[ShadyBro]

This beast is extreamly aggressive towards other dragons and humans alike. Their firey personality has made it nearly impossible to nurture it back to full health, and they obviously need it. They cant seem to fly at all, most likely due to some sort of wing injury. Perhaps thats whats causing their aggression as well?

Rider: dave.
Name: Dwarf
Gender: Male
Species: Red Death

Are all tasks complete?; Yes

[yeena]

Name; Dwarf
Gender; Male

(Complete) Task #1 - Dwarf: meeting the dragon
(Complete) Task #2 - Feeling: where it all starts
(Complete) Task #3 - Control: just a pups growl

(Complete) Task #4 - Communication: it is a gift

[yeena]

It was almost disappointing when I was told about my rescue dragon being unable to fly. It struck me that I should be happy I got a dragon at the very least. These were rescue dragons for reasons after all, it's not I they're new and just tamed. They were hurt somehow and now they were being saved. In short, it was best I be grateful for what I got because this would be my first, and possibly, only dragon. The keeper; or the person I had respectfully dubbed as a 'dragon keeper', was leading me away. Or well, they had started walking away and were flailing their hands about in a 'follow me' gesture. I hadn't exactly been too focused on their words since they broke the flightless news to me. Maybe I should have been focusing. We passed a lot of pens, each with different dragons. Some had notable disabilities, others didn't seem hurt at all. Some had riders with them; hey, that would be me with this dragon now wouldn't it ? It didn't take long after passing the last pen that I was asking about my own dragon; a simple question of 'did we pass my dragon ?' The keeper chuffed.

" Your dragon is past those pens, in the back. " When they said 'in the back' they meant a huge, giant, pit way out from the main event. " Your dragon is one of the very special ones we rescue. He wasn't all that easy to get back here either, due to his extreme size and personality. " I was starting to get worried. " He's quite hostile, to humans and dragons alike. We didn't have the option of having his pen closer to the camp, building a cage this big would've taken too much time. So we used one of the old arenas; luckily, he fit in it. After it had a bit of remodeling. " That's when I locked myself up into my own world again and tuned out of the keeper's chattering. So far, my dragon was larger than all of the other dragons and pens, extremely aggressive and flightless. What a mix. Had I signed for any extremely large dragon on my slip of paper ? I couldn't recall any of the three species I had put down. I glanced around my current surroundings; the previous noise from the event was now a distant call. Scratch that, it was nonexistent. The only noise now was leaves crunching under our feet.

It was shady, wherever we were going. Trees were blocking out the sun. At least it seemed that we were walking on some sort of path; a worn down way through the overgrowth and everything. How long have we been walking ? My feet were starting to hurt. Just a bit. I never had been the walking type. The forest was deathly quiet; was this even a forest ? It might be. The keeper had said something about an arena. Arenas were long out of it by now, left to rot ever since the day dragons became trainable in a friendly way. It had been years since the arenas went adios- does this mean they specifically found this arena and patched it up for the event ? I was confusing myself with my own questions. It's easy to say that the event hosts were magical and had done a wonderful job with the event so far. End of story to avoid any further confusion. I was quite tempted to ask the dreaded 'are we there yet' question, getting nearly impatient already. The impatience wasn't there in an... actually annoyed way. It's like the impatience one may experience when on the way to a loved ones house to see a new dog, or cat. Or anything around that. It was an excited impatience.

But impatience nonetheless.

I could swear the sun was setting (the sun was still shining above our heads) when the keeper finally gave the calm announcement that we were at our destination. My heart beat picked up a couple paces and my stomach started to turn. It was almost like the world was frozen at the moment, and I was confused as to why the keeper wasn't giving me any sort of okay to go near the pen. The pen, I should quickly mention, was actually hidden from sight currently. All I could clearly see, at the moment, was a whole half circle of shiny metal, from here. Trying to recall the arena layout in some of the history books I had glimpsed at, I could piece together the arena little by little. You, as a spectator, wouldn't go into the arena. Which was a dug out hole in the ground, basically. Their was a whole base bar cage circle- which was horizontal bars going around in a circle, around the hole. Then there was a chain part that made up the whole rounded part of the cage top. It was hard for me to explain, but it was a closed off hole in the ground and that was the easiest way to put it. The keeper coughed slightly.

" Your Red Death, " my Red Death ? Red Death. As in the dragons used to scare children, the dragons that almost ruined the dragon-taming future ? The giant monster dragon ? " -it's best to approach the pen carefully. Don't make any sudden movements and don't look at him directly in the eyes. " I tuned out again and missed what the keeper had said. Dang. I probably should stop doing that. The keeper finally nodded at me slowly and I started moving before my mind could register what my legs were doing. The keeper clicked their tongue against their teeth slightly, moving up alongside me and twisting their hands together. Were they nervous ? It was strange for me to watch them out of the corners of my eye- they had been chattering away just moments before. This serious side to them was almost foreign. Stalking up slowly to the edge of the cage, avoid any chipped places along the cement on the ground surrounding the cage, I peeked in and felt my heart stop slightly.

He was absolutely gorgeous.

The very first thing I noticed was his bright colors against his darker scales. He had bright green, blue and even yellow markings along his dark base. I could only see his body; he was curled up, large clubbed tail laying out in the open while he was tucked away against the wall. I looked along his body and squinted almost; did he have any wings at all ? Then I saw something flutter, ever so slightly, against his back. He was shifting his wings around. The reason I didn't notice them is because they were the same color as a good majority of his body. I turned to look at the keeper, who was looking at me. I guess I had been... showing more excitement than I thought. I had grabbed the fencing apparently; and my knuckles were turning white now. I noticed their smile slowly shift into a frown, until they were reaching out for my shoulder and aggressively tugging me away from the fence. I yelped slightly, confused as to why they were pulling me away, until I realized that the ground had started rumbling. The dragon in the pen was moving. My dragon was awake.

I couldn't watch him getting up, as I had been pulled away, but I could hear the shifting in the pen. The whole air seemed to shift as he slowly stood up in his pen. He didn't sound like the most graceful of dragons when getting up, but these were just assumptions from what I was hearing. Some loud scratching, a low growl, maybe his tail being shifted. " You must know already, he heard us before we were even near him. He could smell us in the air as well. He's an extremely intelligent dragon as well, he's just aggressive and it's hard to feed him and help him when he refuses to interact with us, as humans. " a snarl that was sure to be heard for a few miles rang out from the cage, and made the keeper stop talking. His reaction to the quiet chatter made me want to believe that he knew we were talking about him, and he didn't like it. It was probably the fact he knew we were intruders to his current home and he couldn't visibly see us that he actually had made a sound, but it seemed nicer to believe things.

I actually hadn't known that about him. Or his species, rather. But the keeper went on, filling me in on facts about the species. " He does have six eyes, as all Red Deaths, but as well as other Reds, his eyesight isn't all that good. He's not completely blind, but it's fair to say he does rely more on scent and sound than sight. I don't think it's really safe to let you go in there and meet him personally... so today we'll just admire him from up here. " I nodded, I wasn't exactly sure I really wanted to have hand-to-scale contact with him so soon. It would feel strange. But soon the keeper nodded and slowly, very slowly, led me back over to the cage. They let me walk forward and look through the bars again, into the pen below us. My earlier assumptions were confirmed when I looked down into the past arena and saw the giant standing in the middle. He had his large head turned up towards us.

His wings were still tucked in towards his body, as if he was hiding them away from their sight. I thought that showing his wings would be a show of dominance ?... Though. The keeper had warned me about him being flightless, and flightless-ness was usually tied in with the wings. Maybe something was wrong with his wings ? Or well, something was definitely wrong but what ? Guess I'd have to try to find that out sometime later. He tilted his head up at us, which broke my trance of staring at his bright yellow spikes and wondrous frills. Shaking my head slightly I felt my heart beat pick up once again as he made his way over to me and the keeper, his yellow eyes narrowing as he hobbled over. His footsteps shook the ground and his club tail swung while walking, left to right and right to left. I held on tightly to the bars once again, not budging even when the keeper lightly tugged on my sleeve. The keeper was soon running backwards, scared of the approaching Red Death. Despite the fact my breath was now catching in my throat, I watched the dragon with wide eyes and blocked out the whimpering coming from the keeper behind me. This was a chance, for me.

The dragon came right up below me, and stared up at me. He still had his eyes narrowed, and when he stood under me for a second I could smell him, as creepy as it sounded. He didn't really have that wild dragon musk, but he wasn't all that pleasant either. His aroma was just in the bearable spectrum. I stared down at him. I know the keeper told me to not hold eye contact, but after some time I couldn't look away from his yellow eyes. I wasn't looking at a dragon anymore, I was looking at someone rather a beast. The dragon below me flared his nostrils, once, twice, thrice, before slowly, very slowly, raising himself up onto his hind legs. His large front feet scratched against the stone wall in front of him as he leaned against it for support. He raised his head up, towards me, but only the very tip of his nose would actually reach all the way up. He breathed in the air, flaring his nostrils once again. I closed my eyes and clenched the bars even tighter- my knuckles were definitely white by now.

He growled.

And when he started growling he moved back down onto all fours, taking a few thunderous steps back with his back legs before reaching his goal of being level on the ground once again. He was showing all of his teeth up at me, hard lips drawn back into a frozen snarl. I had opened my eyes once again, right after I felt him shifting and moving back down to the ground on his pen. I watched him move back more, easing his face while at it. He still didn't seem happy, but he was going to curl up in the corner of the pen again. I took a step back, hands going limp at my sides while I just stared forward. That was definitely an experience. I'm not sure what kind of experience, maybe the first-dragon experience, but an experience either way. I felt serene. Not tired really, but not as excited as earlier. I feel like I've just witnessed a storm cloud clearing up. It was really strange. The keeper came up to me, lightly tugging on my sleeve once again, saying things that were nothing but a blur to me.

" Are you okay ? I hope your okay. That's the calmest he's ever been, he was still baring his teeth and growling but I don't know what it is with you. He didn't try to jump at you or anything- he just warned you. That was... quite interesting. " I only caught a brief amount of things they said. From what I caught, they were only talking about how strange it was about how docile he was being. From what they understood, he was usually swinging his tail around and borderline roaring at whoever was near him. And he probably was. I suspected that this was only a one-time thing in a way, that him actually responding mostly calmly to me would only be something that happened just this time. He seemed tired.

I looked over at the keeper, a grin forming on my face. " Dwarf. " they seemed confused with my sudden outburst, and cocked one eyebrow in response. " What ? " I only snorted and tucked my hands away into my pockets, slowly turning around on my heels. " His name is Dwarf. " they squeaked slightly in their throat before following behind me, we were heading back to the main event.

His name was Dwarf.

[yeena]

It was strangely exciting, seeing the same keeper from yesterday. They came up to me smiling and talking about how happy they were to see me again. It was rather great to see them again, I would admit. But they knew the main reason for us meeting again; to go see Dwarf. They didn't seem bothered by the fact that my questions about their days soon turned into questions about when we were leaving to go see Dwarf. They did roll their eyes a bit- but it wasn't in a rude way, more of a... some other kind of way. Hard to explain, like many other things. I didn't bring anything for the trip once again, for the fear that he would pick up on anything new and he would get suspicious. I didn't bother to explain this to anyone. The keeper slowly nodded off, seemingly at nothing in the distance and then gave a thumbs up and a smile. My guess was that they were signaling to someone behind me but, I didn't turn around to confirm anything. " Sorry about the wait; ready to go see Dwarf ? " I think they soon got the memo that I was more than ready to go see the beast.

We started our trek, passing the many pens that we had gone by yesterday. The keeper had no issue and talking their head off to me, even when they could clearly tell I wasn't listening. I was staring at each dragon we passed, despite none of them being new. They were all the dragons I had seen before, no new rescues had been brought in. But the dragons I did pass by were still interesting nonetheless. I still couldn't identify a lot of their species, I wasn't one to focus on such things, though I should probably get to knowing different dragon species. It would probably help me out. But now wasn't the time to be concerned over other dragons, right now I should just focus on Red Deaths. I did actually find a few books telling me some about them. From what I read Red Deaths were highly aggressive dragons, and were the second largest species out there. The Bewilderbeast was the largest. A Red Death usually called other dragons to do it's bidding, or feed it. Each nest had a King, or Queen... and thats all I could really recall. I'd look over the books again tonight.

We were in the forest by no time, walking along the same path that we went with yesterday. It was a peaceful walk, with Keeper, as I respectfully dubbed them, talking as we walked. I still didn't tune in fully to their words, but I heard them talking about the upcoming arrivals to the sanctuary. They seemed really happy about that. They told me about what dragon they wanted to see most, and which they knew they were going to see... they reminded me somewhat of an indecisive child. Or just a child in general, on and on. They just wouldn't stop, even if you told them to. I guess despite me actually not having a fondness for kids, I could bare Keeper with their nonstop talking. They still just reminded me of a kid though. And it was actually really weird to think of the situation like that. Looking around, I kept my eyes everywhere but where I was walking and Keeper. The trees were a bright green around us- and I wondered if this was a common thing for Berk; shining sun and bright foliage, I mean. I heard some rumors about the place being either snowy or... something else all year round. I wasn't quite sure- this island was not my home island. How do I go back and forth ? Ships.

I never did notice how long of a walk it was to Dwarf's pen. Yesterday was full of my excitement and... I legit never did take notice of anything at all, or of how drawled out the walk was. But I could tell when we were almost there; Keeper got quieter and quieter until it was a silent trip. I think Keeper is somewhat scared of Dwarf which begs a question from me; 'what was Dwarf like before I met him ?' I didn't realize I had spoken out loud. Keeper, whom was in front of me, glanced back at me over their shoulder. They shrugged almost. Did they not have an answer or did they not want to tell me about Dwarf ? It was a short silence before they started. This time, I listened to them. " He put up a huge fight when we were trying to knock him out to get him to this place. He had been recently used as.. a war machine ? We didn't know. What we did know, is that he wasn't being treated all that nicely. We did, at some point, get him to Berk. Where we had this place set up and ready for him. The tranquilizers were a bit stronger than we thought and so he stayed knocked out for awhile longer. With this extra time, healers and the like looked over here. This is when we found out he had a wing injury. The wing injury was a broken bone, or that's what we think it was. By the time we found it, the bone had healed up, though it healed wrong. The bone is... irregular. His other wing is fine though, and it's only his left wing. It doesn't hurt him at all to lift it, we found out, but it's bent in a strange way that makes catching the wind with his wing hard, and thus the wind flows around the wing rather support him in the air. The point of the story is, his wing's bone has healed so unfashionably that has caused him to be flightless. "

That's when Keeper sighed slightly and looked away before turning back. " He's, like I've mentioned, quite aggressive to anything. I feel like his aggressive is from distrust towards all of us and his past life. A lot of the other riders are thinking it's because of his wing injury and ? It might be, I mean, who wouldn't get angry over the fact that they couldn't do something that everyone else around them could do ? Like fly, for his case. He's usually snapping at everyone, just snarling and circling the pen beneath us. I don't know what was up with him yesterday; I want to say he's calming down but, it's hard to say. " I didn't think that he was fully calmed yet. He might've just been in a serene mood for that one yesterday. Who would ever know. Dragons were something that no human, viking, would ever fully understand. I looked around my surroundings once more and was delighted to realize we had arrived- the talking had thoroughly sped up the travel.

Speeding up my walk into a simple jog, Keeper didn't try to stop me and let me go on my own accord. They stopped walking a bit back, letting me go to view Dwarf alone. When I looked inside of his pen, he was walking around. He wasn't doing anything interesting really. I knew he knew we were here. He stopped, paused, and lifted his head up to the sky, stopping the continuous pacing around his pen. I watched him as he turned and faced me, glared up at me from down in his pen. He flared his nostrils at me and I watched him, wide eyes full of wonder. I still could barely believe he was my rescue dragon, the one I had signed up for. He mean't quite the deal to me and I was wondering what it would be like to ride him; because him being flightless wouldn't stop me from using him as a mount. Was that even possible ? Probably not. But I could, of course, still treat him like any other dragon. He would deserve the respect. I pulled myself out of my own thoughts and saw him pacing about again. Was he nervous ? There wasn't anything wrong right ? I felt like a fretting mother. That's when he stopped pacing again and looked up at me. He hissed this time (or I think it was a hiss ?), making a show of his huge teeth while at it.

I don't think I felt offended at his warnings.

He went back to pacing once again, back and forth, laps around the pen, just about everything he could do. I did make note of the fact that he avoided the side of the cage I was at. He would always move inwards, towards the center of the arena, and then continue walking around. It was strange, to say the least. Strange was always interesting. I heard rustling next to me and saw Keeper sitting down next to me- when did I sit down ? To my own surprise, I was actually sitting down on the cement ground around the cage. I didn't remember sitting down. " He's really pretty. " I nodded, looking back over at Dwarf. What was I supposed to say in response ? If I even did try to respond I'd go into a rant about his coloration and... him as a whole. " This is what he's usually doing to everyone, now a days. I guess I might have been making him seem more aggressive with my explanations. He used to do much more when we used to send other tamers into the pen to feed him... but we found out that dropping his food through the top of the pen works. I guess his first rampage with us is because he was confused as to what was going on around him. Wouldn't blame him. "

So he wasn't all that intense with his aggression, but he still really didn't like humans getting too close, much less in his territory. I didn't catch anything about dragons, but Keeper did mention he was dragon-aggressive as well. Thankfully, he was my first dragon and I wouldn't have to worry about him getting along with any other dragons... well, at least not any dragons I'd have to look out for twenty-four seven. Other people's dragons that were just about everywhere ? Well that was another story. I wouldn't have to worry about them for awhile though, until I managed to get his complete trust and (hopefully) like, he probably wouldn't be getting far from this arena. It sounded cruel, but I wasn't sure Keeper, or anybody, was gonna let me leave the sanctuary with an aggressive, colossal dragon, within a week. It could be months before he actually got outside of this pen. But, for some reason, I was definitely willing to wait that long. If patience is what this dragon needed, patience is what he was going to get.

Today, I decided, was just going to be a sit down day. Talking with Keeper while Dwarf paced around in the background. It might bring some ease to Dwarf, get him comfortable with our scents and voices. It might get him to trust us ? What a large wish. It was highly unlikely to be, but, heh, I could still believe. Shifting around to where my shoulder was now leaning (uncomfortably) against the stiff bars of the cage, I turned and stared at Keeper. " You talked about food earlier, what does he actually eat ? Is it all entirely meat ? I'm gonna go ahead and guess it can't be something like fish ? " Keeper laughed a little too loudly and shifted to match my current position, shaking their head slightly at me. " His food, feeding, anything like that, is a whole other story. "

From down in the cage, I swear Dwarf huffed.

[yeena]

I was sitting outside of Dwarf's cage, as like yesterday. Keeper was there beside me, relaxing peacefully in a gentle breeze blowing through the air. They were extremely calm, and I feel like talking in front of Dwarf yesterday really made them chillax about their thoughts about Dwarf. They did jump every few times he stomped around in the beginning, but after awhile they got used to him and his noise. It was another quiet, sit day for them and the dragon. Or well. For them, as the humans, at least. Dwarf was stomping about in his cage, as per usual. He seemed to always be stomping about or laying down, resting his head. There was never an in between. he was either moving, or he wasn't. I found his restlessness saying something about his character, that he couldn't stand to be still. It probably wasn't meaning anything besides anxiety, him moving, but there was always a brighter outlook to things.

Today had started off pretty peaceful, with me waking and getting ready and then at once heading out to see Keeper. Keeper was pretty happy to see me able to make it once again, and greeted me with the typical 'hey there, welcome back'. We were both soon off to Dwarf's keeping, surprisingly though, today, I actually did listen to what Keeper was saying. They were talking about dragons, as usual, but this time they were talking about their favorite breed; the ever-common, Terrible Terror. They spoke about how they used to have their own small farm of the little dragons. I found them ten times more respectable for being able to care for multiple, tiny and curious dragons. Dragons that blow fire and can get into many things. They also explained how they were planning on getting another pair of Terrible T's. They never explained the backstory as to what happened to their old Terrible T. farm.

I didn't feel the need to question about it.

Then the conversation turned to me and asking me what my favorite dragon species was; to which I quickly responded, Red Deaths. It was a bit obvious as to why and thus Keeper laughed and simply replied 'figures'. We arrived to Dwarf's cage and sat down in silence, just enjoying the sounds that Dwarf was making beneath us. It was just another relaxing day because the unsaid rule was that we, neither of us, could interact with Dwarf unless he wished to be interacted with. Which meant him coming up to us and growling directly at us, or standing on his hind legs to reach us. Even if he didn't actually reach all the way up. If he didn't show that he wanted to be messed with directly ? We had been instructed to just let him be. And that was coming from Keeper's supervisor, the event host. I didn't really feel like challenging anyones words. The rule was in place for simple safety reasons, not to be mean or anything like that. It was pretty hard to bond with a giant Red Death, challenges were to be a thing.

The day was actually super peaceful right now, but all of the days throughout the week had been pretty nice hadn't they ? Gentle breezes, no signs of rain, great sunshine, not too hot, all of that comforting stuff. It had been a really nice week and nobody could really argue against it. Dwarf's ground-shaking steps were now, overall, comforting and it was hard to explain as to how the ground shaking was of any martial comfort... but it was. It was one of those strange comforting things. His growls and random sounds he would make from time to time were also, quite comforting. Again, it was one of those strangely comforting things that possibly nobody could explain. Not even I could explain my own weird lovey-dovey feelings to the sounds of a Red Death.

And, well, that's when it started.

I didn't know exactly what had started; just that Dwarf's ground-shaking wasn't all that comforting anymore. His gentle, soft shakes were now killer. Enough to where me and Keeper had to get up to avoid hurting ourselves on the bars we had been resting our heads on. Dwarf was in his pen, and he was jumping around, running in his usual path around and around the pen. It was like he was trying to buck something off but nothing was there to buck off. His club tail would mercilessly hit the wall, some parts of the wall crumbling upon the sudden attack. I was a little more than confused, and Keeper looked about the same. What exactly was happening here ? Dwarf was also flapping his wings around while hopping, and he was making sound. The sound he was making was something akin to a puppy growling; it wasn't meaning any harm. It was just a sound. But anyway, wing flapping. It's what caught my attention most. And now I realized what Keeper had meant about his wings. When he tried to flap the left wing, it bent off the side awkwardly and wobbled in the air rather flapped. I felt bad for Dwarf; he never asked for his wing to be like such.

His growl would rise and fall in frequency and, still, me and Keeper stood confused. He was moving like he had something on his back and he wanted it off, but then again his growl still pertained no aggression. It was just a growl that would rise and fall. He, himself, didn't show any signs of actual discomfort, as if he was hopping just for the heck of it. I looked over at Keeper to see them just staring down into the pen. They had now started to grip the bars, and I found it appropriate to mimic their actions. The ground shaking was nearly unbearable, being right next to him. Then I turned back to him and cocked my head in the slightest. He seemed actually happy ?... -Oh. I could swear realization hit me like his tail was hitting the wall. It was actually quite obvious to what was happening, especially with there being no actual aggression showing. He was playing. He wasn't playing with anything in particular, just hopping around and being giddy. It was strange to think about. I suppose all dragons had some sort of inner hatchling in them though. Even if it was just a sliver, it was still there and very much a part of them.

" He's playing. He's playing. "

[yeena]

There still was no progress with touching him. No progress with bonding with him at all really. The past few days had just been me and Keeper sitting around his enclosure, listening to his quiet fumbling behind us. Sometimes we would talk about things, sometimes we wouldn't. Silent days were nice, just as nice as the days full of chitter chatter. Sometimes Dwarf would butt in from his pen, growling at us as if he was telling us to be quiet. He would usually go lay down after warning us, so we usually did take it down a notch. I realize that he never went to sleep. At least not with us around. He might lay his head down, he might close his eyes to where they aren't visible to open eye, but his breathing never slowed down. He would often move his clubbed tail around, as if trying to find a decent position for it. He would huff loudly sometimes, usually when me and Keeper were getting too loud for him. I did find it interesting that he managed to communicate with us through huffs, groans, growls, simple noises were like words to me and Keeper now.

His annoyance depended on how loud his noises were. If they were very loud, and aggression was being shown, he was very annoyed with us, or anything for that matter. The louder his sounds, the more annoyed it meant he was. If his noise was at a level frequency and wasn't all that loud, he was just 'just'. There was no real emotions at these levels, warnings could be clearly told apart from his normal, make noise just because, sounds. You would have to focus harder, deeper, on everything but in the end it was worth it. Picking up on Dwarf's own language was a blessing in itself. There were also unspoken words with his actions, whether it be him shifting around while laying down or even just picking his speed up in his trots around the pen. Everything had it's own meanings, it was up to you as a person to find them out though. I probably didn't have all of them down, and some of them probably weren't even right, but at least I was making some sort of attempt with this all. It was better than me not caring at all.

But back to hidden words into his actions.

A simple shift of his tail could say so many things about him; like he was too hot, or too cold, or uncomfortable, or annoyed. The options were endless and extremely hard to narrow down... to some degree. Some of these were pretty typical, like how he would curl his tail up tighter to his body if cold, or just generally relax and huff softly when too hot. Him being uncomfortable and him being annoyed were extremely similar tail movements, and it could be hard to tell them apart if you didn't watch things close enough. Why had I been able to pick up on these movements ? Because I had nothing else better to do than stare at my dragon when I came to visit him. Staring wasn't just looking off at the sparkle of his scales in the sun, staring was also the act of watching him so closely that one picked up on his movements and actions. Anyhow, annoyance and being uncomfortable. In either actions, his tail will swing to whatever direction quickly.

Direction didn't influence mood at all.

If his tail was picked more up off the ground, then he was annoyed. If his tail was sweeping the ground, touching the ground, he was just shifting because he wasn't comfortable. How did I know this ? Well, watching and putting some sort of puzzle pieces together. If he were to lift his tail up off the ground slightly before moving it, it would make it easier for him to gain speed with his tail. Now, he didn't usually use his tail to attack the wall when he was annoyed, he would just abruptly drop his tail roughly behind him and hope that you get some sort of memo. Whatever may be out there. Now, if he was uncomfortable, all it took was some shifting to get straight. There were, of course, definitely more movements that went along with his tail. A lot more emotions to be tied in with these other movements. There was always the future for that though, always more doors to be opened sooner or later. It could take me years before I got near the end, and it probably would take me years, just to get to the end of knowing Dwarf. But hey, at some point I said if patience is what this dragon needed, it's what he was going to get. No need to rush things, there was plenty of time laid out before them.

His face could show emotions too, as fake as it sounded. Dwarf could smile, growl, bare his fangs, let his tongue hang out, all of that and more. It probably wasn't a lie that his face would reveal most of his emotions, given his face was visible. It was pretty interesting, his face. I had even gotten into the habit of going home, or rather- to an inn, where my stuff was located, to draw his face. Each face of his was different, even ones with the point-blank same expression and everything. Sometimes he would have different pencil lines, sometimes there was a smudge here or there. I couldn't complain much with the messes I would make on my journal. Was I supposed to try and complain ? Was there even any use in it ? Not really. It was always nice to look through the journal in the morning and just look at his faces. Each strange once I had tested him out in, and some typical, everyday faces of his own. It had been especially nice to realize that I was slowly getting the anatomy of his face down, a curve here, a dent here, frills here, all of that. It was all slowly, naturally, imprinting itself into my brain.

I realized I had zoned out from reality.

Keeper was stirring near me; they had been sleeping, and Dwarf was stomping about behind us, in his pen. His noise levels hadn't risen much since I last remembered, which was a good thing. He was staying at a level, calm stage. It was always nice to have a calm Red Death, always. I realized that I had no reason to really be paying attention to reality, unless I wished to focus on Dwarf and his whereabouts. At the moment, I didn't want to focus on him either. My main focus, right now, was to just drift off into a place that wasn't reality. A mindscape. To just ponder. Think about what I've learned about Dwarf in the few days I've seen him, to think about how well I can feel some sort of one-sided bond growing between us. Maybe one day it wouldn't have to be one-sided.