The reek of mortal and blood filled the predator's nose with their musky metallic stench, with each messy boot print the smell of the mortals strengthened while the blood was wiped off their soles on the morning dew. The forest was slowly coming alive as dawn barely began to break above the horizon casting the whole forest in somber shadows. More and more signs of mortals passing through could be found, broken branches, a bloodied bandage left to rot, boot prints in the soft morning earth. With each clue Zephyria drew closer to the dishonorable mortals she called prey. A short while later, Zephyria closed in on her prey. "Voices! Shouting and swearing? Shouting, swearing, and metallic clanging? They're fighting something!"

  Quietly moving to observe Zephyria wound through the trees with a serpentine grace not leaving even a single branch disturbed, her softer more dexterous paws in their element sneaking instead of wrapped around a mortal book. Reaching a cramped but open glade she saw a team of adventurers clad in strange armor and fighting a pack of Iron Wolves. With rigid fur made of metal they were almost incapable of stealth but their defensive power and pack tactics make them lethal to anyone without an armor piercing enchantment on their blade or a potent elemental infusion.

  Naturally to a lightning dragon like Zephyria their conductive metal coats were purely a hindrance. "This is perfect, absolutely perfect. I let the Iron Wolves soften them up and then swoop in and finish them off while the iron wolves run away from my draconic perfection. Even better, it lets me see how they fight first. Knowledge is power after all."

  Within the glade four adventurers fought side by side. Every last one wearing armor that would be far too heavy for anyone else of their type, even stranger it all was extremely ornate. Golden filigree, carvings and even bits of decorative feather and fur. Zephyria hadn't been in too many fights, at least by dragon standards, but she had never seen armor like this.

  Dozens of guards and mercenaries killed and not once had she seen golden accents or feathers! "Just who are these peacocking mortals? They fight well too, coordinated and practiced. That one in the back with the staff, she keeps infusing the sword and shield one at the front so he can cut through the Iron Wolves fur. He doesn't seem to have any magic of his own, just complete trust in his support. How strange. Then there's the archer there, I can't tell if she has magic but her arrows are going through the metal fur like an infused claw through flesh. And then the last one just watching the rest fight, she's not directing the fight in any way that I can tell just simply watching. A weak link perhaps? No, her stance is too confident. She either has complete and total trust in her team to protect her, or she doesn't fear being ambushed. I either need to take that one out first or last depending on how this goes."

  The fight Zephyria was watching was coming to a conclusion far too soon for her liking. The dozen or so wolves had their numbers cut down by half already and were visibly close to breaking away and running to go lick their wounds. "That support one, she's close to the edge of the clearing and nobody is watching her back. They are a coordinated team but their full focus is on the wolves, not even the one not fighting is watching their backs. I don't think I can take this team in a straight up fight, especially if that silent one is a threat like I think. But, these are the wilds. And the wilds have poor visibility and easy tracking. If I can take out that support now then the knight will be nearly useless later. That's what I'll do, I'll try to pick them off one by one. Support first, then run away and track them down again."

  Slinking through the edge of the glade until she was directly behind the support she readied to attack. She slunk as quietly as she could manage, getting disturbingly close to the support despite being fully exposed in the glade. Close enough she could simply reach out and bite the support. This is when Zephyria had a brilliant idea. "I'll spare this one, for now. I'll grab her by the waist in my mouth and run as far as I can, flying away if I can manage the room to take off in these woods. If she survives the blood loss and shaking then she can answer a few of my questions. Perfect."

  Snapping her fangs out with her head turned sideways she tries to sink her fangs into the support and turns away. She's surprised for a moment when the armor that the mortal is wearing stands up to her fangs, but with her heart-flame burning brighter than ever before not even this fancy armor could resist her maw fully. The mortal let out a horrible scream dragging the entire fight to a halt as the Iron Wolves finally noticed the massive dragon and ran away, in that same moment the team of adventurers turned around shocked to see another dragon here so soon. In that brief moment of surprise the adroit dragon turned on her tail and tried to run.

  The quiet one let out a horrible drawn out scream as she acted with incredible grace, "NO! LILLY!" The suddenly not so quiet one summoned more fire than Zephyria had ever seen from anyone but her mother, even other dragons. The yelling one shaped that fire into flaming spears and sent them screaming past Zephyria, and into Zephyria. Two sank deep into her rear scales, the first barely missing and leaving a shallow burnt gash along her left side, the other striking true and deep into her flesh just to the right of her tail. Dragon scales are all resistant to the elements to an extent, but Zephyria was a lightning dragon not a fire dragon!

  With a muffled roar of pain and surprise Zephyria bit down a bit harder on her prisoner and ran into the woods as fast as she could. The fire spears dissipated after a moment meaning the one in her flank couldn't impede her running but the narrow but deep wound certainly could! With a limp barely suppressed Zephyria ran like the corruption of old was right on her tail, not caring what happened to the mortal in her mouth anymore.

  Zephyria ran and ran, her wounds instantly cauterized and then torn open by the movements. Finding a small clearing she takes off and tries to fly away. Her wing spasms as she channels mana to fly and she snarls in pain, grinding her teeth even harder into her failed attempt at catching a prisoner. Before she can even consider what is wrong with her wing, the pain becomes searing and suddenly quits supporting her flight. Only having flown for a short moment she crashes, smashing through tree branches and landing hard enough to knock the wind out of even a dragon.

  Gasping for air and recovering for a moment, Zephyria spits out the body and inspects her wing. Within it a large wound partially cauterized and then torn open by the flight is in the middle of her wing membrane. "Void curse that pyromancer, what the hell was that! There was a dozen of those scale-rotting spears, may the corruption take her scorched soul! That hurts. I won't be flying for a while, damn, dammit, damn."

  Unexpectedly, the human she 'kidnapped' coughs and moans much to Zephyria's surprise. "How the hell is this mortal woman alive? She got snagged by my fangs, bit harder, hauled through the forest at top speed, went through a rough take-off and then a crash landing not a minute later. Just how tough is this armor?" Flipping her over so that the human woman is face up Zephyria inspects the damage to her. The armor is shockingly intact with surprisingly small punctures only where her fangs bit the deepest. Still a moral wound without support, but Zephyria has bit straight through steel plate armor before and this is some strange re-enforced leather with only a few plates over her vitals. With her heart-flame strengthened by her mother, she should have accidentally bit this woman in half, not just left a few eventually lethal punctures!

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  You. You are the mortal called Lilly, correct?" Zephyria growled, her intimidation cut somewhat by the pain in her voice.

  "Hah, fuck you." The little mortal responds with venom in her voice. "Wolf will come for me-" She coughs wetly, "- And I'll tell you nothing dragon." Thinking on this for a moment, Zephyria infuses a claw her lightning and holds it up to Lilly's face and snarls out, "Your armor is tough, but your fragile now. Vulnerable. Powerless. I can kill you now out of spite, if you'd like. Or, maybe, if you tell me about your little team I might let this 'Wolf' come save you."

  Pressing her claw closer and closer towards the humans face the human lets out several more wet coughs and then says "Wait! wait. Fine. I'll tell you a bit, beast." She looks at Zephyria with a slightly bloody smile, "We're the best of the best. We're monster slayers. We're dragon slayers! That's why you're chasing us, was that dragon we killed earlier your precious daddy? Or mommy? I don't care. They call us heroes."

  Snorting Zephyria presses a paw onto Lilly's chest. "Quiet, mortal. Quit stalling and give me something useful. Your team name. Your allies names. Your strengths. Weaknesses. Now!"

  Lilly just laughed, coughed up some more blood, and then laughed again. "You stupid fucking lizard. Gods you beasts are so easy to fuck with. I even told you why I was stalling and yet you keep letting me doing it due to your own bestial arrogance. Fuck. You!"With that final curse, an arrow whistled out from the dark and sunk deep into Zephyria's flank eliciting a roar of pain from her.

  The enraged dragon whipped her head around and locked eyes with another human, the same archer from earlier. "This one must be 'Wolf'. What an embarrassing name, imagine a beast-kin named 'human'." Another arrow flew for Zephyria's head, but with her full attention on the ranger she was able to move her long neck aside and dodge it.

  With a spiteful growl Zephyria channeled lightning into her claws and sunk them straight into Lilly's weak helmet. She died before she could even let out a scream. The third arrow missed all on its own and Zephyria took that as her queue to haul tail out of here. "If the ranger caught up this fast, then the other two aren't far behind. I can barely kill their weakest member with a full ambush and isolated. There's no way I can take the rest yet." Zephyria ran once again, praying that the corpse she left behind would stall them long enough for her to get the hell out of here.

  Zephyria's gamble paid off and she didn't seem to be followed, however she kept running. Running until she was certain she was safe. The sun crept higher into the sky, the sun fully showing and the fatigue finally catching up to Zephyria. "I need to eat, then I need to sleep. This was all too much. I haven't slept or eaten in... too long."

  Late into the morning she thought to herself, "This should be far enough. I've been running for hours at a dragons pace, however wounded. There's no way for them to have caught up, especially not while trying to consume and honor their dead." She let out a snort of irritation, "Not that those mortals would know how to honor the dead. They probably are going to toss her in a pit and kick some dirt over her like refuse, the dishonorable cowards."

  Grumbling in her thoughts the entire way, Zephyria slowed down dramatically and started to hunt. Slinking through the woods she did her best to track down a deer, bleeding and with an arrow in her side as she was. Catching a scent she stalked the deer and found it in a small clearing with a pond covered in tiny green plants. The deer was eating the plants and totally distracted. She pounced upon it and drove her fangs into the side of its neck breaking its spine it and bleeding it out quickly.

  She dragged the deer a few tail lengths away from the pond and ate it messily, the blood from her mother still coating hear head she tore into the deer eating muscle and offal alike. Even crunching down many of the rib bones without hesitating. Having eaten most of the deer she pauses at its heart and says a small prayer. "Be honored, worthy prey, you lived and died well with a bright heart. May your soul join the gods of old as your heart-flame burns through me." And then the dragon ate the heart with a sense of reverence.

  Resting for a short while, she rests her head on the soft grass of the clearing. Fed and basking in the sun she struggles to stay awake. "No, no! I can't sleep yet. I need water, and then I need safety. That ranger could still find me exposed like this. A cave would be best, but anything is better than the open right now."

  She struggles to push herself standing again and assesses her wounds once more. The shallow gash on her side left has stopped bleeding again, but is still raw. She can't see the deeper rear wound on her right but it seems to have closed up as well, for now. Another hard run and she is sure it would open again. Next, the arrow wound right in her side. The arrow is still sticking out and just far enough back she can't reach it to pull it out herself even with the long neck of a dragon. "Damn that arrow stings, its the least concerning injury though. Maybe I can get another mortal to take it out at some point. Ones less predatory and more honorable." She extends her wing out to inspect it and a visible hole is still through her left wing. "The spear that left the gash must have gone through my wing somehow, the angle is awkward but I can see it. What was it that human said? Fuck? Fuck this and fuck that hurts."

  Injuries assessed but with nothing to do for any of them but rest Zephyria walks up to the green pond to see if its even remotely drinkable. With a sniff she can tell its too stagnant and fetid for even a dragon's resilient stomach to bother risking. Without any idea where the nearest fresh water is, Zephyria picks a random direction away from where she came and starts to wander and plan. "I need to get stronger. Much stronger. I could barely kill one of them. I need to hunt for more than just sustenance, even after consuming my mothers heart-flame I'm still far too weak. I crave power, and for that I must take down powerful prey and consume their heart-flames, too. Its a shame I couldn't have that mortal's heart-flame, it would have been a welcome addition."

  Sniffing the air she pauses for a moment, something musky came through here. "Strange, not a common prey animal but still a beast. A hint of blood. Perhaps this is my first worthy hunt? Can't hurt to follow it at least, even if its for nothing I'll have still surveyed more of this area." Stalking through the brush and the trees Zephyria followed the unusual tracks like a bloodhound.

  Despite Zephyria's wounds and the task at hand Zephyria couldn't help but take a moment to appreciate the lively forest around her. Warm rays cast by the mid morning sun piercing the deceptively dense tree cover. The sound of birds and other small creatures filled the air with their subtle symphony of sounds. "I needed a little peace like this for a moment, its been such a long couple days."

  With each subtle step the scent of her prey drew closer, and once again she heard crashing in the forest, but no mortal voices shouting, just the smashes of two great predators brawling. Under the cover of shadows she slunk closer to the battle. Before she could see anything though, the forest went silent. Carefully scouting it out the deceptively quiet dragon sneaked a bit closer and got a good look at the remnants of the battle.

  There a large scaled predator stood above what appeared to be a boar of some kind, Zephyria wasn't familiar with either. The scaled one stood three quarters as tall as Zephyria at the shoulder but was built far more compact overall. With a small tail, no wings, shorter stubbier legs and a shorter neck it almost reminded Zephyria of a particularly oversized and squat wolf. The boar was almost unrecognizable but it was big, bigger than the lizard wolf. The great pig seemed to be missing any way to defend itself though, not even the recognizable tusks of the more common and mundane forest boars. In contrast the lizard wolf had visible fangs, short claws and an armored scaled hide.

  Zephyria mulled over the situation eventually decided that yes, this strangely compact lizard wolf would be her first hunt towards power. Attempting to get as close as possible once again, Zephyria prepared to hunt for her power. The Dragon Way.