‘I hope no predators are drawn here…’ Ember though as shi looked at the thin trail of blood leading up to the unconscious Pegasus in the tree. ‘I don’t think I could deal with another pack of those… Timberwolves right now.’
Ember grinned at the pun shi had just made, completely oblivious at just how correct shi was.
‘Well anyway, it’s getting dark, and I think a fire would help keep any predators away; good thing there’s plenty of firewood around here,’ shi thought as shi started gathering small branches, ‘Plus it’s been forever since I’ve made a traditional fire, hope I still remember my Scout training…. Wait… how do I know that?’ Ember paused in hir gathering to try and figure out where that had come from before shaking hir head and going back to gathering sticks and small logs for the fire. ’Fire first, memories later.’
Private SwiftWind was in pain.
Now that was to be expected, considering that he had been flung into a tree by an Alpha Mantacore, but the fact that he could FEEL was surprising.
‘How am I still alive?’ he wondered to himself until he decided to open his eyes and see if he could figure out what happened.
Opening his eyes, he saw that it was night, he was on some sort of platform growing out of a tree, and that his right wing was in some sort of rudimentary splint made of sticks and vines.
Hearing movement below him, he dragged himself to the edge of the platform and looked down. What he saw surprised him.
Below him, on the ground, was what appeared to be a blue adolescent dragon tending to a small campfire.
‘What’s an adolescent dragon doing all the way out here? Is it one of the exiled?’
In traditional draconian culture, if an adolescent dragon displays highly abnormal traits such as little, no, or extreme hording, they would typically be “exiled” into the wilderness, sometimes to prove that they are worthy of being a part of draconian society, but usually left to die. In more recent years this practice had all but faded away, but it still occasionally happened.
‘I don’t see any major physical anomalies, so I doubt that it’s an exile…. Is it a scout for the draconian rebel army, looking for another way to attack us? If so, why did it help me? Did it help me? For all I know my rescuer could have been chased away by it and it doesn’t know I’m here. Best to keep quiet and hope for the best if it does see me.’
It was then that Murphy’s law decided to remind SwiftWind of its existence. Leaning back, the dragon looked up and over, directly at where SwiftWind was peering over the edge at it.
Biting back a stream of curses SwiftWind quickly shrank back from the edge and moved back into the middle of the platform, hoping that the dragon hadn’t noticed him.
‘Well, glad I still remember how to set up a fire,’ Ember thought as shi leaned back from the fire that shi had finally managed to get burning without risking it running out of fuel immediately. ‘I wonder how my guest is doing.’
Turning hir head to look in the direction of the branch platform, shi noticed an equine shaped head peaking over the edge at hir. Almost immediately after noticing that shi was looking at it, the owner of the head quickly retreated out of sight.
‘Well, seems that he’s awake,’ Ember thought as shi stood up, ‘I should probably say hello.’ Ember paused, ’Well, not that I can really talk…’
Upon reaching the platform, Ember saw something that shi should have expected. The pegasus was doing his best to appear as small as possible and his eyes were wide with fear.
‘Of course he would be afraid of me, they probably don’t have any ‘dragons’ around here….’
Deciding that approaching the terrified pegasus would probably be a bad idea, Ember just stayed where shi was.
“Thestrals, sound off.”
“One, here.”
“Two, here.”
“Three, here.”
“Four, still here.”
“Five, bored, but alive.”
“Stow it Five, now, we’re heading to the last known location of Private SwiftWind. We are to find the Private and get him back home, if that’s impossible, then prep his body for a proper burial.”
SwiftWind was freaking out. Not only had the dragon spotted him, but it had also climbed up and was looking right at him!
’I’m dead. I am SOOOO dead. It spotted me and is now going to eat me! I… wait… why is it just sitting there? And why can’t I figure out its gender? It’s head shape is between that of a male and a female dragon…’
“Who are you? A… Are you the one who saved me?” SwiftWind managed to get out.
The dragon just tilted its head.
“C-Can you understand me?”
The dragon started backing back down the tree.
“Wait! Where are yo- Nngg!” SwiftWind gritted his teeth as his wing spiked in pain.
The dragon stopped its decent and looked at him in what appeared to be concern.
‘It’s either an exile or is good at hiding its emotions… and the exile possibility is looking more and more likely,’ SwiftWind thought as he noticed that the dragon’s face wasn’t showing much emotion, almost as if its face was barely capable of showing emotion.
Seeing that the pegasus was no longer terrified of hir, Ember slowly climbed back up onto the platform, gently picked up it up and, ignoring its complaints, carefully climbed back down the tree and set the now silent pegasus down by the fire.
Just as shi was settling back down after putting another log on the fire shi heard a familiar sounding howl coming from somewhere nearby.
’Damn it! Those wooden wolves are back for more!’ shi angrily thought as shi stood up and began scanning the surrounding area for movement, ’And I didn’t get a chance for my flame to build back up again!
Out of the corner of hir eye shi saw that the pegasus was also reacting to the howl, but in a much different way. Instead of becoming more alert and ready for a fight, he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.
Spotting a bit of movement just outside of the fire’s light, Ember slowly bent down and picked up a small flaming log from the fire as a weapon. ’I hope they aren’t as persistent as the last group, I don’t have enough fire to deal with all of them and defend the pegasus at the same time….’
Just as those thoughts crossed hir mind, the first of the Timber wolves attacked.
Spotting movement out of the corner of hir eye, Ember spun to hir right while at the same time bringing the flaming stick up to defend hir head, catching the leaping Timberwolfby surprise in the process.
’Damn it!’ shi thought as the force of the wolf’s lunge was enough to force hir back a few steps and next to the pegasus. Without knowing why, Ember fell into a fighting stance, the faint memory of some kind of… self-defense class came to mind before fading away again. Shaking hir head shi came back to hir senses just in time to hear the snapping of a twig behind hir.
Once again turning, this time to hir left to avoid hitting the pegasus, shi blocked the leaping Timberwolf and this time quickly spat some flames into its face, more as a deterrent than anything, before having to turn back to the first Timberwolf, which was starting to circle around as more and more Timberwolves slowly stalked out of the shadows and into the flickering light of the campfire.
The next few minutes were a blur for Ember as each Timberwolf leapt at hir, got blocked by the now extinguished branch, and got a small bit of fire to the face for its troubles.
’Crud, I’m almost out,’ Ember thought as shi once again spat fire into the face of a Timberwolf that was stupid enough to try the unsuccessful tactic once again. However, this time the fire was little more than a candle flame compared to the short bursts from earlier.
Apparently sensing that something was wrong with their prey, the Timberwolves all lunged at Ember at once.
Time seemed to slow down for Ember as the Timberwolves leapt at hir, ‘Not enough flame left to do anything useful, I can’t take all of them on at once without a full supply of flame, and I can’t just abandon the pegasus!’ With all other options unavailable, Ember did the one thing shi could do, use hir own body as a shield.
Without hesitation, Ember flung hirself over the paralyzed pegasus and covered the sides with hir wings as shi braced hirself for what shi knew would come.
Shi didn’t have to wait long before shi felt the wooden jaws biting hir back, trying to get through hir tough scales while sharp wooden claws slashed the delicate membrane of hir wings to ribbons. Although the pain was massive and it threatened to force hir into unconsciousness, it paled in comparison to what shi had experienced in the past, even so, a whimper of pain still escaped hir as the Timberwolves tore hir wings to pieces.
After what felt like an eternity, even though it was probably just a few seconds, Ember thought shi could hear someone shout something and then the crack of wood as the assault abruptly ended. Caring not of why, Ember weakly fell over onto hir side, away from the injured pegasus, and gave up the fight for consciousness.
As the darkness enveloped hir, she thought shi could see some equine shapes moving towards the one shi had defended, before losing hirself in the realm of sleep.