Chapter Text
She crouched quietly on her chosen branch, leaning against the trunk of the tree to her right. The rough bark scraped at her arm but she ignored it, her eyes focused intently on the deer that was slowly approaching the salt lick she’d left in the middle of the clearing.
Moving slowly, she drew back the string of her bow in a fluid and practiced motion, arrow already nocked taking aim at her quarry. She couldn’t really afford to miss this shot. She’d been up here for three days already and her supplies were running low. Plus her stepmother and brother were waiting for her to bring back meat at home. They would both be growing impatient by now. Carefully she set the deer in her sights and drew in a breath.
The baying of wolves brought the startled deer’s head up, and instead of impaling it through the neck it flew wide. She cursed violently as the deer ran off into the forest. Her family was not going to be happy with her. Jumping down from the tree with the ease of long familiarity she went and retrieved her arrow.
Inspecting it, she sighed, at least it was still in good condition and perfectly usable. Sliding it back into her quiver she frowned. She’d never had such bad luck on a hunt before. She’d never failed to bring back meat of some kind, and considered herself an excellent huntress, but for some reason game had been scarce this time.
Listening she could hear the sounds of the wolves getting closer, wolves were normally shy of people, but she was cautious. Climbing the tree once more she eased herself into the taller branches and glanced around curiously. She knew the sounds of this particular forest well, having been hunting in it since she was very small, and something about the sounds the wolves were making was… off.
Glancing around she spotted movement in a nearby clearing. Using the tree branches as a roadway she slowly made her way over. She frowned as she saw a small pack of grey wolves snarling and clawing at a dead tree. Angry, aggressive growls left them as they tried to dig under it to get to whatever was there.
A flash of color caught her eye near the end of the log, glancing over she saw nothing, but continued to watch the area, only to hiss in shock as she finally figured out what it was the wolves were attacking. There could be no mistake, not with those softly glinting scales.
Only one creature in the world had scales like that, it could only be a dragon, a small one, but a dragon nonetheless. A part of her mind wanted to reject the idea, dragons hadn’t been seen in the wilds for hundreds of years. They all belonged to different sectors of the Dragon Guilds, where they were partnered with a talented human on their hatching day.
A powerful bond would form between human and dragon, and eventually the two would grow and fight together, partners for life. The Guilds then used the partners to protect their territory and keep those within safe, and to keep other Guilds off their turf. It was basically impossible for ordinary civilians to see dragons outside the grown ones who sometimes flew overhead with their partners who were called the Dragon Kin, or if you were really unlucky you’d see them at your death if you got caught in between during one of the Guild fights.
To see a baby dragon was basically impossible as they were kept close along with their chosen Dragon Kin until they were big enough to protect themselves. To see one without a Dragon Kin nearby? Being attacked by wolves of all things? She would’ve thought she was dreaming if not for the rough scrape of bark on her skin.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a high pitched cry, somewhere between a squeal and a hiss. One of the wolves had finally caught the little dragon and had its leg in its teeth. She didn’t even think, her hands were on her bow in a blink an arrow nocked, sighted and loosed before the thought had even really processed to save the dragon.
It planted itself squarely in the neck of the wolf holding the dragon, sending it sprawling on top of the small creature. The other wolves yipped in surprise and confusion, another arrow brought another wolf down, and the pack took off into the trees.
Slowly she lowered her bow and climbed down from the branch, the body of the first wolf was moving slightly and she could hear distressed cries from under it. Grabbing it by the neck, she hauled it off the small creature and got her first good look at it.
It was a small thing, from snout to rump just the length of her forearm. It had a barrel shaped chest, and small stubby legs, that reminded her a bit of a Jack Russell terrier. Its scales were a soft jade green color shot through with gold that glinted in the light and each of its feet were tipped in silver claws that looked sharp as daggers. A long tail swished behind it as it stared up at her in surprise at being uncovered.
Its neck was long and slender with a ridge of silver spikes down the length of it, holding a distinctly reptilian head. Small ridges just above the eyes had the beginnings of what she was sure would be horns eventually, and razor sharp teeth peaked out of the small mouth, as it tilted its head and hissed warningly at her, its bright golden eyes staring her down as best it could from its small height.
All in all it was actually pretty adorable, but even as small as it was she knew it had to be dangerous. Still now that she was face to face with it, she knew she couldn’t just leave it here. Dragons were extremely valuable and one this young really belonged with its Guild whoever they were.
At this point she had to assume this little one didn’t have a Dragon Kin, because none of them would dare let a youngling like this one go off on its own. Plus they were miles from any Guild and this baby obviously couldn’t fly, its small black wings still crumpled looking, drawn in tight to its back and nowhere near strong enough to hold its weight, let alone escape from a well protected Guild without notice.
That meant that the poor thing was either wild, which was extremely unlikely as all dragons had been Guild owned for hundreds of years, or somehow it had gotten lost from one of the Guilds nearby, perhaps lost in transit or some such thing. She frowned at the thought of such carelessness, but it was still the most likely possibility.
Either way the poor thing couldn’t remain here in the woods, it would have to be taken somewhere to get proper care. That meant that she was going to have to convince it to come with her, as there was no way she was going to risk leaving and getting help and having the wolves come back to finish it off while she was gone. Plus its leg was injured and bleeding sluggishly, making the poor baby limp as it tried to back away from her warily.
Slowly she lowered herself down, taking off her bow and quiver and placing them on the ground beside her to make herself appear smaller to the nervous but dangerous creature. Sitting down on her haunches she slowly and carefully moved her hands to her belt purse, and pulled out a handful of dried venison that she’d intended as her lunch.
Admittedly she had no clue what Dragons in the Guilds ate, but she was fairly sure it was meat, and either way it was all she had on her. Breaking off a small piece, she carefully extended her hand to the tiny creature who hissed furiously, trying to warn her away, but unable to move far, cornered and with an injured limb.
Instead of provoking it further she just sat there with her hand outstretched and waited. Long minutes slowly passed by as the dragon stopped hissing and started eyeing her warily, apparently completely confused by her behavior.
The knowledge of dragons and their care wasn’t widely known, or really known at all outside the Guilds as they tended to keep things like that highly secret, hoping their raising and training techniques would give them an edge over the other guilds. However she had heard that they were intelligent beings. This one was obviously a baby, and may or may not have been exposed to humans before, but she had to take a chance as her arm was beginning to become sore.
“Hello there little one,” she cooed softly, the same way she would with a wounded dog, “I’m not going to hurt you. Aren’t you hungry you poor baby.”
The dragon appeared startled at first, but then became transfixed and slowly but surely began to edge forward toward her hand, which she held out for it enticingly. She kept her voice steady and kind, trying desperately not to give away her nerves or excitement as it moved within arms reach.
It sniffed at her fingers curiously, then sneezed, giving her a strangely reproachful look. Apparently it didn’t like the smell of the leather elbow length gloves she was wearing to protect her arms from her bow. Still it didn’t back away, instead eventually finding the small piece of jerky and snatching it away eagerly, before hobbling away with its prize as if it was afraid she’d take it back.
It gobbled the small piece quickly, and as it did, she broke off another piece and extended her hand again. Again the dragon approached her and took the offering before backing away. The process repeated itself several times, with the dragon becoming less and less wary until she ran out of meat.
She had nothing to offer any more, but extended her hand anyway, wondering what it would do. The dragon approached eagerly and sniffed her hand, then appeared confused as it noticed she wasn’t holding anything. It then inspected her hand thoroughly, glancing between her face and hand for several minutes before lunging.
She let out a shriek of surprise as it latched on to her hand, its sharp little teeth digging into her glove. It only lasted a brief second as the dragon made a strange unhappy hissing noise and quickly let go. Luckily the gloves had protected her hands so it hadn’t hurt just surprised her a bit.
She glanced at the creature who looked completely and utterly disgusted with the taste of her gloves, and she couldn’t help but feel vindicated, “Serves you right you know, you really shouldn’t try to bite the hand that feeds you.”
The dragon gave her an injured look, and she almost wanted to coo at it. It really was adorable, unfortunately for it, she wasn’t quite that quick to forgive and forget, not when her fingers were on the line.
The rapid patter of feet and angry barks and yips interrupted any other attempts to befriend the tiny dragon. The wolves were back, and apparently they’d found friends. Low growls sounded as she slowly spun in a circle and realized they were completely surrounded. Several colorful curses went through her mind as she realized they were too close already for bow work, and instead pulled a hunting knife from her belt.
Looking at the animals around her, she realized that for whatever reason they were almost entirely focused on the dragon, despite her being bigger, and in her own opinion more of a threat. She wondered what it was about the poor little thing that provoked this level of aggression from the wolves, if they just had something against dragons in general or if this one had done something to set them off.
Normally wolves were fairly shy, and a bit cowardly to boot, having them come after another predator was nearly unheard of, especially when said predator had proved it could fight back. It was obvious the little dragon had indeed fought back, as many of the wolves sported deep looking scratches and bite marks on their muzzles.
Briefly she considered running, and leaving the small dragon behind for now. Obviously it had survived so far, and might even survive again, and she could go get help. That train of thought was cut off in an instant by the small warbling cry of the baby behind her and chancing a glance back, she saw it looking at her as if it could read her thoughts, the most piteous expression on its small face.
She knew in that moment she couldn’t do it, that she was fooling herself if she thought the injured creature could survive another encounter with the wolves. Unfortunately she wasn’t sure she could survive either. The first wolf lunged and she went down in a flurry of snapping teeth and fur.
She reacted on instinct stabbing out blindly with the knife, doing her best to avoid the jaws of the beast on top of her, even as its weight pressed down on her from above. She used her free arm to protect her vulnerable neck, crying out in shock and pain as the wolf latched on to her forearm, once again grateful that the gloves gave her some protection.
She could smell its putrid breath, and the copper tang of blood in the air, and it made her wretch as she wrestled with the thing, trying to make it let go of her arm.
One of her wild strikes with the knife must’ve hit home eventually because the wolf on top of her slumped its entire weight falling on her and temporarily knocking the wind out of her. She hurriedly pushed the carcass off herself, crawling out from beneath it on her hands and knees.
While she’s been wrestling with her wolf, the others have converged on the little dragon. She could feel her heart pounding, as she reached hurriedly for her bow and quiver. She can hear that its not dead yet, the hissing growling sounds coming from behind the pack of furry bodies and the occasional yelp of pain from the wolves enough to let her know it was alive, though for how long she didn’t know.
Her hands shook with adrenalin and fear as she hurriedly re-sheathed her knife and strung and knocked an arrow to her bow. Her fingers were slippery with blood, but her excellent aim combined with the short range made her shots fire true.
She got off three of them, taking down two wolves and badly injuring another before the pack realized it was under attack. At that point though she’d realized there was no way she was going to be able to take them all out on her own. Not when there were still at least a dozen of them.
There was only one course of action left to her, and it was probably the stupidest thing she’d ever done in her life. Slinging her bow onto her back, she grabbed a large stick from the ground and charged forward into the center of the pack of wolves wielding it like a staff and smacking them clumsily with it to the best of her ability wading through the mass until she came to the center.
Her sudden aggression was enough to take the animals off guard, and allow her to scoop the tiny bleeding form of the dragon into one arm, and rush out of the circle of wolves. The poor creature was in pretty bad shape, but luckily it seemed to recognize her and didn’t thrash after the first few seconds of her grabbing it and cradling it to her chest or try to bite her again.
Knowing it would be the height of stupidity to think she could outrun the wolves, she headed for the nearest tree, and began to do her best to scramble up one handed. She wasn’t quick enough, and the wolves came after her, one latching on to her leg as she was almost out of reach.
Pain lanced through her, but she hung grimly on to the tree branch knowing to let go now meant certain death for her and for the baby dragon. Once more she was faced with the choice, if she dropped the dragon in her arm, she would have both hands to pull her to safety, and the wolves would likely let her go.
She never even considered it, glancing around frantically for anything to help she came to a quick decision. Praying it wouldn’t maul her she hefted the dragon up and dropped it down the front of her loose tunic, that was tucked securely into her breeches. Her arm thusly freed, she grabbed on to the branch with both hands and managed to kick out hard at the wolf, catching it in the snout.
It let go with a yelp and she hurriedly pulled herself up on to the branch and continued to climb until she was well out of reach. From the safety of a high perch she watched the wolves circle and howl below to no avail. Shakily she sat back, the branch was wide enough she could safely fold her legs together to sit tailor style without worrying about falling off and lean her back against the trunk.
The weight against her legs reminded her of her passenger, and she carefully un-tucked her tunic, allowing the small creature to tumble out into her lap. It was a little worse for wear, with a couple bite marks, scratches and scuffs, but it still seemed alert, peering about its surroundings and eying her with interest.
“If you fall off, I’m not going to rescue you this time,” she warned it breathlessly, still winded from the fight and the climb.
The dragon made an odd chirping noise and settled on to her lap like a strange sort of cat, apparently content not to move. Pulling off her glove with her teeth she inspected the damage the wolf had done to her arm. It actually wasn’t too bad, though she was sure there would be a lot of deep bruising it hadn’t managed to puncture the tough leather too badly, and she only had a few small pock marks to show where its teeth had been.
Knowing bites like that were prone to infection, she thanked every god she could think of that she always brought along a small first aid kit when taking her hunting trips. Carefully she dug around in the small pack that she’d managed to keep with her through everything, and removed her supplies. She cleaned the wound as best she could and tied a neat bandage around it.
She then turned her eyes on the dragon, who’d watched her curiously. Again she cursed the general lack of knowledge about dragons as she realized it would probably need its wounds treated as well. All she had was for humans, but she did know a lot of human medicines could be used on dogs, she would just have to hope dragons were the same way.
“Come on then little one, lets get you cleaned up,” she told it, carefully reaching for it. She did her best to keep it calm, talking to it soothingly as she gently dabbed antiseptic on its’ wounds. It hissed and flinched eyeing her distrustfully.
“I know,” she soothed gently, “I know it stings, but its good for you, see look.”
She demonstrated under the dragon’s watchful eye, cleaning the deeper wound on her calf where the wolf had latched on to try to keep her from climbing. A good thing too as it was still bleeding sluggishly. Fighting the urge to keep from cursing she wrestled the supplies she needed to sew the wound closed out of her pack.
This wasn’t the first time she’d had to sew her own wounds closed. It was something of a necessity to know how to treat even bad injuries like this one if she was going to hunt in the woods alone. Luckily the village elder had taken a bit of a shine to her after her father died and taught her all he knew about this sort of thing so she could continue her hunting trips. Without them she would’ve gone hungry as her stepmother was much more inclined to feed her own child over her.
Food wasn’t exactly short in the village, but her family had never been wealthy, and her stepmother and stepbrother enjoyed the finer things in life. They pretty much refused to do any work whatsoever which left her at age twelve as the main bread winner for the family, luckily she did know how to hunt some then, and had rapidly improved over the years.
She would’ve left them or kicked them out long ago, as they made it obvious they cared very little for her, but her village was a traditional one. This meant on her father’s death her stepmother was considered the head of the family until her stepbrother came of age. The only way out from under their collective thumb was to get married, something she had absolutely no interest in with any of the boys from the village.
She had just turned twenty-one recently, and the other villagers had insisted she was well into marrying age, but her stepmother kept holding off on negotiating a contract for her. She wasn’t sure why that was, but she did have her suspicions.
The first reason that came to mind was that if she was gone, so was their main source of income and then they might actually be forced to get off their lazy behinds and do something for once. The second, one she was becoming more and more sure of with each passing day, was that her stepmother actually intended to engage her to her son, her stepbrother when he came of age in another week.
The thought made her sick. Her stepbrother was a vicious, bullying, coward who often tried to throw his weight around in the village, happy to lash out at anyone who didn’t fight back.
She refused to be married to a violent pig like him, and actually had a secret bag packed and hidden in her room back home with all the necessities to make a run for it if she needed to. Which she would do if it came down to it, she would much rather live in the wilderness like an animal for the rest of her life than let him touch her.
She winced as her angry thoughts made her jab herself with the needle she was using to stitch herself with a little too hard. Luckily it was the last one and she carefully tied the thread off, smeared it with even more antiseptic and bound it up. Her special antiseptic cream was another thing the elder had taught her to make with herbs that grew in the area, and it actually had a bit of a numbing agent in it, so that after it was applied it would ease the pain. She sighed in relief as she felt that part of it.
The dragon didn’t object this time, when she carefully rubbed in more antiseptic and used the last of her bandages on its wounds. Eyeing the cloth with interest before apparently deciding it was okay and settling down in her lap again.
Seeing it laying there she was overcome with the urge to reach for it again, her curiosity getting the best of her. This time it didn’t seem to have any objections as she gently ran her fingers over its softly glinting scales, completely fascinated. They were softer than they looked, more like a snake than anything else, as she carefully traced the ridges along its neck and back, and over its tail, childlike awe covering her features.
She’d always wondered what it would be like to see a dragon up close without having to worry about being bitten or barbequed and now she knew. Honestly it was a bit of a dream come true for her. A soft high rumbling made her pause her inspection and she glanced at the dragon’s face only to see its eyes half closed in pleasure as she pet it.
“Are you purring?” she asked with wonder, her hands pausing in their ministrations to take in the contented look on its face. As soon as she stopped though its eyes popped open, and it looked up at her confused, then to her surprise nudged her hands as if to urge her to continue.
Chuckling at the way the creature was reminding her more and more of a puppy or a barn cat she obeyed its demands and continued to pet it, deciding that everything was going to be okay now, as the little dragon gave a big yawn, settling contentedly into her lap for a nap.
Once the wolves were gone she’d take the tiny creature with her to her village and discuss what to do with it, with the village elder who’d always been kind to her. Until then she allowed her eyes to drift close, her head falling back against the trunk of the tree.
The adrenaline of her adventure was wearing off, and she was suddenly very tired. Knowing from experience that she could sleep safely in trees without fear of falling she settled in to join the dragon for some rest.