- 4 - Awaken Dragon, The Horrors of Human Teenagers

I stirred to the sound of rustling from a bush nearby. Grumbling, I rolled over to open my eyes to the emerald-colored stare of a human adolescent. My body bolted into an upright position, my hand on my chest in shock.

A thought occurred to me.

Did I just get shocked by a hormonal human?

Nonsense.

The adolescent snickered at my jumping, prompting a scoff to escape from my mouth as I balanced myself back on my feet. I stood tall, my height spanning over his figure by two heads, I glared down at the hormonal boy.

He smirked, holding a grin as he held his hands in front of him and backed up.

The boy chuckled, "Whoa, didn't mean to startle you. I just thought you were dead or something."

Taking a second to observe this boy, I noticed his raggy white shirt with torn pocket-covered pants. His face was muddy and his hair unkempt, pulled behind his head in a short ponytail.

"There's no way that I would be scared of something like you," I clarified, rolling my eyes at his apparent disbelief towards my statement.

"Sure, tough guy. Whatever helps you sleep at night," he mocked, peering around us at the wooded clearing, "Don't blame me. Finding someone sleeping in the middle of a dense forest wasn't on my bucket list."

I glanced back at the matted grass from which I had been laying. It was peculiar to fall asleep after using the portal, especially for a small trip like this. I would have to contact Dagon about this later.

Still, my goal during this temporary banishment was to gather enough information about humans and I had the perfect human guide at my disposal.

First, I needed an excuse to ward off the weary expression of the hormonal human boy.

"...I came here to," I paused. Now that I think of it what did humans do for fun? In Hellion, the average youth participated in bone carving activities and turned old corpses into beautifully carved toys. The last time I checked, I don't recall humans doing the same.

The adolescent finished it for me, "It's okay. You ran away from your parents, right?"

In a sense, I suppose he wasn't wrong.

"Oh shucks, you caught me," I played along, bringing my hand to the back of my head and plastering my best I 've-been-caught expression.

The boy sighed, turning on his heel and motioning for me to follow, "I'm not going to make you go back. I'm sure you've run away for a reason but it's not safe in these mountains at nightfall. I'll take you to the small town where I work."

I nodded slowly, treading carefully behind him. This was the best way to blend in with humans, but I would need to be careful. I suppose that I could come back at night to relax in my dragon form once I went to inspect this human town. My body felt stiff from staying in the human form for this long, but I would have to deal with it till I found time. It was nothing serious from what I could tell.

I was pleased with the location that the portal had brought me to.

It appears that the forest that I was teleported into was extremely dense. The bed was covered in overgrowing plants and bushes. Thick trees formed into a heavy canopy above us. The castle mage had done well with the location, and it was quite convenient with a human town nearby.

The woods were quite thick.

"What were you doing in the woods?" I asked the human boy.

"Training," He replied simply, I noticed the beads of sweat that covered the back of his neck as he ventured down the overgrown terrain, "I'll come of age soon and be sent to the main city to take the exams for the army."

Youth in Hellion trained from when they were old enough to pick up objects. This body looked no older than fifteen years of human age. Thinking back to some of the battles, corpses at times were youthful looking. Humans followed the same scouting processes determined by age. Except, the demonic people had fighting bred into their everyday traditions. Violence was social normalcy.

The boy peered over his shoulder, glancing at my attire, "Are you from a hunter family?"

"What do you mean?" My attire was black cargo pants with leather straps attached to the thigh, normally they would be used to hold knives or potions but mine were empty. Dragons didn't exactly need weapons when their existence sufficed as a threat against enemy armies. I wore a simple, fitted black top. This was something that even the citizens of Hellion would wear, much less the royal family. I didn't understand what this human boy meant.

"Forget it muscles if you don't want to admit it then don't. I'm just saying that not many people have the guts to be in these mountains and most people don't carry around weapon straps." The boy retorted, moving a branch and snapping it back in my face.

He snickered as he continued to face forward, exposing his back to a pissed-off dragon.

I grinded my teeth, as I yanked the branch straight off the tree and threw it back into the bushes behind us. The boy didn't seem to notice but commented on the sound.

"Did you hear something snap?" he asked, balancing down a small descent.

"...Must be your imagination," I explained through clenched teeth.

This twerp was pushing it. If he weren't my ticket into human society then I would have eaten him already.

My hands curled into fists; nails started to dig into my palms. I bit my tongue from releasing the foulest depth of insults that I've learned from my short two-hundred years alive in the demonic barracks. Alas, I shouldn't.

Actually, I couldn't because I needed to lay low to avoid fighting till my wing was fully healed. Being injured with light magic meant that demons couldn't heal normally. I was immune from the damage of most human weapons including bullets, and most magic spells, and took minor damage to holy water compared to other demons. Yet, light magic originated in the angelic species. They were the only race that the demonic species tried to avoid, seeing as their light magic interfered with the healing. If I were to compare the speed of the healing, it would be like a human losing a limb and having to grow it back at its slowed healing speed. My full energy would have to be focused on healing.

The line of trees dwindled to a halt, leaving the appearance of a strange-looking human town in the distance. I observed the large houses that differed from the hutted ones that I remembered from villages. These ones were built of stone bricks and covered in burgundy-red tiled roofs. It looked advanced for humans. I spotted some walking on red-bricked roads in the approaching town. Some even zipped around using magic through decently crowded streets.

"Does this town have a surplus of gold?" I asked, puzzled at the sight. This was a richer town, perhaps? I was under the impression that wealthy lords could only afford these building materials.

The boy's deadpan turned into an amused chuckle, "I didn't know you were a comedian," he humored me. My question remained unanswered.

What's a comedian? Human lingo was confusing.

I decided to follow the boy through the meadow, soon stepping foot on an entrance gate that two chubby guards guarded.

"State your business." One of the guards announced, staring down at us with observant eyes. I noticed him, eyeing the empty leather straps on my thighs and my blackened attire.

The human boy pulled a card out of his pocket, handing it to the other guard, "I'm an herb collector for the potion maker of the town. My friend is visiting from a neighboring town," He explained.

I matched the glare of the guard that seemed suspicious of my arrival, "It's true. I'm visiting."

There was no broken eye contact, as the guard's face filled with disdain, "Very well."

He added, now extruding a small killing aura. I struggled to keep myself under control. How dare he?

"Let's see your identification card then I'll let you boys in."

The boy sighed, noticing the tension, "Just show him your identification card and they'll let us in."

I collected myself, exhaling deeply and discreetly positioning my stance in case this didn't work. I mustered an aloof face, as I looked back at the guard with teenage stupidity, "Uh…I forgot it at home."

"Then, I'm afraid you can't get in." The guards stepped closer to the gates, blocking any attempted runs to enter.

"Are you kidding me?" The boy rambled to the guards, swirling his arms in protest.

As much as I wanted to rip the guard into shreds and snap his bones individually, I wasn't in the mood to fight or use up energy.

I sighed, taking a step back and observing the walls that surrounded the town. Well, it was no siege, but these walls weren't that high. I've dealt with worse, so this was manageable. In fact, there was no point in having a gate when simple thieves could figure out how to get in. I was positive that a baby hell-rat could squirm their way into this town.

The human boy was still arguing with the guards. I walked over and grabbed his collar, dragging him behind me, still kicking and screaming. I held up a certain finger that Dagon informed me was the best way to say goodbye in human customs.

I pretended to not hear the human curses that I'd heard on the battlefield before coming from the glaring guard's mouth. I dragged the human boy that I owed for guiding me to the village, who had been pestering me with questions about what I was doing.

I set him down after reaching a turning point in the walls that would be out of sight from the guards.

"What are you doing," He exclaimed, plopping to the ground and swiftly getting to his feet, and marching towards me.

This human was quite short, so I reached out my hand to hold his head. He fought against this, still trying to push forward.

"I'm going to kill you!" He shouted, swinging his fists that weren't even landing close to my torso.

I nodded, staring up at the wall.

"Sure. Shut up for a second. I need to think." I dismissed him, which pissed the human off even more. I ignored the short human boy.

The wall was something that I could step on in my dragon form, but it would be easy to scale in my human form, even without any dragon features.

Okay then. I turned to the human boy, catching his whining fists into a firm hold, and lifted him onto my back.

"Hey! Wait. What are you doing, you psycho?" He tried to hop off, but I held on to his arms and shushed him.

"Stop whining and hold on." He didn't have time to protest, as I launched off into a sprint, jumping onto the stone wall, and quickly scaled up the pathetic wall.

The human boy responded to this with curses and the tightening of his grip around my shoulders. I gripped the edge of the wall, easily pulling us fully up, and hopping down to the other side with a thump.

The impact of the fall was enough to knock the boy off my back. He proceeded to get to his feet with bewildered eyes.

I yawned, stretching my shoulder. It ached from where the boy lay where my left wing would be positioned.

"That counts as payment for guiding me out of the forest, right?"