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

Dragon's Den

Unforgiving, unrelenting, unacceptable boredom... Croaking to himself like a frog would, Ergen laid on the floor of his cave doing absolutely nothing at all while waiting for his mother to return. Bones littered the floor of the cave, being the only thing for him to look at save for a small pile of gold and silver coins stacked in the corner of the cave. There was a large chest there as well, though he couldn't open it. And the last time that his mother had returned and seen him trying... well, needless to say that his eardrums were still ringing from her roar and that he wouldn't be trying to open her treasure ever again. Or at least for the next few minutes anyway if she didn't hurry and return soon...

What was worse was the fact that he couldn't even look outside as she'd silently banned him from that as well, leaving him alone in an empty cave with nothing to do save for walking around, jumping around and laying around as the floor and walls were already completely covered by completed tick-tack-toe puzzles that he'd completed using one of his claws. He'd built both buildings and strange looking totems out of the bones in the room while trying not to touch anything that appeared to be human remains, though he did have some fun with a rusty old battleaxe that he'd found until he completely smashed it's rotted wooden hilt. The iron head was no fun to play with alone, so here Ergen was now, bored as could be as he waited for his mother to fly back into the entrance of the cave. The only other thing that he had to do was to look at his own reflection in a giant icicle that hung from the ceiling farther back in the cave, though even that had lost his interest after he'd stared into it for about half an hour. While he did think that his new dragon body was interesting, Ergen couldn't exactly compare it to his former self as he didn't know what he'd looked like. Currently, he was just still surprised that he could remember that he'd used to be someone different.

With bright blue scales covering his entire body, Ergen seemed almost drunk when he looked at his reflection in the ice. His movements were all clumsy with two leathery wings dragging on the floor on his sides as he didn't know how to move them yet. Though all of this he blamed on the fact that he was a new-born. Small bone spikes coming out of his spine all across his back all the way until they reached his tail. All four of his feet had black claws attached to each of his five fingers... or toes... he didn't know what to call them. However, what was interesting was the fact that he could swivel his 'thumbs' to either the side or back of his hand, making it useful to both run as well as to grab things as a human would.

His head, surprisingly, had several of what looked like icicles that had frozen a on his head while leaning backwards towards his wings, almost making them look like hair made out of horns. His mouth was filled with incredibly sharp teeth which weren't very big yet while his body was slender and almost looked like a starving dog's. And speaking of starving...

Ergen let out a gecko-like harrumph as he laid on the floor with his stomach complaining underneath him. And thankfully he didn't have to wait long after that as his mother landed in the cave's opening with a giant crash. And he was just about to greet her when she threw some unexpected food on the floor of the cave. Thankfully is wasn't a human or anything closely related, but since it wasn't, Ergen happily moved over to where the elk carcass had been thrown before sniffing it a few times. And after smelling the blood, his new dragon body could wait no longer before he stared eating the meat off of one of it's front legs. Thankfully, while he was unsure of it at first, the raw meat didn't taste bad at all before he completely devoured one of the legs entirely. Including the hoof and bones. And after he was finished, his mother seemed to have been done waiting before she grabbed the rest of the elk in her teeth and swallowed the entire carcass whole.

Cursing his new-born body, Ergen yawned widely after his meal with his eyes slowly drifting closed. And he barely made it back in between his mother's claws before he fell asleep, dreaming about nothing before waking up to find that his mother had gone hunting again. This cycle continued for weeks, and Ergen felt almost tortured by the boredom before his mother finally returned one day and did something unexpected. Moving over towards him, seemingly with a purpose, Ergen attempted to run away as he thought that she was possibly going to eat him seeing as she'd been unsuccessful in her hunt. Though thankfully that wasn't the case as she reached forward and gently picked him up in one of her claws before walking back towards the entrance of the cave. Finally, she was taking him outside of the cave, and soon Ergen had an entirely new feeling of nervousness as his mother started flying through the forest. She flew until they reached a river until following it through the forest. And once they reached a certain point, she finally landed on a rocky peninsula in the river where what looked like a large wolf was currently laying. The creature growled and snarled as Ergen was let out of his mother's grasp, though it didn't appear to be moving, and Ergen finally understood why when he realized that the beast's rear legs were missing entirely. And they seemed to have been removed recently as well.

Pondering why his mother had led him to this wolf, Ergen was suddenly distracted from his thoughts as his mother pushed him gently towards the wolf, and he immediately knew what was happening. She'd crippled the wolf on purpose, and now she wanted him to move in and to take the creature's life. She wanted to train him in how to kill... but did it really have to be a wolf? And one that was larger than he was at that?

Looking at the snapping teeth in front of him, Ergen tried to move away, only to be pushed forward once again by his mother before he sighed to himself mentally. The wolf was in pain, and he knew that his mother wasn't going to let him off of the hook. He would most likely have to stay there until something happened, and Ergen relented as he started circling the wounded wolf, attempting to find a blind spot so that he could attack it. Though as he circled the injured beast, it seemed to have a strong will live as it turned to face him every time with it's eyes darting between Ergen and his mother. And in seeing that, Ergen circled around until the wolf was between them, with it's head moving around quickly so that it could watch both of them. However, when Ergen's mother gave a loud snort, he used his chance while the wolf was distracted to leap forward and clamp his jaws around the wolf's neck, just before the head in an attempt to not give it a good angle to bite him back. Unfortunately that didn't work entirely as the wolf immediately turned and started snapping painfully at Ergen's neck, breaking through the underdeveloped scales there while Ergen twisted, turned and jerked his head around, trying to make his small teeth do as much damage as possible to the wolf until he thankfully must have struck an artery.

Soon, the wolf's teeth stopped snapping as the creature fell limp in Ergen's jaws. And just to be careful, chomped the beast's neck a few more times before he started eating. It had been days since he'd had his last meal, and with the taste of blood in his mouth, Ergen continued to eat the creatures entire neck before it seemed that his mother couldn't take anymore waiting either as she took the wolf's carcass from him. She swallowed the wolf whole, just like she's eaten the elk before, though Ergen wasn't about to challenge her for the meal. Though, while he was watching her eat, he did notice something in the nearby river.

Several fish were jumping in the nearby water as they attempted to swim upstream of the current. And as Ergen saw them, for some reason he couldn't resist the urge to jump in and chase after them. Though, while he expected them to swim away, what he didn't expect was the fact that he was able to catch up to one of them despite it's speed before he caught it with his jaws and drug it to the shore. The fish, looking almost like a strange type of salmon with a flat head, was almost half as large as Ergen was. But he still managed to kill it and drag it onto the shore regardless before digging in, savoring the meat as he ate. The fish tasted far better than any of the meat that he'd tried before, and Ergen soon finished eating the entire fish before trying to jump back into the water for another. But before he could, his mother picked him back up again and started flying back towards their cave. And while Ergen was sad that his moment of freedom had come to an end, he had food in his stomach as his body was once again beginning to feel sleepy before they finally reached the cave and he slept in his mother's claws once more, content with his day's work.