I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

A Chance Encounter

Having passed the natural death trap over two days ago, Ergen couldn't help but notice that his environment had changed drastically. First of all, the hunt for food was becoming harder simply because there were hardly any fish big enough to hunt. Secondly, unlike the ocean where he'd been swimming at before, there didn't seem to be any large predators anywhere at all. The largest he'd seen was a shark that was even smaller than he was, but it quickly became breakfast before Ergen moved on in search of land, hoping that there would perhaps be larger game to hunt there as he was growing tired of just eating either coral or kelp in order to sustain himself. Dragons weren't supposed to be bottom feeders in his opinion, and more than anything, he wanted to go somewhere that he could dry his wings and properly learn how to fly. Swimming was great and all, but nothing could beat the feeling of weightlessness that he'd only experienced a few times in his life.

Sighing inwardly, Ergen knew that his new environment and his search for food weren't his only problems either as another thought had been reappearing in his mind ever since he'd regained a portion of his memories. He'd gained just enough of them back in order to remember what having friends and a family felt like, but now... Ergen was completely alone inside of a vast and unfamiliar place. Sure, he'd been alone constantly up until this point, but that was before he even knew what having relations other than with himself felt like.

Even in his past life, Ergen had never been a social person and had preferred to separate himself from others. But that had been by choice, and now that there was no one that Ergen could talk to or spend time with... only now did he discover what the true feeling of what being alone felt like, and he didn't enjoy it at all. There was absolutely no one that he could share his troubles with, no one to hunt with and no one that he could trust not to try and eat or kill him... The feeling was awful, and Ergen was slowly changing his objective from finding a home into finding someone that he could actually talk to... someone that didn't care if he was a dragon or not, but the only person he thought of that was like that was Echo. And apparently, she wouldn't talk to him again unless he survived. But how long did he have to survive in order to speak to her again?

Swimming along despite his sudden depression, Ergen was thankfully distracted by a new and curious development. What looked like a large school of fish that had completely pressed themselves together was moving in the distance, moving quickly as if it were being pushed by a current of it's own. And while Ergen did think that the sight was curious, he didn't waste any time in moving towards it as he realized that with so many fish gathered together, he might actually get a decent meal without having to hunt for anything large.

Swimming straight in the middle of the gathering of fish, Ergen immediately started eating before they could swim away, catching at least twenty fish with each mouthful before he finally realized that something was wrong. Though by the time he did, it was to late to avoid the invisible force that had been gathering the fish, and it was also to late to escape from his situation as some sort of see-through net wrapped itself around Ergen. He was trapped along with the fish that he'd been eating before the invisible force started to haul him rapidly towards the surface. Though, as Ergen finally spotted the floating ship above him, he struggled against his restraints and thankfully got some of his claws through the openings before ripping the invisible fabric apart with his claws.

In his struggling, the net had ventured off coarse, making Ergen and the gathered fish slam into the bottom of the ship before he finally finished freeing himself and escaped. Though he didn't go very far before he turned around and watched as the fishermen finish bringing the net up to the surface, which unfortunately didn't have any more fish inside of it as they had escaped along with Ergen. And while his chance for a free meal had passed, Ergen grinned inwardly as a new opportunity had presented itself.

*     *     *     *     *

"Whoo! We've got one heck of a haul this time lads!" The captain laughed as the ship tilted while they drew in the net.

"Are you sure that we're not just caught on the reef?" One of the other five fishermen asked as the ship continued to tilt.

"If that was the case then the ship would already be capsized with how much we're reeling it in." An older and more experienced fisherman explained. "No, I'm more willing to bet that a wolfback or the like was enticed by a free meal and ended up getting trapped."

"Wolfback? You mean that there are sharks in this deep of water?!" The first fisherman asked nervously, and the captain couldn't help but laugh at his new sailor that he'd only just hired the other day.

"Relax! If it really is a wolfback then our little fishing trip just turned us into the richest men in the village!" Another crew member laughed.

"If we don't get eaten first!" The greenhorn replied in a panic, though he seemed to doubt his own words as the other sailors laughed at him.

"Don't worry lad, even if it is a wolfback, we've more than enough spears to kill it while it's still inside of the net." The captain explained. "There's no need to risk ourselves when we can just kill it at a distance, is there?"

Right as the captain finished his sentence, the ship suddenly lurched in the other direction, surprising all of them before the entire vessel vibrated under their feet. And despite the calm waves around them, the entire ship moved backwards through the water by several meters in the span of a few seconds, making everyone on board grab onto anything that they could use to stabilize themselves until the event ended just as quickly as it had begun. Slowly, all five of the sailors stood up from the deck, looking at each other nervously before they eventually found their voices.

"What in the name of Echo's jowls was that?!" The older fisherman asked, repeating an old sailor's curse while peering over the side of the ship.

"Did we hit something?" The greenhorn asked.

"There's nothing to hit in this area, the ocean floor is almost a mile down!" The captain explained. "Besides... we were just sitting in the water..."

"Looks like we lost our catch!" Another of the fishermen announced, making the captain momentarily forget about what had just happened as he swore under his breath. Though that forgotten moment instantly returned when they finished hauling in the net and the invisibility spell was removed from the rope. And as soon as the spell wore off, everyone stared open mouthed at the net, or what was left of it as it had been completely torn apart.

"W- what happened to the net?" The greenhorn asked with a shaky voice.

"More than likely, whatever was caught in the net didn't appreciate being caught." The older fisherman said softly. "By Clargen's breath... that net was enchanted to even hold onto sea monsters..."

"Stop lollygagging and let loose the sail!" The captain suddenly shouted, making everyone on the deck jump with his outburst. "Unless you idiots want to stick around to find out whatever that thing was?!"

"Aye cap'n!" A few of the fishermen yelled before running over to the ropes that kept the sails tied up.

"Mikey! Get down below and make sure that we're not taking on water from that hit!" The captain continued, and the greenhorn immediately went below and returned shortly with good news. Afterwards, all it took was a few minutes for the ship to begin moving with the wind as they fled for dry land. Though, unbeknownst to the crew of the fishing ship, the very thing that they were running away from was following their progress. Towards their village, and towards the Kingdom of Ligan.