he'd cleared out an area big enough for the three of them to sleep, along with setting up a raging fire. While making the fire at all was surprising, it was the design that shocked him. The fire itself sat in a small hole, with another next to it leading to the bottom from the side.

"How did you… What in the world?"

"Would you look at that? While you just sat there complaining about me not killing you, Sparky went and set up camp for us."

The orc walked off into the woods and found a fallen tree. She used her axe to chop it into smaller chunks. Parker stood in shock, before running over to the orc.

"Do you not see what he just did? He just made a smokeless fire pit! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

The orc shrugged and lifted the logs onto her shoulders.

"He's smart. We already knew that part."

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"Just smart? How did he know how to make that? He's gotta be only a few months old!"

"I don't care how. He can make a good fire. That's much more than I could ask for with any other pet."

Parker stood slack-jawed, glaring at the orc.

"That's it? Really? No questions?"

"Nope. Now stop bothering me and help out a little. This wood won't carry itself."

"You know what, fine. I'll just forget about this, just like all the other crazy things happening around me."

Parker attempted to lift the logs in the same way as the orc, but could only manage to lift one. He could barely carry it at his waist, and she brought two on her shoulders. Parker was impressed by her strength, but was shocked when he remembered Alex had taken a full-strength punch right in the face from her and easily shrugged it off. He shook his head and tossed away the thought. He wouldn't have to deal with that anymore.

Parker walked back to the camp to see the orc placing two of the logs next to the fire, far enough away for them to sit comfortably. After putting down their new seats, she took out the spiced meat, cut off a sliver, and tossed it to Sparky, who caught it and gobbled it down in the blink of an eye. That little guy was an eating machine. Parker had noticed something odd about his growth. He didn't grow slowly and evenly over time. He grew based on how much they fed him. The first two days Parker had found him, he gave him almost two full meal packets, and he grew nearly 2 inches, but the whole time they were in the forest, he'd only eaten scraps and grown just a single inch. While that speed was still incredible, it wasn't nearly as fast. His research would revolutionize the monster research field.

"Hey, you're staring off at nothing again. Are you gonna come here with that firewood or what?"

"Oh! Oh yeah, sorry, I was lost in thought.

"I know."

Parker rushed over as fast as he could while carrying the log and put it by the fire. The orc then came over and chopped it into four pieces and threw one into the fire. They both sat down, and with no food to cook, or tent to set, or sleeping bags to set up, they sat in silence.

"So… about what you said earlier… about the weapon making and land stealing… You know I don't do that, right?"

"Oh yeah… I almost forgot we should be at each other's throats right now…" The orc lamented as she stared into the fire.

"Well, I don't do that. The fighting, the weapon-making, the colonizing, any of it. I'm not some war-monger."

The orc sighed. "Well, it doesn't matter what you do. Your people still pile into our woods, chop our trees, and slaughter us if we get close. We can't even send out messengers or anything. We can't risk one of our artifacts on a messenger who'll just get shot down while delivering."

Parker stopped for a moment to think. "So… Sorry if I'm probing too much, but do you know why monsters need magic to, well, live?"

"It's not that we need it and you don't. It's that you red-blooded make it on your own, while we need to get it from something else."

Parker leaned forward and took out his notebook.

"Red-blooded, you say? Is that what you call non-monsters?"

"Could you stop with that? All that research stuff? I'm just trying to talk to you!"

Parker looked away and threw his notebook to the side.

"Right. Sorry. I just don't think… You know what, never mind. Just keep going."

"You and your kind were blessed by the gods with your magic, while mine were left behind, ignored."

"Hold on, what? Blessed by the gods? I haven't heard about this before."

"I can't believe how ignorant your kind is. You don't even know about the origin of magic. You know, I shouldn't be surprised."

----------------------------------------

Well, it seemed Parker and that orc were finally getting along. The orc was talking, going on and on in her language. Whatever she was saying was probably pretty interesting, given how amazed Parker looked. It was too bad Alex had no idea what she was saying.

The sun had already set, and Alex was starting to get tired. That fire looked pretty comfortable too. Hopefully, when he regained his human form, he would lose that instinct.

He was making his way over to the fire when something hit him in the head. It was Parker's all-important notebook, the one he'd decided was more necessary than food, or a map, or anything else actually essential for survival in the woods. He looked over to see Parker was thoroughly distracted by the orc's story. He had the perfect opportunity to look inside.

Alex opened up the thick, hardened leather cover and saw the first page. It had the insignia of the guild, and Parker Phillips signed under it. The next few pages were just notes on some random things in the woods, some big flowers, a random tree, and a tiny blueberry bush that grew normal-sized blueberries. Or maybe they were giant blueberries? He couldn't tell by the pictures.

Then, he turned the page and saw an unbelievably detailed drawing. A lizard-like creature with dark shiny scales, short legs, and stubby horns slept on a pillow. He turned the page again and saw a dozen more drawings from different angles. Then he turned another page and saw more. And another. There was a page dedicated to each part of the body. One page had a detailed drawing of the form of wings, another about dental structure, one about legs, another about horns, and even more with just what seemed like drawings for fun. He noticed similar pictures at the corner of each page. When he quickly turned through the pages, he saw a flip-book animation of the creature walking. On the top corner, he noticed the same, except with running.

All of these drawings were of him. Every body part studied meticulously. Alex checked himself and noticed Parker even got all the veins in the right spot on his wings! When did he have the time to do all this? He must've been drawing this all while he was supposed to be watching at night! He couldn't go on reading when he reached the personality traits page.

Alex closed the cover, eyes wide, and slunk into the fire. The warmth of the coals quickly pushed Parker's complete disregard for privacy and personal space out of mind.

Even though he didn't spend much time walking on his own that day, he was utterly exhausted. He hated how easily he got tired; he had to sleep for so many hours a day he could barely get anything done. It was a good thing he wasn't alone, or he'd be wasting all his time finding food and sleeping all day.

His body betrayed him, and he felt the grip of exhaustion pull him down into unconsciousness. He decided tomorrow he would finally learn to fly, before succumbing to the lulls of sleep.