After days upon days of travel, he finally managed to make it out of that nightmare of a jungle. Whatever he did, killing that dragon set something off. He would find some of those night dragons strolling with some sort of colorful dragons in like small parties. He guessed them to be patrols as some were even holding torches.

He guessed them to be highly intelligent and now they must be searching for what killed the dragon…him.

He later learned that the multi-color dragons could actually blend in with their surroundings like a chameleon could change the color on it's skin for camouflage. That factor added to a few close encounters, like when one literally revealed itself right above him, but luckily didn't notice him and was focused on a mango tree.

'So hyper intelligent dragons, I'm in some kind of new world, what else?' He thought to himself as he saw a large mountain range off in the distance. The tallest was the two peaks that curved inward. Making a good vantage point.

'Would be nice to get some height, gain some bearing of where I am.' He thought to himself as he set a new goal, reaching the top of that mountain.

His journey was long, but he was able to make the trip to the base as he occasionally had to rest and make sure to change his bandage from time to time.

He made sure to refill his canteen whenever he came across a stream or a river and managed to conserve on rations by hunting the wild life or forging fruit and veg. He would use his M9 as it was the quietest thing he had with a suppressor on. Next thing he needed was some unwanted attention.

He would only take a ten minute break every two hours and would sleep for five hours every three days in a bivouac.

When he reached the base of the mountain, there were noticeable heavy bags under his eyes. He was exhausted. But he never let that stop him as he pushed on.

Upon reaching the base, he spotted movement along the mountain.

'The hell do we got here?' He went on a more cautious approach as he then began scouting the area. From his binoculars, he spotted something he was wishing to never run into. 'Great, more dragons.'

The mountain was covered in them as he spotted several clusters of all kinds of dragons in all different colors. Though they were smaller than the ones he encountered back in the rainforest and that occasionally flew over him. 'Must be young dragons or hatchlings. But what are they all here for?'

He needed to see more closely and his binoculars wouldn't help with that. He pulled out his most advanced piece of technology he had on him. His drone.

He tossed the little machine in the air as the propellers unfolded and began to spin, allowing it to fly. From his controller, he was able to see it's feed and navigate it to one of the small groups of dragons.

He kept distance so he wouldn't draw their attention and zoomed in on them from above. What he found was bizarre. A yellow sand dragon with what looked like a scorpion bard on its tail was reading, he assumed was reading, what appeared to be a scroll to a few smaller younger dragons of other races.

Finding another spot to look at, he found another group having a chat with one another as if they were buddies and friends.

Another group was smaller as one was chasing the others in like a game of tag or something.

'Either this place in some sort of daycare, or it's a goddamn nest.' He cursed as this would complicate his objective.

He maneuvered the drone back to him and retrieved it for later use. "Now how do I get up to that peak, without drawing their attention?" He asked himself as he assessed the area. It seems they were concentrated on one side of the mountain.

'That's it, assuming there are caves along the sides, I'll make my way up the mountain by one of the more dormant sides and take refuge in any cave I come across.' He made his plan as he was then on the move.

Two days into his climb, he decided to sit around a while and get some well needed rest as he was noticeably tired from his long hiking. He managed to find a cave to hunker down in for a while and make shelter, hidden from all dragon eyes. For precautions he set up some camo blankets along the entrance to hide it.

One day, he decided to scout out the surrounding area and survey where the dragons were so he could grow a better understanding.

"So…whatcha readin' today pal?" He observed a lone blue dragon with markings along its body as it read a scroll. If he had to guess, they must be as smart as humans if they could read and write stuff. He overheard conversations, mostly just being growling, and couldn't understand any of it.

"ROAAAR!"

"Hmm?" His attention was turned to a roar as he noticed four shapes flying in his direction.

Shell, a female seawing dragonets, flew for her life, covered in small cuts and bruises as a gang of three skywings were hot in her tail.

"Get back here you fish eater!" One of them called out to her. Just because she grabbed the fish first doesn't make it theirs if they saw it first. "Leave me alone!" She cried out as one made a grab for her tail but missed as she made a left turn.

'Need somewhere to hide.' She thought as she flew towards the mountain to try and lose them. She reached the other side and spotted a random cave to hunker down in. 'There's my escape.' She thought as she touched down at the mouth and trotted inside.

She watched from the shadows as the three skywings began looking around for her. "Where'd she go!?" "That bray can't hide forever!" "Search out and find her!" They scattered in different directions as they went out looking for her, not noticing the cave she was hiding in.

'That was close.' She thought nervously and grunted in pain and exhaustion. She gasped as she took a step, pain erupting from her right forearm. She inspected it and noticed a huge gash of blood, from her fight with them earlier.

CLICK CLICK!

A sound brought her attention as her vision adjusted quickly to the dark. It was then that she noticed some sort of small tent inside, along with other weird objects she had never seen before. 'Who would be camping near a sch-,' It was then that she noticed who or what was occupying the cave.

There stood, just bigger than her, in gray, a scavenger, holding some sort of weird object in it's paws.

She gasped as her brain possessed everything and she shook her head, thinking it was a hallucination but no, it was real. She looked into a pair of Ivey blue eyes as they seemed to be studying her. She took a step and it made a threatening motion with the device in its paws. It began speaking something at her but it wasn't in squeaks like the other scavengers did. More like deeper, more aggressive snarls and other sounds.

She crouched down and spread her wings to show she wasn't a threat. "H-hello?" She tried even though it probably wouldn't understand her.

He watched as the creature made a growling noise at him. It didn't look threatening but he wasn't letting his guard down yet. 'Alright, come on, give me a hint of your intentions.'

"ROARRR GRRRR GRRROOAAARRR!"

He heard more dragons outside as the blue one made a whimper and moved deeper into the cave, closer to him in fear.

It was then that he realized, it was trying to hide. More growling came from outside as the dragon was now meters away from him. He had his assault rifle up and ready at the entrance in case things got ugly, which he hoped wouldn't happen.

After an intense wait, the growling got more distant and quieter as the dragons outside left the area. The dragon inside turned its attention back on him as fear and curiosity laid within its eyes.

It suddenly yelp and fell over as it took a single step with it's right arm. Noticing the severe wound on it, something clicked in his mind as he pulled out the med-kit. The bandage on his forehead was long gone as a long scar marked where the bullet nearly killed him were it not for his helmet. Pulling out the bandage wrap and alcohol he set them on the ground and sat down with his legs crossed as he reached out.

Shell noticed the scavenger teaching out for her and immediately backed away from it. It advanced no further but made a non threatening gesture at her as it held a sort of white material. It looked like a sort of bandage wrap and she looked at her arm.

'Is it wanting to help me, but why?' She questioned herself as she was thinking this over. Eventually she approached and let it slowly grab her arm as it began wrapping the bandage around the wound.

"YEEEOOOOOWWWW!"

Her scales felt like they were burning up as the bandage made contact with the wound. She could hold back a couple of tears as she tried to pull her arm away but the scavenger had a real strong grip, and would not let go until finished with it's work.

Eventually it was finished as she snapped her arm back to inspect it. The pain was gone but replaced with a stinging sensation as she sniffed it. It smelled very odd but her arm no longer hurt when she moved it.

"Thanks, I guess?" Even though it wouldn't understand her. She moved a little closer as she observed it's form. It wore very odd and grey coverings of tiny square patterns and had a sort of objects, satchels, and bags around it. She noticed a sort of rectangular emblems of red and white stripes, and white stars surrounded by a smaller blue rectangle on its shoulders with an inscription she guessed was in scavenger language.

(ALWAYS BE READY 5.11)

Another emblem was below that which sported a black circle with what looked like a white scavenger skull that was seemingly disappearing on the edges, kinda like a ghost.

She spotted two knives on it, one on its arm, and another on it's chest. Unless those black sticks it carried were weapons, she guessed it to be some kind of fighter like a soldier. 'But what are you doing out here?'

She wanted to ask questions but then she remembered school. 'Oh no, I'll be late for history if I don't get moving!' She thought as she began leaving before waving at the scavenger. "Bye!"

She was surprised as it waved back at her, seemingly understanding her gesture. Of course she would tell no one of it, no way they would even believe her if she did.

Ever since the first visit from the dragon, it had come over to see him almost every day bringing with it several scrolls both with writing or blank, and inkwells. Obviously this was at least good in some way as communication would be important should it be needed during future events, so that's just what happened.

Her language, yes he confirmed it to be she, was more difficult than any language he took as it was more of growls and roars, kinda like Han Solo speaking Wookiee. Writing however was easy as they seemed to have an alphabet just like english, all he needed to match this with that and he was all set.

Names however were important.

"Grrr, hrmm, grr." She guestered at her writing and a seashell she took out from a satchel around her neck. He didn't need to translate her writing to understand but did so anyway just to confirm. 'Shell' was her name as she repeated it in her language, and in his.

"My name," He gestured to himself and gave an easy nickname for himself given the situation. "Ghost."

She looked at his writing and repeated in his and did her best mimicking his Language.

Through the days, this went on as she even managed to draw a couple of pictures of him. The result made him chuckle as it was nearly a perfect like life copy of his face on a piece of paper. He noticed how she used her claws instead of a quill.

"So, why you here, Ghost?" She asked him as he worked up a response. "I want climb mountain, see all around."

"Are you lost? Where you come from?" She asked him. He was a bit resident to respond as he didn't know how she would feel about the answer. "Yes, lost. I come from another world. I not know how I here."

He watched her as she made a confused look. "From, another world?" He nodded.

Shell entered the library as Starflight heard her enter. "Hello, who might you be?" The blind nightwing asked as his head pointed in her direction. "It's me, Shell." She announced herself. "I was wondering if you have any scrolls on hu-er uh, scavengers?" She corrected herself as she almost gave herself away after learning Ghost's species name.

He made a humming sound as he began feeling around the shelves for that section. "What makes you bring up that?" He asked her curiously. "Just a thought," She lied. "I heard some keep them as pets, so I got curious."

After a while he brought something to her. "Hope this is what you're looking for." She smiled at him and took the scroll. "Thank you."

'Scavengers: Small furry critters covered in animal skin. They usually live in small dens and seek out stealing treasure from dragons.'

None of that was like Ghost. She once asked him if he liked gold or treasure, his answer surprised her.

"No, take up space and weight. No use for it."

Ghost was a resourceful being as he only had things that were focused on fighting, weaponry, and survival. 'So what makes him so different from the others besides his size being much bigger?'

"Oh my, that sounds horrible?" She overheard the voice of Starflight as he was conversing with Sunny. "Yes, she said in the letter that they don't know what caused the wound and can not find anything related to it." The golden sandwing said with concern about something.

"Tsunami has gotten a bit paranoid now thinking whatever caused it could come into the Academy and harm our students, so she wants the school on high alert."

"I'm sure this school is safe with Peril around, I mean anything that touches her burns. Even my scrolls." He finished with a mutter at the end. "I'm not worried about Peril being able to fight for the school, it's just that, something doesn't feel right about this."