Adrest stood still in shocked silence. Staring back at him was a young woman with long, amethyst-like hair flowing in the light breeze.

almost camouflaging themselves in the hair, were twin long, curved horns, still letting off occasional shocks into the air. The intimidating weapons did not detract from her beauty in the least, instead it added an air of power and mysticism to her presence and seemed to elevate the rest of her features.

Her face was perfect, without the slightest blemish. Her ever so slightly tanned skin and her lips that seemed to be perpetually turned upwards in a mischievous grin while staring back at him.

Her eyes were now identical to a human, albeit purple in color. Just as before her eyes told exactly what she was thinking, and currently they shone with amusement. She seemed to be relishing his stunned expression.

She was wearing a pure white one-piece dress, with a few pieces of gold jewelry that were subdued and tasteful, a ring here, a bracelet there. The gold matched her olive skin and stark white dress. She seemed to have stepped out of a painting, Adrest had never seen anyone comparable to her in his entire life on earth.

But it wasn’t just her beauty that made her outclass every woman he had seen; it was something more intangible. There seemed to be a sort of aura around her, it drew in his eye, and made him instinctively want to trust her. She exuded an absolute confidence that others couldn’t help but go along with.

Adrest stood there gaping at the scene that seemed to be straight out of his imagination. All the while, she stood with hands on her hips and bathed in the admiration of her new minion. Eventually Adrest snapped out of it.

“Uh. Nice to meet you?”

The painting came to life, and she opened her mouth and spoke with a voice that seemed to dance like the wind, with a pitch and timbre that he was sure he would never tire of hearing, like a symphony just for him.

“Hello indeed, you may address me as your excellency, the great and unsurpassed, Alissa Covenscar!”

As she said that with a haughty smile, Adrest could now confirm that this was the same overly cocky dragon that had pestered him all day. So just as he had done all day, he ignored 90% of what she said. “Soo… Alissa what did you need?”

If Adrest were to be honest with himself, the amount of weird bullshit he had seen in the last few weeks had completely broken his sense of surprise over these things. He had gotten so good at rolling with the constant punches of this world he surprised even himself.

Completely glossing over that her very first, and therefore number one minion, had brazenly called her by name with no honorifics attached, she smugly answered “Its only natural that your lord inspects the worth of your dwelling and ensure my minion lives up to my standards.”

Alissa convinced no one with the blatant excitement in her eyes as she looked around the bare but cozy home.

Knowing he had no real choice in the matter, Adrest’s shoulders shrugged in all too familiar defeat and welcomed the curious girl to his home to explore while he got his woodstove stoked for the night.

She ran from place to place, bouncing around the small but not yet cramped living space and had to touch everything from the simple utensils and other items bought from the lodestone, such as his bench and table at the shuttered window, with dishes set for a meal unknown. To his small table and chest in the corner, with a long tallow candle sitting ready to illuminate the simple wooden objects that he had taken to carving at night with a small dagger he found in the corner of the build catalog.

Adrest had gotten fairly proficient too. Whether it was from evolution granting him better dexterity or simply practice, he could now make simple items. Things such as a cartoonish duck, a half-finished board for chess, and a very roughly shaped wolf, like the ones he occasionally saw at the river.

Stolen story; please report.

Alissa, of course, had to pick up and ask about each and every thing to sate her endless curiosity. Her eyes quite literally started glowing when Adrest explained the concept of checkers and she started pestering him to finish the board this instant. And as commanded he started carving, knowing it would only take an hour at most and it was easier to go in whatever direction the rambunctious dragon wished.

While he was carving away, Alissa found herself sitting on his mattress that he had just added a whole stack of cotton blankets to. Soon Adrest heard vaguely, as he was focused on his board,

“Huh? There's nothing this comfortable in MY nest!? Why does he get to have so many fun things” she grumbled to herself.

Adrest’s work slowed down as he tried not to laugh and didn’t want to lose a finger to the sharp dagger. He really didn’t feel like learning how many (lp) replacing a lost finger was worth.

He focused on his work again and realized that his image of this dragon was quickly crumbling to nothing. Considering it, he figured that it wasn’t a bad thing, and quickly finished the last line of the board.

Now feeling a bit excited himself, Adrest set the board. One side was lined with pieces the light brown of natural wood, the other had a light red tint. A few days prior Adrest had used the Bloodberries and water to make a pseudo-stain on half the pieces.

Seeing the finished product, Adrest felt proud of himself. The lines that divided each individual square were perfectly straight and uniform. Each checker was thick and square looking identical to each other aside from color.

Happily, he turned around and got as far as saying “Ali-“ before noticing the dragon had taken over his bed, quietly snoring away. She had completely buried herself in his blankets leaving only her face exposed. As he stared dumbfounded, Adrest noticed she still had that same smile on even while asleep.

Sighing yet again, Adrest quietly rose from the work bench and managed to get outside the cabin without much noise and didn’t see her move when he looked on his way out.

Outside, he made his way over to the lodestone in the cool night air, and quickly purchased another straw bed, more blankets, and a pillow. He grabbed his haul and made his way back inside, making another bed for himself in front of the work bench, working as quietly as possible to avoid waking his guest.

Soon enough and with fuzzy eyes, Adrest made his way into the new bed and nearly immediately fell asleep, looking forward to what tomorrow held.

With sleep still heavy in his eyes, Adrest rose with a satisfying series of satisfying pops running down his back. After standing and taking a moment to wake up fully, Adrest carefully opened the woodstove and threw just a few more logs on the embers to keep the morning chill out.

Finished with the first task of the day, Adrest headed out the door silently and got to work like any other day, starting with the fire pit.

After yesterday’s fiasco, Adrest spent more time than usual cleaning the ashes and setting up everything for what he was sure would be another busy day. He then prepared more wood for later, using the sword to effortlessly chop the wood into manageable sizes. Then, he was off the river for water and was lucky enough to see a black squirrel drinking on his side of the river.

With breakfast and water in tow, he found that the camp was still silent and was relieved that Alissa hadn’t destroyed everything. With a lighter step, he prepped and started cooking breakfast, Adrest had no idea when she would wake up, but Adrest was really hoping he would be able to eat some before then.

An hour later and with the sun now full and bright in the sky, Adrest was greedily chewing on steaming hot thigh meat tasting like heaven after being starved the day prior.

With his meal out of the way, he felt that it was safe to wake the literal sleeping dragon. He made his way to the cabin, opening it just in time to see a half awake, still very sleepy looking Alissa sitting up in the bed yawning.

With eyes mostly closed still, and hair out of place and messy, she mumbled to Adrest “Ish time to eat?”

He had no idea that there could be something so cute in this world, Adrest nearly clutched his heart in response to the fatal attack.

“Yep, still steaming and waiting for you.” He said after recovering and pointed his arm towards the plate of meat sitting on a table near the blazing fires. That seemed to be all it took to perk the girl up and she finally opened her eyes.

After nearly getting pushed over by the now energetic dragon that rushed out the door towards the promised meal, Adrest made his way over as well to sit relax.

Alissa stayed as a human to eat, and with a natural grace Adrest knew he would never achieve, ripped off an arm and quickly devoured it, cleaning it to the bone and repeated the feat another 2 times.

After cheering and clapping like a child when the lodestone devoured the left-over bones Alissa declared she would spend the day mastering this “checkers” and that Adrest would have the honor of teaching her.