How a dragon trains you

Part 14

City Stroll

I sat patiently and smiled until I saw my human finally look for the last time, turning and leaving. I watched for another short while, idly looking around me...  Silence. Apart from the occasional rustle of the leaves, and there scamper of a rabbit… then a mouse... then distantly, a deer stepping over some dried leaves. My many ears flicked all over, hearing all of this at the same time. It was kinda fun, actually. Trying to listen to as many things as I could at once. But, it got old pretty fast. I did this all the time. There WAS something, however, that WAS interesting to me. I had to go see for myself.

I stood up, shook myself off, and took to the air, but staying well below the tree line. Darting and dodging every tree trunk and bush along the ground as I made my way down to the town. The moment I saw the towering border walls, I folded my wings and came to a sliding stop. Leaves underneath me went flying and aided me in making the stop look rather stylish. Just for the ladies. Hehe. I winked at a bush, imagining it to be a sexy lady 'fury.

I quickly focused back up and trotted past that same bush, coming to a part of the wall that was right up against the forest, using as many bushes and tree trunks to obscure myself from view as I could. Keeping my ears flared to listen for anybody who might come within visual range of me. I knew the daytime was a bad time be doing this. But maybe it was the adventurous, and slightly stupid, side of me that told me that the challenge of successfully pulling this off was gonna be fun. And besides, a prime hunter like myself always needs to hone his skills.

Just as I looked at the wall, I got this slightly cold feeling, almost like a tingling all over my body, but it was only there for a second before it faded away. I knew what had happened, and it let me know I was ready to take this on. I looked down at my paws, lighter in color, a shade of grey, actually, rather than my usual midnight black. Closely matching the color of this dark side of the wall, but I looked ahead to where I was going to land at the top, and it was bathed in the early morning light. I felt my nose already starting to change in anticipation, it drew me forward.. I hunkered down.. listened for any movement before I potentially compromised my position.. and when the coast was as clear as it would ever be, I LEAPT up, flapping my wings hard, and scratched at the cool stone wall, scaling it with ease. Landing atop it right at the corner of a lookout tower which rose slightly higher than the rest of the wall, the slight tingling in my nose suddenly spread out in a wave over the rest of my body. I looked at my paw and saw a new, slightly lighter grey. Perfect. I immediately pressed myself right up against the wall of the lookout tower so I wouldn't stick out much against the rest of the sky. I listened intently behind me and looked intently ahead of me, checking for the presence of any guards inside the actual towers, but the day was still young, and it seems their posts were still empty. I didn't feel safe enough here. So, I flared my light grey ears to listen inside the lookout point one last time before I then twisted around and jumped up and in through one of the many glassless windows. Once inside, I felt a warmer feeling, as my body presumably adjusted yet again, becoming a darker shade now that I was in shadow. I peered down the ladder hole in the middle of the floor, sniffed, and listened… There was activity here, though distant. I felt as safe as I could be for now. Though I still always kept the exit points in the corner of my eyes should a hasty escape ever become necessary.

I padded over to the window and rested my head on the sill, peering out at the town below. Seeing all the people move about, entering and leaving shops, stopping and talking on the sides of the pathways, friends meeting up, while families going out for a stroll, women with baskets, some men carrying in sacks of potatoes… what a wonderful place. I spent a good long while just listening and watching, almost fifteen minutes. But all I could hear from here was the collective mumbling of everybody's conversations. I wanted to get closer. I wanted to learn the strange language. Much more than I knew as of yet. Talking was such a challenge. Frustrating, but fun in a way. I made up my mind to get as close as I could. The town inside of the walls was FAR busier than the forest outside. Getting in THERE seemed impossible. Yet it brought a smile to my cheeks and a determined squint to my eyes.

I considered scaling the wall, but that would OBVIOUSLY get me seen, causing a distraction? No. Not everybody looks in the same direction. Plus, I don't want weird things to put them on edge, which would aid in their ability to possibly detect me later. Really, they only way in seemed to be either in though any of the gates which were obviously guarded, or... through the inside of this wall.

I looked out over the top of the wall again… this time scanning for any way to get down. Then I saw it. A patch of trees that had grown tall enough to reach above the wall. But it was quite the ways away. I stepped out from the window, dropping back down to the ground from the side I came from, hiding once again amongst the trees. I trotted over to the area of the wall where I remembered seeing the trees, and as if it were a sign of invitation from the gods, a leaf fell over to this side of the wall, telling me for sure this was the right place, I hunkered down and LEAPT up again, flapping for some extra height, and landing on top of the wall right where the treetops obscured me. I quickly gripped the walls edge with my hind paws and hooked my tail around the top of the wall, slowly lowering myself down. There was a path not too far from this patch of trees full of humans. Now, more than ever, it was time to engage those stealth instincts.

I was quickly running out of tail to hold onto the wall with, so I extended my arms and wings, ready to soften the impact from the fall. Three, two, one.. I let myself drop, giving a short wing flap before quickly tucking them tight against my back, slowing my descent and landing gracefully on my paws, only rustling the leaves a little bit and landing with only the softest of thuds.

There were numerous buildings very close to the wall that I could hide behind, which I quickly did. Finally, in shadow, I could give myself a moment to breathe. My heart was going now. I didn't dare peer around any corner, I could hear lots of people all around me, even inside the building. I heard the clinking of utensils against plates, wooden boards creaking underfoot from the many two-legs inside, and voices of variously sized humans. This seemed to be a family. With a few youngn's. It made me smile. Heh. I pressed three ears against the outer wall to listen closely as they spoke. Though muffled and distorted, my hearing still cut through and I was able to hear the individual words. Of course, not knowing most of them. But it was fascinating to hear nonetheless. I tried to mouth out the various sounds I heard, though, obviously I couldn't attempt to make any noise lest they hear me, so it was next to useless to see if I was able to say any of the things they were saying. But it was so very entertaining nonetheless.

I looked over my shoulder at the patch of trees I had just come from, there was about a dragon's length of opening after those trees to the next building, but it was MUCH larger, and very close to a string of similarly sized buildings on the far side of it, all of which I could use for cover and sneak around behind. Should I, though. Crossing that clearing was a sure fire way to be seen. But the potential for exploring was MUCH greater. The excitement got the better of me, and I snuck very slowly out from behind this one back to the three trees and single bush in between them. I stayed behind that, admittedly terrible cover for a good while, watching the people pass left and right. Watching youngn's scream and play, running away from their parents. Hehe, so much like me and my brother when we were young. I chuffed and smiled, even laying down for a bit after seeing absolutely no breaks in the foot traffic, figuring it'd probably take a while.

I heard some sort of tinny sound above the rest of the hustle and bustle. It didn't take long before I saw what it was, a roughened up male two-leg was pulling an.. enormous animal of some sort by a rope. Quadruped. Hooves. It was half white and half brown, but in splotches. It made an obnoxiously loud call I've never heard before. It had quite an enormous belly and had pink teats hanging down even further than that. I was.. very very perplexed. I tried to imitate the sound quietly to myself. "mmMMMUU!" "Rr?" What a peculiar creature. If there's one thing I DID notice after a moment, though.. it looked like it'd make one HELL of a meal! That thing was easily twice the weight of any deer I'd ever seen! And it seemed so easy to catch! There's no way that thing could run faster than a trotting pace with how big and fat it was. I caught myself about half a minute later with my head sticking out over the top of the bush I was hiding behind, completely forgetting the moment and that I was putting myself in danger of being seen. I quickly ducked back down and shook my head. "Snap out of it. You can catch it later!"

The beast seemed to have cleared the path for a moment. There were still a few humans walking, but far fewer than before. Now was my chance. I looked right at the faces of the closest ones, waiting for any chance they'd not be looking in my direction. Time seemed to almost slow with my concentration. The very INSTANT I saw the whites of their eyes as they looked away, I JUMP- er.. very very slowly, snuck along the wall being shone in total daylight… my eyes were wide, and I crawled, hunkered down so low, my chest almost scraped the ground... but the building inched closer and closer. Until finally, I gave in, and SPRINTED to the shade and cover.

Once there, I lifted up off the ground a bit, and sniffed, which is something I definitely shouldn't have done. Instantly, my nose was filled to the brim with the numerous scents of killed animals, straw, fresh cut wood, fruits, jerkies... These two buildings must've had a whole growing season's worth of food inside of them! No. TWO season's worth! I let my nose drag my body to the nearest window, which was on the left side of the building I was hiding behind. Luckily, the buildings had some wooden boards nailed across them so the alley in between wasn't visible to customers. Only little slits of light shone through, illuminating some long forgotten crates and an even layer of old leaves on top of everything, and a few mushrooms which enjoyed the uninterrupted feast of decaying plant litter. I was careful not to step on any of the numerous large mushrooms. I always had a unique fascination with them. Just something about the way they looked. But I didn't pay attention to any of that for now. My nose tugged my head right up to the cracked open side window where a new scent hit me. Another thing I've never smelled before. I lifted my head and peered inside. The window was grimy and I could barely see through it at all, but I caught a human bending over and pulling something out of a metal container. Smelled like something burning, but in such a good, good way. It was circular. A light brown on top and silvery along the edges. She set it down amongst other identical looking… things on the countertop. ‘Pai's!’ said somebody repeatedly out a front window, seemingly shouting to every passing person. How annoying must /that/ be. I wonder what THAT is. Pai. Heh. So many things I simply have no clue what they could be.. I LOVE IT!

I eventually dragged myself away from the window, unwittingly leaving behind a veritable PUDDLE of drool on the ground next to some of those mushrooms. I didn't notice at all, though, just so happily overwhelmed with the goings on of this place. I snuck behind the next building which also had an alley, but didn't have boards I could hide behind. Though here there was bales of hay stacked against the building and more wooden crates, many more this time, strewn all throughout the alley. Many were stacked on top of each other. I wormed my way in between them and stuck my head inside one of them that didn't have solid wooden sides, it was still a crate, but broken on the side that was facing me, and more importantly, it was relatively large in comparison to the others, AND the wooden boards it was made of, were spaced apart in a regular pattern so I could see through it. Using my tail, I dragged a bale of hay to my left as I pressed my right side up against the building's left wall, my whole upper body and head stuck inside the crate. I was very well concealed in my little straw bale hide, able to see out between the spaces in the boards, but still mostly in shadow. My hind legs puuusshed slowly. I advanced closer and closer to the front edge of the building, dragging the bales of hay along with me. From the main path that had tons of people walking along it I was just another pile of stuff up against the building, but I was moving so close now that I could almost see the steps leading up to the entrance of the building. There were signs everywhere, far too many conversations to keep track of. Little white birds scurried through the crowds of people going "bock-bock!" and small... wolves? They didn't have any wolf like colors, and they were considerably smaller. A few humans had them on ropes to control them, while others obediently stayed by their human's sides. Vendors shouted and kids played. There was the smell of food absolutely EVERYWHERE. And my crate was so far forward now that a pair of young humans scurried over and SAT on top of the crate I was in. They were talking. My eyes were WIDE AS COULD BE. I held my breath. One of them threw a sphere against the dirt only to have it bounce right back up into their hand. I watched the child bounce the ball over and over while they idly talked about... whatever. I came here to study up on my speaking skills, but I was so mesmerized by the bouncing thing that my head bobbed up and down as my eyes tracked it, completely forgetting about that for a while. One of the bounces went higher than the little human was expecting, and it fumbled it, causing the ball to fall between one of the openings in the crate. I flinched, as it bounced off my head.. then my nose, and then rolled off in front of me. I quickly swatted at the thing to get it out of here, and I managed to get it out from another one of the openings in front of me. It all happened so fast, the youngn's didn't even think twice about it, and they scurried after the ball as it rolled back toward the crowd. They eventually caught it and the mother of one of them, scooped it up into her arms.
"There you are! Come here! We're going back home!" ...and carried them away. But as the child was shuffled into place in its mother's arms, it turned its head right towards me, as if it was suddenly wondering why the ball came out of the crate like that. It never saw me inside... at least… I don't think it did... but I could see it thinking... and I swear, we looked right into each other's eyes for a moment.

Finally, I breathed a sigh of relief and continued to watch the adult humans. Focusing more on the reason why I came here. I snapped my attention to the nearest group of humans hanging around by the entrance to this shop, and I flared all my ears out to listen closely. Picking up on a few words I already knew, but listening intently to the majority of the ones I didn't.

I laid there and listened for a long long while, trying to mimic their mouth movements to the best of my ability. I could actually engage my voice due to all the ambient noise. And I listened and practiced with myself for the next few hours. Of course, that group of people didn't stay forever. They left and were replaced by others over time. But their conversations got no less fascinating.

The sun was directly overhead when I finally realized how long I had been laying there. I was only snapped out of it due to the fact that it was actually getting rather hot out. Stuck beside a building which was reflecting the sun off its walls and inside a fort of hay bales and old wood, I found myself trying to open my wings up a bit to vent my body head through my thin wing skin. But of course, it was no use when trapped inside my little hiding spot.

I panted for a bit, but eventually wiggled my way out to scurry back behind the building. This time, I tried a new tactic and just leapt up the wall from right here, attempting to scale it, but when I tried to spread my wings to give me some extra lift, I smacked the back of the building with my wings and shrieked, failing the climb and tumbling back down. I could immediately hear a change in the inner workings of the building. "The FUCK?" Those words I knew from being around Levicus. This was… REALLY not good. I forewent trying to be quiet, and instead latched my claws onto whatever wooden parts of the building I could, clamoring higher and higher, flapping my wings uselessly as there just wasn't enough room. My paws scratched into the wood, finding purchase, and allowing myself to hoist up to the roof. From there, I leapt off the roof and scurried along the top of the wall to the next building over. I tried to hide on the far side of it, but I got a sense I still wasn't far enough away. So, I flapped hard to flee the area, hopping over the wall and back into the safety of the trees. But when I landed... Panting, frightened, I found myself in a rather large, dark room. A huge, oddly shaped metal cone hung in the center of it. Something was hanging inside of it, and in a split decision, I leapt up inside it and grabbed onto it with all four paws. My arboreal adaptation made grappling onto the hanging metal rod pretty easy, especially given there was a bulge at the bottom of it where my hind paws could press against. I twisted myself around inside so I was upside down, and I poked my head out from within the giant bell. My body slid against the cold metal and it made a gentle "shing" noise every time. My head knocked against the bottom rim and it made the bell gently ring. Only my nose and eyes poked out from underneath. No humans. I was safe for now. I expanded my body a little and found that doing so actually allowed me to press up against the inner walls of the bell, creating just enough friction that I could hold myself in place. This freed up my front paws to reach out, preparing to drop down. But a noise stopped me, causing me to retract back up into the bell as much as I could. Someone was coming up the steps. What ROTTEN luck!

..

I stayed put as much as I could, though my movements had caused a gentle swing in the massive bell. There was nothing I could do now, though.

I shut my eyes and curled up tight. The steps came closer until they finally reached the entrance to the room. There was a trapdoor to open to get inside, which he did with a grunt, pushing it open. It swung open as he entered the room. It was a male, given his voice. Sounded kind of old with his scratchy, wavering voice. The bottom rim of the bell was just lower than his eye level and since I was well up inside it, I was actually fairly safe from being seen. "The hell did they put that damn thing. This is why you DON'T clean someone ELSE'S MESS! Put shit away where I don't even know where and now it's FUCKING LOST!  ...  THERE it is! God damnit." He picked up… whatever it was he needed… and made his way back down the steps, shutting the door behind him. "JACK, you idiot! It was up next to the damn bell..." his voice trailed off. I listened for a while longer, but eventually decided it was okay to come out.

I slid out and my paws met with the dusty wooden floor which creaked beneath me. The musky smell of old wood was actually quite nice. I wandered around the room, passing crates and stashes of brooms and dried old mops. Lots of yard equipment on one side and on the other some small shelves with knick-nacks, an old iron stove that seems like it would be a nightmare to get up this far. Seems like it was originally a bell tower that slowly got converted into an attic for the keeper of the place. Whatever this all was, it was still very very interesting to me. After spending a good hour looking at everything, I found a strange item. It opened up in my paws and had a lot of loose sheets inside stuck by one end so they couldn't fall out. There were lines of markings running horizontally in neat lines all along the inside. I blew on it, and the thin sheets flipped from one side to the other. I saw images. Couldn't make out what they were. Maybe snakes? They had legs though. So very curious, I continued to flip through the pages, now using a few claws to keep them held open. I decided this was as good a place as any to stay for a while. It seemed like this room wasn't used much given the amount of dust on everything. And after that scare with the mini-wolf, I won't be wanting to head out at least until nightfall where I can MUCH more easily move about. The light from the window shone on the pages of the book, and I kept flipping through, finding detailed images of creatures I've never seen before. I had no idea what I was looking at, but I continued to look for a long while… until I came across a page with an eerily similar shape. It looked like a dragon. But it was long and slender. Very curly.

(Perspective switch to Mervyn)

I almost stayed in my room the entire room, just lazing and enjoying laying in an actual bed for once to the sound of all that buzz going on outside. Minstrels were playing music, kids were shouting and playing, people were chatting, dogs were barking left and right… The streets were busier than ever, because today was Dummerston-Day! The historical background is, that on this day gods-only-know how many years ago the settlement Dummerston was founded, and at some point, one of the many counts had the brilliant idea to declare it an official holiday. Today all places except the Inn’s, pubs, bars, taverns, restaurants and other places where you can get food or have feasts, and the chapel were closed down. Everybody was out there, spending time with their families. Either that, or doing work at home, which I bet Levicus was doing right now, preparing the catches to be sold off tomorrow. Or maybe even today? Probably not, he didn’t mention anything about it.
On this day, my own family would have some sort of a big annual reunion with family members from all around the country with the whackiest relations. They’d all travel here show up from the furthest of places despite not having a feast day in /their/ town. Usually we would rent up at least seven or eight whole tables at some restaurant since our own house was too small for such an event -and our big ass table already gave space for like 20 people- and would all gather during the evening, having the largest dinner /ever/. When the weather would allow it, we were eating outdoors and talk and laugh and drink through the night ‘til the morning dawned… Not showing up or leaving too early was like the giving the whole family the finger, and despite of my biggest efforts to come up with excuses of why I could not participate in the big gathering of people who barely knew each other… I never missed it. Not even once. On top of that, my mother always forced me to stay to the very end of it, even when it meant I’d be spending the time sleeping with my head on the table. Sometimes I managed to drag Levicus along with it so there’s at least one person I could chat with the whole time, but he’d always get drunk by the variety of beverages -which were pre-paid by us all- and pass out during the first couple hours.
I had forgotten about the reunion when I told the dragon I’d be back by this evening… I hope it can do one night without me. I’ll return to it as soon as possible, as soon as the reunion would be over…
Until then, there was still some time left I could spend… either with the dragon or helping Levicus. The decision wasn’t easy, but I shouldn’t be neglecting him, so I chose to check in by his garden. Who knew, maybe the dragon was there too!

The streets were as busy as they sounded, and I had to dodge out to taking the side alleys because the main streets were so full you couldn’t walk two steps straight. When I finally arrived… I noticed that something was… odd. I couldn’t tell what it was, but as I looked over the windows and the shelves inside, something seemed different. I couldn’t get rid of that feeling in my gut the whole time.
I proceeded to the gate as usual but as I stepped through, I finally realized what had been so changed all the time. The place was… clean! Tidied up! I had to double check that I didn’t stumble into the garden of another person on accident. There were no broken barrels and crates all over the place! Even the one me and the dragon broke was gone… The tools were clean and actually arranged on the tables and workbenches, and there weren’t any nails, planks, mead-bottles or whatnot scattered around. The almost-broken shack was not so broken anymore. In fact, Levicus was working on it right now, fixing the holes up with planks. I didn’t notice him until I heard a hammering coming out of one of the corners.
I stepped over and froze as I saw him. He looked… clean too, almost formal for his manners. He was wearing a not even a little bit soiled light-green plaid long-sleeved shirt, instead of the dirty dark-brown or green jackets he always wore, and some light-brown fabric pants, instead of the dirty and partly broken leather ones. His hair… wasn’t all over the place as usual. It was neatly brushed back. He looked like a whole different person!
He turned around, looking at me and I believed to see a smile for a second. “There you are” he muttered in an almost happy sounding tone.

“Uh… Hello there Levi?”

“What’s the matter? Something wrong? You’re lookin’ like a fish right now!”

I looked around me again. Was I dreaming?
“Oh- that!” he just laughed off. “I finally took the time to clean this place up. ‘can’t imagine how I’ve been getting along in this chaos the entire time…”  

I had never expected to hear those words come out of Levicus’ mouth. What happened to him?! Was Amanda blackmailing him or something?

“Levi… what’s going on?”

He just looked at me I asked a stupid question. “Haven’t you realized it yet? Just… look! Look around you! Look at this!”
He waved his filled purse into my face. “This is it, man! My -I mean, /Our/ business is finally booming!”
The explanation didn’t make the dizzied look on my face go away.
“Come on Merv, this is what we’ve been waiting for! We finally made it! Poverty is over!” He suddenly grabbed my shoulders “Our time has come!”

“Isn’t it… a bit much to assume that our ‘days of poverty are over’ after just one successful day? I mean, we didn’t even do that entirely by ourselves, ‘cause without the dragon-”

“Ooooh, I forgot to tell ya, haven’t I?” he smirked.

“What do you mean?”

“Hear me out. The Dummerston trading-association has finally recognized my store! Y’know, when a business in Dummerston gains enough popularity, the trading association makes them join ‘em so they can cooperate rather than compete. Like, so the new ones don’t undercut them and take all the other businesses’ customers and so on.”

“…So?”

“So? So you ask!? So- to make businesses even consider joining the trading association at all, they give them lots and lots of benefits! Cuz they /need/ to. Otherwise they’d turn ‘em down and go off doin’ their own thing. I even managed to negotiate more out of it than they usually give! If I want to, they can organize workers and if my store is doing bad again, they’ll rank up some funding. Usually they only do that when someone is about to go bankrupt, but the line is a little lower for me!”

I stayed silent. I had been aware, Levi knew a couple things about how to make business, but this… He turned from a drunkard into a business man in one night. I had to tell the dragon about this, how happy it had made him!

“Good you’re here, though. There’s a lot of work to do… First… you mind picking something up for me?”

“Well, what is it?”

“This Jack guy from the chapel who is the leader of the trading association wanted to give me the D.T.A crest I can mount up at the front of my store, so people can see I’m one of the legit ones. When I checked in earlier, he told me that the last time they had someone new join the association was so long ago that he… forgot where he stored them. He’s too busy to search himself, so he had someone looking for it. Just pop in and see if they got it.”

“Hold on, someone from the chapel is the leader of a trading organization?”

“Yeah! Y’know, in the end, the chapel is just another business. Look, I don’t want you to understand things, I just want you to do things that I’m too lazy- I mean, too /busy/ to do myself. You know where the chapel is, right? The one with the big ol’ bell tower? Yeah? Then get going!”   

He pushed me off before I could protest tor say anything, and then scampered back to the shack.

Man… I just thought to myself. It was scary how fast things developed all of a sudden. Levicus always told me that the way up is as quick as a sneeze, but the way down… would be way quicker. Flying high can make you fall deep. I hope Levi was still as careful as he usually was…-

“Well, well, well… Mervyn.”

There was someone standing in the way. Someone I had the feeling I knew, but I couldn’t recognize him. And the way he said my name almost sounded… angry.
Frustrated at least. Levicus had flipped around by the sudden familiar voice. “Benton? What are you doing here!?”
This was Benton? Oh, now I recognize him! He wasn’t wearing the robes from the hall of the sick as he usually was… Instead, wearing this dark brown long coat and this large hat.
“Levi, stay out of this. Don’t worry, I don’t want to snitch him off to the guard or anything. I just want to have a talk with your friend for one moment.”

Did he know?! My face went pale, but I tried to not show it, as I don’t want to raise the suspicion that I’m hiding something…

“So, err… what’s the matter?”

“You tell me” he growled. “I knew something was off when you came in from your trip with that biting wound on your shoulder, from a dragon that is so sneaky it hasn’t been spotted in decades. From a dragon that when it wants something dead, it sure as hell will be dead. That biting wound you presented was in no way meaning to disable you. To kill you…”

I just stayed silent.

“And ever since you stayed here, things got stranger every day. Suddenly, you stopped bragging about how heroically you survived an attack of this dragon, there’s still no proof of its demise and you’re almost never in town. Levi goes drinking in the tavern past midnight multiple times… and out of the blue there are suddenly all of those catches in his garden?”
He gestured over to the shack, into which all the deer barely fit in. We both looked nervous… but didn’t deny anything yet.
“Let’s start over… Tell me Mervyn, what have you been doing in the forest all this time?” 

“Err… hunting!” I answered. Levicus just nodded at him, as if confirming that it was true. I could see it in his face, he knew that Benton was onto us.

“Hunting? With no weapons? At night!?”

My body tensed up. How on earth did he know this?! Keep calm, Merv… He has no proof…

“I saw you yesterday, y’know. Dashing down the road with a steak in your hand. At almost midnight. Tell me, for whom was that steak?”

“Oh, I-I… I was just giving that to… I…”

I stayed silent, looking away.

“And those catches that popped up earlier, who got those for you? Maybe… the same person who you gave that steak to? As a reward perhaps?”

“No- that’s- We just had luck, and we-

“You want me to inspect them and see how they’ve died? With what kind of weapons they’ve been killed!? Or do you want to tell me that you can shoot fireballs all of a sudden?”

“N- no! I-”

“It’s right here, isn’t it Merv? Right here in town, stealing stuff to eat? Because I have heard of a couple cases of things going mysteriously missing lately!”

“No! This- this can’t be, this is stupid! He knows better than that!”

Levicus palmed at his face before I realized what I did wrong. Dammit… he got me there…

I felt like I was about to faint.

Benton just continued mildly glaring at me, but somehow did not look surprised. “So it is true then. You do have something going on with a living dragon. You… you managed something that everybody deemed impossible...”

He didn’t sound angry, but… kind of impressed instead, more surprised than I would have thought. As if he didn’t expect this to be actually true. “I’m gonna give you a moment to calm back down, I don’t want you to collapse.”

“Why are you doing this, Benton?” Levi suddenly asked from behind. “Are gonna wander off straight to next guard now?”

“I just want this mystery solved” he muttered. “This… this has me awake at night, and seeing your buddy dash down the road with a steak didn’t help that. I’ve tried my best to look away from it, but once you get that feeling… you cannot get rid of it. That was the last straw. I just had to see for myself. Honestly, when I came here I expected to see that all of this is just a misunderstanding. But… that…”
He turned to me with a curious look. “How did you do it? No one has ever…”

“Didn’t you say you’d give him a moment?”

“Right. Pardon me.” He turned around. “I’ll see you later, Mervyn” he spoke over his shoulder and stepped off… Levi suddenly grabbed me by the hood of my jacket and pulled me into the shack and shut the door.

“Are you for real? ‘He knows better than that’?!”

“I’m- sorry, I just- I was panicking! My mind wasn’t working properly, so I just… blurted out what came to my head.”

Levicus sighed. “I already had the feeling this wouldn’t stay between us for long. Don’t worry about Benton. Though it seems like he would expose everything to the world, he always was a man of his word. Trust me, no one else will hear about this.”

“How did he do it?” I asked Levi. “How did he know all of this… and… how did he…”

“Oh- that!” Levi almost laughed. “Benton wasn’t always a Medic when he was in the Tivan Army with me. He occasionally worked as an interrogator, y’know. He can read people like a book, and I think he even used some of those tactics on you. Especially the way he addressed you. He talked like already knew for sure, without actually knowing it. And you fell straight into his trap.”

Again, I stayed silent. I… just couldn’t speak. This was too intense…

“Well… run along, Merv. Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen until we get back to him. See Jack by the chapel and check in if they found that damn crest yet.”

(Perspective switch to Fahren)

Snake dragon. Looked so silly. Whoever made this must've eaten some fermented berries. No dragon looks like that! Hehe. I continued to rummage through the square white leaves, crooning softly to myself. I occasionally stopped to listen as same bump or voice came a little close, but then walked off again. This was kind of nice. It felt cozy like a cave, but I was surrounded by distant noise from the goings on of the two-leg hive all around me. Though I was surrounded by danger, right here, right now? I felt kind of at home. Relishing in my ability to have broken in without detection and find a place to myself.

The noises outside began to change, though. A little louder than usual? And they didn't sound like some voices. There were still plenty of those, but now there was drumming and whistling sounds. Strange whistles and bellows that clearly weren't human. I set down the stack of white leaves and padded to one of the openings in the wall, a different one from where I jumped in through.
Before me, in the wake of the now already set sun, was a bustling hive, even busier than before. I thought they went to sleep at night. What's this? There were MORE two-legs than ever before. Ones of all ages and sizes. Small fires everywhere lit up the human nests and every conceivable space in between them. Some humans held shiny objects that were making lots and lots of those weird noises. The beating of some of those objects, I enjoyed. I bobbed my head back and forth to the rhythm and smiled at the whole incredible sight. This felt like some special occasion because I don't think I'd ever seen so many of them all out at once, especially at night when they should all be turning in for sleep. But I didn't mind in the slightest. The festivities amongst the warm lights... brought such a smile to my face. I rested my head on the sill and scanned around, purring to myself. Carts being rolled around with food and trinkets. Little jingles from instruments and screams from happy children. My gaze moved from left to right… but then... there off to the left! My eyes flicked back. I spotted a big bunch of those raised wooden platforms that the humans use to feed off of. Alone in a corner was my human. Even from a quarter mile away, I could see him in perfect clarity. The wrinkles in his clothes, the tapping of his little digits on the tabletop. All my ears flared. Kind of close by to him was my human's best friend, who was seemingly conversing on the side to someone else. I watched with baited breath, trying to decide whether or not I should attempt to go meet him.

(Perspective switch to Mervyn)

The evening dawned. Gradually, the streets emptied more and more with the sinking sun, its rays starting to glow in a bright orange tone, casting large shadows. The noises of the buzz began to quiet down, the crowds became smaller and lesser, pouring into the buildings from outside.
I was already sitting by a table, resting on my elbows and looking down. Luckily, this year the family reunion was at one of the fancier taverns. The one with the parlor in the park, the count’s castle looming right next to us. For all the people showing up, we had pushed a total of nine tables together… and most of the seats all around me were empty. I was one of the first ones to show up, sitting by a table in a desolate corner, that I had been hoping to stay desolate during the feast so I could be all by myself, and Levicus. The ones that already were present were busy chatting with each other, letting their kids run around, walking from couple to couple and mostly small talking about the town, the park and how good the choice of eating at this place was. I showed up extra early because I didn’t really have anything to do for that short amount of time I had left after helping Levi all day… and whatever would help me avoid stumbling across Benton again. I cringed each time when I thought back to when he confronted me… how could I had been so foolish? When I tried to get along with the thought of Benton now knowing about me and my special thing with my dragon, I turned away in disgust.
Levicus could come this time, which meant that my day wasn’t entirely trashed. Earlier, he even had convinced me to have a mead to ‘drink that misery grim off my face’. Ever since Benton showed up I hadn’t been in a necessarily good mood… The mead didn’t help that much. Not with how little I drank of it. I usually was strictly against consuming alcoholic beverage because I’ve seen what it has done to Levicus…
He had gotten up to get himself some more drinks. This place had a very exotic variety, and most of the beverages were pre-paid. Usually those were family-only, but with that many people to keep track of it was hard to tell who actually belonged here and whom not… Oh man… I couldn’t wait for this to be over and meet up with the dragon again… Snuggle in its warm hide… maybe… have even more fun, like we did last time when it sat down on my crotch and…
My brief phase of zoning out was interrupted by Levi crashing back in, my blush quickly disappearing. With almost two handfuls of different cups, each with different drinks, he smacked them down onto the table. Eagerly he sat back down right next to me, obviously excited to try them all.
“I don’t remember wine tasting being part of the program” I mumbled.

“Come ooon, don’t be such a grinch!”
He play-punched my shoulder. “Just because Benton got you figured all out? Here, just have this, and things will look different again!” He slid me a cup with gods-only-knows inside. I more or less disrespectfully pushed it back to him. It was very rare that Levi had a better mood than me, but that might be because he was in drunkard-heaven right now.
“I’ve been talking to him by the way. Just earlier, when I went back home to dress up in some fancier clothing. He was sticking around the garden. Again. Most likely wanting to catch you or something.”

“So what did you say? Told him more about how I’ve been runnin’ around the bed with it?”

“Dude- stop mentioning that! That’s just so… eugh!”
He covered his eyes for a moment. “Mostly, I told him things he knew already- next to a… /couple/ other thing he did not know already…”

“What did you tell him?” I sighed out.

“Oh, nothing special… Just… that he shouldn’t worry at all about the dragon sticking around. Y’know, how it saved me from that wolf ambush. Or how it gave me those catches! And… well… /why/ it had brought me those catches, y’know…”

“Because it thought you wanted to lay it back then?”

“Dude, don’t remind me!”
He took another sip.
“He did get kinda obnoxious about one thing though… He just didn’t stop asking how you managed to befriend it to begin with…”
Levi just proceeded to stare at me, as if expecting an answer.

“What?”

“Y’know, you… never told me how you did that.”

“Oh, that…”
I looked down, turning away a little to hide my blushing.
“Come on!” Levi pressured me. “I’m supposed to trust your dragon with my life, and you can’t trust me with the details of your first contact with it?”

“It’s not… that simple. Our first time meeting each other didn’t go exactly smooth.”

“It tried to kill you, didn’t it? Would explain the biting mark.”

“No, it… didn’t.”

Finally, I took the cup Levicus had offered me earlier and took a sip. This stuff tasted weird… but after just a couple seconds I got used to it and my head started to feel… different.

“It didn’t?” Levi questioned. “Then what the hell happened?”

“Well… I… was going to sleep in my camp as usual, but then… I suppose it tried to hit me with a fireball or something. Well, it didn’t hit me but impacted on the ground right next to me and then everything flew all over the place! The fire was out, and I couldn’t see. I couldn’t fight, so I just ran. I ran back towards the forest and hid behind a tree. It was a good hideout at first… Well, until it wasn’t.”
I went silent after that.
“I already knew most of that! What did it do then? C’mon! Tell me! You’ve been keeping this secret the entire time!”

I grabbed the cup again and took another, way larger, sip. The weird taste made me shudder and shortly I asked myself how anyone could drink this stuff for joy. But, I quickly got back to myself.

“I’m… not sure how I feel about what it did. Part of me was terrified and scared, but… part of me liked it.”

“Wait… did it- Eeeeugh! Oh gods…”
“So it forcefully mated with you?” said a voice behind me. I didn’t have to turn around to recognize who it was.
“Beeentoooon! My dawg!” Levi shouted, giving him an exaggerated handshake. Benton, this son of a…
“Yes it did” I groaned, taking another sip. “If you want to put it like that, Mr. fucking detective.”

“That would explain things… although just a little” he started to mumble as he pulled up a chair beside me. “It is start of the season, and the first mate usually leaves a good impress-”
“Haven’t you got any other things to do than crashing parties like minding your own god damn business!?” I almost shouted at him. He looked surprised by my anger but not intimidated. My loud words had gotten most of the attention on us as everything went quiet. I just faced back forward, sighing and palming at my own face for my impulsive reaction…
“Sorry about that” I mumbled and took another sip.

“Don’t worry Benton! He’s been like that to me too when I had found out” Levi spoke over to him behind me, leaning back on his chair.

“I guess I’m just… too ashamed. So… yeah, it ‘forcefully’ mated with me… and sometime later, it showed up to… I dunno, maybe apologize? Anyways, I… accepted its apology, and somehow we ended up doing it a second time, but this time… Heh.” I smirked and blushed by the memory. “I don’t think you wanna know.”

“Interesting…”

“Interesting!?” Levi said to him in disgust. “You find this interesting you sick fuck?”  

Suddenly… my head felt dizzy, not focusing on the noise of them arguing. /Very/ dizzy. My view became a little blurry and my balance was swaying left and right… what is going on…

“Hold on Mervyn, you okay? You feeling dizzy or somethin’?”

“Levicus… what the hell was in that cup you gave me…” I managed to mumble out.

“Oh, it was just some Tivan wine with a spritzer of- wait a minute- Hey!!! That was one of my cups!”

He ripped it out of my hand. Just that motion alone made me almost fall off the chair. Levi looked inside the almost empty cup to see which one of his many beverages I had been actually drinking the entire time.

“Holy fuck… dude. Dude!!” he laughed. “That was the strongest stuff! Damn, I didn’t know you had it in you… this should have knocked someone like you away in an instant! And that on an empty stomach? Boy, in about ten minutes when the stuff /really/ kicks in, you’re gonna have a good time…!”

The last words of his talking already sounded wacky as my ears began to fail me… everything became dizzier…

(Perspective switch to Fahren)

I just stayed put for now, watching from afar. All my senses honed right in on that one singular human. Over the next few minutes, the person talking to my human's friend walked off a ways.. then soon snuck up behind him as he say and talked to his friend. Rr? I leaned even further out the window. Suddenly, he got up and screamed something! I LEAPT out the window and raced across the rooftop to the edge of the building. The darkening dusk further helping to conceal my presence against the sky, I felt more at ease being out in the open. I hunkered down on the edge of the building, wondering whether or not to fly there, or to take the roundabout way across all the rooftops. Grrhh. Nobody makes my human mad! GRRR! I scurried quietly across the rooftops further to the left. This would take me on a big C-shaped path along multiple building's roofs, but I'd get there eventually. I made haste, but doing so in as quiet a fashion as I could, stiffening my tail and wings, using them as bobbing counterweights to soften my every step. Each paw carefully placed as I first trotted, and then just began to sneak, as I deemed even trotting to create too much noise. I held my head low. I rarely ever took my eyes off my human. He looked a little worse for wear. Sort of.. wobbling around. What was happening down there? I couldn't run though. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't move any faster than a sneaking crawl.

(Perspective switch to Mervyn)

Guided by Benton, I was being pushed away from the feast. More people had arrived and that strong stuff had made me… go nuts. I wasn’t only talking nonsense the whole time but as it had looked like I was about to throw up, Levi and Benton figured it would be best to let me do that outside the family reunion.

“Eey, stop pushin me man!”

“Mervyn, quiet.”

“Hey!”
Each time Benton nudged me forward even just a little, I stumbled all over the ground, almost falling each time.
“Wh- why’re you kickin me out man? I didn’t do shit!”

“Merv, it’s for your best to /not/ let you vomit all over the table. I’m only here to make sure you’re not doing something you’re not supposed to do.”

He was obviously fed up with my behavior.

“Wh- why tho. This’s a FAMILY reunion, you know… how do you wanna have a FAMILY reunion when you’re… kickin out all the FAMILY members!? …I didn’t even do anyth-”
Finally, I stumbled too hard once and fell down onto the pavement. Benton was grabbing me by my upper body and tried his best to make me stand back up.
“Get up.”
“But I like it on the ground…”
“I said get up!”
He made me rose back up to my feet, carrying me by an arm over his shoulder now.

“Y’know- I just find it so… unfair! Le- Levicus is ALWAYS drunk… and HE gets to stay inside and have like… ALL the fun! And then has ME kicked out… from my OWN reunion!! W- why do people always turn into such assholes when they get married…”

“Mervyn, he is not acting like a fool unlike you.”

“Wh-where are you even taking me!?”

“To your home.”

“S-ss-somehow I don’t believe you! You’re probably… taking me to an abandoned barn or something! I don’t wanna go home anyways! I wanna go see my dr-”
“Shut it!”
Luckily, Benton was aware that with how loud I’ve been talking, someone might hear me, although there wasn’t anybody around us from that close. Not around nighttime.
“Oh shit… I… I think I gotta…”
I let myself fall to the ground. I had known that… the second I drank this stuff, there was no way this was going to stay in my stomach for long. At least I was quiet now.

“Dammit Mervyn, can’t you even puke straight?!”
He checked his pockets, then flipped around and dashed back to get some tissues. I, in the meantime, got back up and continued walking… or tried my best at it. I didn’t know which way to go, so I went just somewhere, meaning to locate the gate out of Dummerston and into the forest. My head being as foggy as it was, I thought choosing a dark side alley which headed into the general direction would be my best shot.
Suddenly, I bumped into something, making me recoil and fall to my back. Strange… I thought to myself. I was sure there was nothing there… although the alley I stepped into was quite dark. It took me a while to figure out what I ran into. As I spotted those eyes… those big green unmistakable eyes... I immediately knew who it was. The dragon! It was here! No wonder I didn’t see it, its hide blended in perfectly. It smiled at me, until it noticed that something was a little different about me…
“Rrr? Uhmm… Hai?”
Before I got the idea to push myself off the ground, the dragon leaned in and licked all over my face.
“Ru!”
“Oh, heh, hey there!”
I barely managed to coordinate my hands to grab its head. Trying to kiss the dragon subsequently was a total disaster. I kissed all around its face, always missing the spot on the lips I actually meant to hit. The dragon eventually had enough of my attempts, just grabbed my head to hold it still and pressed its lips onto mine. I kissed back as good as I could. Even in this state I felt the passion burning in me, yet my motions were still pretty clumsily. It felt like my head would drop down and hit the ground if the dragon wasn’t keeping it up in its paws.
“… just in case you haven’t noticed, we should probably go somewhere else with this. There’s… LOTS of people around not far away from here. Don’t want’em to see this, y’know. That’d be awkward!” I mumbled after we both had pulled back a little.

“Heh. Ya…”
The dragon let go, expecting me to get up, but I fell and remained on the ground. Hastily, I got to my front, carefully getting onto my legs to stand up, stumbling each time I took my hands off the ground.

“Youuuuu.. ogey?”
With deep concern drawn all over its face, it watched me fail and fall over and over.
“Rah!”
It stopped me, the arms grabbing me off the ground and holding me close, whining worriedly.
“In case you’re wondering… I’ve drunken something I shouldn’t’ve drunk… but it’s not that bad. I’m perfectly fine actually!”

The dragon tightly pressed its head onto mine… Its eyes looking deeply into mine, I suddenly felt some of my memories playing before my eyes. I saw myself at the feast, sitting by the table with Levi… tossing that one cup he offered away… then, fastened forward, grabbing the other one -of which I now recognized that it wasn’t the one Levicus had offered me- and drinking out of it. Instantly, that weird taste came back to me. Everything cut off after that.
‘Ewwwwwww. 'What the fuck was that?' I heard the dragon’s voice sound inside my head. I was confused at first, as it wasn’t actually speaking or anything… Its mouth was still. It was merely looking at me, the eyes focused on mine intently. Its words were in my thoughts.
‘ “The strong stuff?” '

“You mean the stuff I drank?” I replied, saying it as if it was a conversation on a… more normal level. “Ask Levi… He’s right there. Just make sure no one sees ya.”
‘'No no no. I am taking you away from here. We are both leaving.'

“B-but-”

'There was some other two-leg here that was pestering you. I will have none of that.'

“You mean this Benton guy? …Yeah, he’s some kind of a jerk sometimes-”

Before I finished, the dragon broke the connection up and scooped me onto its shoulders. Its wing arms pushed me into the center to keep me in place as I was steadied on its back. 
“Hey, I don’t feel like taking a flight… I might fall off and get all dirty! Where are we even goin?!”

“Qua-yit! A'sshhhh!”

The dragon trotted amongst the darkness behind the buildings, alongside the big wall surrounding the town. The lights from the streets and the watch towers could barely reach here, barely illuminating enough for me to see. The dragon felt safe, as we were just beyond everybody’s perception. Right around the corner, but concealed by the ignored shadows. I myself, being in that drunk state, wasn’t properly able to sense danger or safety. If things would be going how I would have wanted it, we’d would’ve taken the direct roads and just hid behind a crate or something each time someone came along.
The dragon stopped as we reached a clearing. Otherwise from the alleys, it was lit. Not well, but with a few lanterns here and there arrayed around the big oak tree in the middle, plus some of the window’s light shining. We both looked around the place… and it took me some while to recognize where we were. This was the small plaza in front of my house! It looked different… usually, no matter what time you came by, the windows were lit and shining down onto the large porch. But this time, they were dark, since everybody was attending this silly reunion, and the whole house almost blended in with the night.

“Oh, I know this spot! My house… there. Just go to the right or… somethin.”
For the sake of its own nerves, the dragon ignored my drunk attempts to speak. Despite all the lanterns and lamps, it didn’t seem too hesitant to move about. Quite freely, actually, considering the ruckus it’d cause if we were to get spotted. There were people not too far away from here! Not too close either, but still in range of sight. The dragon sneaked across, but stopped again halfway through. It just stood there and curiously looked over to the few people passing by in the distance. God dammit, does it want us to be seen!? It even sat down and took its time in such a dangerously calm way I wanted to jump off and walk the rest to my house instead.
Before I could even protest, the dragon got up and hunkered down. Its wings on either side of me suddenly spread, ready to spring into action.

“Wh- No! Don’t fly now! My home is just-”
But it already leaped off into the air, the flapping of the strong wings drowning out my shrieking. I just pressed myself onto its shoulders as tightly as I could… I didn’t dare to look down, and that wobbly feeling in my head made it seem like I was about to fall off at any second. We flew far too high and far too long to be just headed to surrounding forest. It was taking me somewhere… but where!?