Briar takes a deep breath of the fresh air. The planet may not have been home, but it was close enough that it made him feel safe.

“How much longer is the walk?” Jaxxen pants as he struggles to keep up with Briar.

“Oh… sorry I forgot that humans are slower than my kind…” Briar says as he slows his pace so that Jaxxen and Eli could catch up.

“I’m actually half Avviad. But I guess your kind is just faster.” Jaxxen says with a shrug.

“A half-alien? Isn’t that frowned upon on Earth?” Briar asks curiously.

“How do you know about stuff like that?” Eli snarls.

“I um… I don’t want to talk about it…” Briar says his voice shaking as he bit his lip.

“It’s alright…” Jaxxen says kindly as he pets Briar.

“No, it isn’t! We don’t know if we can trust him! So we need to know how he knows things like this!” Eli snarls.

“It isn’t any of your business.” Briar snaps as he turns around and shows off his fangs. He looked just like an animal.

“Hey! Calm down, both of you!” Jaxxen says as he steps in between the two.

“We should get going,” Briar growls as he turns around and begins walking at a fast pace.

The group came upon a destroyed white and blue building. The walls were covered in overgrown vegetation. The image was depressing while the surroundings felt wrong and like it was mourning the loss of something important.

“We can find that refined ore here,” Briar says in a hollow voice as he leads Eli and Jaxxen into the ruins.

“What is this place?” Jaxxen asks.

“An abandoned station,” Briar says without offering any further explanation.

Briar places his hand on a faintly glowing blue pad which makes the door open with a whining groan. “I-it should be in there…” he mutters his ears lying down and his tail twitching as if to wrap around his body.

“Are you alright?” Jaxxen asks as he places a hand on Briar’s shoulder looking concerned.

Briar nods and walks into the building with Eli and Jaxxen at his heels. “The ore is called zicamanthite. A tiny flake of it can power an entire city,” he says.

“It’s that powerful? How come we haven’t found traces of it before?” Eli asks.

“It’s very well hidden,” Briar says as he kneels beside a clump of wreckage his nose twitching.

Eli crosses his arms his eyes narrowed “What are you doing?” he asks.

“If you help me lift this you’ll see,” Briar growls as he grabs the wreckage.

“Fine.” Eli snaps as he grabs it as well and strains to lift it.

As Eli and Briar get rid of the metal they see a chunk of brightly glowing blue rock.

“There it is,” Briar says as he picks it up “you shouldn’t touch it though. It’s radioactive to humans.”

The door closes with a loud bang. A hissing makes the group look around with fear.

“There,” Briar says as he points to something dark red hanging from the ceiling.

The thing moves and stretches revealing bony wings, dark red scales, and fiery eyes. The creature had dragon-like features.

“What is that?” Jaxxen asks fearfully as he backs away from the creature slowly.

“I can’t remember. We should be careful and treat it with respect because the creatures on this planet are all highly intelligent.” Briar says as he stands up and slowly walks closer to the creature.

Briar bows elegantly to the creature. The creature jumps off the ceiling then stands on its back legs and wings before bowing in return to the alien.

“He won’t hurt us. In fact, he wants to help us get out of here.” Briar says as he readjusts the zicamanthite in his arms.

The creature takes the zicamanthite into his jaws gently before he begins leading the group through the winding hallways.

“Oh, call him Zirion,” Briar adds as he rubs Zirion’s scales.

After following Zirion for a few more minutes they reach an open door, there was natural light coming through a door across the room.

“Thank you,” Briar says as he takes the zicamanthite from Zirion and walks outside.

The group rushes back to the camp as fast as they could. Briar quickly broke up the zicamanthite and put it inside Ranger's power holster.

“Thank you. I feel so much better!” Ranger says as he rubs Briar's ears affectionately.

“Just make sure you don’t touch it,” Briar warns as he puts the zicamanthite far away from the camp.

“Hey, Briar.” Jaxxen calls.

“Yes?” Briar asks as he sits beside Jaxxen leaning against him slightly.

“How did you talk to Zirion?” Jaxxen asks curiously.

“I have an ability called ‘Beast Taming’ it allows me to speak with animals and usually find a common ground with them,” Briar says as he rubs up against Jaxxen while purring.

Jaxxen blushes at Briar’s action but pets him anyways. “So you can telepathically talk to animals just like humanoids?” he asks.

“Exactly!” Briar says happily.

“So how do you know this planet so well?” Jaxxen asks curiously.

“I uhm… I don’t want to t-talk about it…”