FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The first time I met Tarragon, his cave had a stench to it. It was of very, and I mean Very, bad breath. Dragons didn't brush their teeth, or if they did, Tarragon didn't. It was the smell of bacteria and rotted meat that had stuck between the dragon's teeth. The smell that hit me the moment I crossed the precipice of the entrance of the cave, I nearly vomited. There was the nauseous bad breath, but there was something far more putrid to the air as well. I had smelled it before when the ASPCA brought in abused animals that were on the verge. It was death and decay. The reek that a body gives off when it prepares to die.

I gagged and put my arm over my nose and mouth to filter as much of the smell out as I could. With my other hand, I reached for my belt and pulled off my small flashlight. I messed with the flashlight until my thumb came across the familiar nub of the on switch. I flicked it.

The first thing I saw was Tommy. He was pale. Although it could have just been the white light of the LEDs, his face was that of shock. His eyes were wide and there was a sheen of sweat on his skin. His knees were shaking slightly, but the rest of his body was rigid. He had been anything but ordinary his entire life, but he had his norms, this was not that. He was looking farther down the cave as if his eyes could already pierce the wall of darkness.

"Tommy?" I called out with a muffled voice. I was getting nervous too. He had been so boisterous and active, even scary. Now it was all gone.

His lips were moving, but nothing was coming out. He didn't even seem to know I was there anymore.

"Hey, bud." I crept up next to him and then tapped him on the shoulder.

I don't know who jumped more, him or me. We both jolted. Him because I startled him. He because he let out a high pitched shriek and turned to me so fast that his shoulder slapped my hand away, nearly knocking the light out of my hand. I did not want to be left in the pitch black.

"Don't scare me like that." He grabbed his chest as if he were the one getting a heart attack. I could barely breathe. "I don't like bein scared."

"Sorry." I took a deep breath to steady myself. At least Tommy seemed to snapped out of whatever funk he had been in. I really needed to see what he was eating. I don't think he was on drugs of any kind, but I knew some foods could have strange effects. I wasn't his doctor, but I was his friend.

I was about to talk when there was a deep grumble deeper in the cave.

"I- I was afraid..." the voice moaned. "Afraid that you would not come." I recognized it as Tarragon's. No human could sound quite like him and I had never met another dragon to know what they each sounded like.

"I came," Tommy cried out and fearlessly ran into the darkness. "And I brought the doctor."

I hesitated to follow him, but remembered that I still had my flashlight with to combat the dark. I followed.

"Yes, I see." Tarragon said as I came into view, shining my light over him. "Good. I will be needing his expertise and small nimble hands once again."

He was far worse than the first time. Imagine what had happened to his hand... err paw, except across his entire body. Cuts and tears covered his entire body and I almost felt as if I was staring at a fine painting that had just been desecrated. Here was the first dragon I had ever met. Not that I was expecting to meet more. Something so rare and I admit, beautiful, torn asunder.

The great beast was laying on his side, arms, legs and wings spread out with his head rested against the dirt. He tried to lift his head, but couldn't, so he merely looked up at Tommy and me instead.

"It's been far too long." The dragon's voice cracked and he broke into a few sputtering coughs. Red spit clung to his lips. "Far too long."

"Yeah." I walked over to him to get a closer look. It was bad. Very bad. Many of the cuts were deep and some were more like gashes from a bite where entire chunks were missing. If this was an animal brought into the clinic, it would have been put down to save it from further misery. I didn't have the option this time. "I'm going to need my tools. I clenched my hands in frustration at being unprepared. "They're- They're in the truck."

"Don't worry." Tommy ran out of sight, behind the dragon and then appeared again with a large duffle bag. He dropped it next to me and openers it up, revealing a large collection of first aid. Everything I needed.

"Tommy has been most helpful in the recent months," Tarragon said silently.

It raised lots of questions, but I was already in life savings mode. I grabbed into the bag and pulled out a large bottle on hydrogen-peroxide and began to clean wounds. The liquid frothed pink and the dragon hissed and jerked, but made no attempt to stop me in any way. He let me work.

Tommy held my light, listening to every command I gave him, shining where I needed light and grabbing anything I needed. I had no plan of attack other than go from one wound to the next and it seemed to be working. I cleaned and stitched one wound free the other and like the paw from before, the damage was done to the flesh. Tarragon had just lost a lot of blood and was weak. He would have died if... well I imagine that most of the credit belonged to Tommy.

I was kind of jealous. It seemed that Tommy had contact with Tarragon more than me. It was childish to be jealous, but god damnit, I wanted to be something more than the dragon's first responder.

"There." I snipped the last stitch, one of about two dozen of varying sizes. "All done." I couldn't help but run my hand across the dragon's scales. They were smooth around the edges, but got more rough in the center.

Tarragon didn't mind at all. He kept his head down on the ground. "I'm sorry for having you used and Tommy like this, Doctor."

"A little forewarning would have been nice and I'm sure that Tommy would have helped anyways. He appears quite infatuated with you." There was a twinge of annoyance, but it was easily overshadowed by the fact that I was talking to a living, breathing dragon. It affirmed everything.

"He would have, but that's not why I apologize to him." The dragon's cat-like eyes shifted over to focus on my friend who was quietly watching with a goofy grin.

"Perhaps..." Tarragon muttered. "However he did not do this on his own will, willing or not."

I stopped putting the supplies away and looked at the dragon, eyebrow raised. "What do you mean?"

"I was afraid and so I put your friend under a spell."

"Spell?"

"Yes," Tarragon groaned and raised his head, using his entire body mass to support the effort. "I needed to be sure that help would arrive and so I put a spell on your friend when we first met so that in my times of red, he would help and bring you, Doctor."

That amazement of being with a dragon. Yeah. It was gone.

"You took away his free will!" I shouted loud enough that both Tommy and the dragon flinched. "You can't just do that."

All the stories from the books and movies showed dragons as proud creatures incapable of admitting wrong, but Tarragon looked like a dog that had just been caught digging in the lawn. His ears laid against his head and he avoided eye contact with me.

"It's alright," Tommy said before I could get more worked up. He placed himself between me and Tarragon. "He jus needed a way to get help if he needed it. Like his way of using that small box you sometimes wear on your hip." He meant a pager. "Don't get mad at him."

"He took your free will away," I tried to get him to understand, but he just would or couldn't. "It's worse than slavery!"

"It wouldn't have worked if he wouldn't have done it if his own free will." Tarragon tried to explain and I should have listened, but I was just so mad. I would have kept going if Tommy hadn't put his hand on my shoulder. It calmed me down enough to listen.

"Just listen," Tommy pleaded. "He explained it to me and I understood. You're the smartest person I know, except maybe that Einstein guy, but still pretty smart. Just listen."

I frowned. "Ok."

Tarragon cleared his throat and hacked a little. No doubt he had an infection along with a case of pneumonia. "Magic isn't as strong in this world as it used to be. It thrives when more use it and falters when the opposite happens. Humans left magic a long time ago and now only a few use it. It's too weak to affect most, but as we all know, Tommy is special. It affects him more so than other humans and even then, it only works because he lets it work. If he didn't want to help me, he never would have gotten the urge to drag you out into the woods under the pretense of uhm... hanging out."

It made sense. This outing had been Tommy's idea and the rest of us had been more than happy to oblige. It never once did occur to me that Tommy was being inflicted by a spell into getting me to come to the woods. It's just as ridiculous as it sounds and yet here I was.

"Ok, fine." I sat down on nearby rock. "You got me out here to fix you up again. Can I expect this again?" I sure as hell would have liked to know that this was gonna happen in the first place.

"Possibly," Tarragon muttered under his breath. Being a dragon many times my size, I heard the utter just fine. "This was no accident. Other have learned of my dealings with you humans and some may not agree. I got into a rather one sided fight with these... others."

Great. Dragons were getting violent. I was hoping that he had just gotten into a nasty scrap with a bunch of wolves or something. Maybe my neighbor's cat. That tabby was vicious. Attacked a stray rotty once and drove it away. Quite a sight to behold.

Tarragon winced as he stretched out his wings and then folded them back against his body again. "I fought off the first few with little trouble, but more showed up and I was forced to flee before I was killed. They did not follow. Their message was sent. More dealings with more humans would not be tolerated."

"What's going to happen now?" Tommy asked. He was stroking Tarragon's long and muscular tail. "I don't want you to get hurt again."

"After today. You will not see me again." The dragon struggles to get up. I tried to stop him, but he was too big and too strong for me to stop. "For centuries, dragons and humans have avoided each other, but you two have proven that old hatreds can not last when they have been forgotten." He limped to the edge of the cave and peered up at the dark sky.

"That's it?" I asked. I will neither confirm or deny that I was crying. "You just up and leave after all of this?"

"Yes." Tarragon's wings, which had avoided a lot of damage, unfolded. I stepped back to avoid getting hit by then, but I'm sure that the dragon was perfectly aware of where I was and wouldn't have hit me. "The compensation that had been promised so long ago is at the back of the cave." He didn't immediately take off.

Tommy was crying. He walked in front of the dragon, entirely unfazed by the size difference. "I'll miss you."

"And I, you." The dragon brought his head down where Tommy could pet his muzzle. "Our short time together has been pleasant and I will not forget your generosities." He then glanced at me. "Do take care of him."

I nodded.

Tommy stepped back Tarragon took to the air. He faltered slightly, but quickly gained altitude and vanished behind a passing cloud.

It was hard to believe that it was over. He was gone and Tommy and I were just left there standing.

We went into the cave and discovered the only thing that I had successfully predicted, gold. It wasn't mounds, but it didn't take lots of gold to make a man rich. It was enough to fill my pockets and the rest of the medical bag.

It was some time before we went back to camp where our absence had gone unnoticed due to the large amount of alcohol consumed.

I stowed the gold in my truck where it wouldn't be bothered and went to my tent. I fell asleep quickly from exhaustion.

The rest of the trip went fast and I quickly fell back into the usual routine of life. Wake up. Work. Come home. However, unlike last time, I never stopped thinking about Tarragon. The dragon had been a small glimpse into a much larger world that had evaded attention from humans. Hints at a fantasy world that wasn't so fantasy. There will always be regret for not pushing for more, but I'm satisfied in knowing that I and Tommy had the special privilege of being allowed to the doorstep of this world and peek in.