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Blake curses under her breath when she feels the teeth of the trap prick her finger. She shakes her hand, trying to rid some of her pain as she finishes arming the trap. Thank, God this one isn’t laced with anything. She thinks. Once the trap is set, Blake places her bleeding finger in her mouth, nursing it as she starts looking for leaves and anything else to cover the trap and her scent.
It does not take long for Blake to find what she needs to blend the trap into the earth. A skilled eye is needed to find the bear trap now. Blake hopes that it will be enough to stop what she is looking for, or at the very least, slow them down. After a week of nothing but wild animals, Blake has grown frustrated at the lack of her prize. She knows that dragons come far and few between, they have become excellent at hiding, but she thought by now she’d find or catch a glimpse of a beast. Maybe today she will get lucky.
Blake takes her finger out of her mouth and looks over the rest of her traps as she walks around. More foot hold traps, big enough for a large bear (and decent size dragon), trip wire that will set off some arrows, and one trap has bait, part of a deer carcass, hanging off a tree that when pulled, releases a net that hopefully is big enough to catch what she wants. Now, all she can do is wait.
Waiting…That is all Blake has been doing for the longest of times. Taking a seat under a tree, Blake begins to ponder. All her young life, Blake has been a servant to the Schnee family, doing pretty much anything she is told. But if she can hunt and kill off one more dragon, then she will have hit her quota. She will have proven her worth and be given freedom. She will be free for the first time in her life. Already now as she sits for her prey, Blake can taste the sweetness of freedom on her lips.
Blake reaches into her bag, grabs an apple to chew on, and her notebook that doubles as her dairy. The small book is beaten and worn down, some of the leather has peeled away and the binding had to be taped back together. Some of the off-white pages have been ripped or are ripping, and there are only a few blank sheets left. Blake turns to the last page with ink on it and starts writing.
Day 7; Partly Cloudy. Cool. Little wind. Mid-afternoon.
So far there has been little trace of any dragon signs. The last thing I found that was of use was last night. Some claw marks in the bark of an oak tree. Possibly was sharpening its nails. Oddly enough, it looked like only one hand was used. Whatever the case may be, I have gone out to check traps (nothing) as well as reload some that have been set off by other creatures.
Time is running out. The Schnee’s do not like to wait and I have been out here for a week now with nothing in my name. I cannot come back empty handed. I have waited for this moment since I was a child. The chance to live by my own rules and the freedom to do as I please.
Blake shuts her book, not knowing what else to say. She is lucky enough that she is allowed to go out on these missions, but there is always a time limit. This one is longer than most, three weeks, but seven days have been burned. It takes a few days to get back to the castle so any day lost is time Blake can’t afford to lose. She would have moved onto greener pastures long ago, where she knows there is more dragon activity but those claw marks and other signs she has seen, burnt wood, a footprint in the mud, and even what she thinks is a tuft of brown fur from tip of a tail, keeps Blake put as well as her gut.
Blake throws her apple core elsewhere. She is just reaching down, her fingers touch the cold canister at her hip, when a noise draws her attention away. The pair of cat ears on top of her skull turn towards the sounds as her head slowly follows. Everything goes quiet. Blake stays still, hoping to hear if the sounds appears once more.
It does. A sound of something large in distress fills the air. Birds burst from the tree tops, flying away from whatever is around. Blake scrambles to her feet, collecting her belongings and shoving them in her bag. Blake makes sure that her knife is still attached to her thigh before bolting off as fast she can towards the noise.
As the sound becomes louder and clearer, Blake slows to a stop, just at the edge of an opening. She kneels down and peers over some bushes to see what is in the clearing.
Caught with its back right foot in one of her bear traps, desperately trying to tug it free, is a brightly colored dragon. The beast is small, probably not that old. Blake has not seen many old and large dragons nor has she seen younglings. Most of the dragons she has captured and killed might be as big as a small house. This one seems to be as big as a large size horse and almost as long as two of them. Blake also has never seen this coloration either.
The dragon bright scales are mostly a golden hue with its underside paler in color. Bone white antlers stick out from its head while brown spikes run down its spine, stopping just before the end of the tail. Blake notices the tuff of the dragon’s tail is the same brown color as the hairs she founds before. It’s red eyes are full of fear as continues to whine.
But what catches Blake’s eyes is the dragon’s front arms—or what’s left of them. The dragon’s left hand claws desperately at the bear cage, trying to pry it open. Almost human like, it places its nails between the cracks to try and open it. But the dragon can’t. It is missing their right arm. All that is there is a stub. Without its other appendage, the dragon struggles to break free.
Blake leans closer. She has not been spotted yet. She is completely mesmerized by the dragon. Her ticket to freedom is right in front of her. Even if it is young and injured, a dragon is a dragon, especially one that seems to be of high intelligence. All Blake has to do right now is wait. The trap the dragon is stuck in is laced with a sleeping agent given by the Schnee family. It should not take long for the beast to be weary enough to take down.
Snap!
A branch breaks beneath Blake’s hands. She has just enough time to duck down and cover herself before she feels heat above her. Once the air cools, Blake looks up. The top of the bushes have been burned away. Small embers still linger on the leaves and branches. Blake slowly pokes her head up to see what the dragon is doing. She is shocked to see it press down on the bottom of the trap, blood seeping from its footpad, before digging its claws into the top. It manages to pry open the mouth. The second the bleeding foot is free, the dragon bolts into the woods.
SHIT! Blake thinks. How the hell did it know to do that?
Without another thought, Blake runs after her prize. Pass the clearing is another set of woods, thicker than what she has just come from. Branches smack into her body. There are not many signs that the dragon has been here. Only it’s blood trail that goes from large blotches to smaller, almost unnoticeable ones. There are also no signs on the trees or brushes that a large creature has barreled their way through them. Many questions run through Blake’s mind as why such a large creature has not cause so much damage but she quickly keeps her thoughts focused on going after the dragon.
Blake stops for a moment and looks around. She has lost sight of the dragon, taking a deep breath, she tries to compose herself as she listens for any noise. What she hears fill the air shocks her and sends shivers through her skin. It is not the shouts of an injured animal, but the blood-chilling cries of pain from a female human. Blake’s heart skips a beat. Has someone wandered into the woods and set off one of her traps? Dragon or no dragon, she cannot leave someone trapped and quite possibly injured here.
She turns on her heels and heads towards the direction of the noise. Once again, the noise of someone injured echoes around the forest. Blake picks up the pace. Please be okay. Please be okay, whoever you are.
Finally, Blake reaches one of the areas she has step up traps. Her amber eyes widen in horror as her worse fears are realized. One of her trip wire traps have been set off. A girl not much older than her lies on her back on the ground. She can already see some blood on her shirt. One red stained arrow lies by her left side while another remains lodged in her abdomen.
Blake runs over to the hurt girl. When she reaches her, she notices that she is barely conscious. The girl groans when Blake lifts her upper body up. Blake reaches into her bag and pulls out a cloth. She presses down hard on the circular wound on the girl’s left shoulder.
“Hey. Hey can you hear me?” Blake asks. The girl only answers with a low moan. “Are you o—”
Blake stops. She looks down and notices the girl is missing her right forearm. An old scar is there, having lost her arm long ago. Slowly, Blake looks towards the girl’s lower body. Her right boot has become red and there is a large tear in it. It looks like something sharp and jagged has pierced through the leather and broken into the skin.
“What the hell?”
These are the same wounds as what she saw on the dragon. How can this girl have the same exact injuries? Unless—
The girl groans again. Her face is starting to lose its color. Blake pressed down harder on the wound, hoping to calm the bleeding. Again, a noise escapes her lips but this time it sounds more like words.
“What did you say?” Blake leans her ear close to the girl’s mouth.
“Ruby...” She breathes out.
“Hey, just stay with me, okay?” Blake stands to her feet, lifting up the near dead-weight body of the girl. “Stay with me and for this ‘Ruby’. I’m going to patch you up as best I can.”
---
Blake sighs as she sits down on the chair. It tips back for a moment before placing its feet back on the ground. Blake looks at the still unconscious mystery girl. Her blonde hair has been tied back so Blake could tend to her shoulder wound. It took the rest of the afternoon to get her back into the cabin while healing her took well into the night. The candle light gives Blake enough light to see the girl, whose color has almost completely returned to her, still breathing. Blake is no medic and can only hope she did the best she can. The white bandages around the girl’s body will need to be changed eventually which means Blake needs to go into town to get more supplies.
Not only will she need supplies, the girl more than likely will as well. Blake had to strip her of her shirt, boot, and sock to tend to the wounds and now them, and a jacket the girl had on, lay neatly on the ground by the bed, stained in her own crimson blood. The girl now wears an extra shirt of Blake’s that just fits on her.
Blake starts to play with the bloodied arrow in her hands. It was a bitch to get out of the girl’s abdomen but she got lucky. It wasn’t that deep and even with the razor edges that can cause damage if pulled out, being her weapon, Blake managed to free it with little harm. The shoulder wound, on the other hand, isn’t as lucky. The girl must have yanked it out in her panic. Blake is happy that the rest of her trip wire trapped arrows didn’t go off either or the girl might be dead.
Her attention is then turned to the foot. It was much easier to patch up. Many times back at the Schnee’s resident, where Blake practiced or taught others, there have been cases of someone getting caught in the metal teeth of the bear traps. Blake has seen these injuries and knows how to care for them. The girl will be able to walk still; she’ll just have to take it easy.
Who the hell are you? Blake thinks. She places the arrow on the table and takes her notebook in her hands. She browses the ink stained pages, hoping to find some answers. Never before has she seen or even thought that a dragon could take the form of a human, or a human turning into a dragon for that matter. Blake recalls stories her parents telling her faery-tales of such creatures but that is all she thought they here. Tales. Now one might be lying in her temporary bed.
Blake drums her fingers on her chin, trying to think of any other answers but her mind always come back to the faery tale. This girl has the same injuries that she saw with the dragon. The missing right forearm and the jagged cuts of a foot getting stuck in a bear trap. Blake also found the girl moments after the dragon escaped and Blake went looking for it as well, that and the blood trail she was following grew smaller. She must have switched and ran off as a human (that also explains little breakage of the trees). Blake also believes not only is the girl passed out from blood loss and shock, but from the sleeping poison from the trap. All that is left are the eyes. The dragon had fire red ones, what will this girl have?
What do I even do with you? If you are this creature of myth, then you can be my ticket to freedom and you will be worth much more alive than dead, so I can’t kill you. I can’t kill you anyway knowing you might be human. God, you are giving me a headache.
The girl suddenly twitches on the bed. Blake looks up and hears the girl moan before cracking her eyes open. For a moment, Blake swears they are red but when the girl blinks and opens her eyes up more, they are revealed to be a soft lilac. They stay absent of life for a moment, staring blankly at the ceiling before they shift to Blake. There, they come alive and she speaks.
“Who the fuck are you? …And where am I?”
Before Blake can answer her questions, the girl snaps up from the bed, alert. Suddenly, her body tenses up from the pain and she hisses through her teeth before she starts tipping over towards the side of the bed. Blake reacts quickly, catching the girl before she hits the hard, wooden floor. Once again, for a few moments, she is dead weight in Blake’s arms before coming back to reality.
“Ugh…God that was a bad idea, I snapped up way too fast,” The girl mutters.
“You think?!?” Blake says back, her heart pounding in her chest from holding a limp body in her hands for the second time in only a few hours. Carefully, she helps settle the girl back on the bed, propping her body up against the bedrest. “You need to take it easy, don’t strain yourself. You’re pretty beaten up and I don’t think I can patch you up again with what I have. Best you see an actual doctor soon so nothing gets infected or anything.”
“I’ll be fine. It takes a lot for something like that should happen.” The girl clutches her head. “God, it feels like my brain is lost in thick fog. Everything hurts like hell.”
“I found you with some arrows in her shoulder and abdomen. I had to pull the latter one out of you. You’re going to be in pain for a while I bet.” Blake grabs the arrow and again and wiggles between her fingers before setting it down again. “They came from some trip wire traps. That and it looks like you got your foot caught in a bear trap or something. You weren’t stuck in anything when I got to you.”
Blake half lies to keep the girl from daring to think that she has done anything. But there does not seem to be need for worry, however. The girl has yet to respond. She looks like she is processing every letter of each word very carefully. The drugs in her system still must be pumping through her veins.
Blake takes care what to say next. With the girl still out of it, maybe she can get more information out of her but she knows she also has to be careful. Even with her mind deep in outer space, the girl is also probably very wary at the moment from everything and she might just pick up on the fact Blake knows her secret. But she wants her trust also. Never before has Blake been able to bring back a live dragon, only parts as proof of her kill. Some other hunters have brought them back alive, or just barely, and get paid more handsomely than a dead catch. But she has no idea what this girl will bring in. Trust is needed if she will convince her to follow…if she does.
“You thirsty?” Blake grabs her canister, untwist the cap, and hands the girl it. “Need any help?”
“Yes and no. Thank you though,” The girl takes the water and slowly begins drinking. Once she is finished, she hands Blake the bottle back.
“So, to answer your questions from before, my name is Blake Belladonna. You have a name? If you can recall it?”
“My name is Yang Xiao Long.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Yang. Now, as for your other question, we are at a little old cabin I have been renting out for the week on my travels around the kingdom. We are outside a small village. I am not much of a social bird, so I got this place.”
There is a faint chuckle from Yang. “So I got saved by a traveling hermit, huh?” She jokes before shutting her eyes. “Sorry. A wave of exhaustion just washed over me and hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m normally more perky than this.”
“Rest. You need it after what happened to you. We can talk more in the morning and I’ll do my best to fill you in on things.”
“Sounds good…Thank you again.”
Blake helps Yang lay down on her back. In no time at all, Yang slips into unconsciousness. Once Blake is sure that she will not be waking up anytime soon, she opens her notebook and starts writing again.
Day 7; Partly Cloudy. Cool. No wind. Almost midnight.
What do I even put here? This day has gone from thinking it would be another bust but I then stumbled upon a rare find. At first you would think nothing of a dragon getting trapped but not only was this dragon very young, one of the youngest I have seen, but she was of high intelligent. She managed to break free and run off. But it doesn’t end there.
She, Yang, is something special, for lack of a better word. I do not know if I want to say she is a dragon who can take the form of a human being or a human who can take the form of dragon. I want to believe in the former. Either way I hope that I can earn her trust. It will be easier to get her to the Schnees. With her injured and Atlas only a few days walk and a boat ride away, it shouldn’t be too hard, right? Whatever the case may be, I will finally be free of these things that have plagued my life ever since I was a small child.
Blake starts to sketch as best she can from memory the head of the dragon she saw. An urge compels her to also, on the other corner of the paper, to draw a bust of Yang. Documentation of both writing and drawings are good.
Shutting the book closed, Blake sets it down on the nightstand. She yawns. The events of the past few hours have sapped her of all her energy. She takes an extra blanket off of the bed and wraps it around herself before drifting off into sleep.
---
Light streams into the room, filling the area in a dim and pale yellow hue. Blake slowly cracks her eyes open, her brain taking its time to wake up. Everything is still and quiet, not even birds are singing their songs. Blake notices that she is in a chair rather than the bed she has grown accustomed to recently. Her eyes fall on said area. She sees that it looks like someone has stayed the night in it but Blake remembers having made it the day before. A moment passes before her brain clicks on.
YANG!
Blake nearly falls out of her chair. Where the hell could she have gone? There is no way Yang could have gotten far with her injuries. Blake does find the clean shirt she had put on Yang laying at the edge of the bed and Yang’s blood stained one missing but everything else is in its place. Her bloody boot, sock, and jacket are still where they were last night. She has to be near.
The cabin is not that big. Only three rooms. The bedroom, small bathroom, and kitchen that duels as a dining area. Clearly Yang isn’t in the bedroom and Blake can see the door to the bathroom wide open. Yang cannot be there either. All that is left is the kitchen.
Blake makes her way into the other section of the house. Like everywhere else, however, the only living thing inside is herself. No one else. Where in God’s name could Yang have run off too this early in the morning?
“Are you okay, Blake?” A voice says from behind.
Blake nearly jumps through the roof. Her first instinct is to spin around. As she does so she begins to reach down her leg but stops when she sees Yang’s bright eyes looking back at her, a bit startled.
“Oh my god, Yang! You have to stop spooking me. That is like the fourth time I’ve had a heart attack because of you and please, never sneak up behind me like that again.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. You okay?”
“Yeah…Yeah I’m fine…What about you?”
Yang is resting her body on a doorframe to the outside while trying to keep some pressure off of her right foot. It just barely touches the ground. It’s nice to see that Yang is fully awake and not half in reality and half in fantasy land.
“I am fine. I just needed some fresh air, that’s all. I’m not one to sit around all day. Also, sorry for switching out of the top. I know it must have been awkward getting me into it but it was a little to snug for comfort so I had to go back into mine.”
“Trust me, it’s fine. Awkwardness was not in my mind at all last night with trying to make sure you okay. How is the foot?”
“Hurts and I am limping but I’m mobile at least.”
“Good, good. Well, if you are willing to, I don’t think you want to be in those clothes anymore and I need to resupply myself with things so I was going to head into town. You are more than welcome to join.”
“Sure! And I know it’s not much but as a small token of my thanks for last night, I’ll treat you to breakfast,” Yang says with a large and welcoming smile.
Blake feels her face warm up. She is not use to this type of kind gesture. Blake cannot recall the last time someone genuinely did her a nice favor, whether it be because they owed it to her and just wanted to treat her. Blake rubs the back of her neck and looks away from Yang, not really knowing how to react to the kind gesture.
“Thank you. I am going to get ready, should not take me that long. Just tell me when you are ready and then we will head out.”