Boreas POV

"Are you humans finally done with your conversation?" the dragon asked as he revealed himself

"Are you not even a little bit shocked?"

"I am, but since you trust me enough to share such a secret with me, I will repay the favor by keeping such important matters a secret." the dragon replied, "You will have my word. Consider my debt repaid."

Legendary creatures like phoenixes and dragons are known to be not just powerful, but prideful creatures, and so, if they were to give their word, they would uphold it, no matter the circumstances. Their pride wouldn't allow them, and I wanted the trust of this dragon and make him follow me, so that's why I didn't mind revealing all of this.

"So...why aren't you going away?" Matt asked

"I'm following this human." the dragon pointed at me

"Didn't you say that you hate rude humans? He's notorious for his attitude and isn't your debt repaid?"

"Who I follow is none of your business." the dragon replied as he somehow shrunk into the size of a small dog and sneaked himself into my lap as I was setting camp

The development was working in my favor, but...should I hasten the process, I wonder?

"Were you envious of Galen?"

"Envious of a dog?  Nonsense." the dragon denied

"So you're saying...that if I were to want to scratch your head or chin...you would swat my hand away?"

"...Yes."

"That doesn't sound convincing."

"Don't assume my wants."

"Alright, since Matt volunteered for the first watch, I'll just go to sleep then."

"...You're not going to pat my head?"

"You didn't want it."

"Oh for goodness sakes!" Eve snapped, "Let me pat the cute thing."

But the dragon swatted her hand away.

---

I woke up in the middle of the night to cover for Matt as he went to sleep. The dragon woke up and pouted, refusing to even look in my direction after I refused to spoil him earlier. But he stayed in that shrunken state and stayed awake along with me as we just sat in the dark cave in silence.

"Half the teams have been eliminated!" the announcement blared, "We repeat, half the teams have been eliminated."

Damn, that's fast, it's not even a full 24 hours.

"Human...why did you save me?" the dragon asked, "Even when I fought you off, you still saved me...why?"

"Because I can?"

"No, you were surrounded...and the others also fought you off as you tried to save us...why go through such effort?"

"Like I told you, it's because I can."

"That does not explain anything."

"It does...I got the power to do anything I want...and I might as well use it to save somebody."

"So you're not as selfish as you made yourself to be?"

"I am selfish...if it comes to choosing me or everyone else, I'd choose myself."

"What would your previous parents think?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Why not? Are they dead?"

"Yep."

"How old were they?"

"I don't necessarily know, I was quite young at the time and I chose to not learn too much about the past."

"I know that I may not recognize those places, but where were you from?" the dragon asked curiously as he climbed on my lap again

"...A dangerous hellhole called Detroit."

---

Theodore POV

Hmm, unfortunately I couldn't see Boreas anymore as soon as he entered the cave, and since my shift was up, I headed to the teacher's dorm to sleep and just rested. I've been having a hell of a day, my colleagues all have impressive resumes, they all either mostly got these positions because they were geniuses themselves or they worked hard enough to achieve enough accolades to get those positions, but most are both...being the youngest means that I lack the latter...

It's already bad enough that I'm stressed about keeping the answer to the mysterious life signature that the headmaster is panicking about, I'll just go home and relax.

I got to my room and my call crystal rang. So I got it out and placed it on the table, and it projected a screen, I saw that Amelia called me as she was on the other end, the head maid. She's a half-sister of mine, a child of my mother in her previous marriage. We kept in contact after all this time, and she was the one who used her connections and money to help give me some expensive tutors.

"What do you need?"

"Just wanted to check up on you." she replied, "And I also wanted to ask you to help me keep a lookout."

"What do you mean?"

"So remember when I told you that I wanted to call the prophet over?"

"Yeah?"

"As a joke, I asked her to find her majesty's future fated partner, I just wanted to tease the empress since I didn't expect Madam Jane to see something."

"Oh...who could her fated partner be?"

"A great one apparently, a person who's younger than her, with hair as white as snow, while also being favored by a dragon."

"I'm sorry, what the hell did you just say?"

"I know, a person favored by a dragon? I've lived for almost 50 years and I've never even seen a dragon. Like what kind of dragon would favor a human? The dragon must be really old or really young, because only then can I see the possibility."

"Huh?...Can...you just repeat who this person is again."

"Well, a person who's younger than her, with hair as white as snow, while also being favored by a dragon. I don't know what you're not hearing right, because I don't talk that fast..."

It...can't be, right? Oh no, oh no, oh no! This can't be happening. The devious guy...and the scheming queen...both playful and sarcastic in nature...by the gods...if this is Boreas...we're all doomed. I mean, can you imagine their offspring? That kid would probably come out of the womb plotting world domination.

...Maybe I'm overreacting...maybe it isn't Boreas... they have a 10+ years difference, he'll be too immature for her...but if it's real...if that child ever grows up to wield even a fraction of their parents' manipulation skills, well, let's just say we might as well start building bunkers and stocking up on canned goods now.

"You...you don't actually know of such a person, do you?" Amelia asked after seeing his expression

"No, no one would be favored by a dragon, even if there are such things, I wouldn't know of them."

"You're clearly lying...you know of such a person."

"I told you-"

"I've known you all my life, I know when you lie, so let's just cut the bullshit and tell me or I'll go over there myself."

"Fine, I might know, but is there any other description? Tan brown skin? Brown eyes?"

"There isn't...I'll come over after that exam is over, and take me to him during your 2 day break, I want to see this person myself."

Please don't let it be him.