Chapter 2: Heartbroken
It was the middle of the night and within their cave, the hatchling and its caring parent slept peacefully. A rustling from outside awoke the sleeping parent while the hatchling remained sleeping,wrapped up in a coiled up tail. The parent had an ominous feeling welling up within it, and it scanned the darkness looking for any sign that might provide an answer to what it was feeling. It got that answer when a group of well built humans covered in metal armor and carrying torches moved out from behind the trees. There were dozens of them, and they brought multiple large weapons on wheels.
The parent stood up and uncoiled its tail, waking up the hatchling. It emitted a thunderous roar that shook the earth and startled the group of people approaching, but they soon overcame the shock and moved even quicker than before, surrounding the cave with torches and swords in hand. At the center of the group was a woman with long red hair wielding a black bladed sword with an intricate handle inscribed with gold.
The dragon stood in front of its innocent hatchling and opened its jaws, streaking across the intruders and bathing them in a torrent of flame. Screams erupted from those caught in the flames. The ones closest to the flames burned away within mere moments while the ones furthest away burned alive. As the dragon melted one of the movable turrets with its flame, two more fired their ballistas. But instead of aiming for the dragon, they aimed for the space above the dragon. A metal net spread open in the air from each ballista which turned out to be two and covered the dragon's body. It continued its onslaught of destruction unperturbed.
A group of people carrying staffs and covered head to toe in unrefined robes stood furthest away from the onslaught, but still close enough to take part, had begun to speak. The orbs in their staffs lit up and the dragon stopped its onslaught as it struggled to stand. The thick metal wire covering its body grew bright enough to illuminate the whole cave as the red haired knight charged towards the incapacitated dragons head. The hatchling watched in horror as its mother suffered and the tiny bipedal creature attacked its parent. The weighed down dragon tried to open its jaw and douse the attacking woman with flames, but it was for nought. She jumped on the dragons head with her black blade and pierced it into the dragons giant eyeball. The darkness on the black seemed to undulate and then it oozed into the dragons eye turning it black while the blade turned silver. It struggled and screamed against the invading force while the blade was pulled out of its eye and the red haired woman leapt back onto the hard earth.
The cries of the hatchling were drowned out by the painful screams and struggling of its parent. Eventually, the painful cries grew quiet and all that could be heard was the hatchlings cries for its parent. All eyes turned on it while it continued to cry and the red haired woman began to walk towards it. The hatchling backed away, but there was nowhere to go in the closed off cave. Even amid the pain of losing the only kin it had ever known, its first experience with death other than wild animals, it knew there was only one way out. It's wings spread open and it climbed into the air as fast as it could, quickly soaring over the woman walking towards it.
The woman turned back towards her companions and shouted "Stop it! Don't let it get away!"
As soon as it exited the cave a hail of arrows charged towards it. The hatchling closed its eyes and flapped its wings to go even higher, hoping to avoid death. It thought it felt something touch it but it couldn't be sure, and soon it was out of range of the arrows.
"Dammit! It got away." shouted the red haired woman as she strode towards her companions. They looked disappointed in themselves, and a bit shell shocked. More people began to flood in from the forest, but less than the attacking party, and they quickly began to care for the injured and set up camp.