After running for a few minutes, Parker’s legs felt like they would fall off. His wounds were still bleeding, and if he didn’t take care of them soon, the orc wouldn’t be his biggest problem. He stopped running and listened carefully to his surroundings. He searched for any rustling leaves, grunts, twigs breaking, or other orc-like noises. The forest was silent, except for the occasional chatter of birds and bugs. With no immediate threats to his safety, he lightly placed the cage on the ground, put down his backpack, and dropped to the ground.

Parker peered between the bars of the wooden cage with a child-like sense of glee and an ecstatic smile on his face. Staring back at him was a very surprised dragon. The tiny cage was much too small to fit the dragon, even though it was only the size of a small housecat. It was lying down, curled up between two corners. It had barely enough space to stand, and not nearly enough to move freely.

“Hey there, little buddy, are you ok in there?” Parker gently questioned.

The dragon sneered, revealing the small but sharp teeth lining its maw.

“Whoa there, those look sharp. I’ll let you out if you promise you won’t bite, ok?”

It closed its mouth and turned its head.

Parker took that as a yes. The door to the cage was a solid plank, and the lock was unreachable from the inside. He flicked up the latch and pulled open the door. The dragon slowly hobbled out of the cage, limping on only three legs, its front left leg held from touching the ground. It tried to stretch, but couldn’t balance and fell over. When it landed, it let out a sharp yelp. It looked like the poor thing had cracked a few ribs and broken its leg. He reached down to touch it and was met by a vicious snarl. He quickly retreated and gave it some space.

After a few moments of laying and pouting, the dragon hobbled over to Parker and presented its broken limb.

“You need some help? All right. I can do that,” Parker reassured. He rolled the dragon onto its side and grabbed its injured forelimb. It winced in pain as he searched for the location of the break. It was a simple fracture, an inch away from the dragon’s talons. It was shifted slightly out of place, and if it wasn’t set properly, it would heal incorrectly and cause permanent damage.

“I’m sorry, this is gonna hurt, but I need to do it.”

Parker reached into his bag and grabbed a roll of bandage. He then held the two sides of the broken bone and set them into place. It broke his heart to hear the cry that followed. He quickly wrapped the area tightly in gauze to help keep it in place while he made a splint. He pulled a wooden rod from the cage and broke it to the right size before wrapping it on the break’s location to hold it in place.

Sadly, all he could do about the broken ribs was wait and let them heal on their own Now was the time to tend to his personal injuries. The bleeding on his arms had slowed down but didn’t stop. He took his canteen and poured over his wounds to wash them off. The water stung as it washed away the dirt and debris. He went to apply some gauze when the dragon crawled onto his leg and began licking his wound. It seemed to be thanking him for his help, but this wasn’t the best way to show it’s gratitude.

Parker had no idea where the creature had been, what it ate, or what... other things it was licking. He went to push it away until he noticed his previously deep gash had shrunk considerably, and completely stopped bleeding. The dragon worked its magic on all of Parker’s wounds, and within minutes all that was left were faint reminders of a battle’s past.

“Wow, thank you. That was amazing!” Parker exclaimed. He reached over and stroked the dragons head. It instantly pulled back and jumped away, baring its teeth are him, growling.

“Alright, alright, I get it, no touching, that’s ok,”

Now that all the pressing medical issues were taken care of, Parker could finally examine his prize specimen. He pulled out his notebook and pencil and began taking notes.

It was covered in scales identical to obsidian. Midnight black and shiny. The horns were a similar color, with one pair shooting back from the top, and the other curling forwards from the back. Only male dragons had the second pair of horns, so that was one question answered. It had straight and short dark gray hair growing from the front of its horns to the bottom of its neck. Its sclera were black, with platinum blue eyes and vertically slit pupils. It would have been quite intimidating if its puppy eyes and feet too big for its body didn’t make it look like a scaled lion cub.

Parker took his canteen and took a swig of water. After screwing on the cap and putting it down, he watched as the dragon limped over and tried to open it.

At first, it tried gripping it with his claws, but it couldn’t get a grip without a thumb. It resorted to turning its head and biting down, twisting the lid open by waking around the bottle until it was free.

Parker watched, fascinated by the show of intelligence. No one had ever observed a dragon this intimately. Most of the time, if someone was this close to a dragon, one of them was about to die, and it was usually the human. Before him, the behavior and intelligence of dragons had never been studied. With that one action alone, its intelligence must be similar to an octopus or monkey, if not higher.

The dragon tilted the bottle and stuck in its muzzle. The bottle was about half-filled, and it couldn’t reach the waterline. After tipping the bottle a bit too much, it slipped at the bottom and fell, pouring water all over the dragon’s face.

Parker quickly scooped up the bottle before too much water was lost. The dragon looked angry and disappointed. It must’ve been really thirsty. That’s when he realized, after all that time in the cage, it must’ve had very little to eat or drink. He took off the canteen’s cap, filled it with water, and placed it down for the dragon to drink from. In moments, the cap was empty, and the dragon called out for more. It took three more capfuls before it was satisfied.

Parker realized he was a bit hungry too. He hadn’t eaten since his dinner last night. He opened his bag and took out another meal ration. He brought a total of 6, two for each day he planned on being away from the academy. He was already halfway done with his journey and had only eaten one. He took out a second ration to prepare for his new friend and began clearing an area to make a fire. After gathering some material for the fire, he saw the dragon struggling to pull a branch twice it’s size to the clearing. It was helping! He took the branch and placed it with the other fuel, before rifling around his bag to find his flint and steel.

Parker took them out and began striking over the kindling. After a few failed attempts at lighting the fire, the dragon stepped up. It entered a ready stance, took a deep breath, and yelped immediately after.

“Be careful! Broken rib! Don’t take deep breaths!”

The dragon took a shallower breath, and let out a small spark of electricity, setting the fuel ablaze. With the fire started, Parker began preparing the rations. He tore off the tops, poured in the water, and placed them into the fire.

The dragon was busy towing its old prison into the fire when it noticed the meal packets burning up in the fire. It immediately rushed into the fire to retrieve them.

“No! Don’t!” Parker yelled, fearing he would watch his prized creature burn up in flames.

To his surprise, it walked in, pulled out the meal packets, and set them down next to the fire. It then laid down on the hot coals and stared intently at the cooking rations.

That actually made a lot of sense. Of course, dragons were fireproof. It wouldn’t be too efficient to go around burning down countrysides if that same fire killed you.

After significantly less time than Parker had cooked them last time, the dragon moved both packages away from the fire, dragging them along with its mouth. Parker took one and looked inside, noticing it was cooked correctly this time. Not only did it know how to open a canteen, it knew… how to cook? And better than him? That was very unnerving to him, to say the least. Maybe it had seen another adventure party out making food or saw the goblins cooking when they trapped it in the cage. Either way, it was very confusing.

Parker absentmindedly ate his food as he watched the dragon. It kept sticking its face into the bag and pulling out the meat, leaving behind the rice and vegetable. Once it finished eating, it dragged the packet over to Parker’s backpack and tried to open it up. It couldn’t open up any of the buckles, so Parker reached over and grabbed the packet. When he looked inside, he saw half the meat was gone, and everything else was untouched. Next time, he would give the dragon all his meat and take the rest. It was a waste of all that good food. He rolled up and cinched the packet and put it in his backpack.

“You aren’t very good at hiding.”

Uh oh.

Parker turned around and saw the orc from the camp standing behind him. He rushed to grab his bag and run, but the orc grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off the ground, inches from its face. It caught the dragon by the scruff in its other hand, leaving it to swing helplessly with its claws, failing to get a clean strike.

“I don’t appreciate you stealing my ticket out of here” The orc growled.

“Well, I don’t appreciate you holding me like this either.” Parker replied. He pulled back his leg and swung it as hard as he could at the orc’s groin. With his thick hiking boots, the orc stood no chance.

“That doesn’t work on me.” The orc replied.

Of course. The first time a girl comes after him, it was an orc that wanted him dead.

CRACK

“AUGH!” The orc yelled in surprise, dropping both Parker and the dragon. The dragon had used its lightning. It immediately ran off while Parker grabbed his backpack, following shortly. With its broken leg, the dragon couldn’t run very fast, so Parker quickly caught up and scooped it into his arm like a football. He looked back to see the orc shaking off its arm, pick up an axe, and charge towards them. They had gotten a significant lead, but the orc was slowly gaining on them. Parker headed straight for the town, betting on the guards stopping the orc at the gate. The orc was only a few meters away when they reached the clearing that held the town. The only problem was, the gate was on the opposite side of the wall.

This was surely the end for Parker. He could’ve been in the lab right now, dissecting some crazy new monster, or testing the effect of some new plant, while an actual warrior went out and retrieved the dragon, but no, he just had to go out by himself to a death trap. All because he wanted to see this stupid little dragon. Well, at least he got that check off his bucket list. The dragon kept prodding him and chirping, likely trying to get him to go faster.

Parker tripped on a distended root and dropped to the ground. He rolled over onto his back, fully expecting to see an axe come down on his head, but there was nothing there. After picking itself up off the ground, the dragon pointed to the treeline. The orc hadn’t left the forest, staying under the cover of the canopy. The dragon wasn’t spurring him to make him run; it was trying to tell him the orc had stopped.

The orc stayed at the treeline, eyeing them down, following as they walked to the other side of the wall. Before they turned the corner to the gate, Parker had a thought. Everyone thought dragons were a menace that needed to be eliminated before they got big enough to cause problems. If he showed up at the gate with one, they wouldn’t just think of it as an exotic pet. Anyone who saw the dragon would try to kill it or report it to someone who would.

“Hey there buddy, I don’t think you’ll like this, but it needs to be done.”

The dragon looked confused, unsure of Parker’s plan. He opened his backpack and placed the dragon inside. Before it could protest, Parker closed the buckle, trapping it from the inside.

“I’m sorry, I’ll let you out as soon as I can, but I can’t let anyone see you.”

The dragon growled in annoyance but ultimately didn’t argue. There was plenty of room for it to fit, about as much left over as the cage.

“After all that time in the cage, I’m sure a few hours in there won’t hurt.”

With that, Parker made his way to the town’s gate.