Huff... Huff... I just had to get a single shot in, that was it!

  I could feel the ground rumbling beneath me as I narrowly dodged a massive talon.

  This time for sure! It was perfect!

  I could feel the tension in the string, the arrow resting on my thumb, the wind blowing sharply in line as if to guide this arrow to its destination.

  Then, just as I exhaled, I released the string... It was perfect, I knew it was going to hit!

  But then the dragon's head suddenly moved out of the path of the incoming projectile. In an instant the long neck craned over me as huge jaws rushed to surround my chest.

  I immediately tensed and blinked uselessly as hot breath enveloped me, but the terrifying teeth barely paused around me before retreating.

  "You're getting slower, and you missed." Gale snorts.

  "I didn't miss! You got lucky and barely moved out of the way!" I yell in frustration.

  I scan the ground littered with arrows that never once missed their mark.

  They were all blunt of course, but it wouldn't matter if it wasn't a headshot.

  "Tiny idiot, do you think you can rely on luck if I was a monster~?" He giggles and mocks relentlessly.

  "What am I supposed to do with a bow if you move just when I let go?! Look at that guy! Just what the fuck is that nonsense?!" I fume and point to the other sparring pair, where a larger dragon is relentlessly trying to catch a much smaller, burly man with a blunted greatsword.

  He somehow dodges every single swing and when the dragon finally gets tired and tries to 'bite' he somehow sidesteps that and turns the blade up at it's neck from an almost impossible angle.

  And that was the man being flashy! All he had to do was move and swing. Naturally, overextending didn't mean much even if it worked.

  It's universal that no one wants to fight a dragon with just a sword regardless of how sharp it is, but it's pointless if you're going to win and still get hit.

  "Just admit it. You missed!" Gale insists on glorifying his victory.

  "I don't miss if it's a still target! Watch!" I shout and pick up a blunt arrow from the ground.

  Without hesitation or mercy, I loose the arrow and hit the back of the other dragon's head.

  The larger dragon looks over spitefully but holds it in and eventually looks away.

  "Let's get out of here before you make him mad. You were always terrible at picking fights, Field." Gale hurries me away from the training field.

  "Whaddya wanna do then?" I ask while ignoring the constant vibrations that come with being a human in the capital.

  There were numerous 'giants' regularly stomping by, it wasn't the easiest place for humans to live comfortably.

  "I don't-" Gale begins, before a human boy around 5 or 6 years old runs by and trips on an uneven bump on the ground.

  Both Gale and I were shocked, but I was faster to take action.

  "Hey, what are you doing out here all alone, kid? Shouldn't you be in school?"

  "Wuhh... No?" He lies clumsily, making it painfully obvious he must be trying to skip school for some reason.

  Children weren't allowed to roam around on their own in this city. They were always reckless, hard to see, yet easy to squash.

  "Looks like someone's been naughty today. How about we take you back to class?" Gale says.

  "No." The boy stubbornly refuses and stays in the spot with a pouty face.

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  "Even if you get to ride me all the way?" Gale pushes again with an irresistable offer for most. Few dragons want to be responsible for them falling off and hurting themselves, but this was indeed better for him than running around and getting trampled.

  "Oh~ Nice job!" I cheer his quick resolution as we headed to the closest school, the boy tracing the white colored stripes of scales down his neck.

  This school was the one we both attended ourselves at some point.

  It seemed the whole class was sitting outside, the perimeter a measly wooden fence barely as tall as the sitting teacher.

  "Down you go, little explorer!" Gale declares and tilts him off his back gently as he flails to hold on a bit longer.

  "Ah! Drell! There you are!" The teacher calls, "Go sit down, and don't even think about climbing me again to get out!"

  Drell dejectedly goes and sits with the rest of the students, mostly small dragonets with an occasional human that were more interested in secretly cuddling the nearest dragon than whatever the lesson was about.

  "Ah, today's story is going to be a classic!" The teacher began energetically.

  Both of us could see the book she was opening, "Oh, they still read that tale..." We both mumbled.

  "Maybe we could just stay and listen for nostalgia sake."

  The teacher breathed in a hefty puff of air before beginning to read.

  "Once upon a time, when many colorful dragons soared, there was a young dragonet like you and me," She began, "It was a dark, dark time, back when dragons saw humans as mere prey to hunt down. The dragonet and his tribe were no different, until one day the dragonet chose to look closer."

  The teacher appeared to smile now, since she seemed to like this part of the story.

  "No one believed the dragonet, not until they could talk! So he struggled and struggled, until he could finally prove it! But the colorful dragons denied it, and only got more violent!"

  I also loved this story, though it was surely a fiction. Before I could absorb all of it, the story continued even faster.

  "So the dragonet and his tribe captured every human they could find. They screamed and they cried, but it was for their own good. The colorful dragons demanded them back, but instead were denied! The genius of his kind, smirked and hid us away." She nears the ending full of breath, a striking perk of dragon lungs, "The colorful dragons roared, their fury unrestrained, but the dragonet and his friend had played them at their own game. The humans, confused, cursed him to the skies, yet he fell with a grin, for a hero never dies."

  No matter how many times I listened to this story, the ending always moved me. Even after being retold so many times, it still demanded everyone's attention.

  Of course, it had to be fiction, how would we know what happened to him if we were sealed inside some hidden place or something?

  Though it was true that every dragon trying to leave simply arrived right back on our own continent, but still!

  The students are always enchanted by it nonetheless. Of course every legend had varieties.

  The one taught in schools was the neutralized version, and even that has its own darker undertones.

  In some tellings the dragonet had already eaten a few humans before realizing, while in others the 'colorful' dragons were portrayed as evil demons.

  "Why did the humans curse him so much for helping?" The sleek dragonet in front asks shyly.

  "Well, that's-" The teacher starts to form an answer, but this is a question I've heard plenty of times in the past.

  "It's because they thought they were caught to be eaten or worse." I answered without thinking and immediately regretted it. We weren't even supposed to be here and I just gave such a heavy answer without thinking!

  "I- I see..." She mutters, and no one else seemed to want to ask further questions.

  "Ah, I'm sorry. I got too sucked into the story." I apologize.

  "It's fine, it's nice to have guests sometimes."

  After overstaying our welcome, I overheard Gale talking to someone else.

  "...I'll go, but Field should stay behind." Gale answers to a huge dragon behind us with two lines of white scales perpendicular along his snout.

  I was roughly leg height to Gale, but I wasn't quite there to reach this dragon's. I'd strain my neck trying to look up at his eyes which he doesn't even bother to lower to my level.

  "No way! I'm coming wherever you're going! You can't escape me that easily." I sneer and cling to his leg.

  The larger dragon, wearing something akin to a badge around his neck narrowed his eyes at me for saying such a thing.

  "Fine. But bring a decent weapon at least." He huffed and turned away.

  "W-Weapon? Why would I need a weapon?" I ask shakily.

  "Oh- uh, well... You know how I got really good with the old dragon language? It seems they need me." He answers while scratching his chin with a claw.

  "Well, I'm still coming... No matter how dangerous it might be!" I insist, refusing any attempt on his part to deny me.