22

They watched me for a few minutes cautiously before one of the greedier guys decided to climb out, and start collecting cores. My tail flicked casually as I ignored him. Allowing my damaged muscles to relax. I wondered if the pain would let up once my core was healed.

Perhaps it would let up sooner. My core, and my body were linked after all. It wasn't a wrong assumption to think that the pain would go away when my core healed. Spread myself out in the sun when I was finished cleaning the blood off. I knew I still had blood grime wedged deep in the scales between my fingers.

I'd gotten into the habit of cleaning myself using my different affinities. Now that I couldn't use magic I couldn't clean myself the same way I usually did. I actually had to work at it like I used to. In the academy I usually took my human form to wash off because cleaning a human body was something I was more familiar with at the time. I still hadn't learned how to clean myself without the use of magic.

It might present a problem if I couldn't find a body of water big enough to wash myself in. I figured I'd feel good enough to fly after another good night of rest. My spatial awareness allowed me to keep track of everyone nearby. Everything within a hundred feet was within my field of spatial awareness. I knew when, and how everything around me moved without having to use my eyes.

Which was good since I still didn't have vision in my left eye. My vision was coming back slowly. Right now all I could see out of that eye was color, and lights. I flicked my tail casually as I relaxed. I lost track of time after a while.

I didn't know how long I spent laying in the grass before deciding to get up. I flared my wings out as wide as I could. Startling both the people that had dared to get out of the Humvee to claim the cores from the spiders I'd killed. My right wing cast a shadow over the Humvee. Completely shielding it from the light of the blue suns.

I was built to hunt. My wings were the only part of my body that wasn't heavily armored. The wing membranes were fragile compared to the rest of my body. Even if they were strong, and thick enough to hold the weight of the Humvee they were still one of my weak points. It wasn't easy to cut into my scaley armor.

I folded my wings up so that I could walk back. I was still too stiff to fly. I really hoped that I'd be able to fly tomorrow. I just needed to loosen up enough to not feel incredible pain when I flapped my wings. Muscle stiffness I could work through.

Pain, despite my overwhelming familiarity with it, was not something I'd put myself through willingly. I started walking. There weren't any more spiders nearby. They would have attacked me by now if there were. The thing I really didn't like about finding spiders where I did was the fact that I could see the settlement from where they'd attacked me.

I'm sure the humans here could also see the settlement from here if they squinted their eyes. It wouldn't take me very long to cross the the distance between me, and the gate I'd come through earlier. I kept my eyes, and ears open the whole time I was walking. Every time I stilled I could see the guys in the Humvee start really paying attention. They were starting to trust my instincts.

I found that kind of funny since normally something like me would get more of a fearful shock type of reaction. My body would tense up again whenever I sensed something move that wasn't me. Usually the things I sensed were running away from me. I didn't like being blind in one eye. Sure it was something I was used to, but that didn't make it any less annoying.

That was the one big bonus of becoming a dragon. Getting both my eyes back. That was the one thing that made me wonder if this would all end alright in the end. My scales tremored whenever something set off my spatial awareness. Nothing else attacked us all the way back to the gates.

I walked back into the settlement calmly. The guys that were following me now had a nice pretty pay day to line their pockets with. They seemed to like my leftovers at least. The spiders weren't good enough to use as food. I preferred meat that was more like the meat back home.

With tendons, and fat. Real meat. I didn't stop until I was back in the warehouse. Savannah was having a nice conversation with Goliath. It seemed like they'd been doing quite a lot of catching up while I was gone.

I didn't mind they hadn't seen each other in months. Aurora was still out like a light. Twitching around like she was dreaming of catching something. It seemed like she was having a good childhood at least. Dragon's didn't have short childhood so I was glad that she was having a decent one.

I'd spent years of my life as a child, and didn't get this much childhood. I didn't think she'd get more then five years as a kid. Over a year had already passed since she'd hatched. I still wasn't sure how long it would take for her mature to adulthood. I wondered if she'd be an irritable teen like humans tended to become.

My wings twitched as I tried to keep the others quiet enough for her to sleep. I remembered how much it sucked to be forced awake when all I wanted was to sleep a little more. I wanted dragons to return in full as a race. She was meant to be on earth, and so was I. I would make it happen no matter what stood in my way.