4 Flying Lizard

Ria lazily sucked up water as she watched Galdon cursing while cleaning out the cages. She was waiting for him to come close enough so she could spray him. Ria almost giggled in excitement when she thought of which colorful words would come out of his mouth when he was drenched in water.

It'd been around three or four weeks since the commotion with the rugged-looking men happened, which meant she was now three months old, and she hadn't seen a hair of the rugged group nor the old man since that day. Her only entertainment was spraying people with water now, especially Galdon.

For some reason, the employees treated her especially well. They never mistreated her, not even Galdon. This came as a surprise since this place didn't exactly treat the creatures in this place the best.

Though, she had to give the employees the benefit of the doubt. This was a black market shop after all. Even if the creatures were often mistreated, if the employees didn't do their jobs right, they would be the ones being mistreated.

But still, she was treated too well for a small tortoise in a black market full of extremely dangerous creatures which could eat her in one mouthful without even chewing.

Maybe she was an endangered creature? It made sense. Ria was sure even in these times, there would be people willing to collect rare and endangered creatures.

By the way, Ria figured out that she wasn't in modern times based on a few points. First, she hadn't even seen one piece of modern technology in her now three months of living in this place, not even a pocket-watch.

Second, the clothes the employees wore were obviously not made in a factory. One could argue that she was in an underdeveloped country, but based on the huge scale of the pet shop, she doubted it.

There also was a third point. She was in a different world. It made sense if the times were different in this world. Even a lot of novels and anime had characters who reincarnated or transmigrated into different time periods.

There was only one thing which could be considered 'modern'. It was the fact that there were lights. She had no idea how they turned on or off, but she was sure it wasn't using modern methods.

Back to the present, just as Ria was about to spray Galdon, who just got in her range, the office hallway's door abruptly opened. A man pushed a draped cage, which was placed on a cart towards the center of the room.

On closer inspection, the man who was pushing the cage was Solda, the gossiper. He looked more serious than the last time she saw him, and his eyes were fixated directly on the draped cage.

Obviously, the animal which was in there was extremely valuable and important. More people began to walk out after Solda. The old man, the leader and his group, Connie and some other workers..

Galdon turned to look at the people who entered and his eyes immediately fell upon the cage. He opened his mouth for a moment, but closed it soon afterwards because he spotted the old man behind Solda.

Solda rolled the cart with the cage on it to the center of the intersecting hallways. The other people trailing behind soon surrounded the cage, making Ria unable to completely see the draped cage.

The usually unsmiling old man gave the people in the pet shop a shallow smile as he panned over everyone's faces. "Shall we do a grand reveal?" He asked in an anticipatory tone.

The others smiled back, even the exhausted group, whose numbers had gone down from sixteen to eleven. It was obvious what happened to the other five, but nobody said words of condolence.

Thankfully, they weren't the only ones who suffered losses, since this was a team-up of multiple groups of people.

There were several factors which went into the apparent success of the dragon hunt. First, the parent dragons were both young, the baby dragon was probably their first offspring. Second, they had ambushed the dragons in their den, dealing a huge blow to the dragons at the start. Third, the dragons had to protect their child in an enclosed space, so they held back until the very end so as to not collapse the nest on top of their child.

If not for any one of those factors, the group of sixteen, which was now a group of eleven, might not have come back at all. That was just how superior dragons were to humans.

Unfortunately, they couldn't wait for better circumstances to prevent these losses, since the dragons could've discovered them at any time.

The old man, otherwise known as the Creature Captor sighed in his heart. These were all very valuable people he lost, even if it was only five. He gave a nod to Solda, signaling for him to remove the cloth.

Solda nodded back, pulling off the cloth in one swift motion, the cloth flapped in the air for a moment, stirring up a gust of wind in its trail.

-

Ria's mouth hung open as she stared at the creature in front of her. Its feet were like hairless cat paws. It had shiny grey scales from head to tail. It almost looked like a lizard if not for the pair of folded wings on its back.

They.. really captured a dragon? A whole, living baby dragon?! Ria stared at the rugged and exhausted group with horror and even a bit of admiration.

After all, which person in her world hadn't heard stories of dragon slayers and dragon riders? Who hadn't heard of the story of a hero slaying the dragon and establishing a kingdom with the slain dragon's glory?

In her momentary stupor, the silver dragon stood up and glared directly into the leader's eyes, hate clouding its own golden eyes. It opened its mouth and let out a gurgling hiss. It was a mix of a snake's hiss and the revving of a car engine, just that the baby dragon's hiss had a juvenile feel to it.

[I will kill you one day!]

Ria doubted her own ears, staring at the silver dragon in a daze. Even though the voice echoed inside her mind which meant she couldn't track where the voice came from, Ria just knew it came from the baby dragon.

But.. was this really the voice of a baby dragon? It sounded a lot older than one would think for such a small dragon, even though the dragon was bigger than her.

Plus, Ria heard the voice in her own language, not the language of this world, which was completely different from hers.

The leader snorted and glared back at the dragon. "We struggled a lot with this damn flying lizard. I thought dragons at this age were supposed to be less intelligent than this." He grumbled.

Creature Captor nodded, resting his chin in his fist. "It is a feisty one. It should make a great mount once it's trained." He quizzically said.

The dragon spun around and let out an even louder hiss than the last at the Creature Captor. Somehow, the dragon could tell this old man was the boss.

[I won't forget you either, old skin bag]

If Ria had eyebrows, they would be knitted right now. She felt worried for the dragon. Could the humans hear the dragon? It would be bad if they got angry and tried to discipline him. Thankfully, the dragon couldn't harm them with the collar on his neck, or else her worries might've actually come true.

Ria opened her mouth. She wanted to see if she could talk to the dragon. After three months of not being able to speak, she was fed up.

There were a lot of unspoken complaints which could only be dealt with through actions, hence why she constantly sprayed water on Galdon.

She knew that tortoise noises weren't the most pleasing to the ear, so instead of letting out a tortoise cry, she let out a sound which could only be compared to a whale call.

"Ooooo~"

[Please calm down]

She channeled her thoughts into one phrase, directing it to the dragon. She had no idea if her actual voice would be drowned out by the demonic cries of the other creatures in the pet shop, but she hoped this type of speech worked more like telepathy.

And sure enough, the dragon's eyes went wide and it stopped making a threatening face. From what Ria could see in the gaps of the small crowd, the dragon slowly closed its mouth and turned its head to stare directly at Ria, who was staring at him through the gaps in her small wooden fence.

[Was that you?] It asked without opening it's mouth. The dragon's tone was vigilant, but it was much more gentle than the previous two times.

Ria tried to replicate the dragon, trying not to open her mouth to use this weird new form of speech. [Yes..]

Ria felt her heart flutter. Not in a romantic way, though. The experience of talking to a dragon, the experience of talking after three months.. to a dragon! It was a magical moment for her.

Ria and the dragon didn't notice the strange gazes they were being given by the small crowd of people. They noticed the immediate shift in the dragon's demeanor, and how it walked right up to the edge of its cage and stared at their tortoise.

Ria tried to speak again. [What is your name?] She asked. Surely a dragon would have a name, right?

The dragon contemplated, and then looked as if it was going to try something risky. It hesitated for a moment before speaking again.

[My name is Nord, but my parents call me Fallios] He said, its gaze becoming more intense as he stared deeply into Ria's eyes.

Ria's eyes widened. She immediately felt a sense of familiarity, like she was talking to someone from the same country.

Ria took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were filled with a sense of kinship as she stared at the dragon.

[The people here didn't give me a name, but my name is Ria]