Ch- 4 Tribe life

Casey was totally wiped out and slept a particularly deep sleep, not having a single dream. When he groggily opened his eyes the next morning the first thing he saw was his shiny gems.

Seeing his treasure at first sight raised his mood; he instantly felt more energized. Casey sat up and slowly got off the bed he walked to the bathroom and went inside.

Casey paused for a moment before he realized he hadn't actually washed since he hatched. This young master instantly felt a bit disgusted with himself and resolutely climbed into the bathtub to take a shower.

When he turned on the tap cold water rained down from the showerhead, catching the little dragon off guard. Casey overreacted and his little paws slipped and he flopped around in the tub.

Not used to his sleek scales and claws Casey had a very troubling time trying to stand and steady himself. After wrestling in the bathroom trying to get clean for almost an hour Casey tiredly made his way out; his wings drooping and almost touching the ground as he walked into the living room.

Casey saw Mac bustling about putting breakfast out on the dining room table.

"Good morning" Casey called out.

"Morning, let's eat breakfast quick. Afterwards I'll take you around town to meet everyone". Mac stated.

"Mm, sounds good".

Casey sat down at the table and looked at the hearty breakfast in front of him. Rolled eggs, sausage, bacon, fruits, and baguette with jam.

"Uhm Mac? Isn't this a bit too much for just the two of us?".

"This is our first breakfast together so I wanted it to be nice". Mac grinned at Casey and rubbed his small head.

The two were silent after this exchange and focused on eating quickly. Casey grabbed the dishes and fluttered them into the kitchen and sat them in the sink.

"Leave the dishes, we'll wash everything at the end of the day. Let's get ready and head out!".

Following behind Mac the two left the house towards the village center. Right in the center of their village is a small metal tower. Casey didn't notice this yesterday, when he saw it he turned his head toward Mac.

"What is this for? Is it just a memorial sort of thing?".

"Well, it's not wrong to call it a memorial. This is an attempt at making a communication tower, some of our earlier ancestors, who were born and raised here felt they shouldn't be here since they aren't criminals.

So those ancestors collected all the scrap and useful tech from other tribes and races around and made this tower. It is able to send signals and short messages out. But over all these years it's never received any kind of reply. But it's been kept up, it already stopped sending news out but we keep it as a reminder and also a signal of hope".

Casey stared at the tower. "That's a bit sad, isn't it better to just take it down and repurpose the materials?".

Mac just hummed and didn't give an answer. As they were standing there Mac's grandfather, Tala walked over to them.

"Good morning small dragon, is Mac showing you around the town?".

"Yes!".

"Sir if there is any way I can help your people please let me know! I don't want to just be an extra burden for you all". Casey raised his eyes and stared at the tribe leader.

"Hahaha just call me Tala small one, I'm sure there will be ways you can help. But you should focus on training yourself while you are here. You don't need to pay so much mind to us".

Casey didn't really agree with Tala but nodded his nod and thought he'd help whenever he saw a chance. Mac patted his head and motioned to continue forward.

Over the course of the next two hours, Casey had met most of the Shera in the tribe. He felt exhausted but also exhilarated. He had never had many opportunities to communicate with others.

And the people of the tribe were all very enthusiastic about chatting with Casey, making him feel accepted and welcomed.

"We'll you've seen everything inside the tribe. We do have several fields a little bit outside, and much further away is a joint market between the various races.

It's a good place to get unique resources and scraps normally. This planet has several different regions and each region has differences in weather and temperature.

So what we may be able to plant and grow will differ from other regions. Sometime in the future, I'll take you with me to take a look at the other tribes".

"Would you like to see our fields?"

Casey pondered it for a moment. " Can I go look at the fields? Maybe I could put myself to use there in the future".

Mac looked down at the small dragon, then looked at his small claws and chubby body that was very incompatible with farm work.

"Of course, you can".

Mac answered while stifling a smile. How can this little guy be so cute and naive? Mac thought to himself. After leaving the tribe the two walked down a small dirt path surrounded by tall grass; the small dragon was essentially hidden by the grass.

They followed that dirt path for 30 minutes before arriving at a vast expanse of fields. In the fields, Casey saw around 20 Shera who he had yet to meet and fluttered over to say hello.

After doing introductions Mac walked up to Casey and started to introduce the various crops they grew and told him about their production and usual yields.

"I'll definitely contribute to the tribe!". Casey proclaimed confidently

Mac smiled not wanting to douse the dragon's mood and nodded and rubbed his head. "Mm I'm sure you will, let's go home and have lunch now".

After finishing lunch, Mac could see that Casey was worn out so he sent him back to his room and told him to take a nap.

Casey obediently responded and soon drifted to sleep again. Mac peeked in and saw that Casey was asleep quietly, Mac took the opportunity to leave the house. He headed towards his grandfather's house, upon arriving Mac greeted him with a solemn face.

"We need to have a discussion about the dragon don't we?". Mac stated.

Tala nodded and the two went inside closing the door behind them. What was said inside was known only between the two of them.

In a rush to make it back before Casey woke up they talked fast. When Mac got home he found Casey laying on the sofa. Casey raised his head to look at Mac, his eyes watering.

"Where did you go?". He looked at Mac with accusing eyes.

Casey can't handle being alone anymore, he felt very uncomfortable when he awoke and saw no one was at home. With his past neglect and even his present abandonment, Casey felt very insecure. As he sat In the silence his mind started to brew in a negative direction, he knew something was wrong with his thinking but he couldn't stop it.

Mac saw his teary face and felt uncomfortable. He was at loss, he didn't realize this little dragon would react so strongly to his lack of presence. He started wondering if maybe this freshly hatched dragon imprinted on himself.

Rushing over to the sofa he sat down and grabbed the dragon placing him on his lap and lightly touched his back trying to soothe his tense emotions.

"Why are you crying? I had to run an errand, I told you I'm normally very busy, didn't I? To spend more time with you and help you settle I put off my errands until when you were asleep. Please don't cry, I'll tell you in advance next time I go out. Or leave you a note, does that sound alright?".

Casey lifted his small face to look at Mac, "can't you take me? Or send someone here to keep me company? I'm scared of being left behind alone".

Casey's wings were tightly packed to his body. After he finished talking his head dropped as more tears silently fell. Seeing him look so listless Mac felt even more at a loss, he hadn't expected this baby dragon to be so dependent, needy, or clingy.

In his impression Casey was a sweet, happy, and lively little dragon; Mac was very confused by the current situation. After a few minutes of soothing; Casey's tears had stopped and he was just sniffling quietly.

Mac was worried about setting him off again so he didn't bring up what happened and tried to shift Casey's attention.

"Have you thought of how you want to start training? There's plenty of wildlife here you can hunt to help train your strength and instincts. Or if you want to train your spiritual power there is a tribe of the Nova race and we can probably find a teacher to guide you from them".

"Nova race?" Casey repeated a bit surprised.

Out of the many intelligent races the Nova race is one of the closest races to humans they look essentially the same except for their pointed ears and small antennas protruding from their foreheads.

The nova race is extremely weak in physical aspects but the spiritual power of this race is at the top of the spectrum and they rely on it to protect themselves.

"Do you know any of them well enough to introduce me?" Casey asked Mac, completely forgetting his prior depression.

Mac paused and thought "Maybe I shouldn't seek them out, they may covet Casey. Or maybe he'll learn too well and grow too fast, leaving us behind and forgetting us". Suck chaotic thoughts started to rule Mac's mind.

Seeing Mac's increasingly bad face, Casey reached a claw and touched Mac's thigh.

"It's okay if you don't, I don't necessarily need a teacher anyway. It may be slower but I'm sure I can figure out and slowly train my spiritual power on my own". He puffed out his chest in an attempt to look cool, confident, and competent.

Mac snapped out of his thinking and replied "Are you sure?".

"Yes. I'll just ask you for pointers and help from time to time if that's okay".

While the Shera race isn't as spiritually gifted, most still had decent spiritual power and could utilize it in daily life. Mac's lips lifted into a sly grin and he nodded.

"Alright, you can reach out to me whenever you need".

Casey nodded his head, and after a moment of silence he finally realized he was sitting on Mac's lap, he recalled his emotional outburst and felt embarrassed. His little silver face was slowly stained the color pink as his thoughts turned. He immediately hopped down and went to sit on the other sofa.

Mac just smiled and didn't say anything before standing up and walking into a room Casey had never entered. Casey was curious and wanted to follow but still felt embarrassed and stayed glued to the couch like a stone statue.

Mac came back out of the room carrying an old worn-out book and sat down next to Casey. "This is a book that explains spiritual power and has simple practices to help you feel and learn to control it. Take this and start practicing".

"Where did this come from?" Casey was surprised, paper books aren't a common object to have in the interstellar era.

Mac shrugged.

"A long time ago our tribe found a crashed aircraft that was filled with all kinds of precious antiques. This book is one of those items".

Casey slowly reached out his claws and tried to grab the book as gently as possible. He feared his claws would rip right through it if he wasn't careful.

"Thank you Mac, I'll treat it like treasure".

Hearing those words Mac thought of the little dragon tightly clutching that ruby and surrounding himself with many precious gold and gems.

"Hahahaha" Mac couldn't stop laughing, he looked at Casey and bluntly said in the midst of his laughs. "please don't treat it like you do treasure, if you curl up with it like your jewels I'm afraid you would shred it to nothing".

Casey's silver scales instantly turned from light pink to blood red. He had no words to defend himself so he flew to the top speed he could muster right into his room before slamming the door shut with his tail.

Casey blew out a small ball of fire from his mouth in his frustration. He was then surprised that he could now breathe actual fire. He carefully set down his book and walked to the window and opened it. He stood there and purposefully tried to send a fireball out.

The result was a small stream of fire flying into the sky. It felt weird, Casey felt like he could actually taste sulfur from the back of his throat.

But more than that he felt accomplished at his ability and quick growth, he happily trotted back to his bed with a smug look. He sat down and decided to read through the book in its entirety once before practicing using his small spiritual power.

Most humans have at least some kind of spiritual power, even the lowest E-level can make spoons bend and float similar to the concept of ancient earth ESP.

Unfortunately, Casey was one of those few who was born with no spiritual power whatsoever. So he really had no idea what to do or how to use it, but he felt really excited that he had the opportunity to use it now. With these thoughts in mind, Casey sat down to seriously study the book.