"Zakk? Zakk, wake up."

Zakk opened his eyes to see his father hovering over him. He wasn't sure when he had fallen asleep. He had promised himself he would stay awake just in case any stokliers came, but that was clearly thrown out the window at some point.

He yawned. "What's up, dad?"

"Don'tcha remember? We're going to the gem mines today."

Zakk immediately perked up and leaped out of the bed to get ready. "Oh yeah!"

Dragons often went into caves to mine for diamonds, rubies, sapphires, gold, or really any gem or shiny thing they could find.  Zakk had never been to the gem mines before, so this was going to be his first time going, and he had been anticipating this day for ages now.

He quickly got dressed before going out to meet Dak again.  "Ready!"

Dak nodded with a smile before starting to head out.

Zakk couldn't help but bounce excitedly.  Finally, he got to go to the mines just like the adult dragons do!

Thankfully, it wasn't long before they made it in.

"I'm gonna go catch up with my group." Dak muttered.  "I'll let you explore and have fun.  Feel free to keep anything you can find and get your claws on.  Meet me out here later, 'kay?"

"Got it!" Zakk said, racing to explore.

It was mostly dark, but thankfully, his night vision kicked in quickly.  He decided to go into his dragon form to make the experience more realistic.

There were gems and streams of gold hidden in the rocks here and there.  He could hear the sounds of other dragons working together to mine said gems and gold.  He could hear many footsteps and the scratching of claws against the rocky ground.  He could hear...

...the crying of a child?

He hesitated and tilted his head slightly to hear better before following the source.

He found a pile of rocks on the floor of the cave.  He stopped for a moment.  The crying was coming from underneath.  He looked around to see if there was anyone who could help.  When he didn't see anyone, he finally spoke up.

"Hey!  You okay in there?  I'm gonna get you out!"

He eyed the rocks before taking a deep breath.  It took all of his strength to move them out of the way.

Underneath the pile was a small girl in a tattered dress and bandages over her eyes.  She had stopped crying when she heard the voice, but it was obvious she was still very frightened...and very injured.

"Hey...you okay, kid?" Zakk asked, going back into his human form.  He reached out to grab the girl's hand and pull her out of the rubble, but she flinched away with a scared whimper.  He backed off slightly.

"Hey, it's okay.  I'm not gonna hurt you.  Let me help you, okay?  See?"

He moved slower this time and once again reached down for the girl's hand.  She slowly reached out to grab it, refusing to look anywhere but towards Zakk, who gently pulled her out and set her down on the ground.

She coughed slightly from the dust.  "T...thank...you..." she whispered, afraid.

"Don't mention it.  Are you okay?  What happened?"

"I'm...not sure..."

She attempted to stand up, but wobbled and fell back down, stifling a cry of pain.  Zakk paused and looked at her leg, which was badly beat up and even crushed from the falling rocks.

"Hm...your leg..."

The girl whimpered and curled up into the fetal position. 

"Here...let's get you out of here." Zakk offered, gently picking the girl up and setting her onto his shoulders.  She cuddled closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck to hold on.

Zakk managed a small smile, then noticed something glittering on the ground.

He kneeled down to pick it up and was excited to see...

"A ruby!  Nice!" he cheered, picking it up and stuffing it in his jacket pocket.

"Alright, now let's get out of here."

And with that, he started racing out of the cave.