Run, Run, Run, As Fast As You Can

Anger

I landed at the entrance of the cave and shifted into my human form, feeling my feathers disappear, only to be replaced by the thick black sweater and blue jeans from before.

The little green dragon growled in annoyance at being disturbed in her nap but flew away from my changing figure. 

There was no perfect explanation as to why my clothing didn't truly burn up in the fire of my transformation.

My current theory relied on the scientific principal stating that matter could not be either created or destroyed. Because I had more mass in my phoenix form than I did in my human form  I would need to have more matter. That matter could only come from my surroundings, the first of which would be my clothing. When I reverted to my human body the particles would take the form that they were in previously, meaning, they turned back into my clothing. 

I shook my head, dispelling the age old quandary, before knocking loudly on the door. 

"Sveta," I called, "I have brought you something."

There was a low rumbling inside the cave and I took that to mean she was okay with me coming in. I stepped into the darkness of the cave with the confidence born of command. 

Most people would be worried that a grieving dragon mother would eat anyone who dared to disturber her. I knew that if she attempted that, I could simply command her to change into her human form. Dragons rarely, if ever, attacked someone while they were in their human form, and she would be able to do far less damage, even if she could break a command to be peaceful. 

"What do you want dragon tamer," she grumbled in her deep rolling tongue. 

"Why don't you look up and see?" I replied in the same language, my normally average voice turning into something that sounded like it belonged to a dragon.

"There is nothing worth looking up for," she complained, "there is nothing to fix my pain."

"What about a child?" I asked feeling a smile take over my face, "A gift from my child."

"It wouldn't be mine!" she snapped angrily, finally lifting her head off her formidable front feet and looking at me with blazing yellow eyes and smoke rolling out of her nose. 

"Ah," I said, feeling mildly amused, "but she is your child."

I nudged the little female kit in the direction of her mother and watched with pleasure as Sveta took in the sight of her baby girl, returned to her without so much as a scratch. 

"My kit! My little Lonna has returned to me. How?" she asked looking at me in wonder as her kit snuggled up to her warm stomach. 

"As I mentioned previously," I said inclining my head, "it is a gift from my child to you."

"Then why is your child not the one returning my little Lonna to me?"

"She ran into a few hitches in her original plan, that happens sometimes with the young and less experienced. I was hoping for your cooperation in something to remedy the problem."

Sveta blew out a small torrent of yellow fire, finally lighting the lamps to illuminate her home, "What did you have in mind?" she questioned with gleeful eyes. 

I was mildly shocked to see the state of her house. The once pristine grey walls with their glorious tapestries of all her old companions had large gouges dug through them and a few of the tapestries were lying in crumbled heaps on the ground. Her special large rock that had been fashioned to look like a bigger version of a human couch and the cushion that she had made especially for it were not in the state that they should have been. The cushion was thrown across the room and the couch had a deep crack going through all of it. There was a crumbled heap of stone in the corner of the room that I assumed had once been her coffee table. Scorch marks marred everything in the room except the things that had been made out of combustible materials. If it was combustible she seems to have tried to leave it out of her rampages, but even her beloved tapestries had burn marks around the edges. 

Seeing the state of her house made me mildly worried about her health. I examined her carefully, looking for anything that might be amiss.

Her scales seemed a shade duller than usual, meaning she hadn't been spending the required time bathing, but other than that she seemed okay. Her obsidian horns still had a dull shine to them, showing no signs of neglect or abuse, as did the row of spikes placed about a foot apart and going down her spine.

A small puff of smoke rolled out of her nostrils as she snorted in annoyance, "I have not been completely cruel to myself, dragon tamer. Only my home has suffered so much."

"I simply had to be sure," I replied giving her a reassuring smile, "One of my daughter's companions brought me a copy of the file that the werewolves keep on a facility that they call a SMH. It happens to be the exact SMH that your daughter was being held in, and the one where my own child is now locked up. They are going to be moving the SMH soon and I thought we should help them with insurance purposes."

Sveta hummed with pleasure, "are they going to have a little house fire?" she asked sending a small stream of fire my way.

I let it roll over me, enjoying the warmth. 

"No," I answered after a few seconds of though, "their house is not going to have very many things that will burn. I was thinking, total structure failure."

"Even better," she replied, showing off all of her formidable white teeth, "Let me leave a little meat for my little fire and I shall be ready to go."

"Though I would enjoy the speed of something like that, I was hoping to put on a bit more of a show. The wolves have caused a great deal of pain, I was hoping to return that in the form of fear so strong that it is physically painful."

"What did you have in mind?" she asked again, even more intrigued this time. 

"Remind me, where do Kolya and Boris live?" I asked, "I'm sure they will be overjoyed to hear of their little sister's return. They may just want to join our party."

"They would..." Sveta said with a dark glint in her eye, "I'll retrieve them for you."

"That would be appreciated," I said motioning for the dragon boys to come in, "If they do not come willingly tell them that I will be paying them a visit, they will come. It's just a matter of whether they want to or not. While you do that I'm going to spend a little time with the file I was given, wolves are not going to be the only creatures in that godforsaken place and I would hate to hurt an innocent."

Sveta lowered her head to me before walking out the door, taking care not to hit anything with her massive tail on her way out. Her little kit followed, pouncing on the tip of Sveta's tail as it skillfully avoided causing further destruction to her decimated home. 

I walked over to where the cushion for the couch was lying in a crumbled heap. Despite the lack of something under it I sat down and leaned back, opening the file to begain my studying. After a few seconds, I felt the two dragon kits that had stayed, curl up next to me to go to sleep. 

The poor kits had been run raged on their trip with the wolf. 

I shut the file and stood up when I heard the sound of returning wings flapping. 

Sveta walked in first, throwing a deer in the corner of the room before looking at me, "We are ready dragon tamer."

"So am I," I replied switching back to English, "Come kits," I said to the little blue kit and his black brother, adding a small amount of power to my voice to encourage them along, "Let go visit your old home."