Disclaimer: I don't own anything HttyD related. Every such thing belongs to their respective owners. This spawn of my imagination is solely for entertainment, not for moneymaking purpouses.

Have fun!

Part One: Beginnings

Prologue

November 14th, 2039. Château Gaillard, 95 kilometres northwest of Paris.

Silence. No birds chirping, no whiffs of talk, even the wind stopped whistling through the stones of the age-old ruined fortress. Just the plain, dead, and ominous silence; accompanied by the impenetrable fog. Perhaps it's the worst part of the war; the calm before the storm. When all you can do is to wait for the inevitable to happen.

The Night Fury, standing in the top of the ruined bastion in the middle, let out a frustrated sigh. At the same time, a human climbed up on the ladder behind him.

"What's up, Lohengrin?" he asked, sitting down on the parapet. "See anything?"

"Nah. Visibility is down to a hundred, even I can't see through this fog. " Lohengrin growled, clawing the stone in frustration.

"You seem pretty tense." the man commented.

"Something's about to happen, Walt." the dragon replied, and he also sat down, tail curling tightly around his legs. "Those bastards aren't going to sit still for long."

"Oh come on, we've been camping on this rock for ten days, nothing has happened so far." Walther tried to calm him, but even he knew his argument was weak. Under them at the courtyard, every soldier was unusually quiet today.

"The scouts are coming back." Lohengrin reported, ears perking up as he looked down at the river. Two other Night Furies just climbed out of the water, moving silently towards the crack in the castle wall.

"Let's go find them." Walt said, standing up and looking at Lohengrin questioningly.

"Nope, I told you I'm a dragon, not a mule." he stated, and jumped into the air, gliding down elegantly to the ground. Walther just sighed, as he climbed down the ladder to his friend.

Dragons working with humans weren't an unusual sight these days. Everyone thought back in the December of 2012, that the world was coming to an end. They were wrong, the world changed instead. Nobody knew how, but dragons suddenly began appearing, causing upheaval amongst the human population at first. Then, as people realised dragons are sentient beings too, everyone became excited about them. Their intelligence and curiosity drove them towards human cities, many of them ending up as pets or even workers, peacefully integrating into human society. The majority of the dragons however, remained out in the wilderness, living in their own groups, by their own rules. A lot of scientists failed to provide an explanation, where were all the dragons living all those years? According to popular theory, they always had been around us, we just couldn't see them.

Lohengrin and Walt walked towards the two returning dragons. The two noticed them, and then raised their front-right paws to their foreheads, mimicking a human-like salute, definitely a strange sight for the untrained eyes.

"Flight Lieutenant Daweryn and Flight Officer Flink requesting permission to report." the female said.

"At ease."Lohengrin said, returning the salute and sitting down on his haunches. "Go on, Daweryn."

The female let out a worried huff.

"Things are looking pretty bad, sir." She began. "We saw a lot of fresh mortar emplacements aiming this way, and they're stacking up lots of ammunition. "I think we can expect an assault relatively soon."

Lohengrin looked at the male dragon, who was showing obvious signs of uneasiness.

"Got something to add, Flink?"

"Not much, Boss." He replied. "I bet the shit's about to hit the fan in a day. Or less."

"Phenomenal." murmured Lohengrin, as he got up on all fours. "Be sure to get to the mess hall and eat something, then find Walt for recording and filing your report. Dismissed."

The two nodded, and walked away towards the main castle building. "Princess and Postman" as everyone else dubbed them, were the most professional pair when it came to slipping behind enemy lines. Daweryn used to be the heiress of a wild Night Fury clan, while Flink worked in the mail service of Switzerland before the war. Lohengrin found it remarkable for someone coming from such a high background, to get along so well with someone coming from quite the opposite, but they were the best working pair together.

"We have to go and report this to Colonel Bryce." Walt said, interrupting Lohengrin's musing.

"Yeah, let's get all courteous with The Overlord of Douchebagery himself." Lohengrin spat out in despise.

Walt tried mightily to hold back his laughter.

"What do I have to do to make you stop calling him that?"

"Unless you can pour some brain into his skull, then forget it. He's the most talentless, retarded, lame excuse for a commanding officer I've ever seen, and that's one glorious achievement."

Colonel Frank Bryce was sitting behind his desk, writing something, when he heard a knock on his office's door.

"Sir, Major Lohengrin and Lieutenant Colonel Walther von Hohenfels requesting permission to enter!" the guard shouted.

The colonel let out an irritated sigh.

"Come in."

A Night Fury and a soldier in his mid 30s stepped in, and then saluted to the colonel.

"At ease. What do you want?"

The dragon growled something menacingly, earning a warning poke from his partner.

"Sir," Walther begun "Scouts are reporting a large concentration of enemy artillery pieces and munitions build-up at the other side of the Seine. According to their opinion, this likely means an impending assault, and we're advising to put the garrison into full alert."

"Whose authority was this reconnaissance mission on?"

Walt gulped.

"Members of the 17th Special Recon Company performed the operation, by the orders of Major Lohengrin."

"Do I have to remind you about your orders from High Command?" the colonel asked coldly again, looking at the Night Fury.

The dragon shook his head, and probably rolled his eyes, Bryce wasn't sure.

"Your company is here to provide reinforcements to my garrison. That leaves no room for flying around, especially not unchecked! If you dare to disobey an order once more, you can expect yourself court-martialled along with the rest of your unit. Understood?!"

The dragon shot a killing look at the colonel, and growled again, baring his teeth. Bryce looked at Walt for an explanation.

"Sir, the Major would like to draw your attention to..."

"UAV scans and air recon showed nothing significant! Unless they prove to be unreliable, I'm not willing to give credit to a ragtag bunch of flying reptiles, who..."

Lohengrin stood up and roared furiously at the colonel. Walt jumped in front of him, to prevent the situation escalating any further. Tearing a commanding officer into pieces would surely not look too good on their service records.

"D-dismissed!" The colonel shouted as he stood up from his desk, his chair hitting the wall behind him. On his way out, Lohengrin shot another hateful glare at him.

"Phew." Walther closed the door behind him, and the pair began to walk down the stairs, to the castle courtyard. "You should really watch your temper..."

"My temper?! Brain-dead idiots like that guy cause nothing more than longer casualty lists! Didn't you hear how he spoke about-"

"I heard everything, but it doesn't mean you can blow up like that." Walt interrupted calmly.

"At least you could properly translate what I say."Lohengrin growled.

"Hey, I'm a dragon whisperer, not an idiot!" the soldier laughed "If I said only half the things you whinge about out loud, we'd be hanged for sure!"

As they stepped out from the main building, they noticed the rain starting to fall.

"How great. Just when I finished scraping the mud from my scales..."

"I can't believe how vain you are sometimes." Walt teased.

"I just attend to my personal hygiene! Unlike some of you hairless monkeys!"

Walt laughed at the outburst, and shook his head again. They were walking towards the quarters of their unit. The "Quarters" consisting of piles straw in a building which used to be the castle's stable. Nothing spectacular, but at least it had a roof. Albeit one with a lot of holes, nothing is perfect after all.

"Do you hear that?" Walt asked suddenly. He noticed a sound strangely resembling a giraffe's dying screams...

"Spirits, it's Voron trying to sing again..." Lohengrin dropped his head resignedly. The dragon's name was actually Zhavoronok, but nobody could say it out loud. So he was either just Voron, or...

"LARK!" Lohengrin roared out loud "IF I HEAR YOU SHRIEKING ONE MORE TIME, YOU'LL BE DIGGING LATRINES FOR A WEEK, UNDERSTOOD?!"

The especially annoying screeching noise ended abruptly.

"Yes, sir." came the cheerless reply a few moments later. The soldiers in the courtyard could barely stop guffawing.

"I can't believe he's still trying after all these years..." Walt lamented.

"And he isn't showing any signs of improvement."Lohengrin growled "I swear I could tear his tongue out sometimes, if he wouldn't be so good at his job... Or we wouldn't be so low on manpower."

"Don't be too hard on him, at least he entertains the crowd every time!"

Lohengrin froze in the middle of their walk. His earplates became jittery, breathing tensed, then suddenly his pupils narrowed to slits.

"What...-"

"INCOMING!"

A shell hit the ground nearby, spraying mud and shrapnel everywhere. Quickly followed by dozens of others, the air became full of the hissing sounds of incoming artillery bombardment. Chaos erupted instantly between the soldiers, everyone shouting and running around, seeking cover.

"We have to get everyone to the dugouts!"Lohengrin yelled, and started running.

"Get to the trenches immediately!"

One after another, all ten Night Furies came up, and jumped into the nearest dugout. After a huge explosion, Lohengrin saw a soldier sprawled out in the mud, he had taken shrapnel in the leg. The Night Fury ran over, bit into his uniform and dragged the man to the nearest cover. After they were relatively safe from the drum fire, Lohengrin quickly scanned the area, looking for the rest of his unit.

"Boss, come on, get over here!" Flink cried out from an other foxhole on the other side of the yard.

Lohengrin probably ran faster than ever before in his life, adrenaline rushing through his veins as he zigzagged over the cratered remains of the courtyard.

"What a stupid way to wage war..." he thought in disgust.

He was only a few dozen metres from Flink and the others, when he got caught by a huge flash of light right beside him. He was momentarily blinded, and felt a terrible burning sensation on the left side of his face, then felt himself becoming incredibly light, as an invisible force picked him up into the air, twisting him around like a leaf in the autumn wind.

His mind quickly fell into darkness, embracing the warmth of utter silence.

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