Yerig lightly shook his head. "No, I wasn't joking. Reasoning with him is an option, though I can't say what the chances are of actually talking him out of a fight. You said this one has a bounty, right? Been attacking ships out at sea? He might be a violent one. It's in their nature, unfortunately. They're prideful, dominating. I have talked to dragons before, one or two with more restraint. There was one who made his home in the Reach, not terribly far from me. It's the perfect home for a dragon, really. Plenty of mountains, which they like, and which also makes it easy to find places that the locals can't or don't go to. His name was Aarfrinidok; I would call him shy for a dragon, believe it or not. After the defeat of the World-Eater, he just wanted to find a place to be left alone. I climbed his mountain once, gave him some advice on avoiding the locals."

"But, uh, like I said, this dragon doesn't sound that peaceful." Yerig added. "I could imagine some situations where he might have attacked a ship out of self-defense, but there's definitely no guarantee. Your plan is definitely the safer bet."

Do'rhajul was the one leading the group at the moment. He was not a hunter, but he still seemed to be a skilled tracker. He did have a lycan's sense of smell to pick up on the traces that Cyrus' group had left behind, and a sharp eye to spot traces of their tracks. The landscape around them was still forested, but was starting to become more hilly as they drew ever-closer to the mountains at the center of the island.