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Akito gets kicked across the floor of the cabin so hard he feels his ribs crack. Despite the pain, he bears his teeth at the humans that captured him.
“What do you even want ?!” Akito screeches at the humans.
“Well, I’ll take one of two things,” one man holding a how says. “Either you lose your human skin and let us have some of those dragon scales…”
“Stupid idiot!” Akito snaps. ”We don’t shed our skin! Can’t tell the difference between dragons and Selkies?”
Besides, Akito’s too young to grow into full dragon form yet. He can cough out a few sparks and catch prey with the best of them, but being big enough to bite these guys' heads off isa couple of years away. Even his tail isn’t that long.
“Pity,” the man says. “Then kiddo, you should start crying loud enough for your mother to hear.”
“My mother?” Akito frowns. “Dummy, she’s nowhere near here, I’m an independent hatchling. Besides, if you think you can handle my mom, you should just set yourselves on fire now.”
The man stomps on Akito’s leg and there’s a horrible crack . “Kid, we know there was a large, brown dragon flying around here as recently as yesterday, and you were following her around, so start crying. ”
Oh. Ena. They think Ena’s a fully-grown dragon. Humans are really dumb. Why go picking on dragons if you don’t know anything about them.
But the bigger problem is that Ena’s not going to come rescue him. She’s just waiting until he can transform so she can leave him to fend for himself and fend for herself, the proper dragon way.
Their parents were off and not set to come back for a few centuries to see if they survived to proper adulthood, Ena wouldn’t go out of her way to help him.
But Akito can’t let these guys know that. Because then they’ll just kill him.
So he hisses at them and curls in on himself, his tail barely fully wrapping around him.
The men all laugh.
“Alright, kid,” the first man says. “Maybe another beast can convince you since what I’m trying to say is too advanced for you.”
Akito spits at him as he turns to leave, and several large dogs enter the cabin. They all bear their teeth at him and stare at him black beady eyes.
Akito bears his fangs back and spits a few sparks their direction, but it only stops them for a second.
The dogs have razor-sharp teeth, but their ribs are poking out through their skin. They’re starving.
“Go away!” Akito shouts as they back him into a corner. Ok, this is fine. Just a big flame! Something strong enough to keep them away. “Go away!” Akito repeats, trying again to spout an actual flame to no avail.
Akito sucks in a big breath and breathes as hard as possible, and flames erupt over the dogs.
For a second, Akito thinks he actually did it, but then he realizes the flames are coming from the wrong angle, and Ena’s perched at the top of a large hole in the cabin.
“Ena!” Akito yells. “Look out, they want your scales!” There’s the sound of footsteps and men yelling, but Ena ignores them and swoops down to slash at the ropes tying Akito. Akito climbs onto her back just as the men reach the cabin, and Ena releases a breath of colorful flames in their faces.
There are screams, but Ena ignores them and flies away.
“Did they find the cave?” Ena asks.
“No, they got me while I was hunting,” Akito says.
“Seriously? No hunting alone!”
“You’re always sleeping! I gotta practice before I transform!”
“You don’t need that much practice!” Ena flies to the mountain and then transforms back a ways from the cave. “Do you want me to carry you still?”
“I can walk!” Akito says. “I’m stronger than you as a human anyway.”
Ena rolls her eyes but makes special care to keep in step with Akito instead of going ahead like she usually would.
When they get back to the cave, Ena makes sure she’s ok, then immediately leaves.
Akito can hear the screams from the burning village from the cave.