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A week after the curious planet visit to the dryads, Silverine thankfully relieved me of the duty of leading another party, and instead went back to the old standard of me, Draco, Simba, Javid and Salbar.The lizard looked more regal then ever, the wolf a bit more toughened after his course, and we were all in a good mood, assembling at six in the morning in the Great Hall, with a glower, Silverine, Kodey, and a small handful of other parties.

Silverine spoke to us with a smile. "Ah, my best team," he got no further before all five of us burst out laughing," O.K. maybe not. the planet is one of the furthest on radar, we have not had time to send a probe to it, so it's all uncharted. We think it is capable of sustaining life, but are not sure. Alduin, if you are going to ping..." "I am." I replied confidently. "Come straight back if the atmosphere is non-existent, your ABM needs to take in something."

I nodded, and after placing down my rifle and RPG, because of this possibility of no atmosphere, teleported. I fell for quite a long time, almost two minutes, but eventually I felt my feet slam into the ground in their customary manner, and I dropped to my knees. It was searing hot, that was the first thing I noticed as waves of warmth buffeted over my steel carapace. The second thing I noticed was that there was indeed air, even if it tasted a bit sulphurous. The ground was a strange slippery earth, much like ash, and I could hear the sound of bubbling. As I took all this in, I straightened up and opened my eyes.

Taking in the scene, the first thing I asked myself was whether I still had my Raptor, and the answer was yes. I was in a volcano. It wasn't fully active, the residents of the place meant that it hadn't erupted in ages. I was standing on a path of rock running through the middle of a lava field, in the centre of a massive volcano. Well, path of rock, there was more rock then lava, but still. Above was about five hundred metres of slowly curving rock before the crater, a large circle in the sky, with the night sky above.

The residents had seen me on arrival, and they were not happy about my presence. Easily 100, maybe even one hundred and fifty, large, noble dragons. Where as the dragon riders lived in small packs together, and the males and females kept separate, this was a village of dragons, males and females. Around the side of the cavern were several hundred caves. This was a weyr, and I had landed smack bang in the middle of it.

Most of the dragons were lying about around the rock, relaxing by the heat caused by the lava, but many were flying in and out of the crater, obviously hunting. I carefully whispered to open my link to the others on Central. "Oh fuck." I said very simply, and Draco spoke carefully. "This is not a time to panic, if you act polite..."

Three of the nearest dragons leapt up and attacked. "Start panicking!" Draco shouted, and experience took over. As they flame blasted I changed into my bionic form and dived aside, rolling on the ash and rock. One of the dragons brought his mace tail around, and clouted my legs. I shouted in pain, and was bowled another couple of metres. I drew my sword out just as one of them tried to hit me again, and the sword slash met the tail going the other way.

There was a loud clang, and my arm was knocked down by the weight of the collision. I lay slightly stunned, until a large scaled claw picked me up. I shook myself as I was lifted, staring into the mouth of a very large dragon. My arms were free, and I brought the hilt of the sword hard between the knuckles. The dragon yelped, and I fell a metre onto the ground. They wanted to play rough? Fine by me.

I made to grab my rifle, and then realised with a sickening lurch it was on Central. O.K., flight was the only option. As the dragon I had nipped swept at me with his claw, and I noticed that other dragons were getting involved by now, I changed into my DPV, and drove rapidly along a rock channel. I felt pretty good about avoiding that, until I realised there was nowhere to run to, everywhere was flooded with dragons. I would have to leave, or hide.

As I came to a halt, the dragons surrounded me, and I changed into my bionics. I brushed some ash away from my face, and changed into my Raptor. My twin hovers blasted furrows into the ash as I rose, and clouds sprung up as I did. Jets of fire passed haphazardly around me, and I blasted up and forwards. I didn't want to leave, so I fired off some smoke, heading towards a small cave in one side. Trailing smoke and carnage, I rocketed into the cave, and changed into my DPV form, landing at the cave entrance.

Speed did not leave easily, and as I flashed into the cave I realised I was heading at a mound of gold the size of a hatchback. Gold is not exactly a cushion to land on, so I braked as hard as I could, and at the last second changed into my bionic form. With several clangs and crashes I rolled into the pile of gold, and felt it collapse around me. I choked with the ash, coughing and struggling, and felt the gold fall around me. I was so stunned and disorientated by this impact, I lay in my gold cocoon, wheezing and panting.

As I did, I could feel parts of my body erupt in pain. My shoulder stung, both my legs were in pain from the tail strike, and my ribs were bruised. But I was silent nevertheless, because I heard something. A loud roar of a draconic language. "Where is it?" "It went into that cave! What is it?" "I don't know, it just moves so fast!Where did you say it was?" There was a thump of several dragons landing back on the ground, and as I opened my eyes saw two things. My glasses had fallen off somewhere, and gold was on top of me.

Maybe if I stayed very still I was get out of this, would they think to look in the pile of gold? I stayed very quiet, listening as several dragons approached, their footsteps unmistakable. There was a roar outside of the cave. "Who lives in here?" "I do." A slightly softer and politer voice replied, it sounded like it was in the cave," What is the problem?" "Drakoss, something just went into here, have you seen it?"

The softer voice had a pair of footsteps, and it seemed to start from a room to the side of the one I was in, and went over to where I had just come in. I prayed it hadn't seen me enter. "No. Is it one of your meals?" "I don't remember seeing one of these ever. It was about so high, and moved very fast. If you see it, kill it. Can we come in?" "No, this is my cave. But you can stand by the door as I look around." "You presume an awful lot, runt."

"As do you." the reptile called Drakoss replied, as the dragon moved around near to me, shifting things, searching for me. Apparently the avalanche of gold had saved me for now, because he walked straight past and around me to some large heavy things which he moved around. After a mere two minutes. "He isn't in here, and he definitely didn't come past me into the other room. Where did he come from?" "He just, appeared." "Well," Drakoss began,"Maybe he just disappeared. I would if I was the cause of all that fuss."

There was a long pause. Then one of the larger dragons spoke. "If you see anything..." "I won't forget to tell you, I know. I will keep an eye out for anything unusual. Have a good afternoon." There was the sound of moving footsteps, and the grating of stone. The dragon in the cave with me, Drakoss, approached the pile of gold directly, and spoke clearly.

"You had better come out, before I lose my nerve." I was too exhausted to try. It seemed I had lost my sword as well, so I was unarmed and beaten. The gold was pretty heavy too. There was a grinding noise as the dragon inserted his clawed front leg into the pile, and I felt him touch me. The claw closed around me, and I could feel myself being lifted through all the gold. It fell off me, like a great weight, and when it had stopped, there was a change of momentum, the dragon was putting me down on the ground.

I opened my eyes at this point, I just couldn't go any longer with them shut. Drakoss was not as big as the other dragons, about six or seven metres long, one of his legs was the height of me, and standing with head upraised he would have looked into the air ducts back on Central. His wingspan would have been about eight metres, and he was looking down curiously at me.

He put me down, but didn't remove the claw, pinning me to the ground neatly. "I know you can understand me, small one, who are you and what is your name?" I coughed, trying to speak, but failed, coughing up all the soot my jets had inhaled. The dragon waited for a few seconds, until I tried again. "My name is Alduin. I am an explorer. Please let go of me." I said weakly, and then burst into coughing. The dragon considered this, and relinquished his grip, taking a step back.

I sat up, saw my glasses next to the pile, and put them on. My sword was also next to them, and I got up to my feet, staggering a bit, and picked it up, slotting it back into it's sheath. I turned back to Drakoss, taking several deep breaths. "Thank you. I landed here by accident, and they attacked me before I could explain my purpose. Can't blame anyone, but just bad luck." Drakoss looked down at me." You say you explore. Explore what?" "Planets. It is my job. We find planets with life and try to come into friendly contact with them."

"You were about to get killed, you know that?" the dragon asked me. "No, I wasn't. This steel alloy is more than strong enough to survive them, it just hurts. Not the first time I've been beaten up either. I would have been carrying more powerful weapons, but the other two require air to fire, and I was not aware that there was air on this planet." "Your race chance a lot to luck, don't they?" "Let me show you something, Drakoss." I took out my scanner and pushed it into the ground.

There was a bang in my headset, and I staggered back onto the gold, removing my top to check for bruising. Yep, several darker patches showed the bleeding underneath, and I changed back to my proper human form to look at them better. Drakoss stared critically at the scanner. "What does it do?" "It guides my friends to my position, don't be frightened, but several of my friends will appear around it in a minute or so." Drakoss lay down on his chest, giving a slight yawn and looking in mild interest at the scanner.

A minute and a half later, Simba, Draco, Salbar and Javid arrived. They landed all around the scanner, and Drakoss showed absolutely no reaction to them whatsoever, except curiosity. Simba turned to me, and pulled out some ointment for the bruises. He began massaging it into me as I spoke. "We are all different species and races, we number quite a few, and our job is perilous, but we do it because it's what we like." I noticed Draco had brought me my rifle, and the smaller dragon gave it to me.

Drakoss spoke as Salbar took a couple of steps in the general direction of away. Javid followed suit. "You have an interesting job, Alduin. Who are your friends? One almost looks like one of us." Draco stepped forwards, walking to Drakoss' side."My name is Draco, much like your name, and while we are also called dragons, I am not what we would call a noble dragon like you. Simba is the lion helping Alduin, Javid is the furred wolf, and Salbar is the lizard without any wings."

Drakoss was exceptionally curious about all of us, I could see the glint in his eyes, he was interested. Here was a creature with the exploration lust within him. Simba spoke to him after a few minutes. "Drakoss, while all this is very well, could I speak to one of the dragons in charge here? I'm sure we have plenty to talk about with them, and them to us." Drakoss considered it. "Yes, a couple of you could come with me and I'll take you to the Lord." Simba turned to the four of us. "Javid, Salbar, you maintain scans down here." "I'm sure I'm indestructible." Salbar smiled hopefully.

"I'm sure you are. I'm pretty sure they aren't. But we need strength and fortitude more than agility right now, so if you could stay here, that would be nice." "Very well." the lizard nodded, and began opening up a palm laptop, interlinking it with a scanner. Drakoss looked at all of this in slight confusion, and then moved over to the door. The three following him changed into our bionics and walked with him.

Three dragons were waiting outside, still suspicious, and at the sight of us there was a roar from one of them, and then quite a lot of heads turned to look at us. Draco smiled, his eyes glinting as he rubbed his chin. I looked more calm, this time prepared for anything that should happen, and Simba was calmly speaking onto his recording device in Centralite.

Drakoss stepped between the three dragons and the three of us. "They are to see the lord." "What are they?" I answered that, ducking underneath Drakoss' neck and looking up at them. "We are explorers of planets, and today I was sent to this planet. I did not mean to arrive where I did, but no harm, no foul." "What are you?"

Draco stepped to my side, and Drakoss stepped aside as the small dragon spoke. "That would take far too long to explain, noble one. All we ask is an audience with whoever is in charge here." Simba changed into his Apache form, just as Drakoss took off into the air. The dragons scrutinised us minutely. "You had better have more answers than that if you see him."

Simba started his engines, and the helicopter's rotors began whirring faster and faster, until the dust began to kick up off the ground and deluge the two of us. He rose, the thumping rhythm in perfect time with my own heart, and the helicopter rose to Drakoss' height. Draco took off, until he was level with both of them, and then all the dragons saw the Raptor properly for the first time. The twin jets scored a deep hole into the dust, and I began to rise into the air, the harsh light glinting eerily off my panelling.

One shouted to Drakoss."You take them, we shall be right behind you." Drakoss wheeled and gained altitude, heading for one of the upper caves. Both Simba and Draco followed, but I couldn't fly that fast on hovers, so I paused, rotating until I was pointing up, balancing on my jets, and slowly increasing my thrust. "All that noise and no speed." one dragon muttered to it's fellow. O.K., hang the subtleties. Blame my ego. With a roar, my ion engines, my afterburners, and my natural power from the jets blasted into full gasp, and the G-force stuffed my response back down my grille as I rose like a nuclear rocket launch. Draco and Drakoss wheeled aside as I ascended.

I immediately hit the flaps, and killed everything, allowing gravity and drag to track my passage towards the cave. I miscalculated, and had to change back to hover to land on the walkway, but by that time everyone else had caught up. "More noise, and lots of speed." I mockingly saluted the dragon who had made the comment, and turned to Drakoss. "That is my trademark form, the F-22 Raptor, safe top speed, Mach 3. If you want to go exploring with us, you'll learn that sort of thing."

Neither Simba or Draco flinched or made a comment, they had given me looks earlier that agreed. Drakoss sat back on his haunches in surprise, looking at me in a peculiar way. "Me, come with you?" he asked, not believing what he was hearing. "If you wish to come exploring with us, than I am pretty sure you will be welcome, Drakoss. Do you guys agree?" Both said yes, and Draco patted the larger dragon's flank in encouragement. Drakoss looked thoughtful, but it was broken by one of the other dragons banging a fist against a rock. The rock slid open, and a larger dragon, wearing an iron crown, emerged from the depths. The dragons bowed, and I spoke to Draco.

"That's your cue." I said in Centralite, and Draco tried not to smile. I mentally reminded myself that I needed something from my room, something the dragons would find most welcome. I turned to Draco. "Can you cover for me, I need to get something?" Drakoss turned to me, as Draco nodded. Drakoss moved fast, grabbing at my arm as I made to hit my teleporter.

There was a bang, and I felt myself being thrown sideways, being dragged off balance by the immense weight of the noble dragon. Instead of the plummeting feet first sensation, I fell head over heels, losing all sense of what was up or down. Drakoss was spinning with me, I could feel him still holding my arm. Landing was not pleasant. I landed heavily, stumbled sideways, and crashed heavily over a table and several metal chairs.

As I did so, I knew I wasn't at home. There was music playing, and there was a bustle of sound of people doing things, and objects working. There was also several people drawing breath. I opened my eyes, and looked dazedly around. Drakoss was just getting to his feet, the ruins of several tables around him. The stall next to him was a coffee break retailer, and I realised with a sickening lurch that I had landed with a noble dragon right in the middle of Meridian Mall.

I closed my eyes, and thought inwardly, "Right, clever clogs, get yourself out of this one." Drakoss rumbled a query in his draconic speech, and I heard more gasps, as people began to back away from the dragon. I got to my feet, and looked around. Easily a thousand people were here, all looking at Drakoss in terror. "Drakoss, do you want to get out of here alive?" I muttered quietly in Draconic. Drakoss looked at me, and I drew my rifle, aiming right at Drakoss' head. "Yes." he replied, while I had an idea.

"For Christ's sake, run!" I shouted in English, and the crowd needed no second encouragement. I shouted in Draconic over the shrieks of terror. "Fly up!Up, then stairs! Go, now!" I took off for the elevator, diving in with several others. As I did, Drakoss spread his wings in the confined space, taking off and causing even more havoc. We had landed on the lower level of the five storey mall, and I was the first to get off, on the first level of car parks. I looked around for Drakoss, and hoping like hell he was O.K., I jumped up onto a dark column of concrete, and then into a nook just below the ceiling and just above the rafter.

My relief came with the arrival of Drakoss, shouldering his way through the automatic doors and looking around frantically. He climbed over a hatchback and hid behind two sedans, his red scales and sheer size compared to the cars making it impossible to hide properly in this scene of automotive ironmongery. And then it got worse. A mother and her child who hadn't noticed the chaos came walking towards the door into the Meridian, and their path would take them right past the cars and the crouching dragon. The woman was talking on her cellphone, and she walked briskly. She drew level with the first car, and the child turned to look.

"Hey, mother, it's a dragon!" he said excitedly. I hit my forehead. The mother, for some reason, didn't even look. Maybe the child was fond of making believe. "Yes, it's very nice, isn't it, Timmy? Where was I, oh yes, now, I have booked an appointment with the gentleman in half an hour, so I require...." her words were lost as she went through the doors and out of sight, leading Timmy, who actually waved to Drakoss.

I dropped down behind the large dragon, who was still completely confused. "And they say a parent is always right. That's a nail in the coffin for that theory." Drakoss turned, alarmed, and then relaxed. "What happened?" I was a little stressed, and Drakoss caught a bit of it."What just happened is you caused a complete panic, Drakoss! All I was doing was getting something from my house, but you grabbing me at the last second threw my balance and landed both of us in the middle of a crowd!"

Drakoss backed."But you didn't mind me at all..." he began. "The majority of this planet has not come into contact with alien life, for that very reason!" I hissed, and then sighed, giving up and losing my anger. I spoke more softly, smiling a bit even. "You are definitely an explorer though." Drakoss looked apologetically at me. "I'm so sorry for causing you trouble, I just wanted to know where you were going." He slumped,"Curiosity killed the dragon." "Hey, it was an accident. Admittedly front page news accident if someone grabbed their camera, but you're one of us."

Drakoss smiled, giving me a lick gently, looking happy again. I gently shook some of his saliva off me, and then stopped. He hadn't been to Arachno, the air might not suit him. I checked a device quickly. "Drakoss, I need to take you to Central. I mean, right now." Drakoss looked slightly confused."How, I mean, why?What's wrong?" "You haven't had an abm, and trust me, you need one right now." I grabbed his foreleg and hit my teleporter.

We landed on Central, and Drakoss got up, smacking his head on the roof."Owch!" he slumped back down, looking up in slight pain. I winced and stroked his leg gently. "Mind the roof, you can't fly or get up on two legs here, Drakoss." Drakoss chuckled."I'm sure I'll learn after the third head banging." I gently rubbed his leg again. "O.K., follow me, we're going to Arachno's for an abm." The dragon nodded."Lead the way."

I began explaining to the dragon what the abm did, and the dragon grasped the concept easily. He could walk naturally without banging his head on all fours, but he had to keep his wings furled for the same reason, there was no room for him in here. Then there a voice behind me, a voice that made my heart skip a few beats. "Now how are we supposed to make room for him?" the glower's mystical voice almost turned me around by itself, and I paled. Drakoss tried to turn, but jammed between the walls, only able to see a sliver of the glower. He tried to thrash, but was neatly stuck. Nevertheless he chose this minute for a joke.

"I guess someone ate one too many glow berries." he chuckled, and I double taked again. Someone made a joke about a glower? Maybe he couldn't see it properly. The glower pulsed a few times in laughter and hovered underneath the dragon and to my side. Drakoss stopped smiling as he saw the glower properly, feeling the glower's tremendous power and unearthly looks. "That is the first time anyone's told a joke about us, I should remember it." the glower chuckled, and Drakoss flushed, whimpering.

"Uhhh, I'm kinda stuck here, can I get some help? I'm going to get cramp in my neck if I don't." The glower pulsed once, and the corridor next to Drakoss' neck expanded, allowing the dragon to turn back and lie down in front of me and the glower, while the corridor contracted again. Drakoss, looked down briefly, and might have been blushing, it was hard to tell."I'm going to have to be careful, moving around here."

I decided to make proper introductions."Er, yes. Drakoss, this is a glower. Glower, this is Drakoss." The glower replied with very little emotion."Yes, Draco mentioned that Drakoss had grabbed your arm just before you teleported." Drakoss looked down again," I hope nothing unfunny has happened as a result." Drakoss grinned meekly."Well, there was a bit of a stir up, but it could have been worse..." "Yes." I rolled my eyes," It's could have been in the middle of the Super bowl."

Drakoss looked at me in confusion."Super bowl?" "It's a sporting event we have, millions watch it, and cameras record all of it." "Oh." the dragon said simply, thinking. "Oh is a fair description." the glower replied,"So there was trouble?" "Not at all." I said sarcastically," We get dragons the size of small aeroplanes all the time on my planet." "Then why did everyone react so badly?" Drakoss asked, looking confused again.

"Drakoss, new word for you, sarcasm." Drakoss chuckled, understanding dawning. I turned back to the glower. "I'm taking him to Arachno for an ABM." Drakoss got back up, and followed me and the hovering glower as we continued down the corridor. "So how is he going to compete in the Hunt?" the glower asked. I paused, thinking on this."Probably very badly."

Drakoss looked at us. "Hunt? I'm a pretty good hunter, you know." I stopped dead, trying to explain to the dragon in as many words what the Hunt really was. "Err, Drakoss, you don't have to hunt anything. It's the initiation ceremony into our band, we have to hunt you." The dragon frowned."Yes, I can see why that's a problem. I can't fly in here, although I can't run too badly. What happens if I get caught?"

"If you get caught within the two hours, the captors get to have sex with you." Drakoss stopped dead in his tracks, sitting back and hitting his head on the roof again in shock. "Ow! What?" he blushed, and we could actually see it, showing how embarrassed he was," You mean they will mate with me?" I nodded, the worst of it over,"Yes, whoever captures you gets to choose how to fuck you."

Drakoss looked very uncomfortable. "But...I'm a virgin, what happens if it's another male, I never thought I'd lose it...being hunted." Now I stopped dead, looking at the huge dragon in shock and surprise. "You are a virgin?" I asked, repeating the words carefully. Drakoss nodded."Well, as you know, I am the smallest of the clan, so I never got a chance to mate with anyone.

I turned and whispered to the glower."Don't tell Draco this." The glower chuckled. "Not a word, trust me." Now I blushed. "Well, we all enjoy having sex with one another, straight, gay or bi, I imagine if you want to find out, you could just ask." Drakoss looked confused. "Is being a virgin a big thing here? And I don't really think I could have sex with anyone here, I mean there is an obvious size problem..." I smiled weakly. "Let me put it this way, you might be a virgin now, but in a few days someone is going to find out, and when they do your ass is going to be in for a hammering."

Drakoss grinned playfully. "I doubt much of you would have an effect on me." I shook my head rapidly, quenching Drakoss' hope. "Trust me, there are several that would prove otherwise." Drakoss looked at me with a playful smile."Alduin, will you break my virginity?"