Fight or Flight

Chapter 2

Enola

I narrowed my eyes as I reached the top of the hill, and stared in a sudden cold fury at the sight that waited for me.

As sure as the sun rose every morning and set every night, the food Cess had caught for me turned out to be a large turkey. I was not sure if he thought it was my favorite food – they did happen to be rather high on the list of meals I enjoyed – or if the silly birds just reminded him of me for some reason he was wise enough not to share, but if there was a turkey anywhere nearby when he went hunting, he was always sure to catch it for me. So it was an incredible understatement to say I was not surprised at all to see a dead turkey at the top of a hill.

What was a surprise was the human sitting by a small campfire and cooking the turkey.

The smell of cooking meat began to reach me as I stared at the fire. Plucked feathers were piled up beside the man, and a bit of disturbed dirt marked where he had cleaned the bird and buried the bits that humans refused to eat. And the rest of my breakfast was impaled on a spit over the fire, slowly roasting, while the remains of a simple preservation spell – likely placed by Cess so the meal would be fresh whenever I woke up – burned away from the heat.

Just what a new day needed. Not one, but two people bothering me. Before I had even gotten to eat breakfast. At least Cess had been courteous enough to leave me breakfast. This human had started off by stealing my breakfast. And he did not even have the decency to run and hide afterwards, but was still sitting there at the scene of the crime. Mocking me.

My stomach rumbled again as I growled at the intruder. "Just what do you think you are doing, human?"

The man turned from the fire and smiled at me. I had never bothered with humans enough to be very used to them, but I suspected he was a little on the tall side for one. His black hair was messy and tangled, his green eyes seemed bright and interested – likely searching for more things he could steal from me – and his hands had smears of dirt and blood from where he had messed with my turkey. A charm of some kind dangled from a necklace he wore – very badly made from the feel of it, to the point where it gave off occasional flares of magic that even my own rusty mage senses could pick up as it worked to maintain whatever spell was in it. Something to keep his clothes clean, from what I could sense of it, though I doubted such a shoddy charm would be very useful. And would probably give him a rash.

Or maybe I just hoped it would give the strange person who had stolen my turkey a rash. Preferably one that lingered for months. And itched the entire time. And smelled. And...

I gradually realized the human was speaking, and I turned my attention away from thoughts of the human's well-deserved comeuppance. I doubted he had a good explanation, but it would not do to miss it because I was daydreaming. That would just be embarrassing.

"-name is Simon. I'm sorry; the villagers told me there was a red dragon living here, but I didn't expect you to look quite so pretty. Their descriptions do your magnificence a terrible disservice. You look more like a beautiful pink rose than a red dragon. It is an honor to meet you." The man leaned forward in a partial bow, then sat up a little straighter as he rose out of it. I could tell he was looking me over, and trying to glance over the curve of the hill that still kept part of me out of sight.

I took a few more steps up the hill and ignored the meaningless flattery. During the evenings or at night I could be mistaken for a red dragon, which had probably led to those villagers – whoever they were – telling this man that I was a red dragon, but my scales were a much softer shade than most red dragons. Cess had complimented me on the shade of my scales on many occasions, as had my parents and siblings, and those words had meant a lot more than the obvious trickery of this stranger. I glared back at him in silence for a long moment, then looked back down at the turkey. "Just what do you think you are doing, human?"

The man – Simon, I guess his name was, for what little that mattered – seemed a bit taken aback that I had ignored his greeting, and his smile faltered a little. "I was hoping to meet you. I heard from the villagers near here that a dragon lived alone out here, and I came to try and learn about you. Nobody at the village seemed to know anything about you. Why you are living out here, so far from the dragon lands, or why you're all on your own. You're interesting, so I thought I would try and learn more."

My eyes narrowed in a glare as I looked back up at the man. That was twice now that I had asked him a simple question, and he had still failed to answer it. I took a deep breath, trying to summon more patience, and tried to ignore my hungry stomach as I breathed in more of the scent of the cooking meal. "I am a dragon, human. This was supposed to be my breakfast. But now it is all dried out and burning, with much of it missing. It does not even look like a bird now." I exhaled in the faint start of a growl. "Just what do you think you are doing, human?"

Simon flinched and leaned back. "I wasn't trying to take your food – I didn't even realize it was your food; I was only trying to help. It didn't seem polite to go into your cave and disturb you, and there was a dead bird that seemed to just be going to waste up here, so I decided to cook it for you while I waited. As a gift. It's just about ready, and I used some spices I bought in the village to season it, so it should make for a fine meal. Not dry at all, and the meat will taste better with those feathers out of your way. Please, come have some."

I looked away from the roasting turkey and stared at the man. My tail flicked behind me in annoyance, and I fanned my wings out around me. I walked slowly up to the fire, glaring frozen daggers at him the entire time. The smell of roasting meat grew stronger as I approached, making the hunger in my belly grow even more distracting, until I leaned my head down next to the fire and took in a deep breath.

The cooked bird smelled delicious. The human had taken care to pay close attention during the cooking process so that none of it had become burned, and the smell of the strange spices tickled my nose with a pleasant hint of the taste it promised. Even though I was used to eating food raw, and fresh after a kill, I was still certain the cooked turkey would make for a wonderful meal.

And I was equally certain it would add to my magedebt to accept this human's gift.

I growled and quickly turned away, crouching down enough to line my tail with the man's chest as I swung around. It collided with a satisfying 'thwack' sound and caused him to cry out as he fell over, but I ignored him. I stretched out my wings and flapped them as I started running down the hill, struggling to get enough air to take off with.

Flying without having any magic to aid my flight was annoying and tiresome, and would wear me out very quickly. But it was not impossible, and I felt my body begin to lift into the air as the wind started to build underneath my wings. I jumped off the ground and glided forward, tilting up into the sky and sailing away from my lair. The muscles in my wings started to burn with the effort of supporting my heavy weight, even after decades of practice, and I doubted I could keep it up for more than an hour or so... but that would be enough. The nearby lake attracted all sorts of animals, and I was sure I could find a deer before my wings needed a rest.

My stomach growled again and urged me to turn back and devour the roasting turkey, too impatient to wait for me to hunt down a meal when it had already smelled nearby food... but I ignored it. No matter how delicious the human's cooking might taste, it would not be worth the cost.

I had far too much magedebt to deal with already.