As Aki kept licking, the little one's panic was finally soothed. Its nostrils kept sniffing the scents around it, instinctively gathering information from its surroundings.
Very tactfully, Mother Chameleos entered a state of perfect invisibility and concealed her own presence, so that this little one, who had not yet opened its eyes, could completely gather the scents of its parents.
After quite a while, the soft scales on the little one's body had hardened quite a bit. Only once faint ridges finally appeared on its round, chubby head did it muster its strength again and, stumbling and staggering, crawl out from the eggshell that had been broken open by about one-third.
Smelling the scent, the little one struggled to spread its bare little wings that were out of proportion to its body, shrank back into the warm spot in the nest, and opened its mouth to start squawking.
Faced with such a little one, Aki was at a loss for a moment. She bent down in a panic to lick it, wanting to calm it down, but the little one did not appreciate it at all, only kept lifting its head and calling out with its mouth wide open.
Not knowing what to do, Aki blankly raised her head to look at Logan, her eyes full of confusion.
Logan suppressed the smile in his heart and let out a long roar toward the outside of the nest. Very soon, a cat pushed in a small cart piled with steaming soft food.
These were all nutritious meals for hatchlings that the cat cooks had carefully designed for the little one.
As the cat carefully used a spoon designed to imitate a Rathian's beak to feed the little one, it finally quieted down and began gulping the food down.
Watching this scene, Logan could not help but feel a surge of emotion.
Back then, when he had broken out of his shell in that tree hollow, his eyes had not yet opened, and, following instinct, he had opened his mouth and howled for food.
But after waiting for quite a long time, there had been no food at all, and he could not smell the scent of his mother either. Later, when he was really starving, his strong will to survive made him drag his weak body with difficulty out of the eggshell and, relying on his not-yet-fully-developed sense of smell, stumble and stagger until he found a mushroom.
Fortunately, even though he was just a newly born hatchling, his teeth had already developed fully, which allowed him to gnaw through the mushroom and eat his first meal—utterly without nutrition compared to the meats of this world.
It could be said that that period in the tree hollow was the darkest time of Logan's dragon life.
A newly born Fire Wyvern that could only eat things like mushrooms and bugs—no matter how good its talent was, it could not withstand being ruined like that! What was more, at that time Logan had been nothing more than an ordinary Fire Wyvern hatchling.
Fortunately, later there was Aki.
Logan looked at Aki, who had her head lowered, carefully watching over the cat as it fed the little one. Her azure eyes were filled with maternal tenderness, just as ever.
Back when he had just been picked up by Aki, when Aki had been feeding him, she had looked at him with the same gaze.
Thinking of this, Logan unconsciously moved to Aki's side, spread one wing to slowly enfold her, lowered his head to press his face against hers, and quietly watched the little one, who was eating while letting out satisfied whimpering sounds.
His heart felt warm.
Very soon, once a small bucket of food had been finished, the little one still kept its mouth open, whining for more.
With no other choice, the feeding cat looked toward Logan, and after receiving Logan's permission, it quickly pulled over another small bucket.
A Fire Wyvern hatchling was not like a foolish little bird chick; it would not keep begging for food even when it could no longer eat because of some feeding instinct. So Logan was not afraid that the little one would overeat.
Before long, the second bucket of soft food was brought in. But a problem appeared—after tasting the food, the little one actually shook its head and spat it out. Then, while the cat stared in confusion, it opened its mouth again to beg for food.
"This—"
"Roar!" (Give it a little more.)
Logan folded his wings, soothed Aki—whose emotions had been agitated by the little one's actions—and had the cat try feeding it again.
The result was the same. The little one spat it out again.
"It all came from the same pot. It's the same as before, meow!"
The cat quickly explained before Logan could even ask.
That only made it even stranger. It had been eating perfectly well just moments ago—so why refuse it now?
What was this little one doing?
Logan could not figure it out and planned to have Mother Chameleos take another look.
But just then, among the dozen or so Radiant Crystal Butterflies circling and fluttering around Logan, one of the smaller Radiant Crystal Butterflies broke away from the group. Under Logan's widening eyes, it suddenly flew straight into the little one's mouth.
As the little one closed its jaws, Logan clearly heard the sound of that Radiant Crystal Butterfly being bitten and chewed.
With the little one's swallowing motion, a Radiant Crystal Butterfly was eaten just like that—and a small portion of the purest mixed life energy stored within its body would be absorbed by the hatchling.
Only then did the little one finally lower its head in satisfaction, curl its tail, yawn, and drift into sleep.
The cat was shocked!
It had never imagined that a creature would actively give up its own life to become another creature's food.
Logan, however, fell into thought. The Radiant Crystal Butterfly's predecessor—the Qurio—was not only Gaismagorm's life energy collector, but also one of its sources of food. It could fill the belly while also allowing Gaismagorm to absorb the life energy collected by the Qurio.
Thus, such behavior from the Radiant Crystal Butterflies made sense.
But as for this little one—just now, the food it had been begging for was actually a Radiant Crystal Butterfly?
That was truly unexpected!
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