Veraxitoc stood on his mountain. He had slept here for a couple of hundred years now. Now he could show this mountain range he was boss. Adelan Thunderblack's were smaller than him, not by much, but he was ancient. Most of these dragons were newborns to him. He remembered all his old rivals, as he observed the vast cloud layer. If Ornusjalil had survived, he would very much like to play a game or two with her. She was a nice dragon, but she was Connlaothian. Not a good match. She was roughly his size though. Maybe if he got bored, he would see if he could enkindle a friendship. They could make sure no war like that of which they witnessed occurred again. Innocent and good dragons had died in that war. His friends. They didn't get to sleep a few centuries. They had moved on. To some heavenly paradise, where the gazelle ran faster, the sheep more abundant and mate's readily available. He had seen them die painful deaths, of fire, and steel. They deserved a better afterlife.
A few hours passed, and he decided he was awake enough to roam the countryside. Perhaps meet the locals. He stretched his wings, and in a great bound, leapt off the top of the mountain. It felt good to fly again. The locals had flown by and given him a friendly or respectful roar. Some had blown a challenging fire, others had seen him and turned away. He would not be in amazing rapport with them, and he expected no great party in his return. The humans wouldn't be amazed to see him. He respected them, he found them a generally peaceful race, but they got irritating when they constantly panicked at the sight of winged scales. The locals had given Dragons a bad name. Maybe they needed to be taught how to behave. Silly teenagers, they have no idea how to behave anymore, they just run wild, burning villages and stealing the best sheep, he thought to himself. He glided around, until he saw a group of dragons, five, two fighting, three females watching. Hormone driven teenagers.
A minute later, he landed next to the two dragons. They both stopped, looking at him angrily. Then they pounced at him. In seconds, he overcame them, pinning them to the floor by their necks. "Enough! You call yourselves dragons?!" The girls, two a bright pink, brood sisters, and an odd yellow one, bunched around Veraxitoc's side. The yellow seemed to lead the other two around like some sort of princess. More teenage dragons. Just what he needed. The females took interest in him, and this irritated him. They were too young as a first, he was an aged, ancient dragon. These girls lacked the class required to interact with him. "Show some more intelligence you stupid little boys. Grow up." Veraxitoc turned and left, careful to make sure the girls got a faceful of dust as he took off.
Half an hour of flying later he came across a small town, situated in a valley between two mountains. From here he could see Adela, and the Serha plains. He was at a trading pass. This town would have massive amounts of travel in it. Time to go and see how bad the reaction from the guards would be. He flew in at a high angle, with his wings outstretched. That used to be the sign of a friendly dragon, as visible as possible, landing at the edge of town. No fire, no circling, just a straight glide down, and a gentle coo as you descended to alert the townspeople of your presence. Bugger. He'd forgotten to coo. As he landed, he tried to remember the technique. What happened was a strange croaking sound. Great, now he looked like a sickly dragon. The townspeople would rush healers over to him if they remembered the signs. If not, he was gonna see lots of guards.
And that was exactly what he got. He wouldn't kill the guards. Just bolt the horses. He saw the guards approach him, and line up in formation. "State your business dragon." Had dragons really racked up that bad a reputation? Dragon see, dragon do. Dragons of this day must have grown up hearing of their parent's ferocity and violence, dragons who had lost parents to human weapons. Now the rapport between dragons and humans was worse than ever. Great.
"I am a friend! I am not here to hurt you." He bowed his neck and opened his mouth. If they shot him, he could defend himself. If not, he would go in peace. Killing guards was not something he felt up to. One of them would likely land a shot in his eyes. And he didn't wanna be angry on his first day awake.