When the little Dragox woke up, sun beaming down onto her face through the collection of  hung up hides that was used as a blind, she found herself strangely… Refreshed? Despite the rather odd dream - simply meeting that beast-like girl by a campfire then doing nothing else for the rest of the night - she felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Even more shocking was that she found her arms empty!

Hurriedly pushing herself up from the bed; she found herself having actually cuddled up to Alexis abdomen with her spear left on her side. The bleariness swiftly left her eyes after she blinked expeditiously to remove any hint of sleep she had. Scrutinising her surroundings, finding absolutely nothing wrong, allowed her emotions to once more become tranquill in addition to something “different”.

She felt…

<Liberated~?>

Something about that word just bounced around in the back of her head. She had hardly if ever said or thought about it before - somehow she felt something familiar about that word. Before she even knew what was happening, she opened up her little mouth as her lips curled up into an innocent smile.

“Liberated fufufu~...” <Eel>

It was amazing to her just how well it rolled off her tongue - as if it had always just been waiting in the back of her throat - as just saying it allowed her to feel calm. Although she had lived a short life (especially considering she would likely be alive longer than a universe came into existence then suffered it’s inevitable heat death) it could hardly be said to be a peaceful one. Her first memory was the only blurry one and it was just some weirdo asking dumb questions.

It was pretty much downhill from there on.

Those months spent in her birth mother’s womb was the only time she had anything that even approached ‘peace’ as the chaos started the moment she began coming out. If one had to ask “what was the most painful experience” then there were two choices. Emotionally? Meeting Munzumira proved just how much more dangerous she was than a being like Photon who was just a brick house in humanoid shape.

However, if one were to ask for the most physically painful, then she would have to answer the first moment she ever saw light. There was a reason that few beings had the ability to remember the moment of their birth… It wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience being squeezed through a hole.

<Since I’m part dragon would I remember even if I didn’t have that skill?>

Either way she didn’t get a break as she was quickly bundled up in a cloth hitherto being chucked to the always friendly Phik’s orphanage within the beastmen-slums. To be clear, if it wasn’t obvious enough, Phik didn’t exactly care whether a kid lived or died. As such care for the younger ones were left to the slightly older children; those who had grown enough could be put to work after all. Thus it didn’t need to be said that the mortality rate in the orphanage was only lower than babies who were left where no one would ever find them.

Thankfully she was smarter than a mortal baby (as well as tougher with regeneration on top) so she was quickly able to excel in not dying. From there she slowly got stronger yet at the end of the day there was no goal in mind. A fact that remained as her subconscious goal up until just then - now she finally felt able to relax her body. Letting herself deflate back into the bed & against Alexis.

Taking in the older fox’s scent and, before she even realised it, she had once again drifted into sleep.

She didn’t even have any dreams but instead just silently slept with the two finding each of their 9 tails intertwining together. Making a large duvet of white & purple fluff which was somehow even softer than it looked. Making it even more difficult for them to part from one another.

Only when the sun had already reached its apex in the sky did Eel begin to stir once more - opening her eyes to the kind smile of Alexis who was gently shaking her awake. Even then it took a minute for the little kit’s mind to catch up. Spending a couple minutes lazing about, rubbing her eyes while stretching out her body, letting out a cute little groan. When she finally realises that she had snuggled up to Alexis (again) in addition to stealing her tails; Eel couldn’t help but have her cheeks redden. Diving under the pillow to the merrily laughing voice of the vixen who soon got out of bed. Not worrying about the embarrassed girl.

“You should get washed up as today will be a busy day of training hohoho~.” <Alexis>

That was the magical word that made her fuzzy ears twitch. Slowly her head lifted up from under the pillow to see that Alexis had already left the room - letting out a sigh of relief before jumping out from the bed herself. It was also only now that she realised she had no idea what the layout of the house was.

After wandering around for a while she managed to find what looked like a bathroom with the bath already being filled to the brim with hot water. There were even some strawberry scented bubbles. A scene which made the curious fox tilt her head… Without getting into details, it was that day that she found out what soap tasted like, at least she got washed.

By the time she finished, retrieved her spear and found Alexis there was already a table full of various dishes. If with a rather strange connection. Each item seemed to contain strawberry in some way or another; what little meat there was on the table had a strawberry jam based sauce. Eel had questions yet it seemed the vixen wasn’t happy - looking over the table with her arms crossed.

“I keep telling that brat that he can’t live off strawberries!” <Alexis>

Then she paused for a second with her head tilted to one side, rather cute, just like Eel despite her obviously being far more mature in appearance.

“I suppose he wouldn’t remember that…” <Alexis>

Shrugging without care she motioned for Elizabeth Jr. to join her; something she happily did.

“When we’re done here, we can begin with your balance fufufu~!” <Alexis>

Elizabeth Jr. was confused for a second before hitting her own palm

<Makes sense nature energy would require balance; there is thad ben sway stuff after all!>

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Against her expectations, on a small unnatural hillock that was around the back of the equally unnaturally flat mountain summit, Eel found herself precariously balanced upon her own spear tip. It required her to carefully put her aura through the blade in order to not stab through her foot. All the while she obviously needed to make sure that the spear (as well as herself) didn’t fall too much to one side else it would all collapse rather painfully.

She had already been doing this for a good amount of time yet she wasn’t able to remain stationary despite her best efforts. If not for her regeneration - having already fallen down more times than she can count at this point - she would have already been covered in enough deep cuts that she would be suffering from blood loss.

Even now her arms were fully outstretched; wildly flailing around her hands as if she was some kind of bird trying to take flight. It wasn’t even known if she would gain access to wings when she achieved her full form so it may not have even been good practice for that.

Of course, Alexis wasn’t letting her do it alone, but the difference between them may as well have been akin to comparing Munzumira to Photon. They may be related however you would never fucking guess it from a look nor believe it after being told directly. That had to prefaced with the fact that Alexis should be having a harder time as she was larger (both in height and ‘width’) while her polearm had two blades on instead of the single one Eel had.

None of that seemed to matter to her as she managed to peacefully balance upon her dual-sided sword-spear with one foot while the second was bent at her knee.

“You are putting too much focus on your limbs when you need to focus on the core; take deep steady breaths and keep your centre in line with your spine.” <Alexis>

“Hard to do that when I’m too busy breathing in dirt!” <Eel>

“Have you tried ‘not face planting’ the floor - if you take that on board instead of taking on more of the earth - along with what I previously said you should be fine fufufu~?” <Alexis>

Eel growled nevertheless, but that didn’t help her much. Especially when she once again lost control of the spear below her with a mighty *THUD*. All she could do was hit the ground angrily; her magic helping her blow a sizable volume down the cliff face.

“All combat styles need you to have a good sense of balance, and my brother will only be worse, my little kit~!” <Alexis>

<Worst training ever!>