"I am pretty sure it's a dragon, I read about them."

"Since when do you even read books!?"

Perhaps Pietro was panicking a bit too much, but he could not help it. All he knew about dragons came from fairy tales and myths, and they never seemed like particularly friendly creatures. This one seemed entirely too big to have any reasons or way to notice the two of them, yet Pietro felt his chest ready to burst open with how fast his heart was beating.

"I do read. But the monks don't have interesting books. They only had one about dragons and another about...Hmm, I don't really remember what it was about, but I remember it being fun to read." Asura, as calm as he always was in the face of a dangerous situation that would not lead to a fight for him, did not notice how much distress his words caused Pietro.

'If Asura was ready to read a book about dragons...Then they should not be approached under any circumstances. But then...How are we to enter the city, it's landing right next to it!' The young human tried to call for his brain to conjure up a solution, but he did not see how he could even get close to the city without meeting the dragon. The city was surrounded by a wall, and the only gate he could see was right in front of the dragon.

Could they sneak next to it? It was certainly so big that perhaps, with some luck, it would not notice them. Yet, Pietro knew that he was not courageous enough to even try such a thing.

He did not need to think for a very long time, however, for his eyes noticed a tiny problem. Asura was no longer on his left. In fact, he was in front of him, far in front of him.

"A...Asura....Where are you even going..." Pietro was not necessarily angry or shocked. He noticed in horror that in the last few hours, he had simply grown used to Asura's shenanigans. All he could do at this point was simply hope that Asura would not die, molten alive by the dragon. He could also try to catch up to him and stop the demon. And that is in a way what he did. But he did so slowly.

He wanted to be close by to see how the situation would evolve. Oh yes, he was very much aware that this was perhaps, out of everything he could have done, the most stupid decision possible, but he was curious and felt a sense of protection. For some reason, he did not feel as though he was in danger while Asura was still in sight and very much alive. The boy had proven himself resistant enough to take, without even receiving an ounce of damage, blows that would have torn Pietro apart. And he wielded fire, so perhaps he was protected against it?

Pietro was certainly grasping at straws there, but who could blame him? There was a dragon right in front of him!

He had to see what would happen. And if anything bad happened, he would simply hide. The dragon shouldn't be able to detect him with how small he was in comparison to it. Or it could use its nose to do so, and Pietro was dead in any case.

It took Pietro and Asura a few minutes to reach the dragon, though the demon did not seem to have even noticed that his human companion had followed him. Perhaps it was a foregone conclusion in his mind that the cowardly Pietro wouldn't have done such a foolish thing. Pietro hid behind a relatively thick and large bush, not too far away from the dragon, while Asura approached its head.

It was gazing at the city, with its large blue eyes. A curious colour, when his entire body was dark grey with some black streaks on the tail and the wings. From Pietro's position, he couldn't quite see those eyes in as many details as he would have wanted, but he was still positively shaken. They were so large, so blue, so mesmerizing. And...They suddenly snapped in his direction.

A breath left his mouth, he froze immediately as his hands started to shake violently. The creature had him pinned in position with but a glance, for that was what drew this reaction from Pietro. The creature quickly averted its eyes to take a look at Asura.

Pietro put a hand on his chest and took deep breaths. He tried and failed to calm himself as a droplet of sweat trickled down his face.

'How...How did it even know I was there? It was too sudden. Could it have sensed me in some other way? Magic, perhaps? Or is it truly its sense of smell!?'

He was panicking, oh certainly he was, but he had somewhat known as soon as he had moved to follow after Asura that he could die in a second. It was time to face the consequences of his poor choices. What was he even doing, acting like Asura?

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"You are a dragon, yes?" The demon in question asked as he sat down with his legs crossed. The dragon did not respond at first. It was busy taking in the sight. It was surprised by what it saw, so surprised that it had forgotten to close its maw. Pietro idly wondered what Asura even expected as an answer. The human knew he would have personally expected a flame shower and nothing else.

And yet, once more, his breath was taken away. For it responded.

"I am, indeed, demon...Or are you of another species? You are one strange creature." The gigantic lizard had the gall to say. It clearly hadn't taken a good look at its own appearance. More than its words, it was its voice that surprised Pietro a great deal. It did not sound masculine or feminine. It was a mix of that, like a boy who had not yet matured. It sounded entirely too young for its size.

"Oh, I read about this. Your voice sounds weird because you are speaking in a modern language that requires intonations and sounds draconic throats cannot normally produce. How funny!" Asura exclaimed as he smiled innocently. Pietro felt some dread as in his eyes, this was just the rain before the storm. There was no possible way Asura could be calmly talking to such a powerful creature. At some point, he would surely punch it out of nowhere.

The dragon squinted its eyes at the demon and a low laugh came out of its maw.

" I wouldn't say this sort of knowledge is funny, or even common amongst your kind. What are you, some sort of draconic cultist? Most of your kind usually read about how much money they can make from our corpses, and not...Whatever it is you read, demon. Though you are right. Certain languages force us to change our voices through magical means, this neo-angelic you speak is one such language. It reveals most often than not, our age and gender. But then again, we have very little need to hide from others who and what we are, now do we?" It growled out.

The amount of arrogance it spoke with somehow did not shock Pietro very much. Though what it said, somewhat did so. That and the fact it even believed it could scare Asura of all people.

'Neo-Angelic? What is that even supposed to be, the language of the Angels? I am definitely certain they are both speaking in English though.'

More and more questions, with each passing minute of this day, Pietro kept questioning everything. But he was not going to get any answers by simply remaining behind a bush. The dragon had already seen him, and it appeared friendly...So perhaps...

"I must excuse myself, demon. Perhaps we shall continue this discussion another time, as I can see on your face how excited you are to face one of my kind. However, I must leave. I have seen in this city what I wished to see. This is goodbye, demon."

And with this, with a mighty push of its wings that sent even Asura flying and tore a few trees apart, the gigantic dragon that was supposedly young took off. If that was a young dragon, Pietro prayed to never encounter an adult.

Pietro idly wondered what the dragon had come here to see, but now was time to enter the city and perhaps find a place to sleep some more in. All of this constant surprise and anxiety was getting to Pietro's mind. He might have lived a bit less than thirty years in total, but he was still physically young.

He went to retrieve Asura who had been sent flying head-first into a tree, but the taller boy was already on his feet. With glowing eyes full of wonder, he looked at the sky and chuckled.

"I can't wait to fight him."

Asura turned his head as he heard something on his left, and was met with Pietro who had slapped his own face.

"I can't believe you, Asura, I honestly can't. Let's...Let's just get into the city. I want to find a place to sleep in, and the school too. Actually, we should find the school first, perhaps we are supposed to sleep inside it. I don't know."

Without taking the time to make sure Asura was following him, Pietro made his way towards the city. His green eyes focused on the gate, from which he saw a contingent of what looked like soldiers running towards him. Thankfully it appeared that Hell was not such a maddening place that a dragon was a common sight. That thought put a smile on his face before he faced the soldiers.

These demons looked a lot more like the mental image he once had of them. They had curved horns, tails and red skin. Most of them did, there were some slight variations of course. Much more than in humans though. The demon species was far more diversified than mankind was.

"Hey, kid! We have some questions for you!" The soldiers in front of the contingent spoke to him. But Pietro instinctively took a step back after hearing his voice. It was so...Disturbing. The monks sounded nothing like that. It was a rough voice, a deep voice that held a tinge, an undertone of darkness. Pietro hadn't expected Demons to sound as evil as they looked, but these ones very much did.

While the soldiers did not seem to notice his movement, someone else had apparently seen it. No sooner than the soldiers had reached him, and the apparent leader had tried to put a hand on Pietro's shoulder, Asura appeared between them. With one hand lit aflame and positioned right under the leader's chin, Asura growled at the soldiers like an animal.

Pietro was certain that from his position, Asura had thought the soldiers meant to hurt his human companion, but before the misunderstanding could be cleared, something quite unexpected happened. The leader slapped away the offending hand and with a sudden movement...

*Boom*

Asura disappeared from Pietro's vision as a shockwave resounded throughout the clearing and the resulting wind washed over the young human's face. The fiery demon now found himself with his face embedded in the soil and a fist buried in his right cheek.