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The Adventures of Sollus Dellager

Part 1: Beginnings

There once was a dragon named Sollus Dellager. He lived high in the mountains overlooking a forest and a small village, called Temaria. Sollus was a peaceful dragon; he never bothered any of the villagers aside from perhaps stealing the occasional cow for a meal. For the most part, he hunted his meals on his own. Sollus' life was peaceful, but... he was alone. He had never met any other dragons. The few villagers he had talked to mentioned that dragons were as rare as they were feared. Bands of dragon slayers roamed the countryside killing dragons for in exchange for bounties of gold from the larger kingdoms.

Sollus could hardly blame them -- many dragons were cruel, eating people and destroying their villages. Some had even been a downright menace in the past. Now, with most dragons living in seclusion, it seemed unlikely that the race would last much longer. All dragons would pay the price for the actions of the more greedy and cruel members of their kind. Sollus had never known his parents, or any other dragons for that matter. Everything he knew he overheard from villagers. He was adept at illusion magic, self-taught -- it had saved him many times in the past, and it had allowed him to learn much. As his name was not a secret, he maintained the name Sollus in his human guise -- A forester who lived in the hills, who came to town when he got lonely; a story with a grain of truth to it. Sollus had grown to enjoy human company and companionship, but he had never dared to reveal who he truly was.

~

Sollus awoke, as he always did, to the sunrise. The warmth on his green scales gradually awoke him, at least enough to prompt him to roll onto his side so that his black neck and belly scales could take in some extra heat. Finally satisfied, he opened his eyelids to reveal his giant, crimson, reptilian eyes. He simply lazed there for a while, enjoying the warmth while he could. Finally, the sun rose past the mouth of his cave, depriving him of the comforting warmth.

He rose, flexing his powerful muscles and pressing himself up onto all fours. He felt a small pain in his foot and lifted the paw to him, seeing a rock embedded in the black pads on his feet. He frowned and plucked the rock out. Casting it aside, he glanced to his left and saw that in his sleep he'd moved all of the animal hides away and slept on the bare rock all night. "That explains the soreness," he thought. Sollus arched his back, and it cracked several times, "Ahhhh, that's better..." Sollus moved the hides back into position and walked to the cave mouth to try and find some food.

He stretched his green wings at the entrance, glad to be back in some sunlight. He mumbled an incantation under his breath and his wings and body turned milky white and gray. To anyone below him he would appear at first glance to be a cloud. A dragon shaped cloud perhaps, but a cloud nonetheless. As the spell continued his body even lost some of its definition near the edges, further enhancing the illusion. Sollus called this spell Cloud-shift, based purely on what it did. No doubt it had saved him many a time from being spotted by humans below. Once the spell had fully changed his form and he was positive he wouldn't be noticed, Sollus leapt off the cliff edge and flew out towards his favorite hunting grounds.

As he flew, he passed within sight of the village, presently bustling with its morning activities. Smoke was rising through the air, bringing with it the smell of cooking meat. His stomach growled with anticipation and he pressed on. Several hours later, he landed in a clearing amidst the forest and dispelled Cloud-shift so that he once again resumed his normal dragon-like demeanor. That illusion in particular was one of the more taxing ones he knew and he preferred to not maintain it except while in flight, as the concentration demand was simply too high otherwise.

Sollus sniffed the air, and looked to his right. "Surely not already!" he mumbled, but right there in front of his eyes was a cow. Just standing there, the dumb beast wasn't even the slightest bit afraid of the dragon in front of it.

"It must have escaped from the village," he thought to himself. Sollus walked up to the cow, which still hadn't paid him much mind, and positioned his head over the cow with his mouth open and tongue lolling. The cow, feeling the hot breath, finally looked at him with seemingly the tiniest bit of hesitation on its features.

Sollus lowered his gigantic head and clamped his jaws around the cow, trapping it in his mouth and holding it there until it was coating in saliva. Once it was slippery enough, he lifted his head up and gulped once, forcing the animal down his throat. Another gulp or two and the cow was merely a prominent bulge traveling down his neck. As it finally settled in his stomach, he sighed in satisfaction.

"These cows never seem to struggle; I guess they really are just big dumb creatures, the perfect livestock..." Indeed, the cow had barely even moved as it was swallowed and even now was rather still inside his stomach.

With breakfast finished, Sollus was about to mutter his Cloud-shift spell again when he heard some voices yelling a short distance away. Thinking quickly, he canceled the incantation and began speaking another, his form shrinking quickly. With a flash of insight, Sollus was suddenly quite aware of why that was a bad idea. The cow had not yet fully digested -- indeed it had barely begun to at all -- and as Sollus shrank, it did not. He quickly canceled the spell before he exploded, and moved over to the edge of the clearing to hide, instead. Forcing himself as carefully as possible behind some trees, he muttered another spell, making his normally light green skin turn a much darker shade, causing him to blend in almost perfectly with the nearby leaves.

Sollus continued to move as stealthily as he could into the brush, but as he did his horn clipped a low-hanging branch. Sollus cursed to himself as he watched the branch fall to the ground. Thinking quickly, he turned around to grab it, but was interrupted as he saw three men enter the clearing. Swearing again he withdrew his claw into the relative safety of the tree line and crouched as low as possible, desperately hoping the humans wouldn't see him.

"Damn it Victor we must be miles from the village by now! There is no way your precious cow made it this far out here without being taken down by wolves or who knows what else in these woods!" The man who said this wore standard villager apparel, brown clothes, likely made of wool.

"Rob, you work for me, and so long as you do, you will go where I want you to and do what I want you to!" This man was wearing basically the same clothing, but he wasn't as dirty as the others. He also wore a cloak and a fine golden necklace. Sollus knew this man -- Victor, the owner of the largest ranch in the village. Practically all cows in the village were either his, or bought from him.

"Yeah Rob, be happy you aren't cleaning out the stalls and instead get to enjoy a nice walk through the forest!" This third person Sollus knew very well: Zach. He recognized him the moment he entered the clearing. Sollus had become friends with the young man while in his human form, and they talked quite a bit when Sollus visited the village. Victor spoke again,

"Quiet both of you! You don't want to attract any attention out here. Who knows what's lurking out this far in the forest." Sollus noticed the scabbard at Victor's side, as well as the small sheathed daggers at the side of the other two men. They were right about the other things in the forest. Sollus knew of the wolves as well as everyone else, but often a bear could be even more dangerous. Poisonous snakes were everywhere as well, and he had even heard rumors of werewolves.

"It is getting late though Victor..." Zach spoke,

"We need to make sure we'll get back before sun-down. You might just have to cut your losses."

"My losses?!" Victor whirled on the young man.

"YOU were the one who left the gate unlocked, Zach. If anyone is taking a hit from this it's you, not me!"

Zach winced. Sollus knew how the cow had escaped, and it wasn't Zach's fault. He remembered, just last night, he had stolen a cow from Victor as he sometimes did for his dinner. He must have forgotten to lock the gate. He felt suddenly guilty. Not only had he gotten Zach in trouble, but he had just eaten the only thing that might have gotten him out of trouble.

"Yes sir...Of course," Zach replied. "Nevertheless..."

"You're right Zach, we should be getting back. It'll be dusk by the time we finish this trip. Let's go, and you'll get half pay for a month to compensate for that cow!" Victor glared at him. Zach hung his head low and followed them back into the forest. As they walked off, Sollus crept out from his hiding spot. He rested in the open for a while, the sun just past its apex. After a few hours, Sollus felt the cow was at last digested enough for him to shift to his human form. He muttered the spell and within a few moments he appeared to be a man in his mid twenties, a traveling cloak on his back and wearing leather clothing that had been dyed black. Running quickly, his draconic stamina allowing him to move much faster and for longer time periods than any human, he set out towards the village. Perhaps ensuring a safe trip for the party back to the village would somehow redeem him for causing Zach such trouble, he thought to himself.

~

Sollus finally caught up to them after about an hour. Maintaining his distance and using magic to muffle his footfalls, he followed behind them. The journey for the next few hours was uneventful, both parties walking in silence. Rob would crack some crude joke, Zach would pointedly not laugh at it and Victor would just roll his eyes and say, "You're good for work that needs a strong back Rob -- I hired you for that, not for your skills in comedy." Sollus was beginning to feel uneasy. Something felt wrong. Suddenly, Victor froze in his tracks, motioning quickly for everyone to drop down to the forest floor.

He pointed ahead and Sollus saw, about 30 feet in front of them, a small clearing filled with what looked like about ten wolves, all of them feasting on a few deer they'd probably killed only a short while ago. Sollus knew that Victor was a seasoned woodsman, and wouldn't be so foolish as to engage the wolves. But it looked like if he got up to walk around they may get spotted anyway. Sollus sat quietly behind a tree, watching and waiting.

Rob suddenly yelped loudly in pain. Unsheathing his dagger, he quickly cut downwards at a snake right near him, severing its head in one blow. But it was too late -- the wolves had heard him. Slowly they got up, ears shifting towards where Rob was hidden. They approached cautiously, not yet sure of whether it was another pack or more prey. That wasn't the Humans' only problem though: Rob had been bitten, and already his forehead began to break out in sweat--the snake must have been venomous.

Victor and Zach both wordlessly unsheathed their weapons. Victor motioned for their injured companion to lie still, and slowly they moved away from him. Rob looked extremely fearful, momentarily afraid that they were abandoning him, but a quick gesture from Victor reassured him. Sollus was pained to not interfere, but he had figured out what their plan was. It had a low chance of succeeding, but Victor was a talented swordsman and forester, so there was a chance he may yet pull it off. Still, ten wolves were an awful lot.

The wolves, not picking up on the movement of the others, slowly approached where Rob was lying. Finally they saw him. The alpha yelped at the others as he sped up, moving in for the kill. Rob was clearly suffering from the snake bite, but even still managed to get his dagger ready. The wolf lunged suddenly at him, sprinting the last 10 feet towards him with his whole pack close behind. Rob raised his dagger but the wolf dodged it effortlessly. At the same time, with a loud roar, Victor and Zach burst out from behind a bush and charged the surprised wolves.

Two immediately went down to Victor, and Zach caught a third on the leg, prompting it to limp cowardly away. The alpha, however, quickly recovered. Deciding Rob to be of little threat, he instead charged Victor and tackled him to the ground with the sheer weight of his body. He landed hard, not at all anticipating the weight of the wolf. The wolf bit savagely into his left arm, eliciting a scream of pain.

Zach, having just dispatched a wolf with a swift stab in the heart turned to help his boss. As he did though, another wolf leapt from a log right towards his face. He closed his eyes, expecting death. Instead, however, he felt a whooshing of air across his face followed by a very sharp yelp. He opened his eyes in surprise to see that something else had entered the fray.

Victor continued wrestling with the huge alpha, his gloved hands just managing to keep its jaws away from his face. He temporarily freed one hand and punched the wolf as hard as he could in the side of its head, sending it scurrying back for a moment in pain. Seizing the opportunity, he climbed swiftly to his feet and gripped his sword in preparation to dispatch the creature. The wolf however, let out a howl and turned to flee, the surviving members of his pack breaking and running behind him. Victor turned around, and screamed at the sight he beheld.

Towering over them both was a green dragon easily three times either of their heights. Victor fell backwards in terror and Zach quickly ran over to him.

"Wait! I don't think he's here to hurt us! He saved me!" Zach yelled.

"Saved you?! He's a dragon, boy! He's a monster of the skies, probably playing some sick game with us!" Victor was hysterical, his normally stern demeanor shattered by seeing a living, breathing, dragon. Sollus glanced around at the aftermath. Five dead wolves, one of which he had killed instantly with his armored tail, smashed midair as it was pouncing on Zach. He saw Rob lying there unconscious, and now both Zach and Victor were lying before him, scared out of their wits. He took another glance and changed his mind. Victor was scared witless; Zach merely seemed wary. At last, he decided to speak.

"Your friend here needs help at the village, and he will not survive the trip if you walk." He sighed, not believing what he was about to propose.

"I could...carry you all back to the village if you wanted. Otherwise, he will die." Victor spat, incredulity overriding fear.

"Absolutely not! You'd sooner take us to your lair and eat us alive than help us!" Sollus narrowed his giant red eyes at the man.

"If I wanted to eat you, you would be in my stomach already, little man. Now, do you want my help or do you wish to let your friend here die?" Victor gulped as reality set in, and turned to Zach. "Umm, what do you think, my boy?" Zach just stared at the dragon in silence. Finally, he spoke.

"Well, we don't really have much of a choice here, do we? Trust a dragon, or let him die."

"Perfect, then it's settled. Climb on." Sollus quickly lowered himself down and gestured with a forepaw for the humans to climb on.

"Go ahead, it will be fine," he reassured them. Zach climbed up first, and reached down for Rob, whom Victor had gone and picked up. Once all were aboard Sollus raised himself back up.

"Hold on tight little ones. Don't worry about gripping too hard, you will not harm me." Both of them seemed extremely cautious, their grip rather loose, which made Sollus smile. "That will probably change," he thought to himself. It was dark enough now that Sollus didn't have to use his Cloud-shift ability, instead merely lightening his black belly scales a little to better blend in with the twilight. The humans didn't pick up on this and as yet were unaware of his abilities, just as he wanted.

~

Sollus leapt into the air, powerful hind legs launching him high. He grinned as he felt the humans immediately drop their caution, grabbing tightly onto anything they could. The feeling of Zach trying to wrap arms and legs around his neck prompted a slight blush from him, hidden to his passengers. Victor on the other hand grabbed some of the large black scales and ridges that went along Sollus' back, muttering something about still not trusting the "giant lizard".

Once he had gained some altitude however, the flying was relatively smooth. He flew slowly and carefully so as not to upset any of his passengers. Once the village was within sight he dipped lower, landing on the road a good distance away from town. The humans got off his back quickly, shaken from what was without any doubt their first flight a dragon's back. Victor turned to the dragon and expressed his gruff thanks. Zach however followed him and bowed deeply before him.

"Thank you for your aid, noble creature." Sollus smiled, it felt good to know that Zach, his best friend, neither hated nor was afraid of dragons like the others. Even Victor was mild compared to what some people might do when they see a dragon. As they picked up their injured companion and turned to go, Sollus called to them.

"Wait! I need to be sure of something..." Victor looked uneasy, wondering if the dragon would kill them now after all. He spoke again,

"I hope I don't need to express to you the importance of not telling anyone that a dragon lives near the village. I enjoy the peace that my life grants me, and took a great risk revealing myself to you. I hope you won't find it necessary to send dragon slayers after me..." After a brief hesitation, Victor replied first.

"Beast...Dragon. I am a man of honor, and while this act does not change my disposition to your kind as a whole, I still feel that I owe you for saving my life. As payment for that, I will tell no one of your existence. But know this: we are even. I owe you nothing more." Sollus nodded at the human, it was the most he could expect from the man. Zach spoke next.

"I've never seen a dragon. All that I've heard about them has been from passing traders. They say that your kind is evil and cruel, that you play games and manipulate humans for your own amusement. But what I've seen today was a powerful creature who just wishes to help out every once in a while. Honestly, I feel safer knowing a dragon lives nearby." Sollus could not see, but he knew that Victor was rolling his eyes.

"The fantasies of children." Victor muttered under his breath. Sollus replied,

"Thank you young one. Now go! Your friend needs help."

"I hope to see you again!" Zach yelled after him.

"Perhaps you will, and sooner than you think..." he thought to himself, lifting his wings in preparation to take off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello! This is Sollus Dellager, and this is the first story I have ever written about my character. I hope you enjoyed it and PLEASE let me know what you think. I plan to write more about Sollus, Zach and the little village. I'm not really sure where I plan to take the story, but you will see Sollus and Zach's relationship grow over time. Action! Drama! Romance?! This and more await you in the next adventure!