"THERE haven't been any unusual credit card activities from the area, Master Tern. And before you say it, you know full well that I cannot track cash transactions, never have been, and never will unless you can figure out a program for miracles."

The hunter growled in aggravation, the light of the computer monitors flashing dangerously in his eyes as his hand came down on the nearest console.

"You know you're the one who has to fix these things when they break."

"Mention it again and I'll recycle you," he growled and shoved his hair away from his face. The dragon chick was still out there, lurking in the shadows, taunting him with its very existence. After a month had passed, Tern had given up the hunt for the small dragon. No one else knew about it's existence; it's energy emission were two muddled with that of its mother for anyone to distinguish it in the readings; he had only found out about it after taking down what he assumed was its mother. He had been reckless, overconfident, and the chick got away. After a month of tracking it, he had pushed the small dragon to the back of his mind, positive that the creature had fled the area. Any smart creature would have with a hunter like him nearby.

But this dragon was young, inexperienced; it didn't know danger when danger was staring it right in the face. That was the only plausible explanation to why it had stayed so close for so long. It was afraid of leaving, or it was looking for something, someone. Tern's eyes narrowed. He had forgotten all about the baby dragon – or maybe forgotten wasn't the right word for it. The baby dragon had been stored in a box and placed on the top shelf of his mind for a later date. If the dragon was outside of the immediate 250 square miles, then it wasn't his problem to deal with anymore.

But the dragon wasn't outside the immediate 250 miles, in fact it was wasn't even outside twenty square miles. It was here, it was close, and it was prospering. Someone was bound to notice. The tension in his jaw grew tighter. Too late for 'bound to'; someone had already noticed, they knew of the dragon and it was only a matter of time before rumors started spreading. Tern wanted to believe that no one would trust the word of a madman who cried 'dragon' but unfortunately, people still believed the majority of the things they read on the internet, so he knew his faith was ill placed.

The hunter balled his hand into a fist and rested it against his lips as he thought. "No dragon gets away from me in my own territory," he muttered into his hand, sinking back into his chair as his eyes flickered between the dozen or so flat screen monitors the plated the back wall. Several feet away, AIMED was quietly clicking away at the handful of keyboards and touch screens that laid before it, processing more information in a blink of an eye than any normal person could do in an entire day. The hum of monitors grew louder the harder Tern tried to concentrate, until even the gentle purr of AIMED's motors sounded like dragons screaming for mercy.

Tern's frown deepened.

The gentle glow of the computer screens was beginning to hurt his eyes. The sheer darkness of the room, in stark contrast with the monitors suddenly seemed blinding. Tern groaned and moved his fist to his forehead as he squeezed his eyes shut. "AIMED, turn down the brightness on these things. I can't think like this."

"But Master Tern, my cameras aren't strong enough to distinguish some of the focal details if the brightness goes any lower."

The hunter turned to glare at the bot. "You were programmed to be smarter than this. Stream any visual files straight into your main hard drive. I can feel a headache coming."

"Another one?" The robot paused. "You really should see someone about that."

"AIMED."

"Right, I'll shut up, sir."

Tern slouched back into his chair and shut his eyes as what little light was already in the room, dimmed even further.

He knew full well that there was no way to track the dragon chick digitally anymore. His thermal dimensional detection system only worked on a dragon within its first 24 hours of arrival -- and that was at best. This dragon was small, it worked off its excess energy emissions much quicker than the others. Tern had lost him before he had even gotten the chance.

There was only one way left to go about finding it. The hunter slowly rose to his feet before reaching over to the other side of the console where his hunting belt laid on a side table. He would have to go searching on foot and bring it in himself. The hunter chuckled to himself as he fastened the belt around his hips and secured a smart cuff onto his right wrist.

"What's the weather like?" He asked quietly as he walked to a cupboard in the back corner on the far side by the door and pulled out a small pill bottle. The rattling of tablets quickly became the loudest thing in the room as he shook two pills into his palm and swallowed them dry. Tears sprung to his eyes as the tablets scraped uncomfortably at the inside of his throat, and he found himself coughing loudly over AIMED's answer. "One more time," he growled as he swiped a bottled water off the top shelf of the cupboard. The lid grated painfully against his fingers and the snapping of the seal sent a shot straight to his head, but he ignored it and quickly gulped down a third of the bottle without thinking.

"Partly sunny with mild cloud cover in most areas," AIMED repeated. "There's a strong east tailwind too, it's bringing in another storm, which should be covering the entire city at any point between noon and one o clock today."

Tern nodded silently and walked back to his seat, water in hand. Already the pain medication was beginning to kick in and he found that he could see stare at the screens without as much strain. "Master Tern," the AI spoke suddenly. "There is a cross dimensional spike emanating from the South District."

The hunter moved to watch over the robot's shoulder. Sure enough a large thermal beacon was transmitting from an abandoned area of New Lacklan's south district. It was much larger than the ones Tern was usually hunted, but the thought didn't bother him too much. "Looks like I'll be needing that storm after all." A sly smile raised the corners of his lips. "Send the location to my mobile, and I'll take this one down later."

"Sending now."

His dark jacket fanned away from his body as the hunter quickly spun around to move toward the door. "I'm going to look for the dragon chick. Make sure Matthias is rested and that my spare gliders are charged for tonight."

He was halfway across the room when, "Sir?"

He paused." What, AIMED?"

"How is Master Lait doing, sir?"

For a moment, the hunter didn't reply. Finally, he just sighed and continued walking. "You can check that yourself. Stay focused."

Just as he was reaching out for the handle. The door swung inwards and Tern's hand instantly shot up, catching the door an inch from his. He moved to peer at the figure on the other side even though he already knew full well who it was. The building wasn't a high traffic destination for visitors. Tern let the man in with a sigh.  "Mr. Forester, to what do I owe the pleasure."

"It was so dark in here that I didn't think anyone was home." A tall, broad shouldered man in a long black rain coat stepped into the room. He paused for a long moment to allow his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting before slicking back his jagged hair with one hand and offering the hunter a warm smile. "Tern, how are you doing today?"

Tern's lips pressed his lips into a hard line as he glowered into the eyes of the man in black. His smile held no warmth, unless one counted the burning fire that smoldered behind his sunken eyes. Tern shoved his hands into his pockets and braced himself, for talking to this man always felt like rubbing your naked body against a sheet of broken ice in winter – cold and bloody. "Skip the pleasantries, Forester. There are things I need to do."

"Hostile today, aren't we? Then again, I suppose that's nothing new with you." The newcomer smiled again and started walking a wide circle around the hunter in the dark.

Tern ground his teeth and didn't move, opting to instead watch the man carefully out of the corner of his eyes. "What do you want?"

"Right to the point as always, then, alright." Forester stopped so that he was standing with his back to the computers monitors, making it so that his shadow was even bigger in the aching darkness. Tern narrowed his eyes as he felt his headache returning. "I came to alert you of another target emerging in the far end of the south district."

"I'm aware of it," Tern replied monotonously.

"Then you are leaving to retrieve it now, yes?"

"No."

"You are to take down all the dragons. We have an agreement, Tern." There was a threat hidden deep within his words, and the room wasn't dark enough for the hunter to miss it.

"Not now, Forester. I --"

"Are you not going to honor our agreement, kid?" The hunter stiffened. "Because you know what --"

"Not now," Tern repeated, his voice falling to match the man's icy. "You know how I work, Mr. Forester."

"Ah, back to Mister, are we?" Forester stepped forward so that his face was barely an inch away and the hunter could feel his hot breath fanning against his collar. "This one has the potential to cause quite a lot problems for us, Tern. You should get this over with now." Despite his words, the tone of his voice suggested that there was no choice to be made in the matter.

Even so, Tern stepped away and shook his head. "Matthias is tired, and you know as I that my cloaking devices are unstable during the day," he stated with his back to the man. "If you just came by to warn me of another dragon, then rest assured that my systems are as functional as usual and that you have no need to worry. Have a nice day. Shut the door behind you on the way out."

"If you don't do this now, anything that happens in the next 24 hours will be on your shoulders. I won't be able to help you anymore."

Tern could hear his teeth grinding together as he spun around to face the man. "What do you mean?"

"This one has the potential to deal a great amount of damage. I know you don't want that any more than I do." A spear of light split through the room as the man in black opened the door. "Think it over, Tern. You have fifteen minutes before it emerges. That should be enough time for you to make your decision."

The man let himself out and the room grew dark. Tern waited for the sound of footsteps to disappear from the stairs before spinning around and slamming his hand on the wall. "Damn it," he growled, glaring at the closed door. He was pinned and he knew it. The hunter quickly dug his finger less leather gloves out of his pockets and pulled them on mechanically.

"What are you going to do, sir?" AIMED asked. Even the AI sounded tired.

"The dragon chick has waited this long, I suppose it can wait a little longer." Tern replied in a low voice, turning to the door so that his back was to the screens. "I'll try to make this fast, but if I don't make it back in time, make sure Lait has something for dinner."

"Yes, sir."

The world grew bright as Tern left the room and started climbing up the stairs toward the converted top floor holding chambers where his dragon was bound to be resting. On the way up, he stopped to pick up a pair of mechanical wings that were each about as long as he was tall. He quickly strapped the gliders over his dark jacket, so that they were closed vertically across his back.

Tern sighed before jogging his way up the stairs. "I'm sorry Matthias, " he murmured to himself. "But duty calls."

Somewhere in a room below him, a child tossed violently in his sleep.

A/N

I'm really not sure how you guys will react to this one. We have the inner musings of a dragon hunter about the one prey that got away. Even though I do not like people hunting dragons, it would drive me insane too. By the way, TamiAlber let out my crazy elf dude the last time we saw the dragon hunter, so if you see a crazy guy about 5'8'' with giant orange eyes, pointed ears, and a flute, steer clear.

Drawing up above done by the amazing angelina316. I know I mention her at least once per chapter but the art speaks for itself. (I did the hair coloring tho).

Are you still so quick to kill the hunter? And who the hell is the man in the black raincoat? Some crazy stuff is about to happen man, so what do you forsee in this calm before the storm?