FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Hard-Boiled Scales

Richard opened his eyes while grunting, commenting about how hurt his back and how hard the soil was. It was a bright sunny day, with normal green leaves reflecting the sunlight and made a filter-like condition that hit Richard's eyes. He rubbed his head for a moment, and then he scanned the area. He was in the middle of a forest, with lush green leaves sprouting out from white branched trees. It was a dense forest since everywhere he saw was trees and wildlife like foxes, jays, and sleeping owls.

He found his sword lying by his side, and took it. In a brief moment, he thought the scaly hand he had was real, but then he thought it was just an illusion because he lost the one he loved.

"Ray...." He started to cry. "I...I'm...sorry. It's just...I can't be at your side when the dragon was attacking you. If only I could be near you. Damn it..."

Sniffing away the wound made by the loss of a friend, he walked toward an unknown direction, presumably west since the sun shone at the point. He wanted to find some food, but aside from foxes, he couldn't find any other big animals, and he didn't know the herbs around there although he lived for a long time inside the forest. He walked past a small swamp, which were only dominated by dragonflies, frogs, and the likes. He also walked past some fallen trees and fell down through an unstable land. He coughed out some dirt out from his mouth, and for the first time realized that his tail somehow grew longer and controllable, as if it was one of his limbs.

"I wonder what happened...or it's just an imagination," thought Richard. He continued to walk, now dirty and somehow half-naked because he felt bare-chested. Then, his ears caught some noises of people chattering. He thought it was just another illusion (he still couldn't get out from the problem surrounding him right now), but then when he wanted to ignore it and tried to wash all of his grimes in a small lake, the noise became more and more louder, indicating a closer position.

Curious, Richard walked toward the sound, and hid behind some trees. He heard their noises, and somehow he couldn't understand one word although they spoke the same language.

"Damn, my scales hurt. Those bloody thorns pierced through it."

"It's because you walked to it without using your sword, Seig. Maybe next time try to buy a machete, or maybe..."

"Orozco...using sharp things to thorns could make it dull. I like to train my scales, mate, much like you train your lizard eyes."

"I'm not really training them to the point I can snipe. I'm not good at reading winds."

"Orozco, like I said before, if you can get hold of multiple type of weapons, we can be prepared if the Nothornians came and broke the truce."

"We can't expect that sooner or later, Vig. We're still in a truce."

Richard heard their conversation and started to think those weren't humans. When he dared to look, he was surprised.

Their bodies were humanoid, but their heads...were dragons. Their tails were long and muscular. Some of them had wings. They really resembled dragons, but also human. Richard knew folklore when he was little by a street story-teller at the derelict city he grew up before. He clearly remembered the words.

"They, the humans that ruled the sky, are Draconians. They are descendants of the mighty beast, and humans. They surpassed both limits, and found themselves as humans, and dragons."

"The heck?" thought Richard. "They are draconians, and they really like what the story said. Half human, half dragons, high intelligence, great endurance...damn, these are the best mythical creature I knew aside dragons. But, what are those things they carry?"

Aside from swords and crossbow, Richard saw three of them had weird barrel-like weapon that had a trigger and didn't have anything aside from a box-like thing. One of them carry a pretty big knife, but wasn't a regular knife he knew. It was curved, having some thick parts, and also a little rough edge. But then Richard was also surprised he could see the details as if he was watching it in front of him.

He wanted to take a leave from them, having seen enough illusions for one day, but he accidentally cracked a fallen branch, and when he hid himself, he heard some of them said, "Something's there."

"Could be a fox."

"No, it's bigger. A draconian."

"Is it Northornian, or us?"

Richard knew the aura. They were trying to kill him if he was the Nothorno thing. But he was too caught up in his fear when he wanted to walk slowly; he again cracked another branch, swore to himself, and ran away. But unfortunately, one of them knew he was running and shot an arrow to him. The arrow was fast enough to pierce his leg, immobilize him. When he tried to prone away, one of them caught up to him, holding the barrel-like weapon, and shouted, "What the fuck are you doing here?! Ally or enemy?!"

"P...please, I don't know what are you saying. Hey, stop pointing that!"

"I can't trust a stranger like I trust my comrades!"

"I'm not an enemy! I'm just lost!"

"No civilians are allowed around this vicinity! Now get your ass up or I blow your fucking head off with this thing!"

Richard, clearly scared, obeyed him, but the draconian pulled his hand and turned it around to his back, making Richard winced and he felt like having his hand being ripped off. He then forced to walk to the rest of them.

"A stranger," he said. "Trying to run."

"Just tie him up and take his weapon," said the knife-wielding one. "He doesn't look like a soldier, and he was almost naked, and mugged."

"I...I'm not a soldier, and I still have a strand of cloth on my fucking body!" said Richard, trying to taunt them. "Just tell me what on earth is going on in this forest! What the hell are you, and what the hell are Othorno?!"

"It's Northorno, asshole!" said the one holding him. "Maybe we should gag him?"

"He's really annoying..."

The next minute, Richard was tied to the nearest tree while trying to break free from the 'gag' that was wrapped around his mouth. Everything he got up to that point was weird, and somehow those draconians didn't feel Richard as a weird human in their eyes...or maybe it wasn't strange for them to encounter their own kind.

As Engrak said in his hut before the big fight that cost his friend's life, the dragon treasure he possessed slowly poisoning him and he would eventually be a dragon. He knew this condition started to happen when he saw his own body had scales, tail that was not as long as a dragon (now it was long), and clawed feet. He knew everything would eventually happen, and accepted the fate. Ray's last decision to throw him to this world was right. It was to prevent alienation between his friends.

Slowly, he sported a very powerful desire for meat when he saw the draconians taking some meats out from a pouch and lit a fire using their breath. He was drooling and somehow he felt it fell out from his muzzled mouth (now understood he was a half-dragon). He kept drooling until he started to feel dizzy because of the bleed made by the arrow. He started to faint from both blood loss and hunger when one of them, having green scales, came to him and said, "If I open this gag, will you obey me and not trying to bite me?"

"I...I...." Richard was too weak to talk and to nod, but fortunately the draconian understood. He asked his friend to give him a bandage and some meat. By the time Richard smelled it, he started to wake up, but he knew he couldn't do that since he was a vegetarian, but that's alright. He ate all the meat in a whole and slowly he started to regain consciousness and saw the draconian.

"Hey, I'm trustworthy enough. I'm not an enemy."

"Well, I trust you from the look of your wounds and your eyes. Sorry I shot your leg."

"You're the one using the crossbow, right?" asked Richard. "How...how could the arrow pierced by leg? I thought I have..."

"All draconians have weak scales around their throat and around their legs. Although pistols and other guns can pierce hard scales, for an arrow expert, you can't just do that. It won't gonna make a fatal shot."

"Uh...what are guns?"

"You don't know? I thought you know it already. Anyway, I'm Juagar. My friend here, this shotgun maniac, is Bestreid."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, man. I'm telling him the truth. Now, that M4 user is Orozco, the swordsman is Seiglet, and that's our commander, Viglerne."

"Seglet?"

"No, Seiglet," said the white blue draconian. "It isn't hard to pronounce it, mate."

"I can't find it. It's Seglet, right? No! I mean, Seig...Seigle...ouch, I bit my tongue."

"Never mind..." said Seiglet with a sigh. "Just call me Seglet."

Richard smiled to him while the draconian turned his sight. Bestreid, in Juagar's request, cut the ropes binding Richard. The new draconian wanted to take his sword, but Bestreid stopped him again by using the same thing he did in the forest.

"Ouch! Damn, man, you have strong grip," said Richard.

"I studied Judo a little. You can't have your sword, okay? We can't believe you although you're innocent. Sorry for this."

Richard, although reluctant, sighed and only said, "Keep it, but don't you ever, ever make a scratch on it or I'll really kill you."

"Hey, it's just a sword. You can polish it," said Bestreid trying to calm him. "Chill out."

"It's a special gift...from a friend."

"O...okay, I can find the point. Now, you have to follow us back to South Apachia nation. This place is a neutral zone. You'll get shot if you came from Northorno side like the one you did. It's fortunate we're not as wild as our other comrades. C'mon, you can walk, right? Oh, shit. Juagar..."

"I know, man. I'm sorry. But at least he's not killed."

Bestreid made a sigh and supported Richard over his shoulder. Richard now could see that the draconian was a little shorter than him, despite of him having a big body and carrying a big barrel weapon. He also had brown scales covered by something like a heavy jacket with hood (although Richard couldn't describe the hood since it wasn't put on Bestreid's head).

"Thanks."

"It's fine. You're pretty damn light for a big guy like you."

When they decided to stop by a tree because Richard's wound started to get bigger, Bestreid asked him his friend's name while attending his wounds. Bestreid was surprised Richard didn't shout or roar, but winced when his leg were tended with antiseptic (as Juagar said).

"So, what's your friend's name? Did you lose him in the forest?"

"No, he...recently died after a fight."

"I'm really sorry for that. We encountered many deaths, but for you, maybe it's the first time."

"It's the second time. He died once but revived."

"Revived? Maybe you think he was dead, but instead of dead, he was just in a coma."

"He's a dragon."

This made Bestreid stopped his tend, and said to him with serious eyes. "Richard, dragons are myths."

"Myths?" thought Richard. So this world he got into didn't have dragons? But of course there wouldn't be any dragons in this world if draconians had ruled this world instead of humans.

Changing the topic, Richard started with, "So, what town is our destination?"

"It's a border city," said Juagar while turning his head to him. "Milsteir."

"It's a very good name for a town. I mean, it's generally...beautiful in sense."

Juagar laughed a little to Richard. "Milsteir is the worst place you'll get into in South Apachia," he said. "It's our headquarter, but also at the same time one of the first city established many years ago. We..."

"Juagar, you! Get the hell down!!"

Viglerne's voice was followed by machine gun shots that missed them, but they managed to find cover behind hard objects right before a grenade hit them. Richard's leg condition proved hard for Bestreid to carry him while defense-shooting the enemies using his shotgun. After laying Richard on a rock, he yelled to Richard while pumping his shotgun.

"Just don't get the hell trying to run! You'll die!"

"What the fuck is going on?! I thought it's a neutral zone!"

"Don't ask me, ask those damned bastards!"

Bestreid was very fast in pumping his gun. He could shot and pump like as if they were toys and it made the shooting speed increased rapidly (Richard didn't know anything about shotguns). He saw Seiglet shooting fire from his maws while taking cover behind a tree. From those things, he quickly learned the fighting style of draconians, but he couldn't do anything aside from using blades.

Richard examined the scene while trying to evade getting shot (Bestreid covered his rear). The trees, the rocks, the small paths and movement room were advantageous for ambush, but in this case, they were not humans. This place became a nightmare if the ambush was more that the ones compromised. The now-draconian prone under some rocks to go to Viglerne. The dark blue rock brown draconian was trying to hold his point with Orozco giving cover fire while he threw some grenades (okay, this is from my point of view. Richard didn't know anything about these). When Richard started to get close, Viglerne shouted, "Juagar, blow the heck out of them!"

There was another explosion, but this one came after a whistling sound. The small forest became a battlefield, with those five trying to hold their grounds from the overwhelming enemies. He could get Viglerne's attention by stomping his leg.

"Hey, you! What the hell are you doing here?! Both Bestreid and Juagar can..."

"We need to get out from here! Retreat, commander, retreat! This goddamn forest is not a good place to..."

"We run, we die! The forest is crawling with these Northorno bastards! Can you hear them?!"

Richard could hear dragon claws scratching to their position right behind him. From the sound, he knew they would be forced to surrender. But then, Richard knew how to fight. He returned to Bestreid, and shouted, "Give me the sword!"

"Hey, I said no..."

"There's no time for some fucking trust-no-trust game, just give me my sword!!"

"Can you be trusted?!" said Juagar while reloading his crossbow.

"You can trust me after this is over, now give me..."

He was interrupted with his own sword flying toward him. Engrak was shining on his claws, and he realized the draconic power that enhanced the sword started to pour out once a dragon touched it (much like what happened to Ray in the previous story). Richard nodded, stood over the stone, and roared.

The cry was loud enough for all of the draconians present to go to him. The assailants tried to shot him, but he swung the sword and both Juagar and Bestreid were shocked to see the bullets fell in front of him. Richard proceeded to jump and slashed some front armies that was electrocuted and died. When one of them tried to reach his radio, Richard accidentally used lightning pulse Ray once demonstrated to render electronics useless. His swordsmanship was okay, but his tail movement was a bad disadvantage. His tail became a soft target because of its length. Richard roared in pain, but managed to duck and using his dragon speed, he slashed unfortunate soldiers. The Apachia team gave him covering fire to his back.

After ruthless fights, the Northornians somehow stopped attacking, and Richard was exhausted by his excessive attack. His sharp eyes made his enemies ran and left their weapons. The five of them, too shocked and taken in awe after watching the draconian fight, couldn't give a roar of victory. Juagar saw the draconian swayed and fell, panting hard. The green draconian knew Richard was taking too much of his power to defend the point.

"Yo, man. That's one wild swordsmanship you got there," said Juagar. He turned his vision to his sword. "Do you have any kind of manual to use that...EMP-like sword?"

"Like I...said," said Richard, panting hard. "My friend...gave me this."

"So," said Viglerne. "What's your name soldier?"

Richard smiled to the commander and said, "It's Richard, sir. Richard...Andaluvia."

"Don't call me that. I'm a friend, not a commander. You can call me Vig if you want to. Thanks for giving me the advice."

"Yeah...you too..."

"Say, guys. We can go back to Milsteir now and get some nice soup? I'm kinda hungry," said Bestreid.

"C'mon, mate. You need to lose a little," said Seiglet. "Richard, you need to eat too."

"Thanks, Seglet."

"It's...never mind, mate."

It was starting to get dark, so they need to get out from the forest. Richard's first day was almost over, in the world where no humans existed. This is...the story of a draconian.