He had failed.
Ruger sat alone, slumped against the Old Recliner at the edge of Cliff, quietly enjoying the gentle sea breeze. It seemed to soothe the pain of his failure, his fur rising and falling with the wind.
The large bump on Aisijin's forehead flashed through his mind. Given their dragonborn kobold bodies, transformed by their special Hybrid Dragon bloodline, that swelling should originally have been even larger than what he had seen. Aisijin must have had trouble falling asleep and, in a sudden flash of inspiration, used her Dreamsleep Fighter abilities to punch herself twice. She was very strong. He had no idea whether her Fighter abilities had worked or she had simply knocked herself unconscious. Unfortunately, he had let her down.
Then there was the aura of the Nightmare World, far stronger than the amount that normally leaked out during sleep. Little Regna had probably been behind that. Without his noticing, the little girl had reached an age where she was no longer quite so obedient, though her intentions had been good: she had wanted to help her dear old father.
Still, as her father, he had to take the matter seriously. After some negotiation, they agreed that, outside emergencies, she was not allowed to use her abilities at will without his permission.
After all, they were not an ordinary father and daughter living peaceful lives in Grotto City. One was covered in fur, and the other was stranger still. From the moment of her birth, she had been destined never to be an ordinary child. She had been born into the supernatural world, and in that world, it was better to be careful.
Ruger had watched Little Regna come into being. Though he had mostly observed through the perspective of the divine-object spell, he had been