Chapter Ten
February 26th, 2011

They trooped through the preserve, with Peter looking around trying to pinpoint where they were in reference to the old Hale house. Stiles could see from his face what he was trying to figure out and he said, "We are just outside of the Hale property boundary. The house is about five miles southeast of the clearing. Far enough away that I could roar at full volume and no one at the house could've heard me, even if the wards weren't there to muffle the sounds."

Peter asked, "What other wards do you have setup? You mentioned wards that keep people out of the clearing unless they are approved, what else?"

Noah explained, "He's warded it to be fireproof, semi soundproof, and weatherproof." He saw the puzzled look on Peter's face so he said, "Sound can get in, but not out."

"What about the weatherproof?" Peter asked, "That isn't something I have seen before."

Stiles explained, "It means that severe weather like storms won't damage the clearing or the wards."

Derek asked, "Do we need to do anything when we get there so we can get in?"

Stiles nodded, "Yep, I will need you to bleed on the ward stone I have in the main entrance. We aren't far away now."

Stiles jogged ahead and threw his backpack through a gap in the trees. Noah followed and he walked through the gap, scooping up Stiles' backpack as he walked to the edge of the clearing.

The pack approached and they lost sight of Noah as he disappeared between the trees. Stiles pointed at a rock that was decorated with runes, Peter could see them clearly when he flashed his eyes to that familiar alpha red. Stiles instructed, "Make a cut on your palm and then hold your palm to the rock until you feel it has accepted you. Trust me when I say you will know when that happens."

Peter approached first and he slashed his palm, he held back the healing as he allowed the blood to gather on his hand while he tried to spot Noah through the dense foliage.

He placed his hand on the rock and stared in shock as he felt the change as the ward accepted him. He looked up and he could now see through the trees to where Noah was setting up to measure Stiles.

He motioned for the others to follow his example and when he checked the rock he noticed it had absorbed all of his blood. Ralph was quick to request acceptance from the ward stone before he walked through to join Noah, he had so many questions about how one would measure a dragon as a human.

Danny and Jackson both held their hand out when they saw Derek pop a claw so he could slice across their palms, Danny went first and the ward accepted him fairly quickly. Jackson followed and he frowned when nothing happened. He asked, "What should change?"

Peter said, "When the ward accepted me I could see through the trees to see what Noah was doing."

Jackson lifted his hand and he saw the blood was gone and his hand had healed and he said, "Oh. I could already do that."

Stiles pulled him to stand beside him as they waited for Derek to take his turn as he had been able to hold back the healing on the cut on his palm. He murmured in Jackson's ear, "It might be that bond, letting you into my warded areas automatically, we can test it back at the house. I have a few warded rooms we can test it on."

Derek gasped when he could see through the trees and he followed the rest of the group through to where Noah had set up a long spool of rope which seemed to have markings down its length.

Stiles told everyone to wait at the edge of the trees so he could shift in the middle and he didn't have to worry about hitting anyone as he shifted. He made sure to pass his amulet to his dad, he didn't want to break it shifting.

They all watched with bated breath as Stiles walked into the center of the clearing and took a few deep breaths, they heard the crunch of shifting bones as he started to shift and grow in front of them.

He was an imposing sight, his scales took on the same shade as his beta shift, matte black from nose to tail tip with a blue sheen in the right light. The ethereal green color of his eyes carried over to his full shift form, as did a lot of his beta shift characteristics. He had long horns protruding from the top of his head, with a mohawk of spikes between them that continued down his spine, they got larger as they continued down his back, almost triangular in shape, but only just. As they got closer to the tip of his tail they seemed to get smaller, but the tip of his tail flared with large spikes on either side. His wings were huge and similar to those you see on a bat, complete with claws at the thumb, and the webbing of the wings was the same color as his scales but looked as tough as leather.

When he was done shifting he dropped his head down and sniffed each of them carefully. They all knew intellectually how big he was after seeing the notebook and hearing about it, but it was another thing entirely to see just how big Stiles dragon form was. The only calm one in the group seemed to be Noah who was adding observations to the notebook about his spikes along his spine and his wings. The spikes had changed at the back of his neck down to his wing joints, they weren't as sharp as the rest and the membrane in his wings seemed tougher, he guessed to aid his flight since he was a fair bit bigger than the last time he was able to measure his son.

Peter was the first to break out of his stunned silence when he said sternly, "You have wings!"

Stiles stood and he let the wings out fully so they could see just how big his wingspan was. Noah commented, "He's definitely grown. He can nearly touch the trees on either side of the clearing with his wingtips."

Peter repeated himself, "He has bloody huge wings! He never mentioned the wings."

Jackson laughed, "A dragon would look odd without them, Alpha."

Peter conceded the point and he asked, "So how do we measure him?"

Noah held up a long length of rope, "Simple, let's start with the wings since he's showing them off. One of you take one end, make sure it's the end with the red mark and walk it across until you reach the other end of his wingspan. The rope has markings for measurements so whoever is at this end will be in charge of letting the rope out and pulling it taut to get the measurements. Once you are sure you have the right place on the rope call out the measurements as you get them."

He turned a few pages in the notebook Danny had been looking through last night as Jackson picked up the end of the rope with the red end and dragged it across the clearing to the opposite wingtip. He ran his hand down Stiles' flank as he walked under him enjoying the feel of the scales under his hand. Stiles did his best to keep his wings stretched and flat as they were moving the rope around. Derek had picked up the other end of the rope and he was holding it so Jackson could pull his end away as he moved to stand under the other wingtip.

Danny was like a kid in a candy store as he, Peter, and Ralph walked around Stiles checking out his full shift form. Stiles was tempted to hold the younger beta down under his foot for a bit, as the bouncing around was making him dizzy.

Jackson stopped laughing at his best friend's excitement as called out, "Ready." Derek pulled the rope so it was taut across the ground and he checked the measurement on the rope as he called out, "42 feet and… 2, no 3 inches."

Noah grinned, "That's an increase of nearly ten feet, ok, now for the length, nose tip to tail tip please."

Stiles pulled his wings in so they were tucked into his body and once Jackson had the rope out from under him he lay down with his head stretched out in front of him and tail stretched out behind him.

Jackson walked to his snout and rubbed it gently as he murmured, "You're gorgeous, you know that right?"

He was blown back slightly by the snort from Stiles who had many insecurities about his looks no matter what form he was in. He was interrupted by a yell from Peter, "Stop complimenting your dragon and get on with the measuring, Jackson."

Jackson nodded and with a pat to the snout, he walked to the side and set the red end of the rope on the ground level with the tip of his nose. Derek pulled the rope taut and he called out, 59 feet, 9 inches. I would also like to point out that those spines on his tail are really sharp."

Noah laughed as he agreed, "He can cut his training dummies in half with his tail when he tries. Right, now for height I think Jackson will be the best for this, you need to stand on his back and measure from the shoulders to the ground."

Jackson looked down at Stiles and he asked, "You ok if I clamber all over your back?"

Stiles answered by moving his foreleg so Jackson could use it to climb up onto his back. Noah called out, "Best place to stand is between the wings so you can drop the rope down beside the base of his neck."

Jackson tucked the rope end into his belt and climbed gingerly up the foreleg and over the shoulder with a bit of a nudge from Stiles snout so he was settled comfortably between the shoulder blades where the wings seemed to be anchored. Derek walked the rope around so it would be a straight line from where Jackson was sitting and waited for Jackson to get the top of the rope into position.

Jackson called out, "Ready" as he held the rope steady from the height of the shoulder. Derek pulled the rope so it was tight again and he checked the measurements, "16 feet."

Noah patted his flank and he said, "Nice work, Stiles. Hopefully, you won't get much bigger else we'll have to find you a bigger clearing."

Derek asked, "Can we see your flame?"

Stiles turned his head to Peter and raised an eyebrow in question. Peter nodded his ascent and moved to stand behind Noah and Ralph as he said, "I'm sure I'll be fine, it would be good to see how the fireproofing ward stands up to a dragon's flame."

Jackson jumped when he heard a voice in his head, 'Do you want to stay there or back on the ground.'

He looked at Stiles who seemed to be waiting for an answer, so he experimented and responded in a way he hoped was telepathic, 'I'm fine here, you're nice and warm. Is this normal, can you speak to everyone like this?'

Stiles carefully moved around, mindful of his passenger as he answered, 'Nope, you're the first.'

When he was facing away from the group in the trees he started the process to build his flame and he could feel Jackson lay down to get more of the heat as it built up before he let it out in a long large flame.

Derek and Danny both moved so Stiles could see them and then when he moved back they ran to the trees he flamed and they were both surprised that while the trees were a little hot, there was no damage to the trees or the birds in them.

Danny saw Jackson plastered to Stiles back and he called up, "You good, Jackson?"

Jackson grinned, "He's so warm, it's like having my own personal space heater."

Derek approached and he asked, "May I feel?"

Stiles nodded and Noah directed, "If you feel his chest at about your head height he should be quite warm there."

Derek reached up and felt the scales on his chest and he asked, "So you don't generate the flame in your stomach."

Jackson snorted and he said, "He said, and I quote, 'Fuck you, I'm not a fucking swamp dragon.'"

Noah chuckled, "From what we can tell, and this is mostly guesswork, he generates the heat in his chest, and when he breathes out whatever it is as soon as it hits the air it ignites." He frowned when he realized what Jackson said, "You can hear him?"

Jackson nodded and he tapped his head, "Up here, we can talk telepathically I guess. He's not sure how it happened either but we've been talking and we suspect it's the bond."

Stiles said, 'Time to get down, I need to scratch to get the loose scales off. I'll let you know if I need help with any.'

Jackson slid down Stiles' foreleg and he said, "He needs to scratch."

Noah said, "About time. He will have some loose scales which we will collect, he uses them in his amulets." He noticed a few of the pack getting curious and creeping closer as Stiles was shaking and scratching so he called out a warning, "Keep an eye on his tail, it gets a bit wild when he's shaking off the scales."

Ralph curiously asked, "What else can the scales be used for?"

"My kevlar vests," Noah explained with a shrug, "They are better than kevlar at stopping bullets without the rib breaking that is often involved with plain kevlar so Stiles has lined a few of my vests with them over time. They don't perish so he has a good stockpile in the workshop at home. We've tried all sorts of experiments to see what we can do with them in the workshop but so far it's been limited to amulets and my vests. It's been fun with the two of us spending time experimenting though."

Noah passed him one of the scales that flicked off near them. It was smaller than he expected, hexagon-shaped slightly bigger than a quarter. He flicked out a claw and tried to scratch it but looked up when he heard Noah laughing.

Noah said, "Not even Stiles talons can scratch them. The only way Stiles has found to scribe runes on them is with a diamond tip scribe. It's how he makes his amulet to hide his scent of being other, he's working on them for the rest of the pack to help stay hidden from hunters."

Ralph grinned, "That would be great. Peter has a couple of books that might help him if he doesn't have them already, they go into creating rune clusters so more can be fit into a small space. So he could combine runes for control and for hiding to help us keep our wolves hidden even if we wolf out in public."

Jackson called out from where he was gathering scales while quietly talking to Stiles, "Stiles said he wants those books, yesterday. Please."

When Stiles was finally done getting all the loose scales off he snarked to Jackson, 'Sometimes I think it would be easier if I shed like a snake rather than dropping scales every time I come out here.'

Jackson replied as he gathered the last of the scales and handed them to Noah, 'Scales seem to have more uses than a shed skin would though.' Out loud he asked, "So what now?"

Peter grinned and he said, "Now pup we get you shifted so we can figure out what you are."

They spent half an hour trying to get Jackson to shift, he had his eyes nailed and he could switch them back and forth easily, he loved looking around at each of the wolves. He commented, "Your wolves are all different, different coloring but I can see how they are different. Derek's is the biggest and it's jet black, Danny's is a gorgeous brown color, Peter yours is dark grey with lighter grey patches, and Ralph yours is like a dark chocolate brown, almost black."

Peter looked between Stiles and Jackson and he asked, "Can you two send more than talking between you, do you feel each other's emotions?"

Jackson nodded, "Remember this morning I could feel his devastation through the bond."

Peter asked Stiles, "Can you send him what you feel when you shift?"

Stiles suggested to Jackson, 'I have a better idea, I can open up the bond while I shift so you feel it with me, if I shift back and forth a few times you should get a sense of it.'

Jackson nodded and he moved back to give Stiles the space to shift, he felt the bond open further and he could feel the changes that occurred as Stiles shifted, he shifted back and forth a few times, completely uncaring of the looks he was getting from the pack as they saw his naked form. Eventually, Jackson stopped staring at Stiles and he grinned as he shifted into his lizard form complete with a long, clawed tail.

Stiles thought, 'I wonder if you can manifest your tail as part of your beta shift? I can if I need, to but I try not to as it screws up my balance if I am not fighting.'

Peter saw the fluid dripping off Jackson's claws and even off the claw on his tail and he murmured, "I think, I think I know what you are Jackson. But I want to check my bestiary first, it's in the vault with my other books." He saw Stiles lift his head in interest and he confirmed, "Yes Stiles, I'll bring the good books to the Batcave."

Peter walked over to help Derek train Danny in how to find his anchor and shifting between forms since Stiles had Jackson under control.

Stiles shifted back and he pulled his clothes out of the backpack he had brought, he was glad he had thought to grab spares as the clothes Jackson was wearing were completely shredded. He got dressed and made sure he left his tee-shirt untucked. He was going to shift into his full beta shift, complete with his tail to see if Jackson could mimic it, he didn't want to destroy another tee-shirt.

He pulled the spare set of clothes out of his backpack and he said silently, 'I brought you spare clothes in case you shifted, get dressed and we can try your beta shift.'

Jackson stalked up to the backpack and with a quiet hiss he shifted back to human and got dressed and they spent some time shifting between the facial beta shift which gave Jackson a line of scales up the sides of his face where the wolves had fur, his reptilian eyes and a mouthful of very sharp teeth, and the shift that added the tail into the mix. It didn't seem to matter what shift he chose he could generate the fluid on his claws at will.