THE DRAKEN CHRONICLES

Prologue: The First Of Many

Part One: Animal

He had wanted good test subjects, and he had struck gold.

Dr. Frederick Pike looked around his current residence. This little cave was situated in the cliff that marked the western border of the Great Plains. He had put solar collectors on the cliff to power the small amount of equipment he had brought with from his laboratory. Hmph. He had come up with a breathtaking new discovery and displayed it to the scientific community. They had called it playing God and delusions of grandeur, and had refused to see him anymore. Well, he'd show them!

He paused this train of thought and rewound the last few sentences through his mind, then chuckled. He sounded like the clichéd mad scientist, and he certainly wasn't one of those. His research was merely rejected, mainly because there wasn't any money in it, but he wanted to prove that there were more rewards to science than just money. They had scoffed at him since his discovery did not affect the usual lab animals, but he had still insisted that it would work on a larger animal.

He looked out the mouth of the cave and kept thinking. He had come to the Great Plains because of its inhabitants, the drakens. In fact, two were sitting about five meters away from the cave and looking at him. He waved jovially, and they presently lost interest.

Drakens bore a faint resemblance to the mythical dragons, hence the similar names. However, a comparison between the two brought out many differences. While dragons were supposed to be huge, the average draken was about hip-height on an average human. They were warm-blooded, despite their reptilian appearance. They also didn't have scales, just tough, leathery skin. Their colorations were widely varied; draken coloration seemed to tend more towards colors found commonly in nature, but he had seen subjects across the spectrum. They were quadrupedal, but they did have fully functional wings, like dragons. Their eyes were fully black, seeming to have no visible difference between the sclera and iris, but their retinas were extremely reflective, giving them white pupils. They also had crests on the back of their heads. These were usually an arrangement of several backwards-pointing spikes, although many other kinds did exist, such as only one big spike, and he thought he had also seen one with a dorsal fin down its back. Their claws seemed good for cutting, and they had four on a foot; the forepaws were arranged in a manner similar to hands, with a semi-opposable thumb, and the hindpaws with a three-forward-one-back pattern. Males and females were very similar, though females tended to be a bit smaller. The main way to distinguish between them was the fact that males had a small horn on the end of their long muzzles. He also supposed that they gave live birth, as he hadn't seen any eggshells. But maybe they went somewhere else to lay, who knew? He didn't, that was for sure. They were omnivorous, but most seemed to prefer red meat to fish or vegetables.

One of the drakens stood up and left for more interesting climes. The second one stood up as well, but stayed a bit longer, looking off into the distance. Pike had dubbed this one Ragnarok. He was pretty much average size for a draken, standing around 32" at the shoulder and about 8' from tip to tail, and was colored a vibrant red, except for an odd black birthmark under his left eye. It resembled a chain of three mountains, and followed the contour below and behind his eye, the peaks facing outward. He looked off for a moment or two, swishing his tail, then left to follow his friend.

The draken he left after was named Amber. She was a bit smaller than Ragnarok, but she had a longer tail than normal for her body size, so she was about as long as he was. She was a warm brown with a white underbelly, and had a calm disposition about her, as opposed to Ragnarok's usual excitable energy. She seemed to hold a quiet dignity of her own, although she shared the draken race's abundant curiosity, which tended to lead to amusing situations, like when one discovers things like porcupines.

Pike smiled, then stood up decisively. He could think about things all he wanted, but he had come here to get something done, and should probably get to doing it.

* * *

He and his friend had been walking around a bit when they had stumbled upon a strange thing in the big hole in the cliff. The thing was odd indeed, and so they had stopped to watch it for a bit. It was about twice as high as he was, but it only walked on two legs. It did have another two, but they were most of the way up its body, and it didn't walk on them. It was also a lot of different colors. The middle part was like the bottom part of his friend, but the top part and the ends of the higher-up legs were the same colors as the stretchy bits on his wings. Also, the bottom part was like the sky just before all the light went away. Yeah, the weird thing was definitely odd enough to deserve a bit of watching. The thing must have seen them, because it moved one of its legs at them, but it didn't attack them so they didn't get up. Eventually, his friend decided to go get some food. He got up to follow her, but then noticed something in the sky. He watched it for a bit, swishing his tail, then went to follow his friend. As he did, he noticed the strange thing leave the hole, but it went in another direction, so he paid it no mind and went off to catch up to his friend.

* * *

He and his friend wound up catching a small furry thing, and they ate it. He was still a bit hungry, but it wasn't that bad. His friend had curled up and gone to sleep a little while ago, and he was about to as well, but then he noticed the strange thing coming towards them. He stood protectively in front of his friend, but the thing stopped before he would have attacked it. He cocked his head curiously at the thing, and it made some odd sounds at him. He didn't do anything, and then the strange thing waved a small furry thing at him, which definitely got his attention. It walked away from him, back toward the hole, and he followed it in.

* * *

He'd done it! He had managed to lure a draken, Ragnarok in fact, back to the cave with a small rabbit he had caught. He tossed the rabbit onto the table and Ragnarok pounced on it, lying down to start eating. He used the time while the draken was distracted to tie it down to the table. It looked at him curiously as he pulled the straps over it, but then went back to eating. Pike readied the equipment, and then waited for the draken to finish, which it promptly did. The doctor set some machines around the draken and settled one on its head. It looked at the machines, tried to look at the one on its head, gave up, and looked at Pike just as he flipped the last switch.

* * *

He followed the thing into its hole, and it suddenly dropped its furry thing! He pounced on it and started eating it. While he did so, the strange thing moved some big rocks around and put one on his head. It wasn't as heavy as a rock should be, was it? He looked back at this thing as it hit one of the rocks, and then his head exploded.

Lights! Sounds! Feelings! All rushed through his mind as fast as a pouncing animal. It was like having a day go by every moment! ...Never mind what a day or moment was. Where had those come from? All the strange feelings, words, pictures.... The whole thing was too much for him, and he moaned pitifully and blacked out.

Reality came back waveringly to his overwrought mind. His head hurt, that was for certain. Where was he? He opened one eye, then shut it again.

"Ah, you're awake! Good, good...." He had heard noises like that before, but where? Ah! When the thing had come to him and his friend earlier! But back then it had just made noises. Now the noises actually seemed to mean something! How could that be? "Hello in there," the thing said warmly. It patted his head a bit.

"Uh... oog... gah...." He had been making those noises, and he'd never made those before! What was going on here? Wait, did it have something to do with when his head exploded?

"Oh? Hmm..." the thing muttered as it looked at him curiously.

"H...huhhh...llo...?" The thing had made that noise at him, so he supposed he should try to make it too. It seemed important, so he tried.

"Astounding! You're progressing much faster than I would have expected!" It sounded impressed. He wasn't sure what impressed meant, but that's the way it sounded.

It seemed good that he'd made those noises, so he made them again. "Huhh-llo."

"Actual language, and so soon!" It patted him again. Its hand was warm and friendly. He wasn't sure where all the strange things he'd been thinking had come from, but he wound up thinking them all the same.

"I... I... wh...wh-err?" It seemed a reasonable question.

"An intelligent question, too! Remarkable! To answer your question, you're in the cave that you followed me into earlier."

"C... cayy-vuh?"

"It's this place we're in. A big hole in the rock wall."

He cautiously opened his eyes. The thing was right; he was still in the same place, this "cave".

"Huh...huh...who... y-you?"

"Me? I'm Doctor Franklin Pike.... You should probably just call me Pike, though. It'll be easier for you to say." He looked at the think, Pike. It seemed to be the same colors, but now he had names to put to those colors: white, pink, and dark blue.

"Ssss... ssssso. So yyy-you P-py-kuh?" Pike nodded. "Th-then huh-who... mme?" That was something he'd been wondering for a little while.

"You? Well, your name is Ragnarok. Who you_are_ is yet to be determined...." This last seemed to be directed more to Pike than to him.

"Rruh, rag...nuh...r-rok? Rag-na-rok? That me?" Pike nodded. Ragnarok tried to get up, but he couldn't! Instinct suddenly took over and he started to panic! Can't escape! Trapped! Must flee!

"Whoa! Calm down!" Pike worked at the straps holding him down and he leapt off the table. His legs crumpled under him when he landed, though. "Take it easy! I won't hurt you."

Pike helped him get back on his feet, but slowly. The panic passed, and he gasped, "W-what... hap-pen t-to me?" He couldn't remember something like that ever happening before.

"Do you remember when you came in here and I moved these around and touched them?" Pike asked, motioning to all the big rocks. Ragnarok nodded and Pike continued. "I used them to change your brain and body so that you would be smarter and could talk. Your brain is busy putting everything together and sorting it all back out. Don't worry; it'll all go away soon enough."

"Guh-good... wait, y-you not talk... like me. Why?"

"Well, I've been talking for many years, while you just started a few minutes ago," Pike explained. "It's actually pretty incredible that you can talk at all this quickly. You'll get better at talking the more you practice."

"'Pur-ack-tiss'? W-what that?"

"It means to keep trying something until you get better at it."

"Sound like good idea. I keep pur-ack-tiss." Was it just him, or was it actually getting easier to make his mouth make the noises right?

"Hmm. You do seem to be getting better, but we'll have to work on it for a bit."

* * *

Pike taught Ragnarok for the rest of the day, and found it amazing how quickly the draken learned. He was actually speaking like a normal person, although he did have to hunt for words now and again.

"So you made me smart. Why?" the draken asked.

"You certainly ask a lot of questions, Ragnarok," Pike replied.

"Well, I don't know very much. But I do know that you didn't quite answer my question," Ragnarok responded.

"Indeed. Well... I'm not entirely sure why. Partly because... I guess I wanted to see if my invention would work. And partly... I wanted to see what would happen if it did."

Ragnarok cocked his head at the doctor and said, "Well, I am what happened. Now what will you do?" He rustled his wings a little, then looked back out the cave entrance at the sky.

"I suppose my third reason was to prove the scientific community wrong. I guess I'll show you to them."

The draken stood up and stretched. "Scientific community? What's that?" He spun around once and lay down again.

Pike chuckled. "I keep forgetting that you aren't as old as you sound when you talk. They're a bunch of people who study things and gather together once in a while to discuss them."

"I see," replied Ragnarok, who clearly didn't, but he let the point pass. "So, you'll take me there?"

"Yes. I warn you though, it will be very different from here."

"From what you've told me, just about everything is different from something else, so that doesn't surprise me," the draken responded. He put his head on his paws and yawned.

"Well, that's probably right. We'll leave tomorrow."

"Fine, but can I eat first?" Thus said, the draken fell asleep and Pike chuckled again.

"Goodnight, Ragnarok."

* * *

She woke up early the next morning. Her friend had been missing for a while now. Suddenly, she spotted him and the strange thing they'd watched coming out of the hole in the cliff. She acted like she was still asleep while he caught some food. He ate some, but brought some to her too. He quietly made some odd noises and then went over to the strange thing and they both left.

* * *

"So you're finished?" Pike asked.

"Yeah, and I left some for my friend. You said her name was Amber, right? She was asleep," Ragnarok replied.

"All right then, shall we go?"

"Might as well. Let's go find this 'scientific community' of yours."

* * *

Part Two: City

##

They walked for a while, until Pike said to stop. "Wait here, Ragnarok. I'll be right back," Pike instructed.

"Okay," Ragnarok replied. Pike walked off, and the draken took a long look at his surroundings. This place was a lot rockier than where they used to be - Pike had called it "The Great Plains," right? - was. They'd walked until they'd come to a small open spot between the cliffs, and then went in, following the path until just now, when Pike had said to stop and walked off. Big stone hills went off as far as he could see, and they seemed to go higher than he could fly in one go. He sniffed around and found a few reassuring familiar smells, but most were different, which was slightly disconcerting. There weren't that many plants, either. The heat rising off all these rocks would make flying easy, though.... He spread his wings, then stopped and folded them back in. Pike had said to stay here, so he would.

Suddenly, Pike returned, and he was pushing some big shiny thing. "What... is that?" Ragnarok asked.

"It's called a car. Well, in general they are. This type is called a van. You can sit inside of it and use it to get to places a lot faster than you could walk," Pike explained. He walked over to one of the smaller sides of the "van" and opened it up. "You can get in here. I need to be up front, and you wouldn't fit in there."

"Okay, I guess..." the draken responded, and hopped into the back of the van. It sure seemed a lot bigger from the inside! Also a lot softer too. He settled down and looked towards the front as Pike got in.

"All set back there?" Pike asked.

"Yup." He had just started to relax when something roared and the ground started shaking! He bolted to his feet. "What's that?!"

Pike laughed. "Calm down boy, it's just the car turning on. Sure, it's a bit noisy, but it gets us to where we're going." Ragnarok settled down again, but kept a wary eye on Pike.

* * *

They'd definitely been moving for a while. In fact, the bright ball in the sky had been right overhead a little while ago. Ragnarok stood up and looked out one of the see-through bits of the car. The ground sure was going by fast! He lay down again in the back of the van. In the front there were two things for humans to sit in, but the back was empty and just big enough to hold him without him having to bend too much. The ground in the van was nice and soft too, and very comfortable.

"You doing all right back there?" Pike called. Poor Pike. He couldn't even get up to stretch.

"Yeah, I'm doing fine. Not much to do though..." he responded.

"Sorry, but I can't do too much about that right now." A restless rustling of wings greeted this, and Pike chuckled again. "You could always just go to sleep. We'd be a lot closer by the time you wake up."

"Can't sleep. I'm not... tired...." Ragnarok yawned hugely, then curled up and quickly fell sound asleep, lulled by the rhythmic thrumming of the car.

* * *

Pike sped the car up a little faster and glanced back at the draken curled up in the back. He slept with his head resting on his tail and his inside wing draped over him, the outside one still folded. His deep, rhythmic breathing was very calming, and Pike found himself smiling as he observed him new friend. He turned his eyes back to the road and concentrated on putting a few more miles behind them.

* * *

He ran and Amber followed. They had spotted a large animal, one that would feed them for a while. The problem was, this thing was fast! They were gaining, though, and would soon take it down. Just before he jumped on it, the world jumped up beneath him and his eyes fluttered open.

"Guh...? Whu-whazzat?" he asked groggily, only partially awake at the moment. It seemed to be light out again.

"I'm not quite sure," Pike admitted as he stopped the car and hopped out. Ragnarok managed to paw the door open, and he jumped out to follow Pike.

Oddly enough, there wasn't anything in the road that could've made them jump like that. Off to one side, however, Ragnarok spotted some weird black-brown ball and called Pike over. "Hey, is this what made up jump?"

Pike came over and inspected the ball. "No, that's an armadillo, a type of animal. It rolls up into a ball when it's scared. It may be hard, but if we hit it we would have squashed it flat. It's more likely that we hit a rock and broke it, and the noise scared the armadillo."

"Rolls up, huh?" Ragnarok asked, nudging the creature with his nose horn. "Uh, could you pick it up?"

"What?"

"I'd like to keep it, but it won't fit in my mouth, so I can't carry it," he explained matter-of-factly.

Pike hesitated, and then carried the armadillo into the van. "So long as you don't eat it." Ragnarok grinned toothily at him, then hopped into the van and waited for his new friend to unroll.

Pike shook his head and closed the door, then gave the area another glance. Just what was it they had hit? It couldn't have been the armadillo, could it? He looked around, but the only other thing he could see was a pair of birds flying around in the distance. He sighed and climbed into the driver's seat, and they started off again.

Ragnarok looked at the armadillo-ball and poked it with a claw. The ball seemed to be made out of two big bits of rock and three smaller ones. It was pretty hard, that was for sure. Was this really an animal? It did kinda smell like one....

It didn't seem to do too much, though. It'd just been sitting there for a few minutes now and hadn't even moved. "Hmm... maybe we ought to put this back outside again," Ragnarok suggested.

Pike immediately started slowing down, as if he'd been expecting this, and got out. He took the armadillo and put it back outside, and then he and Ragnarok stood back. The animal shortly unrolled, looked around a bit, and then scampered off. Pike grinned and got back into the car. Ragnarok stood out there a bit longer, looking off into the distance, the shook his wings and climbed back in as well, and Pike got them rolling again.

"You seemed to know what I was going to do with the armadillo," Ragnarok stated. "You also seemed to know that it wouldn't unroll in here."

"Yes, I did," Pike responded, still grinning.

"Well then, why didn't you tell me?"

"It was rather funny, you sitting there staring at a rolled up armadillo for ten minutes," Pike laughed.

"Gah!" Thus said, Ragnarok curled up in the back, twitching his tail. "So, why didn't it unroll?"

"Most animals are very skittish around humans and other large animals. They get scared pretty easily. Larger animals, like you, for instance, aren't usually so skittish, but they do tend to be a bit wary," Pike explained. "Anyway, I've got a few warnings for you. We're going to be approaching some towns and cities soon, and there are a few things you ought to know first."

"Towns? Cities?" the confused draken interrupted.

"Ah... they're places where lots of humans gather to live together and such," Pike replied, a little thrown off. "Anyway, the first thing is about pets. They are small animals that people like and have taken in as members of their family. They might look tasty to you, but you aren't allowed to eat them."

"'Pets', eh? So, am I your pet?" Ragnarok asked.

"No, you're not. You are intelligent, so you're your own creature, not anyone else's," Pike replied.

"Okay, so don't eat pets. What else?"

"Cities aren't going to be like anything you've seen before. There isn't much grass or many trees. It's mostly a bunch of roads, paths made out of rocks."

He tried to imagine a place with only rock, with no grass or trees. It didn't look very friendly.

"Another thing," Pike continued, "most people have never seen intelligence like you've got in animals, so they'll wind up thinking you are my pet. Also, if they heard you talking, it could start a lot of unneeded commotion, so try to avoid speaking to anyone unless I say it's okay."

"'Unneeded commotion'? That sounds bad. So even though I'm not, I should pretend to be your pet?" Ragnarok asked.

"Doing so would be very helpful. Of course, you don't need to when there's nobody else around." Through the clear bit of the van, Ragnarok could see big things passing by. They looked like small, high hills, but they had lots of squares and stuff on them, and they were different colors, too.

"Hey Pike, what are those weird hills we keep passing?" he asked.

"Hm? Oh, the big square things? Those are houses. Humans make them to live in. We aren't built as well for surviving as you are, so we need to make places like this to live securely," Pike explained.

"And towns and cities are made of these?"

"Pretty much, although cities are usually made of ones much bigger than these."

"Ah. And you group together to be safer?"

"Well, and the fact that we usually just like to live closer to each other." Answering all these questions for Ragnarok certainly was giving him an insight into things like that, since the draken had never heard of them before. "Anyway, on to my fourth warning. Since people will see you as a pet, they're going to treat you like one. Mostly, this'll just consist of things like patting you on the head or scratching you under the jaw. It's meant as a friendly gesture, and most animals like it. If you don't, just growl a bit or something - don't actually bite anyone, of course - and I'll get them to stop."

Ragnarok looked a bit perturbed. "Really? ...Um, okay, I'll keep that in mind...."

"Anyway, that's all I've got to say in the way of warnings right now. If you've got a question later, just give me some sort of signal and we'll get somewhere private so you can ask me, all right?"

"Right. Say," he added, suddenly sounding a bit apprehensive, "...will there be anyone... uh, like me there?"

"Um, not as far as I know. I believe you'll be one of the first drakens out of the Great Plains, and the first intelligent non-human ever."

"Hmm.... Thanks, Pike." He settled down once again, and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

"Hey Ragnarok, wake up!" These words penetrated his sleep, his eyes slowly opened, and he emitted a friendly growl to let Pike know he was awake. "We'll be coming up on our destination soon. You'd probably better start getting ready."

Ragnarok stretched to get the sleep out of his muscles and, managing to puzzle out "destination" as meaning "where we're going," jokingly replied, "And what exactly do I have to get ready?"

"All right, all right. Just make sure you aren't asleep on your feet, okay?" Pike glanced at him in the funny shiny bit at the front that showed what was going on in the back, and Ragnarok nodded.

The draken stretched again, then looked out the windows. It was starting to get a little darker, and the sky was filled with all sorts of pretty colors. There were a lot more houses now, and a lot less kinds of plants. Mostly, he only saw trees. Also, the path they had been following had turned into rock. Wait, so that makes it a "road," right? Also, there seemed to be some more cars on the road with them. Most seemed to be smaller than the one he and Pike were in. A lot smaller. It'd be a really tight fit if he had to ride in one of those.... He yawned and settled back down to wait.

A little while later, looking out again, he noticed that the houses had gotten a lot bigger and a lot less colorful. They were mostly gray, black and brown. Some were other colors, but not very many of them. "Are we in the city now?" he asked.

"Yes, actually. Welcome to New Halipont!" Pike announced with a sweeping movement of his arm. Ragnarok studied the city through the window. Pike was right, there weren't a lot of plants, only the occasional tree. There were, however, humans, and they were all sorts of colors, too! Just about every color he'd seen, and a few more, were present on the humans alone!

Shortly, Pike drove into a cave that had lots of other cars at the bottom of a big house and stopped the car. Pike got out and opened the rear door for him, so Ragnarok got out too. Pike led him to a shiny grey bit of the wall and poked it. The wall moved to the sides, revealing a smaller room, which they went into, and the wall closed again behind them. Pike poked the wall again, and Ragnarok felt the floor jump and push against his feet. "Um, what's going on?" he asked, sounding slightly nervous.

Pike grinned, seeing his friend's anxiety. "Don't worry," he said warmly, "This is an elevator. It moves people up and down buildings."

"Building?" asked the confused draken. "Aren't we in a house?"

Pike laughed, and then clarified. "Not really. A house is a small structure, usually for a few people to live in. Buildings are the big ones, and usually aren't for living in."

"...." responded the draken, and Pike laughed again. Then the elevator stopped and the got out again.

The room they were in now was really long, but not very wide, and his claws clicked on the floor. The walls were white, but every few body lengths the wall turned brown, with a little yellow marking on it. Pike went over to one of the brown parts, put something into it, then turned one of the yellow parts, and it opened like the van's doors! Okay, so these brown bits must be doors too.... Names aside, however, Pike had gone through it, so Ragnarok did too.

Once he was inside, Ragnarok pushed the door closed with his tail. Well, this was different from the room they were just in. The walls were a nice shade of blue, and the room had a bunch of blocky things that were a darker kind of blue. The floor was covered in some kind of soft fur, and looked much more comfortable than the floor out there! He poked at it, and found that the floor was hard under the fur, so apparently they weren't walking on top of some other animal. Wait, Pike was saying something. "Sorry, what did you say?"

Pike stopped what he had been saying and started over. "As I was saying, welcome to my home. I don't have too many comforts geared toward you, but I suppose the carpet will be more than enough for you. Ah, carpet," he added, noting the draken's blank look, and patted the floor. Comprehension dawned in the draken's eyes, and Pike continued. "I've got a bit of meat, if you're hungry. It'll be cold, though."

"Well, I am a bit hungry," Ragnarok responded. He was, too, but... cold meat? How did that happen? Pike moved off to another part of the house, and the curious draken padded off after him.

He followed Pike to a big white box with two doors on it. Pike opened the bottom one and a blast of cool air hit Ragnarok. Pike grabbed something out of it and closed the door. He tossed it to Ragnarok and said, "There. The last of my meat. I'll have to go shopping soon...." Pike uttered this last bit more to himself than to Ragnarok. At least, Ragnarok hoped it had been, as he didn't have the slightest idea what Pike meant.

He quickly wolfed down the cold meat. Definitely something odd; he definitely still preferred his meat nice and fresh. But at least he wasn't hungry anymore. "Thanks," he offered.

Pike smiled and patted his head, something the draken enjoyed. "You're welcome, Ragnarok," he said. "Oh, before you ask, we don't have to go anywhere right now. We can stay here and rest for a bit if you want."

"That sounds like a good idea." He lay down and stretched his wings out, then left them spread out on the floor. "So this is your home, in this building. Where you live, right?" Pike nodded, and Ragnarok continued. "And since we need the 'elevator', we must be pretty high up."

"There's a window over there. Why don't you go see for yourself?" Pike suggested with a grin. Ragnarok looked at him oddly for a moment, then stood up and padded over to one of the windows. Boy, those were odd things, weren't they? Bits of rock you could see through.... He dismissed the thoughts from his head, then looked out. They were fairly high up above the ground. He'd flown higher, of course, but it was still quite a way down. All the buildings seemed different from this angle, not quite as confining. He gazed out for a moment longer, then walked back to Pike.

"Well, that answers my question. One thing I'm curious about, though, is if you humans have all this stuff, why aren't there cities all over the place?"

"Well, there are a lot more cities than just this one, but the main reason we haven't branched out so far is that we don't have so many people that we'd need to branch out that far. Of course, some do prefer to be a bit farther away from others, so they make those lone houses that we saw on the way here."

"Uh, okay. So you gather together in big city-groupings, but don't like to expand much farther than that?"

"In a nutshell, yes," Pike replied.

Ragnarok looked confused. "Nutshell? What does a nut have to do with this?"

That threw Pike slightly off his stride. "Ah, it doesn't really. 'In a nutshell' is an expression that means 'put very simply,'" he clarified.

"Oh. That makes more sense now."

"Quite. Anyway, as I said before, I need to go get more food. Would you like to come with, or would you prefer stay here?"

"You mean I'd get to go outside for a bit? Of course I'll come!" He jumped up and ran for the door. "C'mon, let's go!"

Pike grinned at the draken's enthusiasm to get out. "Okay then. A few things you should know before we leave: humans in cities don't have to go and kill things to get our food. We just go to grocery stores, where other people provide the food for us, and we buy it. And you're not allowed to eat the food until we take it out of the store, all right?"

"Seems kinda complicated, but all right," Ragnarok replied. "So can we go now?"

* * *

As they walked out onto the street, Ragnarok acted like he wasn't intelligent. Oddly enough, all his pent up energy heightened his usually cheery demeanor to one usually reserved for small dogs and the other more manic animals. Fortunately, there weren't too many people out this late. He looked around with a wide-eyed enthusiasm, but managed to stay with Pike, who just grinned and shook his head. This draken was a pretty good actor! He laid a comforting hand between the draken's wings. Ragnarok looked up, grinned calmly, then went back into "out to lunch" mode, bounding around playfully at random for a bit.

Pike chuckled and called, "Hey boy, over this way!" Ragnarok pounced on nothing, then padded over to him, and they got back on their trek to the store.

As could be expected, Ragnarok soon met his first non-Pike human. She was different colors than Pike was, and certainly smelled different! He walked over to her, circled her once or twice, then walked back to Pike and stood there with a goofy smile.

She giggled. "He's cute! What is he?" she asked Pike. She walked over and patted Ragnarok on the head.

Pike grinned. "He's a draken. His name's Ragnarok."

"A draken? Really? I've never seen one up close before," the girl replied. She reached around to scratch Ragnarok in the area behind his crest, which he enjoyed greatly.

"Yeah, they don't come into the city often, do they?" Pike came over and rubbed the draken between the wings. He sure was getting a lot of attention from these two! He shook himself and flapped his wings, causing the girl to giggle again, and he grinned as well.

"Well, I've got things to do," the girl said. "Nice meeting you, and I hope we meet again!" Then she jogged off to do whatever it was that she needed to do.

They watched her leave. "So, what did you think of her?" Pike asked.

Ragnarok glanced around and didn't see anyone, so he replied, "Well, she was very friendly, and she seemed to like me, so I couldn't help liking her back."

"Yeah, that's what I though too. She was very friendly. Although, be aware that not all people are going to be like that. Most people are very cheerful toward animals, but some don't like them. Fortunately, there aren't as many of them, and they'll probably just stay away from you."

"Makes sense, I guess. So, shall we get back to going to the 'grocery store'?" They started off again, and Ragnarok again pretended he was just an animal, but he'd spent some of his energy in that romp, and he just sauntered along with a calm dignity about him, instead of the manic cheeriness.

During their trip, they encountered a few more people. At one point he had asked Pike why there weren't very many people out. "Most people have gone to bed," Pike had responded. It seemed odd to the draken that they wasted so much of the daylight sleeping. There was only so much daylight in one day, after all. Although, they did have those little suns that you could turn on and off, so maybe they were staying up later into the night. But anyway... what had he been thinking? Oh yeah, the people they'd passed. There had been a pair of people walking by, and they had stopped to talk to Pike and pet Ragnarok, who had endured it with a calm and amused enjoyment. Another person had avoided them altogether, and Ragnarok could practically smell the uneasiness coming off him.

While he was thinking about all this, he noticed another man walking toward them, and brushed against Pike as he passed before apologizing and hurrying off. Pike didn't notice anything, but Ragnarok's sharper senses did. "Uh, Pike? Was that guy supposed to take that out of your pockets?"

"What? My wallet! Ragnarok, stop him!" Pike exclaimed.

"Right!" The man's scent was fresh, and Ragnarok could follow it easily. The problem with that strategy is that he'd have to follow it carefully, what with all the scents in the area, and he'd only be following the scent. Fortunately, the draken had other means. He spread his wings and took to the air to find... there he is! Ragnarok swooped down towards the man, who spotted him and bolted. The draken was faster, though, and tackled the man from behind. He locked his powerful jaws around the struggling man's arm and sat on him, thus ending any further debate.

Pike came jogging up to them. "Nice job, Ragnarok!" he praised, then turned to the man. "Okay, what did you do with my wallet?"

"I don't know what you're-OW!" the man replied as his captor heard him trying to deny the truth and upped the pressure of the arm lock.

"My friend here has very sharp senses. If he thinks you're the one he caught rummaging through my pockets, I believe him. If you give back what you stole, I'll call him off," Pike instructed.

"Ow! All right, all right! Call him off, I'll give it back!" the desperate man responded.

"Okay Ragnarok, let him up." Ragnarok snorted, then released the man and walked back over to Pike, growling, still bristling and obviously ready to pounce on him again if he tried anything.

The man fished in his pocket, then tossed a small brown square at them with a cry of, "Here!" before bolting away again. Pike motioned for Ragnarok to leave him alone.

"This guy's harmless enough, and we can call the police to come and get him," Pike explained.

Ragnarok nodded, then cocked his head. "Police? They catch guys like him, I take it?" Pike nodded, and they went on their way.

* * *

A little while later, they finally made it to the grocery store. It was a big building, but it didn't go very far up. It had a lot of really big windows in front, but Ragnarok couldn't see any doors or other ways in. He wondered about how to get in, but Pike soon made it obvious by stepping in front of the big windows, which opened up to let him in. He hadn't expected a door to work like that, but at least he could open it himself! He followed Pike in.

He was suddenly hit with a blast of cold air. Wow! It sure was a lot colder in here than out there. There were a bunch of gray things stacked up off to one side of the door, and Pike picked one up and headed off down one of the small bits that was between all the walls that were all over the place in here. Pike grabbed a round thing off the wall and put it in the gray thing. Actually, he ought to ask Pike what the gray thing was called, since just calling it "the gray thing" might get a little cumbersome. Knowing that people were around, he nudged Pike and motioned toward the gray thing.

"Hm? Oh, you want to know what this is called?" Pike asked. Ragnarok nodded, and he replied, "It's called a basket. It's used to make it easier to carry lots of small things." Okay, so it's a basket. Well, that smoothed things out a bit.

"Since you probably know what kind of meat you like best, you should go and pick it out yourself. Go to the deli section, the bit over there with all the cold air. Go pick out a package you like, and then meet me back here," Pike instructed. Ragnarok nodded and padded off in the indicated direction.

Soon enough, he came upon a place with even colder air than the rest of the store, so it must be the deli section. There sure was a lot of meat here! He went and looked, but mainly only decided that the variety was ridiculous. He grabbed one that looked like it held a lot of meat and ambled back to where Pike had been.

"Hey! Get back here!" He turned around and saw somebody with a big white thing in front of his clothes running at him. As the man caught up with him, the draken set down the meat, cocked his head, and made an interrogatory noise at the man. "Got you, thief! Thought you could steal some meat, eh?" Steal? He wasn't stealing anything... was he?

Fortunately for Ragnarok, Pike had heard the commotion and had come over to investigate. Upon spotting the draken, he said, "Oh, there you are. I was wondering what was keeping you. Ah, what seems to be the trouble, sir?" this last being addressed to the man in the white.

"Is this thing yours? I caught it trying to steal some of the meat," the man accused, pointing to the package lying at Ragnarok's feet. Ragnarok looked at Pike, a bit of worry in his eye.

"Oh, I see. It's just an innocent misunderstanding, that's all. I sent him to go fetch some meat for me. I assure you, he won't eat anything until I've paid for it. Come on, boy." With this, he turned around and walked away. Ragnarok picked up the meat and followed, leaving the flummoxed man behind to wonder about what had just happened.

Ragnarok caught up to Pike easily and dropped the package of meat into the basket, where it lay along all sorts of square things and round things. He resolved to ask Pike about them later.

"There, that should be enough for now," Pike remarked, and walked toward where they had come in. "Come on, Ragnarok." They arrived at an odd box with somebody standing behind it. Pike gave her the things in the basket and she slid them across the box, which made a noise each time, and put them in funny white things. Then Pike gave her a few green things from his wallet, and she gave him back more green things, as well as a few shiny grey things. Then Pike picked up the white things and they left. It was a really weird process indeed. It seemed to Ragnarok that just catching your own food was a lot simpler, but maybe the humans knew something he didn't. Or maybe they weren't quite right in the head. Then again, it could always be both.... He left the question for later, though, since he had better things to do, like making sure Pike got home all right.

* * *

Fortunately, Ragnarok's vigilance was unnecessary, and nothing happened, except for meeting a few more curious people. He adored the attention, but he would be just as happy to be back at Pike's home. Eventually, they did get back, upon which Ragnarok gulped down some of the meat and went to lay down in front of one of the longer chairs. Pike came over and turned on the odd box he called a "television." It showed pictures of things that were happening in other places, which sounded pretty useful. When it was turned on, the television started talking about a "petty thief" who had been picked up by the police. He had apparently tried to steal someone's wallet, and the man had set "some sort of demon dog" on him. When they heard that, Ragnarok and Pike looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Nice job on catching him, by the way," Pike complimented, once he had gotten his breath back.

"Compared to some of the other things I've caught, he was easy," the draken replied with a grin, then looked out the window. There sure were a lot more people out now. Friendly as they may be, it'd probably just be best to avoid them as much as possible. He looked back to Pike and asked, "So, why was that guy trying to take your wallet?"

That threw Pike for a bit of a loop. "Um, you'd need to ask him for his reasons. Those sorts of people, in general, want to get things without having to work for them."

"Weird. There's lots of types of people in the world." The draken got up and walked over to Pike. "But I like your kind the best." He nuzzled against the human affectionately, then ambled off to look around a bit more, leaving the slightly startled human behind him.

* * *

The next morning, Pike called the draken over. "C'mon, it's time to go," he explained.

They walked down to the garage so they could get into the car. However, on the way, Ragnarok spotted a lady that had a small furry animal at the end of some kind of string. Boy, that sure looked tasty! Fortunately for it, Pike noticed what Ragnarok was looking at and managed to grab him by the base of a wing. "Remember what I told you about pets? That's one of them," he whispered.

"Oh." Ragnarok looked longingly at the pet, swished his tail a bit, and then followed Pike to the car. They both got in and headed off. "So we're finally going to see your 'scientific community?'"

"Yes," Pike replied. "We'll see what they think of you." Then, almost silently, he added, "And me." A human wouldn't have noticed it, but Ragnarok's superior hearing caught it, and he was slightly worried by it.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, concerned for his friend.

"Well... yes." Pike pulled over and stopped the car. "I'll be perfectly honest with you. I started this whole thing off because they thought I was a crackpot, and they made no secret of it. So I went to try the new invention on something, to prove them wrong. You were supposed to be a salve for my wounded pride, I suppose, and I didn't really stop to think about whether it was a good thing to do or not. I only thought about proving them wrong. I'm sorry."

"Hmm. So that's what had you feeling sad?" the draken responded.

"You...you're not angry?" the incredulous human asked.

"Of course not! ...Should I be?"

"It's just that... people have gotten angry when someone's done something like that to them, even totally rejected the other person."

The draken moved to the front and grinned at Pike. "Well, it's a good thing I'm not a people then, eh?" he stated. "Believe me, it's all right. Even if it might have been kinda selfish at first, it's changed, hasn't it? I may be new to being smart, but I know I'm more to you than just proof of your own intelligence." He flashed Pike a winning smile. "I think I like it better being this way than how I used to be. Animals can't tell jokes."

Pike laughed, then thought for a moment. "Thanks, Ragnarok," he said at length. "You've been a great friend. So, shall we go prove our intelligence?"

"Or lack of it," the draken replied. They laughed, and then started back on the road toward destiny.

* * *

Destiny was really big and shiny. The building was very tall and had lots of windows, and the parts without windows were very white. Above the big glass doors were the words "New Halipont Scientific Inquiry Center" in a shiny brown rock.

"Come on, Ragnarok. We don't want to be late," Pike beckoned to his winged friend, who readily followed him into the lowest floor of the building.

Right off to one side of the door was a wall. It was about chest height on Pike, which made it frustratingly high above the draken's head. There was obviously someone behind it, since Pike was talking to him.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Pike."

The person behind the wall waited for a bit, maybe he was looking at something, and then replied, "Ah, you're the one who called the meeting. It's in room 239."

Curiosity finally overtaking him, Ragnarok reared up on his hind legs and, grabbing the wall for balance, poked his head up over the edge of the wall so he could see who Pike was talking to. "Oh, and this is Ragnarok," Pike added to the startled man. "He'll be with me."

"O-okay," the man replied somewhat distantly. "Have a nice day...." Ragnarok grinned toothily at him, then dropped down to all fours and followed Pike.

The receptionist watched them leave, then shook his head and gathered his wits. He hit an intercom button and said, "This is Stan. Pike is coming up now."

* * *

Once they were out of earshot of anyone, Ragnarok leaned over to Pike and muttered, "Well, that was fun," at which Pike laughed.

"Well, here it is: Room 239. Shall we enter?" Pike asked rhetorically, then entered, Ragnarok close at his heels.

Inside the door, there was a really big table with a bunch of chairs around it. A few of the chairs had people sitting in them. Most didn't have a lot of fur on their head and were rounder than Pike. One of them sat up straighter in his chair and said, "Ah, Dr. Pike. You're finally here." Ragnarok didn't think the way he said it sounded very nice.

"Yes, I am," Pike replied. He sounded slightly nervous. "This is Ragnarok, a draken."

Some of the scientists seemed a little interested and chatted amongst themselves. The one who had spoken before said, "Intriguing. I had never actually seen one of those before. But I trust that this beast wasn't the only reason you called up here?" Again, Ragnarok didn't quite like his tone.

"Indeed," Pike replied. "You all remember our last meeting? Well, he's the result." He prodded Ragnarok.

"Uh, hi," The draken said, a little sheepishly.

The assembled scientists started and stared, as if... well, as if an animal had just spoken. "Hmm. Nice trick Pike. Didn't know you were a ventriloquist too," stated one.

Apparently, he was allowed to talk, so he looked at Pike and asked, "Um, what's a 'ven-trill-oh-kwist?'"

Pike grinned and answered, "It's a person who can make it sound like his voice is coming from somewhere else. Apparently, they think I'm just making it look like you're talking."

"Oh." Ragnarok turned to look at the scientists and said, "Pike's telling the truth. I'm talking, not him."

"So you're talking on your own, without Pike?" one of the scientists asked. Ragnarok nodded, and the scientist continued. "Very well Pike, but what's the point?"

Pike was startled by this. "What?"

"What is the point of this little exercise in creativity?"

"So you've got a talking animal. About the most he'll do is attract attention at parties," another scientist added.

"But... I..." Pike stammered.

"Oh, get out and quit wasting our time," the lead scientist commanded. Pike slumped and walked out.

Ragnarok watched him for a second, then turned back to the group and said, "Those weren't very nice things to say to him!" Thus said, he raced out after Pike. He caught up with him out at the car. "Don't listen to them, Pike. I know that what you did was great, no matter what those... I don't think they deserve to be called people... said."

Pike looked at his four-legged friend and smiled. "Thanks, Ragnarok. So what do we do now?"

They sat there and looked at each other for a bit, then Ragnarok's head perked up. "Hey, I've got an idea...."

* * *

And Pike flipped the switch. The form on the table jerked up, then collapsed limply down, wings and tail twitching a bit.

* * *

Ugh. Her head hurt, and sorta felt overfull. Whatever she had eaten last night must not have been good for her. She groaned blearily and opened on eye, and saw a familiar red shape.

"Ah! You're up!" her friend said. She hadn't heard those kinds of noises many times before, and her friend had only made them once, just before he had disappeared. But this time, they actually meant something!

"Uh... grk...?" she muttered.

The strange thing that her friend had left with walked over. "Hello Amber. Good morning, and welcome to the world."

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED...