Chp.24: The father

The young dragons crouched in the bush for a long time, trying not to make any noise. They were so well hidden that from time to time some animal, often some kind of rabbit or rat, passed in front of one of them without realizing the danger. But despite their hunting instinct screaming to attack their prey, none of them dared to come out of their hiding place. Their survival instinct was stronger, much more stronger.

They waited for over an hour before hearing a thud and feeling the ground shake slightly, signaling that something large had just landed in front of the lake. However, as Haku had ordered them, they didn't move a single muscle. At least until they heard a familiar voice: "Where are you?"

The young dragons finally breathed a sigh of relief. It was their mother. They came out of the bush, finally being able to see the sunlight again and stretch their legs, and they ran to hide under the immense body of Neytiri. Even though their mother was there, in fact, they didn't feel safe being more than a meter away from her. "Mom! How nice to see you!" Rhaegal exclaimed as he hugged her mother's paw. "You chased that evil dragon away, didn't you?"

But contrary to his and his siblings' expectations, his mother didn't seem happy at all. Indeed, by the rumble coming from deep in her throat they could tell that she was very nervous. "I chased him away for now, but he'll return soon. He won't give up so easily"

The young dragons trembled in fear, especially Haku and Rhaegal, who had already looked death in the face and didn't want to repeat the experience. The thought of the enemy dragon returning terrified them. After all, they were too small to defend themselves against such a monster. Without their mother around, the other dragon would have effortlessly torn them apart. They were basically helpless in front of him.

"Listen to me, please" Neytiri said. "You girls can rest assured, he doesn't want you. Even if he comes back for your brothers in the future, he won't consider you. But Haku, Rhaegal and Darbi instead have to watch their backs. He wants to kill you"

The three little male dragons gave a hoarse cry. Their sisters looked at them with concern, but there was also a lot of relief in their eyes. After all, as much as they feared for the lives of their brothers, knowing that they weren't the target of the enemy dragon was reassuring.

In the end it was Darbi who asked the fateful question. "Why?" he asked. "Why us? What does he want? Who is him?"

Neytiri seemed to sigh. "He... is your father"

The little dragons were silent for a while, trying to process that words, then they exploded in unison in an exclamation of surprise. Even Haku, who had remained calm and rational up to that moment, widened his eyes in surprise. "What?" he couldn't help exclaiming. "Our father? Why do our father want to kill us?"

Though he had never met him, Haku knew he had a second parent besides his mother. Neytiri had told him about it and also he had seen many animals that lived in pairs formed by males and females. Both Haku and his siblings were aware that to have children were required two individuals of the opposite sex. However, Neytiri had told them that male dragons didn't care about their offspring, so all of them had quickly put aside their desire to meet him. However, deep down in his soul Haku had kept a small wish to know who his father was. But now that he had met him, he would have preferred to remain in oblivion.

Haku knew that his mother didn't love him and his siblings and that once her maternal instinct faded she would have chased them away, but as much as that behavior disgusted him he could understand the reasons: after all, keeping too many dragons in one spot she would have ran out of resources quickly. Even though he despised his mother's selfish and individualistic philosophy, he knew there was a purpose behind her actions. But his father? Why was he trying to eliminate them? And why was he aimed only at him and his two brothers?

The answer arrived soon. "He want to kill you because you are a danger to him. From his point of view, in the future you will be rivals with whom he may have to fight to reproduce. Even if you are small and weak for now, one day you may become strong enough to oppose him, and therefore deprive him of many possibilities to reproduce again" Neytiri explained. "That's why he wants to get the competition out of the way right now. He doesn't care about the females, but he won't let the males live. He'll come back until he will exterminate them all"

That revelation shocked Haku. His mother, once the maternal instinct had faded, would have seen him and his siblings as nothing more than territory invaders and perhaps she would even ate them... but his father was even willing to kill them just for the remote risk that in in the distant future they might have stood up to him in an attempt to get the attention of a female? As much as he knew that his parents didn't have even the slightest bit of love for him and his siblings, he didn't expect that both of them were so ruthless. And besides the cruelty, what bothered Haku was his father's meaning. He wrinkled his nose when he thought about it. That reasoning might make sense in a time of abundance and fertility, but if dragons were already on the verge of extinction it was just stupid. Decrease the competition? Doing so they only reduced the chances of increasing the number of dragons in the world. "So what do we do?"

Neytiri shook her head. "Unfortunately, we can only wait for him to return. I'll keep an eye on the area, but I can't guarantee I'll be there in time if he attacks you" she answered. "Therefore, be careful in the coming days"

Haku felt a shiver run down his spine. So besides the newcomers he had to watch his back also from his own father? He thanked the heavens that when he had escorted Ethan out of the valley they had passed under the treetops, or he could have been the target.

His brothers seemed to share his thoughts. Darbi was shaking and Rhaegal looked like he was going to throw up. His sisters continued to watch them worried, but Haku noticed that they were keeping a little distance anyway, as if subconsciously they didn't want to risk becoming targets too by being close to them. He couldn't blame them.

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

Neytiri immediately brought them all back to the cave. She, too, agreed that the little dragons had experienced enough excitement for just one day. As usual, she gave them a large piece of meat for dinner, but all the young dragons that had accompanied Haku had already eaten, and even those who stayed at the lake had eaten many fishes and small animals, so there wasn't the usual competition for the food. Also that evening no one was really hungry.

Neytiri quickly fell asleep. But Haku stayed awake in his favorite corner of the cave thinking. His eyes glittered in the dark as he seemed to stare at a random spot on the wall, but in reality his brain was in full planning phase. The other young dragons noticed it; they too couldn't sleep. Darbi hurried towards him, but he only sat beside him without asking anything. He probably just wanted to feel safer. Besides, he had long ago learned that when his brother was thinking it was best not to disturb him.

This also intrigued Tikka, Kotaru, Kialandì, Keita and Teramon who approached in turn. They all looked at Haku, but he didn't move a muscle and continued staring into space in silence. Kotaru seemed to want to ask him something, but Darbi shook his head at her as to say 'no'. In the end, the five sisters lay down next to their two brothers, but none of them closed their eyes to sleep.

Seeing them together, Rhaegal thought that perhaps they were plotting something, so he decided to join them. When he arrived and saw that everyone was silently waiting for Haku to finish doing... whatever he was doing in his head, he decided to follow their example and lay down with the others. One by one, their other remaining sisters also stood up and gathered around Haku.

They were silent for a while, then finally it was Serengal who asked Haku the question. "What are you thinking about?" she whispered trying not to wake up their mother, who in any case had such a deep sleep that the little dragons could have even spoken aloud without disturbing her.

Haku seemed to wake up just then from his torpor. He lifted his head and looked at his siblings. "I have a plan" he finally revealed. "I want to kill our father"

The other little dragons shivered at those words. "Are you completely crazy?" Rhaegal whispered in terror. "You saw him! We have no chance! Our father is too much more powerful than us!"

"But not than her" Haku said pointing to Neytiri who was asleep a few meters away from them. "I have observed our father. He is smaller, frailer and weaker than our mother. Also, he has the scales of a single color, meaning he has only one domain, while our mother has two. When she arrived, he ran away immediately. It is clear that he doesn't want to face her. We cannot kill our father... but our mother can do it for us"

Of this none of the dragons had any doubts. Many agreed that Neytiri was stronger than the enemy dragon. The problem was another. "And how are you going to make them fight? I doubt our father will be stupid enough to stand still and wait for our mother to arrive" Maleficial pointed out.

"No, of course. That's why we're going to set a trap for him" Haku replied. "All we have to do is distract him long enough for our mother to arrive. At that point she will take care of killing him"

"And how should we do it?"

"By collaborating. We may be small and weak, as our mother said, but we are many. If we launch ourselves onto his wings and neck all together, he will no longer be able to fly. He will certainly be able to shake us off, but that small time will be sufficient"

"But we should get on his wings and neck..."

"And that's why we need a bait"

The dragons fell silent at those words. Haku's proposal wasn't encouraging at all. "We have to get him down to the ground so we can jump on him. A bait is the only solution" Haku explained.

"So you would like one of us to expose himself and risk getting himself killed?" Rhaegal asked with a snort, trembling slightly. "You're mad. I've already risked my neck and I don't intend to do it again. Let's hide in the forest and we can be safe"

The others nodded. Even if they weren't happy with that situation, hiding was still a much more attractive prospect than fighting a dragon at least four hundred times their size.

But Haku wasn't of the same idea. "Hiding, huh? How much do you think you could hide?" he asked rhetorically. "You heard our mother, our father wants us dead. Who says he won't burn the forest to find us? Or that, when we will be no longer under our mother's protection, he won't be waiting for us at the exit of the valley? And even if we succeed to escape him, what will we do? Will we spend the rest of our days watching our backs and being afraid to even poke our nose out of the forest?"

Rhaegal opened his mouth to argue, but then he closed it again. It was clear he couldn't find the words.

"Here is a fight between us and him. Either he dies, or we die. We have no other alternatives" Haku said. "Do you really want to hide away for the rest of your days?"

Rhaegal didn't answer. He just looked away, a gesture that said more than a thousand words.

"Good. I see you understand" Haku said, then he raised his head with boldness and maybe even a little pride. "We'll kill our father. If he wants to kill us, then he'll discover we're not the easy prey that he thinks!"