Surprise grappling

"I apologize for handling you in such a way, which was unlike me."

'Even after I polluted his lake and vomited on his tail, he still apologized, what a nice dragon.'

It looked at him with a hint of remorse in his eyes.

'Seriously, what a nice dragon'

"So, what are you doing in my lake and ruining the water."

He had already sat him down by the edge of the lake, now that the dragon was being so considerate, he had to find a way to tell it that he just wanted to clean himself after being born yesterday. He obviously couldn't tell it that to communicate that he couldn't speak.

"Aaauh aaaah ohhuaaa" he said while pointing at his mouth.

The dragon was confused for a moment and then he spoke incredulously.

"Are you a newborn?"

He nodded, relieved the dragon didn't take offense to his lack of words.

The dragon thought to himself for a moment before asking.

Do you have parents?

He shook his head.

"Do you have a name?"

'Obviously, my name is- huh?'

He couldn't recall his name,

"Hm… is that a no?"

He shook his head, but the dragon interpreted it as a no. the dragon felt it was too pitiful to leave a welp by himself, it also knew it couldn't take care of him, since the dragon didn't know the first thing about taking care of dragon children, much less a humans.

"Human child, there is a there is a village east of the lake, it's not far from here. I can arrange for someone who owes me a favor to take care of you as an apology for my actions."

The now nameless child broke out of his reverie and stared at the dragon silently.

'Why is this dragon so kind, he was so angry moments before, well, I could at least try to say thank you.'

"Shayoh!"

"…well go on now, and don't come back to my lake, I have too many messes to clean up these days."

Just when his head went into the water, he came back up as if he'd forgotten something.

"Take this, that mana of yours is dangerous, it could harm other humans and I don't think you'd want that."

Nameless tilted his head 'mana? Like the magic stuff? I have that?' he thought. After all, he never felt anything like mana inside of him, but it might be something different than what he knows. After all, in his old world the knowledge of mana was all fiction, fake, it didn't exist. For all he knew it could be the size of his-

Before he could finish that thought

*shick*

It was the sound of a staff piercing the ground at his feet. But he wasn't scared by the sudden projectile, it was more of a curious than anything,

'Why would the dragon give me this staff? And what does it have to do with man?'

The staff was black with a simple spiral pattern reaching from top to bottom. It was also 6 feet tall, much taller than him. How did the dragon expect him to carry it? he himself was only 3 feet tall, he couldn't carry around something that was 2 times his height through the forest.

'Yeah, it's impossible, those monsters will kill me.'

He hadn't actually seen any monsters; he didn't count the wolves as monsters and whatever was in the lake was unrecognizable. There was the dragon, but he was smart enough to know that a monster occupying a whole lake to himself wouldn't be common in strength.

And then he thought 'maybe its lighter than it looks? After all its just a staff, and most staffs like this are made of wood.'

So, he grabbed it, trying to pull it out. As soon as his hand fully grasped it, he felt something, like something was getting pulled out of his body. The strength in his legs weakened. letting go of the staff it shrunk to three feet, his exact height.

"So, it still works, I was afraid it wouldn't work anymore" the dragon said, slightly pleased with himself.

"That staff will absorb the excess mana that out of your body, make sure to hold it at all times until you get a better control of your mana."

With that, he was about to go back underwater to rest but-

Plop plop plop

"Hmm? Do you need anything? I've already been generous enough" only to be confused by what he saw. It was the child, beckoning him to come closer.

'that's right, come closer. I need to display my gratitude somehow.'

The dragon brought its head forward. And when he reached eye level with the kid, he was surprised that he gave him a hug.

*pat pat pat*

He had given him a hug. The only other way that he could express gratitude was through skinship. And he also wants to touch its scales. Giving him a smile, he left the flabbergasted dragon on his own and left to the east.

--------

The dragon sat there, looking at the departing boy. He had an eerie aura to him, but his cheerful demeaner caused a sense of disconnect.

He looked at his tail. Rather than being covered in blue scales, it was completely bare, blood red and covered in legions, his body was already doing work to repair it, but it was incredibly painful.

So, he cut it off.

"It will grow back."

And he descended into the lake.