Dragon Hunter, Chapter 2
#6 of Discontinued
Heres the second chapter of the Dragon Hunter series, chapter two of Immortals should be coming along soon.
Like always, let me know what you think with votes and comments, feed back is wanted for all my work so long as it's on a friendly note.
The dragon hunter sat alone in the small cavern that was made up of several rocks, it was roomy enough to fit about twenty people, human and furs comfortably so long as they were on an average size of a human male, the dragon however had to stay outside, for more than just the fact that it was very large.
Sitting there with his back against the wall and his ax resting against his shoulder, out of the way and out of mind, this is how he lived his life since if one made too much noise and stood out to much they would get lifted off the face of the earth by a dragon and dropped to their death if they were lucky. Looking around he could see about a total of nine people held up in this place, furs and humans mixed together, there were three children running around with the rest being older, most likely between the ages of twenty and forty, the children were most likely picked up out of kindness and looking upon them running around a few memories were brought back to his mind before the announcement that it was 'lights out' came and soon the lit fires began to go out.
He remained against the wall on the stone floor rather than take the bed that was offered to him, it would have felt great to sleep in a bed and that was the problem, he would leave at first light tomorrow and no longer have a comfortable bed to sleep on, the few luxuries that used to be common in the older days were no longer common and he couldn't get used to a soft life now, so long as there were dragons he would be moving through the land. Closing his eyes and letting himself drift off into a light sleep, never relaxing as did most around here, everyone had to be ready to fight at a moment's notice and dragons were the only things in this scorched world to fight.
In the middle of the night the dragon hunter lifted his head and looked around, turning to the mouth of the cave seeing two eyes glinting in the dim light of the few candles that were left lit so those who awoke in the middle of the night were in complete darkness, pushing himself to his feet and grabbing his ax before moving out of his shelter toward the dragon as it stared at him. Looking up at the dragon seeing its eyes shift and look off in the distance to his right, turning and seeing something that he hadn't seen in quite some time, headlights, obviously someone had to fear to be driving a vehicle in the night like this and it didn't take a brilliant person to figure out who it was. Turning back to the dragon and pointing to the sky "Fly" came his command in which the dragon snorted before turning and spreading it's wings, taking flight with a mighty swing of its wings leaving the dragon hunter alone in the dim light, turning and looking back at the headlights before he pulled his scarf over his nose and mouth and pushing his sunglasses down before slipping into the darkness.
The engines roared loudly as the moved over the burnt earth, the two jeeps jumping over the rocks and ash without trouble as they sped toward those small lights in the distance, the furs and humans in the jeeps being dressed in ragged clothing and having tattoos or dyed fur markings in twisted shapes and designs, several having large pieces of jewelry and all holding some kind of weapon, whether a gun or some melee weapon. They slowed as they got closer, cutting the engines and just letting the jeeps glide toward the rocks so not to wake everyone in the cave, they had obviously done this before which wasn't a good sign, coming to a full stop several of the groups jump out and quickly move into the rocks, silently sneaking into the cave. Pulling the weapons from the sleeping survivors before grabbing them and waking everyone up, treats and curses thrown as screams of fear could be heard, the bandits dragged the survivors from they're cave before throwing them out in front of the jeeps who's headlights flashed on, illuminated the nine survivors and a total of twelve bandits surrounding them with weapons raised.
A large bull with an equally large golden nose ring stepped forward with a huge metal pipe for a weapon "Don't worry people, we don't want your lives just everything you got, food, weapons, ammo and shinnies" he says in a deep voice with a smile
"Then you might as well kill us" the cheetah who was the leader of the small group of survivors yelled out angrily, this making the bull smile and shrug before nodding to a female dog next to him who immediately raised her handgun firing three shots into the cheetah's chest, screams from women survivors rang out as children were held close crying as they watch the cheetah fall.
"Anyone else have something to add" the bull asked as he stepped toward the group of survivors, it was then that the head lights were suddenly cut off on one of the jeeps gaining all the bandits attention
"Johns what the hell are you doing" the bull yelled out as a figure stepped from the jeep staring forward, the bull snorts and moves toward the figure "John's get those lights back on or I'll twist your head off" he threatens as he gets ever closer to the figure.
The bull suddenly froze when he was within an arm's reach of the figure, the sickening sound of bone crack and muscles tearing could be heard gaining even more looks from the bandits before the pull fell with a blade shoved from under his jaw at an angle, the blade went in just above the start of his neck and the tip out the back of his skull ever so slightly. The second pair of headlights went out and bandits screamed out as they started to fire at the jeeps blindly, unable to see what they were shooting at though several screams surrounding the survivors could be heard coming from the bandits and soon the guns stopped firing leaving on scared sniffles and crying from the group of survivors.
The headlights from the jeeps were turned back on and the dragon hunter stepped over to the fallen bull, placing a boot on the end of his muzzle before ripping his blade from his head, wiping the blood off on his shirt before sheathing it back into his leg sheath, stepping toward the group of survivors as the dragon landed with a dead bandit in its maw, crunching it idly before swallowing it down.
The dragon hunter stopped and looked at the group "Take the guns, ammo and one of the jeeps and leave, find somewhere else, if these bandits can find you so can others" turning around and stepping into one of the jeeps making sure it wasn't too damaged from those bandits shooting at them before he put it in gear and backed the jeep out before driving off, not bothering to help the survivors more than he already had, they would have to figure out how to live for themselves just as he did.
He sped through the darkness with the headlights to guide his way, he soon heard air being sliced through above him and he immediately knew the dragon was following him, he stared forward as the dragon looked down at him for several moments
"Shut up" he yelled out gritting his teeth a bit and the dragon snorted before flapping it's wings and sending it soaring ahead of the human and his jeep, it wasn't long before the dragon had disappeared from sight in the darkened sky.
After several hours of driving the first bits of light were beginning to light the way, it was hard to tell what time it was since the jeep didn't have a clock and even if it didn't he couldn't tell if it was accurate or not so all he could tell is that it was morning, with the clouds blocking the sky all the time he couldn't even guess from the suns position either. Slowly coming to a stop as he made out some large figures in the distance, his eyes squinted a bit as he glared at the figures knowing what they were though just seeing them made him uneasy, a forest, and not just that but a living forest, the huge tree tops were covered with swaying leaves, green he would guess but they appeared black from his distance. Hearing the large dragon land next to the jeep as he stepped from the jeep looking over at the forest, debating on what to do, abandon the jeep and move into the forest or try and go around the forest and risk the jeep running out of gas and having to walk anyway. Looking at the gas meter seeing that it was almost on E already he looked to the dragon who looked back, they stared at one another for a few moments before he sat back in the jeep and started toward the forest
"Damned if I do damned if I don't...gotta die sometime" he said as he drove away, the dragon tilting it's head and giving a not so happy expression with its lowered head before it took to the sky once again.
Stopping at the edge of the forest and stepping from the jeep and grabbing his ax, placing it over his right shoulder before moving into the forest looking around carefully a few memories about of warning about his place coming back as he moves deeper into the large forest. The burn earth slowly turned into living green grass, there was even a breezing being the smell of fresh air, it was completely different from being out in the wastes and he felt uncomfortable being here, away from the dangers of the wastes and the smell of ash.
Moving deeper into the forest before stopping getting the feeling that he was being watched and he knew he was right, a natural perception that he had developed out in the wastes and they were always right, he listened very carefully for any noises and one did come to his ears, the sound of something being stretched, the pulling of something and he immediately recognized it as the sound of one pulling back the string of a bow. Lifting his head and jumping to the left as he heard the string being released an arrow swishing past him and hitting the ground hard as he rolled over and looked up seeing a figure in the three branches behind him pulling back another arrow in the bow string, releasing the string he jumped once again quickly moving behind a large tree and pulling his cross bow from his left shoulder, pulling the string back and loading a bolt into it before pulling his sunglasses from his eyes.
He took a moment before jumping from behind the tree, leaving his ax there as he jumping from another arrow that cut right past his head, squaring himself before aiming and firing the crossbow sending the bolt directly toward the figure but the bolt didn't hit, the figure jumping back down and flipping backwards before landing on the ground. The figure now in the light turned out to be an anthro, he wasn't sure what kind though he could tell that it was female with the breasts on her chest, her actually species was hard to make out but he soon just dubbed her as something like an otter, she had brown fur with a tan chest and stomach, round little ears with a short muzzle and a long furry tail that went form a thick base into a small tip. The female anthro glared at the dragon hunter with fierce blue eyes as she pulled a large curved knife from her large sash that was wrapped around her waist that held a loin cloth over her lower bits, her upper body being covered by a wrapped cloth and her head fur that was a dark brown color was pulled back into twin pony tails. The blade that she drew was about the length of her forearm from behind her back, the dragon hunter tossing his cross bow and pulling his twin blades from behind his back as well, both being the same shape as hers though a bit longer than his forearms.
He held the blades backwards as did she, slowly beginning to circle around, his left arm was lifted with the blades edge toward her as an intimidation factor while his right arm held the other blade by his side, she held the blade backward as well with the blade in front of her stomach pointing toward the ground and her other paw raised in front of her chest. They glared at one another before she charged forward slashing toward his face, ducking back before spinning to the right with his right blade pointed at her stomach, he cut some of her stomach fur as she jumped back and brought her left foot paw up hitting him in the chin forcing him to jump back.
The dragon hunter gritted his teeth, that kick splitting his lip from under his scarf that was still covering half his face, he lowered his arms to his sides with the blades pointing behind him, he slowly began to circle with her again but this time he charged first, he slashed with his right arm but she easily dodged back but he wasn't done, bringing his left hand up and slashing again which she dodged as well but his flurry of attacks wasn't over as he turned fully bringing his right foot around and catching her in the side of her muzzle with the side of his heel making her reel back and stagger clutching her muzzle.
She was fast and agile but he was the heavier and stronger of the two yet he was taught to be fast instead of strong, make your moves fast and unpredictable, be three steps ahead of your opponent so the fourth move your first two will miss but your third will always land, this is what came to his mind when fighting someone who actually had experience, such as the otter like girl he was facing.
Moving back as the girl stepped forward baring her sharp fangs before charging forward with a yell of anger, he ducked down from her angered slash taking the opportunity and jumping forward slamming into her, crossing his blades as he pushed her back off the ground placing both edges against either side of her throat as she slammed into the ground with him straddling her stomach.
He glares down at the girl before his eyes slowly move up to see three of the same species of anthro standing there, all three dressed similar only being male had nothing on their upper bodies though they were all holding large bows with arrows ready to let fly, looking to his left and right and seeing similar images on all sides of him, he slowly stood raising his hands to the sides with his blades pointed at the ground as he stared idly at the three anthro in front of him. The one standing in the middle of the two of the group in front of him steps forward slowly letting his bow string go and pulling the arrow away before motioning with his hand to drop his blades
"Drop them now" came right after the movement, the dragon hunter glared forward for several moments and an arrow flew past his head cutting the scarf that covered his face.
The scarf slowly slid from his face and fell to the ground, the humans eyes following it down to the ground, seeing the scarf laying on the ground before he looked back up and threw the blades down between the male otters feet as he moved to stand in front of the female otter while she was getting to her feet. The dragon hunter just decided to call these creatures otters, after what he just went through though, he didn't really care what they were, otter or otherwise, the male reached down grabbing the blades looking over them intently before looking at the human then moving toward him, placing the blades in his sash. The dragon hunter's arms were grabbed and he was pushed down to his knees in front of the male who he dubbed as the leader
"What are you doing here" the leader growled out pulling out one of the blades and pointing it between the humans eyes as he glared up at him, the dragon hunter remained quiet even as he glared down the sides of his own blade at the face of the otter who's anger only seemed to raise at the defiant human.
Pulling the blade back and bringing the back of his paw back around to hit the human on the side of his face making him grit his teeth and smile up to the male as blood ran down his already split lip, the hit only splitting it more and letting more blood run down his chin, the male pointing the tip of the blade back between the humans eyes asking the question again with his fangs bared. The dragon hunter turned his head spitting some blood onto the ground
"I'm just passing through...on my way to find some dragons to hunt" this brought many surprised looks before the male in front of him laughed a bit before sheathing the blade back into his sash.
"Really now, you living in a fantasy little man, have you even seen a dragon" the male mocked with a smile
the dragon hunter just looked up at him before his right hand moved back under the watchful eyes of the other males around him, his hand slipped into his bag which made many pull their bow strings taunt before the human pulling two large necklaces from the bag, both of the necklaces being adorn with large fangs from a large predator.
The male blinked as he looked at the large fangs that could only belong to a dragon, he reached out and snatched the necklaces from the human looking over the necklaces before his eyes were locked onto the human
"Where did you get these" he demanded in an enraged tone, a few of the others around looked at the necklaces then blinked as if they all recognized something that they didn't before.
The human remained quiet as he gazed up at the enraged otter that immediately spun himself around and started off "Were taking him back to the village" he ordered and four paws grabbed the humans shoulders and arms, tying his arms behind his back before pushing him along with them to whatever this 'village' was.
Being pushed deeper and deeper into the forest before he finally saw what this 'village' was and it looked more like a fortress, there were high metal walls with guards posted on them with bows and a few with guns, they all stared as the human was pushed past the walls into the village. Looking around on the inside, there were two levels to the village, the first being on the ground while the second was build into the rock face of the large cliff that the walls started from, the walls moving around in a circle like pattern, the first level was made up of large huts made of cloth or large pieces of wood while the second levels was made of primarily wood built right into the rock face.
The human became the center of attention as he was pushed into the middle of the village, he figured it was the middle since there was a large circle made from wood as well as their huts were made from this place, nothing being here other than the circle, looking around a bit more seeing that there was only one race here, no humans or other anthro's, the technology, what little there was, was even more scarce here, these creatures seemed to rely primarily on the forest around them though there was no grass as one came from outside to inside the large metal wall.
Looking straight forward seeing a large woodened building there with strange markings carved into the wood, he figured that this was the actual leader of this place stayed or it was some kind of shrine or something, he didn't really dive into other creature's habits and actions. Being pushed again he started walking with the group toward the large building at the back, it was on the first level but it also used the rock face for stability to make it the largest building in this village which seemed to be able to hold quite a few anthro's, he suspected that there was a hundred plus living in the village now.
Moving into the large building finding that it was finely decorated, there were even rugs, from where he stood the building's interior moved in a ring pattern, from the outside there was wooden floor, moving a bit forward there was a down step onto a dirt ring that took up quite a bit of space. Looking around there was large tapestries hanging from the walls along with thousands of the symbolic markings, looking forward seeing that transferring from the wooden walls to rock the rock face was caved in making a large cave with torches lighting the way, he was a bit surprised that they built their main building out from a large cave that looked as if it was a dragons layer at one point in time.
He wasn't able to see the end of the cave apparently it went very deep into the cliff, maybe an escape route if it was needed but he didn't have time to think over all of that as he was pushed forward into the large dirt ring, looking around seeing the many anthro creatures standing around doing miscellaneous things from caring water to food and so on. One of them stood out as they approached the ring, they were hunched over and dressed in large robes that hung to the floor as well as a large hood covering their face, next to them stood a large male, large in the sense that he ate quite a bit, he stepped along with the female wearing some tribal apparel that had feathers, scales and symbols hanging from his sash and neck, a shaman and witch perhaps.
Looking from one to the next as the male from before, the one that took his necklaces of dragon fangs moved past him, bowing to the two that had stepped into the ring and presenting the necklaces, they both took one necklace before all eyes were on the human who just looked back idly, unsure exactly what the hell was going on but obviously it had a lot to do with the one that gave him those necklaces.
The male shaman stepped forward holding the necklace out to the human "Where did you get this necklace" the question was simple but the human remained quiet and that seemed to gain a few angered glares and growls from those around him, obviously he was the leader and to not show him respect was something that was a 'no no' here, at that the human smiled before standing up straight.
Looking at the male shaman "I got them from a guy named Ja'sha" this brought gasps and even more glares and growls, some even drew weapons such as spears and daggers like before
The shaman silenced everyone with a raised paw "Ja'sha had left out on a journey ten years ago, he sought to search for our spread tribal families, where is Ja'sha now" the male asked lowering his paw as he held the necklace.
The human looked around seeing that those around him were ready to strike out and kill him at any moment but soon he looked back at the shaman "He's dead" he said simply, growls turned into shouts of anger as several of the anthro's stepped toward the human pointing their weapons and calling out threats but another raised paw from the shaman silenced them quickly.
The witch now stepped forward pulling up the necklace she had taken "This was given to Ja'sha before he set off on his journey..." pulling up one of the dragons fangs that had a gold symbol laid into it "Tell us, how did he fall"
Blinking at the fact, Ja'sha was not one of these creatures; in fact he was a lizard, a large red and green lizard who taught him everything he knew
"Ja'sha died in front of me, after we were ambushed by three dragons" the weapons were lowered and everyone began to listen to the human.
Lowering his head slightly as he began to tell the story "I met Ja'sha about ten years ago, I was twelve at the time, Ja'sha taught me everything I know now, about the world and how to fight, he even made me a dragon necklace for when I began hunting them...like you do..." he looked up at the creatures who seemed to look around a bit before whispers started up.
Lifting his head and continuing his story "At the age of seventeen was when I faced my fist dragon with Ja'sha, he finished it but gave me the fang for my effort, after that I had taken four dragons down by myself, it wasn't until I was nineteen that we were ambushed, three large dragons came at us at the same time..." this brought looks of confusion as well as remarks of him lying "Ja'sha and I were just as shocked as you are all now, we had never seen dragons work together before, Ja'sha took the larger two leaving the smaller one for me to handle. We fought them but they seemed to know our attacks, I was knocked away without a fight and Ja'sha had three dragons on him before I could even have gotten to my feet, he was taken apart by the three dragons while he told me to run"
the story was short and seemed to be missing a few parts, some parts that the human didn't want to tell, the shaman and witch were able to pick up on these small hints while the others around just whispered about the truth of the humans story.
The witch and shaman conversed with one another for a few seconds before looking at the human "We believe you human, tell us what is your name" the shaman asked and the human remained silent for awhile
"I don't have a name, Ja'sha also so saw need to give me one, I'm called Dragon Hunter by those that have met me in the past" the shaman nodded
"Very well, Dragon Hunter you will be allowed to stay in this village for you, whether or not you knew, were the apprentice of Ja'sha, he saw something in you and began to train you in our ways, for what reason we cannot be certain but you are a welcomed guest here."
Blinking at this new statement figuring that he would have to try and fight his way out of here or would be beaten and tossed out into the wastes once again rather than be a guest and he was even more surprised at not being just a guest but a 'welcomed guest,' he supposed that was some kind so special thing since he was never 'welcomed' anywhere before unless he did something like kill a dragon before he was accepted even for one night.
His bonds were cut and he looked around as the anthro creatures began to move away, the male from before walking over and handing his blades back without another word, taking his blades back and sheathing them, two other anthro's bringing his crossbow and ax to him as well before handing them to him and simply walking past him, he guessed that the shamans word was law around here, no questions asked.
Turning around and setting his ax over his right shoulder before he was hailed by the shaman, turning back around and looking at the male "You will be allowed to stay as long as you wish but when you want to leave just say so and you will be lead out of the forest, you will always be welcomed here though Dragon Hunter" with that the shaman and witch turned and moved toward the cave at the back of the hut.
Blinking and turning around before stopping immediately as he saw the girl from before looking up at him with a serious expression, he tilted his head to the side a bit as he looked at her and soon her cheeks began to darken ever so slightly, the tan fur being a light color so it was noticeable but just barely. She held out something for the human, a stick it looked like with carvings in it, several of the anthro's around stared with great interest as the human took the stick and looked over it curiously, having no idea what it was or the point of her giving it to him though before he could ask she had already turned and left leaving him standing there with ax in right hand and a decorative stick in the other.
Looking around at the anthro's whispering to one another before slipping the stick into his bag before remembering that they shaman and witch still had his necklaces, turning and moving toward the cave seeing that they were standing there, watching him just like several others, the shaman having a curious look while the witch was smiling. He moved over to them
"You still have my necklaces, I keep Ja'sha's with me as a token of his presence so I would also like that one back as well" the shaman blinked and gave a nod before taking the necklace from the witch and handing both sets back to the human.
Putting both necklaces into his bag before looking at the two leaders, looking to his left and right still seeing that several eyes were on him "Um..." he said a bit unsure "Can you tell me what's up with this stick that the girl gave me" this making the shaman smile as well before giving a chuckle
"That Dragon Hunter is a symbol of intertwining, it other words she is now your wife" to say that the humans jaw hit to floor would have been a major understatement as he staggered to the right a bit in total surprise before steadying himself.
"The hell do you mean 'my wife'" he demanded though the shaman just chuckled holding his sides a bit
"In our village and our ways, the selection of a suitable mate is done by the female when they find a mate strong and powerful, so you must have proven yourself to Si'la for her to offer you that after just meeting you, she is quite the strong willed girl, many males have fought for her affection for some time now" the human just couldn't believe what he was hearing, one day, he goes into a forest, fight some creatures that knew his 'father' figure who taught him everything, and once everything's worked out and alright, he's married.
Being so stunned he just step from the building without even asking about how they knew Ja'sha or about how the dragons haven't attacked them or burned this forest to the ground, he just kind of drifted off to a secluded part of the village and sat himself down to mull over the fact that he was now married without the 'I do' on his part.
Meanwhile high in the air the dragon that had followed the Dragon Hunter looks down at the large forest, unable to make anything past the levees that were pushed so close together that it was unable to see the ground, wondering exactly where the hell the human was, it was beginning to become hungry as the light faded. Giving a snort before changing directions, moving off to find itself some food for the night rather than wait for its little human to walk his ass out of the large forest, he was ever so slow when it came to moving on his legs.