FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I've been wanting to write a dragon transformation story for a while. I didn't really want to focus on the actual transformation but what it would be like afterward. It turned out longer than I expected but it was what the story demanded.

Enjoy.

A Dragon Chance

I woke groggy and confused. I didn't know where I was and I wasn't sure what had happened last. Memories floated around my head in no particular order as a half dream faded from my mind... or was that a memory? The gun shot sure was painful and what dream was ever painful?

Then things started to clear. Walking home at night after a rather painful breakup with my girlfriend. She had said no to my proposal and instead had completely ended our relationship. For what ever reason she had been convinced that our relationship had been going downhill for sometime. I had been clueless.

I was devastated. I started walking home but that wasn't really where my feet were taking me. The only place they were taking me was away from my pain. I ended up down some back allies and streets that I didn't know. Honestly I was completely lost but I didn't care. Deep down I wanted to be lost.

Then suddenly people where everywhere: swarming, yelling, shouting and fighting. There was strange people as well, clad in armor and wielding swords, others with bows and some with guns. There was a cat woman but that was a dream... wasn't it? The memory of her was so vivid as she held up a sword and yowled.

Then there was a gunshot and everything was pushed aside by the searing pain in my stomach. I remembered collapsing and the world going dim even as other gunshots echoed and metal rang. Then that cat girl was there at my side. She looked down at me as I felt my life leaving and said something I didn't understand.

"Why are you here?" she asked in English lightly accented in a way I had never heard before.

"I... I don't know... why...?" I managed to choke out.

"Ithchak... bad luck," she said and looked around. When she looked back down at me there were tears in her eyes. She reached for a pendent that she wore, a simple thing that had leather twin holding a large smooth opal stone. She ripped it from her neck and said, "This isn't meant for you. When you wake earn your second chance. Do you understand?"

I nodded weakly. She then took the stone and forced it in my mouth and down my throat. I had very little strength left and I didn't even remember choking on the thing. All I remembered was searing pain, the worst that I had ever felt, ten time that of the gun shot, and everything going blank.

My memories returned, my eyes snapped opened and I tried to breath. Instead I choked. I coughed, gagged and heaved and spit out the stone, the leather strap still clinging to it. I gasped for breath and sated the burning in my lungs. I looked down at the stone a moment and realized for certain that it had not been a dream.

Then I realized that several things were very much so wrong.

The first thing that came to mind was that the stone was laying in tall grass and that I was not surrounded by building or a city but was in fact in the middle of some sort of rolling grassland. Rocky mountains were not far distant and neither was forest in a couple of directions. A river was but maybe a mile or two from where I was at. There was not any signs of civilization what so ever though. I was dead center in the wilderness.

This was yet not the most shocking revitalization that I was having. Not only was I in a very different place but I was beginning to notice that I was very different myself. There was a couple of little things that gave away that something was different. My vision, for example, was extraordinarily sharp. I felt like I was looking through a telescope, picking out every detail even from things that were surely over a mile away. My hearing was another, picking up soft sounds of insects that I wouldn't have noticed before as well as being able to define more individual sounds at once.

This all paled in comparison to the shocking realization that I had two extra limbs and a tail. Fear and shock shot through me like a knife. Not reasoning or even thinking, I pushed myself up and tried to stand only to come crashing back down to the ground. I gasped in surprise and looked back at myself half expecting something terribly wrong with my legs. There wasn't something terribly wrong but there was something terribly different about them.

My legs, and well all of me, was covered in red scales. Lots and lots of red scales. My legs no longer oriented vertically but were set outwards like a quadruped. My extra limbs were wings and my arms were now front legs. Realization donned on me like a ton of bricks, I was a dragon.

"...earn your second chance," suddenly rang in my head before any more panic could rise in me. I had been given a second chance. I had been shot and was going to die and that cat women saved me by... somehow... turning me into a dragon. There could be no remorse in that as I still drew breath and, well, wings might be fun...

"I will earn my second chance," I vowed as if the cat women could hear me, fear and panic slowly being replaced with hope and a simple joy to be alive. I stood up on all for legs, embracing my new form and began looking over myself in earnest.

Despite everything my interest went straight to what was now my forelegs and, more importantly, hands. I picked one up to look at it and was relived to discover that I could still call it a hand. It still had four fingers and a thumb. My fingers were now a little thinker and maybe a little longer in proportions than before. They now each had a sharp hooking claw on the end of them but not so large or hooked as to prevent the use has of the hand.

My thumbs were set back a little further than they had been on my human hands and also set more flat than before. It also had a claw but I noticed that it was noticeably shorter than the ones on my fingers and had almost no curve to it. My palm was structured similarly as before but now there was sets of many thick scales that resembled the pads of many mammals' feet.

I moved all my fingers for several moments and was delighted to discover that they still had all the same range of movement. I moved my entire foreleg around and also noted that it moved much the same way. It was constricted somewhat compared to before. I couldn't move It out from my side nearly as far as a human nor completely across my chest. The elbow pointed directly backward now to better allow for walking. Beyond that everything was working just as I remembered.

Satisfied that I hadn't been condemned to a life without hands I turned to the rest of my body.

I twisted my head back to look at my body. I had a deep barrel of a chest that no doubt contained large lungs that would help fuel my flight. My chest was also longer than I would have expected. This gave room for me to have a complete second set of shoulders for my wings.

I opened my wings slowly, marveling at the completely alien sensation as the membrane actually stretched open rather then unfurled. My new wings moved much like an extra set of arms and they felt much the same way, with four fingers running through the wing and a dew claw at the end of the wing had. The arms and fingers kept the same red scales as my body but the wing membrane was a slate blue color. As this registered I realized that my underbelly and the bottom side of my neck was also the same color.

A breeze began to blow and with it I could feel every way it pushed and tugged at my wings. They were extraordinarily sensitive to the slightest change in the air. Without realizing it I began making adjustment to my wings, naturally angling them for the best possible lift that could be achieved in the gentle breeze. I felt myself begin to lift, weight being lifted from my feet.

I snapped my wings shut a little shocked. Flight was not something I was quite ready to attempt. I was going to have to work my nerve up for that. I did open my wings back a little just to experience the sensation of moving them but I was careful not to let them generate lift again.

Eventually I closed them and glanced back at my tail. It wasn't anything too special. It was simply a tapering reptilian tail that was quite long. It looked to be just a little longer than by body. I began moving it around trying to gain some feel for the new appendage. Unlike my new wings, my tail wasn't similar to any other human appendages and was completely alien. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of simply moving it and as I did I was surprised to discover how dexterous it was. I felt like I had a snake stretching out from behind me. I could twist my tail into a couple coils without hardly any effort and bend the lower portion at almost a right angle. The thick upper portion was only slightly less flexible, bending more in a gentle curve than anything that could resemble an angle. Either way I could still wrap my tail all the way around my side and across the front of my chest.

I set back on my tail and haunches so that I could feel my head. First I reached up and felt my muzzle. It didn't lay in my field of vision I suppose no more than my nose use to. Once I had a hold of it I noticed that my overall head was rather wedge shaped and my muzzle completed the effect. I opened my mouth to feel my new teeth. I had quite a few of them, all razor sharp and gently curved backwards. I stuck my tongue out so that I could see it. I wasn't that surprised by now to see that it was forked. I could taste the air with it and I was surprised to have the strange sensation of direction with the various smells.

I moved my hands back across my head. I noticed that I had ridges over my eyes and I also noticed that my skull was rather larger. I suspected that it might have even been larger in proportions than it had as a human. I kept sliding my hands back. I noticed two ridges forming across the top of my skull. As I reached the back of it the ridges turned into two horns that swept back from the back of my skull aerodynamically.

As I set back on my hunches I noticed something about my underside or, rather, failed to notice something. I failed to notice anything that distinguished me as male. That worried me somewhat. Surly I hadn't turned female as well as into a dragon. As I thought about it though I realized that I could feel my penis even though I couldn't see it. Then I remembered that reptiles tended to have everything internal. I also noticed my male slit somewhat forward between my hind legs.

I set my forelegs back down on the ground and stood back up to began looking around. "Now what?" I said aloud. I realized then that I could still speak and easily at that. I was thankful for that. I realized that I spoke differently now. No longer did I have a broad tongue to manipulate the sound instead I could raise the bottom of my mouth to make all the same sounds. It was odd but I did it naturally.

I realized I was going to need food, water and shelter. Basic survival was what had to happen right now but maybe that wouldn't be that hard considering that I was now a dragon. Sharp claws, teeth and large wings would surely make finding food easy enough. I looked towards the river and decided that water was the beast place to start. As best as I could tell it was maybe a mile or two from where I was standing. If I was human I could have probably walked it within half an hour. Hopefully now it would take less.

I grabbed the opal that I had choked up and fumbled with the leather twin a few moments before getting it tied. It was far too small to go over my head so I hung it from one of my horns instead. I wanted to keep it. It had given me my second chance after all.

I started walking towards the winding streak of blue and green in the distance. Walking thankfully came naturally. Maybe, if walking and talking in a new body came naturally so would flying? I probably wouldn't be so lucky.

As I walked I looked up at the sun. It was low in the sky. I had no idea which way was east or west so I couldn't tell of it was a rising or setting sun. I hoped it was rising. I didn't want to make it to the rive and find it getting dark. I wouldn't have any kind of shelter or food let alone a fire.

Wait... I was a dragon.

I found myself wondering if I could breath fire or not. Surely that was simply a myth. No creature could just spit fire from its mouth could it? I had just been turned into an over sized flying reptile. What wasn't possible?

I decided that I would try. I stopped and opened my mouth wanting to breath fire. Apparently that was all that it took. Some muscles in my neck that I didn't know I had flexed and a gout of flame spewed from my mouth. I stared in astonishment as the the grass burned in front of me.

"Idiot!" I yelled at myself as I realized as the fire was likely to spread to the entire grassland. I rushed forward and began using my claws to dig a trench around the fire to prevent it spreading. I worked frantically to beat the advancing flames. Thankfully I was able to work well in advance of the flames and once finished I set back to watch them burn out just to make sure that they didn't go anywhere.

The grass inside the trenches quickly burnt up but the dragon fire must have burnt for a good ten or fifteen minutes before it finally extinguished. "Must be like napalm," I said and looked back at the sun. I was glad to note that it was higher in the sky now. It was morning.

I continued my trek towards the river. As I did the thing that caught my attention the most was my nose... and tongue. After all, I couldn't suppress the urge to taste the air on occasion. I felt like an oversize snake doing it. Either way I picked up a multitude of scents alone the way, mostly of animals. With the sense of direction added to the scent I could have easily followed them but I instead continued towards the river. Water would be more pressing but it did reassure me that food wouldn't be too terribly hard to find.

It didn't take me hardly anytime to make it to the river. With larger strides I was able to easily cover the distance in a fraction of the time it would have taken as a human.

I knew I was far larger than a human. I wasn't sure exactly how much larger as I really didn't have any reference besides the opal and it seemed tiny. I guessed that I would never really know unless I encountered a human.

I found myself wondering about that. I began wondering if I was simply in some remote part of the world or maybe a completely alien planet all together. For all I knew I might be the only reasoning creature on the entire planet. I hoped not. If there were humans here... or similar creatures I suspected that an encounter with a dragon couldn't go well. I would make myself worthy of my second chance though whatever this place was like.

Then I began wondering what other dragons were like. I wondered if they were vicious evil things or a more civilized being. Maybe they were simply wild. It wouldn't exactly be necessary for a creature like... me to live in cities or even groups. I wondered how my first encounter with another dragon would go.

After my thoughts settled I walked up to the edge of the river. Trees surrounded most of it like a wall of timber guarding a hidden treasure but here the river bowed out, carving out into the grassland and undermining any trees that might grow there. That also made it the closest point to me. The bank was steep and unstable and the water deep and green in the oxbow. It was probably over forty yards across. There wasn't any way I could get to the water here without going for a swim so I started walking along the edge looking for a way down.

I had to walk almost to the edge of the forest before the bank became level and stable enough that I could make my way down it and safely to the water's edge. I hesitated before taking a drink, thinking about all the terrible illnesses that I could catch from drinking water from a river like that. I looked around for a few moments, at the pine trees that made up the forest and the gentle flowing water.

"I'm a dragon!" I said aloud and plunged my muzzle in the water. If there was any creature that could handle drinking river water surely a dragon could. The water was cool, crisp and pure. It sure beat the chlorine taste of city water and as long as I didn't get sick from it I could surely get use to it.

I didn't realize how thirsty I was until I began to drink. I was truly parched. I drank until I could feel the water slashing around in my stomach. Thirst sated, I lifted my head and looked across the water again. Now I realized that I was rather hungry. That was not a good way to start things out.

I pushed my hunger to the back of my mind though as there was something else I wanted to do before I started looking for food. The water would make an excellence cushion to splash down into. The river would be the best place to learn to fly and not risk injury.

I slipped a hand into the water and found that it was cold but not too cold. I slipped the rest of the way in to see how difficult it would be to swim. It took no effort at all to float. My large lungs let me bob in the water like I was made of Styrofoam. I paddled about a few moment before coming ashore and climbing up the bank.

I turned to face the water and opened my wings. Nervousness welled up inside of me. I felt like this couldn't be possible and that when I leaped I would find myself face first in the water. I swallowed my fear and raised my wings. As one, I flapped my wings hard and leapt into the air. I didn't gently glide across the water as I had expected but shot upwards into the air. In my shock I did almost loose control and plummet into the water. I managed to gain control of myself though and keep in the air.

There was something in the back of my mind that told me what to do, move my wing this way to keep level, arc my tail some for balance, dip the end of my wing to turn and follow the curve of the river. All this I did without really thinking about. Even then my flight wasn't very elegant or stable. I guessed that would come with time and practice but I could fly! Something that I had always dreamed of doing and here I was, flying and it was better than I could have ever imaged.

Growing both bold and excited, I flapped a couple of times to gain some altitude and turned away from the river. I let myself glide across the grassland gently descending back to the ground. I made a wide arc and found myself touching down not far from where I had leaped from. I found myself back winging to slow down just before my hind legs touched down. My forelegs quickly followed suite.

I meant to give a whoop of joy but instead I found myself roaring out my joy instead. Birds flew from the trees and something resembling a deer bolted from the woodland and into the grassland.

I suddenly realized it was my chance at food and I bolted after it. To my surprised I was quickly out pacing the thing and it only took a moment to catch up to it. Just before I could reach out and grab it, it suddenly changed direction. It only took a moment to catch back up to it but it eluded me once again. It did this three or four times but then it started to slow down. I realized that it was starting to get tired. While most predators were done after only a short sprint I was a dragon with large lungs to fuel my flight and I wasn't getting tired. I wasn't even breathing hard yet.

The fifth time it tried to get away it was simply too slow and I sank my claws into its haunches and dug in. It fell down with a bawl and not wanting to cause unnecessary suffering I reached up and twisted its neck until there was an addable crack. The animal laid limp.

Adrenaline was still rushing through my veins as I looked at my kill. Killing something didn't particularly bother me. I had hunter deer and other animals before successfully and never felt particularly guilty about it. I was one to always to use what I could from an animal though, hunting more for the meat than a trophy. If I had ever trophy hunted I suspected that I probably would have felt guilt about the waste of killing a creature and then just letting it rot.

This kill wasn't going to rot. I was hungry after all.

As the adrenaline started to abate, I looked at the carcass a little dubiously. I was a little nervous about eating it raw but I couldn't image that there would be any harm in it. Considering what I was now I was surely meant for it.

Before taking a bite out of the creature I decided to take a good look over my first kill as a dragon. The creature seemed deer like or maybe more goat like. It wasn't very large at least when compared to me and was almost a golden rod color with a white under belly. It had two spiraling horns that protruded from it's head giving it an almost exotic look. They looked to be horns rather than less permanent antlers which, I assumed, meant it was some kind of antelope. It would sate my hunger at least.

After looking it over a few moments I decided that I had put off eating my first raw kill long enough. I opened my mouth and started to take a bite but hesitated. I didn't want to eat the gut nor all the fir so I decided I would gut and skin it. The process went smoothly enough using my claw to slice it open and pull out the offending organs.

I did find myself holding the heart of the animal though, still warm, and decided that it was as good a place as any to start. I threw it into my mouth and bit down, expecting some terrible taste and an offending texture. When I bit down blood exploded into my mouth but I didn't at all find it bad. I didn't know if it was just my new body but I found I enjoyed the taste of it and the raw meat. I quickly downed the heart and several other choice organs, like the liver. I then pealed back the skin and started to gorge myself on the meat.

It didn't take long until I was full and, in fact, I had hardly ate half of the antelope. I looked around a moment, not wanting to let it go to waste nor leave it out in the open, and decided to drag it into the forest to hopefully hide it from any scavengers. That way I could have it for a meal on the morrow. It only took me a few moments to get it there. The weight of the carcass seemed like nothing dragging it in my jaws. I could even pick it up that way without too much effort. It took me more effort to get between the trees to hide it.

Once all that was done and two out of three of my basic survival needs were satisfied, I looked back at the sun to see how much time had passed. It was still rising in the sky. It was getting close to midday but definitely still morning. If it was going to be this easy to survive as a dragon things might be rather fun.

I only had one other thing I had to work out for the day and that was a suitable shelter for the night. I had a felling that I would do fine just sleeping out in the open. What, after all, would want to mess with a dragon but I wanted to find something in case it decided to rain or, worse, turn cold and snow. I had no idea what the weather was like here and considering the amount of pine trees about I had a feeling that snow was very likely.

I made way out of the trees and back onto the grassland. I looked around a minute trying to decided the best way to start looking for shelter. It didn't take me long to start looking back across the water of the river. I knew the answer to that question. It was to fly. I looked at the sky and saw nothing but blue. There hadn't been anything but gently breezes all day. It would be a good day to really get it down. I looked back at the river and decided that I could simply stay over top of it and if I had any trouble I could safely splash down in the water.

I stepped back to the edge of the bank and readied myself for another jump. This time I leapt gently into the air and glided smoothly over the water. The feeling was exhilarating. I flapped my wings somewhat unsteadily to gain some altitude and thus was off.

I flew slowly, not wanting to put myself at any kind of risk and gently followed the curves of the river. I realized that most of the river wasn't very deep, only faster moving shallow water over rocks. That made me nervous as it would offer little protection if I were to topple from the sky, as it were.

I pushed unpleasant thoughts to the back of my mind and continued on my search for some sort of suitable shelter to spend my nights. Despite being at least a hundred feet in the air and vision like an eagle, nothing yet stood out to me that would shelter me sufficiently. I kept flying hoping that something would turn up sooner rather than later.

As time past flight came more easily to me. It didn't take long at all for me to start to become more stable and not feel like I was about to fall out of the sky. Without realizing it I began flying the direction the river flowed rather than over the river itself, cutting across the peninsulas of land that the oxbows in the river created. Before long I was arcing this way and that or making short dives while giving out small roars of joy. Flying had always been something I had dreamed about and it was quickly becoming one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. I nearly forgot that I needed to be looking for a shelter.

After a couple hours of flying and, well, more playing than searching, something caught my attention off to my left. The river here was in more of a valley, with grassy hills rising on either side. Along the top of the hill on the left was an outcropping of rock that ran for a while. About the center of the outcrop, the top of the formation jutted out into an overhang. I thought that it might make a suitable place to sleep.

I flew up to the formation and landed in front of it gently. My landings certainly still needed work. After all it was only my second time. Once in front of the outcropping I noticed that I had misjudged it entirely. The way the light and shadows fell across the rock created and optical barrier that even my new dragon eyes couldn't see past. Now that I was in front of the rock I could see that there was an opening into a cave easily large enough for me to enter.

"How appropriate! I guess I was looking for something like this," I said before stepping inside.

It opened up rather large inside much to my surprise. Despite the minute amount of light that filtered in through the entrance I could easily make out the back wall which must have been over a hundred yards from the entrance. It was nearly half as wide as it was long. The height wasn't on such a grand scale but it was higher than I could stand on my hind legs and reach, I did know that. It was all made up of a tan colored stone like the outcropping had been. There was a few stalactites and stalagmites here and there but I heard very little water dripping which I was thankful for. This cave would be a dry cave. It was rather cool inside but I knew it would always be about the same temperature even if it was blistering hot out or freezing cold and snowing. A nice fire could serve to keep it warmer anyways.

Amused with the cliché but satisfied with the find, I stepped back out of the cave and leapt back into the air. It wasn't until I was in the air that I realized I had all but jumped off of a small mountain. I shrugged and turned back down river, the way I had came. I wanted to bring my kill to my new cave that way I wouldn't have to worry about it.

I guessed that it took little more than an hour to return to my kill. I flew straight there this time and didn't spend as much time fooling around. I splashed down in the water just for the fun of it. I felt like a child playing outside on a warm day. I swam around for a few moments before coming out and looking for the antelope I had killed earlier.

After pushing through some pine bows I found it just as I had left it. The only scavengers to find it was a bug or two, nothing of consequence. I drug it back out of the trees and into the open. I sat back on my haunches so that I could pick it up in my hands. Once I had a good hold on the thing I jumped back into the air.

The weight of the antelope threw me off a little but it only took me a moment to compensate and level out. Soon I was flapping my wings and soaring over the river once again. I did notice the weight of the animal but it wasn't much of a burden. The only burdening part about it was that I couldn't have much fun while carrying it.

Another hour or hour and a half found me back to the cave with my my meal for the next day. Evening was approaching but there was still a few hours of daylight left. I flew down to the river and the line of trees to gather some firewood. I gathered up as much as I could easily carry and flew back. I spent about an hour repeating the process until I had a pile of wood that I thought suitable to last me the night.

With at least two hours before night settled in, I spent the rest of my first day as a dragon enjoying the gift of flight. I found myself thinking that becoming a dragon wasn't going to be that bad at all. I was coming to already quite enjoy it and having experienced flight I didn't think that I could easily give it up.

As the sun set I reluctantly returned to my cave. I stacked some of my recently gathered firewood into a pile and breathed fire on it. It didn't take long for the napalm like dragon fire to have a strong fire going. I smiled to myself.

"Who needs a lighter when there is a dragon about," I said with a laugh.

I sat by the fire and waited until it was dark outside. There was something that was weighing on my mind and the night sky would provide the answer. Once there was no more light filtering in from the entrance I walked back outside and looked up. The night was clear and the stars were beautiful but I didn't recognize a one of them. Even the moon, as there was one and although still white, had different patterns on its face.

Knowing that I was on a different world, I returned to my cave and laid down beside my fire. I didn't let it weigh on my mind and was soon asleep.

A week passed and I hardly noticed the passage of time. I was whole heartily enjoying myself. The hardest part of survival was hunting and that only ever took a couple of hours in the morning. It didn't take long to spot prey from the air. Granted it was harder to catch it than to find it but I found that as long as I was persistent there was little that could outrun me for very long.

I was sill nervous about simply landing atop an animal to take it down. instead I had taken to finding animals out in the grassland that were far from woodland, landing and simply running them down. I found the chase rather exhilarating and the hunts themselves rather enjoyable.

I quickly learned that there were other animals on the grasslands besides the antelope. The largest was some form of bison. They didn't have the distinctive triangle shape of the American version but instead had a more uniform shape to them. They still had the large, broad shoulders of bison and a thick, rugged looking pelt. Their head was sill set low with the distinctive upward curving horns. Its face was different though, appearing more bovine than that of an American buffalo.

This was an animal that I left alone. It wasn't that I didn't think that I couldn't bring it down. After all I was at least twice as large as the largest bison that I had saw. I simply knew that if I did kill one that the majority of the meat would simply go to waste. After all an antelope could keep me going for two days. By the time I could contemplate eating an entire bison the meat would already be putrid even in the cool of my cave.

The bison did make me think a little though. I had seen American buffalo before and knew that they could easily surpass a ton in weight. If these were a similar size, and I had every reason to suspect that they were, I was about twice their size. If I ever encountered a human I would simply dwarf them in size.

There was more than just bison and antelope as well. There was a deer like creature that grew flat antlers like a moose, although not as impressive. The creature was only slightly larger than the antelope. I took one of those as my second kill. There was a multitude of rodents that roamed the land as well: hair, something akin to a ground hog, beaver and raccoon. I was surprised to see creatures that I recognized from home and was expecting more exotic and unique creatures here.

There were predators as well as prey. Packs of wolves often howled at night. A sound that would have brought fear was now somewhat soothing. Two kinds of lone cats prowled as well. The first kind I likened to crossing a mountain lion and a tiger. It had the solid straw coloration of the mountain line but was as large as a tiger. It stalked the edge of the rivers and tended to pounce its unsuspecting pray with immense power. I did watch the first one I had encountered bring down a bison after all.

The other I swore was a leopard. They had they right kind of rosette, they were a stalking predator and were about the right size. I had no way to be certain as I had never seen a leopard before but there was certainly a striking resemblance there.

There was a few other smaller predators out there as well, foxes, otters and such. I thought that I had spotted something similar to a lynx in the trees near the river but as soon as I saw it, it was gone.

There was one predator that did stand out in my mind though. I was running down my second antelope. It was my sixth day as a dragon. I had started a tally in my cave. I was just about to leap forward and sink my claws into the haunches of the animal when it was suddenly assaulted by a fury of feathers. I skidded to a stop, narrowly avoiding crashing into whatever had just assaulted my prey.

After the mass of feathers had finished killing the antelope, it turned to face me, taking on the form of a giant eagle. Standing, the eagle's beak was even with my muzzle. I was sure it was large enough to carry off a human if the opportunity presented itself. Even so it was a magnificent thing with brown feathers fading to gray, like nothing I had ever seen before.

Magnificent or not, it turned towards me, spread its wings as wide as it could and called out in my face.

"Well you're a brave thing," I said more amused than anything. I wasn't mad that it had taken my kill. I could easily find another. I was more interested in observing the thing.

With a smile I sat down on my haunches to watch. It called out at me again and when I didn't move it cocked its head sideways. It stared at me for a few more moments before turning around to face the kill it stole from me. It immediately looked back over its shoulder at me. I just continued to watch. It hesitated before hoping atop the kill, spreading its wings and making off with the antelope.

"Spoilsport!" I called out after it as it flew off and then laughed to myself. If it was willing to face down a dragon for a meal it could have it. It had simply been fun to intimidate the thing. It was fun being the most fierce thing in the wild.

After watching the eagle fly off into the distance I set off once again to find food. It wasn't too long until I had tracked down another antelope out in the open. This time I decided that I was going to try and take it down by landing on it. I had been practicing the maneuver and I was fairly confident that I could accomplish it. Besides, I didn't want to have to run down a second one. It did take a while to do so.

I flew until I was directly behind the creature and began my decent. I flew low to the ground and leveled off about a hundred feet away from the antelope. I approached it with some speed. Just before I was on it I back winged, throwing my lower body out. My hind legs landed on the creature with force and my claws dug in, not giving the creature a chance to escape. Back winging allowed me to set down on my forelegs gently.

The antelope was bawling frantically but I quickly ended its suffering. I began gutting the creature and snacking on what was becoming my favorite part, the organs. I didn't even think about the blood now and hardly missed human food. I had considered cooking the meat a couple of times to see what it would be like as a dragon but I had always wanted to go flying instead.

I had, after all, spent every moment of my free time in the air. I was simply coming to enjoy flying that much especially as I became more sure of myself. Days I didn't hunt I spent flying from dawn till dusk. When I landed for the night I felt like the ground was moving and it took a while for the feeling to pass. It did make me stiff for the first few days but by now I was growing stronger. I could feel the muscles of my wings growing harder.

I continued eating, moving past the good organs and onto the meat itself. Only a few moments after that was when I heard wing beats. These were familiar wing beats though. They had the same leathery sound that mine made when I flew and they were coming from behind me.

I turned around and saw what I already suspected winging its way towards me, another dragon. The other dragon was a beautiful metallic blue color across its body and arms of its wings. It was a rather stunning color, actually reflecting sunlight as it flew towards me. The membrane of its wing and the underbelly were a pure white like that of freshly fallen snow and, like snow, it was just as reflective, almost sparkling. From the direction she was flying the sunlight was falling on her to light for full effect. It looked like the metallic effect of the blue color was also present in the white as well.

There was something else about this dragon besides its stunning color. It lied in the wider shape of its hips, the more notable curve to its stomach, the more lithe horns on its head that gently curved outwards and even the very motion of its flight. All of this screamed female in my head and a rather sexy one at that. So much so that I could feel myself began to stir. That I quickly fought to control. I didn't want to embarrass myself.

I didn't want to embarrass myself... somehow I found that it was likely to happen. I had no idea how this was going to turn out let alone how I was suppose to act. Hopefully I didn't make myself look like a fool. Hopefully she spoke English.

With that prospect she landed.

"Well, look at the little runt that we have here," she said starting to walk up to me. I looked her over trying not to think of less respectable things. I was larger than her. Deciding that if she was going to insult me that I had better right back.

"Speak for yourself," I said. She snorted.

"I'm not a runt!" she declared.

"You're the smaller of the two of us so that would make you the runt if one of us was one," I said.

She snorted again before saying, "I'm not here to talk about who is bigger. You are in my territory and that is my antelope that you are eating. I want it back!" she said.

"Oh!" I said as I mulled that over. This could be a delicate matter. If she laid claim to this land I didn't want to intrude especially on such a pretty... well I didn't want to cause trouble. Best to handle this carefully.

That was when I realized that the entire conversation I had just held had not been in English at all. As I thought about what I wanted to say to her the words came to mind but in a different language all together. I suspected that the opal had done a little more than just turn me into a dragon. Maybe it had taught me how to be a dragon as well? That would explain why I was able to pick on flying so easily. It was a theory anyways.

"I didn't mean to intrude. I'm somewhat new here and haven't met everyone on my boarders yet. I did make the kill but you are more than welcome to have your fair share," I said.

"I should have the full share," she said.

"I could attempt to puke up what I've eaten so that you could have it if you would like," I offered, smiling.

"Very funny," she said.

"How about you lay down, enjoy a meal that you didn't have to kill yourself and we'll talk about where your land ends and mine begins so that this won't happen again. Does that sound fair?" I asked.

She hesitated before saying, "It does." She then laid down on the other side of the antelope and looked at the pile of guts.

"Already taken the good things huh?" she asked.

"Pleasure of making the kill?" I offered, "There is still the tender meat along the back. "I'm Richard, what is your name?" I asked.

"A human name hmm?" she asked completely ignoring my question, "Were you raised by them? They put funny ideas in your head about the way you should live and who you should be. You know you're a dragon, right, and not a human?"

I looked back at myself before saying, "Oh, really? I hadn't noticed. Are you to say that all these overlapping thingies are actually scales and not skin! And here I thought I was all red because I was sick."

"You ass," she said as I turned my head back. I noticed that she was looking just above my head. No doubt she had just spotted my opal. "What is that on your horn?" she asked.

"An opal," I said as if it was completely unimportant. "You haven't told me your name yet."

"I'll shall make you a deal Richard," she said my name as if it were and insult, "we shall make this the boarder between our lands, mine downstream and yours upstream _if_you give me that opal."

"And if I don't?" I asked.

"You will regret it," she said. I was quite a moment.

"What is your name?" I asked again, hoping she would answer me this time. She only remained silent and continued to stare at my opal.

"It just makes you look like some silly little girly hatching tying things in her horns to make her look pretty for the males. I don't know why you would want anything like that hanging from your horns anyway. It will just make females laugh at you," she said.

"It sure has caught your eye," I said and paused a moment to let it sink in. Her expression harden a little. "and the only reason it is hanging from my horn is because I don't have a proper way of hanging it from my neck. You can't have my opal."

She looked at me a few moments as if she didn't quite know how to take that before speaking again. "Oh, well then that is just going to completely ruin your chances of mating with me then."

That caught me off guard and for a few moments all I could do was stare dumbly at her stupid dragon grin. I felt myself stirring at the very notion. I shook my head to clear my thought and then a grin of my own took hold as what I was going to say took form.

"You are quite the beautiful female," I began and with that she began a deep rumbling purr that I wasn't aware that we could do, "and I can certainly understand why you would want a stone like this one. When you came to land the sun sparkled and shimmered off of every one of your scales in a spectacular display of beauty that few in existence will ever get to marvel at," her purring grew louder, "This stone imitates your beauty, on a lesser scale perhaps, and would certainly make a grand accent to your persona but, alas, I must ruin my chances to be with your grand grace. You can't have my opal."

I swore she stopped mid purr.

"What?!" she suddenly exclaimed.

"You can't have my opal," I said simply She just stared, mouth half agape. I wondered what she would do next.

I didn't have to wait long.

She moved with speed I could have hardly imagined. She leapt across the antelope setting between us and onto my left shoulder. The force of the impact sent me skidding back and, despite my best efforts, rolling onto my back. Before I could react she was on my chest and was holding a fist over me. Before I could even realize that she was going to hit me she struck, making contact right between my hind legs. Even though everything male about me was now internal she hit me so hard it didn't matter. My mind was flooded with the familiar pain of being struck in the balls.

"Aaaaghhhneeaaaa..." was all that came out rather than the string of curses and insults I had intended.

She backed off of me as I curled up into a ball of pain. She snatched the opal off of my horn. I could do little to protest it. "I told you that you would regret it. Now I have both your silly stone and your kill. Now, to answer your question so that you will know what female beat you, Sillian is my name," she said.

"I'll get you back..." I moaned out against my better judgment.

"Silly male. You can't get me back, I'm a female," she said. She quickly tied the opal in her horns, picked up the antelope and took to the air, flying downstream.

The pain began to ebb and I sat up to watch her fly off. "That is the second kill I've lost today. I'm having a bad day," I said and reached up to feel my horn, missing what had become the familiar weight of the opal.

I decided that I was going after her and my opal that night.

I didn't want to follower her immediately afterward as that would make it too easy to be found out. Instead I went hunting... again. If an eagle showed up this time it was loosing some feathers. I caught myself a deer this time and had my fill. I didn't have time to take it back to my cave. I was rather far downstream, the farthest I had ever been as I usually went upstream. I left it in a place that I could quickly pick it up on the way back through.

As the sun was beginning to set I started making my way downstream. I knew that it was going to be difficult finding her without being able to follow her but I suspected that if I found a cave or similar shelter she was likely to be there. I also figured that I could scent her out. The area around my cave smelled fairly strongly of me even while I was in the air and I now had a good idea of what she smelled like. When I was close my nose would tell me and then all I had to do was find her hiding spot.

I flew for a good three hours, well after dark, before I started smelling anything of her. At first I thought it was just in my head but it grew stronger and then I was sure of the scent. It was faint but when I tasted the air it gave me direction.

I continued flying another twenty minutes without change. I suspected that this was the area that she hunted regularly, gathered her resources, relived herself probably while flying. I knew I did from time to time and that would spread her scent far and thin.

I made note to stop that bad habit.

Then all at once her scent got strong. I decided that it must be the area where she came to the river often which should mean that her hiding spot shouldn't be far off.

I looked around where I was. Nothing but trees and grasslands. I started to make ever wider and wider circuits around the increase in smell. It only took me a couple of loops to find what I was looking for.

As I crested the hill out of the river valley I saw it. On the next rise over, about half way up, was a cliff with a gaping hole of a cave in it. Water must have ran from the cave because in front of it stood trees as well as along a path between the two hills as the water tried to find its way to the river. There was no doubt about me not being at the right place as there was faint firelight trickling out of the cave.

I glided to the bottom of the valley and the line of trees there. I quietly forced my way through them and found a stream at their core. It was large enough for me to walk up and the noise of the water covered my own. Before long I was laying just before the mouth of the cave looking in.

"That's what he gets for messing with the great Sillian!" I heard echoing out of the stone cavern. I laughed to myself. She was talking to herself. At least I knew I was at the right place. "But why did he have to ruin all those nice words by not giving you to me?... He was probably just saying it so that it would get under my scales more" she said with a growl. "I hate these damn bright scales. Why did I have to be cursed with them? They've run more males off than I care to count and he was the best looking one yet. That red and blue... and how strong he looked especially along his wings. Looked like he could take a bison into the air."

I was liking the sound of that.

"The things he said..." she continued, "they had to have been lies. If they were true he would have been hard and he wasn't even showing."

It had certainly taken some self control to fight back an erection, right up until she hit me there.

"Or did I just run him off by taking his... what did he call it... opa_l?_You are like nothing I've ever seen. Almost as if a rainbow had been trapped in a stone. No wonder he didn't want to give it up," she said and then was quite a while. "Ugh, I need some sleep," and with that I heard some scraping and shifting as I assumed that she made herself comfortable.

"Idiot didn't even try and follow me," she murmured as she fell asleep.

"Wait until she wakes up," I almost said.

I waited a long time after that to ensure that she was asleep. The water I was in was making me cold but I didn't care. I wanted this to work out right. Once I was satisfied that she was asleep I slowly made my way inside.

The cave was large with a stream running right down the middle of it thus the source of the one outside. Horizontal ribs ran along the walls from the action of the water giving the cavern a rather flowing look. On the left side of the tunnel was periodic openings into different rooms. I saw four such openings. The third had the dull light of a dieing fire coming from it. That was my target. The forth water ran from. The first one to my left was empty. The second one though contained my antelope, or what was left, an assortment of pelts, some random tools, like a saw which I thought a little odd, and some rope.

I just about past it up when the rope gave me an idea. Best to always have a backup plan. I grabbed the coil of rope and made my way back outside. There were two trees right at the entrance to the cave, one to either side. Beyond that it was clear enough to make flight but these two would be useful.

I quickly judge the height and tied one end about neck height. I then strung it across the entrance at the same height and tied it to the other tree with a kind of knot that let me pull it extra tight. I took only a moment to look it over. Satisfied, I made my way back into the cave.

I stopped at the edge of the entrance way to the third room and listened. The only things I could hear was the faint crackle of a fire and faint breathing. Deciding it was safe to look, I leaned my head out around the edge.

She was laying there on a pile of firs in front of the fire with her tail curled around her body. She was parallel to me with her head in my direction rather than her tail. As pleasing as it might have been for it to be the other way around it would have made things more difficult. Her head was turned towards the fire and thus perpendicular to me, giving me a clear view of her horns.

Damn, she was stunning to look at. I couldn't imagine why she didn't like the color of he scales and...

"Focus Richard," I said silently to myself.

The opal wasn't hanging from her horn. That could be difficult. I couldn't rummage through her place to find it. She had been talking to it though, that meant...

I slowly walked into her chamber and around her front. Sure enough, there it was, tightly grasped in her claws, firelight causing rainbow flecks to dance across its surface.

This was not going to be easy.

I slowly approached, careful to hold up all my claws to not make any noise. I was as silent as a mouse. In just a moment I was standing right beside her. I reached down and gently picked up the opal stone. I began looking at the leather strap and how to best untangle it from her without waking her.

"You!!!" she yelled out suddenly.

Time for plan b.

I yanked on the opal, pulling the twin out of her grasp and bolted.

"No you don't!" she yelled, grasping at my tail but I was already out of the room.

I ran as fast as I could down the cave tunnel, water splashing at my feet. I was barely out of the room before she joined me in the tunnel, literally nipping at my tail. I made for the exit as fast as I could. At the last moment, I ducked my head just below the rope threw my self into the air on the other side and started flying off.

"You think that you can just hughhhhhh..." was all I heard behind me.

I started to fly for home but then I heard the words, "Earn your second chance." I sighed and turned around. Well, I was going to gloat about it. It was only fair after all.

I landed beside her at the entrance of her cave. She was rolling around gasping for air and holding her neck. Fearing that she might have crushed her windpipe, I reached down and felt he neck where she was holding it. I could feel everything and it was still intact.

"You're fine, that pain you're feeling is just your pride hurting," I said with a smile. She rolled over and tried to glare at me. It wasn't very effective while she was gasping for air. "You know, you were right. I couldn't get you back like you got me but I did get you back," I said. She continued to glare. I looked at the opal. "'Like a rainbow trapped in a stone...' never heard one described that way before."

"You... you heard," she managed to gasp out, eyes now wide. I couldn't help but to grin

"Yes," I said and let it hang in the air a moment, "You think I'm sexy! Well you didn't put it like that. How was it... 'the best looking one yet... how strong he looked... like he could take a bison into the air.'" I said.

She tried to growl but the only thing that came out was a whizzing gasp.

"I also heard you wondering about what I had said," I began. Her eyes went as wide as saucers over that, "and the answer to that question is yes I did mean what I said. I think those scales of yours are rather amazing and that you are beautiful. You still can't have my opal."

"But... why... give.... for mate?" she stammered between gasps.

"You make it sound as if I'm a human at a whore house," I said. She did growl at that. I sighed. "It has special meaning to me," I said and stopped. She glared at me, trying to insist with her eyes for me to continue. I sighed. I wasn't about to tell her what really happened. She would think that I was nuts. "It represents my second chance," I simply said.

"Second chance... at...what?" she asked. Her breath was starting to come back.

"Life," I said. That hit on some nerve in her. Her eyes wavered before looking away. There was pain there, that I could see. Something had happened and I suspected that she nearly lost her life just from the way she looked.

"I'm sorry," she stammered. I nodded.

"Lets just call it even from here on out okay?" I asked. She nodded. "Good... no more trying to steal my opal?"

"No," she said.

"Good. Now lets be good neighbors. I'll help you if you need it and you me. We can keep each other company from time to time," I said and she gave me a funny look. "Not that way... unless you want too... I would just like to have someone to talk to once in a while and considering that you were talking to a rock..." I stopped there because she turned her head and looked like she was about to cry. "I'm sorry." She looked back at me, her eyes wavering. "I think that it would do us both some good," I said and she nodded. "Well, I think that I've had enough excitement for one night. I'm going back to my home," I said and turned to leave.

"I have one question," she said, standing up. I turned back to her and waited. "If you think that about me why weren't you hard?"

"Self control and I didn't want to embarrass myself," I answered.

"Really?" she asked and then turned sideways, "How much self control do you have?" She then began to saunter around in front of me, showing off her best features. I could feel myself stirring but I wasn't going to let her know that. I was going to enjoy the show.

"More than that," I said.

"We'll see," she said before turning, lifting her tail and fully exposing her sex for me. That did it. I could feel myself growing hard.

Sillian looked back and then gave the dragon laugh. A moment later and she was walking back into her cave.

"Tease!" I called after her but she didn't rise to the bait. I watched her until she disappeared back into her cave, paying attention to the way her hips moved and he tail swayed.

Once I couldn't see her any longer I took back to the air and tried not to focus too much on the swaying between my hind legs. "Stupid tease," I muttered as I tried to quail my arousal. I had too far to fly to simply take care of it.

As I flew back I decided that my first encounter could have went a whole lot worse. From the look of things it would seem that I had made a friend, or at least someone that wasn't going to try and steal my things while I wasn't looking. I wondered what her story was though. The pain I saw in her eyes when I mentioned my second chance spoke of something tragic. Maybe she would tell me when she came to know me a little better.

I wondered if she would want to know my story though. Would I tell her the truth? I mulled that question over for a while. If she trusted me with her story I would trust her with mine, I decided. I just hoped that I didn't run her off with my crazy story of turning into a dragon.

"Hmm... I hardly think of myself as ever being human," I muttered as I flew.

It was sometime in the wee hours of the morning when I made it back to my cave. The stop to pick up my deer didn't hasten things any either.

Tiered, I simply left the deer at the entrance way and padded over to my slowly growing pile of rawhide firs. Even with a warm fire going the stone would sap the heat right out of me and they certainly helped although I didn't have enough to completely function as a bed yet. I quickly started a fire and then glanced up at the tally on the wall.

"Day six," I said. It had been such a short time. I found myself wondering what the years would hold for me. It wasn't long until I was asleep.

The next day I woke with the sun despite staying up so late. I ate quickly and took to the sky. After the previous day I wanted to spend as much time enjoying myself and forgetting it as possible.

That didn't quite work out for me because as I flew, twisted, turned and looped in the air, I found that my thoughts kept returning to Sillian. I thought a lot about what was said and what we did the night before. I wondered what would become of my actions and hoped that they would fruit into something worthwhile

My mind replayed more than just the conversations that we had. I kept seeing her, the glint of light off her scales, the way her tail swayed when she walked... and her sex when she had all but thrust it in my face just before walking off. I found myself wondering what would have happened if I had followed after her...

Nothing good. She would have ran me off and it would have broken our shaky agreement. She had been only teasing me just to prove that she could get me aroused. Then again there was the things she had been saying about me to consider...

Oh, well, if she was truly interested in me she would be back and maybe things would go a little further and end a little more pleasant than last time. Even if I didn't get lucky, as it were, I was still interested in having someone to converse with.

I also still needed to earn my second chance.

That was another thing that weighed heavy on my mind. What kind of life, as a dragon no less, would make me worthy of my second chance? I remembered that the cat woman said the opal was meant for someone else. Maybe all I needed to do was live a life suitable of that person's morals. Maybe I was just over thinking it.

Sillian seemed nice, at least from the truth that I had seen in her eyes. Maybe if she stuck around and did take a liking to me we could raise a family together. I could raise children to be right and true and...

"And I'm definitely over thinking it," I muttered.

I would simply do good and do right by others where I could. What ever happened, happened. I figured that I would earn my second chance sooner or later if I stuck to that.

I continued flying throughout the morning and into the afternoon, like I had been doing on the days I didn't need to hunt. I figured I could use the practice and I was enjoying my self all the same. Today I took off across the grassland, away from the river. It was just something different for me to do as I had been sticking mostly to the river. I wasn't exactly eating up the miles as I flew. I rose and dove, spiraled and looped, played in some of the lower clouds and all kinds of other aerobatics. I was having fun. By now I hardly felt unsteady and my confidence abounded. I still held back as a line of caution but my abilities grew dailt.

Sometime in the early afternoon I spotted something odd on the grassland. I leveled out to get a better look at it. It was a horse. There was little doubt to that. I wasn't that surprised as there were several animals here that were the same as back home. What surprised me was that this horse had a rider, a human rider.

The man looked very rugged, wearing what looked like a bison fur around him for warmth. He had a long beard that was half gray already and long unruly hair with the same gray sprouting from beneath a simple round leather hat that was folded up on one side. He had several firs draped across his horse, mostly of smaller animals like otter, beaver and fox but there was a few antelope and deer there as well. I could see saddle bags peaking out from underneath the firs that was sure to contain all of his supplies.

The saddle on the horse was a simple thing, ruffly shaped with four horns, one on each corner. I noticed that it didn't have any stirrups or anything to place your feet on. Overall it looked very odd compared to what I had seen of saddles especially without stirrups. There was something coming to mind from a history lesson about Charlemagne, knights and the invention of a stirrup but it was vague.

There was one other odd thing yet to be noticed in the grassland, at least by the man on the horse. There was one of my thus named tiger-lions in the grass. I was easily able to make it out from my vantage point in the sky and it was creeping up the hill towards him and his horse.

I debated a moment if he knew that the large cat was stalking him. I watched him a moment and decided that the answer to that was an outstanding no. He hadn't at all noticed the large winged reptile flying just overhead not at all trying to hide himself from view.

"Well, large obvious winged reptile to the rescue I guess," I muttered to myself as I angled towards the cat, hoping that the thing didn't somehow tear me a new one when I laid my claws into it.

As I dived I found myself wishing that I could complete the irony of my transformation into a dragon by having some damsel, frilly cone hat and all, in front of me rather than a ruff mountain man that I could distress before letting her return safely to her people.

Maybe my transformation into a dragon was a little too complete... or maybe I was just having a little too much fun with it?

I landed hard on the cat trying to sink my claws into the creature and stun it at the same time but I hit it and the ground a bit too hard which threw me over the thing. The impact jarred me and left my mind wheeling as I realized that I hadn't kept purchase on the tiger-lion.

Before I could regain my footing to face the creature again it was on me, claws scratching against my scales and its teeth slipping beneath them and drawing blood. The fresh pain jogged my mind and led me into action, sinking my own teeth into its hips and a claw into its spine. It only took a moment for the cat to decide that it would rather get away than fight me but I had the advantage now and wasn't letting go.

I sunk my claws deeper into its spine and shifted my bulk atop it, exchanging my mouthful of haunch for a claw full of shoulder. The cat hissed in pain. I moved quickly to end it, grasping its head in my jaws and crushing its skull. The tiger-lion fell limp much to my relief.

I looked up towards the mountain man. He was still there, about fifty feet from where I was/. He was staring at me with more than a little surprise on his face.

Well, I had been enjoying playing the part of the dragon. I might as well continue it.

"This thing's pelt will make a better prize than yours," I said in English, hoping that he would understand. I hadn't considered that he might not understand until after I had spoke.

"I would have been much harder to kill than that house cat!" he declared, turning his horse to face me as if to fight.

I laughed, which the man didn't find at all funny. I knew the sound that I was making was nothing like a human laugh, maybe something akin to a cross between a hiss and a bark, but his reaction to it only prolonged my laughter.

"Yes, because you are such the great worrier to be able to face a dragon, attune to all around you and yet able to completely miss him lazily flying above you rather carelessly as well as the oversized cat about to leap from the grass and eat your head," I said.

He was quite several moments while his horse danced back and forth snorting and pawing. He was obviously having a lot of trouble keeping it from bolting. "You saved me," he said finally.

"Ah, so you're not completely daft. I was beginning to wonder," I said.

"Daft?" he asked. I sighed.

"Stupid," I said. His face harden.

"Why?" he asked.

"Well, killing this thing was less hassle. If I had let it kill you what would have happened?" I asked.

"I would have been dead. What would have that been to you?" he asked. I sighed again.

"If I would have let it kill you and other humans found out they would blame me for it. Not long after they would be up here hunting me or trying to drive me away. I don't want that. I like it where I'm at. Besides we're not just fire breathing monsters after all," I explained.

"Dragons always have ulterior motives," he said.

"And so do humans," I countered, "All I want is not to be ran off or hunted and I'm sure all that you want is your homes not burnt and your animals stolen. That sounds fair enough to me," I offered.

"If I came back here and brought maps to show you were are town and lands are would that be alright?" he asked.

"It would."

"Good. Is there anything that I can do for you in return? You did save my life?" he asked.

"A giant chest of gold!" I said with a growl.

"Um..."

"I'm just kidding," I said and reached up to my horns for my opal, "There is one thing. I would like to have a proper way to secure this around my neck rather than dangling from my horns."

"I have just the thing," he said and began digging through his saddle bags and alternately fighting his horse.

"I could solve your horse problem," I offered, "I might even share."

"I rather you didn't," he said flatly and continued.

After a few more moments he pulled out a long fine chain with oblong links that appeared to be riveted together like chain mail. It was fine chain but not something necessarily delicate and it was rather long as it took him a few moments pull it out of the pack.

"What do you use that for?" I asked him.

"Snares so that the animals can't chew through it but it would work well as a necklace for a dragon," he said and tossed it to me. "Measure out how much you need and I will fashion it for you. I have rings and such for the snares to make it."

I picked it up and sat back on my haunches. I kept a close eye on the man though. I wanted to make sure that he wasn't going to pull out a sword that I hadn't seen and ride me down. I fumbled with the length of chain a moment until a found an end. Once I had I wrapped it around my neck and measured out a length that I could easily lift over my head. Once satisfied, I grasped the chain and snapped it. I was surprised at how much force that took. I tossed the length and extra back to him.

He clambered off of his horse and picked up the chain, holding tightly to the reins so that his increasingly frantic horse wouldn't bolt. He set to work like that and began connecting the length of chain into a loop. All the while he was fighting to keep a hold of his horse.

"Okay, toss me your opal so that I can connect it to the chain," he said. I hesitated. I had already had one person try and steal it. It would be best not to temp a second.

"I'm not going to let go of it. You're going to have to come here and put it on," I said.

He spent several moments looking between me and his horse before saying, "I can't let go of my horse or I'll never find her again."

"I can hold my opal and your horse's reins while you work if necessary," I said.

The man sighed before gathering up the chain and tugging on the reins of his horse. It nickered, stamped and threw its head but in the end it obeyed if only a step at a time. It took him ten minutes to cross the fifty feet that separated us. He held out his hand with the reins and I took them. Setting back on my haunches again, I held out the opal.

The man spent a few minutes just looking up at me. I saw him swallow several times. He was clearly afraid. Despite that, he grabbed his tools and another ring and set to work. He quickly laced it on the chain before anything else. Once he had, he looked at the leather twin in the opal as if it was the first time he had seen it. He quickly pulled out a hunting knife and moved to cut it off but stopped midway as if he had just realized that he had pulled out a weapon. He looked up at me while all the color drained from his face. I didn't do anything except to look at him expectantly. When I didn't tear him to shreds he seemed to realize it was alright to continue.

He cut the leather away and put up the knife like he was trying to hide it from his parents. It took him a few moments to fit the metal ring into the hole in the opal as he had to widen the gap somewhat before it would go. That took some effort on his part. After that he took a special pair of pliers that the loop fit into and used them to close it.

Once finished he grabbed the reins of his horse and quickly backed away. "How is that?" he asked once he was at a safe distance.

I slipped it over my head and the chain slide down my neck with the opal coming to rest against the top of my chest. It was just how I had wanted it. "Perfect. What is your name?" I asked him.

"I am Daz of Trasnil. What of your name?" he asked.

"I am..." I said before quickly grabbing the tiger-lion and taking to the air. There was no point to be ridiculed for my name a second time.

Another week past without hardly anything exciting happening. My bed was starting to get more comfortable especially with the addition of the cat pelt. I started playing with smoking meat so that I could have a store of food. I was having some success but little in the way of taste.

At the end of day thirteen of being a dragon I sat atop the cliff above the entrance to my cave watching the sun as it approached the horizon. As I did I found my thoughts turning towards Sillian. I hadn't spoken to anyone since my run in with Daz and I was finding myself rather lonely. She had agreed to spend some time together and I figured that it was time that I came calling, or at least I would the next day as it was getting dark after all.

Just about then something bright caught my attention off to my right. I looked towards it and saw a dragon winging its way towards me. It only took me a few moments to realize that the blue scales belonged to Sillian. Amused at the irony, I watched her fly in and land beside me.

"Speak of the devil," I said.

"What?" she asked.

"Never mind. Miss me did you?" I asked.

"My throat still hurts," she said.

"At least I know you didn't forget me," I said and she was quite a moment.

"Remember what you said about being neighbors and helping each other?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Well, I'm staying with you and if you want to mate with me in return that's fine..."

"Wait, hold on a second," I said.

"I can't stay?" she asked rather meekly.

"Of course you can stay but I'm not going to make you have sex with me as payment. You can stay as long as you like. What is wrong though?" I asked.

"Nothing is wrong," she said.

"Then why do you need my help?" I asked.

"Who said anything about needing your help," she said flatly as if the former part of our conversation hadn't happened.

"Hmm, well then I do want one small thing in exchange for you staying here and that is for you to tell me what is going on," I said.

She stared at me for a few moments before turning around and spreading her wings to take off. "Hold on! Hold on, just forget I said that. I'm not going to run you off especially when it is obvious you need my help," I said.

"I said that I don't need your help."

"The way you asked to stay screams it but if you don't want to tell me that is fine. You are still welcome here. I would like to know one thing. Is it going to be dangerous for me?" I asked and she didn't answer. "Well that is a yes," I said and sighed. "Well, I'm sure you're tired. How about you rest while we watch the sun finish setting."

"You sound like a real push over,"she said.

"Who has the opal," I said. She didn't reply only turned to watch the sky.

"It is rather beautiful," she said as the horizon turned a fiery orange and the clouds various shades of purple.

"I've seen better," I said.

"It must have been something spectacular," she said.

"Hmm," I murmurer before standing up taking several paces back so that Sillian was directly between me and the sunset.

"Where are you going?" she asked me.

"Just hold on," I said before laying down. "Now, there is a better view."

"What? Why?" she asked look between me and the sunset. She snorted once realization dawned and proceeded to throw the nearest rock at me.

"Hey! Spectacular views aren't suppose to pelt people with rocks!"

"Shut up you!" she yelled back at me and threw another at me. I held up a foreleg to protect myself and it bounced of harmlessly. There was no real force behind it. "Now get back up here before I find something larger to throw at you!"

I obeyed and laid back down beside her. She wrapped her tail around mine and began her strange purr.

"You're not like most males," she said.

"Is that a good thing?" I asked. She didn't answer. "It must be," I said, tightening my grip around her tail for emphasizes. She only smiled, something I was still getting use to on a dragon's face. I found myself purring for the first time.

We watched the sun finish setting wordless.

"Is your place far?" she asked as the twilight began to fade.

"No," I said.

"I didn't see it flying in," she said.

"Come on," I said while leaping off the edge and gliding to the bottom of the cliff. She followed shortly after. After she landed she stared into the inky blackness of the cave entrance.

"I didn't even see it," she said.

"I know. The shadows play some sort of trick that hide it. I just happened on it by chance," I said and walked in. "Are you hungry?"

"I'll be fine until morning," she said but the thought of food must have made her stomach grumble.

"I have half an antelope you're welcome to," I said.

"I'm fine."

"Oh, so you steal my food but if I try and give it to you, you won't take it. Fine then you can't have any," I said half laughing.

She snorted before saying, "Oh shut up, just give me the food then."

"No, I told you. You can't have it now. You're going to have to steal it from me if you want any," I said barely containing my laugh.

She looked at me somewhat shocked before bolting into the cave. I walked inside after her and made my way to the faint orange glow of the dieing fire. I began rebuilding it as Sillian ran about looking for the antelope.

"Where is it?" she asked after a moment.

"I'm not just going to tell a thief where my goods are but I will say that it definitely isn't in the far left corner of the cave," I said. In an instant I heard her claws clinking in that direction. I continued working. Several moments passed as she searched.

"It's not here!" she called.

"I said it wasn't! I don't know why you didn't believe me!" I yelled to her. There was a pause.

"What about the right corner?" she asked.

"Maybe," I called back and began moving to the right corner closest to the entrance, where the antelope was laid out on some clean stones in the cool of the cave.

There was some more clinking as Sillian moved to the far right corner. This time there was a roar. "It's not here either!" she yelled.

"I said maybe and you didn't ask which right corner!" I yelled back.

Curses were the only reply.

This time there was no sound as Sillian made here way across the cave. It took her several moments to make it to where I was. When she did she all but materialized out of the darkness, walking out of the shadow of a stalagmite and into the firelight.

"Stealing isn't suppose to be easy," I said with a smile. She smiled back before leaping into the air, flapping once to get over me and landing atop the antelope carcass. She began purring as she sank her teeth into the meat. It didn't take her long at all to finish.

When she was done, her purr faded and her smile disappeared leaving me somewhat confused. I was just about to ask when she spoke up, saying, "Dragon slayers are coming. I'm cold." With that, she stood up and moved to the fire.

I followed. I threw some more wood on the fire to get it burning strong and laid across from her. "Are they very many?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

"Are they any good. It is probably just a bunch of upstarts wanting to show off," I said.

"They are very good at what they do," she said and refused to look at me.

"You've ran into these slayers before haven't you?" I asked. That got her to look at me but she still didn't answer. "I know that there is a human town not too far off. I got this chain from one that pass through my territory not that long ago in exchange for a favor I did him. They usually won't bother you unless you give them reason. Did you..." I trailed off.

She snorted before saying, "No, at least not on purpose. It's not like I need to steal from them to eat but the way they roam their animals makes it hard to tell stranglers apart from prey. I killed one of their antelope and afterward tried to give it back but I think that just made it worse. Wait, you traded with a human?"

"Yes."

"How did you reason with it?" she asked.

"I spoke to him. I know their language," I said.

"Oh, right, raised by them and all," she said. I didn't reply. "Were you raised by them?"

"It's... complicated," I replied. I noticed that she was looking at my opal.

"How about you tell me your story in exchange for mine," she said after a moment.

I hesitated. Was I really willing to share the truth with her. I had decided that I would if she trusted me with her past. The moment was here but now I wasn't so sure. I sighed.

"Alright but you're going first and there is no leeway to that," I said.

"Alright... Well I guess my story isn't a very complicated one, just harsh. I grew up with two brothers, if you were wondering were my little trick came from, and we were raised by both parents. My brothers were rather rowdy at times and, being the only female, I learned a thing or two about how to fight a male. It has came in useful over the years.

"Anyways, we grew up happy and oblivious to anything but our home. Our parents were determined to teach us everything that they knew especially as we got older. Maybe that was were the problem came in. There was five of us. We were nearly fully grown and we were making a lot of kills on a regular bases. For all I knew we might have been stealing from human heards.

"They came in the night. I, well I'll be honest, was out following the scent of a male I didn't recognize. When I came back it was all already over. They had their bodies drug out and they were riddled with arrows and spears. I doubt they were even awake when they began their attack," here she wavered.

"Afterward I just flew until I couldn't any longer. I've been bouncing from place to place since then until I ended up here. Now here they are all over again and I know it's them. They carry the same stupid banner of a dragon skull and spears."

Once she finished there was a long pause as what she said sank in. I was debating what I was going to do about these slayers when she asked, "So, what is your story?"

"Um..." was all I managed as I wrestled with myself. She was going to think I was nuts. Worse, if she believed me she was going to hate me especially after that story. Maybe I could just make something up. I had never been one for lying though and she had trusted me with her story.

"You're not going to tell me are you?" she asked.

Screw it! I thought

"I'm going to tell you. I need you to understand that everything before is irrelevant. I'm here now and I'm a dragon and that is what matters," I said.

"Um, alright...?" she said unsure.

From there I explained everything just as it happened, covering my transformation in detail. I went over what my first few days were like and even pointed to the tally I had on the wall.

"If she hadn't stuffed this opal down my throat I would have died there so this life as a dragon is my second chance and I'm not going to wast it by trying to find a way to be human again or simply being a human in a dragon's body. I'm a dragon now and I'm not going to waste it. In fact I have to earn it," I said finishing.

This time there was a very long pause and I waited for her to say something but she never did. "Please, don't leave. You asked me an honest question and I gave an honest answer... and I don't want that to run you off. I will help you against these slayers however I can," I said.

"To slay them?" she asked far quicker than I thought she would respond.

"If it is possible, yes. If it's just going to get us killed then there is no point in that and we would only be feeding the beast," I said.

"Something wise, almost like my father would say... I'm going to sleep," she said.

"You're welcome to my meager pile of furs," I said and she didn't hesitate to curl up on them and fall asleep. I slept on the stone.

I woke late the next morning and wasn't surprised to find that she had left. I found myself reluctant to rise except to rebuild the fire. I was angry at myself for telling her. I should have known how she would react. I should have just kept my mouth shut.

Eventually I decided that I should get my tail moving and started making my way out of my cave. At the entrance to the cave something caught my attention. There was a series of pictures drawn in charcoal on the floor there. The first was of a cave. The second was of a dragon flying with an arrow pointing towards the cave.

"I'll be back," I muttered as I deciphered the meaning and laughed. I looked around for a moment. "Well, now what?"

I spent the morning flying around my home waiting on Sillian to return. Restricted on how far I could fly, it turned into a rather boring morning. Even so I preferred to spend it in the air rather than on the ground.

She returned some time around midday caring a deer with her. I spotted her return and met her above my home. When I landed she laid it on the ground and stepped back.

"It's yours in return for the ones that I have taken," Sillian said.

"Thank you. I was beginning to believe that I had ran you off with my story," I said.

"No... I'm still not sure what to make of it..." she said rather hesitantly.

"I understand. Like I said, it's all irrelevant. I'm a dragon now and that is what matters. I'm still offering what help I can with those slayers," I said.

"If what you told me is true... then maybe you might be the one dragon that can actually help me? Do you know what they are going to do... or rather what would you do against them?" she asked.

"Well if it was just me I would keep a very close eye on them so that I could avoid them completely. That way they would burn through all their supplies and be forced to return home in shame. They probably wouldn't return after that especially if I showed myself to them a couple of times and were never able to hunt me down. That isn't what you want though, is it?" I asked.

"No," she said with a hint of a growl. I was quite a moment while I thought.

"Then all I can say is that we are going to have to go and watch them for a while. I'm not going to know until I see what they have and how they work," I said.

"But they are so dangerous," she said.

"Then we are going to have to be very careful. If this is what you want then this is how we have to start. If we just fly in there and try to kill them all we will be the ones doing the dieing. We need to find a way to attack them that will give us the advantage," I said. She was quite a moment.

"Okay," she said.

I ate my fill of the deer before we set off. The sooner that this quest could begin the sooner it would be over. I wasn't too keen on the killing but it was hard to say how many innocent souls these slayers had killed. If we did just let them roam one of us was likely to end up on that list.

We made it to Sillian's home not long before nightfall and we slept there. The next day we set out with the rising sun. I wanted to see these slayers as soon as possible and had Sillian lead the way.

"So where are they?" I asked.

"They are slowly making their way up the river as a group. It was about a six hour flight to where I last saw them but I would guess that they are closer now," she said.

She was right. It only took about four hours before they came into view on the far horizon. We were flying high to have a better vantage point so when they came into view they must have been some ten miles away yet. It was too far for even us to do more than make them out.

We doubled back and dropped close to the ground so that we could approach them without being seen. Having been so far off when they first came into view we suspected that they couldn't have seen us and we wanted them to continue to be unaware of our presence.

We flew along the river valley a while. The river here was much wider and deeper than where I was at. I rarely saw any riffles in it and the water was usually the murky green color of deep fresh water. That was something that I was familiar seeing in rivers and stream near their source or in the wilderness but not so much on large rivers.

The terrain itself was different here as well. It was still grassland but it was much more flat unlike the rolling hills closer to my home. The land still rose and fell but much more gradually than at my home. The river valley here was also much wider as well with the land at the bottom flat and even. I couldn't help but to think that it would make rather productive farmland.

There was a bend in the river as well as the valley and the slayer band was on the other side. We flew up to the bend before changing direction and flying out of the valley altogether. Once out we stayed below the hill tops and continued beyond the bend. When we were past it we flew back to the edge of the valley and landed just below the ridge.

"So now we just watch?" Sillian asked.

"Now we just watch," I repeated in answer.

"What should I look for?" she asked. She seemed nervous.

"I'm not sure. Keep an eye out for what kind of weapons that they have and how they keep a look out. I'm not really sure what to expect," I said.

"You never went dragon hunting as a human?" she asked half jokingly.

"There wasn't dragons where I came from. They... we were a myth, nothing more than fantasy. Lets get a look at them then," I said and started walking towards the ridge.

"Were they all killed?" she asked as she followed me.

"I don't think so. There was never any bones found of one of us. Maybe the legends some how came from here," I said and stopped. I laid down and slowly crawled the last few feet on my stomach. I only let my head come over the top of the ridge so that I could see down into the valley below. Sillian did the same.

Even from our new position they were still over a mile away but with dragon eyes it was easy to pick out a lot of details. They looked to be a band of about forty men all together. Rather large in my mind. I was able to make out that that most, if not all, wore armor of some sort. Spears and shield stood out readily which most of the men carried but I wasn't able to tell about other weapons. The majority of the men were on foot but six of them were mounted. From what I could tell the mounted men were armed and armored the same as those on foot. There was also a supply wagon that rolled along at the center of the group and two ballistae.

The ballistae themselves were what I would have expected but they were mounted in a completely different manner than I was use to. Instead of having two wheels and being drawn like a cannon they were mounted at the center of a platform. The platform was very skeletal. It only had a catwalk around the ballista rather than being completely planked. Wagon wheels were mounted at the four corners of the platform and the rather wide contraption was pulled along by two horses.

As I watched the ballistae roll with the group I noticed that the operators currently at them were able to lift and pivot them however they liked at a moments noticed. If anything it was like a medieval gun turret. I could even see that it was already drawn back and a bolt the size of a spear loaded.

I could also see something hanging from the tip of the bolts especially when they pivoted the machines. I suspected it to be chains probably with hooks and barbs attached. That way when the bolt was fired the chain would spread out and give a greater chance of striking the target. I didn't like that prospect.

"They're so open and they don't even know we're here. With the two of us we could just swoop down and kill them with fire. I could have my revenge. Come on!" Sillian declared.

"No!" I said with a growl and grabbing here before she could move, "That would be the surest way to our deaths. They have ballistae and one hit from those and we're dead."

"Those machines? You know our scales will stop most arrows?" she asked.

"They don't shoot arrows. Those machines shoot spears with an extreme amount of power. I've heard stories of them going through two or three fully armored men before pinning them all to a tree. Scales or not they would go straight through us," I said. That made her stop and she looked back at the band of slayers.

"Then what are we going to do?" she asked.

"Watch and see if we can figure out a way to attack them without risking our necks to do it," I said. She sighed.

Watch them we did as they slowly made their way around the bend in the valley. That distance took them the rest of the day to traverse and I found myself thankful that I had ended up with wings. They might have made it five or six miles since we had first ran into them.

When the sun began to set they began to make camp. They started by pulling their supply wagon and anything extra into the trees along the river. They went so far as to cut down some of the trees to do so. They pitched all their tents and such among the trees as well. Then they positioned the two ballistae to either side of their camp just beyond the trees with men still there to tend them. They also had a line of their foot men between the ballistae to help keep watch. With that done the majority of their men retired.

Before all the light was gone a couple of targets were carried out away from the ballistae. Once set up bolts without chains were loaded into the machines and several practice shots were fired. Each shot hit its mark. I was surprised at how accurate they were. The maneuver also gave me a good idea of the machines' range. That would be useful.

"When are we going to do something?" Sillian asked.

"When I've figured out something to do. For now we are going to have to keep watches," I said.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean you have to stay up half the night while I sleep then I'll stay up the other half while you sleep. That way someone is always awake to keep watch. I don't want them to sneak up on us while we're asleep. Do you?" I asked.

"No," she said.

"Okay. I would like for you to take the first watch. I would like to be awake when morning comes so I can see what they do. Don't fall asleep. That would put us both in danger," I said. She nodded and soon I was asleep.

I was happy when Sillian woke me half way though the night. I had been afraid that she would fall asleep despite what I had said. Once I was awake she settled down and was soon asleep.

The night past uneventfully and rather slowly. I didn't even have a fire to keep me company.

As the sun rose the slayer camp began to stir. Fires were rebuilt and smoke began to rise from the trees were they were camped. About half an hour later they had pulled their things out of the trees and were on their way once again.

I decided that maybe it was time that they had caught their first gimps of a dragon. Deciding to let Sillian sleep, I walked atop the ridge that we were currently behind and laid down in clear view of the slayers. It took them a good ten minutes to notice me. When they did horns were sounded and they all formed up. The ballistae were even aimed at me even though they were well out of range.

The noise of the horns must have woken Sillian because she suddenly exclaimed, "What are you doing!"

"I wanted to see what they would do if they saw me. Now that you're up would you go and see if you could find us something to eat?" I asked. She was hesitant.

"Are you sure?"

"I'll be fine by myself. I could use something to eat after not having anything yesterday and I'm sure you could too. I would rather stay and watch them especially now that they've seen me," I said.

"Don't do anything without me. This is my revenge," she said. I sighed.

"I'm not doing this for any kind of revenge. I'm doing this so that we can be safe. I'm not here to kill them all nor am I going to let you. We're going to do enough damage to force them to turn and flee, no more."

"But..."

"I know that they killed your family but it's likely that the majority of them aren't even the same people. Revenge isn't going to make things better just more people dead. I do know that if we destroy their machines and run them off they will be humiliated and probably ruined. It's unlikely they would ever be able to hunt dragons again," I said.

"They still deserve to die," she said just before taking off.

I turned back to the slayers. They had formed into a square with their supply wagon still at their center and the two ballistae at either end. I could see that they were all facing me with their spears at the ready. I continued to lay atop the ridge as if nothing in the world was wrong.

Sillian returned after only an hour or two with a half eaten antelope. I gorged myself. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until I had set my teeth into the meat. Hunger sated, we both watched the band of slayers from atop the ridge.

The day passed slowly and uneventfully. The slayers didn't move from their spot once they had spotted me. The only thing that they had done was to back their supply wagon back into the tree line and start some camp fires. Beyond that there was almost no movement.

Night finally came and I decided that I would take the first watch since Sillian had taken the first watch the previous night. She curled up just as the sun was setting. I was left with little to occupy my mind except insect noises.

It was more difficult to tell the time of night without a clock than the time of day as there wasn't any reference except the moon. The moon didn't rise until well after sunset. Despite that I suspected it was close to midnight and time to wake Sillian. Before I had a chance to wake here I heard a noise off in the distance like someone strumming a bow string. Realization donned just a split second later.

"Sillian move!" I yelled and shoved at the same time. She startled awake and started moving if only awkwardly at first. We were just out of the way when the first couple of flaming arrows hit. They landed just where we had been laying and continued to pepper the ground for a few moments in a fiery arc. "Why are they using flaming arrows at night?" I asked, thinking aloud.

Sillian roared loud and fierce just taking to the air in the direction that the arrows had came from. "You will pay for that!" she yelled as she flew.

"That's why," I muttered as I realized that it was a form of bait.

I quickly flew after her, calling for her to stop. She was flying fast and hard as I tried to catch her. I followed her over the nearest hill top, the one where the arrows had came from. Once on the other side I saw a camp fire burning brightly with three or four people setting idly around it. They weren't standing with bows, preparing for another volley or at the ready with spears. They didn't even seem to be real people. It was most definitely a trap.

"Sillian stop!" I yelled again to no avail.

She was angling down towards the fake camp preparing to sink her teeth into anything that looked human and she was still too far away for me to stop her. I beat my wings faster while slowly flying closer and closer to the ground. I crossed just a few feet above the fake camp, my tail actually scattering the fire. Sillian hit hard against my back and I beat my wings as hard as I could to keep from being pushed into the ground. The force of the impact knocked her out of balance and forced her to keep flying over the camp.

Just beyond the camp I saw a line of men trying to hide in the grass. They were looking up at us with wide eyes.

We flew three or four miles away before feeling safe enough to set down. It was further down the ridge along the valley. I knew it was too far for them to find us in the night.

Sillian started to say something but I cut her off, "Are you stupid?" I asked her. I was frustrated.

"No! Of course not! I just didn't know," she countered.

"You didn't even stop to think about it. Tell me why would you light arrows on fire at night especially if you're trying to sneak up on someone?" I asked her.

"I don't know. They're humans. How am I suppose to know what goes through their little heads?" she said. I snorted in frustration.

"They wanted us to see them. They were using them as bait for their trap which you nearly fell into. Did you see all those men hiding just outside of that fake camp?" I asked.

"I did," she said rather meekly.

"You have to think before you do something like that. If you don't you're just going to end up the next dragon on their list of kills. I don't want to see you hurt," I said.

"Thank you... for saving me," she said.

"You're welcome. Please don't scare me like that again," I said and she nodded. "Good... then we have work to do."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"They have all of those men away from their camp which means it should beeasier for us to sneak in or out and do damage. What I think would be best would be a double attack. We'll sneak into the back of their camp. You can go to one of their ballistae and wait while I set fire to their supply wagon. Once I do that you can set fire so your ballista. That should be enough of a distraction for me to sneak around and get the second one. Do you understand?" I asked her.

"I do," she said.

"You have to wait until I set the first fire otherwise they might realize what is going on before I have a chance to set mine. That should be enough damage to ruin them and force them from our lands," I said. She nodded.

With that we both set off towards the slayer band's camp. Once it loomed close we both flew upstream about a mile and gently landed in the river. We had decided to both float down the river and begin our infiltration from the rear. I grabbed a small downed tree and pulled it into the water. We both grasped it and hid ourselves in its branches. We began floating down the river.

It didn't take us long to make it to the camp. We easily spotted it from the firelight dancing through the trees. We beached our log and climbed onto the river bank.

"Go first Sillian. I'll hold back to give you time to get to where you need to be," I said and she disappeared into the trees.

I waited about five minutes before proceeding myself. It was only about two hundred feet to where the men where camped. When I was close enough to see them I spotted a bit of a problem. The supply wagon was on the other side of the men, between them and the ballistae. I needed to make my way around them to get to it.

I began my journey slowly while keeping a wide berth. I didn't want to alert them to my presence. As I did I tried to pay as much attention to them as possible. From the bits of conversation I was catching and what I was seeing they were celebrating our demise early. There was some sort of alcohol being passed around and toasts made.

I made it to the wagon without incident and took a moment to peer inside. It was stuffed with everything from food goods to spare weapons. I let out a gout of flame on a bundle of cloth tarp that looked rather flammable. I retreated quickly from the wagon and started towards my second target, the ballista. I didn't want to be around the wagon when they realized that it was on fire.

I was at the end of the forest well before the slayers realized their wagons was eon fire. By the time they did it was a giant ball of flames that was beyond hope of being put out. Once the alarm was sound all the men came running including those standing guard. The only people that didn't was those at the ballista.

The man at my ballista was watching the fire and thus distracted. I silently ran out of the trees and up to him. I threw him off before he had a chance to react. He yelled as he flew through the air. I let out a large gout of flame, covering the ballista in fire before turning tail and flying off.

Just a few moments later saw me back to the edge of the valley at the new spot that we had decided to met at afterward. I landed and didn't see Sillian anywhere. Thinking that it was somewhat odd, I turned and looked back at the camp. At the forest's edge where the ballistae sat I only saw the one fire. Sillian had never lit her ballista.

"Oh no," I said as I looked, worried that she had been killed.

I had no idea what I should do or even what I could do. All I ended up doing was pacing atop the ridge trying to sort out my thoughts. I still didn't know if she was alive or not. I felt sure that I had gotten her killed. Dawn brought precious little answers. I was still staring at a dragon slayer camp with one ballista and no sign of Sillian.

I continued to pace.

About mid morning I saw some activity at the camp. A team of six horses was slowly emerging from the tree line. I watched anxiously, hoping that they weren't pulling Sillian's dead body out. As their load emerged I saw that it was her and I held my breath. Then I saw a leg move and her tail lash. She was alive! I breathed a sigh of relief.

She was alive but she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. They had her well tied up. Rope crossed her body and limbs everywhere. Her wings looked to be forced painfully tight against her back and her head was tied against her side like she was curled up. Her tail was tied up against her other side to prevent it from moving. Completely immobilized, the horse team was simply dragging her across the ground.

I couldn't keep myself from growling as I watched. They drug her directly in front of the remaining ballista. I already knew what they were up to. The arrows hadn't worked on me so now she was the bait. They were going to use her to draw me in to kill me and then they were going to finish her off. I couldn't let that happen but I couldn't do anything in broad daylight either.

I continued to pace.

Once night fell I took to the air. I had a plan and I hoped it worked. It had to work or Sillian was going to die. I had to do something or they would simply kill her anyways. I couldn't let that happen.

First I flew downstream of the slayer camp. I landed and made my way into the pine trees as quickly as I could. I then gathered up as much tender as I could and placed it at the base of several trees in a line. I set fire to them all. With the dead lower limbs of the pine trees it only took a little while for the flames to start climbing into the canopies.

Satisfied, I flew upstream of the camp and repeated the process. With the fire quickly spreading I jumped in the river and followed its progress from the safety of the water. It took less than an hour for the flames to make it to the camp. The fire I had set first was already burning through the camp by the time the flames I was following arrived.

I climbed ashore before the two fires converged. There was no men left in the few trees left standing. I quickly made my way through the trees. I didn't want to get caught in the flames. I came to the edge of the trees not far from where the ballista had been setting. It was no longer there. I saw it slowly being pulled out through the grassland. Sillian hadn't been moved. She was close enough to the trees that she was probably going to be killed by the fire. They had left her to die.

I looked back at the ballista and noticed that no one currently manned it. It wasn't too far away and if I was quick I could probably destroy it before they could get a shot off. I would get into a nice scrabble with the slayers before I could get away and how long before the fire would reach Sillian? I looked back and could see the flames not far behind me.

"Sillian first," I said determined not to let her roast alive. I ran to Sillian's side and grasped the ropes. She jumped when I touched her; her head was tied to her other side so that she wasn't able to see me coming. "You're going to be alright," I said to her as I clawed through the ropes that bound her forelegs.

"There he is!" I heard one of the slayers call. I had freed Sillian's forelegs so that she could finish freeing herself but I had no more time to help. There was already a man climbing the platform to the ballista.

I leapt across Sillian and took to the air trying to cover the ground between me and the ballista as fast as I could. The majority of the men scattered on my approach. Only a few were brave enough to stand their ground and then only to shoot arrows at me. I hardly noticed as they bounced off my scales. I landed maybe fifty feet away from it and continued bounding towards it intending to crash into it. Before I could make it the ballista swiveled around and was pointed straight towards me. I skidded to a stop just in front of it.

"Time to die dragon!" the man behind it said.

"Thwack!" came the sound but not the sound from the ballista firing. I was happy to not have died a second time but was left confused. Just realizing that I had closed my eyes, I opened them to look at the man behind the ballista. An arrow had sprouted from his neck and he was grasping at it.

More than willing to accept the random occurrence, I side stepped out of the line of fire and bathed the ballista in dragon fire. The man and machine went up in a ball of flames.

As the machine burned I looked around. All of the other slayers had scattered. There was something else off in the distance. Down stream riding in the grassland was another set of humans on their way towards us. They appeared to be some sort of cavalry wielding lances and wearing armor. There was two men that stood apart from the cavalry. They didn't have any armor on them as far as I could tell. The one with a bison fur about him I recognized. It was Daz and he I could tell that he was holding a bow.

Sillian was suddenly beside me saying, "Richard, we have to go. There are more coming."

"They're not more slayers. One of them just saved my life. They just want to talk. Are you alright?" I asked.

"I'm fine. Thank you for not leaving me. Anyone else would have... I don't think that we should stay. I've had my fill of humans," she said and spread her wings to take flight for emphasis.

"I'm going to stay. I want to see what they have to say. You can go if you wish," I said. She growled but lowered her wings.

"I'm not going to leave you after what just happened," she explained.

"How did you get caught?" I asked curious.

"I guess it was those humans that had been firing at us on top of the ridge returning to camp. Something hit me in the face and everything went black. I woke later tied and puking. That's all I know," she explained.

It didn't take much longer for the men to make it to us. They stopped about a hundred feet from us. It looked like their horses refused to go any further. It seemed to me that beasts of burden were more stubborn in numbers.

"I dare say we are even," Daz called to me.

"I'd say you are right," I replied, "Did you send those dragon slayers after us?"

"What are you saying?" Sillian asked.

"Hold on and I will explain," I answered her in the dragon language.

"Um... we didn't send them but we didn't stop them either," Daz answered.

"Don't tell him that," the other man that stood out among the cavalry said. He was more finely dressed. He wore a brown leather duster and a slouch hat. There was a short sword belted underneath the duster as well. "I am Damian and I represent Trasnil. We had nothing to do with those men,"

"Well then I will have nothing to do with Trasnil except for Daz as he didn't try and tell me a tangled web of political nonsense," I replied.

"I told you he would see through it," Daz said to Damian before saying to me, "The truth is that those men showed up in our town and offered to rid us of our dragon problem for free."

"Did you have a dragon problem?" I asked curtly.

"Well, no but we knew that dragons were in the area and they were offering to solve the issue before any problems arose. In short we accepted and pointed them on their way. We didn't know that your kind could be bargained with or even a race that treaties could be struck, not until I spoke with you. When I returned to Trasnil we immediately set out to stop the dragon slayers but we can't fly like you. We just caught up," Daz explained.

I nodded at the conclusion of his tale before saying, "I have just one question. If they were doing this for free how were they making a profit?"

The entire group seemed rather surprised at the question and several hushed conversations started amongst the cavalry. Damian was the one to answer, explaining, "Yes, well, dragon scale is rather valuable as it is both stronger than most armor and lighter. Um... one dragon's worth of scale would be worth a small fortune."

After mulling over the fact that my scales were valuable I said, "I suppose that since you represent Trasnil, Damian, that you would like to strike some form of treaty?"

"I do," he replied.

"You sent men to kill us and we only survived out of shear luck. That can't be ignored," I said.

"It was a grievous mistake and one we don't intend to repeat. If there is anything that we can give you to make up for it just ask. We would much rather be in good relations with the dragons on our boarders," Damian said. I read that as he didn't want my carnage on his town. The forest fire was still raging behind us.

"I'll consider what I want and let you know when the time comes," I said. Another set of murmurs went through the men.

"Agreed. I would like to discuss boarders. The river veers southeast here and we would like for that bend to be the divider between Trasnil and dragon lands. We won't heard our animals north of it and we ask that you don't hunt south of it. We would hope that you would be lenient for the first few months as it will take time for everyone to be informed," Damian offered.

I explained the proposal to Sillian as it would affect her far more than me. She listened closely as I spoke.

"I guess it would be fine... How much land do they really need?" she asked.

"That depends on how many people there are and how many animals they have. It's likely that he's asking for that much so that they have some room to expand in the future. If you don't give it to him now it might become an issue later," I explained.

"Alright. I'll still have more than enough territory to hunt. At least I won't have to worry about humans anymore," she said.

"We agree," I said to Damian, "I do have to ask, what about hunters like Daz?"

"Yes, well there is only a few of us that go out like I do," Daz answered.

"The game is our livelihood. That being said we have more than enough to spare and you're after smaller animals that we don't eat anyways so it is alright for now. I know how humans like to be greedy and will sometimes take far more than there due so if it ever becomes an issue then we will talk. Any other questions?" I asked.

"No," Damian, who was rather pale by this point, replied.

"Good. I'm tired and think that it is time that we returned home," I said. I turned to Sillian and said, "Lets go."

We both jumped into the air and I explained the details of the conversation on the way back. Despite the distance we both flew back to my home.