Zeke woke up early, the sun was barely peaking through the clouds, he hadn'lt slept all night, he just laid there and watch the sky above thinking about what he was going to do today. "I will kill a dragon today!" Zeke was a young Foxxen, he wasn't from a prominent Foxxen family, his father only managed to eat one or two dragon souls before he was born and so Zeke wasnt gifted anything special. He was average size for a young adult Foxxen, a little under two meters tall, two hundred pounds, he had basic grey fur and gold fox eyes. The Foxxen were built for speed and subterranean living, the dragons owned the surface, the foxxen owned the caves underneath.
In the past decade the Foxxen learned that if they killed a dragon they would produce a soul gem, and when eaten the person eating it would evolve and gain special traits and abilities based on the dragon type and how many you get to eat as well as buff the persons natural strengths. The strongest Foxxen was from a very powerful and wealthy family, having known to have eaten at least three great dragon soul gems.
Dragons came in many species but almost all fell in the five categories:
Basic, sentient, high dragon, great dragon, and grand dragons.
Basic dragons tended to be small and relatively easy to kill by yourself but didnt often leave an edible soul gem and when they did it would take many to do anything to the body. The Foxxen allow the young to join the dragon hunter guild at birth if the parents give permission, and are then trained from the moment they could hold a spear. Zeke had been passed up on many hunting parties because was never quite able to be useful in the fights, he was a trained archer and couldn't seem to hit a dragon with a stone if he was on its back. His father says it has to be his confidence in battle, really the thought of getting eaten by a dragon seemed like the least fun thing he could think of. Either way he hadn't been able to go out on hunts in months, most groups refusing to let him come because of his uselessness in the field. Today his twin cousins Jeffrey and Damon were going to take him to hunt some basic and sentient dragons. Jeffery and Damon were from his mothers side of the family, the Redpaws, they were a brilliant red and white and their hands had red pads instead of pink, Zeke was a Steelcoat, like his father, but he did receive the red pads from his mothers side of the family. The brothers were master class hunters, they were a good five or six years younger and could take down sentient dragons with their hunting skills. Jeffery was known for his archery skills while Damon was excellent at tracking and trapping. Together they had eaten twenty basic dragon and two sentient dragon souls. They were elite hunters and the fact one of their kin was looked down upon so harshly didnt sit well with them.
He was going to kill some dragons today with a little bit of luck and determination. Zeke got out of round straw bed and put on his hunting clothes. Dark heavy cloth pants and a light cotton shirt, and then a leather chest piece. He placed his old quiver to his belt and grabbed his bow. He filled the quiver with arrows tipped with a powerful neurotoxin that overtime with paralyze a basic dragon and even a sentient dragon if he gets lucky. He filled a canteen with water and packed some bread and nuts and other various foods he could bring with him. He scanned the room to make sure he want missing anything, " my knife!" He ran over to his bed and pulled a hunting knife from the post and sheathed it attacking it to his other belt loop.
He opened a portal door in the shape of a half moon and exited into a dimly lit stone hallway.
He made his way down the hallway taking various turns, the cities underground were vast cavern mazes that only the Foxxen were able to navigate.
Zeke exited the tunnels and entered a giant hall with statued of great Foxxen warriors and kings, tapestries of the current ruling family were hung all over the common halls of the cities, they would be changed after each election. Right now the elected ruling family was the Firepelts, they're family was one of the first to kill dragons and used that fame to win control of the crown. So far the cities were peaceful and prosperous and the rumors were they would win another ten years as the ruling family.
The twins were already waiting for Zeke to arrive, they were having a conversation about theories that grand dragons weren't the strongest dragons as everyone believed. " the power of a dragon higher than grand would be in fathomable!"
"I would probably die of a heart attack if i ever came across one!" Zeke said laughing as he strolled up. The twins demeanor changed, Zeke had been embarrassing them for the last few months, not even one dragon soul gem, not even a recommendation to other groups, just a sad reputation for being useless. " shut it you useless worm, you're lucky we even agreed to help you, if your mother wasn't our favorite aunt we'd disown you" They then all laughed together "You little shit head let's see if we can't help our favorite little cousin become a great hunter!" " or at least make him not useless!"