Chapter 2 – Acclimatization

I think the Night Fury just about had a heart attack when my phone's alarm went off.

See, the way I have it set is so that the alarm sound itself is loud, sudden and wakes me up immediately, otherwise I'll just sleep in. My phone was in the pocket of my trousers, and—as I realized moments later—the dragon was sleeping right next to me. Evidently, he'd not heard a sound like that before.

As a result, several events happened in quick succession.

Obviously, the alarm sounded, and both the Night Fury and I woke up immediately. Difference was, I woke up like normal, opened my eyes and sat up. He leapt about ten feet into the air screaming in terror, and when he came down again was snarling at whatever was making the noise. Which was in my pocket.

You can't really prepare for having the experience of a dragon snarling at you. It's not fun.

Not. At. All.

I back-pedalled on all fours away from him in fear, not thinking of where I was going before my hand hit the ash of last night's campfire and I felt pain shoot across my palm.

I swore and scrambled to my feet, running to the river to soak my burn in the cold water. Conveniently, this was also away from the large previously very-angry looking creature with vicious claws. I fumbled my phone out of my pocket with my other hand and hastily turned the alarm off, glancing over to see what the dragon was doing.

Somewhere in the back of my head, a little voice commented 'I should probably give him a name'.

Priorities brain, priorities.

Said dragon was now looking quite worried as he came bounding over, and I flinched as he got close. Only moments ago, he had been looking like he was going to eat me, and he was still quite a large creature. Combine that with the fact that I was kneeling down by the river, and my eyeline was at half the height it was usually, his gesture of concern ended up feeling quite intimidating.

"Oh Chaos, are you okay? I'm sorry I just panicked and I didn't know what that sound was—"

"Stop!" I said, maybe a little too loud. "I'm fine…just…I'm not used to any of…" I gestured vaguely to him. "…this."

"Oh," he deflated and backed off.

I breathed a sigh of relief and pulled my hand out of the water briefly to examine it, finding that it was barely a burn at all, the skin was only red. I put it back in the water, just in case.

"And that sound you heard," I explained, sitting down on the gravel. "Was my phone's alarm going off. It shouldn't happen again though, because today is my last day of—"

It was then that I remembered why I had set the alarm in the first place.

"SHIT!" I jumped to my feet and sprinted over to my rucksack. "I need to be at work in an hour!"

"What?" he padded alongside me as I tried to stuff several things into it, and then realizing that wasn't going to happen very quickly, settled for just pouring some water over the remains of the campfire to make sure it was properly out. I didn't have time to pack anything up—I would barely be able to get to work in time as it was.

"I need to go, and I'll be back in like…six hours-ish," I closed my rucksack up, and ran over to where my bike had been discarded on the path the night before. "Make sure no-one steals anything, please?"

He just gave me a blank stare, his head cocked to the side.

"How long is six hours?"

"It's…okay, you know the sun?"

"…huh?"

"The bright ball thing in the sky, over there!" I gestured to where it was just beginning to show through the trees. "When that is above the treeline, around here—," I pointed up, roughly where I guessed it would be in the early afternoon. "—I'll be back."

"Oh, the star?"

"Yes!" I was on my bike now, itching to just go.

"But I'm hungry…" he looked at me pleadingly.

"I'll buy you some food on my way back alright? You could try to catch a rabbit or something in the meantime, just stay around here, I need to go," I babbled, pushing forward on my bike.

"And don't jump in the river again!" I shouted over my shoulder as he receded into the distance.

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

I watched him disappear around a corner with a million questions racing through my mind.

What was a rabbit? How long was an hour? What was a phone? Why had they called their planet's star the sun? What food was he going to bring back? What was a 'shit'?

Ugh, and I wouldn't get to ask him until he was finished at work. That was one of the things the Library could tell me about—a lot of the multiverse involved work, and a lot of species had language equivalents for that word. The same applied to a few of the other strange words and phrases he'd used thankfully, so I wasn't completely in the dark.

I was hungry though. The squeezing, aching feeling in my stomach really wasn't a pleasant sensation, and I tried to ignore it by lapping up some water from the river.

…so what did I do now?

The human (I really needed to find out if they had names) had told me to stay 'around here', and to make sure nobody stole anything. That seemed awfully cruel—why would anyone steal things? But if he was worried about it, it must be something the humans here did. I couldn't stray too far in that case.

I began wandering around the area around our little camp, discovering a bridge across the river further down. I would occasionally spot something moving out of the corner of my eye, but before I could even think to get a closer look, they would disappear. All of the plants and bushes in the area looked the same, and I got bored quite quickly.

I wanted to see more stuff, different stuff! I knew it had to be out there, but I didn't want to go exploring only to come back and find the human's things had been stolen. I began to feel quite paranoid, and quickly made my way back to the riverside.

Thank the Powers, it was all still there.

I breathed a sigh of relief and began to think on my situation.

I needed to go faster and get around quicker if I wanted to see anything new, but—as I had discovered while exploring—the forest floor was covered in little bumps and holes, rocks and streams that were concealed by all the bushes, and you wouldn't know they were there until you were right on top of them.

But the human had been going quite quickly on whatever contraption he'd been using on the clear, flattened lines (paths?) through the woods. Maybe I could use that to my advantage, and try running on them—I had gotten used to walking quite quickly, so this couldn't be that hard right?

I made my way onto the path and tried just speeding up my walk to begin with. I stumbled a couple of times as I got used to the motion, but then I began to speed up and found I could dig my claws in a little to launch myself forward faster. I stayed on the trails, twisting and turning between the trees and soon I wasn't even aware of the actions my body was making. My legs seemed to move of their own accord, hitting the ground in pairs and bringing me to incredible speeds. I roared in glee as I gave in to my instincts, the pounding of my heart and air rushing over my scales felt incredible!

Before long I was approaching the river again, and a brilliant idea flashed through my head.

I veered off the path, just to the side of the bridge that spanned the water's width. There was a clearing here that led down onto the shingle, and the same was true for the other side. A brief moment of doubt passed through me as I reached the water's edge, remembering what had happened the last time I fell in.

But then I jumped, and all my uncertainty disappeared.

I tucked my paws close to my body and closed my eyes as my wings naturally unfurled, catching the air beneath them as my tail straightened out behind me, arced gently downwards. I could feel every movement in the wind, little warm and cold bursts nudging me in every direction. Every noise seemed to fall away for the few seconds I was in flight, leaving only my heartbeat and the rushing of air.

And then it was over as quickly as it started.

My only warning was the feeling of my stomach rising up to meet my throat, and I snapped open my eyes to see the gravel of the opposite shoreline zooming up to meet me. I drew in a shocked breath and managed to get my legs out beneath me before I was tumbling over and over, the pain of impact combining with the stings of little stones all over me as I rolled.

It took me a few seconds to realize I had stopped and even then, I could barely move, only able to clench my eyes shut as the aches washed over me. Through all this though, there was only one thought dominating my mind.

I needed to do that again.

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

Work was…interesting.

I arrived heaving for air, sweating profusely and only a couple of minutes late. My boss had a go at me for it, saying I should at least have the courtesy to arrive on time on my last day. Next, I very quickly found out there was something wrong with the dishwasher, meaning we would have to wash everything by hand. Finally, to top it all, two tour busses showed up out of nowhere.

Normally, tours like that book ahead, so the places they're going to can prepare for the sheer amount of people coming in and ordering at once. This café could barely hold twenty people, never mind more than sixty.

So yeah, I didn't have a brilliant last day.

Any time I was engrossed in a repetitive task though, my thoughts immediately strayed back to the Night Fury in the woods. I couldn't help it—how could you experience something that strange yet familiar, and not think about it?

He seemed so…off. There's being a dragon, and then there's not knowing what the sun is. Then again, I supposed the sun was a human-made word for it. He did know it was a star, which was interesting—there were some idiots who lived on Earth their whole lives and didn't know the sun was a star.

I began theorizing on where he could have come from—how could a fictional being just…exist? Unless, multiverse theory accounted for that—if universes were infinite, then a universe of the How To Train Your Dragon films existed, right? But then, since when did dragons talk? When I thought about it, I had heard both English and the sounds I'd expect a dragon to make, which made things even more confusing. If he was from the HTTYD universe, then shouldn't he have been aggressive? Or at least, known not to freeze to death in a river?

Wait a minute, weren't Night Furies meant to be nearly extinct in that universe?

I would just have to ask him when I got back. That would be one entertaining conversation.

I couldn't keep referring to him as 'the dragon' either—I needed a name. This clearly wasn't the Toothless I knew, and he seemed more…sentient than an animal, so that complicated things. Giving a talking, aware creature a name like 'Scales' or 'Spike' just seemed…demeaning, and he might have a name already—again, I would need to ask him. But I needed something at least temporary, just to give him an identity of some sort.

I leaned against the countertop and felt a twinge of pain shoot through my hand, where I had burned it on the ashes of the campfire. I stared at the red mark for a few seconds, my brain churning over the problem.

Ashburn!

It was fitting for both a dragon and a human—perfect.

"Aiden, keep going, we've still got orders coming in!"

Oh right, that's what I was doing. I blinked myself out of my daze and kept washing dishes.

Thankfully the café was closing early that day, since I wasn't the only employee leaving, and they'd decided to host a little gathering. So, after we shooed all the customers out—as politely as possible of course—we pulled a few of the tables together and made ourselves lunch.

I was having a lovely time talking as little as possible and thinking about making an early escape, when my boss decided to make my life a living hell.

"Would anyone like to say a few words? Aiden, do you want to start?"

And just like that, everyone was staring at me.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. What the hell was I supposed to say? That I'd barely tolerated this place, and would be glad to be rid of it? The seconds dragged achingly on and I felt a distinct sense of dread and fear take over, as the silence became more and more awkward. My heartrate sped up and I began to sweat, feeling nauseous and cold all of a sudden.

My vision darkened around the edges and I heard a muffled voice in the distance. Oh god why had he done that?! I could barely breathe, I felt like I could vomit at any moment and I'd not done anything to deserve this. Everything was horrible, the small amount of positivity I had before was long gone and the world felt like it was ending around me.

I pushed my chair back with shaky arms and staggered towards the storeroom, with every intention of just leaving.

I didn't want to be here anymore, and I didn't need to—I'd logged my hours and I would likely never see any of these people ever again. I heard someone call after me, and the others were definitely talking behind my back about my 'exit', but I did not care.

I hurriedly grabbed one of the straps of my rucksack and walked swiftly out the front door before anyone could stop me. As soon as my hand closed around the rubber handlebars of my bike, I felt the shakiness fading away, and I took some deep breaths.

In for three seconds…out for five. In for three…out for five.

I sent a silent thank you to my dad for teaching me that specific rhythm as the nausea disappeared too.

I hauled the straps of my rucksack across my shoulders and sighed in relief at the familiar weight. I wouldn't have to work again for a long time now, so my worries were thrown to the wind as I fell back into comfortable familiarity.

Kind of. I was going to the supermarket to get food for a dragon, but that still felt more reassuring that being pressured into talking in front of people.

No, not 'a dragon', I reminded myself; Ashburn. Assuming he didn't have a name of his own.

When I arrived, I made a beeline for the fishmonger's section, knowing they had whole fish for sale, rather than just fillets. I had bought half a dozen haddock, salmon and mackerel before I remembered that he was a carnivore, not just a fish-eater.

Realizing that, I got several different roasts as well, avoiding chicken since I didn't know whether that would be safe for him to eat. It was quite expensive, but I had a lot of money saved up from work—that was the idea after all—and it was only for today.

Hopefully Ashburn would figure out how to hunt for himself soon.

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

Finally!

I stared at my reflection, intently watching those annoying hearing sensors move about on my head.

I had gotten bored of jumping the river after a little while—I had tried to land better, glide for longer and jump higher, but nothing seemed to work. Everything my body did on its own seemed to be better than what I could accomplish by actually thinking about it, and so I had gone back to running around the area, seeing what I could find by following all the different paths.

Then, I had spotted the thing I'd been searching for yesterday—a still pool of water. I could see what my own face looked like at last.

…Why were my eyes so huge?

I turned my face this way and that, examining every detail—I didn't look even remotely like anything else I'd seen in this forest so far. I opened my mouth, surprised by how wide it could go.

Hm. I was no expert on the creatures on this planet—Chaos knows I wasn't—but weren't there supposed to be things in my mouth, other than my to-

I yelped as I heard, felt and saw two rows of white teeth shoot out of the top and bottom of my jaws. I drew my lips back as far as I could, experimentally running my tongue along them and pressing them together. Even though I'd only spent a day in this body, it felt very weird to suddenly have them there.

And then I realized a slight problem.

How did I get them back in?

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

I was quite happily cycling through the forest, shopping bags full of various meats hung from my handlebars, when a woman came running and screaming towards me.

"HELP! HEEELP!" she screeched.

I immediately stopped and got off my bike, confused and concerned.

"Wooah, woah, slow down, what's happened?" I put out my hands in a placating gesture, trying to calm her down.

"T-t-there's a-a-a thing back there! It's HUGE a-a-and its TEETH! T-t-they—" she was blubbering and wailing, gesticulating wildly as she ran back and forth, making it extremely difficult to understand what she was saying. I got the gist though.

"What kind of 'thing' is it?"

"HUGE!" she repeated, waving her arms around to make her point. "Terrifying black monstrosity! And the TEETH!" She was getting right in my face and I tried to push her away.

"Wait a minute, slow down," I sighed, beginning to suspect what had happened. "Did this creature have big green eyes? And scales?"

"Y-y-yes! And the eyes! I'll never forget those eyes!"

"Yeaaah, okay," I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a lot less worried for the woman, and getting slightly annoyed now. "You just saw a large dog, that's all. Or a Komodo dragon. Your choice."

"This was no DOG!" she was back to screaming hysterically now, and I moved back to my bicycle. "It was going to EAT ME!"

"I wish he had, so we wouldn't be having this conversation," I muttered.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"Go home," I said firmly, pushing forward on the pedals and carrying on my way. She kept yelling after me, but I just ignored her as her voice became more and more distant. There was overreacting, and then there was overreacting.

I continued on into the forest, taking the same turns as I had last night. Interestingly, that strange compulsion I had before was gone, and there was nothing stopping me from going right instead of left.

When I was about a mile from the river shore where I'd had to leave my things, I saw Ashburn come running down the track to meet me, and put on the brakes as he came skidding to a stop a few feet away.

Sure enough, he'd discovered his retractable teeth.

"Uh, um, there was a woman, and I tried to ask her for help but—"

"Yeah, I ran into her on the way here, she was going a bit mental," I pulled a face. Ashburn stared at the ground, earfins pulled back.

"…Sorry…I don't know what I did!"

"You didn't do anything," I sighed. "That's the kind of reaction you'll get from pretty much everyone I'm afraid—somewhere between freaked out and terrified. That's…kind of the reason I told you to stick around the camp. Remember when I came across you yesterday?"

"Oh…" he looked even more crestfallen.

"Look, it's just that nobody is used to seeing…you. You're not exactly from around here...but we can get to that later. I brought you some food, and I'm guessing you're starving."

His expression perked up and he finally seemed to catch the scent of all the meat I had in my shopping bags as his nose twitched and belly rumbled.

"Whatever that is, it smells really good!" he poked his nose into one of the bags, and I had to push him back before he tried to eat something with the packaging still on.

"No, wait, wait, we should get back to the river first. I'll need to cut off all the plastic before you can eat it," I laughed.

"Awww, fine," he backed off, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"…what?" I asked suspiciously.

"Race ya!" he suddenly took off down the path, and I was left in stunned silence for a moment, watching his dark form disappear into the distance.

"Wha—hey!" I began pedalling furiously after him, trying to counter my false start. I had years of experience cycling, and I knew these trails. But he was a Night Fury, so what chance did I have?

After getting about halfway, and still not seeing even the tip of his tail, I slowed down to a more casual pace, slightly out of breath.

None, apparently.

He was waiting for me at the camp site, bouncing impatiently in circles on his paws, and I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

"Come ooon, you're so slooow," he whined.

"And just how exactly, was I supposed to outrun a dragon?" I retorted.

He stopped bouncing; his head tilted to one side.

"What's a dragon?"

I stared at him for a moment in disbelief.

Then I burst out laughing.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I struggled to get off my bike while laughing so hard and nearly fell over in the process, my chest tight with mirth. "Ahahaha, oh my god, that's amazing! HAHAHAHAAA!" I had to bend over, unable to contain myself.

"Hey! Don't laugh at me…" he looked dejected enough that I almost managed to stop.

Almost.

"Ahahaaa…ohhh…sorry," I tried to wipe my watering eyes. "That was just…too perfect."

I got nothing but a scowl. It was probably well deserved.

"Sorry," I repeated, more serious this time. "A dragon is what you are—a Night Fury to be specific." I began pulling the meat I'd bought out of the plastic bags and brought out a swiss army knife to cut them out of their packaging.

"Oh."

"How do you not know that? Actually, y'know what, don't answer that yet—here," I threw the first couple of fish to him, and he snapped one of them out of the air.

"Finally!" he began tearing into everything I chucked his way, only slowing down when he reached the roasts. I put all the cardboard and plastic back in my shopping bags, then went around the burnt-out fire, picking up and shaking a few stones and leaves off my jacket and sleeping bag. I packed everything I'd left there back into its place in my rucksack and by the time I'd done that, Ashburn was almost finished eating.

I settled myself down on the grassy verge at the edge of the gravel and looked over at him.

"Alright, spill it."

"Spill what?" he gulped down the last of his meal, licking his lips in appreciation.

"What are you doing here, how do you exist, and why do you not know what you are?"

- O -

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- O -

Author's Note

Sorry, shorter chapter this time. I needed a more natural place to end it, and this was the only one I could find without making the chapter too long. Oh, and if you picked up on the HTTYD reference right at the beginning, and are annoyed I didn't complete the quote, I did try but it seemed forced, so I left it.

Thank you once again to Layla for being my editor, and to everyone who left me feedback on the previous chapter. Reviews are always greatly appreciated, and constructive criticism even more so. Thanks for reading!

Rowan