Chp.37: Recover

When Haku regained consciousness, it took him a few moments to convince himself that he was still alive. Still, the familiar sound of breathing, the feel of his lungs expanding to take in air, the rhythmic patter of his heart and the tingling coming from his numb muscles left no room for doubt. If he were dead, he certainly wouldn't be able to feel sensations as if he still had a body, right?

Very slowly, he opened his eyes. He was clearly no longer in the body of the hydra: on the contrary, he was inside a place that seemed to be made of fabrics suspended from wooden poles, and he was lying on a hard floor that decidedly did not reflect the fleshy interior of the monster whose brains he ate. And in front of him there was a human being.

Wait a moment! A human!?

His body acted reflexively: he immediately snapped and lunged at the human, his jaws wide open ready to close on his head; but before he could even fully stand up the human yelled: "STOP!"

His body seemed to freeze; Haku was no longer able to move. Every single muscle locked up, and no matter how much he ordered them to keep moving, he couldn't move a single millimeter. The human looked him straight in the eyes, as if trying to read his soul, then said: "You can move, but you can't attack me or anyone else"

As soon as the human finished saying those words, Haku was able to move again. He immediately tried to attack his opponent, but each time he tried he froze in place. The human didn't say a word and patiently waited for him to get tired or for him to understand by himself that he couldn't do anything. After the third attempt, Haku finally surrendered. "What have you done to me?" he growled.

The human raised a finger and pointed to something on his neck: "That's a collar of submission. We use it to keep dangerous beasts in check when there aren't any warriors or mages strong enough to tame them around. You can't rebel against my orders"

"A collar?" Haku murmured instinctively touching the base of his neck. Indeed, he clearly felt something cold and metallic enveloping it, but as soon as he tried to touch it, it gave him a shock, forcing him to let it go.

"You can't take it off" the human said. "It is specially made to prevent very powerful creatures from breaking free. Even if you used all your strength, you wouldn't be able to break it"

Haku was furious, and even more it made him furious that he couldn't vent against the human because of the collar. However, his anger and wounded pride didn't stop him from thinking clearly. The human had said that collar couldn't be broken… but it was clearly a magical item, so perhaps he could nullify its magic with the nullification rune. Of course, he couldn't use it here, though, so he had to play along for now. "Where am I?"

As he asked that question, he studied his surroundings. He was clearly in a tent, and a very large one at that, so, based on what he knew about armies from his experience with ogres, it must have been the tent of someone important. While doing so he also studied the human: she was clearly female, or at least he thought she was since she had attributes on her chest very similar to those of female ogres and fairies, and furthermore her odor was also very similar to that of females. "You are in our military camp, a few kilometers away from the place where you fought that hydra" the human explained. "My name is Hara. I am one of the people who command this army"

Haku let out a snort. At least it didn't look like the human was going to kill him right away. "My name is Haku" he said. "Now that we've made the introductions, would you mind telling me what you want to do with me?"

Hara raised an eyebrow in clear disappointment. "Couldn't you be a little kinder? Didn't your parents teach you to be polite when talking to a lady?"

Haku flinched at those words. "Mine weren't exactly good parents" he grumbled.

Hara rolled her eyes. "Really? My mother abandoned me when I was just eight years old and my father only saw me just three times for the first part of my life, but that didn't stop me from growing up with a good education"

"My mother only brought me into this world to appease her instinct to reproduce, she had no affection for me or my siblings, she let my sisters starve, she emotionally traumatized my brother and then slammed him against a rock wall, and when her maternal instinct wore off she chased me off her territory threatening to eat me if I didn't leave quickly. My father instead not only never showed up for my first two months of life, but when he came back he tried to kill me" Haku replied. "And then I killed them both. So no, my parents didn't teach me education, they just taught me that this world is unforgiving and that you have to do whatever it takes to survive"

Hara was silenced by those words. Her eyes opened like two bowls. "Ok, you won" she said after a few seconds, then she asked: "Sorry, but how did you manage to kill your parents? I doubt you have the strength to fight against an adult dragon"

Haku realized that maybe he shouldn't have said that. If she had considered him a danger, the human could have decided to kill him. "Dragons are extremely territorial. It was enough for me to let my father and mother meet and they killed each other" he replied. It was a half-truth, so it was pretty truthful and easy to believe.

Hara looked somewhat confused. "Weren't your parents lovers? Why would they kill each other?"

"Dragons don't know love. Not my parents at least. They only reproduced by instinct, nothing more. Can we get back to the point now, please? I'd like to talk about the current situation, not my family drama" was the curt reply by Haku.

Hara seemed willing to ask more questions, but in the end she chose to comply with the dragon's request. "Okay. As I told you before, you are in our military camp. We brought you here after your battle with the hydra and I healed you using the power given to me by my goddess"

Haku's heart skipped a beat. If that woman possessed the power of a god, then she must be legendary level! "Why did you save my life?"

"I didn't save your life, you would have recovered anyway, I just expedited the process" Hara replied. "Normally, I would have killed you immediately after I found you. My people don't usually leave a live dragon around. But you've done us a great favor, so it seemed appropriate to reciprocate in some way"

Haku was confused. "What favor?" he asked, not remembering ever doing humans any favors.

"You distracted and killed the hydra. Thanks to you, we avoided a disadvantageous battle and won the war" Hara replied. "It would take a long time to explain the whole story to you... so it's enough to know that if we are now at peace it's thanks to you. So I wanted to thank you"

Haku understood very little of that speech, but he certainly understood that newcomers had a strange sense of gratitude. Well, not that he was any different: he almost always killed those who helped him. However, under such circumstances, he could pretend to have some sense of morality. "Would putting this collar around my neck be a token of gratitude from you? How nice, I'm almost moved"

Hara blushed slightly in clear shame; as Haku had predicted, the newcomers were sensitive to their stupid moral laws. But still when she spoke the woman had a calm and determined voice. "I'm not stupid enough to let you go free. You may be young, but you're still a dragon. One day you'll become a wandering natural disaster. So be grateful that I let you live, because it's so much more mercy than many of your predecessors received when they met my ancestors"

Haku considered whether to continue to annoy the woman using her stupid morals, but then he changed his mind. Continuing like this would only have made her an enemy. Sympathy was his best weapon at the moment. "Okay. I understand"

Hara was somewhat surprised. "Really?"

"Of course. Letting me go would be no different than letting go of an earthquake, or a hurricane, or a flood, or a wildfire. Even if I promise you never to attack your home kingdom, I'll still be a problem for the rest of the world. It would be foolish of you to set me free" Haku replied. "Actually, maybe I should really thank you. You're the first newcomer I've ever met who doesn't try to kill me in the first place"

Even that wasn't exactly a lie. When he had met Ethan, his companions had tried to capture him and Darbi. When she had met Sarpa, he had tried to fight him. Sinar, Sarpa's son, had attacked him. And the many fairies he had captured had always tried to kill him, both before and after their capture. Of course, Haku could ignore the fact that he was often the one who sought the fight.

"Well… thank you for being so understanding" Hara replied somewhat uneasily. Evidently she didn't expect that there was a creature in the world who could accept being imprisoned with such philosophy. "How did you call me, by the way? Newcomer?"

"How little do you know about us dragons?" Haku asked. It was clear that the human before him knew almost nothing about dragons. "Newcomers is the name we give to all new intelligent races, as you all came after us. But if you prefer me to call you human, that's fine"

"I'd prefer you call me by my first name" Hara replied. "That would be good manners too"

"Really? You've never called me by mine until now. Does this 'good manners' only apply to humans, or maybe to women?" Haku replied sarcastically, with an arrogant smile painted on his face.

"Of course I called you by your...!" Hara froze, realizing that Haku had told the truth: she had never called him by his first name, even after he had told her. Sure, she had never called him 'dragon' after that moment too, but still she couldn't contradict Haku. Apparently, the dragon in front of her was a master of rhetoric. "You're good at talking" she admitted. "Did your parents teach you that as well as how to survive?"

"No, it's an innate gift. We dragons learn to speak very quickly, without anyone's help, let alone our parents" Haku replied. "Also, sometimes a good argument and an iron memory are essential for survival. It would surprise you to know how many times these two things have allowed me to see the dawn of another day"

"It seems that you have had many adventures" Hara said.

Haku shook his head annoyed. "I wouldn't exactly call them adventures. More struggles for survival. It's easy to fall into them when everything in this world is trying to kill me"

"Yeah. Sorry" Hara replied. "Forgive me, it's hard for me to remember that you lived a very different life than most people I know"

Haku didn't want to be too mean, but still he couldn't suppress a sarcastic comment: "I guess it's normal when you have food on the table every day and a safe place to sleep at night"

Silence fell in the tent. Hara didn't know how to reply to that statement; partly she wanted to contradict Haku, stung by pride, and partly she knew she couldn't do it. Although many people didn't always live in good conditions, it was rare that some of them had to fight fiercely for food or a safe place to rest. That comment had made clear how big the disparity between her and Haku was.

Realizing he'd made his interlocutor uncomfortable, Haku tried to fix it; after all, he didn't want to make her an enemy. "Anyway, what do you want to do with me?" he asked, changing the subject.

Hara shook her head. "It isn't something I can decide. I have already sent a message to the king explaining your merits. Tomorrow we will leave and I will take you to him. He will decide your fate. In the meantime, you won't be able to leave this tent" she answered. "I won't order you to sleep, but I advise you to. It won't be a pleasant journey for you"

Haku didn't want to know what the human meant. All he cared about was that at least for the moment he wanted to keep him alive, and that was enough. "Okay. I'll take your advice, Hara" he said lying down on the floor of the tent, then he added: "And thank you for your kindness"

Hara smiled slightly at that comment. "See? You too can be polite if you want to" she joked as she stepped out of the tent, giving him his privacy.

As soon as he was alone again, Haku's eyes narrowed. The first thing he did was try to get out of the tent, but as he imagined the collar wouldn't let him. He could try to use the nullifying rune to remove it, but through the opening in the tent he could see that he was surrounded by armed guards, and that one of them every few minutes peeked inside the tent. Even if he had used the invisibility rune they would have noticed immediately that the door of the tent would have opened, and if by some miracle he had managed to pass his large body through it without arousing suspicion they would have realized his escape after just a few minutes. He would never be able to escape in time.

For now, he had to be patient and weigh his chances carefully. Maybe the human could help him, at least subconsciously. She'd been willing to save him, so maybe she'd even be willing to go a little further. Pity was a weapon too after all, and Haku would have had no qualms about using it.