To Ride a Dragon - Side Story (Early Years)
Story by Doreh on SoFurry
I realised i posted this to FA but not here where most of my readers are.
Hello to my watchers who enjoy this series! This is a mini story, not related to the main story line of the series but is canonical. It shows how the pair met, or well, something along those lines :P
It's short, its sweet and its heartwarming to read and i hope you enjoy this cute short story as much as i did writing it~
Enjoy!
Benji wore a pirate hat made of newspaper he made himself as he trudged through the forest on his grandparent's land. He knew the place well, coming up every summer to help them with the harvest. Most kids would gripe and complain but Benji had come to love the outdoors these past two years, it allowed his imagination to run wild, and his grandparents place was particularly magical. He grabbed a stick off the ground, a rather hefty looking one and swung at a branch overhead. In his mind he was a pirate, exploring lost lands for the first time and looking for gold. He was cheating though, he already knew where the gold was.
As the forest slowly sloped downwards towards a lazy and shallow creek the vegetation started to give way more and more until Benji could see tracks in the mud, dragon tracks. He was giddy at the thought and marched onwards, calling out the fiery beast so he may relinquish its gold for his own gain. Nothing happened at first and Benji wasn't surprised, he continued to try and insult the dragons guarding the, no his gold, but with his limited vocabulary and the worst word he knew being 'heck' it came off a lot cuter then he may have intended.
He heard a rustle in a bush and a rumble far off. He grinned, turning his back to the bush and drawing an X in the soft dirt, sticking his stick in it soon after.
"Ah hah! The mighty and brave Benji has claimed your land! Your gold is mine now coward dragons! You cannot fend off Benji the cool!" He shouted as he started to dig into the ground, the X quickly becoming a small hole in the ground until he hit a rock. It was no special rock, perhaps more mundane then the rest but to him it was gold, and with a shine in his eye he crouched down and picked up the small stone from the hole, holding it in his hand and cleaning it off with his dirty hands. "Victory for captain Benji! None shall s-"
The 'brave' and 'cool' Benji didn't get to finish his sentence as he was pushed into the dirt by a force on his back, a trill and a nip at his hair the only thing he noticed before the creature bounded off him.
A tiny golden dragon stood a few feet away from him, crouched low and long tail wagging furiously as the young dragon wanted to play. He had heard his challenge and with some advice from his papa struck at the perfect moment when his prey was distracted. Said papa was lounging in the stream some 20 meters downwards, watching the pair with lazy interest as he soaked up the midday sun. The tiny dragon, smaller then even young Benji yapped at his friend and stayed there for a few seconds as his friend laid in the dirt motionless. At first he thought he might be playing, he had done this before but like every time he did the tiny dragon's emotions fluctuated from victory, to curiosity, to worry in about 5 seconds.
He yapped at the still unmoving human and got close, his father rolling his large eyes as he knew what was about to happen, his son was very much his mother's offspring. The tiny dragon got close to the prone Benji, sniffing at him and pushing him with his snout, it was too late when he saw the humans fleshy hand grasp the fake sword and explode up with newfound energy. With care as to not harm the small dragon he bopped him on the head with the stick, claiming victory in their makeshift game.
Normally it might have broken down into an all-out-who-could-hit-who last but this time the tiny dragon took a page out of Benji's book and played up the hit, crying out like a whelp without food and squirming around on the floor. It was Benji's turn to look concerned, saying things like how he could hit him as long as he didn't tell his dad never mind the fact he was watching the pair. Betrayal was swift as the tiny dragon sprung up like a loaded spring and smacked Benji in the face. When he landed in the soft dirt the dragon instantly went for the kill, nipping at his fleshy nose as Benji struggled to pull the dragon away without his nose going with it.
Their play fighting devolved from there, the tiny dragon's papa snoozing in the sun, quickly becoming a game for the two youngsters over who could hold the high ground the longest, a high ground that occasionally rolled over in its sleep. After that they played in the tiny stream, the larger dragon acting as a makeshift dam the two could play in, until he moved that was.
Eventually after a few hours both started to tire out, Benji laying on the large golden dragon who laid in the afternoon sun, the tiny dragon laying on him. "Bill? Nah, that name is no good. How about Jake? Hmm... that sounds like a dog..." Benji talked to himself and the tiny dragon, trying to come up for a name for him. "Jerry~, nah. Uhhhhh..." He was running out of ideas, he didn't like any of the names he came up with, and last year was a bust in trying to name him. With a lazy hand he rested it on the tiny dragon who was splayed out on his belly.
The little boy's mind wandered, still thinking of names but trying to come up with one that fit him. He had liked the idea of thunder but calling a dragon Thunder Dome was a bit over the top. Maybe lightning... no, he had a movie he liked with a talking car with a name like that. Hmmm, lightning king? That sounded cool but again, too much. Hmmm, well, lightning is like electricity yea? And he remembered his dad saying something about it arcing once when the power went out. Arc? No, too simple, Arck? That sounded the same. Arc King? Hmmm, that sounded better but two words was to much. Arcking... Benji liked that name.
"Arcking..." Benji mumbled, the tiny dragon lifting a head up to look at him. "How about that? You look like lightning, I think it's a good name..." He explained as he laid his head back on the warm scaled dragon belly. Looking up at the sky, his view interrupted by a rather happy looking dragon who instead of biting his nose for once liked it instead.
"You like it too huh? Well I'm glad... Shame I don't know your real name..." Benji laminated, all three relaxing in the sun before Benji had to leave. He would be there tomorrow, and for a week after but it was still a sad goodbye, like leaving a friend's house. You didn't want to leave; your friend was more fun than at home, but he knew how his mum felt about the big lizards. Him staying with a family of them for a night would outright give her a heart attack. For now, he hugged the tiny dragon and pet his still sleeping father on his gut.
The trek home was boring, nothing to do, nothing to pretend. He got home uneventfully and walked in the back door. His grandma quickly ushered him into the bathroom, saying something about how she wondered how he got so dirty in such a small amount of time by himself. He didn't say a word about his scaly friends, instead telling her his tales about the things he conquered in his imagination. She chucked, beaming at his innocent youth and doing her best to encourage him to use his imagination. After being cleaned up he continued to tell his tales at the dinner table as she made dinner, mindful to ask questions about it to seem like she was paying attention as she focused more on food.
His grandpa asked him some things about the forest, mostly about if he had seen anything unusual but he kept his mouth shut in fear of giving away his dragon friends. His grandpa didn't press, accepting what he said before telling him of the work they needed to do tomorrow. Pick strawberries all day, Benji was not excited. Dinner passed without incident as did the rest of the evening and before he knew it Benji was in bed at the late time of 8pm. His window was open as his grandparents didn't believe in air con and as such he had a clear view of the full moon. It calmed him, it was pretty and it lulled him to sleep with its beauty. But, it didn't last, before he fully fell asleep something crawled into his bed, or well more accurately plopped into it. He thought it was the cat, Mr Bensworth but the fur was all wrong, for starters, there were scales. Wait, scales?
Benji opened his eyes to see what he was petting and sure enough it was not the cat but the tiny dr- no, Arcking. In the less then minute he had been there he had curled up in the crook of his arm, his head resting on his shoulder. He looked cute in the moonlight, moonlight that was quickly blocked out. Benji looked up and for a second his heart stopped, a mere foot from his face was papa dragon, looking down at him. The two stared at each other for a few moments before papa dragon lent down, sniffed him and pressed his considerably larger head to Benji's for a few seconds.
The embrace was short but magical like something out of one of his fantasies. Benji would never forget it for as long as he lived, he would also never fully understand what he did next. He licked Benji with his giant purple tongue before shifting backwards out of the window. He gave one last look at the pair and to this day Benji swore he smiled and then left into the night. The next morning Arcking was still there but his parents were not but the tiny dragon didn't seem bothered by it and Benji was confused. He told his grandpa he was sick, and while no one believed him they let him have the day off.
He took Arcking down to the stream where his papa was the day before and he couldn't find him. Arcking helped look but wasn't bothered by it, not as much as Benji was with someone else finding out. At lunch he went back to the house, Arcking in tow who refused to leave him. Arcking couldn't understand why Benji was worried, why he couldn't have a dragon as a pet, but he got a glimmer of it when his grandma saw it. That was child's play compared to what his mum said and did...
But, in the end it worked out to a degree, Benji refusing to leave his friend and his mother refusing to have it at her home. They met at a compromise where Benji would stay at his grandparents' house until his mother was more comfortable with the idea, she never was comfortable, even more so as he grew larger and larger every year until Benji could ride him.
Benji, now much older stood in the same clearing as he found Arcking in many years ago. The creek was larger, but not by much. The trail he blazed down the hill had grown over. The most important aspect was when he looked down. Dragon footprints, fresh and the same as Arcking's. Benji could tell Arcking was nervous, and so was Benji to a degree but as that regal gold dragon strolled into the clearing Benji knew he made the right decision in taking him back as the two dragons wasted no time in greeting each other. They talked and Benji wasn't sure what it was about, but he stood nearby and tried to not look too much at the older dragon as Arcking probably told him of their many adventures. He hoped he left out the explicit bits.
Benji had a good distraction however as a rustle in a bush caught his attention, a practically new born whelp stumbling through a bush and into the soft dirt. It sat on its hunches as it stared up at Benji, awe on its face. It was then Benji looked at the older dragon and he could read his expression like words in a book after so many years with Arcking. That smirk, those slightly raised eyebrows and a toothy grin. The fucker was asking if he was ready for round 2.