The Last of the Dragons-Set 1

Book 3: Friend or Enemy

      A year and a half had past us by, with no sign of the dragons, or any sign of hope presenting itself to us since the day what was left of us scattered into the vast mountains that dominated the landscape. The four of us had come across a beautiful lake, hidden by the mountains surrounding it. The trees lining the lakes edge provided some level of cover from rain, as well as a place to sleep safely while avoiding predators, and the forests lining the bases of each mountain provided a perfect place to hunt for food, though over time, we had started seeing less and less animals. On more than one occasion, we had set out from the lake in search of any dragon we could find, but after a month or so, it became clear that we would only get ourselves killed by one of the other forest predators before ever getting close to any one of them. We had seen no signs of any other people since what was left of us spread out across the land wherever we could, and we had seen no sign of any dragons since they left us shortly before our defeat. While our new home was secluded and hidden away in a place that our enemy wouldn't bother to search for us, there was still a massive gap in the hearts of everyone who had survived.

"Hey! Look what I brought back!"

I turned my gaze from the still clear lake to see Bailey running towards me with two dead rabbits in her hand along side her bow, with Amy walking close behind her. Tahli sat up from a nap she'd been taking to join the reunion. Bailey dropped the rabbits down at my feet and hugged me tight, much like Micha had when we lost our parents so many years ago. Just as Bailey stepped back, Tahli picked up the larger of the two rabbits and looked it over briefly.

"A tad underweight, but should give us enough meet to get through the next few days."

Bailey smiled, happy with the fact that she had pleased Tahli with her kills. I took the other rabbit from the grass and set it down atop a large rock jutting up from the ground and began to skin it with my blade.

"Get a fire going, try to have it done for when I'm finished here." I said.

Tahli put her hand over Bailey's shoulder and took her away to help her build a fire, but Amy instead stayed behind and knelt down beside me as I cleaned the rabbit.

"She's growing up fast."

"Yeah, she's turning into the cold blooded killer the rest of us have been for a while." I replied.

Amy sat down abruptly and rested her back up against the rock as she tossed her bow aside.

"What the hell is happening...." She mumbled.

I paused for a moment.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, think about it. We haven't seen anyone else since we separated, and we haven't seen any signs of the dragons since they flew off that day. What happened to them all? Has anyone else survived? And why on earth haven't the dragons, who are probably the size of a small goddamn village by now made themselves known since we last saw them?" She said in an increasingly irritated voice.

I resumed cleaning the meat before I eventually uttered my response.

"The people, well I guess it's a good thing that we've not seen anyone else, because that means that they've managed to keep themselves hidden, avoiding the ends of the enemies guns. The dragons? I fear as though their reality is much darker."

Amy turned her head slowly to look at me, a confused look growing on her face.

"I fear as though the reason we've not seen any of them since they left is because they're either starving, or dead."

Amy propped her head up in surprise as a response.

"Why would you assume such a thing?" She asked.

"Think about it. Doron was, and probably still is at the top of the pecking order, and he clearly believes that he and his kind are not safe from our enemy. It makes perfect sense that the dragons have grown to afraid of the enemies weapons to venture out of the mountains to hunt, leaving them all with little food and water, along with limited living space. If you pay attention to nature, you would know that when a species is cornered, only the strongest survive. The stronger animals take the limited food supply from the weaker ones, or even hunt them for food themselves. While this is simply a theory, with no evidence to back it up at the moment, I have a feeling I've only felt on a select few occasions in the past, and it has never yielded any positive results." I said.

Amy looked down at the ground briefly, before looking up at the mountains lining the opposite end of the lake before getting up and going to join Tahli and Bailey. I finished with pulling the rabbit apart, then looked in the same direction that Amy had just moments earlier. Not a single dragon, or even a sign of one had been seen, at least by us, in more than a year. For all we knew, they had all either been killed by our enemy, killed by each other, or simply died to starvation. Yet, through all the facts weighing against us and the last of the dragons, there was a weak, but still present feeling lodged deep in my gut, and it was calling me. Calling me deeper into the mountains.