<span style="font-style: italic">To stay low now is dangerous. There once was a time to glide over fields, wings out and eyes ready but that is no more. </span><br/><br/>The time had not been right. The beast could feel the humans were not in a sound enough sleep. Somehow, with a deep and primal knowledge that men would never understand, he simply knew that it hadn’t been the right moment to land. So, circling through the chill and cold sky, he waited and he felt. Large eyes were closed against the harsh wind, the clouds below leaving no reason to open them. Large wings beat lazily as he turned circles in the sky, cutting swirls through the higher clouds. Finally, the moment became right and a soft pressing came calling him at the back of his mind, beckoning him towards the ground.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Downwards now, quick and fast like the strike of the god’s light.</span><br/><br/>There was one final turn and then, wings folding around the massive body, the dragon fell like stray star to Earth.<br/><br/>The sound was so sudden that the shaking of the ground a came nearly at the same moment, the sound of scaled skin slapping the earth as he landed braced and ready as the warm air of spring was suddenly struck with an icy chill, the fog rolling out in thick waves from the epicenter that was the now shrouded beast. It rolled out across the village and hung heavy and thick in the air, vision becoming useless past a few feet. The fog recede for a brief moment as massive lungs took in one breath before it rolled back out at the sound of the dragon exhaling his breath into the night air, filling the scents of spring with a crisp coldness befitting of winter but a moist earthy scent that only the heat of summer could summon from the ground.<br/><br/>Stillness overtook the land again, the only sound now was the rumbling purr of breath that came and went in slow and steady intervals. The dragon could feel the human, oh yes. His head tilted a little. A strange and small one, but his little body was so warm….but worn. Few were left with vigor in their bones by the time he came for them. Pity. There was such sport to them, these tiny beasts, when they showed no cowardice.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">They are dangerous things. Small but cunning. It is best to play games of the mind with them instead of those of the flesh. </span><br/><br/>Yes, but they were fun to toy with none-the-less. He grinned into the fog as he lifted his head up, a silent sound. Finally, in the self-made gloom, the dragon opened his eyes. A high as the tallest roof in the village, two yellow lights slowly slid open. Fiercer than the light of any lantern and the more vivid than an dye, the two gigantic, almond shaped lights peered down at Jawn, tilting so slightly as the dragon’s keen gaze cut through both darkness and haze at the tiny thing that had been offered before him. The eyes came closer, the sound of breath escaping his nostrils growing louder as he got a better look at the human. This peering gaze would have felt as though it lasted an eternity before the dragon’s head finally lifted back up and turned, gazing about the village that was too frightened to appear themselves. Cowardly little things. What good was tribute from beasts that were not befitting of the life the gods had given them? The lights returned back to Jawn before leaning in closer.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">This one is alone.</span><br/><br/>Yes, not just left and tied to a pole, but alone in more ways than that. Any predator could sense it. Small. Alone. Worn. What type of tribute was that? Certainly not a very honorable one. The dragon deliberated for a moment before there came a sound that first was like the grating of rocks against each other as they slid down a steep slope, but then turned into a deep and booming chuckle. “Human, are you ready for death?” The voice was cavernous but the sound itself held an evenness to its massive tone, sound directed only at Jawn so that others, standing too far to the sides, wouldn’t be able to discern it: one of the gifts of being a dragon was that the creatures were only heard by those who they wanted them to hear.