✦ POV — Reth

The bushes erupted.

Something crushed into him, harder than the tackle of any knight, and the axe was wrenched from his hand. Claws dragged across his chest — not cutting, but pinning, heavy enough one jerk would spill his ribs open.

Scalding heat breathed on his face. The smell of ash and blood filled his lungs.

A snarl like grinding stone rocked the clearing.

The beast towered above him. Scales black and fissured with pale golden veins. Molten-amber eyes burning. Wings still forming but strong, tail hashing like a whip.

A dragon.

Smaller than legend — no larger than a lion.

[Threat Instinct Lv. 1] — No Lethal Intent Detected.

The weight of the dragon leaned on his ribs, breathing a grind. Amber eyes glowed inches from his own, pupils constricting, expanding, constricting again.

A growl rippled across its chest, jagged and low. Hot saliva spat as it hit the earth beside his cheek.

It did not blink. Neither did he.

For one heartbeat the world consisted only of breath and heartbeat, heat and blinding glare.

The claws rasped deeper—then were withdrawn.

Air filled Reth's chest. He coughed once, harsh, but remained low.

The dragon took a step back, wings trembling wide. Muscles flexed beneath blackened scales. Its tail splintered the earth, spilling chips of bark.

Its jaws yawned slow. Teeth glistened wet, curved for tearing. A hiss tore loose, as biting steel.

The noise clung in the clearing. Birds took flight. Cicadas grew silent.

The drake dropped its head, throat rumbling, molten eyes never wavering from his.

One step back.

Another.

Jaws snap once—crisp, authoritative, like rock shearing wood.

Reth raised his hands slowly, palms out. Fingers apart, hollow. No blade. No axe.

The dragon's head jerked a fraction, eyes constricting to slits.

".easy," he growled, the word scraping in his throat.

The drake's head canted, the fiery eyes constricting to slits. The growl in its chest grew louder, claws digging new trenches into the earth.

It snapped its jaws once more, the sound louder this time, teeth meeting with the sound of steel ringing against stone. The hiss that came next was cutting enough to make his ears sting.

Reth didn't move. His heart pounded hard, but the System remained quiet.

[Threat Instinct Lv. 1] — No Lethal Intent Detected.

So he stood firm.

The drake's tail whipped back and forth. Its wings burst wide in ragged arcing sweeps, ash falling away from scarred scales. It crept half a step nearer, its head lowered, jaws open in a growl that should have made him flee.

It wasn't the System yelling at him. It was terror. Its own.

Reth took a deep breath through his nose. His arms were shaking, but he lifted one hand higher, firm, palm facing out. Fingers spread. An open gesture.

".I don't come to fight," he growled, voice raspy but steady.

The drake's snarl skipped for the space of a heartbeat. Its eyes darted from his hand to his face and back again.

It showed its teeth again, but slower, less so. The fiery light in its eyes flickered, as though it didn't know whether to bite or to withdraw.

Reth held out his hand. Still. Waiting.

The quiet drew out.

Then, all but ludicrously, the snarl of the dragon caught. Its muzzle furrowed, but not with anger — with doubt. The light in its eyes expanded. The hiss died away into a surprised whine, high and raspy, so out of context that it sounded almost… confused.

The creature blinked. Once. Twice.

The face of the molten predator changed, the hard lines crumbling into something uncharacteristically awkward.

As if the action in front of it was one it had never encountered before.

As if the world had presented it with a problem it could not answer.

The drake's throat creaked, but the noise no longer snapped with the same alacrity. Its eyes followed his hand, molten light fluttering with uncertainty.

Reth moved, as slow as a man drawing near a blade's point. One knee burrowed into the earth, his other hand holding against the ground as he leaned forward.

The dragon did not attack. Its head tracked him, teeth still exposed, but the doubt lingered.

That was when he noticed it.

A slash cut deep through the creature's back, parting the golden veins of its scales. Blood congealed dark, sticky against its hide. As it twitched its wings, the wound re-opened, raw and shaking.

Reth's jaw clenched. He recognized that sort of wound. Not lethal yet, but soon.

The drake's growl lowered as he moved closer. Its claws scraped the earth, warning sharp as thunder.

He hesitated just short, lifted his hand higher, inches above the shredded scales. Sunlight hammered against his skin, hot, insistent.

"Convert," he breathed.

[Energy Conversion: Solar Energy → Healing Transfer]

[Efficiency: Very Low]

[Warning: Host vitality may destabilize.]

Blaze of heat streamed from him, gold light running down his arm. His palm grazed the rim of the wound.

The drake convulsed, a harsh hiss tearing its chest. Molten eyes went wide, their pupils expanding into full, round circles.

Light poured into ripped flesh. The blood thickened. The quivering steadied.

The dragon's panting caught. The growl stuttered into something rougher, less certain. It blinked once, slowly and deliberately, like a dazed creature.

Then, with a low growl that vibrated the ground, it lowered its head. Its snout nudged his arm, scales hot and scratchy on his skin.

Reth went stiff.

The drake's tongue lashed once, warm and scratchy, over the sweat on his forearm. A noise followed — not a snarl, not a hiss, but a low, thrumming vibration, almost like a purr contained within stone.

The System beeped:

[Healing Transfer Successful]

Target vitality stabilized. Blood loss decreased. Mana channels recalibrated: +6% efficiency.

The molten gaze drew back to his, no longer etched with rage. Still wild, still deadly — but tempered. Searching.

For the first time, Reth wasn't staring into the eyes of a predator.

He was staring into the eyes of something that knew him.

The dragon's tongue scraped down his forearm once more, hot and rough, leaving a trail that burned against the sweat. The rumble in its chest grew deeper, consistent, like thunder dampened by distance.

Reth remained immobile, allowing the heat to seep out of him and into the wound. The gleam of golden veins within its scales flashed weakly, briefly, like embers glowing into life.

The eyes—molten, piercing—were different now. Wide, unguarded. For a fleeting breath, it wasn't looking at him like prey or rival. It was looking at him like… something remembered.

The System stayed quiet. No alerts. No danger.

[Threat Instinct Lv. 1] — Calm State Detected.

Reth's breath rasped out, low. He managed a crooked whisper. "…you're just a cub."

The words slipped out before he could catch them.

The dragon's eyes snapped sharp. The fiery glow returned to slits. The thunder in its chest ceased and became a snarl. Its wings sprang wide, cracking branches above. Claws ripped new scars in the earth.

The tongue was lost. The heat was lost.

What crouched before him now was no bewildered child, no stunned creature leaning into his caress—merely a dragon once more, proud and fierce, fire smoldering in its throat.

Reth didn't waver. He merely dropped his hand, steady, fingers curling into the earth.

"…proud too," he grunted, half to himself, half to the beast.

The jaws of the drake opened, teeth glinting. The noise it made was hard, abrupt, but different from what it had been. Not rage. Not threat.

The growl of the dragon hung on, shaking the clearing like stone rubbing stone. Wings remained half-spread, tail whipping. The fire hadn't descended from its throat.

But it hadn't lashed out.

Reth's fingers curled out of the dirt. He reached up again, slow, steady, as he might grasp a blade point-first.

The molten eyes followed the movement, slit pupils constricting.

He didn't halt. His palm swept over hot scales, rough and scarred along the crest of its head.

The dragon tensed. One hiss vibrated its throat.

Reth didn't let go. He maintained the touch light, firm, his thumb tracing along the curve of a jagged scale.

".do you have a name?" he grunted, voice low, almost raspy.

The drake once blinked.

The System awakened.

[Species: Sun Dragon (Juvenile)]

[Status: Stabilized — Wounded]

[Unique Trait: Sun-Eater]

—Absorbs solar energy directly. Stores and releases it as destructive bursts or radiant healing.

[Classification: Singular]

—Only one of its kind currently alive.

Reth's eyes went wide, breath caught in his chest.

A Sun Dragon.

Not "a" type. The type. The solitary one.

The beast moved beneath his hand, pushing its snout more firmly against his palm, molten eyes still keen, but no longer enraged.

The scales scorched against his skin, hot enough to brand, but he didn't release it.

".then I suppose you don't," he croaked. "Not yet.

The dragon's chest growled a second time, that odd half-purr, half-growl. It dipped its head lower, allowing his hand to lie there.

The molten pressure of its stare pressed onto him. His palm remained against the crest of its head, burning hot scales searing his skin, yet he did not pull away.

The System's text lingered faint in the air, words glowing hotter than the sunlight pouring through the leaves.

One of its kind alone.

Reth's jaw clenched. He swallowed past the dryness in his throat.

"System," he grunted into his chest. "If it consumes the sun… if it can draw power out of it—how's it bleeding like that? How's it weak?"

The panel moved.

[Query: Juvenile Sun Dragon]

[Answer: Without maternal instruction, solar absorption is unstable.]

[Note: A Sun Dragon learns to consume by copying its mother's cycle. Without instruction, absorption results in burnout, energy loss, and physical fragility.]

[Status: No maternal presence detected.]

Reth's brows drew down. "So… it doesn't have one."

The dragon's gaze glinted at what he said, molten depths rolling like they heard the ring of something ancient. Its breath rattled once, more softly, almost a whine, before the growl came back to silence it.

Reth let out slow. His fingers pressed just a little firmer into its scales, thumb stroking the cracked seam where golden veins glowed softly underneath.

"…and you've starved, haven't you? Learned to burn with no one to teach you how."

The drake's head moved, not a nod, not comprehension—not quite. But it pressed into his palm with weight enough that his shoulder groaned holding steady.

The System flashed again:

[Warning: Subject's growth will atrophy in the absence of external control.]

[Observation: Host's "Energy Conversion" is an analog of maternal function.]

Reth's chest froze for an instant. His hand shook against the dragon's hide.

"and that's it," he grumbled. "You caught a glimpse of me, and for an instant… you believed I was her."

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