3. Cold
I'm not entirely sure how long I lay there, but when I finally lifted my head back up, it wasn't raining anymore and it was fully bright out. I guess I must've fallen asleep. Tina was nowhere to be seen. I'm sure she was back in the hotel reading her books and waiting for someone who wouldn't try to kill her to come along.
She'd told me to leave town. There wasn't anything for me in town anymore, so I supposed there was no reason for me to not do what she asked. I stood up and stretched my limbs, disappointed to find that they were still scaly and that the whole thing hadn't been one huge lucid dream. I felt kind of weak, and shaky. And I was really cold. It was weird, because I could tell that it wasn't too cold out today. The cold seemed to come from within.
I didn't care why I was cold, honestly. All I knew was I wanted to be warm, right now, and moving would help with that. I set out from the alleyway, careful not to move back towards the hotel. I found myself drifting through the abandoned streets, seeing evidence of what I now knew to be Tina's exploits over the month that I had missed. If Tina was right and today was June 23rd, then I'd slept through my seventeenth birthday.
But Tina had been in my house and not seen me, so I can't have just been sleeping there. It was like I simply didn't exist for that month. Maybe my parents would just randomly show up one day. Or my friends. Or just anyone. Then I could talk to them again, and it would be like the apocalypse hadn't just come and quietly swept across the world.
I needed to find someplace to set up a 'base' of sorts, but if I was missing for a month and there weren't any people anymore, then I guess the power wasn't working and the phones were out. So there wasn't much point in looking for someplace that had electricity, Internet or phone signal.
I wandered aimlessly around town for about an hour. I passed the Sem, the Pres, and the cathedral and found myself standing in front of a pair of tall gates with a few cars parked out front. I'd subconciously made my way over to my favourite part of town—the Demesne. The Demesne was part of Killarney National Park, and it was my absolute favourite to place to relax and unwind after a long day at school or at work. I'd spent countless hours here just sitting on the benches and doing my homework surrounded by nature, and afterwards I'd always go for a walk down by the river.
There was all sorts of creatures living here, like deer, foxes, dippers, herons, bats, stoats, pine martens, ducks, swans, otters, squirrels, everything. And none of those creatures would ever try to harm you, so you could relax knowing you were safe. Killarney National Park was massive, and it housed the world-famous Lakes of Killarney and the highest mountain in Ireland. It also had a castle, an abbey, and two old manors. Best of all, it wasn't considered a part of town.
Tina's base was in the Royal hotel, and she had only told me to stay out of town. That meant that the National Park was up for grabs, and this dragon had got here first. I squeezed through the pedestrian entrance (it obviously wasn't built to allow dragons through) and into the park. Right in front of me was a little cafe that had always had bizarre opening hours even before everyone had vanished and a little shack that I think the park rangers used to store equipment. A path shrouded in trees leading up a hill to my right would take me to Knockreer House, one of the two manors in the park, although it had been converted into an ecology lab.
I could hear the river rushing by to my left, though I couldn't see it because of the trees. The walking paths stretched down the hill towards Ross Castle, across fields that were filled with herds of deer and Kerry cows. Birds chirped overhead, and the bright colours and fresh scent of nature put a genuine smile on my face for the first time since I'd woken up yesterday morning.
Not only was the logical and human part of me telling me how amazing the park was because of its size, natural resources and lack of dependency from electricity, but the more bestial, instinctual part that I was getting a little sick of was telling me that the park would make the perfect territory, with high mountains surrounded by updrafts to try and fly from, herds of deer and cows to, ergh, hunt, and great lakes and rivers of fresh, clean water.
If I set up camp here, then the huge amounts of space could be used to farm, I could fish in the lakes, and if push came to shove I could hunt for food. It was wide and spacious, so when/if I found other people and didn't immediately scare them off, we could all work together but still have our own space. Best of all, the buildings here were already suited to a time when running water and electricity weren't a thing, so I wouldn't even have to modify them.
I'd made my decision. I was setting up my base here. I clawed a message into the dirt of one of the fields. Though the handwriting was awful, it did manage to somewhat legibly read 'DEIRDRE WAS HERE'. I was hoping that anyone who saw it would take that as a hint that there was another person hanging around here. I was still shivering with cold, though. The walk hadn't helped it at all. If anything, it was worse now.
Ignoring the cold, I left the park to gather some supplies. Even in a place filled with nature's bounty, I still needed basic provisions. Despite its proximity to the Royal, and thus Tina, I went back to the shop I'd broken into earlier. I grabbed as many cans of food as I could, finding that my wings made for a useful extra set of arms, and awkwardly waddled my way over to the Outlet Centre, pausing every now and then to grab a fallen can. There was an outdoor store in there if I remembered correctly. Sure enough, after climbing through the broken door and pushing in the door to the shop with my nose, I was in.
I grabbed the biggest rucksack I could find and loaded all the cans into it. I also filled it with flashlights, batteries, flint and steels, tinder, a little gas stove and some gas canisters. I grabbed another rucksack and filled that one with as many blankets, sleeping bags and pillows as I could. I also managed to cram a whole tent bag into it. Even I'm not sure how I managed that. I picked up way more stuff than I needed. I just sort of felt like I had to own it, y'know? If I'd had a method of carrying it, I probably would have taken everything in the store.
I grabbed a third rucksack and tossed a few outdoors books into it. I picked up the mostly empty rucksack and carried it upstairs in my mouth. Upstairs there was an army surplus warehouse, and that had outdoorsy kind of things as well. I grabbed a couple of enamel plates, some more flashlights, a camouflage sheet, a thermal blanket and some flasks. I was shaking almost steadily at this point. I was so cold, and I had no idea why. I wrapped the thermal blanket around myself, but it didn't really help.
I made my way back down the stairs, shivering all the while and dragging the rucksack with me. Even as my claws started going a little numb from the cold, I still managed to hang all three rucksacks from my tail and lift it high enough so they wouldn't fall off. Gazing at my scales, I noticed that they weren't quite as vibrant as they had been. The golden colour had dulled to a dirty, faded yellow. No way that that was healthy.
I'd rather be stuck slowly freezing to death in a place where Tina couldn't find me and bash my face in with her hooves than somewhere she could, so despite the encroaching cold, I persevered. It took way longer than it should've, during which time it started raining again, but I eventually reached the park. There wasn't a sign of anyone else having been there, so I kept walking, heading towards the river bank to get shelter from the rain under the trees.
My legs felt heavy, like they were made of lead, and my thoughts were unfocused and hazy. The chill was unbearable. I just wanted to sleep...
I collapsed by the side of the river, my nose resting on the rocks the made up the bank. As my eyes started to close, a random thought popped onto my head, crystal clear.
Those rocks smell delicious.
Without really thinking about it, I grabbed a rock in my mouth and started crunching on it. It was hard, but my teeth seemed harder. It was dust in seconds, and I swallowed it before instantly grabbing another one. The first rock had been nice, and was it just my imagination, or was I not quite so cold anymore? The second rock vanished as quickly as the first, then the third, then the fourth, and so on.
In minutes I had eaten all the rocks in the area around my head. Though I was still cold, I wasn't freezing anymore. I lifted my head and scooped up more rocks in my jaw, grinding them up and relishing in the fascinating, earthy taste and texture. Some of the rocks tasted better than others. The smooth brown ones didn't really taste of anything, but the jagged grey ones had a stronger taste. The huge black ones were my favourite. They had a really rich taste, but I had to eat them in bites.
Ten minutes later, I was chewing on the gravel that had been under the rocks. I still didn't feel like moving, but instead of an awful chill, I now felt pleasantly warm inside, and my scales had regained their healthy colour. If anything, they were even brighter than before. I still wanted to sleep, but now I felt safe in the knowledge that I'd wake up afterwards.
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Very good chapter, can't wait for more!
Am guessing her fire was going out, and the rocks stoked the furnace, so to speak? Interesting idea, and it reminds me of Anne McCaffrey's dragons of Pern.
Greetings from Orkney.
I'm afraid we can only offer Devonian age Old Red Sandstone up here which is rather bland and wears down your teeth. We also have no prey here, especially not ponies. None. Stay away.
We wish you the best of luck in your endeavours and will be following you with interest. From afar.
I might be lost in lore here, but I don't think that dragons eat rocks.
Correct me if I'm wrong on that...
6381995 Well, Spike certainly eats gemstones, and considers them something of a delicacy. It's not a great stretch that dragons are capable of eating other stones, and even that they might need to ingest minerals at regular intervals.
Nice work so far, well done.
6381995 You are just a teeny bit lost in lore, yes. Since Spike eats gemstones, and obviously considers them to be a delicacy of sorts, I had the idea that dragons usually just eat any minerals they can find. The harder the mineral, the better it is for them and the better it tastes, hence why gemstones are so desirable to Spike.
6427524 *whispers* Gronkles eat rocks
Starscribe told me that dragons don't really eat rocks, but you could play your Dragon as eating some kind of quartz or crystalline silica, since that's fairly close to actual gemstones. Also refer to the Spike and Princess Luna Friends Forever comic. For my Dragon, the white gardening quartz rocks will be like a sugary-vanilla flavored treat.