I finally fell asleep and despite my life as a mercenary and my new life as a dragon child, I found myself crying.

I regretted my mother's warmth and kindness. Crying is also a sign of intelligence.

So with all those monsters down there, hunters, I might come prey.

I needed friends and allies in this wild and primary world. But who???

I hadn't seen any other dragons yet and I doubt they have any notion of family.

I needed fire and instead of hunting, I needed to make traps.

The fish is the easiest.

I woke up a little icy at night and had to warm up in the sun. I then spread my wings on a rock but by the same token, I highlighted myself for a potential predator.

It couldn't work.... I was going to die if I followed my instincts.

I rushed into the void and took the plunge.

With effort, I warmed up quickly and looked after a slightly deeper, flat hiding place and found a rock with a small valley hidden inside, a waterfall and a cave.

I went around quickly and there were only a few birds and small snakes.

Any predator, any prisoner would have starved to death.

The water was draining through a narrow crack that I could pass through, but the very cold water and strong current prevented any predators from entering.

It's decided. I'm moving in here.

GROOWWWWL. My stomach........

If I risked coming back? Crock... Oh, yeah... GRRR!

I spot some lianas and start making a trap and snares.

The trap was quickly ready and I made several of them.

Then I saw rabbits and I was hungry. When they saw me standing still working on the vines, they must have thought I was a vegetarian.

A soup, I dreamed of a good soup... but later... Although here, there is water, sun, shelter from the wind and creating a small vegetable garden would not be unwelcome. In addition to the stones, it would make a real enclosure.

The rabbits didn't understand my look, but it was too late.

GNAK

CLOMP

SLAsh!

I swallowed two of them all at once. Just the blood running down my throat.

The feeling of hunger disappeared and as a monster, the feeling was not unpleasant.

I finished my traps and set out to rope and find river stones and find the famous flint.

I scratched the stream a little bit, downstream so as not to pollute my water and Ohhh, the water was good in the small valley.

A bath made me feel good.

I was swimming like an alligator and it was finally relaxing.

I finally found round, dense stones and by smashing them together, I obtained sharp stone blades.

With the rope I started to make a hatchet and spears.

For several days, I made spearheads.

With my knives I undertook to make defense mechanisms. And I built "booby traps", deadly traps, primitive but effective.

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Traps on the way to my cave and a defense mechanism with a large trunk full of spikes that would hurl down and impale any predator that wanted to come near me while I slept.

I also undertook to make a barricade to close the entrance to the cave and wooden plates connected to a rope that makes noise if it is touched or if it enters the periphery.

my place was almost a strong and entrenched place. It would be effective against a bear or wolves but not for Crock! Apart from the big trunk which could hurt him a little bit but it would need something more powerful, a ballista but it's hard to do with tools and with my stone tools, you had to forget. I needed fire! I needed fire!

Damn it! I'm a dragon!

I tried to spit, to breathe, to cough, to tear my throat out, nothing!

I then became angry and decided to take a walk to see my snares.

Bingo, a boar. But he was too big for me with my claws and then I took a spear and ran at him like a falcon and he was pierced. I waited for him to give his last breath and with rope, I lifted him up and emptied him. It was not dragon hunting techniques but survivalism.

I used my axe to spare my claws and get dumped and risk attracting predators.

Then I dragged the carcass and cut it in half to make it easier.

I pulled the boar out and began to eat it raw, the skin and the tendons were kept to make leather strips.

I also picked up mosses and dried them.

Then I went home to put the skin and washed strips in a stream, but always listening to a potential predator. I always had a piece of meat or a rag put further away to attract any potential predators further away.

It lasted several weeks as well. I had made a small supply of wood, rope, strips and I made a stone oven but I needed fire.

I didn't come with flint, well, yes, but by the time I could hunt and come back, the fire was out and leave a fire at night visible, it's like a lighthouse to say to predators: "Hi, I'm here!"

It's good in a cave. Only!

I was enraged and I was letting off steam on my prey.... I had to get angry if I wanted to survive.

I started to fly over the deer and instead of grabbing them, I stung them with my poison and then waited for it to collapse and then I tasted.

It was fine as an animal but I really needed cooked meat!

And one day, I started coughing and my throat started scratching.

Arggh, what is it? An acid surge?

I must have been sick and I was finally afraid I wouldn't describe...

Beuaaaargh, and I started vomiting like ether, alcohol.....

Every day, I had this feeling and I was hungry for fat all the time.

And then it was off for a ride.

My condition was getting worse and I was drooling all the time, nauseous and then vomiting.

I had a taste of oil in my mouth and it was terrible.

I gargled at the little lake and started looking for leaves, roots... probably I have to look for medicinal plants. I had seen some not too far away but it was near the mammoths... suicide.

I thought it would pass and then I started crying and calling my mom. It was too hard.

I flew off on my rock and shouted the cry of the dragon in distress. But ready to jump into a hole.

A while later, I saw her flying alone around my rock, I was watching if Crock was not there and she landed near me. I was afraid she would attack me. But I was purring my dragon's cry.

She hesitated a little bit and then came closer. I had grown up without knowing it, but it was still five times my size.

I also purring and approached. She sniffed at me and thought about me and I rushed under her wing purring.

She immediately understood that I was in pain and that something was wrong.

Then, she caught me by surprise and I couldn't do anything and she opened my mouth and injected me like oil into my mouth. His oil and a strange sensation occurred, the pain calmed down as if the infection had gone away then a spark from his mouth and everything in me how to say, exploded..... and a spray of flames came out of my mouth like a volcano.

Then, one the flames wanted to go in like a return of flames but she pressed my stomach and the fire came out more beautifully and the base of the flame came out of my mouth and then, with hers she closed my mouth and the fire went out. She showed me how to control my fire and then she opened her mouth and showed me how she lit her fire.

It didn't hurt anymore and I missed Mom's warmth. I wanted to follow her, but she pushed me back from the snout... I understood that she had another brood and that my cycle was over.

But the next day, I saw her hunting and I went a little way with her and I folded down the big prey and so, she accepted that we hunt together but she feared the Alpha and as I was a male, she feared for me. When she made her little plaintive cry, I understood. I had to get out of here.

But at home, everything had changed.

In my cave, I had a fire well and reserves and I fed the fire to protect myself and to have good. Also, my meals were immediately improved.

Grilled fish, chops and smoking meat.

I then started to stock up for the winter and look for salt but impossible. Mammoth territory.

Then I practiced spitting fire, balls, streaks and flame walls.

So I would make a fire fence and the animals would run away from their hiding place and I would catch them. It was like a buffet.

During my hunting I had made myself a game field and I found roots and vegetables and I started to make a small vegetable garden but as winter approached, it was not a good idea.

Winter was characterized by incessant rain and strong winds. It was basically warm and humid. The valley bottoms turned into a swamp and it was darker.

The days passed, so did the prey, but through my stomach and I saw my mother fly with 2 other little dragons. I wanted to approach to look but she growled, not meanly, but to warn me not to approach. I was no longer welcome. It was nature. She was afraid I would be jealous and it was natural. I didn't want to risk a blow of teeth or to break our "bond" by provocation. She was just an animal after all.