Chapter 4 - Dragons in the forest!
Ren apparated Bevon and Howel up into the densely forested part of the nearby mountains several valleys to the north. They were ancient woods; thickly forested and dense, so a good place for them to hang out without being seen. Also, there was plenty of deer, a handy source of food. Considering their size, the three dragons were remarkably quiet on the forest floor, hardly a twig was snapped, they kept in stealth mode, almost invisible but not quite gone completely. They were still big, so if anyone approached, they would revert to dog, cockerel, and sparrow hawk to be small enough not to be seen, hopefully.
The three of them had been there now for three days and were getting rather bored. It was a good time for them to get to know each other a little better, bond a little, appreciate each other's prejudices, differences, and talents.
Howel was still a little aloof but knew that the three of them had to engage a whole lot better if they were to be an effective team in the future. Howel was by far the oldest at six hundred-odd years old. He felt that being senior in years should earn him a little respect, but dragons being dragons, that didn’t work at all, he was, after all, the least magical of the three of them. Something he didn’t want to admit, not even to himself. He still had immense power and was exceptionally talented in mind games for a Purple Dragon. So Howel struggled slightly to fit in and tried his best to suppress his slight attitude problem.
Bevon was trying to be the funny one, trying to lift their spirits with a few jokes and a bit of fun. He wanted so much to be friends with the two other dragons, even Howel who he still thought was a terrible snob, and like many teenagers, he thought that humour was the way to make friends. At home in the Dragonlands, he was treated as a bit of a weirdo, an outsider, different from the rest, because he was in his own words and mind, cultured, and not quite as mad as the other Red Dragons, he had a serious side, a profoundly serious side, but he also had a fun side which he wanted to develop and explore. Being a Red Dragon, he was far more magical than Howel, and he was also a battle dragon, he knew how to fight well, and fight hard and dirty. After all, he and Jon had recently taken on and defeated a dozen Blue Dragons, so he was definitely a fighter. Bevon however still had an attitude problem and a distinct lack of respect.
Ren had a slight affectation of superiority which he was wise enough to know about, and how to suppress it. He also knew that they all had to work as a team and any feelings of grand hauteur would not endear him to anyone. He was, of course, a Golden Dragon, he may have been the smallest and the youngest of the three, at just one hundred years old, but magically he was way, way ahead of both Howel and Bevon combined, and could out-magic and out mind bend them both. Ren was also mindful about his looks, the other two looked like ferocious dragons with huge wings to carry their immense size and weight, and they had large muscular bodies. Whereas Ren, his wings were more ornamental as he did not need them for flight, his body was more like a long and bulky snake or lizard, although well muscled, and incredibly strong, he felt he didn’t look the part in the same way that Howel and Bevon did, and this made him feel very self-conscious.
It was not long before their bonding was put to the test. A large 4X4 utility vehicle came up from the valley and stopped quite close to them. Ren and Bevon had never seen such a contraption before, so Howel quickly explained telepathically what the thing was that they saw.
Out from the vehicle stepped a couple of pikey poachers with some very illegal bear traps to catch deer. The three dragons communicated quickly and thought they would have a little fun with the poachers. Ren, being the most magical of them all morphed into a magnificent Red Stag. Bevon thought it would be quite funny if he were almost captured by the two poachers, knowing they could not harm him even if they tried, he may have been the size of a large chicken, but he still had the strength of a Red Dragon, and even in cockerel mode, he could still shift their two tonne 4X4 from one side of the valley to the other with one kick, well, maybe two! While Howel thought he would amuse the two men and snap at their ankles. So, a small plan was hatched.
Ren clucked a few times, then let out a loud “cock-a-doodle-doo,” and walked close to where the men were. The poachers got extremely excited.
“Look! It’s a blooming great cockerel, he’ll go well in a pot with some onions and carrots,” one of them said. The other guy retrieved a sack from the truck, and they tried to creep up on Bevon. Bev led them away from the van and down a little way into the forest. Clucking as he went. Howel then launched into action, barking, and snapping at their ankles making them move even further from the truck. Both dragons then disappeared, leaving the poachers in some confusion. Bev then reappeared standing on top of the 4X4 doing another “Cock-a-doodle-doo,” the men ran back to their van to try to capture the elusive bird only to be faced with a massive stag, the biggest they had ever seen and looking frightfully angry.
Ren charged at the men who ran down into the valley, Howel then chased them up again and straight back into the path of Ren. Meanwhile, Bevon flew in through the open 4X4 window and started beeping the horn. The men were being chased from pillar to post by Ren and Howel. Howel was of course only a small Jack Russel dog, but through his mind-bending magic was able to instil a greater fear into the two poachers than his size suggested. Eventually, they made it back to the truck and jumped in, only to find Bevon sitting on the back seat with the keys in his beak.
“Give us those keys you stupid chicken,” the driver said as he lunged towards the keys to grab them. His hand was met by the talons of Bevon sinking into his flesh with a vice-like grip. Not only would he not let go, but the man couldn’t move Bevon at all, he was the size of a cockerel, but, when he wanted to, still the unmovable mass a one and a half tonne Red Dragon. Bevon stood there looking the man straight in the eyes. He flicked the keys out of the window and straight onto one of Ren’s antlers.
“Say please next time,” Bevon said in his deep resonating voice.
The two men screamed, Bevon imitated them and screamed back. He let him go and they both leapt from the van, blood gushing from the driver's hand, and ran as fast as they could back down the mountain track towards the main road.
Ren then apparated all three of them just passed where the men were running and as they got to where they were, they stepped out onto the path in front of them blocking their escape route. Ren standing in the middle of the track, Howel standing on his left and Bev stood to the right, all looking aggressive! The two men slid to a halt on the muddy track.
“Boo!” said Ren.
The men screamed again, they turned, ran back up the hill to where their truck was parked and leapt back in. Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! As they jumped into the van, bear traps snapped onto their ankles. They screamed even more. The pain was terrible. They were now experiencing their own cruelty.
A few minutes later, a random police patrol from the town just happened to drive up the track. Well, not that random. Ren had ‘suggested’ to them to come up the track with a little mind-bending. They opened the van doors to see the two men, screaming with pain, rusty bear traps on each ankle cutting deep, right down to the bone and rambling like madmen about a talking chicken and a talking deer. Half an hour later, a mountain rescue 4X4 ambulance came and took them off to the hospital, still shouting about talking animals, and with the bear traps still cutting into their ankles.
None of the others saw or heard the three dragons who were almost wetting themselves with silent laughter. Once everyone had gone, they returned to their normal guise.
“I think it would be better if we were somewhere more remote.” Ren suggested, “may I suggest a little spot I know in China? The Taihang Mountains.”