4 A Lesson on Humans

As Destorianaxe swept across the dismal swamp, her neck craned this way and that trying to take in every sight and sound that tickled her senses. As dismal as the swamp appeared with its brackish water, heavy hanging tree canopy and mounds of mud everywhere, she had to admit it had it's own allure. Her yellow eyes often caught large reptiles lazily moving through the water, their bark like hides masking them like fallen logs until they struck with snapping jaws that more often than not tended their prey with no further effort required.

Finally finding a sizable land mass the wyrmling dropped down, her clawed feet tearing up the marshy, muddy soil as she halted her momentum to look around. The waters around the island of sort of land was alive with creatures fleeing her presence, slipping into the murky water to observe this trespassers or flee to less Dragon present hunting grounds. Destorianaxe ignore the beasts for the most part, simply exploring the marsh from ground level.

Inhaling the air she snorted softly, the scent of slime and rot was particularly pungent around this isle. As she walked her claws cracked half submerged bones in the less than solid ground. Her feet often sinking deeper than intended into the muddy earth. This in itself did not bother her. The warm mud against her claws was actually refreshing, making her want to wiggle either clawed toe in the muck. Such new sensations thrilled her but then low rumble in her belly quickly reminded her she was to be hunting not playing around.

Reaching the edge of the isle she thought about taking to the air but instead slipped into the murky water. Floundering a bit she felt her legs sinking deeply into the muck beneath the murky waters surface, flailing about a bit before coming to grasp with how a dragon was suppose to swim. Proud of mastering another ability that her brother likely lacked she kicked through the water, using her tail to help her change course as she drifted deeper into the depths of the marsh. Most other predators who had long claimed this territory quickly learned to give the young dragon a wide berth, a large python that could have easily swallowed a man whole had thought to defend its territory against her. That same snake now laid limp against her back, the long loops of its thick body wrapped loosely around the base of her own neck, its head was currently sinking into the muck a mile or so back. When it had tried to wrap her in its coils she had promptly ripped the hissing offenders head clean off...

With her initial catch limp against her scales she continued deeper into the swamp, she was curious about this place, it was so unlike the lair. So many animals made this region their home, so diverse in types from reptiles and amphibians to mammals and avians, the swamp which was hardly beautiful teemed with life. Craning her head she thought she had heard something, off in the distance a roar could be heard and at first she thought it her family searching for her, but the roar was in the wrong direction. With curiosity pulling her, she swamp faster through the murky waters, watching as the isles became more frequent and larger. Even the water started to become more shallow forcing her to walk instead of swim.

The swamp was slowly transitioning towards a forest with the roars becoming more pronounced, rather than one voice this roar was a mixture of voices. Cocking her head she strode forward following the noise deeper into the wood, as she walked the trees slowly became more sparse, replaced by strange assortments of wood trunks. Tilting her head she looked one of the things over in wonderment, it certainly didn't strike her as something natural as there was no trunks, no roots. It was just thick trunks layered to form something. Finding a hole she poked her snout inside and inhaled, nearly sneezing at the strange odors that assailed her.

Shaking her head, reach up to scratch at her snout she snorted again. What a sour smell! Mixed with it was a flowery scent and the scent of metal yet none of it struck her as natural odors. More something that had been changed some how. Curious she looked at the hole and thought about tearing at the smooth edges, maybe she could get her head in and see for herself what was smelling so unnatural when she heard that mix of shouts near by. Ignoring the hole, Destorianaxe moved amongst these unnatural things and followed the noise to its source.

Carefully climbing up the side of one of the things her neck craned higher peering over to what looked like a tight gathering of creatures. Were these the man things that her blood seemed to recognize? Her eyes swept over the creatures dressed in hides and leaves, the majority seemed to be surrounding a pair of smaller man things tumbling around in the center of the encirclement. The dragon watched curiously as one man thing pushed the other down, pulling a shout from part of the spectating crowd, when the position was reversed other parts of the group shouted.

Destorianaxe really didn't know what to make of it. Her blood memories only had limited experience with what her soul called... humans...? They were strange creatures that lived in defiance of their environment. The only sure thing her blood told her was that being spotted by the things would not be good. She was about to turn away from the strange situation when her nostrils flared. Her head snapped back around as she looked over the crowd, towards the far end on a raised stone slab sat another man thing, this one was rather big and burly, but what truly caught her attention was the smaller man thing beside it. This one had pale fur down it's back and covered its frail looking pink body in a hide of some pale beast.

Sniffing the dragon was sure the alluring smell was coming from this frail looking man thing. Saliva dripped from slightly parted jaws to sizzle on the top wood that covered the thing she had hid behind. The snake wrapped around her body was forgotten as she considered the distance her claws digging into the wood beneath her feet as her muscles prepared to launch her over the herd. Just as she was about to leap she felt a touch on her flank, snapping her head around the man thing with the draconic features stood beside her resting a hand on her right hip and shook his head, "You don't want to do that young one."

Those yellow eyes narrowed dangerously on the offending touch, "Yes I do, that creature smells delicious."

The draconic figure shook its head patting her hip, "You really don't. It us an instinct most civilized kin learn to repress. Virgin blood is indeed tasty but it will bring great misery down upon you to sup upon it now. Do you understand the situation beyond?"

Destorianaxe shook her head looking back as the two things in the middle continued struggling, "I do not, but these man things look weak. I am strong and I must eat."

The draconic man thing shrugged helplessly, "There is no denying humanity is very weak at the moment but if you were to attack this tribe, stealing the chiefs daughter to devour every brave here would hunt you down."

The dragon really didn't understand much of the reasoning. Tribe? Chief? Brave? What were these concepts? They held no relatable concepts in her blood. Lowering her head to look at this strange figure, "Explain."

Shaking his head the draconic man thing waved to her as he walked back the way she had come, "Alright, but not here. A youngling in a human village is not a good idea, better for both of us if we left them to their lives."

Shifting back with one last longing look at the 'chief's daughter', Destorianaxe followed after the strange creature, walking through what he claimed were log 'houses' in this tribal 'village'. Leading her through the forest they eventually emerged onto a cliff overlooking a vast plain that seemed to stretch forever in the distance. "Humanity is a relatively new species, weak individually but highly dangerous in groups. That was a wedding ceremony back there, the chief was looking for a suitable husband for his daughter. The two youths in the center were fighting over her hand."

Sitting down on her haunches Destorianaxe lowered her head to snort on this strange creature, "I understood less than one word in five of what you rambled on about. Try explaining it as if to one who has no idea what you're talking about, because I really don't."

Chuckling the draconic man sat down beside her and laid back, looking up at the clear blue sky, the falling sun on the distant horizon spoke of the impending evening. "Well those creatures back there are called humans. Relatively new they are fragile only living some sixty or seventy years compared to your own thousands. That area back there was a living area for those people called a village. In your understanding think of it as an exterior lair that houses multiple families in closer proximity."

Destorianaxe had a weird look on her face as her head craned back to look at him, "How can that be? My blood balks at living close to my family, were I possessing more strength I'd be hard pressed to stay with any of them near by."

The draconic man laughed and nodded, "Civilized dragon society isn't so different. We have our own villages... well a city actually. We don't live as close as humans do but to say we don't have our own variety of community would be a lie."

Destorianaxe tried to picture other dragon families using her own as a base, "How do they not tear each other apart?"

"Laws mostly, plus their leader is a literal god so he tends to keep the unruly in line. Though I'm sorry to say there are exceptions that slip along the fringes, families like yours that still are trying to breed amongst their own bloodline to produce a more pure strain. Foolishness, all that does is breed deformities much as you've noted with your brother, he's not quite all there to be honest."

Destorianaxe nodded glancing back, "So why is it wrong to eat humans? They seem much lower than even this slither thing I killed in the swamp."

"Its not wrong as such, just troublesome. Unlike your family, a human family guards their young rather aggressively. Especially in cases like this where the one to wed the girl would become the next leader. To eat her would bring the wrath of the village down on you."

Destorianaxe laughed heartily, "But they are weak, I could devour the lot with little trouble."

Shaking his head the draconic man denied her haughty attitude, "In one or two maybe, but fifty humans slashing at your wings and body would see you served up as easy as you would sup upon the girl."

Destorianaxe glared down, "Can such weak things truly hurt me?"

Nodding he motioned to her body, "You are but a wyrmling, strong by human standards to be sure but you know next to nothing. What would you do against weapons? Or magic? You know very little of the world yet, perhaps you should learn much more before making enemies."

Destorianaxe sighed laying down hanging her head out over the cliff, "So don't eat humans."

He shook his head, "Didntsay that child. You are a dragon. You are the apex predator of this world, literally everything else, in the right conditions, can be your food. In this particular case however offending a village who would see you make off with one of their numbers and not having the sense to not lead them back to your resting place would make eating that particular human, this particular time, a bad idea. Now if you had come across her alone out in the wilds... feel free. Just don't leave yourself exposed to being hunted down."

Destorianaxe chuckled, it was much more refreshing being told she could do what she wanted as long as it didn't come back to hurt her. Laying down more content now watching the setting sun, she would have to be on the look out for prime meals away from their troublesome herds in future...