The Celtic Dragon

by JumpingShinyFrogs


11. Trip

Getting Tina settled was the first order of business that day. I spent quite a while hauling stuff back and forth for Tina (who very helpfully didn't carry any of it herself). We were nearly done by what I presume was about one o'clock. Just when I was finally getting to take a break, Rian started demanding that I fetch planks of wood for him from Homebase. I was too scared to try and take the tractor, so I resorted to carrying the planks around on my back like a pack mule. And let me tell you, it is not a short walk from the park to Homebase.

I was finally done by about three. Rian wanted to work on his little farm some more, and Tina wanted to move the last of her stuff from the Royal to the park. The rain had let up, so I wanted to go to Tralee, but neither of the others seemed inclined to come with me.

"Sure what's the point?" said Rian when I asked him why not. "Tralee's a shithole."

"Yes, I know that. Every Killarney person knows that. But Tralee is also bigger than Killarney, and it's a hell of a lot bigger than Ballyvourney. The way I see it, if there was one person in Ballyvourney, and two in Killarney, then surely there'll be loads in Tralee," I said. I was laying down in the grass taking a well-deserved break and watching the two of them them try to make Rian's fence a bit sturdier. The glares and envious glances at my claws were not lost on me, but after a whole day ferrying Tina and Rian's crap around for them, I had no intentions of doing any more manual labour.

"You really sure you want to recruit Tralee people to your little group?" chimed in Tina from where she was holding a plank steady for Rian. "Someone from Tralee would stab you as soon as talk to you."

"You really think that a tiny pony could stab their way through these scales? I'll take my chances, thanks," I said with a snort.

"I could give it a shot," said Tina, gesturing with her muzzle to a nearby trowel.

"Uh, no thanks. I'll let these hypothetical Tralee stabbers do that," I said. There was little doubt in my mind that Tina probably could stab me if she wanted to, even with something as blunt as a trowel. Other ponies? Well, I still wasn't convinced they could do it. Hopefully I was right.

"Yera, 'tis your funeral," said Rian. It sounded a little garbled because he was talking around a hammer, but the meaning was clear.

I looked between the two of them. "Are you seriously both refusing to come with me?"

"Yeah. I have things to finish. Fences that would be a million times easier to build with claws, a pile of stuff that would take me four trips but take a dragon only one, you know. All that standard stuff," said Tina with a little bit of a glare.

"I can take a hint. I want to strike out for Tralee before it gets too dark. If I help you two finish this fence, and move the last of your stuff, will you come with me?" I asked.

"Probably not," said Tina nonchalantly.

"I'm with her," added Rian.

"What? Seriously? What's it going to take to convince you people?"

"Well, you might not have to worry about being mauled or murdered, but us pony folk operate by a different set of rules. Stuff that couldn't even touch you could easily kill either of us. A fox could get one of us, or a feral dog. Hell, a few cats could probably have a fair go at us. So, it's probably safer for us if we don't go with you," said Tina. "But we'd love your help with this fence," she added with a sickly sweet smile.

I groaned. I was getting roped into more manual labour no matter what I said. And I would still be alone on my trip. With a resigned sigh, I stood up and walked over to where Rian was tilting his neck at an awkward angle to try and hammer a nail.

"Gimme the hammer," I said. Rian wasted no time in dropping it. I wiped as much of the spit as I could off and got to work hammering the nails. I received some very 'helpful' comments along the way.

"Jaysus Deirdre, you made a right balls of that one. Take it out and do it again."

"Ow! Watch my hoof, you overgrown lizard!"

"How in the name of almighty God and all the saints and angels is that straight? Do it again."

"I could do a better job with my back hooves. Are you even trying?"

I got sick of it after about twenty minutes.

"Fuck both of ye, I'm going. See you later, or tomorrow, or whenever," I said, dropping the hammer and stomping off. I know they were only messing with me, but it was getting annoying.

"Have fun!" I heard Tina cheerfully call out after me. I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic, or if she genuinely cared.

I was trying to adapt to my still unfamiliar form, so I decided to practice running as I went to gather stuff to bring. I didn't exactly master it. Running was harder than walking, because the way my legs had to move was completely different. I hadn't really been paying too much attention to how I'd been walking. I guess it was instinctive. Running, not so much. For some reason, I found that trying to canter like a horse was kind of hard, but running flat out like a cheetah was easier. Maybe it's the fact that dragons are predators? I dunno.

I had to stop to think about that for a moment. Dragons are clearly predators, as evidenced by the sharp fangs and claws, and the awful instincts that sometimes told me to hurt my friends. But what did that really mean for me? What would I do when the canned meat I could scavenge inevitably ran out? I'd have to hunt. I could eat grains and other plants, but I'd imagine predators need more protein than herbivores. They wouldn't be enough. What would I hunt? Deer? Cows?

Shaking my head, I resolved to cross that bridge when I got to it. For now, it was just me, these bags of sweet, spicy, heavenly Thai Rings, bottles of Coke, cans of briny tuna, and a trip to Tralee in my future. Tossing my supplies into a rucksack and slinging it over my tail, I braced myself for another long walk. No way I was taking the tractor without someone who actually knew how to drive it to guide me. Unfortunately, it takes forty minutes to get to Tralee by car. It took me several hours to walk to Glenflesk. And that was only a fifteen minute drive.

It was clear I wouldn't be getting there today, so I picked up a few dry leaves and thick bits of wood to make a fire, in case the place I decided to sleep was far from former civilisation. I very deliberately didn't bring a flint and steel. The way I saw it, not having any other option to light the fire might make my own natural lighter kick in.

The road to Tralee was largely straight. Aside from a couple of roundabouts, there weren't really any bends or forks in the road. Thank god for that, because my sense of direction is practically non-existent. At the very least, I knew this road. I've travelled along it so many times, to visit my great aunt in Ballybunion when summer rolled around and to visit my grandparents in Listowel the rest of the year. Come to think of it, I should check on Listowel sometime. Poor Nana was in a wheelchair after her stroke and if she's stuck like that as a pony then I shudder to think of what could have happened. That said, she and Granddad had probably vanished like everyone else.

Before all of that, though, I had to make it to Farranfore. Farranfore is a small town about the size of Ballyvourney, lying around fifteen minutes away from Killarney by car. I planned to make that my rest stop for the day. Like the rest of Ireland, the road out there is lovely and scenic. On either side of the road are emerald green fields filled with sheep, peacefully grazing on the soft grass. They weren't quite so peaceful when I walked past, but once they saw that I wasn't going to harm them, they calmed back down.

The road was long, and completely quiet, leaving me to my thoughts as I walked along. My pace was slower than I would've liked, since my legs were already aching from hauling Rian and Tina's stuff for them earlier. I glanced at the sun to try and get a rough estimate of what time it was, but I've never been good at that sort of thing. By the time I was halfway to Farranfore, the sun was still on its way towards the horizon, but sunset at this time of year is usually at around ten or eleven, so I truly had no idea what time it was. I wish I'd thought to grab a watch or something. I might've been able to find a nice shiny one in the jewellery store that Rian wouldn't let me go into.

In a bid to ease the burden on my tired legs, I gave my wings a few experimental flaps. I didn't even start to come off of the ground. Next I tried hopping while flapping. That was a lot harder than I thought it'd be. My time in the air was so short that I barely had time to open my wings, nevermind beat them. With a sigh, I gave up and continued walking. I'd figure out this flying thing someday. Who knows? Maybe I just wasn't old enough to fly yet. A shame there weren't any reference guides on dragon biology.

I kept walking for another while, but I still wasn't at Farranfore. The bright blue skies overhead had given way to the orange hues of sunset when I came to a hill. I knew this hill. Stupid thing used to absolutely murder the battery on the electric car my parents used to drive. It would murder my already failing legs too.

That was all the convincing I needed to stop here for the night. I didn't want to sleep on the road in case of spontaneously appearing vehicles (I still wasn't sure if that could happen, but I wasn't taking any chances), so I found a relatively dry spot in a field to make my nest for the night. After munching on a can of tuna and a shameful amount of Thai Rings, I dug out the tinder I had stuffed into my bag earlier and tried to arrange it into a makeshift fire pit. After gathering a few stones and some more dry leaves and stuff from a nearby treeline, I had a nice little campfire just waiting to be lit.

Now came the hard part.

How would I breathe fire? I sneezed fire earlier, but I didn't actually know how to do it consciously. I tried everything I could think of, from exhaling really hard, to holding my breath and then exhaling. Nothing worked. It occurred to me that perhaps the fire didn't come from my lungs, but rather from somewhere else. Only problem was, I didn't know where that 'somewhere else' was and I didn't have the necessary muscle memory to access it even if I did know where it was.

Now I had a choice to make—sleep in the cold or find a way to make myself sneeze. I decided to go for the latter. Shame I didn't have any pepper on hand, but maybe a pollen-filled flower would do the job if I could find one. That was much harder than it seemed. As the sun went down the flowers were starting to close, and it took me a while to find a good one. In the end I found a dandelion clock, which was even better than I could hope for because it would definitely make me sneeze.

One well-aimed sneeze later, and I was frantically blowing on a little ember trying to get it to grow into a proper fire. The flicker of blue flame that had come out of my mouth was tiny, but I paid close attention to where it came from. It felt like it came from somewhere in or around my stomach, and I did my absolute best to hold onto that location as I drifted away to sleep.