Cloud spun in circles, wishing he could fly. If he could, then he could just soar out, over, and fly to safety.
Adult dragons could run through flames just fine, but baby's scales were softer and liable to melt. His insides were born fireproof, but his outer exterior was as resistant to fire as metal. The reasons why dragons smoke is because the dragons insides are extremely hot, and they need to let out steam once in a while or else they would blow up. Cloud certainly didn't want to get blown up.
Once Rain set a small tree on fire, and Cloud cheerfully walked through it, as he'd seen his mother do so many times. The moment his foot passed through the flames, he felt a strange pricking feeling. When his whole leg emerged, it looked a little lumpy and had rashes for days. It was a big hazard: baby dragons could breathe fire, but couldn't touch it for more than a minute. The more scales on fire, the less time he could endure.
He knew he could never get through those flames, especially with the thorns sticking out of the leaping flames like bits of ash.
Cloud grumbled and sat down hard, although his insides were churning with anxiety.
He wished a miracle could happen, maybe that butterfly flock rising out of their home could somehow lug him out of the place.
They didn't.
Cloud suddenly whipped to his left, springing so close to a bush a berry was splattered over his face. He licked it away and stared intensely. Had he seen a human running through the forest? He turned around slowly, then jumped around again, hoping to catch him. He sprung back to his position to the right, nearly breaking his neck. Was another human over there?
He was confused and scared. More scared then he had ever been in his life.

Dark Shadow led a group of twenty men, wanting to take all the precautions he could. Swaying Wave, Moose Hoof, and Running Horse, and Sly Fox each commanded a troop of four men. They had decided to use the fire to their advantage, as scouts had reported the dragon caught in the midst.
Dark Shadow jumped up with excitement, but then sat down hard. "Wait. But why does it not just fly away?"
The messenger bowed and said, "We do not know. However, it is small for a dragon. Perhaps it is a baby."
Dark Shadow tossed this information around in his head. Were baby dragons immune to fire? But it had caused it, right? He was confused and just decided to act as if this news had never reached his ears.
Swaying Wave and Moose Hoof wound encircle it, while Dark Horse and his agile warriors would string the tough dragon net across the trees. On Moose Hoof's signal, they would release the net and recede to join the heavily armed troops, which would catch the dragon. Sly Fox and his men would help when needed. Everybody was tense and excited.
Dark Shadow crossed the Forlorn Meadow and caught sight of the leaping flames. "My warriors!" He hissed. "Ready yourselves! We are near. Come!"

Cloud whirled around, trying to get bearing of his surroundings. He thumped his tail nervously, his eyes darting here and there.
He was just about to lunge at a scurrying shape when a human snake-wriggled through the small opening in a bush, the branches whipping back in place when he can out.
He whipped around, baring his teeth and trying to look fierce. Actually, to the human it looked a little like smiling. The human had a familiar scent... Wait! It was the one he'd crashed into on his "journey" into human territory.
He still growled, wondering if he could trust this... Boy.
Okay. He would call him Boy.
Boy took a tentative step forward, then, as seeing Cloud wasn't making any move to kill him, quickly swept a leather pack off of his back and flipped open the flap. About a gallon of water rippled inside it.
"You have to trust me, Dragon," Boy whispered, although to Cloud it seemed a little like "blurb squeal squeak."
The boy, seeing as Cloud couldn't understand, took the pack of water, mimed throwing it onto the fire, then pointed to Cloud.
Cloud cocked his head, confused. Boy huffed and stomped his feet and made a fierce face, pretending to be one off the fighters.
Cloud wasn't exactly sure what he was trying to do. Maybe kick the bush?
Cloud didn't had any time to pursue it, however, because right then a long, drawn out sound of human boots pounded the floor ahead of him.
Boy swore heavily and then looked around fearfully, like he wasn't supposed to.
Maybe he wasn't supposed to. What? Cloud wasn't sure. All he was sure of was that the humans were coming.

Drifting Breeze quickly debated his choices. Attempt to make the dragon understand, or just dump the water onto a small opening and rush out, and just hope the dragon would follow.
Neither would work.
Drifting Breeze felt a little dizzy, but he pushed it away. He had to think now, fast.
Moose Hoof yelled, and a multitude of voices followed his call. Drifting Breeze gritted his teeth and focused on the dragon.
It was rearing and batting at invisible figures, eyes wild with fear. It didn't look like he had any common sense to calm down and listen to him, but it didn't look like he had the sense to find an opening either. Drifting Breeze had to make a decision, fast.
"Dragon!" He hissed. The dragon looked at him, surprised. He growled in his throat, like a question.
Drifting Breeze wanted to scream, but he barely restrained it. The dragon thumped towards him, and Drifting Breeze squeaked in fear. He'd never realized how sharp those teeth were, or whatever miracle made this fearsome dragon not kill him on the spot, or WHAT A STUPID THING TO DO THIS WAS.
He gulped down his terror and turned towards a small shrub, flipping his water sack open and unlatching the waterproof seals. He turned and looked Dragon in the eye, and suddenly he was briefly lost in the swirling, purple pupils, dilated in fear.
He shook it away and pointed to the dragon, then him, then poured his water out all at once and hoped for the best.

Cloud was not sure what the boy wanted. Never in the history of dragons and humans  did a human ever help a dragon, nor a dragon help a human.
But the law said a a dragon does not kill babies. If it does, it would be on accident. Cloud was eight in dragon years, but in human years about a hundred years old. However, he was still puny, still naïve, still unable to fly through fire. Human years made no difference.
Boy swept his pack in a arc, making a brief curtain of water. He staggered a little and coughed, wiping at his eyes. Cloud barged through the opening, suddenly painfully aware of the sound of arrows slicing through the air, of human shadows dancing among the trees.
He was about to bolt through, but suddenly there was a abrupt stop in Boy's light footsteps. He looked back, alarmed. Boy was coughing from all the smoke and fire, unable to breathe.
Dragons had much more powerful lungs than humans. Cloud was terrified. He had to get Boy. He looked at the wall of fire, slowly bearing in, and suddenIy remembered a trick Rain had used, lazily showing off to a very annoyed Cloud. Cloud snapped out his tail and swept Boy up, lashing his tail around Boy like a rope.
When he charged through the spray of water, now no more then a few droplets, searing pain slashed his back and Cloud could actually feel the scales slowly melding together, when he burst through the fire, running blindly, until he finally collapsed on a patch of moss, the world spinning around him.

Cloud awoke to the soft drumbeats of rain. He squinted at the sky, suddenly painfully aware of the searing pain on his back. He didn't want to look, but he slowly twisted around to peek at his spine. What he saw nearly made him faint.
His whole back was a messy lump of dragon scale material, so he looked like a camel. Red burns ran across his camel hump back like fissures in the ground. Cloud resisted the urge to scream, resting his head back on the uncomfortable moss.
Suddenly he sprang up, memories pounding through his head. Had the humans reached him? Did they know he was here? Where was Boy? He whipped around, turning in a circle.
He'd forgotten about Boy for a moment. Cloud was unsure of what to do, so he just stared at Boy. He had a few scratches here and there, and a small burn on his hand, but otherwise he looked fine. Why was he so sick, his face grayish? Cloud wished Star was here. She was the ultimate healer of their family. Cloud sat down on his rump next to Boy, waiting for him to wake and staring hard into the forest.

Boy had not woken up for nine human hours, and his face now had a shade of green. Cloud needed to take him to another human healer, now.
There was only a slight problem; all humans that Cloud met would try to kill him. According to Rain. Cloud nudged Boy a little, but all he did was flop around. But... Boy didn't kill him. And neither did the human who had run away screaming.
Or the human who Star was sitting next to, one day in the thick of the woods.
Cloud was young, and chasing a fleeing butterfly. He kept trying to shoot weak fire at it, lighting nearby bushes and trees instead. River spent a whole day wearily shooting water at his fires, which resulted in a small flood. The butterfly landed, fluttering on a bramble bush, and Cloud triumphantly leapt toward it. He crashed into the bramble bush, dazed, and got lost flailing in the thorns. He poked his head out a random entrance and froze at what he saw.
Star was sitting next to a human, and it wasn't... Killing her. In fact, it looked like they were... friends. But they couldn't be. Star looked up and the human vanished, then took Cloud home. Cloud never asked and Star never said anything, so the event went pretty much forgotten.
Maybe... Maybe Rain was wrong. He trembled to even dare think about it, but what if she was wrong? Cloud didn't know even she even met a human before. How did she know? He looked again at Boy. He had to make a decision fast. Boy needed a human healer. At all costs. Very, very soon.