The Xeno’jiiva landed on the soft grass with a slight stumble, still getting used to flying long distances after leaving the Elder’s Recess. Everything was different, filled with vegetation and monsters it had never seen before. Monsters were kind of scary, but it was thankfully too small to be noticed and its scent was intimidating enough to scare away monsters much larger than it.

The Xeno’jiiva flopped on the ground with a tired sigh, feeling the grumble of its stomach as it felt a sense of hopelessness. It had searched everywhere for a place to rest where dying elder dragons could file in to meet their demise and properly feed it, but there was no such place.

The Coral Highlands? It lacked even more bioenergy than the Elder’s Recess. The Rotten Vale? A good place full of bioenergy, but that stupid Tigrex was relentless in its hunt for the hatchling once it was spotted. The Wildspire Waste was just as hopeless as the Coral Highlands, but the Ancient Forest had given it the most hope so far.

Yet, there still wasn’t enough bioenergy. There was never enough.

The Xeno’jiiva felt as it became frustrated, its chest glowing a pinkish-red as its internal organs showed, letting out a growl that turned into a roar. Without thinking, it fired a powerful beam of energy from its mouth in its tantrum, only to pause when it heard the blast make contact with water.

Getting up and padding forward, the Xeno’jiiva made its way over to the source of water, gingerly taking a few sips before selfishly taking mouthfuls of the somehow delicious liquid. It’s beam had heated up the water greatly, but it paid no mind to the temperature.

After drinking to satisfaction, the Xeno’jiiva was about to sit back down until it heard the snapping of a branch from the first behind it. Whipping its head around and fortunately getting a whiff of the scent from a monster it knew was big but couldn’t fly, it immediately took off once more, its aching wings spreading to glide through the wind as its escape. —————

The Xeno’jiiva was winded by the time it landed once more, having flown in the opposite direction of the unfortunately persistent monster until it gave up. It collapsed on the ground, ready to call it a night even though the sun hadn’t set yet. Then it smelt something.

Food. And food meant bioenergy.

The Xeno’jiiva perked up, lifting its head to finally notice that it had landed by the outskirts of a city, specifically Astera. With a sort of hesitant desperation, it raised the sensory organs on its head, only to be hit with a wave of what seemed to be bioenergy. It had never sensed this much bioenergy from an area before. Could this be the place it would stay and attract dying elder dragons? It had considered this place before, but the amount of humans had made it immediately reconsider. However, it hadn’t been able to actually sense the amount of bioenergy in the area before.

That alone was enough to change its mind.

The Xeno’jiiva sneakily entered the city, sticking close to the shadows as it observed the way of life there. There were many smells, particularly a lot of smoke and metal, but a great diversity nonetheless. However, the smell of the food it had picked up before going in wouldn’t leave its mind. Just where was it?

The Xeno’jiiva followed the smell to an open window, climbing the wall and sticking its head in the home before jumping on the counter. Looking around for a brief moment, it saw the source, and the fact that it was alone. A steak was cooking unsupervised on a metal box thingy that emitted heat.

Without a second thought, the Xeno’jiiva devoured the steak in a few bites, only to smell an overwhelming amount of food. Jumping off the counter, it nosed open the door to the pantry.

Its sensory organs felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of bioenergy.

The Xeno’jiiva immediately began to devour anything in sight, no matter what it was packaged in. After a few minutes of snacking, it felt a presence behind it, cautiously turning its head. {{user}} was right behind it.