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You want something long? With dragons and furries? With love, mild swearing, funny situations, some hints at bedding, lots of fighting and mild violence and blood?

Welcome To the life and times of two fair characters, 300+ pages strong, and growing!

So, a long time ago I held a voting for the white dragon's name. This is the story he's actually in. I started this a while back and finished this part this afternoon.

You will notice two things, I never mention the main character's name or what she looks like. That's on purpose because as of right now we're only seeing through her eyes.

In this part its mostly traveling to the dragon's lair, or hoping to find the dragon's lair.

We'll see what you guys think haha.

All characters belong to me.

~Angel~

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Chapter 1: The Dragon's Shadow

At some point someone had told her it wasn't a good idea. She knew it wasn't a good idea, but everything was driving her towards that point and with every step she felt more certain it might not be a good idea, but it was the right choice.

She was old enough to make her own decisions anyway, so why would straying into a dragon's territory be anyone's responsibility but her own? She knew the risks, the dangers and the possibility of not only dying but being burned alive or eaten. She had to make her way forward before she lost her nerve. She may have been a tigress but bravery went only so far within the sights of a real predator.

She had been studying dragons since she was able to read; their habits, their breeds, their scales, flight patterns, whatever she could get ahold of. But, she had her doubts about some of the facts she learned. Many of the books she had read were accounts of knights, lords and others slaying dragons versus studying them. So things could have easily been exaggerated. She was hoping that the aggression would be one of those things. Maybe they weren't nearly as rage-oriented as some of the accounts made them out to be? Maybe they were more docile creatures who were just trying to survive? She could only hope. Or at least hope about this one in particular.

Some said that they could speak, read, write and were highly educated creatures. Others said they were carnal, meat-eating, breeding monsters and just had the desire to ingest whatever was smaller than them and happened to be moving. It was hard to determine truth from glorified horror stories. All she really trusted was the fact that yes, they were meat eaters, yes they could fly and yes they could lay siege to those who pissed them off. There were multiple historical accounts for siege events. She had seen four dragons up to that point, all from a safe place. All of them were hunting for large game.

The first was a very young red-scaled dragon. She could tell from two things; his black horns were far shorter than what she had seen in drawings of adult bulls, and his hunting skills were lacking severely. He had two slender wings and had four limbs otherwise. He’d had an orange colored mane. She wasn't close enough to determine his eye color, but his guard scales along his front and stomach were a darker burgundy. He dove and tried to carry away cattle that, with his smaller wing-span, just couldn't lift. He had a messy snatch technique, killing three or four animals with a few failed swoops down to grab them. He finally grabbed two smaller calves and went on his way. She sketched out his form in her crudely bound journal with a piece of charcoal, labeling colors and size and behavior.

She had done the same with the other three dragons she had seen. Another red dragoness, possibly the young one's mother, had been going after horses instead of cattle. The other two dragons she saw were bulls, one black and one light blue, also hunting in farmer's fields. They had all flown away so quickly she had no idea where their lairs were. But when she heard about a dragon in the area taking cattle from Lord Bywren she left her current lead to head for his province. He was a wealthy Lord appointed by the King to watch over the province that included Sagewynd, where she had lived a long time ago.

She had been traveling around for some time to try and encounter dragons on her own. This had been the first time she had come back to Sagewynd in several years. The small lower apartment at her uncle's house was still waiting for her. It was covered in her notes, books and scrolls. Her uncle had died and left it to her when she was still a younger lady, but when she was old enough to leave home she let others live in the upper half to help pay for her expeditions. They didn't mind her coming and going; it meant they didn't have to pay rent right away. She was never very good with money anyway, she only needed it for food and to buy her books and parchment. When she heard that there may have possibly been a dragon on the southern mountainside of Sagewynd, she headed straight for home without stopping.

A leather hip bag sat tight on her side, journals and other essentials inside. She headed into the dense forest at the base of the mountain. She had brought one weapon with her; a long, curved knife one of her tenants had given her after she told them where she was heading. It had taken her two days to get to the edge of this forest far beyond Sagewynd's borders but she had to know. She had to know if the sightings were true.

Witnesses said that it was several different colors, so she went in thinking that it was flying too high for anyone to really know what color it was. She had recorded that there were at least six dragon colors in the King's land: red, blue, black, gold, silver and white. These were all fire breathers, two-winged, four-limbed, long-necked and long-tailed. They had a crown of horns atop the backs of their heads. Females usually with two horns and males with four. Their ears were pointed and sideways, much like cows and their clawed feet were more like paws with long toes. Their manes were usually atop their heads, down most of their necks and could have been any number of colors. She had read several different descriptions and only took what was common about each, generating the colors and sizes that way. There were at least two other species besides the fire-breathers she had read about: Serpents, who inhabited the seas and took down ships (they were wingless), and Ice-Breathers, who lived in the icy parts of the north. Both places she had never truly been. Still, she learned all she could about the other species from her books and scrolls. Someday she would find those species as well. She was determined to.

Just as she was determined to see this local dragon. Would it be a bull? A dragoness? Maybe with a hatchling? A youngling? It was terrifying and exciting all for her at once. Finally, one to observe, possibly befriend or question if the accounts were true. At least now she would have been able to find out if they were intelligent or large beasts. She wanted to be the first real dragonologist. She wanted to really be able to answer the questions everyone was asking about the great creatures. Mostly, she wanted to be able to answer her own questions. She needed to know what secrets they held.

She chopped her way through a patch of overgrown vines, the plants choking the limbs of the smaller trees and making the forest even thicker. She could only see a few feet beyond the thick trunks, and even then the branches and vines blocked the rest of the landscape in front of her. Just the kind of surrounding foliage that could hide such a beast.

She knew no matter how little noise she made, it would probably hear her. As far as she had observed and recorded dragons where skilled hunters. Pure predators. They could easily spot their prey, swoop down and disappear in moments. It could easily have done the same to her, if not for the labyrinth of trees around her.

After most of the afternoon trying to make her way through the foliage she stopped, sweaty and tired. She leaned and slid down a craggy tree trunk, landing on the thick root below her heavily. She pulled her leather bag from her shoulder, letting it lean against the trunk as well. She pulled out her waterskin, drinking deeply. She would have to get more soon. She hadn't seen a river since yesterday and she wasn't backtracking now. Slowly, she leaned her head back against the tree and sighed. She would only close her eyes for a moment. Just a moment...

A deafening call rumbled throughout the trees. A roar unlike any other she had ever heard woke her from her dozing. She froze, eyes open wide as she braced herself against the tree. That was no cow.

She could hear then the beating of large wings, but she could not see through the thicket of the canopy. She had no idea where the creature was, but it was coming towards her. The sound grew louder. She moved quickly, trying to find a hole in the leaves above her.

For a long few moments she watched the leaves behind her suddenly shiver with life from the gusts above them. The beating wings created wind through the canopy, tousling her hair and clothes as it traveled over her. The body of the beast passed overhead, blotting out the sun as the gust from its wings rushed around her. The harsh sunlight only made the brief silhouette of the creature appear black in shadow.

She tried to keep up with the sound across the landscape, but the thicket tangled her up and the sound dissipated. Well, at least now she knew the witnesses were right. There was a large dragon here and now she had a heading.

She pulled the curved knife free and cut herself free, pulling it from her hair and clothes before continuing in the direction she’d seen it go. She forgot her fatigued body and parched throat in the presence of the possibility of the truth. She needed to see the lair. She needed to see the dragon. She needed those answers to all the questions buzzing around her mind like insects.

Intense drive pushed her for hours towards what she hoped was the den of the beast. Through the once sun-lit leaves she felt the cold shadow of the mountain covering the forest. It was as if the wild atmosphere had been tame compared to the overrun bushes and towering trees she was now entering, as if this land had been more than untouched but rather unseen by mortal eyes. Of course other mortals were smarter that her knowing full well that if a dragon lived here why go looking for it? Why destroy the place it called home? Why want for a death wish?

Her stomach tightened as her insides churned, her sudden good momentum slowed not only from the darkening forest but from her common sense catching up to her. It could easily be hiding in the trees right now, watching her without her knowing, the forest giving it more than enough places to stalk and hide. She leaned against the bark of a giant tree, hiding in its deep rooted shadow and trying to calm her breathing down. She might die in these woods. She knew that upon leaving the safety of her first floor room and it didn't matter then. But now, it struck her more seriously. It was now an easy possibility. Days from anyone, lost in woods far older than her ancestors.

If she was going to die she would do it later, she convinced herself. She headed forward, or what she hoped was forward. Her foot took one step, then another but the second never hit the ground! She toppled forward with a cry and rolled down a steep hill that she couldn't see through the thicket!

Tumbling around and around she rolled into a narrow stream of water and stopped abruptly, choking and coughing on algae and water alike. She grabbed and threw her hip bag out of the way of the water, not wanting to ruin the little paper she had and rolled up slowly in agony. She was thankful for the water, but not how she arrived at it. Scratches marred her but no real cuts thank the Gods. She'd be bruised but at least nothing seemed broken. She took easy steps to get her waterskin and fill it before drinking from the stream itself. She looked around. The treeline had definitely dipped, but the height of the trees didn't let her see in time. She didn't know if she could scale that hill again. She turned around and the trees seemed thinner, but something was beyond that...something she couldn't quite make out where she was.

Grabbing her bag and waterskin, she shook off the water as best she could and made her way closer, stepping carefully through branches. She saw where the treeline ended. The shadow of the mountain lay on flat land of prairie along the edge of the mountain's large base and a good fifty feet up was a mouth of rock. The cave...big enough for a dragon to fly in and live!

Her doubts of life tripled, but her eagerness drove her into the prairie. Along the edge of the cavern were claw marks, easily distinct from the rocks texture. Very, very large claw marks. She pulled out her journal and small piece of charcoal, scribbling the scene out quickly before turning and searching the ground for foot prints or shed scales. If she could find a shed scale she could know the coloring of the creature. She knelt down to search and the ground shifted. She paused, frowning and sifting a bit through the prairie-taller grasses. Had she stepped on something that moved?

The ground shook violently, knocking her onto her back. Her head hit the ground hard and her eyes closed in pain. Even then the ground still shivered with steps under her. Her eyes opened and even in the great shadow of the mountain she saw the shimmering of white and silver scales stepping towards her. Her eyes widened as she watched it approach, walking on all fours with hand-like digits on its front limbs. Its head bore four tall spires of horns, black as night to match its wings and claws. Its eyes were what struck the sudden fear, yellow-white and almost glowing with a predator's gaze. It craned its long neck up and back as it stared down at her, front feet stopping just above her head as a claw the size of her face tapped the ground in an annoyed fashion. It rumbled with breathing, before eyes narrowed and she thought she heard the words, “An offering...?” growl from its throat, before her fear took hold and she blacked out.

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