Chance Encounter (Alfrun)

[banditfly2]

Though it was raining earlier that morning, the sun had recently won its battle with the rainclouds and chased their dark forms elsewhere, leaving the forest to rejoice in a sparkling victory. Soon existence of the rain dried out and the air turned hot and heavy. The sunlight broke strongly through the trees of the forest here and there, making it like southern rainforest, while out in the open canyon where there were no trees in site for protection, it was like a desert.

And that was just the way she liked it. Curled in a cute circle with her heat tucked under her tail was a gray dragon. Her scales shone like silver under the raw sunlight, sparkling spots of white along the surface with every breath she made. Though not quite asleep yet, the wild Night Fury was perfectly at peace. It was hot and no one was around--at least, as far as she was aware. This canyon was her favorite spot and if it wasn't for the pool located in its center, it would have been paradise for her. For now, however, she was perfectly fine with positioning herself a good distance from the water near a tall boulder that's shadow was on the opposite side. Her tail twitched ever so often, the fins as the end stiff from a recent injury, as she drifted off to sleep.

[robinwing]

Alfrun did come this way often. She didn't like going too near the edge of the canyon, but she would pass within sight of it when she went wandering. If there was one thing her accident had taught her, other than all the things that could be made better for amputees, it was respect for the forest and the canyon.

She blinked as she slowed and stopped her brisk walk. There was a stone that she could swear was breathing. She looked around the edge of the canyon, to climb down and get a better look, and soon found a very stable group of rocks. The ones that had fallen on her three years ago. She had figured that since they fell relatively recently, they would be the most stable. She briefly wonder if, if you moved the rocks, you could still find her hand. She inched closer to the breathing rock, and saw that, in fact, it was a dragon. She got even slower, now inching to a place she felt she wouldn't scare it. She accidentally stepped on a fallen branch, which didn't snap, but clung too her leg causing her to fall over.

[banditfly2]

The nameless Night Fury was dreaming about catching fish. Not fish that swam, but fish that flew, and she was chasing them through the sky on swift wings, snatching them in her mouth hungrily. There seemed to be no end to the school swimming in the air in front of her and they practically seemed to fly right into her mouth. She could eat like this all day. She closed her eyes in bliss and smacked her lips before searching for yet another bite. But as she opened her eyes again, a fish quite different than all the others was suddenly in front of her. It was long, black, and had a huge gaping mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. The gray Night Fury was too stunned to move away and the monster fish gave out a terrible shriek as it lunged for her.

She was on her feet in an instant, giving a little cry of her own in start. Her wide, pale green eyes scanned the canyon rapidly, resting on the rocky wall to one side and the pool on the other. She didn't look behind her and thus never spotted the human girl lying there nearly within touching distance. The sound that had produced from her falling down was shrugged off by the dragon as from her horrible dream.

The nameless dragon slowly slouched down to her chest and heaved a heavy sigh. Her furiously beating heart slowly steadied itself as she calmed down. Quite untired now, she kept her head up and stared warily at the sky above. Her tail swayed uneasily behind her, the injured fins nearly touching Alfrun.

[robinwing]

Alfrun just stifled the shriek that bubbled up as the dragon leapt to it's feet, she thought for a terrible moment that it knew she was there, and was about to turn around. She watched it silently, hardly daring to breathe, and wondered at length if dragons had nightmares, as the beast was showing some signs she'd expect from a human just waking from a frightening dream. She moved her head back a little, to be sure the dragon wouldn't feel her shallow breaths on it's injured tail.

Wait. Injured tail?

Alfrun looked at the swinging tail, and the injury upon it. Could an injury like that down a dragon? Was that why it was in the canyon? She couldn't help but compare it to the legends of Toothless and Hiccup, and also to a spider in an emptied cup. She pushed down the urge to reach out and stop the tail moving so she could get a closer look at the injured fin. Alfrun instead turned her head away, looking for somewhere she could hide and observe the dragon.

[banditfly2]

Lying on the ground and staring at nothing got quite boring after a while and soon the Night Fury was looking for something else to do, the nightmare forgotten. She stood up, back still toward the human girl who was unbeknownst to her right behind her, and trotted forward a little. She then stopped and rubbed her head on the ground, soon flipping over to her back and wiggling around playfully like a cat. She rolled around a few times, blissful in her own company, before something caught her eye.

She stopped and stared in tense concentration as the tiny butterfly fluttering overhead. Ever so carefully, as if she were hunting prey, she silently rolled to her claws and crouched down. Her ear flaps were perked up and her pupils narrow slits. The butterfly flew back and forth before ignorantly landing on a flower a few feet ahead. The gray Night Fury wiggled her backside before pouncing forward, claws slamming down on the flower. She stayed in that position for a few seconds before peaking underneath to see her prize. She moaned deeply with disappointment in seeing nothing but a flattened flower and bug.

Bored again, she stood up and started toward the water. Her pace slowed gradually as she got closer until she was nearly approaching at a slug's pace. When she finally reached the edge of the pond, she lapped at the water cautiously, staring at her reflection with tense muscles as though it might jump out at her. When her drink was finished, she quickly bounded away from the water and pranced around the canyon aimlessly. She made one full circle around the pond before coming up toward Alfrun again. The dragon stopped to stare at the human girl when she had finally caught her attention. After about three seconds, she continued past the girl on with her trot happily.

With a disgruntled bark, the dragon skidded to a halt suddenly. Eyes wide, she looked back at Alfrun quickly. Her breathing slowly becoming quicker, she stayed perfectly still for a few moments before suddenly giving a terrified bellow and galloping toward the edge of the canyon. Like a trapped rat, she tried to scamper up the steep rock walls. She clawed desperately, never able to get more than a few feet off the ground before sliding down again. She flapped her wings vigorously, but they gave her little lift off the ground--not nearly enough to clear over the wall. Her injured tail swayed behind her stiff and useless. The panicked Night Fury didn't even look to see what the human was doing before racing around the canyon, desperately pouncing at the walls every so often in a fruitless attempt to get away. She gave out little terrified shrieks as she ran and scampered and jumped crazily like a senseless wild animal.

[robinwing]

Alfrun flinched when she realised the dragon had seen her, and started to quietly crawl towards a rock that was almost like a canopy. She battle-crawled underneath it as the shrieking began, and saw the dragon running around the edge, trying tho get out, away from Alfrun. Alfrun went to grab her book, but the dragon's wailing grew to be just too much.

Alfrun clapped her hands over her ears, curling up into a ball. The hands over her ears were completely honest, but the curling up was a conscious decision, to make herself seem smaller and less threatening. She hoped it would work, so the dragon wasn't quite so frightened of her. She wondered if the dragon's nightmare involved humans. She soon realised that the tail injury had grounded the dragon, as she looked through her fingers at the beast. It couldn't make it out of the canyon, because of that injury. She wondered how that injury could be helped to heal, so the dragon could fly again.

[banditfly2]

The gray Night Fury's hysterical behavior went on for at least a minute longer before she finally dared a glance behind to see just what the horrible being inside the canyon with her was doing. She didn't know exactly what she expected to see. Maybe it charging at her with some kind of terrible weapon like the ones that took out her family. Maybe it would spit fire at her like some humans seemed capable to do. Whatever she feared she would see, it certainly wasn't what she did.

The creature she was so desperately trying to get away from was now under a rock hunched in a ball with her face covered. The dragon stopped, front claws on a rocky wall mid-climb, and stared over her shoulder. She gave a tiny chirp of confusion before slowly dropping on all fours. She turned around to face the human, head low and paws shifting in place. Her curiosity was overpowering her fear and her pupils dilated just a bit as she craned her head to get a better look.

What was it doing? Was it sleeping? Did it get hurt? Her desire to figure out the answer was too great to resist. Ever so carefully, she took one step forward. Her back arched like a cat and her chest was close to the ground. She took small, uneven steps toward the human who looked so much smaller now on the ground. Once or twice she started, giving a quick bark and taking a sudden step back. But soon she was approaching again, moaning inquisitively.

When the Night Fury was just a few feet from the tip of the rock, she leaned forward and stretched her head as far as it would go without actually taking anymore steps closer. She breathed heavily as her face neared Alfrun's head, sniffing her hair. The smell was pleasant and reminded her of flowers, making her chirp with interest and delight. In her exploration of this being, she seemed to forget that he was deathly terrified of it.

[robinwing]

Alfrun knew the silence first, surprised that the dragon didn't seem to be running around anymore, she silently hoped it hadn't hurt itself more in it's panic. The barks were there after the silence, and she figured the dragon was okay, and coming closer. She supposed to be barking like that, and coming closer, the dragon was curious about her. Alfrun stayed perfectly still, still not fully daring to breath, as she wondered if it was not quite so afraid any more. She tensed slightly when she felt the heavy breaths on her hair, not expecting to come that close. She kept her face firmly down, even curling up a little tighter, so she couldn't see what the dragon was doing. She curled up tighter to fight down the urge to look at the dragon, to see what it was doing, and to read how it was reacting to her. She briefly considered stretching her hand out, still on the ground, to see how that would go, but she reminded herself this was a wild dragon, not a terrible terror, and would probably bite her hand off. She'd lost enough hands, thank you very much.