Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; if you're on this site, you know the drill. Also, thanks are owed to athingofvikings, who gave me a much-appreciated sounding-board for a few aspects of my planned world-building for this particular crossover; hope you like it.

Feedback: Appreciated as always.

The Dragon of Wanheda

Crouching behind a tree, Clarke preyed that her scant hunting lessons were adequate for the new responsibility she'd taken onto herself. It had been difficult enough to keep track of everything she'd learned with the rest of the 100- it wasn't that she hadn't wanted to learn how to hunt, but she had been more focused on keeping them alive and helping the Ark come down- but with so few people apparently hunting in this part of the forest, she'd been able to make a few good catches easily enough. Using some of the smaller metal shards from Arrow Station, she'd managed to make herself a few good arrowheads, recall some 'lessons' she'd received during the alliance with the Grounders to make a decent bow, and was even making plans to create a kind of sword for herself back at the station.

For the moment, however, she was about to test her new bow and arrows on a hunt, and she just hoped she hadn't forgotten everything she'd picked up during that time. Her instructors in the Coalition had been particularly edge when it came to teaching her anything of actual use, as though either worried she'd use it against them or resenting the simple fact that they had to do this in the first place, but she had done her best to pick up the essentials. After waling for a few minutes, a deer came into the field, and Clarke took a moment before releasing her arrow, nodding in satisfaction as she struck the deer in the side. The deer tried to run away, but the arrow had clearly hobbled it enough for Clarke to launch another arrow, striking it in the back before it could get too far away.

Walking up to the deer, Clarke took a moment to confirm that it was dead before she crouched down and slung it over her shoulders. The weight was a challenge, but it was the easiest way to get the catch to the ship, Clarke soon falling back on the route she was most familiar with after her last few days hunting. She checked a couple of snares she'd set up on the way, but it didn't take long to confirm that there was nothing there, leaving her free to focus on getting the deer to her home.

Home…

Clarke paused for a moment as she leant against the tree to think about that.

She freely acknowledged that Arrow Station wasn't going to be a permanent home- if nothing else, the idea of basically living where so many people had died felt uncomfortable at best- but it was the first place she'd stayed in since arriving on Earth where she felt like she had any sense of genuine peace. She might have spent the last few days struggling to catch fish to keep Griffin fed while she worked on finding parts of the station she could adapt into weapons with her own meagre knowledge of metallurgy, but she was away from the pressures of trying to protect people who seemed to constantly find something to complain about no matter how she tried to help them, she currently had no enemies to deal with or major challenges to overcome, and she had even met a remarkable creature who accepted her efforts to help him without question.

She didn't know what would happen once Griffin was healed, but she felt a true sense of hope for the first time since her arrest after her father's death…

With that thought, she resumed her walk towards the crashed station, arriving at the beach after less than an hour's walk since she caught the deer. Griffin let out an approving roar from his position by the station upon seeing her, and Clarke raised a hand to give him an approving wave.

"Hey there," she smiled, nodding in approval as she walked past the dragon. She had managed to find a couple of suitably thin strips of metal to help keep the dragon's injured wing together, using a few vines and creepers to tie the metal to the wing. Clarke still wasn't sure if Griffin was ready to fly on his own, as he still winced whenever he tried to move the wing too quickly, but so long as she kept on catching enough fish and meat to feed them both, he seemed to be doing all right.

"Doing well, Griff?" she asked, smiling as Griffin gave an affirmative-sounding roar in response before she indicated the deer over her shoulders. "I still need to work on skinning our supper, but it should be ready soon; just call if you need me, right?"

After Griffin had roared in that affirmative manner once again, Clarke went into the remains of Arrow Station and set to work skimming the fur from her catch. She still hadn't reached the power where she could get all of the fur off an animal in one piece, but with a suitably sharp piece of metal from the station walls that she'd adapted into a dagger, she could get the corpse to a point where she could be sure she and Griffin could eat it without worrying about the fur.

Granted, fur probably wasn't a particular concern for Griffin's diet, but she liked to think he appreciated the effort…

Sitting outside, Clarke smiled as her efforts to rub sticks together finally sparked off a blaze. The one disadvantage of Griffin being the last dragon was that his heated air blasts weren't that much use at starting fires, but it had encouraged her to improve her own skills in that area, and it some ways it was probably fairer to improve herself rather than relying on him for something that basic. Sitting back and positioning the skinned deer above the fire, Clarke smiled as she saw Griffin looking curiously at the fire.

"Yeah, I get that it probably doesn't make a difference to you, but it tastes better to me," she smiled over at him. For a moment, it genuinely looked like Griffin 'shrugged' at her before he lay back down, watching the flame cook the meat as Clarke turned it on its makeshift spit for the next few moments.

"You know, Griffin," Clarke mused, looking at the dragon as he looked at her, "of everything I hoped I'd find when I was sent down to Earth, you're pretty much the only thing that hasn't basically let me down."

She still didn't know for sure if Griffin understood anything she was saying to him, but it was nice to have at least someone to talk to about everything in her life right now, particularly someone who seemed to genuinely want to listen to her side rather than form an opinion and then define her own words by that view rather than change their own.

"I mean," she continued, as she moved to feel carefully at his injured wing, "we have randomly mutated animals, society basically collapsed and reverted to a tribal state, the most 'civilised' people on the planet had no problem basically dissecting other people for their own benefit… God, when I think about it, even we were total screw-ups; we came down here and acted like we were entitled to it all even after we learned there were actual survivors…"

Looking up as the dragon's head reached towards her, Clarke smiled and rubbed his nose with her hand, Griffin giving a low rumble of pleasure in return.

"That's my point," Clarke smiled at him. "You're here, and you're not judging me for anything I couldn't control or trying to eat me because you're hungry; I'm helping you, and you're… well, OK, you haven't done anything to help me yet, but I like to think you'd do it if the need arose, right?"

This time Clarke was sure the dragon nodded at her, reaching out with one paw to rub her leg with his claw as he rumbled reassuringly at her. Smiling back at him, Clarke decided it was time to deal with the next part of her current evening routine.

"Show me," she said, standing up to examine the dragon's wing. As Griffin extended his wing, Clarke carefully felt around the damaged bone and her makeshift splint, noting a wince of pain from the dragon as she examined the 'danger area' before she moved on.

"OK," she looked at him as he turned to study her. "Based on the rate of healing, we're still going to need a few days before you can get airborne again, but the membrane seems to be coming together again nicely; don't strain yourself, and I think you'll be fine by the end of the week."

Reaching over for the spit, Clarke held her hand over the meat for a few moments and then stepped back in a smile. "I think it's ready now; let's cut it."

Nodding in understanding, Griffin extended his neck out, letting out a brief burst of hut air that blew out the fire beneath it before he jabbed downwards with the sharp horn on his chin. The tip sliced through the cooked meat as Clarke pulled the spit out, leaving it to fall into the burnt branches below it in two halves. Griffin reached down to swallow his half in one gulp while Clarke used the small knife she had created to start cutting chunks of it off for herself.

The dragon was a strange dining companion, but he was an easy listener, and Clarke got the impression that he was showing a certain interest in her stories even if she wasn't sure how intelligent he was…

Clarke only realised that she'd been staring at Griffin's back when he reached over to nudge her side, his neck lowered and his back wiggling slightly as he looked at her.

"Wait a… are you serious?" Clarke looked at him with a smile, before her expression faltered. "You know that you shouldn't be flying right now, right?"

After Griffin nodded at her, Clarke slung her leg over his neck, at about the point where the neck joined the dragon's main body, settling down at a point just behind the last long spike on his back. The spike in front provided a useful means of support, and the one at Clarke's back helped her feel more secure as she settled into position on the dragon's back, but she still made a note that she would have to get a saddle sorted out if she wanted to make this arrangement more long-term…

"Griffin?" Clarke looked at the dragon, who was now looking at her with what she could swear was a smile. "Does this mean… when you're better…?"

The way Griffin extended his wings and roared was all the answer Clarke needed.

"Thank you!" she grinned, jumping off to hug the dragon's face, heart filled with a warm joy that she hadn't felt since her father's death.

He still needed time to heal, but from everything he'd just 'said' to her… the way he'd let her climb onto him without complaint…

She was going to fly with a dragon…