I ran. I ran as fast as I possibly could through the thick underbrush, trying to stay under the cover of trees but mostly just trying to get as far away as possible from where I had been. A few tears streamed down my face at the thought of all the people I had left to run in other directions and fend for themselves, including my own family... but I didn't feel guilty. Everybody in my tribe knew this was how it worked, in this worst case. If we scattered, some might get away, and the survivors had a hope of finding each other afterwards.

Although I had heard the horror stories from the tribe elders, for some reason I had never thought it would actually come to this. The monster that pursued me now, I had thought, was supposed to be little more than a tale to scare disobedient children. I had never seen one before. But as I ran in a blind panic through the woods, and as I heard the whistling of the wind and the growls getting louder all too quickly, I knew that this threat was real.

I chanced a glance behind me, and what I saw through a gap in the trees froze my blood. The gigantic beast was a dark outline against the sky, quickly bearing down on me from above. There was no doubt in my mind that it knew where I was, and I could not possibly outrun it. I knew in this moment that I was dead regardless, but in desperation, I dove behind a tree, hoping against hope that it would lose track of me somehow.

My ears rang from the enormous crash as the animal landed, shaking the ground. I couldn’t help but steal a glance behind the tree at it. It was a dragon, a massive lizard, five times taller than a man even on all fours and even larger in length and breadth.

It stood in the middle of a clearing of felled trees it had created upon its violent landing, covered in impenetrable black scales, the fresh blood on its teeth and claws a reminder of its sinister purpose. Worst of all, its mouth and throat could stretch wide enough to swallow a fully grown man, and it had been known to do this.

As I cowered behind the tree, I heard the beast’s growling, the scraping of its claws against the ground and the crushed vegetation under its feet. My mind raced, thinking through every story I had heard about dragons, trying to find some clue as to how to get out of this situation.

But all I really knew about dragons was the utter futility of fighting them, that nobody should ever face a dragon, but only run and hope to escape. Their claws could easily snap any spear, their scales could not be pierced, they were so strong that the most desperate effort of the strongest man would do nothing against them. Nobody could outrun them when they took flight, and it was difficult to even hide due to their instincts and sense of smell.

Thinking over that last part, I remembered a strange story that my father had told me (I hoped he had escaped, but I could not be sure) about the most recent dragon attack against our tribe, from when he was a boy.

It had been a dark, rainy day, and everyone had been caught off guard when the dragon had come. They had all scrambled through the mud, away from the camp and into whatever cover they could find, as soon as they saw it approaching. My father hadn’t been able to run far before the monster touched down, and found himself trapped in a nearby bush, watching the dragon intently, hoping it wouldn’t see him.

What had happened next had been equal parts strange and terrifying. My father had heard the dragon growling, but in more of a curious than angry way, as though it was muttering something to itself. He saw it pace around the campsite until it stopped and looked at a particular spot on the ground. Then he looked on in horror as the dragon followed the muddy tracks of one of the people who had ran. Only a few moments later he heard the horrible sound of one of the women screaming as the dragon caught her.

After that, the dragon had left them alone. They didn’t know exactly why, but my father speculated that it was a young, small dragon, and not as hungry as the larger ones. What struck me about that story now was the strange sounds he had described. We had speculated that perhaps dragons could speak in their own kind of language.

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Nobody else had taken this seriously, and it didn’t seem to matter anyway, as dragon encounters were rare, and they couldn’t be reasoned with anyway. But now, I could see what he meant as I listened to the dragon which was steadily approaching me. “Can ma grong!”, it seemed to be saying. “Og ren!”

I jumped, fell over backwards, and scrambled back across the ground as the dragon stepped around the tree I was hiding behind, its face looming above me, licking its lips, its claw reaching for me. I knew that I was dead, so I saw no reason not to try the last, most ridiculous idea that I had.

“Can ma grong!” I yelled back at the dragon. “Og ren!”

The dragon’s claw froze where it was, and it tilted its head at me. Its eyes stared into my own. I didn’t move, not wanting to break whatever spell I had just cast.

I cried out in terror as the dragon reached forward once again and grabbed me with its claw, but it didn’t crush or slice me, rather it brought me level to its face and continued staring at me. It seemed to be inspecting me, if anything.

Finally, the dragon began growling again, but this time in a strange, rhythmic way: “rururururu”, it sounded like. Was it laughing? Tentatively, I repeated this sound as well, which only caused it to make the sound louder. This continued for a short while, until the dragon stopped, and seemed to say, “Can da slar ba!”

I didn’t know of anything else to do at this point, so I said, “Can da slar ba” as well, provoking another short round of “rurururu”. I yelped as the dragon suddenly unfolded its wings and hurled itself into the air, still holding me, terrified and very much alive, as it took off.

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I licked my lips, feeling the thrill of the hunt as clearly as I felt the wind against my wings. I had already taken two of the humans, and I figured I’d take a third before heading back to my roost in the mountains. The hunt was already a success. Just one human was enough to sate my hunger for about two days.

Presently I chased one of the ones I had seen running off as the pack of humans had scattered upon my arrival. After a bit of searching in the direction I had seen it run, I caught sight of it through a gap in the canopy and raced towards it.

I landed heavily, knocking over several trees as I did. The human was trying to hide, but I had seen it, and I could smell its sweat, so I didn’t need to worry about losing track of my prey. I strolled towards the tree it was hiding behind, and jokingly called out to it: “You can’t escape! Come out!” It was silly, of course, since nobody was around to hear me, but I chuckled a bit to myself anyway.

I stepped around the tree and reached towards the cowering human, licking my lips. But then something strange happened, something I had never seen before. The human spoke! It said back to me, “You can’t escape! Come out!” It said this in a ridiculous, high-pitched whine, and I was initially perplexed and amused that this strange talking human would taunt me, as if it were on the hunt and I were the prey.

I reached forwards and picked it up, studying it. It didn’t seem different than any other human I’d seen before, but it had spoken back to me. Usually, humans just made the same kinds of silly high-pitched whines that other animals would when I caught them. After my initial shock wore off, the inherent absurdity of the situation got to me, and I began to laugh. The human laughed back at me, in its own strange way, which only caused me to laugh harder.

“You can talk?” I asked it. “You can talk?” it replied. This caused me to laugh once again. It was clear that this human didn’t really know how to speak, it was simply repeating the things I said verbatim. But it was still strange, and extremely hilarious. I promptly forgot about any lingering hunger and decided to take this one with me instead of eating it. I had to show this to my family and my mate.

I took flight, squealing human in hand, and turned back towards the mountain range. I quickly spotted the mountain me and my family called home and shot through the air towards it.

I briefly wondered what it would be like for the human. Certainly, it must have been extremely fearful and confused, like any landlocked animal would be if it were suddenly taken into the air. When I thought about it, I hadn’t carried a live, wriggling animal through the air before, at least not outside of my stomach. I supposed when I had children of my own, I would carry things home for them, as my parents had done for me.