Slowly, cautiously, I approached the baby dragon’s nest.

The oversized lizard settled down in the middle of a road, in a torn apart carriage, where it must’ve landed or hatched. The area surrounding the carriage was clean of grass, but it was very hard to see anything of interest near the nest.

All interesting things were scattered around: shattered human and animal bones littered the road, and few of them were visible inside of the subtle carpet of young grass that just started growing on the road. The road was not closed for longer than a couple weeks, and the nature was yet to claim the man-made path, nor could it claim all remnants of what seemed the dragon’s first prey.

Crushed skull and bitten bones of a horse was lying in front of the dragon’s nose, blocking its view, enough for me to crawl closer.

30 meters.

My hands and knees occasionally touched sharp bits of the dragon’s sloppy meals. It still dreamt, despite me being close. Neither did it see the lurking predators in the dense vegetation around.

The xenomorphs tracked my field of view, and when I could notice at least traces of them, they changed their paths and hid. I commanded them to not be noticed at all. And not to come out until I call upon them.

20 meters.

‘Crrrrsh…’

The baby dragon grumbled in its sleep, almost making my acid blood freeze. But it just slightly turned its head, and continued snoring.

The voracious creature was filled to the brim with food, and a pair of crunched deer corpses was testament to that. The bones barely had any meat and tendrons on them, and what was not eaten by the dragon was being eaten by hordes of fat rats.

10 meters.

My palm reached forward again as I crawled.

‘SQEEEAAAK!’

Until I ‘stepped’ on one of the pests that rummaged through the dragon’s dining table, picking whatever was left of its food.

And even though the rats were constantly squeaking around as they fought for scraps, the dragon just had to hear this one bastard’s shriek of pain and terror.

The infant lizard angrily lifted its head, and bellowed like a maddened Florida gator.

‘URRRRRRR!’

Our eyes met almost instantly. I didn’t even try to hide at this point, it was too late.

I jumped on my feet, and rushed at the still half-asleep lizard.

‘Fwoosh’

With an unexpected agility, the giant creature jumped aside. I tore off a piece of wood from the carriage to use as a weapon.

Through the hive’s eyes and thoughts I sensed that Jeanne was already standing and waving around her staff to cast magic. That Valerian and Placid were rushing towards me to assist when needed. But the dragon moved too fast.

‘URRAAA!!!’

Its jaws were so large that a human head can easily fit in and be gulped without a single chew. And those same jaws closed on my arm, before I reacted.

“URGH?!” I gasped when the sudden bite was followed by a powerful pull of the monster’s head. The broken plank in hand flew out immediately, leaving me bare-handed against the creature.

“LET GO, YOU MOTHERF**K**G LIZARD!!!” The dragon’s yellow eyes widened in shock when my fist slammed into its head. Something crunched below my fist, and the dragon released my arm.

The sleeve of my new shirt was torn to shreds, and huge tooth marks remained on my skin. A slight trickle of red blood ran down my arm.

Even though I successfully withstood its bite, my thoughts ran wild.

[I can die… I can die… I can die if I don’t get serious…

I can die… any time…

It can kill me…]

Seeing me hesitate in shock, the dragon launched its another assault, intending to bite off my head. But this time I was ready. Adrenalin surged, and I swung wide.

‘CRUNCH’

My wounded arm’s fist smashed into the other side of the dragon’s skull.

The monster faltered and pulled its head back, roaring in fury.

‘URRRAAAA!!!’

Its saliva rained on me, and then I noticed a faint glow in the depth of its throat.

‘FUUUUUUUU’

The fire breath. The bane of heretic and xenos alike.

Its scorching heat ran over my skin.

But I stood, steaming and completely naked. And I shot a defying glare at the dragon.

“Now...

I…

Am…

MAD!