Tourist Traps

[Magyar]

Hvit's eye snapped open, though nothing else visibly changed about him. Even his breathing was still relaxed.

"Through the day. The sun will set soon, maybe an hour or so. I could be wrong, given your geographic location, but I'm basing my judgement off of last night," he replied, "And how do you feel?"

[DragonSong]

She tried to laugh, but the sound was rough and rattling. "I hurt. But I'm alive."

She finally raised her head, wincing as she looked at him. "I wouldn't have been, without you." A sigh worked her sides and she winced again. "Thank you, Hvit."

Her head fell with another sharp breath and she clenched her eyes shut against a rippling wave of dull pain. "I think the healer gave me something," she murmured. "I- I can feel it, but's sort of...distant. Aching instead of sharp, you know?" Another rattling chuckle and wince.

[Magyar]

"I couldn't explain it to you." He told her, "The healing process is not one I am practiced in. Quite the opposite, in fact."

His pale slit pupil widened, then thinned again as he regarded the much smaller dragon. After a minute or two, he asked, "Are you hungry, little bird? I could go and be back with food quickly if you'd like."

[DragonSong]

"Oh." Melly raised her head again with a hit less difficulty this time. "Do- would you? I'm sorry, I'm so useless..."

She sighed and glanced over her shoulder. "I can't fly." There was a dull hollowness in her voice. She shook her head as soon as she heard it. She was alive. She was lucky to be alive.

[Magyar]

"Give it time, little bird," Hvit began to stand, his great weight leaving another indent around Melly. It almost seemed like she had a moat around her.

"You will heal." Hvit noted her dejected tone, and thought that this perhaps was the first time she'd been grounded. It was almost always a harrowing experience for dragonets, which is usually the time when a clumsy blunder or childlike fighting would injure a young dragon. Melly's unorthodox upbringing must have seen her rather sheltered by draconic standards.

He slithered into the jungle, leaving her on the beach, and scanned the air for a certain scent. There. Buffalo.Water Buffalo, to be exact. He had first noticed the enticing smell when they'd landed, but his thoughts were elsewhere. In less than an hour they would have a good and sizeable meal ready.

[DragonSong]

Melly raised her head to watch him go, then lowered it again with a small, cheeping sort of sound that she hadn't made since she was a hatchling.

She couldn't do much but wait, and think. Mostly it was one thought that circled her mind. Why did they do it?

She'd never harmed a human in her life. She'd coexisted with dozens of them for two centuries, and nothing like this had ever come close to happing before. Hell, her only scar was across her back hip, from falling off her Papa's roof when she was a hatchling.

Perhaps she could begin to understand some of Hvit's animosity toward the two-leggers.

[Magyar]

Hvittraak returned to her with five fat water buffalo, perhaps a tad much, but he was thinking of his own ravenous hunger when injured. Hunger that later fueled the healing process, and thus was a necessity to satiate.

He carried three in his claws and two half in his mouth, dropping the three he held not fifteen feet from Melly. They landed with a snapping that made Hvit hungry himself. Odd. He landed himself with the other two, and dropped them much less violently.

"Would you prefer roasted or raw?"

[DragonSong]

Melly hardly waited for the question to leave his mouth before she'd shoved herself up into we forepaws and stretched her neck out to tear a hunk of flesh from the nearest animal's hide.

She paused, looking up at him, and swallowed the bite. "This- this is fine," she murmured sheepishly.

She hadn't realized how hungry she was. Normally raw meat didn't appeal to her at all, but she was starving.  "Thank you, Hvit," she murmured as she tore off another bite. "Thank you..."

Again she paused, and tilted her head slightly to look at him. "You saved my life. I don't- I don't know why, but they wanted to hurt me, to kill me. And you...thank you."

[Magyar]

Hvit lay next to his smaller companion, morbidly amused at her appetite. He'd normally have laughed, or chuckled at the least, but he was not in the mood for humour.

"Humans are destructive little apes, with minds too devious and clever for their own good," he told her, "And I don't think they just wanted to hurt you. I think they wanted you alive."if they wanted you dead, they'd have harpooned you in the throat, the head, or the shoulder. They'd have started stabbing you once the net was down. No, they wanted you alive."

[DragonSong]

Melly's eyes widened, her slitted pupils going round, like a startled cat. "But- why?" she whispered, her voice quivering slightly.

With a sad cheeping sound, she nibbled at the edge of the buffalo's haunch. "I'd never done anything to them. I just...don't understand."

She shook her head with a sigh. "You were right, Hvit," she murmured. "I'm just a hatchling after all."

[Magyar]

"Like I've said, they're too clever for their own good. They probably thought to sell you or breed you, without a concern for other larger dragons who may have been here. Clever, but ultimately foolish... As for why, they were probably just poachers. That's what they do."

Hvit looked at the small dragoness, thinking of how to respond to this latest statement. He finally decided on silence, instead snapping up a water buffalo and swallowing it, but not before biting the head off and spitting the horned skull out.

[DragonSong]

Another sigh and Melisma continued to eat the prey he'd provided in quiet. She made it through almost two of the creatures before she was sated, and settled back onto the sand with a small, tired huff.

"I know I'm not supposed to use my wing," she murmured after a moment, "but I'd...I'd like to get home, if I can. I'm pretty sure I can walk." She pushed herself to her feet with a small groan, managed to take a few stumbling steps, then halted, eyes closed while she drew in deep breaths.

Everything hurt, and the stress she was putting on the healer's work was doing her wounds no favors. The gash across her back pulled painfully and she bowed her head, neck arched as the tip of her tail twitched in a combination of irritation and pain.

[Magyar]

"Perhaps you shouldn't," Hvit warned, "At least not until you've healed more. If suggest you transform, and I carry you, but I don't know what effects it might have on your wounds. The physiology is quite different to be fair."

Nonetheless, he stepped up and braced her with his foreleg, careful to shy away from her wounds but still provide adequate support. 

"Unless you have a better idea."

[DragonSong]

"I could...try that." She leaned against him and tilted her head back to look up at him. "I- I'm most worried about what that would do to my wing."

She huffed and closed her eyes a moment. "I don't suppose I could just...climb up?" She nodded to his back, then sighed. "I hate this. I hate feeling so helpless."

[Magyar]

Hvit let out something that was akin to a sigh, and crouched to better allow her onto his back.

"It is something you'll have to accustom yourself to, little bird," He rumbled, though his tone was rather exasperated. The young thought they were indestructible, until they actually became injured. Then they would complain that they weren't indestructible, and Hvit had to listen to it.

[DragonSong]

"Thank you." Melly's voice was soft as she awkwardly hoisted herself up onto his back, giving a small squeak of pain. she sighed and dropped her head to rest just against his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Hvit," she whispered. "I'm sorry for everything today..."

[Magyar]

"Sorry for the actions of others, actions that you never influenced?" Hvit stood slowly, balancing Melly then shuffling enough to keep his smaller companion securely between his shoulders. "Why would you apologize?"

[DragonSong]

"I-" She opened her mouth, then snapped it shut with a sigh. "I should have been able to fight them off," she whispered eventually. "I've never- I've never had to do something like that. I was completely useless."

She huffed.

[Magyar]

"You've never had to do something like defending yourself?" Hvit again cursed his draconic form for not possessing eyebrows, and therefore couldn't raise one in skepticism.

"What kind of lifestyle have you lead little bird?" he asked, stepping over a downed tree. They would be coming near to the charred section of the forest soon, and Hvit worried about her reaction. He knew she loved this island, and he had gone and well destroyed some of it.

[DragonSong]

"No," Melly whispered. "I've never..."

Her voice trailed off as she caught sight of the forest. "Gods...Hvit, did you...?"

Of course he had. She closed her eyes and sighed, lowering her head to his back. She felt horribly guilty, rather than angry- he'd done this because she wasn't strong enough to defend herself.