Summary: Kaoru wants to be able to kill the dragons that she thinks are a
threat to her village but after getting to know one her ideas of dragons
change.
A/N- Okay this is my first fic so don't be surprised if it is really bad. Also the story is a little different from the summary so just read the fic. If anyone actually likes this fic please leave a review for me so I'll know if I should continue posting chapters.
Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin in any way. I'm just a poor kid with no money writing a story about the characters.
" " Talking
' ' Thoughts
* * Dream
A/N Author's notes
Fighters Wanted!!
Strong men needed! Any strong and skilled fighters willing to lend their
sword for a good cause are needed to help us fight in a
Dragon Raid. Fights are long and hard so we ask only the toughest men come
prepared to fight. Your assistance would be much of much help.
On the 18th fighters will be setting out on the Raid. Raids can last up to several months so we ask you to come properly packed with anything you may need. Fighters will be given food and shelter and pay for each dragon they
help slay.
We at the village council cannot and will not be held responsible for any
injuries or deaths that may happen during the raid so once again we ask
only the strongest men come.
If you are interested please repot to the Council Hall at 8:00 sharp on the
night of the 14th for a brief meeting. There the strongest men will be
chosen to go on the Raid.
The Village Council
Kaoru quietly read the flyer aloud and grinned as she finished. 'Finally, a chance to show everyone how strong I am! They'll see I'm a great fighter!' Kaoru's smile grew even bigger at the thought of finally proving herself to everyone at the Council.
Kaoru walked on through the market to quickly finish her shopping, all the while thinking of the Raid.
'They'll have to let me go, they'll have to! After all my dad has taught me I'd be really useful to them! I bet I'll even slay a few dragons! I'll slay a real dragon! Yeah, it'll be great! Kaoru's thoughts made her even more confident and eager for the Raid to come. I can't wait till the Raid! But there's still four days to wait to get picked for the team! 4 whole days!! How can I wait that long?! I want to be on the team right now!'
Kaoru was still smiling when she reach the bakery. "Hello, Kaoru!" greeted the baker, Lia, cheerfully. "And what might you be so happy about miss Kaoru?" asked Arilly as Kaoru walked in to the bakery.
"Hi, Lia! I'd like to loaves of bread and a box of muffins, please. Oh, and to answer your question, there's gonna be a Raid soon!" Kaoru answered excitedly.
"You mean a Dragon Raid?" Lia questioned as she handed Kaoru her bread and muffins. "Kaoru you can't really be thinking about joining that Raid can you?" Lia's smile fell from her face when Kaoru eagerly nodded her head.
"Kaoru, you know I don't approve of your wanting to fight, and neither does anyone else in the village. You had best leave all the fighting to the men and do all the things a young girl like you is expected to do. And in case you didn't know, fighting is not one of them!"
Kaoru's excitement died a little as she listened to Lia speak. What did she mean? What was she talking about? Kaoru just didn't get it at all.
"Lia, I don't understand what you mean."
"Oh, you understand Kaoru. Ever since your father died you've been going off about becoming a fighter like he was. I can understand you're still a little upset about his death but that's no reason to start getting foolish ideas into your head! Kaoru you are a girl, and wither you want to except it or not girls just do not fight!"
Kaoru felt a little insulted at Lia's harsh words. Lia was starting to make her angry. "But why? Why can't women become fighters?" Kaoru demanded.
"Because Kaoru, men do the fighting and they protect everyone!" said Lia firmly. " And women cook and clean and raise children in the home, where they're needed. I have never heard of any village having women in its army. Just the thought of that is just crazy! That's how it is."
"But that's not fair!" Kaoru was definitely becoming angry now. "A woman could do just as good a job at fighting as a guy could if she got the chance. I know I'm just as strong as most of the guys in the village! The way things are just aren't fair!"
"Kaoru, just because you think the way things are isn't fair doesn't mean there going to change just for you! So, I suggest you get used to it!" Lia shouted.
Kaoru glared at Lia as she slapped her coins down on to the counter and turned to leave. Kaoru stormed out of the bakery and stomped down the street toward her house. The night breeze was gentle and cool and helped to calm Kaoru's mood down a little bit, but not that much.
Lia just didn't understand. No one in the village understood. They were all too busy with the way they liked things to be to ever think of anything ever being different. For them everything always had to stay the same forever. So they couldn't even begin to think the way Kaoru did. Only her dad understood. He was the one who made her want to be a warrior.
Her father, Kamiya Kairu, had been a great warrior. Kairu had been a true master swordsman. He had saved many people and his village many times and had been in the most recent of the Dragon Wars. He used his sword to fight for justice and save people, and he never used it to kill a human being. Her father was amazing, and she had always wanted to be just like him, so her father had started teaching her the ways of the sword and encouraged her to become a great warrior like him. Kairu was the only one who truly understood Kaoru and the way she wanted things to be.
Her father was everything to her and she was everything to him. Everything was always all right when he was with her. They always had fun together training and doing anything else together. Because Kaoru had never had a mother around her dad had tried twice as hard to be a good father to her and in her opinion had been the best dad in the whole world. Everything had been great.
And then he had gotten sick.Very sick..
Kaoru shook her head as she felt tears start to prick the corners of her eyes. She wiped them away quickly making sure they wouldn't fall. She wouldn't cry. Her dad wouldn't want her to cry, no he wouldn't.She had to be brave like her dad would have wanted her to be! She just had to.
Kaoru quickly jogged the rest of the way home to eat a quick dinner, go take a bath warm and get ready for bed. Tomorrow her training for the Raid would begin and she had to be well rested. ________________________________________________________________________
*" Okay now Angel, I'm gonna come at you and you gotta fight me off, okay?" Kairu looked down at his daughter as she held out her sword and nodded for him to begin.
"Here I come!" He lunged his sword down toward the girl but not hard enough to hurt her if the blow connected.
"Hyah!" Kaoru cried out as she blocked her dad's blow with one of her own.
She quickly thrust her sword to her dad's side to strike. Kairu saw Kaoru's sword coming and deflected it back toward her to knock her off balance. But Kaoru had been anticipating this and took a strong swipe at her dad's feet when he was off guard and expecting her to fall. Kairu gave a small grunt as he fell to the floor and looked up to see his daughter standing above him smiling proudly.
" Yay! I did it daddy I did it! Did you see me? I'm starting to get really good at this, right daddy?" she cheered as she danced around happily.
" Yep Angel, I saw you get me good! And you really are improving." Ouch. He thought as he rubbed his sore behind. She really was getting better and better at this.
Kaoru sat herself down on her father's lap and looked up at him smiling. "Daddy, one day I'm gonna be just as good a sword fighter as you are and mommy will smile on me from Heaven and she'll be proud I'm her little girl because I'll be able to fight and protect people!" Kaoru announced proudly.
"Yes Angel, she'll be very proud you. I know she will. And so will I. I'll be able to say 'You know that great warrior, Kamiya Kaoru? Well she's my little Angel. I taught her everything she knows!'" boasted Kairu proudly.
" Really daddy?" Kaoru asked, hope shining on her face.
" Yep, really!" he said as he hugged Kaoru tightly. Kaoru giggled and hugged him back, as happy as could be.* ________________________________________________________________________
Kaoru woke up as the morning sun rose on the horizon. She quickly dressed into her comfortable Kendo clothes, ate a quick breakfast, grabbed her sword, and headed out the door. Her dream from last night about her dad telling her she would be great fighter had motivated Kaoru even more to train and be ready for the Raid.
Kaoru was heading to a small little valley where she and her dad had often trained when she was younger. It wasn't a very big valley but it was very peaceful. Surrounding the little clearing were beautiful green trees, perfect for shade when one was resting. To the side of the clearing was a stream with cool running water, perfect to drink form. Since the valley was a secret place only Kaoru and her father knew about Kaoru knew she could always go there for training and no one would be there to disturb her.
As Kaoru walked past the bordering trees and into the clearing she saw something that made her stop dead in her tracks.
Right there, in front of her, drinking from the stream was a huge dragon. The thing was enormous! It was easily much larger than most of the tallest buildings that Kaoru, a person who had seen her fair share of grand buildings, had ever seen. Kaoru watched memorized at how the dragon's red and white scales glittered in the sunlight Down the left side of the dragons face was a long X shaped scar, clearly an unhealed wound from a previous battle, and Kaoru couldn't help but wonder where it had gotten the scar.
Kaoru stood staring at the dragon, as it seemed to wash it's self in the water, for what seemed like an eternity though it couldn't have been more than several moments. Kaoru made an attempt at moving but found herself unable to. She didn't understand why she was frozen like she was; she had seen tons of other dragons before. Suddenly a reason for her immobility came to her that she rather disliked: this dragon was beautiful. She was shocked by the dragon simply because she had never seen a dragon that was breath taking, as this one was. All the other dragons she had seen destroying villages and terrorizing people were monstrous and ugly, but this dragon truly was beautiful.
Though the thought that had just come to Kaoru's mind was indeed the reason for her not being able to move, she refused to acknowledge it.
'No.' Kaoru said to herself in her mind. 'A dragon is simply not a beautiful thing. Dragons are horrible, evil creatures that destroy villages and eat people. They certainly are a lot of things but beautiful is not one of them. I most certainly do not think this dragon is the least bit beautiful!'
'Oh, really?' Said a little nagging voice inside Kaoru's head. 'Then why, may I ask, are you stuck to the ground where you stand?'
'Well, I.I don't really know, but that's sure not the reason!'
'Whatever you say.' Said the voice, refusing to believe what Kaoru said.
At this point Kaoru did not wish to finish this argument with her self and was saved from having to by the dragon it's self. It had finished washing it's self in the stream and lifted its head to look at her, as if noticing her for the first time. The dragon stared at her quizzically for several moments, as if it were studying her, and took a several steps closer to her. It looked at her up and down carefully, looking as if it were examining her. Kaoru wasn't sure if she was just imagining it or not, but she could have sworn she saw a curious expression on it's face that was almost human-like.
Just having the dragon walk within twenty feet of her made Kaoru extremely nervous. Since she still couldn't move she was defenseless and if the dragon decided that she might be a tasty snack she was done for. Kaoru stood and silently prayed that the dragon would just decide to fly back to where ever it had come from and leave her alone.
Unfortunately her prayers went unanswered as the dragon closed the distance between them with a short step. It brought its huge head down to hers so she was looking the thing straight in the eyes. It's large violet eyes were probably about as big as Kaoru herself was! Kaoru let out a terrified "Eeekk!" sound as the dragon stared at her but it didn't seem to hear her and stayed at her eye-level.
Suddenly out of nowhere the dragon brought the side of its face down right next to Kaoru's face and gently and nuzzled her affectionately.
Normally if any dragon had come with in thirty feet of Kaoru she would have attacked it and slain it before the beast could get any closer but since Kaoru was unable to move that option was out of the picture. If it had been any other dragon, even if Kaoru had not been able to move, she would have forced her self to snap out of it and attack the dragon if it had dared do such as thing touch her, especially such a thing as nuzzle her, but as this dragon gently rubbed its face to hers she found that even though she could now move again she wasn't making any move to get away from the dragon, much less attack it. Even stranger still was the fact that for some reason Kaoru brought her hand up to the dragon's face and started to gently stroke it. Just stroking the dragon was so comforting.
'Hmmm. Its scales don't feel anything like I would imagine they would'. Kaoru thought to her self as she continued to stroke the dragon's face. 'You would think they would feel hard and rough but they feel soft and smooth. They feel so nice.' Just as Kaoru started to think she could stand there forever and softly stroke the dragon it quickly pulled its head away from her as if it had been struck. Kaoru reeled back too, but she did it in surprise at how quickly the dragon had pulled away from her.
For some odd reason Kaoru strangely felt a little sad that the dragon had pulled away from her so quickly and a little disappointed that she couldn't stroke the dragon's scales anymore.
Once again Kaoru could have sworn she could she a human-like emotion on the dragon's face but this time it was disbelief and shock. The dragon looked as if it hadn't meant for any of that to happen and had been just as surprised by it nuzzling her as she was.
It stood looking at Kaoru for several more moments and than it spread its large wings out to take flight. With one mighty flap of it's strong wings the dragon sent out a huge wind that sent Kaoru flying and lifted up into the sky. Kaoru stood back up and watched as the dragon rose high into the air and flew quickly away. She watched it leaving until it was no more than a little speck in the sky and than finally disappeared.
Kaoru stood in the same spot for several moments thinking to her self. 'What in the world just happened?! One minute I'm just standing there staring at the thing like an idiot waiting for it to kill me and the next minuet I'm actually letting it touch me and even stroking it!'
'And if things weren't bad enough for a second I even thought I believed that the stupid thing was beautiful! How could I have just let it touch me?! I should have been trying to kill it! I have been trained my whole life to fight and kill dragons to protect my self and others and just a second ago when I had the perfect chance to put my training to good use and slay one of the awful things I didn't! And even if I do think the dragon is pretty, which I don't, because it's in an area so close to the village it must be one of the dragons that we're going to slay during the Raid! If we don't kill the thing it'll attack the village and kill us all! And that probably means that I'm just going to end up killing it so I shouldn't be wasting my time thinking something that's going to die soon is beautiful and liking it!'
As Kaoru finally finished scolding her self for her stupidity she set down her stuff and started her training drills.
'I've got to get even stronger! Even though that dragon was not beautiful and I didn't like it at all it did look pretty strong. If I'm going to slay it I've got to become even stronger than it is! I'll get so strong that when I fight the thing it won't know what hit it!'
With these determined thoughts in mind Kaoru spent the rest of the day training her self for the fight with the thought of her slaying many dragons to motivate her. And for the rest of the day no matter how hard she tried to she couldn't help but think of her encounter with the dragon she had seen down by the river.
A/N- That's all for the first chapter. Like I said earlier, if any one likes this story please tell me so I'll know to continue. See ya ^__^x!
A/N- Okay this is my first fic so don't be surprised if it is really bad. Also the story is a little different from the summary so just read the fic. If anyone actually likes this fic please leave a review for me so I'll know if I should continue posting chapters.
Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin in any way. I'm just a poor kid with no money writing a story about the characters.
" " Talking
' ' Thoughts
* * Dream
A/N Author's notes
Fighters Wanted!!
Strong men needed! Any strong and skilled fighters willing to lend their
sword for a good cause are needed to help us fight in a
Dragon Raid. Fights are long and hard so we ask only the toughest men come
prepared to fight. Your assistance would be much of much help.
On the 18th fighters will be setting out on the Raid. Raids can last up to several months so we ask you to come properly packed with anything you may need. Fighters will be given food and shelter and pay for each dragon they
help slay.
We at the village council cannot and will not be held responsible for any
injuries or deaths that may happen during the raid so once again we ask
only the strongest men come.
If you are interested please repot to the Council Hall at 8:00 sharp on the
night of the 14th for a brief meeting. There the strongest men will be
chosen to go on the Raid.
The Village Council
Kaoru quietly read the flyer aloud and grinned as she finished. 'Finally, a chance to show everyone how strong I am! They'll see I'm a great fighter!' Kaoru's smile grew even bigger at the thought of finally proving herself to everyone at the Council.
Kaoru walked on through the market to quickly finish her shopping, all the while thinking of the Raid.
'They'll have to let me go, they'll have to! After all my dad has taught me I'd be really useful to them! I bet I'll even slay a few dragons! I'll slay a real dragon! Yeah, it'll be great! Kaoru's thoughts made her even more confident and eager for the Raid to come. I can't wait till the Raid! But there's still four days to wait to get picked for the team! 4 whole days!! How can I wait that long?! I want to be on the team right now!'
Kaoru was still smiling when she reach the bakery. "Hello, Kaoru!" greeted the baker, Lia, cheerfully. "And what might you be so happy about miss Kaoru?" asked Arilly as Kaoru walked in to the bakery.
"Hi, Lia! I'd like to loaves of bread and a box of muffins, please. Oh, and to answer your question, there's gonna be a Raid soon!" Kaoru answered excitedly.
"You mean a Dragon Raid?" Lia questioned as she handed Kaoru her bread and muffins. "Kaoru you can't really be thinking about joining that Raid can you?" Lia's smile fell from her face when Kaoru eagerly nodded her head.
"Kaoru, you know I don't approve of your wanting to fight, and neither does anyone else in the village. You had best leave all the fighting to the men and do all the things a young girl like you is expected to do. And in case you didn't know, fighting is not one of them!"
Kaoru's excitement died a little as she listened to Lia speak. What did she mean? What was she talking about? Kaoru just didn't get it at all.
"Lia, I don't understand what you mean."
"Oh, you understand Kaoru. Ever since your father died you've been going off about becoming a fighter like he was. I can understand you're still a little upset about his death but that's no reason to start getting foolish ideas into your head! Kaoru you are a girl, and wither you want to except it or not girls just do not fight!"
Kaoru felt a little insulted at Lia's harsh words. Lia was starting to make her angry. "But why? Why can't women become fighters?" Kaoru demanded.
"Because Kaoru, men do the fighting and they protect everyone!" said Lia firmly. " And women cook and clean and raise children in the home, where they're needed. I have never heard of any village having women in its army. Just the thought of that is just crazy! That's how it is."
"But that's not fair!" Kaoru was definitely becoming angry now. "A woman could do just as good a job at fighting as a guy could if she got the chance. I know I'm just as strong as most of the guys in the village! The way things are just aren't fair!"
"Kaoru, just because you think the way things are isn't fair doesn't mean there going to change just for you! So, I suggest you get used to it!" Lia shouted.
Kaoru glared at Lia as she slapped her coins down on to the counter and turned to leave. Kaoru stormed out of the bakery and stomped down the street toward her house. The night breeze was gentle and cool and helped to calm Kaoru's mood down a little bit, but not that much.
Lia just didn't understand. No one in the village understood. They were all too busy with the way they liked things to be to ever think of anything ever being different. For them everything always had to stay the same forever. So they couldn't even begin to think the way Kaoru did. Only her dad understood. He was the one who made her want to be a warrior.
Her father, Kamiya Kairu, had been a great warrior. Kairu had been a true master swordsman. He had saved many people and his village many times and had been in the most recent of the Dragon Wars. He used his sword to fight for justice and save people, and he never used it to kill a human being. Her father was amazing, and she had always wanted to be just like him, so her father had started teaching her the ways of the sword and encouraged her to become a great warrior like him. Kairu was the only one who truly understood Kaoru and the way she wanted things to be.
Her father was everything to her and she was everything to him. Everything was always all right when he was with her. They always had fun together training and doing anything else together. Because Kaoru had never had a mother around her dad had tried twice as hard to be a good father to her and in her opinion had been the best dad in the whole world. Everything had been great.
And then he had gotten sick.Very sick..
Kaoru shook her head as she felt tears start to prick the corners of her eyes. She wiped them away quickly making sure they wouldn't fall. She wouldn't cry. Her dad wouldn't want her to cry, no he wouldn't.She had to be brave like her dad would have wanted her to be! She just had to.
Kaoru quickly jogged the rest of the way home to eat a quick dinner, go take a bath warm and get ready for bed. Tomorrow her training for the Raid would begin and she had to be well rested. ________________________________________________________________________
*" Okay now Angel, I'm gonna come at you and you gotta fight me off, okay?" Kairu looked down at his daughter as she held out her sword and nodded for him to begin.
"Here I come!" He lunged his sword down toward the girl but not hard enough to hurt her if the blow connected.
"Hyah!" Kaoru cried out as she blocked her dad's blow with one of her own.
She quickly thrust her sword to her dad's side to strike. Kairu saw Kaoru's sword coming and deflected it back toward her to knock her off balance. But Kaoru had been anticipating this and took a strong swipe at her dad's feet when he was off guard and expecting her to fall. Kairu gave a small grunt as he fell to the floor and looked up to see his daughter standing above him smiling proudly.
" Yay! I did it daddy I did it! Did you see me? I'm starting to get really good at this, right daddy?" she cheered as she danced around happily.
" Yep Angel, I saw you get me good! And you really are improving." Ouch. He thought as he rubbed his sore behind. She really was getting better and better at this.
Kaoru sat herself down on her father's lap and looked up at him smiling. "Daddy, one day I'm gonna be just as good a sword fighter as you are and mommy will smile on me from Heaven and she'll be proud I'm her little girl because I'll be able to fight and protect people!" Kaoru announced proudly.
"Yes Angel, she'll be very proud you. I know she will. And so will I. I'll be able to say 'You know that great warrior, Kamiya Kaoru? Well she's my little Angel. I taught her everything she knows!'" boasted Kairu proudly.
" Really daddy?" Kaoru asked, hope shining on her face.
" Yep, really!" he said as he hugged Kaoru tightly. Kaoru giggled and hugged him back, as happy as could be.* ________________________________________________________________________
Kaoru woke up as the morning sun rose on the horizon. She quickly dressed into her comfortable Kendo clothes, ate a quick breakfast, grabbed her sword, and headed out the door. Her dream from last night about her dad telling her she would be great fighter had motivated Kaoru even more to train and be ready for the Raid.
Kaoru was heading to a small little valley where she and her dad had often trained when she was younger. It wasn't a very big valley but it was very peaceful. Surrounding the little clearing were beautiful green trees, perfect for shade when one was resting. To the side of the clearing was a stream with cool running water, perfect to drink form. Since the valley was a secret place only Kaoru and her father knew about Kaoru knew she could always go there for training and no one would be there to disturb her.
As Kaoru walked past the bordering trees and into the clearing she saw something that made her stop dead in her tracks.
Right there, in front of her, drinking from the stream was a huge dragon. The thing was enormous! It was easily much larger than most of the tallest buildings that Kaoru, a person who had seen her fair share of grand buildings, had ever seen. Kaoru watched memorized at how the dragon's red and white scales glittered in the sunlight Down the left side of the dragons face was a long X shaped scar, clearly an unhealed wound from a previous battle, and Kaoru couldn't help but wonder where it had gotten the scar.
Kaoru stood staring at the dragon, as it seemed to wash it's self in the water, for what seemed like an eternity though it couldn't have been more than several moments. Kaoru made an attempt at moving but found herself unable to. She didn't understand why she was frozen like she was; she had seen tons of other dragons before. Suddenly a reason for her immobility came to her that she rather disliked: this dragon was beautiful. She was shocked by the dragon simply because she had never seen a dragon that was breath taking, as this one was. All the other dragons she had seen destroying villages and terrorizing people were monstrous and ugly, but this dragon truly was beautiful.
Though the thought that had just come to Kaoru's mind was indeed the reason for her not being able to move, she refused to acknowledge it.
'No.' Kaoru said to herself in her mind. 'A dragon is simply not a beautiful thing. Dragons are horrible, evil creatures that destroy villages and eat people. They certainly are a lot of things but beautiful is not one of them. I most certainly do not think this dragon is the least bit beautiful!'
'Oh, really?' Said a little nagging voice inside Kaoru's head. 'Then why, may I ask, are you stuck to the ground where you stand?'
'Well, I.I don't really know, but that's sure not the reason!'
'Whatever you say.' Said the voice, refusing to believe what Kaoru said.
At this point Kaoru did not wish to finish this argument with her self and was saved from having to by the dragon it's self. It had finished washing it's self in the stream and lifted its head to look at her, as if noticing her for the first time. The dragon stared at her quizzically for several moments, as if it were studying her, and took a several steps closer to her. It looked at her up and down carefully, looking as if it were examining her. Kaoru wasn't sure if she was just imagining it or not, but she could have sworn she saw a curious expression on it's face that was almost human-like.
Just having the dragon walk within twenty feet of her made Kaoru extremely nervous. Since she still couldn't move she was defenseless and if the dragon decided that she might be a tasty snack she was done for. Kaoru stood and silently prayed that the dragon would just decide to fly back to where ever it had come from and leave her alone.
Unfortunately her prayers went unanswered as the dragon closed the distance between them with a short step. It brought its huge head down to hers so she was looking the thing straight in the eyes. It's large violet eyes were probably about as big as Kaoru herself was! Kaoru let out a terrified "Eeekk!" sound as the dragon stared at her but it didn't seem to hear her and stayed at her eye-level.
Suddenly out of nowhere the dragon brought the side of its face down right next to Kaoru's face and gently and nuzzled her affectionately.
Normally if any dragon had come with in thirty feet of Kaoru she would have attacked it and slain it before the beast could get any closer but since Kaoru was unable to move that option was out of the picture. If it had been any other dragon, even if Kaoru had not been able to move, she would have forced her self to snap out of it and attack the dragon if it had dared do such as thing touch her, especially such a thing as nuzzle her, but as this dragon gently rubbed its face to hers she found that even though she could now move again she wasn't making any move to get away from the dragon, much less attack it. Even stranger still was the fact that for some reason Kaoru brought her hand up to the dragon's face and started to gently stroke it. Just stroking the dragon was so comforting.
'Hmmm. Its scales don't feel anything like I would imagine they would'. Kaoru thought to her self as she continued to stroke the dragon's face. 'You would think they would feel hard and rough but they feel soft and smooth. They feel so nice.' Just as Kaoru started to think she could stand there forever and softly stroke the dragon it quickly pulled its head away from her as if it had been struck. Kaoru reeled back too, but she did it in surprise at how quickly the dragon had pulled away from her.
For some odd reason Kaoru strangely felt a little sad that the dragon had pulled away from her so quickly and a little disappointed that she couldn't stroke the dragon's scales anymore.
Once again Kaoru could have sworn she could she a human-like emotion on the dragon's face but this time it was disbelief and shock. The dragon looked as if it hadn't meant for any of that to happen and had been just as surprised by it nuzzling her as she was.
It stood looking at Kaoru for several more moments and than it spread its large wings out to take flight. With one mighty flap of it's strong wings the dragon sent out a huge wind that sent Kaoru flying and lifted up into the sky. Kaoru stood back up and watched as the dragon rose high into the air and flew quickly away. She watched it leaving until it was no more than a little speck in the sky and than finally disappeared.
Kaoru stood in the same spot for several moments thinking to her self. 'What in the world just happened?! One minute I'm just standing there staring at the thing like an idiot waiting for it to kill me and the next minuet I'm actually letting it touch me and even stroking it!'
'And if things weren't bad enough for a second I even thought I believed that the stupid thing was beautiful! How could I have just let it touch me?! I should have been trying to kill it! I have been trained my whole life to fight and kill dragons to protect my self and others and just a second ago when I had the perfect chance to put my training to good use and slay one of the awful things I didn't! And even if I do think the dragon is pretty, which I don't, because it's in an area so close to the village it must be one of the dragons that we're going to slay during the Raid! If we don't kill the thing it'll attack the village and kill us all! And that probably means that I'm just going to end up killing it so I shouldn't be wasting my time thinking something that's going to die soon is beautiful and liking it!'
As Kaoru finally finished scolding her self for her stupidity she set down her stuff and started her training drills.
'I've got to get even stronger! Even though that dragon was not beautiful and I didn't like it at all it did look pretty strong. If I'm going to slay it I've got to become even stronger than it is! I'll get so strong that when I fight the thing it won't know what hit it!'
With these determined thoughts in mind Kaoru spent the rest of the day training her self for the fight with the thought of her slaying many dragons to motivate her. And for the rest of the day no matter how hard she tried to she couldn't help but think of her encounter with the dragon she had seen down by the river.
A/N- That's all for the first chapter. Like I said earlier, if any one likes this story please tell me so I'll know to continue. See ya ^__^x!