Dragons Go Car Hunting
#1 of Short Stories
Dragons Go Car Hunting
By: D. C. Henry ("Ahndeleck")
Alex leaned against his now totaled car punching in the number of his best friend on his cell phone. He couldn't believe what had happened only a few minutes ago. He was driving on a small back road headed towards town to hang out with his friends. Then suddenly the front of the car jumped at least a foot and it looked like the engine exploded upwards. Alex had barely managed to get the car under control and just barely missed a tree growing too close to the road before he managed to get the car coasted onto the shoulder.
Alex waited as his cell phone dialed out to his friend. Then finally he heard it connect, "Marvin, you won't believe this man." Alex turned and looked back down to the hole in the hood of his car, his thumb would easily fit in the hole. "Dude, my engine exploded!"
"What? What do you mean exploded?"
"Just that man, I was on the way to meet up with you guys before the concert. Then suddenly BAM, the car's jumping and parts are falling out and I nearly crashed all over the road!" He was practically shouting now, his frustration getting the better of him. He turned back looking down the road where he had come from. "I'm not going to make it now. My car is completely dead, There is a hole all the way through the engine Marvin, a fucking hole right through it!"
"Alex, man, calm down. Liz, Karina, and I are on the way alright? We'll pick you up and get to the concert on time. Where are you?"
Alex was about to answer, when he heard a horribly loud scraping noise from the hood of his car behind him. He started turning, and heard a loud snapping and felt a sudden rush of air flow over him, as if it was suddenly a gusty day. To his absolute amazement, the whole hood of his car was now missing. With the shock, he noticed a dark shadow was now passing over him. Simple instinct made him turn again and look up to where the shadow should be.
Above him only a few yards away a large beast with wings was flapping further away. In its talons was the bright red hood of his car. In the other talon was a long rifle of some kind.
Anger welled within Alex, "You bastard! Bring that back!" He grabbed a rock from the road and threw is. By now the creature was so far away that he couldn't even hope to hit it. He stood there for a few seconds watching as the beast, which had to be at least the size of his car, was now flying over the horizon. He heard the muffled voice of his friend from the cell phone he still held.
Alex rose the phone to his face and calmly said, "You will never believe what just happened Marvin. Never."
**
Fertoul laughed so hard that he was having a hard time flying straight. After a minute of laughter he finally managed to level himself out. The humans always amused him with their reactions to him claiming his prize. Throwing things at him was also something that amused him. Not once had a human even come close to hitting him, and he knew that they never would by throwing anything.
Safely over the cover of the trees practically no human would see him unless they knew to look for a dragon. The safety gave Fertoul a chance to look at his new prize. He turned his head down and rose the hood of the car he had just killed, then he grinned. This hood was just the right size to fit on the wall in his den, it was a nice shade of red too. Of course his mate probably wouldn't like it at all though, she never approved of car hunting. But a dragon has to have his hobbies.
With a happy sigh he turned towards the west, the sun slowly making its way closer to the horizon. He was certain he would get to his den well before sunset though, it wasn't too terribly far. With practiced ease, Fertoul swung the rifle back and hooked the barrel to a small strap around his back leg, the large rifle was usually cumbersome when it was loose and always made flying long distances harder. He was glad he managed to get the anti tank rifle, it was a pleasant addition to his treasures and wasn't easy to acquire. The human he had dealt with explained that the military guarded their weapons quite well. The price was easy for a dragon with hundreds of years worth of treasures hidden away.
The sport of car hunting had become a favorable pastime for many of the dragons in this part of the world. He had learned from a much younger neighbor he had met while he was looking for dinner to bring home. He had watched the young dragon climb to a great height, pull a smaller rifle from a similar harness as his own now. The image of the dragon not moving a single muscle in the air, intentionally dropping several feet as he aimed the rifle at a car below them stuck in his mind. It was a new way of hunting, and the way that dragon had demonstrated, it was downright stylish too. In weeks of disguise spells and deals, Fertoul had his own rifle to hunt with.
Now he felt like a true predator. Fertoul knew that he was of course the top of the food chain before the human's little rifle, but now he held a predatory power that was strikingly different. With two ways to hunt now, Fertoul felt a great sense of masculine power. He wondered if humans gained the same feeling when they went hunting.
Fertoul banked slowly to cross over another stretch of lonely road just to see what might be wandering around. He had climbed over the past several minutes of flying which gave him a nice view of the road for several miles. To his surprise, a sleek, small, gold colored car was racing down the small twisting road. Fertoul knew it had to be one of the expensive sports cars the humans prized so often. It was a very rare find, one that Fertoul decided he wouldn't pass up.
He turned slowly keeping an eye on the vehicle, hoping it wouldn't turn into some private property. He wasn't going to shoot the car on its home, that had no honor, but it seemed that luck was his way today. He glanced back down at the red hood he had now in his talons. Shooting with another hood in one paw would be impossible. He brought one hind leg forward and reached back with his front leg to pass the hood back to his rear talons. After he was certain of his grip he grinned and pulled out his rifle.
With a satisfying click, he cycled a round and gained even more altitude so he could get proper aim. The sports car turned round a sharp bend and started accelerating down the road that Fertoul had chosen. He gave one final flap of his wings and rose the gun up and brought his head down to sight it. He barely felt the sudden rush of air as his frozen body began falling back towards earth, his focus completely on the little car ahead of him. Then he slowly squeezed the tip of a talon into the trigger, then felt and heard the harsh crack of the rifle.
Down below the car gave a lurch and then weaved for a few moments. Fertoul hoped that it wouldn't crash into anything, a crashed hood was never as satisfying. Luck was with him today as he circled about to prepare to collect his prize, the driver had managed to stop the car before running off the road into the woods. He gave himself the proper angle and began his dive towards his new trophy. As he closed the distance quickly, he saw the driver get out of the car with another person on the passenger side. They seemed to be shouting at each other, but that didn't bother him. With a sense of major accomplishment, Fertoul latched his rifle then extended his paws to rip the hood off his car.
Just before he landed, he heard the woman that had been driving shout at the well dressed man as they argued at the back of the car. "You moron, I won't buy this car, just look at it!"
The hood tore from the car with a satisfying metallic squeal. Then with a quick leap, he was back airborne before the two even knew what had happened. When he looked back around he started laughing, the two hadn't even noticed he had even done anything. Humans were also quite oblivious to many things it seemed.
With a second hood in his paws, Fertoul decided that it was definitely time to head straight home. The day had been a very fulfilling one. As he studied his second trophy, he started wondering how his mate would react. He hoped she wouldn't yell at him like last time. He had to sleep outside for days after that last hunting trip.
**
Carefully Fertoul dropped the two hoods in the clearing he and his mate used as a space to land. Before long he had managed to settle the hoods on his back and walked his way to the large cave they were using as their home. Once inside, he looked about quickly, but thankfully Versine wasn't at the front. Silently Fertoul crept into the little side room he used as his trophy room.
The room glistened with hoods from several cars, each one with a round hold in the center. Fertoul was pleased his aim had been getting better since he started, some of his first trophies were not as pleasant. The red hood he leaned against the wall of the room, right between a darker maroon, and a rare pink hood he had managed to find several years back. The gold sports hood however, he placed it with reverence on a stalagmite in the center of the room. He slowly removed the gun and its harness and propped it at the entrance of the small room.
He turned back and sat down to admire his new trophy. He could nearly see himself in the reflection of the metal. It was a very pleasant shape, almost like a large gold coin in some ways. He couldn't wait to show his neighbor, he would be jealous for years to come.
"Fertoul! What in the world is that?" Fertoul jumped and looked behind him. Versine had sneaked up behind him and was looking over his wing at the hood he had just brought home.
"Its..." He looked back at it quickly, then stood and turned towards his mate. "Oh, this is just something I found while I was down by the nature reserve. You know where I go to do some thinking. I just happened to see it on the shore while I was resting and thought it would look nice there..."
"And you found it with the hole right in the center like that did you?" She didn't sound convinced at all, Fertoul started to panic. "I told you not to pick on the humans like that. The last thing we need is to get them all upset and crazy because you're going around shooting all their cars."
"But its only a little bit of sport Versine..."
"Sport? You call that sport? I say give them all a big rifle too and see how sporting it is when they all start shooting back!" She walked past him into the room and stared down at the hood, "And by the looks of it, you made someone lose quite a bit of money too. You should be ashamed of yourself." Fertoul's heart sank with her harsh words. Part of him knew that she was right, but the other part thought that there was already far too many cars. It was just keeping the vehicle population in check. Then she turned her head and saw the red hood, "No... You got two today? Two!?"
Fertoul could only smile slightly and nod slowly.
"Out. You sleep on the rocks outside."
**
Fertoul turned onto his other side slowly, the rocks were not comfortable. He knew she would get over being mad of course. She always did, after hundreds of years, even their most heated arguments ended up being only water under the bridge. He wasn't worried at all about her outburst.
As he lay drifting to sleep he thought about the day. He had certainly made it exciting, the two cars were great additions. He grinned as he thought about them, visions of car hoods slowly drifting into his mind as he began to dream. He would make it up to the humans some other day, some other way. For now though, Fertoul enjoyed car hunting.