Dragon

by: Rari Coss

Rated PG

The Dragon: Part 1

She didn't understand why she had been brought here. Every breath was painful. She knew she was dying. One minute she had been in her world and the next in this strange one. The air couldn't even support her wings and she had fallen to the ground. She had pulled her heavy body through the woods, and when she was forced to rest she had tried to forage on the unfamiliar plants. On finding a cave entrance she had entered, needing a place to hide, needing to try and understand what had happened. She had been here now for too long and she knew she wouldn't last much longer. The sadness and loneliness overwhelmed her and she laid her head down on the ground and thought of home.


***
Giles had needed a focus. After he had watched them bury Buffy nothing had made sense to him anymore. He had woken up each day and gone to the shop. At closing he had locked the front door and moved back to his flat. But the purpose of either activity was absent. He felt like a shell, abandoned by its previous owner, left on the bottom of the ocean.

A week after the funeral he had read a brief article in the paper. Someone claimed to have seen a dragon, over in the woods at the edge of town. Their claims had only been worthy of derision by the author of the article but Giles wondered. He had seen a dragon enter their skies when the rift had opened. Maybe it hadn't gotten home. Maybe it was still around. Maybe he could go kill it. And a part of him hoped that maybe he'd be killed in the process.

He began searching. He scoured the woods looking for signs of dragons. He looked for fewmets or scales or whatever else might have dropped from the beast he had only seen for an instant before his life had shattered as his Slayer had fallen from the sky ending up broken and dead before him.

Towards the end of his fifth day of searching he found markings on the ground that indicated that something heavy had fallen and then more signs showing that whatever it was had dragged itself off. Armed with a sword he followed the path eventually coming to a cave entrance.

He pulled out his flashlight and keeping the beam as low as possible he entered. After he'd gone in far enough to not be able to see the entrance anymore he heard a noise and turning the flashlight off he listened intently. He heard it again. Something was breathing. Breathing and moaning. Wherever and whatever it was, it sounded injured. Giles followed the noises and in a minute he had found the beast. He shined his flashlight on it and other than looking at Giles with its unhappy eyes it did nothing aggressive.

Giles sighed and slipped the sword into its scabbard on his back. He stood there for a minute fighting with himself. That look in its eye had touched him. It had been a look filled with intelligence and pain. Giles took off his glasses and ran his hand over his face. His compassionate side won the battle and he approached closer to the dragon. Despite how stupid it made him feel he spoke to it. "A...are you all right?"

The dragon took a tortured breath and opened its eyes, alarmed. It had moved closer to her. She tried to shift away from the intruder but movement had become too painful. She let out a cry of pain. Giles winced at the noise and he took a step closer holding up his hands. "I won't hurt you."

She lifted her head a small amount and spoke. "Where is this place?" Giles didn't understand what had been said except that the language seemed somehow familiar to him. He encouraged it with his hands to speak again, hoping he might determine what language it was speaking. She hoped she understood the gesture and asked her question again. "Where am I?"

Giles let the unfamiliar words play through his mind. He sat there lost in thought as he ran it through the immense language files in his brain. After a few minutes he found a potential match. He cleared his throat. The language was rough on a human pharynx. He did his best. "You are on Earth."

Her eyes grew large in amazement. She made the effort of lifting her head even higher. "How do you know my language?" Giles shook his head and tried to use his hands to tell it to speak slowly. She repeated her question. "How do you know my language?"

He thought for a minute, interpreting its words the best he could. He pointed at himself. "I am…" He tried to think of a simple word, "…a teacher."

She nodded. "Where is this earth you speak of?"

Giles shook his head. He had no answer for that without knowing where it came from. Most of the questions he wanted to ask would have no point of reference for either of them. He moved a little closer. "Are you hurt?"

She closed her eyes and took another tortured breath. "The air is bad. I am dying." She opened her eyes back up and found him crouching close to her, by her head. She looked in his eyes and saw no malice there. She spoke again. "What happened? Why am I here?"

Giles tightened his lips, the pain rising in his chest at the thought of Buffy. His eyes filled with tears. She watched him and then she asked a different question. "Are you in pain?"

He looked at it, surprised by both its perceptivity and its kindness. He hesitated for a moment. "No, not in my body." He gestured to himself.

She spoke again. "In the part of you that loves, then?"

Her question caused a few tears to spill over. "Yes, in the part of me that loved."

She moved her head closer to him. "That part of me is wounded too. I miss my home. I miss my family."

He sat down and pulled his knees up tight against his body and wrapped his arms around them. He answered its previous question, his ease with the language growing as more words found their way to his memory. "There was a fight, a fight with a powerful being. The door between worlds came down for a moment. You must have been sucked in."

She thought for a moment. "I was flying and then I was falling. It is good to at least understand why." She closed her eyes and rested her head back down. As welcome as it was, the conversation was wearying her. She spoke softly. "I am sad to die so far away from my home." She drew another breath.

Giles watched its body labor with the effort. "Can I bring you anything? Do you need water or food?"

She thought for a moment. "I do not think I can eat your food. I tried to when I first fell but I became ill. I do not know about your water."

"Shall I try and bring you some?"

She shifted her body a little and couldn't stop a moan of pain from escaping. "No. It will just prolong my death." She looked at him, some fear in her eyes. "Do you think if I die here, that I will still meet my loved ones in death?"

Giles nodded his head. "Yes, I do." He truly had no idea, but telling it that seemed pointless and unkind. He looked at the dragon, taking in its size and shape. "Are there other beings on your world? Ones with a different shape than yours?"

"Yes. There are many. But we live in peace with one another."

Giles sighed. "It sounds wonderful."

"It is." She lifted her head again and looked at him closely. "What are you? What kind of being are you?"

"A human. I am a human, a man, a male of my kind."

She laid her head back down. "I am a female of my kind." His eyebrows rose. He wasn't sure why, but that somehow surprised him. He let out a soft chuckle. She looked at him curious. "What does that noise mean?"

His eyebrows rose again. "It means a lot of things. In this instance I was making fun of myself for making assumptions." He reached out a hand and almost touched her.

She saw him. "You may touch me. It will not hurt me." He gently touched her skin. She was softer than he'd have imagined. She closed her eyes. "It has been lonely. I am grateful that you are here."

He chuckled again, shaking his head. At the questioning look in her eye he explained. "Don't worry, I have no intention of harming you, but I came in here expecting to find a deadly beast that I…" He blew out a breath.

"That you would kill?" She finished his sentence. He nodded. She looked at him sadly. "Is this a hard world to live in?"

"It can be very hard sometimes. Too hard."

They sat there in silence for a long time. The only sound was her breathing and Giles occasionally clearing his throat. It felt raspy from trying to speak her language. Giles let his mind free associate as he sat there. Suddenly he let out a gasp. He looked at her. "I…I might be able to send you home."

Her eyes widened at that. "Is this true? How can this be true?"

He squinched his face up and reluctantly pointed at himself. "I can do some magic. I might know a spell that would send you home."

She lifted her head and brought it close to his. "You would do this for me?"

He bit his lip. "Yes, I can't promise it will work and I need to go get some supplies but I will try." He looked at her. "How sick are you? How much time do you have? Do you have any idea?"

"The breathing gets harder all the time but I am strong. I will last until you get back."

Giles stood and looked down at her. "I will be back, I promise you." He turned and moving quickly he headed out of the cave.


***
Giles planned his arrival back to the shop after he knew Anya would be gone. He didn't want to deal with her questions. He also didn't want to chance having Willow there as he started pouring through his spell books. Giles knew that Willow and Tara would both probably be of assistance and be willing to help, but he wanted to do this on his own. Plus, if he was honest, he had an agenda in mind that he wouldn't be able to do if anyone accompanied him. The thought kept racing through his head despite his best efforts to dismiss it. He dismissed it once again as he opened yet another book.

Finally the spell he had been thinking of lay before him. Spells to return things back to the way they were supposed to be were, for the most part, remarkably straightforward. The real power lay in mucking about with the natural order of things. He didn't believe he'd have any trouble summoning the magic required to complete the spell and he had all the ingredients at hand. Giles sighed and leaned back in his chair. He looked around the shop and he could almost feel the presence of all the young people he'd come to love so much. They had been trying so hard to support him since Buffy's death. The problem was that there was nothing left to support. Nothing for them to hang on to, for them to hold while he pulled himself together.

He thought about writing them a note. He actually tried but he couldn't decide what to write so in the end he wrote nothing. Willow knew what to do if he was ever missing for an extended period of time. Everything was already taken care of.

He found a bag and packed up his supplies. Holding the book tucked under his arm he walked back out to his car. Giles drove as close as he could but eventually the trees grew too thick and he was forced to park. He turned his flashlight back on and found his way back to the cave. He suddenly panicked that perhaps he had taken too long and she would be dead and he began to run. As he turned the last corner in the cave he heard her breathing. He stopped to catch his breath. She spoke. "You came back."

He nodded, still bent over, hands on his legs, above his knees. He took another deep breath and stood. "I told you I would. I'm sorry I took so long."

Her speaking was slower and he could tell her pain had increased. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

He walked over to her. "Yes, I believe I did."

She lifted her head and looked at him. "Hu-man. What is your name?"

"Giles."

"Giles." She repeated it back to him. She said it astonishingly well. He smiled at the sound of his name coming from this mythical creature.

He asked her the same question. "And yours? What is your name?" She answered with a long, completely unintelligible string of syllables. He bit his lip. "Would it offend you if I asked you to shorten that for me?"

Her eyes lit up with humor. "No Giles. You may call me Talna."

He repeated it. "Talna." He smiled and then looked at her in concern. "Will you get back in time? Will you recover if I send you home?"

"I think so. But if not, at least I will die in my home, with my loved ones around me. I will die in peace."

He pulled his supplies out of the bag and began to set up for the ritual. When he had surrounded her with candles he approached her and crouched down in front of her. "Talna? I have a request to make." He swallowed at the thought of what he was going to ask her.

"What Giles? What would you ask of me?"

He paused, and then spoke. "Will you let me come with you?"

Her eyes widened in surprise. "Why do you wish this? You will most certainly die there as I would have died here."

He nodded. "I know. But I would rather die seeing a new world and meeting more of your kind, then wasting away here." His eyes filled with tears but he held her gaze.

She gently butted his chest with her head. "Are you that wounded hu-man? Is it a mortal wound?"

He gently touched her snout. "It is. I don't expect to recover."

"Are you able to accompany me? Will your magic send us both?"

"I'm not sure. I…I would need to be touching you. If that will cause you pain I won't ask you to do it."

She stared at him for a while. "I will do this for you, Giles. I will be proud to introduce you to my people." A touch of fear came into her eyes. "Where will the spell place me? I am afraid if it puts me back where I was that I will kill us both. One of my wings is broken. I cannot fly."

Giles lips tightened. "I'm sorry. I don't know the answer to that. Are you still willing to try?"

Her answer was immediate. "Yes. I want to go home."

He sprinkled an herb around and started lighting the candles. Before he lit the last one he stepped inside the circle. He looked at her and she motioned with her head making a step with one of her powerful legs. "Best get on top. It will be safest for you." He furrowed his brow not wanting to hurt her but she swung her head again, pushing him.

He stepped on her leg and swung himself up. He winced at her small moans. He knew he was hurting her. Giles hadn't quite appreciated how large she was until he was sitting astride her. He reached out a hand and softly touched her hide. "Are you ready Talna?"

She stretched her head back looking at him. "Yes Giles, I am ready."

He could feel her muscles tensing underneath him. He gently stroked her hide again. Shining his flashlight he began to read the words of the spell. As he felt things start to shift he tightened his hold on her with his thighs. When the spell was complete he saw a blinding flash of light and then everything went dark.

End of Part 1
Dragon: Part 2

Buffy took another labored breath. It was getting harder and harder to breath. Moving around was torture, every part of her ached. She would have thought she was in hell except the creatures she was surrounded with were so kind to her. So that left her wondering just where she was. Wondering what had happened. Had the world been destroyed? Is this what it had become? Had she saved Dawn? There were no answers to any of her questions.

At least she had found something she could eat. They had brought her one thing after another that she just knew wasn't fit for her metabolism. Then they'd brought her something that looked like a pear. It wasn't a pear but it was fruity. When she'd picked it up they'd only allowed her a small bite and then they had observed her. She could tell she was in some sort of hospital building just because of how they acted and because there were other sick…things…there.

The pear-like fruit had caused no ill effects so she was allowed to eat all she wanted and they started bringing her other similar foods. She had gone to bed that night with a full stomach for the first time in days. She had lost track of time. Days were done when the sun…or suns…went down. Sometimes there were two of them, and sometimes there were three.

She looked around at the assorted creatures around her. Mostly they were like that creature that had flown through the rift while she'd been talking with Dawn up on the scaffolding. But there were others as well. She observed no animosity between them. It was peaceful and if she hadn't felt so lonely and confused she might have found the rest a welcome relief to the pressure of the last few months. But she was lonely and she never understood anything they said. She knew the air was poisoning her and that she was getting sicker and weaker. Buffy knew she would die soon.

She missed everyone. But she longed for Giles. Things had gotten so unpleasant between them at the end. And yet, she never would have had the strength to do what needed to be done if it hadn't been for him. He was the source of her strength. He had been for so long and she was desperate for him now. Her strength on every front was wearing out.

She heard a commotion outside. She didn't even try and rise. For the last couple of days every time she tried to stand her legs cramped so badly she had fallen. So, she lay there and listened.



***