H U N T E R S ?

Enjoying the evening breeze, April takes in the views of the forest she had grown to know and love. Even when she was little she always yearned to be a free spirit, no longer confined by the strict and outdated rules and traditions of her village; so when they decide they had enough of her and kicked her out, she gladly packed up and left. She wasn't affected by their harshness, actually, she always despised the condescending looks of her peers just due to her being an orphan.

Shaking her head at the touchy men worked she refocuses herself on finding some shelter for the night. The sun was starting to get ready set and feeling slightly peckish she turns the pack sitting it comfortably on her shoulder, opening it, and taking out a few berries. Munching on them she noticed the winds unexpected abrupt change. A frown quickly formed on her face as a sudden shiver makes its way down her spine, alerting her somethings not right. April immediately becomes tense-looking around herself wearily, her hunter instincts completely taking control. Cautiously, she unsheathes her small dagger as foreign feelings invade her mind causing her grip to tighten. Feelings she couldn't quite put her finger on... loneliness maybe? And some distant hints of anger at the world.

They were all emotions she had felt before however... it was as if she was feeling them from someone else; getting closer and stronger as the uneasy dread deep down, grew.

Continuing to inspect her surroundings she keeps her dagger firmly in front of her, as she takes slow steps turning consistently in 360o's. The wind comes to a halt, the bushes around her no longer dancing to its tunes. April's heart quickened when she heard the brushing of them again and she swirled to see where it was coming from. Freezing when she saw the bushes moving without the wild, she calls out nervously.

The tension rises when the movement suddenly stops.

'Must just be a rabbit' she thought taking silent slow steps towards it, happy to be catching dinner when something big jumps out. The attack being so unexpected April shields her closed eyes with her arms taking steps backward and falling due to the weight of whatever pushed her. Falling hard her headlands on a rock causing her to pass out with the creature laying on her.

~~~~~~~~~~~ I hour later ~~~~~~~~~~~

Running to find the escaped creature, two students discover themselves stopping dead in their tracks at the sight of someone bleeding from their head laying under a wolf sized dragon. They both stiffen at the sight and silently plan out their next moves knowing it could very well be their last. Walking slowly closer to the scene at hand they immediately stop when a low growl escapes the dragon and decides to stay still a little. None of them could take the dragon on. Even if they were nearly equally lean and strong the dragon could tower them and attack at a speed, they would barely be able to dodge. Locking with the dragon's emerald vigilant eyes they start taking cautious steps, as an attempt to not threaten or alert it even more.

Sensing what they're doing the dragon emits a protesting snarl as its lips tuck inwards to show its large dangerous teeth.

"Calm down. We are not here to hurt you." The black-haired guy attempts to soothe the dragon but instead it rebels and stands up protecting the body. Coming from an academy they could read a dragon's body language fairly well; a lot of times it was either they got it calm or they got eaten. Anxious, they both take a step back and raise their hands up in a placating manner, but the dragon stays agitated and on edge. They decide to lower their weapons and play them on the ground, still not convincing the beast they kick them away cringing when one hit one another or rock making a loud sound.

Flickering eyes catch theirs as the person under the dragon starts waking up. She moans in pain as her hand comes and touches her slightly lifted head but when her eyes open flashes of concern become visible as she immediately starts squirming away from it uncomfortably.

Waking up April's eyes starting to adjust to the darkness of the night, a swift wave of pain hits her quickly coming from her head and ankle. Subconsciously her hand lifts to where the migraine is forming as she lifts herself on her elbows. She looks around, abruptly remembering the evening's events when her eyes land on the large animal- a small dragon. Heart-stopping at the memories of her parent's death trying to break free from the depth of her mind she takes deep breaths to calm herself. Regaining her senses and basic common sense she shifts herself backward failing to notice the audience watching her.

April tries desperately to keep her eyes off the dragon- hoping and praying it won't be a trigger- but when she finds herself looking at it she realizes its eyes are completely focused on her. Never Blinking, never even moving an inch.

Narrow, Emerald, imperial eyes sit rooted within the creature's bony, horned skull, which gives the beast a very ominous looking appearance.

Several horns sit atop its head, just above its tiny, pointy ears. Large fan-like skin and bone structures run down the sides of each of its jawlines.

Its nose is stubby and has two short, rounded nostrils and there are small tendrils on its chin. A few large teeth poke out from the side of its mouth and give a preview of the terror hiding inside of this baby dragon.

A short neck runs down from its head and into a muscular wolf sized body. The top is covered in rounded scales and rows of spikes run down its spine. Its bottom is covered in coarse skin and is colored lighter than the rest of its body. Four massive limbs carry its body and allow the creature to stand noble and dignified. Each limb has 3 digits, each of which ends in sharp claws seemingly made of onyx.

Terrifying wings grow starting from its shoulders and end just passed its shoulder blades. The wings are almost butterfly-like, the inner sides of the wing are full of minor holes and armor-like scales grow on top of the wing's primary bones.

Its barbed tail ends in a scythe-like blade and is covered in the same rounded scales as its body.

... But overall... it's kind of cute...

April tries to stand up to show no fear towards the dragon but her ankle ends up letting up on her causing her to fall back down and clutch it and cursing a string of pretty words under her breath. Looking back up her eyes lock with the dragons who seems to once again be smirking at her. Frowning April retorts "It's not funny. It's your fault I hurt my ankle." The dragon's lips curl as he growls a little, and steps closer to her. "I don't think so." She warned moving back a little. "Go away. I don't like dragons so don't come close."

The dragon rolled its eyes- wait.... April thought.... The Dragon actually rolled its eyes. Like literally rolled its purple daring eyes. Her mouth dropped open almost hitting the ground before she composed herself. The dragon turned around and gave a death glare to the two guys acting as their, standing and watching with amusement at the scene, as April attention is finally brought to them.

"Is..." April stopped, looked down between the dragon's legs and saw the three dots and a line indicating he was indeed a male before she continued. "He your dragon?" Her lack of concern at the wild creature almost startles the two men as they look a little taken back by her question... How did she even know people were keeping dragons? ... was she joking? They thought. Really inspecting them, April notices how black the hair- of the right guy- blending in with the now almost pitch-black sky and matching the dragon's reflective scales. They both were rather lean, only wearing a blue shirt (signaling wealth) and some black trousers to shield them from the weather's unpredictable attacks. The one with Raven hair was obviously more muscular and must have trained long and hard immensely to get to where he was now. Only now noticing the dead giveaway of the symbol of an academy uniform she immediately assumes their Hunters after this poor dragon. Growing restless at the thought of them hurting her or him, she picks up her bow and arrow keeping them at her sides, eyes focused on the men's weapons.

"Well, he's not our dragon in specific... he was supposed to be... ughh" The brunette says looking at the tiny beast between breaths as he clutches his unsheathed hidden sword. "Regardless, he's more the academy's dragon then ours." He finishes explaining a little uneasy at the hyacinth glare his receiving.

"He doesn't seem to like you very much. He looks rather wild to me." April challenges, her glistening blue-grey orbs never leaving the forest green ones of the dark hair owners' hand on the weapon. Though, she may dislike dragons for taking everything from her, she despises the hunters who provoked it to do so much more.

"It doesn't matter what you think." The Cole haired guy contributes leaving the other to finish his statement. "Look, we're sorry he hurt you, but we really need to get going." he asserts looking stressed as he runs a hand through his messy hair, letting the other drop from the proximity of the weapon. This only angers April... She could easily retaliate even with a hurt ankle. She had been known as a talented hunter from a young age and no one was going to get in her way... never mind the fact that she seemed to have a seemingly jealous, weird dragon beside her.

"How do I know you guys aren't hunters?" She spits out bluntly accusing them of a common hobby many seem to take part in these days. The brown-haired hair nerves radiate to her and it isn't hard to tell he's apprehensive to speak... almost as if he was supposed to be keeping their hunting a secret, which wouldn't make sense since most were rather open about it. On the other hand, the other looked surprised at the sudden question.

"If we tell you, we'll have to kill you!" The brown-haired guy warns, obviously with hints of amusement as he tries to scare April off with his mischievous grin. The wind whistled between them, only allowing the deep and threatening snarl of the small dragon to be heard.

"I'd like to see you try, so why don't you go ahead and enlighten me." April retorts feeling a surge of confidence from someone... or rather something else... in her head... but deep down she can feel that it seems to be coming from the dragon. She waves it off thinking it must be from hitting her head so hard on the rock and allowing it to bleed out for so long but the ominous sensation of an intrusion of her thoughts still haunts her.

Sighing the black-haired guy leans against the tree beside him and rolls his eyes casually, though still holding an aura of uncertainty and shock at the dragon's aggressive behavior. "You most likely won't believe us." He starts off, dubious that she'd even listen to him after what he was about to say... it must sound horrific to most people... what their academy did was no public knowledge and was most certainly frowned upon.

"Try me."

"Pfft whatever," he mumbles. "We both attend Riders High." April's eyebrows raise questioningly clearly expressing that telling her they go to an academy wasn't helping out their case since most train to persecute dragons. "It's not what you think, Riders High helps us tame and train dragons. We don't hunt them." He assures her, his hands placed on the back of his neck in an apprehensive manner, looking to see if she believed him; which she didn't... at least not quite.

Finding the situation rather funny April giggles a little, completely suspicious that a school would actually help dragons instead of hurting them... after all, if there was such a school, then why had her parents been killed how they did... it didn't add up. "That's no proof. For all, I know that could be a bunch of fabricated lies, all part of your sick plan to harm this creature." April shoots back weary of how easily people lie these days. I mean she had been a first-hand witness, with all the rumors that spread through her village about her like wildfire. It had affected her at first but when it led to everyone hating her she became almost numb to them.

Her mind slowly wondering deep in her thoughts April snaps out of it at the sound of a loud growl from the creature now closer than ever beside her. Its chest vibrating, she draws her attention to their proximity and clutches her dagger closely. Being wrapped by a dragon's tail would have been terrifying had it been any larger but seeing a wolf sized dragon try to cuddle up to her was cuter than she could comprehend and soon any hint of distinct fear disappeared.

April relaxes finally allowing her eyes to shift from the overly weirdly protective and instead to the guys arguing amongst themselves. "Excuse me, its late and I quite honestly am tired, so you either show me some real proof of I'm going to scare the hell out him" She points at the dragon before continuing "so much It'll never be seen again." April's words make her feel slightly guilty and another strange emotion appears. One into of her own... changing from something somewhat endearing to slightly angry... again.

"We're not supposed to show you this but- "

"TRAV! You really going to expose us...!" The black-haired cautions looking dubiously between us.

"It's fine Cole..." The guy named Trav... or whatever his name is says giving ... Cole a look.

"Whatever 'secrets' you guys have... does it really look like I have anyone to tell?" April asks adding bunny ears with her fingers to emphasize the word 'secrets'.

They both roll their eyes at April but the dark-haired guy -that April now recognizes as Cole- pulled a leaflet out of his pocket; sighing at his friends carelessly, but giving in and complying anyways. It was clearly old, worn, and withered but there was one thing that stood out to her.

Three words to be precise...

'Train Your Dragon'

. . .