Steps steadily echoed through the tunnels into a deep lair before eventually a figure stepped out into a large open cavern. Glowing gems that shined bright yellowish lights lit up the whole cavern. The figure looked around at the mound of glittering treasures and relics and at the top the Magical stones of fire. He then started to walk back up the mound of treasures carefully slowly, trying to avoid slipping and falling while holding the egg carefully in his arm. It was a bit tricky to maneuver around with a 50 pound egg but he eventually managed to get to the top, setting the egg carefully back onto its little stone pedestal surround by the fire stones. He then stretched a bit examining his arms an legs as he flexed his muscles, his tail flicking behind him as he felt more alive now. He owed Peril a favor so he was gonna care for the baby dragon best he could. He did feel more off though after seeing Perils corpse but he couldn't place what had happened. He doesn't notice any changes the spell in his soul does anymore nor does he now its strangling his emotions down and making him extremely indifferent and more calculating. This in turn though made him confused as he felt something about him was off but he wasn't sure what since he still isn't fully able to register emotions well in the first place. He then sat down onto the mound trying to think of his future plans and path forward while also his own condition when a shiny reflection caught his eye.

He paused as his eyes focused on the shiny mirror reflection staring back at him. He then reached out as his hands grabbed the small golden rimmed mirror as he started to study his features. He blinked his deep turquoise eyes, his pupils slit shaped but horizontally while the black pupil has small specks of white like stars. He examined his long rough black colored hair as it was matted an frayed here an there. He then saw his horns an ears as his horns were slim an sleek, curling towards between his ears before curling up back behind his ears like a crown. His ears were like a wolfs but slim like a foxes from what he could tell, the fur covering his ears being short. His horns were cracked in places though from damage that still needs healing as he blinked again slowly. He could see hints of turquoise through the cracks while the scales covering his horns seem to be covered in writing or scratches. His horns were pitch black so the scratches were very hard to make out. His skin was white with a light golden tan, quite different from his arms an legs that were pale from regeneration. He reached a hand toward his hair, making a face as he felt one of the many knots before sighing an leaving it be. He had an urge to clean himself up or something but he simply ignored it since there wasn't much he could do anyways.

He then set the mirror aside for now while slowly standing up, stretching his sore body while his joints popped loudly. He then relaxed a little while looking around the circular cave chamber. The mound of treasures he was standing on next to the cave piled dozens of meters high, various golds an treasures piled haphazardly and spread about the room littering the floor around the mound as well. The mound rose up into the air near the center of the room while the ceiling above was another 90-120 meters high in places. The magical gems spreading light seemed molded into the ceiling above while the treasures below scattered the light and shone in various colors, light refracting from gems and bouncing off of gold coins creating a multicolor sheen in the surroundings.

He squinted from all the colors and lights as it was a bit to bright for him to stare directly at certain treasures. His eyes kept scanning the treasures as he soon saw a piece of cloth sticking from under some treasures near the bottom. He did look down at his body as he was bare from the waist up while his jeans were in tatters below the knees. He did still have the hide of the panther like beast but the skin under was starting to rot, not having been treated or cured properly. He then rolled up the hide tightly and throwing it as hard as he could to the far side of the room. A soft thunk followed by another echoed through the chamber softly as the hide hit against the far side of the wall then fell to the ground. He looked at his arm a bit surprised from his strength as he had thrown a hide that weighed around 25 pounds over 100 meters. He assumed he would be weaker from the lack of proper nutrition and recent regeneration.

He flexed his arm a bit then shook his head to rid the distraction as he started to descend down the mound of treasures to the cloth sticking out. He softly muttered and cursed under his breath from the occasional slip and tumble as the treasures beneath kept shifting and/or tumbling down the mound creating a small avalanche of gold briefly. He then took a deep breath an sighed as the cloth was hidden after the small avalanche as he then realized something. The egg was at the top surrounded by fire stones but was essentially sitting at the top of the treasures, to many avalanches could potentially jeopardize the egg. He glanced around the cave as he looked for a spot to put the egg and fire stones safely while very carefully this time making his way back up the mound. As he reached the top and walked into the slight pit, he noticed a ledge jutting out on the far side of the cave about 10 feet high from the floor. It had plenty of room for the egg and the fire stones and would keep the egg out of the way while he attempted to sort the mess of treasures.

He then looked at the fire stones that were also on pedestals while his tail flicked about in concentration. He then went to a fire stone then knelt down, grabbing the pedestal it was sitting on while trying to lift it up carefully. The fire stone actually hovered over the pedestal in a complex magical inscription that was powered continuously by a mana gem inside. The heat from the fire stone had slowly deformed the top of the pedestal after years of use but the pedestal was in great condition still. He the lifted up as the pedestal wasn't light but it wasn't to heavy to move as the heat from the fire stone was burning and blistering his skin, his hair being singed. He quickly sat the pedestal backed down and backed away from the heat while coughing from the burnt smell of flesh entering his nose. He waved his hand while slowly using some of his reserved energy from Peril to regenerate and heal from the minor wounds.

He wanted to go through the treasures for useful items but he needed to keep the egg safe and warm. He sighed and rubbed his now healed face while contemplating his fate. He was getting tired of all this and wanted to head off to the town right now. He paused feeling weird as he started to study the emotions not sure what they really were. He waved it off and gave a light hollow chuckle as he resumed calculating and deciding what to do. He would worry about emotions later an do what ne needed to do first. He then quickly ran forward, grabbing one of the pedestals with a floating fire stone locked in place above it before lifting it up quickly and just throwing it as far as he could toward the ledge. The fire stone and pedestal soared through the air before crashing against the ground an bouncing a few times. At first the fire stone avoided impact with the ground but on the fourth bounce it smashed into the ground and scattering into pieces while and intense wave of heat flushed outwards. Flames hotter then lava spewed out, the pedestal evaporating underneath as the ground below started to melt, the air vaporizing. Suddenly the magical flames stopped before being sucked into the rest of the fire stones, the heat becoming trapped inside the fire stones before more damage was done.

He softly gulped as he looked at the remaining 3 fire stones with a newfound respect and fear. He could feel the heat emanating from the fire stones was more intense now as he sighed softly. He was hoping the stones wouldn't break easy so it would make his job easier but no such luck there. He then glanced to the cooling puddle of molten stone and various liquid metals and gems. He then flicked his tail as he continued thinking while looking down the mound of treasures for anything he could just yank out and use. His ears perked seeing a bow limb sticking out from a rolled up canvas as he carefully climbed down to retrieve it. He carefully tugged the rolled up canvas free before promptly carrying his newfound package on towards the entrance to the cave. He then unrolled it seeing a beautifully made ebony bow carved with various magical inscriptions an decorated with wolves devouring the sun and moon on the limbs. It was a solid piece of wood as the name longbow surfaced inside of his head. He then saw a string coiled up around the grip of the bow and a small package tied to the belly. He then looked at the quiver with 30 handmade and crafted arrows, each fletching being black with hints of grey at the edges. Looking further after pulling an arrow out and examining an arrowhead revealed more inscriptions on the shaft for some magical purpose while the arrowheads were two prong, and inscribed with a wolfs head jaws open, little teeth on the insides of the prog looking like fangs. The arrows an bow were perfectly balanced as he stared at them admiring the subtle beauty in them. He then examined a bag seeing a cloth and various ointments and tools seemingly made treat and care for the bow and strings.

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He then gently rolled the bow an quiver back up and set it aside at the entrance as he continued to circle the mound looking for things to pull out like a game of jenga. He then noticed another rolled up canvas that had the same color an texture as the one for the bow, his tail wagged excitedly while his ears perked up. Whoever had made the bow was a master and he was loving this mysterious weapon crafters works. He paused and blinked looking at his tail as he tried to grab it before ignoring it and quickly climbing up towards where the rolled package was. He then carefully moved some treasures and various gold and silver pieces aside while trying to tug the roll out.

He gave a soft grunt while tugging before suddenly slipping, the roll being pulled free as he was sent tumbling head first backwards down the side of the mound. He made grunts of pain while covering his face as he tumbled down before colliding into the ground as he huffed. His eyes were spinning a little as he blinked to focus while he rubbed his now bruised side and back carefully. His head was also forming a few bumps while his arms an legs had a few bruises as well. He then looked at the rolled up cloth in his lap before excitedly opening it and rolling it out as a various set of knives were displayed along with a hatchet and a short sword. His eyes landed on a flint as he pumped his fist into the air a bit laughing excitedly. He had obtained means to make a fire and in turn that meant cooked food. He had no clue what the knives were for though as they were all various shapes an sizes. He then paused as he wondered if he could've just used the fire stones as they burnt his skin before softly shaking his head to himself. It would've been harder as he couldn't get to close to it and it more then likely would've just burned the meat layer by layer to char. He rolled the canvas back up and excitedly tucked it under his arm as he made his way to where the bow was.

He gave one last look to the treasures of the lair but didn't see anything he could use nonmagical wise or had use for his current situation like gold coins. He then took the two rolled bundles and quickly left the cave to gather supplies. He was gonna stay here till the egg hatched so he was gonna start training how to use the bow and learn some survival skills, hopefully. He then set the bundles near the entrance before looking around. Trees were scattered off from the entrance by around 30 meters before growing thicker into a forest further on. Perils corpse laid off in the clearing to the far right off in the distance. The brow dragons various body parts already frozen from the cold while Peril's body was frosted over. The green poison contamination grew worse as the corpse had lost all color in it besides being a sickly green an grey now. He felt a strange feeling flutter in his chest briefly as he stared at the corpse before looking away. He then crouched while unraveling the bundle of tools, grabbing the hatchet and getting to work cutting a few of the smaller trees down. At first his skill was sloppy and the small trees almost fell on him at first but around the 6th tree he started to get a better feel for handling the hatchet.

Time passed as night was starting to encroach on the land and the temperature started to drop. He had chopped around 13 small trees, a few being considered only sapling while the largest on only had a trunk the width of a foot. He had managed to drag the trees down into the lair where it was warmer from the fire stones and worked a bit into the night hacking the branches off for fire food while turning the trunks into logs for firewood. Once he finished he stacked it all nice and orderly before laying the hatchet back on the canvas with the other tools and bow he had brought back into the lair. He then climbed up the mound of treasures gently lifting the dragon egg and cradling it while laying down and sleeping. The warmth of the dragon egg spreading through his tired body while energy inside his body had a subtle shift, his soul spilling his affinities an being absorbed slowly into the dragons egg as he slept.

The next morning, more time passed as collected more trees, making crude targets to try an shoot with the bow. His stomach rumbled with hunger as he shot another arrow, the string slapping painfully against the inside of his wrist as it drew blood. Frost covered his lips an hair while his feet were turning blueish in the snow unprotected from the harsh weather. He was going to have to hunt and kill something today or tomorrow or suffer. He sighed while licking his chaffed lips and walked over to retrieve the arrows carefully from the wooden target log. It was the first arrow to actually hit the log but the distance was only 15 feet away as he was trying to figure out how to shoot properly. He had barely managed to put the string onto the bow to begin with even after the limbs of the bow snapped back from his hand slipping and whacking his face. He did his best to unstring the bow and very carefully put it away as he decided to forgo learning it for now since he couldn't even use it properly.

He then grabbed the hatchet and one of the short swords, tying the short sword to the side of his ripped pants with a sliver of ripped cloth. His body flexed a little in the snow as he put everything back into the lair before reluctantly leaving the area of the cave entrance. He also left Peril's scale behind as the barrier had mysteriously dissolved now. He then sniffed the air while slowly approaching the forest and perking his ears, various scents filtering into his nose as he could barely hear anything scurrying about. He had a felling Peril's rotting corpse was scaring away pretty much everything so he started to walk in the opposite direction of her corpse while maintaining a straight path through the snow so he could easily get back. He tested the weight of the hatchet as he spun the handle in his grip before gripping firmly. His feet steadily crunched through the hard layer of snow as he maneuvered through the trees and ice covered brush before pausing. A scent wafted through the air of ash and smoke as he was approaching the edge of the forest to the barren charred wasteland of the forest fire from before. Burnt out trunks of trees standing tall while countless charred trunks laid scattered about the fields ahead a few charred carcasses littering the field as well from animals trying to flee before.

He scanned the empty barren fields as he soon saw something running down the hill a bit left of his direction. The small little creature had shiny white fur streaked with red blood down its side and its back right leg, running an limping along as quickly as it can. Suddenly another slightly larger creature crested the hill, its body pausing at the top of the hill before its eyes narrowed onto the small white creature and giving chase. Its smallish green body running after the white creature as it held a crudely made spear in his hands before launching it towards the smaller white creature. The green creature made a garbled yell while the spear struck true, impaling the white creatures back leg and into the ground. The white creature yipped a cry of pain and started to claw an pull at the spear to no use while blood spilled out onto the snow. The green creature made another garbled yell of triumph as it had hit the other creature an started to advance towards it, pulling out a crudely made knife to finish it off.