Savior

The night was a comforting blanket of darkness, helping Link to come out of his sullen mood. The air wasn’t as frigid as the night before and the humidity helped his wings glide effortlessly through the sky. His last conversation with his family was still fresh in his mind, making his mood as black as his scales, but the stars were helping to blink the memory out.

Link dipped his flight pattern lower as he approached a familiar forest in which he loved to hunt for boars to scorch. Perhaps a full belly would help ease his irritation even more. He neared the ground and tasted his surroundings hoping to pick up that musky boar scent, but after several minutes it didn’t seem promising. He could usually scare them out of hiding by knocking over a tree or two with his massive tail, causing them to run screaming and making it all too easy to pluck them right off the ground with his talons, but after three separate trees went down he still had no luck.

Hunting with actual effort was never much fun, so he allowed his mind to meander into the unknown just as his legs did the same. Unsure how much time had passed, his attention was snapped back to reality as he caught an unfamiliar scent of something alive. As the most feared known predator in the region, curiosity dominated over fear as he snuffed out the creature that emanated such an unusual odor.

As he followed the trail, his ears picked up an unbelievably irritating high pitched wailing sound, which almost forced him to turn back. His curiosity was piqued even more, however, as this sound was just as foreign as the smell and he pushed on. A minute later, he came across the most peculiar creature he’d ever seen.

It was small - not even the size of one of his feet - and it stood on only two legs. It had no wings or tail, and on its head was the strangest fur he’d every seen, the same light golden color of the leaves just before the snow comes, but long like a very wide tail all around its head. From its closed eyes, water was falling, and its mouth was wide open - the origin of that awful sound. As Link approached, a distant memory of his father telling him of strange two-legged creatures living in large groups and hunting dragons for sport sprang to the forefront of his mind. Human, Link finally remembered the name for the biped creatures. This must be a human. Fear fluttered in the pit of his stomach for the first time in decades as he considered the stories of dragons dying from the weapons these human things supposedly sported.

But this small creature didn’t seem dangerous. It had no weapons, or anything else. If anything it just seemed pathetic and worthless, standing there with no obvious intent except to make the most annoying sound known to dragon kind.

Link slowly approached closer, wanting a better look and sniff, and the wailing sound ceased as the human’s sharp green eyes widened, focusing on Link’s burning orange ones. He froze, waiting for some weapon to emerge, but nothing happened. He pressed on, sniffing the tiny human’s long fur falling from its head, then its chest.

He leapt back as its cold, tiny, talonless hand touched his nose. A bubbly sound erupted from the tiny human’s mouth and its face transformed into a look of jubilation. What was the meaning of this? Link’s confusion only grew as this strange encounter continued on. He felt oddly at ease the longer he stood staring at the biped.

Link wondered if this was a fully grown human or if it was recent offspring, and the fear returned as he considered the possibility that its family could be near.

They could be nearby, looking for it, Link thought to himself. I would be wise to evade them, should they arise out of nowhere. He expanded his senses to the surrounding areas, waiting for the sound of two feet moving through the brush, other human scents, or the sight of anything else unusual. Nothing but the tiny human was out of the ordinary for this forest.

Still, Link didn’t want to take unnecessary chances and backed away from the tiny human slowly, watching as its face lost its happiness and water pooled in the bottom of its eyes once again.

Not that insufferable sound again, he quickened his pace. The wailing noise erupted from the tiny human’s mouth once more and Link decided not to stick around for it. His wings lifted him straight up to the stars, though an odd sensation in his chest made them falter and threaten to turn back.

***

He made it back to his family’s cave the following morning. His mood was much better, after his strange encounter with the human, he had found two boars by chance and now his belly was full and his mind was on his future.

“Link, where have you been all night?” Link’s sister, Hela, emerged from her nest to his right, her black scales (similar to his own) shimmering their purple undertones in irritation.

“According to this family, it doesn’t matter what I do with my time,” Link muttered as he pushed past her. He noticed that his brother, Peter, was not present. “Where is our almighty future leader?”

“He went looking for you after you did not return from your temper tantrum for quite some time.” Hela huffed.

“He is not leader of this clan yet, so I do not have to obey his every command just yet, do I?”

“Oh, you might as well—”

“FAMILY!” A new boom of a voice cut Hela off. “I found dinner while I was out there! Check it out! Nice to see you back home, Link.” Angst poisoned his voice as he said Link’s name.

Peter, much like his siblings, had a base color of black for his scales, but his undertone, which only showed at certain angles, was a deep blue as opposed to Link’s forest green or Hela’s purple. All three siblings were about the size of a house in one of those village things, Hela being the smallest as the female. Each of their wingspans could swallow several fully grown pine trees. They were the mightiest dragons in their clan, and therefore the ruling family.

Link and Hela turned to see Peter swoop in, something small clutched in his talons. It was then that Link noticed an eerily familiar screeching noise, even more piercing than the one from the previous night.

Peter yelled over the howling of the small human, “I get first choice on the section!”

As if his body had a mind of its own, Link sprang forth and saw his own taloned foot as it blocked Peter’s massive claw from piercing the human’s midsection. Peter whipped his head up, shocked, to face his brother’s egregious stare.

“Not this one,” Link heard his voice declare gruffly.

Peter was too shocked to move immediately, but when he found his thoughts again they were angry. How dare his own lowly brother tell him what he could and could not do? How dare he have the nerve to intervene on his breakfast before he’d even had the chance to taste it?

Rather than act rash, Peter tossed the tiny human to Hela to hold. “I get the first bite,” he reminded her.

As Link witnessed the meager creature fly from Peter’s grasp to Hela’s, his anger grew to fury. His grip on his brother’s arm tightened. “I said, not this one.”

“Is that a challenge, brother?” Peter spat. “I’ll gladly fight you, but don’t pretend it’s really over some pathetic human child and not because you’re just angry that I’ll be the next clan leader over you.”

Link spared one second to recognize the name of a human youth. So that’s what it’s called!

“So what if it is?” Link stepped forward, bracing his wings to spur him toward his brother. Link didn’t know what had gotten into him. It was just a human child, what did it matter if Peter ate it for dinner? But the thought brought bile up Link’s long esophagus and he felt a primal urge to protect the pathetic little creature. But then, his jealousy at his brother’s future position as clan leader was a much better reason among his fellow dragons for Link’s hostility. “You deserve to be taken down a notch anyway.”

Peter was unable to answer as Link flew at him with speed he only possessed when he was raging. Peter’s eyes widened in shock as Link’s talons aimed for the jugular. Perhaps Peter didn’t expect Link to be serious? Oh, but he was so serious. His entire being burned with hatred as the image of Peter consuming the child for dinner replayed through his mind. He didn’t even fully understand his anger, but he gave into it anyway. It felt good.

Peter snapped into action just before his blood was spilled, knocking Link’s claw away and making his own move. He spun and attempted to knock Link back with his stone-heavy tail. Link dodged by running for the exit, expanding his wings the very moment he was outside and darting up and away from the cave. Of course he didn’t need to wait long for Peter to follow suit.

Amidst the now airborne battle, a light rain began to fall and the cumulonimbus clouds of a thunder storm enveloped them in darkness. Link always hated breathing fire as it made his throat raw afterwards, but he considered this a worthy atonement for the discomfort. He summoned as much anger as he could from the pit of his belly and relished in the burning in his chest as he prepared to strike, and a torch bigger than he’d ever summoned before glided like an eagle springing from its perch toward his brother. Peter’s scales protected him from the blaze, but it was enough to distract him from Link’s razor sharp teeth closing around the joint connecting his wing to his body. An amazing roar of agony escaped from him along with his blood.

Below, Hela watched from the entrance to their cave and suddenly took notice to the child in her grasp, suddenly quiet. She looked down to see round, ice blue eyes staring unblinkingly at the sight in the sky. Hela wondered how this little human could be so enthralled, watching two dragon brothers duel it out under a blanket of storm clouds and animosity, but the scene above drew her own eyes up before she could ponder much further.

Now faltering slightly in his flight, Peter exhaled his own curtain of fire, and it appeared to have perfect aim directly toward Link’s face. Link summoned another searing breath and sent it at Peter’s - literally fighting fire with fire. Link’s must have been more powerful as it swallowed Peter’s and went directly at him, singing his eyes and searing his already injured wing.

“CURSE YOU!” Peter exclaimed as the pain forced him to drop back down to earth in the most ungraceful manner.

Peter landed hard on all four of his legs and did not have the chance to brace himself before Link crashed onto his back, flattening him against the rock. Peter struggled for a minute before he conceded that he could not wriggle his way out from under his brother. Link could smell the blood that began to pool underneath them both and he could not contain his tongue lapping at the air hungrily.

“Do you concede?” Link demanded.

“Never!”

Link stepped on Peter’s throat and heard a small squeal. “Do you concede?” He asked again, venom tainting every word. Angry as he was, he did not like the idea of killing his brother.

“Yes,” Peter spat.

“Do you relinquish your title to me?”

“Yessss,” Peter hissed with even more rage.

Link slowly let him up and the fire in Peter’s eyes was much more powerful than that of his breath. Link held fast to his new authority.

“The human is not a meal.”

Peter simply glared at the ground before lifting from it and flying into the storm that was now raging all around them.

Link returned to the entrance of the family cave to see a gathering of the rest of the clan, with Hela and the human child buried amongst them somewhere. Amidst the muttering of the whole group, he rose his voice and announced that his brother conceded to him in the challenge and therefore he is now the future leader of the clan, as per ancient dragon law. The mutterings morphed into full fledged exclamations.

“What will their father say?”

“I always thought Link was the stronger brother.”

“Well that’s a surprise!”

Link tuned them out as he searched for his sister and the child, finding them only once the crowd began to disperse. Hela was holding the tiny human gingerly with one of her front legs and using a wing to make sure it didn't get wet from the now heavy rain.

“I have to say, I can sort of see why you became so angry over this thing. It’s rather endearing, isn’t it?”

Relief washed through Link. “I’m glad I’m not alone in the effect it has. I can’t explain it myself!”

“It’s almost...cute. I never thought I’d say that about a human!”

“I know what you mean.” Link returned the smile his sister gave him. He always liked Hela, they often had an understanding between them that he seldom shared with others, especially with Peter. Hela felt the same.

“So what do we do with it?” Hela asked, looking down at the now-sleeping creature.

“I’ll take it and go back to where I first saw it. Maybe other humans are looking for it.”

Link gently lifted the child from Hela’s leg and into his, taking care so that it didn’t wake up. He flew as gently as his could back to the general area in which he first saw it and dipped lower, his tongue tasting the air hoping to catch the scent of other humans. After a few moments, he smelled what he thought was cooking meat and followed that scent. He spotted the fire that must be doing the cooking and landed gently a short distance away so as not to be seen and immediately deemed a threat. He heard human voices just moments after catching their scent and the tiny human perked up.

“Daddy!” The child exclaimed.

I wonder what that sound means, Link thought to himself as he set the child down. Link stayed shrouded in the darkness of the tree line and watched the child run toward what looked like a fully grown human lift it up and twirl it in a circle. A sudden guttural sound came from the grown one, but he didn’t look injured, instead he looked rather joyous. What a mystery these humans are.

***

Link had been leader of the clan for several years and felt satisfied with himself after settling a debate among some young dragons regarding who got to hunt where. It was such a petty disagreement, but it drained Link of his mental energy and he needed to take a flight.

He was flying in a direction he hadn’t flown in for years and had almost forgotten about. It felt oddly nostalgic, though he wasn’t entirely sure why, until the familiar scent of cooking meat intruded into his nostrils.

He lowered down into the forest and landed as softly as he could. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly why he was approaching the telltale sign of humans - in fact, this was a punishable offense if done by a young dragon. But Link couldn’t stop himself, he needed to see which humans were in this part of the forest.

He crept forward as silently as he could and spotted two fully grown humans, both with short dark hair, large upper bodies, and deep voices as they uttered their odd human speech. The smell of the meat cooking over a small fire was all Link could smell and it unsettled him. He also noticed the sharp weapons they carried, and cursed to himself at his own foolishness. This is a punishable offense for a reason!

Before he could back away and retreat, he heard what could have been a small footfall and snapped his head to the left to find another fully grown human standing not a full dragon’s length away. His shock and immediate fear was extinguished when he noticed how familiar the eyes were. Its face was thinner with a more angular shape, but the blue eyes the color of thick ice were the same as he remembered. The hair, though much longer now and tied into two strange ropes, was an identical shade of golden as well. As the sight became more familiar, Link finally noticed the scent of this human, which also matched the child’s exactly, and all doubt left his mind.

This human, while definitely fully grown now, was smaller in height and stature than the other two fully grown humans, possibly a female while the other two were male? Link wasn’t sure but went with that theory anyhow.

“Are you that same dragon?” The human whispered, though Link was still unable to decipher the meaning. “Are you my savior?”

The other two humans began moving toward Link and his child-turned-full-grown-human. “Annika! What are you doing out there?” The female human looked toward the sound.

Link didn’t hesitate, he took flight as quickly as possible. No need to anger the male humans with weapons.

“DRAGON!” The males yelled once Link broke free from the trees. They reached for their swords in a panic, not realizing the dragon was flying away rather than coming in to attack. “Annika! Get back!”

But Link’s human - Annika - didn’t move. She watched as he rose higher and was positive that was the same dragon that saved her all those years ago. Black scales, beautiful green shimmering undertones, kind eyes.

Link heard his human make one more confusing sound: “Thank you.”

That sounded like a threat, so he flew faster.