CH 58

My body is frozen for a moment, but the white lizard is just quietly looking at me from the basket shaped cage made by Rose.

It’s looking at me while staying perfectly still, and much like the first time I saw them, I can sense intelligence behind those eyes. Maybe even more than before.

“Oh? Did you shed your skin?”

I find what looks like shed skin inside the cage, and then, as if answering my question, the white lizard spreads the wings growing out of its back and flaps them.

“Kyurururu.”

It makes a cute sound.

“W-wings!? Yes, I remember seeing something swelling there, but it was actually because you were growing wings and not just a bump? And then you shed your skin and… Are you actually a dragon and not a lizard!? I’ve never seen one before…”

“Kyuru.”

“Ahh, geez. So you were actually a baby dragon? Why were you even there? And what am I going to do now?”

As I struggle with this new problem, I hear its stomach growling.

“Hn? Are you hungry?”

“Kyurukyuru!”

The white dragon nods.

“What do I have…”

I fumble around in my pockets, and find a half-eaten portable ration. The ones Kalin calls grass bricks.

“Do you want this?”

I break a piece and slide it between the vines. The white dragon approaches it slowly with its nose.

“Kuchuu.”

It sneezes, frowns, faces away from it, and then steps away. Those round eyes are looking at me with distrust.

“Oh? Does it not know that it’s food?”

I eat a piece of the portable ration in my hand in a way that the white dragon can see it. It kind of feels like it’s looking at me like it doesn’t believe what I’m doing.

The smell of herbs fills my mouth, and as I swallow the portable ration, I look at the white dragon while trying to understand its behavior.

“Ah. I guess a dragon would want meat. I might have something from a monster I was going to use as materials…”

“Kyukyukyu!”

The white dragon furiously shakes its head.

“Kyuu!”

It raises its tail, and points it to the side.

“Hn? What?”

I look where it’s pointing, and it looks like it’s pointing to the potion I left with Rose.

I take out another potion from my backpack, open it, and place it near the cage.

The white dragon approaches it like it’s ready to pounce on it.

“Hm, I guess I’ll try giving it a safe amount.”

I drip some potion on a glass plate I use for experiments, and as I approach the cage again, the vines that make up the cage start moving to make a little hole where the plate can fit.

“Thank you.”

I thank Rose while placing the plate.

The white dragon shoves its face into it right away and starts licking it. It doesn’t take too long for the plate to be empty.

“Kyuu kyuu kyuu!”

The white dragon pushes the empty plate to me with its legs, like it’s asking for more.

“Eeh!? You really drank it? Most living beings wouldn’t like it on an instinctual level…”

I think about what I should do, but it looks like it wants to drink it so much that my curiosity gets the better of me.

Still, I activate a transcribe scroll and keep a close eye on any changes that might happen to the white dragon.

“Rose.”

I call out to Rose, as a way to tell it to be ready if it needs to intervene. Rose shakes its flower like it’s saying it understands.

I put the same amount of potion on the plate as I did before, and the white dragon starts licking it immediately.

I look at the transcribe scroll.

“Strange. I don’t see any negative effects.”

The white dragon starts asking for more again. I hesitate, but start carefully pouring more.

“Kefuh.”

The white dragon lets out a small burp and curls up. I think its stomach is full. It then falls asleep peacefully.

“…Maybe I should give it a name.”