Among the fronds appeared three creatures that Haku couldn't recognize. He had never seen them before and was sure he had never heard of them in the many descriptions of the outside world that his mother had given him.
What kind of strange animals were they? They looked like monkeys, like the ones he and Darbi had occasionally noticed jumping amongs the tree branches, but they were bigger, their skin was pink, and they walked on two legs. Their fur too was strange… it only covered parts of their bodies and didn't seem to belong to those creatures, as if it had been forcibly stuck to them, except for what was on their heads. That fur was clearly not theirs, but what creature would have worn another animal's fur? It was absurd!
And then... they had strange objects in their hands. Haku didn't remember ever seeing such things. He remembered that some monkeys he and Darbi had seen used tools, but they were just sticks and sometimes stones, things that nature could provide them. However, these objects didn't look natural at all! They were clearly made of wood and perhaps some kind of stone, but they were too smooth and polished to have grown naturally! They looked like they were purpose-built by someone, but what creature could shape wood and stone so well, and how did it do it?
Haku didn't know what to think. Those animals made no sense! They were an enigma! An anomaly in his knowledge of the world!
"I can't believe it! Now that's what I call good luck! Two lindworms caught in one single time! Ethan will eat his hands as soon as he sees our loot!" the tallest figure among them exclaimed.
"Lindworm? What the fuck is a lindworm?" Haku thought, not understanding what they were talking about, and just after some seconds he realize something more important: "Wait a minute... did that animal just speak!?"
It was the first time he'd heard a non-dragon speak, and until now he'd never thought it possible. He knew that the other creatures also had methods of communicating with each other, he had seen them do it many times, but certainly there was no language among them! That, at least according to Haku's previous worldview, was an unique characteristic of the dragons! What was going on there?
"Given their size and the fact that they still have hind legs, they must still be sub-adults. They haven't reached adulthood yet" the creature with the most fur on its head murmured. "Besides, an adult lindworm certainly wouldn't have gotten trapped so easily"
Darbi let out a soft growl and his eyes narrowed. Evidently he hadn't liked that comment. Haku cannot blame him, they had basically just called him stupid! That was an affront to their dragon pride! But in any case, that wasn't the time to let anger control themselves.
Haku didn't know what to do. Those creatures seemed intent on capturing them. He didn't know what they were, why they talked, what they wanted to do with them, or even just why they called them lindworms, but he wasn't interested in finding out; the important thing now was to escape. He couldn't lunge at them head-on, not until he discovered how strong they were; so he just stood in front of Darbi in a defensive pose, repeatedly hissing and lowering his head and showing his horns, as he had seen wild animals do many times when they tried to intimidate him.
"Hey, look, guys! The other lindworm wants to protect our prey! How tender! What do you think, are they engaged?" one of that strange beings laughed.
"Well, they surely are a nice couple" another one agreed with it.
Both Haku and Darbi felt a shiver run down their spine. The two of them, a couple? Them!? They would havr preferred to cut off their genitals...
Luckily the creature with a lot of fur in its head corrected the misunderstanding: "Juvenile lindworms like these don't have the instinct to mate yet. They are probably siblings or something. So stop daydreaming, Ash, Sven"
"Ugh… what a killjoy, Tyana" the taller creature, who was apparently named Ash, grumbled.
"Rather than thinking about your silly kinky fantasies, try using your brain! These lindworms have horns!" the creature with a lot of fur on its head, that it seemed to be called Tyana, exclaimed.
The eyes of the other two lit up. "You mean... that they might be a rare species?" that 'Ash' said with a look that reminded Haku of the same one he had when he was about to eat something. "Then we're even luckier than we thought! Not only did we catch two lindworms, but they're also a unique variant! We'll get rich after this one! Hurry, let's catch the other one too before it decides to run away!"
The creature with a lot of fur on its head, that 'Tyana', lifted a strange curved instrument and placed a stick with a strange metal point on it. Haku didn't understand what it was, but as soon as Tyana let go of the stick it shot towards him at breakneck speed.
Haku reacted instinctively and dodged to the side. He did it just in time: while it was still in mid-air the tip of the stick exploded and more of those strange golden strings spread out from it in all directions, and if it had remained stationary surely they would have wrapped and tied it as they had done with Darbi.
The creature named Tyana threw two more of those sticks, but Haku managed to dodge them too. However it was clear that it could not go on like this forever. "That strange creature has a wide range attack... I have to eliminate the distance!" he thought looking at the object that bizarre animal was holding in its hand. If he could get close enough he could destroy it. The creature didn't seem to be able to throw those sticks without it, so once he deprived it of that item he could turn the tables to his advantage!
Haku snapped and ran in a zig-zag towards the creature named Tyana, deftly dodging its next blows. As soon as he was close enough, he jumped and opened his jaws to bite its head, while with his claws were prepared to strike the object it was holding. Even if the bite had missed, surely that dangerous object would have been destroyed. But at the last moment something struck him on the left side.
Haku rolled for several meters. It took him a moment to realize that the thing that had hit him was a strange instrument, a kind of stick ending in a block of iron in the shape of a rectangle, held in the hand of the creature named Ash. He realized that he had made a gigantic mistake: he had forgotten that his opponents had the advantage of being more in numbers! They were a pack, while he was alone!
Suddenly he felt a strange warmth rising up his left hind leg. He spun around and saw that more of those strange golden strings were growing along his foot, preventing him from moving. Evidently while he was stunned one of the creatures must have thrown another one of those sticks or some other kind of trap!
"Great job, Sven!" the creature named Ash exclaimed as it raised its thumb at the last member of the group, who was evidently the one who had thrown the golden strings at Haku. Looking at it, the little dragon noticed that it had some strange disc-shaped objects in its hands.
The creature named Sven didn't react to its companion's words, rather worrying about the other one: "Tyana, are you all right?"
The creature named Tyana looked like it had just had a long run. "Yes... thanks for the help. I didn't expect it to be so fast..."
Haku had to think fast; the mysterious golden strings were rapidly enveloping him and would have soon prevented him any movement. He quickly realized that he had only one chance left to survive, and even if he didn't like it, he didn't hesitate to use it: he raised his head to the sky and let out an extremely high-pitched cry, which resounded throughout the valley. The strange bipedal creatures brought their front paws to their ears.
"Damn! What the fuck is it?"
"Shut it up!"
Their request was granted shortly thereafter; the golden strings completely wrapped around Haku's muzzle, preventing him from making any sound.
The bipedal creatures looked relieved. "Ugh... thanks the gods. It was deafening" said the creature named Sven.
"Can lindworms make such sounds? Why didn't you tell us?" the creature named Ash exclaimed angrily.
The creature named Tyana looked offended. "Because I didn't know either!"
The three bipeds looked rather quarrelsome. Haku noticed that they were quite different from the white wolves: this time, the pack wasn't very close.
"Well, it doesn't matter. We've got them now!" the creature named Ash finally said. "It was tiring, but we did it! Now we're going to make a fortune!"
"You are right! How much is a lindworm worth these days? What about two? And if we add the fact that these are probably a rare species… damn, that's a lot of money…". The creature named Tyana was counting on its fingers while its eyes seemed to glow with a strange light. "Shit! Ash, you were right, we'll really get rich after this!"
The three bipeds laughed and clapped their hands together. Haku didn't know why they did it; maybe it was a way to celebrate the success of the hunt? Some kind of ritual, like the howls of the white wolves or the roars of him and Darbi as they stood over their lifeless prey?
But suddenly a voice stopped everything: "What the fuck are you doing!?"
Out of the corner of his eye, Haku saw that a fourth biped had appeared. It was quite different from the others: it was more surly and the hairs it had seemed whiter. From its smell, Haku understood that it wasn't the same age as the others; and since the young dragon had previously observed that the animals' hair lightened more with age, it was likely that that creature was older than the others.
"Oh, Ethan, come here! Look what we found!" the creature named Ash called to it, pointing to the two tightly bound dragons. "You were so scared, but look! Look how much profit we will get: two lindworms at once!"
The creature named Ethan barely glanced at Haku and Darbi before freezing completely, as if it would just been electrocuted. Its face turned chalky white and its body began to shake. "I can't believe it..." it whispered. "I knew you would cause me problems... but I thought that for twenty minutes that I left you alone I could remain calm... how... how can you be so stupid..."
"Um... Ethan? Are you okay?" the creature named Tyana murmured.
As a result of its question, the face of the creature named Ethan became dark as night. "IDIOTS!" it roared with disproportionate fury. "You fucking idiots! You have condemned us all! Since when do lindworms have horns? Since when do they have spines on their backs? Don't you have any doubts, you fucking imbeciles?"
The creatures named Ash, Sven and Tyana looked at each other in confusion. Evidently they had expected many reactions, but certainly not this one. "We thought they were a variant of some sort..." the creature named Tyana tried to justify herself.
"You are a bunch of bums! A group of overconfident imbeciles with absolutely nothing on their brains! You should have come and warned me right away, don't go your own way! You just had to do what I told you, but no, it was too difficult!" the creature named Ethan screamed.
The creature named Ash began to look annoyed: "So, will you stop yelling, old man? Tell us what we did wrong rather than…"
"Shut the fuck up! You have no idea what trouble you have gotten us into!" yelled the creature named Ethan, who sounded completely insane, then it point with a trembling finger to Darbi and Haku: "Those aren't lindworms... those are baby dragons!"