Chapter 27
Lockheed
The birds of the forest were just beginning to stir when Kitty awoke from her restful night's sleep. As a rule she tried to stay asleep as long as the sun would let her, but in the Schwarzwald there was only twilight and pitch blackness, no sunlight. So unless she wished to sleep forever, she would have to stay awake when her eyes opened. Now that she was awake, she very carefully peeled off her blanket and stretched. With her limbs un-stiffened and joints resettled she very carefully, very quietly slipped out of the camp and deeper into the forest. She was forced to slowly feel her way through the dark, dense woods and she found it quite aggravating. She might love to travel, but answering nature's call out in the middle of nowhere was a true pain.
After she found a suitable spot that was far enough away and secluded, she did her business and prepared to head back. At least it was her intention to head back. A faint sound of rushing water reached her ears and the urge to wash her face overrode her desire to return. It had been several days since she had been able to wash her face so she was eager to find this hidden stream. With a few dim twists and turns she reached the bank of the gurgling stream and nearly fell into it because of the weak light. Very cautiously she picked her way down the steep, unstable bank to reach the clear, cold water. She dipped her cupped hands in the shallow brook and splashed the water she collected over her grimy feeling face. With a bit of scrubbing and a few more splashes of cool water she felt clean and refreshed. Now feeling renewed she was more than ready to return to camp.
As she turned to leave a weak beam of light pierced the dense forest canopy and illuminated an odd splotch of color. It caught her attention, fired her curiosity, and made her pause. All thoughts of return fled her mind and she quietly made her way to the spot of purple that showed in a small hole in the undergrowth. She was certain that the purple thing wasn't a flower; she had seen barely a handful of blossoms since entering the Schwarzwald. In fact, the closer she crept to it, the more sure she was that the thing was some sort of animal. But what sort of animal was purple? When she was less than a foot away the mysterious thing shifted and she froze. Now that she was so close to it she saw that it was covered in tiny smooth scales. Was it some sort of snake or lizard then? She gathered her nerve, reached forward, and moved the weeds aside to reveal what they hid.
It wasn't a snake and it wasn't a lizard. It wasn't any sort of normal reptile at all. The purple scaled creature was not very big; it looked to be smaller than a cat though it was larger than a squirrel. Its head was wedge-shaped and mounted on a serpentine neck. The creature had a pair of horns that sprouted off the back of its skull that went from bone white at the horn roots to jet black at the pointed tips. It had white triangular bony spines that ran from the base of its head along its spine to the end of its tail. The thing's ears reminded her of a horse's as she spotted them pinned flat on the top of its head. While most of its body was a uniform shade of purple, its legs were almost white in color. It had small white curved claws at the end of its tiny finger-like digits. The way it was curled on the ground revealed its magenta tinted belly that matched the membranes of its bat-like wings and the flat, almost spade-like shape at the end of its tail. The creature was a miniature dragon.
She must've made some sort of sound because one moment the tiny purple dragon was sleeping and the next it was wide awake and hissing fiercely at her. Even in its anger she couldn't help but find the small creature beautiful. It crouched low on all fours with back and neck arched, wings half open, and tail straight up. Its golden-yellow eyes glowed with spirit and its bared curved needle teeth looked to be as sharp as its claws. With a hissing snarl the little dragon snapped its head forward, opened its jaws, and released a small but very hot jet of flame. This sent a startled Kitty stumbling backwards to escaped having her face burned off. She hid herself behind a wide tree trunk in hopes that the enraged dragonet would miss her, but the small purple fire-breather never appeared.
Cautiously Kitty returned to the clump of weeds to find that the furious little dragon was still huddled there. It snarled and lunged up at hr with wings stretched wide, but came up short. It tried to dart over the layer of pine needles that covered the ground, but again it didn't quite make it to her. Kitty frowned, this wasn't right. It was almost like the little creature was held by an invisible chain of some sort. Very slowly she lowered herself to her knees and offered the small animal her hand. The little dragon snapped at her hand at first, but on her second try it gave her a suspicious sniff. After a few more sniffs it tentatively licked her knuckle with its pink forked tongue.
Taking the gentle lick as a good sign, Kitty very slowly moved her fingers down along the purple dragon's neck. Near the base of its neck she found something odd. It felt like a metal collar, but she didn't see anything. She knew that there was something there, she felt a clear difference between it and the dragon's soft scaly neck. She carefully probed about with two fingertips until she came across a small invisible chain. The invisible chain ran from the invisible collar along the ground to a nearby log. She tried to pull the chain loose but it was stuck fast. All while she did this the dragon remained perfectly still and silent as it watched every move she made with its yellowish cat-like eyes. With a sigh of mild frustration Kitty leaned back and considered this most unusual problem.
The fact that the chain and collar were invisible pointed to magic. It was the only explanation for how the things could be invisible and it was the only way that such tiny, light bonds could hold a dragon. Even a tiny dragon such as this one would be difficult, if not impossible to keep confined by non-magical means. Dragons were increasingly rare in this day and age mainly because knights hunted them for glory and wizards slew them for their magical properties. A knight might ignore this small one, but a magic-user still might find a use for it. With invisible magic chains involved it made her think that a wizard had come across this dragon and tried to use it for some dark sort of magic. To think that anyone would want to kill such a pretty creature for its blood, bones, and other parts made her shudder.
Kitty couldn't bear the thought of some cruel mage or sorceress doing any harm to the purple-scaled dragon made up her mind. She found the collar once more and phased it off the miniature dragon's neck. The instant that it was freed it scuttled sideways and shook itself. Slowly it felt around its neck with one hand, then the other before it seemed sure that it was free. With a joyful cry that sounded more like a bird's than a reptile's. It leapt up and spread wide its black edged wings and flew. Despite the closely placed trees the little purple dragon winged its way in graceful arcing loops around tree trunks. It chirped and sang a happy song that put most other songbirds to shame as it danced through the air.
Kitty watched the little dragon's joyous flight for a while with a satisfied smile. But she realized that she'd been there long enough. Twice she'd delayed returning to camp and now it was probably late enough that the others would be waking. If she wasn't there when they woke up they would worry and she would have many questions to answer. Reluctantly she turned away from the dragon's celebration and picked her way back to the camp. While she wanted to stay and watch the dragon's happy flight she knew it was best for her to return and satisfied herself with her good deed. She was halfway between the stream and the camp when something unexpected happened. She felt a sudden gust of wind blow past her face, which was odd for the stuffy forest, and something solid collided with her shoulder.
She squeaked and stumbled in the darkness barely catching herself in time. As she straightened up she was aware that whatever had hit her shoulder was still there. She was so shocked and frightened by what had just occurred that the only thing that she thought to do was reach up and touch it. With great caution she slowly raised one hand up and lightly touched the mysterious thing with her fingertips. It felt smooth and warm to her touch and it made a familiar chirping noise. Nervously she turned her head to confront the thing face to face and was greeted by a friendly pair of golden reptilian eyes. The mysterious thing was the tiny purple dragon from a few minutes earlier. It must've noticed her absence and have come to find her. She sighed in relief.
"You scared me half to death!" She whispered to the small dragon on her shoulder. It made a quiet chirp that sounded sad and apologetic. "Don't worry about it, I know that you didn't mean to do it. Now go on, off with you." She commanded trying to shoo the purple lizard away. It squeaked in alarm and climbed closer to her neck trying to hide itself I her half loose hair. She half-heartedly tried to peel it off her shoulder, but it only whimpered and clung tighter. "I'm not going to be able to get rid of you am I?" She sighed. The miniature dragon shook its small head. "Well then I'll just have to keep you then." She decided with a smile. The dragon liked this statement immensely and rubbed its tiny head against her cheek making a gurgling sort of purr. With everything settled for the moment she continued on back to camp. She'd find a way to keep this cute little dragon, somehow.
Nightcrawler was not happy. This morning had looked like it would be a beautiful day. The sun was shining bright and warm above the forest canopy. The air was clean and cool and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Then he'd come back down from watching the sunrise and his good mood abruptly vanished. He peered down from his branch to find that Kitty was gone. Her blanket was crumpled in a shapeless pile where she'd slept the night, but she wasn't in or near it. He dropped out of his tree and looked around camp for her and failed to locate her. Carefully he looked into her abandoned pack and noticed that her sword was still there. Without her sword she couldn't be out practicing so the only other thing she could be doing was relieving herself. So he settled down on a fallen log and waited for her to return.
When nearly a half an hour passed he really began to worry. All the others were up and about by this time and getting ready to move on. Logan had returned from a quick hunt and brought back a few sliced rabbits. Jean was preparing a soup to put the rabbit in while Bobby wrestled with the fire. Remy was lazily collecting wood for fire on the edges of camp and Piotr was reorganizing the supplies. He was supposed to be working with the horses right now, but until Kitty returned he wasn't moving. The others glared at him but he ignored them. He continually scanned the surrounding forest with his sharp yellowish hued eyes seeking any sign of the absent young woman. Finally the waiting became too much for him to bear and he prepared to actively search for her. As he was standing up, he spotted movement among the dark trees.
Quite suddenly Kitty emerged from the shadows into a rare shaft of bright sunlight. Nightcrawler fought back the urge to snarl. With a few powerful bounds he arrived at her side with the intent to extract answers from her. Then, just as he was about to speak, he caught sight of what was on her shoulder. Was he seeing things or was there a tiny purple dragon sitting on her shoulder? All thoughts of gaining answers fled his mind and left him standing there utterly dumbfounded. Kitty turned to face him, but he was unable to say a single word to her. She quickly grew annoyed with him and left him behind. By the time he managed to recover himself Kitty had gone the last few yards back into camp.
When he caught up the others were already bombarding her with questions. What was it? Where had she found it? Was it tame? Could they touch it? Was she going to keep it? They would've asked more, but she signaled for silence. She slipped her way through the small circle that they had formed around her and she calmly settled herself on the fallen log that he had so recently occupied. The others followed her silently and settled in a loose half circle around her. When everyone was settled she went through and answered the previous questions in order. It was a dragon. She found it by a stream. It seemed tame, but she wasn't completely sure. They could try and touch it if they wanted to, but it would be at their own risk. And she was going to keep it.
"You're going to keep it? How?" Logan asked gruffly.
"Well it seems to want to stay with me so I'll just let it follow along." Kitty replied.
"What happens when we get to Stüttgart?" Logan demanded.
"I'll just have to find a way to tell it not to follow me into towns is all." Kitty answered. Logan didn't look like he felt that that idea would be successful.
"If you are keeping it, what are you going to call it?" Piotr asked curiously. Kitty thoughtfully studied her purple companion before answering.
"I think I'll call it Lockheed." She decided. Nightcrawler blinked, she was naming it after her stuffed toy?
"That's a nice name I suppose, but I could come up with better." Bobby declared boastfully.
"I'm sure that you could." Kitty muttered dryly, her tone laced with sarcasm.
There was some more conversation concerning this new addition to the group, but Nightcrawler didn't stay to listen. Now that Kitty had returned safely he had no excuse to neglect his duties to the horses any longer. Silently he slipped away though no one notice. Once people adjusted to his radical appearance they rarely noticed him at all unless he made a pest of himself or they wanted him to do something. There were numerous times in his short life when it seemed like only his father remembered that he existed. Without speaking a word he saddled and arranged the horses, leaving only Phantom untouched. As he finished with the last horse, Bobby's Blizzard, Kitty arrived with her new pet still clinging to her shoulder. He rigidly maintained his silence as she cared for both creatures, pouring all sorts of affectionate words and gestures upon them.
When she finally finished they all sat down for a quick breakfast. The whole meal Nightcrawler watched her coddle her new pet, which basked in her loving attention. She would feed it bits of biscuit, breakfast gruel, and smoked meat, and it would chirp and purr. She whispered sweet praises to it and the tiny dragon lovingly cuddled its head and neck against her cheek. When the others tried to speak with her it might takes several attempts to steal her attention away from the purple dragon. Even when they managed to pull her into their conversations she never entirely listened. All her love and attention were focused solely on the little dragon named Lockheed. This whole display reminded Nightcrawler of something else and made him feel vaguely ill.
With some effort he suppressed a growing flare of jealousy. He would never compete with or remove a source of happiness from her. If that little dragon made her happy and didn't hurt her he would leave it be. It would take some time to adjust, but he could learn to live with this new complication. He'd done it many times before and he had no doubts that he could do it again. It would be difficult but he would do it. Perhaps he might even befriend this new creature and gain its help. He knew that he would never be able to get close to the dragon while Kitty was present, but she wouldn't be around all the time. In less than two days time they should arrive in Stüttgart, a place where neither he nor the dragon could go. Kitty and the others would enter the city and he would be left to guard little Lockheed. The beginnings of a plan began to form within his skull as he went to lead the line of horses through the forest. His poor mood began to improve slightly as his plans solidified. Cuddle her while you can little one. Soon she will be gone and you will have only me for company. Then I shall make you my friend and tell you my secrets so that I won't feel quite so lonely anymore.
See a little picture of Lockheed! Enter this address and remember to remove the spaces!
http : img. photobucket. com/ albums/ v371/ Molliemon/ Lockheed. jpg