🐉🧒🏼 Ragnarok and the Humanling
First Draft Created: 2024-02-12 19:00
Last Updated: 1 month, 3 weeks ago
Ragnarok stirred in annoyance, flexing his twenty-foot scaly body in rage as the sound of footsteps resounded through the forest. His forest.
Then the beast calmed, sightly choking back the fire that had already started raging in his belly ready to release, for it was only Tommy, the five-year-old humanling who had found him and “adopted” him.
Ragnarok had continued living out in his hidden cave, feasting on the bodies of hapless forest travellers, but he couldn’t help but have a soft spot for this boy, who occasionally brought him cookies and small leftovers from dinner.
These morsels could barely feed a puppy, but Tommy looked up at him so expectantly and so earnestly that Ragnarok made a point of carefully opening the small plas-tick box, cradled gingerly between his claws, inserting the smallest claw on his right paw to lift out the foodlet, and repeatedly scooping these miniscule amounts into his mouth with what he hoped weren't too overdone sounds of appreciation that he imagined humans made, such as “Hmm…. Ummm. Very good. Delicious. My compliments to the chef.”
That last phrase, he was particularly proud of, having seen it on one of those yoo-tyoobs that the boy had proudly shown him on a square thing appropriately named a “tablet”, though certainly more impressive than the stone tablets he remembered from back before his Big Sleep, something humans on the nature yoo-tyoob called a "hibernation".
“Don't tell mom. I borrowed it and downloaded some things for you to watch!” The boy had said in a stage whisper, unconsciously imitating one of the characters from the yoo-tyoob.
These characters were the brightly-coloured and not at all realistic, with the sound effects of an out-of-tune band meant to denote emphasis and laughter points, but the boy talked about them and what they did with such affection that Ragnarok didn't have the heart to tell him they weren't real, that it was just some weird trick of light and magic. Hopefully, the boy's mother - whom he had been told he could not meet- would be better at explaining this when the time came.
But the boy didn't seem as if he would mind anyway. He had always just seemed happy with friends - real or not - happy to play pretend, in a way Ragnarok had wistfully recalled being when he was a dragonling.
Now, his pointed ears twitching towards the sound and breaking him from his daydream, he looked up at just the right point, as Tommy broke out of the trees, hurtling towards him like a little blond cannonball. Gods, that kid was fast.
It must be because he’s so close to the ground, Ragnarok thought. The legs don't have to bend. At least, he thought it worked that way.
Tommy's pace tended to be an indicaion of his energy levels, and he seemed extra excited today, as if there was something he couldn't WAIT to share.
But today there was no miniscule food box to pretend to be able to savour, and no yoo-toob slab, and Ragnarok found himself strangely disappointed at this break to his strangely comforting routine with the young humanling. Curiosity soon overtook him though, and initial concern at seeing Tommy's usually-cheerful and happy-go-lucky gait replaced by such unbridled haste. He flexed into a full standing position, careful not to bump his head on the too-low cave entrance, as he had done many times before.
The hurtling Tommy seemed to be holding something high above his head that fluttered though. A large feather? No. Humans had some weird treasures, although he had appreciated the yoo-toob. His face looked excited, not afraid, so Ragnarok deduced there was no cause for concern, and decided to settle down and wait.
His curiosity may be piqued, but his favourite spot was still warm by the still-hot coals of last night's fire, submersed in his favourite ray of sun through the trees, which was just starting to reach a welcoming temperature at this still-early morning hour.
Ragnarok shifted his paws in place, turned himself around in a circle and padded the ground, exactly like a cat settling onto a lap, before laying himself back down in place expectantly.
Tommy was finally arriving, his child's boundless energy making stopping to be out of breath before speaking a mere suggestion.
“Raggy! Raggy! I won!” Tommy cried, waving a piece of paper in his hand.
“Hmmf? Wha… What?” Ragnarok’s deep growl resounded.
Tommy paused in shock, thinking for a moment that he was experiencing an earthquake, similar to his cartoons, then his child’s mind remembered that this was just the resonance at which his behemoth friend spoke.
“That competition I entered! Remember? We won! We have money and we can run away now!”
Ragnarok was stunned. The game they'd played was real?
Tommy seemed put off my his friend's lack of response.
"We can go on adventures now!" He cried. "Just like we wanted to!"
Ragnarok nodded, approvingly. It seemed his days of hiding out in forests were finally over. He smiled.
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