Eon walked through his wood. He had his head lowered to around his shoulder height, wings tucked in close to his sides as he made his way through a narrow stand of trees. This allowed him to just barely pass underneath the underside of the canopy, thirty feet up from the forest floor. The guardian dragon was on a regular round of his forest, looking out for signs of trespassers.
He paused. Around the base of the trees was a brushing pattern... as if someone had been covering up footprints...
"NOW." A gruff voice called out.
Eon tensed as a large rope net plummeted out of the branches above him, weighed down with stones. He didn't have the time to duck out of the way and began thrashing his bladed tail, rearing back to try to cut free with his claws as well. At the agitation, faint green-gold dust dislodged from the ropes.
The dragon let out a groan of dismay as he felt a familiar tickle in his snout. He started to hold his breath... then realized this might be just what he needed. He snorted powerfully, dragging the dust into his nostrils. Almost immediately, all the air he sucked in was expelled sharply as a sneeze.
His whole body burst into a white cloud of mist. Or more accurately, a cloud of mist in the shape of the dragon was left behind when he instantly shrunk to a mere fraction of his mighty height. In the chaos of the net falling and the obscuring fog already starting to dissipate, Eon slipped through an opening in the tied-together ropes and spread his feathered wings. Beating them like a hummingbird, the tiny guardian dragon jetted out into the woods.
"He's getting away!" Another voice called out.
A group this coordinated could only be dragon-hunters. Eon didn't want to be caught unawares before he knew just what he was dealing with. He darted around the trunk of a tree and landed between two branches, staring back.
Stocky men dropped out of the trees surrounding the magical mist that he'd left in his wake, already almost fully dissipated. One rode down the trunk using the sharp beard of his axe to slow his descent, dug into the bark.
Eon breathed a bit sharper. That axe was definitely iron. Not steel... Steel he could deal with. The metaphysical properties of pure iron made weapons forged from them quite effective against magical creatures. A quick glance around told him that each of the other hunters wielded a weapon of iron as well. He had to determine a way to deal with this threat, glaring at the harm done to one of his trees for a brute to not have to climb down.
But first, he had to find a place to hide until his body regained its normal stature.
"There he is!" A hunter with a spyglass was pointed right for the spot in the tree Eon was perched.
The tiny dragon flailed for a moment, flipping backwards and then rolling onto his front as he leapt off the tree on the far side from the hunters. Spreading his wings, he began to fly once again, zipping through the foliage of the canopy. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest... it had been some time since he felt this panicked.
He had a vague sense of where he was headed... perhaps the small town at the edge of his forest would be a good place. Such hunters wouldn't expect a dragon to be there...
Diving towards ground level as soon as he left the cover of the trees, Eon fluttered through the tall grass. Up ahead he saw a large barn. The loft's height and the tall doors made him think it would be an acceptable place, as it would fit his natural size easily.
The reduced dragon flew towards the structure, perking as he heard heavy hoof-beats from behind him inside the forest still. Eon accelerated, buzzing just behind a wandering burmecian to stay out of sight before sharply ascending, flying up the side of the barn to the open hayloft. Once inside he landed, peering out at the tree line.
The hunters emerged from the forest on horseback, galloping through the tall grass. Eon couldn't tell if they were headed for the barn or just generically towards town. But he did see the hunter with a spyglass scanning around ahead of them.
Backing away from the open loft, Eon dove off of it into the main area of the barn below. Using his wings to manage his decent, he landed in a haystack, as the doors rattled and the frame creaked... The dragon wasn't sure if that was just the building settling... or the wind...
The hoof-beats came to a stop right outside of the barn.
"You sure this is where he went?" One of the hunters from before spoke on the other side of the large wooden doors.
"The pollen of the moonflower trailed behind him on his flight." The hunter who held the spyglass before said. "Told you it was a good idea to coat the net first."
Eon's heart sank. He stared at his body, and back at his wings. Indeed, clinging to his scales and feathers was a fine powder, faintly glowing in the dim light of the wooden structure.
"Yeah, yeah..." The third grumbled dismissively.
"On the count of three." The first voice said, apparently the leader of the band. "Three!"
The barn doors slammed inward as the whole band of hunters surged into the room.
Eon froze in place. His eyes fixated on the iron spearheads, axe-heads, swords and daggers... He couldn't think straight, no escape strategy in his mind.
Yet another voice called out, not from any of the hunters. A younger voice, with a burmecian accent. "MAGNETAGA."
A glowing orb of darkness formed in the air between Eon and the hunters. The lit aura highlighted the rounded spines spinning and twirling over its surface. At the same time, each iron weapon was yanked from the grip of the dragon hunters, drawn into the pointed sphere and spinning around its core.
Eon looked up for the source of the spell.
To be Continued!
EonaRider !
