sometime in the fourth age, southern lands of Middle Earth
"No"
"Yes"
"No"
"Yes"
"Pen-channas. You cannot keep it"* Ristor swept back a strand of dark hair with great annoyance, though the hair was not the source of said annoyance, but the elleth crouched on the ground in front of him, with a drakeling perched on her shoulder. Yes. A drakeling.
"Don't call me that. And calm yourself, you are scaring Uruloke"*
"Oh wonderful, you even gave him a name..."
They were making good progress. They finally got solid hints that would lead them to the oasis where hopefully they would find the local elves and give them Lord Cirdan's message. Traipsing in the sandy terrain he thought to take a slightly roundabout way so that they could be sure to not meet anyone, as brigands and other unsavory characters made that region their home... but of course as luck would have it, they were not alone.
A group of Umbarrim came the opposite way, escorting a cage loaded on an enormous wagon and inside it... Ristor sighed as Earcalie's expression lit up.
"Look at that! See there are real drakes in this Valar forsaken lands I knew it!"
"Hush! You want to get caught? Let us hide behind that rocky outcrop ahead". The two elves disappeared from sight behind a pile of rocks yet thanks to the higher ground they could see the group of men pushing the wagon. Earcalie squinted her eyes to take a better look at the drake. It was smaller in size than those she saw in Eriador and Rhovanion, but it didn't mean it was less dangerous: it was slumped on one side as if asleep, wisps of smoke escaping its maw as it breathed. Each talon equipped with long and sharp claws, even the wings ended in razor sharp points and it had horns above the eyes and the scales were a deep blood red. Earcalie thought it magnificent.
"What are they doing? How did they manage to capture such a beast?" she whispered to her companion.
"I heard about it... it is tradition that there should always be at least one serpent for spectacles at the Arena, and some poor souls are sent to fetch them. Drugged, by the look of it"
"Drugged or no, I never knew anyone in the northern lands who would ever try to capture a drake... serpent... for entertainment. These people are either very brave or very stupid"
"Or both, like someone else I know" Ristor quipped, with a meaningful side-eye directed at her. "Oh, funny..."
SQWAAAAWK!
An acute yell resonated around them, close. "What was that?"
"I think I know... wait! Ugh, like talking to a wall" the ellon sighed again as Earcalie climbed up a set of rubble pieces belonging to a fallen tower on top of the outcrop. He scrambled to follow her, finding his traveling companion crouched in a big nest, giddily offering a strip of dried jerky to the creature who emitted the sound.
And that is how they found the drakeling, likely left there waiting for his parent's return unaware of the men from Umbar. "We can take Uruloke with us, teach him to scout ahead for us, woul--"
"Absolutely not. Even you know that creatures such as these can not be tamed, no matter how small they are"
"Nonsense, look" she took another strip of jerky, extended her arm and pointed it to the drakeling, who sniffed at it before taking a small leap and chomping it in a single bite
"He ate it because that's what drakes do, not because you told him to"
"So what you expect us to do? Just leave him here to fend for himself? I'd never thought you would do--"
"It. is. a. drake. Unfortunate, but there is nothing we can do to help, and..." he swiftly put his hand behind his back as the creature snapped at it "...we have somewhere to go and I do not want to be delayed even more because you suddenly decide to be charitable towards a menace"
"You are scaring him" the elleth scowled at Ristor, interrupting him in turn. He could scarcely believe what he was seeing. In his life, he never met anyone who would try to befriend a drake, or serpent of any kind that wasn't a servant of the Enemy. Well, there is a first time for everything he thought, to his dismay. The fact remained that they could not bring the drakeling with them, it was dangerous and he had to convince the elleth to give up.
She was now trying to make the creature fly in circles around her coaxing it with the strips of jerky. "Those are our rations. A drake can get its own food, even a youngling can hunt critters, birds and fish"
"We still have the lembas"
"Which we are NOT going to eat save in great need, and we don't need it yet. Say goodbye to your friend and let us resume our mission. Now"
"Don't tell me what to do. You can go if you want, I'll catch up eventually". Ristor was about to throw a scathing reply at her, when they heard another noise from the road north. Where the line of the desert met the first palm trees near Umbar city, a line of smoke rose in the sky. They heard the bellowing of wings before even seeing what was coming at them. Without caring about being shouted at, the ellon grabbed Earcalie by a wrist and all but dragged her as high as they could go on the rocky outcrop, hiding behind a portion of tower who still miraculously stood up, shielding them from being spotted by the same adult drake (or serpent as the locals said) they saw being transported away. Apparently he managed to escape his captors.
They watched the drakeling call and the adult land on the nest, huffing at the little one who climbed on top of the parent's back with its small but already sharp talons. They stared at the pair as it flew away in the opposite direction in search of a new place to nest, most likely. Ristor silently thanked the Valar for taking him out of a tricky situation, folded his arms and gave a severe stare "Can we move on now? As I told you, nobody can hope to train a drake". Earcalie looked much annoyed, but surprisingly complied and followed him down the rocks. "At least I won't get out of here empty handed"
"Meaning?"
She grinned, and produced three shiny blood red scales from her belt pouch "Found them in the nest. Who knows, maybe we shall meet those two again"
Ristor closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose and for the umpteenth time sighed, wondering how many more delays this elven menace was going to cost him "I certainly hope not..."
translations:
*Uruloke: fire breathing dragon, Quenya
**Pen-channas: you idiot, Sindarin
