Chapter 3: The One from the Outside
Imported from SF2 with no description provided.
Brian stood in that all-too-familiar room.
The one with both calmness, yet with uneasiness.
That was because it was the Commander's Office.
It had the familiar brown design in the shape of a giant cube he knew, with shelves and cabinets with sacred and vital documents in the name of the Union's war efforts, with some not meant for soldiers' eyes likely hidden around here somewhere. Three golden windows lined the walls, with one for each side except the entrance, letting the orange light of a coming sunrise of the early morning.
And that desk in the middle to complete it all. It had that mahogany and wood design that was very well kept up to date and clean, as if it was just polished.
Behind it was the Commander himself.
Timbermuth.
The old, ram-horned earth drake was marred with the battle scars of battles if times gone past. With his hazel eyes, he looked at Brian, glad that he got here on time.
The elder drake knew the human would be here on time. He always was.
“You're here.", the commander said very bluntly in his deep and monotone voice akin to gravel sliding. Brian simply looked at him while standing in the room across from him on the other side of the desk.
Into those bright blue eyes of an endless ocean of emotions and determination.
He only saw a tiredness in them laced with a need to get to work to take his mind off the struggles of the day.
Brian was somewhat glad that the four days he had off were rather uneventful.
Timbermuth could say something to get any sort of emotion out of him, but decided not to. It was his duty to lead the people and warriors of the H.D.U., not gaze into the inner thoughts of others. No, only a psychologist would do that, not him.
The old drake had to come clean and begin to get dirty.
There was a reason Brian was there. He was here to start a new mission to give an advantage to the Union over the warring factions of the Terron's, Inferno's and Angelica Courtney's forces.
“Right. I have a relatively simple mission today for you Brian."
A simple mission?
Even the drake should know that no mission is simple here.
There were so many inner workings and moving parts that one had to be aware of. Brian had conditioned himself in the art of war to not fret over figuring out possibilities, but to actually calculate them in the highly intelligent brain of his and act on them instead of trying to change them right away. He was one to change them in his favor whenever he could though.
Afterall, not doing so could leave him and others dead for all he knew.
Still, the battered drake saying that this was an easy task likely meant that it would either be very simplistic to the point that anyone could do it, or that it was so safe, so much so, that Brian would be thinking that it would be so boring with nothing happening to the point of headaches and insanity.
Regardless, Brian had a mask that showed no emotion at all whatsoever.
Only contemplation and cold calculating.
Timbermuth, with his earth-based powers mastered only by one with such experience such as himself, pulled out a drawer on the right side of his side of the desk, creating a light and barely noticeable sliding sound.
Using his abilities once more, he took out an object out of the hollowed-out cube and floated it on the desk.
It was a white envelope closed with a blue seal with the Union symbol on it.
“I need you to deliver an important message to a town due south from here. They are supporting our cause, and as such this needs to get to them as soon as possible."
Timbermuth floated another paper out of the drawer. It was rolled up.
This one had a darker and more weathered color to it. Either somebody got it wet and got a verbal licking from doing such a thing or it had seen great battles of yesterday.
With a sound of paper hitting wood, Timbermuth looked at Brian in the eyes.
“I want you to take this map in case you have trouble."
Brian, after a great period of silence, assumed that was it.
“However, there is something else you should be aware of."
Oh?
Is there?
He hoped it would be something to catch his attention while he mindlessly walked to this place.
“There are two routes you can choose to take."
With his powers once again, he lifted the envelope while he unfurled the map, revealing a great portion of the land they stood on. It had the details. The rivers, mountains, villages, towns, cities, and enemy territory and all.
Or, at least, some of the grey area. Not even the dragons could claim something like a random plain when it held almost no strategic advantage at all whatsoever.
Brian came closer, looking silently at the map with his bright blue eyes that studies it.
Timbermuth pointed his right claw on his right paw at the general area Brian was to go, including various shapes that indicated the town his mission dictated he go to.
“You could go through the plains over here."
He pointed to a mostly blank part of the map that was off to the side quite far away from the destination.
“They are very safe. Given that there is no viable cover for you or possible enemy dragons or humans, it is likely to be bare. However, it will take at least two or so days more this way given the route itself is around...here."
He then shifted the claw to a green area with brown sticks under it.
“You could also go within this forest. It is a straight shot from the city to the town in question. However, given that any forest is possible earth dragon territory, caution would have to be taken. Although, the speed in which you can get there and back is faster and the trees provide great cover from humans or dragons."
Brian slowly looked up from the paper to Timbermuth.
He studied where he was to go and decided to make the decision along the way.
A safe but even longer and more wasteful trip or a shorter but riskier one.
Decisions, decisions.
“You have as much time as you need. However, time is of the essence, and it is better to get it done and over with. If you require a stay at the town itself, they will know who you are when you bear the symbol."
The drake rolled up the map and held out lifted them out to Brian, which he graciously took with his right hand, stuffing it into the neck of his tunic. Brain stood a little back. He had everything he had to get going while it was still morning.
“Gather what supplies and rations you need before the trip."
Well, except that.
Still, Timbermuth knew he was eager to get started on his short journey.
“Be careful out there Brian. Dismissed."
With that, Brian turned around with a slide of his boots and sought to leave this place for at least a few days.
He was silent as he touched the door, feeling the handle as he twisted it and pushed it outwards. He slipped himself out into the hallway where he and Blaze encountered and had a heated conversation, no pun intended. However, Brian paid no attention to it as he made sounds with his footwear on the marble floors. He just wanted to forget about Blaze. He was the past now. He did this to himself, not Brian. He let the emotions dwindle into nothing as he casually strolled down the long corridor with its shining windows, intentionally not thinking of anything of the fire drake and wanting to put his mind on preparing for this mission.
As the door tried to shut itself, the earth drake kept it open as he peered through the crack at the human leaving his office. He gave a saddened sigh.
“Poor lad.", he whispered to himself.
Timbermuth knew everything of their troubled bout of talking a few days ago. It was true that he couldn't help but feel bad for Brian. He simply wanted a new friend, but always faced rejection over no fault of his own.
The hardened earth dragon knew of Brian's powers as well. While he was initially shocked by them, his mind inevitably started to think of what this could mean for the greater good of the Union and possibly the whole world. His thoughts surprisingly went there first instead of fear and supported the human.
However, this meant having to see his mood swings after people, both human and dragon, left him after seeing his ability to use lightning. When Brian showed such a thing to him, he had a part in his mind telling him to act the same as them.
Still, he was a drake that has seen hell on earth more than many others of the ruined warriors of the Union and tucked those thoughts away to find an eccentric human who didn't know anything about these powers. Even when asked about it, Brian couldn't provide a concrete answer.
Perhaps some questions are best left unanswered.
He could berate Blaze, but he was one not to interfere with the personal lives of his soldiers. That, and he felt that they should settle it on their own terms. It seemed like Brian already got over it, but he knew that the human was still hurt from it.
He is always hurt from things like this.
Regardless, he knew that Brian was a mature if young man. He had wisdom beyond his years that would surprise even the most educated of humans and drakes.
Timbermuth knew he would handle this on his own.
He just hoped that Brian would come back in one piece.
He would rather not lose what could be the most vital member of the history of their faction and likely the planet.
The hardened dragon silently prayed to Bahamut for his safety for the mission and left the door to close itself with a click, leaving him alone with his desk and documents.
As expected, the walk was incredibly boring.
Brian was one who didn't mind decent exercise, especially running.
However, the problem arose when he remembered that he was a part of the Union, as a warrior nevertheless.
While yes, he could get his brain working while he was sweating with at least a jog, he could be caught by surprise, and the noises from panting wouldn't help at all.
Most importantly, however, Brian also needed to keep his energy up to be prepared for anything and everything.
The bright and dull green grass grew like a bunch of tiny soft spikes on the soil that Brian's boots pounded as he casually walked to his destination.
The Sun was on its way up in the atmosphere, indicating that it was late morning.
Brian sighed.
This was as boring as sin.
Just…walking.
Uggghhhhhhh...
Horrible.
Brian felt like tearing his hair out.
He could think about everything in his life that transpired to this point in time, but what would be the point?
Even he knew that he was taking table scraps in terms of things to actually do.
Still, if there was good pay, he was willing to suffer the lack of his brain having any engaging activity.
Brian, with his right, took something clasped onto his waist belt behind him on his right side. It was round shape and a dirty brown color, with a smaller circular cap on the very top on its neck.
When Brian took it, he mindlessly shifted his left hand to hold it while his right one twisted the lid off, holding the tiny thing in his right hand. With that done, he took the object, a canteen, and poured its contents into his throat.
Ah, nice water.
It was wasn't the best thing to do since he needed to conserve resources, but he needed to do just…something, and his windpipe was rather parched.
After a couple sips, he realized he needed to halt himself and twisted the cap back on before clasping it onto his belt once again.
Ah, back to the old grind.
Brian _hated _mindlessness. He really didn't want a headache or to be irritable to the point of power napping.
However, he had to stride onwards. It was too late to come back now.
So, for about an hour and a half of just, well, nothing, he finally reached it.
The crossroads.
Brian saw the massive and unassuming forest along with the overly large and flat plains around it.
However, walking into either with caution could lead to quick and painful death at the claws and teeth of earth dragons.
Brian reached into the neck of his tunic and brought out the rolled-up piece of paper.
The map.
He unfurled it and gazed at its contents.
The human saw what Timbermuth showed him before. He kept looking at his surroundings to confirm that all the pieces of the map and what the environment displayed to make sure everything was one-to-one.
He then realized that was the place where he had to walk on one side of the nonexistent fork in the road.
Either one safer path that was longer and even more grueling in terms of his mental constitution from the excessive boredom, or one that was faster where some hidden dragons could steal his skin and skull from the shadows, his body never seen again.
Brian looked at the forest.
His mind was set.
“What the hell.", Brian said to himself.
Yes, he would rather be on a possible path of death and destruction than his mind imploding from doing a whole lot of nothing.
Besides, it would be good exercise if some drakes or dragonesses showed up.
He rolled up the map and stuffed it into the neck of his clothes once more and walked to the forest.
He silently prayed to God that this wouldn't be a mistake that could cost him his life, and, in turn, possibly lead a part of the Union collapse with the hope for a better world with it.
Damn.
How long had it been?
Twenty minutes? A half hour?
Dear God.
Brian just strolled straight through the forest, the squirrels, salamanders, and birds fleeing from him for invading a nonexistent personal space, although some didn't mind him, the critters scurrying up and down the tree, playing, or the birds giving a song of the coming day in some nest above him, unaware or not caring of his presence. Lots of litter plagued the ground, making it into a giant world for insects doing their daily activities, however mindless they are.
Brian walked over a dead tree, with some branches and whitish mold with green moss still on it yet to be deteriorated by the creatures of this very forest. The light cling of his sword bouncing off empty space as he touched the ground with his boots.
Well, at least he could walk in a faster route that was at least beautiful.
Brian made his way around some tall plants, the light noise of bending coming out nearly silently.
Some more time of walking passed with his boots crushing leaves, tiny plants, insects, and God knows what.
At least it felt nice.
Just the simple act of moving inside a natural domain was calming.
The sights.
The sounds.
The feelings.
The sme…
Wait.
A whiff of something got caught in his nostrils.
It was of something rancid and of something he would occasionally feel with his sense of smell in…
Wait a minute.
Brian, with a deep breath, sought to pull in tons of air with his nose to try and identify it.
With an increasingly high-pitched sound on the front of his face and the feeling of air enter his lungs, Brian scrunched his nose and face up right when he noticed what it was.
Dear God.
He smelt it.
He knew that stench from anywhere.
Dragon urine.
Dragonkind, much like humans, had to rid themselves of bodily waste.
At the Union, dedicated latrines were set up for both races to do such a thing.
Afterall, they weren't senseless animals.
However, instincts and biological needs came first sometimes, and, especially for those dragons outside of the H.D.U., they simply relieved themselves in places not meant to be touched by others.
Still, they at least had a way to...um...remove the more...solid waste of theirs.
Fire dragons could obviously burn it to ashes, electric ones did the same thing with a light burst of their element, and earth dragons could simply dig it underneath the soil to improve it for better plant life.
Poor ice dragons. They had to let nature take its course.
However, their liquid waste was another story.
While dragons could easily deal with their other excrement, urine was something that was nearly impossible to get rid of given the state it was in. As such, they did the natural and more instinctual route and simply let it leave their body onto some object, like in this case…
Trees.
It was like a sort of marking, much like how wolves and coyotes urinate onto a tree or other miscellaneous objects to make their claim to territory known.
As such, the horrible, horrible smell.
It was likely a way to deter others from what the markers made their home from. Dragonkind in some ways were no exception despite the more civilized manners in the Union.
Regardless, the scent meant one thing and one thing only.
Dragons.
Firstly, given that this was a forest, it was likely that earth drakes occupied these woods. A fire drake wouldn't want to burn down a piece of natural land or possible dragon of greenery by accident, an electric dragon would live on higher elevation, and ice drakes were, well, beings that tended to dislike nature as a whole to begin with.
Secondly, according to his astonishingly strong nostrils, some of these markings were rather fresh. Many of them were stale, but many had the smell of being poured onto the brown bark of the trees recently. This meant that either there is a singular dragon who has lived here for God knows how long or a massive group of them.
Either way, this likely meant that a threat was on the horizon.
Brian had to be careful.
Brian took slower steps to not create too much noise for a potential sneak attack from the foliage. He also looked at the ground a few times with his steps while maintaining awareness of the world around him.
Afterall, he wouldn't want to accidently step in literal dragon shit.
With his left hand on the hilt of his great and powerful sword, he ventured further into the forest.
A large inhale through the nose.
Then, an exhale of satisfaction.
The creature loved the forest, their sanctuary.
They were simply holding a carefully weaved and durable basket of twigs and short bendy branches, with the contents inside consisting of various specimens of plant life here in these woods that were their very home.
They would use these plants for various things when they made it back to their shelter.
Afterall, survival required using your environment for your advantage or your enjoyment.
They felt the Sun flash onto them, warming their body up.
They heard the noises and chatter amongst the creatures that occupied their home as well.
Chipmunks, squirrels, crickets, sweet birdies, the whole lot.
Then they took a plant, a white petaled flower to be exact, having a yellowish center with little bulbs in the middle, the creature being extremely delicate with it as they gently placed it into their basket.
...
...
...
Wait.
Then, she heard some of the birds fly away.
They turned to the sounds of heavy flapping, facing in their direction.
They then felt a presence on their soil.
They looked a little bit before they turned and shook their head.
It was probably just a bear or deer having a scuffle.
Besides, their senses could be acting up as well. Who knows? Maybe it was nothing to get worried out of their mind for.
As such, they turned around, finding they had sufficient content in their basket, pushing off a threat of a possible invader.
It wasn't like that would actually happen after so many years here...
...Right?
It felt like about ten or so minutes before he saw a structure in the distance.
It looked…..
Greyish?
Brian had to get a closer look and investigate.
Grey in a normally emerald-green forest didn't mean anything good.
The human, hand still on the handle of his weapon, made soft, quiet, and methodical steps toward this…thing.
It was about another five minutes until he finally reached it, Brian hiding behind a tree in extreme caution.
He saw it.
It was a building.
A cottage.
It looked rather rugged, but very well kept and in surprisingly clean shape, minus a few clumps of moss growing on the bottom trying to get to the top, only to be killed or removed by whoever lived here. It looked like it was created from polished white marble stones packed with now blackened dirt with a black thatch roof likely reinforced to prevent rain from getting in and trap heat inside. There was also a grey extrusion from the left side, probably a chimney for creating a nice and comforting fire or a way to cook food. A hollowed out square window also existed on the right wall. Brian also saw, wait, was that…
A gutter?
He saw it on the right side attached right below the roof, being made of a brown wood tube funneling down to what seemed like a rain bucket.
Using the environment to their advantage.
It seemed like there was nothing threatening about it, but Brian knew true deception. He couldn't play all of his cards blindly in one fell swoop, he needed to be strategic.
Brian looked around himself and, from his view, the cottage. He wanted no rock left unturned.
Seeing nothing out of the ordinary while remaining cautious, he slowly made his way around the tree he was hiding behind and walked straight to the cottage for curiosity's sake and for viable cover, wanting to see if any possible opponents were hiding inside.
Straight at its door.
It was simple dark brown and very simple, expected given the nature of the rest of this building.
Yes, there was no doubt that an earth dragon did this.
The look, location, and choice of structure materials ruled out the other dragon races, and there was no way that a human could do this without outside help. How could they make the walls and any other piece the way an earth dragon could do with a simple thought?
He tried to make as silent of steps as he could manage with his boots on the leaf and twig-littered ground. Without much effort and no unforeseen intrusions, he made his way the straight wall, placing his back and open palms on it, feeling the smooth stones on the side of the doorway.
With hand on the hilt of his weapon, he felt the door with his right hand, his backside to the right of the entrance. With a simple push, the door went inside and to the right. A hinged door? Granted it may have been a simple hinged door. Barely a sound went out besides a bounce of the wood against the inner wall to the right.
Brian looked right to peer inside the forest building.
It was surprisingly well done.
Grey planks lined the floor, with what seemed like...a thatch lounge? It was on the right wall and had what appeared to have purple cotton on it. Likely dyed. In the middle was a short table, likely for meals. On the left wall was a chimney made of a darker rendition of the grey stone from the outside, with an ash pile underneath a grate. There were also a few shelves filled with several containers and glass jars. Possibly foodstuffs or something of the like. There appeared to be what looked like a countertop with some cupboards touching the ceiling above it. At the end of the place. More food and ingredients? Brian didn't want to ask. There was also a door to the right of the back wall, likely a bedroom of the sort, and….
Another entrance on the end of the left wall?
It was between the shelves and chimney and what Brian perceived as a kitchen area.
What surprised him the most about the place was the sheer space of it.
The outside looked deceiving in terms of size, and the inside looked like it could hold a few people.
Still, it was rather sparce. Only the essentials existed here.
Regardless, there was nobody here. Brian didn't even think that they could be hiding somewhere, there simply wasn't anywhere to hide unless they wished to ruin what little there was in this humble cottage.
Brian faced away. His breathing returned to normal, leaving a sigh. How silly of him to believe that someone was going to jump at him like for a surprise party to claw his throat out and gouge his eyeballs.
Did he...overprepare?
Hmmmmm…
Maybe.
He let himself go from the wall.
He then remembered that he needed to get going. The message wasn't going to walk itself to the town.
Did he waste his time here?
Well…even Brian couldn't answer that.
He along with the other fighters of the Union needed to make sure of certain possibilities in a possible battlefield. The behavior was trained into their skulls as mandatory.
Brian, now with a new calmness, walked to the side of the building to the chimney side, the left wall.
He walked around the corner.
Then, his eyes instantly shrunk.
As he walked around it and showed his frame, he saw another also passing around the corner with him.
It was a green earth dragon with light brown chest plates with similarly hazel-colored horns that went straight until it rolled up at the end as a small solid piece, like someone glued a coin on the end. They were carrying a carefully and skillfully weaved basket of natural wood from this place in their maw.
Their dark blue eyes shrunk with his as they saw him.
In a split second, they both fell to their sides of the corner.
Brian fell onto his back in shock, eventually shuffling himself quickly to get his flat back against his wall as cover. It was instinctual.
The dragon gave out a high-pitched yelp as the basket fell to the ground as they felt the side of their body hit the soft litter and soil. With quickened, fear driven, and seemingly random movements, that struggled to get themselves up, making a few movements off the ground, only to realize that they weren't making any progress, eventually scurrying onto their legs and running away in the opposite direction.
Brian mentally slapped himself. How could he let his guard down? He should have known a dragon lived here. He couldn't get all the details of their physique, but it was an earth dragon alright. Brian, with his left hand slid his thumb up to slightly unsheathe his sword in preparation for engagement, his heart beating faster in anticipation.
The dragon ran and ran. They didn't know how long. They needed to hide.
A-A h-human.
A-A human!
That was what they felt in the forest. H-How could they be so stupid?
H-How...
How did they find them after all these years?
No.
B-Bahamut n-no.
They couldn't go back.
Back to their worst nightmare.
They felt their heart go to their throat pounding faster than in the entirety of their life. They struggled to maintain a clear mind besides a fight or flight response and not hyperventilate.
They drifted and slipped a little as they found it. A brush? They could hide here. With their powers, maybe they could fool the human and escape to live another day. So, crouching down, they covered themselves with branches from behind, used her wings on her middle, and let the front of the plant cover their face. It wasn't perfect, but what else could they intelligently conjure up in such a small span of time in a situation like this?
They didn't have time.
Brian, after hearing them run away, leaving pounds against the ground, realized that they were going away.
Wait…
Were they…
Were they...afraid of him?
Usually dragons fight on the spot, but….
They...they just...ran away.
Brian realized that he couldn't allow that. They could be trying to call others in for support.
But...nothing added up.
A singular dragon running away next to a cottage? He had no answers.
It simply made no sense.
Still, he had a mission in addition to the one he was assigned today.
His sight went from his side to the dragon's and sought to track them down. He saw paw prints from a frenzied dash to someplace. He needed to be silent as to not alert them to his exact position.
After a soft jog along the tracks, his boots lightly sounding off into the forest space, he heard noises from somewhere and hid himself behind a tree, hand still on the handle of his great weapon.
He heard…
He heard…
...
...
...
...
...
…Whimpering?
He also heard very labored and fast-paced breathing.
Brian, curious, looked around his natural barrier and saw them from a distance.
They were shaking so badly to the point that they could be mistaken for being in the frozen wastes in the far North or South.
This was a creature that was terrified for their life.
They then heard them.
A voice. A soft, whispered, and horrified one.
“P-please B-Bahamut…d-don't let t-them t-take m-me…"
They were…praying?
And the voice…
Brian got a glimpse of their figure, wings, wrapped tail, and all, and had his question answered.
It was a dragoness.
And her vocal cords seemed so young too.
This didn't make any logical sense.
A dragon, an earth one outside of the Union nevertheless, was...terrified of him?
Why would they be this way? And why did they pray to Bahamut for him not to take her away? What could…
Oh.
Brian had a thought fester in his mind.
Dear God.
She…
She was probably a victim of capture from somebody…but who? Humans? Dragons? Brian leaned towards his own race given that the plea for help was referring to him.
Brian gained a sympathetic look. Even though the back of his mind told him to not fall for deceit, he needed to confirm his suspicions.
He walked so quietly that the sounds of the forest were louder and made his way around to where he heard her making the sounds, finding a tree for additional cover.
They didn't seem to notice him.
He got a clearer look of her.
“B-Bahamut…d-don't let them k-kill m-me…", he heard her say.
Dear God.
Her body was…
Oh God.
He saw them.
The scars.
They riddled the sides of her body, with some on her back and others going onto her chest plates. They were so numerous and large, it made him think about what actually caused them.
And her forepaws…
Dear Lord.
They were folded together on her face in an attempt to hide herself. They were covered in layers of worn bandages darkened from the color white in between her toes and over the soft parts of her feet and over the scaled parts, extending partway up her legs.
Fuck me…
These weren't caused by dragons.
They appeared so calculated, so choreographed…
A dragon couldn't do this. It was…
Brian had the courage to awaken them from this nightmare of their own thoughts and feelings. It was all so…real.
She wasn't faking it or trying to deceive him. He knew it.
He sought to comfort her.
“H-Hey…"
The dragoness heard the soft voice to her left.
She knew it.
It was all over.
Still, the way the voice came out made her rethink of responding or not.
It sounded like a male and it was filled with...
...Care and concern?
What?
Why would a human care for her?
This made no sense.
She had courage, but almost none at all. With this said courage, she shakily got up slightly and looked to where the voice came from.
With the Sun shining down on him, she saw the human, left hand behind the tree and right one on the side. He was clad in the yellows of buttercups and flowers with the fur-like hair of liquid gold.
He had the face of worry and concern, with a trace of confusion.
Brian saw her turn to him, still shaking a great bunch in her scales. He saw her eyes of blue, like the sky, with tears running down her face and snout, caking her scales with dried up salty water from her eye ducts.
Those eyes held the greatest fear of all.
The fear of death itself.
This was genuine, with only the wish to live longer.
She thought she was going to die.
He removed himself from the tree. The human slowly walked to her, the one who started breathing harder with more rapid thumps in her windpipe.
“I-It's okay…", Brian sounded it in an attempt to calm her.
Still, she was afraid to the point of nearing lightheadedness.
W-What was even happening anymore?
Was he…
Was he…not trying to kill her?
Why wouldn't he?
Wasn't that why he was here?
She just awaited him to strike her down.
Like the others.
Like…
L-Like…
However, she saw something which she didn't expect.
Was that…
Was that his...hand?
It was his right one covered in brown except for his fingers, palm facing upwards and close to her.
Was he….
Was he trying to help her up?
What?
N-No!
She couldn't do it. She couldn't!
She just…
She didn't want to die.
She peered at his face.
Then, she saw them.
His eyes.
They were of the brightest blues like bright and color-filled sapphires. It led her into a void that went into an ocean. One filled with pain, hardship, sadness, confusion, power, intelligence, everything.
She was so enraptured by them.
M-Maybe…
Maybe this wasn't a ploy to end her life or to lead her into a trap.
Just...those eyes…
She may pass away today into Bahamut's paradise in the sky, but what was she to do with her life?
Her life was filled with fear, but those eyes gave her courage.
Bahamut...h-have mercy on me…
She slowly stopped shivering and slowly, yet shakingly moved her right and heavily bandaged paw.
She hesitated for a second, giving a gulp before placing it on the smaller human hand, feeling herself being pulled up.
The dragoness was the first to enter the cottage, the human slowly walking behind her.
After opening the door they first saw each other at, her wrapped paws made sounds on the well-kept floorboards as she made her way to the fire place, floating the basket she had onto the table with her abilities.
Brian looked around. The walls were very solid, and as he looked at the shelves, he saw that the clear containers and jars were filled with plant matter.
What were these for?
The dragoness looked at the ashes before moving her gaze to the side of fireplace. She saw a grey rock with nothing special about it and a shiny black stone. With her earth powers, she floated the two over some kindling and wood from the side. With a few quick slides against one another, she created sparks. From that, a tiny and smoky flame came from the tip of the twigs for the kindling. She blew a bit on them to make the fire spread. As predicted, it did, the orange plasma growing, creating great warmth, leaving crackles and embers in its wake.
Fascinating.
She used flint and a rock to make fire.
And she had firewood already.
With that done, she let go of the rocks onto the side and walked to the kitchen area, the human looking at her silently and curiously.
She opened a cupboard above the counter and carried out what appeared to be a wooden handled kettle.
She then opened the top with her mouth and spat it onto the counter, pushing what appeared to be a pump.
W-What?
She has a pump?
Talk about ingenuity. How did she get that? Granted, it looked very old.
With an annoyingly loud creaking sound, water poured into the container, excess falling into the bowl in the table underneath and into a drain where it would be reused later.
Leaving the kettle behind on the wood under the cupboards, she made her way to the shelf. She briefly caught the human wandering around.
Well, at least he was quiet like her.
She also didn't want her mind on him at all.
She moved to the shelf and instantly took her mouth around the bottled neck of a glass jar which had green leaves in it and took another that had more yellow stuff inside in her teeth, walking over to the kettle.
Brian saw what was in those bottles and jars.
Was she…
Was she making...tea?
He hadn't had tea in a coon's age, but he had to remain vigilant.
Afterall, she could just poison him.
She then brought the two to the counter with the filled kettle. With a simply flick of her powers, the corks slipped off the two without a sound. She took a precalculated amount of the leaves and petals out and placed it in the worn and light-brown container.
After preparing the tea, she floated the kettle and placed it on the grate above the fire to generate heat within the liquid to make the beverage. She then walked around and into the door on the right side of the counter, slipping away into a room unseen by the human.
Brian looked with caution. What was in that room?
She then came out and brought out a small wooden chair in the air. It looked very rickety and worn, but it will do.
Afterall, she didn't expect a human to come here and not kill her.
She floated it to Brian's side of the table, its backside facing the entrance.
Brian, seeing the initiative, walked up to it and sat his rump on the flat bottom of it.
Shit. It was rough.
Whatever. Beggars can't be choosers.
The dragoness made her way to the other side of the table, sitting her bottom on the floor and looking away downwards at to nothing in particular.
Just…what was happening?
She let a human in, a creature that made her suffer so much before. Why did she do it?
Even she didn't know. She just didn't want to make eye contact with him for fear of…something, probably dejection. Red flags were just going off in he her mind, although they were minor in the grand scheme of things.
Brian saw her look away sheepishly. He couldn't help but feel the same. He still needed to wrap his head around all of what just transpired. He fidgeted with his fingers after brushing his hair over his neck to behind it to pass the time.
This was incredibly awkward. They both were. Who could blame them? They didn't have an interaction like this before. She probably hasn't seen anyone for years. There was also a lack of trust between the two.
He was a human, and she was a dragoness. It was the facts.
It felt like five minutes passed of the two quietly making sense of their situation, calming themselves.
The dragoness then opened her mouth, likely to start a small conversation when the two were interrupted by the loud high-pitched hiss of the teapot. She moved from her seat and onto her legs, floating the kettle away from the grate and moved to the counter. After placing it down, she opened the cupboard and brought out a wooden plate for the container, and two tiny wooden saucers with tea cups. She brought out the only one with a handle for the human.
Why did she make that?
She wouldn't ever understand why.
Brian witnessed her floating the plate with the kettle on top of it. She likely didn't want the bottom to ruin the table. She floated the teacup with the handle on his side and the unhandled one on hers with a saucer each.
Instinctually, she took the handle of the tea pot and tilted it, pouring out a murky substance into both his and her cup before placing it down.
He didn't do anything. He had to make sure there wasn't anything bad in it.
The dragoness took her and tipped it into her maw, feeling the familiar beverage go down her gullet before returning the cup to its place.
Brian, indirectly getting the information he needed, took the cup and pushed his right pointer and middle fingers into the handle and left hand on the tiny wooden platter.
He hoped to God this wasn't going to kill him.
He tipped it into his mouth and let the dark-colored liquid go down his throat.
Ahhhhhhh...
Unexpectedly, it was good.
Really good.
Too good.
It shifted his tongue a bit to get the taste of it. It had a calming effect on him along with the being second best thing to water to as of now.
Brian returned his cup to the saucer, facing the dragoness who looked away nervously. She probably thought he would dislike it to the point of thinking she pissed into it.
Brian sought to get her out of this shell of hers, at least an outermost one.
“T-This is actually really good. Thanks."
She looked at him, a face of renewed vigor on her maw.
She took her left bandaged paw and rubbed the side of her face and onto her neck.
Was that…
Was that a...
...A blush?
It was barely noticeable, but…
She likely hasn't seen anyone, let alone a person who would give her a compliment, in what seemed like a decade or two.
“U-Um, w-well, I...", she stammered.
He liked it?
He could be luring her into a false sense of security, but the hum and face of satisfaction on him told her otherwise. It was genuine.
“…Y-Your welcome.", she finished.
Then, silence.
They both didn't know what to say to each other. They were just so uncomfortable in the art of conversation, at least in some ways.
“S-So…", Brian started. The dragoness's eyes perked up at his voice.
Brian thought a little bit before continuing.
“You've been living here for…?"
Ah, he was asking about this tiny place in the woods.
The dragoness heard him and contemplated an answer.
“Oh, uh, w-well, I made this place after coming here, the pieces and parts weren't hard to come by."
Well, that was abundantly obvious.
“As for how long, well..."
She darted her eyes to the human's for a second. He just took a sip of the tea she made, waiting for answers.
“I-I think I've, um, been here for about..."
A click came from her mouth.
“...A-About eighteen years, I-I think."
Dear God.
Eighteen years?
A person could have had a childhood in those years.
Brian suspected that she lost said time as a hatchling due to circumstances he wasn't aware of.
Why? He was both intrigued and never wanted to find out why. It was likely something relating to the unspeakable.
“S-So, um..."
Brian caught himself thinking in that highly calculative brain of his when she spoke.
“W-Why are you here? I-I mean, in this forest? I mean, here?"
She was genuinely curious and horrified of an answer. If he was here by mistake, then okay, but if he was here to do something to her, she felt like she would faint promptly after her mind imploded on itself from hearing that.
She got her answer.
“Well, I chose to walk through here instead of the plains to deliver a message to a town on the other side of this place."
What?
A message?
W-What...
Why?
This didn't make sense, unless…
No.
She had to know. She already suffered enough in her life.
“U-Um, m-may I ask why?"
Her voice was a little shaky given the nature of the question. She took a sip of the tea to calm herself down.
“Um, well..."
Brian didn't finish. It may have been a want for knowledge in terms of interest, but she could be taking in information for the enemy.
Neither of them trusted each other, at least not fully.
“Well, I'm doing it because I'm part of the Union."
Union?
What was that?
The dragoness's right brow was raised in confusion with the tilt of her head.
Brian, seeing her lack of understanding, assumed she probably didn't know about such a thing. She was here for nearly two decades after all.
He gave a light explanation.
“T-The Union? The Human-Dragon Union?"
Her eyes sparkled with this new information. Name gave an idea she never thought existed before. A group of people composed of dragons and humans? Living together?
No. It was impossible. The two races were never meant to be together. Her life was a testament to that.
She heard a more detailed answer from him after he saw her lack of foreknowledge of the H.D.U.
“I-It's a society of humans and dragons working together."
What?
While the prospect of such a thing existing would be something from a dream, the dragoness knew it couldn't actually exist.
She started fiddling with her claws on her front feet.
“I-It s-seems like a fantasy.", the dragoness responded.
She didn't believe him.
“It just doesn't seem like it's…", she stopped. She didn't know if she was unintentionally insulting him with her answer.
“N-No, it's real.", Brian said, reassuring her of its existence. He wouldn't reveal the actual location of the place, but some bits and pieces would do.
“W-We're working as a faction to end the War."
She had a deep breath, likely as a recoil of the information.
T-The...
T-The War?
The War is still happening? Ruining the planet?
Bahamut.
“T-The War? I-It's still going?"
Brian lightly nodded his head before seeking a bit of tea, only to be disappointed that it was gone from his cup. 'Tis a shame. It was damn good too.
And…faction?
Did that mean….
W-Was he…?
“B-Bahamut."
Brian heard her say that, more so to herself than him.
“A-A-Are...y-you…?"
Brian looked away in nervousness with a shred of shame.
Yes, he was.
He gave a pained sigh of the impression he might have made a mistake with his words and fucked up.
“Y-Yes, I fight and kill people, b-but with the best intentions."
The earth dragon's eyes widened at that answer, confirming her initial thoughts. Still, the way he looked gave off the notion that he took the lives of others but didn't enjoy it.
Not at all.
“A-And...yes, the War is still going on."
Bahamut.
After all this time, dragons and humans are still senselessly killing each other?
When will this bloodshed cease?
She shut her trap for some time, also looking away to the left in deep thought, the gears in her mind twisting and turning.
Then, she realized something.
The most basic fact was forgotten ever since she saw him.
She lit up with renewed energy, taking a deep breath.
How could she forget that?
“Oh! U-Um, what's the matter with me?"
Brian had brightened eyes at her new attitude despite the morbidity of what they just talked about.
She placed her left paw on her plated chest.
Then, she spoke in her beautiful, yet shy voice.
“M-My name is Elara."
Elara…
That was the name of the dragoness.
It was a nice name. It rolled off the tongue quite well.
After finally introducing herself, Brian sought to do the same.
He put his left hand on his chest, palm open.
“Well, Ms. Elara, my name is Brian."
Brian….
It appeared to be a simple name, yet one filled with a certain semblance of power. Elara couldn't quite put her claw on it.
She gained a tiny blush hidden underneath the green scales on her face.
“U-Um, it's okay. P-Please don't call me a Miss."
Brian lightly nodded in understanding.
Wait a minute.
How…
How long has he been here?
He gazed at the square cut-out window to his right and saw the brightness outside. He may not have had a clock on him, but he knew that it was the afternoon.
He needed to get going. He didn't want to appear at the town after the Sun went down.
“Shit. I have to go.", Brian almost regrettably said, placing the wooden cup and saucer on the table.
Elara immediately got up with a worried look.
Did she say something wrong?
“Y-You're leaving? Is everything alright? Did I..."
“N-No, I just have to get going to deliver the message before it gets too late." Brian answered.
Elara, despite understanding his words, saw that he had to leave for his task. He was here for a reason after all.
Brian pushed in the chair and made his way around to the door behind him. Elara followed him.
He pushed the door inwards to the right and looked around his neck to gaze at the dragoness.
She had a rather saddened look on her face. Brian felt almost hurt from leaving her. Her presence was simply something new and interesting.
“W-Will I ever see you again?"
What?
Did she…want to see him again?
What was she thinking?
Was she…
Was she so lonely to the point of wanting him here longer?
Maybe. Maybe.
Brian took a second to think before coming up with an answer.
“Maybe. I hope our roads meet again Elara. Thanks for the tea."
“Goodbye.", Brian finished with the wave of his right hand, with the thumb, pointer, and middle finger spread from his rolled up ring and pinky fingers.
Elara sheepishly held up her right paw and waved as well, a shy face painted on her maw.
“B-Bye Brian…", she said shakily.
Brian simply nodded before making his way outside, pulling the door shut, the dragoness still inside.
Brian, after a deep breath with calculations going on in his head, started the walk through the forest towards his destination.
Despite having a bad case of horrible boredom before the mission, now his mind was struggling to think of anything but her.
Elara…
She seemed bubbly and incredibly shy, but he didn't think, he knew that she was in a dark shell.
Honestly, Brian, despite initially having reservations about the earth dragoness given their bad reputation outside the Union, couldn't help but feel like she had every right to being stuck in a terrible, terrible place.
Her shaky voice and their first eye contact when she was begging for her life was the first thing that got Brian's mind working on what happened to her to make the dragon this way.
And the scars…
And the bandages on her paws and forelegs...
Dear God.
She looked awful.
Even though Brian didn't have the full story, he had great suspicions of a possibility of what happened in her life before coming into the forest those many years ago.
It was humans. It had to be.
He completely understood why she wouldn't want to talk to him about it. She was probably so untrusting and reclusive after what happened to her.
Still, he had nothing to go off of. Only her appearance and anything she said. And what she said didn't give him a whole lot, so he had to take it with a grain of salt.
Regardless, he couldn't fully trust her due to what Earth Dragonkind had done, but his thoughts constantly pestered him the think differently.
Maybe, just _maybe _she is a truly kind soul.
She trusted him enough to let him into her living space.
However, Brian needed to know her backstory to find out what happened to her and…
Wait!
Why was he thinking this?
He just barged into this dragoness's home. She wouldn't want him back here, right? Why would she?
Well, who knows?
Maybe he could come back after the delivery and night on the way back around to home?
Elara put her back with her light brown spines on the door, placing her right paw on her chest, feeling her calming heartbeat.
Brian…
Brian was unlike any human she had met in her entire life. They all tried to kill her, ruin her, use her, and…a-and…
No! She couldn't go back to that dark place in her mind. She just couldn't.
She may have been kind and trusting enough to let him into her cottage b-but...
She…
She couldn't trust him.
She was just physically incapable of it.
They had ruined her, destroyed her, b-but…
His kind demeaner, his awkwardness that she also had, his voice, and his eyes, Bahamut, his eyes.
However, she felt like he was withholding something from her.
As a dragon whose life was defined only by fear, this was a truly terrible thing.
And his name. Why didn't he say his last name? Didn't humans have last names?
And Brian…
W-Was he…?
Was he actually here?
She shook her head in denial.
Was he an apparition? A specter?
She didn't even know if all these years alone had ruined her mind and didn't know if she actually saw the human. Company coming out of the blue was too good to be true.
She then looked at the cottage space.
She looked…saddened? Disappointed?
Elara realized.
The whole place felt so quiet and empty.
Did…
Did she…enjoy his presence here?
The town's bustling sounds perceivable within a mile was dying down.
Dragons of various colors roamed the streets, cobblestone lining the walkways between the earth dragon-made buildings.
This was a town with dragons who cared not for their differences.
The Sun was setting. It was becoming the evening.
At one of the two gates into the town, two dragons stood guard. Two red-scaled fire dragons to be exact. Both males.
Outside the brown stone and wood barrier that served as the wall, the drakes sat down, waiting to be cycled with another pair so they could sleep after a day's worth of long work.
As usual, nothing happened.
However, it never killed anybody to be attentive at all times.
One of them was older, a more seasoned warrior, while the other was very much new, a rather younger one with brighter scales.
They both weren't paying extreme attention until…
They saw it.
A silhouette walking from the green from an incredibly far forest miles away in the heat and light of the dying Sun.
Walking towards them.
They perked up and got ready for engagement.
They knew what humans could do, regardless of their small size. They were cunning and smart creatures, able to slip in between them and deliver blows with weapons of warfare they couldn't ever hope to use.
Their eyes narrowed, they awaited their arrival, which felt like it went on for ages.
As they neared their town, the dragons bared their teeth proudly as they walked excruciatingly slow towards the gate.
Into a possible scene of blood being spilled.
They got a gaze at them.
They were wearing the color of bright yellow that complimented the orange on the landscape of the plains and grasses, whites on their arms and legs, brown on their hands and feet, and the hair that remined them of fluid gold.
Then, they were too close for the town's safety, along with theirs. They started a low growl as he walked with their pale and lit up face revealed as a man's and with eyes that pierced into their very souls.
The older one spoke up first.
“ HALT!"
He kept walking until he was only a few yards from them.
“ I said HALT_! Why are you here? Don't come any closer or-_ "
The human, now up to them, fearless, took his right hand and held his cloth on his neck and went down his back.
He showed them the symbol on his scarf of the Union.
Their growls instantly ceased and they had looks of shock, staring at him with that symbol hanging on him.
They just let him walk past them into town. They then stared at one another.
Bahamut.
Was he the one from the Union that they were told to wait for?
Only warriors of the H.D.U. ever possessed those scarves with that symbol.
They then realized that they needed to catch up to him. It was their orders that they were currently failing.
They shuffled their paws and dashed into town to surround him on both sides.
Honestly, they didn't know whether it was to brief him on where he was to go, or to protect him.
They just trotted with their four legs on the sides of him as he walked with his hands folded on his back, as if expecting this.
This looked like a seasoned warrior despite his appearance denoting a young age, with a sword on his left hip.
And those eyes…
It was simply impossible to describe.
Brian darted his eyes around while still facing forward.
He saw stares, and a whole lot of them.
There were many fire dragons and electric dragons, with ones of earth sprinkled in with even one or two ice ones. The earth dragons likely made these structures, and it seemed to beat random caves out in the open. It was also surprising that ice dragons lived here as well given that the blue and cold drakes usually hated everybody.
They had eyes filled with confusion, fear, and anger.
What was a human, a creature infamous for slaughtering their species and locking and torturing them for eternity, doing here, with guards nevertheless?
Some pushed their playing hatchlings into their shelters, telling them to go inside.
If something got hairy, they didn't want them to see the carnage.
Others paid attention and saw his scarf.
Bahamut with a human in a white robe in the shape of a figure eight.
Very few knew it was from the Union and therefore had neutral expressions, while those that didn't failed to comprehend the symbol, having never seen it before.
Brian continued walking, ignoring the very quiet talk about him both in his front and behind his back.
He assumed the message was written for here given the different dragon races living here like there wasn't an all-out War going on outside these walls.
The younger drake walking on his left taking him to his destination opened their maw quietly to have a talk with the mysterious human from the Union, facing him by turning his head left.
“So, _you're _the Union messenger?"
Brian didn't turn his head nor respond at first.
What a dumbass question.
They let him into their town and _now _he was asking that?
To be fair, he appeared younger than the other drake, likely being left in the dark as to what the Union even was until today or a few days ago, and they likely expected a dragon, not a human, to deliver the vital message over.
Still, he couldn't get over the rather dimwitted question.
As such, he decided to be a _smartass _about it in return.
“Was the scarf and symbol not obvious?"
The drake got the hint instantly upon hearing his cold and emotionless voice instead of getting irritated. He now knew in retrospect that he asked a rather stupid question. The older drake looked to his right at the younger one's face, scowling at him in a silent scolding. The younger one recoiled and looked down as a result.
He didn't have foreknowledge. It was an error, at least partially, on his part. The only excuse was that he was rather new here.
They simply walked to their target, a taller dome like a building of brown earth with a cut out entrance way in front.
They walked in silence the rest of the way, with only the murmurs about the human going on behind them.
They walked throughout the building, the drakes still at Brian's side in the dark brown earth hallway only lit up by the stray torch or randomly cut-out window. They were moving towards, well, whoever should receive this letter of great importance.
At least, that's what he has been told.
They saw them, the double doors.
It was a more blackened wood compared to the doors to the Union Commander's office. In fact, this whole place was different, you know, with the hallways.
The older one was a little speedier than the other as they approached it, likely to knock it with his paw to get the attention of whoever was inside. Brian was simply soundless and professional about it. Despite only being twenty-one, he was still a very mature man when it comes to diplomacy, and perhaps even too cold to others in some ways they may deem uncomfortable.
He slipped the scarf part with the symbol over his shoulder. He didn't want the one behind the door to make the same mistake as these two did.
The drake knocked on the door with the back of his left paw about three times before returning to his position.
They waited a few seconds of pregnant silence until…
A voice came from the other side.
“Come in!"
After hearing the voice possibly familiar to the drakes, the older and younger one went to their respective doors and pulled it outward, making the human appear front and center.
Brian saw them.
There was a cruder desk of brown stone with a couple of torches on the left and right walls to light the place up. Even more rugged shelves and cupboards existed in the roundish dome-like room.
It looked very basic and without detail, but simplicity is sometimes better and easier to handle than complexity.
Behind the desk that looked like a molded blob of clay stuck to the ground and made to look like a desk akin to a rectangular prism with its bottom widened like the bottom of a mountain, was an earth drake currently looking at some pieces of paper and tablets. He was thinner and younger than Timbermuth and had green eyes of a brighter variety compared to his darker scales.
Upon the doors opening, he moved his gaze to the center of the open doorway.
He reeled back in shock before responding in hostility.
“ H-_Human!_ _ _ W-What are you- "
Then he saw the scarf and immediately shut up. Brian just stared at them with an unimpressed look.
Whelp, he also expected a dragon as well.
Well, an attempt was made.
The dragon shuffled a bit and transitioned to a more organized and solidified stature while gaining an apologetic look.
He had a nervous laugh before inviting him.
“Ha-ha...I...greatly apologize. Please come in."
Brian did as he told and walked a little forward with his folded hand still behind his spine.
Once he stepped inside, the doors from the outside shut with a loud clang, leaving the two in the torch-lit room.
Brian darted his eyes around a bit. The place appeared disordered, but even he couldn't escape such trappings himself sometimes. He was actually fine with this. To him, it appeared to be an organized mess, with some objects of a certain quality or classification with others like it or another. This drake was likely a being who handles these papers and tablets for a living as a leader.
However, sounds from the drake came out, capturing his mind and view.
“Ahem, right, so you're the Union messenger?"
Brian simply nodded in acknowledgement. He didn't get snippy with the caring leader compared to a couple of guard drakes that didn't respect him back.
“Ah, well, I will be honest in that we expected a dragon to come deliver the message. I deeply apologize if there was the lack of a warm welcome. The dragons here have, let's say..._bad _experiences with humans."
Brian said nothing, breathing in and out with his nose.
The dragon was unnerved by the lack of reaction from the human. He was as still as a statue. The only thing that showed he was even alive was his breathing.
And his eyes, Bahamut, had the faintest glow inside them and he could see him gaze into his very being, like he was the one to review his sins.
The drake collected himself.
“Ah! Well, the message? Do you have it?", he asked the human, seeking what the journey was taken for in the first place.
Brian then reached with his right hand and slipped it into the neck of his tunic. After a little rummaging, he brought out the envelope, which the drake floated out of his hands. It was paper after all.
He saw the seal on it. The dragon also took a whiff of it. It smelled of green pines and a bit of moisture from being held in the human's clothes.
Breaking the seal, he opened the contents of the envelope, revealing a piece of paper with writing on it.
The seal and the signature at the bottom showed it was authentic. It was from the Union and from Commander Timbermuth himself.
He read the message, the human looking at him doing so.
His eyes widened at what the message said.
After a couple minutes of reading it over and over, the drake folded the paper on the packet and placed it on the desk.
“Well! We thank you for giving us this message from Timbermuth himself Mister…?"
“Brian.", he said clearly and with a very emotionally lacking voice.
Ah…so he was alive after all.
Brian...
A simple human name, although the lack of a last name confused him. Still, he stayed quiet about it for the risk of offending him any further than they had done so already.
He regained his composure.
“Well Mr. Brian, you must have traveled a long ways to get here. We offer you a night's stay with a meal at the Inn on the west side of town. It's the least we can do."
“Tell Timbermuth I send my greatest regards to him. Dismissed."
Brian bowed and, with the slide of his boots on the hard and stony ground, turned around to leave out the door. With a twist of a simple knob made not for looks and solely for function, he opened the door and closed it himself upon slipping himself through.
The drake was then alone with his thoughts, processing the Union warrior and his lack of feelings at all.
However, all his mind went to a single one.
That human _wasn't _normal.
Brian, with the drakes on his side, went to the very tall and wide building that reminded him in some ways of towers from the height of it all.
Thank goodness that no dragons came up to them. If that happened, things would get complicated _really _fast.
Thankfully, the drakes and the scarf warded off dragons who may have seen him as a threat to their integrity, but he still saw the glances who felt more scared than anything. Why was there a being let into their town and allowed to walk into the buildings that had flesh and blood put into crafting? It made no sense to many of them.
As such, they approached the sandy double doors with nothing in the front, but with sift brown thatch handles to pull in from the inside.
The younger drake spoke up, getting Brian's flat gaze as he opened his maw.
“I-I'm sorry about earlier, we bid you good night.", the drake said, bowing to him in apology and with respect, the older one bending his neck down with him.
He gave the human a genuine farewell. He gave him the respect he deserved. He may be human, but as a warrior of the Union, they fight on the frontlines and risk their lives in the hope of a better world, while he was just a guard, at least for now.
Brian simply nodded back in response, getting the fact that he was sorry. Being young was no excuse in a field such as this.
The two then turned around, likely to go to their homes, the human facing them as they did so with their paws making steps towards elsewhere.
“See you tomorrow morning.", the older one said.
Oh.
They were escorting him out too?
After lingering on that thought for only a second, he turned around and walked a few small and low steps to the doors.
With a simple push, he pushed and opened the door.
Right into a few dragons eating supper at rather low tables and cushions.
It was mostly fire dragons with a few earth drakes. On his right attached to the wall was a rather rugged, yet simple and elegant wooden barrier that was the “desk" with an opening on the end of it away from Brian. An electric dragoness sat behind it. To his far left was a staircase going up, likely to height floors, torches lighting up this room and likely many others. And damn was this place spacious.
The place just looked homey.
Well, except the stares directed at him.
They immediately stopped eating their meat on wooden platters and filled the room with a deathly silence.
Brian refused to pay attention to this. He was conditioned to feel these eyes staring at him with unseen thoughts and feelings about him with a closed off mind. He walked up to the yellow-scaled receptionist who also gave a shrunken pupil look like he was on his way to strangle her. She even failed to notice he was getting close to her. Several drakes, dragonesses, and young hatchlings continued to have their gazes glued onto the bright colored human with that scarf. Some even silently shuffled off their pillows and abandoned their meals to go up the stairs away from the creature they either suffered at the hands from or heard horror stories about.
Brian, when he reached the desk, leaned his right elbow on it, the back of his hand holding his chin up.
The dragoness was incredibly quiet, like she didn't want to set off a powder keg.
Then, to her surprise, out of nowhere, he spoke.
“I was told I could stay here for the night by the drake over there?", Brian said, pointing his left finger through the wall where he delivered the message, his piercing blue eyes still looking at the dragoness.
It took a few seconds to process that he actually said something before realizing he asked her a question. After looking at him for what seemed to be a little too long, she lightly shook her head.
“O-Oh, y-you're from the Union."
She looked a little down, nervousness ensnaring her heart. However, she needed to have confidence not just for her own sake, but also them.
She started to face the way out of the rectangular space she was confined in, slowly walking with some steps of her paws.
“Right, u-um, I'll take to a more…um, _private _room."
As he answered him, he followed her, into a hidden room behind the stairs.
The room had the same sand-colored architecture.
Although it was _excruciatingly _empty.
In the middle of the really big room was a singular table with cushions staked up in a fashion to allow the figure on them to sit.
Brian was currently eating pork with his long and straight two-pronged stabbing fork and a cutting knife. As a warrior on a journey, it is a fool's decision not to bring these. On the side was a singular cup of water.
There were stairs on the wall the right of going upwards, likely to private bedrooms of important and respected guests and the receptionist herself and her family.
Brian just silently ate. It wasn't amazing, as all meat that was only cooked nothing else was, but it was fine for what it was. It was even a little thick. Well, at least they had the curtesy to not get him raw meat to give him food poisoning.
It felt so...vacant, the room that is. In some ways, this could be mistaken for a tomb to the human.
“Hello!"
Brian heard the bright and energy filled high pitch voice from somewhere. Surprised, he turned his head to the right and saw nothing, prompting him to look to the left.
He saw a young electric dragoness hatchling on her rump staring at him in curiosity, oblivious smile on her maw with sparkling topaz-yellow eyes.
“Hello!", she said again.
Brian then returned his gaze forwards, continuing his meal. This place was now given more life with the child in the room, but he was interrupted from his quiet dinner.
“You're from the Union, right? What's your name?", she asked in a bubbly and curiosity filled voice, still smiling despite not getting answers.
It wasn't that Brian hated kids. It was just that he felt like they didn't truly understand the hell he had to go through every single day. It wasn't her fault.
Well, that and the fact that he never _had _a childhood to begin with.
The little one opened their maw as an involuntary movement. She let out a yawn before shutting her mouth with a click or two on her roof on the upper part of her opening.
Ah, she was tired.
“I'm tired. I bet you are too."
Honestly, he didn't know if he was.
Was he tired? It didn't really _feel _like it.
“Hey! Can tell me a story of one of your adventures? I've heard really cool things about you all!", the hatchling asked, bouncing up and down and a little to the left and right of her position. Still, that grin was stuck on her enthusiastic face.
Brian was encouraged to get a grin, but his nature forced him to refuse to do so. His life was dark, and she wanted a story? Even he knew that it was a horrible idea if dragons didn't want her to be emotionally and mentally scarred for the rest of her existence.
Still, Brian humored the idea. He could cut out the gorier details and tell an engaging, if rather somewhat morbid, story. Maybe he could fill her up with hope that he was trying to achieve?
Brian opened his mouth to say something, only to be interrupted by steps downstairs, the sounds meaning they were going down into the room.
It was the receptionist, seeing the dragon child sitting close to the human like a dog.
After she made her way down the end of the stairs and onto the floor, she gained a bit of a stern and rather annoyed look, Brian's eyes darting to see her the whole way.
“Nim! What are you doing? Please come here."
Ah, it was her daughter.
The little one, looking at her mother going down the stairs with the human, dashed to her mother.
“Yes Mama?"
With her wings around her child, she wanted to lecture her on disturbing their esteemed guest, but upon seeing her hatchling's innocent eyes and the human's gaze going straight forward like they weren't even there, she decided on the safe route as to not get his attention and to not verbally berate her daughter for possibly annoying him.
“N-Nim, I think you should go to sleep.", her mother said, her child looking into her darker yellow eyes.
“Awwwww, but Mama, it isn't even that late…", her daughter cried out loud, even though the human still appeared to look mechanical.
“Don't you 'but Mama' me, I think it is a little late for you to be up, and you need your sleep for tomorrow."
The little one suddenly looked saddened and pouted. She wanted to talk to the human after all.
She saw those hurt eyes and softened her gaze.
“Hey, if you go to sleep now, maybe you can ask him to tell you stories in the morning."
Her face lifted a little bit at that. It was a compromise, but kids _hated _compromises, nor did they fully understand them.
Still, her wings drooped as she obliged.
“Okay Mama…"
She moved from her wings and up the stairs to their room, before getting one last look at the human.
“I'll be up there with you in a little bit Nim."
The tiny dragoness looked to her mother before returning her gaze up the stairs.
With a deep breath, she walked over to the human and sat at the side of the table to him, her rump and tail feeling the smoothed stone on the floor.
It was quiet except for the human's breathing in through his nose and his interactions with the meal she gave him, eating with these bizarre tools and occasionally drinking his cool water.
She had another sigh while shaking her head. She sought to start some small talk.
“Kids, y'know?", she said, looking to her left at the human.
Brian, currently with food in his mouth chewed a bit before swallowing.
“No, I don't."
The dragoness was surprised at that answer. She didn't expect him to say that.
It was a brutally honest answer from Brian.
An almost..._too _honest of an answer.
The gears got to working in her head as she contemplated why he didn't understand children, especially interacting with her daughter even though it wasn't right for her child to pester him in the first place.
Then, she got an answer, or some _semblance _of an answer.
“Oh. You don't have a mate of your own?"
Why wouldn't he? He appeared strong if rather quiet, and his eyes despite his apparent young age showed wisdom beyond his years. Granted, she didn't know what humans valued amongst each other.
Brian started cutting into another part of the slab of meat while opening his jaws for a response.
“Well, that and my parents are probably dead."
The dragoness's eyes instantly widened to the size of ceramic plates, her jaw slightly open from the answer.
He was just so blunt and nonchalant with the way he said it, like it was something he accepted long ago. It dawned on her. He likely didn't have a mate _or _a childhood.
She suddenly became not only a bit unnerved with his demeaner and his voice, but very saddened as well. She wanted to say something, but knew that anything she would say wouldn't mean a single thing to the constant struggles of a person of death, who kills in the name of survival and justice without the privilege of love or companionship.
She looked down with her conflicted look at her twiddling claws, the conversation and art of talking taken from her.
Brian still just continued eating like nothing had happened.
Feeling ashamed of starting the conversation at all, she turned herself away and made her way to the stairs.
She peered at the human one last time and saw those eyes look at hers.
Those eyes…
“U-Um, goodnight."
He simply nodded before taking a sip out of his cup, now in a silent room to go over what happened today.
She shuffled up the stairs and she looked backwards as she went out of his view and onto the next floor.
Poor thing.
She and every dragon here distrusted humans and believed them to be horrible creatures that can do the unspeakable and things thought to be impossible to cause eternal suffering. Many lost family members because of them, unable to hear their cries for help against the worst pains known in existence.
She, like others, was initially terrified of him as he walked into the Inn. She was scared to make a move that he may deem as offensive or threatening for the sake of her daughter's life.
And now that she knows at least a reason why he lacked emotion at all, she felt guilty and regretful of not only her, but also everyone else here treating him like a monster.
Even though he was as cold as a stone in the frozen wastes in the far North and South, the conversation, however small as it seemed, showed why he was in the Union in the first place.
He was broken like all of them.