Not cold enough to be biting the skin, but a nice cool temperature that was pleasant. Pine trees covered large areas of land, making a blanket of green that was home for many forest animals whom had descended from their ancestors for many generations. In the center of the thick forest was a large mountain that was so tall, its tips touched the sky.
Nobody knew what was on top of such mountain. The rocks and landscape of such a high mountain was too treacherous to climb, too steep to even get close to the midway point if anyone was lucky enough to get that high. For years, no one could even say what the view point of such mountain held.
And nobody really did seem to care to know. Getting on top of the mountain was hard, yes. But actually getting to the mountain was the hardest part. The trees that surrounded the mountain were thick and many. One could easily get lost in there for days without any proper tools and skills to get out of there. Not to mention all the wild animals that lived in the forest. One could die in there if they weren’t too careful.
Thankfully, the forest was a protected area. No one would dare enter restricted ground where they weren’t supposed to go. No one dared oppose the old ranger that watched over the land like a knight guarding their kingdom. And no one ever ventured deep within the woods without special permission.
It was a peaceful night.
But it would not remain that way for long.
“Stupid peck necks! Every last one of ‘em! Ah told ‘em didn’t Ah? Ah told ‘em! But they didn’t listen! No not one bit!” A large feathery creature grumbled as he weaved through the forest. “Ah tell ‘em that danger is comin’, n’ they don’t believe me! Nerve of ‘em! Every single one!”
He kept grumbling as he made his way deep into the forest, going deep where trees were almost pressing against each other so tightly not even a chipmunk could squeeze through. He knew the ins and outs of the forest very well to know where to turn and what to jump over to get to where he was going. At last, the trees parted ways to an open valley.
It was a small open valley filled with different colorful flowers. From roses to peonies, to summer lilacs and honeysuckles, to sweet alyssums and dianthus. The strong scent that the flowers gave off were almost over powering to the creature’s nostrils, but his focus wasn’t on the flowers, it was the large tree that sat right in the center of the valley.
The tree was by far the biggest and thickest tree in the whole forest, possibly in the whole world, towering over even the largest of pines and thicker than seven trees pressed against each other. Its thick lower half was two times the size of a normal house with roots and branches weaved all over in a mess that there was only one large entrance to get in.
One with a long black tail sticking out of it.
“Oh good he’s home!” The bird creature sighed in relief, starting to run towards the tree but suddenly tripped on something and let out a startled squawking noise. “GAACK!” And landed on his face in a feathery heap.
“Oh my stars! I’m so sor-… oh. Hello Conductor.”
The Conductor lifted his head, glaring at the penguin under his long thin leg. “GROOVES! Ya No Good Flightless Peck Neck! Ya Tripped Me!”
“You ran into me, darling.” The small bird brushed off the Conductor’s leg, get up off the ground. Grooves was Fiordland penguin, quiet stout for his size with very long and large yellow eyebrows that reached past his head, down his neck, and almost at the midway point of his flippers.
He was quiet blue instead of a normal bluish-grey like a normal Fiordland penguin. From head to the tip of his tail, he had nothing but bright blue sleek feathers in place of black feathers. Most would over look this as more focus would be turned to his head where a large, bushy, black afro sat, along with a pair dark star shaped framed sunglasses that sat on the penguin’s beak, obscuring his eyes from everyone.
“Whatever! Ah don’t have time tae squabble with ya right now!” The Conductor huffed, getting off the ground as well, shaking himself so hard that the petals that had clung to his feathers fell off. “Ah need tae get tae Snatcher! Now!”
“What’s the rush darling?” Grooves asked, following after the larger bird. “Someone bothering your train again?”
“No. Worse. N’ Ah don’t have time tae tell ya ya peck neck!” The Conductor raced off, heading towards the tree at fast pace. When he reached the tree, the first thing he did was jump on the long black tail and started pecking at it, shouting at the top of his voice. “Snatcher! Snatcher! Wake up ya big buffoon! Wake up!”
There was a deep rumbling sound inside the tree, and the large tail shifted slightly. But nothing came out but the gentle sounds of deep easy breathing.
The Conductor huffed, hopping up the spines one by one till he was nearly inside the tree and shouted into the mouth of the entrance at the top of his lungs. “SNATCHER YA PECK NECK WAKE UP! THERE’S TROUBLE ‘BOUT N’ YER SLEEPIN’ THROUGH IT!”
Grooves waddled up, stopping just at the roots of the large tree and shook his head. “He’s not going to be very responsive tonight Conductor darling. The moon is full tonight.” He pointed up to the starry filled night sky where the large white moon sat shining brightly. “You know that dragon will sleep through anything when the moon is nearly or completely full.”
“Ah don’t care ‘bout yer stupide space rock! Ah need tae get Snatcher up!” The Conductor pecked at the black scales, plucking out two of them so roughly that the tail flinched in a jerking motion that almost flung the bird creature off. But still nothing moved from within the tree. “Oh yer useless ya flockin’ peck neck!”
“Language!” Grooves shouted.
“Oh go stuff yerself peck neck.” The Conductor huffed, still pecking at the scales.
“Uh, excuse me?” A soft voice called high up. Grooves and the Conductor looked up. Sitting in one of the low branches was a small humanoid figure. Their body was small like a child, clocked in dark clothing with a poncho that cover their head and mouth. They had no face but a golden-white luminescence that stared down at the pair.
“Oh great. A Minion.” The Conductor groaned. “Jus’ what Ah needed. A pesterin’ peck neck.”
Grooves shot the Conductor a hard glare, which went unnoticed by the bird creature.
“You’re not much of a welcomed sight either Conductor.” The Minion said with dismay in their voice. “Nor is all the noise your making. It’s late, the moon is full, and your yelling is keeping us from having any peaceful sleep!”
“There won’t be any peaceful sleep tonight! There’s trouble in the forest! Ah’ve seen it! N’ it’s not goin’ tae be friendly!”
“Darling, what are you squabbling about? If it’s about your train, again, then why not wait till morning to—”
“IT’S NOT ‘BOUT ME TRAIN YA PECK NECKS!” The Conductor shouted at the top of his lungs. “THERE’S HUMANS IN THE FOREST! N’ THEY’VE GOT MACHINES WITH ‘EM N’ HEADIN’ TOWARDS THE MOUNTAIN!”
The bird creature panted heavily, earning the wide eyed stares of Grooves and the Minion.
“… Humans?” Grooves asked in disbelief. “Here? Darling you… you must be pulling my flipper.”
“Ah’m not.” The Conductor snorted. “Ah’ve seen ‘em. Lots of ‘em. Deep inside the forest headin’ towards the mountain with large machines.” He twisted his head in the direction of the large stone mountain the peaked over the trees. “N’ they’re gettin’ close tae the base of the mountain too!”
“Impossible! Humans can’t make it that close to the mountain! The forest is too dense and would never allow them passage to get them that close!” The Minion scoffed, crossing their arms. “You must have smell a Groopfog’s smog and hallucinated seeing humans.”
“The Groopfogs are in hibernation! It’s still too cold fer ‘em! Ah know what Ah saw n’ it was no trick of me eye!” The Conductor snapped his beak, his feathers flaring up in anger.
“I don’t know Conductor. A Groopfogs smog is pretty powerful.” Grooves shook his head. “And Groopfogs do tend to sleep with their mouths open sometimes. Some it’s possible that you co—”
“AH KNOW WHAT AH SAW!” The Conductor screamed, hopping off of the dragon’s tail and stalked up to the Fiordland penguin. “N’ IT WASN’T GROOPFOG FOG! HUMANS ARE HERE!”
“Oh yeah?” The Minion rolled their eye, shaking their head in disbelief. “Do you have any proof of that?”
The Conductor twisted his head, opening his beak to shout at the Minion, when a loud, thundering explosion cut him off.
*
When a dragon sleeps, they sleep for hours in a heavy slumber. It’s hard to wake a dragon so deep in their sleep that it’s nearly impossible to rouse them from such a slumber.
This does not mean that there isn’t a way to wake them however.
There are a few methods to waking a dragon up. Peacefully or very rudely.
Most would take the polite way to wake a dragon. Waking them up gently and not causing the dragon any distress saves others from any potential harm that could come accidentally from waking a dragon up the rude way. Some methods had you putting a steaming bowl of an herbal concoction put under their snouts, others would gently pinch a dragon behind their ears right where it was connected to the head that had a special nerve that woke the dragon up gently. But for Snatcher…
Snatcher didn’t have the pleasure of waking up gently.
Nor was he asleep as he would have liked.
Tired, yes. But for some reason he could not sleep.
Snatcher grumbled, shifting his large head to one side. Normally, the dragon would be sleeping away during nights when the moon was in its full phases, dreaming the stars and the gentle song of the breeze in the wind. But tonight he was awake. Tired and groggy, but awake. And this was making his rather grumpy.
He didn’t like it when he was forced to stay awake when he would rather be sleeping the night away in the comfort deep inside his tree. The tree had a very big cave that fit the large beast comfortably. With room to move around and enough space to stretch out or move over to let others in. Namely his Minions.
Snatcher wasn’t particularly a very sociable dragon. He liked to keep to himself most of the time or read the books that humans threw away or gifted to him by the forest ranger. He had a very fond liking to the law books and would often try to find any lying around when he went flying out on moonless nights. But as far as he went out, even far past the forests border, he always came back to his home just before the sun first rays.
The forest’s inhabitants knew to never bother him unless it was an emergency or something he could only do. Like a large bolder that needed to be lifted, or beast that needed to be put in their proper place, or if the Conductor was making another scene again and needed to shut up. He honestly wonders why he hasn’t eaten the old bird creature thing yet. It would save everyone the trouble.
And his Minions would stop complaining about him when they were cleaning his scales.
The old bird creature was honestly all they talked about these days as they clean his scales, sharpened his talons, buffed his horns, brush his wings, picked out tiny stones itching his skin, and clipped his long sharp spikes that rain down from the back of his head all the way down to the tip of his tail. It was getting really annoying and old fast. He had to snap his teeth at them just to make them stop and focus on cleaning again.
With another grumble, Snatcher uncoiled his long neck, bending it way from his body till his snout bumped the wall of his cave and sighed. There was something… wrong about tonight.
Something that felt off and unfamiliar. Something that was making the forest uncomfortable and in turn making him unable to sleep. His golden eyes gazed up at the ceiling of his home, counting the roots that poked out and weaved with each other in an unplanned design. For some reason, they looked tensed in Snatcher’s eyes.
He shifted his body a bit, trying to find a comfortable spot that would ease his body to sleep. But no matter where he shifted or what area he laid in, the ground was too uncomfortable for him to close his eyes and let sleep take over. Even the wide cave that fit his size just fine felt small and cramped instead of open and safe.
When he could no longer try to sleep, Snatcher decided it was time to figure out what was going on. He had just lifted his head as high as it would go in his home, he felt something jumping on to his tail, poking it.
“Snatcher! Snatcher! Wake up ya big buffoon! Wake up!”
The large dragon groaned, rolling his eyes and flopped his head down on the ground. Of course. Of course. It just HAD to be the Conductor. The dragon shifted himself slightly, making it seem like he was waking up, but soon stilled and let out slow heavy breathing to sound like he was still sleeping.
“SNATCHER YA PECK NECK WAKE UP! THERE’S TROUBLE ‘BOUT N’ YER SLEEPIN’ THROUGH IT!”
I’m not sleeping through it. I’m just waiting for you to get the hint and leave so I can find out what’s going on.
The dragon thought, wincing as he felt his scales being plucked out roughly, but still managing to keep still enough to keep up the façade of being asleep. There was no way he was going out there and listening to that old bird rant. It was probably something to do with his train or gripping about Grooves again.
Snatcher couldn’t fathom way those two didn’t get along. They were practically from the same species! Though one of them was flightless and the other was… questionable. But still very similar none the less.
Whatever. Snatcher closed his eyes. Let the old… thing, keep pecking and shouting at him. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with Conductor right now. Whatever he had to squabble about now wasn’t his concern.
“IT’S NOT ‘BOUT ME TRAIN YA PECK NECKS! THERE’S HUMANS IN THE FOREST! N’ THEY’VE GOT MACHINES WITH ‘EM N’ HEADIN’ TOWARDS THE MOUNTAIN!”
Snatcher’s eyes snapped open.
Humans?
Did the Conductor really shout… that there were humans in the forest?
“No. No impossible.” The dragon rose his head slightly. “Humans can’t make it this deep into the forest. Or even get close to the mountain.”
But what if it was true? It would explain way the forest was uneasy and way he couldn’t sleep.
But, how?
How had the humans get so close to the mountain in one night? It was impossible for a human to navigate their way through the thick trees. And the forest would certainly make it difficult for humans to sneak in their machines.
He shook his head. The old bird thing must be seeing things.
“AH KNOW WHAT AH SAW! N’ IT WASN’T GROOPFOG FOG! HUMANS ARE HERE!”
Snatcher frowned, looking behind him to the only entrance to his home. The Conductor sounded serious. Dead serious.
And that serious only grew more true when a deafening sound echoed in the night.
