CHAPTER EIGHT – snow cave

He had no idea where he would go. He never really thought this would ever happen to him, after all. Eventually he found himself flying northward, the snow hitting him like needles. He tried to see where he was but all he saw of passing mountains and the ground was extremely vague shadows.

Strangely the cold barely affected him, he was reminded that he was using a lot of physical force to keep himself in the air; he knew that if he stopped flying and landed somewhere to rest he would most likely freeze to death, which didn't feel like a bad idea at this point.

He let his mind wander as he flew through the grey sky. At least there wouldn't be a blemish on the perfect record of Berk's Vikings. He snorted to himself. What kind of monster must he be to be an unwanted stain on the reputation of a Viking?

His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp pain in his head and body. He screeched as he looked around for a place to land. His eyes fell upon a dark cave below him in a mountain. He clumsily glided toward the opening.

A few feet from landing another sharp pain shook his body to the point that his wings spasmed and closed, thus causing him to crash painfully against the hard frozen floor of the cave's opening. He let out a scream, clutched every bit if his body that he could and curled into a ball on the floor.

Another sharp pain caused his body to start twitching. He bit his arm to stop from screaming again, settling for soft whimpering instead.

After what seemed like hours of on and off pain, yet another wave of pain much larger than the others came crashing over him, this time he couldn't stop the screaming.

As the pain subsided he saw grey spots and stars take over his vision before he passed out completely.

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"Halfling, wake up." Said a voice Drayko didn't recognise.

"I will not ask you again Halfling; wake up before I decide that you would make a good meal." Said the voice in an irritated tone.

The voice was not human, nor did it sound like English, or any language for that matter. It was...growling and hissing, but he knew what she was saying.

He opened his eyes to a blurry white world. A strange animalistic shape came into view. It blinked at him. "Finally, you know, you've been sleeping for hours." She said in her growling voice.

As the world steadily became clearer he realised that the shape that was speaking to him was a large, long necked, hairy, white dragon. "You survived my snow storm little Halfling, I am impressed." She said as she rested her large furred head on her long hair covered claws.

"Why do you keep calling me Halfling?" he asked. He immediately put a hand to his throat. He had made the same, sort of, sounds as she did.

"You are surprised to be able to speak Dragonese are you?" she growled a chuckle, "I call you Halfling because you have the blood of a dragon and a human." She explained. Drayko sat up and leaned against one of the cave walls. "Sorry about crashing into your home." Drayko whimpered. She gave him a toothy smile. "I forgive you, after all, it's not every day you meet a Halfling. You may wish to observe your body; it has changed quite a bit I must say."

A slight wave a panic over took him, until he remembered he didn't have any human's nearby to judge him. He lifted his hand to see that it had become more claw than hand; the scales were more obvious now. He felt his face, his nose was stretched out farther, and it was flat. His eyes were larger and his hair was paler, it seemed to have been slicked back. He looked down at his body and saw that it was smooth, and his bit's had somehow disappeared, which he then panicked about until the other dragon explained to him that, like most reptiles, he probably had all his parts behind a very well hidden skin flap, which he was then disgusted by.

"You shouldn't be so upset about turning into a dragon, Halfling. Becoming something so powerful should be seen as a blessing, not a curse." She sounded offended.

"It's a curse if you lose everything and everyone you've ever cared about." Drayko muttered to himself. He heard her stand and stride over to him. "Do you think you are the only one who has suffered great loss? You're not the only one who's ever lost something important. You haven't lost nearly as much as some of the beings in this world." She growled angrily. "Have you ever thought about how much the humans' cattle has lost? Family, children, friends, just to feed the human's, they don't even let the animals have a sporting chance to get away. And what about sailor's who put their lives on the line to bring food across vast oceans, what if their ship sinks? It's not as if the people waiting for those supplies will know very quickly and then, the sailors themselves lose their lives. And what about pregnant women who lose their children in childbirth . . ." her sentence trailed off as she stared into the falling snow. She took a deep breath, not looking back to Drayko. ". . . It would be foolish indeed to assume you are the only one who has lost something deeply important to them." She stood and walked back into the depths of the cave. After a couple minutes he joined her.

". . . Do you know anything else about . . . Halflings?" Drayko asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Not really, and one can only guess at some things." She replied as she nestled herself in a huge nest of twig's and animal fur. He walked closer to her tentatively. "And what are your guesses?" he asked. She glanced at him, resting her head on the edge of her nest, then closed her eyes. "first off you will have a better understanding of human's, this may come in handy later in life for whatever reason, and I think that with practice, you may be able to switch between human language and Dragonese, regardless of your form."

"Anything else . . . ?" Drayko encouraged.

She opened one eye to look at him. "My you are demanding." She stated. "I do have one more hypothesis about you, Halfling. I believe that you may be able to switch between human and dragon bodies at will. Of course, I may be completely wrong so don't get excited. If I am correct it will probably take years to accomplish. oh yes, I don't believe your changing is finished just yet, I can't be sure but I think that your last transformation sequence will be the most painful, then again, you may sleep through it, but judging from my first encounter with you . . ." she shrugged her massive furry shoulder's before wrapping her colossal wings around her to sleep.

Drayko frowned and laid down where he stood. It felt strange to lie flat out on his back, it almost hurt. He glanced over to her, his eyes examining the way her body and limbs were placed, and then he attempted to copy her only to find that sleeping like a dragon was near impossible with human legs and arms and looked plain ridiculous, so he settled of lying on his side.

After hours had passed he still lay awake on the cold hard floor of the ice cave. He sighed and curled around himself, attempting to get warm. It seemed like he was correct when he thought that when he stopped moving he would become cold. He shivered involuntarily. He closed his eyes; maybe if he fell asleep he would just sleep through the cold. He knew that wasn't going to happen. One might be able to sleep through warm, but one can never sleep through cold.

He sighed and decided to get up and explore the cave for a while. He stood and stared at the precise walls of the cave. It was obvious that the cave had been built, not created. He leaned against the rock wall, examining the large slashes in the walls opposite him. He shivered again.

"Halfling." The dragon in the nest hissed at him. He turned to see she had raised one of her massive wings to reveal a small space just big enough for him to fit. He carefully walked over to her and crawled into the spot.

The nest was surprisingly warm. As he laid down in the softness of the bended twigs and fur he realized how tired he was, but he still couldn't figure out how to sleep without hurting himself. She must've noticed because she snorted a laugh.

"Try wrapping your wings around you." she explained as she looked down at him with a smirk. He looked up at her, and then at his wings, which were resting on his back pointlessly. He flapped them gently, testing them before wrapping them around his body. Warmth suddenly sprang up all over his body. He smiled at her in thanks and lay down, closing his eyes. Sleep came almost immediately.

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well THAT was nice of her~ ...whatever her name is. if anyone is curious about what kind of dragon she is...uh picture a yeti crossed with a bronta...that really long necked dinosuar. she's not going to be in a lot of the chapters so cool your jets- and if you DO like her, well she'll probably be in about three to four more chapters...ish

reveiw!