FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Harry and his wife rush out of the house and I slowly get up, Cheshire moving to my shoulder: and I walk out of the door behind them the other three following me. We slowly walk through the panicking people and to the center of town, that even though it was full of statues was the clearest open area. I shake my head watching all of the scared people running there, {if this was a real threat that would kill them all}. I got agreement from everyone, {we shall have to fix that}.

We arrive at the center of town to the Dragon slowly circling above, all of the townspeople staring up at him. When we are spotted he lands and I walk up to Starburst’s head. “I’m surprised you didn’t topple any of those on your landing.” He gives me a hurt look, “I’ve been flying for centuries, one should hope I have better landing abilities than those twin gryphons do.”

I turn to the gathered townspeople, “you people are foolish. What if that had not been Starburst? If you see a Dragon approach this town, and you do not know who it is; run for the forest. You have a better chance of survival in the woods than gathering in a large group in an open area.” I get a few sheepish looks once people realize how stupid their behavior was.

I turn to Starburst, “I thought we were meeting up in a few days?” He clears his throat making a few people shrink back in fear, “I learned something important. Not HER location, however something needing you to hear about none the less.” I turn my head to the townspeople again, “well? Get back to your day to day business, you know he’s not going to eat you.” The townspeople turn to leave, “not you Harry; we need to discuss this idea of gathering in a large group when a Dragon appears.”

Starburst pulls his head back and takes a good look at the, for lack of a better term; statue garden. “I can tell these are of dwarven make, yet I smell no dwarves in this town.” He looks to Cheshire, “are these?” He trails off the question when Cheshire nods his head, “well then; I am very glad I do so good on landings then.”

Starburst turns his gaze to Harry, “you do know that is I had been hostile I could have wiped out the whole town from a few miles away. It would have been simple with everyone gathered in one place like this, the non drakes can ‘ball’ their breath weapon and toss it from a distance if we feel it necessary. Like Hunter Gwen says, having everyone scatter into the forest would be a better idea. Maybe find some caves you can spread out your people into and keep some supplies in them to wait out trouble.” Harry looks surprised that Starburst was telling him how to keep safe.

I cross my arms, “Harry I put you in charge not as punishment. Yes, I said that was the reason, however you were the best chance these people had at surviving that first year. Now you need a bit of polish to become a -better- leader for your people, this includes emergency planning. Just know that if you are dealing with something flying in, it is best you have the people scatter into the forest. As for one a flier will have problems picking out people individually while they are dodging trees. Secondly, you are not making your populous a single target then. In the case of a flying threat your biggest chance of survival is to separate your people.”

Zander adds, “you’ll need to practice it until people stop thinking and can just do it. It’s like learning how to fight properly, after a number of repetitions you just do it. Hunter Gwen’s idea of caves is a very good one, I’m sure your wood cutter should know where there are some spread out over a large area. You guys are not Hope Point, you cannot take an enemy head on. If it is possible I would suggest asking the dwarves to make you some food storage tunnels under your town. Those would work as well, provided the dragon doesn’t see you going there.” Harry looks like he wants to say something when I pick up where Zander leaves off.

“While humans have issues with the dwarven Deep Homes a near the surface series of tunnels could work for a period of time. They would also work for a siege, if someone were to siege your town you can close up your gates. Then slowly while your enemy planned how to get inside you move your people into the tunnels, then have your guards go in last during the night. The next morning the enemy tries taking your town to discover no one is here.”

Harry nods his head realizing the idea could work and work well, “alright Lady Hunter. How do I ask them dwarves about doing this?” A deep voice comes from behind Starburst, “by trading us some of those rather lovely vegetables your people grown Headman.” Harry stills and looks around, a middle aged dwarf walks around from behind Starburst and gives him the once over. “I dinnea believe my cousin when he said how big ye was, I owe him a keg of mead now.” I chuckle, dwarves love betting on things.

Harry looks confused, “how did you get inside the walls the guards didn’t say one of you was coming.” I chuckle and the dwarf says, “as the Hunter knows we have tunnel entrances everywhere. So When one of our guards informed me of the big guy’s approach I just came topside to see who it was. I wasn’t concerned about who with the Hunter being here. If it was hostile I knew she would take care of it.” Harry still looks mystified over what just transpired, and the dwarf takes him by the arm and wanders off with him asking for a tour of the town with a wink to me.

I shake my head again at the stupidity of grouping the town’s whole populous in the town center with a Dragon approaching. Starburst chuckles, “oh I am certain that dwarf will straighten that headman out Gwen. I wouldn’t worry to much about it.” He then looks serious, “so I went out like you wanted to see who my mother has working for her now.”

“Wow it really IS a Dragon!” I sigh and roll my eyes seeing the Headman’s two children staring at Starburst, who looks amused. I spy a few more children scattered behind things looking scared, “yes he is a Dragon. He is also a Fire Dragon which typically tends towards insanity. However his Da was an Earth Dragon which helped stabilize his mind.” The children's eyes go wide, “Dragon’s can go insane?” I nod my head and Starburst speaks.

“Yes we Dragons can go insane just like any other species. A good many of my people are unfortunately, right now those are the very young and the Elders as well as pretty much all Fire Dragons.” A few of the children start slowly moving closer as Starburst talks. “As a general rule, you should -NEVER- approach a Dragon. You cannot know who among my kind are safe, and the good ones would not be offended by you running from them at first sight.” The children, now all in front of me nod at the same time. Starburst then eyes them a moment, “very well you may touch my head; and then you should run off and play.” The children all swarm him and rub his head to see how Dragon scales feel, then they scatter as children do.

Cheshire chuckles, “those kids have better heads on their shoulders than their parents do.” I nod my head in agreement, hopefully they will spread the information around and the adults might slowly process it. If they do, those adults might have a better chance next time.

Starburst blinks, “where was I? Oh yes! Who is working for my mother. Well it seems she has acquired a following among the elemental drake community aside from the flame drakes. Which as you know is odd, flame drakes while are not susceptible to insanity tend to be the leaders. It seems the flame drake just wish to be left alone to live their lives around their volcanoes eating random mountain goats. One of the flame drakes told me some of the other elementals think of my mother as a God,” he rubs the bridge of his snout. “That can’t be helping her ego any, the ones she has working with her for now are the water and wind types.”

I ponder that, water and wind drakes have some odd magics surrounding them. The Ice drake I had killed is in those categories, and they can effect the world as a whole if they ever chose to. Starburst has a moment of concern on his face, “I don’t think that my niece you killed was the only hatchling from that clutch by the way. I had ehard that one of the older Ice drakes had bragged about getting a clutch of eggs by an Earth Dragon and hatching out a few of them. That does not mean all made it to adulthood, but we will not know unless we run into them.”

That could cause problems, as I am sure it has spread now that I had killed that female. Starburst continues, “the flame drakes have no idea about non draconic helpers though. So giving this town a good talking to about clustering during a Dragon attack was a good thing. As the issue at this point may be bigger than just my mother.”