Riyala could still hear the sound of wings beating heavily, and she saw a figure flash across her left side before two large wolves were suddenly grabbed off the ground by a large dragon! Riyala cried out in fear as she saw this, and she was shocked when another dragon appeared and took another two wolves from the other side! A new wave of fire surged through the forest and destroyed three more wolves, and all of a sudden, they were left with only four wolves! Riyala immediately realized that they were doing this wrong!
"Stop! Please, stop!"
Riyala cried out while pulling on Fenrir’s fur, and Fenrir shook his head in annoyance as he continued running! Riyala pulled harder as she cried out for him to stop, and a figure suddenly swooped down from the air and slammed into the ground in front of them!
BOOM!
Fenrir finally stopped dead in its tracks as it let out a snarl towards the massive creature, and Riyala craned her neck backward to look up at a large red dragon that had stopped them! This dragon was completely different from anyone that Riyala had ever seen before. It didn’t look any different from a regular dragon, but its size was beyond anything Riyala could ever imagine.
’A fully matured dragon.’
Riyala realized that this was what a fully grown dragon would look like! It was not only huge, it was fucking massive. It was so large that you would need to stack five dragons of Ragnar’s height just to reach its fucking neck! The dragon stomped its foot into the floor, and the entire forest seemed to shake from the movement! Riyala realized in shock that the dragon had just killed the last three wolves that had been acting as distractions, so now it was just her and Fenrir. She looked up into the dragon’s black, piercing eyes, and she shook in fear when the dragon suddenly let out a loud roar towards her!
ROARRRR!!!
Riyala swallowed, and she had to fight against every instinct in her body that told her to look away from the dragon’s eyes! Riyala remembered her father telling her about the dragons a long time ago, and from what he said, she knew that the dragons respected strength and courage more than cowardice! So no matter how scared she was, Riyala had to put on a show of strength! Fenrir suddenly twitched under Riyala, and Riyala immediately gripped him tighter! No! They couldn’t run! Running was the last thing they wanted to do here! Riyala had realized it while she was moving through the forest just now. What did she think she could achieve by trying to sneak into the nest? This land belonged to the dragons and wyvern, and Riyala was an intruder that had snuck into their territory, so she knew that they had every right to be angry. Instead of running, Riyala decided it would be better to try to talk.
Boom! Boom!
The sound of large footsteps echoed from behind Riyala, and she turned around to see a few more dragons gathering around her. These were the other dragons that had killed the wolves, and Riyala swallowed again as she realized that she was practically surrounded by them! Riyala could feel her heart beating faster and faster the longer she looked up at the large dragon, and she was literally shaking while trying not to show her fear! Fenrir was still snarling in anger as he looked around, and Riyala was sure that if she loosened her grip even a little, then he was going to bolt out of there as quickly as he could. Riyala quickly began to speak!
"I-I’m sorry I came into your land this way! I didn’t mean to disrespect you! But I didn’t know what else to do! My people need your help!"
Riyala stopped as she heard a low grumble come from the dragon in front of her, and the dragon released a huff of black smoke that spread across the air like fog. Riyala wasn’t affected by the smoke since she was a dragonborn, but that smoke served as a warning that told her that the dragons were quickly losing their patience! Riyala took in another deep breath and quickly continued!
"My people are being oppressed by a tyrant, and we are trying to fight back against him! Please! I need you to come and help us!"
The dragon growled at Riyala again, and the pressure in the air began to rise as it spread its large wings to the side! Riyala felt Fenrir twitch under her as he felt the pressure increasing as well, and Riyala’s eyes widened when she saw that the dragon was getting ready to unleash fire! Didn’t it hear what she said!?
"W-Wait! Wait!"
The dragon didn’t even look like it had heard her words as it reared its head back, and Riyala put her hands up as Fenrir quickly prepared to dash to the side, but a voice calmly spoke up from all around the forest and stopped everyone in their tracks.
"Bring her to me~"
The voice was calm and aged, like something you would hear from an elder who had lived for many lifetimes, and the moment Riyala heard the voice, she felt the pressure in the entire forest slowly falling back down. Riyala slowly dropped her hands while opening her eyes, and she saw that the large red dragon was giving her a nasty look in irritation, but it was not attacking her for some reason. The dragon gave her a dismissive glance before it turned away and started to walk, and Riyala wondered what the hell just happened! Fenrir was still snarling angrily at the red dragon, but it was no longer trying to run since the pressure had dropped. Something impacted Riyala’s back and pushed her and Fenrir forward, and Fenrir turned around angrily to snarl at the dragon there! The dragon had pushed them to tell them to move, and Fenrir was obviously not happy about being bullied!
Riyala petted Fenrir on the side as she finally felt her heartbeat starting to come down again, and she spoke.
"Let’s just follow them. I need to speak to whoever that was. Please."
Fenrir was still not in support of following the dragons anywhere, but it didn’t have much of a choice since Jason had given it orders to stay beside Riyala. So it let out a low huff before it began to follow behind the large red dragon! The group of four beasts and one girl made their way through the illuminated forest, and as they got closer to the center of the forest, Riyala noticed that the forest seemed to be moving around to accommodate the dragons. The large trees leaned out of the way, and the bushes and shrubs hopped across the floor to avoid being crushed by the dragons. Riyala already knew that the forest was alive since that was something all dragonborns learned as kids, but she didn’t think that it was alive to this extent! Could she even call something like this a forest anymore!? It would be more reasonable to call it a living organism that had taken on the form of a forest!
Riyala continued to look around as they headed deeper into the center of the forest, and as they walked, she began to see various dragon nests littered around the forest floor. The dragon nests were large areas of land that had been dug up to accommodate the female dragons. There were trees and shrubs growing around the nests, and Riyala saw many cute young dragons poking their heads out from the nesting holes to look at her curiously.