Chapter 22 – A Rumble of a tale

Key: text in italic means Loki speaking

"(How do I put this… based on what our mutal friend told me, he did not really have the best hatchling hood. His parents were taken away and his black scale color and red eyes made terrifiying to his peers from playing with him)"

(Flash back, twenty years ago)

Inside habitat 15 a juvenile Fenrir lay around on a patch of leaves, away from the herd of his fellow Rumblehorns with a sad expression. He watches the other young Rumblehorns play around with each other by making play bashes on their heads while adults, their parents kept an eye on them while some of the adults who did not have young yet just lay around like a bunch of lazy gators sunbathing.

When some of the hatchlings get close to Fenrir, one of them notice him. Fenrir tried a friendly smile hoping to ease some worry. The hatchlings only look scared of him as they just walk away making Fenrir very lonely.

It had been ten years that both his parents were taken by two legged creatures who called themselves humans took his parents away to who knows where. Does not change the fact that he is alone, isolated from his fellow Rumblewings who shares his habitat.

()

"(There was one human who at first actually cared for the poor guy. Like him, she herself was a loner. How do I know? Fenrir himself told me)"

From the hidden window behind Fenrir is a lone younger Melissa who is leaning forward against the window, watching her fellow loner. She had a sad expression while looking at the dragon. The lonely dragon somehow reminds her of herself. She was never really much of a social person due to her dedication with her family business.

Behind her is her father Balthazar when he was still alive.

Balthazar, from the observation entrance looks at his eldest daughter with outmost worry. As much as he appricieates her dedication, he fears that her isolation would lead her to become close minded. Anyone who is close minded tend to do drastic decisions unknownly do more harm than good.

He further observes what Melissa is looking at. She seems to be observing one particular dragon who is as lonely as her. He scratches his beard to think if she is having a connection with the drake. He gets an idea.

"You seem to be very interested with that particular dragon my dear" Balthazar speaks up as he walks up to her.

Melissa gets a bit startled to see the one man she admires a lot, her own father. "Oh hey father and yeah I've actually been looking at that particular dragon, it kind of reminds me of a bit of myself."

"I wonder why?" Balthazar kneels down as Melissa gives him a curious look, "My dear daughter, it is no secret that you barely socialize."

"WHAT! I DO SOCIALIZE!" Melissa shouts defensively. Balthazar turns his head side to side.

"Working alongside you co-workers is not socializing. I mean is that you need to learn to spent more time with others, take a break so you could learn how to be more compassionate with others."

"But father, I dreamed of becoming the new president of Magi prime one day! To do so I need to work very hard."

Balthazar laughs a bit at his daughter's eagerness, maybe too eager.

"That is true, but you really need not to close out the possibility of others who might be able to help you to achieve your goal. Your younger sister Ashley knows this indeed!"

"First off, Ashley is a bit immature at times and second, what do you recommend I do?" Melissa asks her father.

Balthazar gets up, moves his arms behind his back to look at the lone dragon who just sat with a gloomy expression. It breaks his heart to remember that his parents were part of an experiment that requires to take them away. Due to being the only Rumblehorn with black scales and red eyes the others are too afraid to play with him. What he is about to tell her might as well brighten up some mood.

"What do you think about dragons Melissa?" he asks her.

"Um, I always believed they are just dumb wild animals" Melissa answers him.

With a laugh, Balthazar states, "Do not underestimate them Melissa. They are more than just wild animals. They are a highly intelegent creatures capable of unpredictability!"

"How are you so sure?" Melissa asks her father wanting to know what he meant.

"So what about I have you raise this particular dragon as your own child! As you give him love you will be able to learn how to bond with others!"

"Seriously? How could bonding with a dragon help me with people?" Melissa gets skeptical of her father's plan.

"If you could make friends with a dragon, than you could make friends with an actually person. Dragons are shown to express human emotions like sadness, happiness, anger, and my favorite laughter."

A group of Rumblehorns laugh at Fenrir when Balthazar mentions it. Both him and Melissa witness it making them uneasy.

"Well… laughter can be subjective" Balthazar nervously comments as Melissa keep looking at the lone black dragon being laughted at.

()

"(That's right, the human that Fenrir once trusted, was the sister of your human herself. Shocking right? She wasn't always a total jerk to dragons. She is what can I say… socially awkward, just like our pal Fenrir)"

Around the backyard of Mandrake manor, Melissa is alone sitting in front of Fenrir who is as confused as she is.

The girl and the drake continue to stare at each other, thinking what they should do. To Melissa, bonding with a dragon is something new to her. She was always used to working, makes her think if this is another experiment made by her father. Fenrir on the other hand just laid on the ground looking at the strange creature in front of him.

"Um…my. Name. Is. Melissssssa" the young adult woman states. The younger Fenrir only looks at the human thinking if she was crazy.

Being a dragon, He only knew dragonese so it is very difficult for him to understand. When he heard 'Melissa', he assumed it was a name of the human.

Melissa gets up from the ground and points at him, "Do you have a name?"

Fenrir really did not understand what she telling him. Language being spoken by a human are all just weird gibberish. The best he could do is keep guessing.

"You can't really understand me do you?" Melissa walks up to the dragon and pets him. Fenrir seems to like it a lot by the way he pants and taps his back leg. Melissa could not help by giggle at the dragon.

Melissa seems to think the dragon in front is being funny as he continues to feel heaven by her rubbing hands. She stops petting Fenrir who starts to lick her in return on how happy he is. Gross as it is, Melissa could not stop laughing as the licking of dragon tickles her.

Fenrir jumps back wagging his tail meaning he is very happy with his new human friend. Melissa seems to like him as well. The young woman gets an idea on how to start playing.

Melissa remembers that Fenrir is a tracker class dragon so she grabs a ball and a bottle of vinegar right by the door of the backyard.

Fenrir was confused on what she is doing until she makes him sniff the ball filled with vinegar. Then she makes him close his eyes allowing her to throw the ball deep inside the manor's enchanted garden.

"Fetch it boy!" Melissa tells him, making Fenrir Open up his eyes and run into the garden to find the ball. He uses his great sense of smell to track it. Eventually the dragon finds the ball and grabs it with his snout. He flies back to Melissa who is impressed that he manages to find it. She walks up to him and pets him on the chin.

"I think I'm going to call you Fenrir!" Melissa names her new friend with glee. She gave him that name right after mythical wolf. One think she knows about wolves is that they too have a grand sense of smell like him.

()

"(Since then, he and her were the best of friends. Perhaps she was his only friend. Eventually the human must have used her experience with him to gain friends of her own. Such friendship did not last sadly. It was until…lets just say we dragons always hated Eels)"

Inside the mandrake manor Basement, Fenrir was sleeping in his bed until Melissa comes in by the stair case with another human girl, her younger sister Ashley.

"OMG, is that a Rumblehorn dragon Melissa!?" Ashely gasps in surprised so loud it had woken up Fenrir in the bed making him growl due to her being a stranger.

"Buddy be nice!" Melissa shouts with an authoritive tone making Fenrir whimper down, "Now kiss her!"

Fenrir gets cheerful and starts to lick Ashley a lot making her giggle. "HEY HEY Stop it!"

The dragon stops and runs back to his bed. He notices a large bag Melissa was carrying making him drool knowing that it is lunch.

With a laugh, Melissa drops lots of fish in front of the dragon.

Being super hungry the drake rushes to the pile and eats from it. The two sister watch him eat with smiles. Fenrir continued to eat until he stops at a sight of a yellow stripped long creature, the Eel making him grow stepping back.

Melissa grew concerened at his odd behavior. She tells Ashley to stay back as she tries to figure out the problem.

"What is wrong sweetie?" She asks the dragon until she spots the Eel laying on the floor. She picks it up and tries to offer it to the angry dragon who really did not want it.

"What wrong with this? It's just an Eel?" Melissa slowly walks up to Fenrir who continues to snarl trying to tell her not to come close with that thing, with his back now against the stone wall.

"Fenriiiiir, I spent a lot of money to get you food so you better eat this now!" Melissa demands the dragon.

Ashley, who had been watching them knows what is going on. She was going to warn her sister until the angry Fenrir makes a big CHOMP, right at Melissa hand making both sisters gasp.

Fenrir rips off Melissa's hand and tosses it with the Eel that it was grabbing. He looks back to see what he had done. He feels his heart sink in guilt as he watches his human in a state of shock.

Melissa slowly looks at her arm missing a hand. Ashley only stare horrified at what she witnessed, sliding down the wall behind her back.

Making a deep breath, Melissa makes the loudest scream in agony to the point the birds nearby the trees fly off.

()

"(Like all dragons who misbehave, Fenrir was taken here. From there is where I first meet him. He was a really broken dragon. Just like what you are feeling right now, he complained how he was betrayed by the very human he trusted. You could say he deserved it but his intention was to snatch the Eel away only for him to bite the hand by accident. Some moons later, humans begin to take him somewhere. We do not know what actually happens to him but one thing I saw is that the more he gets taken, his heart towards humans darken)"

Now we know why Fenrir despises humans so much. Stay tuned for the next chapter.

PS: never force a dragon to eat an Eel!