Broken Heart; Broken Wings

Chapter 3: Tracked

My vision clouded over for staring much too long. He was so... pale, and the horns jutting out from his skull seemed cumbersome and awkward. Not to mention those teeth, God, his head rolled in what I assumed was sleep, and his mouth crept slightly open to reveal the kind of fangs you'd expect from a vampire. Let me better describe this strange hybrid that now lay at my feet, because I need to tell you about the absolute confusion I felt. He had sharp ridges traveling down his spine, ending in a long tail that could whip me out at the ankles, and his awe-inspiring wings still sprouted from his back, the same as before, but slightly smaller. His feet and hands resembled a human's, yet ended in scaled fingers and sharp claws. Strange enough, only the horns that were in place over his temples and the fins jutting out from his jaw carried over, no extra horns or spikes, and his scales only remained in small patches, like up the back of his neck, his shoulder, etc. Knees and hard forest ground are not the best combination, I can promise you that. Despite this truth, they were destined to be together, and who am I to keep them apart? Like dead weight anvils, my legs buckled and gave way, crashing hard against the floor with quite a painful sound, but I could not care less as I brushed his ice blue hair away from his eyes to see if they would open. No, sir, no dice. I then took this opportunity to take care of another... problem. SUPREME NUDITY. After some frantic riffling, my search came up bearing fruit; a pair of brown leather trousers that I had, "borrowed," from a young lad I found passed out on a tree root, leaving his belongings strewn about around him like leaves, and a spare navy shirt I had sewn myself back when this whole war thing was not yet at its peak. This guy was tall as all hell! It took lashing him up against a tree just to even get him into the damn pants!! My estimate was around 6'5 at a standing height, but then again, what else can you expect from a magical shapeshifting dragon? The shirt proved much easier, as it was a sort of button-down tunic, but instead of buttons, it was a string that was threaded through multiple holes along the seam up the middle, which was my saving grace. Can you imagine trying to shove that spiky head through my poor shirt? Finally, after way too much struggling, I planted my ass next to his now clothed prone state. Bringing my knees up to my chest, I tapped my collarbone in thought - a strange habit of mine. What the hell am I going to do with this dragon guy?! Is he even going to wake up, or was all of that excessive labor all for naught? I decided to go with the optimist point of view and took that time to build a small fire. As I went along through the underbrush, small hums began to drone through the air, almost like a big cat purring. My ears began to strain at the sound, trying to discern exactly where and what these odd sounds originated from. Oh, fuck! My brain barely had time to process it as my gaze whipped skyward, trying to spot the helicopters that had commenced in their travel to, most likely, find their missing war weapon. I tossed all of the wood I managed to gather as my legs carried me back the way I came. There was no need. As I jogged along, a sudden, barreling weight shot out from the thicket and plunged me to the ground. A soft, "Shhhh..." hissed out from the thing that tackled me, and due to my earlier discovery of the birds in the sky, I decided that maybe right now was not the best time to be a brat. A scaled hand was clamped down over my mouth as if they believed that the aggressive hushing from prior wasn't enough to keep me quiet. Huh, Mr. Drake woke up, I see. What great introductions! Let me crash on in, almost kill you, shapeshift before your very eyes, and now, let me pin you to the forest floor! I suppose my glare was sharp enough to make him look down. His pupils were immensely dilated as he peered down at me curiously, almost looking like a cat who was viewing a moth. The next thing that happened terrified me. Heaving in a tremendous sigh, nose twitching, he pressed his face against my neck, breathing in more deeply. God, I haven't even spoken to passing rogues, let alone this! My face heated up substantially as his cold exhales hit the sensitive skin, but it ended as quickly as it had started, for he jerked his head back and looked straight into my eyes. "Stay quiet," that voice could give anyone chills, holy fuck. It was low, and gravely, quite scary, heh. "By your scent, I am led to believe that you can be trusted. My name is Vervada. you humans are wrecking this pitiful planet, and I'm being forced to do it myself." He thrust his right arm in front of my eyes, and below his practically translucent skin, I could see the iridescent red glow of what I'm guessing is some sort of damn government tracker.