Page 4 of Bitten in the Wild

“Maybe it’s someone tripping balls,”my dragon chimed into my thoughts.“Can I steal their knees if I’m right?”

I shushed him up and kept going toward the water. Peeking through the dense foliage I spotted an otter-looking creature. It was brown and silver with big purple eyes that stared back at me. In his hands he held a silver and purple fish. He sniffed the spot where he last bit before chomping into it again. I inched closer. Back home on Earthside otters were generally friendly enough as long as you didn’t fuck with them too much. They were playful and intelligent. If this otter was the descendent of one the Starscales stole from Earthside there was no reason he or she wouldn’t behave the same way.

The otter chomped away on its fish as I observed its thick water dense fur. The silver spots stood out with clear definition as if some old god had drawn them on with a permanent marker. I found another flat rock to sit on and joined the otter for lunch.No sooner than I pulled my half-eaten sandwich out of my bag did the thing emerge fully from the water to reveal a long wagging tail as if it were part dog. I tentatively offered it a piece of ham and the greedy otter-dog gobbled it up.

A cloud drifted over the lake, and I stretched out on my belly to feed the otter-dog another bite of my sandwich. Fortunately, I was well aware of my draconic appetite, and it wasn’t the only one I brought along to snack on. The creature nuzzled against my hand as more clouds followed the first. Through the trees I couldn’t see them but spotted their fluffy ends over the lake. Something crashed through the trees and the otter-dog popped up like a meerkat on its hindlegs. Its tail wagged. I twisted, expecting more of its own kind instead of the chocolate pearl colored dragon swooping down through the trees.

Instinct said run! So I did, but not before scooping up my bag and the otter-dog. It clung to me with happy little paws with sharp nails, seemingly oblivious to the danger we’d found ourselves in that afternoon. The dragon roared and I raced faster, pushing myself, and bracing for the fire that was sure to follow me soon. Would the beast set the whole forest of mushies on fire to get me? Was I that tasty of a snack? Did he smell my sandwiches or was it the happy little water beast he wanted to sink his teeth into? A more pragmatic dragon might’ve tossed the otter-dog up to the wild beast and made a break for freedom. I was not that much of a realist. Besides, I worked with the military medical unit during the Moonscale war against the hate group Mundanes Before Magic. One wild dragon wasn’t going to get the better of me. Eventually I’d lose him or he’d grow tired of chasing me around and look for easier prey.

Or so I thought. The faster I ran the more he spread his near iridescent wings and drifted along above me. He growled and made small roaring sounds. My fellow prey barked at him and then hissed before climbing out of my arms and ontomy shoulders as if he meant to reach out and swat the beast pursuing us through this alien forest full of mushrooms and more colors than Earthside painters ever dared to dream of.

Eventually, the beast did tire of chasing us. He crashed through trees knocking them here and there. He smelled like metal and something familiar. Of course, all dragons smelled somewhat familiar to other dragons. My skin burnt hot as I raced under the canopy unable to escape the humid heat that prickled and evoked sweat from every pore of my body. Then he came down – fast and hard – the otter-dog barked and leapt at him, but in the end, he scooped us both up.

That’s when I finally smelled him correctly, and my mind drew a blank. His scaled digits wrapped around me.

“Mate!”my dragon roared from inside his inner sanctum.

Chapter Two

Nycto

Mine! He was mine and I finally captured him!

He’d given a good chase, but I had him now!

“Careful!”My human beast warned from inside his inner sanctum.“He’s soft and fleshy in that form!”

My human beast hated whenever I had too much fun. Well, he called it too much fun and I called him boring. If he had his way, we’d spend more of our time in town, but he didn’t get his way often. Besides, the dragons in town were strange creatures with too many rules about what everyone else should do.

Waj climbed up my leg and chest onto his normal spot just behind my head. Mine – wasn’t so easy to hold onto. He acted as if he had never been off the ground before. Our game of chase was fun, but I was tired of him sneaking into tiny spots as if he was trying to make me knock down my favorite trees on purpose. Some mates were like that, though, and this dragon that caught my attention wasn’t a normal townie. He was one of those Moon-Goons who landed their ocean liner on our planet without proper warning. I might’ve taken a chomp out of him, if he hadn’t been mine.

Lucky for him he was mine.

I smelled him as soon as he entered my forest. His scent came from every direction and even the dragons without skin forms whispered about it in their thoughts. Had he heard them, or did he speak Waj’s language? Maybe neither. He didn’t really act like a dragon who knew I was his true-mate. Then again, he wasn’t from here. Who knew what mates did where he came from? Still, he was mine. I juggled him around until he sat on my foot properly. If he wasn’t going to shift and fly with me theleast he could do was be a good passenger and stop squirming so much. I didn’t want to drop him, after all. Maybe be wanted to be dropped. Who knew what his idea of fun was?

My nest was further out than most skin dragons ever wandered. Every once in a while one of them ate too many mushies and ended up nearby. I hadn’t eaten any of them – yet. I tried jabbing at Mine over the flight link they used in the city. If he heard me, he didn’t say anything. Did he not speak dragon? A roar crept into my throat, but my human part wouldn’t let me blow fire while flying around with Mine.

“Hello?”I tried again over the flight link.

“Hello?”Mine answered.

“You do speak!”

A wave of relief washed over me, and I flew a victory spiral through the sky. Mine didn’t like that much, but since he didn’t bother to shift, he had to put up with me. That was the cost of a free ride.

“Are you the wildling Bluing and Cevin mentioned, perchance?”Mine asked.

“Haha. That’s what they call me. Cevin is a wildling, too, if that’s what you want to call us. At least he was. Now he’s a townie because of that giant alpha of his.”

“Where are we going?”

“Home,”I answered.

Where else would I take Mine?

“And that is?”he asked.

“The nest, of course,”I shrugged midflight.“Do you want to fly?”

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