Something Wild --- A "Pete's Dragon" Fanfiction

Chapter 6

Shine_on520

  Ayodele lifted the bottle of water to her lips as she stopped in her mission to get a quick drink. She capped the bottle and wiped her upper lip, sliding the bottle back into the bag hanging on her shoulder. She looked at the sky, calculating her position before continuing off. Occasionally she'd sniff the air, searching for signs of something that shouldn't be there or a danger that could be headed her way. You see, Ayodele had two different gifts that her parents had once prided her for. One, she felt if days were good or bad, and two she had a sense of smell that matched that of any predator out there.

It made her job easy, she tracked whatever child ended up lost in their forest, helped finding injured persons, and was the one that went to mark what could and couldn't be cut down. She was a freshman in college and took classes mostly at night, seeing as she worked all day and rarely was ever seen in her actual home. "Beautiful. Today is a wonderful day." She said to herself as she walked, eyes searching for the next tree to mark or remark. It didn't dawn on her that she could be followed.

She was far too deep in the woods for people to be there. Or so she thought. The wind had been blowing at a gentle breeze, causing the locks of hers that weren't tied back to flow to the side; it also brought a scent she didn't know. She stopped in her tracks and sniffed the air again, looking around her with narrowing eyes. What was it, she didn't know, but she had the vague feeling that she knew it from somewhere, sometime ago. After a few minutes when her trained eyes hadn't seen anything, she decided to continue on her way.

That feeling she had inside, the one that said whether a day was good or bad, continued to stay strong. She reached into her jacket to scratch her tattoo, revealing the head of the dragon. Just above the head of the dragon was the name it had been called, Catori was written in Old English text, the style of it at least. Ayodele returned her attention on the job she had to do, but after a few minutes she settled herself on the roots of a tree and pulled out a book from her bag before rummaging around inside it for her pencils. When they were found, she looked to the mountains before her, and began to draw exactly what she was seeing. "Such beauty should be written in some way," She said to the wind, as if it were able to communicate with her.

She didn't feel the eyes of someone watching her, and if she did she probably just chose to ignore it. "Just forest animals." She said to herself as she returned her eyes to her drawing, despite having been looking around for the source of the sweet, honey-like scent that was plaguing her. "Probably just that." She took a deep breath and looked around once more. "What would explain this smell?"

She looked around herself as the scent hit her again, stronger this time, causing some discomfort but pleasantness. She rose to her feet, put away her things and shouldered the bag. Perhaps, just perhaps, someone else was out with her and it was her job to find out why. With this in mind, Ayodele abandoned her previous job to locate the source of the smell. If it were human she'd have to take them with her back to the ranger station, if it were animal it would be left alone. But oh, so little did she know, the human causing the smell would play a bigger part in her life than she would want to let happen. 

***

Kevin had quickly hid again when the girl got up. He watched through the knotted leaves of the bushes as she slid some curious items into the sack she carried, before looking up again with some obvious search in mind.

Maybe she knows I'm here. Kevin disregarded the thought as soon as it occurred to him. He was well hidden; nothing could give him away, as far as he knew. Unless Branch knocked down a tree; that wouldn't go over so well for either of them.

Behind him, said dragon was laying down as low as he could, though if he were not invisible, his big furry back would've been painfully obvious above the bushes. He whined, extremely edgy and nervous about being close to a human other than Kevin. And it was making his nose itch and water. If it wasn't careful, he was going to sneeze.

Not looking away from the girl, Kevin reached back and placed a reassuring hand on Branch's snout, trying to get him to calm down and hopefully keep him quiet. "Stay here," he whispered, patting the dragon's fur once more gently, before creeping forward into the bushes.

Kevin didn't intend on getting too close, just enough to get a better look. Then he'd crawl back to Branch and they could go home. One look, that's all,  he kept saying to himself, staying flat against the ground.

He cursed his bad luck when he accidentally snapped a twig underneath the weight of his right knee, but it wasn't terribly loud, and the girl didn't appear to notice. He was super close now, and he figured if he just stayed there in that bush he'd be fine...

"AH-CHOO!!!"

Kevin found himself flying out from the foliage as the blast of Branch's sneeze shook the clearing and blew the boy forward. He rolled, coming to a bumpy and bruising stop onto his rear end, and positively messy with leaves and bits of dragon snot. He was not pleased in the slightest.

But that turned out to be the least of his problems, as he soon found out. Looking up, he drew a breath of surprise and dismay.

"Ah, darn."