The Possessive Nature of a Dragon
Childe didn't dream much before coming to Liyue, if he did, it was memories of blood, not fantasies.
But then there was the Geo Archon. An Archon of War. Childe had heard the storytellers' proud tales of their God, Rex Lapis, read the lengthy novels, and seen the lands that told tales of their own of the Lord of Geo. And Childe couldn't help smiling at the stories of stone spears piercing the earth and sea. A nearly seven thousand year old warrior who had lived through an era of nothing but battles and who had won.
To say Childe was eager to fight the archaic God was to make the greatest understatement in all of Teyvat's history.
Then the Rite of Receiving. The War God assassinated. Childe went back to dark dreamless nights, his dream of fighting that unparalleled power suddenly gone. Then betrayal yet odd relief came when he found Zhongli and Rex Lapis were in fact the same being. It stung, but in a way Childe felt was karma. The omissions he could excuse, but Childe couldn’t forgive himself for what followed. Dreams rushed back to him and now Rex Lapis held a new more attractive form, Zhongli.