Don't eat me. [Erzulie]

[-Pan-]

“Leo, slow down!” Pan yelled after her hatchling, who was way too far ahead of her. The little devil had only been here for a week and had managed to cause her more trouble than she could remember dealing with in the rest of her life combined. Of course her life had always been peaceful, so that wasn’t exactly saying very much, but still. She wondered why she had ever decided to climb that stupid mountain, because so far, it hadn’t gotten her anything except a constant headache. And right now, she was especially concerned for both of their safeties, because in all his skipping around, they had managed to get more or less lost. After a stop-off in Myrkan, Pan had allowed Leo to persuade her in to forsaking the roads, which now that she looked back on it she concluded she must have been out of her mind. A girl who couldn’t defend herself and a dragon hatchling who couldn’t sit the hell still? Yeah, that was definitely the optimal pair to be wandering around in the wilderness. She was gonna have to get a leash for that boy, and made a mental note to find something that would do the trick next time they made a pit stop. But for now, she wanted to get them off this grey, desolate beach and back to the trees she was so comfortable with. “Leo! Come back!”

The little ball of ruby scales came scampering back, stopping at her feet with an annoyed expression. “Whaaaaaat, Pan?” he whined at her, or rather that’s how she interpreted it, being a shifter it was easy for her to understand the dragon’s mewls and itty bitty roars. They were able to communicate telepathically as well, but it was a skill they were still developing and for now it was just easier to listen to his dragon noises. “You need to stop running off!” She scolded him in complete exasperation. She had ever been much of a physical person anyway, and they had been walking way too much for her liking. If he wanted to run out all that energy, then he could practice flying or something. No, scratch that. If he started flying before she was big enough to ride him, he would probably go off one day and she would never find him again. “And I don’t like being here. It’s getting dark.” “Dark schmark. I can see fine, and so could you if you were a mouse.” Ugh, the sass on this one was ridiculous. “It’s not about that, Leo. This place can get dangerous.” The dragon narrowed his eyes but didn’t talk back, apparently conceding this one. Thankfully. Half the time he would decide to keep going until Pan finally fed him to shut him up or walked away. She nodded and picked him up so he could scramble to his perch on her new backpack, and then started scanning for refuge from the coming night. There looked to be an inlet a little ways away, so they headed over there

It took a little while but they eventually reached the mouth of the cave, and it looked to be more than big enough to shelter them for the night. There was even light coming from it. Was there already someone there? That would be great, because Pan was not very good at getting a fire started and Leo still couldn’t breathe any out yet. She rounded the edge of the mouth with hope, and then stopped dead as she saw what lay inside. Yes, there was already someone there, however that someone was a dragon. An unusual looking dragon. With bone and feather necklaces and long very sharp spikes that could oh so easily impale the small girl. She stood frozen, torn between the compulsion to run, to shift, or to stay the hell put so that the wild predator wouldn’t see her and eat her. And her dragon, yeah, Leo was only a little bit less defenseless than she. However, he also had none of the survival instincts and cowardice she was not at all ashamed of, and the thought of remaining unnoticed apparently did not occur to him, because once she stopped moving he got bored and hopped off her shoulder to land with a very ungraceful thump. Naturally, the glowing things and jars on the rows of shelves piqued his curiosity, so he went to the nearest one and pushed his head in to it, knocking it off the shelf and clattering to the floor. It had been the lowest shelf, so thankfully it hadn’t shattered, but Pan was still mortified. If she wasn’t still rooted to the spot she would be yelling at him about actually unscrewing the damned lid and taking the item out instead of just breaking the containment item in impatience for proper behavior. In her horror, she had managed to take her eyes off the unusual looking dragon that was now advancing on her little partner.