The Dragon Child

Aloysius was a very particular dragon. He liked his meat rare, he liked his treasure in cool colors, silver and diamonds and sapphires. He enjoyed it when it snowed and he hated when it was humid. Most things he did were precise and by a measured and tried method. He woke, hunted, did his research, then found his bed again, snuggling atop the piles of coins and jewels. Thankfully, he was well away from any settlements, too far in the wilderness to hunt. He would see the occasional traveler, but it wasn't hard to trade a bit of information with them and see them on their way before he would be back to his routine.
It was one day such as this that he woke to the sound of something... mewling? It was like a small cat's cry, but... somehow louder and more piercing. He clicked and clacked across the stones until he reached his cave entrance where the noise was originating from. What he saw drew him back and filled his eyes with the fear of the unknown. Nestled inside a basket, it's hands clutching a strange looking man-shaped object, was a man-child. It's cheeks were rosy from the cold, it's hands chubby and relentlessly grasping, always searching for something new to touch. And it's mouth was open and *wailing* to no end. Aloysius put his claws to his ears and grimaced from the noise, looking around frantically for the man that must have dropped it. Surely they would come back and retrieve this noise-making device, he desperately wished.
Hooking a claw under the handle of the basket, he slowly lifted it like an explosive artifact and gingerly carried it outside, his head casting every which way for a sign of who might have left it. Tracks went in a few different directions and he quickly became lost for want of someone to take it, or at the very least get it to be silent. In his failure, he hung his head and hauled the creature back to his cave, his head aching for want of meat and a good book. He froze in the doorway, his large, slit eyes widening. A book! That's it! Surely he had a book that discussed the power supply of such a beast? He brought the creature inside, placing him near his worktable and took his humanoid form, going to his shelves and pulling down book after book in his haste and desperation. Eventually he found a tome, "The Lyfe and Complexitees of Human." It was an older work, but surely not much had changed about the soft men, yes?
It was nearly impossible to understand what he was reading with the creature bawling like a broken goat... could he plug up the noise hole? Would that stop it? He found a large piece of rendered fat that he used to flavor his food when he was feeling creative and handed it to the creature, who took it and immediately the noise stopped. In it's place was the much quieter noise of suckling, which he could ignore easily enough. Returning to his study he learned that the creature was called a "baby", a term that might come in handy when he was foisting this thing on the next traveler that came by, and that it required certain things to survive. Letting out an involuntary noise of absolute disgust, he quickly passed by the pages discussing feeding a baby from one's own body and moved onto sections detailing their other eating habits. Omnivorous... hunters and gatherers... babies cannot hunt for themselves... curses, he would have to find it food.
To be continued...

---

More to come for this one... but I just don't know what yet. This is all I have for now.