Dragon Hunter

Chapter 7: Silver Words

Snarling silently, Cooper pulled out his sidearm and twisted to empty it at the voice's owner. And watched in dismay as every round, as well as those that Morgan fired, slammed into some kind of invisible shield before dropping to the floor with a metallic rattle, their deadly momentum completely absorbed.

"Peace, Cooper Jacks," the speaker said, holding up a hand even as Cooper ejected his magazine and slammed a fresh one in.

Chambering a round, Cooper took aim. Then just as quickly dropped his gun. What was the point, if this guy's shield just blocked everything?

"Ah!" the newcomer said with a smile. "As quick on the uptake as the reports said you were."

"Fuck you, pal," Cooper hissed, standing up to pull out the hunting knife he kept sheathed in the small of his back. If a bullet couldn't go through, maybe a knife would

"Who are you, and what do you want??"

The newcomer, still standing mostly in shadow, looked over at Morgan, who had also reloaded but kept her weapon trained on him. He then looked back at Cooper, a slight smile playing over his lips.

"You can't tell, dragon hunter?" He asked.

Cooper grunted as his abilities kicked in without warning and he found himself looking at a targeting map of the man, much like he would if he was a dragon. And he could sense his thoughts ...

"You're Koriyaku, a silver dragon in were-form," he said slowly. "And you're here to tell me about the book and what it contains."

A blink and the targeting map disappeared. But not the connection to the transformed dragon's mind. No doubt suspecting the connection's existence, the silver dragon decided to speak regardless.

"My colleagues thought it was a fool's errand to go searching for you, Cooper," Koriyaku said in a casual tone. "They reasoned that between the elvish invasion of your realm, and the Scale Empire's subsequent assault, you were killed in the resulting tumult."

"Surprise!" he hissed sarcastically.

"Indeed." Then the speaker stepped into the light and Morgan swore out loud.

"I know you!" she said. "You're that Kainai survival engineer down by the water plant! Uh, Mark, Mark Running Buffalo!"

The lean figure, now revealed as a handsome Indigenous man in practical clothing, his long hair pulled into a tail instead of the more traditional braids, bowed elegantly.

"That persona allowed me to scan the enclave's population for Cooper, once my scrying spell determined he was in this location." He smiled. "Many of my fellow operatives prefer taking indigenous personas. We find them closer to the spirit of a place than most humans."

Cooper's frown only deepened. This dragon in a man suit wasn't just extraordinarily chatty. He also didn't seem to have a problem with humans. Unlike the ones out there that burned them down when they could.

So what made him different? Then something that he read in the first few pages of the book stirred his thoughts.

"You're from the Naphthos Confederacy!" Cooper abruptly exclaimed as the realization hit him.

Koriyaku looked over at him and inclined his head.

"And as astute as we hoped you'd be," the silver dragon in human form said.

"But wasn't the Confederacy defeated by the Scale Empire?" Morgan asked, her gun finally dropping.

"We were," Koriyaku admitted. "But we weren't destroyed. Now we work where we can to undermine the Empire's efforts to finish their conquest of the Garden. Starting with the use of one of our oldest, but most powerful spells." He looked back at Cooper.