When the sky started to darken, Dravadon lazily took to the air once again, caught a column of air rising from the still warm rocks of the lower mountains and soared northwards towards a little cluster of lights. As he flew, Dravadon took in the sight of the living valleys below him and felt a small twinge of understandable pride; the entire world of Valaera had been bare of almost all life since the cataclysm, the only life surviving had been that which he and the other dragons had sheltered.

Once the evil that had caused the death of the world had finally fallen, itself no longer able to live on a dead world, the dragons had gone forth from their places of power and had begun bringing life back to the planet. It had been a difficult and long process, but when those they had sheltered, the artificials, the humans and the kells, leant themselves to the effort of rebuilding the world, the task had become far less difficult.

In the darkening sky Dravadon now angled down towards the lights that were a small mountain village, built by the humans at that time when the children of Valaera left the dragons to rebuild their world. That had not been long after the days of the cataclysm.

Dravadon landed softly near a great building on the outskirts of the village, he could see the aeroplanes that had been chasing him earlier, now sitting near a great strip of concrete the humans used for landing upon.

“You!” came a frustrated voice from his right, he turned to see a human, barely one-fifth his size (big for a human), walking briskly towards him, his face was set in an annoyed expression, but amusement was playing in his eyes.

“You cheated! Jumping like that!” accused the human.

“I did not jump.” The words did not come from Dravadon’s mouth; it was not built for making such human sounds. Instead he vibrated the air around him with thought alone, putting the sound straight into the air itself.

“You ‘did not jump’!” shouted the human with exaggerated annoyance. “You disappeared from right in front of me! Where did you go then, if you ‘did not jump’?”

A dragon’s face could be surprisingly expressive and right now Dravadon was smiling down at the ranting human, thoroughly enjoying this encounter. “You should learn to look up, human.”

“Look… Look up? Look up! You should learn to watch your mouth dragon!” shouted the human, his eyes nearly starting from his skull in his mock outrage.

“Difficult, perhaps you should assist me?” Before the human knew what was going on, Dravadon had knocked him to the floor with his right foreclaw and pinned him, one enormous golden talon biting into the ground to each side of the human’s head. Then Dravadon casually opened his mouth, showing rows of razor sharp teeth and placed his open mouth over the human’s head, carefully avoiding touching him with his almost beaklike front lips.

“AAAAAH! Get off!” yelled the human, screaming and laughing at the same time. Great oaf! Dravadon! You’re freakin’ me out! Lemme UP!” He was barely able to talk anymore for laughing at the great dragon who did eventually pull his head back and allow the human to stand. The dragon exhaled deeply, rumbling his chest and throat in draconic laughter.

“Did you see anything wrong in there?” Dravadon asked all too casually.

“See? No. Smell? OK, OK! Not again!” he laughed as the dragon’s head snapped around, daring him to continue.

“You are a little too full of cheek Brant,” said the dragon, still obviously amused. “But tell me, what do you mean by ‘freakin’ you out’?” he asked. Brant laughed.

“I’ve seen you melt stone with that flame of yours, it’s not a nice experience having you put your mouth around my head after seeing that, not that it would be pleasant anyway, but still…” Dravadon looked slightly hurt.

“Brant, you know I would never–”

“I know, I know,” cut in Brant. “But knowing you could, that’s what’s freaky. Here, let’s get this.” Brant walked over to the large twin doors of the huge building that were built especially to allow dragons to enter and opened them wide for Dravadon. Then he followed the dragon as he entered the barn-like structure.

Dravadon looked around. There was a single huge log burning in the enormous fireplace in the wall to his right. He found it a strange building, obviously having been built to accommodate dragons but from a human point of view. There were enormous divans about the room made from fire-resistant materials, whoever had decided that this should be knew nothing about dragons. Fire was one thing, but dragonflame was quite another, burning hundreds of times hotter. If a dragon were to spark even the tiniest flame in here it would start a fire that would consume the entire log building.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Good thing dragons had better control than that.

Dravadon thought about these things, following Brant as he walked over towards the back wall. Humans, he decided, were a contradiction incarnate; they made furniture for dragons out of fireproof material, which was useless against dragonflame, then put that furniture in a wooden building. They never ceased to amuse the great dragon.

As Brant approached an enormous bench set along the back wall of the room he spoke to two other humans stood next to it, each drinking from a large glass. One was Jason, another human whom Dravadon considered a friend and the man who had flown the new aeroplane today. He was large for a human with a black skin colour with blue highlights that was rare these days. The man he was talking to however positively dwarfed him. Dravadon had not seen this man before, he was a veritable planet of a human being with pink skin and ginger hair and beard that stood directly out from his head and face, making him look as if an explosion had happened somewhere inside his head. His bulging eyes gave the impression of being eternally surprised at the event.

Brant exchanged a few words with this man who then looked up at the approaching golden dragon.

“Dravadon is it? Well dragon, are you hungry or what?”

Dravadon was startled, most humans tended to be a bit overwhelmed the first time they met him, this man seemed more comfortable around him than some humans he knew who had spent their entire lives around dragons.

He lowered his head in a nod, the man nodded back and propelled his enormous girth towards a door in the back wall.

“Don’t look so s’prised Dravadon,” Jason said with a chuckle. “Zek don’t intimidate easy.”

“Am I that easy to read?” Dravadon asked as he moved to the side of the bench before folding his legs and cupping his wings over them. Lying down this way his head was at the same height as a standing human, perfect for eating whatever was placed on the bench for him.

“Only to someone who knows you,” said Jason with a smile. “Where did you get to today? I thought we had you.”

“It will take a little more than your tin flying machines to out fly me boy,” Dravadon joked.

“Tin?”

A moment later their banter was interrupted by Zek returning. He was followed by four other humans who were carrying an enormous platter with an entire roast buffalo on it for the dragon. Zek was holding three plates, as many knives and one small barrel under one arm.

“I hope you don’t mind,” said Jason. “But I invited Zek to join us for dinner. I think you’ll enjoy his company.”

Dravadon nodded in response, the four humans struggled under the enormous weight of the platter as they tried to place it upon the table in front of the three friends and their hosts.

For a moment Dravadon considered watching them struggle, but then with a thought he lifted it from their hands, making it float into place seemingly of its own accord. The humans who had brought it in watched with awe for a moment before bowing rather formally and leaving the building.

“That was just showing off,” said Zek with a grin. “Now, I have to ask, just how am I supposed to share the meal of a dragon without him adding bits of me to the menu?”

Dravadon responded by raising a foreclaw and neatly slicing an enormous slab of meat from one haunch with its razor edge.

“Now you slice what you want from that piece,” said a hugely grinning Brant to the staring Zek.

“Ok. I’ll admit, that was impressive,” replied the huge man.

The three humans reached out with their knives to cut generous portions of meat for themselves. When they were done, Dravadon moved the rest of the meat he had cut from the roast animal to the edge of the platter. The humans could eat as much as they wanted from that piece.

As the humans started eating, Zek opened the barrel he had been carrying. Dravadon was just about to sink his teeth into his own meal when he caught the scent of what was in that barrel and whipped his head towards it as fast as a striking snake, startling Jason who nearly fell over backwards, all much to Zek’s amusement.

“I heard you liked this stuff, here,” he said, pushing the barrel across the table towards the dragon who pulled his head back a little. After a moment he sniffed the deep brown liquid inside and closed his eyes in pleasure and anticipation.

“What is that?” asked Brant. He had known the dragon a long time but had never seen him react like this to anything.

“Mead from the Northern Islands,” said Zek, grinning now to the point Brant thought his face was going to come apart.

“Mead? Never tried it,” said Jason, now stepping carefully back towards his dinner and taking a sip of his own drink.

They all watched Dravadon as he lowered the tip of his muzzle into the liquid to just below his backward-swept nostrils and drew a mouthful from the barrel, swallowed and looked up at the three humans.

“This one,” he said with great solemnity, gesturing to Zek. “I like.”