A week has passed since that day up on the mountain. Father was the only other living being that knew of what element I possessed, and I would do my best to hide it from the other members of my family. It was, well, it was scary.

I tried my best to put my thoughts and curiosity aside and rather focused on simpler things, like learning how to properly speak. It didn’t take very long for me to form actual sentences, and I no longer had any struggles with pronouncements.

My siblings, however, spent more of their time on discovering and trying to get a grasp on their respective elements. I applauded them, as any good sister would, but I was still jealous of their progress. I knew it was for the best that I suppressed my latent power, and instead focused on my physical and non-elemental prowess.

Safe to say with my focus being entirely on language and occasionally training my body, I learnt to speak coherently much earlier than my brother or sister did. Over the course of the week, they had learnt to form sentences, sure, but not entirely perfected speech yet.

After reaching an acceptable level of strength, father deemed it was appropriate that I followed alongside him on a hunt. I naturally agreed and the current arrangement he had planned was that he’d look over me from the mountaintop and assist if any complications would arise. I felt confident in my own abilities but knowing that I could get help if I needed it, well, it was a very comforting thought.

I walked into the forest with confidence. My objective was to find a prey animal and bring it to the cave. Simple enough, but there’s no need to bite off more than you can chew.

I tried my best to blend in with the surrounding foliage, but since it was daytime, my black scales stood in starch contrast to the green and brown that surrounded me on all sides. Eventually I spotted a deer, it was seemingly oblivious to my presence. Deer do have a keen sense of smell, but the wind was blowing as to bring their smells toward me, and not vice versa.

I narrowed my eyes and tried to see if there were any other deer around. It didn’t seem like it, so I crept forward slowly. There were bushes and grass in this particular area that were quite tall and despite my growth during the past week, it let me sneak up on the mammal without rising suspicion.

I prepared to pounce upon the animal, when I suddenly heard a snap of a twig off somewhere to my right. The deer rose its head in shock, and I thought to myself it was now or never. I pounced upon the mammalian, sinking my teeth into its neck.

It let out a bleat of pain, before I twisted harshly, killing it.

I lied the deer down onto the grass, satisfied with my kill. I didn’t take long to dwell on it though, as I immediately looked to the source of the sound I had heard earlier.

I could barely make out a pair of eyes poking out from behind a tree. Was this a human?

I curiously moved closer to the tree, licking my lips clean from the blood as I approached. The two eyes, perhaps unsurprisingly, disappeared almost right afterward.

I was not about to give up my chase that fast though. I made haste, pouncing right after the creature.

It would appear that my hastiness was unnecessary, however. The human had fallen, seemingly having tripped over a root sticking out of the ground. They had turned around to face me, with tears streaming down their face.

“P-please don’t hurt me!”

I curiously tilted my head. They spoke in a strange dialect, and it was very hard to discern exactly what they were saying.

I put my hand upon them and pinning them to the ground carefully, but determinedly. I didn’t want to seem as If I wished to harm them, and instead tried to speak to them.

“What are you doing here, human?”

The human seized their struggle from beneath my hand and instead looked up at me with a shocked expression. “Y-you speak?”

I inspected them closer. They appeared to be wearing nothing but rags and from what I could tell, they were quite small.

“Where are your parents?”

The human I assumed to be a child wiped the snot and tears away from his face before speaking. “I-I'm an orphan...”

I had no idea what that word meant. “Orphan? What is that?”

The child looked very shocked. “I-I don’t have any parents. I grew u-up on my own...”

I immediately felt bad for the little guy. That must have been very hard.

“I’m sorry to hear that. But, again, why are you out here? This forest is off-limits for your kind.”

The child's eyes widened. “I-I didn’t know that! I swear!”

I sighed, letting go of the little person. “I’ll let you go, but I can’t promise my parents will be as lenient as I am. Go back to the village you came from, if you know what’s good for you.”

I turned my back on the human child, going back to pick up the deer carcass that was still lying on the ground. My powers could probably not help me keep the decomposers off, so I decided to just go quickly back to the cave before the meat started to rot.

I returned to the cave unscathed. I had a feeling that something was following me, but the feeling disappeared eventually as I got closer to the cave. I thought it might have been the human orphan, but I felt that giving it any attention would only make things worse.

I dropped the deer off inside the cave, and I could hear a sizeable thud behind me as I assumed dad had landed outside the cave. “Well done, Apocalypso.”

I smiled at my dad. “Thanks, dad.”

Father didn’t waste much time and quickly cooked the meat so that the meat wouldn’t spoil. He was very proficient with his fire breath and didn’t even char the meat in the slightest.

“Ember, Celestia! Dinner’s ready!” Dad then looked down at me with a smile. “We can thank your sister for this meal.”

I puffed out my chest proudly. As it was the first time I had gone on a hunt, I figured it was very successful. I brought back prey, and even met a... human. Right. I had forgotten about him.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I excused myself from the dinner, and instead exited the cave.

“Where are you going?” My father looked at me with a look of confusion. “Are you not hungry?”

I turned my head to face father and smiled slightly. “Oh, nowhere... I’ll be right back.”

Father seemed wary but didn’t argue further. He looked back to the cave, letting me go.

I turned my attention back to the forest. I feel like I was too harsh on the little guy. Maybe he just wanted to be friends.

I went back to the spot in the forest where I had earlier felt the presence disappear. Maybe he was still around here somewhere?

I carefully panned my vision around, spying the surrounding trees. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but something peculiar eventually caught my eye. In between two trees, I swear I spotted a rope hanging from one of the branches.

I curiously approached the ominous rope, and my suspicions were confirmed. It was indeed a rope ladder, leading up into the leaves.

“Hey, kid, are you there?”

I tried to keep a low voice, so as to not startle whoever might be up there. I heard a shocked gasp, followed by someone hushing.

“Uh... no?”

I let out a little giggle. “Now I definitely know someone is up there. How about you come down here and say hi? I promise not to pin you to the floor again.”

There was no immediate response, and I figured whoever was up there was debating whether to show themselves or not.

I smirked slightly. “If you don’t show yourself, I'll tell dad you’re within his territory...”

“Wait! I’m coming, don’t do that, please...”

I let out a little laugh. “I thought so.”

I heard some footsteps moving around above me, before what sounded like someone sliding down a rope. I tilted my head in curiosity, as I had expected the person to use the rope ladder.

My curious look quickly turned to one of shock, however, as I felt something land onto my back. I immediately turned my head around to look at what did it was, and found the boy was sitting on my back now.

“Hey!”

I smirked slightly. “So, you think I'm some sort of horse you can ride on? Well, hold on tight cause this ride is a rough one!”

The kid’s look of confidence quickly turned into one of concern, and they immediately grabbed ahold of my wings. “W-wait!”

I was too far deep in now to turn back. He had willingly sat down upon me; I can do whatever I want with my body.

I turned on the spot and jumped up and down a little, playfully. I could feel the boys' hands tightening around my wings and it hurt quite a lot.

“Ow! Let go of my wings, that hurts!”

I stopped all my movements and carefully lowered myself to the ground. “Okay, I'm sorry. Please let go of my wings, they are sensitive...”

I could feel the grip on my wings loosen, and eventually the tiny child slid off my armored carapace. I turned my head around to face them, smiling slightly.

“Thanks.”

The boy looked a little shaken and sat down about a meter from my head. “I-I had never thought I would see a dragon that didn't want to eat me... let alone talk to one.”

I tilted my head once more in confusion. “Us dragons are not savage creatures, where did you get that idea from?”

The boys' eyes widened a little at my words, then he turned to the side with a look of sadness. “The orphanage staff would often tell tales of people who had died to your species... The tales were of great heroes, people who had respect within our village. They had come to avenge their fallen comrades who had also met the same fate. It’s been a vicious cycle...”

My face contorted into one of anger. “Well of course we would fight back! You were the ones who came into our territory, it is our right to defend ourselves!”

The little boy cowered in fear at the volume of my voice. “P-please, I didn’t mean it! M-my dad was a soldier, he also died like that...”

I sighed. “Well, I'm sorry for your loss.”

I looked up at the small tree hut above us before facing the boy again. “It sounded like you weren’t alone up there. Who was the other person?”

The boy looked a little worried at my question and stuttered a little. “A-a friend! T-they are no one I-important. T-they came out here to look for their parents like me, t-their father was in the battle against the Naga that came through around here and died right outside your cave.”

I squinted my eyes slightly. “So, you knew those people? Why did they wander so close to our cave, and why were they fighting that big snake?”

The child was taken aback by my questioning. “H-how would I know? I’m not an army general...”

I put my hand on my chin. Something is definitely off about that whole event. Why was the “Naga” completely stripped of its skin, organs and flesh? I had to find out what.

“Hey, kid. Where exactly is your city at?”

The child was sitting on my back. He didn’t like the idea of showing me where his city was, but he was not exactly in a place to argue. On our way through the forest, I eventually asked the kid his name, and he told me his name was Loki. His name was fitting, Loki is the god of mischief after all.

“They will probably try to attack you as soon as they see you...”

“And risk hitting you? Doubtful.”

I thought that even though it might look like I was holding the kid hostage, their army has already been mostly eradicated in that fight with the Naga snake regardless. I could perhaps act as a sort of ambassador, speaking on behalf of my family and other dragons for that matter.

I was not super worried about being hurt by the humans that lived there. From what the kid told me, the village was mostly just a farming town and didn’t really have much military to speak of.

I eventually breached the border of the forest and came out onto a pretty big and flat field of grass. I spotted a path fairly quickly and following it with my gaze I eventually spotted the small village. It was not a big town, from what I could see from my position there was a single guard tower inside the walls and scattered all around the outside were huts in all different shapes and sizes, there was even a windmill there.

“So, this is your home then? It looks quite nice.”

There was a river we had to cross on our way over to the village. I assumed the humans didn’t build their village here due to the close proximity to the forest, which I will admit was a smart move.

The river was not wide at all, and I could easily leap the gap without straining myself much. Loki also didn’t seem to be phased by my athletic movements and only gripped onto my scales a little harder than usual.

“I can’t wait to see how the people will react to seeing me ride a dragon! A diplomatic dragon at that.”

I snickered slightly, picking up my pace a little. “So, do you guys have a mayor or anything? Is there a capital city somewhere or do you just live on your own out here?”

Loki nodded. “We have a major, yes. He is a grumpy old man, not very fun to talk to. As for the capital, the grownups have talked about it before, but I've never seen it for myself.”

I nodded. “Unfortunately, only the grumpiest usually make it to a powerful position like that.”

We were beginning to get closer to the city, and I could see the different farmers going about their day in the fields. It didn’t look like they had spotted me yet but as I got closer a farmer seemed to spot me and immediately ran off toward the city entrance.

Loki sighed. “I told you they would be afraid...”

I paid the farmers no mind and continued onward toward the city. I eventually reached the entrance where it looked like 2 guards were stationed.

They already had their swords drawn, and I let out a little chuckle. “Do you guys seriously think those would work on dragon scales?”

The two guards seemed to lose their already low confidence and their legs began to shake. “S-stay back beast!”

I sighed, sitting down onto my behind. “Look guys. If I wanted to kill you and your pathetic city here, do you really thing I'd spare this kid? Besides, my father breathes literal fire. I could have just told him to come burn your town to the ground.”

I picked Loki off my shoulder and placed him down on the ground. “Look, He’s unharmed.”

The two guards looked dumbfounded at what had just happened in front of them. “T-the beast speaks...”

I put Loki back onto my back and simply pushed the two humans aside. “I have someone to talk to, if you don’t mind.”

I eventually reached the center of the city where it appeared a crowd of farmers had gathered. They were all standing outside what looked to be the town hall, shouting about something.

“They are probably talking about you...”

I sighed, moving closer to the crowd. “Yeah, I know. A dragon has breached the city walls, big deal. Where is your mayor at?”

Suddenly I got a horrific feeling that something was about to happen. I felt as if something incredibly powerful was about to strike me in the back, and I turned around and faced the threat.

Before me stood a person. He was clad entirely in iron plate armor, and had his sword held high.

I motioned for Loki to step off my back, and he did. “So, you’re a knight then?”

The armored person didn’t answer and instead looked to Loki, who was... running towards the person.

“Dad!”