Hunter Or Huntress

“Tiguan… meet Yldril,” Tom said in a slightly strained tone, gesturing at the keep's newest addition. He had to raise his voice over the wind and faint rain, which was pitter-pattering against them all. The tension was palpable as the two black dragons stared each other down. Were it not for the wind and rain, one could have heard a pin drop.

It wasn't really a formal greeting committee, and a fair few had stayed inside due to the deteriorating weather, but some of them had come out to say hi still. They had Jarix with his crew. Radexi looked quite miserable in the rain, while Zarko managed to maintain a proper posture like always.

Baron was out as well, or rather had moved his sizable behind over to the makeshift greeting line from where he had been sleeping. Sapphire swore the grass looked yellower where the dragon had been laying, a testament to the old red's proficiency at napping. He, of course, had an assortment of his people including Victoria at his side. All in all, nice and informal, yet still including most of the faces Tiguan actually knew.

The problem, of course, had been the one he didn’t know yet. Yldril had no intention of not coming out to say hello, despite the weather. Tiguan had likely seen her from miles off as he came in, and he was not smiling from the moment he set down.

Tiguan hadn’t been carrying any passengers aside from Lieutenant Ylditz and his two ground crew. Tom couldn’t actually remember their names. Ylditz had stayed in the nice saddle that Tiguan's harness sported as the other two hopped off to flank their dragon either side, joining in the staring contest.

Jarix had tried an up nod, seeming rather more upbeat, though the smile quickly faltered as Tiguan ignored him completely.

“Greetings, Yldril,” Tiguan finally spoke in a slow and measured tone, quite unlike him really.

“Hello there… so you’re the goodie two shoes I’ve heard about?” Yldril replied, sounding a lot more chipper, apparently finding his reaction funny. “The weakling sucking up for scraps and kissing talons to stay inside?”

“Not to you… you do not deserve people being nice to you.”

‘Damn… from Tiguan of all people,’ Sapphire thought to herself, quite taken aback by the hostility. She hadn’t heard Tiguan be mad at anyone before, save for the Flaxens really.

“Oh come now, I’m having a grand old time. I’ve got a nice tent, food worth eating, and I only have to put my back out twice a day. The dream life for any dragon surely.”

“The only reason you put out your back is lack of spine,” Tiguan replied with a sneer. “Too weak to be useful and too vile to be anyone's friend!” the younger black dragon all but spat at her.

The outburst left even Yldril startled. Not at all the soft pudgy love everyone dragon she had been expecting apparently. Not the dragon any one of them had been expecting. Saph glanced over her shoulder a bit to see Ray standing cautiously at the rear of the line, Tiguan’s new tarp laying on the ground folded up nicely behind her.

She looked mortified, Saph believing it was most likely compassion for poor Tiguan. Whatever it took in his past to elicit this reaction, Saph could not even guess at. And against someone they were quite sure he had never even met before.

“Oh come now, those are some mighty big words for such a sweet little draaaagon,” Yldril finally spoke, mockingly.

“You can mock me all you want, I am not the one in justly deserved chains.”

“How was I supposed to know that the little child was under some unicorn's protection?”

“YOU DO NOT TRY TO KILL CHILDREN!” Tiguan roared at her, visibly agitated as his claws dug into the ground.

Yldril just rolled her eyes and looked off towards Fengi, who looked like she was debating if she should intervene right about now. “Well technically I was just trying to make them stop poking around in my head, not my fault that was the easiest way to do it.”

‘And you were doing so well,’ Sapphire sighed to herself as she watched the despair on Fengi’s face. It did really feel like they had been making some progress with her, but it would seem the allure of messing with Tiguan was too great.

“What was it I said about not putting it like that,” Maiko of all people then spoke up from right behind Sapphire, much to her surprise. The young soldier walked forward, getting both of the dragons’ attention.

“Whaaaat? He’s the one being all high and mighty just because he is willing to be used as a doormat,” Yldril hissed in reply, sassy as always. Tiguan did his best to ignore her comment, instead just staring at Maiko, his anger evidently not worn off yet.

“Nope, I know the guy, trained with him for years. He doesn’t take shit from people he doesn’t care for. He just cares for most people,” Maiko fired back, confidence unfaltering.

“Aww, but what did I do to deserve to not be one of those people?” Yldril replied mockingly, Tiguan continuing to hold his tongue. “I helped build the barn and everything.”

“Come on, you know why. Now Tiggi, this one is… under rehabilitation, right? You know a few like that. Give her a little room to work with, you know?”

“No,” came the quick and plain reply from Tiguan, though in a far more neutral tone. Sapphire guessed the dragon did have some respect for Maiko then.

“What do you mean no?” the corporal questioned, seeming quite taken aback by that reply.

“She deserves nothing but chains… She is just like my mother.”

“Awww was mommy hard on you when you were little?” Yldril chimed in again, Tiguan’s head snapping to glare at her, his face contorting into a sneer.

“Yes, she was weak, just like you.”

“What is it with you and calling people who don't just roll over weak? It’s getting a little old, don’t you know?”

“Why should I care what you think? You could not even make it through a winter without stealing.”

“Now, now Tiguan,” the calming voice of Ylditz rang out as he gently petted the base of the dragon's neck. The lieutenant had stayed in the saddle for the whole conversation thus far, and he didn’t seem upset at all. Rather, his tone was caring, and calm. Quite unlike how Saph knew soldiers to be. “She is not worth ruining this fine day over. Don’t you have someone else to go say hi to?”

“Yes… I do,” Tiguan responded angrily, still glaring at Yldril, who was still finding it all greatly amusing and making it quite obvious that was the case.

After another moment he finally broke the stare and went to sweep the field of dumbstruck dragonettes, his expression quickly turning from one of anger to sadness or maybe even fear as he saw their faces. Sapphire wasn’t quite sure.

When his gaze landed on Ray, she was just standing there with heartbroken expresion on her face. His ears pinned to the back of his skull as he quickly lowered his head in shame. “I’m sorry…I-I”

“For the record, I agree with every word you said!” Raulf then called out in support, sounding rather more jovial. Perhaps just trying to lighten the mood like he so often did, or perhaps he really did just like the verbal abuse Yldril had taken, it was hard to know.

Yldril chuckled as she gave the younger dragon a side-eye, looking about as self-assured as Saph had ever seen her.

“No no, it is okay,” Ray tried cautiously, eager as always to cheer anyone up. “I understand.”

“No, no, I should not have shouted,” and his eyes scanned out over the assorted children of Bizmati and Hylsdal, who were assembled to say hi as well. A few looked scared, and some looked dumbstruck. Kiran was not one of them.

“Yeah, she’s mean and stupid! You tell her Tiguan,” the little kid roared out in support, enthusiastic as always.

“Aww, he even has little fans. To be honest with you, I would rather squash that one than let him speak.”

That was clearly too much for Fengi as she finally went to speak, but Tiguan beat her to it, head snapping to glare at Yldril as he drew a breath. Saph worried he was about to spray Yldril when the young 10-ton dragon roared out the top of his lungs.

“YOU ONLY BRING PAIN, AND SUFFERING, AND IT IS YOUR FAULT THEY HATE US! IT IS YOUR FAULT WE ARE FEARED, THAT WE CAN’T PLAY WITH ANYONE ELSE AND HAVE TO HIDE ALL THE TIME! That we are treated like slaves and told to stay away. You ARE THE MONSTER!”

The outburst left him panting, water in his eyes. He whined, “I hate you.” They all stood there dumbstruck, some having covered their ears, Holdey starting to cry as he tried to hold onto Esmeralda's leg.

Yldril, however, did not seem overly shaken now that she had got a gauge for the younger black, taking but a second to recover.

“Oh you insolent little whelp, they cannot tell the difference between us and a demon, so why bother? Being nice won’t help you. Look at them. They fear you and hate you despite all the ox shit you put up with. But go be a good little pet, roll over for some scraps, it’s great fun.”

“Yldril, shut up,” Fengi finally got out as the ranting took a pause. Yldril just rolled her eyes, likely having seen that one coming. It certainly did nothing to dampen her demeanor. She was so self-righteous Saph could almost taste it. Tiguan on the other hand looked visibly shaken. Sapphire worried that maybe the young black even believed what she had said, or at least some of it. But if he did it seemed to burn away as his face turned to scorn once more. A harder, colder kind of hate.

“I should kill you like I did my mother…” His voice was cold, and perfectly serious. It was enough to make Sapphire's blood run cold. She believed him. Yldril finally seemed to register that maybe she had fucked up, and her confident smile faltered. “You give black dragons a bad name.”

“Leave it Tiguan, that’s enough,” Ylditz once more called out, this time in a sterner tone. Yet Tiguan did not budge, claws curled into the ground as he stood there staring at the far older dragon who, though nearly twice his size, could not defend herself. She wasn’t allowed to.

“Tiguan, that is enough,” Baron then spoke up, the venerable red’s deep voice booming loud enough to be felt in one's chest, and Tiguan finally stepped back, the tension loosening as he looked to his mentor.

“Sorry sir,” responded, bowing to the old red, thinking for a moment as silence filled the air, save for the sound of children crying. His eyes widened a little and he glanced around at his audience. Many had taken a step back, some had stood in front of their children, defensively.

His gaze finally landed on Ray, who had stepped back as well, the timid woman likely not even noticing. Tiguan took a half-step forward, one front paw extending towards her, dirt and grass sliding from it where he had ripped up the ground. The dragon just stared in disbelief at it, like he couldn’t understand what he was seeing.

At his advance Ray took another step back, and he noticed. Pleading eyes turned to look at her. Saph could see the sheer despair well up in him as his eyes watered, and before another word could be said, the dragon turned in a flurry of limbs and wings, and ran.

“No, don’t. Tiguan, I’m sorry!” Ray called out, reaching out after the dragon as he galloped off, eventually taking flight. Some people looked after him. Some looked to each other, not sure what to do. Ray let out a little sob as she stared at the dragon getting smaller in the distance. “I didn’t mean it.”

“Well that could have gone better,” Maiko said as he went to scratch the back of his head in front of Saph.

Saph just smacked him in the back of the head. Sometimes one needed to know when to just shut up.

“Aow, hey come on, he’s never done that before,” the guard defended himself, looking back to her with an expression of ‘what the fuck?’

Sapphire gritted her teeth and sneered at him. “Shut… up.”

_________________________________________________________________________________

Well that wasn’t exactly how they had planned on the happy reunion going. Tom did curse himself a little that they hadn’t just put Yldril somewhere else, at least to start with, but hindsight is a cruel mistress.

Ray had been so catastrophically sad afterward; she had been looking forward to seeing her friend again, and now he had run off because she and all the others had gotten a little scared by his outburst. At least Saph and Essy were available to comfort her. Even Kiran was on the job, though he was busy convincing Holdey that what he should be doing rather than hiding behind his mother was shouting obscenities at Yldril for causing all this mess.

Esmeralda was not receptive to the idea.

Tom hadn’t even been able to recognize the Tiguan he knew, so he couldn’t blame them too much for being a bit scared. Even he had been taken aback, much as he might not want to admit it. It was enough that he had started wondering if maybe things hadn’t been going quite so well as they thought at Deriva. It would help explain things if Tiguan had arrived already angry and depressed. But it sounded more likely to Tom that Yldril reminding him of his mother was the root cause… whatever that crusty old bitch had done to him.

At least it sounded like they could rest easy knowing Tiguan had solved that particular problem a while ago.

Fengi had of course set about scolding Yldril, which likely didn’t achieve much, but at least Yldril wasn’t smiling anymore. Coming that close to getting her head taken off likely did most of it. But even so she had not been able to resist a smirk as she saw the younger dragon run off. She clearly thought she had won in the end.

By the sounds of it that victory was to be at a price though. Tent privileges were definitely revoked, as was the comfy sleeping spot in general. Baron would be taking over the nice place she had made for herself for at least the night, and likely for however long it would take before the weather was deemed suitable for departure.

Said weather was likely to make her stay out in the cold, rather less comfortable too of course. Any hopes of something more palatable to eat than the bare minimum were certainly squashed as well. Tom did wonder if that would have any effect at all, since from her expression he guessed she was only getting validated in her belief in everything she had just told Tiguan: that you would only be accepted if you rolled over.

Sadly for her, she was in chains for being a murderous criminal, and that logic certainly applied to her. The right to run your mouth like that was earned. Tiguan had already earned it from what Tom knew of the dragon, so that left the question of how to get him back here and cheered up.

A fair few of the keep dwellers seemingly decided that it was not their problem and retired to the keep to find someplace warm. It was rather shitty weather out here after all. The two ground crew that had gotten off Tiguan were looking a bit lost at what to do as they looked after their fleeing dragon. They could not catch him, that much was certain.

“And I thought we had made some real progress over the last couple years. I suppose there is still much to do,” the venerable old red declared in a grumpy, disapproving tone. “Much too soft still.”

“He isn’t soft, he just cares too much,” one of the two ground crew spoke up, a man it would seem. At least Tom guessed so.

“So you claim, yet here we are… Very well. Jarix, Maiko, try again. A little more tactfully this time, corporal,” the red dragon ordered calmly, glancing to the two of them in sequence.

“Got it, boss. Hey, Jarix!” Maiko replied, seemingly undisturbed by the previous fiasco, stepping forward. The blue dragon looked to the corporal attentively. “Why don’t you and Ray get that tarp loaded up and take those two lost souls with you to go talk him down, you know. Give him 10 minutes, no more.”

“Of course. Cannot let him wallow too long,” the blue dragon responded, taking it all in stride. Tom guessed they had been through this song and dance before then.

“And what will you be doing then?” Baron questioned, seemingly not all too thrilled about the rapid redistribution of labor.

“Looking after the other half of this shit show. She’s in his head. Either we get her to play ball or we have to shut her up, permanently. Well until he’s gone that is.”

Baron didn’t look overly convinced by the sentiment, but he did reluctantly nod his approval.

“What about Tom?” Jarix then questioned after a quick look to check on how Ray was doing revealed the woman sitting on the ground, sobbing, with Essy at her side. Something the dragon clearly did not wish to deal with, much as it made him uncomfortable.

“I’ll come along if you want, though I’m hardly an expert in what’s up with him.” He was more than willing to try to help. He didn’t know if he thought it was a good idea for him to come along, but if they thought so then who was he to judge?

“What is up with him is that he believes what she said,” Baron interjected, seemingly wishing the record be set straight. “He has always believed what she said. There is nothing new about it after all. The matter with him is his failure to carry himself above it.”

“Riiiight… and I help with that how?”

“Well you aren’t one of us. If you can see the truth, maybe he will too.”

“That is wishful thinking and you know it,” Jarix added, seeming less convinced. “He’ll come round, we just need to keep him from digging a hole.”

“And let Ylditz do his job for a bit,” Zarko added as she went to grab the tarp along with Radexi as Ray was helped to her feet.

“Are you okay?” the blue dragon asked a little unsurely, not wanting to look at her for some reason. Probably his best attempt at giving her a little privacy.

“I-I am fine, I want to come too… It was my fault,” she replied, still sniffling.

‘Of course she thinks it’s her fault, everyone is far too nice around here, save for that bitch in chains… and maybe Shiva… and Kulinger… and anyone from the inquisition. No scratch that, Edita is good,’ Tom complained to himself as he watched Ray get herself together a bit more.

“It would probably be quite bad if you didn’t,” Jarix agreed, looking at the woman as she got to her feet. “We will just be a moment, then we can go have a chat.”

“You do that. He won’t listen to me,” Zarko said, crossing her arms dejectedly.

“That is because you have all the caring instincts of ice cold granite.”

_________________________________________________________________________________

“And off they go,” Sapphire sighed to herself, watching Jarix disappear into the distance. Ray, Tom, Karlch, and Tonzei along with him. She almost wanted to go see how things were coming with Yldril when Baron grumbled contently, his mood seemingly improving as he looked to the horizon.

“Ahr, there we are, about time,” the old red said, nodding to himself. Sapphire followed his gaze to the horizon where she could just about make out a small green blotch slowly getting larger. “I do wonder how she has taken to her rather unfortunate assignment…”

“She’s hated it, we both know that,” Victoria added in, crossing her arms as she kept her station next to the dragon’s right foreleg. “She will be expecting a proper welcoming committee, you know that.”

The old red sighed a little as he glanced around at what remained of the Bizmati dwellers, Saph suddenly growing a little self conscious. “I suppose that is true… Sapphire, would you mind fetching Nunuk?”

“Oh uhm… right, of course.” She gave a quick curtsey before scampering off. ‘Right.’

_________________________________________________________________________________

Tiguan had seemingly set down behind a small hill to obscure him from the keep, Jarix only spotting him as he flew overhead. Ylditz was still in the saddle as Tiguan pushed himself into the hill, refusing to look back at his lieutenant.

“Heeeey, Tiguan. No no, don’t run off. I brought a few along who just wanna say hi,” Jarix opened as he came in for a landing, Tom peering around the side of the blue’s neck to watch.

Tiguan looked ashamed to Tom, ears flat to the back of his head and said head pushed to the ground almost like he was trying to hide from Ylditz as well. It certainly didn’t improve when Jarix landed as the black dragon turned away from the blue to hide his head. Ylditz let out a sigh as he looked to Jarix apologetically.

“Come ooon man, you shouted at a piece of shit. What’s the big deal?” Jarix tried again. “It’s just not so normal to see you trying to be scary, you know?”

“I scared them. They won’t trust me now. This always happens,” Tiguan whimpered, wallowing in self pity.

“Oh cut it out, would you? Of course they trust you, look who is here,” Jarix went, turning a little more side-on to make sure his passengers were in full view.

Ray waved cautiously, forcing a small smile. It didn’t look terribly convincing. Not really sure what else to do, Tom followed suit, hoping his expression was a bit better.

Tiguan didn’t budge or even look up, instead he kept trying to hide his head from them.

Ylditz patted the side of his neck as the two ground crew hopped off Jarix and started to make their way over. “It’s Ray and Tom, Tiguan. Don’t you want to say hi? You were very excited to see them again.”

“They brought you something nice too,” the smaller of the two ground crew called out. “You’ll like it, I promise.”

The dragon sniffed a little before he slowly raised his head enough to look over his own back.

“Sup big guy,” Tom let out, trying his best to sound chipper. “For the record, I don’t actually have a gift. That’s all Ray’s doing. Ain’t scared though, at least last time I checked.”

“You are lying, I saw you… they forced you to come, didn’t they?” Tiguan replied in a low, sad tone.

Tom just stared a bit, and Ray’s smile faltered as she lowered her waving hand. ‘Oh for the love of- You wanted to come, hell you begged.’ Tom grumbled to himself. He couldn’t be too hard on her though. That wouldn’t help anything, and she was definitely a gentle soul. ‘Well then I guess it’s on me then.’

Tom stood up, tilting his head as he held out his hands to either side like ‘the fuck bro?’

“They forced me to come? How? Hey Jarix, wing please,” Tom ordered, pointing at the ground. The blue looked at him, clearly a bit surprised by the change of tack. “Oi, today,” Tom repeated, snapping his fingers as he gave the blue a wink, careful that it was the off eye from Tiguan so he wouldn’t see.

The rather surprised Jarix seemed to get the memo as he extended out a wing, Tom sauntering down jovially. “Forced me to go anywhere, pah. Gotta do better than that, Tiggi.”

“No but… Ray-” Tiguan replied, raising his head to keep an eye on Tom as he walked up to the black dragon.

“She begged to come. She couldn’t bear to watch you sad like that, but she’s also not great with being told something was her fault, even if it wasn’t,” Tom was quick to reply as he made it to the dragon’s tail and started walking up it without a care in the world. He knew Tiguan would never try to flick him off or anything like that. Or if he did it certainly wasn’t to try and hurt him, besides even falling from dragon back likely wasn’t that bad in this gravity, he hoped.

Tiguan looked to Ray, who of course shrunk a little under the dragon’s gaze.

“You are lying, she is scared, look at her.”

“N-n-no. No, I am not scared,” Ray stammered out, her quivering voice not lending much validity to her claims.

Tom had made it up to the dragon’s back by now, giving Ylditz a polite nod. The lieutenant didn’t look like he knew what the fuck was up with Tom either, but crucially he didn’t look like he intended on stopping the human.

Tom could feel the dragon draw a breath to reply and beat him to it once more. “She’s scared, you’re right. What you are forgetting is that it is in fact possible to be scared of something other than you. You’re scared right now, aren’t you? Scared that you messed up and now they won’t like you anymore? Excuse me,” Tom went as he made his way around Ylditz.

Tiguan arched his neck to look back at the human, expression growing a little more confused than sad, which was progress as far as Tom was concerned.

“But I did. The children were crying and hiding. Even you stepped back,” Tiguan tried again, clinging to this fantasy he had seemingly created.

“Kids cry over their food being on the wrong side of the plate. Or the beef they had yesterday and said they wanted more of being on said plate. Can’t get hung up on that, they’ll come round once more,” Tom insisted as he set about balancing on Tiguans neck.

“How do you know that?”

“Have I been wrong before? Also Kiran thinks you were awesome, and the big kids can’t have little old Kiran show them up and be the only one who wants to go hang out with the scary dragon. Scary can be cool, you know.”

“It can?”

“Sure, look at this. I’m walking a dragon like a tightrope. This is both cool and scary. That’s what makes it fun,” Tom replied as he made it far enough up that Tiguan could no longer turn his head enough to even look at him. “I used to jump out of aircraft with nothing but a fancy sack of cloth on my back, go diving deep deep in the oceans breathing air from a tank, go so fast in cars that fucking up would likely be the death of me in the blink of an eye. Why do you think I did that?” he carried on as he made it to the dragon’s head, stepping on up as Tiguan froze in place, probably scared Tom might fall off if he moved.

“I, I don’t know?” the dragon replied, clearly with no clue what to say or do in the face of all this.

Tom stopped for a moment to consider his options, eventually electing to walk out onto the dragon’s snout like it was a springboard.

“Because it was fun,” he finally said, sitting down and leaning back against the dragon’s forehead. “And you think I’m scared of you? Pah.” He shuffled his shoulders a bit to get comfortable. “You’re far too soft to be scary. You’re damn well perfect.”

“But…”

“And don’t you go on with the whole ‘only being accepted ‘cause you roll over’ bit. I guess you could do with standing up for yourself a bit more, but you are so nice, always happy to help. Of course people like you. It doesn’t matter if you’re a dragon or dragonette, just look at Ray? Everyone loves her too.”

There was silence for a bit as the dragon started thinking, turning his head to look at Jarix, Ray watching and still looking ashamed. She probably wished she had done more, or done better somehow.

Jarix was smiling though.

“So now, say you are sorry, Tiguan, for making Ray feel like this was all her fault. That’s what she’s scared of, not you after all.”

There was a bit of silence as Ray stood up. “No, but it was my fault,” Ray insisted, Tom gesturing at her, free for the dragon to see.

“See what I mean?”

“No no, but Ray,” the dragon whinned. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I was just… it was… I’m not scared, okay,” she forced out in reply, a bit of water in her eyes. “I’m not scared, I promise. Please, I’m not scared of you.”

“I think this is the point where you agree it was all a misunderstanding and hug each other… or well she hugs you, kinda hard the other way around you know,” Tom added, quite comfortable. “Also, I’m not getting off till you do.”

_________________________________________________________________________________

For once I will say it. Fucking good chapter, and you can't convince me otherwise, I love writing Tiguan. If you disagree with this total factual statement then you can sound off below and I will stick my fingers in my ears going "Lalalalala"

The cover for Book four is now on Galery and it's our 26 tone bitch with wings who takes pride of place, so go have a gander. Until next time, try not to die. If you have to at least make it exciting or comfortable. See yah.