6 With a drop of blood

(For some reason the publish timer didn't work, so here is the chapter)

"Are you an idiot!" One of the men shouted at the other, "It's a dragon! Look at it. If you don't watch out, you'll be a smoking pile of cinders!"

"But it's so small I doubt it could use its fire breath. Look, it can't even talk!"

"Ye should just capture the damn creature; we will be a pile of cinders all the same if we don't hurry up and get out of this forest." The human started rummaging through his back and grabbed a rope out of his bag.

The human said, "Garry, grab your rope out of your bag. I don't want to see us on fire! Ivar on my sign, you'll hold onto the dragon so Garry can put the rope around its mouth. I'll tie its legs together!

Two of the bandits moved behind me, so there wouldn't be any route to escape too. Luckily for me, these hunters didn't know I already knew how to use my fire breath, the first one who comes close to me, I'll light up in flames!

"Alright, now, Ivar!" The man to my right ran towards me, I tried to open my mouth to blast him with fire, but the other poacher had run towards me and pushed my head down. Because he had pushed my head down, I lit the ground in flames, "Shit! It knows how to breathe fire! Quickly Garry put that rope around its mouth!"

The human that pushed my head tried to put the rope around my mouth. A piece of the rope fell into my mouth, and I bit down on it and swung my head around, trying to rip the cord apart with my razor-sharp teeth.

The human trying to put the rope around my head fell backwards when the rope snapped in half, and I blasted the human that gave the commands with a torrent of flames. When the fire hit him, his skin started to melt from his bones.

The man started to scream in anguish, but I wasn't about to stop there. The other two were now distracted because I lit on aflame. I turned around to blast a stream of fire into the human's face. He died almost immediately from the flames entering every orifice on his face.

The last human that tried to run towards me just a minute stood there in shock. The man looking at the monster in a scene of dancing flames of his making became scared to his bone. His friends and co-workers had just been brutally killed in front of him.

He turned around and started running as fast as his legs could. After I got the remains of the human that tried to put the rope around my mouth, I saw the other human running away. But I didn't give it any thought to run after him. There was a more important thing running through my mind: Elysia!

I turned around and saw Elysia's tree, the top of the tree was lit up in flames, "Are you okay, Elysia?! What can I do!?" Shocked at the sight in front of me, Elysia's face was full of pain, and all the trees around her were lit in flames.

"You must get out of here, and find the village I told you about. I'll use the last of my power to show you the path North." She spoke. You could hear the pain in her voice, even though she was still helping me.

"How can I save you?!" I asked, ignoring what she had just said.

"It's too late to save me, but—" She winced in pain, "there is still one thing that you could do for me, bring this seed to the druids in Enu. They'll know what to do with it." The bark around Elysia's heart opened, and a green glowing floated down towards me, towards my neck.

When it reached my neck, roots grew around it, forming a small bag around the seed, "Now, little dragon, you must go before you are also taken into these flames." A path of flowers began sprouting from under Elysia, and it made a path in one direction, "Follow the flowers, and you should reach the village, now run, little dragon!"

I looked at Elysia and said, "How could I ever pay you back." I ran North through the burning trees and bushes. Suddenly I felt a surge of energy through my body, and the gold particles surrounded me while I was running away from the flames.

I felt the power in my legs grow stronger with each step. The ground under me also seemed to become smaller and smaller. Soon I had passed the burning forest, and Elysia's burning tree was out of sight.

After running a long while, I was too tired to take more steps. I stopped running and looked around to find a spot where I could lie. I walked a few steps down the flower path towards a tree and lay down.

But even though I was so tired, I couldn't fall asleep; I don't know if it was the adrenaline flowing through my blood, the thoughts racing through my mind or both. Not too long ago, I killed two humans!

Before, killing a human would have filled me with so much repentance that it would cripple me. But now… I don't feel anything… it all happened so fast… I'm truly not human anymore.

𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲? 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤? 𝐎𝐫 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠? 𝐎𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞? 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮! 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐈'𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝐈'𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝟏𝟎% 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐫'𝐬 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭), 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬.

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐈'𝐦 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮; 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 $𝟏𝟎,𝟓𝟎; 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐰𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 (𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬). 𝐈 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠!

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫: 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞