Edward's eyes snapped open. He looked around at his friends leaning over him.
"How do you feel?" asked Bella.
It took a moment before Edward managed to overcome his confusion. His eyesight, hearing, even his sense of smell were amplified. Maybe he was imagining things? Somehow, he didn't think so.
"Well, I feel..." he fell silent again, startled.
The others shared his sentiment. His voice was different. Well, not exactly different. It was pretty much the same as before but it had gained an extraordinary quality.
"To tell the truth, I feel like I could sit down and implement my own STL from memory," he said finally.
That wasn't what his friends expected.
"And?" retorted Bella, momentarily forgetting the situation. "Anybody can do that and many people do when a project requires it. That includes us, don't you remember?"
It was true. Bella and Edward had implemented their own template library which was utilized in core parts of the engine. (mainly because C++ STL was too memory consuming).
"No, that's not what I mean," argued Edward. "I'm talking about the entire GNU STL, for all versions of the C++ standard, without ever referencing the standard specification. And I feel like I could do it in just a few hours. I'm not going to demonstrate because I think that my time would be better used by continuing my work."
"Edward, what happened to you?" asked Jasper resolutely.
"I'm not sure but it hurt like hell," answered Edward, misunderstanding the question. "To escape it, I thought about our work. I'll need to run some ideas with you later, Jasper. Right now, I need to get some coding done."
"That's not what I meant," clarified Jasper. "Who attacked you?"
"Oh, of course," said Edward and recounted the attack.
When he was done, Bella picked the charred tech up and remarked, "This was in its brain, controlling it."
Edward took a look at it.
"I can't be sure with this much damage but it could be ARM," he wagered.
Emmett and Jasper burst out in snickers. That wasn't what they had imagined.
"Would make sense, considering the OS," added Edward.
"But why would a software company send and cyborg at you?" wondered Bella.
"Just because it ran on their OS it doesn't mean that it was then," remarked Emmett. "Though I guess it wouldn't surprise me."
"Maybe they want to stop our project?" theorized Rosalie. "Maybe this is how they normally operate. Maybe this is exactly how they became the biggest software company on this planet."
"I don't know," mused Jasper. "Judging by the chip, this is something new. For all we know, Edward was supposed to be its very first victim."
"And it wasn't a cyborg," remarked Edward.
"More like a replicant, right?" proposed Emmett.
"A replicant?" repeated Bella.
"Yeah. By what Edward told us, the attacker was once a human being. If it wasn't for the wires in his head and a lobotomy to make space for them, he wouldn't be much different from what is Edward now. Edward, you said that you were bitten."
"Yes?"
"As I see it, some kind of a reagent or a virus was used to turn the original human into the attacker. This reagent was still present in his body and when he bit you... you get the idea."
All six of them thought one word: vampire. Alas, nobody said it out loud, because it was ridiculous to contemplate. Replicant was a word which sounded far more scientific.
"So, anything more about how you feel?" prodded Jasper. "Apart from the STL thing?"
"Well, my throat kind of hurts. I guess I'm thirsty. Which isn't surprising, since I didn't drink any water for... how long?"
"Three days," supplied Bella.
"Three says? Felt like longer to me."
Edward stood up and went to a sink. The speed of his movement surprised even him. He barely managed to stop himself from crushing into a cupboard.
"Whoa!" cried Bella.
"Whoa indeed," echoed Edward.
"You know what, let me help you."
Bella took a tin cup and poured him some water. She didn't think that using a glass was a good idea. Edward took a drink.
"That didn't help much," he complained.
"Oooooookaaayy," drawled Emmett. "What are you thirsty for?"
Edward looked around at his friends.
"Guys, I'll tell you something creepy now," he started. "It's really creepy but please, try not to creep out."
"We're listening."
"Here goes: I can smell and hear the blood in your veins. And I think that's the kind of thing I need."
The others swallowed dryly.
"Don't worry!" calmed them Edward. "I'm not going to actually drink human blood, that would be cannibalism."
"Actually, drinking blood isn't so weird," contemplated Jasper. "If the change destroyed your digestion, than consuming nutrients which have been broken down already is your only option."
"And what about milk?" proposed Emmett.
"I don't think that's going to work," disagreed Jasper. "But we can try it."
"Very well, let's get to work," stated Bella and clasped her hands. "Emmett, Rose, could you two go to town and buy some blood from a butcher? Tell them that you need it for cooking a soup. Also, do grab some milk, please. We haven't got any here. Alice, could you call Carlisle and tell him what happened? Don't use a phone, utilize an encrypted Internet call, the way I've shown you. Jasper, you can stay with us - it seems like Edward wants to get back to work."
Everybody went after their goals. Jasper found an old non-functioning keyboard.
"Hey, maybe you should practice on this first," he proposed.
Edward understood that he was referring to his enhanced muscles. He put the keyboard on his lap and tried to press a key. His finger went right through.
"It's ok, you can practice on the rest of the keyboard," commented Bella supportively.
After several tries, Edward determined the right amount of strength. He practiced typing for a while. He talked with Jasper about his ideas concerning the story in the meantime. Bella went to check on Alice. Carlisle wasn't online so Alice sent him an anonymous SMS from a web portal. It contained a secret code telling him to get to his computer at his convenience.
"You know, there's one thing I don't get," mused Jasper. "The people who sent the attacker must know that it has been destroyed. Why haven't they sent another one after us?"
"Because we are in a stage where we explore my new superpowers," answered Edward. "It's too soon for a fight."
"I hope you aren't going to pick a fight with some street gang," Bella implored him.
"But that's what people do in movies in such a situation!"
"No! We've got enough problems as it is."
They turned Edward's computer on. Edward was sighing impatiently while Linux was booting on. Moreover, something seemed off to him. When a login screen appeared, it became clear what it was. He rubbed his eyes and looked again.
"What is it?" asked Bella.
"I don't see the picture any more," explained Edward. "My eyes can see too much detail in the screen. I'm hard pressed to ignore the details enough to see it as rows of sub-pixels but I can't make the threesomes merge into pixels."
"Are you saying that you can't use a screen?" asked Jasper.
"Not the way you do. My only option is to take all threesomes of sub-pixels, combine the colors into pixels, and combine those in a picture. In my head, I mean."
"This is getting weirder and weirder," muttered Jasper while Edward typed his login and password.
Edward leaned back in his chair. The backrest groaned under the strain so he had to ease off a little.
"This is taking forever!" he whined.
"It's just a few seconds," settled him Bella. "See? The desktop is loaded already."
Edward checked his e-mails first. There were automated reports from their server and a message from his day-job. They wished him speedy recovery and reminded him about a certain issue which needed fixing.
"We called your boss and told him that you were ill," explained Bella.
"OK, it will be a home-office for me for a while. Though I guess it would be best for me to resign sooner or later."
He started Eclipse next. Once again, ho complained about how slow it was. Bella remained silent this time because she could only agree.
"This is pointless," stated Edward after writing a few lines. "I can't work with such a long response time."
He saved his work, closed the IDE, and opened a terminal emulator. He went to his workspace directory and duplicated the tab. He started vim in the first tab and left the other for command line (he preferred it that way)
"Are you also going to abandon KDE and start using Xfce?" asked Jasper sarcastically.
"Maybe later," replied Edward. "I don't want to have so many changes in such short time."
Bella and Jasper watched in ave as Edward's fingers danced across the keyboard and unbelievable amounts of code exploded on the screen. He also did some refactoring which actually took him longer than writing new code.
"Shouldn't you think about these things before you implement them?" asked Bella.
"I was thinking about them for three days," answered Edward without breaking his tempo. "Don't worry, I'm writing only things which I have discussed with you or which don't need your input."
After a while, Edward made last commit and stood up. Jasper's eyes were shining with excitement. It was clear to him that with Edward in the team, there were almost no constraints to his creativity. Not because he could write as much code as ten programmers - those would have to communicate with each other, review each other's code, have meetings, etc. Edward was like ten developers packed into one man.
"There!" he announced. "It's in three big commits, you can read in their comments what was added. You can try it now. Jasper? Do you've got a minute?"
Jasper just spread his arms in a gesture saying that he had been waiting for exactly that. While Bella compiled the project, the two guys discussed some new mechanics to be added in the game.
In the meantime, Alice received a call from Carlisle. The voice was garbled because their Internet connection wasn't great but it was intelligible.
"Guys?" called Alice. "I've told him what happened. He wants to talk to all of you now."
"Carlisle?" spoke Edward into a microphone. "I was listening to Alice and I've got nothing to add - she relayed it all exactly as I told it myself."
"You mean you were listening while you were coding?" asked Carlisle.
"No, while I was talking to Jasper."
"Astonishing."
"Carlisle," interjected Bella. "What do you think about this attack. Why would they attack us because of our game?"
"Maybe they don't want to let you create a precedent. Moreover, usage of some of the mechanics in your game is quite novel. People in charge don't want the game market to be upset by customers whining about main-stream games being dull when compared to you."
Bella thought immediately about her ideas which didn't make it to the game's design.
"At this moment, we should focus on Edward's physical condition," continued Carlisle. "I've got a friend who's a doctor..."
"No, don't tell anybody about this," interrupted him Bella.
"I concur," agreed Edward.
"And you shouldn't come here either. Keep a low profile."
"That will be difficult. My connection to you is known."
"We'll figure something out. After we learn more about Edward's condition."
"Very well. Stay safe."
"You stay safer," replied Jasper.
Shortly after they concluded the call, Emmett and Rose returned. Edward tried some milk but it didn't work out. By experimenting, they found out that he could tolerate a small amount of it when mixed with a much larger amount of blood.
"Can I have the rest of the milk?" asked Bella.
"Sure, why not," replied Rose, not understanding where was Bella going.
She poured herself a glass and drank it.
"It's just that it's probably the last milk I'll ever drink," she explained. "Without blood, that is."
"Are you seriously thinking what I'm thinking?" exclaimed Jasper. "We don't know anything about this and whether it can be replicated."
"Hey, calm down. Do you remember our talk about using DEVS to simulate events?"
"What does that have to do..." started Jasper and trailed off.
"We've never really discussed this, because it was extra work we could avoid," explained Bella. "But now, our situation is different. Will be different in three days, to be precise. Or even sooner, if administering more reagent will speed things up. So, let's talk about this before we proceed."
"Very well, I'm listening," conceded Jasper.
Edward and Emmett listened intently as this was concerning them too.
"Think about the standard RPG games about human or humanoid adventurers," Bella told them. "What do they all share when it comes to quests and flow of the story?"
"There's none," Emmett stated the obvious. "Story doesn't flow. Until you complete a quest at which point new quests become available. As if time didn't matter."
"Indeed. Some older games tried to tackle this but succeeded only partially. I'm not talking about purely sandbox games without a proper plot. Also, I can't think of any new mainstream games which addressed this at all. Sure, some triple-A titles try to mask this by giving a player a lot of options to give their universe a more organic feel."
"That's why are we using a dragon as a protagonist," reminded them Jasper. "He's the boss, the motivator of events. Nothing gets done without him."
"Why not? Does it mean that if he hides in some cave and stays there for a century that NPCs won't grow old and die?"
"And how's that a time limit going to change? Besides, I don't recollect us agreeing to make this a sandbox, free-roaming game. I want to tell a story!"
"And we shall! If anything, making time matter will actually prevent free-roaming. However, there's no denying that the game is in its principle rather sandboxy. A death of an essential character will get you in the saved games screen but besides that, there's no reason why events shouldn't flow of their own accord. And for one last time: It's not a time limit, it's DEVS. Or something based on it."
"One question," spoke Edward. "Who's going to design and implement it? Even with my new speed, I can't add this to my workload."
"Well, I will, of course."
"In what language? Smalltalk?"
"No, C. I'm sure you are aware that I'm capable of that. It's going to be an independent module or a package of modules. You are going to interface it with the game. It's going to be controlled by scripts, which is where Emmett comes in."
"This is going to generate an infinite amount of possibilities," remarked Alice.
"Well, not infinite. But from a practical standpoint, yes, quite a lot."
"And how's that going to work with voice acting, for example?"
"About that. Did you know that I've dabbled in speech synthesis once? Once the voice acting is done, if we find suitable voice actors to begin with, we'll have a lot of annotated sound files. We'll use those to train synthesis parameters for each character. Unvoiced NPCs will have randomized parameters."
"And who's going to implement it?" asked Jasper. "You again?"
"There's an open source implementation which we can use as a starting point."
"So, we are going full open source now?" asked Edward hopefully.
"Sure, why not? It's not like making money is our main concern anymore. Somebody wants us dead and we need to remove their motive. Moreover, they will send more drones next time. Edward can't defeat them alone."
Jasper contemplated their options. He looked around to gauge the mood of the others.
"Very well," he said in the end. "If you wish to become a super-genius like Edward, that's your choice. However, we'll talk about this sandbox, sorry, DEVS, after you wake up. You know why I'm doing this - I want to tell a linear story with only one possible ending. We can add optional flavors if you wish but then I see no difference between your solution and big budget games. Only you intend to do mathematically what they do manually."
"Not exactly," disagreed Emmett. "Look at it this way: Let's say that you are making a game about a dictator who wants to take over the world. Such a game has only one ending: taking over the world. How you get there is up to you."
"That's a strategy game," dead-panned Jasper.
"I know, bad example. However, our dragon has similar dispositions. Yes, it's about him and his goals don't change. However, it's also about the planet where he lives and that's one big sandbox. We can't simulate all people on it but if this DEVS can do the job at a higher granularity and it can do it in real-time, then I'm all for it."
"Not in real time," corrected Bella. "There will be periodic updates, let's say, every hour. The game will pause for a few seconds and the state machine will recompute itself. Unless there are finer-grained manually added events, of course."
"Yes, that's what I've meant - in reasonable time."
"Look, you can discuss this while I'm changing," stated Bella resolutely. "I'll think about my part in the meantime, then we'll brainstorm when I wake."
Edward raised his hand and asked, "Bella, how exactly are we going to do this? I hope you don't expect me to bite you in your neck."
"No, that would leave a conspicuous scar. Have you looked in a mirror yet?"
Edward's hand went to his neck. True enough, there was a scar.
"What about a syringe?" proposed Alice.
"And who's going to buy it?" sneered Rose. "I won't. It would look like I'm a junkie."
"No time for that," refused Bella. "You'll bite me, Edward, but not in my neck. A little bit lover, I think, so it can be easily covered."
"Ehm..." murmured Edward, feeling uneasy.
"Let's go to the bathroom," proposed Bella.
Emmett made a hoot.
"I just don't want Edward to have to deal with an audience!" Bella shut him up.
Edward was sure that he was red in his face. Then he realized that it wasn't possible any more.
When they were alone (or at least as alone as possible with the rest of the team waiting behind the door), Bella tugged at the neckline of her T-shirt. Edward was startled for a moment. Was she going to partially bare herself? Luckily, she merely uncovered her trapezius area.
"Here, bite me," she told him.
Edward took a deep breath and bared his teeth. He didn't wish to put his lips on Bella, that would be weird.
"You know, I was about to kiss a boy once," commented Bella. "It was in kindergarten. He did exactly what you are doing now. I ran away. It was the first and also the last time I've ever experimented with such things."
That was some seriously deep stuff which she was sharing with Edward. He wasn't sure if he was comfortable with that.
"Here goes nothing," he muttered and bit.
The dragon arrives to a coast. There's water stretching across the horizon. Either an ocean, a sea, or a really big lake but he doesn't know such terms yet. Another term he doesn't know yet is "east" but he can see that the sun has just risen from the water and knows that it will set over the landmass behind him.
He thinks that he sees something at the coast some distance from the mouth of the river. Also, his little rudimentary raft is falling apart and he doesn't wish the current to carry him out in the open. He jumps from the raft and swims to a beach.
He reaches another village. Once again, it's long abandoned. The dwellings there were less solid than in the trading village but it was abandoned later. Examination of the ruins and artifacts in them makes him believe that the villagers were fishermen.
Once again, he thinks about those people who were transporting the meteorite. Maybe they wished to move it from the area inhabited by the people who clashed with the goblins to a more advanced part of this world.
The dragon walks to the beach and wades into the waves. Upon tasting the water, he detects a large content of salt. Something in his brain crunches this and other facts and deduces what it means.
Not having anything better to do, he stays in the fishing village. He fixes some of the remaining artifacts and uses them to build his own fishing equipment. This gives him a practically unlimited source of food.
After a fortnight of hanging around the village, eating fish, and swimming in the sea, the dragon realizes that there's no point of waiting around for something or somebody to come there. After all, it seems that no one have visited the village for quite some time. It would be quite a coincidence for such a thing to happen shortly after his arrival.
He pulls his fish traps from the water and thinks about which direction to take: further along the coast (roughly south) or back to the river and in the opposite direction (north)? The latter may take him towards the area where his meteorite was being taken. He still feels that it's too soon for that. At the same time, he still thinks that he needs to observe humans while he's small and thus more capable of sneaking in somewhere.
In the end, he decides to travel further away from the river. It's a gamble but one worth taking.
Being in the open and not having to worry about scaring fish from his traps, he doesn't mask his mental presence any more. It scares away prey but also any animals that might want to bother him. He doesn't have to fear going on empty stomach, there are sporadic colonies of oysters in the sea.
The dragon's gamble pays off more than a week later. He hopes so at least. There's something stuck in the sand. A long but light object (a canoe). There's a stench of a corpse coming from it.
He creeps closer and sees that there's indeed a dead body inside. Well, more like a skeleton. There's some vermin crawling over it but there's not much left to eat. The dragon examines the remains. Judging by their state, the boat has been there for several weeks. It's still in good shape.
Closer examination reveals more things about the dead guy. First, the probable cause of death was a small, thin dart. It couldn't possibly kill the man alone so it was probably poisonous. He can't detect any traces of any poison now though, rain and sun took care of that. Second, judging by the shape of the man's skull, he was different from the man with the sword. He didn't see the skull of the man with the sword but he saw his face. Maybe they belonged to two different races?
There's no means of propelling (a paddle) in the boat. The man probably dropped it when he died. If he has been carried there by the currents, then the dragon could backtrack those to where the canoe's voyage started.
The dragon frees the boat from the sand and rolls it over so the remains spill out. He inspects the canoe and it seems to be in passable shape. It could use some maintenance but he has no means of doing it.
He's more concerned about how's he going to propel the vessel. He could forget about the boat and swim but that would take ages. In the end, there's only one viable option - his own wings. He ventures inland and collects long, firm grasses. He makes two short, thin ropes of those.
He pushes the boat in the water. After a bit of experimentation, he finds a spot where he needs to stand. He ties the ropes there, making makeshift stirrups for his feet.
The dragon flaps his wings and rides the boat away from the beach. Extending his senses, he reads the movements of water. Before too long, he finds the current which brought the canoe there. He can see it as clearly as a human would see a road. Alas, it's not the time to backtrack it yet. He returns to the land and waits.
He spends next few days eating and collecting some kind of a fruit which grows on nearby trees. It dries up nicely so he can take it with him. He doesn't have to worry about water - he doesn't need much of it to begin with and, as he finds out, he can drink salt-water with no problem. He practices steering the boat once. Throughout the whole time, he observes birds (which look a loot like seagulls) circling above the coastline.
The right moment finally arrives. Judging by the birds and waves, the wind blows in the right direction. He sets out once more. He spreads his wings wide like a sail and lets the wind to carry him. He tries to stick to an edge of the current so he doesn't have to fight against it all the time. Being on a deep sea and not knowing what kind of animals he can encounter, he decides to mask his presence for most of the time. He can't do that when he's sensing the sea current though.
About a day later, this comes to bite him. He expands his senses (and his aura) to check if he's still on course. Deep under him, there's a shark just at edge of his range. They sense each other's presence. Just like with the wolves, the shark reacts in a way opposite to herbivores. Moreover, a shark has got a small and primitive brain, virtually incapable of being afraid or intimidated.
The shark swims toward the canoe. The dragon retracts his aura and changes direction. After a few moments he changes it back. The shark doesn't know where the threat is but he becomes interested in the canoe.
After the beast swims right under the canoe and rocks the boat, the dragon decides to do something about the threat. He can't risk the canoe getting damaged. He expands his senses once more and takes a good look at the shark. Now he knows what needs to be done - there is a way to make it run.
The sharks swims towards the source of the offending aura. The dragon jumps of his boat and glides a short distance before plunging into the sea. The shark follows, leaving the boat alone. The dragon turns at his enemy, retracts his aura, and awaits. At the last moment, he evades and hooks onto the shark's back with his claws. The shark goes crazy, trying to shake off the little troublemaker.
The dragon opens his senses again and focuses them on the animal under him. Yes, the nerves in the nose. He climbs forward, using his claws. Finally, he reaches the front and stabs him right in the nerve bundle. The shark is almost paralyzed by pain. The dragon drops from him and watches as the shark retreats at full speed, leaving clouds of blood behind.
The dragon surfaces and looks around. The canoe is some distance away but not as far as he feared. Moreover, he's closer to the current and further against it than the canoe. He lets it carry him for a while before he starts swimming perpendicularly to it to intercept the boat.
He sails for two more days. The current turns slightly for the whole time and the wind shifts as well. He's forced to sail more and more diagonally to the direction of the wind.
He spots a small dot on the horizon. Unfortunately, it turns out that it can't be his destination - it's just a small, rocky island. There's a lot of nesting birds but no plants. Still, he decides to stop there because the current seems to be veering off and the wind isn't going to last forever either. He secures the boat and rests. He makes sure to stay hidden from the birds.
He swims out next day to scout the current and plan his next course of action. He finds out that the current splits into two smaller ones in the area (or, from the dragon's perspective, joins with the other branch into a bigger one). That's good, because his route is still clear - against the current. The wind isn't favorable for his new direction so he waits.
His supply of dry fruit runs out so he starts preying on bird eggs. He can't relay on this source of food - the birds will notice that there's a predator on the island. He isn't fast enough to catch fish and there's nothing there to build fishing traps from. Fortunately he finds some edible cucumber-like creatures on the sea floor.
On fourth day of waiting, a dead calm comes. He knows that he can't stay on the island forever. After giving it some thought, the dragon decides to continue in his voyage. He just needs to rely on his own muscles instead of the wind.
He lowers his canoe on the water again and flaps his wings. It's slower than being propelled by a wind in his back but he moves. The dragon wonders how much further the island of the dead man could be.
After four days of keeping a steady speed for most of the time, he recapitulates his situation. He made some progress but he has no food and he doesn't want to leave the boat for long and risk loosing it. There's still no wind. However, he spots a dark line on horizon behind him next morning. After a few hours, he sees that it is a storm.
He stops flapping his wings and rests. The storm is moving towards him. The dragon is unsure what to do. He never saw a storm on a sea but he has some idea of what it might be like. There's only one option: he has to try to ride it out.
The storm reaches him and he attempts to catch wind in a way which would enable him to stay in front of it. Alas, the storm is faster than him and it swallows him up eventually. There are big waves around him, each of them much bigger than his boat. It also rains heavily. His boat fills with water and sinks.
The dragon untangles his feet quickly and tries to continue without his boat. It's very difficult to keep his heading. He can't really sail because he can't keep his wings above water. What he attempts to do is to jump from a wave to wave, using the strong winds to carry him. He doesn't have much much luck with that. Strong gusts of wind keep slamming him aside. He barely manages not to get carried in a wrong direction.
He's tired and hungry, he isn't making any progress, and his boat is gone. There's no point in staying on the surface any longer. He submerges and swims towards the sea floor.
He makes an interesting discovery. There's another sea current there. It's some distance away from the first one and it's much deeper. What's important is that it goes in the opposite direction than the upper one. The dragon wonders if he should use it to carry him. The problem is, if he enters the second one, the first one will be out of his range. The dragon doubts that the two currents run parallel throughout the entire sea (or an ocean).
He finds something to eat first. Afterwards, he enters the second stream and rests.
A quarter a day later, he surfaces again and sees that the storm is gone. He swims in a direction where the original current should be. It's farther away than before. That confirms his suspicion that the currents are diverging.
There's only one thing to do and that's to swim. As before he needs to keep check on the current which brings risks, especially with the canoe gone. He attempts to make his aura as subtle and non-threatening as possible.
He still manages to attract attention. It starts when he hears a splash some distance behind him. He turns around but he doesn't see anything. Then he notices some strange sound waves hitting his body under the water. He retracts his aura.
In a short while, he's surrounded by a group of dolphins. He can see that they aren't fish and guesses that they are mammals actually. They jump around him and observe him as he swims. It seems like they aren't hostile, just curious. The dragon contemplates whether it's a good thing to have such company. The dolphins don't seem to be afraid of anything in the area. He wonders what would they do if a shark came along. Outsmart it, probably. He doesn't dare to examine them like he did with the shark but he estimates that their cranial capacity is quite large when compared to humans. He attempts to ignore them and swims on. The dolphins follow him, swimming in circles and making funny figures as if to rub his slowness in his face.
A time comes when he needs to check on the stream again. He thinks about actually swimming there but he can't afford such a waste of time and energy. He extends his senses, trying to be as subtle as possible. The dolphins get excited. Perhaps this is the confirmation they have been waiting for. Some of them get close to him and nuzzle him with their noses. Oh joy.
A few of them separate and when they return, one of them approaches him. He opens his mouth and expels a dead fish. Obviously, it's meant for him. The dragon finds it strange to eat something that was in a mouth of another creature. However, he doesn't wish to offend and he hasn't eaten a fish since the village.
Sensing an opportunity, he tries to use his aura to convey his intentions. Perhaps the dolphins will help him by pulling him along with them. No such luck. Either they don't understand or they don't want to understand. To be honest, they actually start slowing him down at a certain point by constantly trying to play with him. He tries to decipher the acoustic signals they use to talk to each other but he doesn't make any progress on that.
Another school of dolphins appears after some time. They don't seem to be in playful mood. Moreover, they send acoustic signals which sound like warnings. Are they on their territory? His "friends" react by positioning themselves behind the dragon.
The dragon can't believe his situation. He ate their fish and now he's expected to fight for them. He thinks about the events leading up to this point. Did the dolphins know where was he headed? If so, why didn't they leave when they entered someone else's turf? Also, the way they have been slowing him down from that moment on was quite suspicious.
The dragon makes his aura threatening again and focuses it on the "enemy". They don't run, nor are they angered. They are cautious. Some of them clap their jaws. Since a battle is imminent anyway, the dragon uses his senses to examine one of the opposing dolphins.
The two schools clash and the dragon is bearing the brunt of the attack. No blood is drawn, they all just punch each other. Perhaps they don't wish to attract sharks while they fight? In the end, the dragon's group emerges as victorious. They pursue their competition, leaving two badly bruised comrades behind.
As the dragon continues in his journey, he berates himself. What is he doing there? He didn't come there to observe animals being calculative. If he had wanted that, he could have stayed in the very area where he hatched and observe the wolf pack!
The two injured dolphins keep following him. From time to time, they make ultrasonic signals. The dragon is barely able to hear responses from the rest of the school. Those responses grow stronger after a while. It seems like the pursuers are returning.
The dragon is surrounded by his "friends" again. Then the other dolphins arrive. The dragon thinks for a moment that they have brought reinforcements. Then he realizes that it's actually two independent schools. They aren't reinforcements, they are allies!
He prepares for another battle when something unexpected happens. His friends shoot away and leave him behind to slow the enemies down. Unbelievable. A dolphin he punched earlier claps his jaws at him.
The dragon barely manages to escape into depths. The dolphins don't follow him there. They do need air after all. The dragon notes a lesson: Don't trust anybody, don't get involved. He's going to break that rule one day, even though he can't imagine himself doing such a thing yet.
Slowly and surely, he makes his progress. To keep a low profile, he doesn't use his sixth sense to keep a track on the current but rather swims right under it. The deep sea doesn't prove that dangerous after all, once he adapts. The smartest species around are dolphins and whales and those aren't hostile to him and don't dive too deep. Sharks are dangerous foes and they are highly evolved but they can't match his wits (nor are they able to outsmart a couple of dolphins).
After considerable time, he reaches his destination. He spots a canoe first. He swims underwater and observes it carefully. They seem to be fishermen. He follows the boat when it departs. They lead him to an island.
Cursory reconnaissance proves that it's truly the home of the dead man in the canoe. Most men are armed by blowguns. That's what they used to kill the man when he was... escaping for some reason? They seem to be quite primitive when compared to what he has seen of humans so far. There are no stone structures, just wooden huts. Fishing seems to be their main source of food. However, there seems to be some primitive, small time agriculture as well.
He also notes that humans have two genders, just like he has always assumed. He has assumed the very same about his own kind from the very beginning but it seems to him that this trait is quite defining when it comes to humans and their interactions. Then again, he has never seen a dragon society nor does he have any confirmation at this point that there's one in the universe.
The dragon is more than satisfied with what he has found. As a matter of fact, such a primitive micro-society is a good place to observe humans and start learning about them. The most important thing is to not be seen. He doesn't fear their blowguns but his discovery would ruin his project.
A month of covert observation reveals that they have a simple but strict code of behaviour. As a limited population living in a limited space, there's really no other choice. Some rules are designed to prevent inbreeding and bringing chaos into bloodlines while others serve to prevent parasitism. Punishment for infractions of most of the rules is death. However, because they can't afford to waste lives, each death must count. Hence, all executions are drastic and painful. Everybody must watch. Considering that the dragon saw only one execution during his first month there, it's probably an effective deterrent. The people seem savage and brutal but it's necessary for their survival.
The dragon also learns bits and pieces of their language. It would be faster if he used his aura to get a better read on people while they are talking but he doesn't wish to make the natives suspicious. It seems like it's going to take some time.
He can't wait to see what sort of new things is he going to learn about the little society and about lives and practices of its individual members. Despite the primitiveness of the tribe, he doesn't think that other humans will be that different.