Chapter 10 (Jangras POV) Fresh Prey

A few days had passed now. I had finally got to meet the human that Socra had been telling me about for quite some time. He seemed smaller than I would have thought... This was the human that was supposed to help us save both of our species? The dragon that was in my odyssey?

I had seen humans, and they had always looked a bit small to me, but this one seemed smaller than even the rest of them. I feared for our luck in this war now. Maybe 1st glances were not something that I should be thinking about however. I did not know anything about this human, and neither did my father nor Socra.

Socra, she had been quite upset at me when I had told her that I had lied about talking to my brother through the after life. She had been ignoring me and shying away from me for the last few days. I wondered if she planned on making another dragon her deputy, now that my father had given her the reigns.

Well, none of the dragons on my tribe knew anything about that at all. I am sure that most dragons would be happy to find out the news though. A lot of dragons were not happy with the way that my father had been leading our tribe for the last year.

I felt bad for lying to Socra about talking to my brother, it was a lie just to make the both of us feel better. I could not hold on to that lie any longer, it was making me feel very sick and guilty. I just had not chosen the correct time to tell her that I suppose.

I had done it in front of a human that had high hopes of Socra and the tribe. I probably had embarassed her quite a bit to that human. I shook my head, and I got up from the small little sack that I had been resting on last night, trying to shake out all of those thoughts from out of my head.

I wish that I had been able to speak to my brother one last time, and I felt sick myself for lying about it. That was most likely not the best thing for me to lie to her about. She was mentoring me, she had told me to not hide anything from her at all.

I wondered if she held her own when she said that though. Surely there was some things that she had not been telling me about right? Things that were going on around camp, they just were not adding up, it was not making very much sense to me.

Once I was the deputy, then I would be the one that she would always come to talk to about things. I felt bad for my father, but I also was in fact a bit excited to take on this role. I was also a bit afraid of doing it as well...

As I lifted myself up, I saw that my friend Kip was still laying beside me, he was still dead asleep. I wondered if he was even alive right now, I could not see any breathing. I then saw a bit of steam fly out from his nose. I then began to realize as well, of how cold that it was beginning to get outside.

I shivered a bit, kind of wishing that I was a black dragon right now. Cold was not a problem for them at all. I shook my head on that thought as well, I did not want to be a black dragon. There were certain things that black dragons had over red dragons, and then vice versa as well.

I began to walk out of the large cave, seeing a few dragons that were still asleep behind me. Those were mainly the elders and the young dragons. We kept them the most safe in the back due to them being the most important to keep safe for the tribe.

Maybe the elders were not that important to us, but we kept them safe just out of respect for all that they had done for the tribe throughout their life. I looked over to the right side of the cave, and I spotted Penta laying beside her grandfather.

I did not understand how he could stand being around her after she had nearly killed him. Love was such a strange thing to me, I was not going to lie. I saw that she had her eyes open, and she saw me looking at her with her grandfather. She also saw the look that was on my face as well.

It was if she could read my own thoughts, as she turned her head away from me, a bit embarrassed as well. I looked away from her as well, noticing that she had seen me staring at them. I turned my head to the exit of the cave, and then I began to walk out of the cave.

I spotted a few dragons talking to each other outside of the entrance to the tribes cave, and they lowered their heads to me, and nodded to me. I did not know the dragons very well, and I did not know their names either. It was going to have to take some getting used to on that.

Socra and my father knew the name of each dragon in the tribe, and they spoke to nearly each one of them when they walked past them as well. I noticed I was staring at them a bit, and my mind was drawing blanks. I then nodded to them as well, so that they did not think that I was acting too weird.

I saw a few others talking to each other around the small little clearing, as they were also trying to get some warm air from the sun, a lot due to the fact that very soon it was going to get even colder than it usually would be. Especially since we had moved up north as well.

I looked around a bit more, hoping that I might see Socra, and maybe I would be able to talk to her, and even apologize for lying to her as well. I did not see her anywhere however, and I looked down at the ground a bit sadly, and I bit guilty still for lying about seeing my brother.

I was fairly sure that many dragons in the tribe had given up on me being the dragon of destiny at this point now. I was not even so sure if I was or not either, so I did not really blame them for not believing in me. I did not even believe in myself...

I sat there for a little while longer, and realized that I was a bit hungry. I did not want to eat anything though, a part of that due to the fact that I had not hunted for anything in over a month. I was just so hungry though, I could noy stop myself from at least looking at the prey pile beside the cave.

I looked around a for a few moments, wondering where it was that it was even at in the first place. I was a bit confused, I was sure I knew where it was at, but where I thought I remembered where it was, there was a completely empty pile, as if nothing had ever been there in the first place.

I then realized that it was indeed where the food was supposed to be, as I saw that I was not the only dragon that was looking at it, hoping to find some food for the day. I had noticed as well, that a lot of the dragons in the tribe had gotten noticeably skinnier as well.

I feared for the tribe, wondering how bad it might possibly get when the winter came among us. I was quite sure that a lot of dragons might be days without getting any food. Even in our old land, it was hard for us to catch prey in the winter. I could only imagine how bad it would get this time of the year.

I stared away from the fresh kill pile and then I heard footsteps of dragons walking over to me. I sat there for a few moments, ignoring the footsteps coming over to me, as I expected it to be Socra. I was a bit upset at her right now for being upset at me.

I stayed with my head tilted to the ground, as I heard the voice of a familiar dragon speak up to me to get my attention from me just staring down at the ground. I looked up at the dragon, a bit disappointed that it was not Socra as well, even though it was a bit hypocritical of the thoughts that I had just been thinking.

I looked up and saw the dragon to be one of my closest friends of Kota. I could still not get my thoughts off of the other day as well, when he had called a private meeting with Socra and Yikla, the same dragon that most of the tribe, myself included, believed that she had betrayed us.

It would not surprise me either, if she had not betrayed us, than she had betrayed her own tribe as well. So either way, things were not looking so good for her. I just could not get my head off of the thought that they had called the private meeting without telling me.

I still had thoughts that maybe they were all dragons who had betrayed our tribe, but I also realized that it could not be true either. If they knew that I had caught them red handed, then they would have attacked me, and they would have killed me, hiding my body as well.

The tribe would not think that Socra had killed me, they would most likely think that I had ran away, a lot to do with my father refusing to lead his tribe. My father would probably likely believe that as well. I closed my eyes wondering why I was thinking those sorts of thoughts too.

I knew that they had not betrayed me, they had called the private meeting because they knew that I was not too happy with Yikla, and that I would not trust anything that she said. It was in fact correct as well, but I still managed to plan another meeting, a lot due to the fact that for some odd reason or another, I secretly still did have feelings for her.

I realized that Kota was speaking to me and I lifted my head to let him know that I was paying attention to what it was that he was saying. Though he did restart what he had begun saying just because he was not too sure if I was listened... Hell... I did not know if I was listening or not.

"Jangra... Would you like to go hunting with me and Zita? I noticed you looking at the prey pile, and I knew you must be hungry as well." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I once again lowered my head down at the ground.

Zati was his mate, and both of them were together right now. They both saw the look on my face too. Zati was an amazing mate, she was not a part of our group of friends a while ago, but I knew for a fact that she was a sweet, and well trusting dragon.

I just could not think right now, I wanted to tell them no... I thought that I wanted to be alone right now, but at the same time, I also realized that I needed friends by my side at the same time as well. I did not need to be pushing away good friends like these right now...

I was alone, a part of me felt like I should stay that way as well, although I hated that feeling too. I looked up at my friend, and made my decision to him. I nodded his head, and his face managed to crack a bit of a smile, as I then began to speak to the both of them.

"Sure... It'll be good to get my mind off of thoughts as well." I said back to him. I then smiled back at him as well, it lit up my face to sew another dragon smile in the such troubling times that were going on all around us. It had been a while since I had seen any dragon smile.

All the dragons in the tribe were depressed, even the warrior dragons. They felt sick, and they felt tired. They were tired of sitting around the tribe all the time, we did nothing. It was very boring. It really was good to get out and go and hang out with a couple of my friends.

We sat there for a few moments, as it seemed like none of us were going to follow through with what it was that we had just been talking about in the first place. After a few moments longer however, Zati stepped up this time, to my surprise as she lifted her wings up a bit and began to speak.

"Alright, so who is going to be the one to take the first steps? I am ready to catch me some fresh prey!"