Chapter 1

Story by Verlich on SoFurry

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#1 of First contact stories: Simon

This story is mainly to practice writing in 3rd person, but while I was writing it I decided to post it so I could get some feedback and advice. So here you are the first chapter of Simon's first contact with Draconian society.

Written By Verlich



Simon stood at the foot of the shuttle's loading ramp, he was in away if you wanted a human term, a foreign exchange student. Except the fact that he was a human from earth standing on a space port on the Draconian home world, Ithfion. with his bags in hand, a pair of glasses perched on the bridge of his nose and his raven color hair covered one side of his face. Allowing you to only see his left eye which was a piercing blue. His skin was paler than he remembered a side effect of space travel over the weeks of hyperspace, he made a note to spend some time outside while he was here to help elevate the unhealthily paleness. 'Hopefully the university has some outdoor activities that a human can participate in.' he thought hopefully. He was giddy to get going, he was one of the few who got the chance to come. To say the least he was lucky in his own mind. To Simon there was nothing special about himself, he didn't have the muscles of a jock and wasn't overly smart. To put it plainly he thought of himself as average, just plain old normal.

But he didn't stand around for long. The tide of dragons and other humans pushing him along like a raging river only to disperse at the exit of the space port. To his relief the driver was nearby so there wasn't much wading though the sea of bodies, Simon made his way to a green scaled dragon with a facial tattoo on the right side of his face holding a sigh that had 'Simon Clark' written across it in neat English. Simon stumbled out of the crowd only to look up and see the green dragon looking down at him with a smile on his lips. The muscles in his face contorting the tribal markings on his face into odd twisting patterns, which seemed to enrapt Simon for a heartbeat. But he broke his gaze with a blush of embarrassment not wanting to seem rude, he was after all a guest and wanted to keep such an image.

The green dragon offered a hand to take his baggage, Simon gladly gave him the bag and watched with curiosity at the muscles rippling below the scaly skin that covered the dragon's biceps. "Thank you" Simon said just loud enough for the dragon to hear over the noise of the crowd. The dragon nodded "Your welcome Sir" the dragon said with a smile and began leading the way out of the crowded port. Simon felt a little odd being called 'sir', he was after all nineteen sure he looked slightly older but it was still odd none the less. But he didn't make a complaint he didn't know if he would be stepping on some age old tradition if he did so.

The dragon lead Simon out of the crowd and through a set of broad doors, which were made of some kind of warped glass because it wasn't flat it had a wavy look almost like water. But as Simon passed through the doors he was subjected to the full brunt of draconian culture. Spiraling towers reached for the skies, their side made of silver looking glass, and on some of the roofs stood trees and gardens. Simon was so stunned he couldn't help but slow his steps to a stop for a moment, but he had to sprint to catch up with his guide when he noticed him still walking at his steady gait. The dragon looked over his shoulder with an overly smug smirk looking at Simon "Pretty cool looking eh?" He asked, Simon merely nodded in response which made the dragon's smirk grow bigger.

The dragon stopped next to a white car, which to Simon's surprise and amazement had no wheels. It just hovered with a quiet hum of energy. His guide deposited the military surplus duffle bag that held all of Simon's current belongings in the trunk. He walked over to Simon's side and touched a black pad on the car and the door slow swung up wards, not out like most cars on earth but that fancy vertical wing style that Simon always loved. The Dragon motioned for Simon to get in, which he did without question and the Dragon closed the door before walking around and climbing into the driver's seat.

The dragon Pushed a red button and the car seemed to come to life the domed glass in front of Simon became a I field of gauges and system information and a holographic line appeared on the road, Simon assumed it was the car's navigation equivalent of a GPS. Two handles folded out in front of the dragon which looked closer to a pilot's controls on a plane than a steering wheel for a car. But it worked quiet fine as the Dragon merged out on the road and zipped along with traffic and onto an on-ramp to a highway. Simon could swiftly feel the sudden acceleration as they came onto the ramp, watching the speedometer climbing past two-hundred.

The dragon maneuvered the car into the far right lane and pressed a green button on the center of the wheel and the controls folded back up and disappeared into the dash. The dragon turned to Simon "So do you have any questions?" He asked, Simon just sat there gaping like a fish out of water. "Ok I'll start, my name is Azal." The dragon spoke holding out a hand to Simon who stared at dumbly for a second before grasping it as firmly as he could muster, which by all means was no were near the strength of Azal. "It's a pleasure to meet you Azal." Simon said a little meekly but still with some strength to his credit.

"Well in a minute I will be dropping you off at the University, and don't worry you'll see me again so if you have questions just ask. I'm one of the professors." He said with a friendly grin. The car beeped and the controls folded out and Azal took hold of them firmly and banked the car onto the off ramp. Lowering the speed to a more maintainable 50 miles per an hour, and turning off onto a road that headed towards a large dome shaped building that had white sheen that reflected the sun's light away from it. Thus giving it the ability to almost blind you if you looked dead at it, which Simon was doing until his eyes began to water from the sunlight being reflected into them. He rubbed away the tears from his eyes cursing himself for being such an idiot to stare at the reflective surface.

When he diverted his eyes back to the road he found the car turning into the entrance, a sign that most likely said the university's name he could not make heads or tails of for it being in Draconic. The car flew up to the front of the campus, which was a set of curved doors in the side of the domed building. Students walking by going about their day, a few pairs holding paws.

It was and wasn't what Simon had imagined it, it was so much like any other school and so much different at the same time. Different styles of building also the students weren't human, but they acted so similar, it was as if everybody at a normal university had been put in dragon suits except for him. It was like the mentality of college students was universal, but he just hoped the people weren't bent on making others that they knew nothing about lives miserable. Simon could tell a bully here would be by far different than a bully on his world, claws and all that jazz are far more deadly than his bare hands.

Simon wasn't a meat head which made it easy for him to make friends with women, but it also meant he was prime target for those who in their incomprehensible minds found him some lucky bastard even though he never got anything from the chicks he hung out with. But just the act of being around them was enough for him to be given hell, so hopefully this would turn out differently.

"So you just going to stare or are you going to get out?" Azal said poking Simon in the shoulder with a claw. Simon nodded and pulled the handle letting the door finish swinging open before getting out, mostly for the sake of entertainment. He walked to the back and a trunk that you couldn't tell existed popped out and his bag sat contrasting out from the futuristic design. 'U.S. Army' stamped in black on the side of the fading olive drab colored canvas.

"Go on inside, they will get someone to help get you settled." Azal said and pushed a button on the dash and the door slowly lowered closing and the car zoomed off when the door closed. Simon looked around and began to walk up the stairs to the doors, a few dragons stared at him as he walked by. Simon bunched his knees and gave little hop to keep his duffle bag on his shoulder, before opening the doors and stepping into the building. The inside was incredible walls sloped up and formed rounded walls like a bowl upside down, the hallways and corridors parting of it were like tunnels. The main antechamber was lighted by a sun roof at the peak of the ceiling.

The walls had miss colored designs in them contrasting with its sky blue shade, and several of the images seemed to depicted battles, while others were feasts, and dragons in medieval armor. "So you're the new guy, eh?" A voice that was like a melody in itself sounded behind Simon causing him to turn. He had to struggle to keep his composer, standing before him was a dragoness with striking features. Two polished white horns on her head with golden rings around them with jewels hanging from golden chains, her scales were a light blue. Her facial fins were also light blue with swirls of white in them, and her eyes were a bright green with a sparkle in her silted pupils. The dragoness cocked her head to the side cutely waiting for his response, Simon blushed a little before struggling to responded. "Umm... yeah, I-I'm the new guy." Simon blundered causing the dragoness to giggle before holding out a hand. "Well welcome to the University and... well our world, my name's Hera by the way." The dragoness introduced herself, Simon reached out a shaky hand and grasped hers in a firm but gentle hand shake. "I-It's a pleasure to meet you Hera..." Simon let the name roll of his tongue, it had a lovely ring to it.

He went to let go of her hand, but Hera's didn't relent and looked he at her worriedly but she merely giggled. Simon didn't understand why she wouldn't let go and he couldn't tell what he did wrong.

"You haven't told me your name silly...." she trailed off hoping that he would continue.

Simon mentally slapped himself for being so stupid, he berated himself furiously in his head for being so out of it and making himself look like an idiot. "Sorry! I'm sorry, my name's Simon" Simon apologized nervously. "See isn't that better?" Hera said with a grin, flashing her rows of pearly white teeth, her fangs showing a little too much for Simon's comfort.

"Well the Head Professor said for me to show you around, you've probably met him already.... He's the one who drove you here." Hera said as she started walking across the lobby towards one of the tunnel like corridors her dark blue robes flowing behind her, the tip of her tail poking out near the marble floors. She looked over her shoulder at Simon who was still standing where he was, "Coming?".

Simon sprung into movement giving a few bounds to catch up with her, "Sorry the walls have some interesting designs that had my interest." He lied, Hera smiled "Ah, yes the murals of time, a very popular work of art that this university is famous for." Commented while Simon struggled kept up with her gait as the halls became slightly more crowded. "I'll show you to your room first so you can drop off your bag, and then I'll give you the grand tour." Hera said with a little excitement in her tone.

A overconfident arrogant male voice sounded behind the two, "Hey their beautiful why don't you ditch that furless monkey and come walk with a real drake." A ruff hand knocked Simon to the side off balancing him and making him nearly fall, which caused him to let a stream of mental curses flow through his head. Simon turned to find that a rather tall and overly muscular dragon was now standing in front of Hera looking down at her with a supercilious grin on his face and his hands on his hips. The dragon's sleeveless tunic left nothing to the imagination, Simon could easily see the muscle's rippling under the dragon's scales as he tried to show off to Hera. Who only gave a disgusted snarl and bared her fangs almost savagely, "Get out of my way Blaze I have to show Simon here around the building." She motioned to Simon when she spoke his name. "Well make sure to swing by and visit your future mate..." Blaze purred the final word.

Something inside Hera snapped "You will never be mated to me you, you miserable excuse for a dragon!-". But she was cut off when Blaze wrapped his hand around her jaws and yanked them down looking her in the eye "You don't have choice and I'll make sure of that..." Blaze growled which only made Hera snarl through her teeth.

But his gaze was broken when a yellow unused number 2 pencil bounced off the top of his head, his body stiffened with rage and his head turned to the side and his eyes burned with pure bloodlust. For Simon's blood, Simon flipped a second one in his hand before throwing it fast ball style. The pencil flew straight into the dragon's nose bouncing of it causing him to blink instinctively.

Blaze tossed Hera to the floor and stalked up to Simon who was trying with all his will not to shrink back, but a fire lit inside of him as he saw Hera sent sprawling across the floor. His nose scrunched up and he let out a human growl of anger, "Oh... did I make the little monkey mad? Oh I'm so terrified!" Blaze said in mocking voice. Simon looked at Hera for a split second, she could see the fear in his eyes, but it was drowned in his fury at Blaze's insolence. Simon's glare returned to Blaze, Blaze just laughed "What are you going to do fight me, huh? you scrawny monkey!" Blaze challenged.

Simon smiled and raised his fists, in the back of his mind his conscious was screaming at him to run to leave Hera. But he pushed it away and adopted a combat stance his feet shoulder width apart and knees bent, with hands open and at the ready. Blaze let out snarl and lunged forward with a right hook, Simon dodged it but stepped right into his left punch which hit dead center in his chest. The force cracked bone and staggered the poor human who fell to his knees, the dragon laid in with a second punch to the jaw sending Simon sailing to the floor hitting hard on his right side.

Blaze turned away from the laid out human and turned to the dragoness who had her paws on her maw staring at the human. Blaze was about to back hand the poor dragoness for having feeling towards a male that wasn't him, but stopped dead when a cough sounded behind him. Blaze looked behind him to see the human staggering to his feet wiping the blood from his mouth cursing at the sight of the crimson on his hand. The dragon growled "Why won't you stay down you frakking whelp!" Blaze roared his lips pulled back in savage animalistic snarl with fangs bared and his eyes burning with fury at the human's defiance.

"Because.... I'm not going to stand around... and watch you bully Hera... because that would make me just as bad as you for doing nothing..." Simon spoke between wheezes from his burning lungs. He steadied himself and gave a slight nod to Hera which only seemed to enrage Blaze more, Simon rose his feet weakly.

Blaze only gave a smirk and growled "I make sure you don't stand again" The dragon lunged at Simon with claws out stretched, the human remained still his eyes burning with defiance. He would take the dragon's best shots and he would keep fighting, that was the human spirit, the dragon's claws slashed across the man's face and chest. The claws left four deep groves in his cheek welled with crimson and the other hand's claws tore through his hoodie and T-shirt with easy and dug down to bone.

Simon let out cry and fell back to one knee his hands grasping at the wound on his chest, blood seeping past his fingers. His skin began to turn pale and clammy as he tried to stand again, Simon looked at Hera and gave her a weak smile as his vision began to darken and tunnel. Simon heard a few cries but couldn't discern them from the heart thumping in his ears, his head hit the floor as he toppled sideways. The last thing Simon saw was Hera crying out to him tears in her eyes and red colored robes moving around him.

Simon Drifted in out of unconsciousness for a few days, he was laid up in the university's hospital/infirmary, the veteran medical students taking care of him along with the normal staff. On the fourth day after his wounds he finally got a hold of his conscious and found himself waking with the Head Professor next to his bed on the right side and on the left side Hera with her head buried in the sheets next to his left hand. Which she had clutched In her paws while she slept silently, the professor was awake and he noticed Simon's head raise and begin looking around as he tried to sit up. "Hey take it easy Simon... you lost a lot of blood back there." Azal warned, Simon laid back into his mattress looking at Azal who was looking at him worriedly. "You were nearly dead when we got you to the infirmary but our doctors brought you back from the brink, your one lucky bastard. Why did you pick a fight with the biggest dragon in the building?" Azal asked, Simon was staring at Hera the whole time. "Her" Simon whispered nodding to Hera who was asleep cradling his left hand next her face.

"Hera... she's got a fire in her heart I'll tell you that, she has barely left your room, only for food or water. Hell she hasn't even gone to class for the past three days before today, I had to drag her out of here so she wouldn't be removed from her classes. She's never been like this before..." Azal trailed off "Well I'll leave you to rest, I have to get back to work. So rest up Simon." Simon nodded gave a little wave as the dragon left the room. He watched the door way the dragon left through for a moment after the dragon exited the room. He let out a sigh and looked at the sleeping dragoness softly, he stroked her cheek with his right hand, running the back of his hand over the frills on her cheek the bony spines that held them out dragging across his skin.

Hera purred for a while has Simon stroked her cheek content with her company, after a few minutes of his gentle pets Hera's eyes fluttered open. Her silted pupils focusing in on his face, it took her a second to realize he was smiling at her as he rubbed her cheek. Hera let out an exited shriek and wrapped her arms around his neck nearly choking him. Simon held her as her cries of joy turned into tears of happiness, "I didn't think you would pull through, I'm so sorry it was my fault I shouldn't have let you defend me..." Her voice trailed into a bout of tears. Simon shushed her and rubbed her back to calm her "It's not your fault, I did it because it was the right thing to do... even though I could have died." He said and he let out a chuckle "And besides I wouldn't have let you stop me."

"I'll bite you the next time you purposefully put yourself in danger for me, even though it may be sweet... I'll still bite you." Hera threatened half-heartedly "Oh well guess that's another thing I got to get use to." Simon chuckled when Hera punched him in the shoulder, but he could see the relief in her eyes.

"I'm tired Hera and need to rest, I lost a lot of blood, but I want you to go back to your classes and get some rest, Ok?" Simon held her shoulders and looked her in the eyes, "But-" Simon cut her off with a finger to her lips, and laid back into the mattress closing his eyes. "No buts Hera it will do you no good to spend your time worrying about me when I'm fine, so go get some rest god knows you need it." Simon could hear her claws taping against the polished floor as she left, he could hear her pause at the doorway. She mumbled something but he couldn't understand as he slipped into a fitful sleep, letting dreams take over his mind. 'I need a new pair of glasses' Simon thought as he slipped into a deep sleep, he just realized that his glass had been broken when the dragon clawed his face.