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

Land

"Hey, isn't that Ol' Mally's ship?" An old man asked his wife as he gently reeled in his fishing line, and she looked up from the old net that she was mending and squinted her eyes so that she could see it as well.

"Oh my, that is his ship. But that's odd, he wasn't supposed to be back for another two days." The old woman said in concern, and she wasn't the only one concerned as several dockworkers from their village rushed out of both the tavern and warehouses to meet the ship that was now sailing into port. Normally if a ship returned early, it ment that it had either been damaged by a storm that it couldn't escape. However, seeing as the ship seemed fine, that ment that the ship had returned due to something else. And everyone in the small village was worried that it would have to do with either a missing or a deceased crew member.

"Watch the line, would you dear?" The old man asked as he set his rod down. "I'm going to go and see what's the matter."

"I do hope that everyone is alright." The old woman said with a worried expression, however, the old man stopped in his tracks when he gazed out into the ocean. And after following his gaze, the old woman was equally surprised to see several marked logs floating out in the port. Normally, cages would be tied to a rope which would then be tied off to these logs so that fishermen could find and pull the cages out of the water in hopes of finding crabs and other shellfish that had fallen in them. However, now those logs were moving, and that wasn't normal at all as the cages were heavy.

"Gah! There's another wolfback that wandered into port!" The old man hurriedly waddled down the beach to warn the other residents. The shark had most likely eaten all of the crabs inside of the traps by now, but there would surely be people swimming near the docks and they needed to be warned before they ended up being the next thing on the menu.

"Hey! Hey!" The old man yelled, and several people who had gathered to welcome the returning fishing ship turned to look at him. "There's a wolfback in the port! Shark!"

Having been through the situation before, the experienced dockworkers immediately started scanning the water for any swimmers. And they immediately started yelling at several children who were swimming near the ends of the docks that were the farthest away from them. Several men sprinted towards them as the children apparently hadn't heard them, and the old man grew worried and increased his pace as he turned to see that the floating logs were now being pulled towards the swimmers.

With the shark seeming to move just as fast as the old man was on the ground, the men that had reached the far docks first were thankfully already helping the closest children to safety. However, there was on small girl farther out that no older than six years old who was swimming frantically towards the docks and was still a ways out. And while all of the men there were yelling at her to swim faster, the old man finally reached them and started undressing so that he could swim out and retrieve the struggling child.  However, after looking at the ocean again, he felt his old heart fall in his chest as he saw that the logs had already reached the girl. Everyone's voices went silent as they waited for the tragic event of the girl being eaten, though they didn't have to wait long as the water suddenly erupted, sending a tower of white spray flying into the air where the girl had been swimming.

With the water falling to reveal that there was no sign of the girl, the old man collapsed, looking out sadly towards where the girl had just been where the sea was already starting to turn red. She'd been eaten, and already he could hear the girl's family members beginning to scream and wail at the loss of their daughter. However, soon that didn't appear to be the case as something broke the water's surface and started frantically swimming again. The girl was somehow alive and attempting to swim for the docks again. Though how, no one knew.

Worried as the logs started moving again after the girl, everyone started yelling at her to hurry again before... something extraordinary happened. The logs reached the girl again, and the water around the girl, who was now crying loudly, was disturbed. Though instead of being eaten, the girl stopped swimming and somehow started moving through the water at a fast pace towards the docks. The surface of the dark water continued to get more and more disturbed as whichever creature that was underneath it rose with the girl standing on top of it.

Soon, the girl was close enough to the docks for the younger men to lean down and grab hold of the girl's arms, pulling her to the safety of the docks before the creature suddenly vanished beneath them. Looking over the side, the old man was just able to see a large dark shape move swiftly away from the docks with the logs on the water's surface following it. However, they stopped moving soon as it appeared that they had been detached from the creature.

"W-was that..." One of the nearby men started to speak. "Was that Ingra?"

"I don't know..." Another responded.

"It had to be. It saved her!" Another man laughed, patting the little girl on the back as she cried in her parent's arms.

Ingra, the old man knew, was the village's guardian deity that had supposedly long ago passed away. It was supposedly a mighty sea serpent that was able to sink entire ships and eat sharks whole, and that appeared to be the case as several bits of what looked like a wolfback's fins started floating up to the water's surface and drifting to shore. While doubting it was Ingra, the old man let out a sigh of relief as everyone had survived the encounter. He didn't care about what the creature had been because it simply didn't matter. Whatever it was, both he and the rest of the village were thankful to it.

*     *     *     *     *

'Land!' Ergen thought excitedly as he finally swam away from the village and climbed up onto the beach. It felt good to have solid ground underneath his feat again, and he quickly rolled around in it the sand as he relished the feeling. As he rolled around, he used his tongue to get the bits of shark that were still stuck in his teeth, and once again he was thankful for the fishing ship leading him towards solid ground. Not only had he managed to find lunch in the form of the shark that had been about to eat whichever human that had been swimming, but he'd even managed to repay his dept to the crew by saving the person and carrying them to safety.

Though that thought struck another, and Ergen soon slowed his rolling in the sand as he wondered just how big he'd gotten. When he'd been in his mother's den, he didn't appear to be that much taller than a human, though he was a great deal longer. And now, even if it had only been a child, Ergen had been able to carry the girl on just the tip of his nose. 

Wanting to avoid eating humans as he still remembered parts of his past life, Ergen didn't want to try eating the girl, but he guessed that he could have easily swallowed her whole. And as he thought of it, while comparing himself to his mother, he guessed that he would probably be about half of her height now. Was he turning into an adult? How had his body changed so much with him unaware?

These thoughts stormed through Ergen's mind, though they soon started to slow as he looked around at the scenery. He appeared to be on the coast a peninsula, and it thankfully wasn't an island as the beach continued on for as far as he could see. However, upon noticing the emptiness of the beach, he only now realized just how out in the open that he was. He wasn't sure in the humans from earlier would be hunting him or not now, though he didn't plan to find out as he got up and started walking into the nearby forest. At first there was nothing but small pine trees that only rose to his shoulders, though thankfully that soon started growing taller and he was able to hide himself completely. And as he traveled further and further into the forest, he immediately started looking for his next meal, though he was still cautious as there was no telling if the creatures on this land were as dangerous as the ones from his birthplace.