Don't Make Me Hunt You Down

The setting sun found Jack standing over a long table fashioned of logs, preparing to clean the doves that one of the hunters had brought in. June had entrusted him with several bundles of herbs she had collected and the doves were a cheap trade. The hunter had not wanted to spend the time it took to clean the delicate birds himself as he had larger game to prepare and the meat Jack cleaned meticulously from the fine bones he could use to feed himself and his mother or he could trade in turn to those in the village who had neither a hunter's skill nor a medicine woman's knowledge. Though the sun rested comfortingly across his shoulders the youth's heart was heavy and his gut twisted with the helpless grief of on who must watch another suffer. The village offered little respite from his thoughts. The once bustling mining village, which had at one time almost been a proper town, had emptied and the semi-precious stones had dried up and the mine had turned barren. Many of the dwellings stood empty now and at this time of day the only sound to be heard in this far corner was the rustle of the grass and the clicking of some insect. That is perhaps why Jack heard the tale tale sound of wings stroking the air so far off and his back stiffened. It had been days since their last real conversation, and since Jack had made his choice.
"It is unusual for you to come this close to the village," he commented when he heard the impossibly delicate impact of talons on hard packed dirt. He certainly wouldn't dare question a dragon's choices, but it was safe enough to comment on it, and perhaps he was still a bit stung by her behavior earlier. And if he had not earned the Primeian Dragons' wrath already by turning his back on them there was little he might do to earn it yet. The thought loosened his tongue a bit more than it should perhaps.
"Perhaps if your village had more guards, or any for that matter it might be of concern" Arcee said, but she spoke without malice and Jack fancied that he heard genuine concern in her voice. Ratchet had made no bone about how unsafe and undefended he thought the village. A large part of the reason that he kept Raf close to him.
Jack sighed and finished the dove in front of him, carefully wrapping the meat in leaves for preservation before turning to the dragon who seemed to glow with iridescence in the afternoon sun. 
"You must understand, Arcee," He tried to begin. "I have nothing but respect for what Optimus is trying to do. Bringing the humans and dragons closer together, it is a noble cause, but I have my mother to support. I cannot become involved, any more involved, in the affairs of dragons when I must put meat on the table and fire in the hearth."
There  was a long moment of silence and Jack seemed to see a great struggle going on behind the dragon's eyes. Finally she spoke.
"Optimus didn't send me Jack," Arcee said softly.
Jack wrinkled his forehead in confusion. "Then if we both agree that I am not the cloth a warrior is cut from, and have little understanding of such affairs, then what are you seeking here?"
"I, I recently lost someone...close to me Jack," Arcee said, deliberately not looking him in the eyes. Jack appreciated that, she  wanted him to be uninfluenced by the power even a small dragon wielded. "I don't know if it is the grief that drives me thus, or if you are simply starting to grow on me...but...I am not ready for this," her wing flicked to indicate the space between them, "to be over."
Something in Jack's heart clenched as lessons that his father had ingrained in his mind before he could speak twined with the compassion his mother had taught him every day of his life. As unfathomable as it seemed, this ancient creature of power was vulnerable, she needed him. His decision was made before he even had time to properly think on it.
"Neither am I," he whispered. He reached out to touch her and then hesitated remembering the gore on his hands. "Perhaps we could return to the mountain when I am done here?"