Hearing the commotion getting closer, Max wriggled around frantically in an attempt to free himself. This only made the snare tighten even more around his arm, painfully so. Looking up at his caught arm, he was once again reminded that he had claws. In one last bid to save himself, he reached up with his free hand and tried cutting at the snare.

"Hey, we caught something!" he heard from a high pitched voice below. It's all over then. Whoever had caught him was already here. Freeing himself now just meant saving them the trouble of doing it themselves.

More footsteps came from all directions, converging on Max's location. He couldn't look down from where he was, and he wasn't sure he would if he could.

"We're all here," a deeper sounding voice said, "bring it down already! We don't have all day!"

After some shuffling from beneath, Max could feel himself being slowly lowered. He tensed up every muscle in his body as his mind came up with a fearsome image of his hunters. Grizzled rangers who could shoot him from a mile away, or hatchet wielding psychos who could square off with bears and leave without a scratch. Such lofty ideas made what he saw next even more shocking.

A pack of bipedal reptilian creatures stood staring at him. They were covered in scales like his own, but each of them had a different color. Their clothing was very shabby looking, consisting of loin cloths and the occasional piece of leather armor. They had pointed ears, lithe builds, and held crude spears and knives. And most surprisingly, they weren't shanking him.

"A... dragon?" Murmurs started passing around the group as they gawked at Max, seemingly just as surprised to see him. "We have a dragon?" The group got exceedingly disorganized, save for one.

The biggest of them walked in front of the others. He had red scales and wore the most clothing of the lot, with a leather vest and simple helmet in addition to loin cloth. He spoke up, calling for attention. "Listen here! I understand this is all very exciting, but we still have a job to do! The main hunting group will escort it back to the village elders. All others will patrol the traps as normal."

A few hands went up, like students trying to get a teacher's attention. "I'm not taking questions! This is what we're doing. You all know what your roles are already, so lets get it ready to go." He then pointed at one off to the side Max couldn't see. "Slowly now."

If there was anything Max could do, he decided against it. While they weren't the hunters he thought they would be, they were still armed. Not like he'd be able to run far with his gut in the equation either. The best thing to do was to stay quiet and not provoke them. With this in mind, he made no sudden movements as he was lowered even further, or when many of the group got ready to tie him up.

"Shouldn't it be struggling or something?" asked one of the group while fastening a knot.

"Don't let your guard down," the deeper voice warned, " its still as deadly as any other predator."

The larger one, which seemed to be the leader of the rest, clearly hadn't seen Max's attempts at hunting.

After having his limbs tied together, he was hoisted up with a spear shaft. Another was added after it became apparent to his captors that one wouldn't be enough. Once he was secured, the group started walking back to their village.

Max carefully observed the path they were taking in case things went south. Though he hated that cave he had come from, it was prime hiding material if it came down to it. Of course, being upside down made it much more complicated.

The trees surrounding them had thinned out as he was carried along. By this time, his muscles were beginning to ache from being held in an unnatural position for so long, and the blood going to his head wasn't helping. He tried looking ahead for a change, even if he could only manage it for a moment. They appeared to be heading towards an old-looking mineshaft. This stumped him for a moment, before he finally put all the pieces together.

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The reptilian features initially made him think of lizardmen, but they weren't anywhere near the size to fill those shoes. If they had residence in a cave or a mine, then they must be kobolds. Kobolds... no wonder it took him so long to figure it out. Sources were always conflicted on what they looked like. Max could recall seeing the name attached to dogs, cats, rats, and even gnome type people. If it was short and mined, you could probably get away with calling it one.

Thinking about that, were these guys even really that short? They looked to be slightly under Max's height. Wait, how tall was he? It wasn't like he had the time to measure himself.

His head throbbed as he thought much too hard on an admittedly pointless subject. Maybe all this blood rushing to his head was making him a bit loopy.

As they reached the decrepit entrance, the leader kobold broke off from the rest to pull something Max couldn't quite make out. Nothing seemed to happen for a few moments, until a grinding noise came from the left side of the entrance. A door opened from the stone itself, revealing a much less degraded path.

Simple torches illuminated their descent. Along the wall on the right appeared to be holes to see into main mine, with lengths of rope jutting out occasionally. Traps perhaps? After coming to a crossroads or two, the kobolds had finally stopped, if only briefly.

"Back so soon Enrak?" This voice belonged to someone he hadn't heard before. "Whatcha got there this time?"

"A dragon hatchling," the leader kobold, Enrak apparently, replied, "now let us in."

The first voice seemed to choke up a bit before announcing "Open the gate!" Max caught a short glance at the voice's owner, who looked to be a guard. He was staring back at him far more intently.

They had finally made it to this village they mentioned earlier. From what Max could make out as they continued forward, they had carved the walls themselves into their buildings. The way they looked reminded him of those cliff dwellings he would see pictures of every now and again. Cloths adorned the doorways and nothing else.

The only exception to this was a large bonfire in the middle of the cave. Max felt anxious as they passed by it, imagining the reality that he was put over its flames. Even more nerve wracking was the group of curious kobolds that had begun trailing behind them.

They then came to a sudden stop. "Alright, set it down," Enrak ordered as he began walking off, "I'll be back with the elders."

As he was put on the floor, Max noticed that those around him bunched up more. He could hear the excited chirps and rapid-fire questions of those bold enough to come closer. 'Is that really a dragon?!' he'd hear from one side. 'Let me see it!' he'd hear from another. Why were these things acting like this? This behavior was something he might expect to see around a celebrity, something he most definitely was not.

"Step away from it!" an older sounding kobold announced. As the flash mob complied, some with a huff, Max saw them. Three kobolds in much better looking garments, with Enrak stood beside them. They wore a robe, a tunic, and a bliaut respectively. None of them looked to be their size, as though they were hand-me-downs. They appeared to have that same dazzled look on their faces as others, but more subdued.

The one in the robe stepped forward, appraising Max. He looked away awkwardly as it continued.

"Its a real one... and a hatchling at that!" the robed one said back to the other elders. The one in a tunic, actually one of the taller kobolds, laughed a hearty laugh.

"This is truly a gift from Tiamat. The key to our salvation!" He stepped forward, and to Max's horror, started salivating. "Ohh, there's a lot of meat here. Our strongest should eat first."

The robed one pushed him away. "Do you have gravel in your head? This is clearly meant to be our master!"

He growled back. "Our master? It still has white scales. If Tiamat wanted it to lord over us, she would send an adult." He turned to the crowd. "Do any of you want to give up eating for the sake of this dragon? By the time it could lead us, we'd all have died from old age!" He pointed at Max. "Look at how plump it is, this is clearly what she wants for us!"

The crowd was beginning to stir, mixed in opinion. "He's right Relana," the one in the bliaut piped up, "it would take years just getting it to speak our language. We are spread thin as is."

Relana backed up towards Max. "Can none of you see the bigger picture? If we were to raise it, it would see us as its own! Think of a dragon that saw each of us as family!"

Everyone got into an uproar, debating over what they should do. Certain that staying silent would only hurt his chances of survival now, Max spoke.

"I can talk already." Despite being said softly and with average volume, this made all the kobolds stop talking and stare at him. Power was supposed to help with how he interacted with others, and yet, he still felt like he dumped all his spaghetti.