Edward waited in a line in a café. Some people behind him talked about a new sensation called "TheFacebook". It made Edward cringe. He had done his best to ignore this thing, hoping for its swift demise which didn't seem to be coming any time soon. It was unnatural. Computer people weren't supposed to socialize, with a possible exception of R&D meetings.
The line moved and then it was Edward's turn.
"A latte with no sugar, a cinnamon roll, and four doughnuts," he ordered.
"Here or to go?" an employee asked.
"The coffee and the roll here, the doughnuts in a bag."
He paid and carried his tray to a nearest free chair. There was a young student sitting opposite from him. He was working on his laptop. Edward frowned when he noticed the logo of the company he hated more than anything else (even social media) on the laptop.
"Baked cheese sandwich!" an employee cried.
The student stood up and went to retrieve his order. Working quickly, Edward pulled out his killer USB stick. It contained a virus written by him when he was still in school. He had boasted to a fellow student of his that he had written a software which can crash the reviled operating system. The other student was like "WTF? I've got a disc full of applications which do the same without even trying to!"
The only trick was how to get the virus on a computer and run it. Edward inserted the stick. He was in luck, auto-mount and auto-play was enabled. He retrieved the stick, ate last bit of the roll, and downed last swig of coffee. He walked out and observed the student through a window as he lost his nerve and started to pound his laptop.
Feeling really well, Edward walked back to their basement. It was late evening already but he planned to work through the night. He whistled and swung the bag of doughnuts as he walked.
Suddenly, street lamps on the street where he was went dark. It wasn't a circuitry malfunction, someone turned them off. No one else but him was around. Edward started to have a bad feeling.
He was in the middle of the street, it didn't matter whether he went back or forward. He pulled out his penlight and continued at a faster pace.
He heard a thud to his right. He shone his light in that direction. A figure was revealed. It looked like a man but a highly peculiar one. Apart from the fact that he probably jumped down on the street from a roof, there was also something unnatural and rigid about his posture. The light reflected in a strange way from his skin.
"Hello?" croaked Edward.
The man stood there, as if waiting for instructions from an unseen puppet master. That wasn't actually true. He was waiting for the CPU in his head to finish recognition of Edward's face and that's something that takes time, especially when written in an inefficient way.
Edward didn't wait for anything and ran for it. The man was at him in a split of a second. He slammed the geek against a wall and resumed the examination of his face. Not that it mattered at this point for the victim but target confirmation was needed. His eyes were completely dull, empty, with no sign of intelligence.
As Edward flailed around with his arms, the penlight still in his hand, he noticed something strange in its light. There was an USB port in the attacker's neck. And above it, there was a logo - the very same logo he had seen a while ago on the student's laptop. Without thinking about it, he reached for his killer stick in his pocket.
Whatever software was running in the creature's head finished its work. Inhibitors which kept him in place released its control over his urges. The attacker opened his mouth and sank his teeth in Edward's neck at the same time as Edward inserted his USB stick.
Unbelievable pain erupted from the wound. Edward was so paralyzed by it that he couldn't even scream.
The attacker didn't fare much better. It seemed like whatever was done to him was designed not to work without the controlling unit. He started to twist spasmodically and released Edward.
Both of them fell on the ground. Their eyes met and it seemed to Edward that something like awareness appeared in the assassin's look right before he started to burn inside out. Probably some kind of a self-destruct mechanism triggered by the failure of the CPU.
Edward rolled away. He too was burning, in his own way. Fire was spreading through his veins. It took enormous effort to fish out his cellphone and hit Bella's speed-dial.
It's night and it's raining lightly. A primitive wagon is pulled by two horses along a muddy road in a forest. There are two horse riders in front and two more behind the wagon. The only person on the wagon is the driver. Other people could sit in the back but no one wanted to because no one wanted to be near the cargo.
The inside of the wagon is lined with little fir branches, it seems like they didn't have any hay at hand. There, nestled on the lining, is the meteorite. Or at least most of it. Somebody chipped some of it away. It's unclear how much time has passed and how has the meteorite gotten there and no explanation is given. Truth to be told, it's irrelevant for the further story.
Whoever was chipping the outer layer away stopped the moment he reached the surface of the object inside. It looks like a strange smooth rock with dark green sheen to it and only a tiny patch of it is revealed. It glistens when light of torches shine on it.
All the people in the group are agitated. They feel the presence of whatever is inside the meteorite. The same goes for the horses.
It seems that they aren't the only ones. A wolf howl sounds through the night. One of the guards comments on it in an unknown language. His tone is tense, almost angry.
The group continues. One of them prepares a bow, others have spears. There's only one sword. There isn't enough light to tell for sure but it looks like a bronze one, just like before. The same goes for tips of spears.
The archer spots a wolf and fires. He misses.
The horses are afraid. The driver attempts to calm his ones down by verbal commands but it doesn't work. He tells the riders to ride next to them but there isn't enough space on the road. There also isn't enough time.
The wolves attack. There's chaos everywhere and the horses panic. The wagon crashes and the meteorite is launched oo the darkness.
It rolls down a hill, loosing bits and pieces. Finally, it reaches the bottom of a ravine. It hits a boulder and there's a loud crack. Nothing happens at first but then the meteorite falls apart in two large pieces. The egg inside is revealed.
Two wolves approach it. While it looks and smells like an ordinary stone to them, they can still feel presence of something inside. They snarl and growl at it but it doesn't react in any way. One of them takes a swipe at it. The egg just rolls away. The wolves leave again.
A short while later, the egg stirs. A tiny claw breaks trough. More of the egg shell starts to crumble and before long, a little dragon is hatched. He stretches his wings and lets out a muffled cry to test his lungs (or whatever it is that dragons have). It seems that the dragon is aware of the danger around and doesn't want to attract attention.
A careful observer would note that while the dragon doesn't posses any limbs other than his legs and wings, he actually has some kind of arms and hands merged into his wings. The "arms" form the edges of the wings, as usual. The unusual thing is that he has actual fingers, including an opposable thumb, in addition to those which form the struts in his wings. The fingers are shaped in a way which allows them to fold into each other to decrease their aerodynamic drag.
His upper body is (at the moment) as big and muscular as his lower body but there's no telling how will that change as he grows up. His wings are large when compared to his body but there's no doubt that he's unable to fly. His scales seem soft and delicate. His head is somewhat large when compared to his body, as is usual with newborns. Still, it seems rather small and inadequate. One wonders if it's possible for dragons to grow more braincells over time.
The dragon folds his wings and wobbles away into underbrush. He seems to be bipedal but he uses his folded wings for support when he looses balance. The pieces of the shell disintegrate into fine dust behind his back.
The man with a sword arrives. He carries a torch in his left hand. He's got scratches all over but no heavy injuries so far. His sword is covered by blood. He examines the halves of the meteorite, the revealed cavity in them, and the dust.
The man curses at first but then he notices footprints. He brings his torch close to the ground and examines them. He doesn't get it at first, he doesn't connect the prints with the meteorite. It seems that the men thought that it was some kind of a gem filled with some strange power inside the meteorite.
Finally, he realizes it. He doesn't understand it but he doesn't need to. He follows the footprints before the rain erases them. The little dragon crouches in his hideout. One wrong move might mean instant death or capture. There's no question that he's absolutely powerless against the man.
When the man is almost at him, the wolves return. He turns sharply to face the danger. He decides not to wait for one of them to pounce on his back and makes his own move. One of the wolves falls dead.
The dragon exploits the opening and makes a run for it. He looks "over his shoulder" some distance away. More wolves have arrived and the man is bleeding heavily from a grievous wound on his leg. It doesn't seem like he's going to get out of this one alive. The dragon keeps running.
It's dark all around because of cloud cover and dense foliage. The light of the torch can't be seen any more, not even a glimmer. The dragon doesn't mind. The way he sees in dark is different but his vision is sharp and more than adequate.
He's far from being out of the woods. The passage of the group attracted attention of a whole pack. The dragon enters a small stream to cover his track. Downstream or upstream? The dragon decides to travel up.
He reaches a point where passage further is guarded by a wolf who paces back and forth. There's a gentle breeze in the valley coming from the wolf's direction. That's good so the dragon creeps forward, careful not to splash water.
The wind changes direction and the wolf smells the dragon. There's a deeper place in front of the dragon so he dives there, attempting to burrow even deeper into the stream bed. Luckily, there are no pebbles in that place. The water is cold and being fully submerged in it robs the dragon of his warmth but that's inconsequential at the moment. He also finds out that he can stay underwater for a very long time this close to a flowing surface. Not that he wouldn't be able to hold his breath for the necessary time.
As the wolf approaches, the dragon realizes that he needs to do one more thing in order to hide - he needs to mask his presence, to suppress the psychic aura which has emanated from him for all those years and which he was using to sense the world around him before he even hatched. He does it and when the wolf gets there, it can't find anything.
The dragon continues once the wolf is away. He wants to run as far away as he can but fatigue arrives in a while. On top of that, he's got an empty belly and he's cold.
He spots a hollow tree. It looks like a safe place to rest. But how to get there without leaving a scent trail? The dragon's little brain mulls over the dilemma as he stands at the edge of the water.
He flaps his wings. No, he can't fly there. Also, he's to weak to jump and glide. Besides, there's no convenient boulder from which to jump.
He remembers some plants which he passed a moment ago. He noted their strong scent. He returns there to examine them properly. Yes, these can do. He plucks some of the leaves and returns forward again.
He finds a flat stone on the bank and picks a pebble from the stream. Using these primitive tools, he grounds the leaves into a fine paste. He applies the paste on his feet as he steps out of the water. He runs to the tree.
As he expected, it's a good place to spend the rest of the night. He needs to sate his hunger before he can go to sleep though. His senses detect a lot of worms in the wood. He digs out the ones closest to the surface and eats them, crawling upward through the inside of the tree in process. He can feel his strength returning to him already.
He finds a comfortable place to sleep once he's full. There's an opening above him through which he can see a piece of the sky. There's still some cloud cover but stars can be seen for most of the time. The little dragon watches them as he tries to sort out the chaos which has filled his mind from the moment he hatched.
His brain is still small and his mind is vastly alien from that of a human so no one can really imagine what are his thoughts like. It's mostly instinct and images. He doesn't know where he is but he somehow knows that he came from the stars, that the rock which encapsulated his egg fell from the sky. This corroborates with what little he remembers from his time with the goblins.
He's perfectly aware of what he is. It's also clear to him that he's got a mother somewhere up there who laid his egg. What's not entirely clear is why she and others of his kind abandoned him but he's got a hunch that it isn't anything out of ordinary. He's got a feeling that there's a purpose for his presence on this planet which for some reason feels like his domain, his home. There's no doubt that this place is more home to him than any other place in the universe - and not just because it's also the only place in the universe he has ever known.
Chirping of a bird wakes the dragon in the morning. He climbs to the top of the tree. Everything is bright and colorful. The bird is sitting on a branch and trills. It notices the dragon and hops away a little. The dragon makes a move toward the bird. It flaps its wings and flies away.
The dragon takes a moment to take a good look at the scenery around him. It's the first time he sees the world in daylight.
Having the bird and the way it flew in fresh memory, he decides for a little experiment. He stands on top of the tree, stretches his wings, and jumps. He drops to the ground like a brick on a parachute. Even though he's still small, his wings can't be used for flying yet. They might be good for dropping from heights or even some limited gliding.
There's no time to play with them now though. No wolves visited the place during the night but he needs to get out of their territory. The dragon eats some more worms and resumes his journey. He keeps following the stream up. The wolves are sleeping now so he doesn't wade through the water which enables him to go faster.
He tries to eat various things during his trek. Berries, roots, and such. Berries don't sate him very much and roots are difficult to digest for a dragon this young. It seems that his best source of nourishment is meat right now.
He reaches the source of the stream in early afternoon. The dragon dilly-dallies by the spring for a moment, contemplating his next course of action. The way up is still clear so that's where he goes. He comes by a tree stump and eats some more worms.
When the sun sets, the dragon hesitates whether to continue or to find a shelter for the night. He is tired, yes, but he can go on for a while longer. He finds a mushroom while he ponders a snacks on it. Not bad.
Suddenly, a wolf howl sounds through the night. The dragon can't be sure but it seems like it's coming from the hollow tree where he slept previous night. The pack has found his trace. He shoots up the hill. He needs to cover more ground while he still can.
They catch up with him in half an hour. His only option is to climb a tree. The wolves circle around it and growl like there is no tomorrow.
The dragon observes the pack. A while later, he somehow recognizes which wolf is the leader. He plucks a cone and lobs it at him. He misses. On second try, he hits the wolf right in his nose. The wolf almost goes berserk.
The dragon climbs higher and looks around. Luckily, it's a mixed forest and there's a leaf tree nearby. That's surely a better place for spending a night. He stretches his wings and jumps over to a neighboring tree. He climbs higher again and jumps to his destination. The wolves follow him. The dragon pays them no attention and finds a good place to rest. The wolves lie down as well but they don't sleep. The dragon wonders why are they pursuing him. He can't possibly smell tasty to them.
When the sun rises, most wolves start to slumber. Some of them keep watching the dragon though. He spots a bird nest on a tree higher up the hill. Using his wings, he jumps over there, one tree at a time. The wolves follow. The nest was abandoned last night when the dragon and his followers arrived. Well, waste not, want not - the dragon eats the eggs, not feeling one bit of kinship.
It looks like the top of the hill isn't far. The dragon continues on his journey. His way of traveling is exhausting but with the pack under him, there's no other option.
He reaches the top soon enough. He climbs the highest tree there and has a look around. Behind him, he sees the valley where he hatched more than a day ago. He's lucky that he chose to go upstream. If he had chosen the other direction, he wouldn't have a good terrain for outmaneuvering the pack.
On the other side of the hill is a small mountain. Its about three times taller than the hill he's on at the moment. The dragon thinks that it might be a good place to hide for a while. It doesn't take long for him to set it as his next destination. The way there is also clear and with a bit of luck, he might even give the wolves a slip. He just needs to wait for the right wind.
When the wind starts blowing against him, the dragon unfolds his wings and jumps. He travels just like before but faster and without climbing because he's going downhill.
He leaves the pack behind and truth to be told, they are somewhat surprised by his sudden take off. Alas, they don't give up. Perhaps they feel that he's dangerous and needs to be dealt with while he's still small.
Thanks to the wind which goes against him, the dragon smells another predator. He also notes scratches on a bark of a tree nearby. A plan hatches in his head. He changes his direction a little. His descent is no longer as steep so he needs to use his muscles more but it's more than worth it.
In a short while, he passes over a bear who just woke up and is still grumpy. The pack is led straight to him. The bear stands up on his hind legs and roars. The pack growls and circles around it but it's obvious that they aren't going to attack. They are out of their territory anyway. The dragon is forgotten for the moment.
The little dragon fully intends to use this opportunity to escape from the pack. He resumes his original course and glide-jumps all the way down until he reaches a line where the slope of the hill meets the slope of the neighboring mountain. He drops to the ground and starts running up again. He can't see the peak of the mountain from his position but he remembers the direction. He slows down after a while.
He comes across a big meadow. He knew it was there, he saw it from the hill. While it's risky to leave the woods, it's faster to cross it than to go around and there doesn't seem to be any danger nearby. He steps out into sunlight.
The weather is actually quite nice this day and it's warm. When he's almost through, he lies down and indulges himself in a little "sunbathing" for a moment. He stares straight into the sun and it doesn't hurt his eyes.
He spots a molehill when he gets up. He doesn't know what it is but he investigates. While the pack may or may not still pursue him, he can't pass a possible source of food.
Extending his senses underground, he detects a tunnel. He follows it, until he finds a cache of paralyzed earthworms. He starts digging. Two minutes later, he snacks on the earthworms. Not very yummy but it gives him strength.
The mole arrives. It smells the dragon but it can't turn around. The fastest way away from the dragon is to go up before retreating underground again.
The dragon waits in ambush and as soon as the mole's nose appears, he strikes. He pulls the mole out but the mole swipes at him with its powerful paws. A fight ensues. It's a nice change for the dragon to face an enemy who is smaller than him. The mole has larger claws but in the end, it's no competition at all. The dragon kills the mole and feasts on its flesh. It's his first proper meal on this planet.
After a short rest, the dragon continues upward. He comes across another meadow in the afternoon. It's full of flowers. His ears pick out a strange buzzing. He follows the sounds and finds a beehive. It smells nice. He climbs to it and the bees attack. He plucks a few of them from the air and eats them but then he stops paying them any attention and rips into the hive. There's honey inside. He eats the hive whole, husk and all.
Darkness comes and it doesn't seem like anything is pursuing the dragon. Still, he's cautious and climbs on a suitable tree. He wakes up before sunrise and continues. He looks for more food on his way and manages to track down a hare to its burrow. He takes a break to eat and digest it.
I takes more than a half a day to reach the top boundary of the forest. Only mountain pines and similar things grow above this point. It means that the top of the mountain isn't far. A human would consider this last part of the climb the most difficult one but it's actually no challenge for the dragon. He can travel there almost as quickly as down in the valley.
He reaches vicinity of the top of the mountain sometime after sunset. There are no more mountain pines above his position. He doesn't go all the way up, it's dark anyway. He finds a good place between a rock and a mountain pine and goes to sleep.
He gets up before sunrise and finishes his journey. The top of the mountain isn't as pointy as it seemed from the hill. It's actually flat and there are even small patches of yellowish grass. The dragon hops around for a while before he finds the best place on which to stand.
Sunrise comes and reveals the land around. The dragon sees more mountains in distance, most of them are bigger than the one he stands on at the moment. At the very edge of his vision is a boundary of an arid area. The dragon suspect that the very desert where the goblins found his meteorite lies beyond.
The dragon remembers the moment of his hatching. He neglected something back them and it's time to redress that. He straightens up, unfolds his wings, and lets out a little roar, as loud as his small body allows. It's enough to startle all birds in vicinity. The dragon marks their positions.
As he studies the terrain he spots something at a lower slope of one of the nearer mountains. It's an anomaly in the natural pattern of the landscape. It's too far to tell anything more about it but the dragon remembers the area for later inspection.
He spends a day and night exploring the area around the peak and searching for food. When he concludes that most of edible things around were eaten, he finds a convenient cavity in a rock. He collects gravel and all sorts of dry grass, moss, and twigs. There's only one thing to do when a dragon has nothing to eat. He buries himself in his burrow and goes to deep sleep.
Torrents of heavy rain awaken the dragon several days later. He finds a better shelter where he's better shielded against the elements.
The rain stops shortly after noon. The dragon returns to the top of the mountain and plans his next journey. There's no point in staying there any longer and he has stayed in one place for too long anyway.
There's a river in the valley between the two mountains and it's reachable by gliding from his position. It doesn't flow towards his destination but should the dragon find out that it's easily traversable for him, it will be more economical to follow it until the nearest point rather than traveling straight to the destination. Moreover, there could be fish.
When the wind is right, he takes a running start and jumps. He starts loosing altitude immediately but the slope under him is even steeper. Moreover, it seems like his altitude loss is a tiny bit smaller than during his last flight.
Unfortunately, the wind shifts after a while. Not in the opposite direction, just by ninety degrees. It's coming from his side now. The dragon thinks about changing course but that would take him too far away from his way. He goes into a controlled dive instead to prevent stalling.
Crowns of trees below are getting closer and closer. Fast. The dragon thinks whether he shouldn't do something about it. Is there a meadow on which he could land? No, there isn't. Maybe he should have spent more time observing birds and less time eating their eggs. He pulls up at the last moment and stalls. The side-wind doesn't help either. The dragon hopes that there's nothing too sharp under him. He attempts to grab onto a branch but misses it and clips his wing on it instead. His legs aren't strong enough anyway. He has enough presence of mind to fold his wings before crashing. At least there aren't any stones.
He lies on the ground for a while. He realizes that he should have turned against the wind before attempting to land. He needs to remember it for next time.
He inspects himself. To his relief, he didn't sustain any critical or head injuries. His wing is unusable for the moment, no more gliding for some time. He is also too vulnerable in his current state to continue. He finds some mushrooms to eat and rests.
Next day morning, he starts his walk towards the river. He spots a lynx and evades it widely.
He reaches the river. It is brisk but deep enough to enable him to swim in it without hitting stones all the time. He lets the stream to carry him. The fact that he can stay submerged in this oxygen rich water almost indefinitely is of great help. He intrinsically knows that it's up to him whether he wishes to strengthen and evolve this ability or whether he wishes to focus on his other skills (such as flying).
He tries to catch a fish but they are all faster then him. He has no chance. He thinks that he's gotten lucky when he sees one that doesn't run. A large one to boot. It's a pickerel, with a big mouth full of sharp teeth. A fight ensues. Once again, the dragon underestimates the situation. The pickerel is faster and more agile. The dragon doesn't fear for his life but he doesn't want to get hurt again. Struck by a sudden idea, he releases his aura. The fish is startled and retreats. The dragon suppresses the aura again to avoid drawing attention and gets out of the water. If he knew how to curse, he would do so.
After another night of licking his wounds, the dragon returns in the river and continues his journey. He doesn't hurry because he needs to allow his wounds to heal properly but he doesn't want to dilly-dally either. He's in an unknown area and there are no easily defensible places for him to hide in if a pack of predators starts to hunt him again.
Before he reaches the point where he planned to abandon the river, he discovers something. It's an old road. He didn't see it from the mountain. It doesn't seem to be used any more and he can't smell any humans on it but it was surely well traveled in its day. It leads parallel with the river in the downstream direction. In the upstream direction, it turns away and heads to his destination.
The dragon thinks. He doesn't really need to use the road which seems to snake its way up the slope while he can go in straight line regardless of terrain. However, his curiosity is too strong. He follows the road.
He finds a highly oxidized copper object on the way. It seems like a part of something larger - maybe a vehicle, maybe a mount harness or a saddle. He keeps his eyes peeled for such artifacts but the only other thing he finds before arriving to his destination is a bent nail.
He arrives to an abandoned mine. He doesn't recognize what it is because he has no previous experience with such things. He starts looking around.
There are some remnants of structures around a half-collapsed entrance. Anything wooden or clay has rotten or crumbled away, only hardly detectable traces remain. Stone parts are in ruins. There are some more copper nails around. The place was abandoned many years ago.
The dragon enters the mine. He can see right away that these are no natural caves - somebody dug all of it out. It doesn't look very stable but if it hasn't collapsed for all those years, it's not going to fall on his head now. He surely isn't the first living soul to enter it recently - he can smell fresh scent of rodents.
After some time, the dragon figures out what was the purpose of it all: a mineral which he's going to know as salt in future. Humans (or perhaps some other humanoids but most probably not goblins) mined salt there and used the road to transport it. The dragon thinks about it. His little (and inexperienced) brain can't imagine salt being used for trading but he can admit that salt is a useful thing to have, judging by the physiology of local lifeforms.
At the moment, he's more interested in the rodents he has smelled. He follows a trace and finds a nest of rats. Being confident in his superiority, he attacks with an intention of snatching a rat or two and leaving again. Once again, he is caught in his own miscalculation. While a lone rat is weaker than him, a bunch of them can be a problem. He finds himself besieged from all sides and a desperate fight ensues. Somehow, he doesn't think that releasing his mental aura would help. He survives only because he keeps his cool and develops a tactic which leads him to victory slowly. When most of the rats are dead, the remaining ones run away.
The dragon examines his wounds and the carnage around. All of it was was doubly stupid - not only did he got himself almost killed again but he can't even eat all of those rats before they rot. A large amount of salt might help but who knows if there's any left in the mine. Moreover, there are always more rats to find.
He drags a bundle of dead rats outside and finds the most solid ruin to hide in and rest. He would prefer to be inside but he's not ready for another battle. He starts eating.
In the following days, he explores the mine and the area around. Deep down, he finds places where salt was being mined before the mine was closed. There's almost none left. He finds a few more copper items.
He doesn't attack rats in their nests any more but ambushes them when they scurry around instead. They catch on and adapt but he adapts faster.
It doesn't take long for the dragon to get back to his full health. Not only that, it also seems that he has grown bigger and stronger. The strange thing is that his cranial cavity is growing at the same rate and his head is as oversized (when compared to his body) as before. His thinking changes accordingly - less instinct, more analysis and planning. The time before hatching becomes a memory of a memory. Perhaps one way to think about it is to imagine him as a larvae - when he hatched, he wasn't developed the way mammals are when they are born. He is still growing towards that point.
He practices gliding from time to time. He finds a good place for that - a big sloping meadow with a tall tree at its upper end. He doesn't just practice flapping his wings but also examines the thing which helped him during his glide from the mountain. He doesn't think about what it is - just like little children don't think about their legs.
There's nothing else in the mine for him to discover so he sets out into the woods. Once again, he finds a lynx. He evaded one before but now, it's an adequate test of his strength.
He stays downwind and silently climbs on a nearby tree. The lynx doesn't detect him until he lands somewhere above it. The feline snarls at him but doesn't run. They maneuver in preparation for a fight. The dragon makes sure to stay above. The lynx attempts to leap to a higher branch but the dragon intercepts it and draws first blood. The lynx falls down and its paws slip of a few branches before it manages to break its fall and pull itself up. The dragon drops down too and once again, he hovers above the lynx. The animal attempts to do the exact same thing as before and this time, they are both falling down. The lynx twists to land on its legs. Then it feels the dragon's wing claws on its shoulder blades. There's nothing the lynx can do. They meet the ground and the gravity does the rest.
The dragon feasts on the lynx. He considers utilizing the fur but he doesn't see what could he possibly need it for. He decides to make something else though. He designs a fish trap and crafts it using willow branches. He has never seen one before but that's not a problem for his intellect. He puts it in the river and for several days, he just eats the fish he collects there. The trap deteriorates a falls apart eventually but the dragon doesn't repair it because he intends to move on.
Well, not entirely. Not right away at least. What he plans to do is rather a small detour before following his earlier plan to follow the road. For now, he goes up the mountain above the mine. He doesn't go straight up like before but opts to go in a spiral and take his time. Nothing out of ordinary occurs apart from coming across a territory of another bear. The dragon makes sure to avoid it.
After reaching the top, the dragon takes another look around. He can't see the area where he hatched nor does he spot anything new of significance. It looks like following the road is his best bet to discover something.
He decides to make another big glide. Only this time, he isn't going to rely on his wings alone. He plans his route and when the wind is right, he sets off. When his flight is stabilized, he focuses on a strange feeling in his belly and ignites it. He pushes himself up to lower his altitude loss and forward at the same time to increase his speed. He flaps his wings from time to time but uses them mostly for gliding.
He lands in the river and lets the water carry him. He keeps an eye on the road next to the river. Indeed, the two diverge next day and the dragon continues on foot. Just like before, there are no signs of recent traversal. The road is interrupted sometimes but the dragon has no problem of finding it again every time.
The dragon reaches ruins of a larger village before too long. As he will find out soon enough, this village is his destination. There's another river flowing next to it. He dragon calculates that it meets the other river somewhere downstream.
He examines the village and its surroundings. There are signs of other roads leaving from it but unlike the one to the mine, these practically disappear some distance away. They probably weren't that big and well traveled back in the day.
There are plains around the village where fields used to be. Now there are only barely noticeable remnants of stone walls between them. Bushes and other wild vegetation is growing everywhere. The dragon doesn't know what a field is but he stores every detail for later analysis.
Most of the dwellings in the village weren't made of stone so there's nothing left of them. Some buildings had stone foundations and remnants of those can be noted by a careful observer. One of them even had cellar. He discovers a human skeleton in it. Most of the bones have rotten away and the rest fall apart when the dragon touches them.
Only two structures had stone walls. One of them is large but low. The walls weren't as solid and the building is completely in ruins today. The other was taller and solid. It even has some kind of a tower which doesn't look very stable but part of it still stands.
The dragon climbs the tower and looks around, aggregating everything he has noted earlier. In his inner eye, he can see it all now. Carts, like the one used to transport his egg, arriving with salt. Maybe not carts but something even more primitive. People from wide and far coming to the village to... trade? Yes, trade - an exchange of salt for something else. And vice versa, merchants from the village traveling out. Fields and cattle all around and people working them. The large building was used to store salt? The one he's standing on seems like the most important one though. Perhaps some kind of a village center and/or a place of worship? It also looks solid and defensible enough. Then the salt ran out and the mine was abandoned. People stopped coming to the village and its younger citizens started to leave. Eventually, wilderness reclaimed the place.
The dragon doesn't know yet how long is he going to stay in the village and where should he make his burrow but he sleeps in a corner of the building that night. Once again, he watches the night sky and contemplates. It looks like these humans are quite resourceful and developed beings. Most probably the dominant species of this world. He's got a feeling that he's going to be involved with them in the future. Maybe he ought to find and observe some of them before he grows too big to move around unnoticed.
He spends a week combing the area around. No luck. All the roads are completely gone, as if they were never there. No wonder. The dragon discovers signs of floods and landslides. A smaller road had no chance.
He's quite positive that he doesn't wish to return to the valley where he hatched. For one, it doesn't feel right and he wishes to keep moving. Also, what little impression from the time just before hatching he has tells him that the other road was even more desolate than the one between the mine and the village. Of course, he can't fully relate his pre-hatching senses to the world he can see on his own eyes now but he's quite sure that he's correct. He wonders why were those people transporting his egg through such a wilderness.
Another question is, should he even attempt to get to the destination of those people who were transporting his meteorite? Maybe it would be wiser to try to locate and observe some simpler communities.
With no roads to follow, the dragon has only the river to rely on. He builds a small raft and lets the current to carry him to the horizon.
"We should call police! Or a doctor at least," insisted Alice. It was about a day after they had found Edward convulsing on a street next to a quickly dispersing human shaped pile of ashes.
"And what exactly is that going to accomplish?" snapped Bella. "And how exactly are we going to explain it? We have no idea what it was that attacked him and what would authorities do with him. Maybe they would take him to some underground facility to examine him and we would never see him again."
As she spoke, she walked over to a table where Emmett and Jasper were for a millionth time examining all that remained of the supposed attacker: a few pieces of metal and burned tech, including a completely destroyed microchip. All of it looked like a prop from some sick sci-fi.
"Let me guess," she addressed them. "You've got no idea what it is."
"Too much damage," replied Emmett. "Perhaps Edward can take a look at it when he wakes up."
"If he wakes up," murmured Jasper and continued out loud, "Of course, then he'll be able to tell us what actually happened."
"Shouldn't we at least inform Carlisle?" proposed Rosalie.
Jasper cleared his throat and argued, "If we aren't telling the police, we should leave Carlisle out of this as well, for now. You know, plausible deniability."
"Let's not paint it worse than it is," emphasized Bella. "He's stable. He's in pain, yes, but he's sleeping through it."
That was true, at least judging by his rapid eye movement. Also, when Bella leaned to him a couple of hours earlier, she heard him whispering, "wolves, damn wolves". They couldn't be sure but it was something they had talked about in regards to the plot of their game.