Ternan was now officially traveling with the pack of dragons.

  Well, a more realistic statement would technically be getting kidnapped by dragons, but this he didn't exactly mind.

  They proved to be nice when he was offered some piece of roasted creature. He didn't know what it was except the fact that it was food.

  He wanted some sort of journal or paper to document the dragons and their travels, but that was kind of lost in the bombardment.

  The blue dragon seemed to keep an eye on him the most. He assumed he was supposed to be a guard or maybe he was just nervous around Ternan, he didn't know.

  The rainbow overly-energetic dragon always seemed to growl in what he could call a baby voice when she was around him. Of course, it's growls and all of the other dragons' growls were always low, but it seemed to be more high pitched when growling at Ternan.

  The tan and white dragon just seemed to tolerate him. They acted like they didn't care that he was there, except sometimes he caught them looking at him.

  The white dragon was freakishly cold. He noticed this whenever it got near him. There was always cold air coming off of it like it was made of ice. Its claws also looked much, much sharper than the others, which is why he tried avoiding him in sleep.

  Funnily enough, the tan dragon seemed to project more heat than normal. It was the only dragon he'd seen breathe any fire. Which was weird, he thought that they would all be able to do that. It also looked like it had some barb on its tail, like a scorpion. Another thing to avoid.

  The nights were cold if he wasn't near the fire that the tan dragon made. Sometimes he'd wake up and find himself much closer to it than before, the heat feeling dangerously hot. Which would prompt Ternan to sleep further away from the fire.

  Sometimes, and he meant sometimes the tan dragon would droop a big wing over him, sharing some warmth. He always thanked it for it, but he knew it couldn't understand him.

  Ternan had deciphered that the dragons were intelligent. They knew how to make a controlled fire, they knew that he needed cooked meat and their growls sounded like speaking.

  The growling was something he caught on to. He noticed that whenever they were "speaking" with each other, they addressed them with a word. Ternan thought that these may be their names considering how often they were said and that one dragon would respond if that growl was made.

  He noticed the way they had tones, too. He could tell when a growl was happy or frustrated, he even noticed some laughing noise.

  Hell, he even noticed the blue dragon actually writing! He caught a glimpse of the paper one day and saw an assortment of symbols that ranged from a claw to a flame.

  The paper itself wasn't a book, it was a scroll that was unrolled to a great length. When the blue dragon was done writing, he would use a claw to slice that part of the paper off and stuff it in a pouch he was carrying.

  He saw the dragon use spacing and the symbols were arranged in various lengths, further proving his point about intelligence.

  One thing he didn't like, though, was the way he got carried like a child.

  Yes, it was needed to stay caught up with them because his leg was still in horrible condition, but it still felt aggravating and undignified.

  Those were just his thoughts though, and he couldn't really do anything to stop them so he just had to deal with it.

  ***

  G?rvan was officially now in the Gr?sen army.

  He was training, anyway.

  He had heard about the attack on Giro and he felt like he now had a duty to fight. He wanted to help his nation push out the invaders and retake what was rightfully theirs.

  The line to enlist was incredibly long, having a wide variety of ages from the youngest you could legally join to fellows in their mid thirties.

  Merkel, sadly, didn't join. But G?rvan had already made new friends in bootcamp.

  There was Barry who was kind of short. He was always the main victim for short jokes among the group but he also found them funny, and even laughed sometimes.

  There was also a man named Gurt. He was more of the one to make jokes, mostly targeted at Barry.

  Something most citizens learned early in life is that the people of Gr?sen rarely actually named their children after something. It was mainly what sounded nice to the parents, like how G?rvan was named. It didn't have a meaning, it just sounded good to the people who brought him into life.

  Bootcamp was a tough place to be. If you didn't do something exactly as the drill sergeants wanted, you were sure to be punished with extra PT and especially running.

  The drill sergeants had earned the name 'ear crackers' because when they screamed at you, it felt like your eardrums cracked.

  Bootcamp wasn't that terrible besides that.

  He had the choice to be in the navy, army, or the newest branch called the air corp.

  Somewhat 5 years ago, a man figured out how to build a flying machine and everywhere around the world, the nations jumped at the opportunity to get a new branch of military.

  They were pretty fast, too. They would fly from somewhere between 90-110 miles per hour, shattering the speed of their cars.

  The main purpose of them was to scout out an area and be in a less dangerous position when doing so.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  They have never actually been used yet, but Cervius has given them the perfect reason to.

  Speaking of flying, the house of sciences has forbidden the mentioning of dragons to the public.

  He technically already did in that bar, but he was pretty sure everybody else was either too drunk to actually remember anything or they all thought he was crazy.

  Only he and Merkel knew. And technically the entire science division and the president.

  G?rvan now had an official resentment of dragons. He hated them. Just the fact that he found them was bad, but put the stories along with it and it was terrible.

  Since dragons existed, that means that they did try to wipe humanity off of the face of the earth. They wanted to rid humans and eat them, and he couldn't even think of why they would.

  He did the right thing by shooting those oversized lizards, he was protecting Gr?sen and the rest of Corvus by doing so. Well, he wouldn't mind if they ate a couple Cerviun's but his point still stood.

  He didn't want Corvus to become the next place they try to get rid of humans.

  A rather interesting (and less horrifying) part about the existence of dragons was that this could mean that they actually did live in another land, far away across the ocean. From where, though, was the mystery.

  "Alright you shit asses! Get up!" Yelled an ear cracker.

  Time for more training, I guess. He thought, reluctantly standing up.

  ***

  The dirt and gravel rumbled beneath the machinery he was currently riding in.

  He, out of many, was doing something of great importance. Fighting back the invaders.

  In a farewell speech he was told that they would come home to praise and rewards, which isn't why he joined but that was a bonus.

  Kurt joined far before the invasion even began. It was his childhood dream to become a soldier, to earn the respect of his elders and family.

  He was within a group of 15 others packed into the vehicle, moving towards their destination. He didn't know them well, except the fact that he was going to be fighting with them.

  The grey uniforms were blended together in the darkness of the vehicle, a dark fabric covering the back of the rumbling machine, casting a dark shadow on the inside.

  He didn't know what was going to happen, he was thinking fighting would be an honor and some glorious thing, but his stomach was tied in a knot. He was thinking now that he could actually die.

  He was thinking about this when suddenly a crack! Rang out and he and everybody else was thrown around like they were spinning. The spinning stopped and someone kicked the door open and ran out.

  "Go! Get out and go!" Kurt was confused but jumped out anyway. The truck had curved off of the path and was on the side of the road. In less than a mile, he saw Giro.

  The other trucks following in line stopped and let their troops out.

  Everything was silent.

  Everybody was still, nobody moved. He didn't realize how fast he was breathing until he got control of himself. Someone quickly, but carefully, walked to the door of the driver's side. The comrade opened the door, only to be greeted by a limp body and a slumped head.

  The driver had been shot.

  When his comrade began backing away, there was another crack! And his head snapped back violently and his body was thrown to the ground.

  He froze, then a hand grabbed his shoulder and a voice shouted "Get your ass to cover!"

  Adrenaline took over, he sprinted towards the nearest tree and got behind it.

  Where, where, where!? His panicked thoughts shouted in his mind.

  With his back against the brown bark, he looked at his fellow soldiers. They were behind cover. Nobody had any idea who shot them or where it came from.

  Somebody decided to peak their head above a rock and another crack! Was heard. He wasn't hit, but the shot hit his rock from the east.

  Nobody even tried to see where their hidden foe was, they just began firing in the general direction.

  The air was filled with rifle fire, making his ears ring. The loud bangs and cracks became quieter as the ringing took over.

  Kurt joined in the rifle fire and shot his own gun. The kick-back not being as strong as his adrenaline gave him more strength.

  When their clips ran out of ammo, everything was silent.

  Only his ringing ears were audible to him. Nobody spoke, nobody moved.

  And nobody returned fire.

  I-Is he dead? Did we kill him? Or is he just moving positions?

  His heart was pounding, the beating if it battling the ringing for the superior noise.

  He looked at the black helmets scattered around on everyone's heads, nobody else had fallen to their foe. Not yet.

  They all moved out from their cover and moved towards where their shots traveled after they reloaded.

  They found their victim with their brown uniform covered in blood. The man himself was covered in holes, each of them leaking blood into the dirt, pouring his life out in front of him.

  Kurt shivered at the sight.

  In the corner of his eye, he saw mortar teams scrambling to get the tubes and mortars out of their vehicles. They were working fast to assemble the metal things and prepare.

  The heavier artillery pieces that had to be dragged behind trucks were just now arriving. They had to drive slower so an accident didn't happen with the machinery. They were lucky.

  Kurt wasn't sure how he was feeling. He just watched somebody die in front of him. It happened so easily too. One shot was all it took, and the man died. That could happen to him if he was unlucky enough to be picked.

  The mortar teams were ready to begin, but they waited for the bigger artillery teams to set up. Artillery took much longer to set up than the mortars, needing multiple people to handle the main components.

  Kurt sat down on the ground trying to process the events. He knew that they had to get into Giro today. Waiting wasn't an option, they couldn't hesitate.

  He closed his eyes.

  —

  "Hey! Get your ass up! We're going now!"

  His eyes shot open and he stood up like his life depended on it.

  Night had almost fallen, multiple artillery units were standing and ready to fire. He had fallen asleep.

  "Oh. Uhh, yes, sir! I will umm do that. Right now." The man muttered something along the lines of "Follow everybody else." and he obeyed orders.

  After walking for around ten minutes, he heard loud shots and booms coming from behind him. Bright tracer rounds lit up the night sky as they traveled at an alarming speed towards the city. Several more shots followed in quick succession, streaking towards the coal town.

  He knew what was going to happen to the already broken civilians, but it had to be done.

  Right?

  ***

  Hurricane and the others could hear the booms again. This time, the light that came from the booms, well, technically before since light traveled faster, was traveling in a different direction than before.

  They were closer than before they started walking towards the original ones. The scavenger heard these and... got behind a tree? His breathing quickened and he was visibly shaking.

  Aardvark walked up to and spoke to him like he was a baby dragonet. "What's wrong little scavenger? Are you scared of the lights? Is the noise frightening? It's okay, you'll be okay."

  Whenever she did that it didn't really sit well with Hurricane. Sure, he was more cautious around scavengers now, but whenever he spoke to him he never, never spoke like it was a newly hatched dragon. The scavenger seemed to be an adult, if he was it, he wouldn't put up with it.

  "We should keep going, we need to find out what those are." Hurricane said. "Do we?" Questioned Aardvark. "I mean, he seems pretty scared of them." She said.

  "I'm sure he'll be fine." Hurricane replied.

  Hurricane grabbed the scavenger which was still shaking. He had a look on its face like it had seen something terrible, like if a dragonet got dragged away by sharks.

  What in the.. He thought. Nevermind, we should go.

  He got the group to start following him, towards the booming and lights. The scavenger noticed this and for the first time, he heard him speak.

  [Nein! Nein! Bitte nein! Ehh Krieg!]

  Hurricane stared at the creature. He didn't make the same noises or speak the same things as the scavengers on Pyrrhia. It wasn't squeaky or high pitched. It was eerily similar to the deep growls of the dragon language.

  Is it saying no? Why? He thought.

  [Artillerie Feuer! An Giro. Eine stadt!] He shouted at him more. It had never acted like this before, which was a little worrying and planted seeds of doubt into his brain.

  Why does he not want us to go over there?