~~~

  Fishyscales was quite proud of his name. He vaguely remembered hatching with a lot of the other dragons here in a different place. He didn’t hate open air, but he’d get uncomfortable whenever his scales dried out. That’s why it had just made sense to him when he’d slipped right into their communal drinking spot.

  While the hatchling was luxuriating in the small pool, he watched curiously as a small lizard and a smaller furry thing walked around the room. They stopped at each dragon and barked at each other as they circled them. What were these strange creatures?

  He hadn’t known what to think of them at that time. They were smaller than him, yet so confident in their actions that he felt compelled to simply assume that they were meant to be here. When the two came over to look at him he nervously swam back and forth in the water, inadvertently gleaming his scales in their eyes at the time.

  The lizard thing pointed right at him and excitedly barked something that made his insides quiver strangely, like he’d just been given a choice of something. The newborn hatchling ignored the small furry thing that began to freak out, instead trying to understand what was happening. After a short while, it concluded that it was being given something. Something special. It’s ingrained dragon knowledge said to take whenever given something, so it did.

  And in that moment, a connection was made. Fishyscales could suddenly vaguely understand what the lizard… Bixxy was saying as a flood of colorful boxes appeared before him.

  Name: Fishyscales acknowledged

  Companion link formed between [Sea serpent/Amphiptere hybrid: Fishyscales] and [Newt Beastkin: Bixxy Maximus]

  Special title unlocked: “Friends from Birth”

  Friends from Birth: You or your companion have formed a companion link shortly after being born.

  Effect: 20% increase in ease of connecting with your companion

  25% decrease of necessary EXP to learning the same skill when together

  If the companion link is forcefully severed there will be large penalties to both sides

  “Let’s all get along folks.” -System

  “Well, I don’t care what you’re saying Smith! Fishyscales and me are bestest friends now and we’ll be friends forever!!!” Bixxy yelled petulantly.

  As the small furry thing lifted Bixxy with some form of magic and began to carry her away, Fishyscales realized what had just happened. He’d been chosen! He was special!!! He was better than the little drake that was roaring at everything around it, better than the wyrm that seemed to just be flopping around in confusion, and better than that sobbing pile of sticks that huddled in the corner!

  He alone had been noticed for his brilliance and given his own definition, his name! Now he just had to make sure all the others here realized his amazingness too.

  ~~~

  Bixxy came back a few days later with Smith, looking just as excited as before, yet also, with a bit more self-control. She talked to (at) the other dragons constantly and played with them. Rolling around in the dirt, wordlessly yelling for the heck of it, cheerfully patting the weeds that were growing in the corners of the room.

  Fishyscales didn’t care about that stuff, though he did, strangely, feel a bit tingly to see Bixxy having so much fun. What he liked the most, was when she unabashedly jumped right into the drinking pond to swim with him! They’d spend an hour or two just slipping through the water, (though, she tended to paddle) and he’d even let her hug his back and zip her around quickly sometimes, to both of their delight!

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  A few weeks of that happy time went by until he was given a “friendship necklace” as Bixxy called it and taken to his own spacious room! It was mostly a pool, but also had rocks and ledges that he could luxuriate on if he wanted to. The water here was different, it was salty. It felt really nice to Fishyscales! He was very happy with this assured special treatment!

  Though, Bixxy came around less because as she said, “too much salt makes me feel icky and my tummy will hurt.” So Fishyscales had to find something else to do with his time instead of just swimming around and waiting for her. That’s when he started to study and take care of some of the corals growing in his pool.

  ~~~

  Somedays when Bixxy didn’t come by, one of the walls in his room would open up and reveal a giant open space that he and the other dragons could hang out in. The first time this happened the room was mostly empty and flat stone floors and walls besides the central pillar. They would spend a little time looking around the place while keeping an acceptable distance from one another.

  Doing this, actually let them peek into each other's rooms too! Fishyscales was irked that each dragon actually got their own room and not just him, but his was the only one filled almost entirely with water, so he figured he was still pretty special.

  That’s where he met his first rival! Fishyscales was shocked when he looked into the, now happier looking and more leaf covered, stick dragon’s room to find it jam packed with healthy looking foliage! When the plant dragon had the audacity to look smugly at his momentary shocked expression, he had spewed water all over her in anger and quickly slithered back to his room, uncaring about the annoyed barking behind him as he fled!

  He doubled down on taking care of the coral, doing his best to make sure they grew as healthily and strongly as possible! He was special! He wouldn’t be outdone by some dry twigs!

  When he showed off what he was doing to Bixxy she’d eagerly returned later with more underwater plants, helping him grow his coral garden. He didn’t even notice as each room began to influence the empty dome. The preferential habitats spread into the area in sections. There was an empty area still between him and his rival, so he got around to enjoying taking water blasting pot-shots at her. His area became the most colorful by far, as long as you could see underwater, that is, and he proudly wanted to show it off to all the others. Though, when another male scoffed at his garden he’d fought it and had vowed in his heart not to let any other males see his precious corals again.

  ~~~

  One day, when he’d sprayed water at his rival again, they both noticed that a new dragon had been hiding in the muddy results of all his water spraying.

  It looked strange from what he could see. It was clearly a duller color than the rest, making it immediately look sickly to other dragons, yet it was also clearly larger than most of the others. The blue box told him it was “systemless” but that meant nothing to Fishyscales without the context.

  It rose up high enough to intimidate Fishyscales just a little and hissed at him! As if he would attack a sick creature! He didn’t even try to hold back his scoff.

  His rival didn’t even stop as she bravely strolled right up to the new dragon. Then it wheezed some kind of cloudy breath in the plant dragon's face! Only he was allowed to attack his rival!

  When he got closer with the idea of showing this upstart that he, Fishyscales, was actually the best, most special one here, the dragon moved, revealing the rest of its form previously hidden in the mud. It was absurdly long! Almost to the point of being silly! And it had a second friendship necklace around its tail tip!

  The weird dragon looked down at him smugly, showing off its delusional beliefs that it could ever compete with Fishyscales.

  In a rage, he snapped down on the closest length of tail of this smug thing! The scales had a surprising extra amount of give to them. That’s the last thing he’d thought before he suddenly saw stars.

  ~~~

  Fishyscales was livid with the newcomer. It had the audacity to not only ignore his water spray pot-shots, but it also took up time distracting his rival! That was a little okay since they didn’t go to their individual rooms anymore and thus, had plenty of time to spend together, but it still rankled his nerves!

  He’d heard it call itself Wyrmwood once. How dare it think it could just give itself a name! He had a name! And it made him special because it was given to him!

  Even worse! Just days later, his rival had given herself a name too! You can’t just… do that! Right?! His name made him special! It pointed out that he was better than the rest of them!

  To make things even worse, this “Wyrmwood” had been sneakily trying to compete with him and his rival! Wyrmwood never showed it off like Fishyscales and Gloriosa did with their gardens, but Fishyscales was observant enough to notice how happily Wyrmwood tended to his mosses and mold patches!

  What an upstart! This weird abomination was an upstart!

  Fishyscales had even heard it barking to itself like Bixxy did to him! He must be weird and crazy! That would only make sense to Fishyscales!

  ~~~

  Bixxy was finally back! She’d show this upstart that he was the special one here! He was sure Bixxy would agree with him and commiserate!

  The weird lindworm noticed him as he flopped over but somehow his rival didn’t until he was practically next to her.

  Surprise! Where’d you come from?! Annoyance! Not your turn! Rivalry! My trees look better than yours!

  Fishyscales had to admit that Gloriosa had become even easier to understand recently. And a dig at his coral! He sneered challengingly at his rival.

  “Hi Fishyscales! You still grow water plants right? Did you figure out how to grow the aqua daisies that Smith gave you? I didn’t tell anyone about them! Just like I promised!”

  He was eagerly preparing to show off his garden’s improvements to his best friend and his rival when he happened to hear Wyrmwood mutter something that froze Fishyscales in place.

  “Weird name.”

  As all of his anger vanished in an instant he looked right into the abomination’s eyes with crystal clear knowledge of what he needed to do next.

  Fishyscales attacked Wyrmwood with everything he had.

  ~~~