Chapter 2

Five years passed since that day I realized the truth. 

I was alone in this world.  At first the realization had saddened me, but time heals all wounds.  I took no pleasure in being alone, but at the same time I wouldn’t let it keep me down forever.

The morning after I learned about my reflection I had decided to make the area my home. There was a bounty of prey and tall trees for me to hide in, and for five years it’s made a truly excellent hiding place for me.

Thanks to all of that my size has increased considerably, to the point where I can even hunt down wolves if they’re alone. Though Dire Wolves and other magical beasts were still well beyond my ability to fight. My horns, too,  have grown out, with each one extending six inches out of my head.  I have even gained some skills. 

After hunting and killing so many animals with my claws I gained the skills <Predation Lv.1> and <Razor Sharp Lv.1>.  <Predation Lv.1> increases my ability to assess my enemies abilities, increases my tracking ability, and increases the likelihood of my first strike being fatal during an ambush. It also decreases the noise I make while hunting.  <Razor Sharp Lv.1> increases the overall power of any attack I perform that utilizes my claws, horns or teeth.

With all of this extra power I have become the king of the lake, able to hunt and devour any animal that comes near. Wolves, deer, rodents, all are within my ability to kill!  Until the day that my hunting aroused an unforeseen problem.

While I was the king of the lake, I had taken very little time to explore the area outside of my domain. Had I done so I might have realized sooner that there was a human village, not but a short distance away.  

The humans used the area around the lake to hunt for food, and concern was growing over the decrease in game.  One of them found a deer carcass that had been torn apart far more violently than any wolf pack was capable of doing and reported it to the village leaders, who then petitioned the local lord for assistance in hunting down a dangerous predator.

That predator, of course, was me and though I only found out about all of this later on I knew it was time to move when I woke up in the middle of the day to the sound of armor and swords clanging together.  A group of 10 armored humans were marching around the west bank of the lake, making their way toward the big tree where I had made my nest.

I was hesitant about leaving. Humans had already forced me out of one nest and I was loath to let them chase me out of another. So I decided to analyze the group with <Predation Lv.1>. It wouldn’t tell me any of their abilities or what kind of weapons they were carrying, but it would give me a general idea of the danger I would be in if we clashed. 

Predation ranks enemy strength from E to SSS, with E- being the lowest rank reserved for rodents and other such small animals. It also ranks me and compares the two. When I first got the skill I was only a rank D-, but after getting <Razor Sharp> my rank raised to D and has since raised to D+.

I was much stronger now. Strong enough to defend my home from the humans, I was sure of it! <Predation> was almost done analyzing them, and even if they were all D+ rank like me I was certain I could take them.  After all, I had something here that was worth fighting for, my home!

!…Analyze was finished, time to check my prey.

…

……

………

What was this? This couldn’t possibly be correct, there’s no way! Every single human was at least a rank C, but how?! And the strongest one was a B-!  It’s not possible, the difference between a rank E and a rank D is like the difference between a wolf and a rabbit. So that meant that, compared to even a single one of these humans, I’m as weak as a rabbit…

“Damn it!“

There’s no making up this huge difference in power, and though it hurt me to give up my home I wasn’t foolish enough to fight a fight I couldn’t win.  One day though, one day I would get my revenge on humanity for running me out of my own home not once, but twice!  I’ll get bigger and stronger and then I’ll show them what it’s like to be afraid! 

Something was bubbling up from inside of my heart, something brand new that I had never felt before.  Originally I had been deathly afraid of humans, unable to even look at one without scurrying away.

But now? All I felt was rage when I looked back from afar and saw them destroying the nest I had made In the big tree.  I hated humans! I would burn them all when I got bigger! I would…I would…!

New skill obtained-<Avenger Lv.1>

I jumped when I heard the voice speak. After I learned that I was a dragon the voice had stayed mostly quiet, only piping up again when I obtained <Predation> and <Razor Sharp>.  

As angry as I was at the humans I couldn’t help but feel pleased that their evil deeds had given me a new weapon to use against them.

“Let us see what this ‘Avenger’ does”

<Avenger Lv.1>-A skill granted only to those who have met the required conditions

-Must have sworn revenge against a mortal enemy.

-Must have witnessed or been the victim of cruel and evil acts, perpetuated by ones mortal enemy

-Must have lost kith and kin to ones mortal enemy

-Must have lost home and hearth to ones mortal enemy

-Must be a *****

This skill grants the user outstanding power in the service of seeking out righteous justice against their mortal enemy. Let the fires of vengeance consume those who have wronged you!

-All stats increased by 50% when fighting against designated enemy (Humanity)

-All damage taken from (Humanity) will be decreased by 50%

-All attempts to burn, poison, freeze, enervate, shock, or otherwise debuff (Unnamed Young Dragon) are doomed to fail.

!…this skill is…incredible!  I’m not sure what it means by ‘stats’ or ‘debuff’ but the gist of the skill is, I get stronger when I fight against humans, and they get weaker when they fight against me. It’s perfect! Still…

It probably won’t make a difference as I am. Even with the boost I would be hard pressed to win one on one against the group of humans assaulting my nest, let alone fight all ten of them. For now I’ll retreat, until I get bigger…

I ran for a day and a night. It didn’t exhaust me to run this long like it would have when I was younger, but eventually I did have to stop and eat. Fortunately, water sources were prevalent in this land and my <Predation> skill quickly led me to a den of weasels. They fought ferociously, but my scales were far too hard for their small teeth and tiny claws to harm.  

Although, I did feel pity for them. Surely they felt the same way as I did seeing an overwhelming foe approach their home.

Now that I was sufficiently far away from the humans, it was time to find a new area to nest. A large tree would have been preferable of course, but for some reason there were no sizable trees in the area to be found. Before that wouldn’t have been a problem, but right now I was as large as the average wolf and I needed a lot of space for a nest.

In lieu of a tree a large cave would do but the land wasn’t particularly rocky,  so finding such a thing was unlikely. Worst still, the farther I traveled in search of a nesting area the thinner and smaller the trees were getting until I, for the first time in my life, found myself staring at a different kind of landscape.

There were no trees in front of me, just rolling hills of grass.  It was as if the world had suddenly grown to an incomprehensible size and i, who had never been outside of the forest where there was ample shelter and places to hide, suddenly felt exposed and in danger.

Anyone would be able to see me from miles away and if humans caught sight of me they could chase me forever out here.

I wasn’t safe. I bolted back into the forest and searched the largest tree I could find. When I found a suitable one I ran up it and laid down to rest. I wouldn’t be able to nest here, but It would make a suitable place to think about what I would do next.

Once again I found myself with two options I could choose between.  Either I could turn around and keep searching the forest for a place to call home, or I could go back to the wide empty grassland.  The forest was definitely the safer option, but it came with the caveat that eventually, no matter what it seemed, the humans would come for me.

Conversely, while the empty grassland wasn’t nearly as safe, something in my heart was telling me that I needed to go there. I’d spent my entire life in this forest and, until now, I didn’t even know that places like the grassland could even exist.  I had always believed that the entire world was just covered in trees. Only now did it dawn on me how ignorant I was of…everything.

Perhaps, if I wandered far enough, I could even find a land with more creatures like me. Maybe there were more dragons out there! Maybe I could even befriend one of them…

But that would never happen if I stayed in the forest. I would just keep running from the humans until I got big enough to fight them back. I didn’t want to live that kind of life, at least not yet.

So it was decided, tomorrow I would explore the grassland and even the lands beyond that if I could find them.

“I wonder…is there a land of water out there? A place where the water is so vast that you can’t even see the edge of it?  Or a land of rock, where stone stretches on forever?”

It was possible, and for now the excitement was enough to ease my worries.  I nodded off into a restful sleep, and when I dreamed I saw bright blue waters and other dragons who splashed and played alongside me.

****

I spent several days after that wandering the grassland, looking for…well anything really. The land wasn’t uniform, but there just didn’t seem to be anything in it.  Every now and then I would look at the sight of a forest in the distance, or see the shimmer of another lake, but overall it was empty. There were critters running around of course, just the same as In the forest, but besides them-nothing.

Thankfully, the uniformity finally came to an end when I came upon a new kind of grass. It was tall and shone gold in the sunlight. It grew in a very uniform pattern of rows and columns and stretched for a fair distance before ending at a strange bunch of wooden structures.

Curiosity driving me, I decided to investigate the structures, using <Predation> to make sure there were no enemies waiting.  When I detected nothing, I continued my search.  There were two of the things. One, which had a large opening I could walk through, housed several large animals that I had never seen before. A white creature with black splotches all over its body, four fat pinkish creatures with shovel-like noses and five animals that looked like extremely fluffy deer.

They looked delicious, especially the pink fatties.  There was so much meat on the animal and it all looked succulent! Just thinking about it made my mouth water. The only thing that stayed my hunger was the fact that the structure housing these creatures definitely wasn’t built by them, and that meant that I’d be stealing someone else's' prey.  If it was humans and they found out then they would likely send more of those armored ones after me.

Although…I swore my vengeance against them, right? So why wouldn’t I steal their food!?  

As I contemplated this one of the fluffy animals saw me peeking at them from the entrance of the structure and started making loud Baaaing noises.  Following suit, the rest of the animals also turned, saw me and raised a ruckus as well.

I was about to kill them all just to stop the noise when I heard another voice shouting, this time from within the golden grass.

I froze. Though it was higher pitched then the others, there was not a doubt in my mind about what this voice belonged to. It was human.  I could feel my blood boil, but now was not the right time to start a fight.. Fast as I could run I bolted out of the animal shelter and hid behind the only cover I could find, the tall golden grass.

Peeking between the strands, I watched the structure next to the animal shelter and, sure enough, two humans stepped out of it.

One was as tall as every other human I had seen, but its hair was longer and its body was structured differently.  The other was much smaller than the first, and must have been one of the humans young.  It ran ahead of the long haired human into the animal shelter and proceeded to calm its residents, one by one.

It held their heads and whispered in their ears, sometimes petting them and nuzzling them. The human truly seemed to care for the beasts.

“As if that were possible…”

In reality these animals were food, the humans had simply devised a way to breed and prepare them for consumption. It was genius, but one would be hard pressed to call that friendship.

After the animals were calmed down the two humans stepped out of the shelter and scanned the area, looking for what had caused the disturbance.

“This is bad…well, if they discover me then I’ll just kill them. Serves them right for destroying my home..”

Of course I knew these two weren’t responsible for that, but they were humans. And humans only ever went around destroying.  These two wouldn’t be any different.

Fortunately for them they only looked for a moment, not moving from the front of the shelter, before turning around and walking back into the human home.  When I was certain that the humans had vanished I turned towards the direction the sun was setting in and started running. There was a small woods a mile away that I could hunker down in for the night.

The next morning I went back to the farm.  I simply had to eat one of those pink animals before I continued, otherwise I just knew I would regret it.  

Humans always seemed to be active during the middle of the day, so I roused myself early in the morning after the sun had only just started peeking above the horizon.  I was excited for the new kind of prey, so I ran the distance, stopping once I got into the golden grass to activate <Predation>.

It hadn’t picked up on the two humans yesterday because they were both too weak to register as enemies, but now it alerted me to a third human, residing in the human home.  Its danger level was a D-, weaker than a wolf but stronger than a deer. It also wasn’t moving, which hopefully meant that it was asleep.

I wouldn’t have a lot of time to do this. The animals would cause an uproar as soon as they saw me so I’d have to quickly kill the prey and drag its fat body away from here before the humans woke up and came out to see what the commotion was.

If I was too slow I’d have to kill all of the humans too. Not a difficult task, but if anybody came to investigate I would have the armored humans chasing me again.

The first part of my plan went off well. I was able to get into the shelter and kill the fatty before the animals had even noticed that I was there.  With my <Predation> all I needed was a quick bite on the back of its neck and the fatty went limp.

By the time the animals registered my presence I was already dragging the fatty out of its pen and through the shelters exit.  Then the noise came.

<Predation> Immediately alerted me to the fact that the humans were awake and stumbling around, trying to get their wits about them. The fatties body was proving to be too heavy for me to escape with quickly and by the time I had gotten to the golden grass the humans were already out of their home and quieting the animals down.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to run quickly with the extra weight I had on me so I made the split second decision to rip the carcass in half with my claws.  Thanks to <Razor Sharp> I was already done by the time the D- human ran out of the shelter. He was looking around and his eyes zeroed in on the golden grass.

But it was too late. By the time the human found the remaining half of the fatty I was already running full speed back to the woods.  If the human did see me it was as a blip on the horizon, running far and fast away from him.

I feasted that day on the most delicious meat I had ever eaten.  It was truly a marvel that humans had managed to cultivate such a delicious animal. When I got bigger I would have to keep a few humans alive to breed more of these animals for my pleasure.  Before I knew it the fatty had been reduced to nothing but bones, which I happily tossed into my mouth and crunched up for marrow.

“I need more…” I realized. 

That animal was too delicious to let the humans enjoy alone. My pride wouldn’t let such a prized prey be the sole product of those dirty apes! My heart set on obtaining more of the fatty meat, or at the very least the remaining half of today's catch, I bedded down to rest that night, dreaming of delicious meat.

Like yesterday I arrived at the human home early in the morning and activated <Predation>, and like yesterday I registered the D- human, not moving.  Unfortunately, the humans had taken my remaining half of the fatty, but I could smell its scent was still here.  It only took a moment for me to find it as well, because the humans had left it in the space between their dwelling and the animal shelter. The most conspicuous spot around, with the least amount of space to hide nearby.

“As if I would be that foolish.”

Clearly they thought they were dealing with some dumb beast. Rather than fall to their bait, I decided to take another approach.  Along the side of the shelter there were several openings in the structure that the animals could stick their heads out of.  Running to the shelter, I poked my own head in and announced my presence to the animals.

“Grrrooooooooowl!”

As expected the animals raised a racket. Unlike yesterday where the humans took a few moments to attend their animals, this time the two tall ones burst out of the door immediately. While they rushed in to save their food, I snuck away my other half of the fatty and ran into the golden grass.

“Stupid humans, thinking you could outsmart me!” I allowed myself to feel smug for a moment, laughing about how I easily tricked the tricksters.

Perhaps If I hadn’t been so self assured I would have noticed that there was someone else in the golden grass, staring right at me.  As I turned around to run back into the woods with my prize, I found myself staring face to face with the other resident of this place.

The human child had found me.