High up into the air he went before turning once again to the east. The dragon was in no hurry and wanted to take his time to enjoy his flight. At his speed, he believe he would reach the human city in time for the attack and as he flew, his mind began to wander. He look at the land and saw the Homeless Plains all around him. The great plain stretched out as far as the dragon could see and he wondered what lies beyond it.

Then the dragon saw something far to the left of his flight path. There was another herd on the plains and as the dragon focused, he saw that this was a herd of buffalos. The buffalos were looking up at the flying dragon and wondering what kind of creature he was. They were too out of the way to chase but the dragon decided to have a little fun.

He roared. The roar vibrate throughout the plains and terrified all who heard it. The buffalos were no different. They turned and ran. The dragon saw the whole herd running away from him and laughed. This was fun. The dragon flew on, the day turned to night and the dragon felt something new.

He was sleepy but that was nothing new. He had felt sleepy before but now the desire to sleep came with a new feeling. His body couldn’t move as well as before and the dragon found that he needed to concentrate to maintain his flight. The dragon had never felt like this before but he wasn’t stupid. He knew what this was. When he was just a part of the Hive, he had heard of the Kin speaking of this.

He was tired!

The dragon smiled. In a way, it made sense to him. He was now a creature and had flew for the entire day. It was only normal that he was now tired. As powerful as he is, a dragon is still a creature and the dragon found that he did not dislike this feeling of tiredness. Tiredness was something he never felt in the Hive. It was something new.

The dragon look around him trying to find a good place to rest but he couldn’t find any place that’s good. The Homeless Plains was lacking in hiding places for a big dragon. Left with little choice, the dragon landed in an area with tall grasses and just laid down. As he rested, he kept an eye out and was satisfied that the tall grasses concealed him. As long as he don’t rise up, others should not be able to see him hiding among the grass. The dragon closed his eyes and slept.

He dreamt of flying.

He woke up refreshed. The dragon raise his long neck above the tall grass and look around. Rather disappointingly, there was no creatures around. Either he was really well hidden or all the creatures who spotted him ran off. The dragon felt aggrieved. He was hungry but there was no food anywhere near him! This was a problem he never had while in the Hive. While he was a spirit within the Hive, he just ate whenever they needed the energy. In fact, the Hive didn’t even feel hunger.

“Maybe being in this body does have some drawbacks…”

The dragon muttered as he stood up. He now had a decision to make. He could either waste time and hunt, or he could ignore his hunger and continue his journey to the human city. After a few moments the dragon decided to fly on to the city. He didn’t enjoy this feeling of hunger but there were many humans in the city. He’ll just feast after the attack.

The dragon flew and this time, he made good time. Hunger was a good motivator and he flap his wings several times to increase his speed. When he finally saw the human city on the horizon, the day was still bright though the sun was beginning to set. The dragon sighed in relief. He was still hungry but food just was on the horizon. The dragon increased his speed. As he got closer, he noticed something strange. The Kin were still outside the city!

He was still a distance away but with his excellent sight, the dragon could see that all the Kin were in a tight group to the south of the human city. However what was strange was that the humans on the city walls were going about their business as if the Kin weren’t there. The dragon was surprised but his eyes then adjusted and he realized there was a veil of energy over the Kin.

“The Fox Mother!”

The dragon realized the Fox Mother must be using one of her illusions to hide the Kin from the humans. The dragon had seen the Fox Mother doing this before once at the fight outside Mount Morningstar but this illusion was even more impressive. He half-wondered how long she has been keeping it up. Curious about the answer, the dragon decided to go ask her. He swung towards the Kin.

As he got closer to the Kin, the humans on the walls of the city saw him. The dragon was too far from the humans to hear what they were saying but there were a lot of hand gesturing and running about. The dragon was going to ignore the humans; that was until a group of humans got his attention.

On the city walls was a group of human females but these females were dressed in ways that the dragon had never seen before. Their clothes weren’t leather or metal, but some sort of soft willowy garment that’s not unlike the robes some human mages wore. However these clothing looked much softer and lighter than the robes of mages and the dragon could easily imagine tearing through them. Even if they are not, they should be much easier to chew through than leather and steel right? In short; these human females look both tasty and easy to eat!

The dragon adjusted his flight once again, this time heading straight towards the city. The humans saw him coming and stood still. All of them looked shocked. The dragon thought the humans must be like the herd of horses; wondering what he was. He was right, but unlike the horses, the humans reacted differently.

A fireball shot from the walls towards the dragon. It was a warning shot that the dragon easily evaded but the dragon was angered by the spell and roared in response. The roar shook all who heard it and the group of female humans disappeared from the city walls. His food was fleeing!

The dragon flapped his wings. He needed to chase them down! More spells were cast from the humans but the dragon easily evaded the haphazard spell casting. As the dragon got closer, an arrow shot up from the city walls and hit him! Pain! The dragon felt pain for the first time. He looked at the arrow that hit him and saw it sticking out of his body. The dragon was enraged!

He flew up and gain height before heading towards the walls again. As he flew over the wall, a stream of green poison issued from his mouth. The dragon was so high in the air, his breath of poison wasn’t as effective as it was with the horses but several humans still fell to the ground. They scratched at their throats with agony on their faces. The dragon did not care. He looked around before spotting his targets.

The group of soft female humans were running into the city! The dragon flew after them and while the humans only heard a roar, those who could understand dragon speech would only hear one word;

“FOOD!”