The dull pain in Jeonbae's stomach did not get better, his vision becoming blurry at times. He slid down against a nearby tree in the great plains outside of gold village. Undoing his robes briefly, he noticed a spidery scar stretching to just below his chest and around to his spine. The area was discolored to almost black from the impact, the properties of the dragon bone sheathe having an effect on his body. He clumsily put his robes and shirt back together, He felt helpless. In his current state, it would be impossible to go back to the Gold Village, and his magic was taking a while to return, so he may as well surrender himself to the Hunters if he challenged them at all. Not to mention that he had some kind of internal injury. He coughed up some blood, unusually dark, and struggled to stand up again. He felt good enough to transform and fly back to the tribe, but that would be abandoning them to a fate far worse than just death. His eyebrows furrowed as he thought about what to do.
You could just destroy Gold Village but keep the other dragons alive, that would probably work.
He shook his head. That was a crazy thought, rarely did Dragons destroy human settlements and whenever they did, a war against them was sure to follow. No, he had to think about it more carefully. He could probably summon thunderclouds over the entire village, but carefully control it so it only struck the Hunters' Lodge. Once he had regained his strength...
His thoughts were interrupted by the coarse shouts of several men, about a mile away. Jeonbae snapped around to see who was approaching, and saw a party of six hunters, armed with various guns and in their trademark green cloaks. His heart skipped a beat as he realized they were looking for him. He ducked down and started crouch-walking, making sure to not make any sounds. However, the hunters had approached in far less time than they had expected. One of them yelled out at the sight of rustling grass, and before long, the sounds of gunfire echoed throughout the prairie, bullets whistling past him tearing through the verdant grass around Jeonbae. Suddenly, the booming crash of a cannon echoed throughout the prairie, and moments later, a cacophonous impact burst around him, sending him flying. He remembered flying up in the air and hitting the ground, pain bursting from his wound, darkness suddenly closing in around his vision, and his mind drifting off.
A rough jostling woke Jeonbae up as he felt himself being dragged along roughly. As his vision adjusted to the dim kerosene lighting, somber stone walls took shape around him, with forbidding wood and iron doors flanking the passage. He recognized this design from many years ago...
"The Hunters' Lodge..." he murmured sadly, realizing that he had failed and been captured. He did not have his robes on, instead dressed in a plain and somewhat ragged white shirt, with loose, equally torn tan pants. He felt the cold metal of a collar fastened around his neck.
They must have taken your robe with all that stuff in it, good job.
Jeonbae was brought back to his senses as the men dragging him stopped abruptly in front of a door. They opened it and dragged him roughly inside, throwing him inside a cage. The impact jarred him again, the pain in the wound doubling once more. He sat up painfully, resting against a bar, before he noticed the others inside. Aksaja, Winter, Aster. The lack of Chu in a cage gave him hope for a single moment, but fear rushed back as he saw the three dragons captured.
"Oh, I was wondering when you would show up with him," a deep, rumbling voice said. He recognized that voice from long ago, but could not remember. A grandfather dragon stood over them, looking down at Jeonbae's cage.
"It didn't take long, dragon-infused weapons are truly wondrous." Jeonbae didn't pay attention, a pit growing in his stomach and gnawing away at his heart as he tried to hide his shame. He was the grandfather of the tribe, and he had failed to protect the children of the tribe. He had no idea how Mirazan would react... it was unforgivable. He did not cry, but he did not want to show his face either.