QLFC Round 4 - Creature Comforts

Write from the POV of a Dragon.

Optional Prompts:

11. (dialogue) "Do you really need to do that?"

13. (dialogue) "I'll survive. I always do."

AN: A huge thank you to Pete, Queen, Annie, Mags and Mary for betaing/looking over it to make sure this was the best it could be.

Day One

Where am I? That was the first thought that entered her head as she woke up. It took her a moment, but she eventually remembered. She was flying over a lake. There was a town coming up. She landed for a drink and then—

She tried to open her wings, and there was a pain. That was right—there was a pain just before she went to sleep. She opened her eyes and tried to move. Pain.

"Do you really need to do that?"

The voice startled her. She roared, fire spewing from her mouth. More pain.

"Stop it!"

There was a man with red hair in front of her, on the other side of a set of bars. His face was kind, but his voice radiated anger. The pain stopped as he spoke.

She unfurled her wings, and there was a high pitched noise next to her. She roared, startled again by the noise. The pain returned.

"I said stop hurting her, Elizabeth!" The man turned to face the direction the pain was coming from. He was shaking, his fists clenched at his sides. "She's just scared—it can't be easy when we take a dragon out of their natural habitat. Leave her be."

The pain stopped. She heard a noise to her right that sounded like metal on metal. It went silent. The man had stopped shaking and was slowly making his way over to the bars in front of her. She reared up, ready to stop the pain from coming again. But it didn't. Instead, the man spoke.

"Hey, hey. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." He raised both of his hands. "My name's Charlie. I'm going to be looking after you."

Day Two

She awoke when something hit her face. It wasn't pain like before, but she roared, breathing out fire as she did, to warn off anything that was near her. She did not want to experience that pain again. Sniffing and looking around the small space she was enclosed in, she found what had hit her face. There was a dead sheep near her feet, and another came flying past her face not a moment later. She did not know where these sheep came from, but she was grateful for the food and ate them anyway.

"See," a voice said to her side. She snapped her head around to face it. It was the same man as before. "She was just hungry." The man looked up and saw that she was facing him. "Weren't you?"

The man did not seem like he would do anything to harm her, but she did not want to turn her back on him. She was very hungry, though, and the sheep that she hadn't eaten yet was behind her. As if reading her mind, the man—Charlie, he said his name was Charlie—levitated another sheep into her space, quickly followed by three more that all landed at her feet.

She heard a woman reply, but she was too busy eating the newest sheep to listen to what was being said. When she looked up, the humans were gone. It was time to inspect the new space she was in.

Day Three

It hadn't taken her long to explore her new surroundings, and over the course of the night, she had come to memorise every inch of her new space. She could spread her wings out fully whichever way she was facing, but only if she was in the centre. There was some room above her, but not enough to fly. She was in the process of exploring her space again when Charlie returned.

"You're getting agitated cooped up in there, aren't you?" His voice was soft, almost as if he cared for her. "You'll be out of there soon; we just need to assess you."

She wasn't sure what Charlie meant, but the way he spoke made her feel much better about her situation—whatever that situation was. She longed to take to the skies again and see the world from above, but as far as she could tell, she couldn't do that. There was no way out of this enclosed space, but somehow, Charlie made it seem okay.

It was a slow day. Her only company was made up of the various humans that came and stood around her space writing in notebooks. She had been scared, at first—roaring and breathing fire whenever someone came near—but all they seemed to do was get out their notebooks, write, and leave. She wondered if this was what Charlie had meant when he said 'assess'.

They continued to visit throughout the night, so she didn't sleep. Instead, she counted the stars, wishing she was in the sky with them. One human had a long piece of sharp wood that came too close to her face, and she promptly burned it. The human made a few notes and disappeared after that, so she went back to counting the stars.

It was just as the sun started to come up that she thought the humans had been gone long enough for her to sleep, and that was exactly what she did.

Day Four

"I think she's ready."

She was just waking up, but Charlie's voice sped up the process, snapping her to full attention. Was he talking about her? What was she ready for? Suddenly, the space she was in started moving, getting smaller. She roared, flames spilling in tendrils from her mouth. She turned, breathing fire in every direction for good measure.

"Stop!" Charlie yelled, his voice breaking her fury slightly. She had come to realise that when Charlie spoke, good things happened. The space continued to grow smaller, however, so she roared again, willing it to stop shrinking. "Stop! Elizabeth, I said stop!"

That name, she remembered that name. The woman with that name was the one who had brought the pain. A rage started slowly building inside her. She roared again, turning to face the woman, and could not stop the fire that came out of her mouth—one look at her had confirmed that she was the woman from the night before with the stick she had burned. Sure enough, only a moment later, the woman pointed the small stick at her and a jet of light shot from it. The pain was back.

"What in Merlin's name do you think you're doing?" Charlie's voice was so loud, so angry. She'd never heard him so angry before.

The woman took no notice, another light shot from the stick.

Pain radiated through her body, caused by the tiny jet of light. She roared, the fire spilling from her throat purposeful and directed straight ahead to where the woman was stood.

"Elizabeth." Charlie's voice no longer held the anger from before; instead, it was slow, monotonous, and almost dead. "You're fired. Get out of my sight. I never want to see you again."

"But…"

"OUT!"

Charlie watched as the woman left, then he turned and headed in the other direction, each footstep falling heavier than the one before.

Day Five

Charlie did not return until the next day, looking much calmer than he had the day before. "She won't be causing any more pain ever again," he said simply. He levitated some sheep into her space which she ate hungrily.

She did not remember falling asleep, but when she woke her surroundings had changed drastically. There were no longer bars on every side of her, and she was in what looked like an open field. She took a few tentative steps forward and felt something around her leg. Looking down, she saw a circle of metal had been clamped onto her ankle. She clawed at it for a while, but it would not budge, so she decided to leave it be.

When she had walked around for a few minutes with nothing happening, she unfurled her wings and took to the sky. It was magnificent. She had almost forgotten what it felt like to stretch her wings out and soar above the trees—there are trees!—faster than any bird could go. She had almost forgotten the cool air hundreds of feet up from the ground and the feel of the wind against her face. It was the happiest she'd been since she'd been flying above that lake before the pain started.

She did a couple of slow circles and then headed back the way she had come, wondering if she was still in the place with Charlie and the rest of the humans she'd seen. She passed over the field that she had been in when she woke up, and it wasn't long before she spotted the bars she had become accustomed to. Landing next to them, she wandered around, exploring right up to the edge as she had in her smaller space. It wasn't long before she heard Charlie's voice.

"You look happier already," he said, a sad smile on his face. She moved her head in an up and down motion, something she'd seen one of the humans do when they were agreeing. The smile on Charlie's face grew slightly as she did this, but it only seemed to make him appear more upset.

There was a long pause so she went back to exploring the space around her. It was nice, very open and green. She looked up and saw what looked like a mountain not too far away and decided that she would have to explore it very soon. Unfurling her wings, she was about to take flight, having decided to explore the mountain immediately, when Charlie spoke again.

"I haven't given you a name yet, have I?" He let out a soft chuckle. "Never mind, it can be something to decide on when I get back. I have to go away for a few days—some bad men are fighting some friends of mine. I'll come back. I promise."

"Charlie, you can't say that." This was a new voice; another male had appeared behind Charlie.

"Of course I can!"

"But what if something goes wrong? This a war, Charlie. There's going to be casualties on both sides."

"I'll survive. I always do."

"Charlie!"

She watched as Charlie gave her another sad smile before turning and walking away. She wasn't sure why, but watching him leave made her stomach feel like it was sinking. Lying down, she decided that today wasn't the day for exploring mountains.

Words: 1,738.

AN: This was my first time writing from the POV of a creature, and it was a really interesting thing to explore.

There wasn't much information I could find on the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary, so I guessed that they'd keep the dragons in a cage of some description for a couple of days first before letting them roam around. I hope it seems realistic.

I didn't give my dragon a name, purely for the fact that I couldn't decide what to call her. Please let me know if there are any parts that get confusing because of this.

This is also for:

Hogwarts May Events Checklist:

Symbols of May 2 - Include the stars or night sky in your story.

Ethical/Cultural Observances 3 - Include a smile prominently in your story (eg. a telling smile or a knowing smile).

Day-long Events 13 - Include a dragon in your story.

Day-long Events 29 - Write about a character in a European country that is not the UK (Romania).

Silly Holidays 21 - Include a notebook in your story.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 Competition:

The Netherlands - Slow

The Valentine-Making Station:

Red Ribbon - Write about a Gryffindor.