A/N: Written for the prompt "This is Sparta!" and for the Family Boot Camp with 'wild'.

Summary: Even though he's still new to the business, Charlie gets sent to Greece to find a dragon.

Words: 999

)O(

A few years ago when I was still new to the dragon business, my friends sent me to Greece to investigate what could be a new species of dragon. I was a bit intimidated about going to a foreign country with no-one I knew around and a potentially dangerous situation I would have to control, but my friends over at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary told me not to worry.

"Isn't Romania a foreign country?" said June, my best friend.

"Yeah, but that's diff-"

"When you came here, had you ever worked with dragons before?

"No, but I had you gu-"

"When you came here, did you know anyone?"

"Yes! I knew you. You were the one who convinced me to come here after finishing school. See? I'm completely justified with being nervous."

June, my partner in dragon taming, grinned and got up from the couch where she had been rubbing salve on her latest burns. She loped over to where I was sitting on the floor and plonked herself in front of me.

"You'll have someone in Sparta you can report to, if you need reassurance."

"I don't think I'm ready to tackle this. I'm a liability. What if I do everything wrong and people die because of it?"

"Shut up you, you're great with dragons," June used her fingers to rub some salve on a bruise on my neck I'd missed from before. Working with dragons was a job not to be taken lightly, and if you missed a place where the dragon had touched you, you could face a variety of diseases. None of them were particularly pleasant.

"We've had some confirmed sightings of winged creatures hanging around Thermopylae, and we need an expert to get over there and find out if they are what we think they are," said June, "believe it or not, there aren't many dragon tamers and they all happen to be busy at this time of year. We can either send you or a student who hasn't finished their studies yet. So, which will it be?"

"Damn you and your persuasive ways!" I chucked a cushion as her; she was now grinning evilly. June shrieked and retaliated by throwing herself on me and wrestling me to the ground until I was pinned under her. I was strong, but she was tougher and knew all the pressure points. Years in a job like this did that to a person.

)O(

June had seen many people, though not as many as she would have liked, apply to work with dragons. Most of them had been young and cocky, intent only on the thrill of taking on a dangerous profession. As the supervisor of the Sanctuary, she had the power to reject their applications as soon as they were handed in. Charlie had been different. For one thing, not many people came in with a recommendation from Hagrid and an Outstanding in Care of Magical Creatures and Transfiguration. That had been enough for her to take a closer look at him. She had not regretted her choice of hiring him; he had a way with the dragons that made most of the other keepers weep with frustration. Or it would have, if they had been the type of people who cried easily.

)O(

I climbed up the steep cliff face, looking for tell-tale chunks of rock or holes in the stone. These Greek dragons were proving very tricky to find. After four days here and more than I cared to count conversations with the locals, I was losing hope. Dragons don't hide; I should have found them ages ago!

Just as I started thinking that it would be prudent to give up and get back to the inn before the sun set, a shadow fell across the cliff. I shuddered and decided that yes, it was time to be getting back. However, I wonder what caused that shadow… A dragon would have made a noise.

When I tried to raise myself a little to see what the shadow had been, my head bobbed up to look over a ledge. This was excellent! I'd found the elusive beasts. So it was true that the last place you looked would contain what you wanted.

The dragons that were clinging onto the rock were unusually small and sleek. They had no horns on their tails, no horns on their heads, no horns anywhere. In fact, I was starting to doubt whether they were dragons at all. True, they looked like them, but they may just have been very large winged lizards. There was a difference.

In fact, most of the dragons looked small enough to ride like a horse. I was all for testing wild theories, so I thought it would be a good idea to get on one's back and see how well it could carry a person in flight. After all, what was the purpose of a dragon if it couldn't fly?

I snuck up in what I hoped was a surreptitious manner to one of the nearest reptiles, wearing my safety equipment if anything should go wrong. As I neared the dragon, I threw myself onto its back and hoped that I could stay on for longer than a few seconds.

Startled, the dragon lurched into the air and cried like a raven. It soared up into the sky, with me clinging desperately to it, clutching at its neck. Funnily enough, I didn't feel as if I was on a fire-breathing creature capable of killing, it was more like I was riding a very large, uncontrollable broom. The tough scaly skin felt steady and familiar. Gaining confidence, I tapped one of the wings with my wand and felt the thoughts of the dragon running parallel to my own. I could feel the dragon bearing its soul to me, and in this moment, I felt infinite. The freedom overwhelmed me until I could do nothing but scream, "This..is...Sparta!"

Sparta beat her wings and cried in agreement.

)O(

Fin