The flying animal kept flapping its wings so it would not fall in the river. It was using the rock as a platform to support itself above the water. When a few cows were already near the children, it roared and blew out a column of fire from its mouth.
The cow nearest to them flinched away from the fire but lost its footing. Due to the strong river current, the slight slip dragged the cow away. When they saw another of their brethren taken away by the current, the herd growled again albeit lower this time.
Seeing that the cows remained unmoving, the flying animal blew out a column of fire again. This time bigger and the duration longer. The warning garnered another growl but the remaining cows in the water finally moved back to the shore.
After the herd clustered on the opposite shore again, they let out another growl to serve as a warning that they will never forget this quarrel. A lot of their deaths were due to their insistence in chasing the group in the river and, for them, that was still the fault of these children.
Ling breathed a sigh of relief when the last of the herd disappeared from their view. He was about to call out to Maga when the sleeve of his shirt was pulled. He then noticed that Yabang was staring horrified at the flying figure.
Yabang recognized that it was a dragon. As he had only read it as myths on stories, he was shocked to see an actual one. The thought that they escaped a disaster but only made them enter a worst one kept circling on his head.
Upon seeing the other boy's reaction, Ling was hesitant but still called out to his friend, "Um, Maga! Uh.. We need help here."
The voice from Ling broke Yabang's stare on the dragon. Now, he stared at the other boy, still horrified while the other was waving at the dragon.
Noticing that Yabang was still not speaking, Ling whispered to him, "Uh.. I'll explain later."
The wind produced by the flapping of Maga's wings made Yabang realize that the dragon was now near them. Taking a closer look did not make his fear dissipate.
Despite the call from its friend, the dragon instead looked at the other boy. It was not used to this reaction from the humans it met so Maga became mad as it stared back at that boy.
"Maga!" Ling reprimanded.
After a few seconds of staring at the other boy, Maga finally turned to Ling. This made Ling exasperated but he knew he should prioritize saving Yabang first.
"You can see here that Yabang is injured. I can't carry him past those small rocks so can you fly him to Rin?"
When Maga understood what Ling requested, it became indignant. To actually save this person who thought it was scary?! Maga flew back to the opposite shore and turned its back to the two boys still in the river.
Of course, Yabang was slightly relieved. The dragon was far away for now but his leg was still a problem. "Ling, just go find my friends. They should have a rope with them."
"No! That would mean you have to go into the water with an injury like that. Maga carrying you across is still the best option. Wait for me here."
Before Yabang could stop him, Ling already leaped to the next rock and continued on to the shore. It was not like he could follow Ling to stop him so he just sighed to himself, wishing his friends heard the commotion here and had come to help.
Before long, he heard a one-sided argument from the shore. The boy was not afraid even now that the dragon was slightly taller than him when it was sitting down with an erect bearing. "Maga! Listen to me!"
Could that animal really understand human words? If so, that's the most intelligent one Yabang had seen in his life.
"Are you just going to leave an injured person? If you don't even let Yabang talk to you, how would you know how he feels?"
What was that kid talking about? As if Yabang could speak to it himself. He wouldn't even dare let it get near him. It seemed like the dragon understood him more.
After a while, the tone turned placating. "It was not that Yabang was really scared of you. You look really dashing. But it was the first time he had seen you."
Now that he thought more about it, that was probably right. Yabang couldn't see what was scary about the dragon now. Not its look since other beast in the forest looked scarier and they hunt them down. Or maybe his injury was getting to his head.
"He saved me, you know. And he was injured because of that. Couldn't you help him as thanks for sacrificing himself for me?"
Now, the kid was opting to exaggeration. It wasn't like Yabang did that to receive praise.
But a little help would be good now since he was suddenly feeling tired. He was also starting have a headache. Possibly, the injury really got to his head.
Then, he felt he was floating. He could vaguely hear Lino and Tang'ga calling his name too.
A slap on his face made him aware that the ground he was laying on was softer and grassy unlike the rock in the river. So he was sure that the floating feeling before was not a dream.
Somewhere beside him, he could still hear the one sided argument. "Why did you drop him like that?! I said gently. He was injured, you know!"
Though he was still feeling weak, Yabang thought that the drop Ling was saying was not actually that hard. At least he couldn't feel any other additional pain from before. Or maybe he was feeling more numb.
This time, he heard a quiet mumble before Ling spoke again, "Maga is still a kid. We have to discipline him or he won't listen to reason soon enough. I'm just telling him why he had to take care of an injured person. Why are you angry at me?"
He never thought the boy could talk this much. And aren't you considered a kid too? Why act so pretentious?
After a while, something wiped the sweat in his forehead. "Can you stop chattering now? Where can we move him? We also have to hide somewhere safe in case any other animals attack again. Tang'ga, stay close to us and do not provoke that large one."
The voice of Lino made him squint his eyes, trying to open it. So that wasn't a dream too. Too bad they were late or the one-sided argument wouldn't have happened. It was annoying.
"Guys, he's gaining consciousness! Hey, Yabang, can you here me? We have to move so, can you walk?"
However, before he could answer, that noisy voice interrupted again, "It's okay. Maga will carry him back to his cave. We'll walk from here and then I'll tell you all about Maga."