Hoard Like No Other

It was a shrieking, loud thing that woke him from his lengthy slumber. The winter months were scarce of anything to hunt, so he took the opportunity to join the other occupants of the forest in hibernating. Violet eyes opened to glare down the cavernous tunnelway that led out of his lair. The sound was not stopping. With a growling sound of clear annoyance, he was lifting up out of his comfortable nest of cave dirt and animal hides to shuffle grumpily out into the winter sun. He squinted at the brightness and took a deep breath of the ice-cold air. It made him sneeze and wonder how long summer was from this point in time. It had been early winter when he huddled away to hibernate; who knew how long it had been since then? The shrieking echoed through the copse of trees and with a stretch and a shake of his head and wings, he was leaping up into the sky. Green scales, with hints of purple that shimmered in the light, reflected the sun in a way that would have brought a sense of awe and wonder to any eyes to have caught sight. Of course, that was before they realized he was a dragon. Then there were pitchforks and arrows and knights seeking him out to slay him. They never survived. He slayed them all, but he never ate them. No, humans were too bony and their meat too stringy. You also need too many at one time to feel satisfied. And even though there was a population to withstand a single dragon using them as a food source, he decided against it. In the end, humans rarely needed a reason to disturb their peaceful life, so it was best not to kick the hornets’ nest. He let out a screeching roar as he soared over the treetops, noting the pair of deer that went running east at the sight of him. He mentally noted to head that way before going back to the lair. The crying got louder and he realized it was coming from the outskirts of the village. Ah, yes, that cry seemed familiar. A family must be traveling and the babe was irritable. He circled closer, something telling him to make certain that was all it was. As he drew near, below him was a scene that would have seemed horrible to someone else, but it was just a curious thing to see a dragon. The cart that humans usually carried their families in was tilted over and mostly broken, blood and gore was everywhere, left behind from the evisceration of the horses. There was a trail of blood in the snow, signs that a carcass had been dragged off to be devoured. The shrieking went on: the babe was the only survivor. He landed, the ground trembling a bit and he snuffled as the scent of dead horses, blood and gore hit his nostrils. This had been a gruesome attack. He would think of wolves, but they were not capable of disemboweling horses. No, this was something or a group of something much bigger and more deadly. The crying went on and drew his thoughts back to the task at hand. He drew closer to the cart and, with a nimble front claw, he reached out and broke away pieces of wood. He stopped only at the sight of a ruddy face peeking out of a well-wrapped, bundled, mass of blankets. The little creature kept screaming, clearly out of sorts and unaware that its parents were long gone and unable to appease its cries. He leaned in to sniff at it, and exhaled heavily at the sweet scent that usually exuded out of human young. The baby quieted down, large brown eyes looking up at him as it hiccuped and gasped. Finally, with a sigh too large for something so small, it lay quiet, blinking up at the dragon, staring down at it with jewel-colored eyes. “Your parents have been lost, little one.” His voice was deep and rumbled when he talked, faint growls accompanying his words. Dragons did not do well with Human-Speech, usually, but he had had many years to become accustomed to the odd languages; languages because humans had many. A single claw reached out to poke at the puffed out cheeks and the child began crying again, and he sighed. He should probably take the child to the village and let the humans there deal with it. His eyes lifted to look in the distance and he frowned as much as a dragon could frown. How had he missed that? Deep, dark, billowous plumes of smoke rose from the village in the distance and he hummed before looking back down at the baby. With a sigh, he was scooping up the creature carefully with his left claw, before taking to the sky again. He stayed closer to the ground for the sake of the child. The higher he went, the colder it would be and he knew humans were mostly n***d and vulnerable under all the materials they wrapped themselves in. It took no time at all, not for a dragon soaring through the air, and he landed much more gently than usual, the baby still crying. The village was in flames, or had been at one point. Now there was nothing but smoldering coals, charred wood and ash. Bodies were lying about, signs that this was nothing more than humans being humans. “This was done by other humans,” His remark was answered by the shrieking of the baby and he hummed thoughtfully. A house that was mostly intact caught his eye and he moved toward it, peeking in through the door and noting that besides some charred wood and part of the roof caved in, there was a sound. It was no effort at all to break the door in a way where more than just his head could fit through, and he shot a quick mass of fire at the intact hearth. The wood inside it burst into flames and he hummed his approval before moving the child closer to it. “You'll stay warm for now. I will check for survivors and for human food to sustain you.” The child just kept crying and he carefully backed out and checked to make sure the structure would not collapse on the child while he was gone. He spent several minutes looking for survivors with no luck. All the humans were dead, and the food stores had been raided then burned down. It wasn’t until he was studying the prone form of a young woman, that he realized all the dead were grown men and women. There were no children to be seen, heard or found. Did the enemy steal them away, too? That’s when he heard it, small whimpers and whispers. A dragon’s hearing was sensitive, yes, but not as such that he would hear sounds so soft over the roar of the wind as he flies or even the few still burning fires. No, he had to be close to the source and as he listened closely, his head turned to the right and saw a stable that stood untouched. Well, the horses were gone, probably stolen, but that was it. The space was big enough for him to fit and he squeezed in, barely clearing the walkway of the stable through the pens. He realized there was some disturbed hay on the ground, allowing the wooden floor to peek through, almost as if it had been haphazardly thrown onto it to give the illusion that it had always looked that way. He blew a heavy breath and hay went flying, the floor clearing as he blew the debris out of the way. He looked down at the revealed door, and he blinked, head tilting curiously. There was a latch that wasn’t locked and a circular handle that was clearly used to open said door. The claw of his right arm reached out and pulled at the circle handle, lifting the door away from the floor. There were multiple gasps as a horde of children stared back at him with frightened eyes. Several screamed, some cried and one tried to hush them before heading to the front and blocking them with his body as if it wasn’t a dragon looming above them. He waited to see what the boy would do, but besides glaring up at him and trembling, nothing else happened. “You are all that is left,” At the sound of his voice, some children screamed again and those crying either stopped or cried louder. The boy went to shush them, or tried his best to without taking his eyes off of the dragon. “What happened here?” “Go away, dragon!” The boy demanded, deep, brown eyes glaring back at him. He stood taller than the other children, clearly the oldest of the lot. He didn’t smell as sweet as the rest, so he was nearing adulthood. He was dark-skinned and tall, lanky but clearly developing muscles from the menial labor humans did daily. “Hmm. You are brave and I commend you, but know I will cause you no harm.” “You’re a dragon!” Said dragon blinked back at the boy, who did not back down. “Yes, yes I am. And you are a human boy, one with no village and a bunch of children with no place to go.” He saw that the weight of what he said hit the boy and he sat on his haunches, wings folding close to his back so that he seemed smaller and less intimidating. He looked at all the children, now quieted to whimpers and sniffling, small faces covered in ash and tears. He could not leave them here, not as many as there were here. He counted twenty, including the boy, which was nearly a horde. He straightened at the thought, his teeth showing in a reptilian grin at his own genius. He had to stop as it caused the children to start screaming again and even the boy looked uneasy. Dragons did love their hordes and his last one he had lost to a band of humans who attacked him for it. He could have smit them easily, but then that would bring a small army of humans and then even more when he killed those. No, it wasn’t worth it. He brought his thoughts back to the shivering, whimpering mass of children and he nodded with finality. “You, boy, what is your name?” He stood confused for a bit, not exactly sure why the dragon was still talking and not eating all of them. Though he had said that he wouldn’t harm them, he wasn’t dumb enough to trust a dragon. “Shall I give you my name, young one? Would that put you at ease?” His question went unanswered and he sighed. “One moment.” Then he was backing out of the stable. The boy watched him leave, not exactly sure if he should try to move the children or not. Before he could even start to gather them, the dragon was back, having clearly flown to and fro. As it squeezed back into the stable, it’s claws clearly grasped something bundled in it. “She’s asleep, but I do not know how long she has been alone. I found her outside of the village, her parents missing and the animals dead.” The boy reached out as the dragon handed over his bundle and he blinked down at the little girl, sleeping and clearly unharmed from what he could tell. “If you are willing to trust me, I believe I have a proposition for you.” It took them a few hours to travel back to his lair by foot, but after convincing the children he would not eat them, he led them back there. At the moment, many eyes looked up at him or around the cave in wonder. He had lit all the stolen candelabra stands so that human eyes could see. The horde he had now was small compared to the last, a few trinkets and his nest. “Settle, I will go back to the village and gather what I can. Then I’ll hunt and you’ll prepare it for the rest.” He turned to leave but stopped as the boy called out for him to wait. He was still holding the baby, who was awake but quiet, clearly soothed by the company of other humans. He waited as the boy seemed to second-guess himself, but then it came spilling out. “Xeric!” He adjusted the baby in his hand and cleared his throat as he had ended on a squeaky note, so he repeated himself. “Xeric. My name is Xeric.” “Well met,” The dragon smiled and made as much of a bow as dragons can. “I am known to my kind as Azragor, first of my father.” “She’ll need milk, Azragor.” The boy nodded to the girl in his arms, before gesturing to the children behind them. “Are you certain you won’t eat us?” “Had I the will or inclination, you would not be alive to ask me that question.” The boy nodded and pointed his thumb back at the huddled children. “ OK, I’m gonna settle them in. Maybe start setting up some beds.” “You can use the furs from my horde. I will bring wood for a fire, until then stay close to my nest. We dragons have high body heat, so it should still be warm from me lying in it earlier.” Then he was turning again to leave, but had to stop and look over his shoulder as the boy called out to him, again. “Thank you.” It was earnest, and the dragon merely nodded before he was gone. “Xeric?” He was looking down at the little girl that tugged at his sleeve, sharp, slanted eyes looking up at him in doubt. “Is he gonna eat us?” “If he does, I’ll tell him to start with me so you all have a chance to run away.” At her horrified look, he smiled and reached out to pet her black locks, messy and tangled. He’d have to help her untangle it, later. He’d have to help the lot of them “I’m only joking. I think we’ll be safe here. Come on, help me get everyone a place to sleep.” It was several hours later when the dragon came back, dragging behind him a salvaged cart full of salvaged things from the wreckage of their home. It included a pot of porridge, something that had clearly meant to be someone’s dinner before they had been attacked. Xeric thanked the dragon and took to unpacking everything he would need to make a decent supper. Soon enough, the children were settled, some asleep and some sitting quietly to look at their surroundings, but all were full. Xeric was settling the baby down, that he had rocked to sleep after feeding her some porridge, as there was no milk. “Mr Dragon, sir?” At the voice, Xeric looked up to find the girl from earlier, carefully approaching the beast that was proudly looking over his latest addition to his horde. As the girl came closer, he lowered his head and the bottom of his chin touched the ground so the girl was level with his eyes. She stared back at him and slowly reached out a hand to his snout. He snuffled and she giggled, Xeric sagging in relief and only then realizing he had been tensed in anticipation of something going horribly wrong. “My name is Min-Wa.” She said softly, her hand petting over the scales of his cheeks. “It is nice to meet you, Min-Wa. Welcome home.”