First Encounter

These humans are ridiculous! Home was getting rather crowded, you see, so I’ve moved to a new continent to try live there. Early this morning I was flying around, exploring my new territory, when I spotted a strange area at the edge of the forest. Much of it was plants, strangely growing in rows. There were also some animals and a couple of strange artificial structures. Curious, and a bit hungry, I landed on a strip of dirt between the animals and the plants.

Immediately the animals panicked and ran, mooing deeply as they sensed that they might end up as crispy snacks, very soon. I eyed them, looking for the biggest and juiciest looking, before realising that they could not escape. Naturally, I could have flown to catch up to them, but they were inside a square made of branchless, leafless trees. I decided that I would investigate first, eat later. There must be something else around here. Something smart enough to build these structures. So I looked around.

There was nothing in the rows of plants. It couldn’t have been the food, those were just dumb animals. So, I turned to the bigger of the two structures. This one was big and tall. When I looked inside a large rectangular hole in the one side, I saw it was also hollow, filled with various dead plants. I was starting to wonder if the creatures which had made all these things were not here. But there was still one structure to search.

I walked up to it, spotting a gap on the side facing me. It was a bit small for my head, but I persevered and made the hole bigger. What I did not expect was a sharp sound, almost like the sound of a pebble smashing on a rock, but much higher pitched and there was a waterfall of the sounds.

I drew my head back and shook it before watching a couple of barely-visible pieces of a hard material slide off my scaled nose. There was a shout from inside, sounding like speech. Finally, a creature that can talk, I thought, waiting to see what manner of creature it was. A rectangle of the side of the building disappeared, and out stepped a two-legged thing. It stopped and stared at me, just as I stared at it. “Are you a human?” I asked excitedly, “I’ve heard about you creatures, but have never seen any.” The human didn’t respond for a few seconds, obviously it didn’t understand Draconic.

It shouted something I couldn’t understand; I’ve never heard Human before, and ran into the structure. It had sounded panicked. As well it should be. No creature can compare to the majesty and fierceness of the Dragon. It soon returned, carrying a long stick, with three pointy ends. Puzzled, I stepped closer, trying to see what the tiny human was doing. It ran towards me and poked at me with the strange stick. I roared, more from surprise than pain. One of the points of the stick had found a gap between my scales, and it stung. In my anger, I swatted him aside and lit the human’s nest with a pillar of flame spewing from my maw.

Screams of terror came from inside the structure. I saw a little human running out the nest, closely followed by a female one. I heard another shout, but this one more angry than terrified. I turned my head just in time to see the human charging at me, carrying the tri-pointed stick. I pulled away and it threw the stick at me, which bounced off my scales. To rid myself of the pestilence, I picked the thing and snapped it in my jaw. I then turned to the human and unleashed an ear-splitting roar in his face. Any other time I would have amused by his expression of pure terror, but then I just flew away.

I dived into the forest, deciding to occupy myself by hunting. The hunt was a success, but, as I neared my nest, carrying my prize, I smelled more humans. Dropping the plump deer with a soft growl, I crept towards the source of the smell…