“Come on Em, pay attention” Hunter whispered to his dragon

“I already memorized the briefing” She flicked her tail at her rider, barely missing his head

They were in the briefing room, each rider sat next to their dragon as they watched the briefing of their next mission.

“Then let me memorize it too” Hunter pushed her tail away

A holographic image of the planet appeared

“The planet is standard, average atmosphere and average gravity. However, the day/night cycle is very short due to the speed of the planet‘s rotation which means that the wind on the planet is rather strong but manageable”

The hologram switched to the target city

“Our intel suggests that the enemy garrison consists of several hundred pack wolves supported by at least three heavy tanks”

The image changed to the wolfen heavy tank. While it was a fearsome vehicle to face on the ground, the gun was almost useless against a high-flying dragon rider.

“The anti-aircraft guns are on the outskirts of the city, however” a top-down image of the massive guns popped up “the buildings offer perfect line-of-sight to the guns which have little to no cover”

“Destroying the buildings is not an option since the majority of the civilian population is still living within the city”

“As for heavy weapons that the enemy might posses” several holograms of different weapons dubbed ‘dragon’s bane’ because of their ability to punch straight through most personal shielding appeared

Hunter unconsciously looked at Em’s scar

“Since our blockade started, the pack’s supply of those weapons have dropped to almost nonexistent”

Hunter let out a sigh of relief

“You will drop during the day, but launch the operation during the night since the day/night cycle of this planet is relatively short.”

“Support for this mission is being restricted to avoid any damage to the civilian structures, EM beams, squad drops, and drones with non-explosive weapons are all you have.” all the holograms shut off “I’m sure you’ll make do with what you have”

The captain looked around the room, making sure he didn’t forget anything. His gaze landed on Hunter and Em.

“Ah! Almost forgot! A certain pair is starting that time again… It shouldn’t bother you yet… But in the next mission, you might need the full breather helmet”

The other riders let out a sigh while their male dragons stared at Em. Hunter and Em just exchanged glances as they got up to leave.

“I think they like you” Hunter joked to Em

The pairs left the room to prepare for the mission. Hunter and Em returned to their room to suit up. Each piece clipped together to cover him in the thin metal. The last piece he inserted was the two power packs that powered his shield, one on each leg. He left his helmet off while he prepared his dragon.

One shield projector latched onto each of her legs, and one attached to the space between her wing joints. Next was her saddle, it was built specifically for her and fit perfectly in place on her back.

“You ready?” Hunter asked

“To drop out of low orbit into hostile territory outnumbered almost fifty to one?” she grinned “absolutely”

Hunter double checked his gear and triple checked Em’s.

“When you put it that way…”

He grabbed the large dragon helmet and placed it on her head before he grabbed his own helmet.

“Let’s go grab our gear”

Together, they went to the armory. Racks of weapons lined the walls, everything from the standard issue laser rifle to the new non-lethal pulse grenades were neatly organized in the room.

“Non-explosive…” Em reminded him

“I know, I know” Hunter grabbed a rifle and a pistol. The rifle went on Em’s saddle, latching on with built in magnets while the pistol went on his hip for easy access.

“Let’s see…” row by row he searched until he found the gadget section. He grabbed two mag-mines, two non-lethal pulse grenades, and a “fogger” grenade. Each fit into a slot in his armor.

“I thought I said non-explosive” she looked at the anti-tank mines

“They lock on large quantity of metal, civilian vehicles won’t trigger them”

“Alright” Em followed her rider, satisfied that he wouldn’t accidentally blow up a building during the mission

Next, they went to the medbay, Hunter grabbed a few bio-gel capsules and left quickly. The sight of the wounded and dying pained him.

The familiar alarm began to ring, alerting the riders to their imminent drop.

“Rider’s prep for drop” the voice announced in between the tones

The pairs went to the drop bay where new pods had been placed in the tubes, ready for the team. Ten of the Flaming Lance were being dropped for this mission, four of them were equipped for demolition and the other six were equipped for a standard combat.

“These new pods have a manual detonation sequence, it’s dangerous and will probably hurt, but if you get marked, hurt is better than dead!”

Em leaned over to let Hunter hop onto her back. He slid the helmet onto his head, the section under his muzzle sealed itself.

“Ship’s going to warp in and drop you, at least two of those guns are operational so we can’t hang around too long!”

Hunter locked his arms around her powerful neck and gave a tug to make sure he wouldn’t fall during the drop. His ankles locked behind her wings.

Em boarded the pod, positioning herself in the middle.

“Gel lock”

The warm gel flooded the pod and locked them in place.

“Drop in 3... 2... 1...” the ship warped in close to the planet and dropped the riders into the atmosphere before warping out to a safe distance

The first few seconds of a drop were always silent. The pod started to shake as they punched into the atmosphere, the rumbling started to get louder as the pod heated up. A thin layer of metal was the only thing preventing from disintegrating in the entry.

The chute separated, angling the pod so that the dragons would be deployed in a diving position.

“Pop in thirty”

To an un-helmeted being, the pop would’ve been deafening. Thankfully, the helmets automatically sealed to prevent any damage from the noise.

The drop zone was a moderate distance from the city, away from any hostiles. Since there was little threat, the dragons flared their wings at their leisure and slowly descended to the ground where they cleared the area and waited for night to fall.

The strange trees hid the team as the nearby star rapidly peaked and then set behind the horizon.

“Sun’s coming up again soon, let’s get in and out before it comes back!”

The team took off towards the city under the cover of night, hoping to knock out a few guns before the enemies rallied a defense.

They split into two groups of five pairs, two riders were running demo while the other three were providing cover.

Their night vision filter dulled all the colors of the lush landscape as they flew just over the canopy. The city was nestled in the shadow of a mountain that seemed to wrap itself around the large buildings, as if to defend it from the elements. Four huge guns sat just outside the city, aimed towards the sky.

Hunter and Em flew with four other pairs towards the closest two guns. So far, no movement or heat signatures.

“Something’s wrong…” another rider said

“I agree… The pack would never leave these guns undefended” one of the dragons replied

“Team, halt”

The dragons all complied, hovering in the air as they waited for the order to resume the attack

“Something is definitely off… Cam, come with me. The rest of you hang back and give us cover”

Two dragons cautiously flew towards the closest gun and landed. Still no movement.

“Hunter…” Em started to say

“I know, we should move away from the group” He had the same thought she did “Take us to that ridge”

The other pairs had similar ideas as each took off to different location to provide the best field of fire possible. Em flew to a small ridge that overlooked the opening and landed. Hunter hopped off and retrieved his weapon.

The two dragons landed at the base of the gun and the riders dismounted to plant the charges.

Hunter scanned the land. Nothing moved. Even the wind was still.

“What the?…”

“Charges set, moving to the next gun” the two flew to the next gun and repeated the process

“Hold up, movement in the center street” Hunter immediately shifted to look at the target

“Pack wolf, no armor or weapon… I think he’s surrendering”

“Keep your guard up” The team leader replied as he flew over to investigate the first living being they had seen all night

The lead wolf dismounted his dragon and approached the other wolf. He kept his mic on so the others could hear the conversation.

“Keep your paws where I can see them”

“Listen, you’re a rider right?”

“Indeed, hence the dragon. Why are you out here?”

“I’m here on behalf of the city and the garrison that is stationed here. We took the guns offline and waited for you”

“You’re surrendering?”

“Yeah… We heard about you guys… Shit, everyone’s heard about you guys. The men refused to fight and they certainly didn’t want to die”

“Where is everyone else?”

“My men are in the barracks and the civilians are in their homes. Listen rider, we know the drill, you come in, blow up the guns and bomb us into submission. We also know that you guys never fail, so let’s just cut out the part where you kill all of us”

“I like that idea, keep your people where they are”

Em and Hunter exchanged confused glances. Pack wolves were known for their undying loyalty to the pack, surrender was saved for the times when they had no wolves that could fight or no weapons to fight with.

“Maybe our reputation is our best weapon?” Em stated

“I’ll stick with a rifle and a dragon, you can use your reputation” Hunter scanned the edge of the city

“Custos, target city is surrendering to us. Orders?”

Their home ship, the Custos or ‘Guardian’ responded. “Confirm that the guns are offline and await reinforcements.”

“Orders confirmed, will confirm guns are disabled and await further instruction” The team leader replied “Alright guys, you heard the orders, get moving. Demos check the guns, if they are still online turn them into huge piles of offline, the rest of you keep an eye out”

The pairs went about their assigned duties.

“These guys really wanted to surrender, it looks like they shot these with those tanks they had. This isn’t going to fire anytime soon”

“This one is just missing a few pieces, but it won’t fire either”

It was the same with the other two guns

“Custos, all four guns are disabled”

“We are deploying infantry, when they arrive, finish securing the city”

The sun was rising again when four large pods dropped from the sky, followed by three shuttles. The pods deployed a large drag chute to slow their descent before firing boosters to almost arrest all momentum. They touched down softly in the soil and deployed six wolf infantry, armed with the standard issue rifle and an older version of the armor that the riders wore. The shuttles touched down moments later, each deploying twelve soldiers.

The Custos’ Guarding Lance, a special infantry detachment made specifically to support the riders and to function as security aboard the Custos. They landed and immediately went about their assigned duties, they simultaneously secured the tanks, the AA guns, and the seven hundred or so soldiers that were stationed in the city. The riders assisted where they could, keeping watch and terrifying the occasional troublemaker.

Ten dragons and seventy wolves were expected to keep track of an entire city.

“This is certainly the easiest mission ever” Hunter commented as he and Em watched over the soldiers from the top of a building

While his history in the splinter armed forces was not the most prestigious, it certainly was varied. It was when he was stationed on a planet that happened to have a dragoness-in-training that his carrier as a soldier changed.

“I like it, blood is hard to wash off” Em kept her head on a swivel

“Like you would know… I don’t know how dragons cleaned themselves until riders showed up”

“We did it just fine… We tried to avoid getting blood on our scales, then you show up and cause problems”

“Hey! This war isn’t our fault…” He thought about what he just said “Actually… I guess it is…”

The Pack was the dominate species in space, their planets were the center of trade, culture, and militaristic might. Then the dragons showed up, they had a single ship and no home world. The dragons wandered the galaxy for a suitable world to settle, they interacted with the Pack, they traded, they colonized, and they expanded.

However, the Pack had too many secrets. Too many things that they tucked away from their public. Too many crimes. They ruled other species with their military might, if the Pack wanted something, they took it. Either it was given up freely, or it was violently wretched from the owners. The dragons exposed them and in return they got a war. At first, the dragons were terribly outnumbered and outgunned, but as the information spread, more and more wolves splintered from the Pack and fought against them.

“Em…” he pet her flank “Thanks… Thanks for fighting our war”

“Well… if we help you crush the Pack, than we can claim some of the planets as our own” she gave him a devious grin

“Well… That works for now”

They flew down towards the huge group of people to assist when they saw one of the prisoners yelling about something. Em had the desired effect when she landed in front of the aggressive wolf.

“What’s the problem?” Hunter asked as he dismounted from Em

“He wants to join us, but the process is a little more complicated than that, isn’t that right rider?” a guard told him

“It is, just be patient and we’ll see. Just make this process easy for us and we’ll probably treat you better” Hunter replied

“You riders have quite the reputation! You should’ve heard the rumors that were traveling around when we started to build those guns!” the prisoner told him

“And what were the rumors?” Hunter was curious, he wanted to know what the enemy thought about him and his fellow soldiers

“They said you take no prisoners and feed to unlucky ones to your beasts”

“You call us beasts? I find myself very offended… and hungry” Em was upset, but Hunter knew she was just having some fun

“To answer that rumor, we can’t take prisoners most of the time because of how we operate… as for the second part… which one of you has the most meat?” Hunter laughed as he watched the crowd slowly back away from him “What other rumors have you heard?”

The rest of the prisoners joined in, shouting various things they had heard about the infamous dragon riders.

“All the riders are former serial killers!”

“The dragons enjoy killing!”

It went on and on, Hunter did his best to settle the rumors, but some were right.

“I heard riders often sleep with their dragons!”

Hunter only chuckled at that one

Em occasionally answered a question. The crowd stared at her, dragons were a rare sight in combat, female dragons were even rarer.

“Team, we will remain here to maintain the peace until the other teams clear the rest of the guns and reinforcements become available. Hunter, Em, this is your fifth mission so a shuttle is coming for you. Enjoy your break, you earned it”

Every five missions, a pair was rewarded with a break. Usually, the breaks were spent on the nearest friendly planet, eating real food and enjoying the time together.

“Our first break!” Em excitedly said to Hunter. Because the crowd could hear her but not Hunter, it made it seem like a strange one sided conversation

“I forgot about that” He hopped back onto Em “You ready for an endless barrage of questions and free food?”

In the splinter worlds, dragon riders were heroes. If a dragon rider was seen, they immediately become the center of attention, mobs of people would pester them with questions, requests for pictures, or offers of free things. Usually food.

“I think I can handle some free food… and I can always give the annoying ones a bit of a singe”

The crowd took another few steps back

Em couldn’t help but laugh “Keep backing up, my fire can still reach you”

Five shuttles landed outside the city and deployed more troops from another ship.

“Shuttle’s here for you Hunter, get your tail on one” The team leader ordered him “And Em?”

“Yes?”

“Enjoy yourself, you certainly earned it”

Even though Hunter wasn’t a favorite among the other riders, Em certainly was the most popular dragon. Her innocent personality and adorable disposition made it impossible for riders not to love her. The other male dragons loved her for other reasons.

“I will, thanks”

The dragoness took off and flew to the awaiting shuttle. They boarded and waited for the ship to return to the hanger.

“Computer, bring up-” before he could finish his command, Em gently removed his helmet

“You’re not doing that to yourself this time” she said after she placed his helmet on the floor “We’re going to take a break, then you can go back to making yourself depressed”

“Fine…” he checked a nearby monitor and looked up what ship they were going to “A supply ship?”

“They’re probably heading back to a planet to resupply… where do you think we’re going?”

“Hmm…” he checked the system map “the closest colonized planet is… Incendio Lapis. Fire Stone… Never heard of it”

“I haven’t either. Oh well, I prefer a smaller, less populated world than the busy cities. More flying room… and probably more livestock” she smirked

“Don’t steal livestock Em”

“Why do you think I’ll steal it?” she gave Hunter an innocent smile

“Because you stole some during training!”

During their training together, Em would frequently vanish during the night. Hunter didn’t think much of it, he thought that Em just enjoyed late night flying to spend some alone time. However, he noticed that the nights she disappeared coincided with complaints of missing livestock. The first couple times were just a coincidence, but when reports of a dragon snatching up a beast in the night came in, Hunter knew.

“Ok, ok… I promise not to steal anything. Happy?”

A quiet clunk and a hiss signaled they were in the hanger of the supply ship. They waited a moment for the atmosphere to be pumped into the room before they exited the shuttle.

“We get paid anyways, remember? We’ll just buy whatever we want” Hunter said as he walked down the ramp into the spacious hanger

“Welcome aboard the Provisor, rider!” A wolf in casual attire approached them “and welcome aboard dragon”

“Thank you… um…”

“I’m the Captain of this vessel, pleasure to meet you rider”

“Hunter, and this is-”

“You can call me Em” Em cut in and introduced herself

It wasn’t her real name of course, dragons treasured their names above almost everything else.

After Em was evacuated during their first mission, it was a slow recovery process. She regained consciousness aboard the medical ship with gaps in her memory, she remembered being hit and landing hard, but after that, she had no idea of what transpired in that fountain. Hunter stayed with her constantly as she recovered but refused to tell her the full story. It took a long time, but eventually she was healthy enough to walk around without assistance, as she wandered the ship, she heard the rumors of what occurred in that city and she pieced together what happened. That was when she told Hunter her name.

“It’s an honor to have you both aboard my ship, a rider and a dragon would be a pleasure. A rider and a dragoness is an honor!” the Captain gestured for them to follow “I’m sorry to tell you that most of our rooms are too small to accommodate both of you so we furnished an empty storage room. We’ll be leaving after we transfer the rest of our ordinance to the other ships, then we’ll stop at the Incendio Lupis to drop you off and resupply.”

The wolf led them to an empty storage room with some basic furniture. It was nothing more than a few bunks magnetically bolted to the floor.

“I know it’s not much but I doubt you’ll even need it” the Captain started to leave them “Oh, by the way, if you need anything, feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to provide”

Hunter and Em explored their room

“Yeah… this is…” Hunter sat on the edge of the pieced together bed

“A bit lame?” Em finished his thought

“Yep… Want to explore?”

“Let’s go”

“Let me get this crap off first” Hunter started to remove his armor piece by piece and placed it on the bed, the automated system compacted each piece so that it could be packed easily

They wandered the ship as the rest of the supplies were delivered to the other ships in the blockade. As soon as the last shuttle was secured in the hanger, the logistics vessel jumped out of the system, arriving at their destination a moment later. The bridge went through the confirmation process before they were allowed to dock at the orbital platform.

“Rider, we are docking with the station for resupply. A shuttle is waiting for you in the hanger whenever you’re ready” The captain told them over the ship’s PA system.

Hunter returned to his room and grabbed his armor before going to the hanger. A shuttle waited to take them down to a military base on the surface.

The planet was considered an unstable volcanic planet, however, a perfect combination of star intensity, planetary characteristics, and the infinite expanse of the Universe created a volcanic planet that also had a considerable ocean made of liquid water and a breathable atmosphere. All the colonies were established on massive floating platforms that were anchored to the lava covered landmass. The land provided incredibly fertile soil and undersea mining provided plenty of mineral resources.

The shuttle quietly flew to the military base that floated in the ocean near a small settlement. The sophisticated computer automatically requested permission to land and transmitted its clearance and cargo before landing on a small pad.

A small crowd was waiting for them as they disembarked.

“Welcome to Firebase Inferno rider!” the wolf at the front shouted as they stepped off the ramp “We have accommodations for you and your dragon at the edge of the base, if you will follow me, I’ll show you to your rooms”

Hunter and Em followed the wolf and in turn, the crowd followed them. They were led to a large, temporary building that had been erected at the edge of the floating base. It was a decent size, built to comfortably shelter a rider and a dragon while providing a few basic necessities.

“These are your quarters, the mess hall, showers, and just about anything else you might need is in that building” he pointed to a large building near the center of the base “A few rules though: Night time gets really dark, so don’t do any night flying unannounced or we might shoot at you. The small settlement near here isn’t used to dragons so don’t scare them too much. Last and most importantly, you see that mountain over there?”

He pointed at a beautiful mountain that towered into the sky “It’s an active volcano. Scratch that, it’s very active. It erupts every few days and has a tendency to spew death dealing lava all over the land. The base and settlement are safe but it’s risky to go anywhere near it, so don’t explore that one too much. If you want to know the best sight seeing, ask pup over there. He went AWOL to sketch a landscape”

The crowd started laughing and one of the younger wolves looked visibly embarrassed.

“In fact, ask pup just about anything! Pup! Get up here!”

The soldier pushed through his comrades and went to his commanding officer

“Pup here will be your guide and glorified servant, if you need something, you ask him! Enjoy your stay rider, it’s an honor to host you for some R and R”

Having finished his speech, he left to attend to his more pressing duties leaving the rider and his dragon alone with the crowd of off-duty soldiers.

Hunter entered the building with Em and stored his armor. He also removed his dragon’s equipment and carefully secured his weapons.

“Why am I called ‘your dragon’? I belong to no one!” Em shrugged off her saddle after Hunter undid the straps

“I don’t know… They say that to all the riders” He pulled her saddle off and stored it. When he turned around to look at Em, he noticed the wolf that was nicknamed ‘pup’ standing awkwardly in the corner “Oh! How long have you been there?”

“He’s been here the entire time Hunter” Em told him matter-of-factly

“Can I help you with something?… Um… pup?” He didn’t want to use that nickname because it obviously embarrassed him, but he didn’t know his name

“I am assigned as your personal aide”

“Oh” he returned to pulling the shield projectors from Em’s legs “So… Why do they call you pup?”

The young wolf looked at the ground “I enjoy sketching… I frequently leave the base to draw”

“That’s it? They call you that because you enjoy making art?” Hunter expected something more

“Yes rider”

“You can call me Hunter and my large green friend is Em”

“And what can we call you?” Em asked

“Valor… or just Val”

“Pleasure to meet you Val” Hunter finished storing all their equipment “Can you walk and talk?”

“I can certainly try rider”

The three of them left the large tent and began to explore the base

“So what’s there to do around here?”

“Honestly, not much. The base is pretty boring and the settlement has a few interesting places but the best thing to do is just enjoy the scenery”

“Any suggestions? They said you knew the best spots”

“Well… I can’t fly, so my spots are probably pretty dull compared to what you can see”

“I’m sure Em would be ok flying with two on her back”

“I think I could manage that. Depends on if you can control your bladder, I don’t like leaky riders” Em grinned at Val

Valor’s smile looked like it would tear his muzzle in two

“I… I would be honored!”

“Good! We’ll do that after we get some real food, any suggestions Val?”

Val gave the pair a full tour of the base and as night began to fall they crossed the small bridge to the settlement. Val showed them the points of interest in short time because of how small the settlement. Before they returned to the base, they visited one of the two local restaurants and enjoyed a meal of real meat outside because of Em’s large size.

The owner of the restaurant provided an entire animal for Em, cooked to perfection in small chunks. When Hunter offered payment, he discovered that the riders had saved his life at the beginning of the war and was more than happy to provide a free meal to the legendary riders.

It was night when Hunter and Em returned to the base for some rest. Their tent had the same bed setup as their room aboard the Custos so Hunter could sleep against Em’s warm hide, the beating of her massive heart giving him a sense of comfort and security.

It wasn’t long before the green dragoness was sleeping. Hunter however, wasn’t sleeping. He carefully extracted himself from the bed, making sure that his dragon didn’t wake up. He quietly snuck out of the tent and left the base, making sure to alert the guards of his intentions. He walked over the settlement and went to his planned destination: the jeweler. During their dinner, Hunter excused himself from the table to go to the bathroom but snuck away to the local jeweler and made an arrangement to meet during the night. Em wasn’t a materialistic dragon, in fact, she had very little possessions at all, so Hunter thought she would like something to celebrate their first break. He was thinking a necklace with a piece of obsidian would look nice against her green scales.

The jeweler was an older female wolf who was more than happy to help make the perfect necklace. Hunter helped her with measurements and picking the materials then left to return to the base.

As he was walking through the empty streets of the settlement, he spotted a drunken wolf stumbling towards him. The wolf slowly approached, walking as if the ground was moving under him. It looked like the wolf would pass Hunter but at the last moment, he tripped and reached out to grab the closest object, in this case, Hunter. Hunter helped stabilize the wolf who reached around Hunter’s neck.

“Are yo-” Hunter didn’t get a chance to finish, as the wolf reached around his neck, he felt a tiny prick.

Immediately, his vision started to fade and his legs gave out. His mind slowly slipping away as the drugs spread through his system. Hunter’s unconscious form didn’t get a chance to hit the ash-covered ground as the ‘drunken’ wolf carried him to a nearby building.

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Em’s point of view

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Em slept deeply. For once she didn’t have to worry about sudden missions or enemies. She roused when the sun started to peak over the horizon. Hunter was missing.

“Hunter?” she looked around their small room, he wasn’t there. Em got out of her bed and exited the tent. The soldiers of the base were going about their business and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The dragoness asked the passing wolves if they had seen Hunter, none of them knew where he was.

She spotted Val “Have you seen Hunter?” she was starting to worry. Hunter usually took her wherever he went and if he couldn’t, he would tell her where he would be.

“I haven’t seen him since yesterday, have you talked to the guards? They would know if he left the base”

Em took his suggestion and found the officer in charge, he found the soldiers that were on guard duty the night before and asked them.

“He headed into the settlement a little after midnight” the guard told her

“Did you see him return?”

“No, my shift ended a little after he left”

Em didn’t wait any longer and launched off the ground to fly to the small town.

“Something’s wrong, get a team together and follow her into the settlement. Give her any help she needs, but if she…”

“I understand sir, containment is the priority”

Em circled the settlement looking for Hunter. When she couldn’t spot him from the sky, she landed and started to look for him on the ground. He was nowhere to be seen. As worry turned into contained panic, Em started to poke her head into the small buildings to ask if her rider was inside.

As she wandered the small town, she kept an eye on all the settlers. All of them watched her with curiosity and fascination, a few of them tried to start conversations with her, but she was in no mood to talk. Then she saw him. Not Hunter, but a middle-aged wolf. He was walking somewhere, but when they made eye contact, his eyes flashed bitterness and hatred towards her. He immediately covered his underlying emotions and went about his day.

While dragons didn’t have the best sense of smell, they could still pick out certain scents if they tried hard enough. Em closed her eyes and focused on the surrounding environment, sifting through the hundreds of aromas that floated around. Hunter’s scent was weak… but it was there. Not just present, but piggybacking on another scent. The wolf.

She had no authority here. She couldn’t interrogate the wolf and she certainly couldn’t threaten him. Em returned to circling the town, keeping an eye on the suspected wolf. He visited a few public locations, Hunter was definitely not in those locations. Then he went to a warehouse used by the local miners to store their different minerals.

Em was about to drop her investigation when she noticed that the warehouse was completely abandoned. Not a single being was anywhere near it.

“Abandoned warehouse… No points for creativity” Em said to herself as she flew down to the building. She knew that if Hunter was missing because of this wolf, there was every possibility that she was going straight into a trap.

One of the two large doors were wide open, as if inviting her in. She stuck her head inside and looked around, a few shelves sat empty along the walls.

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Hunter’s point of view

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Hunter woke up slowly as the drugs wore off. He was tied to a chair and his muzzle was bound. Whatever the drug was, it didn’t leave any side effects, he felt surprisingly fine.

He looked around to see where he was. It was a warehouse.

“No points for creativity” Hunter thought to himself as he scanned the room. It was empty aside from a few chairs, tables, and shelves. He tested his restraints which were bound tight around his wrists which were in turn tied to the chair. Hunter stopped struggling, he wasn’t going anywhere, better to save his strength for whatever happened next.

He had no idea how long he was out for or what time it was now. His only thoughts were of his dragon, would she remain calm while he was missing? Was she the type of dragon that would go crazy and kill everything she could see? Hunter really hoped that she would be one of the few that didn’t fall into blood rage at the loss of their rider.

His restraints were out of his view, but he experimented with his wrist, trying to loosen them. The sound of grinding metal came from behind him.

“Stupid door…” a voice muttered

Hunter tried to face his captor, but his position made it impossible.

“Listen rider, I’m paid to keep an eye on that base… but you, are worth so much more” A pair of paws started to untie his mouth from behind “I’m going to get this off so you can drink some water, if you call for help or bite me or anything else that I don’t like, I’m going to kill you and dump your body in public and watch as your dragon kills everyone at that base. Ok?”

His captor untied his muzzle and helped him take a few gulps of water from a bottle.

“Isn’t the bounty dead or alive? Why keep me alive?” Hunter asked

“Cause believe it or not, dead dragons are also worth a lot. Scales, head, hide, horns, and just about every other part is worth a fortune”

Hunter hadn’t been angry when the wolf first entered, but hearing what he planned to do with Em made him beyond angry. He would beat his captors to death or something of equal or more pain.

He knew he had to do something. His mind raced as he tried to think of something that would alert Em and keep him alive at the same time. He rubbed the side of his head against his captor’s arm.

“What the fuck?” his captor pulled his arms

“I had an itch” Hunter told him

His captor retied his muzzle and left. Completely unaware that Hunter’s scent was all over his arm.

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She didn’t have her shield projectors. Em contemplated going back to the base to fetch them, but she was in a hurry to find Hunter. Instead, she cautiously entered the warehouse, trying to be as stealthy as a huge dragon could be. The main room the warehouse was completely deserted and Em passed through it quickly, but at the end of the building was a set of double doors that looked like they were just big enough for her to fit through.

That would be where the ambush would be. She wouldn’t be able to fly, using fire would be risky, and there would be very little room to maneuver. She put her head against the door and listened. There were two living things in there, she could hear slight struggling, and two different sets of breathing.

Em gave the rest of the warehouse another quick inspection. There was nowhere for anyone else to hide. One hostile, one rider. That was it. One died, and the other lived or else the first one would die rather slowly. Scratch that, if Hunter died, whoever took him is going to be moderately burned, crushed, and then dropped in an active volcano. If he was lucky.

Em went to the side of the door and turned around. With her rear leg, she smashed the door open, unhinging one and causing it to slid across the floor. A massive laser shot out of the door as soon as it swung open.

“Shit!” a large, smoking weapon flew out the door

Em entered the room, ready to tear apart anyone who stood in her way

Hunter was tied to a chair and behind him was the wolf, the same wolf she had seen and followed with a pistol against her rider’s head.

“I can’t believe I fell for that!” the wolf shouted “Tell your dragon to stay there!”

“Hey Em, glad to see you’re finally awake” Hunter tried to sound as happy as possible

“Hunter! I was looking all over for you! You should’ve told me you were going somewhere” Em tried to ignore the desire to tear apart the wolf that threatened her rider

“Hey! Shut up!”

“Don’t be rude! We’re talking here!” Em snapped at the wolf who was standing there, slightly confused “Hunter, why did you leave without telling me?”

“I… uh… It’s a secret. I’ll show you once we get back to base” Hunter fumbled with his restraints, but he was slowly undoing them. Luckily for him, the wolf was distracted by his large, green, dragoness.

“Alright… A bit of a sticky situation isn’t it?”

“I know, right?”

Hunter watched her body, each breath she took causing her chest to expand slightly and then compress again. After three regular breaths, he saw it, a slightly deeper breath. He pulled the restraints and felt them fall loose, then dove to the right. At the exact same time, Em let her flames loose to his left, burning the captor but leaving Hunter unharmed.

Em stopped her blaze shortly after, leaving the wolf to burn.

“Hunter!” She galloped over to Hunter, almost knocking him back down

“Are you ok?” Hunter began to check his dragon for any wounds, he had seen his captor pull out a dragon’s bane weapon and aim it at the door but didn’t see if it hit her or not

“I’m fine, are you ok?”

“Yeah, he wanted me alive”

“Speaking of living… If you leave without telling me again, I will kill you” She gently nipped his ear

“I’m sorry Em” Hunter went over to the dead wolf and gave him a nudge with his foot “And… Thanks Em. I guess we’re even know huh?”

“Even? I think you still owe me a lot, I don’t think you would’ve lived very long without me… So I count every mission as saving your life” She gave him a grin

Hunter just laughed as him and Em left the room and then the warehouse. Outside, they found a fully equipped squad of wolves from the base.

“Nice timing guys, there’s a wolf in there that used to work for the Pack” Hunter gestured towards the empty warehouse

“Used to?” two of them ran into the warehouse to check

“Why are you here?” Em questioned the remaining wolves

“well… we were sent to give you support if you needed it”

Em wasn’t buying it

“It was for containment wasn’t it?” Hunter felt bad for the wolf, Em was going to chew him out. Metaphorically he hoped

“Yes Ma’am… glad to see you’re both ok”

Em just growled “Let’s go Hunter”

Without a saddle or his armor, riding was a pretty dangerous task, but he trusted Em to not let him fall.

“Hey, Em! Stop by the Jeweler, I think it should be finished” Hunter shouted over the wind as they flew over the settlement

“They jeweler? What for? What’s finished?”

Hunter left her question unanswered as she carefully landed in the closest open spot

“Ok Em, I’ll be out in a second” Hunter ran into the jeweler’s shop and was thrilled to find it being completed as he went in. He paid for the large necklace, which put quite the dent in his finances, and went back to Em with the gift in a fancy, green box.

“What’s that?”

Hunter opened the box and revealed the necklace to Em. The black stone was cut into a large point cut and was set in the center of a shining platinum plate. From the center plate, two segmented silver chains went off each corner and connected to another plate which was slightly bigger than the first. The plates progressively got bigger until the necklace met at the back where a complex latch held it together.

Hunter pulled the necklace from the box and wrapped it around her long neck

Em thought it looked a little like plate armor that the humans used to wear before the dragons left Earth. While it would look bizarre on any wolf, it looked beautiful on the green dragoness. The shiny, black stone contrasting against her green scales. She had never had a necklace before, or any jewelry in fact, and it felt odd having it around her neck, but even she had to admit it looked beautiful. She curled her neck to look at the necklace that now adorned the bottom of her long neck.

“Awww… Hunter” she gave him a soft lick “thank you, it’s beautiful. But why did you get this for me?”

“To celebrate our first five missions!” He caressed the side of her head “And to thank you… When you said you saved me every mission, I agreed! If I didn’t have you, I would probably be one of the thousands of grunts… and I would’ve been deprived of my best friend… I love you Em”

Hunter hugged her the best he could and Em did her best not to shed tears.

“I love you too rider”

In their moment, they completely forgot they were in public until a wolfen soldier approached them.

“Sorry to cut into your… uh… moment. But the general wants all the information about what happened at the warehouse”

“Come on Hunter, let’s go”

Hunter mounted Em who launched off the ground with her powerful legs and beat her wings, leaving the soldier in a maelstrom of dust in ash.