I’m Only Human Pt. 2
#2 of I'm Only Human
I'm Only Human Pt. 2
"Oh fuck" he finally said, after what felt like an eternity.
The area before him was an open area cut into the jungle, in a circular shape. It seemed about 35 yards long and about as wide as a football field. On the left side of the clearing was a pit with a fire blazing out of it. On the right side was a big wooden table like what you would see at a park except two or three times as big. And at the far end of the expanse was magnificent water fall that pooled at the bottom. A small creek ran off the left winding back into the jungle. It was felt so relaxing, except for one small problem. He wasn't alone. In front of him was a whole plethora of animals. Maybe animal was the wrong word because they were walking, talking animals. 'What the hell! Animals that stand up and walk like humans' John thought 'Animals that are...what's the word... Anthropomorphic! That's just great.' John saw various species of animals in front of him like lions and tigers. Thankfully there were no bears in sight. There were wolves, foxes, horses, and deer. He also saw two creatures that shouldn't exist; dragons and gryphon. This was all too much for John as he felt his brain going into over load. Fear started to creep up his spine, and all he thought about was the scene in front of him instead of escape. As he looked at the mass of anthro's in front of him he noticed they all wore what looked like shirts and shorts, although John doubted they were made the same was as back home and he didn't really feel like getting closer to death to examine them. He could worry about their fashion sense later when he wasn't in mortal danger.
As he knelt there John began to wonder why they were all gathered here. They seemed to be having a party of some sort. Some of them were around the fire, others around the table talking and eating, while others were in the pool splashing around having a good time. The area felt so relaxed atmosphere, John almost felt like he could lay back and just unwind "Yeah almost. If I wasn't scared shitless right now!" he said out loud. He immediately regretted it as all of the sudden all eyes were on him. There were about 50 people there and all 100 eyes set on this anomaly in there world. They all just stared at him. John felt like he could feel their collective glares piercing his body. He heard hushed whispers as the anthro's talked. About what John could only guess but the giant fire over there didn't give him good thoughts. After what seemed like an eternity the anthro's slowly started to move towards him. They were like a mob as they slowly walking. John held on to the gun in his hands tighter, finger on the trigger ready to pull. A group of about 10 to 15 anthro's broke off from the main group heading to the fire. John briefly wondered if they were trying to get into a position to trap him. That thought quickly died away as he realized the rest of the group was still heading his way. He then realized that most of the mob was made up of predatory animals, and they had natural made weapons at their fingertips 'Or paw tips or....whatever. Point being is I'm about to be slaughtered.'
As he looked upon the crowd, frozen in fear his eyes fell on a dragon towards the middle of the mob. It wasn't a male dragon though. It was a dragoness. Her body was covered in mostly black scales that were as black as night and shined like they had a glossy finish. She also had red scales that ran from just below her chin and, he assumed, continued down her body under her clothes. They were a little brighter than blood red and there shine was just as magnificent as the black ones. Her body was memorizing curves were perfect, and unlike anything he had ever seen. She also had an impressive bust to add to the already amazing body. He started to question what her backside looked like when he looked up into her eyes. They were bright blue that sparkled like diamonds glistening in the sun. As she got closer her eyes became much clearer and much prettier. John felt like he could read her mind because of her eyes. He could see the timid curiosity in them as she looked at him. She truly meant him no harm. However he could not be so sure about the others around her. Closer, and closer the eyes got and with each step she took they looked even better than before.
'Closer. Closer?' he mused in an almost dreamlike state. 'Why does closer not seem...CLOSER! OH SHIT!!!!' Johns mind finally registered his predicament. The group had indeed covered significant ground while John had been gawking at this dragoness. Before he saw her the crowd had been way less than half way to him, now they were three quarters of the way to him. His captivation on this one dragoness had been so distracting he had forgotten completely about the dangerous situation he was in. And that situation had just gotten more dangerous as John saw weapons in some of the hands of the anthro's. 'That's what that group that broke off got' He thought. John didn't see any advance weapons in their hands. Only swords, knives, and bows but that information didn't exactly make John feel all giddy inside. Fear flooded his mind again, but it this time it was different. He could feel the fear but within the fear was a calm presence that kept his mind focused, and his brain focused on one thought. RUN! It shouted. And John heard. He turned around, slinging the gun on his back, and sprinted. John expected to fight his way into the jungle to escape, but as he started running he noticed a path that seemed to cut through the jungle. Opting for the path John sprinted as fast as along the path.
John's legs pumping faster than he had ever ran before, however he was trying to outrun were animals so he expected to be run down in a second or two. After a few seconds of not dying he was confused but mostly thankful that the anthro's hadn't run him down yet. As he sprinted on this path, twisting and truing, he hit a straight and risked looking back. For a second he hoped that they weren't chasing him because he saw nothing, but John knew this was not the case and no sooner had he thought that the mob flew around the corner very much giving chase. The one silver lining that John could see was that they weren't up, but wasn't losing them either. 'Maybe if I can keep this pace up I can lose them. Aw who am I kidding I'm trying to outrun a bunch of animals who probably have more stamina then me' John thought. Finishing the thought John stared to turn his head he collided and saw a huge brown object in front of him. 'Wall. Oh shit!' he thought as he collided with the brown object. But instead of bouncing off the wall with a huge headache both he and the object flew forward as John's momentum carried both forward. John hit the ground hard tumbling to a stop. Feeling dazed he tried to force himself to concentrate on what he just hit. Looking to the left he saw the mob was already at the scene and they were picking up the object he knocked over. . What John had run into wasn't a wall or tower or anything inanimate. It was big, brown, and fuzzy. It was and anthro bear. "Oh my" John said softly. He would have thought it was a funny pun, but as John looked around he saw that the situation had just gone from the frying pan to the fire.
He was in another clearing. There area however was about two to three times the size of the last one .There was no water fall in this one. There were two large fires burning at the far right of the area, and four really long tables next to each other with enough room for three or four people to walk side by side in between them. He looked down the length of the tables to see they were filled with anthro's of various species. There was at least double the amount than there was in the last clearing; however these ones seemed more official. They were dressed in long, official like robes that were white with two gold stripes running from the each shoulder down to the bottom of the robes. They all seemed to be talking and having a good time like at the last clearing but these anthro's gave off a much more business like vibe. As John stood up all eyes where once again on him making him feel like the ugly one. 'Maybe I am the ugly one to them.' He mused.
John heard movement behind him and turned, dreading what he might see. Behind him was another table that was shorter than the others. The anthro's sitting here were sitting on one side of the table, overlooking everyone else. In the middle sat a dragon couple. The male looked muscular and imposing. Maybe that was because he was sitting in a large chair of gold with purple cushions giving him a royal look. Maybe it was his blood red eyes staring at John. Or maybe it was the fact that his scales where blood red. Either John felt like he was starring his death in the face. The female, however, looked stunning. Her scales were as black as night with blue eyes. She, unlike her partner, had a gentle stare, it looked familiar. 'The hosts of this get together no doubt.' He figured. 'Wait a minute. Black scales. Blue eyes. I wonder?'
Flanking both dragons where anthro's that looked like they had seen many year, five on the left and five on the right. Their fur had lost its shine and they looked frail compared to the other anthor's sitting before. 'Maybe some kind of council of elders or something' he thought trying to put a crude image of this society together. Then his eyes wondered to the sides of the tables and he became scared again. For coming around the sides of the tables were again various species of animals all holding pikes with sharp spear tips and brutal axes under the tips. They wore white armor with what looked like gold pin stripes that followed the same pattern on every piece of armor. The gold started on the bottom edge of the given armor piece and followed the edge up to the top where it outlined the top the armor and before the two stripes touched each other they dropped down and curled away from each other. The guards' faces were emotionless and a few of them had scars on their faces that told of hard fought battles. They formed a semi-circle around John as they lowered their pikes to keep John from advancing. It had only been a few seconds since John had crashed the party and they already had him dead to rights.
Then John saw the dragoness from earlier trot up to the two dragons on the head table. Behind her came a very pissed looking bear. The girl came up to the male and hugged him, while the bear gave a slight bow. 'Ok she has to be family' John reasoned. They began to talk in a whispered conversation and while he couldn't hear the words said he could hear the bear had a very, very angry tone. After a while the girl smiled and stepped away from the dragon while the bear stepped back, looking quite angry too. He stood up and with a voice full of authority gave an order. "Stand down!" he bellowed. Now he knew why the bear didn't look happy as the guards obeyed instantly and raised there pikes. The bear probably wanted John's head on a stake. The guards still stayed in a semi-circle around him though to block him from the important John guessed. The red dragon then stood up and examined John. After a while the dragon finally spoke again. "Who are you? What is your purpose here? And more importantly what are you?" the dragon asked. John froze. He looked around the crowd again. He had realized before that there hadn't been any humans present but no humans at all? 'Can I really be alone in this world? I have been so focused on escape that I never thought to even consider there not being any humans in this world.' he thought. The fact that he was truly alone in an alien world this threw John off as he felt sick to his stomach as his skin paled. He felt like he was going to puke but he resisted that urge. He always hated puking and besides he didn't think those guards would let him attempt biological on that panel they were protecting. However, everyone saw him go pale so the guards lowered their pikes just a little bit to stop any attack that might come. Having never seen skin change like that the anthro's didn't know what was happening.
John was still lost in thought when one of the guards, a tiger, moved in to restrain John. He slowly inched closer until he was within arms reach. The guard extended his hand and closed it around John's shoulder roughly and with his claws extended. John felt the claws dig a little into his skin and he felt little trickles of blood form as they pierced. That's when John lost control. In his mind another presence took over him and his brain flooded with messages that he was in mortal danger. John reacted quickly and grabbed the tigers arm. Twisting the arm fully around John felt the strain of the arm struggled to stay in that position. John, still holding the arm twisted brought his other hand down hard right at the elbow. An audible pop was heard as the tigers arm was bent at an unnatural angle, the bone poking at the skin made a visible bulge in the tigers arm. The tiger fell to his knees screaming in pain. Still holding onto the now useless hand John began to punch the tiger in the face. John kept hitting him with vicious blows. The tigers eyes started to roll back words as the assault continued. John figured he had broken something when blood streaming out of the tigers nose. John stopped when he saw the blood pouring like an open faucet, knowing the tiger was out. The attack took only a few seconds but to John he felt like it took hours. John was stunned, as well as everyone in the clearing. 'When did I learn to do that?' he thought as he dropped the unconscious body to the floor. Then he looked down at his bloody hand. Things were getting more confusing by the second, but John didn't have time to figure anything out right now.
Throughout the whole attack the guards stood stunned at the quick change of this being from a small, frail person to a brutal fighter with no remorse. That stunned state lasted for a few seconds before the guards regained their composer. They all lowered their pikes they jabbed at John. John thrust himself backwards in order to avoid the deadly spears. John didn't have time to pull out his M4 so he did the only thing he could do. He ran...again. He was headed to the path at the far end of the clearing hopping to run back to the area where he was before. 'Maybe I can follow the stream to a safe spot, or hide in the pool unt--Whoa!!' John's thought interrupted by a sharp object flying right by his face. One of the guards had pulled out a knife and threw it at John, narrowly missing him. John immediately ditched the running to the stream idea and headed straight toward the tables that had the other anthro's sitting at them. He jumped up on one of the tables and sprinted across; hoping wouldn't start throwing knives again for fear of hitting the others. As John ran across the table his feet kicked up plates with food and drinks into the laps of the people who yelled at him angrily, but he didn't care. He just wanted to get out of there. The tree line was so close. He was almost free. Then two of the younger anthro's from earlier jumped up at the far edge of the table he was on, swords ready to take him out. One was a grey wolf on the left, and to the right was a fox. In seconds John would be on them, and he couldn't jump down because then the guards would have a straight line shot on him. So he did what his new found instincts told him two. He whipped the one of the M1911's from its holster in a second. He had time for one shot before he was diced meat. He pointed the gun at one of the fox's arms, and fired.
CRACK!! CLANK!! The fox dropped is sword as blood poured from the wound onto the fox's red-orange fur. He screamed at the pain in his arm that had no doubt been shattered by the bullet. The wolf looked over at his comrade to see the blood, and forgot about the charging human for a second and partially lowered his guard. That was all John needed as he barreled into the unprepared wolf, tackling him off the edge of the table. As he hit the ground he rolled onto his feet and made a mad dash to the tree line expecting the guards to be right behind him. In seconds he made it to the outlining trees and was free.
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In truth he could have walked into the tree line and no one would have followed him. They all sat there dazed by the sight they had witnessed, or rather, hadn't witnessed. One second two of their young warriors were poised to stop the creature, then he drew some strange little object from his belt and then there was a loud crack that emanated from the object. The next thing they knew blood poured from his arm.
"It seems the bone is definitely broken." Said the black dragoness who was examining the wound. "Can you heal it" the fox asked in a shaky voice. The fox was no stranger to pain; he shook more from shock and fear of what the weapon did then out of pain. Though he had to admit it broken bones weren't painless. "Of course I can heal it" she huffed "or did you forget that I specialized in healing? What kind of healer would I be if I couldn't mend a broken bone?" "Alright stupid question I'm sorry for asking." The fox apologized quickly. Placing her hand on his arm she called forth her powers to heal his arm. A green light emanated from her hands as the process began. She could feel her power flowing forth into his arm. Moving bones back to their place and fusing them together. The fox shuttered as he felt the bones moving in his arm. Thankfully the process was not painful. After a minute or so the glowing stopped and the dragoness took her hands away from the wound area.
"Thanks Cearra, my arm feels like new." The fox said. "Just don't go breaking my handiwork so soon ok Keith." She stated in an annoyed tone. Just then the two dragons came down to the young ones. "Mother, Father is there something I can do for you?" Cearra asked in a polite tone. "We just wanted to check up on Keith." Pyrros asked. Keith smiled "Thank you for your concern, but it will take more than a broken arm to keep me down." Keith then stood up flexing his arm again to make sure it was good. "Do you know what happened?" Pyrros asked. "Not really. One minute Mike and I were on the table getting ready to stop that....thing, then the next thing I know he pulls out an object. Then there was a loud bang and my arm burned." The Keith explained. "Did you see what the object was?" Pyrros asked. "From what I saw it was a small thing able to fit in one hand. It was black in color but I could not see what material it was made from. I'm sorry I don't know more" Keith said.
"There is no need for apologies Keith as long as yo....what is this?" Pyrros said as he knelt down. The others looked at him confused with questioning looks on their faces. When Pyrros did stand up he was holding a small metallic object in his hand. "What is that?" The older dragoness asked. "I have no idea Amaya. It looks like its metal." Pyrros said squeezing his fingers together around the metal case, crushing it. "Not very strong" Pyrros observed. "What are we going to do about that creature dad?" asked Cearra. "Well tracking it right now would probably be all but useless. I say we go home and see if it comes around again. Maybe we can trap it." Pyrros asked "Just tell me if it's around again sir. I owe him a broken bone or two." Keith growled as he turned and left the three alone.
Cearra was replaying the event in her head. "I almost had it." She said. Both of her parents looked at her with puzzled looks. "When it first appeared I felt its fear. It feared us like we were monsters sent to rip it limb from limb, so I tried to use magic to keep it paralyzed with that fear. We were so close to getting it." She explained. "What happened then? How did it escape?" her mother asked. "I don't know. It was looking around and then its saw something. I don't know what it was but as it knelt there staring, I felt its fear melt away into calm. The closer we got to it, the more relaxed it became. It stayed like that for a while until we were almost upon it and then something jolted it out of its calm. I once again felt fear flood its mind again, but that wasn't the only thing. Under that fear was a cool, calm sense that was making decision at a rapid pace. At that point I could no longer regain control of it and it ran." Cearra explained. "So whatever it was staring at brought it a sense of peace and was able to break the wall of fear in its mind. Hmmm. That is not unheard of but it doesn't happen that often and it is extremely hard to do." Amaya stated "Cearra do you have any idea what might have calmed it?" Cearra only shrugged her shoulders "I know no more than that. I'm sorry." She said. "Don't be my daughter. It is not that important anymore. What's done is done and there is nothing we can do about that." Amaya said "I know mother. I know."
"Well we better go check up on Brumas. He probably wants us to send out a search party to get that things head." Pyrros said. As the three of them headed of towards the very pissed of bear Cearra was deep in thought. Although she didn't tell her parents Cearra knew exactly what the thing was staring at. It was her.
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John finally stopped. He had been running for the past half an hour at least and felt safe enough to slow his pace when he hit yet another clearing, but this one seemed familiar. "Aw crap. Did I just make a huge circle?" John exclaimed. Sure enough this was the same place he was at not even an hour ago. He even saw his imprint on the ground from where he laid. 'Oh well, at least I know which way not to go.' He thought. He sat down and took a minute to collect himself. He thought back to the events of half an hour ago. He thought about beating that tiger senseless, and the shooting that fox. 'What's happening to me? Where did I learn how to do that? I worked as a cashier for Christ's sake not a Nave SEAL.' He thought franticly. Taking a few deep breaths he stood up trying to calm himself down. "Whatever is happening I'm not going to find the answers here." he said. John was about to start off again when something caught his eye, something that wasn't there before. It was a duffle bag. A big green duffle bag that looked like it was military. 'That wasn't here before' he thought as he made his way to the bag and opened the top. Looking inside the duffle bag he couldn't believe what we saw. Looking up to the sky he said "You know I was kidding about the whole SEAL thing right?" Then returning his gaze to the bag he began to dig into its contents.
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Alright so as you can see I did make another chapter and I would have been out sooner but it took me a long time to get names for the characters that I thought were good. Although in hindsight a red dragon being named Pyrros is a little...unimaginative. Anyways I hope this is a better read the first chapter and feels a little less rushed and I hope you enjoyed reading it.