I'm Only Human Pt. 3

Story by SierraActual on SoFurry

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#3 of I'm Only Human

Alright so here is the next chapter finally. It took a while to get d...


Alright so here is the next chapter finally. It took a while to get done and it is quite a bit longer than the last chapter. This one comes out to about 15 pages while the last chapter was around 9 pages. Oh and dl98 do you have something against dragons? I'm not hating I just want to know.

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I'm Only Human Pt. 3

An ear shattering roar emanated from deep within the councils castle. In their chamberBrumas seemed to shrink as the anger of Pyrros, who was a foot shorter than the bear, seemed to make him larger than he was. The dragons rage was enormous and his red scales gave the illusion of a great fire eruption from the dragon. His silted eyes condensed so much Brumas swore he could feel his dagger like eyes piercing his body. Brumas was a well-respected warrior; some even considered him the best in the city, but Brumas new that was not true. Not many see Pyrros fight and those who do aren't alive long and when Pyrros is angry even the heavens shake. Brumas remembered a time when large group of attacked him, Pyrros, and his wife Amaya who was pregnant at the time. The enemy soldiers fired their arrows but Pyrros was able to burn most of them. However one of the arrows had hit Amaya near their unborn daughter. The thought of losing his child enraged Pyrros who unleashed the full power of the flame he controlled. The fight lasted less than 5 minutes. No one knew the exact number of enemy troops that were sent to capture them because they only a few bodies were recover. The rest were cremated on the spot from Pyrros' rage. Brumas remembered that look in Pyrros' eye when he killed those men, he shuttered just thinking about it but know as he looked at Pyrros he could see that look returning in his eye. He wanted to turn around and run but as the Commander of the solders in the city he needed to stand his ground...no matter how much he wanted to run. "Did they find my daughter among the de-dead? Is that what happened to my daughter." Pyrros' rage began to turn to tears at the thought of him losing his only child. 'I should have sent more guards with her. Why didn't I send more guards with her?' Pyrros thought beating himself up for the disappearance of his daughter.

"No sir. We did not find the body of Cearra with the others. It seems that she was kidnapped by the attackers." Brumas said. He saw a small amount of relief in the dragon's eyes.

"Do you know who did it?" Pyrros asked.

"At this time we have no leads to who killed the guards but we don't think that creature was involved." Brumas said.

"Are you sure about that? It seemed capable of taking out four guards easily." Pyrros said

"We are almost positive that the creature didn't have anything to do with it. First of all the wounds were made by arrows and second the number of arrows fired into the guards suggest multiple people working together to take the guards out at the same time. Three of the guards were hit by three arrows while the leader of the unit was hit by eight. There would have had to have been twelve attackers to put three arrows in each guard but we suspect that there were more." The Bear finished and stood ready for the next questions.

An older wolf stood up from his seat. His fur was a dull black and he had the wisdom of the years on his side. "Thank you Brumas for this information. Continue your investigation and see if we can find the identity of the attackers."

With that the bear bowed and left the room. Brumas felt relieved to finally be out of that chamber. He didn't want to be there if Pyrros lost his temper again.

Back in the chamber Pyrros sat relived and devastated by the news. The old wolf walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "This is a very hard time for you and your wife Pyrros. How are you holding up?"

Pyrros looked up at the old wolf. "To tell you the truth I am relieved and devastated at the same time. I am happy to know that she may still be alive but...not knowing and not being able to do anything about it is what is killing me." Pyrros said doing is best to keep his out of control emotions in check.

"Why don't you take the next couple of days to clear your head? If Brumas comes back with more news we will alert you." The wolf suggested.

"Yes...I think I should go tell my wife the news we received and I must try to get my own head in check." Pyrros said, and with that he stood up and walked out of the room. As walked he gave a silent prayer 'Listen I don't know if there is a God or gods but if there are please keep my daughter safe. I'm not asking much...just a keep her safe from harm.' Little did he know the forces of the universe had already put plans in motion that would keep her safe.

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Two Days Earlier

It was just a normal day in the city as far as anyone could tell. The anthro's went about their business doing daily things. The markets were up in commotion as various vendors were trying to sell their goods as superior to the competitions. John was currently looking at a male Cheetah trying to sell his jewelry to a couple passing females. John sighed as he took his eyes away from the scope of the weapon in front of him. It had been about three days since his arrival and his less than friendly run in with the locals. After a little bit of walking he happened upon this rather city that looked like it belonged in the medieval times. He was about to walk into the city when, to dismay, the group of anthro's that he had just made a great first impression on entered the city, so John pulled back to observe the city. He set up on a rocky ridge about half a mile outside the walls of the town and thanks to a little gift he was able to observe things like daily patrols, and which entrances it would be easiest to sneak into. He had about a week of provisions left before he would have to start taking that risk but it was good to figure out which way would be the easiest to go. John looked behind him and saw the two duffle bags rested up against the wall. One of the bags he found the day he arrived here, wherever here was. That bag contained a few days of clothes and food, as well as some small stock of fun toys. The second he had found on day two, that bag held some ammo for his guns as well as another new toy. John smiled as he looked at the gun before him 'Someone must really be looking out for me if they sent me this bad boy.' John thought as he looked down the scope of the AS 50 sniper. With that rifle John had spent the last couple of days observing the city from a distance.

The city was pretty big. It would probably qualify as a large city in medieval times which is where these people seem to be at technology. The main part of the city was surrounded by high stone walls that were guarded very well. Inside John could see that there were houses, markets, and even a park inside the walls of the city. In the center of all of that was a building that John guessed housed the government of the city. The building itself was rather boxy with walls that had guards on top of it, ever vigilant for danger to their leader or leaders. The corners had guard towers manned by guards with bows. The walls were also dotted with small slits for archers to fire out of in case of attack. The only entrance the John could see was I multi gate system. The first set of gates where made of what John assumed was iron while the second gate was the classic wooden door. John suspected a third set of gates on the other side of the building but he couldn't be sure. There was also a courtyard on the far side of the building that was surrounded by a wall that extended from the end of the building. From this angle John could only see a corner of it but it was there. The weirdest thing about this fortress though was the top of it, for in the middle of the fortress another structure rose out of it. John could have sworn it looked like a house. It could have been a place where the head or heads of the city lived which was what John was putting his money on but again he couldn't be sure because he couldn't look through the windows. They always seemed blocked by something. Whatever it was it looked rather awkward just jutting out of the middle of the building.

The city also had a number of houses outside the walls surrounding the city. John thought they were the houses of the poorer people but there was one thing that was odd about that explanation. If they were the houses of the peasants then they had a good life. Instead of a shanty town or mud huts or some other cheap housing that was associated with being poor the houses were built with stone like the houses inside the city walls. Sure the houses weren't as big as those inside but they didn't seem like the houses of the lower class.

As John was observing the city he noticed something more out of the ordinary than usual. He saw a large crowd of people parting off the sides of the streets for no reason. "Well let's have a quick looksee" John said as he looked down the scope again. As he found the parting crowd he saw that they were making way for a group of four guards escorting a hooded figure through the people. The black robe kept John from seeing what it was underneath but somewhere in his mind he felt his mind calm as he looked at the figure. John kept tracking them as they walked farther and farther from the city hoping to get a glance of the figure without the hood. John kept following them in his scope as they headed into the tree line. Johns curiosity peeked he got up, picked up his sniper and bags and started moving to a different part of the outcropping that overlooked that path they were headed on. 'Why do I get the feeling today is not gonna be a good day.' He thought and they he was off.

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Cearra looked at her dad with a look of annoyance in her eyes. "I have been to this place a hundred times before dad and come back just fine. Besides I need someplace to clear my head and just meditate for a while. How am I supposed to do that with guards there distracting me?" Cearra argued..

"I'm sorry Cearra but with that thing around it just isn't safe to let anyone go around alone in the jungle. That decision is final. You either take the guards with you or you don't go at all" Pyrros said to his daughter.

Cearra glared at her father but finally sighed and accepted that she had to take the guards with her. She would just have to find some way to lose them and then head to over to where she thought the being was. "Alright I'll take them, but they better not disturb me because I need to concentrate" She said and with that she walked off with four guards in tow.

She wasn't actually going to mediate but she couldn't tell her father that. She hadn't told anyone but that one creature was around somewhere and he had been around since the day he appeared. When she entered its mind the she left a small bit of her thoughts locked deep into its mind so that only in its dreams would he see anything, and even then it wouldn't remember anything from those dreams. Leaving a small part of herself in the creature made it possible to track it when it was close, and with the creature so close for the past three days her curiosity was getting the better of her. However, it would become impossible to find that thing and even if she did the guards would probably attack it before she could talk to it. She gave a sigh as they walking into to the gates of the council's fortress. 'I am just going to have to find a way to lose them' Cearra thought as she dawned the hood she had grabbed when she left her home.

If anyone saw her on the street they would stop and bow slightly to her like she was a princess. Cearra hated that. Some would kill to be treated like royalty but not Cearra. Her family wasn't even royalty but people still felt indebted to her family. As they walked into the streets the guards formed up two in front and two in back. The people, seeing the guards escorting someone, moved out of the way and stared in silence as they tried to catch a glimpse of this important person being escorted. Cearra kept her head bowed as they walked past the walls of the city, and after what seemed like a lifetime of silent stares and hushed whispers they made it to the tree line. Just as they went into the tree line however she felt another presence watching her. She gave a slight smile as she knew what it was. They walked for about five minutes before Cearra felt the presence of the creature fading. She had to leave now to in order to find it. She went up the lead guard, a panther and tapped him on his shoulder. "Can we stop for a little bit? I have to go...you know" she said.

The panther rolled his eyes and sighed "Alright we will wait here." he said as the group came to a halt "You should have done that before we left."

Cearra walked over to the trees. "But I didn't have to go then." She said as she walked deeper into the jungle. Now all she had to do was lose the guards and she would be set. It was at this point that she heard a sharp whistle and the sound of the guards yelling out as something hit their armor. Cearra ran back to the guards to see arrows sticking of their bodies. She looked in horror as she thought all of the guards where dead until she saw the panther start to move. Cearra ran to the panther to help him. As she got to him he looked at her with his glazing eyes. "RUN NOW!!" He commanded before, out of nowhere, five arrows pierced him from all sides as he collapsed to the ground with eight arrows sticking out of his body. Cearra was about to turn and run when a brown furred had grabbed her muzzle and another held a knife to her throat. She started to struggle and squirm which made her hood fall from her head.

"Oh I think it is much too late for that" the one holding her sneered. Cearra looked around in terror as figures started to emerge from the trees. She was about to use her magic when it all went black for her.

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"Oh shit!" John exclaimed as he saw the guards falling to the arrows. Johns mind raced as he looked for the attackers. He saw shadows within the shadows so he could not make out who or what they were. John looked back at the guards and saw movement. It was the panther. He was trying to get up off the ground. John looked at him in awe. 'That is one tough SOB' he thought. He then saw the hooded figure rush to the aid of the panther. He looked at her and shouted something at the figure. Then all of the sudden more arrows flew into the panther, their deadly head ripping apart his organs. John looked at the scene in front of him trying to make sense of what just happened. The figure was about to turn and run when a large horse came up from behind the figure and held a knife to its throat. The figure started to struggle and the hood fell off its head.

John gasped as he looked at a black and red dragoness. It was her, somewhere in the back of John's mind he knew it was her but this finally confirmed it. John felt a bead of sweat roll down his face as he looked at her. As he came out so did the rest of the attackers. The group was about fifteen anthor's strong. His eyes slid back to the struggling dragoness. She was trying so hard to escape the horses grasp. Then suddenly she went limp. John thought for a moment she was dead until the horse gave some orders and started to tie up the dragon. 'So it's a kidnapping' John thought as he watched the other anthor's pick up the dead guards to hide them. Once they had moved the dead bodies to a safe location they picked up the dragon and left. John watched as they walked away his mind racing. 'They had done their job far enough away that no one heard the guards scream. It is about noon right now my guess is they will give her until about evening to come back and then search for her...Aww hell' John took his eye off the scope and began to break down the AS 50. He was her only shot at being returned home safely. The people in the castle probably wouldn't figure anything out for another day or two. John gave one look at his perch and took off.

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John was at the edge of the encampment. Night had fallen and he had easily caught up with the kidnappers. The fools had pretty much stayed on the main trail for most of their journey. He had caught up to them in about an hour and tailed them to their camp. 'Hehehe, tailed.' John silently laughed at the pun. John had spent the majority of the time he was their observing the camp on a hill where his bags were. He had come up with a plan and after setting the last Claymore mine he had snuck to the end of the camp which was where the commander's tent was located. That's where they were keeping her. He was almost in position and he could see the commanders tent about 35 yards away. Still hidden in the trees he took out another goodie found in the all-powerful duffle bags. Night vision goggles. The hard part of the plan came now. He had to make it the tent without getting seen. John had estimated that there was about 75-100 people in the camp. Right now most of them were eating around the various fires that dotted the camp so now would be the perfect time to strike. The only problem was that they still had a few patrols around that he might have to avoid.

'Alright let's do this' John thought as he unsheathed his knife and to move towards the commander's tent crouching below the top of the tents so no one would see him. As he moved he kept an ear open for any sound that could represent danger. He had gone about half way when he heard the clanking of a soldier in armor coming this way. 'Shit!' John thought dove into the nearest tent. Getting up he quickly made sure the flap was closed so the patrol wouldn't see him as it passed. Seeing the flap was adequately closed he turned his attention to the rest of the tent. He noticed that in the bedroll on the ground was a wolf sleeping. John briefly wondered how he hadn't woken him up with the noise he made diving into the tent but quickly snapped out of that thought. He slowly crept to the wolf and brought his knife to the wolf neck. He put his wrapped his hand around the muzzle of the wolf tightly as the wolf instantly woke up struggling in confusion. John drew the blade across the neck of the wolf as it kept struggling. With its neck slit the wolf's struggling became less and less powerful. Finally the wolf's arms collapsed to the ground and its chest stopped rising. John waited a second before releasing his grip of the wolf then went back to the entrance of the tent. He heard the anthro on patrol pass him and poked his head out to see if he could take out the patrol. There was only one anthro on patrol and it was a lion. John liked those odds as he exited the tent and slowly crept up behind the lion pulling out a silenced m1911. When John got into arms reach he whistled at the lion causing it to turn around. The lion turned, white dots for eyes due to the night vision, and before it could utter a work John jabbed his knife into the top of the lion's throat and pulled it down making a long hole in the lion's throat. Blood poured out of its throat as it tried to scream but all that came out was a gargling sound as the blood also pooled in its throat. John then raised his gun up and put a round into the lions head putting him out of his misery. John took the body and threw it into the tent with the wolf. As John left the tent he noticed all of the blood spattered on one of the tents. 'Oh well. I guess I better make this fast' he thought as he ran to the commander's tent again.

Finally John had reached the the tent and started to make his way to the entrance. There were two guards outside of it which posed the only threat to him being detected. He took aim with his pistol and was right about to shoot out when the big horse from earlier poked his head out of the tent and spoke to them in a hushed whisper. 'So he is the commander' John thought, his suspicion was confirmed. The guards both grinned as the horse stopped talking and walked away. John was almost dumbfounded 'Did he really just send his guard away? 'John thought. 'Not exactly the smartest move ever but I guess this makes my job easier.' John waited for the guards to get out of earshot in case things got a little loud. When John was sure they wouldn't be a problem he ran up to the entrance of the tent and stopped. Taking a deep breath he took the goggles off from his eyes and walked into the tent aiming down the sights of the pistol.

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Cearra slowly woke up from unconsciousness. Her vision was blurry as she looked around the room she was in. The blurry white walls seemed to move as she looked at them. She tried to get up but she found that her hands and feet had been bound together. She panicked and squirmed around trying to get the bindings off her. All of this movement edged her towards the edge of the platform. She gave a small squeak of surprise as she hit the ground. Calming herself she tried to think. 'What happened? I left the city to try and find that creature then what?' Cearra thought as she tried to figure out what had happened.

"Well look who's awake. Maybe this won't be such a bad night after all." A voice behind her said. Cearra rolled over to see who had spoken. Once she saw him the memories of the attack came back to her. She had been kidnapped. The one speaking was the brown horse that had grabbed her and it must have been him that put her under.

"Who are you?" She demanded "and what purpose do you have in kidnapping me? Do you know who I am?" Her voice was a mixture of fear and anger as she gave this horse a death stare.

The horse just chuckled as the dragoness spoke. "Yes we know perfectly well who you are. Your father is Pyrros, a very powerful dragon in your city. As to the question of who we are, well I've been ordered to keep that one a secret. You will know once we get to our boss." The horse answered as he walked over to the left side of the tent, towards a drawer that held a wine bottle and some cups.

The dragoness tracked him as he walked with a look of hate in her eyes. "Then you know my father will be looking for me. He will tear up the whole kingdom searching for me, so you better pray that he doesn't find you." She snarled as he drank from the glass he just poured himself.

Wiping his mouth the horse to the front of the tent and opened the tent flap and spoke to the guards at the entrance. When he finished talking to them he turned back to Cearra and walked towards her. She could see an evil gleam in his eyes as he picked her up and threw her back on the bed she had rolled off of. "You are a very beautiful dragon. You see me and my men haven't had a good night in a long time." The horse said with an evil smirk.

"You wouldn't dare violate me you spineless--"She started

"Unfortunately for us" the horse continued "our master wants you unspoiled which makes me mad now that I look at you. However, if I did anything like that he would have my head....but then again he never did say anything about that pretty little mouth of yours." The horse finished by lowering his pants to reveal his large manhood. It was out of its sheath and was pointed right at Cearra's mouth. "Now please be kind and open up. I have been pent up a little too long." The horse asked in an innocent voice. The dragoness refused to open her mouth. "Fine then, fight it. I love it when a female fights back. The look of defeat in their eyes when they finally submit is almost as pleasurable as the act itself." The horse said as the grabbed the dragon's muzzle to try and pry it open.

Cearra laid there trying her hardest to keep her mouth closed as she looked at the dick in front of her. She wanted to scream for her life but she knew he would just shove it in when she opened her mouth. She closed her eyes as her mouth started to pry open. The commander pushed his dick against her mouth trying to force it in. It was then that Cearra heard a small sound. It was almost like a cough followed by a splattering against the sides of the tent. Opening her eyes she saw the horse fall to the ground with a hole in his head. She was about to scream when a hand closed around her maw. She looked at it for a moment noticing it was pink and furless. 'Furless...it can't be." She thought as she looked up at the owner of the hand.

'It is' she confirmed. It held up a finger to its lips to tell her to keep quiet and let go of her muzzle, brought up a knife, and cut her bonds. It motioned for her to follow it out. She gave a slight nod of acknowledgement and stepped over the lifeless body of the horse commander. As she stepped over the body Cearra saw the blood pooling on the ground. Chunks of brain and skull splattered around his body and the wall of the tent behind her. She gave a slight shudder seeing the damage caused by some unknown weapon and remembered Keith's arm. 'If this creature wanted to kill Keith, if it truly had a desire to kill like my father said then it would have done it long ago.' She thought as she and the creature exited the camp. Cearra looked around in the dark and saw fires burning and knew that everyone in the camp was at a fire eating. The creature grabbed her arm and pulled her to the trees. It was then she noticed a black object in front of his eyes. 'Is it running blindfolded' she thought in horror. But as they continued to run she realized that whatever it was the creature was wearing on its face it could see out of because it wasn't tripping or anything. They ran for a few minutes before reached the top of a hill and the creature stopped and turned around. Cearra looked back to follow his gaze and saw that on the top of the hill you could see the whole camp. 'It must have been observing the camp from up here' she thought as the creature touched her shoulder and started to pull her down. Cearra complied and they were both on their stomachs looking at the camp.

They sat up there for a minute or two before Cearra started to wonder why they were sitting there on the hill still. "What are we doing creature? We should keep moving so they have less of a chance to catch up to us" She said. All of the sudden Cearra heard the yelling coming from the camp as the men had finally found their commander dead in his tent and their captive gone.

John looked ate the dragoness slightly annoyed. He heard the shouting too and new it would be just a matter of time before they would find them. "First off my name is not creature. It's John...John Haller." He said looking over to the dragon. While the night vision prevented him from seeing the expression in her eyes the way she looked at him said it all. She was surprised to hear him speak. John had to suppress a chuckle. "Second look at all of them down there. There must be a hundred of them down there all looking for us and they will find us. It might take minutes or a few hours but they will hunt us down."

'So it-he can talk after all' she thought as she reflected on what he had just said. She knew he was right and there was no way they were going to out run them. "Alright so what are we going to do? If we wait here they will defiantly find us. At least if we kept running we could find a suitable place to hide."

"Don't worry we'll start running right now. What we need is a diversion. Something to make them think they are under attack when they and to shift their focus away from us." John said as he brought up a detonator. 'Let's hope the C4 can receive a single from this far.' John said as he saw the anthro's below him spreading out into the trees in all directions.

"But it's just the two of us. How could we possibly trick all of them into-"She never finished the sentence as a huge explosion roared into the night. Cearra looked at far end of the camp and saw smoke rising into the moonlit sky blocking out the light from the stars and occasionally rising in front of the moon. She could also see small fires burning in the night and hear screams of pain. "Where did that come from?" She asked in a hushed, dazed voice. Suddenly she felt a hand on her that pulled her to her feet she almost screamed before she realized it was the creature.

"Where did that explosion come from?" Cearra asked as they ran. "Was there someone else out their helping you?"

"Less talking, more running." John said as they ran through the darkness. As they were running Cearra would hear smaller explosions popping in the night. 'Where did that explosion come from? Who was helping him? And why did he rescue me?' Cearra's mind raced with questions as they ran, weaving around trees and roots. Whatever the creature had planned it had diverted their attention away from finding her to finding out where the attackers were. She mentally calmed herself as they ran. 'Well whatever is happening at least I know that for now I am safe with him.' She thought.

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John laid his head against the wall of the cave they had taken refuge in. The cave was deep enough so that they were able to build a fire in the cave without fear of it being seen from the outside. The fire helped warm up the cave which was unusually cold for how warm it was outside. John watched the celling as the fire cast dancing shadows on the celling. The last time he had been next to a fire was 2 years ago when his family had gone to a cabin for the week. John smiled as he remembered the time they spent telling stories and making smores. He looked down at the fire and his smile faded. 'Unfortunately this is not a family vacation and I don't think they have chocolate here. I wonder if it's fatal to wolf like it is to dogs.' John thought as his eyes roamed. He dragged his eyes across the room looking at the walls of the cave, then the celling, and eventually they landed on the dragoness. Her black scales reflecting the fires light, and the red ones seemed to simmer with the fires light. Her bright blue eyes looked up at him locked with his. He looked into them and felt like he was looking a blue sky. He couldn't help but think she looked beautiful. 'Snap out of it John. She's part of a species that shouldn't even exist.' John thought as he closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall again intent on getting a full nights rest for the first time in days even if it was in the comfort of a cave floor.

"I wanted to thank you for saving me." Cearra said as to John breaking the silence that had covered them for most of the escape. "If it wasn't for you...well who knows what would have happened." She shuddered as she remembered the events of just a few hours ago. How she was almost used to satisfy the needs of the commander. She looked back at John again who was still leaning his head back against the wall with his eyes closed. "When are your companions coming creature, so I can thank them as well?" She asked.

John opened his eyes as he looked at her with a blank stare. "First off I told you my name isn't creature. It's John Haller. Second I don't have any companions. I worked alone." He said.

Cearra looked at him in disbelief. There was no way he could have pulled off that rescue alone. "That's impossible! To make explosions like that one must use a good amount of magic. I sense no energy coming off of you. There is no way that you could have done it alone." She said in a matter-of-fact way.

John let out a small chuckle as he started to close his eyes again. "Magic? Right like I'm supposed to believe that you have magical powers? That's a good one." John mocked as he tried to get some rest. Suddenly a small object hit his forehead and John eyes shot open. "Ow! What the hell!?!" he yelled as he picked up the object that must have hit him. It was a small rock. "A rock? You threw a rock at me? What are you three?" He mocked again but as he looked at the dragoness all feelings of fatigue melted. The dragoness' body was giving off a slight red glow and floating around her was a large number of rocks around the same size as the first one. Suddenly the rocks flew at him at once. "Oh Shit" John yelled as he curled himself into a ball as the rocks pelted him mercilessly. When the final rock had flown John uncurled himself as he felt the bruises on his body already forming. 'Alright so magic is real....that's good to know.' He thought as he looked at the dragoness who was looking quite pleased with herself. "Well that was uncalled for." He said to her.

"You were asking for it. Never insult someone's magical agility" She huffed. "So how were you able to make those explosions without using magic or without help?" She asked.

John paused for a moment. 'How much should I tell her?' he wondered "Well as you may have guessed where I'm from magic isn't something that we use. Magic isn't the only way to make a big boom. The explosions were made using one of those methods. I could try and tell you how it works but I don't think that you would understand it...hell it's hard for most people to understand. I'm not even sure of how the whole process works." John answered. When he had said that the cause of the explosions was out of her knowledge he say a small flash of anger. He understood why she would be angry. 'If someone called me stupid I'd probably be a little pissed to' he thought 'alright time to change the subject.' "You know I never did get your name."

"Cearra. My name is Cearra." She said.

"Cearra...that's a pretty name." John said. "So those two dragons at the table surrounded by the guards were your parent's right." John said

Cearra was surprised that John had guessed that so easily. She nodded her head. "My father is named Pyrros and my mother, Amaya."

"So is he like the king or something? And are you a princess or anything like that." He asked. John saw a fire flare in her eyes when he asked her if she was a princess. He had obviously hit a nerve.

"No we are not royalty...but we are treated like it and I hate it." She said.

"I think most people would give up anything to be treated like royalty. Why not you?" John asked.

"Because first of all, as I said, my family is not royalty. The city is ruled by a council of elders chosen by the people. There is not king or queen." She explained "Second is that it is a fake life. Everyone wants to be your friend so they can take advantage of your status. They say they are your friends but when you need help they are nowhere to be found. Of all my 'friends' only a few are true friends that treat me like normal."

As John listened to her he had a sensation he couldn't explain. It was almost like he could feel the inner struggle inside the dragon. John took a second to clear his head before he continued. "So why exactly is your family so famous? Is it because you are wealthy or something?" John asked.

"That's only part of it. My family is very wealthy because my father oversees all trade coming into the city and helps secure new trade agreements with other kingdoms but that's not the only reason people treat us the way they do. The people feel indebted to my family for what it has done for them." Cearra answered.

"And what exactly did your family do for the people?" John asked again.

Cearra gave a sigh as she realized she couldn't dodge his questions forever. "My grandfather is the reason there is a city for the people to live in. You see before there was a city there was just a large mansion where my grandparents lived. The land was given to them by the king of a kingdom long gone because of my grandfather's ability to bring trade into the kingdom allowing it to flourish. One day a group of wanders came to my grandfather to ask if they could take refuge on his property while they rested so they could move on. They told him they were from a kingdom that had been destroyed by an invading army and they were forced from their homes. After talking it over with my grandmother and father they all decided to allow the wanders to stay not for a set amount of time, but they offered to let them make a new home there as well. My family couldn't just turn away these people to an uncertain fate. The wanders were overjoyed and accepted the offer my family made. A town was made and quickly the people wanted to make my family a ruling family. However they rejected this thought and convinced the people to make a council of elders to guide the town into the future, but even with this council formed the people still wanted my family to be part of the town's leadership. Eventually my family relented and my grandfather accepted a seat on the council. When he died my father took his seat at the request of the city. Over the years my family has been able to bring the small town into what it is now. The city of Saraph." Cearra finished.

John took a second to process everything Cearra had said. "Well it's no wonder people treat your family like royalty. That decision to let them stay on the land is very selfless...that kind of selflessness is rare. However I have another question. You said your father was there when the city first started. How old is he?" John asked

"Well he was about fifty years old when that happened and the city has been around for nearly a hundred years." Cearra stated. She looked at John who was staring at her slack jawed.

"A hundred and fifty years old! How old do you people get? And how old are you?" John asked his mind spinning.

"We dragons live for hundreds of years, but other species live for much shorter though. Usually for only one hundred to one hundred and fifty years. As for how old I am I have yet to see my twentieth year so I am still very young. Why? How old do your kind get?" Cearra asked.

"Not for hundreds of years that's for sure." John said still stunned about how long the anthro's lived.

"Now it's time for my questions. I've told you about my city. What about yours? Where is your city and are there more people like you? What is it like?" Cearra asked. The look of curiosity on her face reminded John child asking a question.

John didn't feel like he could tell her about his world yet. There was just too much to say and explaining it would take time. 'I need think I need to end this conversation.' John thought as he yawned loudly 'and I think I know just how to do it.' He felt the fatigue he lost in the rock pelting rapidly re-approaching. "I would love to sit here and tell you about all the intricacies of where I'm from but that would take all night and I haven't had a full nights rest in three days. I don't think I can make it four." John said as he laid his head on the wall which was surprisingly comfortable 'Although I could probably go to sleep on broken glass right now and call it comfortable' John thought as his mind started to slow.

"Wait you can't sleep now. I answered your questions about my city, the least you could do is answer mine." Cearra pleaded.

John did feel bad for leaving the dragoness' questions unanswered but there wasn't much he could do about it. His body was getting rest whether he wanted to or not. "I'm sorry." John apologized. "I'm only human." And with that John slipped into the comforting darkness of sleep.

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Alright first I have to apologize for taking so long to get this one out. I have been rather busy lately and I don't think that is gonna change for a little while so I have no clue when I'm gonna start the next chapter. Again I'm not a very experienceed writer so if you have any suggestions on any imporvements please comment.