A Draconian Warlord

My first thoughts after waking up on my back were along the lines of: Damn that merchant! I regained consciousness rather quickly, though the world spun for a few minutes after. I sat up, ignoring the slight feeling of dizziness that comes from a head rush, and took a quick look around. There were trees, bushes, a dragon, small rocks- wait what?!?

I snapped my eyes back and sure enough, there was a dragon! A fiery orange western style dragon with navy blue spines and blackish gray claws. Right now, it seemed to be unconscious but...

And it just opened its eyes, wonderful. Me and my big- OOF!

To my surprise,the dragon tackled me down and began nuzzling me all over!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I hear a female voice say. I looked around, but didn't see anyone.

Looking back down at the dragon, I asked, "Was that you?"

Yes! Thank you for freeing me from that hideous thing! I've been stuck with him for over twenty years as a statue! She replied, as she looked up at me. Her eyes, which were a warm shade of red, began to brim with tears as she sniffled. "He took me from my home, from my family! The next thing I know, I'm laying in the middle of some kind of circle and he is on the outside, doing some sort of chant. The circle glowed, there was a flash of light...!" At this point, she was openly crying, so I wrapped her in a hug and pat her back. It was a bit strange, considering she was supposed to be a fierce dragon, but she needed a shoulder right now. Don't ask how I know, I just do. Not to mention that she was only about as big as a jack russell terrier.

We stayed like that for a few minutes, I will state once more that I was only providing a shoulder to cry on. The hug had no other meaning.

It lasted a few seconds, a minute, five minutes. Okay now this is getting awkward. Thankfully, she seems to be calming down.

She pulled back and said, Thanks, sorry to put you in such an awkward position...as I said I've been with that creep for over two decades now. I'm just so glad to be free, you know?

"Yeah, I can't say I do. But I do understand why you broke down now." I said as I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. "Anyway, do you know where we are?"

I can't really say that I do, unfortunately. Was her reply, By the way, what's your name? I'm Masamune.

"My name is Smith, Ryan Smith." I said before looking around. The area we were in was extremely barren. No vegetation for as far as I could see. There were a couple of rather large outcroppings of rock on the horizon however. Maybe if I could climb up on them, I could see further and try to map out our surroundings.

I quickly explained my plan to Masamune, who offered to fly up herself. When she tried however, She wound up falling flat on her face. After I managed to stop laughing and help her out, we discovered her wings were weak from underuse . So I simply picked her up, put her on my shoulder, and started walking. I didn't even get ten steps though, before I tripped and landed right on my face. Now it was Masamune's turn to laugh at me as I tried to stand up, rubbing my aching forehead.

"Okay... That stings. What did I-" I began before looking down and seeing my laptop bag! I: checked it to find all of my stuff in there that I had brought with me to the convention. My laptop was there, of course, along with my phone. My phone had no signal of course. What kind of phone had signal in the middle of the desert! There were also a couple of homemade orange sodas I made myself. Oh cool here's the recipe! Here's a couple of bags of jerky, and a couple bags of freeze dried mangoes and appricots.

In case you're wondering why I had all of that food, I am a firm believer in the proverb of 'better to have and not need than need and not have.' If that's not a proverb by now then it should be dammit!

Hey Ryan come on! We're burning daylight! Masamune called, snapping me out of my reverie and allowing me to catch up to her, since she had gone ahead a little ways.

"Sorry, I was checking our-" My attempt to explain was cut short when The ground below us collapsed, dragging us down with it!