Adventures of the last Wild Dragon

Violet slowly awoke to the smell of food being cooked and the feeling of a full body bruise. She slowly flexed her limbs and found that she could now move them, but, she was still injured on a fundamental level.

It was not to the point that she would be unable to fight if required, but she would much prefer to just rest up until she was back to normal.

Her movements did however wake up Luna, who was still being embraced by the dragon. Luna slowly opened her eyes to behold the split Violet eyes of her companion, she smiled up at her as feelings of warmth, comfort and love echoed through their bond.

"Morning." Luna mumbled, then stretching out her arms she let out a long yawn before snuggling back into Violet's embrace. "Mhmm sleepy… don't wanna get up."

Violet chuckled at her actions, but held no reservations about staying like this. So the two stayed wrapped up together in the blankets until Susan called out, announcing that breakfast was ready. After some mild grumbles from Luna, she eventually emerged from the cocoon of furs and groggily rubbed at her eyes as she slowly roused herself.

Looking over at the two girls Susan couldn't help but smile, it was a pleasant thing to witness their unabashed care for each other. Seeing how they would look and act around each other truly showed their affection. And whilst it was quite amusing to the older dogkin to see them fumble around their newly advanced relationship, she also knew that they were both still quite young. As such she felt no need to inform them of what actual couples would get on with.

No instead she was more than happy to let them slowly figure that out for themselves as they grew up. Besides, it was quite entertaining watching them!

Her musings were interrupted when she watched Violet wince as she slowly moved over to the fire and food. With some worry in her tone she asked. "How are you feeling Violet? Still not in a great condition?"

"Everything still aces, I can at least move about more or less now. But I don't think I should do more than rest until I'm back to normal."

Susan found herself nodding at that, quite surprised at the usually boisterous dragon admitting that she should not just rush off into the next fight immediately. "That's probably for the best, last thing you need is to be injured again, who know if that would just exasperate your existing wounds. Am I right in assuming that your soul was somehow damaged in that fight? I cannt think of any other way that you could have been injured like this?"

At her words Luna looked over at Violet with concern plastered across her face, questions clearly bubbling up in her mind, sensing this, Violet chose to quickly answer to clear up what actually happened. So she briefly informed the group about her thoughts on how her blink skill worked, specifically about her a portion of her soul stays in the real world when the rest of her moves into that other reality.

Then about how she believed that the monsters icor could erode or eat mana, and how that likely enabled the splinters to directly wound the part of her soul that was still in the real world.

The group took some time to digest that information as they ate the breakfast prepared for them by Susan.

The silence was eventually broken by Luna as she asked a question to the group at large. "So I know that that creature was a monster, not a beast. But I don't think I actually know the difference between the two. What exactly makes something a monster and not a beast?"

Susan once more spoke up. "I somewhat know the answer to this. So from what I know, beasts are natural beings. They are born from another beast, they have all expected organs and generally stick to a fixed form, only changing as they age or evolve."

She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. "Monsters however, are unnatural. They are not born, but are instead formed, be that from the natural mana around them. A good example of this is elementals, they are technically monsters, but are on the more benign side of that classification. Then you have the beings that form in areas of corruption or resentment, these usually take the form of ghosts and sprits. But they can also… merge with the natural mana around them, it is also possible for natural beasts or one of the enlightened. I think that Bark Horror we encountered yesterday is one such beings."

"This second type of monster are much more sinister. They will actively hunt down and seek to destroy any non corrupted being that they can find. That is likely why the rest of its kind began to swarm us once we defeated one of them."

The group once more fell into silence at her words, each of them contemplating what she said. Violet thought on it for some time, a full 14 seconds later she spoke up. "So that is why that Bark Horror felt so… wrong? Whereas when we fought the elementals, they were simply just any other foe to kill." Getting a nod from Susan at that Violet hummed to herself and went back to thinking, and more importantly finishing off her meal.

Time passed as the group simply relaxed, for the first time in quite a while. They had not truly spent a long time just… relaxing. Ever since they had chosen to travel to the east, and whilst it hadn't exactly been a long time. It was still quite nice for them all to just relax.

At around mid day, they were reminded of the fact that they were not the only occupants of the cave anymore. When they heard movement from the far side of the cave they all tensed up in worry. Only to relax when the realised that it was just the mole from the day before. Luna was confused as she was unconscious when they escaped and didn't notice it when she woke up.

Still they all watched as the mole slowly approached the hole leading outside. It was still raining outside, and it looked to have only increased in intensity as time went on. They wondered if it would ever stop raining, and if so, when it would eventually stop.

The mole paused at the entrance to the cave, it turned its head towards the group and sent out its crude mental feathers to each party member. As before the beast did not truly speak in words, more emotions and intent, still its meaning was clear as it communicated to them. "Thank you for the aid. I leave now." And like that the giant mole left the cave and wandered off into the rain.

From there the group simply relaxed, Rhyana and Susan opted to move to one side to practice their skills and combat abilities, clearly unhappy with their performance as of late. Whilst Violet and Luna simply relaxed into each other, Luna didn't even bother asking Violet go get dressed, if only because she truly was very comfortable to lean against like she was.

The day slowly passed by, Violet and Luna received another cooking lesson from the dogkin, they were both still surprised when the usual timid dogkin became so strict when teaching them the art of cooking. Still they both learnt well, and the group enjoyed a good dinner. Then with everyone feeling much better after a day of relaxation they once more readied themselves for bed. Eager to see what the next day held in store for them.