Hunting Trip (Toothless)

[lu]

Lu crouched down, hidden behind some bushes as he watched his prey. The deer herd was fairly small, with just under fifty members, most of them does. One of the bucks, however, was Lu's target. It seemed to have caught some kind of disease and was currently the weakest member of the herd, and even easier target than the fawns. Lu would have felt bad about taking a fawn down anyway.

Slowly, inch by inch, Lu crept forward, the wolf inside him eager for the hunt. The desire was so strong that he could feel his lips curling up in a silent snarl of their own free will. It wasn't that Lu didn't like the thrill of the hill, it was that he didn't like the wolf being in control. The wolf wasn't a particularly nice persona to adopt.

As he continued to creep forward, Lu's body accidentaly brushed a bush and one of the does suddenly looked up, ears twitching, and started looking in Lu's general direction. At this range, Lu could see the hair standing up on the doe's back, and he could see every etail as, unsure about the presence of a threat, it stomped the ground with it's foreleg.

Instantly, all the other deer turned towards Lu, and he knew that all hope of getting closer undetected was gone. There was only one thing for it, and so Lu sprang up and sprinted towards the herd. The deer raised their tails in preparation for flight and then turned and ran.

Loping after them with wolfish ease, Lu focused on the sick buck, nipping at it's heals, trying to push it out of the herd.

Gradually, minute by minute, mile by mile, the buck dropped behind the others as Lu pursued it relentlessly. Most wolves had a success rate of as little as 3%, even when hunting in a pack, but Lu wasn't a wolf. He was an ancient werewolf, with the mind of a human and thousands of years of experience. His success rate was close to 90%, and this looked like it was going to be a successful hunt.

Finally, after almost half an hour, the buck started to slow, and Lu made his move. Lunging in at the deer's rear leg, he grabbed on and tore out the hamstring, a move that wolves didn't normally use. Then, as the deer collapsed, Lu latched onto the deer's throat, crushing the windpipe and suffocating the deer.

The buck writhed and kicked for a few moments, Lu latched on grimly, and then gradually stopped moving, except for a few twitches. Lu's wolf, satisfied, licked blood off his muzzle and then began to eat.

[Toothless]

What was a dragon to do when suddenly there were fifty deer exploding out of the brush and nearly barreling into him. Toothless raised himself up on his back legs in alarm, his massive wings whacking into the smallest branches of the trees and scattering leaves, and then he hissed; a low and dangerous sound that raised the hairs off the back of your neck. The deer in the lead of the stampede slid to a halt, it's terror clear in the white of it's rolling eyes, and then it took a sharp turn to the left and disappeared into the brush.

The other deer followed, and Toothless waited until the last of the deer came thundering after it before collapsing to the ground again, folding his wings and shaking his head. What was that all about?

Curious, Toothless started towards where he thought the deer had come from. He weaved through the trees, tail occasionally knocking into the brush behind him as he continued, until the trees began to thin out. Suddenly there was a bright line of color between the line of trees, and when Toothless came through it, it lead out to a plain. The woods surrounded the plain, and green eyes followed it until it became just a greenish-gray line on the opposite side. At first the dragon didn't see anything, and he stepped out into the valley looking around curiously.

However, as he did, he could clearly see the dark splash of red on the pale blades of grass. He followed that until he found the carcass it belonged too. And now Toothless could smell the iron in the air as the wind carried the scent of a fresh kill to him and over the rest of the plains. Toothless did not care for deer at all. He enjoyed fish, and his serrated teeth were more equipped for snatching and holding on to their slippery scales than they were for tearing and chewing meat. He had no interest in that deer and even curled his lip a little in disgust at the thought.

Toothless turned to leave, but the wind suddenly picked up again and carried a scent that made him freeze mid step. Human. Whatever was eating that deer was human. Except the dragon could clearly see that the animal enjoying it's meal wasn't human in the slightest. Toothless' eyes widened in shock and he turned his head to look the other over again. How was that even possible?

[lu]

Dragons, in Lu's experience, were rarely silent. If they weren't shaking the earth with their voice or steps, they were setting fire to it or causing miniature gales with the flapping of their wings. He'd actually served a dragon or two in his life, and seen them cast down gods and demons. Why, Kur, the first dragon, had carried off Ereshkigal to Kigal, or Irkalla as the Babylonians had called it, the underworld from which there was no return.

This dragon, however, didn't shake the earth. No fish boiled in the rivers, no mountains broke under its weight, no heroes or gods fought it with little regard to the collateral destruction caused by their fights. Of course, that didn't mean anything. Fafnir hadn't seemed like much of a threat when Lu had first seen him, but it had taken a descendant of Óðinn carrying Gram, a sword made near as powerful as the sword Tyrfing by the circumstances of its forging and reforging. That had been quite a hairy experience.

It was only natural, then, that Lu tried to control his wolf when it decided that the approaching dragon was a fellow predator and therefore after his kill. Acting out of primal instinct, the wolf was too strong and Lu found himself facing a dragon, teeth bared and ears flat, a low growl in his throat. Lu knew just how stupid a move that was, but his wolf had no idea what dragons were capable of.

The dragon started to turn away and Lu had a moment of relief, but his relief was soon replaced by panic as the dragon turned back around to face him. The wolf took a pace forward and snarled more loudly, and Lu panicked. He could die in this world, but that didn't mean that he wanted to. In fact, being able to die had made him more afraid of beings like dragons as a sense of self preservation kicked in. It had always been there - being reformed in the Absu was immensely painful - but it was ten times as strong now.

Before he knew what he was doing, Lu forced his body to change from wolf to human, not thinking about how a sudden change in appearance might startle the dragon. All he could think about was regaining control and looking like as small a threat as possible. The wolf was a predator and had too much control over the wolf form. No, he had to be human in order to survive this.

Kneeling on the grass completely naked, with blood coating the grass his knees rested on, Lu prostrated himself completely before the dragon, lying flat as board. In a frightened, reverential voice, he cried out for forgiveness.

"Oh great master, I beg of you, please forgive my transgressions. Have mercy on this one. I am less than nothing, less than a worm. Please, I beg of you, your magnificence, take pity on this one. I was not myself when I first saw you and meant no offence. I prostrate myself in front of you, I lay my life before you. Please, oh most mighty and magnificent Ušumgal, take pity on one so wretched as myself."

[Toothless]

Suddenly the wolf was in front of him, growling and with it's hackles raised. The dragon furrowed it's brows in a kind of incredulous way. Sure, he wasn't the largest dragon on Berk, nor was the most terrifying looking; but he was one of the most powerful. Toothless snorted out of his nose a little, obviously unimpressed by the wolf and it's territorial display. Perhaps if there had been more than one wolf, the Night Fury would have thought a little differently about this situation, because, like Terrible Terrors, they could be quite fierce in a pack. However, a lone wolf, armed with only teeth and claws, would not survive fight with a dragon armed with teeth, claws, tough scales, and fire breath. It was just fact.

The dragon thought about leaving the other again, because he didn't really want to fight this wolf. Even if it hadn't smelled like human, Toothless wouldn't have wanted too. The dragon didn't want anything to do with the others meal at all, and therefore, a fight was unneccessary. Before he could do such a thing though, the wolf began to change. Toothless stared wide eyed at the process before him, ears falling back on his head and taking a step back. A wolf that could turn into a human! Sure, it answered the question about how a wolf could smell like a human, but not in a way that explained anything. No, Toothless was even more confused now!

And then the human was doing something even weirder, and Toothless hadn't been aware such a thing could happen. Of course, Toothless was used to the viking way of doing things, which was to swing axes and ask questions later. No viking he had ever met begged for their life from a dragon, which made the experience completely new and foreign to him. Toothless glanced to the left a little awkwardly, before bringing his gaze back to the human in front of him, cocking his eyebrow a bit.

Well. When the human/wolf finished his speech there was a bit of an awkward silence because Toothless wasn't exaclty sure what to do from here. And for a long while that silence stretched as Toothless racked his brain for answers.

Finally the dragon came up with something. There was a thud as the dragon collapsed to the ground right in front of the other, kicking up some dust. He rested his chin on the ground and looked over at the human with his ears raised and his pupils widened. He did this for two reasons, to try and get the other to look up at him, and so that Toothless could look the human in the eyes when he did. And he made sure that his expression was anything but hostile, the corners of his mouth lifting up, revealing his retracted teeth, and putting on the best and biggest smile he could come up with.

[lu]

Silence followed Lu's plea for his life and his heart was racing. Small tremors pulsed through his body as he tried to control wolf's instinct to fight and his own fear. He was in a bad position if the dragon did decide to kill him, but what else could he do? Running would see him just as dead, if not more so, and standing firm was an even worse choice. No, he had done best thing possible. So, why did he still feel so afraid?

Lu didn't have much time to think about the root of his fear, because there was a sudden, heavy thud right in front of him. Whimpering a little and almost wetting himself, Lu tensed his body and waited for the next thud to occur in the center of his body.

Nothing.

Too afraid to so much as twitch and expecting this to be some sort of test, Lu stayed faced down and silent for a few moments, waiting for the dragon to speak. The fact that it hadn't spoken worried him a little. Dragons tended to gloat when in a position of power, and that this one wasn't going on and on about how mighty it was and how pathetic Lu was was worrying. A small worm of fear began to gnaw at his mind, telling him that this was it, that he was going to die for sure.


Something strong inside Lu finally burst forward and the Shepherd gave both Lu and the wolf a slap to the back of their heads. It seemed to be telling the wolf to shut up and let Lu do the talking, and for Lu to face his potential death with honour. Once, kings had respected him and his family and a goddess had chosen to lay with him for seven days and nights. Back home, what he had been made into made him less than human, but that wasn't the case now. He didn't have to be a sniveling coward any longer.

Slowly, carefully, Lu removed his face from the ground and was shocked to see the dragon right in front of him, teeth bared. Fearing for his life, Lu started to jump back. Then, mid leap, he realised that the dragon wasn't baring it's teeth at him. It was...was it really? Yes! It was smiling!

Picking himself up from where he had fallen, Lu stood carefully and looked at the dragon. Everything about it seemed friendly even, in hindsight, the smile. There had been no malice there, no sadistic pleasure at having caught Lu looking up without it's permission. Lu had gotten pretty good at recognising all those kinds of expressions on non-human entities, and he was 99% sure that the dragon wasn't planning on eating him any time soon.

Unsure what he should do, and still more than a little terrified of the dragon, Lu gave the creature a weak smile. The dragon hadn't instantly killed him, so he might as well be polite.

"My apologies, great one. My name is Lu Urbara, and you caught me eating my evening meal. Would you like to partake in it with me?"

Heart in mouth, Lu watched to see what the dragon would do next.

[Toothless]

The Night Fury waited patiently for the wolf-human to grow curious and courageous enough to look up again. Courageous because the smell of fear was suddenly very thick in the air around him. He was very familiar with the scent, because despite how a Viking never groveled, they were still afraid when he swooped down on them from the night sky. It was a long while, with the silence becoming thinner and thinner, before this wolf-human finally started to pick up his head. Toothless almost purred, but reigned it in and swallowed it at the last second. He didn't want to make the other even more terrified after all.

Which, it turned out, didn't matter because the wolf-human jumped anyway. Toothless looked a little confused, smile dropping a little. That wasn't what a smile was supposed to do! However, he kept it on just to be safe, and was finally rewarded with a weak smile from the other. Good! Now that it was established that he didn't mean harm, Toothless dropped his own smile and resumed looking curious, pushing his front paws out from underneath him so he was sitting. It had started getting uncomfortable lying on the ground in a crumbled heap like that.

Lu Urbara. That was a pretty interesting name. Very un-Viking like. Green eyes surveyed the other up and down, eyes narrowing just a fraction and his head tilting to the side a bit. The dragon was looking for fur coat, or for something that could explain how the other had appeared like a wolf just a few moments ago. Except he saw nothing but a naked man, who, apart from the iron from the deer's blood, didn't even smell like a wolf in the slightest. Not even in the tiniest little bit. But how?

At first the dragon's ears went up when he was asked about the meal, as green eyes went to the carcass behind him, some of the friendliness left Toothless' expression. His pupils thinned, and he began to emit a low sounding hum; an almost-growl. His nose wrinkled in disgust at the very idea, and he turned away, ears dropping back against his head. It was quite obvious how Toothless felt about that when the dragon huffed in a kind of offended way. No, he did not want to take part in eating of that disgusting pile of meat Lu called a meal.