He watched curiously from the forest edge as the word goblin appeared in his head. He blinked and realized it was the creatures name as the goblin advanced towards the impaled creature. The word fox appeared in his head as he perked his ears while tiny tidbits of knowledge appeared in his head. This fox in particular was a type of snow fox but having 2 tails was peculiar and might be a nine tailed fox. The goblins green skin took on a whiteish hue which was different from there cousins in more moderate climates while there bodies had a bit more fat on there limbs an thicker skin to resist the cold. He wondered where the knowledge came from before realizing it might be the spell Peril mentioned. He shifted the grip of the hatchet in his hand wondering how hard or easy it would be to take the goblin down. He did also know that goblins tended to hunt in groups so this one being alone was interesting but an opportunity. His ears flicked from a breeze while he sniffed the air before suddenly dashing forward from the tree line.

His speed quickly reached 25 miles per hour while he unsheathed the short sword from its makeshift strap. The goblin meanwhile paused and turned towards him as he ran up to the goblin. The sound of snow being crunched underfoot becoming faster and louder. The goblin then let out a shriek as it attempted to stab towards him before a short sword stabbed through its gullet and out its back. The blade of the short sword easily sliced into the goblin before slashing sideways and gutting the goblin. He then flicked the sword while backing up warily. The goblin on the other hand had dropped its knife as it was gutted, its attempt to attack back being stopped from the pain as it tried to clutch feebly at its innards that spilled out. It then fell forward while the life left its eyes and a wheeze coming from its longs as it lost its last breath. He then chuckled as he stared at the short sword, surprised by the sharpness before swiping it through the snow to clean the blood off of it. After that he sheathed it and was walking to the goblins corpse before hearing a whine of pain as he turned his attention to the dying fox. He then quickly went over to its side before pausing a bit shocked at himself, his mind wondering why he wanted to save the pitiful creature. He then shook his head as a sense of urgency flowed into his body as he hurriedly pulled the spear from the foxes leg as it yipped in pain, growling at him defensively.

He merely flicked the foxes snout to hush it as it yipped before glaring at him, but it remained being defensive and growling quietly. He then examined the wound as red blood spilled out as he covered it in his hand hurriedly trying to stem the flow. The fox watched warily, giving low pained growls as he touched the wound trying to staunch the blood flow. Its growls getting weaker as it decided to let him help, the intelligence behind its eyes growing tired. He then concentrated on his free hand as his thoughts rushed before stopping. If he could gather magic affinities into his hand for the egg then why not the regeneration ability he had into his hand for the fox. He then started to concentrate on his hand willing his magic to push an gather into his hand as he made a cut on his palm with the goblins crude spear. Blood started to run down his fingertips as he felt his regeneration activate and flow along his affinities and into his hand. His hand got darker, slowly turning pitch black as he felt pressure in his arm as the wound slowly healed. The fox flicked its tails watching what he was doing before a resigned look swept over its face. The fox then huffed and whined before pressing its head against his hand suddenly startling him as his affinities and regeneration flowed into the fox.

His affinities slowly coalesced inside the foxes soul while the foxes fur gained streaks of black and grey through it and its golden eyes gained a bluish tint. Then the foxes affinities flowed back into his body and into his soul creating a kind of tether link connecting the two. The foxes leg wound slowly started to heal as the fox suddenly bit his hand and growled defensively retreating away from him a bit but not running away. He stared at his now normal hand confused on what happened and then stared at the now healed fox and the way it had fur coat had changed. The wounds slowly healed on his hand while the fox was examining its leg then its coat curiously, its ears perking up before looking back at its new master as an annoyed look came across its face. The fox then huffed as it flopped into the snow tiredly, ignoring its master while its master in question was still confused on what exactly had even happened fully but happy nonetheless that it worked. He then examined himself a bit as he felt a connection or well link to the fox now before examining his own body, sensing the connection in the background of his mind, always present but not noticeable unless he focused on it.

He stood here in the snow, examining the link as he was trying to figure it out. After a few minutes though her gave up as he went over to the goblins cold corpse and taking its crude knife. The fox lifted its head, looking at him curiously before blinking surprised while he stabbed the knife into the goblins corpse. He then promptly started to brutally cut it into sloppy pieces and peeling the skin away like he did with the panther creature before. He then started to stack the pieces of cut flesh out on a large skinned piece of flesh as he was gonna take it back and cook it to see if the goblin tasted good. The fox on the other hand flicked its tails, a tad disturbed as it watched its master while wondering what he was even doing as it looked at the goblins corpse. The fox kept silent for now and decided to keep its distance from him just in case as it grew more careful of him. He soon finished cutting the goblin up as he grabbed the goblin bundle, blood dripping everywhere as the fox shivered from the gory sight.

He then looked at the fox as the fox looked back as the two stared at each other for a while. He then flicked his ears at the fox as he softly chuckled, "Well, you coming along or what? Hmmm are u a male or female though?" He sighed as he looked at the fox seeing no reaction from his question.

"Come on girl, lets go." He said as he turned before walking back to the forest tree line and leaving the fox behind. He then soon heard something scurry behind him as snow crunched as he looked behind seeing the fox following him cautiously, its intelligent eyes watching his every move carefully. He smirked as he talked, "Well keep your distance then, I wont hurt you and besides. Your to small to provide a proper meal if I killed you and there is the whole magical link thing that happened."

He furrowed his brows as he started to think about the link thing again as the foxes ears perked, a bit surprised as she assumed he didn't know about the soul contract. The fox grew suspicious of where her master came from as she kept following along carefully before the scent of two rotting dragons corpses wafted by her nose, making her freeze in place in fear. A dead dragon corpse was a very bad omen. Two was either a fight between dragons or an even worse omen and she didn't know which as she saw her Master keep walking along without a care in the world. She quickly hurried towards him, her paws flinging snow as she got to his side quickly while her tails twitched about anxiously.

He looked down at the fox as he raised a brow but ignored her as he walked to the lairs entrance, briefly glancing at Peril as he felt something again briefly before returning to his calculating and carefree manner. Meanwhile the fox had froze briefly seeing the scattered remains of a brown dragon and the poisoned corpse of Peril as it was starting to rot but quite slowly from the extreme cold. The fox then looked at her master as she followed after him into the lair as she was wondering what even had happened but assuming the two dragons fought in some way.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He then stopped placing the meat he had harvested from the goblin and headed back outside wiping his hands in the snow best he could before fetching the hatchet and the flint rod from the canvas roll. He then started to make a simplified campfire before striking the flint and slowly getting a flame going. It had takened a lot of hits to the flint for a spark to catch in the bark of the now dry wood as he flicked his tail wondering how to make a spark catch easier. He then shrugged as he was gonna think of it later, his stomach growling as he sharpened sticks of wood into skewers then started to chop the pieces of meat into small chunks, skewering them and doing his best to cook them over the flame. The first few tries he either burnt himself, dropping the skewer into the flames or held the skewer wrong as the pieces of meat just slipped off into the hungry greedy flames.

The fox was watching the whole time, her tails flicking in amusement as she calmed down from earlier. Her earlier worries of her new master being behind the dragons deaths dissipated as she watched his clumsiness. She then flopped beside him as she relaxed and kept watching, her nose twitching as the smell of burnt goblin meat before flinching as he suddenly growled.

He growled annoyed with the fire stealing his own food as he rubbed his hand that got burnt again an staring at another skewer being consumed by fire. He looked at the dwindling supply of meat and sticks as he still had a decent chunk left as he got to work again, making a longer skewer this time so he didn't burn himself and slight little carved bumps on the skewer so the raw meat wouldn't fall off if he held it downwards to the fire. After a while of turning the skewer he blew on the now roughly cooked, and half burnt goblin meat before taking a bite into it happily. He grumbled as it tasted horrible, the meat being hard to chew and stringy but nonetheless was hot and roughly cooked. He kept eating hungrily as energy built up in his body again while he took a piece of the skewer and offering it to the fox.

She paused and tilted her head cautiously before slightly leaning forward and snatching it from his hand and eating it. Hew snout wrinkling in distaste but eating it anyways as she kept an eye on him. He just shrugged an kept eating before nodding to himself that the meat tasted quite bad, cooked in some areas, half cooked or just burnt in others. He then scooted closer to the fire just enjoying its warmth as he stared intently into the flames while cooking another skewer. It was the first hot meal he had since waking up and the first bit of warmth he felt from a normal fire. He didn't consider blue dragon fire and fire stones exploding as natural warmth. He felt a small bit of satisfaction and pride as he ate the next roughly cooked skewer of meat, but this time the meat seemed to taste just a bit better then normal.

He tried to offer another piece to the fox but she scooted away as her snout wrinkled in distaste again as she looked up at him before reluctantly taking it and eating it after a few minutes. She had acquired a taste for cooked sentient's food but after her recent past, she's gotten used to eating raw meat again but her heightened intellect didn't help her stomach it down. She didn't even know where she was but she has been in the forest the past year to get away from being forced into a soul contract as a familiar but in the end she was still forced albeit to save her life. She flicked her tails again and glanced at her master before huffing and rolling about having a tantrum, kicking her paws and tossing through the snow in a fit of anger.

He glanced and watched the fox flip and kick about before reaching over to her and grabbing her scruff. He then picked her up like a pup as she kicked and yipped at him in anger as he just looked at her. He was confused on why the fox was being so weird and wondered if she was maybe still hungry as he offered a another piece of meat as this time the meat was cooked a bit more carefully. She just went still, her eyes glaring at him then the meat, going back and forth for a minute before she yipped softly an took the cooked meat. He then gently put her back down as she started to eat the meat while staring at him finding him weird. She then decided to just accept the current circumstances and see how things play out while hoping for the best that her master doesn't try and sell her in the future or something. She needed to figure out why he was out this far in the northern wastes and where he came from since she roughly knew he wasn't a local with how he knew nothing of survival and with how young he was.

Meanwhile the fox was lost in her thoughts, her master just kept cooking the meat. His eyes focusing while he stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth and softly biting it in concentration. He didn't have much meat left to cook but he had finally made a piece that was cooked pretty decently and happily ate it as it tasted better now that none of it was charred or undercooked in places. He then kept cooking meat while cutting a piece of wood and making a crude bowl out of it quickly, putting some snow in it an holding it near the fire to melt it into water and drinking it. After a while more, he finished getting his fill of goblin meat and water as he melted more down for the fox and sat a few cooked pieces on a slab of wood as well for her to eat.

She perked her ears watching as he set the food and water in front of her as she flicked her tails before slowly getting up. She then started to eat and drink carefully but soon calmed down and quickly finished the simple meal. She then flicked her ears as he got up dusting his clothes off from the wet dirt of the cave as he put the fire out and started to pack his gear back up and stowing away the bowl and slab of wood. He then motioned for the fox to follow after him as he walked down deeper into the lair and soon reached the main chamber as the fox paused. She blinked seeing all the gold and treasures before her eyes paused on the dragons egg at the top surprised and shocked. She knew a little about how valuable gold was so seeing so much of it shocked her as she carefully walked into the chamber.

He then flicked his tail as he started to climb the mound of treasures carefully as he sighed, really needing a better way up to the fire stones and the egg. He motioned the fox to follow as he got to the top, setting his things down near the edge as he walked towards the egg. The color of the egg was slowly turning a deep turquoise mixed with streaks of black and grey as he felt his magic affinities being absorbed slowly by the egg again. He enjoyed the eggs warmth as he sat down and examined its surface, the scales being smooth and clear. Little specks of white blinking in and out of the black swirls as the colors shifted an twirled around the surface of the egg.

The fox slowly walked forward as she eyed the egg and then her master carefully as she came to two assumptions about her master. She didn't bother trying to think about it much though as she laid down and curled up, slowly relaxing as the heat of the fire stones warmed her right up and helped her fall asleep.

He watched the fox fall asleep as he then looked back at the egg, admiring its surface for a while longer and wondering about the dragon within. He then shifted and started laying down and cradling it before falling asleep as well, his tail flicking about as he wondered about for names of the fox and egg. Time passing as he slept, the events coming in the next day to be sure surprising.