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The Misadventures of an Unexpected Dragon

By Theo Winters

3:

I awoke slowly, the memories of the night before slowly returning to my mind as I became aware of the world around me. I was laying sprawled out on the stone floor of the cave, legs and wings going off in all directions with a pair of weights resting on top of my chest, rising and falling with each breath I took. Cracking my eye, I wasn't surprised to see Fern curled up on top of me. What I hadn't expected was to see that Kiden had joined her. He might have been the leader of the clan, but he was still a kobold, even if he didn't often show it.

Rolling my head back, I stretched out as much as I could without disturbing them. It felt good to be a dragon, very good. It might even have been the best feeling of any form that I had ever taken. It was intoxicating. My whole body was filled with power, power like I had never had before, and it felt so damn good. There was a small part of me, though still a fairly small part, that was already considering just staying like this.

Feeling like that was normal when I first started playing around with a new form. When I had discovered the TG perfume, I spent a couple of months playing around with the idea of staying a lioness full time. The same had been true with the horseshoes, and the bimbo gloss. It was just a phase, but it was a fairly normal one. Though this time it felt far more compelling than ever before. I wasn't sure what to make of it, other than the possibility that being a dragon was simply that amazing.

I curled my tail back, flexing it a little bit as I tried to think of what the day would bring. I still wasn't sure I had made the right choice by accepting the transformation, no matter how good it felt. I just couldn't, in good conscience, refuse to help someone in need, when I could actually do something for them. It was like the cat said, "It never hurts to help," though in his case it usually did. In fact, it usually hurt a lot.

Fern snorted and lifted her head, blinking her eyes and looking up towards me. "Theo?" she asked, the dim light still making it easy to see the green of her eyes.

"Good morning, Felecia," I said, reaching out with one large paw to stroke across the top of her head. "How did you sleep?"

She sat up and rubbed her eyes with the back of her paws."Pleasant, but I had an odd dream. I was making a trap, and was working for hours until it was perfect. It vanished into the floor of the cave, and would trap whatever had tripped it without hurting them. I was proud of how well I did," she smiled a little bit, rubbing the back of her paw as a hint of a blush started to shine on her brown scales. "Well, I guess not that odd considering."

I chuckled softly. "I know that sort of dream, they can be very nice. Are you enjoying being a kobold?"

"It's... different. I hadn't expected to feel this connection to you and the clan, but it feels right when I'm like this." She motioned over her body with one paw, her tail curling around her legs. "I am enjoying it, even when I'm fully me and not Fern. Maybe I should start joining you here more often."

"I would really like that," I said, smiling down at her. It was nice to have a few more interests in common. We did do quite a lot of things together, but there were things one of us liked but the other didn't, which was okay, as it gave us both our personal spaces. I was just glad to be able to share one more bit of myself with her. "It's nice to be a part of the clan, even if it's for a short time," I replied.

She nodded as she tucked her legs under her body. "Do you think this dragon thing will be safe?"

"I don't know if it will be safe, but I know that I will be safe. He swore on his blood, you can't get much better than that." At least outside of a contract with a demon, and that wasn't the sort of thing I was willing to do.

Felicia nodded and sighed, not looking very convinced.

The truth was, she was right to be worried. Just saying I would be safe left a lot of wiggle room for things to go wrong, and it also depended on exactly what safe meant to a dragon. It wouldn't hurt to have something in my back pocket, just in case. My eyes quickly flicked over to where my clothing was still piled on the table. "Listen, Felecia. No one there will know that you are Fern, or that she knows as much as you do. Dragons ignore kobolds, that means they will ignore you. Take my cell phone. If things start going bad, I mean really bad, you call Dean and Candy and tell them to come save our asses. Got it?"

"I got it," she said, her tail curling a little bit tighter around her body.

Leaning forward, I gave her a peck on the top of her scaly head. "And keep your ears open, in case you hear something you think I or Cheasequah should know."

She nodded, and leaned forward to wrap my neck in a hug, her arms quite strong for how small they were. "I will Theo, and I'm sure there will be other kobolds there, so I can talk with them as well," she paused and then let out a cute little giggle into the back of her paw. "That sounds weird for me to say. Being a kobold is your thing, though I don't mind it all that much. It just feels good to be around you like this... or maybe it's just because you're a dragon."

"I think it's both," I replied.

A moment later, Kiden let out a snort and rolled off my belly, landing on my tail with a heavy thump that caused the both of us to start laughing. As Felecia laughed, the sound of it shifted, losing the musical quality it always had and becoming rougher than before, the green in her eyes fading back to brown. I could actually feel the change this time, as the way she was holding herself shifted slightly, her laugh trailing off as she started to nuzzle at my neck.

"You make a good dragon," Fern whispered.

"Thank you," I replied with a deep rumble. She gave me one last nuzzle, then slid off my chest and dropped to the floor. Once I was completely kobold free, I rolled over, flipping onto all fours and stretching out my legs, flexing one at a time, followed by my wings and tail.

Reaching out to pick up my glasses from the table, I placed them back on the tip of my snout, where they stayed put with nothing but friction and a little bit of magic.

On the other side of the room, Cheasequah was starting to stir, somehow curling up tighter than the ball of scale and feathers he already was. He didn't exactly look cute or even cuddly like that, more like a ball of potential pain. He reminded me of an angry cat, one that I didn't want to go poking even if he was a friend.

"Theo," Kiden said, walking around to my side. "I wish to speak with you."

"Of course," I said, giving a nod to the kobold. I didn't care that I was a dragon at the moment, which technically meant I out ranked him, he was the clan leader and I respected that.

He glanced around a bit, moving a step closer. "Can you provide some privacy?"

I thought about it for a moment. I didn't exactly have the same sort of magic that Cheasequah did, so I couldn't do anything to hide whatever we might say. The best I could do was provide for a more literal interpretation of his request. Circling myself around him, I brought my head up close while bringing one of my wings down to cover us both. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but it gave us a little bit of privacy.

Kiden worked his fingers together. "Theo, if things go wrong with the meeting and you have to run, you run. Do not go back to save him, or anyone other than your mate if you have to. This is not your fight, do not try to fight it, understood?"

"Yes," I replied, also nodding my head.

He turned to glance out in the direction where Cheasequah was, not that he could see the dragon through my wing. "That's an order, and I expect you to follow it as if you were a kobold. Understood?"

I couldn't help but smile at that. "Of course, you're my clan leader after all. I promised to follow you as a lion, and I promise to follow you as a dragon."

"Thank you," he said, reaching out to run his hand over my snout, only to pull back at the last second, shaking his head. "Your mate was right; you do make a good dragon."

"Thank you," I said, giving him a smile as I lifted my wing and uncurled from around him.

Kiden quickly moved away, heading to the back of the room and pulling open an old and worn barrel that was almost as gray as the stone walls, and started to dig through it.

On the other side of the room, Cheasequah was starting to uncurl, his red feathers sticking out in almost every direction as he climbed to his feet, though a quick flick of his wings and a flash of magic put everything back to rights. That was something I wished I could do in the morning.

"It's just after dawn, we should be off soon," he said, walking over to where I was standing, his antlers starting to glow again, though I wasn't sure if any of us needed the extra light at the moment.

Kiden walked up towards us, a small bundle of leather held in his paw. "How long do you believe this meeting will take?"

"No more than three days," he replied.

It was Saturday, I was going to have to call off work if it did go that long. How exactly do you phrase that you can't come into work because you're currently a dragon? I had gone to work in any number of forms in the past, so my boss would wonder why this time would be the exception.

"Good," Kiden said, moving between us and over to Fern, handing her the bundle of leather. Her eyes lit up as she unfolded it, revealing a satchel that was the perfect size for a kobold. She pulled it over her shoulders, then went to my clothing, starting to empty the pockets into the pouch, cell phone and all. I watched this, wondering why he gave that to her. There wasn't any reason to do so unless he knew she would need it. I was starting to think he might have been more awake this morning then he had first seemed.

I lowered myself down, fanning out a wing. Closing the satchel, Fern scrambled up onto my back, taking a seat right at the base of my neck, her weight settling down between my wings. It felt weird to have her on my back, but she wasn't actually that heavy, so I was sure it would be easy to fly with her there.

Standing up, I walked over to the Piasa dragon. "So, where are we going?" I asked, adjusting my glasses.

"To the old volcano," he said, then lowered his head, looking at me intently with his dark red eyes. "You will not say a word about my changing you, not even a hint of it. If they know, this will go wrong. I will protect you to the end of the world, but it's better if you do not bring the wrath of the others down upon you."

I nodded.

"You also should not call too much attention to yourself," he said, then shook his head. "But you're a night fury, so that cannot be helped." He then turned to look at Kiden, his antlers starting to glow. "Thank you for your aid in this matter. I will return your clan members when their service to me has been completed."

"I'm always happy to help a dragon, but I would like my clan members back safe and sound, and as their proper species," my clan leader said with a slight nod.

The large dragon's antlers grew even brighter as he moved to my side. "Now, we will depart," he said, and then the world flashed as we teleported back outside, once again appearing just off one of the hiking trails. The sun was just starting to shine between the mountain peaks to the east, casting a warm glow over everything.

"Follow me," Cheasequah ordered, and then leapt into the air. His wings fanned out behind him and beat down hard and sent dirt and debris flying in all directions.

I looked back at Fern, who gave me a short nod--even as she had her arms wrapped tightly around my neck. With a kick of my powerful legs, I launched myself into the air, the tree quickly vanishing below me. I passed over a couple of early morning hikers, banking slightly to make a lazy half circle around them before taking off after the larger dragon. He was moving pretty dang fast, but I was easily able to close the distance without too much extra effort on my part.

Together, we flew down towards the south, with Fern hanging tightly on my back. The ground moved quickly underneath us as the sun rose up over the Cascades, casting light across the trees. I was surprised at just how much higher I could fly. Normally, when I had wings, I couldn't get much above five thousand feet, but now I could easily reach three times that. Possibly even more, but I kept myself fairly low for Fern's sake. While I might have been able to deal with the thin air, I didn't think kobolds could handle it.

It was an easy flight around the mountains, swooping past Mount Rainier as the squat peak of Mount St. Helens came into view over the horizon. I could see a few other dragons circling over the caldera, and a few others in the distance. I imagine it was going to be quite the show for the locals.

I could make out the different kinds of dragons as we got closer. The European and Asian dragons were easy enough to spot, the Asian ones even more so for lacking any sort of wings. There were a trio of what had to be Quetzalcoatl in the group, their large feathers wings and brilliant colors making them easy to spot. I could swear that there was also one with three heads on a heavy-set body, but it vanished behind the mountain before I could get a good look at it.

"Quite the menagerie," I said as we got closer.

"I will need to introduce you before you can join with the rest of us. Land away from the mountains and I will summon you," Cheasequah said.

"Right," I replied, banking away from him and started to circle towards the ground, searching for a good place to land. There was mostly forest under me, but there were still a number of clearings that I could make use of.

A few moments later my decision was made for me as I saw a light flashing from the ground. It was bright, flashing every few moments in a regular pattern. A quick glance showed me that it was coming from a parking lot on a ridge to the north of the mountain. Someone was trying to get my attention.

I banked towards the light, flying high over the parking lot and a couple of low buildings that seemed to be partly built into the side of the hill. I circled around as I bled off altitude, finally coming down to land in a large parking lot, right in front of a pair of annoyed looking park rangers.

"Gentlemen," I said as I flared my wings to land on all fours, finding that my voice sounded quite a bit different when speaking English. Once I was on the ground, I shook out my wings, and glanced back to check on Fern. She was still holding on tightly around my neck, but was also half curled up against my shoulders and sound asleep. It was far cuter than it had any right to be.

The two rangers looked back at me, then shared a glance between each other. I wasn't sure if it was 'I told you so', 'now what', or possibly a combination of both. Finally, one of them--a human--stepped forward while his lupine partner stayed slightly back. "Do you think you would be willing to tell us what's going on?"

"I'm not actually supposed to say," I replied, rubbing my foreleg with one paw. "I would like to tell you, but I really can't. It should be temporary though, only a few days at most."

The wolf sighed. "I wish you would have given us some warning ahead of time. Shutting the park is always a pain in the tail."

"I'm not really in charge, so there isn't much I can tell you about what is or isn't planned," I said, my ears sagging as I let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, I'm being really unhelpful."

The rangers looked at each other for a few moments then jointly shook their heads. "Well, you're the only one who even noticed us, so that's more help than any of the other dragons that have flown by this morning. I've never seen this many dragons together in one place before, and I've never seen some of them before, like yourself. What sort of dragon are you?" the human asked.

With a smile, I sat up slightly and adjusted my glasses. "I'm a Night Fury, though we are traditionally sky black."

"Huh, I thought you were extinct."

I shrugged my shoulders and wings. "There are a few of us still tucked away, but we're usually the private sort," I answered, not sure if that was true or not. I then looked back again as I felt Fern starting to stir. She slowly worked her arms free, peeking up over my shoulder, but she ducked back down again the moment she saw the rangers.

"What was that?" the wolf asked.

"A kobold, she's kind of my... well, a number of things. I would be lost without her," I replied, feeling a bit of a blush starting to color my cheeks.

Fern peaked out again, and gave them a little wave before ducking back down behind by back. I just shook my head. "Don't worry, she's harmless."

"She might be harmless, but what about the rest of you? One or two dragons we can deal with, but not two dozen," the human said, sounding more annoyed than angry. "Not to mention the tourist problems."

My ears flicked up at that. "Tourist problem? You said you were going to close the park."

He nodded. "Oh yes, will we be restricting access to the mountain, but there are going to be a lot of people wanting to see so many dragons all in one place. You're going to have every news chopper in the area hanging around by noon just to see what you're all doing up there."

I cocked my head to the side as I thought about that. "Would the FAA allow that? I know there are flight restrictions around the peak to prevent accidents, but wouldn't they close the whole airspace with so many large animals flying around?" I asked, trying to think back to the FARs about dragons, but really couldn't remember any other than, try to stay out of their way. Though dragons in general would stay away from airplanes, simply because they were too much trouble to deal with.

The ranger shrugged. "I have no idea what they will do, or how long it will take them to do it. The news will be here before they can issue anything."

"Wait, how do you know about the FAA?" the wolf asked, looking a bit surprised.

I shrugged again. I couldn't exactly tell them I had a pilot's license in addition to having my own wings. "It's a big sky, and we all have to share it. You might not need a license to fly with your own wings, but it doesn't mean I don't know the rules for everyone else. I can't say the same for the others though, as I'm a bit more immersed in your culture then most." It felt both weird and incredibly natural to be talking like that, as if I really was a dragon, and not some pretender.

"It might be faster to call the Portland Control Tower and tell them, they will have a hotline to the FAA that should cut through most of the red tape."

"I'll get on that," the wolf said, and headed towards his jeep.

The other ranger just shook his head. "I don't know what you guys are trying to do, but if you're being secretive about it, you're doing a bad job. We've already been getting calls about how many of you guys are around, and some people are worried. I know we can't make you get a permit; dragons can do pretty much whatever the hell they want, but some warning would have been nice."

"I'm sorry," I replied, shrugging again, then blinked in surprise when I saw Fern hiding behind the human's legs, her head cocked to one side and looked up at him, her eyes wide. I tilted my head in return and chuckled. "I think you have made a friend."

He looked down, and let out a soft yelp in surprise when he saw the kobold, but didn't jump away. Fern was just leaning up, sniffing at his pockets.

Slowly, he reached down into one pocket and pulled out a bag of trail mix. "You smell this?"

She nodded. "Hungry," she added.

"Oh, I didn't know you could speak, what's your name?" he asked, crouching down and opening the bag before offering it to her.

Reaching into the bag, she started picking out a piece of the trail mix, her tail flicking against the ground in anticipation. "Fern," she said, then ate the piece, a smile on her face. "Thank you," she said, taking another piece.

The ranger chuckled and reached down to rub the top of her head, then handed her the bag. "You're welcome. How old is she?" he asked, the question clearly directed at me.

"Thirty," I answered, which wasn't quite right for Felicia, as she was older than she looked. "Kobolds are naturally small." I added, smiling as I watched my mate eat.

He nodded, taking a closer look at her before he stood back up "And why is she here with you?"

"Theo is mate," Fern said between bites.

"Your name is Theo?" the ranger asked, clearly having expected something more exotic from a dragon.

I nodded and fanned out my wings a bit. "Yeah, It's Theo. I come from a bit of a weird family." That was a bit more of a lie, it wasn't so much that my family was weird, as we just didn't really get along, though I do manage a conversation with my twin sister at least every other year.

"Clearly," the ranger replied as he walked around me, taking me in. I couldn't help but pose for him, chest out, neck up and my tail swishing behind me. I actually was enjoying the attention, and it was silly, but it was the good sort of silly.

He came to a stop back in front of me. "Why the glasses?"

"So I can read," I said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The ranger shook his head. "This day is just going to keep getting stranger isn't it? When you get back to the rest of the dragons, can you send one down to see me? Preferably someone in charge. We need to make sure nothing is going to happen to cause any major problems. The last thing we want is some idiot to go pissing one of you off and getting eaten."

"I don't think that actually happens that much," I replied, but I wasn't really sure how true that was.

"Then let's be sure about that," he stated.

Before I could respond to that, a string of lights zipped down across the mountain side and came to a stop right at the end of my muzzle. They bounced there for a few seconds, the glow shining off of my glasses, before they faded away.

I had to blink my eyes a couple of times to clear the glow from them. "Okay, I think that was my cue to head up the mountain. It was nice talking with you, and I'll try to get someone down here to talk to you about what the heck is going on," I said with a nod, then looked down at my mate. "Come on Fern, it's time to go. You should give him back the trail mix."

"Oh no, she can keep it."

"Thank you," I replied, lowering myself down so Fern could quickly climb onto my back. "I hope you have a good day, or at least a less confusing one," I added before I leapt into the air, taking wing with ease. The ground fell away from my feet as I flicked my tail, fanning out the small fins on the tip and using them to check my speed. I didn't want to rush in looking too eager. It would never do for a dragon to look eager.

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This story was written and copyright 2020-2021 by Theo Winters, reposting and archiving are allowed as long as this copyright notice and the author's name are not removed. This story cannot be published without permission of the author, violators will be given to the dragons.