Chapter Text
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Morepesok Local News Channel 12
"... Sad news today as a week-long search for a young man yields tragic results. The body of Ajax was finally found early this morning, 4 miles northeast of the town in a snowdrift. A bear attack is suspected to be the cause of death due to the condition of the body. It is suspected that after breaking out of the local jail, where he was held for a minor offense, he fled into the wilderness and got lost in the snowstorm last Saturday. The victim's family. . ."
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TruthHunterSz - YouTube
"... Ajax's disappearance. This case is yet another where a small-town citizen goes missing- Or should I say is kidnapped?! Yes, as my 349 loyal truthhunters should know, this is all part of a multi-nation conspiracy. These victims are really being taken away by mysterious Liyuean officials and their deaths are all faked. Our government is covering this up so you won't find it on the news, but if you look closely at this picture from last month you can. . ."
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His head hurt. He was no stranger to the occasional nasty hangover, but he had never felt quite so disoriented. His consciousness fought its way out of a viscous tar for him to slowly wake. Before opening his eyes, he first grappled with a sluggish memory to recall his own name. Ajax. Well, that was when he was with his mother, father, and siblings. While he took odd jobs or got himself into trouble in the name of providing for his beloved family, he was Childe. So, he was Childe most of the time.
With his identity straightened out, his aching head turned to the task of figuring out where he was. And why he felt like someone had dropped a fishing boat on him.
Childe cracked open his eyes, recognizing the room he was in as a jail cell. This got the gears in his head turning. He was finally starting to feel awake.
On Friday night, Childe and some of his friends had gone drinking after finishing up a job transporting a shady package between shady individuals undetected. He had no idea what he had been transporting, but he had made a large sum of money for his family, and that's what mattered to him. Ironically, while celebrating not being caught, he had gotten himself into a bar fight and arrested by the local police. He was also no stranger to a few days in a jail cell after unsavory behavior.
This particular cell, however, was nothing like the local jail. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and sat up. Planting his feet on the ground, he noticed that his boots were gone, leaving his feet in only socks. The walls were a solid white plastic material with a few small holes in the ceiling for ventilation. A rectangular shaped fault in the wall across from him must be where the door opened. The small bed and other simple furnishings were fused with the walls and floors, as if the whole thing had been 3D printed. It reminded him of the playgrounds his little siblings loved so much.
This strange cell made him start to worry. The cushioning where he sat, hard and uncomfortable like the examination tables in a doctors office, squeaked when his grip tightened with concern. Childe remembered being taken to the local jail, so why was he in this place with no memory of coming here?
Had he gotten into a lot of trouble this time? He hoped not, or it might cause more problems for his parents.
Was he knocked out with drugs and brought here while unconscious? That could explain how fuzzy his head felt, but he'd never heard of the authorities doing that to even dangerous criminals, much less a delinquent with a few minor charges of theft. It wasn't like he'd killed anyone, he only threw a few punches at a drunk douchebag, so why...
It started to sink in just how messed up this whole situation was. His phone had been taken away, too, so he couldn't try to call for help. Before he could truly begin to worry, there was a sharp pop from the door. It slid open, pushed aside by a stout, muscular Liyean man who was unremarkable compared to the second man who stood off to the side: a tall and lanky doctor, with clipboard in hand and reddish eyes that sparkled with a cruel glee. Despite the mask that seemed to cover an injury on half of his face, Childe could still recognize him as a fellow Snezhnayan.
"Time to go," The man holding the door grunted.
"W-Wait, where am I? Is this... a hospital?" Childe asked, shaken by their sudden appearance. He had expected police of some kind, not a doctor, so he was even more confused. He stood but made no moves toward the door.
"Another small-town delinquent... perfect, no one will look too closely into his death," The tall doctor remarked in lieu of answering.
Childe felt a lump growing in his throat. "His death? What's going on, comrade?" He laughed nervously. By using the common Snezhnayan term, he hoped to find sympathy from the man with eyes that showed none.
"Come, I'll explain while we walk," The doctor said, taking a few steps to the right before glaring over his shoulder to make sure Childe would follow. The muscular man silently stepped to the right, giving him room to leave the cell.
His legs felt almost wobbly, but he knew disobeying police was wrong and figured the same applied to this man; it would only get him into more trouble. He hesitantly followed the doctor. The muscular Liyuean man walked behind him like a guard.
In the short silence that followed, Childe noticed just how odd this hallway was. Like the cell, the walls and ceiling were all pristine plastic, as if it had been only recently constructed out of the unconventional material. The floor beneath his feet was wooden boards like a front porch. A few rolling medical tables and machines sat pushed aside. These too, were made of purely plastic materials. Childe wondered if this really was an insane asylum or something of the sort.
The group approached the end of the hallway, where an outline of a cell door, small enough that he would have to duck to walk through it, was visible in the wall. A narrow flight of stairs led upwards to the left.
"You see, Liyue is a country known since ancient times for commerce and contracts. Taking inspiration from the culture, I've set up a lucrative trade deal," The doctor began, though Childe couldn't understand how that was exactly relevant to why he was here. "I operate here in Liyue, running my experiments however I see fit and reporting my findings back to Snezhnaya. In return, the Snezhnayan government allows me to take the occasional test subject..."
Surely he couldn't mean...
"Good news and bad news," The man threw a sadistic grin over his shoulder, "The bad news is, if only my staff had been more attentive, we might have actually seen when the lazy bastard did something for once, making your involvement unnecessary. The good news is, your death will likely come much quicker than the other subjects who are brought here. Those negligent employees were torn apart within minutes."
Childe's heart pounded as he processed the doctor's words. He knew now he needed to get out of here as fast as possible. How did he even end up here, supposedly across the continent in some mad scientist's lair? He tried to walk calmly until they stopped at the end of the hallway, then he made a break for the narrow stairs. The doctor in front of him moved deceptively fast, seizing his arm and wrenching him to a stop. The stout man stepped in to subdue him, guiding him toward the door. Childe kicked and struggled, yelling in outrage.
"Stop, you're some crazy psychopath kidnapping people for your experiments! You can't just do this! The hell's wrong with you?!"
His experience fighting allowed him to twist free and punch the shorter man in the nose before the doctor stepped in again and slugged him in the gut. He stumbled, doubling over and coughing. It was a surprisingly hard hit. The doctor knocked him off balance and kicked him in the ribs for good measure. Childe groaned in pain, holding his arms up to try to shield his face.
The small door was slid open by the Liyuean man, who now cradled his injured nose. The young man struggled when he was grabbed again, but his captors were more weary of him now, so he couldn't break free. Childe caught glimpses of the information tacked up next to the door as he was roughly dragged and tossed inside: "Extremely dangerous," "Extent of abilities is unknown," and "Zhongli."
Childe fell again once he was pushed inside. He clutched his stomach, coughing, but panic took over when the door began to slide shut. He stumbled to his feet and threw himself at the entrance, but he was too late. The thick slab of plastic that formed the door snapped into place, leaving only a faint outline in the wall. Seeing no other choice, he pleaded with the men he hoped could still hear him.
"Hey, wait, you don't have to kill me, please. I have a family at home, a little brother... You said you liked making contracts right, so let's figure something out, I could work for you here, or-"
A muffled laugh came from the other side of the wall.
"I'm not the one you should be begging to spare your life, boy," The doctor sneered.
A terrifyingly deep growl sounded behind him. He was suddenly aware of the unnerving feeling of being watched. Childe turned, his back pressed against the door, dreading what he might see in this room with him.
But of all the feral predators he could have been locked in with...
He did not expect a dragon.
Sure, he'd heard the stories of ancient gods and immortal fantasy creatures in Teyvat thousands of years ago. No one actually believed those were real. Dragons were not real.
Yet one lay something like 15 meters away, near the center of the room. Its head was raised, as if his arrival had disturbed it, and its eyes were locked directly onto him. Those eyes, those terrifying, golden eyes had slit pupils like a beast, but they shone with such a dangerous intelligence. The dragon's gaze froze him in place with terror. It was examining him, sizing him up, and he knew without a doubt that he was nothing compared to this creature.
He was prey.
He was going to die.
Childe's mind went back to when he was younger (His life flashing before his eyes before this thing pounced on him?) and had a pet snake. He would drop a mouse in the terrarium every so often to feed it, then watch the scene that followed in morbid fascination. He had never felt remorse back then, but now... He was that mouse.
He trembled. His mouth was dry.
The dragon's presence was suffocating. He had to gasp for breath. Pinned down by those eyes, he felt a primal terror, like his instincts could remember an ancient time where this was the apex predator.
But he still didn't move, afraid that movement would inspire a chase. Very slowly, Childe reached for his pocket knife. He could at least try to go down with a fight. But... of course he didn't have it. The cops had confiscated it when he was arrested, and even if they hadn't, the staff of this strange place probably would have. He hadn't seen a piece of stone or metal in this place. He was surprised they hadn't pulled his molars with the metallic crowns. They'd even taken his boots, so he didn't have the knife he'd secretly sewn into the fabric in case of emergencies. The police never found out about that one, but his boots were probably confiscated by these men because of the metal-lined shoelace holes.
"H-hey," His voice strained. He turned and pounded on the door. "Don't leave me in here with this monster! Come back! Don't let it eat me, please, I can be useful!" He cried out to the doctor, to anyone who was listening. He pried his fingers into the subtle outline of the door and pulled until they hurt. No one answered.
The dragon suddenly shifted behind him, and Childe felt tears prick at his eyes. Was this like a bear? Should he try to look intimidating or play dead? He threw up his arms to shield himself, or maybe just to block his vision so the last thing he saw wouldn't be claws and teeth. His legs gave out and he collapsed to his knees.
"Please don't..." he cried.
He curled up against the wall with his eyes squeezed shut and waited to be eaten.
There was a long while of him sucking in labored breaths, weeping with fear and waiting for death that didn't come. He waited for razor sharp claws to cleave his flesh. For strong jaws to crush his ribcage. For his blood to spill over the grass, a blink of unbearable agony before his life was extinguished.
The dragon was silent. He still wasn't dead. Eventually, he couldn't take the suspense and looked up at it. The creature had stood up and then laid back down in a new position. It's head now rested on the ground. It was still watching him, but the golden eyes were half closed like the thing was drowsy.
Sometimes, that pet snake of his hadn't been hungry right away. The mouse would be left alone as if the predator had a change of heart. Sometimes a brave mouse would even nestle into the snake's coils, as if the two creatures had become friends. But all the mice shared the same fate eventually. The memory made him feel so hopeless.
The temporary peace gave him a moment to take in more details about the dragon.
The creature looked as if it would stand about as tall at the shoulder as a draft horse, but it's body and neck were much longer, making the creature much bigger overall. It was colored in tones of gold and brown, with curved golden antlers and similarly colored spikes along its back. A mane of fur grew around its head, along with a tuft of fur at the end of its tail.
Something seemed almost pitiable about the creature, like its vibrant colors were faded and once silky fur was now coarse. Childe thought it a reasonable conclusion that a dragon would not be very happy or healthy in captivity.
Despite that, he was amazed that he was looking at an actual, live dragon. It was a truly beautiful, majestic creature. A fleeting reverence overtook him. "Zhongli," he whispered, recalling the notice posted outside of this enclosure. Was that the dragon's name?
Beyond the mythical creature housed in it, the room itself wasn't much to look at. Grass covered the otherwise barren and flat ground. A stream bisected the space, falling down a small artificial cliff before running between the far wall and the dragon. There was a cave carved in the wall where the stream ended, ignored by the creature in favor of a few quilts and blankets next to the center of the water source. Childe remembered the word lazy being used, and he wondered if the dragon preferred to nest there so it could reach the water with its long neck without moving.
The enclosure was two stories tall with an arched roof that added to its height. The arch had sturdy windows of a cloudy translucent material that led into higher rooms. They were difficult to see through from inside, but Childe guessed they must be for observation. He wondered if someone was watching him right now. Hatred for the people who had left him in this room to die burned within him. Following the pattern, not a single part of the enclosure's architecture appeared to be constructed with stone or metal. Rather than being pristine, these walls were covered in claw marks. The creature imprisoned here wasn't always so lazy.
Zhongli, as Childe decided to think of it- Or him?- still hadn't moved. Those sleepy golden eyes continued to watch him. Childe made himself comfortable on the grass and stared back. Staring at wild animals wasn't exactly the best idea, he knew. Most would see it as a challenge. But Zhongli seemed completely unbothered. Content. The creature's refusal to do much of anything caused his adrenaline to wane. Even as exhaustion and residual disorientation from being drugged creeped up on him, the presence of this powerful beast made his nerves thrum with muted terror. He refused to fall asleep in front of this thing.
Hours passed. Childe rested with his back against the outline of the small door. Things didn't get much better. He still felt like he needed sleep, his ribs ached where he was kicked, and he started to realize how hungry he was. He hadn't eaten since Friday afternoon. He wasn't sure what time it was now, but his stomach was convinced he'd missed a few meals. He could ignore it, though, at least for now. Eventually, he decided that if Zhongli was going to leave him alone for now, he could look for a way to protect himself or escape. If moving around caused the dragon to pounce him, then so be it. Death was certain if he only waited for his cellmate to grow hungry.
Because the room was unfortunately barren, he didn't have much to use as tools. The clothes he wore were about all he had, but if his sweater and sweatpants could help him in some way, he couldn't really see it. His older brother, who was always so much smarter than him, might know what to do.
Deciding that maybe there was something useful out of sight, he decided to dig. Carefully, he shifted his position, getting his legs underneath him again and squatting. Childe checked on Zhongli before continuing. His head was lifted, and he looked almost curious, but since he showed no signs of moving closer, Childe hoped he was temporarily safe.
Childe tried to dig his fingers through the grass but found no soil underneath. Instead, it was a shockingly realistic carpet of fake vegetation. Steeling himself, he turned his back to Zhongli to peel the edge of the grass carpet away from the wall. His hands shook, the beast's gaze burning into him, but he succeeded. Beneath the "grass," a greyish layer of padding simulated soil. Beneath that, more solid plastic.
So, he didn't have much to work with. Maybe he could climb the wall using the claw marks etched into it and hang a hammock up high? But surely the dragon would be able to reach. The ceiling was barely higher than its body was long, and judging by the damage on the walls, he could probably climb, too.
Any building materials he had on hand were too flimsy to make a shelter that couldn't be clawed apart, or a weapon that could injure such an impressive creature. Childe sighed in frustration. He stood and kicked the door. Nothing budged. Including Zhongli, thankfully.
Childe was tired, hungry, thirsty, and scared. He turned around and glared at the dragon, then up at the observation window. He flipped off the scientists and the Snezhnayan doctor who he assumed were watching him. It didn't make him feel better.
The access to drinking water was a relief. He knew the first two priorities in a survival situation- as if he was going to survive this- were warmth and water. Humans could survive for much longer without food than those things. This wasn't Snezhnaya, so the temperature wasn't an issue, and as long as he could get a little closer to the dragon, he could drink. Now that he thought about it, he was really so thirsty. The gentle sound of the running water was teasing him. Cautiously, he walked along the wall. Zhongli's eyes followed him. He turned the corner, still following the wall toward the short waterfall.
He was getting closer now, and his legs began to shake. The beast was closer now. Childe watched him sniff at the water and wondered how fast Zhongli was. Would he even have time to react if he was pounced on?
Then, while keeping his eyes glued to the monster to watch for any signs of aggression, he noticed a detail of the room he hadn't before. Behind the dragon, on the other side of the water, was a neat pile of bones. Human bones. He could tell from the skulls. Blood had been splattered on the fake grass and dried there. Still, the bones were recent. This couldn't be explained away by a once violent dragon growing lazy, like the marks on the walls could. This thing had killed and eaten people very recently.
Childe shivered in fear, but took a few more tentative steps forward. Zhongli growled, a low rumble that made Childe shudder. Another brave step and the dragon was suddenly on his feet. Zhongli leaped between Childe and the water and snarled, showing off vicious fangs.
Childe stumbled backwards in fright and half-fell half-laid in the corner. Zhongli didn't pursue, and instead turned away from him to look at the water that had been Childe's goal, then back. The golden eyes were as angry and threatening as ever.
Childe curled up in that corner, turned his back to Zhongli, and cried. He didn't care that he was more vulnerable with his back turned. The dragon was breaking him. His stomach growled, and he knew he shouldn't be crying when he was probably dehydrated, but he couldn't help it. The feeling of helplessness took over as his situation fully sunk in.
After about a year, Childe had to get rid of that pet snake he'd had. Teucer had moved into the boys' room from the crib in his parents’ bedroom, and his little brother was insanely afraid of the thing. So, his family passed the snake off to some distant cousins. Childe wondered how it was doing now. It was quite possible that it would end up living longer than he did.
*
Childe woke up in the middle of the... night? He didn't even remember falling asleep. Relief rushed through him for a moment, thinking it had just been a dream. Of course it was only a dream, dragons weren't real. But the uncomfortable grass crackled when he shifted, and the faint glow from the observation room illuminated his surroundings rather than stars.
His hope sank into icy water. The lights in the enclosure were switched off to simulate nighttime. He wondered if the dragon slept. Maybe this would be a good time to get water, but he was so tired... certainly if he hadn't been killed in his sleep yet, he would be okay for a few more hours.
*
The next time he woke, the lights were on again. Zhongli was in his usual spot, but he was facing the other direction, so he'd moved at some point while Childe slept and hadn't killed him. For once, the beast wasn't watching him, and he wondered if Zhongli was sleeping right now.
Though his stomach no longer ached with hunger, Childe felt extremely thirsty. His head hurt, he felt weak and achy when he stood from his spot in the corner, and he was having trouble thinking. He was trying to remember when he'd last had something to drink... the alcohol at the bar really didn't count towards hydration, did it? How long had he been unconscious when he was kidnapped? If he was really in Liyue, getting there took time... could he really be dying of thirst already, though? It certainly felt like it.
Pushed forward by the fear of death by dehydration, he shakily made his way toward the water again, despite the attack last time he'd tried. When he passed Zhongli, the dragon snapped his head up and watched with a predatory glare. Childe paused. But he was so close to the stream now. He'd already gotten as close to the dragon as he would need to. And the disorientation turned the fear into frustration, so he yelled at the beast.
"If you're going to kill me then just hurry up and do it already, you damned dragon!"
Zhongli jumped up as if surprised.
"I'm sick of you just staring at me and chasing me away from the water, so if you want me dead then do it yourself instead of making me die of thirst, you lazy bastard!"
Childe's head throbbed from yelling. The dryness in his throat strained his voice. To his surprise, even when provoked, Zhongli didn't attack today. Maybe he was just too weak in the dragon's eyes for his yelling to be registered as any kind of threat.
He took his chance and stumbled to the water, promptly collapsing at the edge. Zhongli took a few rushed bounds toward him when he fell, and alarm shook Childe's body. But still, the man dipped his cupped hands into the narrow stream and sipped. Nothing had ever tasted better. It soothed his dry throat and relief rushed through him. He drank handfuls of the heavenly water until he felt full, then pushed himself just far enough away so he could lay without getting wet.
Zhongli was only about five feet away, his head lowered and eyes narrowed. Childe stared back with wide eyes, amazed at how huge the creature was up close. The water didn't immediately cure his symptoms, but it did wash away his anger.
"I'm sorry..." He whispered, curling in on himself as if that could protect him.
Zhongli lowered his head to get a drink. He passively sat near Childe for a long while, almost as if guarding him from some unseen threat. As if he wasn't the threat. Childe lay frozen, too scared to move away. He wanted to scream but he figured the dragon might not appreciate that.
Eventually, Zhongli walked to his pile of blankets and pulled a ribcage from the bone pile with his clawed hand. Using dexterous fingers, he snapped off each rib with ease and ate them.
Childe watched the ordeal in horror and wondered why he would bother eating the bones while there was fresh prey readily available.
*
After that, days passed peacefully, and Childe was surprised he was still alive after a week. He fell into a kind of routine. Sleep when the lights went out, wake up and drink. He learned that the water did not run all the time, and instead sat stagnant for a day or two before being replaced. Childe bathed himself under the waterfall on the days the water ran.
He tore out pieces of the padding underneath the grass to make himself a kind of mattress in the corner. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable place he'd slept, but it wasn't the worst either. He even started weaving some strips of it into a hat like his mama had once showed him, just because, as it turned out, captivity was really boring. He could only spend so much time of the day being fearful.
Zhongli still left him alone. Occasionally the dragon would pace around the room without approaching Childe or climb the walls with a terrifying efficiency. Mostly he laid on the blankets and watched Childe, who slowly grew comfortable with the dragon's presence. He never got any closer than that one day near the water, and as long as Zhongli continued to stay away from him, he was fine. And admittedly, beautiful to watch when he ran or climbed. The creature's powerful muscles flexing under his scales and the beautiful golden decorations on his body inspired that reverence in Childe. Make no mistake, the first time he'd watched the dragon move around quickly like that, he had cowered in his corner, absolutely sure that death awaited him.
Because it was so boring in this place and Childe was growing lonely without any company, he began to talk to Zhongli. He told him about his family and how much he loved them. The fishing trips his dad took him on, and how fishing didn't exactly support a family all too well. About his friends and the sketchy jobs he would take to try to make money. He mentioned that pet snake he'd thought about so much, the wrestling club he'd really enjoyed in high school, the igloo clubhouse he'd built with his siblings one year that lasted all winter, and how guilty he'd felt for not brushing his teeth well enough as a kid and ending up with cavities and expensive dental work. When he ran out of other topics, he even got into the plots of his favorite shows and how he'd embarrassed himself with the first girlfriend he'd had.
Zhongli was a good listener. His habit of staring made it seem like he was interested, and Childe could swear the sound of his voice soothed the creature.
Even as he formed a sort of bond with Zhongli, Childe watched the pile of bones shrink and knew that his time would come soon enough.
*
A week turned into two weeks. Sometimes, the hunger would come back, reminding him that he hadn't eaten in so long. The water was keeping him alive, but he could feel himself growing weaker. One night, he couldn't sleep because of the hunger gnawing at his insides. He could practically feel his body cannibalizing itself. He clutched at his stomach and shivered with discomfort. Eventually, he managed to cry himself to sleep.
The next morning, one of Zhongli's quilts was neatly draped over him. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but there was only one way it could have gotten there. The predator that was meant to eat him brought him a blanket in the middle of the night and had carefully tucked him in. The thought made his head spin. There was absolutely no way. But how else could that have happened? He spent the day wondering just how smart Zhongli was. And if he had been shown that act of kindness, was it possible that Zhongli was friendly? Maybe he should try to get closer sometime and find out?
Ultimately, all that came of that strange interaction was a new blanket for him, and a few more days passed without incident.
*
Childe lost count of the days when he began fainting. The first time, he had been watching Zhongli prance around on the far side of the enclosure in a rare display of playfulness. He was feeling lightheaded, and he barely noticed when his vision blurred and then faded out. The next thing he knew, he was face down in the grass. Zhongli had stopped moving and was watching him intently from a few meters away, uncomfortably close. He sat up and tried to look confident.
"I'm okay, Zhongli, don't you worry. Just... a little hungry," The starvation was finally catching up to him, he supposed. To his relief, his actions made Zhongli turn and leave him be.
The fainting continued over the next week or so, and Childe hated it. It made him feel so vulnerable around the dragon, and almost every time he woke up, Zhongli was closer to him, as if the beast was trying to sneak over and easily dispatch him while he was unconscious. He tried to remind himself of the blanket, that Zhongli may not just be a stupid beast, but in the end, he still felt like prey, even if he had chattily told the predator everything about himself at this point.
Occasional blackouts devolved into hours spent slipping feverishly between states of consciousness. One afternoon, after he had spent the entire day half conscious and miserable, too weak to even go to the water, he blearily watched the creature pacing back and forth nearby.
"Zhongli..." He whined during one of his more vivid moments. "I'm dying, Zhongli. Please, make it stop, I don't want to die... I need to see my family again..." He sniffled into the quilt wrapped around him.
The young man tried to convince himself that this was just another bad day and that he would recover, just like the other times he’d suffered from extreme hunger. He just needed rest, and when he woke up, he would surely feel better.
Childe's consciousness faded into a fitful sleep.