CHAPTER THIRTEEN – Shape shifter? COOL.
He woke early the following morning, trying to get in some practice with fire before Folki came to try and make him do something. He was pleased with himself when he made a fairly large fireball, still not the average for dragons, but close enough that it made him feel good.
This, conveniently enough, was the moment when Folki decided to enter screaming, "Pendragon! What in Thor's name are you doing?" the black haired boy ran over, grabbing a bucket of water on the way. When he reached the agitated dragon he splashed the water in his face, thus halting all fire breathing until Drayko's head was once again dry. He growled at the boy, he hadn't even been aiming for anything; he had been shooting into the sky.
"You idiot." Mumbled Drayko in a low growl.
"No fire breathing this close to the house!" Folki announced.
Drayko raised an invisible eyebrow. "Fine, I'll just eat your sheep." He began to walk over to the unsuspecting livestock, grinning as he went.
The boy ran to catch up to the white dragon, jumping in front of him and reaching his hands out to the side. "No! Bad dragon! No eating the sheep!" Folki commanded. Drayko sighed and shoved the boy aside, turning around to get some sleep in the barn, which was apparently his home now.
"Oh no you don't!" he heard Folki hiss before he felt the boys weight on his tail. "This is the day I ride you!" Drayko would've laughed but the serious tone of the boy's voice made him to irritated with the boy's pure cockiness too much to find any amusement in it. He let the boy know this with a look and a growl. The boy's Brown eyes widened, but he didn't let go.
Drayko gave the boy yet another growl and started to chase his tail, snapping at the boy, missing him on purpose, trying to scare him away. The boy gave small yelps every time Drayko got a close bite in. the boy began to climb up the angry dragon's tail. "I'm going to ride you today dragon! I will!"
Drayko noticed the boy climbing up his back, and began to flail around wildly. Still the boy held on, eventually he heard the boy holler, "Yes! I'm on you back! I did it!"
Not quite, thought Drayko and he rolled onto his back, finally forcing the boy to fall off, or rather, crushed the boy enough that the boy finally let go. When he was standing, he couldn't find the boy on the ground, quite the opposite, the boy was still on his back!
"t-that won't w-work Pend-dragon! I'm s-still here!" Folki yelled triumphantly in an utterly defeated voice. Drayko smiled, this boy might've been a pain, but he could appreciate perseverance. That being said, he still wasn't going to let the kid ride him, not without a fight. He began to run around, purposefully ramming his back into trees, running full speed, and then diving onto his back, skidding a few feet on the ground before rolling to a standing stance and running more.
The dragon spotted a cliff and ran for it, the boy wanted to fly? He'd fly, for a few seconds.
He leaped off the cliff, closing his wings close to his body, and dived head first. He heard the boy scream before they hit the water, which felt very much like crash landing into a pile of rock, only you sank after you crashed. Drayko pushed passed the throbbing pain of his lower half that hit the water and swam down, the water was freezing, like it was winter, but Drayko had a dragon heartstring to keep him nice and toasty.
When he felt the boy's grip begin to loosen he finally swam to the top, lifting the boy's entire body out of the water. Folki had passed out, Drayko had to admit, he liked Folki much better like this.
Drayko swam around until he found a beach and got out of the water slowly, careful not to drop the boy. Normally he wouldn't care about the boy's wellbeing at all, but his father…his father had made quite an impact on him. There was something about the man that made him happy and, though still not willing to let Folki ride him, friendlier.
He dropped the boy onto the sand gently and began to pile a few pieces of dry driftwood.
Once Drayko's head was dry he lit the fire easily; it was blue for a short time, and then quickly changed to a light yellow-red. He sat there, spewing a few practice fire balls into the water every once in a while, until the boy woke up, which eventually happened after the sun had gone down.
"Finally awake huh kid?" Drayko said as he stared at the sleepy boy.
"w-what happened?" he said groggily. Drayko snorted to alert the boy of his being there. The boy looked at him, thinking hard enough that his eyebrows creased with the effort. "Pendragon…" as he remembered what had happened his face lit up with childlike anger. "You almost killed me!" he shouted.
"But I didn't, I think we're almost even now." Drayko said to himself in his dragon language. "If you'll just point me in the direction of south and give me some food and let me go without sending half the village to get me, maybe we'll be square." He continued, knowing the boy wouldn't be able to hear him.
"I'm going to have to train you to have better manners toward your master." The boy began to stroke his chin. Drayko growled. Where did this boy get off calling himself the white dragon's master? He easily tripped the boy with his powerful tail, sending Folki face first into the dirt. The boy glared at the dragon, standing and dusting himself off.
"What is your problem? No other dragon took this long to get used to having a master!"
"Maybe that's because I'm not a dragon."
"Maybe it's because you're not a dragon…" Folki said, stroking his chin again.
Drayko slapped his snout with his paw. Folki had caught the movement. "Aha! So you aren't a dragon!" he did a sort of proud pose. "Maybe you're a fallen god! Or a pirate who was cursed for stealing forbidden gold! Maybe even a king who was cast down from his kingdom of white dragons!"
"Your mind has a very strange way of working, but I like the king and god parts." Drayko stated as he watched the boy think.
Folki pressed his fist into his open palm, he glanced over to Drayko. "Can-you-nod…? When-I-ask-Question?"
Drayko had an almost irresistible urge to throw him into the freezing water and let him drown, but he swallowed his pride and nodded, glaring at the boy for assuming he was so stupid. Though, that's what he did you Folki, However Drayko was pretty sure he was right.
The boy smiled, clapping his hands together with glee. "All right, well then, where do I start…Were you important where you come from?" the boy asked. Drayko thought for a while. It might actually be better if the boy knew who, or at least what he was. Then he remembered his old village, Berk. Had he been important there? Faces flashed in his memory. Tofa, begging him not to leave…Leif, and his utter understanding of his problems…Fishnut and his hilarious antics. Gareth and his parents, always trying to get him in trouble, so much trouble that he would be forced to flee the village in fear of being killed for being different. Hiccup and Astrid, his loving mother and father. They hadn't even tried to stop him leaving. He wasn't their first son, not even their son, just some baby they had found one day.
No, he hadn't been very important.
He shook his head, and Folki frowned, clearly put out. "Were you at least popular?" The dragon shook its massive head. "How about powerful?"
Images of the day he had fled came rushing back, attacking Gareth for his fool hardy comments, ripping his throat open and the overwhelming feeling of wanting to devour his flesh like some kind of wild animal.
He nodded at the boy. Wanting to eat someone, and being able to do it? Yep, that registered as powerful in his eyes.
The boy smiled even wider. "What kind of powers? Can you fly! Well…that one's kind of obvious…OH! Can you shape shift? That would be so awesome! And if you're actually a girl…" he went on about very strange evil plans Drayko didn't exactly wish to hear. He snorted his discomfort. Folki looked up. "Hey….the way you looked at Eira…are you…do you…like her? That would mean your human! Or can change into one…that's so….so….so….cool!"
Drayko clapped his paws together sarcastically. "You have now acquired the intelligence of a particularly stupid squirrel." He said.
"Would you stop growling at me? I have no idea what you're saying! It drives me nuts when you do that!" Folki announced. "At any rate, I've got to tell everyone what you are! My dragon, secretly a human in disguise! Won't everyone be surprised?"
Drayko planted one huge foot over the boy, knocking him to the ground. He sniffed the boy, letting him know that that was a bad idea. He stared at the boy, willing him to understand.
"D-donnn't…" Came a hissing voice from Drayko's beak-like mouth.
OH MAN. THAT TOOK A WHILE. OH JESUS, IS DRAYKO LEARNING ENGLISH maybe...
lol Folki is actually a lot smarter than what Drayko seems to think he is...im finding it hard to prove it yet.
you ever notice in movies and games (like legend of zelda and the twilkight princess) where the hero or whatever gets changed into something but he never (even though he totally could) tells anyone its HIM. that ALWAYS bothers me. its like YOUR JOB WOULD BE SO MUCH EASYER IF PEOPLE DIDNT ATTACK YOU. TELL THEM. YOU KNOW HOW TO WRITE DONT YOU. HEY LOOK THERES SOME DIRT YOU CAN WRITE IN.