One morning on the rocky coast of a giant island a humongous wave crashed onto the beach of the landmass and the man called Hunter stood up dripping with water. He got down on all fours like an animal and he shook himself dry. Hunter stood up and he looked around a mostly vacant beach sans for a few seagulls that flew high in the sky above the island. There was a giant rocky cliff a few yards in front of him and the beach itself was littered with the markings of extreme erosion; from craters, to deep crevices that scarred the rocky shore.
Hunter looked up at the top of the cliff and two figures appeared looking down at him. Two giant leathery wings sprouted out of the figures' backs, they flapped their wings and a small dust cloud appeared around their feet as they ascended into the sky.
The two figures landed in front of Hunter revealing to him that they were humanoid dragon women.
The dragon on the left was six foot tall, she had gold and red scales all over and her eyes were sapphire blue. The dragon on the right was five ten and a half, her scales were cerulean with patches of black scales and her eyes were black as coal. Both wore bikinis made out of seagull feathers, and both dragons had long fingers and toes that were tipped with long serrated claws. Their wings foldeuyd into their backs as they landed and the dragons stared at Hunter in confusion.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The taller of the two dragons asked.
"My name is Hunter and I just washed up here." Hunter said with a warm smile. He extended his right hand toward the two in greeting.
The shorter dragon slapped his hand away and she snorted in derision, "A likely story, Deanna come on do you actually believe this guy?" Deanna looked down at her shorter companion and she shused her before again addressing Hunter.
"Sorry about Claire, she is somewhat of a hot head. Now you said you washed up here from where?" Asked Deanna.
Hunter shrugged his shoulders. " I'm not really sure where. All I remember was that I was in a kingdom that was overrun by creatures the denizens of the kingdom called trolls." Hunter says.
"See, he is lying there's no such things as trolls. He is a Water Dragon spy. Think about it Deanna. He just so happens to conveniently float onto the island a month after the Water Dragons attacked us." Claire says and Deanna looks at her with a look of realization she then stares at Hunter in shock. Hunter looked at the two of them with utter confusion on his face. "What... what am I missing here?" Hunter asked.
Claire walked right in his face, "We're the ones asking the questions here you Water Dragon scum!" She yelled and she shoved Hunter in the chest causing him to stumble backward a bit.
He righted himself and he looked at Claire with a deadpan stare. Deanna nudges Claire's head with her elbow and she smiles at Hunter with sincerity. "I apologize for my cousin's behavior. But she does have a point. We will take you to our queen. She will know what to do with you." Deanna said as she placed her hands out in front of her and a small ball of fire appeared in her hands. The flame then transformed into a pair of golden handcuffs.
Deanna walks over toward Hunter and she hands him the shackles. "Please place these around your wrists." Deanna says.
He grabbed the cuffs from her hands and he looked over the restraints. "What am I doing this for?" Hunter asked. "Well until we can verify your story we will take you to our queen and she says anyone entering the island that isn't one of us must be cuffed." Claire says.
Hunter nods his head and he puts them on. Deanna grabbed Hunter's right arm and Claire grabbed his left.
Their wings sprouted from their backs and the two dragons took off into the air with Hunter.
They soared high in the sky, Hunter looked down and he marveled at the acres upon acres of forest he looked ahead and he saw a giant black and shiny mountain far off in the distance.
Hunter looked up at the two dragons holding him, "What's that?" Hunter asked, pointing toward the mountain. "Silence scum!" Claire snapped.
The flight grew silent after Claires outburst Deanna looked at her cousin and the two dragons then started to descend into the forest. They landed on the ground and Claire shoved Hunter forward; he stumbled a bit before he stopped himself. Hunter stood up and he took a deep breath in and out slowly. Deanna grabbed Claire's wrist and turned her around to face her.
"What is with you today?" Deanna asked with an indignant tone. Claire huffed and she pointed her clawed index at Hunter. "What is with me, what's with you. Why are you treating this trash with respect when he is a stranger?" Claire says, "He may be a stranger but he hasn't done anything so he deserves our respect. Now go apologize." Deanna says.
Hunter looked at the exchange in complete silence for a few seconds.
"She doesn't have to apologize." Hunter says scratching the top of his head. Deanna smiles at him with a grateful look on her face, "You're so kind Hunter." Deanna says. "This sickens me." Claire said and she walked further into the woods. "Let's go, Deanna , we need to collect firewood to set up camp."
"Come on Hunter." Deanna says she grabs a hold of his arm and they start to follow Claire. Hunter, Deanna, and Claire walked through the forest. "Why did we stop flying?" Hunter asks.
"Well if my cousin wasn't so snippy with you I would've told you that the black mountain you saw is…well was the source of our power when the mountain was activated we were able to soar for eternity but when the Water Dragons attacked they used their water power to snuff it out before attacking. We lost about half our population in a single night." Deanna says with a crack in her voice. Claire stopped walking and she turned around and with tears in her eyes she stared daggers at Hunter. "You know what your buddies did. Water Dragon spy." Claire said just then a massive high pitched sound was heard and the ground shook. Just then a creature came crashing through the forest. The creature's body was the size of a locomotive and it stood on four furry giant red goat legs. It's torso was white and leathery with large black spikes that protruded from its massive torso and the head was that of a rat, with large fly eyes. The creature opened its maw and four giant red pincers opened up like a flower as it let out a high pitched sound.
The creature saw the three of them and it let out another high pitched sound and it charged at them snapping its pincers with every step. Deanna and Claire's wings unfurled from their backs and they flew backwards a few yards away and Hunter flipped out of the way and he landed next to them.
"What is that?" Hunter asks, "That is a Skunny, it is the predator of these lands. It's body's invulnerable, before the mountain was snuffed out our flames only slowed down these creatures. It loves to attack us while we hunt the smaller prey, but ever since the Water Dragons attack the Skunnys' have been far more aggressive." Deanna says.
Hunter stared at the charging beast and he smiled in excitement. "Really, sounds fun." He says and he snapped the chain of his cuffs and he ran at the Skunny like a rocket. Once he was closer to the creature Hunter slid underneath the Skunny with a smile on his face. Once Hunter was behind the creature he grabbed its' right hind leg and he stood up. With the Skunny's leg in his hand he lifted the giant creature over his head and slammed the beast on the ground, back first embedding it into the ground. The impact caused a massive tremor which knocked both dragons on their butts and uprooted and knocked down several trees with in a twenty mile radius. The Skunny screeched as it struggled to free itself. Hunter leaped a few hundred feet into the air. While in the air he cocked his fist back and he landed a punch onto the beast's chin knocking it's head off and into the ground.
"What the...?" Both dragons' say with shock and confusion on their faces as they stood up.
Hunter turned around and he walked back towards Claire and Deanna whose mouths were agaped in awe. The creature's body twitched for a few seconds before a geyser of clear liquid erupted from the corpse.
"So two questions, do you have any more cuffs and can we eat that?" Hunter asked. Claire stared at Hunter, her mouth agape and Deanna stared at him confused. "First, no we cannot eat the Skunny its flesh is not appetizing but enough about that wow Hunter, that was incredible." Deanna says grinning Claire looked over at Deanna and shook her head. "What the heck are you?" Claire asked
"It's a long story." Hunter said and the dragon ladies sat down. "We've got time." They both said.
Hunter walked over to them and sat down crossed legged in front of them. "Look I don't want to talk about it Im still processing it. So let's just drop it okay?" Hunter asked. Deanna nodded in understanding but Claire stood up in anger and she lunged at Hunter. She swung a right hook at his head, Hunter rolled backwards, sprung to his feet, and he started to dance in one spot with his arms swaying and his feet moving in unison. "Claire, stop. If he doesn't want to talk about it, it is okay. Now Hunter Claire here will cuff you so we can rest up for the night." Deanna said.
Claire looked at her cousin with disdain. "Oh, come off it Dean I see that you have a crush on him." Claire said.
"No, he just hasn't done anything to warrant such hostility." Claire said her voice strained.
"Oh, bull, you particularly told him our tragic story of what happened to us and he can't tell us one thing about him!" Claire yelled.
"Claire I told him because he seems trustworthy, I can sense it. So, let's rest up before we go take him to the queen." Deanna said. Claire let out a sigh and she kicked at the ground in a huff. She formed the cuffs and she tossed them at Hunter's face. Hunter caught the cuffs before they could connect to his face. Claire then sat down on the ground with her arms crossed and she closed her eyes. Deanna walked over to a tree and she sat against it and she closed her eyes.
After the dragons closed their eyes Hunter cuffed himself and he kneeled down and he started to meditate.
An hour later the dragonesses woke up and Hunter stood up from his meditation. Deanna walked over toward her cousin. "Now Claire, are you alright now? Can we go?" Deanna asked.
Claire nodded and the two dragons walked over toward Hunter. Claire grabbed Hunter under his right arm and Deanna grabbed his left. They unfurled their wings and took off into the sky.
Half an hour later they landed on a stone bridge that was over a gorge of black and hardened obsidian. They continued forward into the mouth of a narrow and jagged tunnel. The three walked through the narrow passageway, Hunter and Deanna having to crouch because of their heights. The three of them exited the tunnel into a spacious cave. in front of them was a wide tunnel that had burning torches hanging on the ceiling of it.
The three of them. walked forward with Hunter in between the two dragons. They exited the tunnel and stepped out onto a long and wide bridge. In the middle of the bridge was a semi destroyed stone village. "Welcome to our home." Deanna says.
Deanna, Claire, and Hunter walked the streets of the semi destroyed village.The three of them passed by plenty of destroyed shops and demolished homes but many humanoid dragons of different shapes, genders, and ages were on the streets cleaning up the debris and fixing up the destruction.
Hunter looked at the scene that surrounded him with a deadpan stare. "Did the Water Dragons do this?" Hunter asked. Deanna nodded with tears welling in her eyes. Claire reached over and clasped Deanna's hands. She looked back at him with a glare.
"Quiet, we don't want to relive that tragedy twice today." Claire says. The trio stopped as two kid dragons ran in front of them. A horn blared out and all the dragons young and old dropped to their knees and bowed. Hunter looked around at the display in confusion. Just then a silver covered carriage came into view. The carriage was pulled by three four legged creatures. The creatures were the size of rhinos. Their heads were bear-like in shape and very fleshy looking . The creatures' bodies were covered in colorful feathers, they each had two sapphire colored horns on top of their heads. A row of black needle like spikes were jutted across their brows, their legs were the size of elephant legs and their tails were short and stubby.
The creatures stopped on the streets and they laid down. The carriage opened up like a flower and a tall and muscular humanoid dragon lady sat on a giant ornate throne. The throne was constructed out of a giant stone. Images of typical dragons in flight were sketched onto the throne.The dragon that sat on the throne was dressed in the same attire as Claire and Deanna her scales were red, the pupils of her eyes were gold and below her left eye was a long scar. The left section of carriage morphed into a set of stairs. "Your higness we were just coming to see you." Claire said. The dragon queen stepped in front of them and she let out a snort. The dragons all stood up and continued what they were doing before. But Deanna and Claire continued to bow. The dragon queen's eyes looked directly at Hunter. " Deanna, Claire. Who is this?" The dragon queen asked.
Deanna and Claire stood up, "His name is Hunter and he washed up onto the north shore. I think he's a Water Dragon spy sent to killl us." Claire said.
"He's not a spy Claire, if he was he's a very terrible one. He had ample opportunity to kill us."
Claire was about to retort but Deanna cut her off. "And before you say I could've stopped him, you must have forgotten that this man killed a Skunny unarmed." Deanna said. The queen stared wide eyed at Hunter after Deanna said that.
"Young man, is this true did you kill a Skunny unarmed?" The queen asked. Hunter nodded. "How, were you not cuffed?" She asked she looked toward Deanna and Claire for the answer.
"Well your majesty he was cuffed but, when the Skunny attacked he snapped the previous cuffs that were on his wrists to fight it." Deanna said.
The queen nodded and then turned her attention toward Hunter. " Okay, you washed up here from where?" The queen asked, "I don't really know, I just remember being in a Kingdom that was overrun by creatures called trolls." Hunter said. Claire snorted in derision, "Still sticking with that story. Trolls aren't real." Claire said. Her outburst gained her a stern look from the queen. "Were you there Claire?" The queen asks, "No, but your majesty…" Claire began, but the queen rose her hand in the air silencing her.
"Deanna and Claire go and help the others in the clean up. Mr. Hunter come with me." She said and she walked away. Deanna and Claire walked toward some buildings and Hunter followed the queen. Hunter and the queen walked up the stairs of the carriage and they stood opposite of each other. The carriage closed around them.
The inside of the carriage was lit by tubes of bright glowing liquid and four smooth metal benches lined the walls. The queen took a seat on one of the benches, "Have a seat." The queen said Hunter sat down on the bench in front of the queen.
"So. Killed a Skunny unarmed, what are you? What is your story?" She asked. Hunter smiled fondly.