Old Man Dragon

Anya sat with her legs crossed as she gathered ambient wind energy to replenish her drained body. As the wind energy was drawn to her, it generated a breeze that blew across her.

From Finn's point of view, it looked like the girl was caught in a miniature windstorm, with her hair and clothes whipping about. Although, the wind didn't seem to bother the girl at all, which led him to believe this was a common occurrence.

Currently, Finn was laying across from the girl, watching her gather energy with a gaze full of curiosity. He had never seen another person gathering energy like he did.

Then again, he had never seen someone as powerful as her before, not including the guild master. From Finn's danger sense, as he had come to know it, she was comparable to a rank three magical beast in terms of strength.

If Bryn's strength at rank one was a equal to a small breeze, then her strength was like a powerful gale. A vast difference in volume and intensity.

They both produce wind when absorbing... Finn noticed the similarity between how Bryn and this girl restored their power.

So those with different elemental affinities produce different effects when gathering energy? Would someone with a fire affinity create flames then... Finn's thoughts wandered.

Speaking of fire... Finn thought back to the inferno beast he had ambushed. He could not deny that it bore a scary resemblance to himself.

Is that creature similar to me? Although it was red and much bigger, the similarities were too obvious.

In fact, this was the first time he had seen anything close to himself, physically speaking. However, their behaviors couldn't be more different.

Finn thought of how the inferno beast attacked the girl, consumed by anger and rage. Will I eventually become like that if I lose my sense of self?

Finn shuddered as he remembered the strange emotions he had felt before whenever he fought other creatures. Unbridled rage, fury, and brutality.

Cruelty...

Is that what I would have been like? Having seen the actions of the inferno beast, Finn vaguely guessed a worrying truth as he thought about the creature whose body he had come to inhabit.

Finn had already come to terms with his new life, but it was still a shock to see a possible future that could have been.

Shaking his head, Finn tabled his musings for later, for he had human company for the first time in what felt like forever, and that in itself was something to be happy about.

He glanced at the girl again and let out a sigh. Although he was happy to see another person, Finn knew the language barrier would make communication difficult.

It really was like going back to square one for Finn. He would have to communicate with crude drawings like he did with Bryn in the beginning.

However, although the hope was slim, he would first try writing in Bryn's language first to see if she could read it, or at least react to it.

First I just have to wait for her... Finn looked at the girls face. It appeared she was completely oblivious to him, her eyes sealed shut as she focused, gusts of wind still blowing around her.

Finn decided he would patiently wait for her to finish. Turning his gaze away, Finn began absorbing sunlight, relaxing into the comfortable feeling that it provided.

As soon as he took his eyes off the girl, she slowly peeked open one of her own to observe the drake across from her, as if she had been waiting for him to retract his gaze.

If Anya wasn't certain before, she was now. This drake was of the light attribute, the rarest of all attributes. This was a once in a lifetime encounter!

She watched as the light seemingly bent towards its body, seemingly vanishing through its scales. A golden glow slowly permeated the air surrounding the drake, giving it an ephemeral, holy look.

As she watched the drake absorb the sunlight, Anya remembered her earlier emotional breakdown, and her eye twitched in embarrassment. She was a proud warrior, and to allow herself to fall apart so easily was a shameful thing.

The more she thought about it, however, the less embarrassed she became. In fact, Anya was starting to find this light drake's actions too peculiar. Not only had it saved her, but it even healed her wounds!

This went far beyond what Anya thought any magical beast was capable of. Its actions went against everything she understood about them. If it were a fellow tribemate, she could understand, but a random magical beast that was also a drake?

Why? For what purpose? It seemed impossible. Are magical beasts even capable of empathy? Anya couldn't stop thinking about how it had healed her wounds.

It was definitely a miraculous feeling... The light affinity was so rare, that it was only mentioned in passing during her father's teachings, so she knew little about their abilities.

However, amongst her people it was known to be taboo to hunt beasts with a light affinity. Because she never believed she would come across one, she never bothered to ask why. That would definitely be something she would have to inquire about when her father returned.

Anya refocused her gaze back onto the white scaled drake.

Wild magical beasts were almost always violent and brutal. Although there were exceptions, drakes were definitely not among those.

They were by far one of the worst species of beasts to encounter due to their natural arrogance and pride from their bloodline. If not for her father, Anya is certain no one would have been spared three years ago when their home was attacked.

Why is this drake different? Anya continued to gaze at the beast, as if by doing so, all the answers would reveal themselves.

Unfortunately, Anya did not have the luxury of time. Although she wanted answers, it was important that she return to her people right away.

When Anya felt she had recovered to about fifty percent, she quickly stood up, startling the drake who paused its absorbing of sunlight.

"Thank you for saving my life!" Anya spoke quickly as she bowed towards the drake. She felt only slightly foolish, as she was certain the beast couldn't understand her.

However, Anya would never let it be said that she was ungrateful. After bowing, she righted herself, adjusted the shield on her arm, and made to leave.

Before the girl could turn around completely, Finn stood up, hoping to keep her attention in order to accomplish his first goal.

Anya reflexively took a step back as the large drake approached her. Although she believed this one meant her no harm, old instincts and fears were hard to completely ignore.

Finn went right up to the girl and pointed his head at the ground, attempting to draw words in the dirt.

Anya witnessed the drake lower its head in front of her. Is it... saying goodbye? Unsure of what it was doing, Anya tentatively patted its neck.

A moment passed like this, and before Finn could do anything, the girl smiled, turned around, and suddenly leapt away at high speed.

...

She didn't notice! Finn nearly panicked, half formed words on the ground now useless. She mistook my intentions... Finn was stunned as the first person he had met in over a month simply left. He had meant for her to look at what his head was pointing at.

For a second, Finn hesitated, unsure what to do. Then he quickly realized there was no time to hesitate!

Dirt flew as Finn dug his heels into the ground and moved to follow after thebgirl. Finn felt fairly certain that she was heading back to the people she was with. Where else would she be going?

How she intended to find them after running so far, Finn wasn't sure, but he knew for certain he needed her help to find his own way back home. He was tired of wandering around with no sense of direction.

Anya quickly realized she was being followed. It wasn't hard to notice when a massive white scaled drake was chasing after you.

She slowed and came to a stop, wondering why the drake that had saved her was now following her. When it approached, it quickly sat on its haunches and started quickly clawing at the dirt.

There was a question mark above Anya's head as she stood by awkwardly.

When Finn finished writing his words, he waved his claw at the girl. Anya's eyes widened at the very... human-like act and she instinctively waved back.

Finn breathed out a deep sigh. He wasn't waving at her, he was trying to beckon her over. Being more specific, he pointed one claw at the girl, and then aimed it straight down to where he wrote. It couldn't have been more clear.

In a daze, Anya walked forward. Clearly, the drake was trying to show her something, but what?

When she finally saw what the drake had gotten so worked up over, she gasped audibly. Familiar yet unfamiliar symbols were crudely drawn in the dirt.

The drake... it's writing! Although I can't read it, its clearly writing words! This sent shockwaves through her heart. This was beyond advanced intelligence for magical beasts. Never... never had she heard about any magical beast smart enough to write, let alone understand any human language.

So distracted was the girl by the words in the dirt, that it took a while before Finn managed to grab her attention once again. This time, he pointed at her and back at himself over and over, hoping to get his point across.

Still in a daze, Anya mimicked the drake a few times. It felt like a game she played with her fellow tribemates when they were kids, where they would act out words in order to guess certain things.

Only after a few repeats did Anya finally understand, much to her surprise. It wants to follow me?

Anya looked at the drake with new eyes. It was like she wasn't looking at a drake anymore, but a thinking and intelligent being. It was quite a remarkable contrast.

Seeing as how she had no reason to refuse it, Anya gestured the drake to follow her, to which it did so happily. She had been right, it wanted to follow her.

Although she still wasn't sure of its intentions, Anya did not believe they were malicious. In fact, if the beast that saved her followed her back to her people, maybe she might get some answers after all.