It took a couple of weeks, but eventually I was able to come to terms with the fact that I'll probably never know how I got into this mess, let alone what 'this mess' was. I could be dreaming, I could be in the middle of some advance robotic scientist's sick joke of an experiment, though I found that unlikely given the Terrible Terror I forced myself to eat when I couldn't find anything else to hunt that day, or I could actually be in a world where everything in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise actually exists.
I've long since decided to stop thinking about it and just focus on surviving.
I'd managed to map out the immediate area of the island I was on, and carved it into a large tree that sat in the corner of my campsite. Furthermore, I found a source of fresh water that was home to a variety of aquatic life, including fresh water eels. I shot a few with my bow for dinner, and hung the skins around my camp to keep the dragons away.
I set up camp in a corner of the forest, pressed right up against the bottom of a cliff, where there was a small clearing, with just enough space for me to set up a small fireplace to cook the meat that I hunt, and a sleeping spot just next to it. There was also a surplus of apple trees on this island, so I didn't have to rely solely on meat to fill my stomach. As much of a meat eater as I was, eating nothing but was rather taxing on both my palate and my digestive system.
All in all, I'd managed to set up a decent system of survival on this island. I ventured further and further away from my campsite every day, sometimes even taking days-long trips in the hope of finding some kind of civilization, but they bore no fruit, and I ultimately ended up turning back each time. I was beginning to think that this island was completely untouched by human hands. I didn't even find any shipwrecks or anything of the sort. It was kind of interesting to think I might have been the first human to ever set foot on this island.
I considered taking a page out of the movies and series by trying to get off of this island on the back of a dragon, but I had no idea where to start.
Hiccup was only able to train Toothless because the dragon was grounded, remarkably intelligent, and had some understanding of empathy, traits I had not seen from the wild dragons in the area. The largest dragons I'd seen so far were the Nadders and Gronckles. The rest were all Terrible Terrors and those tiny ones that singed my flesh when I tried to touch them. Fireworms I think they were called?
Anyways, I barely remembered anything on how to train the other dragons. If I was guessing, I'd say that being locked up for so long probably had an effect on the dragons that the Dragon Riders trained. Being violent and wild wouldn't serve a purpose inside when locked up in a cage, and at some point, a caged animal eventually accepts its fate, and becomes more focussed on survival than anything else. This would have made it easier for the Dragon Riders to have some influence on them.
Sadly, I don't have that option. I could build a cage, but with wood as my only resource, it was not plausible to think that would hold a Nadder, as there was no way I was going to ride a Gronckle. And since I have no idea how to pacify a wild dragon enough to train it, I was stuck here until either someone found me, or another dragon like the Night Fury just dropped out of the sky. I didn't see that happening any time soon.
Do you ever get those moments when you feel like the universe is mocking you? When you say one thing is or is not going to happen, and then the exact opposite comes to be? The most famous example being when some thinks things couldn't get any worse, and then they get attacked by a giant sea serpent or something like that? Well, that's what I feel right now.
About two months after I arrived on this island, I was woken up in the middle of the night by a loud sound and flash of light, no doubt signifying the beginning of a storm. I immediately got up with the intention of taking refuge in a nearby cave where I knew a colony of Fireworms would be sleeping, and would likely leave me alone until the storm ended, but then I noticed something.
There wasn't a cloud in the sky.
I stood for a moment, wondering what was going on, before another flash of lightning answered my question. Hovering high above the island, there was a dragon, crackles of lightning surrounding its body, and with another flash of lightning, it shot a massive stream of lightning down towards the ocean.
I could barely see the dragon. If it wasn't for the lightning surging around its body, I probably wouldn't be able to see it at all in the night sky, not unless I focussed really hard on seeing any small spots where there weren't any stars.
I recalled the double episodes in the series where the Dragon Riders found a dragon frozen in ice that could absorb and direct lightning. A Skrill, I think it was called. It was pretty memorable. I remember the villain, Berserker Chief Dagger, though I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong, somehow controlling the Skrill and using it against the Dragon Riders. I think that was the only time we saw that species of dragon.
What is one doing here I wonder? It would make sense to me if Skrills lived in high mountain peaks, where they were more likely to be in the vicinity of a thunderstorm. And who, or what, is it attacking?
I didn't get any more time to ponder these questions before the dragon let out a loud, pained shriek as its entire body jerked back, like it was hit with something, and began to plummet. I followed its descent with my eyes, and got an idea of the general area in which it crashed. I cringed as I heard the impact. That could not have been pleasant. A human would have died from a fall a tenth that height. Even if dragons have stronger constitutions, that fall would have been bad.
I bit my lip in indecision before groaning at myself and grabbing my bow, quiver, and a net bag I'd made of vines some time before. With a stretch of my muscles, I set off in the direction of the dragon's crash. A Skrill may be just the thing I needed to get off this rock, and if I nurse it back to health and keep it away from whatever was attacking it, it may be willing to trust me enough to help me.
Here's hoping I don't get electrocuted.
The trek was several hours long, and even after finding the general vicinity of the dragon's crash site, and even then, I had to do a little tracking to finally find it. I expected to find a Skrill, matching the image I had in my head from the episodes it appeared in the show, but that was not what I found.
This dragon was certainly Skrill-esque, but definitely not an actual Skrill.
It was quadrupedal, it would definitely be standing on four legs when hunched over, but the forelegs looked more like pincers, each with a single foreclaw at the 'elbow' of the limb, which were probably used to support the torso . The hind legs definitely looked strong enough to walk on them though. They each had three claws. On its back, there were two large wings, each with its own foreclaw. It had a long snout, definitely looking like a Skrill, with the curved horn and crocodile-like teeth, but the snout was shorter than I remembered the Skrill having.
One key difference was at the jaw, where, on either side of the tip, there were tusk-like fangs. It had a crown of spikes on its head, though they were scaled and fleshy, not bony like a Nadder, and even more running down the spine, right up to the tip of its tail. The tail itself actually had two more rows of spikes along either side, with a long claw-like stinger at the tip. I didn't even want to know what would happen if I was hit with that thing.
Most of its scales were black. However, the underbelly and jaw were light grey. The tips of its head spikes were purple, and there were rings of purple shadowing around its molten gold eyes, which were barely open. The tip of its horn was also purple, as were the membranes of its wings. At least, the undersides were. The upper sides of the wings were midnight black, like the rest of the scales.
I had no idea what kind of dragon this was. A close relative of the Skrill? No clue. What I did know was that it had several arrows jabbed into its belly, and it was definitely unconscious.
Dragon skin was thick and tough to begin with, even at the underbelly. At least, it was with the species I'd seen so far. The arrows did barely any damage, but I think the issue was the green substance that the arrow heads were submerged in. It had a rather potent scent, I mentally compared it to unbaked sourdough bread after a long fermentation. Could it have been dragonnip? The grass that makes dragons docile? Or maybe the root that makes them aggressive. If this was some kind of concentrate of either, or both maybe, it makes sense that it would knock a dragon unconscious.
And now, someones coming for it.
In the distance, I could see the light of several torches flickering through the gaps between the trees of the forest. Whoever shot this thing down was on their way. I had to think of a way to get them off this island, and fast. Looking around, I was able to get an idea of where I was on the island. Not too far from here, there was a small rock field in which a small herd of Gronckles usually slept. A river bank was even closer. A plan started to form in my mind as I considered these facts.
In retrospect, this idea was fairly terrible, and almost certainly wouldn't work. But, with such little time and an unknown enemy lurking near, I went with what I had. First, I stopped by the riverbank and shot as many eels as I could see, let alone carry. Once my net bag was full, I went so far as to slip a few through the underside of my belt and have them hanging off my waist, and let me tell you, that was not pleasant.
Afterwards, I made my way to the rock field where the Gronckles slept. Sure enough, there was a group of about 10 of the rock eating dragons asleep in the field. Smirking, I carefully snuck around them, putting down eels in a crude circle around the sleeping herd. I had to be careful with the distance between them, as I only had so many and I didn't think I had time to go back and get more. After several close calls involving dropping an eel or standing on a loose rock, almost waking up the Gronckles, I finally managed to make an almost full circle of eels around the Gronckles, with only one gap; one facing the direction of the ones after the dragon.
Like I said, this was a fairly terrible plan, and almost certainly won't work.
I could still see their torches in the distance, and they were getting closer to the downed dragon. I didn't want to know what would happen if they saw the dragon without any arrows jabbed into it. I don't even know who these people are, but I really didn't care. They wanted that dragon, and I wasn't going to let them get it.
I took a deep breath, put both of my pinkies in my mouth, and let out a loud whistle, one that immediately stirred the fat dragons from their sleep. They all turned their attention to me once they figured out what was going on. Assuming hostile intent, they all bore their fangs at me and growled, a couple loading up some lava to throw at me. Before any of them could do anything though, I immediately held up an eel. The anger on their faces quickly gave way to fear, and they all fled in different directions.
What followed looked an awful lot like the first shot of a pool game, where the balls would roll every which way and bump off the walls of the table until either their momentum ran out, or they fell into one of the holes. The Gronckles were similar in that they changed direction every time they saw one of the eels on the ground. Eventually, one of them flew through the gap I'd left in the circle, right towards the intruders, followed by another, and then another. Eventually, the rest saw the escapees and followed suit. There were a few stragglers who flew upwards or over the eels, but I still managed to get about seven of them to go the direction I wanted them to.
I had to smirk as I watched them go. That smirk turned into full blown laughter when I heard the angry and confused shouts of the intruders in the distance. I didn't understand what language they were speaking, but from the volume, tone of voice, and lack of any fearful or painful screaming, I can only assume that they were cursing out loud as they were scattered and chased by Gronckles, all going in the same general direction as where they came from.
I could not believe that actually worked. With a satisfied grin, I hopped down from the boulder I was standing on and jogged back to where the dragon had landed.
Now to figure out what to do with him.
Once I got back to the spot where the dragon had crashed, I was surprised to find him awake. Well, half awake. He was crawling around, hunched over, and rubbing his face on the ground. He was probably trying to rub the sleep from his eyes, still groggy from the effects of those arrows. I was right earlier. He walked on all four of his limbs, with the mantis-like forelegs folded inwards, and using the claws at the elbow to support his torso.
As he continued to crawl through the trees in a circle, trying to clear his grogginess, I noticed two things. One, the tusk like teeth in his jaw were gone. Did they break off or something? Two, as he walked, his tail was incredibly stiff. There was a particular spot on his tail that he simply refused to bend. I don't know anything about this species of dragon, or much of any other for that matter, but unless the tail had an uncannily long bone in that one area, I doubt he'd do that unless the tail was injured. Could he have landed on his tail? Sprained it? Broke it?
I chose the worst possible time to show up. As soon as he seemed to be getting his head back in order, I decided it was a good idea to get a closer look. And like all the movies and books we've ever seen, I stepped on a branch, breaking it. Immediately, he turned his head in my direction, his molten gold eyes narrowed in anger as he saw me. He hissed fiercely, the tusks suddenly spurting out from his jaw.
Retractable tusks. That explains that.
He had his eyes dead set on me, hissing under his breath as he stalked across the ground, circling around me. Not wanting to give this creature an excuse to attack, I held up my left hand in a universal sign of surrender, and dropped my bow to the ground from my right. He was still on guard, so I followed by slowly taking my quiver off and emptying its contents on the ground, before it too joined them.
That hardly did anything to assuage the dragon's rage, so I knelt down, and picked up the arrows that I'd removed from his body and stored in there. He hissed seeing me reach for the weapons, but before he decided to do anything, I gently tossed them over to him. At least, closer to him. He looked at them with disdain as he took a few steps closer to them, giving them a sniff. He let out a hiss as he recognised the scent of the toxin, but he also noted the little spots of blood on them.
His blood.
By the way he let the tension in jaw relax, I'd guessed that he could recognise that the blood was his, and that I'd taken the arrows out. His tusks were still out, however, and he was still ready to attack, but now he was curious. To follow up, I took one of my arrows, made of carbon fibre, stark contrast to the wooden ones, and tossed it over to him. He took a sniff of this arrow, which seemed to confuse him a little more, as he looked up at me with narrowed eyes.
With my hands still raised, showing no ill intent, I stepped away from the weapons on the ground, and he followed me with his eyes. It seemed he could tell by the difference in arrows that I was not one of the people who shot him down, but I was still an unknown to him. At the very least, he seemed to relax a little. As I stepped away, I noticed his eyes linger on my hip, and a little bit of drool leaking from his jaw.
Following his gaze, I saw he was staring at my net bag. Inside of it, there were still a few eels. I cursed myself for such a blunder. Judging by the way he slurped his lips, I could gather that this dragon actually likes to eat eels. He'd be frantic otherwise, like the Gronckles. However, I should have anticipated that he would not, and gotten rid of them. The blunder worked out for the best this time, but it was unlikely more would do the same. I'd have to keep an eye out.
Trying to keep from hyperventilating, I reached into the bag and pulled out one of the eels. I could see his eyes light up, though his posture held firm, as I held out the eel for him. He seemed to consider taking it, but decided against it. He gave me an untrusting glare, and backed away a few steps. Fair enough, I guess. I set the eel down on the ground, and backed away myself, allowing the dragon to approach. He gave the eel a light sniff, gave me one last glare, and slurped the thing down like spaghetti.
Once he'd thoroughly swallowed the thing, he looked at me with a narrow gaze once again, seeing me holding two more eels, the last two in my bag. Cautiously, he stepped forward, staring at me with a warning glare before opening his jaw slightly, showing his teeth. Swallowing slightly at the sight of razor sharp things, I held the two eels out. With a quick snap, he snatched the two carcusses out of my hands and thoroughly devoured them. I almost had a heart attack as it happened.
After finishing the last two eels, the dragon looked at me one more time with that cautious, narrow glare. As he took a few steps towards me, he pulled his tusks back in. I took an instinctive step back as it stopped right in front of me, its molten gold eyes staring into my own piercing grey. We just stood there for who knows how long, and even though the dragon was hunched over, his head only reaching the middle of my torso like that, with me looking down at him, I never felt so small.
Slowly, he used his pincer arms to push himself up to eye level with me, and I felt even smaller. After a second, he let out an incredibly loud, guttural roar in my face. If I wasn't scared stiff, I might have puked from the creature's eel breath. But suffice it to say, that was one scary roar. When it was done, it gave me one simple huff, then turned and ran off, disappearing into the forest.
I just stood there for a few more minutes before I allowed my knees to give out, and I fell down to them. Not having the energy to keep myself up, I lay down on the ground, facing the stars, which I could barely see through the trees. I barely had any strength in my limbs, though I couldn't tell if it was due to my early awakening, or due to the intense experience I just had. I didn't even bother getting up. I just closed my eyes and let sleep overtake me.
I really needed it.
The following day, I'd spent a good amount of time searching the general vicinity of where the dragon crashed, to see if I could find him again. Predictably, I could not. Though his tail was injured, which would inhibit his ability to fly, it seemed he could still run quite fast, and quite far. One thing I made sure to do was investigate the area where those intruders were hit by the Gronckles.
Sure enough, there were definite signs of a struggle.
Broken branches everywhere, discarded leather helmets, splatters of blood that didn't look large enough to be concerning, arrows that clearly did not get the chance to be fired, and a few broken swords and maces. I grabbed a knife that had been left behind and slipped it into my back pocket. I'd have to work on a safer place to put that later. The only other weapon that was still intact was a spear. I'd used a bo staff before, but only briefly. The bow was the only weapon I was truly proficient with, which was ill advised for close combat. And given those intruders last night, that was looking more and more likely.
I took the spear and left everything else behind. As much as I wanted to take the arrows, I figured it would be a bad idea to carry those around, especially if I wanted that dragon to trust me. Running around with arrows that were used to poison and down him would be detrimental. I'm probably pushing my luck with the knife and the spear as it was. I'd probably leave those at my campsite when I got looking for the… thing…
Gotta come up with a name for him. And his species.
Shaking my head, I gave the area one final visual sweep for anything that might be useful, and headed off in the direction of my campsite. It took a couple of hours, same as last night, but it wasn't so bad whilst being alerted and rested. I didn't stay long though. Or rather, I didn't sit idly. First thing I did was get something down my gullet. I hadn't eaten much these past few days, and wasn't going to find that dragon an empty stomach.
After eating, I grabbed more vines and used them to make a bigger net bag. The first one was rather small, and I only used it to carry the handful of fish that I would catch to eat. The eels I put in there last night were practically hanging out of the gaps, so I made this one bigger, and put the vines closer together. It took a while to figure out a whole process for these things, but I eventually managed to make a backpack-sized net bag that I could hang over my shoulder, or across my torso.
I also made a splint for the Venom Skrill's tail(I let my mind wander and think of a few names for the dragon and/or his species.) I grabbed as many branches as I could, made sure they were all at least as thick as my arm, and vertically lined them up next to each other. I used vines to tie them together, though still keeping a little bit of space between them, and kept going until I was satisfied that the splint would go all around his tail. The finished product almost looked like the blinds one would have over their window, with the vertical branches, and vines horizontally tying them together across each end. Except instead of folding together, this construct would roll around the Boltstinger's tail.
Following that, I proceeded to shoot and store as many eels as I could find. I added a few other fish into the batch for some variety, but most of the things I'd caught were eels. It took several hours, and I had to go to several different bodies of water, but I eventually managed to fill the net bag to the point where any more would either spill out of the top, or break the bag. I wasn't about to try and find out which.
It was late afternoon when I finally set out to find the Stormtail.
I started back where I first found it. I didn't think I would find it there, but I would have a good indicator as to what direction to follow. I was standing right there when it ran off into the forest. Anyway, I followed the pretty distinctive trail of broken branches, shredded vines, and slashed tree trunks. This guy did quite a bit of damage running through the forest. I suppose one would at that speed though.
Anyway, the trail eventually led me outside of the forest, which was a surprise in and of itself. I'd spent days at a time exploring the forest, and aside from the rock field that led to a cliff, signifying the island's edge, I hadn't actually found an exit. I figured the whole island must have just been forest, but I was wrong. I'd just entered a large bush field. It actually reminded me of the landscape in Australia somewhat. Long grass far as the eye could see, and bushes scattered all over the place.
Looking back at the forest, I could actually see the cliffside that my campsite was pressed against in the distance. I also saw more forest to the side, meaning I hadn't actually crossed the forest, but had instead exited from the side, if we view the cliffside as the 'front' of the forest.
Anyway, as I turned my attention back to the field, I became aware of a conveniently pressed-down trail of grass, where it looked like a certain, large, currently flightless lizard must have run through said grass. That made tracking a hell of a lot easier, let me tell you. I was careful where I stepped, as snakes were known to lurk in tall grass back in Australia. The phrase 'snake in the grass' exists for a reason, and I already knew for a fact that there were snakes on this island. Suppressing a shudder at the thought, I followed the trail.
I cannot express just how much I can't stand those slithery spawns of Satan.
OK, cliches can be annoying and eye-rolling at times, we all know that, but they wouldn't be cliches in the first place if they didn't have some sort of impact or meaning in the past. That being said, accidentally stepping on a branch and catching the attention of a ferocious beast not once, but TWICE? Yeah, that is absolute bullshit. At least, that's what I would have said, IF THAT WASN'T EXACTLY WHAT JUST HAPPENED…
As the Sting Raze raised its formerly sleeping head to glare at me, the sunset reflecting in its eyes, I couldn't help but curse under my breath.
"Hey there…" I whispered, talking aloud for the first time in a while. I was actually wondering if I'd start to forget what my voice sounded like at any point in time. I'd tried talking out loud to keep my brain busy in the beginning, but that quickly grew old. "Hungry fella?" I asked, emptying the contents of my net bag onto the ground.
The dragon's eyes lit up at the sight of the food, but still maintained that cautious glare on his face as he stalked towards the pile of dead aquatic life. Each step he took towards it seemed in perfect sync with every step I took away from it. Once he was satisfied that I was not in a position to refuse him the food, he relaxed his posture and proceeded to dig in.
"That's it… You just focus on that…'' I whispered as I carefully stalked towards his tail. "Don't you mind me… I'll just be back here, minding my own business…" I went on, kneeling by his tail. As the appendage stiffly whooshed back and forth, I struggled to get the splint underneath it. "OK, you're really not making this easy for me mate…" I said, sighing. It didn't seem like he'd noticed me doing anything whilst he was eating.
Eventually, his tail calmed down enough for me to wrap the splint around it. It was easy to see where he was injured by the swelling. Fortunately, it didn't seem like it was broken, though I was hardly an expert. Hopefully it was just a sprain, or a light fracture at worst. As I wrapped the splint around the tail, I was relieved to find that his spikes could fit through the gaps between the sticks. This could have gone an entirely different direction if they didn't. I was just barely able to finish securing the thing and back off by the time he finished up all the fish.
He seemed to realise I was doing something to his tail and quickly whipped his whole body around to face me, hissing as his tusks came out. He seemed ready to attack, and I was just about to run, but then he noticed that something was different. His posture relaxed, he allowed a slight shake of his lower body. His eyes widened, and his tusks retracted as he noticed what was off. He looked at his tail and noticed the splint on the wounded area. Giving the limb a light shake, he barely reacted, only seeming curious. Based solely on what I saw, it seemed like the pain of the wound had gone down drastically. Without the need for him to keep his tail stiff and straight at all times, letting the splint do that for him, it seemed like he'd been given a bit of relief from the pain.
He turned his wide eyed gaze to me, his pupils slowly dilating as we stared into each other's eyes. I decided that now was probably the best time to leave the ball in his court, so I gave him a smile, a friendly wave, and turned and left. I could feel his gaze on my back as he watched me leave. It seemed I'd started getting through to him. Helping him with the arrows and his tail seemed to do the trick. If I'd just tried giving a wild Nadder some food, I doubt things would have gone so well.
Step one, getting the dragon's attention, was done. I'd removed the toxic arrows, allowed him to escape those who shot him down, and given him a few eels. Step two was also done; showing the dragon that I meant no harm and could be trusted. Not only did I give him a hearty meal, I also helped his wound feel better, which may speed up the healing process. Now on to step three, earning the dragon's trust and getting on his back.
I think the best way to do that is to just spend some time together and see where the winds take us. If I'm going to do that, I'll have to set up a new campsite closer to where he is now.
I stand corrected…
Having spent the entirety of the previous day making a big net bag, making the splint, hunting copious amounts of aquatic life, and tracking the Storm Sailor, It'd already been well after dark when I got back to my campsite. I settled on a few apples for supper before going to sleep.
I woke up to the feeling of a few droplets of water dripping onto my face. Groaning, I wiped them off and massaged my temples, still half asleep. It seemed that I'd have to spend the day in the Fireworm cave, else risk Hypothermia in the rain. As I groggily opened my eyes, I saw a shape in front of my face. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I looked again and saw the Stingskrill leaning over me, looking directly at me, with a few tiny droplets of drool dripping off of his jaw. I let out a startled yelp and slid back as fast as I could as the dragon let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like Toothless' laughter.
I held a hand over my heart as I took several deep breaths, staring at the dragon with wide eyes. He rolled his own, seemingly amused at my reaction, though still maintaining a healthy amount of caution as he approached. I dared not move as he stopped barely a foot in front of me, pushing his torso up to eye level with me. He looked into my eyes for a moment. I could see he had something in his mouth. He gave a light huff, blowing air in my face, before dropping what he held.
The net bag I'd carried the fish and eels in the previous night.
I must have left it there after I put the splint on his tail. I can hardly be blamed, considering he was ready to attack me when he realised I was doing something to his tail, but then he realised what was going on, and let me go. I left without taking the bag. He must have remembered the eels being in the bag, and knew the bag belonged to me.
"Uhm… Thanks, big guy." I said with a small smile. He narrowed his eyes and hissed at me, not quite angrily, but definitely annoyed. "Girl." I corrected myself quickly, guessing what was wrong. Could she actually understand me? Word for word? "Sorry, but saying 'big girl' just seems like a fat joke." She hissed again, and I stepped back, holding my arms up in surrender. "OK, no calling you 'big guy,' got it." I said, keeping the nervousness off of my face, hoping I did well in covering the fact that I thought she was male. She just huffed, turning around and trudding off into the forest.
I expected her to just leave, but in actual fact, she just stuck her head between the trees and pulled something out. Imagine my surprise when, out of the bushes, she pulls a dead Nadder by its wing in her jaw. The carcass had a large chunk of its neck missing, with the head barely still attached by a bit of flesh. Being a hunter myself, I wasn't that queasy at the sight, but I was surprised to find out that the Deathjaw was so predatory, especially to other dragons. It didn't take a genius to see that that fatal wound was caused by an incredibly powerful set of jaws.
What happened next surprised me even more.
Instead of digging into the creature right there and then, she gave a sniff across the carcass, stopping at its leg. Giving it one final look, she sank her fangs into the creature's thigh. Her teeth shredded through the flesh like a hot knife through butter, not so much the bones though. With a light growl in her throat, she yanked and pulled on the appendage, and the sound of ripping flesh and snapping bones echoed in my ears as she finally pulled the leg right off of the corpse. With a satisfied huff, she strode over to me, and dropped the leg in front of me. I looked down at it, then back at her.
She licked the blood off of her maw, and went back to the carcass, digging in.
Oh, I get it. She's repaying me for all the eels and fish I gave her last night, and maybe for helping with her tail as well. Or maybe it's a peace offering? I remember reading online that Skrills were incredibly territorial. Does that mean she believes this to be my territory, and that she's encroaching? And she brings a peace offering, food in this case, in exchange for not being kicked. I had no idea.
Honestly, I was just glad she wasn't attacking me.
Not knowing how she'd react if I refused to eat what she offered me, I decided to bite the bullet and have Nadder for breakfast. I grabbed the knife I'd found and used it to remove the skin from the Nadder leg. It was a breath of fresh air using an actual knife and not my arrows to skin something, let me tell you. Unlike the pale pink meat of a Terrible Terror, Nadder meat was bright red, almost shiny. Much redder than beef, I'll say that much. Anyway, I managed to separate most of the meat from the bone, leaving me with several big pieces of meat. Nadders had a lot of meat on them, if you hadn't gathered.
I skewered the meat on sticks and jabbed the other ends into the ground, above my campfire. The dragon seemed too invested in her meal to see what was going on, but I really hoped that the meat would finish cooking before she finished with her meal. She might get confused and take it as an insult, seeing what she gave me hanging over a fire instead of being eaten. Fortunately, without the fireproof scales and hide, dragon meat cooked just as well as anything else. I didn't want to risk eating this undercooked. I had no idea if dragon meat was anything like pork or chicken, so I opted for well done meat, as I had with all the meat I ate on this island.
By the time the meat had finished cooking, I took a deep breath, and bit into a piece. Now, the Terrible Terror I'd eaten when I first arrived tasted like a weird combination of chicken and fish, almost like frog legs(which I'd eaten ONCE when visiting a French restaurant.) Since it was just plain meat cooked over a fire, it was rather bland. Nadder meat was different. I likened it to snake meat, but with less gaminess, and a bit of natural bitterness to it. Honestly, it wasn't all that good. The meat was stringy and chewy, which was surprising considering it was leg meat. Maybe it had to do with the way I cooked it, or the fact that dragons were reptilian, not mammalian or avian. At least, I thought they were. Aside from the frog legs at that restaurant and the snakes here on the island, I didn't recall any kind of meat I'd eaten that wasn't a bird, fish, or mammal.
Regardless, it was a meal that I didn't have to do any hunting or gathering for, so I ate it without complaint, as the Fearless Fangmongerer did with the rest of the beast(some of the names I came up with were downright terrible.) She was surprisingly quick in devouring the Nadder. Those teeth of hers made short work of the meat. I wasn't halfway through what she gave me when she finished off the rest of the Nadder, at least, the bits that she wanted, and set the carcass ablaze with a burst of white fire.
Having finished with her meal, she turned her gaze to me, tilting her head curiously. A lot calmer and less tense than before, though still rather cautious, she approached the campfire. Seeing the meat skewered on the sticks, she gave it a curious sniff, confirming that it was indeed the meat she had offered. As she turned her eyes to me, her curiosity gave way to light confusion, her eyes going back and forth between me and the meat.
It was baffling how expressive this dragon could be with just her eyes. She barely used any other facial muscles, but was able to convey her thoughts and feelings so well. It was a bizarre experience, being on the receiving end.
Digression aside, I guessed what she was trying to convey and picked up the skin I'd removed from the leg she gave me, placed the meat I was holding on my thigh, and tugged at the skin. She saw what I was doing and looked at me with a strange expression as I bit into the skin and pulled with my teeth, even letting a few grunts of effort as I did so to show what I was trying to convey. Following that, I opened my mouth to show her my teeth. Letting out a curious warble, she looked inside and saw the flat molars at the back, and blunt incisors in the front. Then, I held up the meat I'd cooked, and showed it easily tore apart with just my fingers, and popped one of the pieces into my mouth.
That seemed to do the trick. She understood that my teeth would never cut through the meat like hers, and opted to leave me to my meal, walking on over towards the edge of my campsite, and searing the ground with her white flame, making a spot for her to lie on. I had no idea what this whole thing meant, but I felt I was one step closer to getting myself on that dragon's back.
Don't get your hopes up. This always happens when I start a new story. Those first few chapters are always the easiest and fastest to write. I wouldn't count on this one getting updated on the regular if I were you.