"Wait, Steve!" - yelled the Hero of Time - "Don't kill it yet!"

Steve stopped with his sword raised above the dragon's head. "Why not?"

"I have an idea that might just work if we're lucky" - answered the Hylian. He pulled out a new item from his inventory: an ocarina, and played a tune using his limited magic to enhance it. They observed as the dragon stopped watching them and fell asleep. "We don't know if it fell asleep due to my music or its injuries" - stated Young Link, after he finished the tune - "Hopefully, it's the former".

"Doesn't matter. Thing's asleep now and that's what matters." Steve walked up to the dragon and inspected it.

The monster was bleeding from its injuries on its neck and especially its head and mouth. It was breathing, albeit haggardly, with its chest rising up and down in a calm rhythm. "Steve, do you have a healing potion or something similar? Something that I could use?" - asked Young Link.

"Uh..." Steve checked his gear. "You gotta remember that where I'm from, food heals you. You think steak will work?"

"We'll have to see" - said the Hylian, taking Steve's offer. However, instead of eating it himself as his companion expected, he tossed it into the dragon's maw.

"What did you do that for?"

"Its something that I don't do very often." - calmly responded Young Link - "It's called taking a gamble" "If the dragon wakes up and decides to attack us, then we'll just have to kill it. However, it might choose differently and decide to help us as thanks for our help." "I've met some incredibly powerful creatures in the past, and if there's something that I've learned, is that they respect strength. I'll bet that by taking it down, we've earned this one's".

"Well, we'll have to see if this little gamble of yours pays off." Steve walked over to YL and started to clean his gear.

"Thank you" - voiced Young Link, with his voice betraying a bit of exhaustion. "We should find a place to make camp, and some food. The dragon must've fed off of something, so we can use that"

"Right." Before YL could protest or even speak, Steve picked up the youth and carried him to a nearby clearing, set him down, then got to work with using the environment to build a wooden house with glass windows and a furnace. He then vanished and came back with a few sheep, as well as coal, then got to work with making beds and food.

Steve then sat down on one of the beds and eyed YL. "Lemme ask you something. Have you and your older self ever talked?"

Young Link sat up from where he was lying, momentarily confused. "My 'older self'?" "How could he know about him? He isn't participating in this tournament." He quickly realized what Steve meant. "Oh, you must mean Link!" "We have talked a couple of times, and got to know how Hyrule is in his time, but given that he's normally as silent as I am, it doesn't lend for much conversation." "Also he isn't my 'older self', he's more like a reincarnation of my spirit. Not that it matters much to me."

"Probably doesn't matter to him, either. I do think he's starting to open up a bit, though. Then again, I dunno if the guy escaped or not. Hope he did."

"I hope so too." After a moment of silence had passed, Young Link spoke up and said "I've got a question of my own" "I've seen that your tools, weapons and even food is made up of smaller squares, just like you. Does this mean that everything in your world is like that?"

"Yep. Call them 'blocks'." Steve showed YL his Netherite pickaxe. "Strongest material that exists at the moment, was recently discovered."

"Amazing. Can I?" - asked Young Link, gesturing towards the tool.

Steve smiled and handed the young Hylian the pickaxe. "Careful, it's pretty sharp."

Young Link studied the item. Its shape slightly confounded him. He'd never seen anything like it before meeting the blocky man, but then again, he'd seen plenty of strange things before. The image of the Happy Mask Salesman came to mind. "This may surprise you, but I'm older than I look, at least mentally. My body may be that of a child, but my mind is of someone older."

"Yeah. I got the feeling the second I saw you. Must suck, huh? Wanting to be an adult in every shape and form but you're physically still a kid."

"It has its perks." "For one, people don't expect as much of you. After what I've been through, it's a nice change of pace."

"..." Steve looked out one glass windows. "Certainly has its perks, yeah." He finally said. He checked on the mutton to see if it was done, it wasn't, so he returned to the bed he had been sitting on. "The older one, he respect you and all that?"

Young Link lied back down and stared at the ceiling. "I... think so. It's hard to tell with him. He certainly treats me as more than just a child. We don't see each other often, though." "Part of me thinks that he intentionally avoids interacting with me. Maybe I confuse him, with the whole 'reincarnation' thing"

"... Something tells us that with all of us almost dying... He's changed. If he escaped, that is."

"Maybe. Like I said, it's hard to tell with him. When and if we see him again".

The Minecraftian nodded. "You think we'll find anyone out here?"

"Hopefully" - he said, as he drifted off to sleep. The next day, the duo went to see the Rathalos. The dragon was now on its feet moving. Its wounds were no longer bleeding, but they could still see different gashes, with a specially big one where the TNT had struck. When it saw them, the monster made no immediate hostile action, just regard them warily. Young Link sat down on a nearby rock, pulled out his ocarina and started playing the same tune as the day before. As he played, the dragon stayed there, watching him intently. When the music ended, the monster turned around, flapped its wings a few times and took off.

"Hmmm..." Steve had left the makeshift house and watched the dragon fly off. "You think the beast will come back?"

Young Link had thought about this before "I think that it isn't too keen on leaving this area, as it is the one it's most familiar with"

"Then let's wait and see if it returns any time soon."

"Yeah." - agreed Young Link. Meanwhile, the duo, now hungry, ate Steve's previously cooked mutton for breakfast, taking in the sights that surrounded them as they did. Once finished, Young Link sat up, with a determined look on his eyes. "As much as I'd like to stay here for a long while to continue befriending this dragon, we need to keep moving. We need to know what happened to the others, and if we can help them somehow."

Steve nodded, having finished his mutton long ago. "Sounds good to me."