Leaving his whole life behind was very tough for him. His dream of becoming a doctor, his parents, and his future success was left behind in the dust. He had to try his best to deal with the fact he was born a dragon, and nothing could change that. Knowing that running forever would lead him nowhere, he knew he needed a plan, somewhere to hide, or maybe even some way to restart his life, where he would have been able to live happily. Of course, before he would have even been able to consider anything of that sort, he needed to find Matt.

The wind farm was 50 kilometers north of his house, and he figured it would have probably taken him around an hour of flight to reach it. It was very peaceful for him. Miles upon miles of trees and fields lay before him, with no troubles - just him, the sky, and nature. In fact, if he had had the chance, he would have stopped flying instantly, and have gone down to live the long awaited peace he always wanted. Instead, he was forced to look ahead, watching the horizon, with his wings flapping smoothly, directing him toward a wind farm. He thought of Matt once again, and how he might already have arrived, waiting for him. He decided to increase his speed a little, just in case.

His estimation was quite correct - it took him about an hour to reach the wind farm. Fortunately, there was not much of a breeze at the time, so the 50-meter turbines sticking out of the ground were not very hazardous. The overall scenery was very nice as well. Rows upon rows of wind turbines, ready to generate electric energy, all of which was owned by whom he thought to be the owner of the ranch at the end of the field.

He snapped out of his daze, quickly recalling his objective. He scanned the premises, but found nothing. He flew around a bit, looking for the slightest sign of a wolf's gray fur, or even any type of clothing, but his findings remained inconclusive. Eric began to worry: "Maybe he got lost somehow? Maybe he stopped to eat somewhere? Maybe he was just a slow runner?" Taking into consideration dragons flew much faster than wolves could run, he placed his faith into his third possibility. Knowing it would have taken a while longer, he decided to wait.

He flew down and effectuated a perfect landing - his first ever. It was not too slow, not too fast, and did not end as abruptly as the first two. He felt he was beginning to get the hang of being a dragon, which made him feel proud of himself. He began to forget why he wanted to remain human - he had more power, enhanced senses, and extreme mobility compared to a human, so why would he have wanted to change that? He went over to one of the wind turbines to lie down, folding his wings and curling his tail around him to listen to the wind's song. Eric quickly realized he had not slept in a long time, but for some odd reason, he did not feel as tired as he thought he would. Regardless, he knew a few hours of sleep would benefit him greatly, knowing he probably had a long day ahead of him. Soon enough, Eric drifted to sleep, dreaming of his former life.

...

He did not sleep for very long. Thirty minutes after falling asleep, he was quickly awoken by a man later identified as Matt. Eric was correct after all, but Matt did not seem to be in the mood for celebration.

"Eric, wake up", he ordered, pushing against Eric's scales to wake him. Eric's reptilian eyes opened, his irises quickly adjusting to the light shining from the sun. He blinked a few times before noticing Matt was not in his mid-form, but rather in his human form. "We've got to move. Police are beginning to search everywhere for us. They tried to follow me, but I'm much too fast for them. I think I lost them about twenty minutes ago, so they'll probably be looking here soon. The owner of that ranch over there doesn't come by very often, so chances are the place is vacant. Come on, pick me up and fly over there, quickly."

Eric complied, and did not speak. He was happy to have finally found someone he could trust, even though he was doubtful over his motive for helping him. He quickly got up, stretched his tense muscles, allowed Matt to get up on his back, and fell quickly to the ground under the immense pressure - Matt was much too heavy for him. Even with all of his new muscle, he would never have been able to lift such a weight. He rose, rubbed his head in disorientation, and turned to see Matt doing the same.

"You're way too heavy for me", Eric informed, trying not to sound insulting. He let out a smirk. "Looks like you're going to have to run." He flapped his wings, lifting himself a few feet off of the ground, and prepared himself to launch into flight.

Matt rubbed his head as well. "Yeah, I suppose I should be cutting down on the pizza, huh?" They both let out a short laugh while Matt shifted into his wolf form, ready to run again. He caught the dragon off-guard and jolted from the scene on all fours, but Eric caught up easily. He flew at a low altitude, in order to match up to his height, as they raced across the field to the ranch in a mere minute. There, they both shifted once again into their human forms, looking around for any sign of activity in and outside the establishment. Once they realized no one was there, Matt requested a credit card from Eric.

"What do you need that for?", Eric questioned, clueless, and seeing there was no signs of industrialization anywhere around them. Instead, he pulled twenty dollars from his wallet. "I have cash right here."

Matt rejected the paper money and robbed Eric of his wallet, grabbing his debit card from inside. "I don't need money, dimwit. Check this out." He went over to the door and placed the card in between his fingers. At first, he studied the lock for quite some time, before proceeding to show a sign of satisfaction with a smile. He slid the card into the crack between the door and the house, and wiggled it around to push it through. Matt then bent it sideways, against the door, when finally, a click was heard. Taking caution not to move the card out of its place, he turned the door knob and pushed open the wooden door, to Eric's amazement.

"Where the hell did you learn to do that?", Eric asked, studying the lock and imitating Matt.

"Television, of course. It's a good thing the door was old, otherwise we would have had to break a window."

Matt shut and relocked the door, making sure he had not left any sign of forced entry. The residence was very well decorated for a ranch. 1980-style wallpaper covered the walls, with knick-knacks cramming the wooden shelf cabinets around the room. The floor was composed of old-style wood, and was tainted dark brown, with a few purposely made inch-sized holes in various locations. Eric found it strange to see the type of house in such a remote place, but Matt did not seem to care for it as much. He led Eric to the second floor, which housed two bedrooms, a bathroom and a storage closet. The former was filled with large blankets, an empty oil lamp and a few board games, but Matt searched a little further to find that the northern wall was makeshift, and hid a secret storage corner. Inside it, they found a Walther P99 and a sawed-off shotgun, both of which were illegal to carry in Canada. The pistol and shotgun were fully loaded with three and two magazines of six and twelve shells, respectively. Matt handed the pistol over to Eric, who looked at it like a child would. After a few moments, he cocked it accidentally, which led Matt to take it away immediately before he injured himself.

They hung upstairs in the ranch for a while, patiently waiting for cops to show up, but to Matt's surprise, they did not. At around 7 o'clock, Eric grew tired from the major lack of sleep he had. He was told to go to bed in one of the rooms, which he did without hesitation, even though it was still very bright outside. The room seemed to have already been set up, with an old blanket and a pillow on a nice and sturdy bed. It was not as "luxurious" as his own bed was, but he found it to be quite cozy. Other than the bed, there was a dresser and a small closet, all in the vicinity of a large square window, which measured about six feet in height and two feet in length. Eric shut the curtains, darkening most of the room, which allowed him to get a better chance at sleeping. Matt, on the other hand, had the master bedroom, which was not much different than Eric's room. He had a bigger bed and closet, which did not serve him much use. After a half an hour, Eric noticed Matt had fallen asleep fairly quickly, which was a state Eric would have liked to have been in. Instead, he recalled the past few days, and how fast they seemed to have gone by. Only three days prior to that moment, he had a normal - or at least somewhat normal - life. Now he was running from the police, who wanted him for murder and for being a dragon. To him, it felt screwed up and unfair.

Suddenly, he heard the noise which they had been waiting for. At around 8:30, a car pulled up alongside the house, which made him get up. Eric cautiously looked out of the window, using the walls for cover, while trying to find who had arrived at such a time. At first, he was sure it was the police, but soon enough, he realized it was none other than the owner of the house. As the man began to make his way over to the door, Eric went over to wake Matt, who did so slowly. When the former realized who it was, he frowned and turned back around, trying to return to his peaceful sleep.

"What do you want...?", he asked, his blanket muffling his voice.

"Matt, the owner's here; we have to leave, now" He then heard the door at the bottom floor open, and close, which put Matt on red alert. They did not have much time to spare. Eric studied the nearby window while Matt put his clothes back on. The latter grabbed the handles and lifted them as hard as he could, eventually to succeed in opening the shaft. The owner turned the lights on downstairs, not noticing what was going on in his own residence. Eric and Matt climbed out of the window onto a ledge which hung off of it; however, on his way out, Matt struck it with his foot, which resulted in a large thud. This alarmed the man downstairs, who paused, and began to walk up the stairs, wondering what had made the sound. Matt quickly shut the window as he stood out onto the ledge, but there was no time for him to sidestep away from it as Eric had managed to do. As a result, he quickly dropped and hung off of the ledge with his hands, while the owner came into the room, and looked out the window, searching for what made the noise. Seconds past, but to the duo, it felt like sheer minutes. Their hearts pounded against their chests as they skipped multiple breaths in order not to be heard. Finally, the owner left the room, uninterested, in the direction of the smaller room across the hall. Matt quickly climbed back onto the ledge, where he sidestepped toward Eric, who was walking toward the summit of the roof. The sun had long left the sight of the weary travelers, who were thankful to have avoided capture.

"Phew, that was close", Matt stated, out of breath from the suspense. He sat down beside Eric, who had already done so.

"Yeah, you're telling me.” Eric exhaled some air, which quickly turned visible thanks to the frosty temperature. “It's a bit cold out tonight; should we sleep on the roof?"

"Yeah, I suppose we won't be seen from up here. I don't think the owner will hear us, he looked quite old."

They both lied onto their backs, watching the starry sky expand, which they both seemed to have admired greatly. The wind soon picked up speed, and with both of them in tee-shirts, they felt chills creep up on them. Matt soon had the idea of shifting into his mid-form for the warmth of his fur, and Eric mimicked his idea, grasping the comfort of his own scales. The two TFRs soon felt the toll of their day fall upon them.

"I've never seen a night quite like this", Matt noted, dazzled by the view.

"Neither have I. I've never actually been camping or anything. My parents would have never done such a thing for me, that's for sure."

"How bad were they? You've mentioned them to me in class, but you never really went into detail."

"Well, they're interesting, to say the least. I sort of get sick and tired of the fighting, but you get used to it. I blame most of it all on my father, so I'm real glad my mother went through with the divorce. She can take care of herself, and she doesn't need that idiot beside her. What about you? You seem to have a way with women, so why do you always seem to break off with them all of a sudden?"

He felt a little uncomfortable answering the question. "Well, I don't know frankly. We normally get along just fine until I mention that I'm a TFR. Normally they don't seem to mind much at first, but then you sort of see them drift away from you bit by bit. See, I heard about some TFR experiments being conducted in Toronto. I didn't really like the 'studying' part of school back then, I never really liked my parents that much, and I didn't really know where I was heading in life. So, I decided I might as well try it out. I think it was near the end of the war, in 2022, when I was only 15 when I left for 'school' early. I tried hitchhiking my way there, since I didn't have a car. Around three hours later I finally had covered enough terrain to be able to walk the rest of the way. When I found the place, I went in, and saw all the other regular people who went in for the injection. At first, you were allowed to choose the type you wanted, and I really wasn't sure what to choose, but when I finally made it to the front of the line they told me they were running out of specific species, so they were going to start charging 50$ for them. I didn't have that much cash on me so I just said 'Just give me something I'll like'. The doctor looked at me with a comical face and said 'You seem like a good kid; I'm sure you'll love this'. The next day, I figured out I was a wolf. I spent countless nights just trying out my mid-form in the forest, and indeed, I loved it. After that, oddly enough, I became interested in studying again, and I wanted to teach. But, for some weird reason, when I tell women that story, they only seem to hear the part where I wanted to become an animal. I guess that they don't seem to like that for some reason." He paused for a second, tilting his head toward his student. "Oh, sorry, I got a bit carried away there. I hope I didn't bore you to death."

"No, it's fine. It's an interesting story."

Matt let out a large yawn, his teeth reflecting the moon's shine. "Well, I guess we should catch some 'Z's, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I haven't slept very much all day."

"Alright, we should get a good start tomorrow; I'll wake you up sometime at five, so you'll have a nice eight hours of rest."

"Okay, thanks. Goodnight."

For the first time since Matt had arrived, Eric managed to fall asleep without a problem. On the other hand, Matt stayed up. He remembered he was attempting to protect an innocent kid from the cruel world; he never had to take care of one in his entire life, and he had the added responsibility to run from the police as well. He thought of a plan, which he hoped would get them on their feet, although he knew no matter what they did, it would sooner or later turn into a long journey.