Incendio

Ch.2 A wolf among sheep

Harry woke feeling like he'd been hit by a bludger. He reluctantly opened his eyes only for the blue sky above his head to spin before his eyes. Harry closed his eyes as he valiantly tried to keep from losing his dinner. It felt like he'd just taken a very unstable and vicious portkey. The ride had been so rough he actually had to run a hand over his body just to make sure that he still had all his body parts intact. Fortunately he did. He'd heard about splinching and it didn't sound like the most pleasant of experiences.

Once he felt a little less dizzy he attempted to open his eyes again. When he successfully managed that he climbed to his feet to survey his surroundings. He couldn't find any clues as to where he had ended up. Nothing looked particularly familiar.

He was standing on a large rocky hill overlooking a breathtakingly blue mountain range. All around him the wilderness stretched for miles. There wasn't a single hint of human life anywhere, and it put Harry a bit on edge. The air was cooler than the summer air of England. Harry was certain he would have been shivering in his thin cotton shirt and jeans if his own natural body heat hadn't kept him warm.

He'd obviously been sent quite a distance away from home. Had some Death Eater out for revenge slipped a portkey into the house he shared with Sirius and Remus? But that didn't seem right. They would have sent him somewhere other than the middle of nowhere. Unless something had gone wrong or they were just hoping he'd die of exposure. Either way he supposed he was grateful for having landed in the wilderness rather than in some trap.

Harry sighed and resigned himself to start walking. He hadn't learned to apparate yet, and he didn't have his wand on him. Not that the loss of his wand was too great. His magic had been acting out a bit since the spell caging his true form had broken. Sirius thought it would settle down a bit after a while, and Remus thought that maybe getting him a new wand altogether would help to channel his newer, wilder magic. They were going to look into it more once Hogwarts had started again, and Harry actually needed to use his wand.

For now Harry could only hope that he could just make his way to the nearest town, and phone Sirius or Remus to pick him up. But it looked like it was going to take him awhile. There wasn't a single sign of life anywhere to be seen. Harry didn't see any roads or even smoke to give him some idea of how to find other people. Feeling a bit self-conscious but not really knowing what else to do, Harry scented the air with a long, black forked tongue. With Sirius's help he'd just started gaining control over his change, and could shift small parts of himself without changing completely. It kept the itch of wanting to change shape at bay if he did small shifts throughout the day. It was also useful to lower the risk of exposing himself to the general public.

The air he scented was fresh and clean, and didn't help him in the slightest in deciding which way to go. With a sigh he just picked a direction at random and started walking. He wished it was night then he could shift and fly without the fear of anyone seeing him.

Harry had only traveled a short distance when an awful stench filled his nostrils. It smelt of putrid, unwashed bodies with the underlying scent of decay. It had Harry pausing, and glancing around for the source. It took his brain a couple of minutes but eventually he placed the horrible scent. Harry remembered this scent from his time with Smaug. It was the odor of the creatures that had taken him from his birth father permeating the air. That knowledge had Harry confronting the idea that he might not be on Earth anymore. It was shocking but a part of Harry seemed to have known from the start that he was back in the world he'd been born in. He just hadn't wanted to admit it to himself.

There wasn't a lot of time to panic for soon Harry got his first good look at the creatures that had taken him from his father. They crested one of the many hills, and started sprinting straight towards him. His fuzzy, fear filled memories didn't quite do the disgusting creatures justice. They were hideous things. Their skin was molted and warped, made even further grotesque by the paint smeared across it. They rode large vicious wolf-like creatures that were the size of horses.