Vasuki continued her work - sometimes briefly pausing and trying to use her claws. She was a dragon, after all - slight fire immunity and all that. It wasn’t complete, she could still get burnt, but at least she was able to withstand the intense heat coming from the plane to an extent.
She didn’t know what his supplies looked like, though. And that was a problem. “Are you able to reach your things now?” Vasuki paused, again looking towards the fire.
She had torn a large hole in the plane, and as Max studied it, he decided he could make it to his bag from there. He nodded, very much feeling dizzy as he stumbled towards the plane and made the mistake of once again touching the metal. it was even hotter now, and as he looked at the sheer size of the hole she had made, he wondered how she had held up against the heat. "I think so," He said, pulling his sleeve over his hand as he pulled himself onto the wreckage, grimacing every time he brushed against the metal.
The fire spread rampant, and it made his job immensely harder as he reached towards his bag. It wouldn't survive the fire, and he tugged on it, frowning as it didn't move. He needed to move before the fire reached him, but he also needed his bag.
She waited for him to retrieve his items, but when she saw he was unable to pull his bag out, Vasuki immediately had a plan.
The dragon stood up slightly, reaching forwards with her forearms past the human and towards his bag. Mindful of her own strength, she gently tugged on it, trying to loosen the bag from its spot. Without looking down, Vasuki spoke. “You should probably get some distance, just for your own safety.” She knew most dragons were good with heat, but humans probably weren’t. Vasuki hoped she’d be able to move the bag, though. She’d feel quite terrible if she wouldn’t be able to save it - or the human, to add on.
The bag didn't budge as the dragon pulled on it, and upon closer inspection, there was clearly a piece of metal bent around it. It wasn't a huge piece, but it hooked around one of the straps, keeping it firmly in place.
"I need to get my bag," He replied, frowning and pulling on it himself. He was thankful for the help, but he wasn't going to leave until his bag was free. Not only was there supplies in there, but it held his only way of communication, and pictures of his family. Max yanked on it, burning his arm on one of the hot pieces of metal in the process but not relenting. Not even as his head spun and the dizziness from earlier grew stronger.
“And I’m going to get your bag for you.” Vasuki responded, her voice as calm as possible. She continued to try and move it for a few more moments, before she presumably discovered the root of the problem, the metal piece.
She carefully maneuvered her claws over, hooking them around the band and trying to pull. She was definitely feeling the heat a bit more now, if only because of how long she had been in close proximity of the fire.
“Stop touching the metal,” her voice came out a bit rougher. “You don’t have the same resistances as I do.” Truth be told she wasn’t trying to be aggressive, but she was noticing how the human had been brushing by the metal, which was definitely hotter than the rest of the materials.
This metal piece was strong, but with enough effort, she did get it to bend backward enough to slip the strap out. By now the wreckage of the plane was burning hot, and Max was still stubbornly trying to help with his bag. Any metal he touched made him hiss in pain, mostly because it was hot enough to burn holes in his uniform, a few larger pieces actually burning him.
"I need to get my bag out, I'm not trying to touch the metal," He replied, shaking his head to force away the dizziness. Max yanked on the bag, gritting his teeth as the flames burned inches from his feet.
“But you’re still touching it,” Vasuki growled, slowly losing patience. “Fine, just get your bag out.” She hoped she’d pulled back the strap enough, because her attention was now on the flames. She attempted to stamp out what flames she could with her feet, but tried to avoid touching the metal for long periods of time. Vasuki wasn’t excepting any real progress - she just wanted to delay the fire, give the human more time.
He gave one more hard tug and the bag came free, landing heavily in his arms and causing him to stumble back against yet another piece of hot wreckage. Max yelped at that one, scrambling away and getting far away from the plane as the fire took hold of the place he had just been standing. There was no way he was getting his plane back. Even in his dazed state he could tell that.
He cradled the duffle bag to his chest as he staggered away from the fire, glancing at the massive dragon as he did so. Within seconds he was sitting, mostly because his knees buckled beneath him. "Thank you," He said, very much meaning it.
She peered down at him, moving away from the fire. “You’re welcome,” she responded after a moment or two. Even though she was still interested in the human, her voice was noticeably less enthusiastic than before, probably because of the whole fire ordeal. Though, Vasuki knew with happiness that she had successfully assisted in saving the human’s belongings.
As for the contraption…she cast a wary glance at it, covered in fire. Probably not. The thing would be a reminder of what happened once.
“..What is your name, human?” Vasuki asked after a brief pause.
"Max. Max Dimont," He replied, clearly searching for something in his bag. Max sighed in relief as he pulled out a smaller bag, this one clearly labeled in French, 'medical'. He wasted no time opening it, pulling out what he needed and focusing on wrapping up the gash on his forehead. There was surely other wounds, but that was the one he had to focus on the most.
"Do you have a name?" He asked after a moment. It seemed rude not to even ask if the dragon that had helped him save his bag had a name.
“Vasuki Es Sagolj,” her answer came quickly as though she were ready to give it right away. She watched him patch himself up.
This was the first time she’d ever met a human, and had a conversation with one. It was too early for Vasuki to give her opinion on him - Max, his name was. “It’s nice to meet you, Max Dimont. Where did you come from?”
He didn't respond until his wound was covered with thick gauze, and even then, crimson red blood was already seeping out of it. "I'm from France, born and raised there. I still live there too, even with the war. It's nice to meet you too, Vasuki." Max turned his attention away from his head as he talked, studying the cuts in his uniform and trying to determine if it was even worth trying to patch them up. They weren't as bad as his head, but they could still get infected. Yet, the amount of work it would take to get them covered was more than he had left in him. At least he could tell that.
What seemed to be a smile slipped onto her features, but faded when Vasuki went back on what he just said. France - it was a distantly familiar word to her, one she’d only read in books. But what really caught her attention was the word war.
“Wait. What do you mean, war?” Vasuki asked. The dragons had fought their own wars, but not in centuries. And they had very little outside contact with the world - most likely none - meaning they were not up to date with the events of the world.
(Pardon the late response, I had a longgg day with work…I'll get something up in the morning I promise)
"The war?" He replied slowly, seeming quite confused that she didn't know what he was talking about, "The second great war?" Max touched one of the harsh burns from the metal on his skin, the fabric around it burnt. It hurt like hell, but to treat it properly he would need to take off his uniform, which was going to be quite a task. "It's been going on for years now."
As he talked, he glanced around at the island, taking in more of the area with slight nervousness. The fact that there was a literal dragon sitting in front of him was finally sinking in, and he was growing much more nervous. If those teeth could tear through metal, he would be torn apart like paper.
Her voice was filled with puzzlement. “Second? There was one before that?” Vasuki knew of war - but the dragons hadn’t fought in centuries. She had no clue of what the humans were doing outside of everything. “I haven’t heard of any war. Any recent one, anyways.”
He nodded, looking up at her with a look of slight confusion, "This is the second great war in about twenty years, you didn't know that?" Even the smallest towns in Europe knew about the war, and it surprised him when Vasuki didn't know about. Somewhere as remote as wherever this was couldn't be that out of date with things with the world.
“No..” She shook her head. “The dragons haven’t fought in centuries. You say this is the second one in twenty years? And who are you even fighting against?” Vasuki pondered what was out there that the humans had to fight against.
"The Axis powers," Max replied, his voice taking on a harder edge, "Germany Italy and Japan as well as several other countries." He shook his head, "My country surrendered three years ago, but I've been trying to fight for the remaining countries against them." He looked up at the dragon, still amazed by her sheer height compared to him.
Vasuki took in what he had to say. Countries were inhabited by humans, she knew that much. But what really took the dragon by surprise was…
“So you’re fighting against….other humans?” Her tone was one of disbelief. The stories she’d heard portrayed humans as a perfect species, with no need to fight each other. For her to learn that what she knew was far from the truth was hard.
He nodded once, head tipped to the side slightly in question as he asked, "Who else would we be fighting against?" Ever so slowly, once he was finished looking over his wounds, deciding that all the ones that weren't bleeding were fine, he stood. It took effort, and he was dizzier than hell when he finished standing, but he had gotten to his feet. Ever so slowly, he grabbed his bag, then shakily made his way over towards of the trees that he hadn't crashed into.
There was a long pause. “..Other dragons?” Vasuki couldn’t quite comprehend the idea of humans fighting. All the stories she’d heard were of humans, the perfect species, who turned against the dragons long ago, hence why the dragons keep to their little island. Her head was slightly tilted, and as she watched him, she followed.
"Dragons are myths, the don't exist in the real world," He replied, shaking his head as he sat down. Though calling him collapsing to his knees him sitting was very much a compliment to the attempt. Max looked up at her and shook his head again, "You're most likely nothing more than my imagination, and even if you aren't…I'm not sure." She had to be part of whatever was left of his messed up head, no matter how many times she had proven that she wasn't.
She stayed silent, before a smile seemed to cast onto her features. “I’m not apart of your imag-“
There was something that suddenly seemed to catch Vasuki’s attention, something the human was unable to detect at first. She spun around, careful where she stepped, as whatever caught her eye became clearer. There were footsteps, but not of a human, something of similar size to Vasuki. And they were fast. Two of them emerged from the trees, one, Vasuki could recognize. The other was of familiar scent, but not visually recognized. One of her aunt’s warriors.
And there was Nokae. Nokae was one of the only dragons who had white scales, meaning she stood out, both against the environment and other dragons. She had a frill of spikes around her head, and two long horns in them. She caught sight of Vasuki, first.
“Vasuki, we’ve been tracking you down, ever since we heard that explosion. We-“ She stopped, as her eyes wandered over to the other individual.
The other warrior, who had brown scales, whispered something in draconic to Nokae.
Whatever friendly features she had before vanished, for Nokae‘s scaly lips curled back and she let out a low rumble of a growl. “Vasuki, come to me…” Nokae switched over to Draconic immediately. To a human, the language would sound rough, guttural.
“Nokae, wait. He’s fine. He’s a good human.” In attempt to calm the other two dragons down, Vasuki tried to convince them that any fears they had against the humans were misplaced.
If one dragon was enough to freak Max out, then the two that emerged were enough to thoroughly terrify him. Almost instantly he froze, sure that these two new ones were going to eat him. Vasuki had assured him that she wasn't going to do that, but he wasn't sure about these two. Especially with the rough noises they were making between each other.
All he did was stay right where he was, reaching around slowly for his bag to grab whatever semblance of a weapon he could. His eyes never once left the white scaled dragon, as she seemed the scariest between the three of them if he had to decide. That was the one that was going to kill him.