The rock arched through the air and landed in the bushes not too far from the pig-faced humanoid. “Whose there!”

Desaray almost snorted as she held back a laugh. She silently climbed down from her perch and looked at her map to see where each of the dots where. When she saw that they were quite far apart, she moved toward the pig-faced humanoid that was now checking out the bush the rock was thrown into. “Ummm… Excuse me.”

“Who!?” The pig-faced person turned to see a blue lizard standing in front of it. It quickly pointed its wooden spear at the new being in front of it while being on high alert. “Who are you!?”

“Before I ask, were you once human?” Desaray asked.

“Human? What is that?” The pig-faced humanoid seemed quite confused by Desaray’s question.  

Desaray ignored it before answering its original question. “My name is Desaray, as you can see, I am a dragon.”

“Dragon!?” The pig-faced humanoid face showed extreme fear. Now that it was looking at the blue figure, it did resemble a baby dragon! It quickly lowered its spear and knelt on the ground bowing its head: “Please do not eat me! I have little oinks to take care of!”

    “Err… I did not plan to?” Desaray was now the confused one. She could guess from its reaction that it was definitely not a former human, but the idea that it was this terrified of dragons meant that it must have some knowledge of what dragons were. Desaray wondered if maybe she could get some information from this pig race. “Can you please stand up? It is painful to look at you prostrating yourself like this. I am hoping you can answer a few of my questions.”

The pig-faced man lifted its head slightly but quickly lowered it back down when it saw the evil smirk on Desaray’s face. However, all she was doing was trying to smile. As its butt with the curly pink tail shivered in fear, Desaray heard the pig-faced humanoid answer: “I will do my best to answer you, so please do not eat me!”

    “Then…. Can you tell me your name first, if you have one? And please stand up!” Desaray asked in a friendly tone. She felt helpless and a little guilty for scaring the poor pig man.

“I am Oinktera of the pig beastkin,” tera replied as it nervously crawled up from the ground. But it still refused to raise its head.

Desaray looked Oinktera up and down and now understood it was definitely male. “So you are a beastkin. Can I ask how you got here?” 

“This…. Miss Dragon, I can not tell you for sure. You see, me and my clan members woke up here just recently. We made our camp a few steps that way and have been scouting the area-oink. The last thing I remember is going out hunting and then waking up here.” Oinktera words made Desaray realize that there was no portal that had suddenly opened, allowing things to come about. If this was the case, then things would be much easier to understand but now….

“I see. It must be hard suddenly appearing here out of nowhere. My world was also suddenly changed with no warning whatsoever.” Desaray could sense the sadness from the pig man. He did not seem like a bad person. Just someone who was tossed into an unknown world. If he was truly violent, then he would have attacked her right on the spot.

“It has been hard. We did not sleep at all last night in order to keep watch. Without any signs of how we got here, to begin with, we have had no choice but to be on full alert.” Oinktera let out a long sigh. His eyes looked very tired.

“You should rest because I do not think you will be able to get back any time soon. If you want, you and your friends can sleep while I keep watch. I only ask that you give me some info on what you have scouted so far.” Desaray figured an exchange was not a bad idea. They could sleep a few hours while she watched over them to make sure no one tried to attack them in their sleep.

“This… I could never ask a dragon to watch over me!” Oinktera finally lifted his head. He did not know how he could accept such kindness from one of the ancient races.

“It’s fine. We are doing an exchange. Your world and my world seem to have merged in some aspects. I want to know more about your world so I can understand the monsters that have appeared now.” Desaray explained. This time it seemed her words got through because Oinktera finally nodded his head.

“Then, please follow me. I will take you to our base camp.” Oinktera motioned with his hands and, with his spear in hand, began walking back towards his camp. He did not wish to anger the dragon by refusing any longer. Desaray could see that a few of his comrades seemed to have returned as well.

When they arrived, Desaray was met with another male pig man and a female one. Each holding a wooden spear in their hands. “Oinktera! What is the meaning of this!?”

The male pig man yelled out with his weapon ready, only for Oinktera to raise his spear toward the man. “Lower your weapon! Do you want the dragons to come and rain down fiery hell upon us!?

“D-dragon!?” The pig man quickly lowered his weapon and dropped to his knees. “Please do not eat me! I have little oinks to take care of!”

Desaray stood there, unsure if she should laugh or cry! She wondered if this was the phrase all the pig men use to try to escape calamity!