A True Friend

Chapter 2

The Skrill's P.O.V
I was just flying, minding my own business, when these humans on a boat just started shooting at me!

My first thought was, Ooooooh, they don't know what they're getting themselves into! But when I took a better look at the ship, there were a lot of humans. Way more than I usually take on. So, I did the only sensible thing: I flew away. But they kept chasing me!

I thought, Okay, these humans are just asking to be roasted. But I restrained myself and kept flying.

I knew from rumours that not all humans are bad. Some even help dragons! But I knew this wasn't the case. I flew high into my storm, hoping to hide until they went away, but the lightning kept giving away my hiding spot.

When I finally heard some crazy human say, "Yes! This is it! I will finally have a Skrill!" I turned my tail around and flew away as fast as I could, which was pretty dang fast, and occasionally hitching a ride on a lightning bolt to go faster.

I don't know how long we kept up the game of chase, but eventually, my storm came over land, and so did the hunters. They kept firing arrows at me through the clouds. One shot me in my left leg, and I roared an insult at the humans. I shot a blast of lightning at the ground and a faint smell of burnt flesh reached my nose.

Does that mean they're dead? I thought hopefully.

My luck didn't last. A second arrow found its mark, right next to the first one. I shot another lightning blast and through my pained haze, I think I roared something about... idiot landwalkers?

A third arrow found itself lodged in my leg next to the other two. Instead of shouting an insult like before, I just screamed.

I started to fall towards land and I at least tried to soften the landing by flapping my wings, but I still made a hole in the ground.

Only a couple of seconds later, I heard a splash on the ground and the sound of feet sloshing through water.

Great, just what I need. Another human. I rolled my eyes.

I felt a finger brush my wing for a second. Maybe this human wasn't bad like the hunters. If it wanted to hurt me, it could have done it already. I heard feet moving further from my head, towards the arrows in my leg. I heard a small gasp, and the human started to walk in front of me, to a tree that I could barely make out from the rain. When it returned, it was carrying several large leaves, about the size of my talon, and stopped at my head.

Now that I got a better look at it, I could tell it was a human girl, and a young one at that. Her dark hair was sopping wet and her clothes stuck to her body.

Strange clothes, I thought.

I've never seen clothes like that before. It didn't appear to be animal fur, leather, and certainly not dragon scales.

Snapping me from my thoughts, the girl put her hand out in front of her, a few inches from my face.

"I need you to trust me," She said, barely audible through the rain. "I want to help. But I can't if you won't let me."

I quietly listened while looking her over. She didn't have any visible weapons, and she didn't look like she was ready for a fight. What she did next surprised me, a lot. She turned her head away and closed her eyes.

She's trying to show me I can trust her because she trusts me, I realized, putting the pieces together. What? I can be smart sometimes.

I moved my face closer, closing the distance between us. Her hand was warm despite the cold rain and I could tell she was excited. After a second, she bent down to my eye level and looked me in the eye and vice versa. A level of intelligence and curiosity that matched my own shone in her blue eyes. We looked in each other's eyes for only a second longer, but in that time, I saw myself in this human. Someone who was always searching for something new, but was also a little scared.

"Trust me," She whispered.

I nodded once. I knew I was in good hands. She wouldn't harm me, that I was certain of.

She walked around my head and out of my line of sight, but she kept her hand on me to let me know where she was. When she was next to my leg, she placed her hand next to one arrow.

"I'm gonna pull it out now," She told me.

I told her, "Go ahead." And she grabbed the arrow, and pulled.

The arrow was ripped out of my flesh and scales and I let out a scream. I knew it would hurt and I knew I should be quiet, but holy mother of dragons that hurt!

"Sssshhh! You have to be quiet. I know it hurts. I'm sorry!" The human told me as she ripped out the other two arrows.

I reduced my screams to low growls as I felt the human place the leaves over what were probably holes left by the arrows.

I panicked as I lost a little feeling in my leg, but that panic jumped to full fledged freaking out when I heard dozens of people heading our way. I growled and tried to stand up, but fell right back down when I put weight on the injured leg. The girl immediately ran in front of my head so I could see her.

"It's the hunters, isn't it?" She asked me.

I felt like she already knew the answer, but I nodded my head. A look of fear crossed her face and she looked behind me.

"I need you to listen," She told me. "I'm going to try to hide you behind my house. I need you to stand up. I'm gonna try to help you, but I'm not sure if I can do much. Understand?"

I nodded again and slowly started to stand. She went to my left side and stood under my wing. I tried putting most of my weight on my right side, mostly because my leg felt like it was on fire, but also because the human didn't look like she could hold much more of my weight.

Fifteen painful steps later, we were behind her house, which was, thankfully, tall and long enough to hide me. About half a minute later, it sounded like the hunters were close to our hiding spot.

"Where did it go?" A frustrated voice asked.

I immediately recognized it as the human who wanted to catch me. I started to growl out of habit, but the girl shushed me.

"Maybe it flew away, sir," A deep, gruff voice suggested.

"I saw it come down," He insisted. "Are you doubting me?!"

"No sir."

"Keep searching. We're not leaving without that Skrill," The first voice said.

When it sounded like everyone was gone, the human girl let out a deep breath and looked over at me. She looked pretty shaken up, although, it might have just been the cold rain.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to let them find you. I swear on my life," She said, looking me in the eye.

I knew she was good. I know how bad the dragon hunters are, and she just risked her life to hide me. And now, she's swearing on her life to protect me. I did something I knew in that moment that I would never do to anyone else. I put my head into her chest and a second later, she hugged me back. Just then, the loudest boom of thunder yet sounded, and the rain, although I didn't think it was possible, started to come down twice as hard. Seeing the girl trying to cover her eyes from the rain, I lifted my wing and gestured for her to take cover.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

I nodded and she hurried under my wing. I looked up at the clouds, wishing I could be up there. Then I looked back at the girl, knowing that this was going to be the start of a long friendship.

~~~
The cringe is strong with this one. Jeez, I know, I know. I was cringing so hard while writing this. But if you made it... thank youuuuu! Um... I got nothing else to say... bye bye! Origin out!