I knew that voice, that gruff voice that distinguished itself from the others... And, from most dragons, too. I already knew what he looked like, but I needed to make eye-contact with him. He needed to know his place, and he needed to know that he wasn't going to be the cause, and we weren't going to be the victims... Not today, at least.

I made eye contact with his yellow, dragon eyes. His eyes were slits that made it seem like everything was grim, ruthless, in fact.

Echo and Lucy drew their attention over to the dragon, and walked over to meet my gaze. Athena had stopped flying, and she was quivering behind me...

How could such a powerful creature, fall to someone as weak as him? Fear. That's exactly what it was.

I didn't say a word to that dragon, but I heard him start to laugh to himself.

"Wow, that mutt's weak." He muttered to himself, thinking that no one heard. The real funny thing is: When you hear people and they don't think they hear you, but you just go along, and you collect that to use in the future.

It felt like the grass wrapped around my paws, signalling power, and that the nature of earth was with me. My eyes felt stone cold, almost icy, staring at that dragon. We couldn't part eye contact, because that was the decision of the first move. My face was neutral, no one knew what I was thinking, which, it was a good thing.

The wind brushed lightly upon my fur, making it ever so slightly, drift in the wind. My ears were very controlling, and flickered every moment. They were wondering when the dragon would try and do something.

I also wondered something: Was the dragon still poisoned?