—Orion—

  I watched with a growing sense of dread as the now named Sally played with my hand, making childish noises with her mouth. It'd only just occurred to me that I should use [Appraisal] on her, just to gain a better understanding of her before I used the [Animal Companion] skill on her. It wouldn't have made a difference, but gaining a summary of her existence should answer some questions I’ve had about her [Intelligence] and [Soul]. Both were also important for knowing what the [Soul Bond] could do to me.

  [Using [Appraisal – Lvl 1] on: Strange drakeling]

  [[Hunter’s Senses] upgrades the level of [Appraisal – Lvl 1] when facing a beast!]

  [Using [Appraisal – Lvl 2] on: Strange drakeling]

  [Sally, Lesser Silver Drakeling (Infant) – Level 0 Beast

  A strange, aberrant child of two pure-blood Lesser Silver Drakes

  While most drakelings are carefully cared for until they mature by their parents, this one has been robbed of that opportunity by a cradle snatcher. However, that is not the most notable thing about this specimen.

  It can be said that most Lesser Silver Drakes are of high intelligence—most would say on par to a human's intelligence, depending on who you ask. But this drakeling had an [Intelligence] equivalent or higher than most adults of either species. It's unknown where this intelligence could've come from, if it was born with it, developed it from trauma, or was gifted it through its [Soul Bond] with its newly made companion Orion.]

  I quickly left the tent, the shock of what the Path had shown me rocking me to my core, cementing the fact that I’d only suspected before. The drakes were intelligent, as much as humans.

  It astounded me that I’d only now finally bothered to check the statistics that Sally possessed, while the physical stats were expectedly low, and her health was unsurprisingly damaged, her intelligence was astounding.

  From what the priests in Solis described, [Intelligence] could vaguely be described as the ability to learn, or the limit to what you were capable of learning. It’s a rather vague concept that loosely ties in with [Wisdom] which the Path shows as your acquired knowledge in all areas. Soul is something even they didn’t go into much—apart from defining your max MP—but something that I’d noticed about it is that it increases with a creature’s… person-hood, alive-ness.

  A cunning predator might have an intelligence of twenty, the average of a human, but be incapable of relating to others or feeling emotion in any genuine way. It could only be a driven killing machine, no matter how much it could learn, it could never be ‘human’. The more soul, the more meaningful—purposeful their existence.

  So, why did this little creature have so much [Intelligence] and [Soul]? [Wisdom] can be excused, she hasn’t lived long enough for it to be any wiser. But if she was already like this, then what would’ve been the [Intelligence] and [Wisdom] of her parents if I'd bothered to fully read the Path's screen, and seen more than their [Health] and [Level].

  I let out a groan of frustration as the questions and doubts began to snowball. Is there anything I could do to fix this? What can I do? Was there anything at all?

  “Orion! I thought that I said that the monster needed to be tamed, what’s the point of your skill if it didn’t do anything?” Elio scowled at me, stopping me before I had a chance to go anywhere other than the deserted area in front of my tent. But his pointless anger at me mixed with my self-pity, becoming a stormy sea of emotions that made me want to push him.

  “It… It did do something.” I weakly denied the anger rising up through my throat—I think that was what emotion it was—making me a bit nauseous.

  “What? That monster still wants to bite us!” he continued, his nonsensical blaming of Sally for the situation making my hands shake—just a little bit.

  “Did you expect the skill to make her forget? Forget what we put her through?” I genuinely asked him, disbelieving that he could be so far removed from the reality of what'd happened over the last day.

  “Oh, stop making excuses Orion, you know perfectly well why I’m angry. If your skill didn't make it unaggressive, then nothing's changed—and a monster isn't safe to keep around.” Elio spat, walking right up to me and planting a finger on my chest. My breathing started getting erratic, as I truly started to lose sense of this scenario. What does he mean, making excuses? I’ve been giving him reasons, did he think I was trying to lie to him?

  “B-but I don’t know what-”

  “Just give it up Orion. You failed! So stop denying reality and let me-"

  “Stop it! Stop! Stop-stop-s-stop.” I uncontrollably sputtered, feeling completely destabilised, my stammering surprising Elio enough that he stopped talking for a second.

  “Y-you kicked her and Becky tried to feed her a piece of her parents’ flesh, which we murdered! Why do you keep blaming her for being angry a-and feeling unsafe around us?”

  “Why do you care so much about the monster's feelings, it's a baby, it’s not like it's going to remember any of this anyway. It’s a tool Orion, if you’re not going to get it under control, then we’re going to have to get rid of the drake.”

  “But the skill is permanent, and only usable once? Besides, I don’t want to kill Sally!” I pleaded, the realisation that Sally had gone from 'she' to an 'it' the moment he felt like it only making me more upset.

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  “If it's not safe, then it's not, safe. I don’t care how your skill works. Also you named your pet drake Sally? What kind of name is Sally?” Elio scowled.

  “It’s-s what I c-chose. A-and I-I’m not getting rid of her. I’ll make sure she doesn’t cause any issues.” I argued, the priest rubbing his hair in frustration.

  “God, why do you have to be so stubborn about some things, why can’t you just… It’s give and take Orion, and I've given all the ground I can reasonably let you take. Is it even possible in your stubborn mind to give a little. Do you even know what the word 'compromise' means?” Elio almost shouted, barely restraining himself at the last possible moment. How was letting him kill Sally only a 'little' bit of a compromise?

  That last sentence helped me realised that I couldn’t take orders from Elio anymore. That if he couldn’t let me explain the basics of what I’d spent the most of my life specialising in, then I can't follow him. That him refusing to understand that I know what I'm talking about, that Sally wasn't a threat, was a line I wasn't willing to 'compromise a little' on.

  If that was something that he couldn't understand, then it isn't possible for me to keep working under him, for now and in the future.

  “Elio, once we get out of this dungeon… I think I’ll go my own way.” I decided. I don’t think I can keep trying to delude myself into thinking that I can keep doing this and be satisfied with it. Even ignoring the fight Elio and I just had, I wasn’t capable of enjoying this way of life, and I’ve given up trying to convince myself to keep going.

  “What?” “Why?” Two voices cried out at the same time, Elio’s surprised was mirrored by Becky, who'd been hiding behind a tent, and was surprisingly silent enough that I didn't notice that she'd been right there.

  “Never mind you, what just came out of your mouth.” Elio tried to regain control of the situation, rubbing the bridge of his nose in… confusion I think.

  “I don’t think that I'm able to keep doing... this.” I elaborated—thankful that the previous conversation had been forgotten—and vaguely gestured to the campsite around us, and to all of the people in it.

  “You have to give me something more specific than that!” Elio protested again, Becky nodding in agreement as they both verbally penned me into a corner that I didn't know how to escape from.

  “… Because I genuinely hate having to do this.” I sighed, both Becky and Elio surprised by the candidness with which I said it.

  “I hate having to hunt these animals and I hate that you insist on me doing things that I hate to do. Most of all I hate having to spend any more time listening to you talk about things you clearly do not understand.” I tried to explain without sounding too vengeful, but the surprise on their faces showed that I failed on that front.

  “You hate us?” Becky stuttered, raising an interesting question.

  “Hate isn't what I said.”

  “So you don’t dislike us?”

  “… I just don’t think that I can keep doing this, hunting, killing, for the sake of growing in strength. I don’t see a point to it.” I continued, hoping that they would understand that my want to be anywhere else right now wasn’t a personal insult to them.

  Elio frowned while Becky just stood there with her jaw slowly sliding open, both of them were stunned by my desire to be free from this fighting. I’m surprised that nobody else had expressed this sentiment before me, they can't all enjoy killing.

  “You want to just stop levelling? Give up on this opportunity to become heroes?” Becky slowly asked, an extremely serious expression on her face, like I was throwing away my life for something silly.

  “Yes. I don’t care about the Path, I don't want magic or skills that make me better at killing things. I’d rather be elsewhere.” I confirmed, Becky sighing before giving me a nod.

  “… It’s good then that you’re leaving. To be honest I’m surprised that you’ve made it this far.” Elio finished speaking, getting the last word in before spinning on a heel and marching off. Leaving me standing there, red in the face and irrationally upset.

  I tried to fall back onto what usually worked in these situations, which was just walking aimlessly while managing my breathing. That and trying not to think about the pure idiocy of his points, I just don’t understand why he'd say those things.

  “Uh, you okay Orion?” A voice right next to me asked, and I turned to see Gin and another member of our group sitting on a couple of chairs, obviously having been sitting there, and within listening distance for the entire argument between me and our leader.

  “… Yes, I’m fine.” I assured them, Gin giving me a raised eyebrow before shrugging.

  “So, you’re leaving us?” Lee probed, and I nodded.

  “We’ve… had some disagreements, and I, to be honest, just don’t enjoy being here.” I explained,

  “Do you not like us?” Gin seriously asked, to which I shook my head.

  “I enjoy your company, it's just that Elio is being…”

  “Yeah, we heard. It’s a pity though.” The other girl added, before standing up and walking off towards the kitchen area, dragging Gin along with her. I was left standing there by myself for a minute as I processed what just happened.

  With a sigh I walked off from the now empty circle of chairs, wondering how everything has gotten so estranged from how we were yesterday. Maybe things were always like this, and I never realised how groups actually worked.

  As I returned to my tent, I spotted the group all sitting around the main campfire, eating dinner together and partaking in the nauseating feast of the adult drakes' flesh. It was an impossible thing for me to overlook, but for them was it really as small a concern as they made it out to be?

  Even I knew I wasn’t welcome out there at the moment, so I went back to my tent and wondered what to do with my new-found loneliness. I turned my gaze to Sally, who was thankfully feeling more active after getting some food into her system, the little drake tentatively poking her head around her blanket.

  A smile found its way to my face as I watched her struggle to untangle herself from the blanket, only ending up even more buried in its folds. Even if the group doesn’t like me anymore, at least I’ll still have Sally. Though I suppose that it’s about time for her next meal, there was still some rat left over as well, but I might need to mince it again. It did make me wonder how long she’ll be at this stage of infancy, because most other animals—excluding humans—are more independent than it seems drakes are at this age. The Path did mention that their parents are present until maturity, so it might be a year or two.

  I grabbed the rest of the diced meat and the mortar and pestle I used to grind it earlier to make more food. As I did, I watched Sally dig herself even deeper into the blankets with an angry squeak and I began to mash up the meat. Her antics, while adorable, didn’t stop me from thinking about the future, about how I'm going to get through the next few days. I'm stuck in this cave with them, and I don’t have any ideas on how to deal with them—the animosity I’ve gained was something I was familiar with, but usually I wasn't forced to live with the people who'd come to hate me. Though I never did understand how he felt about me.

  Another important thing to figure out, was what I'm going to do after I no longer have the support of Solis. I could go live in the woods, I do have the skills to survive out there. But is it what I want? Will it be what Sally wants? Are drakes capable of wanting things? Seeing as how we're tied together at the hip metaphysically, I didn’t really have the ability to singularly decide where I ended up anymore.

  A grumble from my stomach interrupted my dreading about the future and turned my mental focus towards my own dinner. Usually I ate outside by the cliff, and while there wasn’t much of a view, it was more interesting to look into the black abyss than try to talk to the others while I ate my food.

  The real question was if I should bring Sally out with me outside the tent. I didn’t want to stress her out with a new environment, but the last time I left her alone, the Becky and some other girls had tried to force feed her.

  In a few short trips I was sitting on a chair facing the cliff-side, it was a bit hard to balance both the Drake and her bowl of food on my lap at the same time, but I managed. I considered starting to feed her myself again, but she took the initiative this time, sticking her head into the food enthusiastically.

  I smiled as I watched her for a little bit, and then tucked into my own dinner, which was a stale loaf of bread and a paste the people here like to spread on it. I reached into one of the many pockets on the vest that contained my gear and pulled out a butter-knife, using it to put some of the vegetable stock-like spread on the food before cleaning and putting it away. It was awkward eating with all of my gear on me, but I didn't feel comfortable outside the tent without it. The only reason I didn't also have my bow was because people began asking if something was wrong, which quickly becomes irritating.

  The taste and sitting out here by myself reminded me of home, of resting my muscles after a day-long trek. Not that I could forget the absence of my Father, I don't miss his training enough to remember it fondly.

  I had no idea what he was doing now, now that he was all alone. Maybe he hadn’t changed at all now that I was gone, and was still patrolling the park. Though, he could be looking for me.

  I doubt it, Father was someone who'd insist that I save myself, that there wasn't anyone I could rely on to do it for me.

  Though a little twitch on my lap reminded me that things were different now, better now. The idea that I now cared about an eccentric little lizard more than my own Father did for me was strange, but I couldn’t deny it. The real question that'd help me figure out the feelings was whether I cared too much about Sally, or if I never really cared about Father.

  That thought made me decide that it wasn’t worth the pain and doubt that'd come with it, and just ate my bread instead.

  A dozen peaceful minutes later my food was finished, and Sally was still eating her bloodied mince. I took a few mental notes on how she ate, the types of teeth in her mouth, how she used them to eat, and most importantly the amount of food she ate. The little drake is most definitely a carnivore, her serrated, interlocking teeth reminded me of a crocodile’s maw, made for ripping out chunks of flesh, throwing it into the throat and swallowing it whole.

  The rat I caught was large, I probably got at least a couple hundred grams of meat off of its bones, and Sally had finished it all in a few hours. It was an abnormal amount of food for something this small to be eating. My current hypothesis is that maybe magic was being used in the digestion of the meat. The few scraps of information in Solis on magic beasts did suggest that they might use magic for more than attacks. However the archives on many topics the priests had were lacking for a city that'd existed for thousands of years.

  Hopefully she doesn’t need this much consistently, otherwise most of my time will be spent hunting. It won’t be easy, especially in this new—more importantly unknown to me—world.

  As I watched Sally almost knock the bowl off my lap, I realised that I’d do it happily. I picked up the finished bowl of food and placed it on the ground next to me before she could knock it off the cliff. I was sitting too close to be safe if an accident happened, but I enjoyed it enough for the risk to be worth it.

  It did make me consider the fact that I’d chosen an animal I’d only met today, over the whole group of people I’d spent months working with in Solis. My Father was someone I knew that I’d never miss that much, but I thought that meeting new people would be different, better. But—in some strange twist of fate—I think that I preferred this. Maybe… I just wasn't built to be around humans.

  ***

  The two of us enjoyed the atmosphere for a while, the slowly dwindling conversations from the campsite matching the pace of the fading [Fairy Lights]. It was nice, though I wasn’t sure if Sally was enjoying it or had just given up actively resisting and attacking everything that moved.

  But just as I was about to head to bed myself, I heard a boot scuff the stony floor behind me. Which was a bit unusual, as people didn’t normally bother me when I sit out here.

  “Hello?” I softly called out, not bothering to turn around just yet, as that might disturb the drakeling laying on my lap.

  After waiting a few seconds I frowned, whoever it was couldn’t be bothered introducing themselves. With a sigh I twisted in my chair, making sure not to move my legs too much.

  “Who’s there?” I asked as I turned to look behind me, and was surprised to see that a mysterious person was already standing directly behind me. I couldn’t tell who they were, but they were wearing a thick cloak that hid any identifiable features of their body, and a mask obscured their face.

  The mask looked like the detailed face of some man I’d never met before, cast from a mold into a metallic silver alloy. The face was young and unnaturally at peace, like someone had forced it into that shape only after he’d died. It reflected the fading spell-light, gold accents highlighting the eyes and trails of the gilded markings flowing down. It went from the corners of the face into intricate geometric patterns that filled the cheeks with straight lines and abrupt turns.

  “I’m sorry, but-” I started to ask yet again, but was cut off when the person’s right hand shot out from under the cloak and covered my mouth. I should’ve panicked, or resisted a bit more, seeing as how they were wearing a disguise. But I assumed that they must’ve been someone from the camp—as we were the only people allowed down here—so it would stand to reason that this was someone I knew.

  The very next second, as I was breathing out, the other hand left their cloak and a golden dagger was clutched in their glove. Its blade extended and sunk straight into my midsection, easily piercing my flesh.

  I tried to scream, but all I had left in my lungs was a wheeze, lacking the air to properly cry out. I attempted to stand and push them away, but the awkward position I was in made it impossible. I was half-standing with Sally on my lap, a chair underneath me, and a dagger in my stomach, making me off-balanced and shaky. I might as well have already given up when they pushed me.

  Sally let out a squeak of terror when I tried to move my foot backwards to balance myself, but only found empty air instead of stone. Before I could process what just happened, the air was rushing by me, and I found myself in free fall. With the dagger still in me.

  Oh, I’m falling. To my death.

  It took a moment for the reality of my situation to set in. My pained breathing quickly sped up as I panicked, the knowledge that I was going to die sending me spiralling.

  The words ‘what makes a warrior?’ appeared in my mind, demanding that I answer them.

  Warriors don't bend, don't break.

  Warriors don't bend, don't break.

  Warriors don't bend, don't break.

  I’m a warrior, so I can’t break or bend, I answered desperately, trying to quench the fear before I-

  Everything went black with a flash of pain.

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