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(This is original creative material copyright Chris Kenworthy, based on characters that he has no right to owned by someone else blah blah biddy blah...) Author's note: The scooby gang is trapped in Limbo, a Hellish copy of Sunnydale in a pocket dimension of the Hellmouth. Angel is there, and he and Willow kissed last time. Angel's also pregnant, but don't worry about that right now. Buffy and Xander are an item, and Xander's been training with Buffy. |
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Buffy and Xander were sitting at one end of the kitchen table, all smiles and touches, Xander with his bowl of frosted flakes, glass of apple juice, and instant microwave bacon; Buffy eating toast with peach jam and sipping at a mug of Irish Cream coffee. Further down, Willow ate listlessly from her apple cinnamon porridge and drank her milk dutifully. And at the other end, Cordelia and Oz drank black coffee and shot blacker looks further up the table.
"Do you know there's a dragon stalking around outside?" Angel said as he came up to the table.
Everybody froze for a second. For one thing, it was the first time Angel had spoken to Buffy since they had first been brought to Limbo. For another, everyone had by now heard about Willow and Angel's kiss, and that Willow had told Oz she liked Angel. To say the least, it was a tense moment.
Of course, Xander came to the rescue with a really bad joke. "No, I don't think so," he rattled off, "but if you sing the first verse I'll pick it up."
"Heh heh," Buffy laughed hollowly. "A dragon? Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure," Angel confirmed. "I saw it out the window."
"So there really are dragons?" Cordelia asked redundantly. "Is there anything that's just a fairy tale?"
"Happily ever after," Oz muttered under his breath, but Angel was already speaking again.
"I think most bestiarians say that dragons are extinct on the earth by now," the vampire said. "This one must have come into Limbo from Hell."
"Then how did you recognize it?" Xander asked.
"I saw one, quite a while ago," Angel said. "Angelus did, actually. He and Spike went to a dragon hunt in the black forest. A lot of vampires like to consider themselves the best hunters in the world, and so they hunt some of the most dangerous prey - like dragons."
"Um, okay," Buffy said. "You think we should take this one out?"
"Probably." Angel's face was downcast. "It probably knows there are people in here, and it might attack someone outside the house, or even try to burn us out. A bit of a shame, though - killing the last dragon again."
Buffy smirked. "I'd never have pegged you for a wildlife conservationist, especially not for wild dragons."
Angel shrugged. "Well, Angelus was a bit of a dragophile, and I think I am too. They're very beautiful and intriguing creatures... it's too bad they see humans as prey and vampires as competitors."
"They don't like vamps?" Willow piped in.
"Nope," Angel shook his head. "Some people say that they even recognize vampires by scent, that our smell drives them crazy with fury. I'm not sure about that, though."
"We'll war council after breakfast," Buffy decided. "See what the others have to contribute about dragons."
* * * *
"Dragons are among the most deadly demons that the Earth has ever known," Giles told them. "They have no conscience, no feeling, no loyalty. Only a passion for death and destruction that goes past 'predatory' heading towards 'diabolical.'" Buffy looked at him with a pensive expression. After a second, Giles added sheepishly "At least, that's what the Watcher's handbook has to say on the subject."
"I'm afraid the handbook might be right," Vanessa chimed in. "Dragons have been romanticized as icons of danger, mystery, and the allure of ages past, but the reality was probably considerably darker. They are strange beings, built incredibly well for fighting, and have a suspiciously mysterious origin." She turned to Angel. "How large was it?"
"Not very. I can't be sure of the precise dimensions, but I'd guess eight to ten feet from snout to tail if fully extended, which it wasn't. Maybe two feet more than that spanning the wings."
"Okay, well, I'd say that hanging around in here isn't going to help any," Vanessa concluded. "I'll cast a spell of fire resistance and we can go out and take a look!"
In a few minutes that was accomplished. There were ten of them now, including Darrell and Amy who tagged along with Vanessa. Buffy was in the lead, carrying a sword from Giles' old weapons collection. She had only just gotten out into the middle of the street when she saw it coming.
It was a sinuous slink of green scales, running across the asphalt on four legs and helping itself towards Buffy with wide wings. Patterns of red highlighted its many-taloned front claws and its reptilian snout. As it approached, it opened its mouth, and reddish-purple tongues of flame spread out towards her with frightening speed. The Slayer screamed in pain as the fire surrounded her body.
Xander launched himself towards Buffy with remarkable reflexes, flying through the dissipating cloud of flame to push his girlfriend out of danger and onto the ground, rolling around to put the flames out. But there were no flames! Their clothing, and their bodies, were whole.
"Whoops!" Vanessa said. "I guess the fire resistance spell doesn't cover pain... you feel like you're being burnt, but you're really not."
"Nice to know," Xander grumped, as he and Buffy lay there with the wind knocked out of them. The dragon's snout turned to look at them, centering Xander's face with one eye and Buffy Summers' with the other, and the eyes flashed with dark green magic. Xander felt woozy as something strange started to happen to him.
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