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“Well what did you catch this time?” Vip prodded Hym impatiently as he waited for Hym to land and feast with the dragon. Proud, Hym presented a brace of ducks and fat raccoons. Salivating, Vip took a whole goose in his mouth, bit its head off, and chewed happily.
Waiting for Vip to finish, Hym finally got tired of watching Vip eat and said, “Do you intend to cook any for me, eh?” Nodding, Vip gently let the rest of the goose fall to the ground, took a deep breath, and blew fire over the whole lot. Eyebrows singed, Hym jumped back with a startled oath, and yelled, “Why do you insist on doing that?!” Chuckling to himself, the dragon sat back on his haunches with a contented sigh and went back to feasting.
Grabbing a goose, Hym sat down to eat alongside Vip, ignoring the gore and blood that flew everywhere from Vip’s ferocious appetite. “This is the life,” Hym sighed as he sat back, spattered with gore and his shirt bursting at the seams. “Agreed, meat any day over those bloody Pilka berries,” Vip mumbled through a mouth full of goose flesh.
Jumping to his feet, Hym eyed the bushes near his clearing intently. A rustle of the leaves, and the snap of a stick breaking on the ground, were sounds that Hym’s wary ears picked up and interpreted as indicators of something pacing around them. Before Hym’s eyes, a wolf stepped into the clearing, gazing intently at Hym and Vip.
Moving closer, watching them all the while, the wolf picked up the brace of raccoons in its mouth, and backed away slowly. Vip’s eyes flashed dangerously as he eyed the wolf escaping with his meal. Quick as lightning, Vip darted forward, his teeth flashed in the glaring sunlight, and a spurt of red stained his hide.
Moving back towards Hym, Vip dragged the wolf’s corpse back, brace of raccoons still clenched in its teeth. Setting the body down, Vip flashed a bloody smile at Hym and said, “Food is always better when you work for it.” Scarfing down the wolf’s body, Vip drew his eyes away from Hym, and Hym relaxed visibly.
Chuckling at the wolf’s fate, Hym went to the nearby stream to wash the bloody mess that was left on his body after his meal. Clear, chilly water splashed against his flesh as he washed away the dirt, and the stream turned briefly red. When the water cleared, Hym waded out, and eyed himself in the stream’s reflective surface.
High set cheekbones and slightly slanted eyes marked him as a noble, the dark, violet knobs on his shoulders marked him as a Skaldian. Flexing his wings, Hym watched as the deep purple surface blotted out sunlight and left a cool, dark shadow on the stream’s surface. Veins ran throughout his wings in a treelike pattern, branching out widely and leaving darker spots in the shadow.
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Folding them back, Hym drew his clothes back on and flew back to his clearing, favoring the light dust carried on the wind than the heavy dirt that blew through the forest’s dirt paths. Landing, Hym watched as Vip finished feasting and lumbered off to lick himself clean. Arms stretched out as a pillow for his head, Hym dozed off in the bright sunlight, warm and happy.
Hym knew today was going to be terrible. He awoke early the next morning to a face full of frigid rain. Jumping to his feet, he looked around for Vip but couldn’t find him. Knowing that a little rain couldn’t hurt a dragon, he ran full tilt for his burrow.
His breath fogged in the air, and his skin rippled, the hairs on his arms that weren’t soaked standing up like soldiers at parade. Diving head first into the burrow, he slammed his face into a curled up pile of scales. “What in the hell are you DOING Vip?” Hym yelled. Vip’s only response was to chuckle, and grin with those serrated teeth of his.
'Jerk,' Hym thought. Crawling after Vip’s retreating tail, he could hear the rains’ downpour softening. Typical. He wasn’t about to go back out in that kind of weather, so he finished his crawl into the cave.
Very little had changed over time, except the increasing pile of furs that were accumulating around the cave. Life had been good since Hym adopted Vip. Hym stripped off his clothing, and left them sopping in a corner, to stink. To hell with it, he could deal with it later. He curled up in a pile of furs, but knew better than to ask Vip to heat it up in the cave. He’d probably light the whole mountain on fire. Menace.
Hym awoke some time after the rain stopped, and crawled outside. Vip had already accumulated a small pile of firewood, and there was a lone, charred rabbit lying on the slab of stone they had dragged back to use as a table. Hym softened a little towards Vip. The guy had a sick sense of humor, but he could be a great friend sometimes.
He walked over to the slab, sat on it, and picked up the rabbit. Apparently, as another joke, there was a rose stuck in it’s mouth, held like a dog with a bone. Sicko. Laughing despite himself, Hym plucked the flower from the rabbit’s mouth, and tossed it to the wind. Watching it fall, he saw it land safely in the hand of the young woman standing a small distance away.
Hym’s heart seized in his chest, and adrenaline poured through him like water through a broken dam. Bolting for the cave, Hym threw himself into the entrance. He promptly collided with a pile of scales. “Damn it Vip! Why do you keep…nevermind, how long has this person been here?!” Vip blinked slowly, his eyes on Hym.
“She says she is mother?”