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Healing

Over the course of three weeks in the cave John did little; he mostly slept and stuffed his face with whatever food was brought for him. The wounds pained him and prevented him from doing anything other than sitting around. His broken ribs and wrist proved to be the worst and longest to heal of his injuries. But now all of his injuries have healed dramatically recently; his ribs were fully healed, his legs and chest, once covered in many wounds were now just a bunch of scars. John could walk without a limp and could now breathe easily. His right arm was still in its bony splint as it would still be a while longer before he could use it again.

Things have happened so fast for John, over three weeks he was assaulted by almost every dragon in the cave. About twenty of them lived there, mostly keeping to themselves, but they usually asked about John's origins. It surprised John on how interested the dragons were with him, they were all polite and told him that if he needed something, just ask. And over time, John became friends with two of them.

A brown scaled male dragon named Salvatore, with a heavy northern accent, and a small playful green hatchling named thorn. A smiled formed on Johns face as he remembered the first meeting with the two.

John had woken up to find a green toothy muzzle in his face staring him down. The hatchling was about Johns size if the dragon stood up on its hind legs. John remembered reaching out to rub behind its ears as all dragons seemed to enjoy. The hatchling, with lightning speed jumped forward, razor sharp teeth about to engulf his left hand, surly the small hatchling could rip off his hand with ease. But a brown talon paw raced down and flattened the hatchling to the floor before it could clamp down on his hand.

John looked up at the medium sized, brown dragon, with the hatchling squirming under his paw. He bent down and applied more force onto the hatchling.

"Enough Thorn! Ye had your fun" said the brown scaled dragon. The brown scaled dragon turned its head to face John as soon as the hatchling stopped squirming. "Greetings John! Salvatore I be. Don't ye mind thee hatchling, he didn't mean it. But I warn ye now, he's a playful bugger and lovers to bite, so keep ye hands away." John chuckled, never before had he heard such a heavy accent.

"Thank you Salvatore. Where are you from, I don't recognize the accent?" asked John. From there Salvatore filled the rest of the day with his own stories, all of them about the cold north, that would kill the weak and leave the strong weakened.

From there, Salvatore and John's friendship grew, along with thorns, as long as John did not make sudden movements or there was an adult nearby, Thorn kept his teeth in check.

Now John, back to the present reflected on the one dragon that made mixed emotions form…Jynxy. Over the weeks she shown only caring and consurn for John, and he could not help but slowly like her. Jynxy, always was not far from Johns side watching over him like a mother watched over her kid. Johns friendship with Jynxy grew even further when one cold night she left the cave, and returned an hour later with a paw full of close. John was overly happy, as over the weeks his armour, was to damaged to repare his pants cut up and bloody and shirt missing, he was almost always chilly.

John looked at himself over as he stood on the edge of the cave looking upon the sun set. He now wore fine leather brown pants and a white silk shirt with a black leather coat over it. Even his shoes were warm, filled with cotten. Along his waist he felt the comfortable weight of his sword resting in his sheath on his belt. John looked behind him, the sound of twenty snoring dragons filling the night. John smiled. Yes, he was rather liking his friendship with the dragons, any doubt about trusting them had flown away last week.

"Yes..." John mumbled to himself. "I have a new quest to think about."

The next morning John went to confront Jynxy, and ask what her plan was so he could better decide what he could do. The sun was rising on the other side of the mountain, leaving a shadow as dark as night. John looked hard in the gloom, and his ears listened for the tell tail sign of heavy breathing.

He heard the sound not to far off from where he stood but saw nothing; the cave was empty. John, confused, slowly walked towards the edge of the cave.

"Where is everyone" said John as his ears picked up a scuffle by one of the cave's corners. John, not being able to see well in the dark, drew his sword with his left hand. Crouching, he slowly made his way to the corner where the unknown sound was coming from. John approached it slowly as silent as a shadow.
Eyes flashed from the dark corner. John stepped back as a dark scaled figure lunged from the corner, sharp claws aimed for his torso and razor sharp teeth ready to slice through his neck.

John side stepped as the figure flew past him, landing on the floor behind him. John quickly turned to face the dark scaled dragon again, but by then the dragon was already on top of him. John sticks his blade horizontally in the dragons mouth, keeping the teeth at bay, while frantically trying to keep out of range of the claw that swiped past close to his side. The dragon jumped with its hind legs shoving John to the ground. John managed to twist around before he fell down. The dragon was back on top of him, sword still in the dragon's mouth, a glint of green is all that stayed John sword hand. His legs were wrapped around the dragons belly holding it still.

"Thorn?" said John confused as the dragon's ears perked up at the mention of its name. John slowly drew the blade out of thorns mouth, noticing a couple of teeth marks remained on the blade.

Thorn gulped a couple of times but remained still, John let him go and thorn quickly got up only to return a split second later, talons holding him down. John looked hard into Thorn's dark green cat like eyes, searching for reason. Thorn bent his neck down and licked John once on his face. Thorn got off again, letting John's sword arm go. Thorn walked back to his dark corner where he yawned and lay down, his large green wings spread out around him. John sat up slowly, eyes blinking in confusion and wonder.

"what just happened?" asked John to himself as he again looked to thorn, seeing him already fast asleep. John waited out the rest of the day wondering why thorn had attacked him and where everyone was.

When the sun was at its peak across the cloudless sky, only then did seventeen dragons returned, out of the nineteen that left. John's jaw dropped, his expression sour as wounded dragons crawled into the cave, many with small cuts on their wings from swords and spears. Their normally white teeth and claws were now died red with blood. John searched for Jynxy and Slavatore, praying that they came back unscathed.

"What happened?" asked John to every passing dragon, some limping, others walking without a mark. John made out seven wounded dragons, the worst wound been a wound across the ribs. John sighed in relief as Jynxy and Salvatore both walked in without a scratch. John fast walked to them stopping just in front of Slavatore, who is the same size as Jynxy.

"Where the hell were you?" asked John. Salvatore brought his head down to John's eye level and smiled reveling many of his teeth.

"We twas out for fresh air tis all" said Salvatore. John sighed loudly showing his frustration.

"That's bull shit and you know it, why is everyone wounded and two have just about disappeared?" asked John.

Salvatore huffed, smoke blowing into Johns face making him cough and wave his arms around trying to clear the air. Salvatore heisted and Jynxy stepped in with her blue scales tainted with blood, none of it hers.

"We were on a mission to help you win the war, a patrol of troops were seen entering the mountains just west of the Kanata wall. We've dealt with them" said Jynxy finishing her report with a smirk bending her neck to lick her talons of gore. Salvatore grinned seeming to remember the fight.

"Aye, a tricky lot they were, but they are no more ye see" said Salvatore.

John almost fainted in fear. John knew all too well what his platoons mission was, they were to also enter the mountains from the west and then follow Saphira until they found the pack leader. John sat down on the hard floor suddenly, the fate of his friends hitting him hard. It was a suicide mission.

"No single man or dragon could kill him, they must work together" said the words of John's father echoing within John's head. John looked at Jynxy, who was standing over him concerned. She nuzzled John with the tip of her snout, almost reading his mind.

"It's okay John, your friends are safe, we would never attack them, they are headed to the largest mountain and so far have kept out of harms way" said Jynxy.

John could not hold back his relief, but his composer fell at once as again he saw his friends quest for what it truly was. They had no chance to complete such a task. The mountain was very well guarded, even the dragons would not attempt to kill the pack leader.

Johns eyes started to water as he thought of his close friends, as he thought of his platoon which he had served in for a long time. John thought of Rhett, his best and closest friend who had saved his neck countless times. There was no way he could help them. A tear rolled down Johns check. Jynxy, seeing his tears for what they were, layed down beside him offering him comfort and warmth in her friendship. Jynxy wrapped her long blue neck around John's body. John welcomed the warmth and rested against her scales.

The sun finally found its way over the mountain as light slowly crept into the cave. John steadied his breathing, and brought his left hand up to tap Jynxy's head.

"I need to get up" said John as Jynxy uncoiled her neck and looked at John confused. John was up and walking, pacing in front of the cave.

John began formulating a plan within his mind. Salvatore and Jynxy continued to stare at him wondering what he was thinking about. John grimaced, and stop pacing to look at Jynxy.

"I have agreed to help you gain the trust of the dragons yes?" asked John. Jynxy nodded her big blue head, not saying a word. "Okay, now I need a favor no, more like a deal." John trailed off thinking hard as he realized a snag in his plans. Again he looked at Jynxy. "What was your plan of action? Where would you plan to take me?"

"We are right now directly north of the leaders mountain, my plan was to go north and speak to every clan I meet to get allies and then when we have enough, attack the mountains" Jynxy replied starting to catch on to John's plan.

"And how long will that do you think it would take?"

"About a month."

"Shit!" John turned around looking out of the cave, his friends did not have a month. John spoke from where he stood, his voice clear as day. "Here's what I want you to do. Get three dragons, I don't care who, and lead my platoon away from the leader's mountain, and away from danger. Maybe a longer route instead of a straight forward one." John turned to look at both dragons in the eyes. "I want to know where they are every day! Every minute!" Jynxy stood up fast snarling.

"Do you know what your asking! Your platoon would kill every dragon we sent out!"

John's eyes flashed.

"Its that or I'm not helping you." John knew it was a hollow threat, he would help Jynxy no matter the outcome to this conversation. Both Jynxy and Salvatore snarled looking at each other then back to John. Then Salvatore stepped forward.

"Fine, if that's all it takes to kill the leader then I will do it" said Salvatore.

John sighed, relived that his friends might have a chance. John glanced at Jynxy, she did not looked amused but said not a word about it.

"Alright Jynxy, lets go meet some dragons" said John.