Sorry, no Jack and Ianto in this chapter. I couldn't get it to work properly and I thought you would like to get the update, so…

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Enjoy :-)

Chapter 11 Dragons really are a fire hazard, you know

"You're a ha ha ha ha dragon! Ha ha ha. A great big bloody dragon! Ha ha ha." Warwyn clutched its stomach, doubling over with laughter. The sound of it ringing along their bond. Orion glared at it. Sometimes telepathy could be a real nuisance.

"So? You look like Bigbird." Orion pouted. He didn't really think Warwyn looked like the puppet, on the contrary he thought his mate's yellow bird form was beautiful. Not that he would ever admit to it, being ridiculed as he was. He knew dragons were considered little more than vermin on Hallow IV and a fire hazard, since their small flames were the most frequent cause of fires on the planet. But he really liked them. One of his first memories was a vague image of a little brown dragon; he supposed it had been kept as a pet by his older siblings, though he couldn't really be sure.

"Who?" Warwyn laughed. Orion glowered, getting angry now. He sent a mental image of the puppet and turned away from Warwyn, who by now had shifted back into its original form and was collapsed into a hysterical laughing fit.

Orion stomped off. His large dragon form moving elegantly even as he flung his tail from side to side in anger. He looked over his shoulder to see his mate still laughing at his expense. He growled angrily and much to his surprise belched out a small puff of flame. It hit a small shrub in front of him and immediately started to consume the dry plant. He stared stupidly at the burning bush, not quite believing he had caused its destruction.

"Wow, do that again!" Warwyn said from behind him. He could tell it was very impressed and he noted smugly, was no longer laughing at him. It came over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Go on. Try that bush over there." It pointed. Orion shrugged inwardly, took a deep breath and blew it out at the bush. Aside from a few leaves being blown off the thing, nothing happened. Orion huffed a little disappointed. So much for the impressive fire display he was hoping for. For some reason his dragon form's instinct made him want to show off in front of his mate. He shrugged the thought away, as Warwyn encouraged him to try again.

He once again took a deep breath and blew it at the innocent shrub. With the same result. He hissed at the stupid bush. 'Why can't I do it? I've just did it moment ago?' he thought angrily, flashing a glance at the merrily burning shrub… and plants and flowers and grass! Hissing at his own foolishness he turned and ran over and began stomping on the rapidly spreading wildfire. Warwyn shouted in surprise and ran to help him. It grabbed a blanket and began hitting the bush with it, but the blanket was not doing much difference and it soon caught fire as well.

Orion did the first thing that came into his dragon mind. He pushed his mate away from the danger and pissed on the burning blanket and bush. When his bladder had emptied – he had really needed to go for a long time, he just hadn't found the time to – he turned his back on it and dug his huge claws into the ground and scraped one paw full of dirt onto the fire after the other; much like a cat burying its waste. Warwyn, who had been knocked to ground, lay staring at him open-mouthed as the fire was put out. Then Warwyn started to giggle, which grew to a full out laugh. Orion stopped mid-scrape and looked over at his mate on the ground. 'Is it laughing at me again?' he couldn't believe its audacity. But then he noticed what he was doing and remembered 'I peed on the fire! I bloody peed! On the fire!' A deep rumbled started in his chest and soon he too was on the ground laughing.

xxXxx

After their little fire mishap they agreed that Orion's dragon form was not something to be laughed at and fires were something they needed to be careful about. Orion even admitted that he liked the yellow bird shape Warwyn had produced; though he secretly worried whether it would be strong enough to fly the distance from the crash site to the ravine. Not that he was one to talk. With his injured shoulder he would be lucky if he could even get off the ground, let alone carry the heavy load.

During their many talks Warwyn had disclosed its inability to Jump. It was a subject of great embarrassment to it and something its parents had often despaired of it ever mastering. In a society where Jumping from place to place was an integral part of life, the lack of such ability was crippling to say the least. Considered worse even than being blind, deaf or mute; those disabilities could be compensated with Other-senses, like Orion's Earth Awareness. But not being able to Jump meant you couldn't visit certain places, couldn't play popular games and that you were helpless in an emergency, like a house fire. Trouble was that Jumping was something one had to do alone. It was impossible to bring someone with you. Orion knew that when Xarion had brought his pet, the Norton Poxa Wilfred, to Earth with him it had been brought there on a ship.

This posed something of a problem to them. They had lots of stuff they needed to transfer to the cave in the ravine and Warwyn had to get there as well. The solution had been for Orion to transfer as much as he could first. They would pack the items inside the cloth of the useless tent, then fold it into a bag of sorts and Orion would grasp it in his claws and fly into the air and Jump to the ravine from there. He had made several Jumps already. Now all that remained were a few of the larger heavier items and Warwyn. But Orion was getting tired. His shoulder was killing him and his head was getting increasingly woozy. His landing after Jumping back to the crash site was anything but gentle.

Warwyn had a stack of metal plating tied in a bundle with some of the string from the tent. The metal had been dismantled from various parts of the lifeboat. They weren't really all that heavy on their own, but bundled up together Orion felt they weighted a ton, as he lifted them experimentally. Warwyn was about to add a bundle of metal rods and what-not's to the bunch, when Orion vetoed it. He was rapidly running out of energy and strength. Warwyn looked like it wanted to protest, but must have noticed his tired look, because it said nothing and backed down.

With a mighty huff Orion pushed off the ground, hovered in the air as he fumbled to grasp the bundle and then he flapped his huge wings and lifted into the sky. When he had sufficient altitude he Jumped to the ravine. He had a moment of disorientation before spotting the cave. He flew over to it and flapped his wings to break speed as he reached the small ledge. Then he felt it. A great dizziness overwhelmed him and his vision turned light.

The sound of the metal plates and the heavy dragon's body crashing down upon solid rock could be heard for kilometres around. The last thing Orion was aware of before falling unconscious was his mate's frantic telepathic calls.