"I'm going to clean you up a little, alright?" Taemin hushed the Dragon. Onew looked at Taemin with a puzzled expression but did not stop the human when he walked up the Dragon's body. "It's going to hurt, I'm sorry," Taemin barely whispered. Taemin put both his palms over a lodged sword. With a determined huff, he tugged at the weapon and Onew howled loudly in agony.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Taemin chanted. The Dragon clawed on the ground and let out a pained roar that shook the entire lair. A few loose stones fall from the ceiling and crashed down to the ground because of the huge vibrations. Taemin gave the sword another tug, willing for the creature's agony to end quickly. Onew gave a loud cry, huge droplets of tears falling to create puddles of water on the rocks. Onew whimpered, his entire body tensed as he howled in pain. His huge arms were shaking and looked like they were ready to give way to his weight and yet he never once tried to attack Taemin. Taemin gave it a final pull and the sword came out together with thick blue blood gathering in the area where the sword had just been a moment ago. The Dragon flopped down on its tummy, breathing heavily with loud whines echoing the cave while the beast cried.

Taemin threw the sword away towards a corner of the cave. He used a spare shirt to soak up the blood and the Dragon groaned beneath him with eyes squeezed shut. "It's okay, it's going to be okay," Taemin promised. He hopped off the Dragon's back and approached the beast's eyes. He has heard many stories of the holy attributes of a Dragon's tears. He gathered a tear drop of pained water and used it to tenderly clean up the wound. Taemin wished he had something to wrap the poor Dragon in but the bandages he had were not Dragon-friendly since the creature was so large in size.

Taemin worked tirelessly, pulling out each and every sword, arrow and spear. The poor Dragon was howling and crying throughout the process but somehow, Taemin could feel that the Dragon knew it was for the best since he never hurt Taemin, even giving the human a few tired once in a while. Taemin was working the holy water down the long slash on the Dragon's wing, when he felt the Dragon growl. Even though Taemin couldn't see anything that would threaten the creature, Onew turned his head and grabbed Taemin's collar by his sharp teeth. Taemin felt his heart hitch at the close proximity of him getting eaten by a ravenous Dragon. He could feel the fiery breath of the Dragon against every inch of his body until Onew placed him down on the cold ground. Unconsciously, he let out a sigh of relief. Onew nudged him to a small corner in the rocky cave before using his huge tail to block him off. It wasn't much long after that Onew gave a ferocious roar - the same ones that Taemin had experienced the day before.

"Y-yea?!" an obviously scared tone shouted back. "I-I'm not afraid of you!" Onew took a shaky step forth and roared again. His tail flapped and moved slowly to hit down against the ground where the human easily jumped away from. Onew used his head to nudge his attacker away just like he had done with Taemin. Unfortunately, at that instance, a sword drove in between his eyes, making Onew cry painfully again. He roared and shook his head desperately in attempt to rid the sword.

At the loud howling, Taemin stepped out of his hiding place with worry to see the soft-hearted Dragon hurt and crying again. The anger surged within him. He had spent the entire morning and afternoon torturously listening to those heartbreaking cries with each bloody weapon he pulled out. The Dragon has lived with these wounds for god knows how long before he came to tend to them. The thing that annoyed him the most was that the Dragon did not do anything to deserve any of this. To even think that he was one of those who had been supposed to claim a scale and even to slay this innocent beast, made him sick in the gut. Taemin picked up a dirty sword - one of those he had thrown aside when patching the Dragon. He saw the other Knight-in-training doing the same, but the other did not seem to notice his presence. Instead, the other was taking aim to hit the Dragon once again.

Taemin charged forth with all his might, swiftly knocking the rookie on his back. He drew the sword against the other's throat and hissed beyond the howling in the background. "Leave or die," he offered, digging the sword even deeper into the other's skin. Taemin barely heard a gasp in return before he was pulled away by the collar.

"What are you doing?!" Taemin protested, struggling fruitlessly against the hold. "He's going to hurt you, you idiot!" Onew completely ignored Taemin's pleas and set the screaming boy upon his own wide back. In the meanwhile, his attacker got over the shock and raised his weapon against Onew's claw. Onew pushed the other away not so gently and gave another loud intimidating roar. Before he could recover, Onew picked the man up by the collar and marched to the exit with Taemin gripping on for dear life on the Dragon's back. Onew threw his aggressor away so that he landed outside the cave - startled but not too injured.

"And stay out there, you heartless fool!" Taemin shouted after, a fist raised in the air. Onew gave a warning roar in harmony to Taemin's shouts. Taemin pat the Dragon approvingly on the back and on cue, the Dragon turned and returned to the lair once again. Taemin took a precautious glance backwards and he is almost certain the poor Knight-in-training had wet his pants. On the other hand, the Dragon seemed even weaker after the ordeal, stumbling back tiredly and finally falling to the ground and curling up like a kitten. His old wounds were all bleeding and he was losing a huge amount of blood. Added with the lack of food, Taemin couldn't even bear to think about how long the Dragon could survive like this. Taemin hopped off the Dragon's back, walking up to face the giant head on.

"Onew..." Taemin cooed pitifully, the Dragon's scales gently. Onew let out a low pained whine in response. His eyes were only half open while he bored into Taemin's tiny figure. He gave Taemin a lazy which the human had grown to get used to after the entire day before the Dragon seemed to let out a sigh. Taemin soothed the Dragon, running his palm up and down against the Dragon's golden scales. Taemin climbed up to sit on Onew's nose, still comforting the Dragon while he tried to gauge a good timing to remove the new blade. Onew seemed to understand as he slipped his eyes shut in anticipation and a slow tear rolled down his cheek.

"Shh, it's okay," Taemin lied, patting the Dragon sympathetically. Taemin gripped the stem of the blade with one hand, then the next. He used his feet as a support but before he could tug it out, the Dragon already gave a loud yelp. Taemin stumbled back onto Onew's nose while the Dragon turned his large body around. Facing them was the Knight-in-training running down the hall with a glowing scale cradled in his arms. Ironically, it was Taemin who growled this time. "Get back here, you !" he screamed in a fury. He climbed down Onew's nose and picked up a stray sword while he ran after the other.

"Can't you see that he's badly hurt, you heartless creature?!" Taemin was nearing the entrance and he could see the other Knight-in-training mounting on his paragliding gear and checking for loose clips, when Onew wrapped his tail around Taemin's body protectively. "Let me go! I'm not letting him get away with this!" Taemin shrieked. He watched Onew shake his head slowly, his eyes sad but he was smiling slightly. Taemin swore that the Dragon looked nearly human at that moment.

"People will continue hurting you if you don't learn to fight back!" Taemin slammed the stem of the sword in his hand down mercilessly on the Dragon's tail. Onew's grip on him only tightened. Taemin found himself getting dragged back to the cave while staring helplessly as the paraglider took off the edge of the cliff. Onew brought Taemin back to his side and gingerly at the human's face, letting out low whines like a puppy asking for a patting. Taemin dropped the sword to the side and hit the Dragon with his bare fists. "Now isn't the time to be all possessive; he took your scale and you let him get away!" Taemin shrieked. Onew nuzzled Taemin with his nose, blowing a strong breath on the human with a snort.

"I don't even..." Taemin hissed in frustration as he shook his head. "Are you asking to die? Because with these people coming every other day, taking one scale at a time, sooner or later they would want more. Your teeth, your claws, someday they will take everything you have! You'll die!" Taemin choked up. Onew gave a low whine, Taemin again. 

"Do you even understand me?!" Taemin shouted angrily. Taemin spread his arms wide to grip the either side of Onew's nose. "You can't just give your scales away, Onew." Taemin pointed to the side where his bag laid. A glowing scale laid beneath it where Onew had given it all too willingly. "You can't just rip those scales out and give them out! You need to fight back, stupid." Onew gave a stout grunt as if in understanding which only made Taemin sigh tiredly.

"Never mind, let me clean you up, okay? I need to head back down as well. I'm running short of food and my family's probably getting worried about me. I'll bring back as much food for you as I can and get something for your wing." Onew gave him a questioning whine and a tilt of his head. Taemin shook his head again, still highly doubting the Dragon understands what he was saying. He climbed back up on Onew's nose and this time the Dragon released his grip of his tail on Taemin, helping him up instead.

Taemin pat the Dragon with a sigh. "It hurts, doesn't it?" Taemin the swell around the weapon and the Dragon tried to hide a wince. "See? That's why you can't let people take what they want just like that," Taemin tried to convince the Dragon. "If you fought a little harder, they wouldn't hurt you like this. Maybe you don't want to hurt them, but look at how badly they have hurt you," Taemin hushed. A low hum gurgled from the Dragon's throat and Taemin returned it with a humorless chuckle.

"I really wish you could understand what I'm saying." 

Don't be fooled. This story (at least till where I have written it) is not like any of my other fics. For one, the angst is much lower (which is why I don't tag it as angst but that doesn't mean there is none), the fluff is much higher (though not so high that there is no plot so I don't tag it fluff as well) and there will be crack (or at least I attempt to but I have a bit of an Onew condition myself so I'm not going to tag it crack at this moment because it is still semi serious). Yea, this story is a mix of many emotions made to make you feel sad, happy and asdfggjkk at the same time hahaha. 

I don't even know how long it would go because I still have many ideas to run this through. But with Onew not speaking, makes it a little hard (but funny at some points as well). 

Updated Mar 10, 2014