The Search: chapter 1
Story by Shinru on SoFurry
The first chapter of my current story :) I hope you'll enjoy!
The art is from Syntex.
The Search
By Shinrufurdrag
Chapter 1
He was laying there, in this dark room, slowly regaining consciousness. As he awakened, he soon felt able to open his eyes, but his body was numb. He couldn't think about anything, he just kept progressively waking up and tried to move a little. Still dizzy, he could feel that the control of his head was coming back to him. Left, right, up down, it slightly hurt his neck, but soon it felt comfortable enough. Then, his legs. Moving them felt strange, as if he was not used to move, as if he had never moved them before. It just felt... Different, yet he didn't remember feeling any different before. He opened his mouth, then realized it was a jaw. Slowly getting on his paws, he felt two more organs which were situated on his back. It was his wings. They were quite small, and he didn't manage to make them move. He became used to the dark, and could see his surroundings clearer. The place that he was in was just a square room, and apparently there was nothing inside but him. In the darkness, he couldn't see what colour he was. From what he could feel of himself and his body, he guessed that he was a dragon. Curious, he began to smell the edges of the room, and a part of one wall smelt different than the rest. Strangely, he knew what a door was, so he guessed that it was a door. With his claws, he scratched it repeatedly, and instinctively, he said «Is there anyone out there?». He didn't know how he could talk. He just could. He repeated it many times, and nobody answered. After several minutes, he began to worry. He had no idea where he was, how he got there, and the worst was that he had no idea who he was. He didn't know his own name, and he didn't know what happened before he woke up in this dark room. But it wasn't the time to think about that. He had to get out.
The dragon thought that perhaps he could break the door. A dragon is strong, so he must be strong as well. He took a few steps backwards, lowered his head, and rushed into the door to hit it. It seemed not to be effective, yet he tried many times. Nothing happened, and his head began to hurt a little. Suddenly, he heard a voice from the other side of the door. «Hey! Do you hear me?». The dragon immediately came close to the door and answered «Yes I hear you! Please open the door!». There was the sound of a lock several times, and at last the door opened, bringing the light into the room and making the dragon cover his eyes.
«I'm so sorry! I was in an other room and I didn't hear you. How do you feel?»
«Ngh... I feel fine, I guess.»
«That's good. When did you wake up?»
«I dont know... Maybe half-an-hour ago?...»
«Okay. Take your time, get used to the light, and follow me upstairs.»
The dragon became less and less blinded by the lights as he stepped out of his room. The one who opened the door was a human; he knew what a human was; and he was wearing a long white coat. Probably a scientist. He was in some sort of laboratory, there were tables, computers, a lot of glass containers. He followed the man to a staircase, and walked upstairs with him.
«Say...» the dragon began as he looked around, «should I be worried that I don't remember anything? I mean, I have no idea how I got here, and I don't know my name.»
«There's nothing to worry about. You have slept for a really long time, and it's common to have a slight amnesia after such a long time. I'm sure it'll get back to you after a while. And your name is Firrothe.»
«Firrothe...», the dragon looked at himself. He was green-scaled. His height was almost the same as the human, of course he would be way taller if he tried to stand up on his back legs. He noticed a mirror in a corner, and walked in front of it to see how his face looked like.
His eyes were blue. A beautiful light-blue. He had two big horns on both sides of his head, and a smaller one on the tip of his nose, with two tiny ones behind it.
«I kind of like it.» Firrothe said.
In the reflection, he saw the scientist smile at him. Firrothe turned around and looked back at him.
«What is your name?»
«My name's Kristof. We are many here, a crew of ten.»
«A crew?...»
Kristof didn't say anything for a few seconds, then patted Firrothe.
«You must wonder what this place is and why you're here, right?»
«Yes.»
«Alright, Follow me»
The scientist led Firrothe though a few corridors before entering an other room, which seemed to be the main entrance of the building. Kristof opened the door that led outside. The dragon slowly walked out and was able to see the environment that surrounded him. It all looked quite familiar to him, there were trees, there was grass, the sky was blue and the air was nice to breathe. He was sure that he had seen such a scenery before. He started walking around, smelling the flowers and the bushes, running a little and getting used to his body.
«Let me tell you why you're here, then you can wander around and explore the area.» Kristof said.
The dragon went back to the scientist and sat.
«Okay, I'm listening»
«Good, listen closely. You are here on a planet called Celtio. It's exactly like on... Well you can see there are trees and everything. You are a dragon, and this planet is, in additional to the normal animals, populated by dragons. The problem is that female dragons are getting fewer and fewer and we haven't seen any in a long time.»
«Hum... I see. So I have to find a female?»
«Yeah, your mission is to help repopulate the planet, so you'll need to go and find a female.»
«Okay... I understand. Do you know if I'll get my memory back soon?»
«I can't tell. It might take a few hours like it might take a few days.»
«Okay...»
Firrothe began to walk around again. Kristof told him that he can go explore but not go too far. Then the dragon started to walk away, exploring his surroundings. He continued to walk, looking around him without thinking and before he could realize it, he was lost.
He found himself in a forest where the trees were quite high and the ceiling of leaves allowed a few sun beams in. The atmosphere was darker than before and it was a little colder as well. Lost in his mind, only thinking about the surroundings, he was not thinking about his mission anymore. Just walking, smelling the trees and the leaves on the ground, looking at the light passing through the leaves up the trees, and contemplating the gorgeous scenery he was in.
However, eventually he became hungry and soon he had to look for anything he could eat. There were plenty of mushrooms on the ground, but to Firrothe they smelled funny and he thought he'd rather not eat them. It was only after several minutes of looking that he saw a potential source of food, a rabbit. He didn't know why, but the idea of killing it felt both natural and weird. He couldn't quite grasp what it was that he was feeling, it was as if he used to eat animals, but never killed them himself. The dragon was therefore new to hunting, and his lack of tact caused the rabbit to hear his steps easily. Seeing the wild animal suddenly running away, Firrothe immediately began to run after it. It was faster than him, but the more Firrothe ran, the more control and mastery he had of his legs, so he managed to catch up and once he got close enough, he opened his jaw and closed it firmly on the animal, who didn't die directly but it was still badly hurt and unable to move. The dragon stared at the rabbit on the edge of death, trying to move and covered in blood. He felt pity for that poor animal that he had just taken down. In order to quickly shorten the agony of the animal, Firrothe thrusted his claws into its neck, killing it instantly. Now, he was not sure about how he was supposed to eat it. Should he leave the fur and eat the animal just like that or should he open it and eat only the meat inside? He decided to go for the second option, for eating fur didn't feel like a good idea. He ripped the rabbit apart and the smell of blood struck his nose, making him gag. He had to eat though, so he just stopped breathing and put his muzzle inside the animal, and bit and chew. It took him about ten minutes to eat everything, Firrothe was disgusted by what he had done, but at least he was not hungry anymore. Now that this was done, he remembered about his mission, and that Kristof told him not to go too far. He had to go back to the building, but his sense of orientation wasn't really good. He couldn't remember where he came from.
Eventually, after having walked for quite some time, he manage to get out of the forest. However, it didn't seem like where he came from, and the dragon guessed that he went the wrong way. About to walk back, he noticed a big shadow on the ground, then heard the sound of wings flopping in the air. He looked up, and he saw a quite big bird-like creature. It had feathers, a beak, and magnificient wings. A griffin! It landed in front of Firrothe, and intimidated him with a loud, shrill roar. The dragon was trembling.
«Kim keissor zia, drra simi?»
Firrothe didn't understand what the creature said but it sounded threatening. He could run away but the griffin would surely catch up in no time, unfortunately it seemed like he had no other choice than try to fight for his life. He never had a fight, he didn't recall facing danger before.
«I... I don't understand...», he answered, shaking.
The griffin had this creepy sadistic smile on his face, like he wanted to make Firrothe suffer and take pleasure from it. He stepped forward slowly, creating more and more anticipation. The dragon decided to run away in the end, that would be his only chance if he wanted to live, perhaps he would be able to dodge his enemy's attacks. He quickly turned around and fled with the highest speed he would use. The griffon laughed and didn't start chasing him before some time, as if he wanted to let his hope build up just to be able to destroy it more violently. He let Firrothe run, and then he deployed his wings and flew off. Flying above the running dragon, he was probably thinking about the right moment to pounce down. Firrothe was running as fast as he could, scared like he never was before. He thought he was going to die, that it would be all over. The evil creature was laughing and screaming words that the poor dragon couldn't understand. After a minute of restless running, Firrothe began to become tired, and the griffon had more and more advantage on him. Then, the creature flew down and tried to bury his claws in the dragon's neck. The latter saw him arrive at great speed and manage to dodge his enemy by jumping quickly on the left. The griffin hit the ground and looked at Firrothe.
«You think that will save you, right?», he said, showing that he can speak English.
Firrothe kept on running, chased by the griffin, when suddenly he heard a loud howl. The griffin immediately reacted.
«Oh no!» he screamed.
A pack of wolves appeared from the forest, and ran all together towards the griffin, who barely had the time to fly away. As the creature took slowly some heigh, one of the wolves managed to grab his tail and bring it back to the ground. All the other wolves, there seemed to be about ten of them, rushed to him and all burried their claws and teeth in him. The griffin screamed in pain and tried to fight back but he became defenseless against so many enemies. Firrothe watched it happen, not knowing if he should run away. What if afterwards, they will attack him too?
Soon, the griffin was dead, and one wolf began to eat his meat. The wolves looked at the dragon, who didn't know what to do. He wanted to know if they were friendly, so he slowly approached them. They all began to groan and bark at him. The one who was eating stopped and walked to Firrothe.
«If you want to eat, find your own prey. You didn't deserve this meal» he told him.
«I... I'm not hungry, I just want to thank you... For saving me», Firrothe said.
The wolf smiled at the dragon.
«You would be dead if we hadn't come. What's your name?»
«My name is Firrothe»
«My name is Tannihn. I'm the alpha of my pack.»
The other wolves said, impatiently:
«Hey, if you're talking with that dragon, can we eat?»
«Sure, go ahead» Tannihn replied.
Firrothe smiled brightly.
«Thank you so much, Tannihn. I owe you my life!»