Unlikely Pairs - The Dragon - Ch. 01

[DISCLAIMER]:

The following starts off as a slow-burn romance without any spicy action for a while. As well, this is my first time putting to words a story idea I've had for a long time, and my first foray into proper writing in general.

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[Late January]

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Long ago, in the mountainous valleys of British Columbia, there was a small town called Kent Valley.

Kent Valley was your average mountain town, filled with mostly suburban buildings around a core strip that serviced tourists and locals alike. There was plenty of natural beauty around to behold, such as a flowing river that ran through the better part of the valley or the high rising mountains which overlooked the small pocket of civilization down in its shadow. Unlike your average ski resort town, the mountains in Kent Valley weren't suited to casual recreation for the most part given how steep and rocky they were, so they went mostly unexplored by people. All the better, as the forest trails and wildlife watching were the real draw for visitors.

It was the end of January, and snow completely blanketed the region. While there were a few tourists, it was mostly just the local residents who stuck around at this time of year. However, there was one particular visitor this year that would unknowingly change the town forever.

Of course, you wouldn't think it from looking at him.

The man wore clothes taken from a lost-and-found, a simple pair of jeans and plain white T-shirt underneath his somewhat oversized black parka. He didn't even have proper boots suited for the winter, instead having a pair of brown loafers that were already getting soaked in snow. But why were they soaked in snow? As it turns out, instead of being found in town like pretty much everyone else would be during this time of year, the man found himself stumbling through the forest in the middle of the day. He was shivering with every step, having wandered around for far longer than expected through the forest; he was lost, plain and simple. Kent Valley was nowhere within sight, and all that the man could see aside from one of the prominent unexplored mountains were pine trees and snow-covered ground.

"Damn, I must've gone in circles at least 3 times by now", said the lost man. As he pulled down his hood, he looked to be quite sleep-deprived with heavy bags under his eyes. The man's black hair was quite messy, and his skin looked paler than it really should've been even given his naturally lighter complexion.

The man thought back to when he was last in town, his thoughts lingering on the various store owners who had denied his applications to work, leaving him a visitor without anywhere to stay for the night given his lack of money and a lack of charity for the likes of him.

"Just my luck that I end up in a mountain town in the middle of winter when hardly anybody needs any serious work done. Who even wants an amateur artist with no practical working experience? You've outdone yourself this time, Lewis."

As he continued to trudge through the snow, a loud twig snap suddenly caught his attention. Lewis looked behind himself in the direction where the sound had come from, freezing up at the sight before him: a large brown bear, sniffing around from behind the trees. The dishevelled artist might have been tired and cold, but he dared not move a muscle as he eyed the large animal moving from behind the tree cover. To his dismay, the brown bear's sniffing had now been drawn towards his direction, and both had made eye contact with each other. As the bear growled under its breath, it slowly started to lumber towards the artist, unafraid and purposeful in its gait.

Lewis thought back to what he had read on a pamphlet at the tourist information centre. The pamphlet said that no large predators entered the area at the foot of the Naked Mountain, a fact that had just been disproven in this encounter.

Before the man could even entertain trying to get low as was the adage of "if it's brown, stay down", the bear charged him at full speed, sending him into a panicked sprint in the opposite direction. Lewis's legs burnt with the pain of sudden strenuous exertion after a long time spent wandering in the forest, but the adrenaline of escaping a vicious predator overrode any disagreements. Unfortunately for him, the bear was faster despite its large size, and it soon caught up to him with a sweep of its head that knocked him to the ground. The predator quickly seized this opportunity, flipping the man over with one paw before then slashing across his chest with the other.

The artist screamed in pain at this injury, wildly kicking his legs in an attempt to hit the bear in its face to make room for an escape; he managed to get it in the eye, getting it to back off ever so slightly. Lewis tried to back away, but the bear recovered quicker than he could scoot back and put a paw on his chest, giving him another deep gash. This time, the pain and blood loss were too much even for the prospect of imminent death to overcome, and the artist began to lose consciousness.

As the bear prepared to finish the job, a distant sound high in the sky could be heard. This sound only barely registered to the dying artist, but the predator that had been accosting him perked up at the sound immediately; it began sniffing around in the same direction as the distant sound. Upon catching a particular scent from somewhere above, the brown bear broke off from its attack and ran back into the forest, disappearing entirely. Lewis sighed in relief as the world began to go dark, and he caught glimpses of something massive coming down from the sky that blotted out the sun; it seemed to touch down on four legs, yet the distinct sound of flapping wings could also be heard.

The artist passed out soon after.

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How long had it been since picking this odd man up? The artist stirred beneath her on the large circular bed in the middle of one of her chambers, though the man's movements were laboured and his breathing was faint. It was a bed fit for royalty with how large it was and how many pillows adorned it. The odd man was dying of his wounds and unconscious from the shock and blood loss after the bear attack, and he wouldn't last much longer without proper medical attention. With a bit of hesitation, the stranger sighed and ultimately decided to slash open her arm, letting the blood drip down into his injuries.

As soon as the flow of blood ceased, the dying man's wounds began closing up one by one, leaving only faded scars where there were once large gashes across his upper body. With the final injury healed, the odd man let out a sigh of relief. As she looked upon this visitor to her territory, there was a curiosity that filled her thoughts. She reached out and caressed his cheek with her hand, to which the artist leaned into it and seemed more content from this contact. The man's saviour pulled her hand away immediately after, though more so in a bit of a quick reflex rather than out of disgust or shock. After a bit of extra deliberation, the stranger began wrapping the artist's scars in some ragged white cloth strips that look to have been torn out from actual clothes over any real dedicated bandage wraps.

Still, they served well enough to help cover up whatever remained of the man's injuries.

"You'd better be worth the effort I spent saving your life, human," she whispered into the man's ear.

The stranger then got off of the large circular bed, walking across the large empty space of the chamber. An odd sound emanating from the stranger's location garnered a bit of a stir from the now peacefully sleeping artist, but he didn't react any further to this noise and continued to rest.

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Hours passed by, and Lewis finally awoke from his impromptu nap.

He immediately pulled off the blankets covering him, sat up, and felt his upper body. He looked down and saw that he was bandaged up and didn't have huge life-threatening injuries adorning his body, prompting a great deal of confusion.

"Woah.... how am I not dead right now? Wait, where am I?"

The artist looked around, taking in the view around him. He found himself on a large bed in the middle of a massive cavern that was lit up by large glowing orange crystal formations all over the ceiling and walls. Around the bed, there was a wide assortment of bookshelves, tables, chairs, cabinets, and other decorum that could be found in a room. Unlike the furniture found in a typical 21st century household, all of this looked to be quite old-fashioned, ranging from medieval to Victorian-era styling to even a few pieces from the Great Depression. Overall, it was like a collection of furnishings from across the past few centuries of history, with exquisite quality of the woodworking and craftsmanship across the board.

As Lewis looked around in awe at this strange trip through time, his eyes focused on the large mound occupying the centre of this massive cavernous chamber; the large moving mound, that is. It soon became clear that there were defined legs sticking out from the bottom of this large mound. They were curled up much like a large predatory cat or dog, and a huge pair of wings which were folded up jutted out at the top of the back. The massive creature stirred, bringing its large tail around and dropping the tip of it close to the foot of the bed where the artist laid; its head reared up from where it had been curled up before, now looking directly at Lewis.

It was a dragon, clear as day. The enormous beast was several school buses long, with half of that length made up by its long tail. Based on the shape of its legs, it looked to have an overall build almost akin to a deer or big cat, albeit with a reptilian flair given the shape of its feet and the smooth scales lining its body. These scales were a vibrant light violet coloration that looked uniform at a distance, but they had occasionally subtly darker patches here and there. Along the dragon's back were a few rows of small bumpy blue scutes or plates that ran down from the back of its head all the way to the tip of its tail.

The dragon stretched out its wings, giving a good view of the interior membranes of its wings, which were of the same blue colour as its back scutes. The large creature then moved its long neck and brought its head closer to the odd man in the bed, bringing its facial features to the forefront. The dragon's head was a somewhat longer set of jaws, akin to a monitor lizard or crocodilian, but with lips that covered its teeth; a large pair of slightly curving horns adorned the top of its head while pointed ears flared out from the sides. The dragon stared at the artist intently with deep golden irises, but didn't seem to show any signs of hostility.

This creature was muscular, but this musculature was well-toned and didn't present any kind of large gut. Overall, it appeared quite lithe, suggesting a high degree of mobility, if its proportions were any indication, based on the similarities to other agile and mobile predatory mammals. Currently, the dragon was relaxed but focused, with it laying on its belly in a posture akin to a resting dog or cat; its eyes stared down at the man before it.

It opened its mouth and began to speak, with a voice much softer and more feminine than expected.

"I see you're awake now, human."