"Can we keep it?"
"No."
~~~~~~~~~~~
Ah, what a walk. The beautiful sky after a storm, dew on the trees, birds of all colors and beautiful little butterflies.
And no, this time it isn't his older brother throwing pieces of butter at him and yelling 'Butter-fly! Butter-fly!'. His usually serious and grumpy older brother can be surprisingly childish sometimes.
Picking up a rock the dragon proceeded to throw the rock then kick it midair, sending it flying into the tree cover.
Oops- занадто важко (bit too hard.)
Continuing on his walk, the dragon sped up. Jumping over rocks and brambles, diving under a fallen log he was finally greeted with the sound of the river and its local fauna.
Sitting down at the edge of the river's bank, He watched as minnows did a dance that they only knew. Catching the light just at the right time, they illuminated their silver scales into little dancing lights.
In the steadily moving waves, sat a steadily bobbing log, on top of the log was a small, croaking brown frog. By the side of the river, cattails waved to the trees, which waved back to the cattails.
Settling, the dragon opened an old leather satchel. Inside were some roughly made fishing lures, some scrap metal hooks, and a jar that contained dirt and a couple earthworms for live bait.
Leaning over to a patch of tall grass. He Pulled a small fishing rod out. One that he hid on his previous visit to the river. Opening the jar, he pulled out a rather small earthworm out of the bunch and carefully, shoved the worm onto the hook.
After a few failing attempts of keeping and placing the worm back on his hook. He just decided to stop poking holes into the poor creature and used a fake tin bait instead.
Placing the clearly distraught worm back into the jar, he made a promise to himself to never do that again.
~~~
Even after three hours of fishing with no luck, he just couldn't bring himself to stab that defenseless worm again and again.
Я НЕ ХОЧУ КРОВІ В МОЄМУ МЕТАФОРИЧНОМУ РОЗУМІ РУКАХ
( I DON'T WANT WORM BLOOD ON MY METAPHORICAL MIND HANDS)
Refocusing his thoughts to the current task,
he was disturbed to be greeted by the all too familiar metallic scent of blood.
!
….
Wait-
Do worms even have blood?
Peeking over to the jar, he took one out along with the one he hurt. Comparing them, he could see a small bit of pinkish-red blood seep from the holes he created in the smaller one.
Placing the worms back into the jar, the dragon didn't know what to do with his life as he stared at his hands.
Worms can bleed.
What is life?
Who am i.
What is my purpose?
WORMS CAN BLEED.
WHAT'S NEXT? EARTHWORMS HAVING 5 HEARTS?!
But even if they can…bleed… surely that wasn't enough to provide such a strong scent, let alone of mammal blood…. Right?
Lowering his ears, and closing his eyes he stood up. Sniffing the air for a second, the dragon located the source coming from upstream. Picking up the satchel and throwing it over his shoulder the dragon proceeded to walk upstream.
It's probably just a wolf's kill. But even so I need to report about any wolf or predator near the farm. Darn. On my day off too.
Hopping over a decaying log, the scent of blood got stronger. Getting closer and closer to the source, he pushed past tall grass and finally found it. The dragon felt himself gag slightly, it's not like he hadn't seen or smelled blood before, just it's…...horrible… but this…
It was a human…I think.. with horribly mutilated and bloody arms, a long injury on the neck, his face was covered with messy blue hair with red and white highlights, and a barely rising and falling chest.
Without really thinking, the dragon grabbed the half-dead human bridal style and quickly began to rush back.
~~~
Bela had just been playing and beating two of her brothers at a game of cards when a panicked dragon burst through the door and darted back out yelling.
"BELA! EMERGENCY! HEALING DEN NOW!"
"Wha-"
"НЕМАЄ ЧАСУ!" (NO TIME!)
Bela and Kaz jumped up confused. Bela followed closely behind her brother to the 'healing den', which was basically a glorified shed with a table and basic medicines in a cabinet. Kaz trailed a few steps behind and the oldest shuffled to get something from the kitchen.
About 3.048 meters (10 feet ) along a dirt path heading left from the cabin was the 'healing den'. Entering the small shack, Ukraine dropped the injured human on the table and shuffled out of the way for his sister. Who was working quickly and had already gathered bandages. Shoving her siblings out of the shed, she slammed the door to get to work.
Dropping down onto the ground, Ukraine took a seat with Kazakhstan who was looking concerned, sitting next to him. He must have seen how pale Ukie's face had gone as he stared at his bloody arms. So he wrapped his golden feathered wing comfortingly around the other dragon's back. The sound of footsteps caused Kaz to look up.
"Что случилось брат?" (What happened brother?) A very worried, tall figure asks as he approaches his siblings. He sat down across them. Putting down the bucket of water and the cloth he had brought, he signaled Ukraine to show his arms.
Before the dragon could answer, Bela opened the shed door and yelled "Kazakhstan I need your help!"
Looking back at his sibling he yelled "Coming!" And gave his brother one more pat on the back with his tail before running up to the shed and slamming the door with a loud crash, catching a tail feather in the process.
"I-I don't know. I really don't….." Ukraine paused for a moment before continuing to answer his older brother's question "I just found him… after I tracked down the scent of blood. I thought it may have been a wolf's kill"
A nod and a "mhm" was all Russia said while he continued to wipe the human blood off Ukraine's arms.
After a second he muttered "That shirt is ruined."
"Wow. Care more about my shirt than my well being ."
"You know what I meant."
"Yeah yeah, I know! It's a joke, genius. " He huffed.
"..."
Pausing, The older dragon just emotionlessly death glared at his brother.
"Why am I related to you?"
"Questions science can't answer."
~~~
It was about 2 days since Ukraine had brought the basically dead human home. Surprisingly it survived. But now Russia had a new problem, his siblings wanted to KEEP IT. He had stupidly agreed to it, not thinking that it would actually survive its injuries. But noooooo it just had to survive and make life harder. And it's not like he could break another promise to his siblings. He already promised they could get another pet….so even if he did break that promise….they could get something so much worse just to be petty….
Russia shuddered, not knowing what could be worse than a human, but knowing his siblings could and would find it.
His only chance to get out of this is to convince his siblings that keeping a human as a pet was a horrible idea. It wouldn't be easy, but if he played it smart he may be able to do it.
Stretching his arms for a second, he leaned over and opened the cabin's door. Walking in he was greeted by a big furry pile sleeping In the middle of the dusty oak floor. Smiling, Russia walked over and sat next to it, leaning into it and petting its fur.
" привет (hello) tommy "
The lump of brown fur stretched as if it hadn't moved for a century. Shifting from a blob of fur into a bear, honestly more like a blob with legs and claws but whatever.
"Gufffffffrrr"
The bear opened his tired hazel eyes. Seeing that it was his favorite dragon, the bear perked up. Russia lifted himself up as the bear rolled over and began gently swatting his humongous paws in the air in a playful motion.
(I hope I don't have to tell people not to mess with Bears for their safety)
"Come along." Patting Tommy's head, Russia began his search for his siblings. Knowing where they would most likely be, he headed out of the cabin. Tommy trotted happily beside Russia as he made his way to the healing den.
The healing den was originally just a storage shed, but after they built a new one they remodeled the old one to a medical shack in case of an emergency. This was basically one of the only times they actually used it. Other times they used it were just for small cuts, bruises, etc. They were originally thinking they would need it in case one of them cut off a leg or an arm. Luckily that hadn't happened and everyone had their limbs…..well every dragon at least.
That poor wolf.
Opening the door of the healing den he was greeted with the strong smell of herbs and his siblings (along with a random ass chicken) crowded on the floor. The room was barely big enough for all his siblings to sit with their knees to their chests, so no chance he was fitting in with them.
Sitting criss crossed on the other side of the door, Kazakhstan started to make small talk "soooo…. How have you been?"
"Fine."
" How was toda-" "NOPE." Ukie yelled, shoving his brother into the wall and craned his neck awkwardly out of the room to look Russia in the eyes "Let's get straight to the point, shall we brother?"
"We shall." Russia nodded, petting the bear's head that was now in his lap. Tommy Let out a growl, scaring the chicken. The chicken then proceeded to settle down in Kaz's fluffy golden hair, Kaz seemed unbothered by this.
Putting her hands together, with her best serious voice Belarus started. "Remember when you promi-.
"Yeah. Yeah. I know. 'Any pet you guys want.' I promised." Russia muttered grumpily, continuing to pet Tommy. "But why a human? Why not a normal pet like a dog…or a cat…. Or the overlord of the underworld- I mean we already have a dog, 2 cats, 5 chickens, a bear, a murderous cow, a bull, and 3 pigs. So do we really need another pet?"
"We promise to water it, feed it and walk it! " Bela continued seriously. " And just think of it, eventually the humans will get suspicious of Ukraine, then what?"
"Even so I don't see how a pet human would help us in that situation. It probably turn us in to its filthy human friends and hang our heads on their fire pits!" He hissed, glaring at the unconscious human laying on the table behind his siblings, then shoving himself off the floor disturbing tommy. At this Bela's ear twitched in annoyance, knowing her brother wouldn't listen to her, an idea popped into her head.
"How about a game."
This perked the older dragons attention, and He turned to his sister. "Hmm? What do you have in mind?"
"Remember that old chest set dad gave to us?"
"Mhm."
"One match. I win, we get to keep the human and we'll do your chores for a week. If you win, we don't keep the human….. and we do your chores for the month. Either way you get out of chores."
He thought about it for a second and held out his hand "You have a dragon's deal, sister."
Thanks for reading this trash.