29

There was one kid I took interest in that just never came closer. He was picked on by the other kids because he was in an wheelchair. Seeing someone in a wheelchair was a rare sight nowadays. I took an interest in the boy. Something about him made me think he was another person capable of bonding with one of us dragons.

I didn't think he had an ability. Either that or his ability was so weak that he couldn't really use it to defend himself. I watched him from where I was sitting. Hoping he'd dare to come closer so that I could maybe use my light element on him, and see why he was in the chair. It couldn't be an injury.

He would have been healed a long time ago if it was something as simple as an injury. That made me think it was a deformity of some sort. What kind of deformity did he have? Could it be fixed? My bond to Ethan was making his scars fade quickly, and helped all my bonded heal faster.

Some day soon he wouldn't have any reminders of his pain. My bond to him had advanced even further to the point that it was just waiting for another evolution. Savannah's had hit that point as well. Bryce was still working away hard at whatever surprise he'd promised us. The other kids egged him on again as they made fun of him for not being able to walk again.

They kept pushing him around in his chair, and then rushing up as close as they could before they got too scared to come any closer. The best kid got within ten feet of me before chickening out.

"Aw," he said as he fled back to pick on the poor kid once again, "See that gimp. I got the closest."

The kid had gotten pretty fed up with it by now. I liked the fire in his eyes. I wanted to egg him on a bit more, but I felt that that was mostly unnecessary. He was going to come to me willingly without needed anymore pushing. They kept circling the poor kid calling him gimp among other things as he worked up the courage to approach me.

At some point he just became fed up with it all, and pushed his way toward me as I lay outside of the warehouse in the open space in front of it. I found out through Savannah that there were two thousand people living within the settlement. A thousand were working adventurers. The other thousand were families, craftsman, and medical staff. That meant this kid had a mom or dad that was an adventurer somewhere within the settlement.

The fact that he was alone now told me that whoever they were was out working. I wanted to frown at them, but I avoided moving since I didn't want to spook the poor boy away. I kept on waiting for him to come even closer. I wanted him within arms reach.

"What's the matter wheels?" one of the kids shouted now that the poor kid was close to the other kid's current record, "Are you going to chicken out?"

"God damn you little assholes," he mumbled under his breath.

Dirty mouth for a kid his age. I couldn't help, but smirk at the kid as my head came off the ground. My tail wrapping around the base of his wheelchair as I raised my head to look in the kid's eyes. The kid looked at me with fear in his eyes. I didn't do anything to harm him as I added another loop of tail around his waist to keep him in the chair as I picked him up with the chair, and all.

He clearly didn't know what was going on as I smirked down at him. My wings extended slowly as I blocked the others line of sight. Leaving me alone with the kid in front of me.

"You should really learn how to control that mouth of yours," I whispered in his ear as I pulsed light mana through him.

The look of amazement on his face made me openly smile at the kid as I zeroed in on what was wrong with him. He had some sort of spinal deformity. It was a slowly advancing type of disease. I pulsed light into him once again. Targeting the damaged portion of spine as I did.

Just to test if it was possible for me to undo some of that damage. If it was then bonding with a dragon would eventually heal him. Making him a perfectly healthy in just a few months with minimal intervention. The ease that my mana passed through him told me that he definitely didn't have an ability. If he didn't have an ability there was a good chance he was compatible with mana as well.

Some of the damage that his back was doing to itself was slightly undone. My smirk became a full fledged smile as I gently set the kid down. Turning him around so he wasn't facing me anymore as I pulled my wings back in slowly. Pulling my tail back, and standing up as if nothing happened to go back into the warehouse. The guards that were watching me were terrified, and had their weapons drawn as I went back into the warehouse without causing a scene.

Leaving the stunned speechless kid in my wake. Along with everyone that saw all me grab him. Nearly a month here, and they were already letting kids come up to bother me. They'd probably pull everyone around me back again after this stunt, but I really wanted to talk to that kid. Inviting him to learn more from me as if he desired.

It was one of my rest days. I relaxed in the back. The mana overload I'd done earlier today had expanded my mana reserve a good amount. If that kid came to me again then I would be willing to teach him more. Making it so he could use mana himself would be the first step.