Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

2.8 All the teeth

Luca hadn’t realised despite the various depictions he’d seen just how many teeth a dragon had. Looked like a crocodile’s teeth but with the rows of a shark. It was a sight he wouldn’t have liked even if it hadn’t been in the mouth of the creature lying on his chest. The only saving grace was that the violet-coloured lizard was only the size of a house cat. It was also cold. Given how hot Luca had been when he tried to sleep the cool weight on his stomach was actually quite comfortable. Luca could have considered it a nice cooling agent if it hadn’t been for all the teeth.

Though Luca had another concern than whether it was going to take a bite out of hit. It was the glow stick in its jaws. What really made Luca indecisive about what the hell he should do was the innocence and naivety in its eyes. Expecting to be ending up with teeth marks Luca used his left hand to reach into one of his belt pouches. Feeling around for a bit Luca pulled out the handle of one of the two broken step knives. He’d rather the thing chew on sold steel than to potentially rupture the chemical compartments on the glow stick.

Luca focused on the dragon and spoke in a low firm tone, reminiscent of his father when he told him not to play with his guns as a child. “You can’t bite this, its bad for you.” Whether it was actually bad for the dragon Luca’ wasn’t sure, he was sure that it would be bad for him to have the chemicals spill. Not to mention Luca didn’t want to have the resource wasted. With slow but firm movements he slid the metal handle into the paws and removed the glow stick.

Proving that even in this world that a ‘Dad’ voice got results. The dragon gripped onto the glow stick for a moment before snapping at the handle and letting Luca take the glow stick away. With a sigh Luca placed the glow stick aside and then carefully shifted onto his side. Sliding the dragon off his chest carefully.

After he had the dragon on the ground Luca started to withdraw the arm that had curled over the dragon when he moved it only to freeze when the dragon snapped its head around to look at the moving arm. Luca stared at the dragon staring at his arm and then slowly lowered the appendage again. The dragon’s head lowered back, and it started chewing on the metal handle again Luca sighed and then forcibly closed his eyes. He needed to rest. Just think of it like sleeping with a snake it won’t bite if you don’t startle it.

A stifled choaking sound dragged Luca back to wakefulness. He snapped awake a snarled command on his lips to tell Rӓv and Ghost to knock it off since they normally started with the bickering early in the morning. However, before the words were spoken Luca realised that it wasn’t either of there voices. Luca looked at Tails who had sat bolt upright and now looked around the tent vigilantly.

Luca flobbed onto his back to give a sceptical look to the chocking Shade. It’s not like there had been anything to eat or drink on hand what was he choaking on. The wide-eyed disbelief would have been amusing if it weren’t for the way Shade was pointing at the dragon. Though the more concerning part was that the muffled sound had woken said dragon.

The dragon blinked its eyes open as Luca sat up. Judging by the brightness of the tent it was light outside. The dragon looked around twice and then picked the metal handle up in its mouth and scampered up Luca’s back to curl itself around his neck. Luca froze in place but after settling down it just draped itself like a scaly stole. Help woke up and that moment and fluttered up from the ground. When they reached shoulder height Help stopped and stared at the dragon for a long time. After a nod he smiled at Luca and settled onto the dragon’s back.

“She says you’re nice so she will protect the week you. Though she requires that you play with her properly.” Luca couldn’t see what Help was doing but the voice sounded cute, and Luca just rolled his eyes. He was not in anyway comfortable with the dragon being curled around his neck however he wasn’t actually sure it was safe to try and move it. Help acted like it was fine, but Shade seemed practically ready to pass out. It was a sharp contrast to the cool control of the night before. Still without any better options Luca resigned himself to walking around with a noose on his neck. Luca put his belt back on and picked his jacket up before he exited the tent.

Luca pulled the jacket back on even though it was bloodied to keep his hands free. Tails followed Luca out and looked around slowly. “I can’t even tell there was rain last night.” Luca nodded in agreement as Tails spoke. By the time Ghost, Holly and Rӓv had exited their tent Shade had managed to get his expression under control. Luca gestured for the tents to be packed up.

Once their tents were put away the other two groups emerged. Luca pulled out a ration bar and found Shade eyeing it curiously. “Can you eat what we eat?” Luca asked. Shade tilted his head to one side considering the bar with a sharp look. Since Luca’s jacket obscured the sight of the dragon around his neck Shade seemed to be in a better state of mind.

“I can, and she can, can we have some?” Help fluttered off Luca’s shoulder to hover beside the bar. Luca raised a brow and then broke off a corner and then a third of the bar. He handed the corner to Help and then held the third up to the mouth of the dragon. The dragon ever so carefully took the bite. It was so incredibly well mannered that Luca had to wonder if he had been maligning the creature. Though to be far it was a dragon and Help had said earlier that basically everything here would want to eat them. Which had been the reason Luca had insisted on them setting the tents up since they could be sealed. Now that he thought about it how had the dragon even gotten in the tent?

“It should be fine.” Shade finally responded after he watched with a pained expression as the dragon ate. Luca shrugged and pulled out another bar tossing it to Shade while he finished his own. The dragon seemed content with the bite that it had which relieved Luca since if she’d had a massive appetite, he wasn’t sure how he’d deal with it. Having eaten Luca looked to the problem at hand. while there was nothing attacking them at the moment they could just stay still and hoped things remained that way.

Luca stared at the reasonably sized river blocking the way and sighed in resigned disgust. There were no large water sources on the surface anywhere near the WIC compound, so Luca hadn’t thought to pack a raft or anything like that. The river wasn’t flowing particularly fast, but it wouldn’t be safe to just have everybody swim across. Not to mention Ghost was an average swimmer at best trying to make him swim the 2km needed to cross the river would be ridiculous. With the essential bounty on their heads they couldn’t just wander around looking for a river either. Luca turned back to the forest. No choice raft and toe it would have to be. He just needed to find some trees that it would be acceptable to use as raft material.