Powder

Chapter Three: Relations

"Everyone, scatter! Dragon!" Someone called out as everything turned to chaos.

I looked down and my eyes widened in fear as a mountain dragon's face entered my view, roaring loudly before lunging for the closest tents at the bottom of the stairs. I couldn't make out if anyone got out of the way or not.

"Where are the ballistas?" One of the guards cried out as they started to run behind the gate.

"They're meant for flyers! Look at the damn thing!" The other guard cried as they desperately tried to close the gate before the dragon could get up the mountain and reach the fortress.

I looked down at the abnormal dragon, inspecting what looked to be golden scales on the underbelly, and half of it's face... if you could even call it that... was frozen in a state where it seemed as if it was melting off. And it had several stab wounds on it's front surrounded by some green and clear liquid while the wings seemed to have been ripped off. It looked as if jewels and gold had been embedded into it but now fused together with it's flesh.

As I was inspecting, I turned just in time to see the guard that had greeted me shove me off towards the ramp beside the dragons where the waste was being drained. I quickly grab him and hold him tight. "What are you doing?" I cry as we start to fall.

"I'm sorry, but if you get eaten, I can buy myself some time now let go!"

"Three moons! You're insane if you think I'm gonna let go!" I say while struggling as I turn so I'm top as we start to fall.

"If you don't let go! We'll both-"

"I'm not gonna let some deluded tosspot toss me without taking you with me!"

"We'll both die!"

"Good, I won't be alone!" I shoveled his face into the brown liquid as we tumbled and fell while people were yelling and running everywhere before we finally reached the edge of one of the turns, right above the dragon.

"What the... Wait! NO! PLEASE-"

My eyes watched in terror as the dragon's head whipped up and it's teeth quickly sunk into him and promptly chomped him in half. And then it let out a hiss as it's good eye then dilated as it focused on me.

I landed with an audible grunt as I fell on its back where I saw it's crippled wings and what was left of the other wing, like it had been ripped off. I quickly jumped to my feet and tried running only for the dragon to suddenly throw itself to the side of some of the mountainous terrain as it attempted to get me off, but I held on for dear life onto one of the horns on its back. It let out another roar as it then let itself roll down the mountain towards the delta. 

I let out a yell of pain as I was flung into a nearby tree next to the water. I looked down towards the rest of my body and saw my body was twisted unnaturally and there was blood pouring down the cuts on my hands. 

I whipped my head back up as I heard the draconic giant growl above me. I weakly lifted my head and met her eyes and all I saw was pain, hunger, and a storm of rage, all in that singular eye as she was practically frothing at the mouth as she looked down at me with a menacing growl emanating from her throat as she then opened her maw, getting ready to finish me off. My eyes then lowered and I managed to notice all the stab wounds on her chest and stomach and how they were still bleeding.

I watched as she then suddenly fell to the side with a groan, causing a small rumble in the ground as her weight landed on the floor as it panted in either pain or exhaustion, seemingly too weak to get back up, especially as I noticed her eye starting to flutter shut.

I looked back up at the invincible city, now miles away, not even mentioning the years it would take for the stairs.

I looked back down at the creature, its panting was rough and harsh as it desperately tried to breath despite the wounds it had sustained.

I took a look around, this was the Delta, one of the most dangerous parts of the continent, there weren't a lot of trees and if any other dragons caught sight of one like her, let alone with all those shiny materials embedded into her, then more would come, and one alone could completely destroy a town, let alone a small and measly human like me. I have to get that dragon out of here, or I could run. 

"Can't believe I'm doing this." I mutter as I then pick up some herbs and move to the dragon's wings.

The red dragon was just angry, but all she could do was think to herself, 'I've lost everything! My kingdom! My weapon! Even my damn wing! And now I'm gonna die alone with no one but a stupid scavenger!?' She let out a roar as I approached but her head quickly fell back to the ground with a loud thud. 'What is it gonna do to me, is it going to carve me up, use those herbs it's holding to serve my insides on a silver platter, do scavengers eat dragons? It doesn't matter, I'm not going to die this way, I'll just turn it into a bloody piece of mush!' She thought as she raised her tail and was about to squash me flat, until I placed the herbs on one of her wounds to which her tail drooped back down as she growled in relief. It let out a bunch of growls as it then turned its head back to me, her eyes half-lidded as she looked down at me. "W-why are you helping me?" She growled but of course, she didn't know nor care to understand scavengers, however she wasn't complaining for once in her life.

"That's it." Keep following me..." I utter as I get in front of the dragon and dare to go close to her snout as it started to slowly get up and crawl deeper into the nearby forest where we were out of clear view. I continued to heal her, even though I had done all that I needed to, I could just leave her for dead yet I just continued to apply the herbs to her wounds till I was interrupted by some drops of rain. I looked up and jumped at the sound of thunder, this time I had no tent to hide under, but I didn't need to a leathery wing then moved to block me and I felt myself scooped closer to the red dragon. 

My heart stopped as I then noticed her snout was facing me, she looked terrifying up close and some blood of the guy who pushed me was still dripping down the right side of her jaw, but instead of opening her jaws and devouring in one go, she just let out a soft, rumbling sound as she then moved her head closer to nuzzle me as I continued to heal her wounds, before her head landed near my side.She just growled one thing, and despite not knowing her language, I understood it clearly. "T-Thank you..."