Dragon's Earth

Chapter 3: The Other Human

Despite having been out longer than usual, we had good reason for it. We headed for the lair, our area of solitude for whenever we would be out beyond the castle walls. It was almost like our home away from home as it was furnished for us whenever we would come here. It was hidden very well within caverns, covered in lush rainforest, the perfect camoflauge. I knew the bits of evidence we found would be safe here because only the three of us knew of this place's existence.

We entered the forest and I found the entrance which I concealed with a large rock as a door. We all entered the cavern and found it just as we left it before. Originally it was much smaller, however we all pitched in to expand it further into the rocks over the last several years. I had constructed a place where would keep things of interest and placed the ship we found, as well as the charred remains in there for safe keeping.

After a bit, we left for the castle and I concealed the lair before leaving with the rock. Before I flew off however I could smell something, a scent I had not smelt in all my life, but before I could find a source, it was gone. Shrugging it off I headed back home to get some rest and waited till tomorrow to go back. The next morning as I did all my chores and since everyone in the army had a day off, I, Ryia and Pay'tn headed back to the lair in order to see if anyone had discovered our little secret from space.

Thankfully as we entered the lair, nothing was out of place, nor was anything ransacked, which was even better news. I looked inside the stash and found it the artifacts were intact. "Are they safe?" Ryia asked me, as I turned to her. "Yes they are." I replied covering up the stash. "So what will we do now, wait until the next meeting with Perfius to discuss the fact that humans are now sending people in ships?" Pay'tn said worrying. "That's exactly what we're going to do" I replied to him with a serious tone in my voice, "I don't want to cause a panic by presenting our findings in an audience with Perfius.". "But he specifically said that anything like this should be reported to him. I mean you're aware of the prophecy that one day Humans will come and colonize on our world aren't you?" Pay'tn said to me. "I am aware of it, but you also forget they will have become a species of understanding." I replied to him.

"And what if they haven't? What if they're just as savage as ever?" He asked me. "Savage describes a species who's intellect and knowledge haven't expanded past clubs. This ship is definitive proof of thier expansion passed the clubs and into space travel." I replied, trying to convince him otherwise. It was then I smelt the same scent I did before I left before. "You smell that?" I asked them and they managed to get a sample of the smell as well.

"I've never smelt anything like that before" Ryia said as we followed it towards the start of another tunnel and what we saw was even more shocking than what we found. "It's a human, what do we do?" Pay'tn asked me. "I say we kill it" Ryia said, but before she did anything, I held her back. "No Ryia, I want her alive." I said to her. "How do you know it's female?" Pay'tn asked me. "The other didn't have a body like that remember?" I said to her. "Good point" She answered before I turned to the woman.

"Can you understand me?" I asked the woman. "Yes I can, though I'd like to know what world I landed on" She replied to me. "Well you're on the planet Dracon, home of the dragons." I replied to her question. "Dragons? How can this be so?" She asked again. "I see you have a lot of questions as we have many for you, please come in and we can talk." I said to her, allowing her to follow us back into the main area of the cave.

The female's name was Emma Parsons, an astronaut sent out to explore the vast regions of space in hopes of saving her people by finding another world for them to colonize. Her mission was to find a life giving planet and report it back to Earth. "But what is happening? Why is the human race expanding to find a new home?" I asked her. "Due to the harmful effects of pollution over the last several centuries, Earth is going to be uninhabitable in the next hundred years." Emma said as she answered my question. "But why are you going to choose our planet to colonize upon?" Pay'tn asked her. "Well why not? It's either this world or my people die and I become the last of my kind." She answered.

"What Pay'tn is trying to say is that our god Perfius found this world so he could create a new breed of dragons who would rule." I said. "What happened to the old breed?" Emma asked me curiously. "They lived on Earth at one point, but because an asteroid hit the Earth, one type of dragon species became extinct, one survived and evolved into a new species. They on the other hand were slaughtered by humans." I answered her.

"So you mean that your ancestors once roamed Earth?" She asked me in surprise. "Yes and now many dragons have a form of prejudice against humans due to the deaths of our ancestors at their hands." Ryia said to her. "Oh my god, so I take it they'd be less than happy to share Dracon with them" She asked and I nodded my head. "What if we can convince them otherwise?" She asked me, "We'd need a miracle for that to happen." I said to her.

"Well perhaps if I can get my ship back, I can try and fix it so that way we can speak to your god and see if we can reach an agreement" She said to us and I went into the stash to allow her access to her ship. She looked at the body of her fellow human before even entering the ship. "I take it you knew him?" I said to her, "He was my colleague, his name was Gilbert Parker." She answered. "Can we bury his body?" She asked me and I nodded to her, before taking his body in my hand.

Heading outside, I used my other hand to dig a hole for Parker and then placed it in gently. I buried the body and placed a stone in the back of it so Emma knew where it was and then went back into the lair, blocking the way in. I entered into the main room and found Emma now working on her ship. "Will you be able to fix the ship?" I asked her? "Well it's been really compromised in terms of primary propulsion, but I think I can get he internal systems online and contact Earth" She said to us.

"It'll be a while though, I mean I was only shown basic mechanical repairs. I was assigned to this ship because I was flying it." She said. "What went wrong?" Pay'tn asked her as she looked over the inner circuits. "We were orbiting the planet, but got pulled in by the gravity of the planet because the Ion engine was off due to recharging." She said. "So how did you survive the crash?" Ryia asked her.

"I tried freeing Parker, but unfortunately couldn't and he told me to leave him. I didn't want to but he told me to and so I jumped out the side with a parachute and landed a couple of kilometers from here" She replied. "Alright well the ion engine is shot to shit, but the other systems seem to be intact, however I'm going to have to check everything before I contact Earth and we contact the President to make an agreement with your Perfius" She said to us and we nod at this.

"Alright well how long will that take?" Ryia asked. "I am uncertain" Emma said. "Alright Pay'tn you stay here with her." I said to him and he nodded before Ryia and I went hunting.