First Battle
We had been walking for about ten minutes and we still hadn’t seen any game. Valaria was getting twitchy from contained frustration, while Grimond would utter low growls every couple seconds. Finally, we came upon a grassy clearing, and I raised my hand to signal them to stop. They fell silent as their eyes locked onto the small herd of deer in front of us, their noses flared at the scent of prey.
I motioned for them to move their heads close to me, and once they swung next to my head I whispered just loud enough for them to hear, “These deer will run at the first sign of danger. Be careful when you stalk them, or else you’ll go hungry.” I raised my hand to point at a large doe with a young fawn, “Don’t go for the mothers. We need to leave the young ones so that the next generation can grow up and continue the population.”
They nodded and I raised my rifle to sight in on a yearling buck, “Go for the young males and does without fawns. That way the herd will remain healthy.”
Once more they nodded, but before any of us could make a move, a large silver streak raced out of the bushes on the right side of the clearing. I watched through my scope as a large timber wolf clamped its jaws onto the throat of the lead buck, and as the deer let out an echoing bellow the rest of the herd made a run for it. Valaria hissed in rage and charged from the trees, ignoring my cries for her to stay back. Grimond only hesitated a moment before racing after his sister. The deer was already dead but as both dragons came charging from the trees, the wolf lifted its head and raced off the way it had come.
As the siblings stood over the fresh kill and flared their wings in challenge, I ran up to their side as they turned to look at me with pride in their gazes.
“Did you see that Hans?” Valaria asked, her wings erect with excitement and her eyes wide, “We scared off that creature and got a free kill because of it!”
I slapped my hand over my face, groaning under my breath as I kept my ears perked for danger, “Do you realize what that was you just scared off?” I locked gazes with both of them and they shared a confused look before shaking their heads in unison. “That was a timber wolf, and we need to get out of here before it comes back.”
Grimond scoffed, “What could that puny little thing do to us? We’re dragons! I don’t think it could even cut through our scales with those tiny claws.”
“You don’t understand.” I explained, nervous as I scanned the surrounding plant life, “Timber wolves never hunt alone. If I hit my mark, that wolf has gone back to get the rest of his pack, so we need to get moving before –” I cut off as loud growling emanated from the bushes on every side. I looked and saw timber wolves walking out of the undergrowth in every direction, and I finished my sentence as I readied my rifle, “before they cut us off.”
By my count there were at least twenty wolves surrounding us, and I could see that both young dragons were now thoroughly terrified at the sight of so many enemies. And they had a right to be scared. No single wolf could ever hope to take on two young dragons and an armed human, but with numbers to make up for their lack of strength, this battle just became one-sided in the opposite way.
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Dragons' Father (Book 2 in the Dragon Hunters Trilogy)
काल्पनिकHans has escaped D-SQUAD with Calmstrike's two unborn children. Now alone in the wilderness with two baby dragons to look after, Hans has a whole new set of problems to deal with as the young siblings try his patience at every turn. Run-ins wi...
