After being on the run for some time, Urak came to a halt at a forestry layout and decided to set camp for the night.

He looked to the creature held in his arms, and watched it blink in rapid succession as it’s single pupil took in its surroundings.

He sat and leaned his back against the trunk of a tree and gently placed the creature on his lap.

Unlike before, the creature no longer had the energy of a dead corpse and seemed quite overwhelmed as its eyes blinked in quick order, changing its direction every so often as it blinked.

‘It must be startled’, Urak thought.

Urak took his broad right hand and stroked the creature’s hair, causing the creature’s eyes to immediately close tight, its muscles clenching around its eyelid in fast vibrations.

“There, there, it’s okay”

Urak hummed as he gently took the tip of his fingers and caressed the creature’s strands, back and forth, feeling the texture of the creature’s hair.

‘So dry’

As he did this the creature shifted slightly in his lap until he saw the creature open its eye and gaze back at him.

Urak simply stared back at its lone red eye, as he continued to caress its hair, and held its stare as they just observed one another.

After a couple seconds, the creature opened its singular lined mouth and Urak witnessed a series of sharp serrated teeth, each almost fang like, all aligned side by side in perfect order - as not a gap could be found between them, or within them.

However, what intrigued him even more, was when the creature continued to open its mouth wide and a long slick thick tongue appeared from within it. It wiggled around scurrilously as if it were dancing with no sense of direction.

“hragu…hraggyyuuu”

Urak’s eyes widened in curiosity.

Urak simply stared at the creature as it flailed its tongue around making odd gibberish moans here and there.

Eventually the creature retracted its tongue back into its mouth and simply stared back at the large Dragonian, as it continued to blink its single eye, this time in slow succession.

It’s quiet blank expression reminded him of the Firie birds found in the South of Vran.

Urak smiled in amusement, as he ruffled the creatures hair and moved his other hand to the pouch that lay beside him.

He opened the pouch and took out a pack of boiled potatoes that had gone cold but for the most part were still edible.

He crushed it in his hand until the substance was more viscous than solid, and brought his hand slowly to the creature’s mouth.

However, even after inching his hand closer and slower towards its mouth - the creature simply stared up at him blinking its eye at a casual pace, as its mouth did not budge.

‘Is it not hungry?’, Urak contemplated curiously.

As his hand lay still in front of the creature, he noticed one of the arms of the creature move up towards him, inches away from his face when it suddenly stopped, as if it were miming him.

Urak arched an eyebrow and sighed as he continued to push the viscous potatoes on his hand towards the entrance of its mouth.

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Eventually, the creature understood and slowly opened its mouth as Urak began feeding it the potatoes.

Strangely enough, even though the potatoes were more slush than solid, the creature took its time chewing and biting in exaggerated attempts before swallowing whole.

‘At least its eating’

As Urak continued feeding the creature, and the creature focused its task on its chewing, he thought about what had transpired with Lenneth and that witch.

Urak grimaced as the image of his friend’s pained face reverberated through his head but he shook his head as he dismissed the thought.

He knew the man would survive.

After all.

‘That whore is too obsessed to let him die’, Urak snarled as he thought back to the image of Silmeria, as he grabbed another potato, crushed it and brought it back to the creature’s mouth.

‘But still…’

Urak gazed back at the creature, as it continued chewing in immoderate large chomps.

‘Was this really born from those two?’, Urak thought pensively as he once again studied its unique features.

‘He did say its a boy, but there’s nothing-’, Urak shifted his gaze to its nether region but found nothing that indicated a form of genitalia.

‘there…’

‘No matter, Lenneth said it’s a boy, so he must be a boy’, Urak harrumphed as he looked back towards the creature’s single red eye, as it blinked back at him.

“Do you understand, child - you are a boy, a b o y, a tiny strange b o y”, Urak pointed his finger at him as he slowly intoned his last words.

The creature simply stared back at him as it continued blinking slightly faster.

“Good good, now for your name”, Urak thought back to Lenneth and remembered the petite man had always talked excitedly about the boy’s name.

Urak stared directly at the creature’s eye.

“Roan, your name is R o a n, blink if you understand”

The creature simply blinked continuously, as it did normally.

“Good good”

Urak chuckled but then sighed as he gazed up at the twinkling night sky.

‘What now..?’, Urak wondered as he observed the stars one by one.

The original plan had been to get Roan with Lenneth, and flee, as Lenneth would then run away and care for his child on his own and thus his debt to the blonde man would be repaid, and he would part ways with him there.

However, things never did go according to plan in life.

Lenneth had set up many plans, and ironically one of them had mentioned what would happen if he were to be captured.

Urak grunted as he closed his eyes and opened them again.

In that case, Lenneth had vehemently stated he wanted him to escape with Roan, and he would rendezvous back with him once he was free of Silmeria.

Urak chuckled.

‘What a liar’

Silmeria was much too paranoid a woman to let go of Lenneth that easily, and much too powerful.

If he went back, he would be captured, most likely killed, and everything would be for naught.

He looked back down to Roan and watched the tiny creature-boy continue to over chew its food, as its single eye blinked in focus towards him.

Urak smiled.

“Quite the hungry young man you are”, Urak said as he continued to stroke his dry strands.

Roan no longer flinched from his touch and kept his gaze steady at Urak.

Urak shifted slightly to get a better lean on the trunk behind him, as he softened his back more comfortably on the hard wood.

He pulled Roan slightly more to his lap to make sure he was comfortable and gazed back towards Roan’s single eye.

“Let’s call it a night for today, Roan”, Urak explained as his eyes drifted closed without hesitation.

The creature - Roan simply stared back at the now sleeping Dragonian, as he simply blinked its eye continuously as he observed his features.

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

“Hnng…”

Urak grumbled as his groggy eyes slightly opened due to the bright Ra that fell upon his face.

He gazed up at the bright Neptar shining beautifully and illuminating all the heathens beneath it.

Urak smiled and looked down at his lap, and immediately saw a single red eye staring back at him, blinking in rapid succession.

“Good morning Roan”, Urak voiced smilingly, as he felt an odd feeling wash over him.

“Guudu Guuddu”, Roan replied back as he moved his mouth awkwardly.

Urak flinched and stared incredulously at Roan - at the unexpected response, more so the fact that he actually got a response.

Roan’s single red eye blinked faster in succession as he continued wiggling his mouth struggling for tongue placement.

“Guudduuu Gudduu”

“Haha…HAHAHA, why yes good good, such a smart child you are little Roan”, Urak chuckled as he brought his hand and rubbed Roan’s dry strands.

Roan’s red eye simply stared back at him as he casually lessened the speed of his blinking into more of a moderate pace, at least for him that is.

Urak smiled and hugged the boy up to his chest as he stood up to his feet.

He picked up his pouch that contained a small amount of food and gazed at his surroundings.

It was morning and all the paths were much clearer then yesterday.

He looked at the direction he had come from.

‘Lenneth…’

He wanted to take a step forward but in the end looked back at the direction he was heading.

He slightly tightened his grip on Roan and began walking to his home.