Blood Beneath The Scales

Chapter 1: The Tribes

A sudden powerful gust of air made Misty spin around to see a massive red dragon landing behind her in the rocky terrain. She watched him settle on the ground and fold his mighty wings to his sides, they had to be at least 10 feet long. She looked up at him in curiosity. Misty was the same shade of red as him, but she had a green patch of scales around her left eye and green wings.
"Who are you and why are you here? She asked nervously taking a few steps back and flexing her wings.
    "My name is Fireweb,” the massive dragon replied.
       "Why are you here though.. this is my turf,”
      "My apologies, I’m looking for fresh hunting grounds for my tribe,”
     "Tribe? I've never met anyone from any of the tribes before,” Misty replied,
“Really? Do you just live here alone then?” Fireweb asked, lowering his head to eye level.
“Yeah. I hatched here and lived here ever since.. without family..” Misty replied, looking at the ground and flicking her tail nervously.
“Well, would you like one?”
“W-what?” she stuttered
“Do you want to join my tribe? You’d be part of a family, you would live with other dragons. We’re always looking for fresh blood, the hatchlings have a while to go before they can explore outside their nursing chamber let alone the territory,” he chuckled before continuing, “We've been needing more younger dragons,”
“That sounds amazing. I’d love to join!” she smiled, “My name is Misty by the way,”    
"Great! Now follow me Misty, I'll teach you all you need to know." And with that, Fireweb spread his wings and flew off, and Misty followed close behind.
A while later, they landed together in front of an entrance of a massive volcano.
       "What is this place?” Misty asked, “I've never seen a volcano this big before,”
“Really? You don't get out much do you?”
“No, I usually just stayed in my area, barely leave it,”
“Well, then time to explore. Follow me,” He replied as he entered the opening of the cave.
 Misty followed, the cave was dark and hot but she never lost sight of Fireweb's tail. They finally came out to the heart of the volcano, at least she thought it was a volcano. There was no lava core, instead, it was a clearing with more caves and tunnels.
        "Where do these lead?" She asked.
       "Places like the training dens, lava pools, eating areas, sleeping chambers and war preparation caves, and the nursery. You can explore later, first I want you to meet the others."
 Fireweb hovered above the ground by a few feet, then let out a mighty roar of flames, creating a footprint made out of fire in the middle of the ground. Misty watched as a couple of dragons, roughly the same age as each other, flew to the center of the clearing as the pattern of flames sizzled out and was left as a burnt mark on the ground.
       "Welcome back home, Fireweb," said one of the bigger dragons, about the same size as Fireweb, give or take a foot. He spoke with respect and dipped his head. "Who is this little one?"
       "This is Misty, our newest recruit," Fireweb said so every other dragon could hear. "This here is my loyal partner and best friend, Drago."
“Hi,” Misty whispered nervously.
   Drago dipped his head once again. “Nice to meet you Misty,"
       "A new recruit!" Chirped a female voice. She flew over to Misty and studied her figure. "You're so cute! Welcome to our tribe!!"
The dragon was a lighter red, almost pinkish, she was shorter than Fireweb and Drago, 15 feet, still taller than Misty, but she looked friendly and her scales were beautiful.
       "Hi," Misty said nervously to the pink dragon.
       "Fire breath, Grace. Give her some room!" Said a light green dragon, nudging Grace back with his tail. "Don't mind her, she gets excited when we get new dragons in the tribe. I'm Hazzard by the way, and the pink dragon was Grace."
Misty glanced up at Hazzard, she found a hint of respect for him inside her.
"Thanks, I'm Misty,” she blushed out of embarrassment from the attention, but she was slowly starting to become more comfortable.
       "Over there is Bird, the yellow dragon in front of a chamber entrance surrounded by hatchlings, she's in charge of the tribe’s hatchlings until they’re old enough to eat tougher meat. The light blue dragon is Blizzard, he’s in charge of the hunters, he sent the rest out hunting for the tribe, I really hope they bring back lamb or cow," Hazzard said, licking his jaws with his dark red fork-tongue.
Misty smiled, she hadn’t eaten much today and food sounded wonderful right now. Suddenly a thought occurred to her,
“Why isn't Blizzard out hunting with them?”
“He’s helping Bird with the hatchlings while some of the parents are out for a couple of hours,” Drago replied.
“Can he teach me how to hunt? I don't know how to catch anything larger than a rabbit really,” she sighed.
   “Of course but first you must learn the territory inside and out, then you will be shown the hunting grounds. Hazzard, would you like to show her around?" Fireweb asked.
Misty looked at Fireweb and back to Hazzard, who was now looking down at her.
   "Do you want to?" Hazzard asked.
Misty nodded.
       "Well, off you go. I want her back here before sundown. You can show her outside of the volcano too - stay away from the other tribes, you know how Spice gets when he sees us wonder too close to them, if you need anything I’ll be with Blizzard discussing the expanding of our hunting grounds,”
       "Of course. Let's go explore Misty!" Hazzard said and flew off.
Misty took off and followed Hazzard.
“So what brings you to join the tribe?” He asked.
“Fireweb landed in my territory, I guess it's not really mine in the first place though it's where I’ve lived all my life,”
“You’ve lived alone your entire life?”
“Yeah. What about you?”
“Oh, I'm part of the fifth generation of the tribe, there's nobody from the older generation now, some moved away and others passed away, there are a few elders left which you'll meet soon, they don’t leave their dens very often. Fireweb is the seventh leader of the tribe, Drago is next in line if he dies or retires,” Hazzard explained.
“I guess that makes sense then, I’ve never actually been around any of the tribes,”
“We’re all going to teach you all you need to know about our tribe ways and routines so don't worry about a single thing.”
“I really appreciate this, Hazzard,” Misty said with a small smile.
“It's no     problem. See that massive forest at the foot of that mountain?”
Misty looked at the forest, “I see it, what about it?”
“If you ever go hunting by yourself, stay away from that forest. It leads straight into one of the other tribes’ territory. Never enter that forest, if you do make sure you never get caught or there’ll be problems with our neighbors, promise me you won't go in there, ever,”
“I promise I won't go into the forest, ever,” she swore.
“Thank you, now let me show you the hunting grounds,” Hazzard said, swooping off to the side in the opposite direction of the mountain.