13 The hunt

"Nice to see you again, Grey."

Dovah was glad that he managed to find Grey. He had no guarantee of being able to meet this dragon again. He supposed it would take him time before meeting Grey again, maybe weeks. He didn't know Gray had made a routine to look for Dovah to satisfy its curiosity. For Grey, Dovah is a source of interest about humans, and now that it trusts Dovah, it can fulfill its curiosity without only observing from the shadow.

Eyepatch wasn't impressed by the Night Fury in front of it. Eyepatch doesn't have the same link as Dovah toward the Night Fury in front of it.

Once the greeting was done, Dovah gave the food bag in extra he carried to Grey.

"Grey, this for you. Don't worry; there isn't anything dangerous or eels. You're the same as Eyepatch. Right? You don't like eels."

Grey didn't answer because it was already eating the bag that Dovah had brought. While Grey was eating, Dovah closely observed every nook and cranny of Grey's body. He noticed that Grey had wrinkles in many places. Studying it further, Dovah discovered proof that Grey is very old. After investigating further, he estimated the age of Grey at over eighty years old.

In Dovah's tribe, the oldest Viking is 72 years old, and that Viking is considered one of the oldest alive in the archipelago. This dragon is even older than that Viking, which explains why it easily understands what Dovah says. Yet, this old age raised a question in Dovah's mind.

"Grey, you're very old! Did you live alone for all that time?"

The Night Fury didn't answer. It just continues to eat.

"Do you listen?"

...

"I shouldn't have called you Grey. Eater would have been a better name."

Grey was listening to everything and wanted to answer later. It was more interested in eating for now, but when Dovah said that, it was forced to act. So, Grey used its tail to slap behind the head of Dovah, who was now looking at its wings.

Afterward, Dovah and Grey started a weird game where the one who annoys the other the most won. Eyepatch soon joined the fun, and all three had an odd bonding for some time.

When fifty minutes passed, Grey stopped playing and started growling in a direction. Seeing this, Dovah knew something was coming, so he gave Eyepatch an order while pointing in a direction.

"Eyepatch, recon."

The yellow Terrible Terror immediately flew in the indicated direction.

Eyepatch senses aren't that great. It can't hear or sense from far away, but it is still much better than humans. However, Nigh Fury has a very good sense of hearing and can hear from farther away. Obviously, Dovah didn't know that fact, but he guessed it after observing the change in Grey and sent Eyepatch to check what was coming quickly.

Eyepatch quickly came back. It took him more than thirty seconds, meaning the threat was quite close. As soon as Eyepatch came back, it went to Dovah's sword and brought it to him. Dovah quickly guessed what it meant.

"Human! Close! Eyepatch watch from the sky. Don't come until I call you. Grey, you need to hide. If anyone else than me sees you, you will be in trouble."

Eyepatch quickly followed the order. Instead, Grey looked at Dovah with worry.

"Don't worry. I can handle this easily. They are only humans."

Dovah said this confidently, and he managed to convince Grey, who went to hide, but it stayed close to see how Dovah would deal with the situation and help in case he needed help.

Once Grey was hidden, Dovah started moving away from where he was standing. For him, the best way to deal with this is by not meeting whoever is coming. This way, he can avoid any conflict that may happen.

He doesn't expect conflict to happen every time he meets someone, but the only person he has interacted with for the last seven years is Jeff. With time he became a little asocial. His only friends were Eyepatch and Grey since yesterday.

Meanwhile, a little farther away, Jeff and his goons are following Dovah's track that they found around an hour ago. He finally found where Dovah was for the past hour. There he saw an odd sight: three different footprints, two of which came from dragons. Jeff didn't understand what Dovah was doing in this place, but he didn't care.

After looking around, he found that Dovah had spent time in this place and going away in a direction further in the forest. However, the track was harder to follow this time, and Jeff knew what it meant.

"He knows that we follow him. Let's pick up the pace."

On Dovah's side, Dovah was running while covering his track, but he was not an expert. The best he could do was to erase his footprint. Unfortunately for him, when Jeff guessed which direction Dovah was going, he took more goons with him. One of them was an expert in tracking. Jeff took the tracker because he noticed Dovah always managed to slip past him and his group in the forest.

It took Jeff's group eight minutes to catch up to Dovah, but Dovah didn't see them yet, and Jeff used this to prepare himself while pursuing Dovah from afar. It took him two minutes for him to be ready, and then he went out of the shadow with two of his goons. One of them is the tracker.

"Mini-Dovah, you will hurt me and my friends' feelings if you run away like that."

Dovah's complete focus was on erasing his footprint to notice Jeff and his goon before now, but now he knew it was useless to bother because Jeff still found him.

"Jeff! What do you want? Make it short; I don't want to spend all my morning on you!"

"Okay, I will make it short. Today, you won't get away."

Jeff's face was smug, despite having only two goons with him. Dovah once won against Jeff in 1 vs. 5, so Jeff being this confidant with so few goops is fishy.

"What makes you think you will win this time."

"Ahahahaha! This time we are outside the village, which means I can use a more violent way than usual without the adult knowing about it."

While talking, 23 goons went out of hiding and circled Dovah, blocking all the escape routes Dovah could take. They even hold weapons made of wood, and if Dovah were to take a hit from these, it would hurt a lot.

"I see. I can't run away this time."

"That's right! Ahahaha! And you can't beat this many of us! We will overwhelm you with numbers! Ahahahahah!"

Jeff started laughing like a maniac, but Dovah used this time to prepare a little. First, he dropped the bag he was carrying on the ground. Then he took his sword and used a rope to keep it from unsheathing during the fight. Finally, he took a stance with his sword, ready to fight.

"Jeff! You misunderstood something."

This made him stop laughing to look at Dovah and ask a question.

"What did I misunderstand?"

"If we are outside the village, I can finally stop holding back."

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(If you spot mistakes, tell me I will correct them. Thanks)