FIC: Matters of Dragons and Their Humans - Chapter 14 - Sharing a World AU - Connor, Abby, OCs
Title: Matters of Dragons and Their Humans
Characters: Connor, Abby, Lyle
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Connor and Abby belong to Impossible Pictures, Lyle belongs to fredbasset. I promise I’ll put them all back when I’m done.
Summary: Sometimes they really need a white knight riding to their rescue.
A/N 1: This is a big jump into the AU world. There are still anomalies, there's still a team and there is even an ARC. There has also been a slight twist in evolution somewhere along the line and one more sentient species shares the Earth with humans, dragons.
A/N 2: Finally we got to the main storyline all the prequels have been building up to so far. This takes place around what would have been season 2 of the series, in 2008.
A/N 3: For a full list of all Sharing a World AU stories please have a look here. Thanks to fredbassett as always for the great beta, all remaining mistakes are mine.
Connor’s first thought as the hunting call of the Parvudens echoed through the woods was ‘Oh God, this is all my fault.”
Well, technically his first thought was ‘Oh God, we’re about to die.’ But since it was followed in quick sequence by his admission of guilt, Connor hoped it would still count somewhere on the heroism scale.
In the space of a heartbeat he realised he should have known better. He should have listened himself when he’d pointed out to Ryan that the Parvudens were most likely the first dragons to be sentient, that they were not animals. Yet, he had gone ahead and tried to hunt them like animals, not taking into consideration the creatures’ intelligence.
The cry had not even tapered off before Connor was moving. Two years being chased by big scary creatures that wanted to turn you into tea time had not dulled the sharp spike of fear that the sound had provoked but had definitely taught Connor to work through it and keep running.
Pushing himself off the ground, Connor grabbed Abby’s hand, helping his friend up before doing exactly what the last two years had drilled into him. Whenever the latest out of time predator decides you look like a good snack, run.
They scrambled through the thick underbrush, branches cutting their clothes and skin as they ran - once again, reflected Connor wearily - for their lives. Behind them they could hear the creaking of branches and leathery snapping of wings that signalled their pursuer’s advance, the sounds only spurring them to run faster.
Connor glanced back quickly and the sight behind him was so shocking and unexpected that for a second he couldn’t believe his eyes. The dragon was swinging between the branches, claws holding on to the trees and only using its wings for quick pushes between one perch and the other.
It made no sense but it was perfectly logical evolutionarily at the same time. With its habitat being mostly composed of woodlands the Parvudens had found a way to turn the environment to its own advantage, modifying its behaviour from that of a flying predator to something else, something in between.
What happened next felt like slow motion to Connor. His distraction at the sight of the dragon’s advance had cost him dearly as he tripped over a branch and fell heavily to the ground, air forcefully expelled from his lungs in a pained groan. Abby was behind him in a flash, trying to pull him back to his feet but the short delay had allowed the dragon to catch up with them.
The Parvudens stood over them, its small size enlarged by the spread wings, making it look even scarier than it already was and Connor wondered briefly if the creature was even going to use its venom on them or if it would simply dig in with a healthy appetite. He refused to close his eyes, wishing there was time to tell Abby to run, to get away while the predator was busy with him, but he knew it wouldn’t have made a difference.
It was thanks to his stubbornness then, that he was able to see when a long dark tail with a heavy weight at its end swung down from the top of the trees and hit the Parvudens’ side, sending the small dragon flying into the nearest tree with a sick thud and crack of broken bones before it slid lifelessly to the ground.
Heart still jack hammering in his chest, Connor tried to look through the large gap in the foliage to their saviour but between the last remaining light of dusk and the thick undergrowth all he could discern was the shadow of a light-weight dragon and its rider. A moment later a well known voice shouted down at them.
“Temple! Somehow I don’t think you kids are supposed to be out here on your own. How is it that I’m gone for a while and you lot decide you can start playing heroes?”
~.~.~
Connor was still reeling from the adrenaline and the shock by the time Gostegion had managed to wreck enough trees to be able to squeeze in a landing. They had barely enough time to welcome the two back before a group of soldiers had arrived from their own grimly fruitful hunt and from there on things just sort of snowballed.
Both Parvudens specimens had been killed even though Connor was forced to admit that the soldiers had tried to use tranquiliser rifles. Unfortunately, the dragons had appeared to be somehow immune to them, which made Connor and Abby even gladder that Gostegion and Lyle had showed up when they did, since from the soldiers’ accounts the other dragon had barely slowed down after it had been shot several times.
It was thanks to Lyle that they had finally found where the anomaly had been all along. In a small cave cut out of a kind of rock Connor had never seen before. The young man was already vibrating with excitement at the chance of studying since it had somehow managed to shield the presence of the anomaly.
Between the three dragons and the humans, the group had managed to coax the Diprotodons into moving from what the herd had seemed to think was a safe spot to spend the night. They were then persuaded to make the short walk to the cave. Once there, the animals had suddenly seemed to realise they were going home and had not needed any further help, quickly disappearing through the shards of broken light.
Connor might have been a self-proclaimed geek with maybe not the best track record when it came to non-awkward social interactions, but even he couldn’t miss the way Ryan had been giving Lyle a very wide berth. He wasn’t therefore entirely surprised when Chandra’s captain volunteered to remain behind to monitor the anomaly while everyone else headed back to Edinburgh. The upside of it was that it had mostly likely postponed the yelling he was quite sure he deserved.
He had, of course, not been the only one to notice this, but of those who knew the two captains well, no one even dreamed about mentioning the issue. By the time they were on their way back, Connor had much more pressing issues than bringing it up with Abby, such as making sure the meagre contents of his stomach did not suddenly decide to relocate from their current premises.
As he hung on for dear life again to Chester’s harness, the young man was still able to wish that the two aviators would manage to sort things out between, and not just because Ryan had been an absolute grouch since Lyle had disappeared.
Connor was distracted from his reflections on the subject by the conversation currently going on between Chester and Gostegion, who was currently excitedly recounting her travels through the anomalies.
“Everything was so very exciting whenever there wasn’t something trying to eat Jon or I but I’m glad to be finally home. I’ve been craving a nice fat cow for months now!” The dragon sighed wistfully and Connor frowned before his thoughts about the statement were suddenly voiced by Chester.
“A cow? What is that? Some new Chinese dish?”
Characters: Connor, Abby, Lyle
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Connor and Abby belong to Impossible Pictures, Lyle belongs to fredbasset. I promise I’ll put them all back when I’m done.
Summary: Sometimes they really need a white knight riding to their rescue.
A/N 1: This is a big jump into the AU world. There are still anomalies, there's still a team and there is even an ARC. There has also been a slight twist in evolution somewhere along the line and one more sentient species shares the Earth with humans, dragons.
A/N 2: Finally we got to the main storyline all the prequels have been building up to so far. This takes place around what would have been season 2 of the series, in 2008.
A/N 3: For a full list of all Sharing a World AU stories please have a look here. Thanks to fredbassett as always for the great beta, all remaining mistakes are mine.
Connor’s first thought as the hunting call of the Parvudens echoed through the woods was ‘Oh God, this is all my fault.”
Well, technically his first thought was ‘Oh God, we’re about to die.’ But since it was followed in quick sequence by his admission of guilt, Connor hoped it would still count somewhere on the heroism scale.
In the space of a heartbeat he realised he should have known better. He should have listened himself when he’d pointed out to Ryan that the Parvudens were most likely the first dragons to be sentient, that they were not animals. Yet, he had gone ahead and tried to hunt them like animals, not taking into consideration the creatures’ intelligence.
The cry had not even tapered off before Connor was moving. Two years being chased by big scary creatures that wanted to turn you into tea time had not dulled the sharp spike of fear that the sound had provoked but had definitely taught Connor to work through it and keep running.
Pushing himself off the ground, Connor grabbed Abby’s hand, helping his friend up before doing exactly what the last two years had drilled into him. Whenever the latest out of time predator decides you look like a good snack, run.
They scrambled through the thick underbrush, branches cutting their clothes and skin as they ran - once again, reflected Connor wearily - for their lives. Behind them they could hear the creaking of branches and leathery snapping of wings that signalled their pursuer’s advance, the sounds only spurring them to run faster.
Connor glanced back quickly and the sight behind him was so shocking and unexpected that for a second he couldn’t believe his eyes. The dragon was swinging between the branches, claws holding on to the trees and only using its wings for quick pushes between one perch and the other.
It made no sense but it was perfectly logical evolutionarily at the same time. With its habitat being mostly composed of woodlands the Parvudens had found a way to turn the environment to its own advantage, modifying its behaviour from that of a flying predator to something else, something in between.
What happened next felt like slow motion to Connor. His distraction at the sight of the dragon’s advance had cost him dearly as he tripped over a branch and fell heavily to the ground, air forcefully expelled from his lungs in a pained groan. Abby was behind him in a flash, trying to pull him back to his feet but the short delay had allowed the dragon to catch up with them.
The Parvudens stood over them, its small size enlarged by the spread wings, making it look even scarier than it already was and Connor wondered briefly if the creature was even going to use its venom on them or if it would simply dig in with a healthy appetite. He refused to close his eyes, wishing there was time to tell Abby to run, to get away while the predator was busy with him, but he knew it wouldn’t have made a difference.
It was thanks to his stubbornness then, that he was able to see when a long dark tail with a heavy weight at its end swung down from the top of the trees and hit the Parvudens’ side, sending the small dragon flying into the nearest tree with a sick thud and crack of broken bones before it slid lifelessly to the ground.
Heart still jack hammering in his chest, Connor tried to look through the large gap in the foliage to their saviour but between the last remaining light of dusk and the thick undergrowth all he could discern was the shadow of a light-weight dragon and its rider. A moment later a well known voice shouted down at them.
“Temple! Somehow I don’t think you kids are supposed to be out here on your own. How is it that I’m gone for a while and you lot decide you can start playing heroes?”
~.~.~
Connor was still reeling from the adrenaline and the shock by the time Gostegion had managed to wreck enough trees to be able to squeeze in a landing. They had barely enough time to welcome the two back before a group of soldiers had arrived from their own grimly fruitful hunt and from there on things just sort of snowballed.
Both Parvudens specimens had been killed even though Connor was forced to admit that the soldiers had tried to use tranquiliser rifles. Unfortunately, the dragons had appeared to be somehow immune to them, which made Connor and Abby even gladder that Gostegion and Lyle had showed up when they did, since from the soldiers’ accounts the other dragon had barely slowed down after it had been shot several times.
It was thanks to Lyle that they had finally found where the anomaly had been all along. In a small cave cut out of a kind of rock Connor had never seen before. The young man was already vibrating with excitement at the chance of studying since it had somehow managed to shield the presence of the anomaly.
Between the three dragons and the humans, the group had managed to coax the Diprotodons into moving from what the herd had seemed to think was a safe spot to spend the night. They were then persuaded to make the short walk to the cave. Once there, the animals had suddenly seemed to realise they were going home and had not needed any further help, quickly disappearing through the shards of broken light.
Connor might have been a self-proclaimed geek with maybe not the best track record when it came to non-awkward social interactions, but even he couldn’t miss the way Ryan had been giving Lyle a very wide berth. He wasn’t therefore entirely surprised when Chandra’s captain volunteered to remain behind to monitor the anomaly while everyone else headed back to Edinburgh. The upside of it was that it had mostly likely postponed the yelling he was quite sure he deserved.
He had, of course, not been the only one to notice this, but of those who knew the two captains well, no one even dreamed about mentioning the issue. By the time they were on their way back, Connor had much more pressing issues than bringing it up with Abby, such as making sure the meagre contents of his stomach did not suddenly decide to relocate from their current premises.
As he hung on for dear life again to Chester’s harness, the young man was still able to wish that the two aviators would manage to sort things out between, and not just because Ryan had been an absolute grouch since Lyle had disappeared.
Connor was distracted from his reflections on the subject by the conversation currently going on between Chester and Gostegion, who was currently excitedly recounting her travels through the anomalies.
“Everything was so very exciting whenever there wasn’t something trying to eat Jon or I but I’m glad to be finally home. I’ve been craving a nice fat cow for months now!” The dragon sighed wistfully and Connor frowned before his thoughts about the statement were suddenly voiced by Chester.
“A cow? What is that? Some new Chinese dish?”