The Tails of The Scribble Family

by Novi Zemog

Oh The Irony, It Burns

When they woke up again Cerulean guessed only an hour had passed. The sun was a little lower but not by much. Cerulean rose and coaxed Uther from their impromptu nap. The little dragon stretched and yawned in a catlike fashion, smoke rising from the yawn. Uther rubbed his eyes and trilled questioningly at the earth pony. Cerulean smiled, “It’s time to get moving, we have to cover some ground before it gets too dark.” He said as he lowered himself to let Uther climb onto his back with ease. The little dragon buried his little claws in Cerulean’s mane and they began to follow the river’s path. Cerulean’s mind began to wander and he thought about his little companion seated on his back.

Uther was small, but he was still a dragon. Would other ponies accept him? He heard of how wonderful Equestria was, but there had also been stories of dragons burning upstart villages. And as much as he hated to admit it, this land was the dragon’s land first. He was very worried about two things, dragon slayers and dragons hurting Uther. With the way those two dragons were fighting earlier, he didn’t believe they would have any qualms with hurting their own.

A rustle in the brush pulled Cerulean from his thoughts, he warily scanned the area. He mentally scolded himself for getting distracted and napping when he could have been covering more ground. He never noticed the noises of the forest before, every rustle sounded like a pouncing predator, and the chattering of small animals sounded like the growl of a hungry monster. He picked up the pace and began trying to get his mind off of it. It wouldn’t help if he scared himself beyond movement, he had someone to protect now.

‘Remember what all those other ponies said about Equestria. Paths lined with more food than we can handle, warm summers that had breezes that felt like a mother’s hug. And loving, accepting ponies that welcome you with open minds and open hooves.’ Cerulean smiled and his heart slowed into a normal pace. With a bounce in his step Cerulean trekked on.
Not thirty minutes had passed after Cerulean’s internal pep talk and he moved from motivated to complete denial. A skill many in his family had accomplished was the skill of lying to one’s self. You know when the Windigos first came; his grandmother passed it off as a rather long winter. Yeah, Cerulean wasn’t too fond of his family.

At the first growl Cerulean happily trotted on passing it off as a groaning tree in the breeze. There was a squeal and a crack like the sound of bones snapping or a closing set of sharp teeth. To Cerulean, a hog must have snapped a fallen branch. Sounds similar to those continued and soon they began to be hard to misinterpret. And just before Cerulean was about to admit to himself that there may be something dangerous in the forest…a beast leapt from the brush directly in front of Cerulean. The stallion found himself face to teeth with an animal that he wished never to encounter. You know what,
Cerulean was happier when he pretended it wasn’t there. But sadly he couldn’t travel down that road anymore.

Cerulean gave a noise (that totally didn’t sound like a filly wetting herself) and dashed towards the beast. If you’re confused that means the plan worked. The monster obviously hadn’t read this chapter in the monster handbook and just stood there as the earth pony simply pushed past him, escaping. Not long after Cerulean’s ‘heroic’ escape did another creature burst through the trees. “Don’t worry I’ll save you!” cried out the figure as it barreled into the ground at high speeds. Cerulean side stepped out of the blur’s path and was narrowly missed by the odd black and white blur. There was a thud and a soft
“Ow” that followed the creature’s landing.

“Are you okay?” Cerulean asked as he peered at the leaf and twig covered creature. Suddenly the figure sprang to life and attempted to appear heroic. The creature was a mix between lion and eagle, Cerulean vaguely remembered that the creatures were called Gryphons.

“Stand back I’ll slay this…” the gryphon finally became aware of its surroundings. “Where’s the monster?” asked the gryphon as it turned to face Cerulean.

“Down a couple ways south.” answered Cerulean, the gryphon groaned.

“Great, way to go Azazel. First month out of training and you haven’t slain a thing!” said the gryphon as he began to bang his head against a nearby tree. Cerulean approached the gryphon curiously.

“What are you talking about?” asked the pony as he peered at the gryphon. Their head was white and feathered, the feathers having black tips; their fur was black and their tail was tipped with a white tuft of hair. The gryphon turned back to the pony and puffed out his chest.

“I’m Azazel Blake, Equestria’s greatest dragon slayer. No need to worry miss, you’re safe with me.” The gryphon said proudly before Cerulean bucked the gryphon in the gut. Azazel fell with an ‘ooph’ and curled on himself groaning. Clearly Cerulean felt offended.

“I’m a stallion, idiot. And I don’t need to be saved by some failure of a dragon slayer.” said Cerulean as he turned around and walked away. What with all the yelling running, screaming and bucking; Uther had been jostled awake.

“Papa!” the little dragon chirped as it tugged on Cerulean’s mane. Cerulean turned his head to look at the baby dragon.

“What is it Uther?” he asked, the dragon stared back in the direction of the gryphon and back at the earth pony. The message was clear but Cerulean didn’t want to listen, that gryphon was a trained dragon slayer. That could spell major danger if he had noticed Uther riding on his back. But then again Azazel didn’t notice Uther and he said he hadn’t slain anything. As Cerulean turned back he began cursing his conscious. When he returned the gryphon shakily had pulled himself off the floor.

“So you’re a stallion? With that mane of yours, you sure fooled me.” mocked the gryphon. Cerulean looked affronted.

“I’ll have you know, lots of stallions wear their manes like this where I come from.” Cerulean said angrily, the gryphon gave an airy laugh, the laugh of someone who still hadn’t caught his breath.

“Even better, an entire place of filly-stallions.” The gryphon taunted. Cerulean was about to buck the gryphon into a tree, when someone beat him to it. A flying rock sailed through the air and hit the gryphon in the head, knocking him out effectively. Cerulean slowly turned his head to see the small dragon covering his mouth making a small trilling noise that sounded like laughter.

“And here I thought you wanted to help the gryphon.” said Cerulean, the dragon gave a small toothless smile and Cerulean couldn’t help but smile back. Uther hopped off his back, plucked a fallen branch, and poked the unconscious Azazel. Cerulean just sat and watched, slightly entertained by the display. He decided to just watch and wait until the gryphon regained consciousness. The reason why was beyond him.

Ten minutes passed and Uther had grown tired of poking the dragon slayer and proceeded to find new ways to entertain himself. Cerulean had suspected the little dragon was teething and his suspicions were confirmed when the dragon began chewing on the branch he had picked up. Cerulean walked over to the dragon and removed it from Uther’s jaws. “Do you know where that’s been or what’s been on it. I mean you poked the gryphon with it.” He said as he wrinkled his muzzle in disgust. Not that he found gryphons disgusting, it’s just he didn’t know where this particular gryphon had been either.
Instead of crying like most foals did the dragon merely shrugged and waddled over to Azazel. Uther gave the gryphon’s tail a good tug, and Cerulean was under the impression that this was the dragon’s new game. And just like before, he had seen the idea form far too late. He tried to get to the dragon but to no avail, Uther had his toothless jaws clamped on the gryphon’s tail.

“Argh!” cried out Azazel as he jumped a few hooves in the air. The gryphon gripped onto an overhanging branch, his tail hanging down with Uther jumping and snapping at Azazel’s tail like some sort of carnivorous fish. Azazel’s eyes pleaded with the earth pony that was watching the scene with amusement. “Please help me!” the gryphon begged.

Cerulean gave Azazel an evil smile. “I thought you were a dragon slayer. It’s only a baby.” He said mockingly. Azazel quickly grabbed his tail and pulled it away from Uther who attempted to get the gryphon’s claws.

“immafraidofdragons.” muttered Azazel as he looked away from the blue earth pony. Cerulean raised an eyebrow and strained his ears.

“Excuse me, what was that?” he said, his tone somewhat mocking yet somewhat sincere. The gryphon blushed harshly, if the crimson coloring of his facial feathers where any indication.

“isaidimmafraidofdragons.” the gryphon said a bit louder, Cerulean still didn’t hear him.

“What?” he questioned. The gryphon had an extremely embarrassed look on his face.

“I SAID I’M AFRAID OF DRAGONS!” Azazel shouted, and the forest seemed to fall silent.

“BWAHAHAHA!” laughed Cerulean as he suddenly lost his balance and collapsed on the floor. Uther did the same, apparently understanding the irony; or was simply copying his ‘pappa’. The laughs eventually subsided and the gryphon was still attached to the tree branch looking both embarrassed and irritated.

“It’s not funny.” Azazel grumbled as the two on the ground managed to maintain the standing position. Cerulean wiped a tear or two from his eye and gave a contented noise.

“I’m going to have to agree with you there Azazel, it’s not funny. It’s hilarious. And by the way Uther has no teeth, and he can barely breath fire, let alone talk. He’s no threat” Cerulean said, Uther eventually gave up on gryphon and wandered over to Cerulean and sat. The gryphon glared at the duo.

“Just help me get down.” The gryphon said as he realized he imbedded his claws into the tree and was now stuck. Cerulean chuckled and walked to the tree.

“Can do.” He said as he gave the tree one good buck, sending the gryphon to the floor with a hard thud.

“Ow.” The gryphon groaned, though the sound was muffled and Cerulean began to see a pattern with the supposed ‘Dragon Slayer’. Cerulean walked back over to Uther and got low so Uther could climb on his back. Azazel pulled his beak from the ground and casted the dragon nervous glances.

“Do you even know what that ‘adorable’ baby dragon’s going to look like when he grows up?” Azazel said, his voice raising an octave. Cerulean shrugged and began trotting ahead.

“I have an idea.” He said.

“How?” the gryphon questioned nervously. Cerulean stopped and turned to look at him, Uther doing the same. The black and golden eyes stared at the gryphon.

“I’ve seen his mama, besides there’s probably more around here that could give me an example.” Cerulean stated casually as he once again moved to leave.

“Wait!” called out Azazel as he tried to catch up to Cerulean, though he did his best to avoid the baby dragon. “I’ll stay with you, to protect you. You can never trust those dragons right?” he said nervously. Cerulean looked unimpressed.

“Right.” He said with a roll of his eyes. The gryphon followed after him.

“I’m serious.” He cried out. Cerulean didn’t turn back.

“Mmhm, I bet you are.” He called out. Azazel walked right behind the earth pony and Uther stared at the gryphon. The little gryphon blew smoke out his nostrils and Azazel gave a shriek of terror. Cerulean just continued on. “Really helping your case Azazel.”

But despite Cerulean’s cool attitude he was worried. Azazel’s words still echoing in his head. “Do you even know what that ‘adorable’ baby dragon’s going to look like when he grows up?” Cerulean did have an idea on how Uther would look when he grew up, and he wondered what he would do when that time came. If he was still alive by then, a weight settled in his stomach and he decided not to dwell on it. Instead he focused on his newest odd companion. A dragon slayer who was afraid of dragons… someone out there hated him.

Comments

[Emo Rainbow]

a dragon slayer afraid of dragons cerulean was right BWAHAHAHAHA!

[stotans]

Well well well, an interesting character. A dragon slayer that is afraid of dragons. Can't wait to see how this plays out. Eagerly waiting for your next chapter.

Man on a mission stotans.