Hi everybody, this is Tigre. As usual, if at the beginning of a paragraph you see this: (Tigre Note: Look up [ex] "The Hanging Tree" on Youtube), open a new tab, look up the song, & listen to it as you read the paragraph. As usual: Stuff I own: All my OCs & plot idea (since it's based after Jak and Daxter The Lost Frontier) Stuff I don't own: Any & all Jak & Daxter, & Spyro character/refernces. Again, thank you Winterblaze313 & Veemon fan683 for the reviews! Anywho, enjoy!
Meldalvyna's POV
Morning sunlight streams into my bedroom in fragmented golden arrows, right on my scaled eyelids. I open my eyes to only be blinded by, from a different angle that I'm not in, the seemingly gentle shafts of sunlight. I immediately pull my head backwards away from the light that had SO significantly landed on my kangarat-hide pillow. After my vision finally returns, I get out of bed & head downstairs, still in my pajamas. I eat a quick breakfast of various fruits & head back upstairs. While I'm putting on my steel skirt, I see the drawing I had done of the man I saw in the forest still trapped beneath my book.
I walk over to my desk, remove the book, & gently lift up my drawing. Again, I am completely ensnared by the human's looks. "Curse my human inheritance" I think to myself, now realizing that, again, I found this human attractive. Immediately after thinking this, I remember my last thought before I had fallen asleep the night before. "Oh yeah, I was gonna go see if that man will be there again today," I say to myself. After setting down the drawing back in its place underneath the heavy book, I finish getting ready for the day.
I rush down stairs to be greeted by my mother. "Morning Mel, how did you sleep?" she says. Sitting down on the feeble couch, I look up at her. "As well as any human-dragon hybrid on a bed that is falling apart can. I'm just kidding, I slept like a rock" I say with a genuine mischievous smile dawning my face. "That's good," Cynder says with a shy tone. "By the way," I say after a few long seconds of awkward silence, "Spy-I mean dad told me what you wanted to say to me last night."
My mother whips her head around to face me, a sad smile spreading across her tired face. "I know, & Spyro told me what you told him last night, too," she replies with her facial expression seeping into her voice. I give a knowing nod, walk back to the stairs, then stop with a foot on the first step. "I'll chop wood today after lunch for tonight's fire, but for now, I'll be in my room drawing," I say over my shoulder. I wait for the reply then rush up the stairs into my room. A few hours later, I hear my mother call me down to eat lunch.
I look at my finished masterpiece with a feeling of relief and new respect for my attention span. The man sat in his usual place in front of the bolder in color. His deep ocean-blue eyes with something mysterious hidden behind them, his slightly tanned skin, & all the other things about him in beautiful, realistic colors captured in my painting on my homemade eisel. I run down stairs & wash off my paint streaked hand-paws in the washing bowl. I scarf down my lunch of a metalmeat & tomato sandwich & head outside to chop the wood. After the few hours spent chopping wood with my tail blade, I open the front door to our house & poke my horned head inside, careful not to scrap the already shredded door frame.
"Hey guys, I'm going out into the forest to hunt for metalheads," I shout to anybody listening inside. "All right," I hear Spyro & Cynder shout from a different room. I take off into flight towards where I last saw the human in the forest. I land on my favorite branch like I did the day before, then wait. Sure enough, a few minutes later, I hear bipedal footsteps & smell the man's familiar scent mixed with something else. After a few seconds, I see the man as he passes underneath me with an orange ottsel holding what the humans called a camera on his shoulder with a nervous expression on its face.
I give a small grunt to let them know I was there. The man whips around quickly to look at me, causing the ottsel to lose his balance for a second. "What the heck is that!" the ottsel screams. The man gives it a seemingly meaningless glance that the ottsel somehow understands. I leap from the branch down to where I had sat for so long the day before & sit facing the man & the ottsel. The man sits down in his spot & leans up against the craggy bolder, bouncing his gaze between me, the ottsel with the camera, and the various sudden sounds of the forest. After a few minutes of staring each other down, the human motions for the ottsel to do something. The creature reaches into the bag the man has on his back, & pulls out a small, red rectangular Styrofoam package rapped in plastic, a light scent of bloodless yakkow meat filling the air.
Jak's POV
Loud, annoying beeps fill my ears as I'm rudely awakened by my alarm clock. Reaching over still half asleep, I slap at my alarm clock, trying to turn the stupid thing off. After a few minutes of struggling unsuccessfully to turn off the accursed piece of technology, I sit up angrily & finally shut off the thing. I get up & walk over to my dresser & begin getting dressed. Fully dressed, I walk into the kitchen & pour myself a breakfast of cereal & a glass of apple juice. While eating this, I notice my drawing of the strange creature I had seen the day before.
Swallowing the spoonful of cereal in my mouth, I look at the picture, then remember my last thought before I had fallen asleep the night before. Remembering this, I get an idea. "Why not bring something to it as some sort of peace offering?" I think to myself. I finish off my breakfast, then call Daxter, knowing that he's been up this early from wedding planning. "Hey Jak, what's up?" Daxter says from the opposite end of the line. "Nothin' much, do you wanna hang out today, I've got the same mission today as I did yesterday. All you'd have to do is hold the camera," I ask with hope in my voice, not wanting to be alone with IT this time.
"Holding the camera, & that's it?" Daxter asks with a questioning tone. "Yes Dax, that's all you'll have to do," I reply with a small smile. "Fine, but you better come over here & tell me everything that happened on that mission yesterday," he says with a demanding, yet not at all serious hint to his voice. "I will. Oh yeah, when I told Torn what happened, I drew the creature," I said. "What! You drew it? Dude, it's been forever since I've seen a drawing by you, you've gotta show it to me!" Daxter yells over the phone. "I will, I will. I have a feeling that the creature will be waiting for me, though, & I kinda want to bring it something. Anyways, I'll be there in a few minutes, see ya," I say while hanging up, grab the drawing, my wallet, the keys to my zoomer, & head out the door, locking the apartment.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, I waltzed into the Naughty Ottsel, of which for some unexplained reason, I owned a quarter of, the rest being Daxter's & Tess'. "Yo, what up brotta!" I hear Daxter yell from the counter. "Hey Dax, what's shakin?" I laugh, noticing Tess giggling on the opposite end of the counter at our enthusiasm. "Nothin' much, so tell me all the details about the mission yesterday? I've already told Tessy-cakes here that her groom is going to be coming back home, so if I die, you'll have to deal with her, & you don't want to tick her off, I should know" Daxter finishes in a whisper. "Dax!" Tess shouts from across the room with a smile on her face & a barely audible laugh. "All right, then, here we go," I say sitting down.
I pass Daxter the drawing of the creature only to have him burst out in shout. "Jeez Jak, this is amazing! The creature would also be pretty smokin' if it wasn't for its freaky horns & all those spikes, did it really look like this? Tess, come look at this!" he yells. "Thanks, & yes, it did look like that," I say, moving my hand so Tess could jump onto the counter without having to worry about clawing my hand. "Wow, you're right Daxy-poo, it looks as if would be quite the eye-catcher for its own kind," she says with awe, "You should draw more often, Jak, I bet you could get alot of money from the drawings you could do." I give her a questioning look, "Really, you think so?" Her only response was a simple smiling nod.
"So dude, tell us the story of how you met it," Daxter says with curiosity sparkling in his eyes. "Alright, no interruptions this time," I say pointing at Daxter. "Ottsel's honor," he says with a cheesy grin while saluting. After starting the rather long story, pausing to eat lunch, & finishing the story of how I met the creature, I slump backwards into my seat, exhausted. "So Dax, you still wanna go?" I ask, noticing his thoughtful expression. "Yeah man, I'll still go," he says, his thoughtful expression wiped away by an excited smile.
Daxter jumps onto my shoulder, then waves to Tess. "Bye baby, see you when we get back, love you," he says over both our shoulders as I walk out the door. "Love you too," she yells as the door closes. I get onto my cobalt blue zoomer & start heading towards the bazaar section of Haven City. "Hey Jak, why're we going to the bazaar? I thought we were going into Haven City forest," Daxter shouts over the custom-altered to be loud engine. "We are Dax, I'm just getting a 'peace offering' for the creature," I shout back. Daxter looks down at me with curiosity streaked across his fur-covered, orange & yellow face.
I park the zoomer outside the bazaar area, go in, & a few minutes later return with a small, red package off yakkow meat. I put the raw food into my bag, get back on my zoomer, then drive to the Haven City Forest & Mountain Pass lock. As I walk into the internal chamber, I take the bag off my bag & hand Daxter the camera. "You remember the plan?" I ask him. "Of course I do, when we see it, I get out the yakkow meat, open the package, then hand it to you, & snap a picture of it while it's eating" he says with an incredulous look on his face. "Good, you better be ready, because I'd imagine you'll only have a split second's chance," I say while walking through the final door into the warm sunlight of the forest.
A few minutes later, I notice that we were approaching where I last saw the creature. "Here it comes," I whisper, feeling Daxter tense, his paw giving a shaky, nervous thumbs-up. We come up to the clearing, & just like before, as I pass under a low-lying branch, I hear a grunt from behind me. I whip around to see the creature in the same branch it was before, & to also have Daxter scream in my ear. "What the heck is that!" he shouts. I look over at him, giving him the look that used to mean 'shut up & stay calm' when I was a mute.
Daxter nods, & I walk over to where I sat the day before & sit down. A few minutes later, I nod my head to Daxter to get out the yakkow meat. He warily reaches in my bag & grabs the package, his attention on the creature across from us the whole time. The creature makes a curious face & starts sniffing the air as Daxter cuts open the plastic covering the raw food & hands the opened package to me. He jumps off my shoulder as I slowly stand up, pulling a slab of the yakkow meat out of the Styrofoam packaging. "Here, take it, I won't hurt you," I say softly, slowly approaching the creature with the hand holding the meat outstretched towards the creature.
After a few seconds, I place the piece of yakkow meat on a rock that's top was revealed to the world under the ground. It leans forward, sniffing the meat when Daxter takes the picture. It rips it's head in his direction with a curious look on its face, gives a small, surprisingly soft warning growl, then goes back to sniffing the meat. Seconds later, it looks up at me, obviously thinking about something, seems to reach a conclusion, then takes off into the trees. I hear the snapping of rather thick branches, then all the noise stops. All of a sudden, the creature flips upside-down directly in front of me, its claw extended towards me holding a large orange, scaring the crap out of me.
I take the fruit out of its claw with slight curiosity at why it had thick branches wrapped in its tail. It runs over near the meat I had left it, & places the wood in a circular pattern, piercing the ground with two forked sticks, & stabbing the meat with another stick. The creature then looks up ath the orange in my hand expectantly, as if it wants me to give the orange to it. I offer the orange to the creature, & it snatches it from my hand. It tosses the orange into the air, leaps, & does a series of erratic flips, slicing the orange to pieces, catching the pieces & gracefully landing, the blade at the end of its tail dripping with orange juice. The creature stabs an orange slice on both ends of the stick, sliding the pieces up against the meat.
The creature snaggs the rest of the meat away from Daxter, slicing the pieces & shoving them onto the stick in a pattern with the orange slices. "I know what you're doing, you're making a shishkabab," Daxter says, now with enough bravery to speak. It looks over at him with a gentle smile on its face, then grabs two black rocks & smashes them together, causing sparks. The sparks catch, setting the wood ablaze in mere seconds. After a few minutes, the scent of the cooking meat & oranges waft up from their place over the fire, making my mouth water. The creature then takes the stick off the fire & divides the shishkabab into three equal sections, handing a section to Daxter, & another to me, then eats its own section.
Daxter takes a bite of his, chews for less then a seconds, then moans gratefully. "This is awesome! Jak, you've gotta try it, it's amazing!" he says, his mouth already stuffed with the next bite. I take a small bite, & am amazed by how good it tasted. "Wow, I'm gonna have to make this some time, its amazing. Thank you," I say gratefully, looking at the creature with a gentle grin. It returns my smile with a shy one & puts out the fire with a single breath. "How'd it do that?" I hear Dark say in the back of my mind, Light also saying the same thing. "I don't know," I think to the two, puzzled at the phenomenon myself.
The creature suddenly stiffens, sniffing the air, its pupils now feline-like slits. All of a sudden, the creature pounces ontop of Daxter & I, pinning us to the ground. It lowers itself closer to us, its chest only a few inches away from my face. Wings spread, it begins to growl, staring at the tree-line, waiting for something. I look over to my left arm to see that it is held down by its paw, its claws dug deep into the earth. Suddenly, what had alarmed the creature makes itself known. A metalhead leaps into the air from its hiding place, flying straight towards us.
Author's note: Well, this was definately my longest chapter, & I hoped you enjoyed reading this as much as I did typing it. This thing took me three days to write, so here it is! So, what did you think about the little twist I revealed about Meldalvyna being part human? The next chapter is finally going to have musical accompanyment, & POSSIBLY some dragoness-human (maybe ottsel too) dialogue. See you next time, Tigre out! :)