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Merick tasted the blood in his muzzle as he limped naked through the tall grass. Rough ropes still bound his wrists and every inch of his canine body ached and burned. His left ankle was badly sprained, if not broken, but the canid knew that if he slowed down - if the BloodFangs caught him again - he'd have much worse than a sprained ankle. He could hear the hunters cackling in the distance as they found his busted cage and he knew they'd be after him fast.

The Northern forest loomed ahead of him, and it was his only chance. The Fangs didn't go in there often. Of course Merick's tribe didn't either. Not many who enter the forest leave again, but he was likely dead either way. He ran as fast as he could, breath ragged and blood-stained fur matted and cold until a mix of various firs and pines were flicking by. The evening light dimmed further as the canopy thickened, and the painted dog's big ears swiveled, tracking the progress of his pursuers while his tired eyes scanned the forest floor to allow him to keep his footing.

To his dismay, Merick heard the laughing-cackle of his Hyena pursuers echoing through the trees, and he knew they had chanced entering the forest after him. He ran faster, pushing himself to the edge to try to lose the hunters behind him. A sharp pain forced an agonizing yelp from the canid's muzzle as a thorn on a passing branch caught and tore his right ear. He grimaced, panicking ever more as he knew that sound just helped his hunters zero in on their quarry. He threw caution to the wind and ran as fast as his legs could carry him, and then there was darkness as his world fell away.

--

Merick woke on hard stone. He was in agony, but was glad that he blacked out before he felt the impact that left him where he was currently. As he rolled over, he could see the dim light of the forest through a small hole some 30 feet above him. He had fallen into a cave. It stunk of guano and snakes. Merick was a strong, lithe hunter of the MoonClaws. His tribe was made up of two species of canid's that were furred like wolves or painted dogs. He was one of the latter. He reached his bound paws up to feel his injured ear and realized it was torn through and still bleeding. It hurt fiercely. He then felt down-wards to his left leg where he found his ankle to be puffy and swollen. He whispered a prayer to the goddess of the moon, thanking her for somehow allowing his cage to have a weak wooden pole. The BloodFang gnolls were ruthless. Cruel. Torturous. They had killed many of his tribe. He knew if he hadn't of gotten away he'd already be dead. Right now he almost wished he was.

After several long moments of listening, Merick realized his fall into the cave may have just saved him from his pursuers. His head spun with pain, but he started chewing at his bonds around his wrists, eventually gnawing them through and freeing his paws. With a painful stretch, the canid stood on his weak legs. His green eyes could see fairly well in the darkness and as they adjusted he looked around at his surroundings. He had fallen just inches from a stalagmite that would have killed him had he hit it. A few bats, annoyed at his intrusion, flitted around parts of the ceiling. The large cave had a tunnel heading what he guessed was Westward. He blinked in the near blackness and took all of three steps before he was nearly face to face with large, cold blue eyes, staring back into his green.

Merick Yelped and stumbled back, his shaky legs giving out and leaving him sprawled back onto his butt.

"Who.. Who's there" He squeaked out.

Suddenly the cave shifted in front of him, a large mass of scales and wings shifted and a horrible wail came from the scaled snout. It didn't sound like a threat. It sounded like a dying animal. Merick took a few deep breaths and thought to himself. "Great. Of all the ways to escape the damned Fangs, I fell into a dragon cave." The canid had never actually seen a dragon before, but the stories his tribe told were never good. Dragons ate his kind. Dragons ate all kinds. He hoped this one was dying and not about to eat him.

The blue eyes caught his attention again. The dragon watched him. Silently now. Unmoving. It's eyes intelligent. Feral. Dangerous. In pain... Merick raised his paws slowly, speaking like he would to a scared pet. "Whoa.. Whoa there. I'm sorry I fell into your cave. I don't know what's wrong with you, but I have my own problems. You stay over there, I'll find a way out, and we'll both be happy. Right?"

The beast's tail shifted in the back of the dim cave, and Merick heard the clank of metal along with the shifting scales. The dragon cried out again, weakly. It's eyes narrowing in pain.

"Great... " Merick whispered to himself as his confused thoughts jumbled around. 'I can't leave an animal in pain. Even if it is a dragon. I'm nearly dead myself. And I'm going to try to help this bloody thing and get myself eaten. But if I help it, maybe it can help me get out of this cave. The only way out is past it anyway. First things first... I need some light.'

--

Taking a deep breath, and decided on a path, Merick looked back to those pained blue eyes. "I'm going to build a fire. If the smoke attracts the fangs, we're both dead. But I need light so it's the only way." He said. He then went about collecting bits of dead vegetation, the ropes that had been around his wrists, roots, and whatever else he could find that was burnable. There wasn't much. But he did find a few pieces of flint and solid stone that should work to spark something up. Using that, he was able to get a small fire going that cast orange, flickery light throughout the cave.

Merick saw blue... Not only eyes, but scales too. The beast that lay along the cave wall a few feet from him was like nothing he'd seen before. Scales that looked smooth as glass. Wings folded along it's shoulders. A long neck and tail connected by a once-powerful body that was now thin from lack of food. All covered in sky-blue scales. It was actually quite gorgeous for the dangerous monster it was.

Merick reached up to touch his torn ear as the smoke in the air started to irritate the wound, and he was glad to feel the bleeding had mostly stopped. But what he didn't see in the dim firelight was what was wrong with the dragon before him. Why did it appear to be in such agony? "Hey Dragon... What's wrong with you? I don't see any wounds. How can I help you?"

The blue eyes opened wider as he spoke, it's head swiveling slowly to stare at him. Merick felt almost as if it understood his words. The big dragon tried to shift it's body and Merick heard that metallic clank again. The dragon wailed and settled down. Whatever was going on was on the side he couldn't see. "You can't stand. Can you roll over a bit? Lift your leg... This one." Merick had nearly forgotten he was tending to a dragon now. His curiosity and desire to help drove him to walk right up to it. When his paw pads touched the blue scales of it's haunch, the dragon tensed and let out a low growl that shook the cave and scared the bats again from their slumber.

"Whoa there!" Merick said, pulling his paw back quickly. "I'm trying to help you, dragon. If you eat me, seems to me you'll die down here. Now calm down and lift your leg."

To Merick's surprise, the dragon lowered its head and started shifting it's body, rolling into the wall a bit so that it was on it's side, and lifted it's rear leg to expose it's belly and the source of the problem. Merick watched in wonder as this big beast did as he asked, and his eyes traveled across it's unique frame. The scales on it's belly were lighter blue than the rest. And the ones where her legs met were smaller and nearly pink, outlining a puffy cloacal slit. Merick quickly looked away from it's... her... private parts and then saw the dragon's problem. The biggest bear trap Merick had ever seen was clamped onto her rear left leg. The jagged teeth had torn into her scales, and worse off, the heavy chain attached to it had wedged into a crevice here in the cave, chaining her by her back leg to the wall with only a couple inches of wiggle room. "Stay there" he said.

Merick stepped over to the dwindling fire and piled the last of the twigs and roots he had onto it. Some dried guano scraped off the rocks also aided in fueling the fire and it blazed up enough to give him a bit of a better view. He crouched down between the dragon's rear legs and his nose twitched at the scents of metallic reptilian musk, pheromones, and blood. He briefly wondered if dragons had heat cycles like canids, but knew he had to focus on his task. He ran a paw gently around the trap where it dug into her skin. The dragon had done a lot of damage trying to get free. He worried she might lose her leg. "The trick with these traps, is the release takes two paws and some strength that most animals can't muster, especially if they're trapped. I can release you, but when I do, it'll hurt. And you're going to bleed. A lot."

He scooted back a few inches and looked up at the dragon. She was watching him calmly with her crystal-blue eyes and then he swore she gave a nod. Not wasting any time as the fire burned down, he pressed down on both sides of the trap release and pried the jaws free. The dragon screamed and kicked her leg free, knocking Merick over and splattering him with her blood. The beast roared, took two steps, and collapsed, unmoving, by the fire.

...More coming soon...