Revenge of a Myth

"Hmm? Oh, yes, certainly. You can sleep in that room where you found your clothing," Erbrow said, waving a casual hand - bucket and all - toward the door. "The animal feed is in that shed. Watch the billy. He likes to try to push his way into the shed as he knows that is where the food is."

He walked out, heading up to the cave's exit. He went to the edge of the little outcropping and stood still for a moment. Slow breath in, slow breath out. And repeat. The cool night air felt good after the heat of the cave. He loved the warmth, but the cold was an excellent contrast. Once he'd had his fill of the night air, he tipped the pails and poured the milk content out over the edge to the forest below. Then he turned and headed back inside.
 
Saffron left the goat pen and opened the shed. She was greeted with large sacks of goat-feed and a few more buckets. She filled a bucket with feed and shut the shed door behind her, cautious of the billy goat. She slipped back into the pen to feed the goats and was immediately accosted by the hungry animals. She managed to not be trampled and feed the goats, not at all an easy task. She tried to leave the pen, but the billy goat refused to be left behind. He stayed quite close to her so as to be able to escape when she opened the pen.

"Ye stinky animal," Saffron growled. "Move!"

She tried to push the billy away with her foot, but he was unmovable. With an exasperated exhale, she tossed the empty bucket over the fence and backed up against the wood. The posts against her back reminded her of the sentence she had escaped and gave her an unnerving sense of deja vu.

She turned around and grabbed onto the fence, pulling herself up. The billy would not be thwarted and bit onto her pants.

"Ye stupid goat!" Saffron kicked, trying to free herself. "Why do ye 'ave to be so obstinate!"

She kicked again and ripped free of the billy's teeth. The sudden release unbalanced her and she toppled ungracefully over the fence. She landed in an uncomfortable heap of limbs bent in awkward positions. She scrabbled up and dusted herself off. That disgusting beast had ripped her pants and drooled all over her!
 
Erbrow came in about when the billy goat had Saffron backed against the fence. He put away his buckets and stood watching with amusement. The girl leaping over the fence brought an actual grin to his face. Now he was especially glad he'd asked her to feed the animals.

"Thaat was a good jump," he drawled. "Very impressive."
 
Saffron glanced over at Erbrow. Yay. He had seen her fall over the fence. Her past experiences reminded her that it could be worse, but still. She tried a sarcastic approach in an attempt to salvage her dignity.

"Aye, I was known for me jumpin' skills back in the village," she said. A yawn creeping up her throat reminded her how tired she was. "I'm goin' to bed now. G'night."

She walked back to the room where she had got her clothes and fell onto the bed. She didn't even bother to crawl under the covers or find different clothes. The events of the day had exhausted her and she fell asleep within minutes.
 
Erbrow watched the human in amusement. Such an amusing little creature, this human. Perhaps he should keep her around for good. That might be rather fun! She was even more entertaining than the goats, though he could not eat her like he could the goats and sheep. Ah well. Not everything fun needed to be eatable, did it?

Once the human disappeared into the small room, Erbrow turned and made his way down the final short corridor into a large, hollowed-out area. This was his nest. It looked almost like a literal nest, the stone carved into a bowl and filled with anything soft. Blankets, furs, straw, scraps of who-knew-what, it all made a deep mattress of soft. In his human form, he had to step very carefully as his feet sank down into the padding, but when he reached the center, he took off his clothing and cast them away before curling up naked in the center. He would turn back into a dragon in a moment. It was exhausting work to keep his human form, but shifting between shapes was even more exhausting and not to mention painful.

Time passed. The moon traveled across the sky as deep in the mountain the goats, the sheep, a girl, and a red dragon lay sleeping until the daylight.
 
~~~

Squish. Squish.

Saffron tried not to gag as her needle went in and out of the two bear hearts she was sewing together. She didn't know what a dragon heart looked like- she had never seen Fellen's goods herself and only knew what he sold by word of mouth- but this lump of... whatever hearts were made of definitely wouldn't pass for a dragon heart. She had to remind herself that was a good thing. They didn't want the bear hearts to look like a dragon heart. The whole point was to discredit Fellen.

Squish. Squish.

They had run into another obstacle that morning. It turned out Erbrow couldn't take a human form during the day. Communicating just became a whole lot harder. While Erbrow could understand Saffron, she had no idea how to decipher anything of the dragon language. They ended up playing a constant game of charades, and neither of them were happy. Sewing bear hearts together did not improve her mood.

Squish. Squish.

As she sewed, she wondered how Erbrow planned to replace Fellen's dragon scales. Or even if he was going to replace them. He had merely said he would take care of it, which did not satisfy Saffron's curiosity in the slightest. How were they going to get into Fellen's dragon goods in the first place? The more she thought about it, the less of a plan it seemed they had.
 
Erbrow had known full well that he would not be human in the day, but he hadn't thought it would be an issue. He hadn't even thought to tell the Saffron girl. Why should he? It happened every day no matter what. Now, it seemed, he had misjudged this human's intelligence. How could she not understand the simplest of things?? Why did he have to continuously go into these ridiculous charades to get any point across? It was frustrating, to say the least.

After he had hunted the old bear, taken out the heart, and given it to Saffron to sew with the other, older heart, he had set about eating the bear then storing what meat was left along with the skin. That would come in handy another day. The hunt had relieved a little of his annoyance, a long, hot bath a little more, but the instant he had spent five minutes in the room with the human as she sewed, all frustration returned. So he left to find some dragon scales.

Erbrow landed on the outcropping in front of his cave, a little off-balance as he tried to keep hold of his treasures. Then he walked forward, carefully balanced on his hind legs with his smaller forelegs cupped to hold something. When he made his way back into the cave, he ignored Saffron as he kicked a bucket to where he could dump something wet and sloppy into the bucket.
 
Saffron looked up as Erbrow came into the cave. He ignored her, but Saffron, who had finished sewing the bear hearts, wouldn't let him completely ignore her.

"I got the heart," she pinched the heart between the tips of her fingers so as to touch it as little as possible. "What's that ye has?"

Erbrow had something cupped in his front legs. It was too far up for Saffron to see what it was.
 
Erbrow took a moment to clean off his slimy "hands" before picking up the tail of a massive catfish and lifting it up for Saffron to see. The thing was easily as long as her leg and fatter around than two Saffrons. The blueish grey scales covering the slippery creature in neat rows were each the size of dinner plates. Erbrow waggled the thing slightly before letting it slurp back into the bucket and set it down. He'd already gutted the fish down by the lake where he'd caught it. Now all he had to do was carefully scale it.
 
A fish? Simple enough, but now Saffron had to figure out what he meant by it. And that meant frustration.

"Fish. Hmm. Are we gonna eat fish tonight or somethin'?" Saffron mused. That didn't seem right. "Why'd ye do that? We have food."

Saffron peered into the bucket that Erbrow had set down. That fish was HUGE. It's scales were absolutely massive and- wait, scales?

"Wait a min, this ain't fer food, is it? Is this gonna be our fake dragon scales?"
 
Erbrow would have rolled his eyes, but dragon anatomy was not well suited for it. Instead, he tossed his conical head in exasperation, the whisker-like eyebrows bouncing. Yes, of course it was going to be the fake dragon scales! And also for eating. Why waste perfectly good fish? Provided there was any left when he was finished getting the scales off. Catfish scales were thick and heavy, nearly as good as a knight's plate armor if the fish was big enough. It could easily pass initial inspection as a dragon scale instead of something aquatic.

He found a nice flat stone and rubbed his paw over it a few times to make sure it was clean before slapping the fish onto it. The big, goggly, dead eyes stared right at Saffron and her bloody hands. Erbrow paused in his work to lean over and inspect her heart. Then he gave a grunt of approval. Just right! Then he turned to slowly peeling the scales off one by one with his claws, trying not to damage them too much.
 
Saffron turned away as Erbrow began removing the scales. Why did revenge involve so many dead animals? This was absolutely disgusting. At least Erbrow had found her pseudo-dragon heart acceptable. She never wanted to touch anything like that again.

She reached up to push a strand of hair out of her face and stopped short. Her hands were covered in blood and heart residue! How had she not noticed. She would have to wash her hands. She turned partly back to Erbrow, trying not to look at the fish.

"I need to wash my hands. Can I wash where I take my bath las' night?" Saffron was happy this was a yes or no question. Those were so much simpler to communicate.
 
Erbrow grunted at her, not really caring, his entire focus on fish scales. Why did she feel the need to ask? It was a bunch of water that regulated itself. Why should he care what she did in it? It was a bath. That was what baths were for. Cleaning. Maybe she asked as a way to let him know where she was so he wouldn't bother her. He supposed that was reasonable.

He pulled out one whole scale and held it up triumphantly. Finally! He turned it to and fro, considering it in the light, then held it up to his own body as he tried to decide where it would fit on a real dragon. Hmm... Back of the neck seemed the most reasonable. He set it aside and started working on the next scale. This would be so much easier if he did not have to worry about the condition of the scale.
 
Saffron took Erbrow's grunt as a yes and headed to the pool to wash her hands. The bloody bits curled off her and she nearly threw up in the pool. If she had gotten the pool dirty the night before, the water would be permanently disgusting now. She hoped Erbrow wouldn't kill her because of it.

She walked back to where the dragon was and found him methodically removing and examining the fish scales before putting them in the bucket. He looked like he didn't need any help, so Saffron was at a loss. She awkwardly sat down a little ways from him. If she couldn't help physically, she would help in other ways. They still needed to figure out how to replace Fellen's dragon parts en route.
 
Once Erbrow finally finished pulling off the scales that seemed most similar to dragon scales, he turned to Saffron. Great. More charades. Why did some humans find this a fun game? He found it frustrating. Still, he got on with things as he pointsed to Saffron then to the scales. He wanted Saffron to take the scales. Was that clear? He repeated the motion a couple of times to be certain it was. Then he held up one hand and used the other to make a circular motion against the first. Washing. Rubbing. He wanted her to clean the scales. Understood?
 
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