A/N: Alright everyone, I feel I owe you guys an apology for this huge delay. :( There were some unpleasant things in my life I had to sort out first, and I was pretty deconcentrated for weeks.

But, I'm back! And more importantly, I have a new chapter in my sleeve! :D

Chapter 1.

December 4th, 2031. somewhere southwest of Frankfurt-an-der-Oder

The early-winter night would have been dark and chilly, but the wreckage of the six-wheeled armoured vehicle burned with metre-long flames, illuminating most of the clearing and reflecting on the blue-eyed Night Fury's menacing glare. The soldier thirty steps away from him didn't dare to move a finger, but kept his rifle aiming steadily at the dragon.

Lohengrin quickly estimated the distance between them with his throat still full of gas, then acted quicker than any human possibly could have.

The ball of flaming plasma hit the ground just a few steps away from the human, who floundered backwards and lifted his arms to cover his face from the raining clogs of earth. The Night Fury closed the distance between them with two long, zigzagging jumps, then the soldier felt a jab of pain in his wrists as a forepaw batted the gun out of his hands with irresistible force. Another swipe hit him in the chest forcing out all the air from his lungs and slamming him into the ground.

Lohengrin placed his paw and tightened it on the human's neck, firm enough to keep him from trying anything but loose enough so his claws wouldn't break his skin... yet. He leaned close; baring fangs just a few inches from the human's head, and snarled.

The human's eyes snapped open, his gaze filled with horror as he became aware of how close he was to a painful death. Lohengrin noticed he's staring into his eyes, then he said something in his strange language.

"Give me just one reason why I shouldn't tear you into pieces..." he growled at the soldier. He responded in a slightly higher tone, and Lohengrin's nostrils scented the distinct traces of fear coming from him. But as he looked into the human's eyes, he saw something else, beside the terror. Almost as if the human...

"Can you understand what I say?" he mumbled, thinking out loud.

Then, the human slowly and well-visibly nodded.

Lohengrin's eyes widened, as he realized the plethora of opportunities this may give him. He was sure humans simply couldn't hear the tones dragons use for communication, until now. But this human seems to understand him... too bad, he didn't understand the human's language. A possible solution crept to his mind, and he took a sharp breath in reluctance. He had never done this before, and the method could come with dangerous or even lethal consequences.

But this was a risk he decided to take.

Lohengrin closed his eyes, turning the focus of his mind inwards. Then, he mentally reached out, carefully touching the human's mind. The sensation made him shudder, as the unknown mind was incomparable to anything he has ever experienced. It felt like he was submerging himself into something of indescribable consistency, weird and confusing for every sense he had. Its impression and structure was vastly different than any dragons, but at the same time, he felt a sense of compatibility. Maybe the human hasn't lied about understanding him, after all.

He tried to reach deeper where he suspected to find what he needed. He passed emotions, memory patterns and such, but the deeper he went, the more intense the pressure became on his mind. Gritting his teeth, he continued, until he managed to find the certain batch of memories he was looking for. He began to inspect the strange language, vastly different from his own and made out of sounds he would be unable to pronounce.

Once he examined the linguistic knowledge the human possessed, he quickly retreated from his mind. It felt like he's trying to pull his whole head backwards through a narrow tunnel, but then the pressure suddenly ceased and his eyes snapped open. He let out a few rapid breaths, and winced as he shook his head but kept his paw on the human's neck. The whole process didn't take more than a couple of seconds, but Lohengrin felt just as drained as he was after a day-long argument with the Council of Elders back home.

He shut his eyes and gritted his teeth, awaiting certain death. When he felt a sharp jab inside of his head, he thought the killing blow had finally arrived.

But he was still breathing, so that meant...

His world did not to cease to exist, he still heard the crackling fire fifty metres away from him, the weight of the Night Fury's paw still on his neck. Then he felt huffs of air around his face, with the sound closely resembling...

Sniffing?

He opened his eyes, and only saw the flaring nostrils of the dragon at first, as it sniffed him all over his head, stopping at his ears, helmet and cheeks before backing away a bit, paw still pinning him down. Seeing the icy blue glare the dragon shot at him sent a shiver down his back, he knew well what those narrow eyes and slit-like pupils mean, not to mention the set of white fangs made visible by the snarl. Knowing that he may not have too much time left, he gulped, and asked away, despite the obvious fact that dragons in the wilderness aren't used to human language at all.

"Are you going to kill me?"

He felt the claws tightening around his neck a bit, and he suddenly thought that staying quiet would have probably been a better idea.

"That... depends." the Night Fury growled in a deep tone.

The reply surprised him, and lit a spark of hope inside him.

"Look, I-"

"Silence." the dragon interrupted "I am the one asking questions now."

"A-as you wish." he swallowed again. His mind became flooded with possible questions the dragon may want to get answered, but his thoughts were interrupted when it began to speak slowly, but very much threateningly. Its question was straight to the point.

"Explain why humans are killing or taking dragons into captivity."

The man tried to take a deep breath before attempting to answer, bit his efforts were somewhat hindered by the clawed paw pinning him down.

"I can explain it to you" he began "but we are still in danger here. Those who tried to get me are going to send more soldiers, and the answer to your question is long." as he spoke, his right hand moved a few millimetres, quietly unbuttoning the holster of his sidearm. "Please understand that I've never hurt any of your kind, and I have no intention to do so. If you let me live, I will tell you everything you want, even more."

The dragon stayed silent for a few very long moments, then the man felt the grip on his neck loosening. As the dragon took a step backwards, he immediately released the handle of his pistol, and sat up.

"I'm glad you saw reason." he sighed. "As a sign of trust, I'll get rid of my weapons now."

The dragon watched him closely as he reached for his pistol, and as soon as it was out from its holster, the dragon struck with the speed of lightning, batting it out of his hand.

"I'm sure you won't mind if I help you." the dragon growled with a hint of mockery in his voice. "Is there anything else you would like to throw away?"

Seeing the dragon's suspicious glare, the man realized that his life's depending on his answer.

"I have a knife strapped to my other thigh." he admitted without hesitation. The dragon's ear plate twitched, then it nodded. The man slowly pulled out the knife from its sheath and threw it away where his pistol went.

"To sum things up quickly, there is a war going on between us." he began to explain "The side I am fighting against seeks to exterminate dragons, and extend its rule all over the globe for various reasons. Those who oppose them, like me, are putting up a fight, and trying to save as many dragons as we can. A number of dragons are even fighting alongside us."

The dragon looked at him silently, seemingly waiting for him to continue.

"We should move to a safer place before I tell you the whole story." he said. "If you let me, I'll get my gear and try to find a vehicle for faster movement."

The dragon didn't even flinch an ear, so he decided to slowly stand up, always showing his palms to it, to prove he wasn't going to try anything. He slowly pulled out a flashlight from one of the pouches on his tactical vest, and within a minute, he had his rifle, pistol and knife back.

"Look, I'm taking my knife here" he showed to the dragon, whose eyes followed his every movement. "These things" he said, showing his rifle "work by shooting these yellow things" he detached the magazine and took out a round, to let the dragon take a look. "so if I remove the magazine, like I did, and do this" he pulled back the charging handle, extracting the round from the chamber "it is completely harmless." He demonstrated it by pulling the trigger and the weapon made a sharp click.

"Interesting. Now do that to your small weapon as well."

"Okay." the man nodded, acknowledging that he doesn't really have a choice "Pistols work the same way." He emptied his P99, and put it back in its holster, then slung his assault rifle on his back."

"I'm good to go." he said to the dragon "Now all I need is to find a vehicle, then-"

"That won't be necessary." the Night Fury interrupted him, and opened his wings, jumped forward and grabbed the man around the shoulder with his forepaws. The human screamed and flailed his legs around as he was lifted up, but the dragon seemed to care little about his comfort.

Lohengrin's wings flapped forcefully to carry the human higher. He figured that a short flight would help to cool his head, the intense mind-focus he just did caused a terrible headache. Not only did he need to process and understand a huge amount of knowledge in a short time, he also had to concentrate as hard as he could. One stray thought at the wrong time could have caused irreparable damage to the human's mind, maybe in his own too. A quick flight would help to clear his thoughts; but the constant noise of the screaming and cursing human under him certainly did not.

"Will you shut up already?!" he hissed angrily as he looked down to the man.

"Do you have any idea how frightening this is?!" the human shouted back in a high-pitched tone.

An evil smile began to colour Lohengrin's features.

"Would you like me to let you go?"

"Not right now, thanks!" the human cried, avoiding the trap.

But he did stay quiet afterwards, much to Lohengrin's relief. Because he saw the human rushing south earlier, he also decided to go that way to get far from bright flames marking the hostile patrol's final destination. His scales blended into the night, and now that the human was silent too, Lohengrin hoped to get away undetected.

After around half an hour, he began to scan the area, looking for a safe spot to land and hide. A bit farther to the west, he spotted the moonlight reflecting from a lake, located not too far away from a big city. He altered his course, going around the city on their way there, and after a few more minutes, he saw that the lake had a flat, tiny island on it. They would be exposed at a place like that, but the eastern shore of the lake was full of wooded areas, so he decided to find a clearing somewhere there, and set down. Thinking about pulling a prank on the pesky human between his forelegs, he folded his wings, entering a steep dive.

His efforts didn't go without reward, Lohengrin chuckled at the gradually loudening scream of the human.

"SLOW DOOOWN!"

"This isn't even speed." the dragon snickered, and bent forward again, now heading straight down.

"HOOOLY SH-"

The rest of the man's terrified cries were blunted by the sounds of Lohengrin's wings, as he levelled off and slowed down with a few forceful flaps, and gently set the human down to the ground before landing gracefully on all fours.

The human fell on all fours too, though much less gracefully than his scaly companion. He slowly stood up, breathing heavily and giving a furious look at the Night Fury in front of him.

"I was *this* close to shitting my pants!" he motioned, holding his index finger and thumb quite close to each other.

Lohengrin let out a booming laughter.

"It was just too tempting!"

"I met a few Night Furies who were playful, but you're over the top, really." the man growled angrily, and sat down, pulling out a palm-sized, flat object from one of his pouches.

"What is that?" Lohengrin asked immediately, ears perking up as he stepped closer. He suspected another weapon at first, but the object looked quite harmless.

"It's a PDA."

"What?"

"Oh, sorry." the human apologized "It's a thing which, among other things, helps me figure out where are we exactly."

Lohengrin watched closely as a bunch of colourful patches appeared on the surface of the angular thing, accompanied by little things which seemed similar to the runes his kind used to scribe on cave walls.

"This is the map of the area, from a bird's-eye-perspective." the man elaborated and tilted the thing so Lohengrin could see it better "And this tiny red dot, here, marks our spot."

Lohengrin was fascinated by the thing, as it did give a more or less accurate view of the landscape from high up. But instead of asking the tons of questions he had about this contraption, he sat down and cleared his throat, reminding the human that he still has a subject to address.

"Okay, I know." he sighed "Please give me a few more minutes, then I'm at your service."

He kept the PDA in one hand, and pulled off his helmet with the other. Then, he pulled out something which looked like small dumpling on a stick which he strapped on his head, so the round shape was in front of his mouth.

"This is a headset" the man explained, noticing the dragon's questioning glare "I can use this to communicate with people far away from here."

Lohengrin was about to threaten him to stop saying nonsense, when the human began to talk into the contraption, occasionally tapping the PDA with his fingers.

"HQ this is Echo-Seven-Niner, do you copy?"

The Night Fury's mouth opened in disbelief, as his ears picked up the response.

"Lima-charlie*, Echo. Go ahead."

"I have a report ready, establishing an uplink now." the man said, wildly tapping the contraption in his hands.

"Solid copy Echo, be advised, that strong jamming in the area is affecting connection speed."

"Roger that." he confirmed, and stayed silent for a minute or two. In the meantime, tiny objects flashed on screen of the PDA. Lohengrin was about to ask what's going on, when the man spoke up again."

"Package sent, HQ."

"Confirmed. What's your ETA?"

"I'll be back in twenty hours."

"Affirmative, Echo. HQ out."

"Alright..." the soldier sighed, then pulled off the headset and threw it into the helmet. "I'm sorry" he apologized, looking at the Night Fury "This was very important."

"Just tell me where they hide the abducted dragons, and I'll be on my way." Lohengrin murmured.

"I'm afraid things are more complicated than that." the human shook his head "I'd like to give you a better understanding before you decide which way you want to go. So we better get ourselves comfortable, because this is going to be one long story."

"I don't know when exactly the things began, but just a couple of decades ago, we, humans, didn't even know about the existence of dragons. We had a few legends and stories of old times, but these weren't taken too seriously. The first dragon-sightings happened around twenty years ago. A bunch of smart people decided to study them, and we realized that dragons can be friendly and tame, if we approach them appropriately. In just a few years, dragons were just as ordinary for us as dogs and cats, lots of people kept dragons around their homes; some dragons were even employed as workers effectively being parts of working communities. Do you follow me?"

"Mostly." Lohengrin nodded slowly. "This all sounds crazy for me but I have seen dragons who lived in your cities, so I'm inclined to believe what you say."

The man continued to talk as he was walking around, collecting fallen twigs and larger stones, making a fire pit.

"Most of the people liked the dragons, but some not. A particularly crazy cult, formed by a man nobody knows by name, began to preach nonsense about the changing world, and how the dragons are blasphemous creatures according to their religion. But the loud speeches were just for show, this madman and his minions worked in the shadows. Bribing or persuading politicians, government officials, bankers, industrial magnates, they began to spread their influence. Very few people suspected that they were up to something, everyone thought they are just crazy cultists making a lot of noise, like other crazy cultists do. The situation blew up roughly a year ago. There were worldwide revolutions and coups, tearing apart almost every country, putting those in power who supported this cult, and together they began to form a multi-continental state called Commonwealth for the New Order, or COFNOR in short. Hell broke loose in the COFNOR-occupied countries, tens of thousands of people were killed, millions were forced to pick up their twisted views as state religion, and they began to kill or capture any and all dragons they could find. The sane part of humanity quickly tried to reorganize itself under one single banner to oppose the COFNOR. The United Nations tried to gather all forces who disagreed with the COFNOR, but the cultists went on the offensive immediately. No one knows exactly how, but they are manipulating the masses against us. The situation isn't perfect, but we're doing what we can to improve things."

After he finished his speech, the man took a concerned look at the Night Fury sitting in front of him.

"That's... pretty much what I know."

Lohengrin was silent for a while, trying to comprehend the things he had heard.

"I don't understand half of the words you used..." he began slowly, eyes fixating on a stone beside the fire pit "But to sum things up, you humans are split into two groups, one of them hates dragons while the other tries to save us from... them, and bring peace back to the world?"

"Brief but accurate, yeah." the man nodded.

"O..kay. Can I ask something?"

"Sure."

"ARE YOU HUMANS FUCKING CRAZY OR SOMETHING?!" Lohengrin roared in outrage, rocketing to all fours "KILLING EACHOTHER AND EVERYONE AROUND BECAUSE OF... SOME SORT OF DISAGREEMENTS?! HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT THE SUBTLE ACT OF TALKING?"

"Hey, hey!" the human backpedalled with raised hands "You can't argue with fanatics, they refuse to listen! And everyone is suffering because of them, not just humans!"

"Because of the nonsensical babbling of one moronic human" Lohengrin growled, panting violently in anger, claws digging furrows into the ground "one third of my clan is dead, and another five, including my own daughter were captured to be taken who-knows-where!"

"Look, I'm truly sorry for what happened to you, but maybe we can do something to help the ones you're missing!" the man said quickly, clearly afraid of the outraged Night Fury.

The dragon's pupils slowly widened a bit, but not much.

"Speak."

"We, the UN forces, are trying to push back the enemy, and liberate all the occupied places. If your daughter is kept alive, we may be able find her eventually."

Lohengrin shut his eyes and forced himself to sit down, taking deep breaths to control his anger. He had to find his daughter. But, he has no idea where is she now. Systematically searching the whole continent would take years, maybe even more. Without the slightest clue or lead, a search like that offers little chance of success.

"You said, the central figure of this... madness is one human." he opened his eyes to look at the human again "Where is he?"

The soldier gulped.

"His revolution began in Great Britain, and we suspect that is where his base of operations is." he said "But if you're thinking about going there alone, you won't make it. Not because I doubt your abilities, you convinced me already that you can handle yourself" he added, seeing the dragon's disagreeing glare "but it doesn't matter how great of a fighter you are, there are just simply too many enemies to avoid, even for you. There are hundreds of thousands of soldiers between us and Britain, and you would have to fly above enemy territory for weeks."

Lohengrin shut his eyes again. This is just getting worse and worse. Does he even have a chance now? Going alone against millions or going together with people he can't trust against those millions? Who knows how long this war will last? How many people he will have to kill, battles to fight, blood to spill for reuniting his family again?

The questions echoed in his mind, but his throbbing headache didn't help him to properly concentrate. In an effort to give himself some time, he decided to change the subject.

"Answer me this, how can you understand me in the first place?" he asked with eyes still closed.

"Hm. I don't exactly know why, but it seems like I was born like this." the human explained " I first saw dragons when I was a younger boy. After I spent some time around them, I realized that I could somewhat understand them better than my friends or family. This understanding gradually evolved into hearing your speech. A few smart people tried to figure out what's the cause of this, but they could not. There are a few other fellows who can understand dragons like I do, but we are extremely rare. People around call us 'dragon-whisperers'." He chuckled at the nickname.

This made Lohengrin momentarily forgot about his troubles. So that's why he felt that the human's mind was both similar and foreign... it explained a few things, but raised more questions. Would it be a coincidence that humans seemingly forget about the existence of dragons, then discover them just before a time of crisis? And some understand them, too? As if the two species were meant to cooperate with each other...

Lohengrin shook his head. Right now, he has more pressing matters to think about. But at the same time, he felt himself completely unable to decide.

"Look." the human spoke up softly, probably because he saw the Night Fury's inner conflict "I have a family and a home too. My wife and daughter are expecting me back, and I want to be back with them. But I'm not willing to let my daughter grow up in a world of insanity if there's anything I can do about it. I don't enjoy killing others. But I'm doing what I have to, so the ones I love can be safe from these monsters."

Lohengrin looked into the blue eyes of the human in front of him, and he clearly saw the honesty in there. And in the same moment, he began to feel something he never thought he would.

Understanding, for a human. He sighed as his muscles loosened, finally dropping his alerted stance.

"I think I have no choice." he began slowly "I will have to team up with you."

"We desperately need all the help we can get" the human nodded, then a faint smile appeared on his face "and now that you probably won't kill me, I'd like to properly introduce myself. My name is Walther, but my friends call me Walt."

"Walther..." the Night Fury tasted the foreign-sounding name "You may call me Lohengrin."

"Despite the circumstances" Walther grinned "I'm glad you decided to show up, and pull me out of the fire. I owe you one."

"I have a score to settle with the crazy fanatics." Lohengrin let out a faint smile, too. "Don't mention it."

"I planned to spend the night here, and head back to base tomorrow morning, so-"

"Didn't you report that you needed twenty hours to get back?" Lohengrin cut in.

"I may have... lied a bit." Walther chuckled "My mission is completed, and I'm sure nobody minds if I don't run back immediately. I could use a sleep, and I am very curious about you, too."

Lohengrin's ears twitched.

"How so?"

"Well, you Night Furies are very rare, and in my opinion, very interesting dragons. And you're the first one I ever met who didn't grow up in a city, so..."

"I think we won't sleep too much tonight." Lohengrin lamented "We have a lot to talk about. Previously, I was under the impression that all humans were savage murderous eels. I have to reconsider my opinion somewhat."

"Somewhat?" Walther shot a questioning glare at him.

"Yes. You're smell is about as attractive as an eel's, if not worse." Lohengrin said with a wry smile.

"What? Smell? That's not tr-" he only got to this point before raising his arm to smell his own armpit. After just one sniff, his head rapidly turned away, choking and coughing wildly.

"CHRIST! I think you're... right." Walt agreed sadly, wiping off his tears.

A toothy grin appeared on Lohengrin's face.

"Told you."

A/N: So finally, these two have met. :) Didn't go without bumps, but hey, they're both alive! :D Oh and one other thing:

*Lima-charlie: LC, stands for "loud and clear". Military guys love their fancy speech. :)

As always, please tell me what you think!

And dear "ttt" the answer to your question is: "I haven't decided yet. ;)" If you make an account, I can answer you with a PM much sooner, y'know. :)

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