Wind shrilled in her ears as Moon wheezed over the sky, her surroundings blurring into indistinguishable colors as her wings worked overdrive.
After taking off from the mountain, Moon promptly returned back to her nest. She didn't dare stop on any kinds of hills or island to rest for even a second in case some kind of mythical creature pop up again in need of help or something. She couldn't risk it with her rotten luck.
She let Mother, the Alpha and a handful of her kins that she was close to know that she'd be gone for a few weeks, or even months. She doesn't actually know how leaving the nest works, if she needs permission or she's just free to go but she figured it'd be best to let them know at least. What if she'd been branded as rogue? She couldn't handle grown dragons coming after her (for now).
Thankfully, the Alpha gave his okay, and Mother soon followed, even though she was still a little apprehensive.
"Return back in one piece," the Alpha said, slitted onyx eyes studying her. Then he turned away, huge majestic wings appearing as he flew.
"Be careful, Moon-child," Mother says, curling one of her long tails on one of hers.
"I will,"
Curvy, Four-Tails and Biggy also gave her goodbyes, and before she knew it, Moon is on her way.
Before she left the being's mountain, she conveniently gave Moon an enchantment to see magick auras and the ability to accurately sense them, which is hella useful. She wouldn't be caught unaware from now on. Also, the being also stressed that should Moon go back on her vow, the enchantment will immediately kill her on the spot, so that's nice to know in advance.
She traveled for miles and miles, never stopping even through a whirlwind of storm or tornado, the stretch of the bottomless sea below her seeming endless and desolate before she could finally sense a tiny speck of magick nearby.
Fucking finally. Almost eagerly, she dove down, the clouds briefly blocking her vision as her appearance turned blurry in the sky.
The view of a severely underdeveloped small village(?) came. Nestled between two deformed hills with sparse malnourished population, judging by the few weak magick presence. She automatically camouflaged her body as she landed on a valley overlooking the entirety of the depressing place.
She slowly drank on the stream nearby, the water tasting mediocre. She rest her tired wings for a few minutes. She have never gone flying nonstop for almost ten hours.
When she crept closer to the dilapidated gates of the human villagers curiously, the moment the most atrocious, disgusting, repulsive, vomit-inducing smell hit her nostril, Moon almost walked right back out, because fuck, they smell like hell and it almost brought tears to her eyes.
Still, it makes sense. It looks like this town didn't have any sort of advance technology nor agriculture, much less toilet or plumbing. The humans smell and look like shit. All of them look like they were one step away from death, with their sallow skin and sunken faces.
Moon stiffened when a group of human males suddenly went passed her, carrying an almost empty wooden crates judging by how they quickly carry it despite of their skinny statures. They didn't once glance at her from behind as she followed them down to the lower gradient, where several dingy boats are docked in the wooden pier.
They dumped the crates on the ground carelessly, wiping their sweat off and a few took a seat on the edge of the pier as the soaked their feet in the waters.
"You reckon it's gonna be any minute now?" She heard asked a short male to no one in particular.
"Right," the tall one in the middle snorted derisively "they're hurrying to us?" The way he said 'us' implies deprecation "they wouldn't fuckin' go any faster even if we started eating each other,"
"Jiem!" Admonishes the seemingly Alpha of the group, the only one who didn't sat down with the other humans as he stand behind them, staring off into the distance with a constipated expression that had Moon slightly amused.
Jiem the tall human's bitter expression didn't changed, but he quiet down. He seem to have great respect for this human Alpha, even if the said Alpha is younger, shorter and skinnier. But then again, looks can be deceiving. Maybe the human Alpha has some sort of secret powerful skill that makes him the leader.
They're waiting for something, that much is obvious. And they seem to dislike—no, hate the something they're waiting for. To investigate further, since Moon have this strong intuition that she might have a lead here if she stays to find the 'abominable humans' the being speaks of (and her sister, of course) she flew back to the town, trying to gain information.
Thankfully, the human villagers talk freely. It seems that since their poor village is far away from the major cities and kingdoms, the village has been subjected to countless harassing, pillaging, raping, and killing from pirates, burglars, gangs, or some other despicable wanderers that happen to find their defenseless village. They're casted as nobodies that isn't worth the trouble the soldiers in the city would bother saving. And now a new group of pirates has them hostage again, squeezing them of their money and trade unfairly.
Now the group of human males down the pier are waiting for these pirates, hoping to gain a few meager supplies for their human pack to survive the incoming winter.
Moon felt a hint of pity for them, since even the little human hatchlings haven't been spared from the monstrosities.
The Nine-Tailed dragon went back to the group of human males, and when it became apparent that the pirates aren't coming anytime soon, the human Alpha ordered three of his human pack to go back to the village and get their fishing equipment to make use of their time.
For a few idle hours, Moon watched the humans talk, bicker, and fished with boredom.
She settled a few feet away from them, hiding underneath a rock that she made sure no human can't see before taking off her camouflage. She almost felt her magick sighing in relief as it replenish, and she curled her body comfortably to take a quick nap, using two of her tails as pillow. It was dark but damp, but she quickly took care of that by breathing out smoldering smoke all around her.
The heat was much more better.
(✿^‿^)
She jerked awake from her nap when she felt a tiny bit of magick approaching her, and she came face to face with a human hatching, who looks like to be in the process of entering underneath the rock but stop dead in it's tracks when it saw Moon.
Motherfucker. She really has gotten rusty.
It's a female human.
Probably.
It's scent was vaguely female, but it looked and smell like a little gremlin. Meaning offending odor and questionable visuals.
And she's carrying a small basket...filled with a few herbs and mushrooms.
Moon blink back at her placidly, wondering if she should burned the gremlin before it alerts the other humans. But would they really believe her? After some thinking, Moon didn't think so. Perhaps the other humans might think the human gremlin is just telling tales for attention, and even if they did believe her and looked for a dragon, Moon would be already camouflaged.
The gremlin gaped at her rather ungracefully, eyes bulging in complete shock. A few minutes passed in silence as the two took in each other. But Moon was already done analyzing, so she huffed a hot, black smoke out of her mouth in impatience to either get the gremlins out or something.
Moon was five times bigger than the gremlin, but that didn't seem to stop her when her shock passes and absolute happiness overcome her whole gremlin face.
Uh. Moon is instantly on guard. That can't be good. Perhaps the little gremlin is mentally unstable.