Two Legs to Stand On

[Wren Watson]

Wren accepted the square with an outstretched arm, forgetting her earlier quandary in the light of chocolate. There was... weight to it. She had not remembered the weight. To be fair the only thing she remembered was the heavy sweetness of it and the memory of licking it off her fingers. She could not remember what it had looked like for the life of her. But there it sat in her hand: crisp and clean edges wrapped in bright paper.

She brought it to her nose and even the trace scent on the wrapper sent uncomfortable jolts through her mind, jabbing at memories she could not quite grasp. She carefully lifted a flap, taking excessive care to not rip the wrapping, until she had part of it exposed. She tried not to be disappointed at the sight of the glossy, rich brick but she'd spent so long making sure the people around her knew precisely how irritated she was on any given day she was not exactly skilled at hiding her emotions.

It didn't look familiar and her heart sank because of it. The upside was it didn't look foreign either. It just was. She couldn't bear it if it turned out to be a disappointment. She wished very much that she had not asked for it but there was no going back now. Not thinking to break a corner off she brought a corner to her mouth and licked it tentatively before biting off a small piece.

She'd so far been avoiding his gaze but as the little morsel began to melt on her tongue she looked up at Gus, grinning. It was different but it was chocolate. It was definitely chocolate and it was at least reminiscent of the taste she remembered. And that's all she needed.

  

[Angus MacFusty]

DATE: November 24th, 1883
TAG: Wren
WORDS: 233
NOTES:

Gus stared at her almost as intently as she was staring at the chocolate, eager to know what she made of it. She was such a curious being, though he supposed he really oughtn't be surprised that she sniffed it as an animal might, she had been a dragon for goodness knew how long. Even the way she licked it and took a bite showed how distant she had been from the society of humans where people broke a small piece off with their hands and placed it into their mouth. Or if you were Gus, broke half a slab off and shoved it in his mouth. There had been a moment where he wondered if there was something wrong with it, her whole body language reeking of dismay but thankfully upon tasting it, that seemed to vanish.

He was about to ask if she liked it when she grinned at him buoyantly. What had that grin looked like when she was a dragon or had she never smiled? She had certainly seemed grumpy enough that she might never have smiled but surely at some point she had made the dragon equivalent of a smile? He imagined whatever that looked like that it was both unnerving and a sign of bad things to come, like a human spit-roast. "Ah take it ye approve of it then?" he asked, grinning lopsidedly back at her.

  

[Wren Watson]

It was a few moments before she spoke. Long in the habit of ignoring him, or at least taking her time about acknowledging him, she instead rolled the morsel around on her tongue, savoring it. It was all but gone before she tucked what was left of the dissolving nugget in her cheek.

"Weel its a tooch weird... An' shiney." Remnants of the grin still lingered as she looked down at the confection in her hands. It still looked... off but the taste of it was consoling enough to get her past that. "But its good" By which she meant it was indeed very good but instead of saying that she merely held it up to him. Offering food was the ultimate sign of peace or tolerance or acceptance that she knew.

It was not just that he was different towards her now that she lacked fangs, claws, and fire. He was now the bigger dragon. She was smaller and in his territory. That required a level of respect, at least for now.

  

[Angus MacFusty]

DATE: November 24th, 1883
TAG: Wren
WORDS: 156
NOTES:

Gus had no idea what chocolate she was used to, he supposed something less weird and shiny but apparently it tasted good and wasn't the taste the most important thing? He wasn't fussed with the aesthetics of his meals; as long as it tasted good it could look however it wanted to look. She offered him some and he slowly reached out to break a small piece off. At first he was tempted to decline since he had fetched it for her in the first place and goodness knew when the last time had had chocolate had been but she was offering and he couldn't remember the last time Gertie had offered him something that wasn't a face full of fire.

He was at least being more polite by not smashing half the slab into his mouth. "Ah think ye'd have tae be mad not tae like chocolate," he mumbled through the chocolate in his mouth.

  

[Wren Watson]

She nodded in approval when he took a piece and took another bite for herself. It was basic but it felt right, this sharing of food. And the comfort in the familiarity of her old favorite treat elevated her mood. She felt... eager? It was hard to find a word for what she felt but it rang close to what she felt when chasing down a ministry owl.

She felt optimistic for the first time in a long while. There would be more things she could remember. More nuggets of memories to savor. Duck! She would ask him for roasted duck next. The idea made her mouth water. Then... She go find the place she used to live. She didn't expect that they would be especially happy to see her but that was par for the course of a dragon, she could take a few sneers. That would of course require her to know where she was. Or where it had been.

The the questions in her head required more words than she was comfortable with. "Where..." She started to ask but with out knowledge of the land beyond an areal view, anything he told her would go right over her head. So she went for a simpler question. "What year is it?"

  

[Angus MacFusty]

DATE: November 24th, 1883
TAG: Wren
WORDS: 149
NOTES:

Gus continued to watch her curiously. He was definitely getting used to the idea that his feisty, old she-dragon was this considerably less scaly, quirky young woman were one and the same but it was still a hard concept to fully absorb. He had so many questions to ask, so much to find out from her like what it was like being a dragon, how she had even come to be a dragon and why she suddenly wasn't anymore.

However, it seemed her questions would be asked first. "1883. November, 1883 so Ah s'pose nearly 1884." How old was she? She didn't look old at all but as a dragon, he had been told Gertrude was one of the eldest and she had certainly been foul tempered enough to prove it. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised at her asking the year, dragons didn't exactly have calendars after all.

  

[Wren Watson]

She cracked a grin. In her elation she was quick to assume he was joking. It was so obviously a joke. 1883! But the longer she let the number echo in her mind the more nervously her heart beat. Her head swam as she tried to count the seasons. Counting days was impossible but laying out the number of times winter had come around in her mind slowly melted the smile off her face.

"1883? Eighteen eighty three?" A thousand thoughts rushed at her at once as she tried to reconcile the idea of it with her memories. Sure time as a dragon passed differently. When she was newer to it the days rushed by as she fumbled to figure out how to survive... to find food, to protect herself from other dragons, to find shelter. And when she'd become an old hand at this dragon business the days had inched by as she sought more and more creative ways to entertain herself.

To be honest she'd assumed her mind was slipping. Her perception was not always to be trusted but... 1883?! That would make her .... well somewhere around one hundred years old. She narrowed her eyes at him. He'd always bore the brunt of her mood swings. "You better not be lying." Which was a stupid thing to say because behind her anger she hoped he was.

  

[Angus MacFusty]

DATE: November 24th, 1883
TAG: Wren
WORDS: 150
NOTES:

Gus was initially a little confused as to why she found such amusement in the year, he felt as though he were missing out on some very obvious joke but then her face fell. He frowned in both confusion and concern as he watched her somewhat warily. She didn't sound particularly pleased by the date which only made Gus imagine more scenarios for why that was.

When she narrowed her eyes at him, Gus couldn't help but think of the sour looks he'd been on the receiving end of from her dragon self. Often fire followed such looks and he twitched slightly as he resisted the instinct to duck out of the way. "Have Ah ever lied tae ye?" He looked rather sheepish despite what he said and the fact that he didn't actually remember ever having lied to her. At least not seriously, be she dragon or human.

  

[Wren Watson]

Wren had never been one to pay attention to everything he'd said but she definitely did not have time to seriously consider what he was asking her now. It didn't matter. She took it as truth. Her covered her eyes with one hand, furiously trying to do the math in her head. It hadn't even hit 1800 the last time she'd cared about what year it was. That meant that the dozen or so years she'd thought she'd spent as a dragon was actually... over 80.

She was a hundred years old. Her mother was... Her mother was probably dead. Her father had to be and if there was any goodness in the world the miserable wretch of a woman who had cursed her would be too. By the time her had fell away her face was twisted in a mix of emotions Wren could not even number. Her long ingrained habit of wanting to be alone kicked in violently before she could even raise her eyes to his.

She spun around and fled the kitchen, picking a door at random to hide behind. She didn't stop until it was closed behind her, pressing her back against it and sliding down to sit on the floor. She drew her legs up in front of her and buried her face there, trying to ignore the vague but deafening idea that 1883 meant everything about her old world was likely dead, gone, or had no idea who she was.

  

[Angus MacFusty]

DATE: November 24th, 1883
TAG: Wren
WORDS: 162
NOTES:

Gus watched with mounting concern as her reaction went from possible mild displeasure to outright distressed. He caught a glimpse of her face which did little to persuade him that she was anything but negatively impacted by the news he had just given to her.

Before he even had time to ask after her, she was absconding from the kitchen and heading for the first door she came across which happened to be his bedroom. He rushed after her but she had closed the door behind her before he got there. Gus raised a fist to the door and knocked tentatively. "Are ye alrigh'?" he asked through the door, hoping she'd let him in. "Is something th' matter?" There had to be plenty 'the matter' for someone who had just spent upwards of a fair few years as a dragon but Gus was really one to act and then think in most cases and this was one of them. He knocked again.

  

[Wren Watson]

Wren crossed her arms over her head trying to block everything out. Eighteen eighty three! The words echoed until they no longer made sense. They were just numbers. But they sealed her fate. She had given up breaking the curse but what good was it now that it had? There was nothing to go back to. No one to remember her. And what was even worse: she couldn't hate them for forgetting her because she couldn't remember them either.

She wanted to be alone, to fly until the sound of rushing wind had cleared every painful thought from her mind. But she couldn't fly anymore and apparently she didn't get to be alone either. The little vermin had seen to that. She growled as his knock changed her unwanted pain to furry. His second knock made her flinch and unfurl slightly from her ball.

"Go away or ah'll burn your face aff!" She called back through the door, turning to glare at the door knob. The door bit into her shoulder blades as she pressed fiercely against it. She fully expected him to try and open it and part of her silently dared him to.

  

[Angus MacFusty]

DATE: November 24th, 1883
TAG: Wren
WORDS: 365
NOTES:

Gus attempted to open the door gently but found the resistance which confirmed his suspicions that she was acting as a human door barricade. Despite his concern, the threat she snarled at him forced a small grin on his face; how typically Gertie.

Not wanting to try and burst the door down and potentially hurt her or provoke her into hurting him - she was a former dragon, who knew if she had leftover abilities and actually could breathe fire? At the same time, he didn't want to just leave her either, it didn't seem right. "Why donae ye open the door? Whatever th' matter is Ah might be able tae help ye?" He didn't think he sounded as convincing as he wanted to but it was worth a shot anyhow.

When that failed, he could help but sigh deeply. He almost wished she was still a dragon; he could handle a Hebridean Black better than he could women. At least as a human she was 80% less likely to kill him. Hopefully. Deciding he definitely wasn't getting anywhere, Gus walked away from the door at a slightly exaggerated pace. "Ah'm walking away now," he announced, walking over to his shoes which he started to put on. "Ah'm gonna take a wee walk now. Outside. If ye open the door Ah definitely willnae be there." He proceeded to the door and let himself out, calling out to her before he shut it behind him, "Ah'm shutting the door now." He then closed it and pondered what he ought to do. On the one hand he could wait and hope she came out of his room and then run back in but it was cold, on the other he could actually go for that walk. It was then he had an idea. Walking around to where his bedroom window was, he took out his wand and unlocked it so he could open it and climb in. "Ye better not roast me like a Christmas goose," he mumbled as he climbed through his own window. "Now what is th' matter with ye? Besides the sudden species change, Ah can imagine that might be a wee bit strange."

  

[Wren Watson]

Wren's glare intensified as the door knob turned, just as she expected. Her jaw clinched as she planted her feet and prepared to be pushed by the door. The great oaf would have little trouble forcing the door open but that didn't mean she wouldn't fight him the whole way. But the force didn't come.

Still, she stayed braced. How many times had he used coercion when she was great and fearsome? She expected trickery and did not want to trust his words but when she heard a door close her body went slack. She had no intention of giving up her refuge but she was glad to be rid of his badgering. Maybe he had actually learned it was safer for him to leave her alone.

She hugged her knees, burring her face there, and pressing against her eyelids as if that could push the thoughts from her mind. Even if she was one for talking how could she possibly put into words what was wrong? She didn't even know, she just knew that it felt terrible and she wished she could go back to not caring what year it was, hunting owls, and pestering live stock.

She jumped nearly a foot when his voice pierced her silent wallowing and she stared at him, mouth agape, as he crawled through the window. "Didja nae hear th' part about burning your face aff?" she stormed, scrambling to get to her feet and yank open the door. She darted for another door and would not have stopped except her barefeet felt the bite of snow and she was forced back inside to face him.

  

[Angus MacFusty]

DATE: November 24th, 1883
TAG: Wren
WORDS: 120
NOTES:

Despite her reiterating the threat, Gus had an inkling that had she been able to char him to a cinder, she would have done so then instead of running off again. He finally got his whole body through the window rather than just his midriff and as soon as he could, leaped to his feet to pursue her, expecting to find it to be more of a challenge than it turned out to be.

"Ye canae breathe fire nae more, can ye?" he asked tentatively, not sure if that was the best thing to point out but also wanting to make sure he wasn't actually going to be barbecued at a moments notice. "What's got ye worked up then, eh?"

  

[Wren Watson]

Wren had not actually tried to hurl fire at him but she was just short of certain she couldn't. It didn't feel the same and besides... the parts weren't the same. She traded her best weapon for words and thoughts she didn't want anymore and she was stuck here, in this body, in this house, with this man.

Even lacking anything even remotely intimidating about her she'd once had she turned on him, her sights and her rage narrowed on him. Him and his stupid questions. "You!" She snarled, unreasonably. She was cornered and it was much easier to charge on him than to acknowledge that maybe it was not him but the idea that she'd been gone so long there was likely no one left to remember her.

She'd mourned the boy she'd run off with; The witch had blasted him apart first but Wren had not precisely let go of her family. She'd always thought if she could get away and get proper married and later, if she could just break the curse... one day she'd go back to them and they'd eventually forgive her. But 1883 meant that hope was thoroughly dashed.

She did not have words for his question, only her old friend anger and it was being funneled at him. Her hands curled into fists where she wanted claws to be and pounded fruitlessly at his impossibly tall form.

  

[Angus MacFusty]

DATE: November 24th, 1883
TAG: Wren
WORDS: 201
NOTES:

He was embarrassed to admit that he flinched quite noticeably when she rounded on him. She definitely wasn't a dragon but she certainly had the mannerisms of one still for sure! Or maybe just because she had been a dragon, he was expecting flames and sharp teeth to attack him even now. That being said, he hadn't a clue what he'd done to provoke her.

He had even less of an idea when she started taking swipes at him. They weren't exactly the hardest punches he'd ever been on the receiving end of but there was quite clearly a lot of anger behind them and while his initial instinct was to leap out of the way and stop her, he stayed put. Maybe once she grew bored of throwing her fists at his chest, she'd calm down again. "Ye havin' fun there? Ah notice ye're nae goin' fer mah face, ye clearly donae want tae ruin how beautiful it is. Very considerate of ye." He was teasing her like he usually did when her dragon self tried to burn him to pieces though perhaps with her being as close up as she was, it wasn't quite as wise to do so.