Under The Mask (A Raya and The Last Dragon Fanfic)

Chapter 3: The Hunter

Sisu, Pranee, Amba, and Jagan are all keeping all of the streamers that are hanging in the ceilings and pillars while storing food away for later. All the things that they were taking away were meant for Pengu's bride, but sadly, there was no one for Pengu to call his bride.
Sisu sighs and said. "I'm sorry guys."
Confused, like the rest of their siblings, Jagan stops what he was doing and asked. "What are you sorry about?"
"The flyers, Pengu's dates... Everything. And right now, I'm worried, worried that I've made Pengu's loneliness even worse!" Sisu exclaimed
"Sisu, don't blame yourself for that, you did your best to help our lonely brother. But hey, he did meet some good dragons along the way though."
"Yes, I know, Jagan, but he didn't pick any of them as his bride."
"*Sigh* Yeah, almost forgot about that."
Pranee, who is holding a box of decorations, puts the box down and walks towards her youngest sister as she puts her paw on her sister's shoulder and said. "Don't worry, my little sister, all hope is not lost, because there is going to be a time when Pengu's path will cross with another and finds his true love and-."Then all of a sudden, the doors of their home burst open, revealing their eldest brother carrying a tired female dragon in his arms.
"Brother and sisters, please, I need your help." Pengu begged.
All of his siblings are now staring at the sleeping female dragon and then at their brother with wide eyes.
"Bro... Is that your new mate?" Jagan asked in curiousness.
Pengu looks at his youngest brother with a face of confusion and said. "What? No. I just found her lying in the desert country of Tail. She's covered in sores and her paws are burnt."
"Then what must we do to help?" Pranee asked.
"Go and fetch the medicine while I bring my new friend into my room." Pengu commanded as all of his siblings rushed towards where the medicine is located.
Once in his room, Pengu gently places Eyes on his bed and he made sure she is placed in the most comfortable position, in a few moments, his siblings come into his room with the necessary medicine for Eyes.
"Just put them on my table and leave, thank you."
Once his siblings are out of his room, Pengu is putting a healing cream on his paws and starting rubbing on them, and after he is done, he looks at Eyes and said.
"This is going to hurt a little bit."
Next, he gently applies the healing cream on Eyes' paws but when Pengu's paws came into contact with hers she hissed in pain.
"H-Hurt."
"I know, I'm sorry, but this is going to help heal you."
Afterward, Pengu moves on to Eyes' other wounds and it only took an hour to finish tending to his new friend's wounds. Then, Pengu presented Eyes with a cup of water and said.
"Here, a cup of water. *Sigh* You poor thing, you must've been thirsty when you were at Tail."
He is correct, Eyes is thirsty and she didn't expect to be thirsty after being transformed into a dragon by the power of a magical dragon mask. But other than that, Eyes looks at the cup, until she grabs it slowly as she is careful not to drop it, and soon enough, she drank all of the water from the cup and she handed the cup back to her savior.
Next, Pengu says. "You must rest now, Eyes, and afterward, I will call you down for dinner, where you will with me and my siblings."
"Sounds... Good." Eyes replied with a smile, of which Pengu smiles back.
"Then, rest well, my friend." And with that, Pengu lightly pats Eyes' arms and proceeds to walk out of his room to let Eyes sleep for a while.

The sun begins its slow trip back to its home, The Underworld, while the moon is about to start taking its place as this celestial being will have a turn to watch over the earth below them.
At the same abandoned house, where Eyes found the magical dragon mask, its ripped curtains are lightly waving in the wind, while the noise of footsteps on the sandy ground is heard until those footsteps reach the broken-down house as it made the wood creaks. Standing within the house, a black and gray dragon is seen sniffing the air as it smells a scent, of which it is familiar to him, and another one that he could describe. He then looks down on the floor and notices something odd, and next, he whispers a spell and, after he did, he slams his paw on the floor revealing a glowing, long trail, that came from outside, and it ends with a glowing body imprint of a dragon. During his observation, on the trail (that came from outside) he sees bits of a gooey substance which he proceeds to smell the substance then licks. Gross.
"Hmm, dead matter, that's what I thought. A Druun came here and took a life of a dragon, yet other than that ... Where is the stone body of the victim? They must've moved it to somewhere else, but why? Why would they take them?"
The black and gray dragon soon heads out the doorway of the abandoned house, then prepares himself to jump into the air and fly. However, the way he jumps created a shockwave that shifted the sand he stood on while creating a thunderous sound as he ascends towards the night sky, because it was time for this dragon, this... Hunter to go home, where he will sleep and prepare himself to hunt down the Druun that took the life of a dragon.

"These are my siblings. Their names are Pranee, Amba, Jagan, and Sisu." Pengu said as he introduces Eyes to his brother and sisters at the dinner table.
"Oh, so... Sister Pranee... Sister Amba... Brother Jagan... And Sister Sisu." Eyes said.
"Yup, that's us." Sisu said. "What's your name?" Asked Amba.
"Name is Eyes. I live in cave. Good cave. My speaking is... Not good. Sorry." Eyes replied in a monotone voice.
Next, Pengu pats Eyes' back and said.
"Ah, don't worry about that, Eyes, we will try our best to understand you. Other than that, let's eat."
Soon enough, everyone started to eat their dinner, which is fried rice with chopped vegetables and meat, but all except Eyes, who just stares at the plate of food that is in front of her, not knowing what to do when eating this kind of food (since Druun don't eat this kind of thing), also, she is quite hungry while being skeptical of how it would taste. Noticing, Pengu puts down his spoon and asks.
"Are you okay, Eyes?"
"Friend Pengu... How to consume brown food?"
Pengu spends a small amount of time processing what his new friend had asked of him until he knows what she asked and he knows how to answer her.
"Oh, you mean the fried rice? Usually, humans, and even dragons, use spoons to scoop up the food and put the food in their mouths, however, some dragons would eat it off of their plate. Just do either of them, we don't mind."
Hearing his answer, Eyes just chooses to eat her dinner off of her plate, since she remembered, during her long journeys, how she quietly watches dragons eat the way she's eating. But to the Datu Sibling's surprise, Eyes consumes her food quite quickly than the others, but not too quickly though, she might choke.
"Whoa, you got a pretty big appetite there, Eyes. You must've been starving when you were at Tail." Jagan commented.
After putting down her plate, she responded to Jagan with a nod whilst the food inside her mouth is being swallowed.
"So, Eyes. Why were you at Tail, and why didn't you bring any food or other supplies with you?" Pranee asked.
"Went to desert land to... Wander... Like any other land. I want to... See what desert land was like. Did not expect to get hurt from big star." Eyes explained.
"Well, at least our big brother saved you during your journey in Tail."
"Yeah, that reminds me, Eyes, how're your injuries? Are they healing properly?" Pengu asked.
"Hurt, but little, thank you for asking." Eyes said.
Then all of a sudden, the doors of the dining area swung open revealing one of the castle guards, who has a smile on his face.
"Sorry for interrupting your dinner, your majesties, but a guest has arrived in your home."
"A guest? We did not expect any guests in this our. Nonetheless, bring them here, they might have something important to say." Pengu said.
The guard nods and lets the 'guest' behind him through. Walking towards the dining room, a black and gray dragon walks on his two hind legs and he is quite threatening to Eyes only, not because of his height or how imposing he looks with the armor he is wearing, but because she knows who he is.
"What's up family, enjoying yourselves?" He said with a friendly voice and a crooked smile.
"Tarmos-!" Sisu stands up from her seating place and zooms towards the dragon as she gives him a loving hug. "-You back. I miss you."
The black and gray dragon, Tarmos, chuckles and he caresses his lover's mane.
"Yeah, I miss you too.
"After Sisu lets his fiancé go from her embrace, Tarmos spots Eyes, who is looking at him with fear in her eyes. Wonder why? Tarmos thought.
Pengu stands up from his seating place on all fours and said.
"Welcome back, Tarmos. I hope you had a splendid time on your hunts?"
"Sort of, because for some reason, the Druun can't seem to disappear from existence, so I spent my time on finding the source of where they're coming from, yet I couldn't find it. Other than that, who's your new friend?"
"Oh, the dragon next to me is Eyes. Eyes, this is Tarmos... Tarmos Rime.
"After introducing her to Tarmos Rime, who is famous for hunting Druun and hunting bad guys at the same time, Eyes now learns the name of the killer who hunted down her siblings in brutal ways all those years ago.
The memories of him roaming the moonlit sky still haunt her to this day.