Chp.22: A meal and a lot of items

Haku looked at Ethan's dead body for a moment longer, then he reached out a paw and grabbed his head. With a jerk, he snatched it from his neck. His claws wet from the massive loss of blood that leaked from the hole where the neck once was.

Haku turned it over for a few moments in his paw, then he opened his jaws and closed them above it. He should have waited to be with his siblings, but he had only eaten one small fish that morning and now he was hungry. He needed a meal.

The skull bones cracked like appetizers. Apparently, human skeletons weren't as strong as those of other animals. Even though Haku's jaws and teeth weren't yet as strong and resilient as those of adult dragons, he could still chew through bones without problems. He swallowed it all; he had learned not to waste any part of his prey. After all, dragons' digestive systems were so efficient that they could digest anything, even hard bones.

After a couple bites, Ethan's head was completely open. Haku plunged his paw into it and extracted a very large spongy organ full of convolutions.

Haku had always favored a specific part of his prey: the brain. It was his favorite part. He didn't know why; maybe because it was soft and easy to eat, or maybe it was just a matter of taste. Darbi, on the other hand, preferred the thick muscles of the shoulder line.

The human brain wasn't one of the biggest he'd ever seen, but it sure was very heavy. Compared to the size of the body, it was definitely very large. Haku opened his mouth and took a big bite. As soon as his tongue touched the spongy, calloused substance, he could taste its superfine taste. The brain was indeed a tasty organ.

When he had devoured it completely, he swallowed the rest of the head as well. Then, since he wasn't yet full, he tore off a piece of the right hand. He gave a grunt of disgust: unlike the internal organs, human flesh wasn't very tasty. It was thin, stringy, and lacked much nourishment. But it was still better than nothing.

At that point he was finally full. He glanced at Ethan's headless and without right hand body. He wouldn't eat all of him: as he told the human, he would have shared him with his brothers and sisters. After all, Ethan had helped all of them, it would have been unfair if only Haku had fed on his body.

Haku didn't feel the slightest remorse for having killed and devoured another creature capable of talking. It was a prey like any other else. He'd never had qualms about devouring anything, so why should he now? Other than the ability to speak, he and the human had absolutely nothing in common. After all, dragons didn't even disdain cannibalism, so why should Haku have to worry about eating a human? Letting Ethan go would have meant putting himself and his siblings in danger, and not eating him would have meant abandoning a food source. Haku didn't even think for a moment that what he was doing was wrong.

After all, he was still a dragon. Morality wasn't very important to dragons. Haku was a little different, but his sphere of interest in other people's lives didn't go beyond his siblings. All the others were just tools for obtaining knowledge or prey for food. Or both. Probably the last option.

When he was finally full, Haku could now take care of other things. He took the dimensional bag and emptied its contents onto the ground. From his point of view, every object from the outside world could be the equivalent of a treasure... especially Ethan's diary: an immense amount of invaluable information was stored in it. He should have studied it carefully. Luckily Ethan had taught him to read, or he'd have to work a lot harder to figure out what was written on it.

Then there was of course the man's crossbow and about fifty other arrows. Haku was sure that these arrows must be magical: it wasn't just wooden sticks with a metal tip on them, but some kind of designs were engraved on them. He didn't know what those drawings were, but he would have found out. In any case, those arrows would have been useful for setting traps. Not only that, but he already had in mind a way to use the crossbow to drive a wedge between his enemies.

From what he understood, the newcomers were a more united species than the dragons, but they still remained belligerent. If it had been necessary, using the crossbow and arrows in the right way, he could have made an attack of the dragons pass for an attack of another race; doing so he not only would have kept their existence hidden, but he would also have triggered conflicts from which he could have profited. It was all about the timing, the preparation and the details. And thanks to Ethan's diary, Haku could get all the preparation he needed to come up with the perfect plan.

Then there was the map. That too would have been useful. Through it he could orient himself on the path he intended to follow. Not only that, but since it was created with a certain attention to detail, he could use it to locate the best hiding places and keep away from villages, cities or in any case areas occupied by newcomers. When he and his siblings were forced out of the valley, the map would have been a very important tool.

However, the thing he wanted most was the refrigerator. With it, he could keep food fresh for a long, long time. Even though it had a limited duration of three years, and Ethan must have wasted some of it already, it was still very useful. It was a shame that Neytiri had charred the bodies of the other three humans, because they probably had a refrigerator and a dimensional bag with them too. It didn't matter: he would have gotten more in the future. For now, that single refrigerator was enough to allow him to store a good amount of food.

For the rest in the bag he found only some supplies, a couple of pocket knives, a tent and a sleeping bag. All useless tools for a dragon, so he just threw them away.

As he promised to Ethan, he tore his body apart and then he placed its parts inside the bag, except for his head and right hand which were already in his stomach. Pretty soon he would have been sharing it with his brothers and sisters. He doubted they'd make a fuss: every piece of meat was precious to them too, so even if human flesh was a bit disgusting they wouldn't have refused it. The refrigerator would have kept the meat fresh, so he didn't have to worry about it spoiling.

Then he put everything else back in as well, except for the things he had decided to throw away. Seeing all the free space, Haku determined that he hadn't filled even a centesimal part of the dimensional bag. It meant he could put dozens, maybe even hundreds of animals inside. However, he knew it wouldn't have been enough. He needed more space, much more space, if he was to storage enough supplies for the journey he had in mind. 7,000 tons of food was no small amount after all.

With these thoughts in his head he returned to the valley through the path between the mountains and once he arrived he looked for a fairly hidden spot in the forest; there he dug a deep hole and buried the magic bag there. He didn't want to risk losing it, but neither he could always carry it with him: if Neytiri had seen it, she would have understood that Haku had had contact with a human being. He therefore had no choice but to hide it elsewhere. Once the hole was covered and after using some ferns to hide the loose soil, he finally went back.

The treetops had provided him with all the cover he needed: his mother had noticed nothing. Good for him: if she had interrupted them he would have lost his source of information and probably also the prodigious objects that the human carried with him. After all, he would have never really dared to oppose his mother if she decided to kill Ethan: he had promised the human to ask Neytiri to leave, not to challenge her if she refused. He would never have been stupid enough to test the patience of an angry adult dragon, even if it was his mother. Though at the moment her maternal instincts still prevented Neytiri from killing him, he didn't want to risk his fate.

It didn't take long to get back to Darbi and his sisters. The group of young dragons was picking at the carcass of a large animal, probably an indrik. When he saw him, Darbi immediately scurried towards him. "Brother, you're back! I was worried!" he exclaimed.

Haku snorted and pretended to be offended: "Do you think I'm so weak that I can't face an unarmed human?"

Darbi frowned. "Oh, no, of course not. But I was worried"

Haku preferred not to tease his brother too much. He already sounded confusing enough. "I see you hunted well" he said looking at the carcass.

Darbi nodded satisfied. "Our sisters are very good! They made a few mistakes on their first try, but they were perfect on their second!" he said proudly pointing at the slain indrik. Feeling called upon, his sisters lifted their heads in vanity.

Haku was satisfied. If his sisters had learned to hunt by themselves they might have shared the duties. When there were just two, he and Darbi could only follow a single hunting trail; but in seven they could have followed two or three at the same time, therefore they could have obtained many more preys. Which was great since he set out to recover 7,000 tons of meat.

Seeing their proud expressions, Haku decided to pay his sisters a compliment. "Great job, all of you" he said. "You have learned quickly and have successfully killed a difficult prey. You have already become excellent hunters"

If there was one thing all dragons, especially females, were sensitive to, that was surely the flattery. And indeed his sisters puffed out their chests with pride and wagged their tails with happiness.

"Did you escort the human out of the valley?" Darbi asked suddenly.

"Yes, I did. As I promised him"

"And..."

"And he didn't take another step after that"

Darbi seemed satisfied with the answer. Probably he too had sensed the dangers of letting the human go free, so he didn't mind at all that Haku had killed him.

"And his things?" Tikka asked, taking the floor without warning.

"Yeah! They were interesting. And maybe they were useful too" Keita backed her up.

Haku shook his head. "Don't worry, they're safe. You didn't think I'd leave them to the beasts, did you?"

"And where are they?"

"Like I said, they're safe"

The five female dragons glared at Haku. They probably thought he was keeping all the loot for himself. "Those things are too useful, and we'll need them in the future, so I hid them. We can't risk our mother discovering them. When the time comes, I'll show you where they are" Haku said firmly. "Until then, you'll have to trust me"

His five sisters looked at him with reproachful eyes, but they didn't object. Even if they didn't like the situation, they were smart enough to understand that if they insisted Haku could refuse to give them Ethan's things again in the future, so it was better to swallow their pride and not argue. That was enough for Haku. "Now listen to me. The time we can spend in this valley is less and less, so starting tomorrow we will intensify the hunt. We will divide into teams and kill whatever we find in our path. We will eat some of the prey, but we will keep all the others. We'll need them for when we get out of the valley"

The other dragons nodded. That explanation was simple and clear, so they agreed. "Now let's go back to the lake. Soon our mother will be back"

The seven young dragons walked back up the road and caught up with the dragon again. Their siblings were obviously still there, fishing and playing. Just as they arrived something blotted out the sun, something that could only be the wings of a dragon. Haku thought it was their mother, but an instant later the situation escalated.