Return to Sophie
avoid confrontation
Observe and return to finish the meal. And find Sophie.
learn more and eat, hide for now until we know more about these things
Go back to Sophie, feed her and ourselves, ask about the hawk vehicle
we definitely should go back to her, ask her about the hawk
let's return to eating and feeding Sophie,
Caution is key
Keeping to the water line, you turn around and begin flying back to the cow enclosure. During your entire flight, Sophie is nowhere to be seen. That's encouraging. It means she's considerably more capable than most 'my beloveds' from your era. Intelligent and self-sufficient creatures make better pets than helpless ones. Also, swiveling your ears back a few times to monitor the situation behind you, you gather that the hawk machines are staying in the same general area while continuing to engage in regular hisses back and forth.
Arriving at the cows, it seems that the one you released earlier has meandered back to the enclosure, and is frantically mooing at the others, trying to get back in. Foolish creature. Had it not succumbed to its prey-animal herding instinct, it could have escaped into the night. Instead, seeking the safety of a cage, it will die.
You snatch the cow up in one hand and bite its head off, crunching thoughtfully. Cows seek safety in numbers. Sometimes, to their benefit. A solitary predator fully capable of downing a single prey animal might be reluctant to approach an entire herd of them. And while pack hunters will often attack a herd, they generally do so by separating individuals. The slow, the young, the injured, the weak, and then allow the strong and swift to escape. Even if their numbers offer little protection to any individual, the herd itself lives on. An apex predator like yourself, however, will simply take what it wants. The herd offers no protection.
Two more bites and only the hind quarter remains. You tear off one leg in your jaws and leave the other for Sophie.
Humans are an unusual case. They like to herd, as do cattle. Yet occasionally they are predators.You have seen them hunt many things, in both sea and air, as well as on land. And occasionally they are prey. You've seen creatures besides dragons that hunt humans. Wolves and rocs, among others. And yet sometimes humans are difficult to describe via the predator/prey dynamic at all. These cows, for instance, are presumably being fed and cared for by a human. A human who keeps them caged, keeps the other predators away, and then uses them himself. For food, for milk. Were they sheep they might be used for wool. Horses, for pulling carts or even to carry them into battle. That's certainly not prey behavior, but it isn't exactly predator behavior either. It is a behavior that deserves its own name. 'Human' behavior.
Indeed, while they are weak and soft and nearly blind and deaf, humans are unique in many ways. They try to improve upon their deficiencies. They're intelligent, like leviathans and dolphins. They use tools, like otters and ravens. They build lairs, like beavers and ants...
...and like dragons.
The resemblance does not escape you. Your keeping of Sophie is very much like how humans keep animals as well. Humans are not dragons. But they're more
like dragons than nearly any other creature you know. Only cats come closer.
You scorch what remains of the cow and carry it in one hand. Humans prefer their meat cooked. You smell no alcohol nearby, but perhaps you can use use the map on her cellphone to find some for her. In the meantime, meat will do. You take to the sky, noting that you're unable to make out the flying hawks from your current distance, and return to the spot you left Sophie on the beach.
You smell her trail, of course, before you land, but briefly check the pilot to confirm that he is still unbreathing and unmoving. He also seems to be in a different position than you left him. Presumably Sophie attempted to wake him to join in her flight. The herding instinct. At least she had the wisdom to flee rather than remain with only a lifeless body for company.
Flying a short distance in the direction from which her scent comes, it takes only a few landings and takeoffs before her scent begins to diminish. Scanning your ears around, you hear her struggling to control her breath from a tree a short distance away.
A short hop lands you at her tree.
congratulate her on evading us,
:
"A COMMENDABLE ESCAPE ATTEMPT. COME, I HAVE BROUGHT YOU MEAT."She lets out an anguished whine and climbs down from her tree.
:
"How'd you find me?":
"BY YOUR SMELL."Her mouth opens and close as few times.
:
"I say, rude much?"You drop the cow leg at her feet.
:
"EAT.":
"Is that the back end of a cow?":
"YOU REQUESTED MEAT."She pokes at it and rubs her fingers together distastefully.
:
"Ewww! It's raw."You pick up the leg and inspect it. It is not raw. The outside is lightly charred. The inside near the bone is moist and bleeding. This is how your previous human companions have preferred it, but perhaps human tastes have changed since your time. It's difficult to cleanly cut something so small and delicate as a cow leg, but by poking a single talon through the center and flicking outward you're able to more or less cleave it open. Deliberately holding back air to keep your flame cool, you delicately bathe the meat, rocking it back and forth through your breath.
:
"SATISFIED?"She blinks.
:
"Yes. Thank you."ask her about the hawks
:
"THERE ARE A PAIR OF FLYING MACHINES STALKING US. UNLIKE THE-" :
"Ow, hot!"Sophie drops a piece of cow meat and blows on her hand. You continue.
:
"UNLIKE THE HELICOPTER, THESE ARE SLENDER, WITH WINGS THAT DO NOT BEAT. THEY BEHAVE AS PREDATORS HUNTING IN A PACK."Sophie pulls off another piece of meat and begins chewing on it.
:
"Helicopters don't have wings."That is not what you asked.
:
"They have rotors. They're metal blades. They don't flap, they spin."That does describe what you saw rather well. Though you're uncertain what benefit there would be to such an arrangement.
:
"AND THE HUNTERS?":
"Airplanes? Fighter jets maybe?"Flying machines that fight. It seems your suspicions were correct.
:
"OF WHAT ARE THEY CAPABLE?":
"Well, they fly fast and shoot missiles.":
"LIKE CROSSBOWS?":
"Hahaha," she laughs.
"No, like missiles. Explosives wrapped in metal. Heat-seeking, probably.":
"WHAT IS EXPLOSIVES?"She peers at you out of the corner of her eye.
:
"When are you from, again?":
"ANSWER THE QUESTION."She sighs.
:
"Explosives. Rapidly expanding gases pushing bits of metal shrapnel. The explosives themselves are chemicals that...well, explode. And that causes the metal of the missile to break up into itty bitty pieces that shred through anything."You attempt to wrap your mind around this strange method of attack. The wind can move objects, of course. And a swiftly moving object can cause harm. To put air inside a metal box and cause that air to blow so hard as to rupture the box with enough force that the pieces of metal become tiny claws, rending an opponent to pieces. You are able to conceive of how such a thing could be. Yes, the concept seems utterly alien. But you think you understand it.
:
"THE RESULT OF THIS MISSILE WOULD BE AN ATTACK THAT TRAVELS IN ALL DIRECTIONS.":
"Yes," she shrugs.
:
"AND THESE MISSILES, THEY ARE THROWN FROM THE FIGHTER AND SEEK HEAT?":
"Mmm-hmm."So your fiery breath might attract them. Good to know.
:
"YOU SAY THESE FIGHTERS 'FLY FAST.' HOW FAST?":
"I don't know," she shrugs.
"Supersonic at least. I couldn't tell you what mach number.":
"SUPERSONIC.":
"Yeah. You know, faster than sound?"That gives you pause. Sound does travel, you know this. Thunder is delayed more, the further you are from lightning. Clearly sound travels. Having flown to the point where lightning has struck, you even have a sense for how quickly it must travel. Sound is faster than you are. Considerably faster, even. And these fighter airplanes are at least that fast? Perhaps faster?
You gaze into Sophie's face seeking signs of deception. You see none.
:
"HOW DURABLE IS THEIR ARMOR?"She frowns.
:
"Armor? I don't know, but I wouldn't exactly call a plane armored. I mean, that's just not how they work, I don't think. I think they're supposed to be able to take hits from guns as long as the bullets don't hit anything important like the pilot. I think they just sort of poke holes and it doesn't hurt them all that much. That's what the missiles are for. They blow the whole thing up."A machine with no delicate organs, except one: the pilot. Kill the pilot and the machine dies with it.
If you can catch it.
What do you do?
Author
Topic: You are a dragon awakening from slumber, the suggestion game, Update #18 Huzzah! (Read 21925 times)