When I wake up in the morning Kechara is still fast asleep, she is even snoring softly. Taking a look at her, it doesn't look like she had another growth spurt this time. Before she wakes up I close my eyes and work on my core until I am out of sacred power.

Core Upgrade Progress: 87%

Getting up I walk over to the door to check the weather, it isn't snowing right now but it is cloudy. As long as it doesn't start snowing I plan to take Kechara outside to play, it isn't good for her to stay cooped up. Especially since the cold doesn't seem to bother her, outside we have more room to play.

Kechara only wakes up when she smells breakfast cooking, as she gets up and stretches I can't help but think she is a beautiful creature. Her body is more harmonious than her mother's was, if I had to name her species I would call her a dragon-cat. I do find it strange that she is so different from her mother, she doesn't have any of the horse looks or the scorpion tail.

After breakfast we head outside and Kechara immediately starts running around playing in the snow. I feel cold just watching her but she is having a lot of fun so I let her play for a while. Once she has burned off some energy I call her over and resume her combat training.

With the snow slowing me down more than her it makes it a fairly fair fight without me having to hold back much. She learns quickly, and won't fall for the same trick twice, she even learns the tricks and tries to use them on me. As we train I realize she has gotten stronger and faster, and the training is teaching her control.

Now if we were to get into a fight I wouldn't have to worry as much about her. After lunch we go back outside but this time I summon Bones and have him train with her. Training with different opponents will make her learn to use different methods against different opponents.

Being able to adapt to your opponent is one of the most important lessons I can teach her. After all, the main reason I defeated her mother so easily was because she had no idea how to fight me. There isn't much chance of someone else climbing the mountain but if they do Kechara will know how to fight them.

Although I still hope to take her with me, I want her to be able to take care of herself if I can't. The more I think about it the more certain I am that the guardian is meant to keep the driders contained rather than protect the temple. After all, if the guardian was supposed to protect the temple then it would live closer to it.

Maybe that is why the guardian attacked me when I was on the ledge, I was really close to the cave even though I didn't know it. Since her mother was a sacred creature, Kechara should be as well, meaning she should have a core. When Kechara starts showing signs of being tired I dismiss Bones and take her back into the cave.

After she lays down to rest until dinner I put a hand on her side and try to use my sacred power to scan her. It takes me a while to figure out how to do it but once I do I can see that she has a core. Although it doesn't seem to be a sacred core like her mother's, it is very close to one.

While dinner is cooking I explain to Kechara what I know about cores and how I use meditation to improve mine. She seems to understand everything I am saying so I start teaching her how to meditate. After we are done eating I meditate with her and try to show her how to improve her core.

As I am showing her I accidentally touch her core with my power, the core reacts in a way I never expected. The core absorbs the sacred power, in fact it somehow drains every bit of power I currently have. Suddenly being drained breaks my meditation and I open my eyes to find myself lying on the floor on the other side of the cave from where I was sitting.

When I look at Kechara she is still curled up with her eyes closed, but now her body is surrounded by a golden glow. While I am fairly worried about her I don't want to interfere since I don't understand what is going on. The color of the glow around her is pretty close to the color of my sacred power so I don't think it is hurting her.

If I had any power left I would try to scan her to see what is going on, but since I don't all I can do is wait and worry. Observing her carefully she looks peaceful, there are no signs of pain on her face, which reassures me a little. After about a half an hour the golden glow slowly fades away, then a few minutes later Kechara opens her eyes.

Once the glow is completely gone I notice some things have changed, Kechara's scales are now a pale golden color instead of green. Her fur also has a hint of gold to it, but the most noticeable for me is the ring of gold around the iris of each eye. The gold makes her eyes look darker, they were sky blue but now they are the blue of deep water.

Her eyes now have a knowing look about them as well as giving off a feeling of nobility. When Kechara sees me studying her she gets up and starts twisting her body around to get a look at herself. After laughing at her for a minute I pull my small mirror out of my pouch and let her get a look at her eyes.

After seeing her reflection she snatches the mirror from me and uses it to take a good look at all the changes that have happened. After a minute of looking at herself Kechara suddenly turns and in a flash has knocked me onto my back and is licking my face. Of course I saw her coming but since I didn't sense any hostility I let her hit me.

After letting her lick me for a minute while I laugh I push her off and pick myself up. Then I see my mirror lying broken on the ground, Kechara probably dropped it when she rushed at me. As I clean it up she realizes what she did and gives me a sad look, but I don't mind, I can get another easy enough when I get back.

Once her excitement dies down I can tell she is really tired from what happened so I send her to bed. She is out almost as soon as she lays down, but other than that she seems fine. In the morning when I have some sacred power back I will try scanning her again to see what happened.