The boy stood on two legs. His skin, though dark, was not smooth, black-scaled hide. He did not have fangs, or claws, or wings. He had yet to truly grasp the importance of those facts.

He stood, his bare feet sunken slightly into the damp, warm ground of the forest. The smell of rain and living things permeated the heavy air, as it always did in this place. He heard a soft growl, and turned around. A creature a little bigger than himself, which had all of the qualities he was distinctly lacking, was looking at him, a hint of playfulness playing about its black eyes. The little dragonling jumped forward, snapping at him with a mouth full of small immature teeth. The boy hopped backwards in a motion nearly identical to the dragonling, baring his own teeth. The gap where one of them had fallen out was plainly visible, noticeable to him by the breeze it let through to his tongue. Yes? The motion asked, in a tone of confidence and strength. He could have used words, but why bother? Jurai had said that dragons only said what needed to be said. Babbling was for humans.

The dragonling pawed at the ground, creating a little furrow in the soft earth. There were many such markings in the clearing. The boy had made some of them when he was bored, but more were the work of the dragonling. It liked to do that whenever it wanted something from the boy. It would sometimes ask with words as well, but there was little need at this point. This was ritual.

The boy approached the dragonling, who lowered its head towards him. Swiftly and easily, he hopped onto the creature’s back, his stubby legs matched perfectly to the dragonling’s small frame. The creature stood, and the boy smiled at the strange feeling of movement the motion caused him. The dragon let out a little laugh as well, then began to walk around, wobbling a little under the boy’s weight. Occasionally its wings flapped out to stabilize it, but the boy was careful to stay clear of those. Jurai had said to always be careful of wings, and make sure not to hurt them by mistake.

The boy let out a laugh of his own as the dragonling picked up its pace, stumbling around in circles and almost throwing the boy off. The dragonling let out a happy growl, almost a purr. It seemed to delight in weaving about under the boy’s weight, forcing him to hold on tightly to the dragonling’s body and squeal a bit. This went on for several minutes, the sounds of the children playing accompanied by those of the forest life around them. Nothing large, dangerous, or good to eat. Those had all been killed off long ago, which was why Jurai needed to go relatively far afield to find game. She said that they would be able to accompany her in a few years, going on their First Hunt and earning their Names.

After the boy finally slid off the dragonling’s back, lying down in the grass with a smile on his face, next to this brother, whose four legs were folded under him as he rested as well.

“What do you want to do when we get our Names?”

The dragonling turned its head towards the boy. Its black, vertically slitted eyes look at him, and it pawed the ground again. “Hunt, play, see!” It placed special emphasis on the last.

“See what?” The boy asked.

“Everything!” The dragonling growled a little as it said the word, unable to contain his excitement.

The boy smiled. He opened his mouth to reply, but a rustling sound intruded on his awareness. It was too loud to be one of the little tree-climbers or birds that still lived here. Had some large animal mustered up the courage to come near the Roost? The dragonling stood up, baring its teeth in the direction of the sounds as the boy did the same. Their teeth were small and their claws had yet to become dangerous, but they had learned from Jurai how to fight like dragons.

After a few minutes of increasingly loud noise, a… thing came out of the underbrush encircling the clearing. The boy stared up at it. It had dark, smooth skin about its face, but some sort of multicolored fur that covered its torso and limbs. More importantly, it stood on two legs, looking down at the boy with a face disturbingly similar to his own.

“Huh? What’s a little boy doing here?”

More rustling, and another of the strange creatures emerged into the clearing. The boy stumbled back a little. This one looked like the other, but its face seemed narrower, and its eyes looked terrifying. Dead.

“It does not matter.” The creature’s voice was much higher in pitch than the other one’s. “Our objective is right here.” The thing looked at the dragonling with its dead eyes. Then it motioned towards its waist, and grabbed some sort of strange limb that seemed to protrude from there. It pulled, and the boy let out a choked scream as something came out of the creature’s limb, like a stick but shiny and unnaturally straight. Was this its bone? What kind of monster was this?

The dragonling had taken a step back, and its wings flared out as it let out a full-throated roar. It was a good one, nothing as terrifying as Jurai’s roars, but good enough to scare away most animals of the forest, in the boy’s experience. But these things didn’t run. They simply looked at the dragonling as it roared, and something streaked out of the jungle, colliding with his wing before continuing onwards. The roar turned into a whimper of pain, and the dragonling instantly pulled its wings towards its body and took another hop backwards, away from the creatures as blood dripped from the torn wing.

The boy cried out, and ran towards his brother. It was still whimpering, though it attempted to bend its knees as though ready to pounce. As he got closer, he could see that the hole was close to the base of the wing, and it appeared to have exposed one of the delicate bones of the appendage. Always be careful of wings. The boy stretchedh is hand out towards his brother, but as he did the dragonling growled, eyes focused towards the creatures on the other side of the clearing. Another one had popped up out nowhere, though this one seemed strange. Its skin around its body was an unnatural bright red, and it hung around it loosely, as though the creature were incredibly old.

It held up its hands, and the boy thought he saw something flashing in them before the first creature shouted, “Stop! We can’t roast the damn thing, can we? And I still want to know where this boy came from.”

The second one, holding its bone-stick menacingly, stepped towards the boy and the dragonling. “You’re right about one thing, Aitos. Let’s stop wasting time before the big one gets back.”

“Don’t worry, I have a scry spell, remember? No dragons within a good few miles of here now. It must be hunting by the lake to the south or something.” The loose-skinned creature spoke in a confident tone, which was the only thing the boy understood about the words.

“Either way, we should get this over with.” The second one continued forward, eyes fixed on the dragonling. Now the boy put a hand on top of its head, attempting to convey a bit of comfort to his brother. The boy would have to handle this threat. It was what Jurai would want.

He bared his teeth again, letting out his own roar. He wasn’t as good as his brother, but he thought it had improved since last time. Indeed the tall creature with its bone stick stopped, face contorting in an odd expression. The boy leapt at it, raising his hands in claws to rake at its fur. He close the distance quickly, before the creature could overcome its fear, and bit down on its midsection hard, swiping with his claws at the same time.

His teeth could not break the thing’s skin, and a bitter taste filled his mouth. This creature must have some sort of scales underneath its fur, to be so strong. The boy continued to bite down, while scrambling away with hands and feet at the creature's hide. Finally, he felt something break as he took his clawed hands across the thing’s leg, where some of the smooth dark hide was visible. The boy saw red, and then an immense force knocked into him, so powerful that he didn’t even understand what had happened until he fell to the ground on the side of the clearing, yards away from both the creatures and the dragonling.

The boy’s side hurt, like he had fallen from a huge tree and landed on it. His back hurt too from his actual landing. But he was still conscious, and able to turn and look at the scene before him. The creature had walked forward, and even as the boy watched, it slammed its bone-stick onto the dragonling’s head. The black-scaled little dragon slumped instantly to the ground. The boy cried out weakly, but found himself unable to move. Or was that just the fear? His chest seemed tight, and it hurt to breathe. The tall creature pulled something else out of its body, something clear like water which glinted in the sun’s light. She raised her bone-stick again and brought it close to the dragonling’s back. It drew the stick across the dragonling’s soft hide, and the boy saw red again.

Then a mountain of black scales descended on the creature, massive claws grabbing it up and crushing it instantly as a roar echoed throughout the jungle.

Jurai’s wings were still flapping, a shadowy black aura surrounded her body as she glared balefully down at the other creatures at the edge of the clearing. Something streaked out of the jungle again, this time towards Jurai, but whatever it was was insignificant compared to Jurai’s own size. She did nothing to avoid it, and the thing bounced off her wing without breaking the skin. The black dragon’s legs touched the ground, and she folded up her wings. She stood for a moment, shielding the dragonling from the other creatures as she continued to stare at them. Then a streak of fire lanced out from the loose-skinned one’s hands, moving at an incredible speed. The flames hit Jurai dead on, and vanished into her shadowy black aura without a trace. As if she had been waiting for this cue, she pounced.

The boy watched, side aching, as Jurai killed the other two creatures in moments, using her teeth and claws to do what he could not. Then she went into the jungle, and there was a short scream as something else died. More rustling, and another cry.

“Please! I’m just a Cleric!”

There was a sound something like a large leaf ripping, and another of the creatures was dragged into the clearing pulling loose stick and dirt along with it. This one had a white body, loose like the red one’s, but that hide was ripped, the end held in Jurai’s teeth. Underneath, instead of bloody meat, the creature simply had smooth black skin like the boy’s own. Strange. The thing was screaming as it was pulled along, until it was dragged before the dragonling.

“Heal him.”

Jurai’s voice, usually so soft and kind, was dark and terrifying, even to the boy. The creature whimpered, and a white glow soon suffused the dragonling. The boy stirred, trying to get to his brother, but he still couldn’t move.

Then Jurai pulled the thing towards the boy, ordering it to heal him as well. The white glow enveloped the boy, and he felt better.

“Please, let me go, I’m--”

The creature’s voice cut off as Jurai crushed him in her claws.

*****************************

Shadar opened his eyes. He rubbed at his side, where a phantom pain seemed to tingle. Funny, the things one dreamed of; he almost preferred to see Garth. Although, perhaps it had been too long since he had visited the jungle, seen Jurai and Ralos.

He sighed as he sat up in his bed, the soft sheets and the wooden bedframe at odds with the stone room. It would have to wait, perhaps for quite some time. After all, things were about to become much busier than usual.