Slowly making his way through the unsteady terrain, the lone man pushed aside some large reeds and stepped out into a small clearing. It was no larger than ten meters across, with random chunks of hard soil and grass thrown all around it. The source of this mess was laying on the far end of it, facing away from him.

"You should not be doing this." A voice buzzed from the speaker on his collar. "I am still detecting life signs from that direction, there is a possibility of mortal danger."

Crouching down and setting aside his big backpack, eyes still fixed on the large mass of scales and fur, the man spoke slowly, his voice just shy of a whisper. "I know, Cass, I know. But you aren't at full power, and I have yet to clean you today, so sorry if this time I will depend more on my own eyes than your sensors."

"Hmph, fine, be that way. Just don't come crying to me when you get your arm chomped off." Said the AI, before turning silent.

Still crouching, the man picked up one of the pieces of dirt laying around him, before returning his gaze back to the mass. From what he could see, it was one of the draconic predators from the northern plains, seemed like a full grown adult from the size, 7, maybe 8 meters from head to tail. They didn't often get this far south. At first he thought the beast might just be resting after a hunt, a corpse of a Mossback not far from it, but the longer he observed, the smaller that chance got.
It wasn't breathing. Yet, he still heard sounds coming from it. They were barely audible in the steady wind, but there was a tiny growl coming from it. Deciding he won't get anywhere without some risk, he straightened up and slowly started making his way to the body, one hand placed over his CR01-SS4NT holster. The closer he got, the more were the chunks of dirt stained with blood, proof of a large fight taking place.
Once he was about 3 meters from the body, he stopped. Putting some force behind it, he chucked the dirt he was holding, the large piece messilly scattering over the scaly back on impact. No reaction. This all but confirmed his suspicion, if the scars and burns he could now see were not indicator enough. This was only a corpse.

"Guess the Mossbacks won this scuffle in the end." He said while relaxing a bit.

Taking a few steps around it to get a better view at it as well as whatever was making the noise, the uneven terrain finally got the better of him, and he tripped, barely catching himself before planting face first into the bloody ground. Still on all fours, his ears caught the sound of movement, and looking up his blood froze momentarily. Looking back at him was a pair of wide emerald eyes sitting atop a slightly gaping maw, with a row of small, half formed teeth.

"Fuck, so it was a kid." The man cursed to himself, trying to make as little movement as possible. Perhaps he should have listened to Cassandra. He didn't have time to think though, as the little whelp threw itself at him, growling and hissing.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck..." Scrambling on the dirt he did his best to turn in a way that would allow him to kick it away, and after barely catching it before it's jaws closed up on his neck, he managed to get a leg under it. Putting all the power he had into it, he pushed up, and suprisingly, the whelp went flying to the other side of it's mother's corpse. It was a lot lighter than he expected.
Scrambling on his feet and unholstering his gun, he aimed it at the little thing before pausing. It did not attempt another attack, instead weakly trying to hide under it's mother, silently yelping.

Putting his gun down, he took another look at the beastie. Now that it wasn't trying to kill him and he had time to observe, it was apparent that it was severely malnurished. Taking another look at his mother's corpse, the same could be said for her. Her fur was patchy, and the scales were sickly green-ish on certain parts. He doubted that was normal for this species, even in death.

"It was most likely sick. Couldn't hunt on her regular grounds, so she made her way further south, searching for easier prey." He said while slowly pacing around. "Probably encountered a pack of Mossbacks, but was too weak to kill a few and scare off the rest. Must have been a combination of the disease and battle wounds that did her in. Shame. Kid probably doesn't have long either. Doesn't look sick, but it's definitely starving. Can't chew hard food yet, probably. I'd give it a week at most."

"I'm guessing you wanted to make that an entry? Well, I recorded it anyway." The AI chirped again. "Told you, by the way. But putting me always being right aside, you want to take some samples, have me run tests? This might be a disease we need to be careful of."

The man stood still, however, barely even registering what she was saying. He was completely focused on the small pup, now hiding under one of it's mother's front paws. It was shivering.

Sighing and scratching behind his ear he kicked some dirt around. "Aaargh, I'm too kind for my own good. Cass, we setting up camp for the night."