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

Rea

Standing in the middle of an open road in the forest, Ergen looked around for any possible threats as soon as he'd first spotted the wreckage of the carriage. Though, the only thing moving in the otherwise still forest were the wolves that were currently feasting on what looked like the dead guards. They snarled and bore their fangs at Ergen as he approached, though he didn't feel intimidated at all before he let out his own threatening hiss, making all ten members of the wolf pack suddenly turn around and start yelping as a predator much larger than they were arrived.

Having been quiet for the past hour or two, the fairy that Ergen now had on the top of his head suddenly left him, flying slowly away as he advanced on the carriage. He didn't know what exactly he was supposed to look for, but he was hoping that he could smell those that had attacked the carriage. If if they had any luck at all, that he would be able to follow their scent. Though when he bent down to sniff the carriage, Ergen suddenly reeled back as a horribly foul odor assaulted his nose. This was not the smell of an elf, and Ergen was almost certain that it was the troll's as the scent of body odor was still heavy on the carriage. Though now that he'd smelled it, he didn't want to ever find the disgusting creatures and meet them in person.

"I'll get her back Ike... I promise." Ergen heard the fairy say, and he turned to look to see that she was kneeling over a strangely out of place array of tiny flowers that were even smaller than her. The bright yellow and blue pedals stood out against the otherwise snow-covered ground, and Ergen wondered just what they were before he noticed that the soil there had been recently moved. And from the way the fairy seemed to be praying over it, Ergen didn't bother her as he knew that it was most likely someone that she knew that hadn't survived the attack.

Leaving her alone, Ergen lifted his head as far as he could before sniffing the air, attempting to find any hints of the body odor in the distance so that he could follow it. He did this several times while attempting to stay upwind of the site of the attack, however there didn't seem to be anything in the air that seemed familiar. Though, when he'd been just about to give up, he finally did smell something in the air that he thought he could follow. Along with the body odor had been something of a leafy smell, and now Ergen caught the same scent again on the wind, though the body odor had strangely disappeared. Still, it was something of a lead, and it was probably the only one that he was going to get so he decided to follow it.

"Did you catch their scent?" The fairy asked as she flew back to the top of Ergen's head. Though he didn't know how to answer her at all so he instead just simply started walking back into the forest where he thought that the scent was coming from. "I guess you did... thank you."

Sleeping as Ergen walked through the forest, the fairy rested on top of his head as he started encountering some difficulties. While most of his journey thus far had been on flat ground that he could just travel through all that he wanted, the terrain was slowly but steadily changing from a flat forest to steep inclines and large boulders. And eventually, Ergen finally found out why as the tree canopies had been hiding the fact that they had been travelling towards a mountain all along. Continuing regardless, it seemed as if they would run out of trees soon, though they still had a while to go yet before they would reach the base of the mountain.

As the snow started getting deeper underneath Ergen's feet, the trees became more thinned out as well. And soon they started only appearing in patches as Ergen left the forest and started walking up the mountain. And of course, rather than when he'd needed it several days ago, only now was the snow and wind beginning to pick up, though thankfully it was still a long ways from being called a blizzard as Ergen continued on his journey.

"My name is Rea, by the way." The fairy suddenly spoke from the top of Ergen's head, and he stopped momentarily as he wrote his name out yet again. Though, he wondered if she would even be able to read it.

"Ca- Cahl- Cahla... I'm sorry, but I can't read it." Rea apologized. "It looks like the language of humans, but I've hardly ever seen it before. I don't even know if I said it right..."

'So the humans can write English? Good to know.' Ergen thought before he started walking forward again. And on top of his head, Ergen suddenly wanted to eject his passenger as she started making something of a seat for herself behind one of the light-blue bones sticking out of the side of his head. She'd started this process in the forest, and Ergen couldn't help but think that this fairy was already getting far to familiar with him for them being strangers. Not to mention the fact that he was a dragon, and pride was an issue as he didn't want to be walking around with something like a bird nest on his head when they finally caught up to the trolls... Speaking of which, now that he thought about them, he wondered just how he would deal with the situation once they reached Rea's friend. 

Orcs had been one thing, but what kind of tricks would frost trolls have? And just what other kinds of creature's would be up in these mountains? Would he meet another dragon? Would they try to kill him, or in the worst case scenario, try to tame him? Just the thought of an entire city filled with the smelly trolls started to turn Ergen green from sickness as he wondered just what it would smell like. And as Ergen thought of all of these things, he eventually left the trees entirely before travelling up a ridge-line that seemed to lead to the top of the first mountain. There seemed to be an entire mountain range behind it, so he knew that he most likely wasn't even close to the end of his journey. And he proved himself correct at least partially as his climb up the first few mountains took him the rest of that night as well as all of the next day.

Tired from having done nothing but walk up elevations for quite some time now, Ergen started looking for shelter on the afternoon of the second day, though he didn't find anything until the night had already fallen. The sky had cleared that day as well, letting Ergen look up into the sky that was completely filled with stars as the twin moons now seemed closer than ever before. They almost looked as if they could fall on the planet at any time, though they thankfully stayed in the sky as some sort of phenomenon spread overhead, somehow reflecting the light of the moons and making the entire sky glow with a dark-blue color. The stars behind the substance were still clearly visible, and Ergen took quite some time to appreciate the view before laying down beside a snowbank and attempting to sleep. However, he hadn't quite managed to go to sleep yet when he was suddenly woken by a sound that made him sit straight up in alert.

Echoing through the mountain ranges, a lone wolf's howl could be heard as it beckoned to the moons, though it didn't seem like any ordinary wolf. The howling sound was almost... ghostly, sounding as if it were more of a wail than a howl as whichever creature created it continued. Rea seemed to be awake now as well as she slightly shivered on top of Ergen's head, though the howling thankfully stopped soon after and Ergen laid back down to go to sleep after nothing happened after a few minutes. And while he did eventually manage to go to sleep, he'd stayed awake for almost an hour after he'd heard the howling, thinking that something about it wasn't like any other wolf he'd ever heard before. Even those he'd seen in the mountains where he'd been born hadn't made that kind of noise, and the sound itself was still unsettling him even in the hours past when it had occurred. It was almost as if it had been another creature entirely, and whatever it was, it was the first thing that had made nervous shivers go down Ergen's spine ever since he'd arrived in this new land.