Through Smoke and Ashes

Twelve||Rin

Looking up from the map in my hands, I watched as Naxan landed on the rocky outcrop. He shook out his body and folded his wings against his body, the sun dancing like fire on his obsidian colored scales. He opened his bloody maw and used his tongue to clean the flesh from between his teeth. I peered over at the half eaten carcass he brought back from his hunting trip. It looked to be a larger buffalo.

My stomach growled.

Naxan cocks his head to the side, gesturing at the carcass for me to start eating. Starting with building a fire, I waited for the yellow flames to burst to life. Their hunger grew ferociously, licking at the meat as they devoured the juicy fat dripping down from it.

I ate in silence, thinking of how much I started to hate this situation.

The food I brought on this trip was little to begin with, I had run out some time a few days ago. Although the water source beside me held fish even they would run out, and to be quite frank, I was getting tired of the taste of fish, but the captain of the dragon hunters had taken my weapons, and all I had was a few daggers in my pack. They wouldn't be entirely useful if I were to go hunting.

Sighing, I put my few belongings in my pack and secured it on my shoulders. My dragon watched as I did so.

Even though Naxan returned with part of a carcass for me to eat, I couldn't depend on him to hunt for me. I was a grown adult, very much so capable of hunting my own food.

Turning to him, I said, "We're going back to the captains camp. I hope he's not still there." He bared his teeth in response.

"Twolegs." His words seared through the bond with hatred. I understood his meaning through the bond we shared. He meant humans, and I guess he didn't like them, well, my kind, much.

"We're called humans, Naxan." He looked at me with a strange look in his eyes.

I sighed and pushed forward. "Let's hope there's no one there." Moving through the trees back to the direction of the camp, my heart started to beat at a higher rate. If he was still out there he could easily capture me again.

I looked back at Naxan who walked slightly behind, he watched the surroundings with calculating eyes. I needed to stop thinking like that, I was a new person now. I was a dragon rider. He launched himself into the air and darted through the trees, weaving through them until he was out of sight. But I knew he was still close, I could feel it through the bond.

"Better advantage point." He said through the bond. "Like flying more than walking."

I rolled my eyes. Wouldn't it be nice to fly? I wonder when we'd get to that point. I looked to the sky, I occasionally saw his body dart between the trees as I walked on.

Coming to the camp around nightfall, I scanned the area. I couldn't see much, there was no fires lit. The air still smelt of smoldering flesh.

Naxan landed beside me, his small body allowed him to get through the trees easily. I wonder if he would grow anymore.

"Do you see anything?"

His eyesight was unquestionably better than my own. "No. Safe."

I took his word for it, but I was still cautious when entering the clearing. The camp was littered with half burnt down tents, empty cages, and abandoned swords.

Naxan hissed beside me. I turned, watching as he bared his teeth at the cages the dragons used to be held captive in. I sensed his hatred and discomfort through our bond, the thought of being locked up in a cage once again made me shiver.

Although the area was eerily quiet and there was no sign of a living soul, my eyes still saw people walking through the tents, their conversations muffled and unable to make out. Everywhere I looked, flashbacks of the previous night flooded my sense. I could still hear the fire tearing down the camp, eating away at everything it touched... burning piles of bodies.