Here's the 2nd chapter of this story, I hope you will enjoy it!
However, I must warn you, for IRL reasons, I will be unable to continue posting the story for several weeks, I don't know when I'll be able to post again, but be assured that this story will continue.
Valen was completely and utterly frozen as the Elder finished his landing, depositing his quarry on the ground. It was something yellow but he couldn't pay attention to at the moment; so lost in his terror that he was fixating the Elder at the exclusion of everything else. A small burst of dragon element emanated from his wings then it took deep inspiration from the chest, a loud whirring noise piercing the air while it was doing so.
Only after completing this action and shaking itself a bit, did it seem that the elder notice his presence. And he stiffened even further, expecting it to attack him on the spot for intruding into its cave, coming back to it after a long absence. The moment when the Valstrax stared at him stretched for an eternity, where he was sure he was staring death in the face. He wasn't even sure if he was shaking or not, as anything that wasn't what was in front of him just faded away. The hunter knew there was absolutely nothing he could do; he was injured and unable to move, his only weapon was a carving knife that wasn't of a good enough quality to pierce these scales, and he was in a confined space, with nowhere to run or hide.
The tension rose when the Valstrax finally walked closer, pivoting his head on the side so it could examine him with his eye. It seemed to fixate on his biggest injuries, the one on his head and his leg. Then it did something that utterly baffled him. The elder rumbled then turned around to pick up what he dropped and walked past him, without doing anything, even making sure it circled around the wounded man, to not jostle him.
This turn of events was so unexpected for Valen that he immediately passed out of disbelief.
LINE BREAK
The hunter woke up later, his mind feeling a bit slow, not sure why he felt like that, and that's when everything came back to him, waking up in pain and panic from his nightmare, tending to his wounds, investigating the cave, the Elder landing in the cave, it basically leaving him alone.
The realization that the Elder left him alone made him spring up from his bed, only to groan as the sudden motion was too much for his stiff back. The pain was quickly forgotten when a noise made him look around, quickly noticing the silver-scaled dragon lying on his belly. And it was looking at him after doing a small whirring rumble. He also noticed the carcass of a fresh meal next to him that was… Strangely not finished.
Something still nagged at him, but he wasn't sure why, it was like he was missing a crucial detail, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Then his eyes wandered on his leg, his injured leg. It was then that he had a wild thought. 'It… Couldn't have been him who carried me here and treated my injuries? That… Doesn't make any sense, what would it gain wasting time on me?' Then he raised his hand to the scorched side of his head. 'Wait… The burn injuries would make sense with the side of my head… Especially if it only had his wings to work with, but then, why? Why would it do this? Never has an Elder shown mercy before, so why would this Valstrax do it?'
Valen was so lost in his internal thoughts that he failed to notice the dragon push the half-finished carcass towards him. The hunter was instantly snapped out of his internal monologue when it entered his field of vision. He flinched away by reflex, still very much on edge, but after a couple of seconds of expecting a claw swipe, he tentatively looked at what the Valstrax did this time. And he stared at the carcass, looking back and forth between it and the elder like he wasn't believing it just so casually shared its food. Valen was about to try to push it away, not wanting to engage with the shenanigans when his belly disproved him of this action by making itself known. Loudly.
Nosing the carcass towards him, the Valstrax then did a rumbling noise, that was higher pitched due to the whirring part of it. It was a strange noise that he did not expect from the elder. After staring at it for a bit, he finally sighed and relented, pulling out his carving knife so he could cut the parts away. He idly noted that the carcass was from a Ludroth, judging by the hide he could see. It was not something he hadn't eaten before but he supposed he would take what he could get.
Once he finished cutting out of the bone the meat that was on the carcass, he dug into his bag to pull out the cooking roast, but only the pot that generated the flame. It contained the flame sac of a fire-breathing monster. For some reason, he was the one tasked to carry it for the team, but he figured that for once he wouldn't complain, as it saves him the trouble of having to start a fire on his own. He then pulled out a stick, as somebody else was supposed to carry the spitting roast assembly. Valen could remember who if he thought a bit more but shook his head before the thoughts carried him into something he did not want to think about right now.
Lighting up the flame, he stabbed the meat with the stick he had and started roasting it with the fire, using the menial task to distract him from all the thoughts bouncing around his head, either about the dilemma that was the elder, some stray thoughts about the last minutes he remembered of the hunts that he squashed whenever possible… And older, rarer thoughts that he knew if he was caught in them, he'd fall into a spiral of despair, but thankfully he managed to avoid getting trapped in all of the what-ifs.
He idly noticed that the dragon seemed very interested in what he was doing, then a sudden thought jumped to him, and he couldn't stop it this time.
'This thing is smart. What if it brought you here only to study your weaknesses, and then once he was done learning, disposed of you and used these weaknesses against other hunters?' As wild as the thought was, it made sense to him, it would explain why the dragon was trying to keep him alive for now. He then steeled his nerves, digging deeper into this explanation. 'That means that I must try to keep the things I reveal to the minimum, I'll have to maintain a routine and only a small list of things I can do while it can observe me. I doubt I'll be able to escape this situation, but I'd be damned if I at least don't try.'
He continued this train of thought while turning over the roast periodically, making sure the meat was evenly cooked, then once he was satisfied with the cooking, he turned off the fire and started eating the meat out of the spit roast. It felt strange to eat in silence while the elder was watching him, but he kept quiet nonetheless, it's not like it'd be able to understand what he could say anyways.
Once he finished his meal, he put the fire pot and his knife back in the bag and cleaned up the stick, he wasn't sure how long he would stay here so he had to make sure it'd last him as long as possible. After this was done, he exhaled a loud sigh of relief and laid back down in his bed. Noticing the Valstrax was still watching him intensely but was tilting his head a bit now. Valen had to admit that he did look a bit innocent while being like that, but that is if you ignore all the sharp bits that it possesses.
Some small part of the hunter was nagging him that it was a death sentence to go to sleep with an elder nearby, but he squashed that thought away. 'If it didn't kill me until now, it surely won't do it until it squeezed out everything it can from me.'
He took a long time to quiet the doubts in his mind, but eventually, he managed to find sleep, ignoring as much as he could the dragon sitting next to him.
LINE BREAK
Valen woke up later, feeling his mouth completely dry. He didn't notice until now, what with all that was happening, but now his throat was extremely parched. He immediately dug into his bag, looking for his canteen, and immediately drank from it. However, it was half empty already, and there was just enough to satisfy his thirst. He grimaced. 'Well, if the Valstrax doesn't kill me, the dehydration will surely end me first. What a shitty way to go, suffering through days of agony hoping for blessed water that'll never come. I know meat has a bit of water, but it's nowhere near enough what I need.' He sighed, steeling himself for a painful time.
He was broken out of his reverie once again by his jailer, that walked near him, and made Valen freeze once again, not having it be that close to him yet. It looked intensely at his canteen, and the ground which had a couple of droplets that spilled over, then it backed away, the hunter still froze. It then walked to a wall and started scratching it, producing a scritch-scritch noise that grated Valen's ears. However, he didn't want to attract attention to himself, so he just bore with it.
The look the Valstrax had in its eyes puzzled him though, it was like it wasn't focusing on anything, and doing the scratching just out of habit. If the hunter dared suggest something, it was like the elder was thinking. But he didn't dare voice anything, lest to attract its murderous intent.
He tried to think of something else, but the noise was distracting him, and it constantly went back to his impending doom, which wasn't better… But just as he was about to resign himself to bear the noise, it stopped, and Valen looked back at the dragon to see what happened. And sure enough, it stopped scratching, but what surprised him is that it looked like it has stopped mid-motion… And his eyes were no longer as vacant as they were before. And suddenly, as he was about to wonder what was up, it got back on all four and walked towards the entrance of the cave, then it whirred up its wings and took off with a whoosh of air, that was only a little breeze when it reached him.
The hunter was quite confused by the turn of events, but quickly exhaled in relief, he hadn't noticed that he was holding his breath for a while. Also deciding that it was a good opportunity to do something he wouldn't do in the elder's presence, he grabbed his notebook from his bag and leafed through it, hoping to find some clues about the unusual behavior of this elder… He wasn't hoping for much though, he was pretty sure this was a first… 'Unless some missing hunter cases could also be kidnappings by dragons…' He squashed this thought before it could progress further, it was not time to pursue insane or worrying trains of thought.
He was fairly deep into elder entries when he heard the telltale sound of his jailer coming back and scrambled to close the notebook and hide it in his bag. He barely managed to retrieve his hands when the Valstrax landed, however, he quickly noticed it was carrying something into his beak this time. Valen couldn't see what it was from the distance, but he quickly noticed it was dripping. It was dripping a clear liquid.
'Jumping Jaggis, is that what I think it is?' And once the elder came closer, his thought was confirmed. 'This is… Water? But… How, and why?' Then he noticed what was containing the water… And to his surprise, it was a full Royal Ludroth mane. He was completely sure it was from him, the battle against the monster was tough at the time, having only equipment made of small monsters, and the blacksmith complained enough about how tedious the process they had to make for the mane so that it does not absorb too much water when it rained or was submerged so the armor was not made useless. And here is the Valstrax just walking with one completely gorged with water. Once it was near him, it deposited it with a smooth motion, against the wall of the cave.
It then did that whirring rumble noise again, but it sounded more… Satisfied? Valen wasn't sure why it felt like that, but it was the impression that came to his mind. Still, he didn't dare move towards it, even though he knew he needed the water from it. He still thought the mane was the elder's property, and touching it would mean retaliation.
However, when it rumbled again and nosed the mane towards him, he tentatively reached a hand towards it, and when it was about to touch the mane, he held his breath.
A second passed two. Then when the dragon had no reaction still, he let out the breath he was holding. But then, the implication of all of this hit him.
It figured out that he was worried about the lack of water that'd come, it then puzzled out that he was already completely out of it after drinking it. Then it literally went to think about a solution to this problem, as the elder wouldn't be able to carry water itself, and its claws or beak weren't suited to carry containers… This also meant that it realized this fact and thought around it. Then once it figured out a solution, it carried out his plan and brought him back water… In the form of a gift.
However, the most worrying thought all of this meant for Valen… Is that it must imply that the Valstrax was intelligent. Even more than what elders were thought to be. There was already proof that Elder Dragons were much more intelligent than common Wyverns, but this? This was proof that not only they could figure out there was a problem, but not only that, they also could understand how to solve it. And only by thinking. Not by trial and error.
What worried Valen the most? Is that he didn't know if that was something unique to this Valstrax or was something all Elders were able to do as a whole. Because… That meant that if any of them had any intention to wipe out humanity, they may one day devise an intelligent plan, instead of trying to overpower them with sheer force. And this possibility chilled the hunter to the core. The thought of this being the Valstrax's motive feared him even more.