12 Taple Town's Dragon

They had just arrived at Taple Town. Captain Halido talked to the mayor of the town and was informed that the dragon landed near the forests.

The dragonslayers went over to the forest. In a clearing right outside of the forest, they set up the giant crossbow and made sure that it worked in case of the dragon flying away. Akai did sense one dragon nearby. It may well be hiding in the forests, he thought.

Captain Halido held the chained woman like a prisoner. The captain held the chained woman by a leash. Akai didn't know what crime this woman committed, but felt that the woman didn't deserve the punishment.

The dragonslayers kept their horses tied to a tree. Akai tried to get off of his horse, but managed to fall right off as the horse moved over to a greener patch of grass. Captain Halido walked over to him and held out his hand.

Akai grabbed it and got himself up. He could still hear some of the dragonslayer chuckling behind their breath. Another dragonslayer got the horse and tied the reins to a tree.

"Alright, men. Listen up and listen well. I want to set up some search parties to find the dragon" Captain Halido began a small speech. During that speech, Akai walked right into the forest and hoped nobody saw him.

He wanted to find the dragon, first. If the dragonslayers got to the dragon, then they would attack it. Akai wanted to know whether it was any threat, first. He knew especially that not all dragons were a threat, but understood the reasoning behind the dragonslayers.

He looked back and saw the captain giving orders. They didn't seem to notice that he was gone, yet, but that would change, very soon. He looked away towards the dark forest and walked right in.

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The dark forest was covered by trees and bushes. Akai could see giant spiders roaming above. Barely any sunlight penetrated to the ground, but there was still plenty of light for humans to be able to see. Akai continued to wander around the forests until he was far enough from the dragonslayers original location. He grew out his wings and soared up clashing with branches and webs along the way. He could sense the dragon somewhere in the forest, but knew he couldn't find him by just wandering aimlessly. He reached to the top of the trees, but no higher. He saw some giant spiders climbing around the trees on their webs below him, but they didn't approach him.

Akai flew downwards towards one of the giant spiders and said, "Hello. I'm looking for a dragon. Have you seen one?"

The giant spider looked at him with his 8 bulbous eyes. He was in the middle of sucking out the insides of a bird. The spider stopped and replied to Akai, "Other than you, I has only seen one above flying west of here."

"Thank you" Akai replied as the spider crawled away carrying the bird in its webbing.

The giant spiders are considered monsters, but they rarely attack humans and they would be a fool to attack something they knew they couldn't kill. They prefer their birds and other big bugs to nourish them.

Akai flew to the top of the treetops and headed west.

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Akai flew west from the spider's location and looked for any opening where a dragon might have landed towards. As he flew, he noticed some of the branches and the tops of trees have been broken off. An opening in the forest was found near it. Akai flew above the opening and saw a green dragon resting in the clear space.

Akai flew down and as he did, the green dragon watched. The green dragon didn't try to attack and instead bowed his head. Akai bowed, as well. Akai landed on the soft grass floor and retracted his wings.

"You don't look like you want to cause any trouble." Akai said to the dragon.

"I-I don't." The dragon replied.

"What's your name?"

"Drent"

"Well, I'll let you know that there are some dragonslayers nearby, so you should get away from here. Go back to your home with the rest of the forest dragons."

"I can't. I was banished. I don't know why, but I felt a need to feed. I went to a neighboring village and grabbed up a child who was playing by the fields."

Akai's eyes widened and the green dragon continued.

"Kytlmyne found out and banished me to fend for myself. So, I flew away and eventually I came here. But my urges are still in me. I saw that town nearby and was about to fly over to grab another meal, but - but I got control of myself. I don't know why, but it's getting harder to control my animal urges."

Akai thought to himself. He wondered whether it was related to that degeneration that Jezeboyah was afflicted with. Akai asked "How old are you?"

"I'm 1200 years old, but I'm telling you that I was able to keep control of myself for all those centuries until now."

Not anywhere near as old as any of the ancient dragons, Akai thought. The ancient dragon were around for at least 10,000 years. Nobody is sure exactly how old they were. Akai himself was only 200 years old. The dragons could live forever if nobody tried to kill them.

Akai then thought to himself that perhaps all dragons have this condition, but the degeneration starts at different times in their lives.

"I don't want to hurt anybody." Drent cried and began shedding tears.

"Maybe, we can call the ancient dragons together. I know about an affliction that causes our species to revert back to more primal urges. We can go to them and prove that what your experincing is an illness."

"Even if they believe it, it would take time to find a cure. Time that I don't think I have. I don't know how long I have until I taste the flesh of man between my teeth. I'm a monster. It would be better to kill me before that happens."

Akai rubbed the dragon's head. "It's okay. It's okay. You won't hurt anybody. You're not a monster."

As Akai was comforting the green dragon, he began to unsheathe his blade. He looked into the dragon's eyes and believed him. The hand holding the sword shook, while the other hand comforting the dragon was steady. He began to sweat all around him.

The green dragon noticed the blade, and closed his eyes.

Akai stopped rubbing the dragon's head.

"I - I can't. You didn't do anything wrong. It wasn't your fault." Akai said as he lowered his blade to the ground, "Just try to relax. We can both fly away from this place. We'll go straight to Mt. Geolith and call the others. We just need to convince at least one of them."

"If that is your choice, I'd be willing to he-" Drent said, but was quickly cut off. His nose began to sniff the air. His eyes turned bright green. Saliva and drool dripped out of his mouth like a rabid dog. He began to become agitated and craving for food.

"Drent, please stop. You can control it," Akai said worryingly. But the words didn't reach the dragon. However, with a stroke of luck, Drent began to control himself. Enough for him to speak, "The scent of man triggered something within me. I thought I had it under control. It's... it's fine. I got it."

Drent calmed himself down, but it was close. He was on the verge of attacking the nearby dragonslayers.

"Please," Drent begged, "Please just let it end."

"I can't do that. We decided to-"

"I know. But I doubt I can control myself during our flight. How many villages and towns would we pass? How many unknowing lives could get hurt? I can't risk it. You will have to prove to them that this disease exists. That this degeneration can happen to any of us."

"I will prove it. But I need you to do it. They need proof."

Drent sighed, "It's not that I fear that I will hurt people. It's not that I fear that I will have innocent flesh in my mouth. I'm afraid that I might actually enjoy it."

Akai heard his words and as soon as he finished speaking, Drent began to act up again.

Tears started to form, but his eyes flashed back to the time when Jezeboyah wanted Akai to kill him. Akai couldn't kill the ancient dragon when he needed to. The sight of Jezeboyah burning a town to ashes collided into his mind. He remembered the smoke, the charred families, the ancient dragon eating innocent people.

He held back his tears. Akai smiled gently to the green dragon and rubbed Drent's head comforting him. The dragon calmed himself down to the smooth touch of one of his own. Drent closed his eyes once more and Akai held his blade to the dragon's neck. He tried to place the blade between the scales, so that he didn't have to use much force.

"I'm sorry." Akai said as he slit the dragon's throat. Drent didn't give any resistance. He bled out right there.

Drent opened his mouth one last time. "Thank you."

Akai was on the verge of tears, but tried his best to hold them back.

While he was in front of the dragon's corpse, he let out a dragon's roar. Hopefully, he thought, it would bring the rest of the dragonslayers to him. He couldn't start dragging the body away, otherwise he would get exposed as something inhuman. But he also wanted to spend some time reflecting on his choices. Some from his past. And others of what he could do in the future. But, no matter how much time he had, he was still uncertain.

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Akai waited there sitting by the corpse of the green dragon. He heard foot steps approaching and he got himself up.

"Hey, guys! I got the dragon, here!" Akai shouted with . Captain Halido came out of the bushes along with the rest of his men.

"Where the hell did you go!?" the captain yelled angrily.

"I thought you were about to make a long speech, so I went ahead." Akai said.

Akai pointed to the dragon. "I was able to sneak up on it while it was asleep." Akai told Halido.

Halido nodded, but insisted, "Don't try to do anything like that alone, again."

He ordered his men to cut the green dragon's head off, so that they can show it to the mayor of Taple Town as proof. Akai thought it was barbaric, but didn't try to stop them. Three dragonslayers cut the head and held it together.

Akai glanced at the witch near the captain. The dark mage was still staring at Akai, but he still didn't know why.

Captain Halido then proceeded to march his men, Akai, and the witch out of the forest and back to Taple Town for a reward.