Perils Pests

A thief, a show and a therapist

Her mind quickly shot back to scarlets arena and all the dragon fights, some being a mixture of dragon and scavenger fights with their little sticks and fiery tempers as they died, both dragon and them alike fell against her scales with the little things catching alight far too quickly for even her likings as their coverings burned and they stayed alive far too long screaming their tiny lungs out as they burned and tried to rid themselves of their coverings, even a dragon would have gone down if they were engulfed in flames as much as them but they just kept running, it made it harder to catch them and stop their yelling.

She dropped the sheep as her mind caught up to her and the thoughts of scarlets arena faded once again into the recesses of her mind. The little thing dropped down and fell to the ground, leaving its tiny metal claw lodged in the side of 'her' food. Gaining her composure once more she looked down to see the small creature pulling against the sheep.

"Oh no you don't you little stealer...um..taker?..thiefer? Clay says I need to use a bigger vocabulary.....well anyway. I haven't finished, its mine and its not for scavenging off... Oh thats why we call them that"

She swiped her prize away from the scavenging little scavenger throwing it off its feet and into the moss as she brought her food close to her to indicate her ownership.

"I never liked you lot, always too eager to get eaten and get yourself killed, even to other dragons. Now be a good snack and perhaps ill have you for later"

She said jokingly though she never really liked them, too many bones and not enough meat, this one especially.

As she curled around her food and began sinking her teeth into to her mind was reminded of 'Horizon' the sandwing and how he too threw himself onto her and how he burned to ash far too quickly, why did she remember that one, after all this time why that one out of all the hundreds that have fallen before her. Perhaps it was the day she finally got to talk to clay, or perhaps it was just the last dragon that had to die from her claws for the amusement of scarlet. That had been a lifetime ago, perhaps it was best it was turned upside down, she only hoped that she had enough foundation with Clay that this life wouldn't. This life was peaceful at least and perhaps in her deepest desires, filled with potential.

Her train of though was cut as she noticed the scavenger still lurking around her peripheral vision, edging itself closer, trying to scavenge some of her food. This wasn't just a giant predatory dragon she was perhaps the most dangerous dragon in Pyrrhia and such an extremely flammable creature was trying to steal off her. If it knew even a fraction of the danger it was in I think it might explode on its own. Eyeing the small critter she bit into her food, she had been considering poking it and watching it run around but she feared it might run into the bushes and set the forest on fire.

As she bit down something stabbed the roof of her mouth, the one part of her not covered in impenetrable fire scales and it caused her to jump. Looking down she saw what the little thing was so worried about, a scavenger claw, one of those metal ones they use to chop the toes off dragons who didn't pay attention or at least thats how Starflight had described them. She had seen them try and use them in vain, this was perhaps the first time she had ever truly been hurt by one, ironic that it was by her own fault.

"You want this? Is this what your after?"

She pulled the claw from the meat and held it in front of the scavenger just enough so that it could see it as she rubbed her claws together around it. Metal was a little tougher to burn but it burned all the same in the end. The claw began to glow between her claws and sag a little as the light glowed brightly as it began to melt.

"See? This is what you get for trying to steal food, now what you guna do without your little poking stick"

She dropped it to the ground as it congealed into a molten mess on the mossy ground, still sizzling away as it glowed a gentle yellow. The scavenger for its part seemed mortified.

"Yea well now you know what your dealing with"

She spat as she gave a hostile growl. "Where do they even get those ridiculous things, they don't grow out of them. Do they? No it was made of iron, some of the skywing guards home some similar looking ones but bigger, spears and such. Wait...scavengers have metallurgy?" She looked back only to see the scavenger poking the cooling molten mess with a small stick. No no, its probably just some scrap iron they found, smart tho, they don't have claws so they scavenge their own, huh the name really sticks. As she picked at her food she began to think more and more about scarlets arena, wondering if any of the prisoners ever had a spear like the guards, would they ever have really hurt her? Scarlet made sure peril was never in harms way by stripping the prisoners and clamping their wings, she wondered how she'd fair with a real combatant on the battlefield, where it wasn't a rigged fight, she she really could get hurt, or die. Had scarlet saved her from a gruesome fate during the war? Her troubling thoughts were disrupted by the sharp squeaks of the scavenger trying to pick up the still hot puddle that was once his precious metal claw.

"Dinner and a show? Lucky me"

In truth she hadn't felt very hungry ever since her mind wondered to Scarlet and her past, just picking at her food, searing it before chewing. Instead she watched the little creature problem solve its way out of its conundrum. "I wonder if its already forgotten I'm here, didn't Clay say something about certain fish having the memory of only three seconds? Yea a goldfish, do they eat gold? Couldn't be good for them, might explain their short memory. Perhaps this scavenger is related too them in some way, oh, thats why they love treasure so much, they eat it" she giggled to herself by the strange thought, at least it was getting her mind away from Scarlet. She watched as the little guy managed to grab what was left of the handle using some of the damp moss and hoist it up triumphantly. Peril gave a small mock clap to this.

"Hurray, you did a thing. You did a thing, now what are you going to do?"

The little thing drew the congealed puddle of metal and pointed it at her. 'Sigh'

"Fine little thing, I'm probably not going to eat it anyway"

She ripped a bit of her food off and threw it towards the scavenger like payment for the amusing performance of solving the puzzle of 'what to do if a thing is hot'. The scavenger stood back, but after a moment took the meat with great enthusiasm.

"Hu, I thought you lot didn't eat animals, winters certainly didn't, I'm afraid I don't have any treasure for you to munch on after, you'll have to find that on your own"

She smiled to herself at the absurd thought once again. "Is this what having a winglet will be like? Sharing food and making up funny story's about scavengers? I hope so, but... I doubt it. You seem very unaware of your soundings, let alone who I am"

she turned to look at the little scavenger gleefully chewing on the slightly burnt pice of meat.

"But you don't know, if only you knew what I could do. You too would run away in fright, no different from anyone else. Perhaps you just don't care, you saw what I did to your metal thing. I bet it would be nice to be a scavenger, never worrying about anything or being aware of whats around you until one day, SNAP"

She snapped her mouth loudly gaining the attention of the blissfully ignorant scavenger still sitting a little away from her.

"And then your gone, forever"

The scavenger crept closer to her slightly with curiosity in its eyes. Peril looked down at the half eaten sheep, most of it beginning to burn and crisp around the edges as she had taken too long, daydreaming again. She wasn't very hungry anyway, perhaps she should get some sleep.

"Ok little gremlin, you win, scavenge to your hearts content. You live other day because I'm bored and sad. Im going to bed"

Standing up and leaving the sheep to the whims of nature and whatever creatures would want to scavenge off it, she spread her wings and stretched, the sun was nearly down and she had only an hour of sunlight left to get back.

"Iv...strangely enjoyed our one sided conversation, but iv got to get back to dragon things and you back to scavenging things. Heh, its so fitting. Yea go collect acorns or whatever you do"

And with that she spread her wings and lifted off into the cool air of the evening sky as she began to head back to jade mountain and to her sleeping cave, as she flew she thought back, talking to myself usually isn't so productive, perhaps I should talk out loud more often, I should get a rock YEA a pet rock to talk too, that would be perfect.