Dragons in the Night

A/N--

Hello People! Thanks to thrnbrooke, Kurai, and Deaths_mistress for reviewing you don't know how much this means to me. i'll try to get chapter five posted as soon as i can. please keep reviewing^_^.

I stepped lightly, careful not to rustle the leaves underfoot. My eyes narrow and zoom in on the heat signature left by the wounded elk. Not that it was hard to track the large animal in the snow covered peaks of the Rockies with normal vision; it just fit for me to use it.

I bent my head to avoid a low hanging branch and caught sight of my prey. Its chest heaved with the weight of its wound and the knowledge that its time was up. It already new that against me the flight it had taken was futile, but the hope was still deep inside of it, telling him there was a small chance of escaping.

I forced my breathing to remain steady fighting the adrenaline that would have made me lose control of myself. With my breathing steady I charged. The blow was a clean slice in the neck that killed the beast instantly with no pain what-so-ever.

I sunk to my knees and silently thanked the animal. It had been a worthy opponent and it deserved my respect as the hunter. I scooted over towards the now lifeless corpse, still on my knees, and fanned out by wings covering it from any would me eyes my scales changing color to blend me into my surroundings. Then I feasted. I let the sweet meat fill my mouth savoring to raw taste of the fresh kill.

I remember cringing when I first saw Draco do this. It had made me sick to my stomach, but after a few more times I realized that I started to crave it. I would feel my heart speed at the smell of fresh blood the scent of fear that still lingered on the coat of the victim. It had drawn me in and now I know that I would never eat anything the same way.

After my first kill I don’t remember much. Draco said that the blood got to me made me mad with power until he, as my mate could settle me down. I learned eventually this was our territory and that we had to respect the boundaries of it and the animals that gave of life from there own. I had never eaten more than my fill since.

Not all the wild colonies followed these ways. More than once a larger group of drakes decided to expand their lands, coming to take our own only to be killed. Though there is only Draco and myself to govern the wilds of this mountain we were more than a match for twelve some odd beings that would attack in the night.

I lifted my head and buried the little that remained of my meal then flew. The air rushed around completely unique from anything I had experienced on a broom. After reaching a thermal I was able to look over the land, my heat vision taking in everything down to last ant.

As I neared the cave that I had made as my home a soft humming reached my pointed draconian ears. I smiled, the egg wasn’t even hatched, but Draco still treated it like a fully mobile thing. Like the humming he was doing now, I could just picture Draco cradling it in the nook of his arm petting it and trying to sooth it as if it had just woken in the because of a bad dream. I gave another small chuckle as I entered the cave to see the scene exactly as I had pictured.

I was in that cell for six years almost to the day that Draco had rescued me. Another year followed until I deemed the right time to finally lay the egg. The pain was intense, but I would do it a millions times for his child. Another year after that I had found this very cave, hidden in the rocky mountain side, not far from a small creek, and isolated from just about everyone else.

With these last thoughts I moved over by my love, not surprised that he didn’t start even though no other beast in this world would have heard me. His lips met my own in a sweet gentle kiss then I brought my own to the obsidian oval in his arms. “Dante,” Draco said to me then laughed at my quizzical expression, “If it’s a boy I want to name him Dante.”

I just nodded not saying a word and lying down beside him falling asleep with our offspring resting between us…


…It was storming outside; the thunder had woken me up and made me aware to my mate’s absence. After a few minutes I tracked him down right out side the cave kneeling behind an outcrop of rocks. With my body low I joined him, “What is it my love.”

He silently looked at me then nudged his head toward the front of us. Through the down pour of rain I saw two figures, distinctly draconian. Fear ripped trough my body for a moment and I had the urge to go back to my child. I remained where I was my eyes never leaving the two figures moving steadily closer to us.

I readied myself to launch as they lessened the distance between us to mere meters. Then they bowed, to our surprise. “Who are you,” barked Draco, insulted that these weak drakes would dare to enter the territory he had rightfully claimed in the Parting.

The first a strong looking drake with sapphire blue scales decorating his body answered, clearly the braver of the two, “Our colony was overrun,” Draco nodded for him to continue, “Another colony moved into our territory when we went to…pursued them to leave we found that they had brought in dragons as well…we weren’t able to fight both the dragons and drakes in their encampment.” As the young male finished his tale his forehead dropped back to the ground.

“So, how is it our problem,” I said now joining in on the conversation.

The same young drake lifted his head that now had damp earth on it, “We attacked their camp but they soon won the battle and followed the retreating force back to our caverns…we and three others are the only ones to survive the massacre that followed.” Again Draco and I remained passive to their news. It was their own fault, if their colony wasn’t strong enough to protect what was theirs then they didn’t deserve it. The invading force was well within the Laws to take what was easily taken. They were probably in the caverns right now stacking the skulls in piles as trophies of their victories.

“You misunderstand, m’lord, the dragons had the drakes serving as underlings, slaves, lesser,” the being in front of them said in disgust. It took a moment for me to school my features into neutrality again. It was completely unheard of for any magical creature to serve another in the way they were implying. At the Parting the Laws were laid down on of the first was that the dragons would respect the drakes as magical creatures, not beings of a lesser breed, or they would pay.

With my features once again in a mask I looked over at my mate. “These are very, very high accusations that you are making. We will of course need to make the Dragon Council aware of this as well as have both of your words in blood that what you say is true,” I told them.

The second on raised his greens scaled covered head, some of the scales had flaked off and the blood had yet to be cleaned off, but the eyes, they were a solid black and filled with pain and anguish I hoped to never understand. A female, I thought to myself. “You think that we would make up such a thing!” I would have raised and eyebrow and this if I had them, “They come into our territory using our people as slaves then they take our young from us kill all the elders who wouldn’t bow to their will. And you as a mother would think we would lie about something as horrific as this.”

I blinked a few times; I could tell by her eyes that she did not lie about this. “Is this true,” I asked the male, trying to clarify this new information.

“Yes, m’lady.”

“Why didn’t you say so before,” I finally snapped at him fully understanding the horror of what had happened. I would out for revenge if someone had come to take my egg.

The male flinched back slightly, “I was getting to th-that.”

Draco placed an arm around my shoulders and I schooled my face once again into an emotional mask, “You said there were others,” they both nodded, “You,” I pointed at the male, “return and bring the other, you will be staying in the caves north of here until we can contact the Wild Councils.” They nodded and were off.

A few minutes later Draco left to check on the egg leaving me alone with only my thoughts. There was a kind of comfort that came from being caged. You start putting a schedule together a way of doing things. But life was never the same, things came at you unexpectedly and all you can do is hope to avoid them…out here…on the outside…