A/N: Anything between two - is written words.
General POV
The dragon shifted restlessly. The small, two legged creatures had come. The bull took flight, and prepared to kill the creatures when they came out of hiding. It had to protect the young bull. It saw the humans come out. One climbed up a tower, and the other two went to hide. The dragon swooped back around to confront the creature on the tower. It raised one of its strange objects, and a small stick flew at the dragon. The stick hit the side of the old bull, but it did little to effect it. The creature grabbed another item, and jumped off the tower towards the dragon. It simply snapped him up. The dragon swooped around, and landed in the area. It started to chase after the creatures. In the twilight though, its vision was failing. It rounded the corner, and spotted one of the creatures doing something with its item. The bull prepared to flame it, when the other creature came out of hiding, pelting the bull dragon with small metal objects. The dragon got ready to flame this creature, when the other creature caught its attention. The bull saw it standing there, the item in its hands pointed at the bull. Deciding this creature was the biggest threat, the bull started to unleash his flame on it. Another stick came flying from the item, and went down the dragon's throat. The bull felt it impact in the back of its gut, and then it was engulfed in pain from the inside out. The bull crashed to the earth, dead.
Young Bull's POV
I felt the ground shake, and I knew that my father was dead. How could those non-sentient, soft bodied, pink, two legged creatures defeat a great bull dragon? It made no sense, unless the creatures were sentient. But dragons were supposed to be the only sentient species on this planet. Tomorrow, I will have to try and understand these creatures, and see if I can communicate with them. For now, I shall sleep.
"Ruska, you must get up! The creatures might be returning here any day now!" My mother growled at me. I grumbled a bit, but got up anyways.
"Mom, go ahead. I'll be with you in little while." I replied. If I let my mother know of my plan to try and communicate with the creatures, she would keep me from it. "Besides, I'm of age to be on my own now." I told her.
"Fine. Just make sure you come to me safe. You're the last hope for our species." My mother said before taking off. I ate some ash, and took flight off in the direction of the creature settlement. As it was, I was still young and small. With the recent drops in ash and burnable materials, it would be a while before I would be as big as my father. Of course, my father hadn't completely finished growing yet. I soon saw the stone building that the creatures lived in. It was in shambles from my father's attack. I flew behind it, and settled down. I could hear the creatures making their strange noises. With all of their ruckus, I couldn't even begin to try and decipher their words. I eventually gave up, and flew off towards a cave system. As it began raining, I moved into the cave. As I was settling in, I heard something. One of the creatures was coming into the cave. I scrunched myself as far back as I could, and hoped the human wouldn't kill me like they did to my father. The creature that came in had long hair, and was slightly shorter than the others that I'd seen. It was making a soft sound, and it was very calming. It sat in the middle of the cave, and took an item off its back. Out of the sack it had, it pulled a silver object out. It set it on the ground, and twisted a knob. Then it took a smaller silver object, and started scraping one of its prongs on the small circle on the end. It made some sparks, which fell down towards the larger silver object. Apparently, the creature was trying to start a fire so that it could make ash to eat. The creature kept trying this until it apparently got exasperated. It put the smaller of the two objects back in its sack, and turned around to get the other. I decided to give the creature some help, sent a small stream of fire towards the metal object. Immediately, a larger flame flickered up above the object.
"Holy shit!" The creature said, whatever that meant. It looked at me with fear evident in its eyes. I crooned softly to it, knowing that my normal speech would scare it even more. I was surer than ever that these creatures were sentient. They could make devices that made fire. I kept up my soft crooning, and started crooning the melody of a lullaby my mother used to sing to me. The creature stepped a bit closer, but still kept its distance from me. "You can sing? Amazing." The creature said. I was starting to interpret their words and body gestures a bit. The creature kept talking, allowing me to try and interpret the words. After almost two hours, I understood the creature's words. The creature had also gained enough courage to come right up to me. "Can you even understand me?" The creature asked. I nodded to it. "You can? This really is amazing! But you can't imitate anything close to human speech, can you?" The creature said. I shook my head. So these creatures called themselves human. I'd have to remember that. "I know! If you can understand human speech, maybe I can teach you to write!" The human said, "By the way, I'm Riina. I'm a fourteen year old girl." I hadn't heard the word 'girl' yet. It must have been her gender. She started making symbols on the ground. When she was done, there were twenty-six symbols. Then she pointed to the first one and said, "A," And then she pointed to the second one, and said "B," and continued all the way to the last symbol. "That's the alphabet. All written words are made up of these letters." She told me. She made another set of symbols, but this was different. Some of the symbols repeated themselves, and there were breaks in it. "That says hello, my name is Riina." The human told me. She continued teaching me for almost half the night. After I had gotten the hang of reading and writing, she went back to her sack and the metal object that Riina said was a portable burner. She pulled a package of meat out of the sack, and a metal pan out. Riina set the pan on the burner, and put the meat in the pan. I watched with curiosity. Before it was even ash, she took the pan off the burner, and started to eat the meat.
-What are you doing? It's not ash yet!- I scribbled into the dusty cave floor.
"Humans don't eat ash. We eat the meat and vegetables. Our bodies can't digest ash." Riina said. This was big surprise. No wonder the humans got mad every time a dragon burned the field. It wasn't because the humans wanted the ash. We'd destroyed their food.
-Do you know where I might be able to get some ash?- I asked.
"Well, we've got a shortage of seeds, so we can't let you burn any plants. We'll have to find something else for you to burn." Riina replied, "And how were you able to learn to write so fast?"
-All dragons can learn most things within an hour. And what are 'seeds'? And what is a 'girl'?- I asked.
"Wow, it takes humans a couple of years to learn to read and write. And seeds are what make plants. You put them into the ground, and they grow into trees, or tomatoes, or another plant. And plants make more seeds, so if you kill the plants too early, there won't be any seeds to make more plants. And a girl is a gender. They're the ones that make babies." Riina explained.
-Why does it take so long for humans to learn things?- I said.
"We only work on teaching our children for an hour or two at a time, and we teach them many things per day. It's too bad your species will be dieing out now that we know you're intelligent. If only there were another bull dragon." Riina said before she returned to eating her meat.
-My species can still live. I'm a bull dragon. I'm still young though. Only about sixteen or seventeen years old.- I told Riina. She nearly choked on her meat when she read it. She immediately swallowed what was in her mouth.
"Oh no, what will we do for food? The dragons need ash, and we need our crops and meat. And both species need trees." Riina said.
-My species will avoid killing living creatures and plants, and will only burn the dead ones. And why do we need to eat trees?- I asked. Riina chuckled a bit.
"Humans and dragons don't have to eat trees, but the trees make the air we breathe. Other plants do the same thing." Riina told me.
-How are humans able to kill a dragon, especially a bull dragon, when humans are just soft pink bodies?- I asked Riina.
"Humans use guns and rockets to kill dragons." Riina said.
-Guns? Rockets?- I scribbled.
"They're the things we point at you that throw objects at you. Rockets blow up when they hit something, though." Riina explained, a solemn expression on her face.
-You'll just have to explain to the other humans that the dragons are intelligent, and won't hurt them anymore.- I said.
"But how will I get the humans to believe me?" Riina asked.
-I'll go with you. For now, we should get some sleep.- I told her.
"Alright. In the morning we'll head to Quinn. You never told me your name." Riina said.
-My name's Ruska.- I replied before laying down to sleep. Riina pulled something out of her backpack, and crawled into it.
"Goodnight, Ruska." Riina said. I crooned a goodnight to her, and soon fell asleep.
General POV
The dragon shifted restlessly. The small, two legged creatures had come. The bull took flight, and prepared to kill the creatures when they came out of hiding. It had to protect the young bull. It saw the humans come out. One climbed up a tower, and the other two went to hide. The dragon swooped back around to confront the creature on the tower. It raised one of its strange objects, and a small stick flew at the dragon. The stick hit the side of the old bull, but it did little to effect it. The creature grabbed another item, and jumped off the tower towards the dragon. It simply snapped him up. The dragon swooped around, and landed in the area. It started to chase after the creatures. In the twilight though, its vision was failing. It rounded the corner, and spotted one of the creatures doing something with its item. The bull prepared to flame it, when the other creature came out of hiding, pelting the bull dragon with small metal objects. The dragon got ready to flame this creature, when the other creature caught its attention. The bull saw it standing there, the item in its hands pointed at the bull. Deciding this creature was the biggest threat, the bull started to unleash his flame on it. Another stick came flying from the item, and went down the dragon's throat. The bull felt it impact in the back of its gut, and then it was engulfed in pain from the inside out. The bull crashed to the earth, dead.
Young Bull's POV
I felt the ground shake, and I knew that my father was dead. How could those non-sentient, soft bodied, pink, two legged creatures defeat a great bull dragon? It made no sense, unless the creatures were sentient. But dragons were supposed to be the only sentient species on this planet. Tomorrow, I will have to try and understand these creatures, and see if I can communicate with them. For now, I shall sleep.
"Ruska, you must get up! The creatures might be returning here any day now!" My mother growled at me. I grumbled a bit, but got up anyways.
"Mom, go ahead. I'll be with you in little while." I replied. If I let my mother know of my plan to try and communicate with the creatures, she would keep me from it. "Besides, I'm of age to be on my own now." I told her.
"Fine. Just make sure you come to me safe. You're the last hope for our species." My mother said before taking off. I ate some ash, and took flight off in the direction of the creature settlement. As it was, I was still young and small. With the recent drops in ash and burnable materials, it would be a while before I would be as big as my father. Of course, my father hadn't completely finished growing yet. I soon saw the stone building that the creatures lived in. It was in shambles from my father's attack. I flew behind it, and settled down. I could hear the creatures making their strange noises. With all of their ruckus, I couldn't even begin to try and decipher their words. I eventually gave up, and flew off towards a cave system. As it began raining, I moved into the cave. As I was settling in, I heard something. One of the creatures was coming into the cave. I scrunched myself as far back as I could, and hoped the human wouldn't kill me like they did to my father. The creature that came in had long hair, and was slightly shorter than the others that I'd seen. It was making a soft sound, and it was very calming. It sat in the middle of the cave, and took an item off its back. Out of the sack it had, it pulled a silver object out. It set it on the ground, and twisted a knob. Then it took a smaller silver object, and started scraping one of its prongs on the small circle on the end. It made some sparks, which fell down towards the larger silver object. Apparently, the creature was trying to start a fire so that it could make ash to eat. The creature kept trying this until it apparently got exasperated. It put the smaller of the two objects back in its sack, and turned around to get the other. I decided to give the creature some help, sent a small stream of fire towards the metal object. Immediately, a larger flame flickered up above the object.
"Holy shit!" The creature said, whatever that meant. It looked at me with fear evident in its eyes. I crooned softly to it, knowing that my normal speech would scare it even more. I was surer than ever that these creatures were sentient. They could make devices that made fire. I kept up my soft crooning, and started crooning the melody of a lullaby my mother used to sing to me. The creature stepped a bit closer, but still kept its distance from me. "You can sing? Amazing." The creature said. I was starting to interpret their words and body gestures a bit. The creature kept talking, allowing me to try and interpret the words. After almost two hours, I understood the creature's words. The creature had also gained enough courage to come right up to me. "Can you even understand me?" The creature asked. I nodded to it. "You can? This really is amazing! But you can't imitate anything close to human speech, can you?" The creature said. I shook my head. So these creatures called themselves human. I'd have to remember that. "I know! If you can understand human speech, maybe I can teach you to write!" The human said, "By the way, I'm Riina. I'm a fourteen year old girl." I hadn't heard the word 'girl' yet. It must have been her gender. She started making symbols on the ground. When she was done, there were twenty-six symbols. Then she pointed to the first one and said, "A," And then she pointed to the second one, and said "B," and continued all the way to the last symbol. "That's the alphabet. All written words are made up of these letters." She told me. She made another set of symbols, but this was different. Some of the symbols repeated themselves, and there were breaks in it. "That says hello, my name is Riina." The human told me. She continued teaching me for almost half the night. After I had gotten the hang of reading and writing, she went back to her sack and the metal object that Riina said was a portable burner. She pulled a package of meat out of the sack, and a metal pan out. Riina set the pan on the burner, and put the meat in the pan. I watched with curiosity. Before it was even ash, she took the pan off the burner, and started to eat the meat.
-What are you doing? It's not ash yet!- I scribbled into the dusty cave floor.
"Humans don't eat ash. We eat the meat and vegetables. Our bodies can't digest ash." Riina said. This was big surprise. No wonder the humans got mad every time a dragon burned the field. It wasn't because the humans wanted the ash. We'd destroyed their food.
-Do you know where I might be able to get some ash?- I asked.
"Well, we've got a shortage of seeds, so we can't let you burn any plants. We'll have to find something else for you to burn." Riina replied, "And how were you able to learn to write so fast?"
-All dragons can learn most things within an hour. And what are 'seeds'? And what is a 'girl'?- I asked.
"Wow, it takes humans a couple of years to learn to read and write. And seeds are what make plants. You put them into the ground, and they grow into trees, or tomatoes, or another plant. And plants make more seeds, so if you kill the plants too early, there won't be any seeds to make more plants. And a girl is a gender. They're the ones that make babies." Riina explained.
-Why does it take so long for humans to learn things?- I said.
"We only work on teaching our children for an hour or two at a time, and we teach them many things per day. It's too bad your species will be dieing out now that we know you're intelligent. If only there were another bull dragon." Riina said before she returned to eating her meat.
-My species can still live. I'm a bull dragon. I'm still young though. Only about sixteen or seventeen years old.- I told Riina. She nearly choked on her meat when she read it. She immediately swallowed what was in her mouth.
"Oh no, what will we do for food? The dragons need ash, and we need our crops and meat. And both species need trees." Riina said.
-My species will avoid killing living creatures and plants, and will only burn the dead ones. And why do we need to eat trees?- I asked. Riina chuckled a bit.
"Humans and dragons don't have to eat trees, but the trees make the air we breathe. Other plants do the same thing." Riina told me.
-How are humans able to kill a dragon, especially a bull dragon, when humans are just soft pink bodies?- I asked Riina.
"Humans use guns and rockets to kill dragons." Riina said.
-Guns? Rockets?- I scribbled.
"They're the things we point at you that throw objects at you. Rockets blow up when they hit something, though." Riina explained, a solemn expression on her face.
-You'll just have to explain to the other humans that the dragons are intelligent, and won't hurt them anymore.- I said.
"But how will I get the humans to believe me?" Riina asked.
-I'll go with you. For now, we should get some sleep.- I told her.
"Alright. In the morning we'll head to Quinn. You never told me your name." Riina said.
-My name's Ruska.- I replied before laying down to sleep. Riina pulled something out of her backpack, and crawled into it.
"Goodnight, Ruska." Riina said. I crooned a goodnight to her, and soon fell asleep.