So I forgot to mention, the first two to three chapters may drag a little bit, but then it will start warming up after that. Sorry for the belated warning!
And just in case you didn't notice, I re-edited the format for chapter 1. Just in case reading it made you head spin like it did to mine. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
About three hours into the hunt, the storm was starting to recede a little bit. It was still raining, but at least the wind had died, the lightning and thunder. Signs of the sun rising were starting appear as well.
He would pause every few steps to listen for anything that would give its own position away. He's been at this for hours and hasn't even found as much of a sign that the Night Fury was even in the forest!
"By this time it could be half way around the world!" Ukiah thought angrily. He knew he was foolish for even thinking of hunting a dragon, especially one that no one ever sees in this part of the world.
He shook his head angrily at himself, but then stopped as soon as he realized that he was still on the hunt! Even though the dragon might be gone from the Fallis Woods, he knew the game hadn't gone anywhere!
Switching his attention from the dragon to the game, he began searching for animals that would make him a profit, rather than a trade. Fox pelts sold quite well if they were in decent shape and with a beautiful color.
Leather apparel sold well also, but he didn't have the time or the aptitude to even consider making belts, boots, gloves, and bands. He just wanted some good fox pelts to make some quicker gold.
An hour went by and sun was just peaking a little bit over the hills and trees. Ukiah found himself with one good fox pelt, in decent condition and a magnificent reddish-orange!
"This will make a quick 10 gold!" laughed Ukiah, holding the red pelt, carefully observing it.
Rolling the pelt up and tying it to his back with extra straps dangling from his vest, he started to make his way home.
Realizing that he was hungry because of the activities in the past few hours, and not having eaten anything before heading out, he started to make way to a small pond and stream he knew of to pick up some fish for breakfast.
The humidity from the storm and the heat from the growing sun had caused a small fog to rise from the ground. Ukiah loved fog, made him think for some reason. He guessed that it was just because of the sense that you get from it, like almost makes the area mystical.
Arriving at the pond, Ukiah took off his boots and rolled up his pant legs. Releasing the arrow loaded in his crossbow and reloaded it with a special arrow that had a hook shaped head with a small rope attached to it, which connected to his wrist.
Wading into the pond scanning the water with his crossbow, it didn't take long before he shot a fish that couldn't get too far with the arrow through it and a rope pulling it back.
Tossing the fish on the shore with the rest of his equipment he reloaded the fishing arrow and continued scanning the water.
Just as he harpooned the next fish and started reeling it in, he heard a small snap behind him.
Completely forgetting about the fish and slowly drawing an extra arrow that he kept on the side of his crossbow, he notched it and tried to angle his point of view to see what was behind him through the reflection of the water.
Not having much success, he decided to quickly spin around, dropping to one knee to brace him to get a more accurate shot off if needed. Praying to the god's that it would work; he quickly dropped to his knee, swinging his crossbow around to the left while pivoting on his left foot.
What he saw startled him so bad that even if he had half a day to take aim at it, he would have still missed!
The Night Fury was right in front of him, staring at Ukiah with a half-eaten fish in his mouth!
Time seemed to stop at this moment for Ukiah, because he just sat there frozen and staring back at what he considered a wonder of the world.
The Night Fury just stood there, almost waiting to see what Ukiah would do, but in a defensive position. Finally Ukiah whispered, mostly to himself, "What are you waiting for? You could have killed me three times over."
Almost hearing and understanding him, the Night Fury swallowed the fish and changed its focus to something behind Ukiah. Ukiah slowly turned around and saw what it was staring at. The harpooned fish, floating in the water;
Ukiah turned to the dragon and said "if you don't attack me, I'll give it to you."
Killing the dragon was out of the question at this point, surprise was definitely not on Ukiah's side and that's what he would need in order to it take down.
Right now, he just wanted to get out of here and get back to the cave! Slowly walking back, he grabbed the fish and pulled out the arrow.
Gesturing the fish to the dragon, he tossed it away from his equipment.
The Night Fury, also being cautious with Ukiah, slowly walked to where the fish had landed.
Ukiah at the same time was walking slowly to his equipment and while putting on his boots, he watched the dragon, which by this time had completely swallowed the fish.
After putting on his boots, he grabbed his crossbow and started to walk slowly away. To Ukiah's horror, the dragon started to follow him! To which Ukiah responded with an increased his pace of his own.
The dragon started to do the same which was the final straw for Ukiah! Ukiah spun around and ran!
Ukiah has always quick on his feet, but he never ran from against a dragon. He could hear a loud roar or growl and a suddenly found himself knocked down on his back, pinned to the ground by the Night Fury!
"Get off of me!" Ukiah screamed, "Somebody help me!" even when he knew the yelling wouldn't do much, it made him feel a little better. Struggling and kicking against the weight that settled on him, he could do nothing but stare and rely on the mercy of a dragon considered to be thee representative of death itself.
"I just hope it's quick" Ukiah almost cried.
As he looked up at the dragon, its eyes looked angry but then suddenly, they almost seemed too rolled back and it began almost coughing! Relief and another horror flooded Ukiah as he saw a half-eaten fish fall out of its mouth onto his chest.
Ukiah wanted to hurl so bad with the smell of the fish, but as he was about to, the pressure released off of him. The dragon was getting up! Rearing up and sitting up on his rear legs, the dragon just looked at Ukiah. Ukiah's first instinct was to run, but experience told him otherwise.
Slowly sitting up he thought "If this dragon was going to kill me, he would have done it probably last night when I saw him from the cave, I'm sure he saw me."
Looking at the dragon and then at the fish Ukiah had no idea what the dragon wanted.
Looking back at it with a confused look must have tipped off the dragon, because no sooner had Ukiah done so, the dragon gestured to eat it with a nod of his head.
Ukiah slightly smiled with curiosity at the look of the dragon. Almost smiling itself, it looked kind of goofy with its eyes and toothless mouth.
Ukiah re-gathering himself stared at the fish, then back to the dragon, and then slowly went for his dagger strapped to his arm.
The Night Fury's expression changed immediately. It growled viciously at the dagger. Ukiah stopped, withdrawing his hand and then gestured to the fish and making cutting motions over it. If he was going to eat a partly digested fish, he was going to get the best of what he could.
The Night Fury's expression didn't change but his growling did stop. Ukiah continued to go for the dagger, but a lot more slowly this time.
By the time he had the dagger in his hand to its sheath, Ukiah had a few strips of fish meat, the dragon's expression relaxed. Ukiah looked at the fish strips and then closed his eyes as he bit into the raw fish meat which was cold, wet (probably from the fluids from inside the dragon) and bland.
Ukiah had eaten raw fish before when he couldn't start a fire, so that didn't bug him as much as the fact he was eating regurgitated fish.
After getting over his gag reflex and eating the last strip, Ukiah stared at the Night Fury. Making no more motions or gestures, Ukiah slowly got up and even more slowly picked up his crossbow. The dragon just stared at him in his sitting position all the while this was done.
Making sure that the Night Fury wasn't expecting anything else; Ukiah turned and began to walk back to the cave. Noticing that he was being followed again, he turned to the Night Fury and unsuccessfully tried to shoo away a dragon. This continued for about an hour of starting to walk and then turning around shooing the dragon.
When Ukiah got to the entrance of his cave, the Night Fury spread its wings and flew to the sky. "Finally" sighed Ukiah as he shed his weapons and extra layers of leather.
Carefully putting the fox pelt in a basket that was ready to go to Thariin, he secured the lid and fell down onto his makeshift bed pulling a fur blanket over him.
He recounted what had happened to him the past few hours. He didn't get to too far in the thought process, because sleep finally overcame him and it was a very deep sleep, but Ukiah still had one eye open.
It wasn't until the next morning, when Ukiah woke up. Stretching, he looked out of the opening of his cave and saw a beautiful sunrise. The sky was painted with a magnificent red and orange, with stray beams of the sun shooting through.
Ukiah took a few minutes to soak in this wonderful sight and to think of yesterday's events. He had been spared by a dragon deemed merciless and a cold killer. On top of that it gave him something in return. Puzzled and almost a little disturbed, Ukiah turned around to go back into the cave.
It has been longer than an entire day since Ukiah had eaten anything…well, decent, and he was starving! Grabbing a few slabs of venison steaks from a store jar in the back, and making sure that the meat was still good, he threw it on a metal skillet on top of a fire pit, and proceeded to make a fire by grabbing some extra wood in the back of the cave.
No sooner had he returned from the back of his cave, he noticed that one of the venison steaks was missing and a fire had been lit under the skillet, with a small trail of fire leading to the opening of the cave.
Curiously, Ukiah drew his dagger and carefully went out and looked around.
Seeing nothing to the right or the left of the cave, he looked forward and saw a black dragon, sitting on the rock pinnacle right in front of him.
The Night Fury had an almost innocent look on his face, tilting his head, as if wondering if he could come in. Ukiah just stood there, staring back at the dragon. For some reason, Ukiah didn't even have a feeling of fear or horror. He didn't even have the thought to run. He was more so curious as to why the dragon lit his fire?
"What are you doing buddy?" whispered Ukiah, "What do you want?"
A crazy thought came into Ukiah's head, and he started to back up for two reasons: One, the meat was going to burn if he didn't flip it, and two he wanted to give himself enough distance between him and the dragon when he invited it over.
After sheathing his dagger and flipping the meat, he looked at the Night Fury and, silently cursing himself for doing another insane action involving the dragon, waved the dragon to come over.
No sooner had he done so, the Night Fury was in his cave lying down next to the fire. Ukiah was, again, astounded! This dragon was deemed to be the most vicious and deadly dragon of them all, and here was one lying down in his cave, lighting his fires!
Ukiah let himself relax a little bit and sat down on a rock opposite from the dragon.
After a few minutes of silence, and turning the meat, Ukiah tossed half a venison steak to the dragon and proceeded to eat the other half.
After the silent meeting and breakfast, the dragon stood up and walked to the edge of the cliff by the opening. Spreading its large wings, Ukiah was amazed at how the dragon looked bigger with the wings open! He noticed something that he hadn't noticed before on the back of the dragon, a streak of almost dark blue on the, which you wouldn't see in the dark.
"Wow" whispered Ukiah.
The Night Fury launched itself up in the air and rocketed out of sight.
Amazed by the recent event, Ukiah thought of how his world had changed. From seeing the deadly Night Fury, who showed no mercy to its victims, to something that was almost looking out for him. He pondered on this a few hours and then began to pack for the trip to Thariin.
It's been a few days since the Night Fury incident, and between then and now, Ukiah has ran into the dragon a number of times throughout each day. The Night Fury had actually moved its place of residence from the rock pinnacle to on top of the Ukiah's cave.
Every morning at the same time, the Night Fury would come down and light the fire in the fire pit. Ukiah made sure that the wood was ready every night.
Sometimes Ukiah would be there in the morning, sometimes he wouldn't. The days' he was gone were when he left to get some fish for the dragon and some fresh venison for himself. He would always cook a venison steak for him and a fish for the Night Fury.
Ukiah's desire of gold and glory for killing the dragon had completely vanished! The Night Fury had become a real friend and his only friend at that. He almost thought that the Night Fury had the same feelings for him!
Ukiah started calling him Kobaalt, after the dark blue streak running down his back. For Ukiah and Kobaalt, this was just the beginning of how deep their friendship would go.