Chp.16: Capture the human

Ethan was crawling through the thick forest. He had been trying to leave the valley since yesterday, but now that the dragon had been alerted he had to move discreetly, which didn't make his movements any faster. But despite the slowness and the effort, he knew he couldn't do otherwise: a single mistake would have been enough to mark his end.

He'd been smart enough to escape while the dragon was busy killing the three idiots he'd had the misfortune to go with: luckily he'd brought a speed potion with him, or he'd never be able to get far enough to avoid the dragon's fire. When the beast had unleashed that firestorm he had almost been hit, but fortunately he had moved far enough and had reached the base of the hill, which was full of crevices where he could hide. Thanks to her powerful sense of smell, the dragon could have tracked him down, but fortunately he had found some boar dung and smeared it on himself to hide his smell. Then he had crouched there for hours, not even moving for the fear of revealing his location, knowing how sensitive dragon hearing was and that the beast could sense the movement of a feather several kilometers away.

Only when night came and the dragoness was clearly gone he felt safe enough to go out and walk away from his hiding place. He'd watched in horror that the entire area which had previously been filled with lush plants was reduced to a pile of smoking rubble, and had swallowed at the thought that he could be there burning like everything else. He had run into the shelter of the trees and he began his long and exhausting march to reach the exit from the valley. Now that the dragon was more cautious she certainly wouldn't have let him go easily. He had to move discreetly and not be in a hurry, or that beast would have found him for sure.

Ethan knew how powerful dragons' nose could be, but as long as the dragon flew she would hardly have recognized his smell: the valley air was stagnant, the scents and smells didn't rise too far beyond the treetops. And her hearing wouldn't have been of much use either, as the valley was full of sounds and noises, so if he moved carefully enough it couldn't have attracted her attention. Therefore what he had to guard against was her eyesight, more powerful than even an eagle's one. And to avoid it, he had to move through the undergrowth, blending in among the ferns and brambles. Plants certainly not pleasant to touch.

"Ouch! When I get out of here I'm going to have to get a lot of thorns off of me. Damn me, what was I thinking when I agreed to work with those three idiots?" he grumbled under his breath, gritting his teeth in pain. "From now on, I swear I'll only accept solitary assignments! I refuse to get in trouble again because some hothead has to step on the wrong opponent's toes!"

Ethan was almost about to curse out loud when suddenly he heard a rustling. His instincts kicked in automatically and he grabbed his crossbow, aiming it in the direction the sound was coming from. Even if it was impossible that it was the dragon (such a large beast would have made the earth tremble with her footsteps, not certain just some rustlings!), that forest was surely teeming with dangerous wild animals. Very soon, two silvery horned heads peeped out of the vegetation.

Ethan felt his blood tingling. They were the two baby dragons! He felt lost; if they had called their mother it would have been the end of him. His hands started shaking slightly. But incredibly the two baby dragons didn't attack him or emit any call; they just stood at a safe distance and stared at him. Ethan could feel their inquisitive eyes studying him, as if they were trying to unearth every secret of his soul.

The man tightened his grip on his crossbow, and the baby dragons stopped; one of them even backed away a little. They didn't seem aggressive, just curious. Suddenly one of them opened his jaws: "Stay calm. If we had wanted to hurt you, we would have attacked you stealthily. We have been following you for a while. You have no reason to fear us, we have no grudge against you; you weren't one of those who tried to catch us"

Ethan's eyes widened. He certainly hadn't expected that twist. "How can I trust you?" he asked, not at all convinced. From his point of view, this seemed like an attempt to make him let his guard down.

"I told you, we could have killed you many times. Or we could just call our mother now. We don't need to lie" the baby dragon replied. "We just want to talk to you. You're the first human we've met and we're curious. We'd just like to have a friendly conversation with you... assuming you don't want to fight"

Ethan bit his lip. He wasn't sure what the dragon said was true, but a little hope began to creep into his heart. "Maybe I'm lucky… maybe I can talk to them. It is said that baby dragons aren't as ferocious as their parents, maybe they are open to dialogue" he thought. His heart began to beat: is it possible that an unexpected stroke of luck pulled him out of that difficult situation? He took courage and said: "No, I don't want to fight too! If you are willing to give me a little help, I will be happy to talk to you!"

The two baby dragons looked at each other, as if they were conversing with their looks, then the one that talked earlier spoke again: "If your request won't be too onerous, we will be happy to help you. But can we trust you?"

A bead of sweat trickled down Ethan's forehead. While that event could get him out of trouble, it could also mark his end. If the baby dragons didn't deem him to be trusted, or became suspicious, or angry, or even if they just didn't like a word he said, they would have immediately called their mother and that would have been the end of him. He had to proceed with caution. "How can I prove to you that I won't betray you?"

"You could lower the object you're holding" the baby dragon answered. "I know that's a weapon, though I don't know how it works. We have put our claws on the ground and we're not baring our teeth, and claws and teeth are our weapons. But you're still holding yours. It's not easy to trust someone if it threatens your life, isn't it? I'm not asking you to throw it away, just put it down"

Ethan's eyes narrowed. Lowering his weapon, his lifeline, was a huge risk, especially in the presence of a dangerous opponent. However, he could understand that baby dragons didn't feel comfortable with his crossbow aimed at them. He, too, would have been reluctant to talk to someone who constantly threatened him.

He quickly calculated every possibility and how much advantages and disadvantages he could earn with that. Lowering his weapon was dangerous, but the baby dragons were at least ten meters away from him. If he lowered his crossbow and they attacked him, he'd have plenty of time to re-aim and hit them. The baby dragons were fast, but they weren't that fast. He could afford to take the risk.

"As you wish. Look!" he said, while he spread his arms wide, holding the crossbow pointed at the ground and with his right hand only. "I am willing not to point my weapon at you! My intentions are..."

He didn't have time to say more; his words were replaced by a scream. Something extremely sharp was biting into his right arm. He looked in that direction and he saw another baby dragon sinking their teeth into his wrist. With only the pressure of the jaws the bone broke. Ethan was in terrible pain, but worst of all was the loss of his weapon, which fell to the ground as his hand had automatically opened after breaking his wrist.

Ethan could have tried to reach it with his left hand, but he didn't even have time to think about it: another baby dragon came out of nowhere and pinned his left arm, even if this time they didn't break it. Three more baby dragons appeared out of nowhere and knocked him to the ground, preventing him from moving his hands and feet.

Ethan was shocked. There weren't just two baby dragons, there were seven of them!

Since when did dragons hunt in packs? It was already a rare fact that they hunted in pairs when they were young, but seven dragons working together was something that was never heard of before! Ethan cursed the popular legends and the books that talked about dragons: why didn't anyone mention that fact!?

Actually, Ethan's knowledge wasn't wrong at all. Simply, the case of Haku and his siblings was unique. Normally, when a mother dragon brought her litter outside the nest, the baby dragons had already fought hard for food and killed many of their siblings, developing a selfish and antisocial personality, so they refused to hunt together. However, Haku had avoided that fate by preventing his family from starving; indeed, by doing so, he had unintentionally created a strong bond between him and some of his brothers.

A shadow fell on Ethan's face. The man looked up terrified and met the face of the baby dragon with whom he had tried to talk, which stared at him as if he were looking at excrement. "Please... Please wait!" he yelled. "I swear, I didn't mean to hurt you! The others did! I didn't know! I just want..."

"Oh, shut up. You're unbearable" the baby dragon interrupted him. "Even a wounded and cornered animal would fight with all its strength until the end, and you instead beg the predator to not kill you? You really are creatures without any sense. Well, it doesn't matter. My earlier words were true, I just want to talk to you. My name is Haku; what's yours?"

Ethan ignored the baby dragon's taunt. Fight to the death? Sure, and how could he do it? They had basically immobilized him... "E-Ethan. This is my name"

"Very good, Ethan. I want to make a deal with you" Haku said. "Answer all my questions, and in return I will personally escort you out of the valley. If by chance my mother will see us, I will tell her to leave. This is an oath. So, are you in? You should know how much a dragon's promise is worth"

Ethan's heart skipped a beat as hope rekindled within him. Maybe he still had a chance to save himself! If his captors had been humans, then Ethan wouldn't have believed such words so easily. But his captors weren't humans, they were dragons. And it was common knowledge that no dragon would ever break his word. If Ethan had accepted, Haku would indeed have accompanied him out of the valley.

However he could also see the catch: Haku had only promised that if his mother saw them he would have told her to leave, but the great dragon could very well refuse. Haku hadn't said anything about protecting him. But Ethan wasn't in a position to negotiate at the moment anyway; and after all, having a baby dragon as an ally would have given him a chance, albeit a poor one, of surviving if the mother dragon would have found him. "Okay. I accept" he replied without thinking twice.

"I'm glad of it. You are smart" Haku said, then he looked at the other dragons. "Check that he has no other weapons, then free him"

Ethan felt the other dragons searching him; for a moment he feared that they would have took off his clothes as well, but instead they simply took away his sack and all the weapons hanging from his belt. They even sniffed him, as if trying to find out if he was hiding something. After that he finally felt the weight of the dragons disappear from his body and was finally able to get up.

Haku hadn't moved the whole time, just staring at him intensely. Ethan realized he had to be the boss of that strange group of baby dragons. With difficulty he got to his feet and then addressed him directly: "As promised, I will answer all the questions. What do you want to know, your excellency?" he asked as respectfully as possible, knowing dragons were sensitive to flattery.

Haku's eyes narrowed. "Everything" he answered simply.

Ethan was surprised. "Everything?" he repeated, not understanding the question.

Haku nodded and stared at him intensely, so much that his eyes seemed to dig into Ethan's soul. "Yes. Describe the outside world, in every single detail"