Each of the baby dragons was about 12” long and had a variety of colors, but they all reacted the same way when their mother dumped the furred creature into their midst, it was relatively fresh and must have been caught no more than a few hours ago, and in this temperate climate, was still warm. As it thumped to the floor all of the dragon heads snapped to it as they stood stock still, then there was a frenzy of small teeth and claws that descended upon the poor creature. Despite their small stature even compared to the prey, it was torn apart by tooth and claw. She was no slower than any of the other dragons, quickly scrambling over to what looked like a leg. It was nearly the size of her body, the creature being some monster-adjacent enlarged breed. Snapping her jaws forward with extreme speed she clamped down on the meat, ripping and slicing with sharp teeth and claws. After no more than a second of this, a large mouthful of meat and a bit of fur were bolted down her throat. Now that a wound had been cleared of fur the devouring became easier. After a dozen or so mouthfuls she stopped and retreated to clean the blood from her scales.

  She watched as her siblings continued to tear at the meat occasionally hissing when others tried to latch onto their feeding spot. This led her to a dilemma, who was she? Obviously not one of her siblings, she was sitting still and they were running around. How could she identify them, what made them different? She watched with interest as a black dragon, the only one of his color darted about, sticking to the shadows while occasionally darting in for more food, he looked like he was overfeeding, his stomach round and distended in contrast to his more slender build. A full stomach leads to contemplation, as they say, this had not troubled her earlier self but the interaction with the black dragon had shown him as thinking, as an individual, she had questioned why he did these actions? How would he be thinking of her, was he looking back at her lounging and observing? She could not be named red dragon. She needed a name, something to define her.

  As this thought popped into her head she felt an instinct take over, she walked over to the foot of her mother, who was looking on with pride watching her litter devour the meal she had hunted. She rubbed her head against her mother's green scales and watched as her mother bent her head down, they nuzzled each other and the smaller sent a raw emotion to its parent, the desire to have a Name, her parent also responded to instinct, taking in the baby dragon her small form and let the concept of a name flow through the baby dragons mind. ‘Ruebrum Ignasia’ as her full concept and Rue for short.

  Rue felt a wash of energy come from her mother suffuse her, she stiffened as she tried to make sense of it and her mother opened her mouth to pick her up and deposited her next to another dragon, further away from the still frenzying swarm. The familiar black dragon looked at her as she was deposited next to him. She felt like she was on the edge of an epiphany as the granted energy suffused her.

  She jumped at a noise that seemed to come from everywhere

  Ding!

  Requirements Met (Named Awakening)

  You have awakened before the natural point of your species [Dragon]

  Rue looked and felt the words in her mind, they did not appear in the real world and were intangible. She knew what it all meant, it described her, what she was capable of. She understood through this strange means that her species was only supposed to awaken 10 days after they hatched, upon reaching level one. This happened at different rates for each species but they generally unlocked the system at level one. Rue understood that if she stayed well fed and watered she would passively gain points towards the next level, currently 1 per day. It was strange knowledge and concepts bu they were translated into simpler concepts, full, hungry, growth and such simple concepts that combined to mean more.

  Rue looked behind her and saw the rest of her siblings now lounging around and occasionally rising to nip at the half-eaten carcass. Rue padded over to the furry meal navigating her siblings and took another bite of what her instincts identified as some sort of furred tunneling creature, for although she was satiated she knew she could eat more. Maybe, just maybe she could change how quickly she could reach level 1. Over the next hour, she gorged herself and noted that on the other side of the meal, the black dragon was still doing so as well, this made her think. Perhaps he had discovered the same thing she had.

  After her belly was round and it was difficult to walk she looked inward towards the system, checking for any changes.

  The numbers had changed, she was now gaining 3xp per day, meaning she would reach the next level sooner. She felt that if she ate any more she would explode so like her siblings she curled up and fell asleep.

  Rue did not know for how many hours she slept but the wide cave in which they all resided was dark when she awoke. So focused on other things she had not taken any notice of her surroundings, the low light had a very small impact on her sight. The cave walls were only a few meters higher than her mother but the cave was more like a large rocky outcrop hanging over a stone bed. The entrance was wide and long, sheltering them from the elements but not much else. She would have to rely on her mother to defend against predators.

  From what she could see the outside of the cave was a lush green forest, this would explain the higher numbers of green and brown dragons clustered in the cave, her mother being of the dark green variety. They would have a far easier time staying hidden in the thick green forest, she looked down at her own scales and wondered why she was so different. Thick green vines and moss clung to the cave walls and helped to obscure the cave entrance from the outside. The soft earth that she had hatched on had been collected from the forest to nestle the dragon eggs into and was serving as a sort of area where the baby dragons were kept too. This was encircled further out by their mother's tail. Presumably to stop any hatchlings from straying too far.

  Rue stood up inspecting the cave and noticed that her stomach had shrunk considerably to a barely even noticeable bump. She walked over to the now mostly devoured carcass and once more began to feed, she filled herself up again and sat down to check the system.

  She was growing nicely and noticed it in her size as well, the thin and bony frame she had emerged with had been filled out a bit, there was more confidence to her movement and muscle mass. She looked around and saw that the same was happening with her other siblings, she quickly spotted the black dragon, he was sleeping with almost as full a belly as she had.

  Rue let out a soft snort of amusement. With this, she lay down to rest and digest her food. It was a long time before she awoke, she could feel it. All of the food in her stomach had been digested and she was hungry, not starving as she had been coming out of her egg. But she could eat…

  Looking over to where the carcass should have been she spotted only bones, still being nibbled by a group of brown dragons. Saddened that there was no food readily available she looked within herself to see how she had progressed.

  She was so close but her hunger meant she was not progressing anymore. It was then that she noticed the absence of her mother, piled stones had replaced her tail and her huge form was absent from the cave. This momentarily caused a significant amount of panic to brew within Rue's chest but this soon gave way to relief when her mother came back in carrying another creature. She can’t have been gone long, the others didn't panic either, she probably just nipped outside to get some more food. She had woken up at an inconvenient time is all.

  With the matter resolved she quickly ran toward the landing place of the fresh kill, with blood still flowing it was attacked by a ravenous pack of baby dragons, the feeding frenzy enough to wake up any sleeping dragons and make them join the feast.

  There was more competition this time with some dragons having grown larger than others, the kill was smaller compared to the dragons now that they had grown, not all of them could feast at once. The bigger dragons pushed the smaller ones out of the way, claiming the choice portions to themselves.

  Rue had no problems finding food, her earlier feasting had made her bigger than even her largest rival, and now she was nearly 18 inches long from head to tail. Some of the smaller green dragons were still less than a foot long. She consumed her fill rapidly, even more food was crammed inside her belly than before as she waddled to the side, instead of falling asleep she observed the other dragons. The green ones were numerous but significantly smaller on average, the brown ones were larger, but it was her that was growing the fastest.

  The black dragon was watching her from a corner again, his stomach bulging. If she had to be honest he looked a bit sick, as if he wasn't meant to eat this much. Considering how much he had eaten his size was significantly smaller than hers.

  Rue checked her status.

  Her increased size was meaning more stomach room and more food intake, it would not be long before she hit level one. She did not know what would happen but looked forward to finding out.

  It was a few hours before she ticked up a level and she stayed awake to see what would happen.

  Ding! Level Up… [Stat Points] +5

  Ding! Stat Points Allocated For Species [Dragon - Hatchling] +5

  Ding! Stat Points Allocated For Species [Red Dragon - Hatchling] +5

  Rue flinched slightly as the wealth of information flooded into her mind and her body was filled with fire, she felt the increase in her power and the rudeness of it felt weird. She stretched out her front paws and they tingled with the newfound power.

  The stat points for her specific had been automatically allocated, there seemed to be a heavy focus of strength and vitality, which she was fine with. The spare 5 stat points could be allocated into the deficient stats. Intelligence was already very high, which she thought appropriate. She was after all very clever.

  The required points for the next level had also gone up, although not by much. By this point, there was not much meat left on the rabbit, but she felt some room in her stomach and so got up to feed.

  “Hiiiiiiiiiiissssss”

  Rue recoiled as a green dragon turned from the food to hiss threateningly at her, the dragon was quite small and evidently desperate to hang onto the morsel it had found. She would not stand for this, how dare that little twerp to try to keep good food from her. Now slightly shameful of her earlier recoil she bared her teeth at the small dragon and hissed threateningly. Despite the much larger sound and the momentarily fearful look the green dragon gave her it did not back down.

  “Hiiiiiiiiiissssssssss”

  This time it let out a fierce hiss, a challenge! Rue instinctively knew that her opponent wanted to duel for the meal. She didn't really need the food, but there was not much left and instinct and reason both told her she should take it.

  Dragons were a prideful species and not usually prone to sharing food, the two dragons faced off against each other, one just over a foot long and the other nearing 20 inches. The size and the power difference were evident but both had a tense air about them.

  Rue acted first with a lightning lunge forward and a large swipe, to her surprise the swipe missed and the green dragon approached under her overextended limb, most of her weight being on her other forelimb she was powerless to stop a slashing limb. Only her turning her head away for the blow turned a nasty face wound into a gash on her neck.

  The wound dripped thick red blood onto the floor as Rue stumbled backward, the green dragon was far faster than her. Before she could recover from the first strike the dragon came at her again. Another slash opened on her flank this time, not bleeding badly as her scales had deflected all but two of the dragon's claws, and those had not sunk deep.

  Feeling cornered, Rue puffed up her wings and beat them once, gaining enough balance to perform a two clawed strike at the space in front of her. By luck or the intimidating roar and wing display, the green dragon froze just long enough for her right claw to clip it on the shoulder.

  Unlike the green dragon's wounds to her, the single claw on her hand raked deep hitting bone as the smaller dragon yelped and skittered away. Despite its speed, it was lacking in defence.

  ‘This must mean green dragons get dexterity from their race’

  The smaller dragon was bleeding profusely from its wound and was favoring its right forepaw, it looked towards her and let out a hiss.

  Rue looked back at it and took a powerful stance, with a beat of her wings she reared up and let out a screech.

  The mighty sound cowed the green dragon as it fled over to a corner and licked its wounds, she had won and the exaltation of victory flowed through her. The dragon kept glancing nervously towards her, and she would glare at it until it looked away.

  The wounds she had sustained had already stopped bleeding, she bent her head around to lick the wounds, her saliva cleansing them. This would help prevent infection, she hoped. It felt good at any rate.

  The wound on her neck was harder to reach and she did not manage to clean it properly but licked her wrist and tried to rub it, this hurt more than the licking but would hopefully suffice.

  ‘Now comes the prize’

  She walked proudly over to the prey, the other dragons staying a respectful distance and she began to eat, the taste of the meal all the better for the sweet victory.

  Ding! Challenge Won!

  Rue jumped, the notification had come just when she calmed down and had startled her.

  Ding! For Winning A Challenge +7xp

  Ding! For Cowing [1] Opponent and Impressing [5] Peers +[Roar]

  Rue absorbed the information, ‘was this an ability?’. The experience was certainly helpful, it completed a significant amount of her next level.

  Her impressive display at the end of the match must have met the requirements for an ability. Quickly summoning her ability menu she apprehensively read the page.

  She was after all a magnificent dragon that won duels and had a mighty roar, it was only proper to be rewarded for her grand victory.

  Settling down to rest she checked her status, she could allocate the free points she had before sleeping.

  With five free points and the fight earlier, she immediately decided to put at least 3 points into dexterity. Her intelligence was still high and she didn't like being hurt so perhaps vitality would be good, she shoved the remainder of her points there.

  Feeling the warm flood of energy she let it lull her off to sleep.