The injured dragon collapsed on the ground. The pain was to much. The shrrg quickly gathered around him, wondering what was happening. The pain in his shoulder, the one that had been cut by the Urgralgra was deeply infected. He knew this just by looking at it.

Sharrag let out a slight whimper as one of the wolves licked at his wound. Even that movement let out a spark of pain, yet it felt good at the same time.  A strange combination.

He dragged himself to his feet, wincing as he put weight on the injured leg. The Shrrg around him watched their leader in remorse, feeling his pain. He took the lead again and continued to walk through the forest, hoping to find an empty cave where his Shrrg and him could rest for the night.

The past week had been full of danger. The pack being forced deeper into the mountains and through other Shrrg pack’s territories. On many occasions Sharrag had been forced to use his newfound ability to destroy the few packs that did attack them. More then once Urgralgra had found them, and been burnt down by his fire, but all of it was beginning to where down on him. His wing was still broken, bent at an odd angle and the wound in his shoulder was getting worse by the day. He had made a note to find the nearest stream or river and wash it.

The pack continued to drag there way through the thick bush, scenting for any sign of the enemies they faced. A few of the Shrrg used their bodies to keep the branches from tugging at Sharrag’s wing and leg wounds. They continued through the bush for another hour before Sharrag was forced to collapse again, and scowled himself for it. He was the one who was slowing the Shrrg pack down, yet he knew that if he did let them go on ahead they would likely get killed by other Shrrg, or the Urgralgra.

His eyes flickered up as he heard the faint sound of a waterfall in the distance. He growled with happiness and sent an image to the other Shrrg about it. The few growls of response told him that they had already heard it. With new found energy the great dragon lifted himself off the ground and began to walk towards the water source. The other Shrrg followed him.

They arrived at the water source a few hours later. The sun was low in the horizon and already dark shadows were being pulled over the valleys like a blanket. Sharrag new that the sun would soon disappear, for days weren’t long in the Beor Mountains.

The dragon sighed in relief as the small pond came into view, then growled as the scent of a rather annoying creature came to his nose. The other Shrrg looked fearfully at their leader, as they wondered what to do. Sharrag told them mentally to keep going, and they did.

Drinking from a small lake where the water fell was an Urzhad, the huge bears that had become such a nuisance. Sharrag felt his anger grow at the sight of the bear. It hadn’t smelt them yet, probably because they were approaching from downwind. Eventually thought the staggering dragon was unable to keep the stealth he had been keeping for this whole time. His broken wing got caught up in a low bush, causing the dragon to growl and snort with pain. The bear’s head shot up at the sound, and turned towards the Shrrg approaching from behind. It roared at them, standing up on two feet.

Sharrag reacted instantly. He speared the bear’s consciousness with his own, causing the bear to gasp in pain. It fell back to all fours and scratched at its head. Sharrag quickly gained control of the creature, and found it was a female. The cave it was in was housing four cubs that it had been looking after for the past few weeks. Sharrag could see that she also had been forced out of her home by the Urgralgra army.

He limped out into the open, and put a comforting thought in the bears mind. He assured her that they weren’t going to hurt her, they just needed a place to rest and heal. The bear really didn’t have much choice in the matter, but Sharrag could feel that it allowed them to anyway, which was extremely strange for an Urzhad.

Sharrag looked back at his wolves and told them to come forward. They came hesitantly, their primal fear of the bears trying to override their consciousness. Sharrag quickly reassured them. This bear would be friendly, he hoped. The she bear watched curiously as the Shrrg came into the clearing. The three adults and two adolescents, as well as the four cubs. The other Shrrg that had been injured by the Urgralgra had died a while back, unable to keep going under the stress of travelling in her broken state.

Sharrag could feel the bear’s surprise at such a small pack of Shrrg, usually there would be about twenty or so, and five or six cubs, especially this far in the mountains.

The green dragon led his pack over to the pool. It was quite a beautiful oasis really. The lush green forest around it and a small waterfall cascading from the roof of a large cave, where Sharrag assumed the bear cubs were kept. There were also fish in the pool, and a plentiful supply as well. It wasn’t to deep, enough for the dragon to have a descent swim if he so wished. For now however he would satisfy himself with washing the infected wound in his shoulder.

With a great huff he sunk into the clean water of the pool. He grunted as the water lapped at the wound, cleaning out the yellow pus and dry blood. He looked around and with his tongue helped the water clean out the wound, cleaning out places the water couldn’t. The dragon shivered every so often, growling in pain and relief. Before long the small area that he was in had a slight red tinge, and blood was flowing freely from the wound for the first time that week. He allowed himself to bleed for a while, getting rid of all the sickness in the wound, before wallowing out of the pool and licking up the blood around his shoulder. The other wolves had drunk there fill of water and had settled down, the mother of the four cubs was cleaning them, since it was the first time they had had this chance in a while. There was a bulge forming in another one of the she members of the pack, the tell-tail sign of pups. He didn’t no who the father was, nor did he care. The more members of the pack the better.

The mother Urzhad was watching the wolves and dragon with slight suspicion. She didn’t exactly like the wolves either, but the dragon was a different matter. She hadn’t seen a creature like this before. It was a strange thing to see a creature large enough to go head to head with an Urzhad, and by the smell of him he was still quite young, and still growing.

Sharrag looked up at the studying figure of the Urzhad. He sent her a mental picture of the wolves going into the cave to rest. She growled and refused flat out. Sharrag sighed to himself, he had expected no less. It was one matter to allow the Shrrg to stay anywhere near her, but letting them into her cave was something else.

‘Maybe some other point time,’ thought the dragon with a sigh.

He had been making a habit of trying to think in the language of humans, to keep his rather limited vocabulary under check. Sometimes the things he thought in the human language didn’t sound right, so he would repeat them, just like this thought.

He frowned and tried the sentence again, ‘Maybe some other point at time?’

He snorted, that felt better, but still felt wrong. Shrugging he lay down, stretching his unbroken wing over the female Shrrg and her cubs, knowing that they would need the cover the most. If anything happened during the time he was asleep, he knew that he would wake quickly. With a sigh he fell into a deep sleep with a sense of peace. It was the first time he was able to fall asleep for a while.

The next morning the dragon woke up late. The Shrrg were already up and about, the cubs playing in the pool and the teenager Shrrg wrestling on the ground.

‘Only two now,’ thought Sharrag, then nodded to himself.

The mother Urzhad was sitting at the entrance to the cave, watching the Shrrg make themselves at home. She glanced at the dragon, which gave her a comforting nudge with his mind. He glanced towards the cave longingly. It was the perfect place to live. No wonder she had chosen this place. He secretly wondered whom she had to kill to get the cave.

He got up and stretched like a cat. He growled when a tinge of pain came over his left shoulder. Looking at it he noticed that a scab had broken, and smiled inwardly. Now that it had been cleaned the wound was healing nicely. He rose to his feet, careful not to irritate the wound any more, and limped over to the wolves.

He stretched out his mind to each of them in greeting. The Shrrg greeted him back, and one thing that they all thought of was the fact they were hungry. Sharrag didn’t blame them; they hadn’t eaten in nearly a week. He sent a couple of images back, telling them to go, and not to expect him to come because of his injuries. The wing would take a long time to heal, maybe a few months if he was unlucky.

The wolves trotted into the forest, all five of them, leaving Sharrag to look after the cubs. The dragon lay back down on the ground, resting his broken wing on the ground. He looked down at it and cringed inside. The wing looked fine until the part just after the elbow. The boned had been cracked and the membrane torn leaving a small portion of snapped bone showing. He hoped it healed.

The Urzhad trundled over to him and sat down on her haunches. She let out a gargled roar and her three cubs came out into the sunshine. Sharrag was surprised at how big they were. Each was nearly as big as a Shrrg, and were twice as heavy. They pounded over the rocks and into the water, causing the few Shrrg pups to yowl in slight fear and stumble out. They ran to their alpha and hid under his wing. Sharrag laughed silently.

After a while the pups came out from under Sharrag’s wing and stalked nervously towards the frolicking bears in the water. The Urzhad cubs didn’t even notice the pups and continued there playing, catching fish and such. Sharrag seeing them with the fish felt his stomach growl. He hefted himself to his feet and walked over to the edge of the pool, deciding to try his luck in catching one. His muzzle darted into the water, snapping at a group of the scaly creatures. They all dodged past his strike with almost taunting ease and carried on there way around the pool.

The dragon growled and tried again, and was unsuccessful. Eventually he sat down with a huff. No matter how hard he tried the fish continued to swerve out of the way of his attempts. The mother Urzhad came around and sat beside him. She looked into the water and stayed like that for a few seconds, waiting. Suddenly she struck with lightning speed, faster then should have been possible for a creature her size. She was rewarded with a rather large fish that flapped helplessly as it tried to swim out of the bear’s mouth.

She dropped it at a surprised Sharrag’s feet and nodded at him. He looked down at the fish and back at her with surprise. Gratefully he scooped it up with his maw and ate it. It didn’t taste to bad but did nothing to fill the gnawing hunger that he felt. Still he was grateful. He sent a mental thanks to the bear and surprisingly she nodded at him. It was as if the bear was intelligent enough to understand the dragon and his word communications.

She gurgled at him before hauling herself to her feet and going fishing again. Sharrag decided to stay back and wait for his pack. At least then he was sure to get something decent to eat.

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Hey guys! New chapter. I hope you enjoyed. More chapters will be coming out quicker from now on, hopefully :) I have a tun of time on my hands. So... vote and comment if you enjoyed and the next chapter will be out soon. See Ya!

Pennator^^