Chapter Text
Tommy wakes up to the feeling of being held, a warm body rumbling against his back. This certainly wasn’t where he was last, huddled under his tent as the cold nipped at his skin. As he slowly blinked into reality he registered several things.
One. There shouldn’t be anyone cuddling with him. Two. There were ropes biting into his skin, chafing uncomfortably. Three. He wasn’t on the beach anymore, a spruce forest surrounding him. And finally, four. He had extra limbs that weren’t there before. He could feel them on his head, his back, and further on.
He experimentally wiggled them, only for a growl to sound behind him. He stopped moving instinctually, something in his brain saying to stop. The hold around him tightened, something curling around him and tickling his arms.
He took his time to analyze his surroundings, coming up with nothing new other than the fact that it was night and yet he could see perfectly fine. He couldn’t move his head much, so he couldn’t look at himself. It wasn’t like he had the energy to anyways, a strange fatigue had come over him and he was already drifting.
The rumbling had increased, he belatedly realized as he closed his eyes.
They snapped open what felt like seconds later, the glare of the sun making him flinch and recoil from its brightness. It was wrong, he wasn’t supposed to be out , he had to hide . The thought drifted in his head, confusing him. He didn’t need to hide from the sun, it was the sun for fuck’s sake.
But, he realized, maybe he needed to hide from whatever was holding him. Because he saw unnaturally shaped legs locked around his body, and a deep, dark tail curled up. And there were multiple, because there was another tail, not as dark with golden speckled fins, twisted around the large tail. He was fucked.
He began to struggle, limbs flailing and ropes chafing before be still was growled into his ear and his body froze unexpectedly. He heard a rhythmic thumping from a hill across from him which added to his panic, which was relegated to being internal for now. Then he saw him, a small boy peeking over the ridge before his eyes widened in horror.
Tommy tried to open his mouth to speak, failing when he realized it was as still as the rest of him. The boy peeked over again, holding a puny knife. Maybe he’d help Tommy.
The boy climbed over the hill, taking in shaky breaths. He approached Tommy, eyes looking at him with… fear? No, he must be scared for Tommy. He was still trapped by the creature. Then, as if a realization had struck, the boy’s features lightened with surprise and joy.
“Oh, I did it! I actually did it! This fixes everything, yes!” He cheered, voice getting louder near the end. Tommy felt his heart sink. That… didn’t make any sense. Did what? Was… Was he the one who trapped Tommy with the creature? The ropes had to come from somewhere…
He then came closer, “I have brought down these mighty beasts!” And put his foot right on Tommy’s chest. He wasn’t gentle either, and Tommy made an embarrassing whimper at the pain. All of a sudden the boy was flung back into a rock, a low growl followed by a groan resonating in Tommy’s chest. The creature holding Tommy settled its paw back down.
The boy hesitantly approached again, holding his knife straight out. He grimaced, cycling through several emotions before settling on determination that seemed to falter when he looked a little above Tommy’s head.
His expression smoothed out again. “I’m going to kill you, dragons, and take your hearts to my father.” He mumbled. Even quieter he said, “I am a viking.” before shouting, “I am a viking!” near Tommy’s face. That wasn’t a dragon against his back, no, it couldn’t be. He wasn’t in the End, and he wasn’t with some dragons. He wasn’t. He felt like he was going to cry.
The boy raised his blade, breathing starting to become laboured again. He looked like he was fighting himself, with how his face contorted and continued contorting until he hit his head with his blade and sighed.
“I did this…” He whispered, expression sad. He backed away slowly before looking back and stopping. He turned around fully and walked back up, bringing the knife up to Tommy. He whimpered in fear again, the only sound to come out despite his attempts to verbally plead for his life. Another growl sounded out, rumbling and deep. It soothed something inside Tommy and with that came the realization that it wasn’t growling at him , no, it was growling at the boy .
He settled when the boy began sawing at the rope, and not at Tommy or his protector. His... what? The… the creature. He could feel it tense up behind him though, and he knew it was going to pounce on the boy as soon as it was free.
And that’s what happened, it sprung on the boy, screaming in his face while Tommy lay sprawled on the ground. He was majestic. Small, but sleek. And strong, he could tell from his muscles shifting under his scales. His? How did he know that?
As Tommy puzzled over that he attempted to stand and slipped immediately, feet refusing to support his weight. As he collapsed he noticed the great wings splayed out on his sides, coming from… him. As well as the speckled tail he spotted earlier. There wasn’t two, Tommy was the other one.
As he panicked over that little bit of information the dragon bounded over before scruffing him like a kitten . He flew off, and they quickly lost altitude. The dragon smashed into a rock wall, somehow keeping Tommy away from the impact. The dragon snarled bad and glided away, carrying Tommy all the while. They eventually landed in a small cove, narrowly missing the water. They impacted, Tommy crying out when one of his legs smacked the ground hard enough to twinge.
Quiet ! Snapped the dragon, who immediately cooed apology afterwards. Tommy looked at him distrustfully. He lowered himself and bared his neck, something that Tommy’s brain whispered meant a real apology. Tommy cooed back, a mangled thing, that probably meant something. The dragon snapped up from his bow and wagged his body, tail swishing across the ground
Tommy’s attention was drawn to the dragon’s tail, where he noticed a strange lack of symmetry that was present everywhere else on the dragon. There was a missing fin. A bloody remnant was all that was left. Tommy slowly looked down at his own tail, something he hesitated to do because that meant confronting the reality that he wasn’t himself .
He glanced down, realizing he had to pull his tail towards him to look at it. It drifted into the corner of his vision and he grabbed it carefully. Yup, he had two tail fins where the other only had one. Dark blue-black with golden speckles lining the inside, as well as golden spikes on both sides leading down to the fins. There was a strange light pattern of bubbles and drips on the sides that presumably led up his body. He couldn’t see far enough to confirm. However there was a pond just in front of him…
He cautiously approached the water, before leaning over it. A round face stared back at him, blue-black like his tail but with golden scales on the ridge of his eyes leading to strange nubs that he had three pairs of, each progressively getting smaller. His eyes were the same grey-blue he had back on the beach, except he had no sclera. His face looked like the other dragon’s, just rounder with smaller nubs. Actually, he was smaller overall.
He startled when the dragon appeared next to him in the reflection of the water. He churred at Tommy before suddenly darting forward towards the shape of a fish Tommy could barely see. He failed to catch it, and came up with such a disappointed look on his face that Tommy internally chuckled.
Tommy took a closer look, and realized there were an abundance of fish in the pond. He carefully stalked up to one, keeping his shadow off of the water. He poised his clawed paw over the water before darting forward and grabbing the fish. He quickly hooked it out of the water and watched it flop around on the ground.
He looked back at the other dragon, who was staring with awe and gave a purr of encouragement. He nudged the fish towards him, the swirling of his stomach at the wrongness of the world made him not hungry. The other dragon whined and nudged it back, eventually relenting when Tommy refused to take it.
While the other ate, Tommy fished up a couple more fish. Something in his head said that one wasn’t enough. Tommy hesitantly ate part of a fish at the dragon’s insistence, he wouldn’t stop staring at Tommy and nudging him. He was slightly scared about eating the bones, but he found that he couldn’t even feel them in his mouth and concluded he must have adapted to eat fish whole.
The dragon, after eating and purring contentment, began to try to replicate Tommy’s way of fishing. Tommy watched him scare away fish after fish before sighing and stepping in. He demonstrated the movements slowly, hoping that it was enough for the dragon to grasp how to do it.
He tried a few more times, eventually catching one fish successfully which he bullied Tommy into eating. Something in his head purred provider, one who feeds . Tommy didn’t really know why.
They sat for a little bit, soaking in the sun. Tommy still felt a thrum of something in his brain telling him to hide, but it was easy to ignore. He settled down even further, stretching his wings and other limbs out where he layed. The sun warmed his skin… his scales. His eyes slid closed without him noticing.
He awoke to the sounds of frustrated growls and harsh impacts against stone. The sun was still out, though it had moved backwards in the sky, meaning he had slept through the night. He looked around, finally spotting the dragon attempting to fly out of the cove. He wasn’t having any luck, spinning out in the air when he got high enough for the wind to flow unbidden. He would come tumbling down and strike the ground or the stone walls before landing. That missing fin must really be important with how fucked up the dragon’s flying was.
Then Tommy smelled something as well as heard something. He snapped his head in the direction of the sound, spotting the boy. He was sketching something down in a book and didn’t seem to have noticed Tommy looking at him yet.
The dragon was clearly angry at his failed attempts to escape, considering he shot literal plasma on the ground for no reason. Something in Tommy’s brain told him to lay on the spot, and, well, he wasn’t exactly known for his impulse control. So he curled up on the ground where the dragon had shot.
It was comfortably warm, the remaining plasma cooling against his scales. He temporarily forgot about the boy, only to be reminded of him when he heard something drop and both Tommy and the dragon snapped their heads to look at him. He had a look of fear on his face, hand still outstretched to catch whatever had fallen.
He had frozen, and so had the dragon, Tommy noticed. Then the boy turned around and fled. The dragon turned towards Tommy and curiously churred. Tommy just shrugged and looked away. He wasn’t tired enough to settle back down into sleep. In fact he was kind of bored, there wasn’t much to do in the cove other than eat, drink, and sleep.
He felt a nudge on his side, and peeking over revealed the dragon stopped into, what he was assuming was, a play bow. Did he want to play with Tommy? He hesitantly bowed as well, which made the other wag his tail. Okay, so he did want to play.
The other nudged his side again before darting off a little ways away. Alright, tag. Tommy could do that. He bounded after the dragon and nudged him. The dragon let out a pleased rumble before tackling Tommy, playfully snapping his teeth near him. Tommy rolled them over so that he was top, triumphantly sticking out his chest. The other dragon’s tail was thumping against the ground before he went limp.
Tommy confusedly sniffed him, he hadn’t hurt the dragon, right? The dragon then surprised him by suddenly rearing up with a roar and flipping them over once more. They continued for a while, devolving into wrestling with each other and occasionally playing tag.
Tommy felt worn out by the end, panting as he laid down on the ground. He heard the other dragon splashing around in the water, and after a few minutes some fish were deposited in front of him. He cooed a thanks before eating some. They went down easier than they had the day before.
He ended up falling asleep, because next thing he knew it was dark out and the other dragon was sleeping. He quietly stood up and stretched. He decided that he was going to try to fly. He had been watching the dragon attempt to take off and based on what he saw of Phil flying he was sure he could at least get off the ground.
He crawled up a small stack of rocks before bunching up his legs and holding his wings up above his head. He leapt off of the rock, beating his wings down as soon as he did. He made it! He was in the air, and he beat his wings again, which lifted him slightly higher and higher until he reached above the cove.
And that’s when things went wrong, the wind threw him around and forced him down. He spiraled out of control and just barely managed to land upright onto the ground. He at least landed quietly, enough that the other dragon didn’t wake up. He wasn’t sure what went wrong, he was having the same issues as the dragon even though he had all his fins.
He tried a few more times, always getting blown down by the wind and never figuring out what he was doing wrong. Eventually he tired himself out and went back to sleep.
He woke up to birds chirping and the sound of splashing water, only to have a couple of fish dropped on his face. He startled then, quickly standing up and shaking his head. The other dragon chuckled at him. He mocked his laugh back to him. Then he looked down at the fish, noting how there was less than usual today. Maybe the population was dwindling. Either way, food is food, so he ate all the fish he had.
The both of them play fought again, stopping when they heard scraping as well as footsteps. The dragon growled before prowling close to the origin of the noise. Tommy stayed back, he’d rather not get hurt if it wasn’t the boy again.
He saw a shield pop up from between two rocks, and watched as the dragon hid behind the stack of rocks he jumped off of the night before. The boy crept out from behind the shield, carrying two fish with him. Tommy felt his ear nubs perk up at the sight of them. The boy hesitantly approached Tommy as the other dragon slowly and silently climbed up the stack of rocks.
A pebble fell and the boy’s gaze snapped over to the dragon, letting out a gasp of surprise. The dragon cut off the path to Tommy and rumbled a warning at the boy, flaring his wings. Tommy walked up behind the dragon, who was approaching the fish the boy had held out. The dragon suddenly moved back and hissed danger , reminding Tommy that the boy indeed had a knife the first time they saw him and he might still have it.
The boy must’ve realized the same thing because he pushed back his vest to go and grab the knife, causing both Tommy and the dragon to growl. He hesitated a little before quickly grabbing the knife and dropping it. The dragon tossed his head, causing the boy to toss the knife into the pond using his foot. Tommy instantly relaxed now that there wasn’t any danger, and he could see the other dragon do the same.
The dragon approached the boy and held his head out to take the fish. “Huh, Toothless. I could’ve sworn you had…” The dragon snapped into one of the fish and quickly swallowed it. “Teeth!” Tommy had found the teeth thing out a while ago, having realized that he had a reflex that allowed him to retract and extend his teeth in and out like some cursed piston.
The boy then looked at Tommy, and he realized he could grab his fish too. He extended his teeth and cautiously approached, delicately taking the fish from the boy’s hand. He looked a little amazed.
More? Rumbled the dragon, beginning to approach the boy. Tommy watched as he was cornered against a rock. “No, no! I don’t have any more!” The boy yelped. The dragon looked at him strangely before churring hungry? And then proceeding to regurgitate a fish tail onto the boy. For you! The dragon cooed. The boy looked disgusted at the fish, and him and the dragon had a stare off. Tommy shuffled to the side of the dragon, who was sitting like he was two-legged.
The dragon must’ve done something with his face or some other movement Tommy couldn’t see, because the boy took a hesitant bite of the fish before looking back up. He heard the dragon make an exaggerated swallowing noise, and the boy eventually followed. The boy smiled at them while Tommy chuffed out a laugh.
He heard the dragon’s lips peel back and looked over to see him replicating a smile, albeit rather messed up looking. Tommy smiled as well, and it came much easier to him. The boy’s face turned into wonder, and he stood up and held out his hand near the dragon’s face. He got growled at as the dragon launched himself back and flew to the opposite side of the cove. Tommy followed him, not landing as gracefully.
The dragon blew sparks and flames onto the ground in a circle before settling down, holding his wing up for Tommy to crawl under. He crooned a come here and Tommy listened, snuggling under the dragon’s wing. A bird flew overhead and Tommy and the dragon watched it. The both looked down from the distraction to spot the boy sitting across from them. He waved at them. The dragon grumbled and rolled over slightly, bringing his tail up and fanning out his fin to cover up their faces. Tommy’s ear nubs twitched as he heard the boy moving.
The dragon lifted his tail to reveal the boy almost touching it. The dragon growled before getting up and walking off as the boy spun around and walked away very awkwardly. Tommy followed the dragon, who was crawling onto a branch and then hanging like a bat. Tommy did the same, finding it easy to hand upside down. He curled his wings around himself and quickly fell asleep.
He woke up to shuffling next to him unfurling his wings to look over and see that the dragon was climbing down from his perch and approaching the boy who was doodling with a stick into the ground. He carefully climbed down as well, and followed the dragon in watching the boy. Tommy sidled up next to them, and noticed that the boy was drawing them. Then the dragon ran off and Tommy heard the cracking of a branch.
The dragon ran back, carrying a humongous stick and which he used to carve lines into the dirt all around them, twirling about. The human looked surprised to see this, jaw slack. He watched as the dragon finished and looked down with a grin. He also watched as the boy attempted to walk towards him and step on a line, earning a snarl of get off from the dragon. The boy stepped on the line a few times, seemingly amused by the on and off growling from the dragon.
He then delicately danced between the lines, accidentally bumping into the dragon who stared down at him with curiosity. The boy flinched back before carefully reaching out towards the dragon’s face, getting a small growl. He continued to hold his hand out, though he did draw it back at some point, and left a small distance between his hand and the dragon’s snout.
The dragon carefully placed his nose into the human’s hand, after he hesitated a slight bit. The boy looked shocked and amazed. He even looked between Tommy and the dragon as if saying “Can you believe this?”
Then the dragon’s eyes narrowed and he flew off to another side of the cove, calling for Tommy to follow him. The boy attempted to approach Tommy but got growled at. Tommy wouldn’t be tamed like the dragon, he wasn’t a wild animal. Plus he’s not letting some random guy touch him.
He flew after the other dragon who started fishing again. Tommy helped him and together they had a good meal while the boy left quietly, taking his shield with him and a look on his face stating that he would be back.