Dragon Hearted

Chapter 1

WARNING: this is something I did from an English task for school, so sorry if it absolutely sucks.

I woke suddenly in a dark cave, shivering, huddled up against Smoke, his warm breath hitting my face. The lantern we had lit earlier flickered weakly, coming to the end of its life. Gently lifting Smoke's wing from above me, I sat up. I pulled out my pocket watch, it was 3:00 in the morning, still dark, cold and slightly damp. Smoke grunted and woke up slowly, he nudged me affectionately as I stood, almost knocking me over. I chuckled and went to the mouth of the cave, putting my hand on the wall, or attempting to at least. The wall was wet, sticky and it smelt bad too. As I looked closer, I realised it was a splodge of blood, whose blood, that I didn't know. Starting to panic, I jumped on Smoke and we flew off into the early morning.

As we were flying over a particularly bare patch of desert, I saw something down below, but before I could look closer, Smoke lurched to one side. He had been shot at. Without knowing what was happening, I pulled him to the left, away from where the shot was fired. Yet the harder we tried to get away, the more we were shot at. Finally, I steered Smoke towards the ground. Jumping down, I pulled out a long-sword instead of my usual weapon, poised, ready to strike. The sun was barely coming up, I saw a hazy shadow coming towards me, and from the grunts and growls coming from Smoke, we were surrounded.

"Whoever you are!" I yelled out into the half darkness. "Show yourself before I lose my patience!"

I sounded so much more confident than I felt. I was used to this, why was I feeling so nervous? Smoke roared and stood on his back legs, that only meant the strangers had gotten too close.

"Hey! Hey!" A deep voice exclaimed. "Get that thing to calm down! We're not here to hurt you."

"You could've fooled me." I responded angrily.

These guys had shot at us, now they're saying they're not gonna hurt us?! I felt a tug at my chest and a burning anger deep in my stomach, an anger that wasn't my own.

"Not now, it's too soon." I thought, reaching out to Smoke, both physically and mentally.

The stranger came closer, putting a blaster into a big, bulky belt. I squinted, trying to get a closer look at him. Except, I couldn't see his face, he was wearing a silver helmet with a "T" going across the front. Then it clicked, this guy was a Mandalorian!

"Ok, fine." I said, petting Smoke softly, telling him it was alright, that these people weren't a threat, not yet anyway.

"Thank you." The Mandalorian said, signalling to the people who were in front of Smoke.

"Who are you guys? What do you want?" I asked him, desperate to know why my dragon had almost been killed.

"Well," said a female voice behind me. "We saw the dragon, thought we were being followed."

"You saw it," the Mandalorian replied. "Sorry about that, most of us didn't know what to think."

I looked at the Mandalorian and his 'friends', at least that's what I thought they were. There was him, a girl and a droid, who seemed to be holding a small bundle. I couldn't see what was in it, but it was rustling so I thought it might've been a baby or some kind of infant. Smoke grunted and I turned to smooth him, all the while making sure I was still able to see the others.

"Listen," I could tell the Mandalorian was talking to me, but I refused to acknowledge it. "We're stuck, my ship was destroyed and we have no way out of this desert."

I knew what he was asking, he wanted me and Smoke to give him and his buddies a ride. Smoke knew as well, and he didn't like it.

"Sorry, but I don't think we can help you, we've got a lot going on at the moment, trying not to get killed, that sorta thing. You get it." I glared at the girl, she knew what I was saying, and didn't like it one bit.