I roared with a hiss at the end, my spines raising to their full extent and my sails stretched. This male may have been big, but I wasn’t just about to be disrespected and bossed around. I clung to the roof ready to jump and fly out if he tried to fire, he would just harm him and his human more if he even tried. I had the high ground of the situation, metaphorically and physically. I had my wings flared a bit ready to catch air, a draft was blowing through the cave. I snarled and hissed as a warning that he needs to back off, my teeth and fangs were showing as I growled. The human looked built and buffed, meaning he probably couldn’t move with much agility. The dragon didn’t really fit in the cave, I had the advantage here, and they needed to know that. They should know not to underestimate a wild dragon, even if they are smaller than I am. My cave was near, and I was not going to run to it. Who knows what the humans would do to my cave and the stuff I collect, a lot of it is stuff anyone would steal. Another female dragon might steal my pelts, while a male would steal my hoard. Humans would steal the offerings I was given for not attacking them, specifically the farmers in the area.
“I have not stolen, I have not griefed, nor have I even attacked a human.” I growled, “What do you want from me, you Mandrake Mymmerkin!?”

I responded to the wild dragons warnings to back away with a sharp hiss of my own, spreading my wings to make myself appear larger and breathing another small burst of flame. I could only spread them partially because of the confines of the cave, but I did my best with what I had. She could probably slip past me, but I wouldn't try to stop her. I was at a severe disadvantage while in here; I couldn't fly, and could hardly move without smashing Ronan against the rocky cave walls, nor could I breath fire without searing the flesh right off his bones.

Ronan gave a quiet growl, probably thinking the same as I. If we wanted the advantage, we'd have to leave the cave. I knew it was a fight he wanted; it was always a fight he wanted, but we had only just arrived and technically were not authorized to initiate combat, only defend ourselves if we had too. I kept my eyes on the wild dragon, carefully sizing her up. How much heat could those scales take? How quickly could she accelerate through the air after taking off from the ground? It was difficult to gauge, but I didn't think I'd lose a fight.

Then she spoke. I was startled by that, not knowing that the wild dragons could communicate. I'd never heard one speak. Ronan sensed my surprise and snarled, "Focus, bastard!" I snapped back to attention. I hadn't understood the words she had said; it was probably some wild dragon dialect I had never learned. Maybe she knew some of the human-dragon languages though, the ones we were taught right after we hatched. "Can you understand me?" I growled, putting some hostility into my voice so she wouldn't think me one of the smaller, weaker dragons, even if she couldn't tell what I was saying.

I backed up from his spouts of flames, “Yes I can understand you, why else would I fuckin speak to you?” I said hissing. I hated using my fire, especially at this angle. I can easily handle the heat of a normal dragon’s fire, sometimes my scales could hold the fire without burning me. It was my defense mechanism since I couldn’t fight claw to claw. It just became dangerous when my own, blue, fire swarmed me only in the warmer months though. The human was glaring at me. In return, I snapped my jaws in his direction as a warning.

My tail flicked back and forth, I was becoming overwhelmed and my muscles were getting sore from hanging upside down. My stress levels were rising and they could probably tell, I was almost ready to bolt. I was ready to stand my ground but also bolt if needed, my fight or flight responses weren’t working and I was in a state of ‘just freeze’ instead of the normal reactions.

I stared down at the male dragon, the males in captivity got larger than the wild ones. The females are average size but the males are massive, hence why I avoided them. I am an abnormally large female, I grew to be the size of an adult male and I’m still growing. The captive and tame males still look like giants next to me, but this male seemed different almost. He almost seemed to not want to obey, listen, and carry out orders. Was it possible this male was one of the more dominant ones that weren’t killed as a hatchling, nor sent to the human gladiators? I wouldn’t doubt it, the way the human treats him just by looking at the man was bad.

I decided it would be best to fly, and bolted out of the cave as the male dragon said something. I quickly made my way up to the clouds, catching their strong winds. I ended up soaring over a farm and exited the clouds right after to land near it. The farmer and his children ran out of their house, seeing what the noise was. Only to find the wild female dragon they had been offering a cow to during the cold winter months; that was distressed and panicked, watching the skies like a rabbit scared of a hawk.

It was true though, I was distressed. I didn’t know if they were going to follow me once more or not.

Good, language barriers weren't going to be an issue. I didn't care much for this dragon's tone, though, so I snarled right back, ignoring her comment and saying, "We aren't here to hurt you, just to give you a warning: stay away from our territory, or you will be hunted down and either captured or killed." With the message delivered, I stood still to see what she would do. Ronan watched as well, not even flinching when she snapped at him.

Ronan was clearly displeased by my warning; he wanted to try and capture this wild dragon right here and now, but fortunately for me, I was right. It was a policy here to leave the wild dragons alone unless they bothered us. Ronan would still probably punish me later, which I was not looking forward to, but there wasn't much I could do about that. Silently, I stared at the wild dragon, tense, waiting for her to make a move.

When she did make her move, I reacted quickly, whipping around so fast that I nearly crushed Ronan against the cave walls. Cursing, he struck me with his axe, not hard enough to discombobulate me, but with enough force to cause me a good amount of pain. I shook my head violently with a slight hiss of distress, then launched myself out of the cave. My first instinct was to go after the wild dragon, but Ronan reigned me in, and instead, we turned back toward the mountain and began the flight back.

Normally, we would just continue our patrol, but since we had interacted with the wild dragon, a report was necessary. We would give a detailed description of the dragon, her behavior, as much as we could so that those in charge could determine whether she was a threat or not. If she had any idea what the humans were capable of, she'd keep her distance.

I waited till dawn, too scared to go back until I was sure. The farmer approached me with caution a couple of times. My eyes were lazer focused on the sky, until I felt something touch my tail. I whipped my head around, spines raised, to see that it was just the farmer, and instantly I relaxed my spines. I let out a long sigh, the farmer seemed startled at first until I just put my head down. I was tired, today was a lot of excitement, I frowned upon the fact I wasn't allowed to get closer to the kingdom. My territory was right next to it, I was afraid I would have to move. I would rather move than get captured. But then again, if they spoke to the humans who live in my territory they would know I am not an issue.

I hadn't realized I closed my eyes, and zoned, out until I felt a hand touch my nose. It was the farmer again, I looked him in the eyes and just hummed. I looked over at the house to see his mate watching, scared, his children peeking through a hole in their den.

I remember watching the farmer first build his den, I reckon we are almost the same age even. I claimed this territory as a teen, and he started building his home when I first arrived. With our first and only interaction, we seemed to have come to an unspoken agreement. As long as one didn't cause issues for the other, the other wouldn't cause issues either.

The farmer got a little closer and continued to stroke my smooth scales, admiring the colors that the white reflected from the sunset. I enjoyed the attention, and I had lived in the same space as the man long enough that it was time we had another interaction. He started to itch right under the curve of my jaw, I hummed in delight. It was a harder spot for me to reach, so it felt nice to finally have it itched.

The farmer waved his family over, his mate was hesitant but the young children came running. They hung onto his legs watching him interact with me,

"Father, is this the dragon you keep telling us about," one of them spoke, I had no idea what it meant but it perked my attention and I looked at the little boy.

"Look you caught her attention, but yes. This is the dragon I would tell you boys stories about." The man spoke

"We thought they were just stories, papa," The younger one said

"Yeah, mom told us they were just stories,"

"Well, your mother is just trying to keep you away from dragons. I was lucky enough to build our home in the territory of a friendlier one." The father spoke with a raspy voice, almost annoyed

"If she is friendly why did he look so scared early father?"

"This dragon is a female my boy. but I don't know son, she had something in mind that we might have been able to help her. There are many other places she could have flown to, but she chose here.

There was much to be done after the eventful patrol, at least for Ronan. He left me in my cave at Dragonroost with the promise that he would be back later, and by his tone of voice, his return would be unpleasant for me. To be fair, I had almost crushed him against the cave wall, but he was completely fine, no harm done, right? Wrong. Ronan was always looking for reasons to punish me; there was no way he was going to let this opportunity pass.

I waited in my cave, trying to get some sleep while I waited, but it evaded me. All I could think about was Ronan, and the punishment that was sure to come. I knew I shouldn't be afraid of a human, but Ronan's punishments... He knew my anatomy well, all my weak spots, all the chinks in my scales, and he knew how to make something hurt. Even wounds I hard received from other dragons in the past were nothing compared to the agony he knew how to inflict.

I briefly considered leaving; flying away from there and never coming back, but two things stopped me: Where would I go? Ronan and I were well-known among the humans, I couldn't hide among them, and I certainly didn't want to go to the wild. The second thing stopping me was that running away was cowardly. I was not a coward; I would stay and face whatever punishment I received. That evening, Ronan stepped into my cave, a dark look on his face. As he approached, he smirked slightly, as though looking forward to what he was about to do. I stared him down, showing him that I wasn't afraid, even though that would undoubtedly make things worse for me.

The next morning, I awoke still drenched in pain. Several deep cuts were scattered in various places on my body, cuts Ronan would say I had received from the wild dragon. That probably wouldn't bode well for her; if the humans decided she was a threat, they'd go after her. I had nothing against the humans hunting a wild dragon for reasonable cause, but I did not like the idea of them going after her because of a lie. As Ronan and I went about our day, I kept my ears open, listening for any hints that they would send a party out after her. It was around noon when I discovered that the humans were indeed going after her. Apparently Ronan had told them she had attacked us, injuring me and nearly killing him, and of course he explained how I had been magnificent, fighting her off and flying them both away. Ronan had his reasons for doing this, most likely wanting to cover up the fact that he was not the kindest Rider, but also because he wanted people to think he had trained me well.

After some evening training exercises with a few other dragons and riders, it was time to go to bed. However, I couldn't sleep. The more I thought about it, the less and less I liked the idea of the humans going after the wild dragon. After nearly an hour of thought, I took a deep breath and walked to the entrance of my cave. I had to warn her that they would be coming tomorrow to find her and either kill or capture her. But I hesitated. I had never flown without a human on my back before, Ronan had always forbidden it. Locked in indecision, I anxiously paced my cave, wondering what to do. On one claw, Ronan's authority was supreme and not to be challenged in any way. On the other, the humans would go after the wild dragon tomorrow and most likely kill her, for no reason.

With a hiss of annoyance at myself, I marched to the cave entrance. I was not going to let that happen, I refused. This was sort of my fault anyway, for giving a reason for Ronan to inflict those wounds on me, which led to the humans believing she was a threat. I took a deep breath, then threw myself out into open air, diving down and falling a couple hundred feet before spreading my wings and letting the wind fill them. I raced toward the place where Ronan and I had seen the other dragon. It wasn't long before I found the lake with the cave we had tracked her into. I didn't see her nearby. I could've probably have tracked her to her den, but I doubted I'd be very well received. I thought over my options. An idea came to me; it was a long shot, but maybe she was in the area. Tipping my head back, I opened my jaws and blasted out a steady jet of crimson fire that rose above the trees, acting as a beacon. I kept the fire going, hoping she would see and come to investigate.

I woke with a yawn, in the early hours of the morning. Getting up to stretch my mind raced, I had been restless waking up every so often. The last couple of days had been peaceful, I didn’t have another interaction with the dragons or humans other than the farmer. But I still had a bad feeling, I was going to move again, father from the kingdom, but still around the same distance from the farmer’s house. I spotted a cave similar to my current one but bigger; I would need a larger cave in the future anyway if I wanted a mate and hatchlings. I gathered all the things that I would want to bring, including my pelts and rare items. I stored them among the spines on my back, this was going to be a tough journey but I could handle it. I am larger than I first was when I moved here, I could barely carry anything other than a few trinkets.

It took a few hours to get to the cave, it was around high noon when I got there and dropped everything off to go for a drink. I decided to explore and map out my surroundings, there was a new lake with more prey. It was in a valley surrounded by tall mountains, one of which my den was in, so it was very well hidden. I headed back toward my old cave to make sure I didn’t miss anything, on the way I saw a blast of fire sent into the sky near the lake. I flew up and hid amongst the clouds to look down and see what it was, I knew I had a bad feeling.

It was the dragon from a few days ago, but I didn’t see a rider. I dove down out of the clouds and made a warning shot about 5 feet away from him and landed a good 200 feet away. I kept my distance since I’m not good with claw-to-claw combat and I'm more of a long-range fighter.

“What do you want,” I spit out with a hiss.

I maintained a steady stream of flames until the wild dragon appeared from the sky, diving down like a thunderbolt. I let my flames die, then turned to face her, regarding the dragon calmly. "I came to give you a warning," I said, letting myself remain at ease. She was a good two hundred feet away, leaving me with plenty of time to react if she attacked.

"After our last encounter, the humans decided they were going to try and hunt you," I continued. "They're more resourceful than you would think, so I suggest getting out of here before they start the hunt tomorrow morning. Find somewhere very far away and hide, otherwise they will catch you."

(Sorry for the shorter response, things are a bit busy here!)

Angst, Possible trigger warnings, mentions of gruesome topics

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“Well, it’s a good thing I relocated me den then,” I spat out “But I am not leaving my territory, I fought for this territory and I will not give it up. I live at peace with the humans until you and your rider came along.” I stepped forward angry “I would rather die than give up my land, if I was to try and find another place to live I would be forced into a harem or into a clan and become a breeder due to my youth.” I said practically crying out at this point. This was a nightmare, I was at peace. Sure the struggle to find a mate has been harsh enough, but I had little to no worries; I didn’t have any others to fight with for my territory; The food supply is plentiful; the humans that live in my territory have no issues with me; what did I do wrong.

Tears brimmed in my eyes I was distraught, and bad memories flashe through my mind. My mother got killed by a rougue male, the same male forcing himself onto my older sisters. Killing all the young that wasn’t his, I only survived cause I hid. I felt my vision start to go blurry.

I didn’t have a mate to protect and defend me if I was to even attempt to relocate. I felt my legs shake and attempt to give out from under me so I sat down before they could. My tail wrapped around my legs and I used my wings to hug myself tightly trying to comfort myself.

I was breaking down, and couldn’t stop the tears. As bad memories kept flashing through my mind I kept my eyes squeezed shut. I couldn’t hear anything around me, it was getting harder to breathe. The tears fell down my face like a stream, not slowing down.

“I was finally settling in nearly happy and almost content,” I said desperately speaking to myself “I can’t do this again,” I bowed my head still breaking down.

I growled impatiently to myself; this dragon was stubborn. "Look," I snapped, taking a step forward. "I would rather the humans didn't catch you, because it's my fault they're hunting you and I know you didn't do anything wrong except give one of the riders a little scare! If you don't leave willingly, I will drive you out, understood?"

I was a bit surprised, however, when she began to get all emotional. I had never seen a dragon act like this before; we were typically resolute and stoic... at least the tame ones were. I really didn't know what to say or how to respond to this, so I took a step back and sat down, quietly watching.

What should I do? I could sympathize with her; even tame dragons are very territorial and don't give up a home easily, however, she *had* to go, or the humans would catch her, and for a wild dragon they believed was causing trouble, that meant death. If I had to drive her out, I would, but I certainly couldn't right now, not with her crying like this.

When she spoke, I perked up a little, listening closely. A studied her for a moment, then gave a resigned sigh. "You don't need to leave your territory forever," I said. "Just leave for a week or so, until the humans think you're gone, then you can come back, and as long as you lay low and don't let yourself be seen by any of us, you'll be fine."