We kept pedaling, trying to outrun our instinctive fear. Something was stalking us. Of course, being the intelligent person I was, it didn't take much to realize it was a dragon. The dragon, however, was keeping his distance, which was an oddity. Finally, I couldn't take anymore and braked. Julie followed suit and Saphir slid to a stop.

"The hell's wrong with you? We need to go, NOW!"

"It's already too late, Julie." I scanned the skies until I saw the faint speck I was looking for.

"The dragon killer is right. We are being hunted." Julie and I both dismounted our bikes and threw off our hiking packs, leaving ourselves more mobile for the upcoming fight. The speck in the sky suddenly dove into a steep dive, spiraling towards us. Julie simply walked over to my side and watched as the dragon approached. She rested her hands on the guns on her hips while I held my battle rifle loosely by my side. The dragon finally pulled up from the dive and landed, nearly hitting the ground in the process.

"Just my luck," it growled out, its words more garbled than Saphir's. "I have two humans and a dragon to eat. I need your flesh," it said, trying to instill fear.

"And why would you need flesh?" Julie asked sarcastically. I kept my stoic face and kept silent, ready to fight within a moment's notice.

"Because I need to kill them. They killed my clan and I will have my revenge."

"Who?" Julie asked, agitated.

"The Rangers."

"Oh, well, in that case, no. I'll keep my flesh."

"It is not your choice to make, human." It reared its head back and I brought my rifle to arms.

"Make another move and I will kill you," I threatened.

"Oh?" it asked before opening its mouth. I shot a few rounds and it pierced the roof of the dragon's mouth. It cried out in pain and anguish before turning its angry eyes on me. "You will pay for that, human!" It began to lumber toward me and Julie and I sprang into action. I dove right and she dove left, pulling her handguns out in the process. We unloaded into the dragon's soft underbelly as it breathed flame Julie's way. It singed part of her hair and she glared, obviously pissed.

"That's it!" With that, she spun a weapon from her back and rested it on her shoulder. My eyes widened and I began to haul ass away from her. As I passed Saphir, I grabbed his wrist and continued running. She finally shot the rocket launcher and nailed the dragon in the gut. The shockwave knocked all three of us off of our feet.

"Julie," I coughed out, trying to drag valuable oxygen back into my lungs. "I'm kicking your ass." Saphir, almost undaunted by the explosion, simply got to his feet, dusted himself off, and sent a look full of pure disdain my way.

"Hurry up, dragon killer." I forked him the bird before letting my arm drop down to my side, letting me recover.

"Julie…why the hell do you have a rocket launcher?" I asked, quite angrily.

"I saw it in one of the homes I went in."

"When?" I slowly sat up, wheezing the question out.

"In Andrews," she answered nonchalantly. "I can't believe it actually worked. This thing is ancient! It's the T-14 series!" I shot her a dirty look.

"You mean you just shot a weapon that was probably defective without properly inspecting it?" Julie remained silent and cautiously looked away. "You idiot."

"I smell humans, dragon killer." Both Julie and I sobered at Saphir's voice and looked around cautiously. I rose to my feet, coughing a bit, and raised my hands preemptively.

"We come in peace!" Julie cried, lifting her hands in mock surrender. I slapped my forehead and groaned.

"There's only a few smartasses in the world that would taunt us at gunpoint," a disembodied voice said. "And fire an out of date weapon without inspection." To my surprise, the man stepped out from the treeline and gave us a once over. "Who are you?" Before Julie could dig a deeper hole, I stepped in.

"Gator," I said, bringing his attention back to me. "Ignore her."

"Well, well, well," he murmured, coming over to me. "What's your name?" I gave him a weird look while Julie laughed.

"Thanks, Gator. That means a lot to me."

"I thought you said he knew you," Julie said through her laughter. "So you lied!"

"I didn't lie," I growled out. "It was a while ago, you ass." A light blush tinted my cheeks. "I was younger back then." Gator's eyes widened.

"Jessie?" he asked.

"See? I wasn't bullshitting you! He knows me!" Julie sobered, still wearing her stupid grin.

"Fine. You may know him after all. Happy?"

"Immensely," I commented dryly.

"You grew up," Gator said, giving me a full once over. I looked away, unused to the male attention. This sent Julie into peals of laughter once more. My eyes finally met Saphir's icy golden gaze and I sobered.

"I've come to you for help."

"Help?"

"I have marks I'm going after. I need any recon you have on them and maybe some men?" I asked. He remained silent and thought about it.

"We can't talk out here. It's dangerous, especially with the dragon's blood everywhere." He made a few signs and numerous soldiers slid out from their hiding places. Gator pointed toward the dragon and they all gathered around the corpse. To my surprise, they began slicing the meat into strips. "And we can't let it go to waste."

"Won't they be able to smell it?" I asked him.

"Not in a waterfall," he answered, an amused grin on his face. "We'll hike through the river first, so I'm afraid it will be a bit on the cold side."

"I like him," Julie said suddenly.

"And I like you," he replied smoothly. Her grin showed her appreciation of his wit and personality. "I'm sure you have already heard rules?" Julie nodded and he laughed slightly.

"You haven't changed in that sense, Jessi," he said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "You're still my little protégé." I ducked, trying to get away from him, and he caught my neck in a headlock and ruffled my hair.

"Gator!!!" I whined. "I'm not little anymore!"

"I know. You have a chest now, which is quite an eyeful, might I add."

"No, you might not," I retorted. Julie burst out laughing once more and I knew she had a source of amusement for a few days.

"But now, I'm afraid we must leave," Gator said, noticing his soldier's wave to signal their completion of their task. "We have to get a head start." Instantly the calm, teasing atmosphere disappeared as we all went into "soldier mode". Julie and I grabbed our gear and bikes and walked into the forest. "Leave the bikes here," Gator said, dropping a tracker to the ground. "They'll only get in the way." Julie, Saphir, and I didn't argue, but simply followed his lead.

I was amazed at Saphir's self control at the moment. He was completely holding up to his end of the deal.
We were hiking the god forsaken freezing river for thirty minutes. I had to admire the tenacity of the soldiers around me. They had to do this daily. I looked toward Julie and saw that she was shivering. I made my way over to her and wrapped an arm around her waist, giving her what little support I could. Uncharacteristically, she clung to me and it was then I knew that she was in deep trouble. Julie never clings. I took off my bag and swung it to rest over my chest. I grabbed Julie and arranged her in a piggyback position. She burrowed her head in my neck and I grunted at the extra weight. Instead of stopping completely, I began sloshing through the knee deep river. With Julie, my load was twice as heavy, but she kept me warmer.

"We're almost there," Gator said, noting Julie's condition. "I've radioed ahead and the doctors are on standby." I nodded once, not trusting my voice to waver and kept up the sloshing. As we rounded the bend, I spotted the waterfall and I nearly sunk to my knees in relief. Instead, I felt a renewed sense of urgency. Julie was probably dropping into hypothermia, though she wouldn't admit it later. We made it to the waterfall where a handful of men swarmed out and grabbed Julie. They took her back inside but a few men stayed outside.

One threw an arm around me and I gratefully leaned my weight against him. He took my pack and slung it over one shoulder and led me through the waterfall and inside the base. Saphir followed me as I was led through natural and man-made tunnels. They deposited me in a bed, where I saw dry clothes laid out on the bed. The man left me then to dress. Ignoring Saphir, I stripped immediately, throwing my wet pants and shirt to the ground.

"Turn around," I ordered. I didn't even look to see if he complied, I simply took off my wet underwear and dressed into the warm, clean ones. I jumped into the bed, finally allowing the shivers to rock my body. My teeth began chattering and I rubbed my upper arms to try to warm back up. To my complete surprise, I felt the bed sag and two warm, welcome arms drag me into a delightfully warm body.

"Rest now, dragon killer. Tomorrow, you will hunt." For once, my name didn't seem quite to accusatory. It seemed almost affectionate, which was true. I was now officially his weapon to be used at his disposal. Though he didn't seem to happy about his clan, he was seeing to my welfare. He needed me for now. As these last thoughts passed through my head, my eyes closed and Saphir's body heat eventually lulled me to sleep.

*******************

"So if we come in through the south," I started as I drew my finger along the route in discussion, "We'll end up only a mile away from the nest itself. Plus, we have the river about a quarter mile away from here." I jabbed at a spot on the map, a craggy spot with good cover.

"Can you make it?" Gator asked. I gave him an accusatory look.

"Puh-lease," Julie said. "That's child's play." She proceeded to inspect her nails, looking bored at the whole conversation. Gator laughed and threw an arm around Julie.

"You two have more balls than brains," he stated. Julie threw a smirk her way and I jolted. I knew that smirk. That smirk was used for man hunting. I began to snicker, and Saphir looked at me questioningly. I shook my head and looked down at the maps, trying to contain the laughter bubbling inside of me.

"So is it a plan?" Everyone nodded.

"We'll kill the bastards once and for all!" A recruit in the back yelled. Of course, being mostly male, the room erupted into one big 'hoo-rah!', Julie included. Everyone started filing out of the room, most going to the mess...cave....for dinner. I followed the general flow of people, not at all tailing Julie and the laughing Gator. I wouldn't know that they were heading back to Gator's quarters. As they passed his room and they walked inside, I kept walking, not that I was watching the pair out of my peripheral vision.

"Hey Jessi!" I turned at Gator's voice. Saphir, who was walking beside me, stopped at well. "There's room for three on my bed!"

"But you're not equipped to handle both me and Julie at the same time!" I shot back. "Have fun, you two!" I waved and turned back around, straight into Saphir's chest. I stepped back and rubbed my nose. "What was that for?"

"Why is she with Gator?" Saphir asked. I stopped rubbing my nose and gaped at him.

"Are you seriously asking that question?" He glared at me. "I thought dragon's could smell pheramones....hmm....maybe that's an individual thing...but Ewan could...." I was stopped from my ramblings by someone linking arms with me. I turned to see Ian, a soldier that had taught me basic karate maneuvers.

"Yo, Jessi. Julie get one before you?" I rolled my eyes.

"Just because I'm not naked yet doesn't mean that I can't get a guy. It just means I've got more self control than her."

"Self control is overrated," Ian retorted. "I'll be glad to show you some stuff I learned over the years." I broke apart from him.

"Oh, god, Ian!" Ian began laughing, clearly amused at my embarassment. He stopped laughing and I turned to see him pinned up on a wall, Saphir's hand on his throat. "Saphir! Put him down!" I lunged at Saphir's arm, pressing the pressure point on his elbow. However, Saphir didn't even flinch. "Saphir!"

"You will not partake of any reverlry tonight."

"For god's sake, Saphir! He was joking!" I put my hands on his arm. "You promised me." Saphir's eyes bore into mine, but I held his gaze. In reaction, he dropped Ian and I immediately knelt on the floor next to my coughing friend. "Ian?" I asked, holding the back of his head.

"If this is what it takes for you to touch me, I'm sure I'll have to buy more handcuffs."

"God, Ian," I said, smaking his chest. "Now I know you're fine." Ian began to slowly stand up, but I didn't help him, knowing that would be an insult to his masculinity. "I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

"Right." I waved goodbye to him and walked away from the volatile situation. I threaded my way through the people and made my way through the people and walked into my own 'room', that was given to me and Julie. I dropped the curtain and immediately fell onto my bed.

"Men," i said into the pillow. The one word summed up my feelings for all of their species, which had deteriorated in the span of a minute. "Stupid, stupid testosterone." I shuffled around on my bed and got comfortable, knowing that I'd have to fall asleep or the worry and nerves wouldn't let me sleep at all tonight. Fortunately for me, I fell asleep almost instantly

************

"Roger that," I said into my mic. I swung my sniper rifle from my back to my hands and began the delicate operation of setting up my sniper's nest. I had made my guilly suit (a suit snipers make to blend in with their surroundings) and managed to pull it on in ten seconds flat. After that, I grabbed my cover and started to make the trek toward my predistined sniper spot. True to their word, the rangers had supplied us with virtually silent vehicles to trasnport us to raleigh, cutting down the week's journey to a few hours. Even so, they stopped a few miles out, letting us hike during dawn to cut down our chances of being seen.

"Delta, I am in position." That was Julie. She had the closer point and I had to hike around for my own spot. Instead of Julie and I going together as a sniper and spotter, Gator had made us both snipers and sent a spotter with Julie. Saphir had forced his way with me as my own spotter, but for some odd reason, no one argued with him. So that left me with a moody dragon hiking behind me, though he was quiet enough. I slipped through the rocky craigs, looking for a secluded spot.

Finally, I found one. It was a rock overhand, giving me a full view of the dragons in front of me. It also had an easy esacpe route, for when I would have to haul ass to the river to wash off the scent of gunpowder. It also had a slight roof, covering me from any flying dragons, unless they were looking closely. I dropped to the ground and began to set up my gun stand, which would balance my sniper rifle for the long shot I was going to take. Saphir stepped over me and took the rock wall side, giving me a clear shot to the escape route. I set up my gun and ammunition the way I always did, then adjusted my scope.

"It's a shame we gotta leave the guns behind," I muttered.

"Such a waste," Julie agreed.

"Cut the chatter, you two," Gator admonished. "Jessi?"

"In position, boss, and awaiting orders."

"Sanglant's nest is in the center of the playground. His mate is always with him. Genis is the dragon with green markings on his head."

"I have target one and two in my sight. Acquiring target three," I said, searching for the dragon.

"I have target three. He's flying above the nest," said Julie.

"Julie, you will take target three. Jessi, you have target one and two."

"Roger, delta," we chorused. After that we turned down our radios and I began to fixate on the two dragons.

"Who would hesitate the most if the mate died?" I asked Saphir quickly.

"Sanglant," he replied with no hesitation.

"On my mark," Gator's voice came through. "In three....two....one....you have permission to fire." As our countdown was released, Julie's and I's shot rang out at nearly the same time, causing two dragons to drop the the ground, dead. Just like Saphir had said, Sanglant stared at his dead mate long enough for me to zoom in on him. As he rose to go to flight, I shot him in the head, causing him to roar with rage before he died.

"Target one and two down! Requesting permission to relocate!"

"Approved, Jessi-"

"Target three down!"

"Go, Julie," Gator said, beating her to her question. Both of us dropped our rifles, and basically ran like the demons of hell were chasing us. I ran through the forest as quietly as possible and Saphir ran beside me, effortlessly making no noise. I heard the roar of dragons and the furious beating of wings and knew I wasn't going to make it in time. Saphir must have as well because he grabbed my wrist and literally threw me onto his back, taking off beyond the speed of normal humans.

"Hold your breath, dragon killer!" I barely caught the words as they whipped past me and I frowned.

"Why?" It was then that I spotted the raging river up ahead. "Oh, Saphir, don't you dare, I can't swim that well-"

"Hold your breath." Having no other choice, I gulped in a breath of fresh air, squeezed my eyes closed, and clung to Saphir as if my life depended on it. I felt the moment as he launched himself into the air, then the bone chilling cold of the river as we plunged into it. I felt my heart stop and I nearly let go of Saphir, but he grabbed both of my arms with one hand and stroked with the other, bringing us downriver and away from the dragons. I held my breath for as long as I could, but I tapped his shoulder. He swum up and I gulped in more air, then he plunged back into the river once again.

Almost five minutes later, we climbed out of the river...well, he carried my shaking body out of the river, and we both collapsed between two boulders. The slight overhang of rock covered us from ariel recon and the gunfire scent was washed off in the river, leaving me cold and shaky, but safe. I was breathing hard and shaking, but Saphir seemed fine. Curse his dratted dragon blood and all of its benefits.

"You did well, dragonkiller," he said, wrapping an arm around me, giving me his warmth.

"Better watch it, Saphir. You'll be complimenting me, soon."

"I wouldn't dream of it," he said, nestling into the rock. The Rangers would be here to pick us up eventually. Hopefully sooner than later.