Naela didn't know if she had a thing that humans called parents or family. Much like many of the other wyverns, she was abandoned soon after hatching. She was forced to fend for herself from a young age, and she had the instincts to do it as well. Though, there was something inexpiable that separated her from other wyverns.
Unlike her kin, Naela didn't find infinite joy in simple activities. While hunting and flying were joys, she longed for something more in life, even from a young age. Her cousins would fly around and catch food or be killed. That life seemed to be something they reveled in, but Naela didn't. Her propensity towards curiousity led her astray.
Even though most wyvern's weren't highly intelligent, they knew to avoid human contact. Humans never forgot when someone attacked their own. Naela'd witnessed her fair share of wyvern's succumbing to prolonged human attacks after her kin had attacked first. It was naturally understood. Avoid the humans, and hope they avoid you.
But what happened when fate made it impossible to avoid them?
She remembered the day as if it was yesterday. Her curious nature drew her further away from her homeland. She'd traveled almost half a continent away and entered unfamiliar forest territory. A territory where wyvern sightings were rare. It was during a normal hunting routine that she encountered something she couldn't beat.
Naela swooped down for a stegosaurus, readying her claws for a swift kill, yet she didn't expect that the prey would strike back. Her swift attack was met with swift reluctance to be eaten. On her way down, the dinosaur turned its tail towards the attacker as if it had seen her coming.
Magic channeled up the creature's spine, and its armor plates flushed with red, burning crimson through the brown skin. Naela's instincts told her to dodge, but it was already too late. The collision course had been set by her momentum.
The stego's tail whipped faster than the wyvern could react, and sharp spines caught her in the sternum. Naela heard the cracking of her own bones and severe pain flashed through her system. She smashed into the ground leaving a trail of broken trees and thorn bushes in her wake.
Though, to her horror, the attack didn't end there. The creature was determined to make sure she didn't live to kill another one of its kind. She heard the thumping of its large feet.
Despite the pain coursing through her chest and the large amounts of blood, she readied herself for a fight. She channeled small red flames into her mouth and turned to face the beast. Yet, before she could finish, a flash of blue lightning fell from the sky.
There were no clouds, and it was a sunny day. Still, the lightning struck true. It rippled and distorted the air before slamming into the stego. The attack coursed through the creature's body and turned it into a blackened, crispy form of what it once was.
Naela's eye darted around the forest in confusion, eventually spotting the attacker. It was a blue-robed adult human, holding a wooden staff as tall as he was. The wyvern's heart sank, and her already readying fire was poised to strike quickly. Maybe if she struck first, it would end with her victory?
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the man said. "I have no intentions of harming you. In fact, you look like you could use our assistance."
The wyvern heard the words, but they didn't make sense in her mind. She was only able to pick apart bits and pieces. It was the tone of the voice that stopped her flames. That and the rapidly growing pain in her chest. The initial shock was fading, and the sharpness of the pain became more pronounced. She stumbled forwards and fell with no energy left to fight. As her consciousness started to fade, she heard the voice of a peppy girl.
"Are you sure about this?"
"They only said we have to take care of it. They didn't say we had to kill it."
///
When Naela opened her eyes, she was beneath a moonlit sky. The stars hung above in the black abyss, and a nearby campfire warmed her snout. She raised her head and two humans stirred.
The man readied his staff, and the woman got behind him for protection.
Naela noticed her wounds were healed, and the pain from her fight was long gone. She didn't try to attack her saviors, and she didn't move. She let the panic of her wake fade from their faces.
The cat girl breathed a sigh of relief, her long white tail waving uncomfortably behind her. "I am glad your intuition was right, or else I would have stabbed you and took off running."
"Of course, my intuition was right. Have you ever doubted it?"
The cat girl gave a sly smile but didn't say anything else.
Both of them looked towards Naela as if she was something to be studied. It was the man who put down his staff first. He placed it against a fallen tree and used his hands in some sort of calming gesture.
"My name is Doran," the man said, "and this is Ka'nesh."
Ka'nesh smiled, her fluffy, white ears waving around. "It's a pleasure to meet you, miss dragon."
Doran clicked his tongue. "Not dragon. Wyvern. You will do well to remember that."
Naela could only understand a few words, but a couple of them registered in her mind. Doran and Ka'nesh.
They hung in her brain, and some part of her being understood what they meant. She knew they were names. Once that thought came to light, she tried to give her own name. Though, the only sound she could make was a strange growl that sounded foreign to the ears of humanoids.
"Oh, is that your name?" Doran asked.
"It just sounded like a growl to me." Ka'nesh looked at him with a wry smile and a shrug of her shoulders.
"No, you had to have heard the end of the growl. The rolling of the tongue? It was like 'gnaaaaela'." A grin played on Dolan's face and he pointed up at Naela. "Do that again!"
Once more, she growled.
"See, 'gnaaaaela'!"
Ka'nesh laughed in spite of herself. Then she seemed to nod reluctantly. "Now that you had her do it again..."