Dragon Child

The City

Drazealite and Zahanort had been ridding in the construct all day as the thing continued to roll onwards. They had listened to the humans chatter but, not knowing the language, failed to gather anything from it.

The stench of humans had grown from awful to unbearable over the past few hours and continued to grow worse. Drazealite thought he was on the verge of hurling when the construct jerked to a stop. He heard new human voices outside of the construct before the construct continued moving. As the construct continued to roll, the two young dragons knew that the construct had entered a human settlement and a big one from all the human voices they heard out side. They thought about trying to run, but they probably wouldn't make it far in full daylight.

The construct rolled to a stop again and some of the humans in the construct left while others started moving the crates out of the construct. Zahanort had to choke down a wail and Drazealite was silently crying in fear. As they sat in waiting the humans moved closer and closer to where the young dragons where hiding. Soon only one box separated the dragons from the humans.

Just before one of the humans grabbed one of the boxes hiding the dragons, another human shouted something. The other humans cheered and left the construct in a hurry. The two dragons could hardly believe their luck and slowly poked their heads out of their hiding spots. The only human in sight was the Leatherhide that they had been following for just a little too long.

The two dragons quickly ran out of the construct and found they where in a human building with no sign of the sky anywhere. The dragons did see a small indention in the walls of the building though. Drazealite tried ramming it and the indention flew away from the wall with a loud clatter.

The noise brought the shouts of humans and the sound of many of them coming closer. The two young dragons quickly jumped onto the roof of one of the human structures just before a large group of humans came running around a corner. The humans paused at the door before they all charged in with a shout.

Zahanort turned to see how war away from the forest edge they where and froze at what he saw.

“I think they’ll be in their for awhile before they figure out that something broke out and not in.” Drazealite said not noticing Zahanort, “We should try to get back to the woods before the humans find us and… What are you looking a- oh…”

The two young dragons stared out over miles of human structures that were all boxed in by a forty-foot tall wall that had armed humans pacing it constantly. Humans filled most of the paths in the massive man-made forest making almost every street treacherous for a dragon. Beyond the wall, the forest had been torn away and replaced by fields growing human foods and prey animals. Even with the impressive optical capabilities of a dragon, the two could hardly see the forest in the distance.

The two dragons where snapped out of their trance by sounds coming from the building behind them. The humans where coming out, the dragons panicked and ran across the top of the human structures as quickly as they could. The dragons ran in random directions and eventually fell through the roof of an abandoned building and fell onto ancient trash heaps. The dragons sniffed the air and knew that there had been no humans here in a long time and that creatures such as rats where plentiful here.

The dragons quickly caught a few rats and curled up in the garbage in the deepest part of the building. The two dragons lay next to each other and cried silently on each other. They knew that they where trapped inside this building and could never leave it without risking being attacked by humans.

They had come to find and free their friend from humans. Now they where the ones trapped by humans and they had no hope of finding their best friend ever again.

They fell asleep their in the garbage still weeping on each other even in their sleep. Their dreams where filled with waves of humans chasing them through an ever narrowing passage until a Shellized human stood before them. The human removed its shiny armor to reveal Rhzvanzin glaring down on them before trapping them in a tiny cage that shrank as time passed.

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The entire Boulder fall clan was flying toward the human settlement with fury burning in their eyes. The clan landed just outside the sleeping settlement and gathered around the clan-lordsy gave their post attack speach.

“Somewhere within the settlement,” Zasvron hissed to the clan, “the body of at least one of our clan is lost somewhere in the mess. We are to find the body and kill any humans there to avenge his death. If you find the bodies of Zahanort, Drazealite, or Sivarria in the settlement bring them out as well. Once we have the body set fire to the settlement.”

“Now who’s ready to take revenge!?!” Albervork shouted.

A resounding roar answered him.

The clan was about to attack when another dragon from the clan sniffed the ground and hiss, “Rhzvanzin is alive!”

The clan jumped at the dragon’s words and Albervork glared at the dragon as he hiss, “What!?!”

“Rhzvanzin is alive,” the dragon said looking the clan-lord in the eye, “or was of three days ago. He was either traveling with or running from a group of a hundred humans, probably the later but the scent is too old for me to be sure. He was heading east and at a steady pace. I see no signs of blood so he may be uninjured at the moment.”

“We saw the humans kill the boy,” Zasvron hissed in anger, “do you doubt my words?”

“If it wasn’t for the scent I would not,” the dragon said, “but scents do not lie while the eyes might.”

“How do we know that you are not smelling the scent wrong?” Albervork demanded.

“Because I am the clan’s best tracker and have never gotten a trail wrong,” the dragon said glaring back at Albervork.

“Then why have you not found the two missing younglings?” Zasvron asked with a smile.

“Because you did not assign me to search for them,” the dragon said coolly, “You assigned three young dragons that could hardly follow their own tracks saying that you did not wish to risk to many clan members to find them. Or maybe you just didn’t want them fou-.”

“Enough,” Albervork shouted, “We will follow this trail of yours. If we don’t find Rhzvanzin in four days you shall be removed from the clan for preventing us from giving a fellow clan member the burial he deserves.”

The dragon looked nervous but nodded and said, “Of course sir. Follow me if you please.”
Albervork seemed taken aback by the sureness the dragon had in its own abilities and simply stood there as the rest of the clan followed behind the dragon tracker. Zasvron walked up to Albervork and glared at him angrily.

“Why did you do that?” she hissed, “we still could have attacked the settlement and sent him off alone to investigate his trail. Now we must spend several days following this dragon to who knows where!”

“I had little choice,” Albervork growled, “the tracker seemed to be on the verge of uncovering your little plan. If I had not met his demands quickly he might have turned the clan against us.”

“Fine," Zasvron hissed seething, "I see your reason. Nevertheless, I will kill you if you try to do anything like that again.”

“Understood.” Albervork said.

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The camp stood in wonder at the sight of a massive city that stood off in the distance. Rhzvanzin felt nervous outside of the forest in the large cultivated fields around him, it just seemed so unnatural. He did not like the looks of the city either, he was reminded, quiet strongly of the human settlements that his mother had told him about and wondered if it had once been one. He shivered but continued with the camp toward the city, he wanted to find a way home.

The knight told him that it would take them a day to cross the farms and reach the city itself. Rhzvanzin was decidedly unsure of whether or not he should be glad or disappointed to hear this. Rhzvanzin dreaded the stone forest the strange dragons had made for it was so unnatural and different from anything he had ever seen. However, with that many dragons gathered together, Rhzvanzin had a good chance of finding someone who knew the way back the Boulder Fall clan.

Rhzvanzin sniffed the wind that blew from the city and flinched back from it, the city smelled foul and tainted. On the breeze Rhzvanzin smelled thousands of the strange dragons gathered in there moving about in a seemingly pointless hustle. He smelled the scent of lust, anger, violence, and death flooding the city from every corner. From what he smelled, the city could only be described as the largest and most barbaric clan of dragons he would ever meet.

Then he smelled something that made him smile, he smelled the faintest whiff of a normal dragon or two within the city. That smell gave Rhzvanzin hope that the city was not as dark and evil as he thought it was. In fact the dragons smelled familier but he couldn't place the scent with so many of the strange dragons.

When the camp assembled for the night, he frowned when he heard that all hunting was prohibited. Though he brightened when he heard that the farmers had provided them with salted horsemeat. However, the rest of the camp did not seem to share his exuberance for this news.

Rhzvanzin devoured his serving of horsemeat happily and was overjoyed when he was given several other dragons’ helpings as well. Eventually most of the camp had gathered around Rhzvanzin and chanting to him as they kept giving him more horsemeat to eat. After eating nearly twenty servings of horsemeat Rhzvanzin started to slow and the dragons around him kept chanting but different things to him.

Finally, Rhzvanzin had eaten his fill after eating nearly twenty-eight servings of horsemeat. He tried to walk away but hardly managed to roll before he fell into a state of simi-consiousness. Several of the dragons cheered while others moaned as Rhzvanzin lay on the ground dazed. Rhzvanzin heard the clinking of metal surounding him and wondered what that was just before he fell asleep.

Little did he know that the men where exchanging their winnings from bets, had he known he might have figured out he was travelling with humans.