Answer the dragon call

Chapter 3

“You shouldn’t eat the buck whole you know,  Arrel likes to skin them first.”

“That certainly is not my problem.  You are the one that brought him here, so you have to take care of him.”

“Sarof!  Think what you are saying!”

“But Grobalt,  he put us all at risk by bringing that nosey noisy human here!”

“He is not noisy.  Or nosey!”

“Be quiet!  Both of you.  Arrel is not noisy Sarof.  And neither did you think about consequences Regatten.  Clearly you youngsters have not been paying any attention to any of the Games we play.”

“But this is no game Grobalt.”

“No it is not, but if you think about it clearly, you will discover that by bringing a human here to the Corral Mountains, things are bound to change.  For us I am not so sure if it would have much effect, fact being that all the She-dragons are gone, and soon we will be gone too.  But this kind of interaction between human and dragon kind are stuff history tells us to be very carefull about.  Now once again there is a human with us,  and I find that according to Old Tradition, we are honour bound to take care of him and educate him.”

“But why?”

“Because Sarof, as in the Old Tradition, if a human managed to find a dragon lair, that meant the dragons were honour bound to teach him as much as they could within a year and then send him on his way. That would also include caring for him or her, because just once before, it was a woman that found us.”

“Aha!  He did not find us, he was brought.”

“The manner of his arival is of no concern.  What is of concern is that he has managed to get himself invited by a dragon who did not know about this part of the Old Tradition.  So, he must stay!”

“But certainly we do not have to hunt for him as well.”

“Arrel hunts very well on his own, and does not need your help, but he will need the skin off that buck to keep him warm.”

“Not all the dragons have to share in the burden of educating this human.  If you do not wish to interact with him, you are welcome to leave that task to those who know their duty.  And their Traditions.  But it would only be polite to have consideration.  He does not allow himself the luxury of a warm fire due to our situation, so the least we can do is to ensure he does not freeze to death before the year is over.  And Regatten, after a year he leaves.  No debate over that.  It is, after all, Tradition.”

Effortlesly Grobalt simultaniously ducked his head and dived out of Regattens cave and flew of in the direction of the lake, leaving the two youngest dragons and the human alone.

Sighing, Sarof picked the carcass of the buck up and flung it to where Arrel sat wide-eyed listening to the conversation.

“He had just better hurry up.  I am starving of hunger.”

Gratefully Arrel grabbed the buck and his knife and deflty removed the thick-furred pelt that the Kree-buck always grew during the winter.  He should realy have removed the skin of those buck he left at home before he came.  For the past week he had come verry close to regretting his decision to join Regatten.  Espessialy at night.  That he was still alive and that he had no frostbite to show for his adventure, was due to kindness from Regatten allowing him to sleep as close to that big warm body as he could get.

During the warm part of the day they would go hunting together and then Regatten would leave Arrel alone for two or three hours to build a fire and roast his meals for the next day.  Then while he was waiting for his food to cook, he would prepare the skin of the buck they had hunted.  But the skin still had to be dried out in the sun and that took time.  The first days pelts are almost dry enough to continue with the preperation to soften them up enough to use for sleeping furs.  But he would also need to sew himself a tunic to keep from freezing during the day.  So far it has only been his constant activity that has kept him warm during the day, but he would not be able to continue that for much longer.