John was napping in the back seat of a modified cargo transporter, the driver and field Lieutenant in the front, both clad in snow military field uniforms, had been quiet for most of the trip. They seemed rather worn out, when they picked him up and briefed him on his contracted assignment. Sometime in the middle of June, something akin to meteor broke the atmosphere, split into small chunks and peppered a mostly desolate mountain side in the northern part of Scandinavia. Now, 3 weeks later, something that the meteor brought in, has caused the local temperature to drop drastically, while giving off an excessively high level, yet hard to locate, magical reading. Even if its summer half of year, temperatures are now well below negative 20 Celsius on average in the area, daytime skies are clear with almost no sign of cloud cover or wind, yet nighttime is ravaged by harsh blizzards.
Last week the United Scandinavia Military sent out a warning, confirming to the public that a dragon roams the area. Whether it arrived as part of the meteor, was awoken by it or was attracted by the magic remains unknown, but so far the military had been unsuccessful in all attempts at pacifying it. That is where John entered the picture, the Scandinavian Governments had contacted the Hunters Guild for aid and he was sent out to fulfill the permanent Government Summons Agreement. As a bit of an expert on dragon hunting he was a natural fit for this request.
He had taken the liberty of having the Guilds Black Marker contact snoop for information, but all there was to find was a record of the military's losses of a few tanks, weapons and equipment, yet somehow no lives had been lost in engaging this dragon. A low quality picture of what appeared to be the dragons 3 massive right side wings with layers on layers on layers of feather fans had leaked online. As well as Low quality video, from a newly established research team in the area, of what looks like a half naked gold blond haired child with deep blue demon like eyes, unsuccessfully, trying to steal food from the storage, only to run off into the ice fields and disappear without a trace as soon as the researchers gave chase. Demons are an even bigger problem than dragons, but since it is still just a child it would still be a while before it would become serious, for now they just need the dragon out of picture.
Finally they arrived at the Military camp, the temperature in the cabin had dropped significantly despite the airconditioning system's best efforts to fight the insistent cold. "Here we are Mr. Treiber" the Lieutenant said as he turned in his seat to look at John "I hope you are ready to begin?" He looked back at the Lieutenant, as he zipped up his black and blue DeepCore full body mech driver harness suit. "Just about, I expect the bait I send you has arrived?" John got a nod in response "yes and we have even found a suitable location to set up in, at the edge of a forest, just as you asked" John popped the transporter door open. "good, once my mech is up and running, your men should load the bait into the transporter, once it’s full we are setting out. Oh and don't forget to have everyone bring shovels, we are digging in the mech into the snow and staying the night out there".
John was sitting perfectly still, strapped comfortably into his seat his hands resting on the throttles for his mech. It had been a few hours since they found a clearing and had dug in the mech. Sunrise wasn't too long off now. The pungent bait had done well to cover the sent of the mech and the soldiers hiding in the snow. A few hours ago a Moose had shown up, the moment it had noticed the meaty pungent bait it had turned back the way it came, John had used the opportunity to recalibrate the sensors, listening system and combined radar sonar baseline against it. It seems to have paid off as his systems picked up a pack of wolves approaching against the wind direction about 500 meters away, following the scent of the bait no doubt. The wolf pack passed by rather closely, but didn't notice the snow buried mech or the camouflaged soldiers. They circled the truck load of bait, once they found the area abandoned they began chowing on the pile. They seemed ragged, scared and overly cautious, some of them would take a bite then look around, listen then look around again before taking another bite, others just eating as if they the hadn't seen food in days or as if they knew it could be their last meal for weeks.
Looking through the widened lens and sensor enhanced vision support he could see them quite clearly in the dark, as they ate just 10 meters away... suddenly they all perked up, looking at the sky in one direction. Is it now? John thought to himself, but his sensors instruments wasn't showing anything different, then he remembered the image he had seen of this dragons wings, of course they could be almost silent to fly with. He quickly flipped a few switches, kicking the sensor system into overdrive... only the fussy kick back from mech and instruments was showing in the auditory spectra, but nothing besides the background static... if it could be heard, it would be about 300 maybe 250 meters out at this point... but then the wolfs turned and scattered like snowflakes on the wind... 150 meters out, a faint blip appeared on the radar, only getting brighter, something only slightly more massive than a large horse was flying in close almost out of nowhere.
John took hold of the aiming sticks for his mech and the tranquiliser harpoon cannon.
The hunt was finally on.
The dragon came out of the dark, its six massive feather fan layered wings vibrating in wavy patterns allowing it to swoop and land silently. Were it not for his instruments John wouldn't be able to see it at all, its scales were black with a red hue to them, the outer of its jointers plated into rocky rough stone like spike formations. Its forehead adorned with two large twisted horn pairs and two lower horn pairs from the back of the head and its temples respectively. Its blue glowing eyes scanning the area, its massive wings sliding on top of the snow like a cloak as it slowly approached the bait, its four feet leaving long slender footprints in the snow, its salivating mouth agape for the first bite. John sitting in his mech, just about 8 meters quickly flicked a few switches, the aim assistance triangles popped up quickly scanning the target and narrowing the zoom in on the dragon's right eye. This precision shot had to penetrate the eye area near the scent glands, without landing directly in the eye or bouncing off the scales, otherwise the highly specialized tranquiliser would have no effect at all. It didn't help that this area on a dragon this young and small, is somewhere between 3 to 5 millimeters in diameter. Twisting some dials to change up the jiggle in the magnetically balanced cannon, he again took hold of the aiming sticks.
With deep calculated breaths he gently nuzzled the two sticks back and forth...
To and fro, to and fro, slowly, gently, self assuringly, skilfully go.
To and fro, to and fro, to the ready, to the click... to the fire, let go.
John didn't pull, his finger only squeezing the large trigger lightly. At first he thought he had confused munching for something else, but there is was again, at first a pathetic sound almost like a bubbling or sniveling, in between the munching and grunting... but then there was a sudden sigh or wailing like tone, slow deep almost mournful like crying. He let out a sigh and let go of the control sticks, he had lost all focus, instead there was a curious nagging sensation. He knew that the oldest of true dragons were intelligent, intelligent enough to understand human concepts, keep normal conversation and express deeper more complicated emotions, but the one in front of him was abnormal to say the least.
John was about to do something stupid, something very stupid. Having no experts to consult, the fastest way was to go and confirm it for himself, John attached his suit harness to the retreat system wire for his mech and retrieved the remote activate button from a compartment before flicking the switch opening the hatch. Unbelting himself he slid off the seat, onto the shoot latter, down and out the hatch into the icy cold morning twilight, the wire unreeling from the block inside the mech, following him out.
The dragon looked up from the meaty pile of bait, its mouth still full, chewing, as the buried mech's hatch had pushed away the snow and let John out, he could hear the field Lieutenant hissing over the radio, something about madness, death wishes and a ton of swear words. But his eyes were locked with the dragons glowing blue orbs, it had raised its head, looking directly at him, watching him silently. He slowly lifted his hands as he took a step forward, the dragon stayed still looking at him... but as soon as he opened his mouth to try speaking to it. It lunged at him and with a massive thud landed right in front of him!
John flinched, even if it was a small dragon it was still towering over him standing about 3 meters tall, it massive wings spreading wide, its head jabbed forward its jaw springing open letting out roar so loud it felt as if the world itself was turning and rippling! John had looked away, lifting his hands in defense. He had expected to get blasted with heat, like that of a steel forge, instead he had gotten nothing but bad breath and a ringing for the ears. As the roar died down he managed to catch a glimpse of 8 rows of teeth before the jaws snapped shut in front of him.
For a moment there was silence, as the dragon studied him. He could feel its soft breathing as it practically sniffed him like a dog would a stranger, even if he couldn't see them it felt like the blue lizard like eyes were attempting to pricing his very being. Then suddenly it let out a very audible and heavy sigh. John had not dared to move yet, but slowly he lifted his head, slightly lowering his hands, his eyes met the dragons just a handful of inches from his face. Its third eyelid blinked at him, waiting. He slowly ungloved his right hand, it snarled slightly but didn't move "e-easy big guy" John stammering voice came out like a dry whisper as he lifted his shaking hand and gently placing it on the long nose bridge "I am not going to hurt you" he said as he gently began nuzzling the scales. It was a perplexing almost physics defying texture, he had felt dragon scales before, normally smooth like a snake or ceramics depending on age, but these were like stroking an otter with hedgehog spines for hair, even if he actively tried to stroke against the current of spines, where they should poke him, he instead found their direction somehow altered without any visual change.
As he gently stroked he could feel the large creature relax, long deep and mournful tones escaping from the vocal cords. The morning wave of sunlight washed over them as the sun finally peaked above the horizon, warm stream rose off the dragon, like from a boiling pot of water over fire. Its form began to shrink. Its slow animalistic weeping changing to a human cry, the dragon's horns receding till they were nothing but cute bumps that got covered by skin as the scales changed to fit a human’s complexion and gold blond messy hair sprouting under John's hand. Lifting its forelegs off the ground, as it became bipedal its enormous wings disappeared into the dragon’s now skinny human child sized body, lifting its tiny hands with obsidian black nails to desperately wipe away tears that continued to overflow.
John bereft of words, knelt down embracing the child who wore nothing but thin tatters of what was once a robe or a highborn's loincloth, for a moment they stood there as the sun continued to rise. A slight breeze reminded him, they were in fact still on the edge of a forest in an ice field, miles away from any sort of home comfort.
From the emergency pouch in his suit, John withdrew a camping towel, wrapping it around the skinny child, it was long enough to comfortably cover him from head to toe. John was sure it wasn't enough to fend off the cold, even so it calmed the little guy. Picking up the child, he turned and walked back towards his mech, passing a speechless field Lieutenant "Now I imagine I get twice the pay for solving both your issues" John nodded smugly; he got no reply.
Finally back in the warmth of his mech he switch it from combat to drive mode and pushed out of the snow, setting off towards home with a curious never seen before child dragon on his lap, he wondered... what had he gotten himself into and would it be worth the effort.
