Dens

Sitting cross legged on a rock, Izotz was humming as he turned the compass over, flipping over the golden contraption that still seemed stuck on one place before closing it and flipping it over to try and read the runic letters on the back. He wasn’t always well versed in all the languages he encountered, but he swore that he had translated it correctly and was just becoming more confused on why it always seemed broken.

Returning with a small bird still flailing in her mouth, Kukiko stared at her rider and tilted her head as she weaved in and out of the trees around them, curious what her nice rider was doing when he was telling her they should be hunting. He didn’t look like he was doing much of that though, as he kept messing with the gold thing he always looked at when also writing in his book. She wasn’t all that privy on the more man made things, liking the more natural things that just existed naturally.

“What is it? Is food?” She asked as she dropped the bird at the foot of his rock, sitting her fluffy self down and kept a foot on the bird that tried to flee with what was left of its life.

“No, it’s a compass. It’s supposed to point us to where home will be.” He explained to the dragon, getting those curious stares as she leaned up and he let her look at it, booping it with her small pink nose.

“Where is home?” Thinking it over, Izzy shrugged and pressed his forehead to the compass, quietly asking the compass itself for the answer he wanted ever since he started this quest.

Pulling the compass back, it faintly glowered. Izzy stared at the lighten up compass, pushing the bottom that opened the compass and this time a bright beam of light shot into the air, a void opening up not high above him. Swirling around them, the pair sat and watched, ‘huh’ing as a rope ladder finally tumbled out.

Curious, Izzy called out to Kukiko, and as she came to him he put her in his jacket as he started up. It was apparently his home, and he wanted to explore this nice thing.

Climbing the ladder, each rung was warm and not cold as he expected. It didn't sway in the slight breeze as it should, it just seemed like a solid metal ladder but he knew he saw it drop out like a rope ladder that was more convenient to carry if one was carried. It left him curious just how much of this ‘den’ was magical, and would it change to suit him if he needed it.

Arriving at the top, his head popped out from what appeared to be a floor area, a hatch door laid open as if someone had opened it and vanished into thin air. Kukiko took no time to wiggle to freedom and explore, soon coming back with mice fleeing from her small being. Pulling himself to sit on the ground and close the hatch, the dainty hummed as he sat there and looked around. There was a bed to sleep, there was a small kitchen area, there was a lot of open spaces, and there were doors. Many doors that he already wanted to explore but another part of him told him to leave it be.

“Don’t get in trouble now Kuki, you never know if there's a mouse king somewhere.” He told her as he tested out the bed, touching it with his gloved hand and then laid back on it. It had been so long since he slept in a bed, let alone a nice one.

Returning with a mouse limp in her mouth, the dragon hopped up onto the bed and laid on her rider like a small cat. The male wrinkled his nose at her having dead creatures in the sacred rest place but she was young so she could be forgiven for now. Dropping it on his chest, Kuki made herself all sorts of comfortable with her little hooved feet that Izotz had gotten used to.

“I like home, is nice.”

“I concur, it is quite nice.”