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That morning I did not hunt. I slept in past dawn instead. I wanted to be well rested and not weighed down with a belly full of meat in case there was to be fighting done. However, I did not expect there to be any bloodshed today... except possibly one human, depending on how pigheaded he was. Stretching my wings, the leather between the long, bat-like digits drew taut in a gust of sprightly mountain air. It tickled the tiny hair-like scales that covered the surface of the membrane and gave me the information I needed about the capricious air currents. I threw back my head and drew in a great draught of the air into my lungs. On a whim, I expelled it in a massive roar that echoed far up and down the valley. Before me, on the opposite side of the vale, an avalanche started from the still frozen heights and tumbled down to the brown rocks below. The sight filled me with satisfaction. This would indeed be my territory... my home... at last. The winds lifted me up and carried me far from my perch.

I wasted no time on pleasantries. My blood was hot with excitement and I was ready to start what I'd come here to do. The lad emerged from his makeshift den, I noticed that somehow he had managed to clean most of the dirt from his skin and had straightened his hair somewhat. As I touched down, he braced himself for the shockwave in the ground and then raised a hand, saying "Good morning, Sir Dragon. What's fo-"That's as far as he got before I reached out and grabbed him around the waist.

He started screaming again, so I paused in my preparations for flight to say, "I thought you wanted to go home."

The young man stopped wiggling between my fingers, each of which was thicker around than his waist. "Truly? You are taking me home?"

I sighed raggedly. Why humans insisted on repeating the obvious, I'll never know. Or perhaps it was just this one. "...At least for a short time." I said. "You must not appear as you are when we are to meet Sir Ronald."

"M-meet Sir Ronald!? But-" His words were cut off by the rushing air as I jumped into the sky.

It took about an hour's flight to arrive back at the outskirts of the village from whence I had first plucked my unwilling minion. I flew low over the trees to avoid the freezing heights for which the human was ill equipped and hugged him to my chest to further warm him. Still the passage was apparently trying for the lad for when I touched down in the woods outside his home, he was shivering and his hide had taken on a strange blue hue about the cheeks. I was intrigued by the human's capacity to change color and wanted to inquiry more about its abilities, but I knew I had made a huge ruckus crashing in among the trees, breaking several beneath my bulk as I landed. I loosed the human, but kept him penned between my chest and an outstretched leg. He seemed to prefer the warmth as well and made no attempt at a premature escape. As he was rubbing his hands together, I said, "You will go inside and change into the best set of clothes you have. You've told me that important humans dress nicely, so you must appear as important as you can. Clean yourself as well..." I added, I still had not accustomed my nose to the rank stink of stale sweat that permeated the air about the young man like a miasma. "And be quick about it. Do not force me to come in after you."

The boy swallowed. "I've been gone four days. My folks will be sore as ferrets in a sack when they see me. They might not let me come out."

"Then lie to them. Or tell them the truth. It matters not. Just make sure you come out if you want to avoid having the roof ripped off your house." I said, eager to be off and execute my plan for conquest.

The boy looked away, seeming to appraise my forelegs which blocked his escape route. He spoke, "I... I'm feeling very unsure, Sir Dragon. You've been asking me all these questions, but I don't even know what you plan to do or what I'm supposed to do. You haven't even told me your name, or asked me mine."

My lips slipped up from my rows of fangs at the little beast's impudence. But I lowered them, smoothing the skin on my muzzle, trying to remain calm. It was - perhaps - a reasonable comment on my treatment of him. I tried to imagine what it was like to be in his position, but empathy was not a skill that came naturally to me; or any dragon really. I rested my chin on my leg and tilted the side of my face down towards the young man who was standing firmly despite being surrounded by more than three-thousand pounds of dragon-flesh. "What's your name, then?"

"What?" the boy asked, clearly shocked.

My teeth flashed again and I said with a slight hiss, "Tell me what your name isss, if it's ssso important."

The human lad seemed off-put by my sudden escalation in "in-humanness" but answered, "T-tobias. Tobias Harrison." Staring up at my slit eye with its angry yellow iris, it must have taken some courage to ask, "So, what is your name?"

I didn't react with anger at the impudence of the boy. Rather, I chuckled, the sound rumbling out from deep inside my chest. When I finished, I said, "I have several names... Tobias. And none of them are for you or any other human to know." Besides, I reflected, the human with his lack of nose and the sophisticated vocal apparatus of the dragon would never be able to pronounce any of them. I saw something shine in the lad's eyes, some emotion I was unfamiliar with, so I added in recompense, "You may continue calling me Sir Dragon, if you wish, or just Sir, or My Lord. If I decide I need a name amongst your kind, I shall tell you."

"Fair enough... Sir Dragon." Said Tobias.

A few moments passed and I gestured with my nose towards the farm where Tobias lived. He finally remembered my task for him and I moved my leg as he turned to run through the trees towards the cottage. "Return with all the haste you can." I reminded him as he disappeared between the trunks. I curled up, completing the destruction my landing had caused to the forest with a few corrective swipes of my tail to the broken trunks partially under me. I kicked them aside so I could rest more comfortably. The small clearing I'd made would take years to repair. I wondered if anyone save me would even remember this place in time...

I waited.