When I woke up hunger settled once more after the growth spur finished as my body used the energy to aid in my growth, I looked around and noticed that my siblings weren’t there, it was to be expected, they most likely went out to explore and improve themselves, dragons being naturally solitary with the exception of those who serve them, the only exception being of course parenting, but even then it doesn’t last for long, as we search to be self sufficient as soon as possible.

With this at the front of my head, I went out to search for my own meal, servants being of course out of the menu, as that would certainly anger mother, I went out quickly, with no one taking heed on me, outside there dozens of tents and improvised shacks, people going around their day, some preparing food, others sharpening weapons or stitching and making armor out of the leather of animals they hunted, others went out to raid while others set up watch around the encampment.

Surrounding the extensive mountain range that continues kilometers north was a forest, I headed towards the edge of it, observing for a moment, of course nothing would be close the lair of a monster and it’s henchmen, picking a random direction I started walking, not yet trusting in my wings to carry me.

The forest was calm, not as much as the hoard room, but it still was, with the sound of rustling leaves, and from here I could listen to the sound of running water, a creek perhaps, now with a direction to go to, I moved slowly, checking on my footing to not alert any possible pray.

Reaching the creek I started looking around, going along with it and smelling for any creature around, I quickly picked up a smell coming from the left of the path I was taking, I climbed one of the nearest tree and observed from where it was coming, soon enough, a deer appeared, it was roughly my size and looked around for danger, but not up, I waited until it was directly under the branch I was standing on and just a couple minutes later, it went through.

Throwing myself on to it I used my talons to latch myself on it’s back, the deer fell to ground due to my weight, it thrashed around trying to throw me off, I bit into its neck, twisting, trying to break it, I clawed the sides, blood pouring out, it slowed down and it allowed me enough of a room to finally twist its neck and with a satisfying crack the neck broke killing it.

Without waiting any more, I tore into it, quickly getting as much meat in to myself without thinking much, hours had passed with the sun past midday, but I was done with it, I decided to continue onwards and explore the surrounding area, the forest was large with occasional clearings, nothing much of note apart from the creek that continue onward, probably onto a river not so far away.

Without much of interest around, I turned back to the lair for now, thinking of going north the mountain range and perhaps giving my wings a try, however those thoughts were interrupted once the smell of smoke hit my nostrils, I climbed one of the tallest trees around me to get a better look on wherever the smoke came from, once on top of the tree I noticed it was coming from the north-east, it was clear smoke, not spreading coming from a single source, a campfire.

Curiosity took hold of me as I descended from the tree and slowly approached the area, when I was close enough I started to hear voices, humans, I cautiously approached the area, wondering if it perhaps was a group of servants who were waiting for something, perhaps trading animal hides for tools? I was curious, but not a fool, once the voices became more clear I once more climbed one of the nearby trees to see what they were.

On top of the branches I could see them, they were definitely not servants, they were around a campfire. They had chain shirts on them, with helmets and breastplates on a nearby pile, no draconic sigil anywhere on them, I was still a good couple dozen meters away from them, yet I could hear them clearly.

“Do you think we are close?” One of them asked.

“Certainly, we should arrive at our objective tomorrow morning” replied someone, most likely their leader.

“I mean, if it’s where the dragon is hiding”

“If it is then we must run like hell back to our mounts and hope for the best, else we end up as fried meat”

“Doesn’t really sound reassuring”

“Can you shut up, I am trying to nap here, if ye’ fucks give me nightwatch atleast let me sleep in the afternoon” replied another

“You drew the short stick Tyber”

“I’ll shove it up your arse if yo-”

I stopped listening in at that point, I was not suicidal to attempt and fight them, they outnumbered me and I was not sure if I was strong enough to pierce metal with my claws, deciding it was the best option to head back and tell mother about this, I lowered myself to the ground and ran off into the direction of the lair.

I arrived half-exhausted to the lair, my frantic movements towards the entrance of the cave did cause some attention amongst the servants, but this was important and I did not cared at all about them, arriving to the cave I saw that mother still laid there, she opened her eyes from he slumber, probably noticing my not so calm arrival, I also noticed that my siblings has also arrived.

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I reached out inside of me and try to connect to her, it worked and soon I started conveying what was happening “HUMANS, BAD, ATTACK” I sent along with using parts of my memories so she could see what I had, she turned her head to the side and observed me, contemplating what she had seen.

“REST, MUST, LEAVE” she sent to me along with images of resting in the gold and leaving as soon as I woke up, she glanced at the others, probably sending them the same message.

The message was clear, those will not be the only ones, a much larger force would come, and she wasn’t sure she could win, dragons were proud, but not to the point of being stupid, they would hold their ground but why endanger their offspring and successors when throwing them out earlier than expected would improve their chances of escaping.

Without questioning as to why not do it now where there was more breathing room, I simply collapsed exhausted on the hoard, the coins and artifacts bringing me comfort and soon my eyes felt heavy and I slept.

_________________________________________________________________________

With a roar Lady Havra announced a command “ENEMY, SEARCH, DESTROY” I rushed out to my team’s tent leaving what remained of my stew on one of the tables of what passed as the camp’s communal area, reaching in to it I grabbed my leather vest that passed for armor, my trusty crossbow and a shortsword.

Inside the rest were ready having heard the call, Lucia had her one handed mace and bundle of throwing daggers also wearing a leather vest, Kelrek, a kobold, he had a spear and of course claw but instead of using armor due to his scales he conformed to using some simple dark robes.

And lastly we had a new guy, apparently some lost thief who ran away into the woods. He called himself Baror. He had a rather simple dagger, but it was enough.

“Let’s go” I said without hesitation, orders from a dragon can not be ignored, they can be adjusted to how someone sees fit, yes, but the consequences of ignoring them are much greater, with a splitting headache if close enough, and ofcourse, seen as a traitor.

There were situations similar to this before, often dealt with before Lady Havra herself had to command it, however it seemed that some scouting party from what looked like an army had reached close to the camp, probably why one of the wyrmlings came running.

The camp was on high alert, more search parties like ours preparing to patrol around the forest to spot any danger, none would return until dawn unless they have found the intruders-to-be and killed them, even then, the rest would keep going on as we had no way to communicate, it will be like this for upcoming weeks in preparation for an upcoming attack, some of the designated workmen have probably shifted to making barricades.

“What’s the plan, Jeff was it?” Asked Baror

“Yes and the plan is simple, we walk forward until Kelrek smells something” I pointed towards Kelrek with my head

“And then what?”

“Then we make an actual plan”

With that said, we went in to the forest, the sun was going down, giving us an advantage, we had to kill them right now before they get an exact position, this will give us at least a week of preparation time if we take in mind that they are the scouts of a larger force, we would be outnumbered and outmatched, but with a dragon by our side… the odds were even.

We continued onwards for hours, until with the final rays of sunlight Kelrek growled something, we stopped and looked at him, waiting for him to get on front and lead the way, we continued walking for ten minutes until I finally caught on to the smell of burning wood, we continued on approaching quietly watching our steps as our eyes adapted to the dark.

We finally reached the source, a campfire and near it, the scouts we saw in the mental images, five of them, we crouched down.

“Alright” I whispered “We will wait until they go to sleep, then I shoot whoever is on guard duty. If there are two, Lucia, you take care of it, the rest is just a matter of approaching them and stabbing them, simple right? don’t screw it up and we can get our asses back to camp and sleep soundly tonight.

They all nodded to avoid making as much noise as possible, and so we waited what felt like hours, most likely was little under one as only one person was left awake, we moved near the bushes, I stood up as quietly as I could, however just as I was about to shoot, he noticed me.

“Who’s th-” was all he managed to shout before he fell to the floor,crossbow bolt going through his neck, but that was enough to alert the rest, they quickly jumped up, going for their armor pieces, Lucia throwed her knives nailing one in the head, that left three more.

I placed my crossbow in my back once more and pulled out the shortsword, we charged forward while they rushed to get their helmets and breastplates on, they noticed that they wouldn’t be able to equip them on time so they settled on with meeting us head on with whatever they had on them, meaning their shortsword that were nearby.

Kelrek rushed onward trying to impale one of them with his spear, the scout deflecting it with her sword before the spearhead could reach her, Kelrek dropped it and using his claws he slashed across the neck before she could get back on her guard, blood poured out and the scout fell to the floor dying.

Lucia used her mace to attempt to disarm the man before her, he backed away before each impact, leaving space for Baror to rush behind and backstab the map, the surprise leaving him open for Lucia to crack his skull with a hit of her mace on his head.

I clashed against the last man, trying to get an opening to stab him, he trying to do the exact same, it would have been a stalemate if he wasn’t outnumbered four to one, and soon, it was over, we looted the corpses and bag, finding nothing of interest except coins, cards and some dry rations, we also took their armor, nothing shall go to waste, after all there is rarely a merchant crazy enough to make deal with us.

With that done, we headed back to camp.