As he looked out through the silver net that protected the giant metal machine, Slangfang locked eyes with a startlingly beautiful female dragon with smooth onyx scales and glittering purple eyes. He stared into her hypnotic eyes as he slid back into the treetops. Once he was out of sight of the black dragon, he turned and fled. He dropped down to the forest floor and danced across the ground, moving quickly with his long tail that resembled a snake trailing behind him. His short legs looked as if they might be a hindrance, but they actually made him faster. His four eyes darted this way and that, searching for the secret banyan tree that led to his home.

As he slid to a stop in front of the large tree, a dragon popped out of the secret entrance. He sped away into the forest, zooming off in the direction of the metal forts. Slangfang ducked into the tunnel and emerged into the beautiful landscape of the Reptilik village. He dashed off in the direction of the scouter’s hut. He burst into the room and rushed to the head’s desk.

“Another transport vehicle.” He gasped, out of breath.

“Noted.” said the head scout, Gila. “I’ll send extra scouts to the settlements. You have the rest of the day off.”

“Thank you,” Slangfang said and walked over to his home. He ducked inside the building and went down into his room. As he entered, his pet python greeted him with a hiss. He petted her absentmindedly and sat down at his desk. He pulled out some paper and began another of his sketches.

After a few hours, he had finished the drawing. The black-scaled dragon with her hypnotic purple eyes looked directly into his once again, only drawn out in charcoal. He set it down and went over to his bed. He lay down and drifted off to sleep thinking: Don’t dream about her knowing perfectly well he would anyways.

…

By the time Slangfang’s parents and younger siblings were awake, he was already away in the treetops, making his way toward the new dragon settlement. As he approached, he heard many voices nearby.

“We’re here!”

“Ugh. we’re here.”

“Omigosh I’m so excited!”

“This is gonna be boring.”

“It’s just snakes and plants.”

Slangfang drew closer and found another net, enclosing a huge building with a snake curling delicately around a leaf. In big bold letters across the top, it said “The Museum of Fangyro.”

“Huh. Typical.” Slangfang muttered. “They always call this jungle the ‘Fangyro Kingdom’ or whatever. It’s the snake jungle. Easy peasy pineapple squeezy.” He crawled higher into the trees to get a better view of the dragons below. He noticed that the black-scaled dragon was there, peering around at the jungle.

Slangfang moved a little deeper into the trees to prevent anyone from seeing him. Hmm. She’s a security threat. he thought. He focused his first pair of eyes on her while gazing around the rest of the clearing with his other pair.

“I’m telling you, I saw it!” The black dragon said. “There was like, a snake dragon or something in the trees!”

“Sure…” A brightly colored dragon nearby said. “Except no dragons are living in the jungle, you bozo.”

“Hmmph.” The black dragon said. “Thanks for nothing then, Rainbow.”

“I believe you saw something!” Rainbow said. “I really do Kryptonite. It’s just that I find it hard to believe that what you saw was a dragon.”

Slangfang moved farther into the trees and then dropped to the floor without a sound. He slithered up to the fence and waited until the voices had gone inside. He then wound around the gleaming silver netting until he was behind the building. He slit open the bottom of the netting and ducked under. He ran up to the building and took out a small bottle with reddish liquid inside.

Slangfang swiped the ground and quickly lined the newly created hole with a leaf. He poured the liquid onto the leaf and let it rest. He then drew out a long rope of solidified firefang snake venom. He laid the tip in the other liquid, then trailed it across the ground to the fence. He ducked back under and let go of the rope. He then took out a match and lit it. He used it to light the rope, which started a slow, timed, fuse.

Slangfang then extinguished the match, threw it away, and then flew up to the trees, and looked towards the building. He saw the fire slowly burn up along the rope until it reached the pool of red liquid. Slangfang knew what it was. It was the venom of an explosifang rattlesnake, which would explode violently on contact with the fire.

The fire had almost reached the venom.

It inched closer.

And closer.

Until it touched the venom.

And then the building shook with a huge explosion that completely demolished a portion of the back wall and sent debris and dust into the air. Within about ten seconds, two dragons came running out. One as black as obsidian and the other as colorful as a rainbow. They tripped and fell, sliding down, down, down, straight toward the gap at the bottom of the fence.

They slid straight through the fence and continued into the forest. Slangfang raced after them, tracking them with his golden gaze. They rolled and tumbled, crashing into stones and roots along the way. Finally, they rolled off of a small cliff and fell into a pile of mud.

Slangfang dropped down from the trees and extended his claws and tail barb. He looked up into the dragons’ gazes and smiled. He stepped forwards, and both dragons stepped backward. This happened two more times before Slangfang got bored and lunged forwards in an attack. The black dragon dived to the side, rolled around, and sent out a bright purple flame above Slangfang’s head. The other dragon jumped backward and hissed, baring her fangs.

Slangfang jumped upwards into the air and landed behind the black dragon, who whirled around to face him. Slangfang reared up his head and his mouth dropped open. His two primary fangs dropped down from the roof of his mouth as he lunged forwards. The black dragon dodged just in time and lashed out with her claws as Slangfang flew past her. Her claws sliced across his side, causing a flash of pain. Slangfang growled, then jumped up into the air, threw down a small round object, and hid in the treetops.

The object hit the ground and exploded into a cloud of dust, blinding the two dragons below. The colorful one opened her mouth wide and slowly drew in the dust into a glowing ball of energy. The dust was very quickly sucked into the glowing ball of white light until it was completely gone. The colorful dragon then looked up into the trees, searching for her attacker.

What is she doing now? Slangfang thought. He peered down to see better, and the colorful dragon turned to face him. She then, very suddenly, shot the ball of light out of her mouth, which zoomed towards Slangfang. It smashed into his face with a booming sound. He was launched back into the trees.

He grimaced in pain as he righted himself. He dropped down to the forest floor smoothly and stalked closer to the pair through the underbrush. He smoothly pulled out a long, very sharp, blade from its sheath.

He held the blade firmly in his right hand as he stepped closer. He then burst from the plants around him and brought the blade down in a swiping arc aimed at the black dragon's arm. To Slangfang’s complete surprise, it bounced off harmlessly with a loud clang. Before either dragon could react, he launched upwards into the trees again.

“Ok, I’ve had enough of you!” The black dragon snarled. “Show yourself already, you coward!”

“As if!” Slangfang called down from above.

“Hey!” yelled the colorful dragon. “You attacked us!”

“I needed to.” Slangfang shot back. “Your unusually hard-scaled friend is a security threat to my village.”

“Excuse me!” the black dragon yelled angrily. “I am a princess! Nobody calls me a ‘security threat’! That’s so undignified!”

“Being dignified is the least of my concern,” Slangfang said. “My biggest concern is killing you two.”

“Excuse me!” the colorful dragon yelled. “Killing us! That is so rude!”

“Rude! I already said this.” Slangfang said.  “I. Don’t. Care. About. Being. Rude!” With the last word, Slangfang launched downwards and slammed into both dragons, knocking them backward. He then jumped backward and flared his wings. He closed his primary eyes and gathered energy. Smallish green bits of light appeared out of nowhere and slowly moved in towards Slangfang’s wings. The energy then spiraled around his wings and down his long tail, extending it until it was three times as long as it used to be.

Slangfang dashed forwards and threw his long coiling tail around the black dragon and the colorful dragon. There was a whirling mass of scales surrounding them both before they were wrapped tightly in the coils. They struggled against their scaly restraints before stopping. Slangfang rose above them, climbing on his tail. He stalked forwards and looked into their eyes. He smiled.

“We’ll start with introductions. You first.” He said.

“We’ll never coopera-” started the colorful dragon, but she was cut off by a slight squeezing of Slangfang’s tail. She gasped slightly, and he loosened his coils.

“Well?” he said.

“I am Kryptonite,” said Kryptonite.

“I am Rainbow,” said Rainbow.

“And I,” Slangfang said. “Am Slangfang. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Suddenly, Rainbow practically unhinged her jaw and bit down on Slangfang’s tail. He yelped in pain and lost concentration on his spell. His tail shrunk down to its normal size in a second.

Rainbow and Kryptonite dashed away through the forest while Slangfang was still recovering from the shock of what had just happened. He snarled in fury and raced up a tree until he was above the secondary tree line but under the primary tree line. He jumped into the air and flew swiftly through the trees. He rapidly gained on Kryptonite and Rainbow until he was just above them. He smiled to himself and dove downwards.