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Today was the day that I had feared since I turned 18. My village sent out young adults to slay a dragon that plagued the village. The elder had called a meeting in the center of town. He gave his usual speech that he said when the time came. “And now! The one to have the honor to fight the Iron dragon. Will be, Hunter Atkins!” He said enthusiastically. All the color had drained from my skin.
I couldn’t even move, not an inch. After I came to my senses I began to ran. I didn’t make it very far, as I was tackled to the ground and knocked out. I awoke with a panick and quickly looked around. I was deposited somewhere deep in the forest, I was lost.
I looked to my left and saw a backpack leaning on a tree, sitting next to a sword. I slowly walked over and put on the pack and holstered the sword to my side. My head was throbbing so I would need to stay away from vigorous work for a short while. Unbeknownst to me, I was being watched, studied if you will, by the thing I had been sent to hunt. I had no idea what it would have in store for me.
I walked around the forest’s somewhat damp environment with no destination. All the animals I had seen were some harmless deer and rabbits. I began to ponder why they sent me here instead of near the dragons den. Could this have been the dragons hunting grounds? If so, they surely gave me a death sentence. Which is what it was.
I know they sent only the most useless of the villagers out to “slay” the iron dragon. They didn’t see me as a helpful productive person since everyone had already taken most of the productive jobs. They had no reason to keep me there. I looked sadly at the ground and continued to walk through the dense forest. “If they just wanted me dead, why didn’t they do it themselves?” I asked aloud, mainly to myself.
After I asked myself that, I heard a whimpering. I quickly ran to the sound and hid in a nearby bush. I had seen that a wolf pup had been caught in a bear trap. What I assumed to be the creatures parents were whining and biting at the contraption trying to free their child. I slowly stepped out of the push and set my bag and sword onto the ground. They turned to me and snarled.
I raised my hands and slowly approached the pup. “I-i’m not going to h-hurt him. Please don’t kill me.” I said as I whimpered. I very slowly grabbed onto the trap and pulled it open as hard as I could. I was struggling to keep it open, but I held it long enough for the pup to get his leg free and limp away with it’s parents. I smiled to myself and walked back over to pick up my stuff and strapped on my sword.
I had begun to get cold as night approached, and still, the dragon had secretely been watching me. I opened my bag and smiled happily pulling out a rather small tent. “Well, something’s better than nothing.” I told myself as I put it up crawling inside. “Hmm… I’ll make my move when the human is asleep.” The dragon said. After about ten minutes, I was fast asleep.
The dragon slowly approached my tent and peeked inside. “What is this thing?” A masculine voice said as it poked my tent. I had stayed asleep. I was in a deep sleep so there was a low chance of me waking up. The dragon slowly cut my tents entrance open and reached two talons inside. I slowly turned in my sleep as he slowly lifted me up.
“I still don’t understand what this human is doing in my forest, but I will take him to my cave. The night time preds cannot be trusted.” he said to himself as he took to the skies with me grasped in his talons. After I had awoken I covered my eyes to stop myself from being blinded by the bright sun. I stretched out and yawned not noticing where I was. After I stood, I noticed where I was and looked around cautiosly.
“He’s waking up” Said a feminine voice. After that I heard a large creature approaching me. “Hello human.” Said a masculine voice, it belonged to the dragon that had been watching me. I froze with fear, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with me. The dragons scales looked like iron that shined in the bright light, it was magnificent. “U-uh…. H-hello there m-mister dragon.” I said clearly shaking. The dragon smiled at me and then stared at my sword, sitting upright in a threatening position. I noticed and quickly removed my sword and threw it off the mountain. He gave me a puzzled look. “Uh… why did you do that human?” He asked “I don’t want to kill you. My village sent me here to die trying to kill you. So, do what you will. Kill me if you so please. I won’t go back to the village to be killed by them.” I said to him.
“We aren’t going to kill you little one.” Said a femine voice from behind the male. “my name is Krystal and my mate is Zeal” Said krystal “and our daughter is Silvia” Said Zeal. I was puzzled, why weren’t they trying to kill me like they had been depicted as in the stories. “Seems like you’ve got no where to go then.” Krystal said to me as she looked at Zeal. “Wait here human” Zeal said a little stern and walked to the back of the cave to talk Krystal. After a few minutes of them talking their daughter, silvia, had flown in and was about to call for them until she saw me.
“Uh… what are you, and what are you doing here?” She asked curiously. I jumped a bit not knowing she was there. “I-I was sent by my “village” to k-kill your father… But, before you do anything harsh, I couldn’t bare to do it. So I threw my sword off the mountain.” I explained ot her “Well, that’s good. If you killed him, I would have hunted you down.” She told me. I swallowed rather fearfully.
After that Zeal and Krystal walked back. Krystal was smiling rather happilly. “It’s been decided. You get to stay with us!” Said Krystal happily. I was smiling with tears of joy in my eyes. Never before has someone actually wanted me around. It felt amazing.
“Thank you so much for letting me stay here. I can never repay you enough.” I said as I hugged them both to the best of my ability. Zeal didn’t show it, but I could tell he was smiling. “I see you’ve already met our daughter, Silvia.” Zeal said to me. After a while of talking and them learning more about me, I had begun to grow tired and cold as the night had approached. Everyone had been sleeping peacefully, or so it seemed.
I was laying near Krystal in a light sleep, the cold was preventing me from fully sleeping. It appears that Zeal was only pretending to be asleep. He had instead, been watching me as I was lightly shivering. “hmm… It seems that the human is cold. I’ll do something to fix that for him” Zeal thought to himself, smiling at his own idea. He slowly reached his paw over to me and pulled me towards him. I groaned somewhat as he did so but I remained asleep.
He very gently lifted me up with his talon and held me over his head, as he opened his maw. When he dropped me inside, I quickly woke with a start. That was a bad idea on my part. Because as I had scaredly woken up, I waved my arm which cut itself on one of his many sharp fangs. Zeal quickly shut his mouth to muffle my scream. After he tasted blood, he didnt waste any time tasting me. He instead, tossed his head back and gulped me down into his tight but comforting throat. I had left a small blood trail on the way down his throat and as I was deposited into his stomach.
I had begun to frantically struggle but immediatly stopped as my wound had began to hurt me. I laid back and waited for the end, from the one I had trusted. “why?... I had trusted you, so why kill me?” I said sadly. Zeal lowered his head to belly and hushed his voice to a whisper. “You are going to be fine little one. You will heal, and I only ate you to keep you warm. You will be safe, I promise. Now, what’s your name?” He asked. I hesitated to respond.
“My name is Hunter. A-Also… thank you zeal. When will you let me out?” I asked more calm now. “In the morning.... Or whenever I feel like it.” He laughed quietly to himself but I was already fast asleep. “Sleep well, Hunter” Zeal said before falling asleep himself.