It was a cold day, the snow was lightly falling outside the dragon's hiding spot and nothing was disturbing him for more than three days straight. He couldn't believe his ears when he heard footsteps coming in his direction. They were humans, probably sent from the castle located not that far away from him. Most of them waited at the entrance, as one proceeded to get in touch with the dragon.
Enemies like this one always showed up, wanting to kill him without even giving a reason why. Acts in a violent way against all of his movements. It was something that always hit the dragon hard in his emotions, feeling like a threat, a wolf that would rip apart any life signs in its path. Completely without arguments, he was indeed a dark creature, such a monster couldn't be believed by the others, the ones that people thought were the "good ones".
People always remember guards and soldiers as the ones that protected normal citizens from villages and castles, but they were wrong. Most animals that got involved were being slaved just for the admiration of others, completely ignoring any kind of moral. For the dragon, all of this wasn't important enough. Always seeking for people to talk with or other animals to play together, just for fun was one of the things he tried the most, and never stopped doing, this concept of being a dragon was the problem.
Dragons were seen by humans and other species as the ones that brought hell to the earth, the symbol of freedom and power. They were numerous in ancient times, and now they were getting extinct, not able to live together with humans, who thought the same, if not, worse. They were always imagined as the ones that did all the bad things, killed animals, destroyed cities, and betrayed other creatures. Why they would listen to them after having so many memories written in old books?
This problem wasn't his to pay for, the dragon was only living his life, never interfering drastically in other's paths. He was peaceful, and they just appeared out of nowhere, saying things that he never committed. Such a bad urge came to the dragon's head, why he still maintained posture near them after so many years of running out of their view, it wasn't necessary, he could easily bring them down with just a simple flap of his wings.
"Dragon, you shall come with us, otherwise we'll take drastic measurements for this visit.", said the commander of the men, looking directly at the beast's red eyes that shined in the dark while holding a manuscript with the order from the queen of the nearby stone tower.
The dragon didn't move, he was sitting on the ground, hearing closely what they were saying about him. Having to live life alone made him in need of attention, a kind word would have helped him so much, now the only thing he could hear was the gossip about his body, the way he was hiding in a cave, away from everything else.
"This is just pure suicide! We're gonna die.", commented one of the men back at the entrance with the other ones around him.
He couldn't deny that having an image of a powerful single animal was indeed pleasurable, nevertheless, he hid in caves, because it was the only way for him to avoid direct contact with other humans, stopping severe wars from happening, but sacrificing some of his free wills, taking decisions just to avoid getting in confront with humans that wanted his head wasn't a thing to anyone.
He was one of the only dragons to act like this, patient with them. Because most of the others, unfortunately, reacted in similar ways to each other, decimating their last enemy until their hearts stopped beating. It was from their nature to have an urge for chaos, for blasting their heavy fires into the ones that they judged wrong. An insatiable will for seeing blood spilled in the battlegrounds.
"Let's end this shortly.", replied the dragon while he gave his head openly into the guard's direction.
The men transported a muzzle and other artifacts such as steel chains with them for this occasion. They weren't expecting the dragon to surrender this fast, he appeared to be so outrageous. They proceeded with the usual ceremony and tried putting it on the dragon's head. But his horns were front-oriented, which made putting it painful. He was used to being called in this situation. Almost every two weeks, similar events happen to him, flying too near fortresses and castles always catching up with the guard's view, making him automatically an intruder or threat.
"Please, be more careful.", spoke the dragon in a deep voice while he avoided their hurried hands.
After connecting the bindings, they got out of the cave with him, seemingly looking like a dog, trained by them. The sun reflected into his black scales, revealing such a monster that before was only visible by the lights of torches. He was almost, divine. With a sad look on his face masked with spikes and now a human-made mechanism to steal his freedom, they proceeded to walk down the snowy mountains, as the snow started to fall stronger.
The only thing that he could think of is what would happen to him, what plans the queen had with his presence. And the guards weren't gentle with his way, at the minimal movement that he executed, tugs made him lower his head, disorienting and making him angry with their disrespect. He completely gave himself to them, actually too scared to fight, he didn't necessarily want to be a good one, but not be dreaded and waste his powers.
In his entire past life, he lived hiding from them and protecting his power inside, not letting it be used. He was and still is, the strongest of all the dragons on this earth, capable of reshaping landscapes and judging anyone's faith. He decided to just stop, and ask himself if that was what he wanted to do with such blessed blood.
They arrived at the signs that marked the start of the mountain and proceeded to take him to the west, passing inside a small forest along the way, which was furthermore connected to the village. He could fit inside the forest, nevertheless, it was narrow, resulting in branches uncomfortably scratching his body. The men holding his ropes were in awkward positions in his front and back, making it a perfect time to leave everyone behind.
But that wasn't the dragon's intention, he don't want to alarm anyone, and they would probably seek him again and again, never letting it rest in peace. Animals from the trees and inside the woods were hiding from it, the aura around him could easily scare the ones that could feel it, they knew what powers it held, so avoiding him wasn't just an option, it was an instinct.
Continuing on the walk for more than two hours straight without stopping, he felt something cold on his claws, it was wet mud that made him get dirty, which in the start didn't seem an important thing to relate to, nonetheless, it started to tickle on him, making this trip uncomfortable. At every step taken, he tried to rub his legs wiping them off, but it wasn't working, it just worsened the situation. Not far away, he could see the first houses from the village.
A different scent came into the air that attracted the dragon's attention, it was the products being sold by them. The guards were skeptical of passing with the beast in the center of the village, but they imagined that his locks were secure enough so they proceeded. People were staring at him, making it possibly more uncomfortable.
The food was something that always made the dragon shiver, he loved to eat, but maintained a pact with himself, of just eating when he wanted. It made him weaker, not being able to develop more of his muscles and maintain a healthy body, it was just another sacrifice of his life. That wasn't necessary, because then all the other animals would have to be herbivores, breaking the food chain, his thoughts were breaking himself, erasing his necessities in a way that could harm him.
All of their thoughts were the same, "How can the guards let such a monster pass near our houses?", "This beast deserves that! No one asked for your appearance near our territory." others imagined "Our guards are the strongest ones, look at how easily they captured it and brought it here.". But from the crowd that developed around them, a small boy, about 8 years old was looking at him fascinated.
He imagined the fight that occurred to capture it and all the dragon's power being used. He looked at his wings and dreamed about being able to fly like him, having the entire world in the palm of his hands, just a touch out of reach. "One day, I wanted to be a dragon, I could do so many things! Helping my mom and dad would be the first thing that I would do, they would be so proud.", imagined him looking directly into the creature's eyes.
"This child, it doesn't seem to be healthy, what a shame for the humans to not help the ones in need just because of some coins.", the dragon concluded out loud without controlling much of his tone, making visual contact with it.
"Keep going and look forwards!", shouted one of the men while pulling the chain he was holding, controlling his head to face frontways.
Then, he got away from the child and proceeded to continue coursing a bridge with a big waterfall not far away from one of its sides, collapsing into a river that passed under it. He looked down and stared at his reflection, not being able to deny that he looked scary to himself, inventing fictional stories about what he could do to others and completely forgetting about what he was avoiding doing to himself.
They stopped in front of a big wall made of dark wood, and one of the men shouted for it to be opened up. For the last time before entering the gates, he looked up at the sky, it was setting. Time passed fast while he was made hostile. The clouds were so brilliant in the sky, reflecting the organed of the sun that almost parted to a red tone. He then remembered one of his last flights, admiring nature without having any trouble. What happened to him, why things couldn't have flowed as before?
The man impatient drew the dragon's attention pointing forwards at the doors and said in a sarcastic tone, "Shall we proceed?".