It should have been, for all intents and purposes, a very normal day. Drogon left early that morning to hunt, before the sun got too hot. He wasn’t having much luck finding prey, which was normal enough in these lands. It wasn’t unexpected, so it didn’t alter his mood much.
He’d just keep walking until he saw something of interest, then.
When Drogon did actually see something of interest, however, it was unlike anything he had expected.
Growing up in such a community, naturally he had heard about the hated false gods, those who stole, leeched Graos Oma’s power. He took great pride in the fact that his mother and uncles had once even killed one of those monsters. But in all honesty, he had no idea what to expect of one, what they might look like.
So of course when he actually stumbled upon one that day he had been thoroughly confused for a few moments there. In fact, at first he hadn’t even been capable of realizing what that strange thing up in the tree was. From the distance he’d assumed it was just an owl, picking a rather strange place to wait out the day. He wouldn’t even have bothered investigating, but Drogon happened to be walking in the direction of the tree.
Eventually, as Drogon approached, he realized that the way it stood and moved along the branch was just not owl-like at all. And from there it was a short jump to deciphering the creature as not an owl, but a lion cub. And lion cub that just so happened to have wings.
Even then it took him a few moments longer to make a connection that this creature was anything besides a really freaky mutant cub.
Kulukadok. It had to be.
And it saw him. He’d not thought to pay attention to what it had been doing up in the branch in the first place, until it stopped and turned it’s face to look at him. “Hello!” For whatever reason, he thought it rather beautiful, and it had a nice voice.
Drogon hated the thing instantly.
Dumbfound as he was, somehow he managed to get enough sense back without too much delay. “Hi.” Even with only half his wits about him, somehow the beginnings of a plan were forming in Drogon’s mind. Slowly, because he was still pretty shocked.
End even though it was tiny, he was a little afraid of the kulukadok. It stole Graos Oma’s powers, certainly even a little bit of it was formidable!
But right now the creature didn’t seem too interested in using them against him. Good. “I’m Kimaji!” It said, continuing on with it’s cheerfulness. “It’s nice to meet you, what’s your name?”
Drogon had to be very careful now, and decide what to do about this, quickly. “My name?” He repeated, and hated how dumb he sounded. “I dare you to guess it.” Just to stall.
It was up in the tree, and even though he might be able to jump high at times, it was still a little out of reach. He also wouldn’t be able to hold onto it with ease. And even if he could, what was he to do? Kulukadok should be destroyed, and he supposed he could probably kill this one if he got his paws on it. But wouldn’t it be best if he took it back?
“Guess your name?” It tilted its head, and looked stumped. “There are too many names to pick from! Is your name Swaii?”
He wrinkled his nose. Swaii? “No.”
“Shame. I want to find Swaii…” It trailed off, looking away for a few moments, as Drogon continued to try to work this out. “Well, you didn’t look like a Swaii anyways. Corellon?”
It was a dumb creature if it honestly wanted to guess his names. But Drogon appreciated the extra time. “One more shot.”
It seemed to think a bit longer this time. “Ger?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s Kirdar.” Of course Drogon wouldn’t give a kulukadok his real name. “What are you doing up there?” Drogon had made up his mind. He’d lure it back to the others, and then they could decide what to do with it. But more flies were caught with honey, so he had to play the nice guy.
“Kirdar! Weird name.” He realized it might have been a stupid choice when she said it. It was the word for murder in the local tongue. At least she didn’t seem to know the language.
“Yes, it is.” He agreed with a smile. A fake smile. “So…” She hadn’t answered his question.
“Oh! I was looking at this bird nest. I think it’s abandoned.” She said, and he focused briefly on the indicated object. He could barely see it, but he supposed there might be a bird’s nest there. Not that it was very interesting in comparison to the false god.
Much as he hated to keep making silly questions, he wanted to figure out a way to lure the cub to the encampment. So Drogon went on. “Oh, and why were you doing that?”
She made a strange face, somewhere between confusion and amusement. “I dunno. I like learning things. I was hoping maybe I’d find something interesting…”
Oh, that was very good! Learning, that a great way to get her attention. “You do, really?” He asked enthusiastically. The thing nodded and it’s eyes lit up, so he knew he had its attention. “Oh, well that’s great! I have plenty I could teach you.”
It adjusted its position to look down at him. “Really? What?”
He grabbed at whatever he could think of first. “I can teach you a new language. But you’ll have to come with me first!”
He didn’t have to ask twice. Drogon could hardly believe his luck that he’d found such a gullible kulukadok, of all things! He was briefly startled when it spread its wings and glided down easily, landing at the base of the tree. “Okay!”
Right there beside him it looked so tiny, so helpless. Kulukadok weren’t all that impressive, now, were they? This one must be young. It did look just like a little cub. It was a shame, because it actually was rather beautiful, with all kinds of intricate markings. “So come on, let’s go.” Drogon couldn’t help but stare a little, and he hesitated before turning away to lead the creature back towards the rest of the Nergui. When it happily trotted along beside him, he still kept his eyes trained on it.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Oops. He supposed that was suspicious. “O-oh, nothing. I’ve just never seen a kulukadok before. I don’t know what to do with you.”
It laughed lightly, and Drogon was relieved it didn’t seem suspicious. “What’s a kulukadok?” Hard to explain. Or worse, make up an explanation for. He was glad when it became distracted by a hole in the ground of all things. “Hey, look at this!” It ran ahead a few paces. “It smells strange.”
At this point Drogon was getting more excited, so he didn’t want to waste time as it tried to learn what was up with that hole. “Oh, we can look at that later! Come on now!”
It seemed to hesitate a bit before hurrying on back. “Where are we going?”
“To my pride, so we can… so I can introduce you.”
“Oh. Why? Do you like kulukadok?”
He snorted, and said. “Yes, you could say that.” But he shook his head as he said it.
Unfortunately, something seemed to catch the cub’s attention, and she slowed down. “… What do you mean you don’t know what to do with me? What’re you going to do with me?”
Though the creature seemed to ask the question innocently enough, Drogon hesitated to answer, a bit too long. “We’re going to teach you our language.”
Perhaps it had been his staring, or his words, or that hesitation, but something seemed to have alerted the kulukadok, somehow. It stared at him dubiously and stopped walking altogether, and so did he. “I don’t think I should go.”
He hoped he could still salvage this. “Why not?”
It laid its ears slightly. “Oh, I just think… I don’t know.”
He glanced back in the direction of the encampment, then back at the creature that lingered there, looking to the ground like an apologetic cub. Drogon would hve to deal with this himself. “It’s alright,” He suddenly sounded very comforting and friendly, as he stepped towards the fiend. It let him. “I’ll just teach you here.“
In a flash and a snarl, he was moving. His paw moved to it’s chest, and he quickly flipped it and forced it onto it’s back. It yelped in surprise and pain as its head hit a rock. For a lion as big as Drogon it was actually a little awkward to attack something so small, but he had no qualms with crushing it down beneath him a she bent to bite its throat, claws out and gripping.
He got a hold of its neck, the circle of its necklace somehow fitting itself on one of his teeth. For a brief moment he released his paw to position it better, and then many things happened at once. Drogon was unable to perceive that the false god, in the blink of an eye, vanished. His teeth clamped together and paws awkwardly hit the floor. Instead all he saw was afterwards, and just barely at that.
For perhaps half a second there was a small bird caught in the part of the necklace that hung form his jaws. It fluttered around madly, then slipped loose, and quickly flew away. It was so small, Drogon lost sight of it in no time. He stayed there for a few moments, just trying to make sense of what had happened. He couldn’t yet.
Drogon blinked and looked down, opening his mouth. The necklace fell out. The ground beneath his paws was splattered with blood. He might have thought it too much blood, as Drogon had failed to pierce its skin with his teeth, but no doubt it was the result of the head wound it had sustained when hitting the rock. Heads bled a lot.
The many threads that made up the necklace were soaking up in some of the blood now. But that wasn’t all, there were also two feathers. Long, gray, with the interesting white markings crawling up each of them. The tip of one was slowly turning red.
Unsure of what else to do, Drogon gingerly picked up the items in his mouth, and barely noticed the coppery taste in his mouth. Kulukadok bleed. He thought, idly, as he continued on back towards the encampment and collected his though