A Bronze Rising: Scenting
#4 of A Bronze Rising
What exactly has the Bronze retrieved from the human settlement?
The human was so long in responding I began to wonder if the creature was even capable of speech. Where there, in fact different breeds of human as there were dragons? Perhaps I'd picked up a variety with no more sense than a rutting pig.
Oh well, at least I had myself a decent snack... Before I parted my jaws, I thought I heard some sort of garbled mumbling. "Did you say something?" I asked in my gruff baritone.
When the human spoke, it was in a voice unpleasantly high in pitch to my ears. Also, despite the fact that I knew the words that it spoke, the dialect it used was foreign and hard to decipher. The gist of the creature's lament was: "P-please don't eat me."
I rolled my eyes and tried to speak slowly so that it would understand. "If I'd wanted to eat you, I'd have done it on the way over here."
Perhaps my words came across as threatening for the human cowered again, scurring to the far side of the ledge and pressing its back against the wall. It hid its face between its knees and the human's face became obscured by the unkempt mop of hair. A low grumble echoed in the confines of my throat. I'd been prepared to break down hostility and aggression. I wasn't sure how to handle such overpowering fear. My tail lashed and struck the side of the mountain, causing a small rockslide which slid down into the valley below. Perhaps I should eat this one and try again.
Before I gave up, I extended my neck, deciding to get a good sniff of the human. I was not, after all, even sure they were fit for eating. I pulled in draught after draught of air into my long, proud nose. I smelled dirt ingrained deeply into the human and the scent of seeds - perhaps pumpkin - on its hands. Sweat, both fresh and stale was pungently emanating from the rags it wore about its person so that I was filled with the impulse to cleanse it with a good burst of flame. I tried desperately to find something good about this creature, but the stink was almost overpowering. Underneath, however, the skin emanated a sweeter odor, much different than the hot, sulfurous smell of a dragon. It was different too from the scent of a deer, less mossy and softer, more subtle. I inched my neck a bit closer, intrigued. The human only reacted by bundling up tighter, but this only increased my curiosity as it tried to hold in its scent. The tip of my nose was very close by the time I finally detected the human's gender.