The Dragonsuit--Pt. 4

     Alex quickly made his way through the forest.  Each sight, sound, and smell constantly redirected his senses.  He could divide his attention among every single detail.  He cocked his ears to either side, and he could hear every single individual bird and insect that made a noise.  His nose picked up even the smallest traces of scents, and he could “see” the paths these scents paved.  He could spot a cleverly disguised rattlesnake from what seemed to him as fifty feet away, and his paw pads felt every pebble and twig he stepped on sans the sensations of pain that particularly sharp stones would have caused him as a human.
     Confident that he had lost Dimitri, Alex decided to test himself.  He found a briar patch that bridged a gap between four trees, and he closed his eyes and pushed his way through.  The sharp thorns and stiff branches of the bushes harmlessly scratched at his tough scales and snapped as he pushed past them.  The tough hide of his wings was just as effective at deflecting the normally painful onslaught.
     “Now that’s just too cool,” Alex mused aloud to himself.  He grasped a boulder with his claws and left a series of deep grooves in the hard granite stone.  He then picked up the massive rock as though it had no weight at all.  Much to his own amazement, he found that his paw pads were nearly impervious to the sharp edges his claws left in the boulder, and he marveled at their sensitivity as he picked up three small pebbles in one paw and could feel each one individually.
     “What am I thinking?” Alex scolded himself.  “I can’t stay like this forever.”
     He continued moving through the forest until he found a small creek.  He stopped for a minute to collect himself, and he discovered, very much to his satisfaction, that he could instantly focus his mind and his senses on any single thing.  He then proceeded to focus on nothing at all and shut the world out.
     As his mind cleared, he felt relaxed and calm.  The tranquil trickle of the creek water called out to him, and a drink was irresistible.  Throwing all of his inhibitions toward dirty water to the wind, he dipped his muzzle into the cold, life-giving liquid, and took a long draught of the sweetest tasting water he had ever had.  He took a step into the creek, and then another, and another until he was sprawled out on his belly in the cool shallows next to the bank.  As he lay in the water, Alex started thinking about his situation, and started rationalizing his options.
     I can’t stay a dragon.  I still have a human life.  Ah, but this is the life.  I don’t have to do anything; I don’t have anyone to tell me what to do.  No.  No.  I can’t just…leave.  I still have my things.  I have projects and models that I still love to build.  I can still think, though.  I can find someplace to live.  I’m still smart enough, but I’m not human.  How could I live?  I need to get out of this costume.  If I can just get this thing off, I can be both.  I can live as a person or a dragon whenever I want.  What if I can’t get this off?  What will I do?  What if I can’t put it back on after I get it off?  What about Dimitri?  Is he just the beginning of it all?  I’ll worry about it later.  I’m hungry.  No.  I have to worry about this right now.  Well, it can wait.  I’m hungry.
     At that last thought, Alex got up and put his nose to work following various scent paths.  Several caught his interest, but they all lead to dead ends or foul, dead body smells.  Alex looked around for something else and small a blackberry bush caught his eye.  At first, he balked at the thought of a vegetarian meal, but something inside his mind reassured him and he approached the bush and stripped it of half its fruit.  The meager meal was quite satisfying, and Alex resumed his hunt for meat with fresh vigor.  He followed another scent trail he found for an hour before he saw its source:  a very large and healthy possum.
     What am I doing!?  I’m about to kill an animal! Alex urgently realized, but hunger pains urged him onward, and instinct overrode rational thought, and he pounced.  In one swift motion, the possum was swept off the ground, dead before Alex landed from his pounce, and already partly in the dragon’s mouth by the time he stopped moving.
     Alex took his time to tear off the meaty parts of the animal carcass.  As he ate, he noticed several ravens starting to make their way toward the feast, and he left the half-eaten possum carcass as a banquet for the black scavengers.
     After another hour of pushing his way though the undergrowth, Alex found a road.  It was a typical back road; it had two lanes and no shoulders, and was very curvy.  Alex followed the road for several miles before he found a spot where he could cross without being seen by passing cars.  He waited for several minutes with his ears intensely focused on the sound of a car engine.  He heard nothing.  He cautiously poked his head out over the road and looked both ways; still no cars.  Then, he began to slowly stalk across the road as a cat would on a leisurely stroll.
     Suddenly, an old truck rounded the curve and the engine loudly rumbled out through the half-corroded muffler.  The hills and the curviness of the road had effectively cloaked the truck’s engine sound and made it seem miles away at first.  Alex looked up in surprise as the truck’s horn blared and he heard screeching old brakes.  There was a loud, dull thunk and Alex’s unconscious body rolled several feet from the force of the impact before coming to a rest.
     The driver of the truck—an old farmer—got out and hobbled over to the still breathing body of the stunned dragon.  “Well I’ll be…” he began in a Southern accent.  “What in the sayam hill do we hayave here?” he asked himself as he bent down to look at the dazed dragon.  One of Alex’s claws twitched, and the farmer saw the movement.  “Well now!  Call me Margaret and gimme a girdle!  The thing’s still alive!” he laughed.  
     The farmer hobbled back to his truck and drove it around Alex’s body and stopped.  He pulled the tailgate down, and lifted the dragon’s body, with some degree of trouble, into the back of his truck.  “Sure ayam glad I lift hay bales fer a livin’, or I’d be leavin’ ya on th’ side a’ the road,” the farmer chortled.  He closed the tailgate and placed his hand on the back of Alex’s jaw.  “You jus’ hang tight li’l fella.  You’re in good hayands now,” he reassured.  He got back into his truck and drove off with his new, blue load.

     Fifteen minutes later, the farmer pulled his truck up the drive to his home and parked near the barn, which was about fifty feet away from the house.  His wife came out onto the porch.  She was drying a plate from breakfast with her apron.  “Jill?  Git some ice an’ some rags!  I hit some animal while I was drivin’ and it’s still alive!” the farmer called to his wife.  His wife hustled back into the house to get the ice and some washcloths, and the farmer backed his truck into the barn.  He put the tailgate down and slowly lifted Alex out of the truck and set the dragon down on a very soft haystack.
     Several minutes later, Jill hurried into the barn and gasped when she saw what her husband had brought home.  “Oh goodness Sam!  What in heaven’s earth is that?” she exclaimed.
     “I dunno what it is.  Jus’ get me th’ ice, dear,” Sam replied.  Jill gave her husband the ice-loaded washcloths, and he proceeded to place them on Alex’s neck and head.  The farmer then poured cold water from a bucket over Alex’s wings to cool the dragon down from the hot weather, even though the shade of the barn was plenty comfortable.
     Alex’s eyes fluttered open, and he grunted.  Sam turned towards the noise and lifted the ice bag off Alex’s head.  “‘Bout time.  You’re lucky I don’ drive that fast.  You could’a been killed if any o’ them hot-rodders had been comin’ ‘stead a’ me,” the farmer said warmly.
     “What— what happened?” Alex stammered.
     The farmer jumped back a bit in surprise.  “Well now.  You can talk!  I tell you what happened.  I seen you crossin’ tha road when I’s come drivin’ along an’ I couldn’t stop fast enough an’ I hit ya.  Tha’s what happened.”
     “Where am I?” Alex asked.
     “You’re on mah farm.”
     “Who are you?”
     “Name’s Sam.  That thar’s mah wife, Jill.  What’s yours?”
     “Alex,” he said as he tried to move, but Sam held the dragon down.
     “Yeh need ta rest up a bit,” Sam sternly said.  Alex did not bother to resist.  The farmer poured another bucket of water over the dragon, and to Alex, it felt like another bucket of liquid heaven.  The shade in the barn and the cool water felt sublime compared to the summer heat outside.  “You stay put raight here fer a while an’ rest up.  I’ll be up thar in that thar loft fixin’ tha’ barn up if’n yeh need me.”
     Alex nodded in acknowledgement and Sam gave the dragon a pat on his head before climbing up the stepladder into the loft.  Jill rolled her eyes and shook her head.  She muttered something about bringing home more live animals than dead ones and turned to return to what she was doing in the kitchen.
     Two comfortable hours (filled with the sounds of hammering and sawing) later, Alex finally got to his feet and shook what was left of the water off himself before using his claws to climb a support post into the loft.  There he found Sam sawing away at oak and maple planks and building a new loft door.  Alex put his head under the loose half of the plank and he balanced it between himself and the sawhorse.  Sam saw that Alex had awakened and laughed at the dragon’s eager helpfulness.
     “So yeh’re better now, eh?” he chortled.
     Alex smiled and winked, and Sam started sawing at another line that he had previously drawn that was between Alex and the sawhorse.  Alex held still and watched in wonder.  I’ve never seen someone saw a board from below before, he reveled.  A minute later, Sam finished sawing through the board, and Alex balanced the scrap piece on his head while the farmer positioned the other two pieces and nailed them into place.  The farmer then took the scrap piece off Alex’s head, drew a line down the middle, cut the plank in half, and slipped both halves into a pair of brackets to lock the new door closed.
     “Thank yeh kindly fer th’ help,” Sam praised.  He reached out for Alex’s head, but the dragon autonomously moved so that the farmer gave the dragon a pat on the neck instead.
     Now why’d I do that? Alex asked himself.  Ah, why does it matter?  This feels so good.
     The farmer gave Alex a quick neck rub before unlocking the new door and opening it up wide.  Sunlight poured into the barn, and Alex could see Jill hanging up clothes to dry.  A gentle breeze was blowing some of them, and the warmth of the light and heat of the day suddenly woke Alex up.  He felt ready to do something, and sat at the threshold of the doorway to look out over the farm.
     He could see the back and side of a white farmhouse with a black roof, and a forest line skirted near the side of the barn and the back of the house.  The yard in front of the house had several very large trees, including a willow tree that was in full bloom, and the grass was very well-kept, but tufted around the poles that held up the clothes line.
     His ears perked up when he heard the farmer start his truck and pull out of the barn.  He parked it with the cargo bed under the loft door and got out.  “Now to jus git them hay bales,” he told himself.
     Alex eagerly ran over to a stack of hay bales and started rolling one to the door.  He peeked out over the square bale to make sure he was over the truck, and rolled it off.  It landed in the truck with a hollow thud, and the farmer jumped in surprise.  When Sam realized what Alex was doing, he called up to the dragon, “You dun hafta help if’n you dun wawnt to!”
     Alex disappeared for a second, and then reappeared with another bale of hay to drop into the truck.  The farmer laughed and Alex began loading hay bales into the truck.  The process continued for the next hour until Sam had decided that his truck was full.  Alex was hot and panting from the work.  Wait a minute, I’m a reptile.  I’m supposed to be cold blooded.  I’m not supposed to get exhausted by all this work, Alex thought to himself.
     “I made lemonade!” Jill called from the back door.  “Come and get it!”  Alex dismissed that thought and jumped out the loft door.  He glided down to the back porch steps and climbed up.  Sam was right behind him and grabbed a glass.  Jill put a straw in a second glass and gave it to Alex, who curled up in the shade.
     A gray and white tabby cat meandered out the back door as Jill came out with a glass of her own and sniffed at the strange, new creature that had been brought to the farm.  Jill propped the back door open to let the breeze through the house.  Once the cat was satisfied that the new creature was nothing to worry about, it jumped up onto Alex’s back and lay down.
     The four relaxed in the shade of the porch for a while before Jill got out of her chair and walked into the kitchen.  She began preparing an early dinner.  Sam climbed down into the cellar and lifted out a very large slab of meat that he had finished preparing the previous day.  Alex’s mouth watered at the sight.  “Could ya git some water outta th’ well thar?” Sam asked as he walked with the meat past Alex.
     Alex retrieved several pails of water from the well and carried each, one at a time, onto the porch.  He poked his head into the kitchen to smell the aromas of food being prepared.  It was not too long until the dinner was ready, and the farmer, his wife, and dragon guest were sating their hunger.
     “So how’d ya git here in tha furst playce?” Sam asked after swallowing a bite of food.
Alex took a bite out of what was on his plate.  “Well, it’s a long story.”
     “Couldn’t possibly be longer than the Frostmans’ stories.  Heh!  Those people can tie you up for half a day just fer tellin’ you ‘bout their prized tumaytoes,” Jill laughed over a drink of milk.
     Alex laughed and told them all about the costume and Dimitri.  The farmer and his wife listened with disbelieving eyes.  When dinner ended, Jill began putting the water that Alex had retrieved earlier onto the stove to boil for drinking.  Alex and Sam had gone back out onto the back porch to sit and relax.
     Eventually, Jill finished preparing the pots and left one full of water to boil while she relaxed.  She, too walked out onto the porch, and the cat followed her and curled up on Alex’s back again.  However, it was not long before Alex’s ears perked.  He could hear something that the humans could not.  Suddenly, his nose caught a very familiar and frightening scent on the breeze, and he stood to his feet in an instant.  The cat hissed, startled, and stalked into the house.
     The cat stalked over the hot surface of the kitchen stove, and its foot caught a dishtowel, which rolled several inches to a rest next to the pot and began to smoke.  Meanwhile, Alex had suddenly turned from a relaxed, peaceful dragon to a frightened predator.  The farmer and his wife were mortified at the sight as Alex began to take on a more feral disposition.
     “What in the sayam hill is goin’ on!?” Sam asked in fear.
     “I can smell the person that’s hunting me,” Alex said in a wavering voice.  He stalked around the house, but as he rounded the last corner, Dimitri jumped out in ambush.  Alex barely managed to dodge the attack and tried to run away at a full sprint, but he had not fully recovered from being hit.  He stumbled and took a face plant in the grass.  Dimitri chased after him, but did not see a low tree branch and ran straight into it.
     Sam and his wife both ran into the house to watch the fight from the living room, but they failed to see the thick smoke coming from the dish towel.  As Alex and Dimitri swapped charges at each other, they failed to see smoke starting to come from the farmhouse until Alex suddenly stopped fighting to the frantic screams of “Help!” from the farmer’s wife.  Dimitri followed Alex’s stare to see the house on fire, and the two looked at each other.
     Neither had to say anything to each other to understand what had to be done, and they both ran into the farmhouse.  Dimitri found the farmer and his wife huddled in a back room, and Alex ran into the kitchen to find it completely engulfed in flames.  He found the telephone and dialed 911 after knocking the receiver off the hook and stalked out.
     Suddenly, movement caught the corner of his eye, and he saw the cat.  It was huddled on the far side of the kitchen away from the flames.  Alex pounced on the cat and grabbed the loose fold of skin at the back of its neck in his mouth.  He stalked out of the kitchen and found where Dimitri had taken the farmer and his wife.  He set the cat down and it bolted into the barn.
     The three humans and dragon turned to see part of the house on fire.  Then, Alex turned to Dimitri.  “Friends?” he asked.
     Dimitri looked at Alex.  “This changes nothing.”
     Alex nodded, and then took flight at the sounds of fire truck sirens.  Dimitri ran off as well, leaving the farmer and his wife thanking their lucky stars that those two were with them.  When he was clear of the farm, he pulled out his GPS monitor.  “Maybe this doesn’t change nothing,” he muttered to himself.  “Ah.  West, again.”  He put the monitor up and forged on.