Alex always wanted to be a girl. He gets his wish when he wakes up on an alien world.   Alex in Wonderland Chapter 1 Down the fishing hole By Amethyst

“Alex, those things are going to kill you, you know,” Michelle told me as I lit a cigarette. We were at a rest stop and despite the cold we were sitting outside. It was clear and cold enough to see our breath, but I needed a nic fix and Michelle didn't want me smoking in the car. She didn't seem to be all that bothered by the cold. She was even wearing a mini skirt and I envied her for it, but not for the reasons you might be thinking. You see I've always felt that I was born in the wrong body, and at that moment I was really wishing I could be wearing a skirt too, not that I could tell my sister that. She was my twin sister, and my best friend, and I couldn't even tell her who I was inside.

I had never told anybody, not my sister and not my parents, and I had always kept my dressing up private and secret. You'd probably keep it secret and private too if you were six foot three and broad shouldered, with a square jaw. Other than that I was pretty unremarkable with dull brown hair and eyes, not at all like my sister who was gorgeous with her nice figure, bright green eyes and auburn hair. About the only things we had in common physically were our age and that we were both on the skinny side, but I suppose at this point I was getting to be more gaunt than skinny. I gave her another carefully concealed look of jealousy.

It was probably better left secret I thought. It was just one more cross I had to bear on my own. I hadn't told anyone about the Cancer either. They would just worry or waste their time, and mine, by looking for ways to save me. Better to just enjoy the time I had left, two months, maybe three if the doctors were right. I took a long drag on my death stick and gave Michelle my best fake smile, “It'll take more than cigarettes to take me down.”

As I finished my cigarette I considered telling them all everything once we got to the cabin. Hiding it from them and everyone else my whole life had only made me miserable. Maybe I'd enjoy the time I had left if I could at least live it as the girl I wanted to be. Maybe then my last few months could bring me the happiness I couldn't seem to find in the first twenty-eight years of my sad existence. I extinguished both my cigarette and my train of thought and we climbed back into Michelle's beat up Camry to finish the long drive out to the family cabin, and my final Christmas.

Visanee kept her cloak wrapped firmly around her and her cowl up to hide her features as she slipped along the halls of the Misalet Castle with the feline grace and silence that was a benefit of being a Zenin. Behind her, the guards to the room that had been her prison for almost 16 passes lay fast asleep. "I will have to thank Trevas for smuggling me in some corrune pollen if I ever get the chance. For now though," she thought, "I must focus on my escape."

Making her way down to the stables from the tower was easier than she first expected. The late time, and darkened halls with only very few of the kida lamps on, helped a lot. There also weren't many guards to be seen, and what ones there were seemed to be focused on what or who may try to enter rather than who may try to leave. Her ears twitched and her fur stood on end at a distant sound as she approached the entrance hall. Quickly she slipped into an alcove that would let her see, and hopefully remain somewhat hidden in the shadows. Her feline nose wrinkled as she cautiously sniffed the air and picked up the scent of sweat, steel, and wine. The guard who turned the corner and entered the hall, sniffing the air, was large with brown fur and bear-like in appearance, if bears walked upright and had four arms.

"Just great," she thought, "a Jiquar, and he's close to 8 tayr tall. Oh well, at least Jiquar have a good sense of smell." Pinching her nose with one hand she slipped the other into her pouch and withdrew a handful of pollen. The Jiquar sniffed his way toward her and once he was almost at her alcove she jumped out and blew the pollen up into his still sniffing nose. “Surprise,” she whispered as the guard breathed in the pollen. Before he even had a chance to react, he staggered, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell to the floor asleep, with Visanee only narrowly avoiding being pinned beneath him. A little corrune pollen just makes a person drowsy, but with as much as the guard just inhaled even races with less sensitive noses, like Humans and Cinoles, would be knocked out for a few hours.

By the time Visanee arrived at the stables she was almost out of pollen. She quickly saddled a machul and mounted it. There were plenty of horses available, but she wanted speed and stamina in a mount and the black equines were easily faster and stronger than their cousin the horse. The only thing on land faster than a machul was it's other cousin, the baynard, but those were often too wild to be safely tamed, especially with their long, curved, and very sharp blade-like horns. Still this was only one of three machuls in the stable, so with a head start she figured she should be able to make it deep into the city long before any pursuit.

She rode through the courtyard to the castle gates where a lone Human stood guard, “Lower the the drawbridge and raise the gates,” she tried to give it the air of an order.

“I'm going to need to see your gate pass,” the guard replied, sounding bored.

“Oh yes my gate pass, silly me.” She opened her pouch, dumping the contents into her opened hand.

At this point the guard started looking intently at her cowled face and then gasped in realization. “It's the pri...” was all he managed to call out before he started coughing from the handful of pollen she threw in his face. Moments later he was on the ground fast asleep as she strained her muscles turning the wheel to raise the black gates. It took her longer than she wanted, but they were made of yalk wood and that made them heavy. She had not yet finished when the sound of the alarm rang out, she was running out of time. Once she finally had the gates high enough to ride through, she hit the lever to lower the drawbridge and tiredly climbed back on the machul's back to ride through the gate, across the bridge, down the great road, and into the capital city of Velheim as the sounds of the castle being roused behind her spurred her on.

It had taken almost an entire sun to find an Enchanter who could do what Visanee wanted, and she had been waiting for him to finish the item in question for several candlemarks. She was beginning to get nervous. She had only narrowly evaded pursuit, and each moment she spent in the city increased her chances of getting caught by the guards roaming the streets. Her ears and tail twitched nervously as she risked a glance out the window of the shop into the street. Hearing a noise behind her, she adjusted her cowl and turned to see the shop's proprietor stepping out from the curtain that separated the storefront from his workshop. “Is it finished?” she asked.

The elderly Enchanter nodded, placing a rather plain looking dagger on the counter. “It is. Use this to trace a circle where the veil between our worlds is the thinnest, and it will allow you to change places with a compatible soul on the other side.”

Visanee nodded eagerly. “And the back door you mentioned?”

“The kida from the enchantment will linger in that spot until the passing of the full moon, the back door must be used by then and can only be used once. The Gift is not common on that world, if it exists there at all, and you can not take physical objects with you, so you must remember the words I taught you to use the back door. Only those words can trigger the kida for a trip back. Just like when you get to the other world, I can not guarantee whose body you would inhabit on your return...” He paused, his blind eyes turning in the direction of her breathing, his face a mask of concern. “Are you sure that you wish to do this?”

She placed three gold coins on the counter as she muttered, “Whatever happens can't be worse than things are now.”

With a resigned sigh the old man placed a piece of parchment beside the dagger. “When you are ready thrust the dagger through this parchment, it will take you to where the veil between worlds is the thinnest.”

Without another world Visanee took both dagger and parchment and thrust. Almost immediately, a blue mist began to rise from the parchment and encompassed the Zenin. Soon all she could see, feel, or taste was the mist, it felt like the tingling sensation one feels when a limb returns to feeling after being numb and it tasted like old parchment. And then it was all gone, and she was surrounded by snow and ice. She was in The Frozen Wastes.

We pulled up in front of the cabin in the early afternoon on Christmas Eve. Mom and Dad's car was already there, and covered in several inches of snow. The snow had been really coming down on the last leg of our drive and the wind was really starting to blow. I cursed as I tried to light a cigarette in the wind and snow, “It looks like we might be in for a snowstorm sis, hell of a way to be spending Christmas Eve.” A shiver tore through my body as the cold wind whipped at me and I took a drag of my cigarette.

Michelle chuckled cheerfully. “I guess we'll save the snowball fight for another day and spend tonight in front of a warm fire, sipping hot cocoa, and talking then. It could be worse.”

“True, hot cocoa does sound good, and I'm sure we can find something to talk about.” My mind wandered back to the thought of telling them everything as I absently puffed away. Finally I finished my smoke and grabbed our bags from the trunk of the car, then Michelle and I left the snow and wind for the warm comfort of the cabin.

Visanee shivered, despite her fur, as she used the dagger to draw a circle about one tayr in diameter in the ice at her feet. Once finished, she set the dagger aside and the light blue glow that had clung to the blade left it, and the dagger was just a dagger once more. The circle though took on an ethereal blue glow, and looking through it she could see a twilight sky lit with a gibbous moon and unfamiliar stars. The deed was done. Now she just needed to wait.

She wondered whether someone compatible would arrive soon. If the area on the other side was as desolate as the wastes she could be waiting quite a while. She hoped not, she didn't have that kind of time. As she huddled in her cloak and tried to keep warm, the Zenin held on to hope that it would happen before she froze to death, or she was found by her pursuers or one of the waste's predators.

Her ears and nose twitched and she carefully watched her surroundings. The howling wind was making it hard to hear anything else and, since she had never been in the wastes before, the distant scents she could pick up other than snow were unfamiliar. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. She risked a glance back at the circle and offered a silent prayer to Selune, the Goddess of Gifts, that something would happen soon.

"The snow outside is getting worse", I thought as I looked out the window after dinner. The wind was whipping furiously and it seemed like a wall of white powder slammed into the side of the cabin with every howling gust. Inside though, the cabin was fairly warm, thanks to the fire in the fireplace. The hot cocoa helped too, as did the fact that I was wearing wool socks under a comfortable pair of old sneakers and a warm sweater.

Mom had set out a platter of Christmas treats to go with the hot cocoa. There were sugar cookies, fudge, nanaimo bars, chocolate snowballs, and gingerbread. All of this conspired to make me very relaxed, probably too relaxed. Or maybe I just wanted to have the truth out and get it over with. Either way, it doesn't matter as it all led up to me being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or perhaps the right place at the right time. I'm still not quite sure yet.

So as I sat there staring out the window, comfortably full of hot cocoa and sweets, I came to a decision that would change my life. With a sigh I turned from the window and faced my family. Michelle took after my Mom, with those same green eyes and auburn hair, though Mom's was starting to go grey and she had been granted a visit or two from the wrinkle fairy. Dad was a big guy like me with black hair and brown eyes and stood at six feet four inches. Unlike me though, he was a wall of muscle and he had played hockey semi-professionally before he blew out his knee and became a contractor for a construction company. My father was going to be trouble, but I needed to get this out, it's not like I'd have to live long with his disapproval anyway.

“So...” I began, taking a deep breath before continuing, “I really need to talk to you all about something.”

Mom smiled and reached across the table taking my hand. “What do you need to talk about Alex?”

Dad looked at me sternly and said, “Men don't hesitate son. Say what ya gotta say and be done with it, otherwise you sound like a woman.” This earned him a dirty look from both my mother and Michelle.

I laughed nervously. “Funny you should say that Dad, I was going to ask how you and Mom would feel about having another daughter.”

Mom and Michelle looked a bit confused while Dad, as usual, heard it the way he wanted to. “Why didn't you tell us you've found a girl Alex? It's about time! How long have you been seeing her? Why didn't you bring her for the holidays? I'm so proud to see you carrying on the family name.”

I groaned, shaking my head at his excitement. “Dad stop! That is not what I meant, there's no girl. I've been thinking about this a long time and... I've never been comfortable with my body.” I blushed as I looked toward my sister. “Michelle I've always been jealous of you, the way you look, the way you dress.” Looking at her, I was a bit taken aback by the look in her eyes. She already knew. “Sis?”

Michelle shrugged, giving me an encouraging smile. “I figured it out when we were in high school, I figured you'd tell me when you were ready.”

Dad was not quite so understanding. “Mary! I told you we shouldn't have named him Alex! We should have named him Gordon like I wanted to, never heard of a faggot named Gordon.”

“Louis, I don't think his name is what...” my mother began before he cut her off.

“Alex you're going to come work with me, no more of this working with computers and hiding behind a desk all day. No son of mine is going to be a fairy. A man's work will make a real man out of you!” I looked from him to my mother. He wasn't going to accept the idea, and my mother wouldn't go against him, I should have expected as much.

I stood up and glared at them. “I'm old enough to decide how I want to live the rest of my life. I wasn't asking your fucking permission! I was telling you that this is what I've decided on.”

The arguing went back and forth for quite a while. Dad refused to give up his position, Mom silently sided with him, I refused to give up my own position, and Michelle would try to get a word in edgewise to defuse the situation. Finally things became too much when Dad shouted, “If you go through with this you are dead to me!”

I turned and stormed out of the cabin, but not before throwing back at him, “I already am dead, you just didn't know yet!”

I stomped through the snow, the wind behind me half pushing me along. The snow was close to a foot deep, and even higher in some places where the wind had formed it into dunes. I was beginning to regret not getting anything on before storming out of the cabin. My hands and feet were frozen, my sweater wasn't much protection from the elements, and my sneakers kept slipping on the lake ice beneath the snow. I seriously thought about turning back, until something caught my attention.

Not far away there was a circle in the snow and ice, and it seemed to be glowing. I made my way closer, thinking that maybe someone had been ice fishing and dropped their flashlight in the hole. There didn't seem to be any fishing equipment, but the circle was about the right size, being around a foot in diameter. I could hear Michelle's voice in the distance calling my name, but it was hard to tell how far away with the wind and snow. Besides, at the moment the strange circle had my attention. I slowly reached out my hand to touch it and then everything went black.

I awoke freezing and uncertain as to why I had fallen asleep, and just what had woken me up. Maybe it was the sound of crunching snow or that strange smell, sort of like a mix between wet dog and nutmeg. I opened my eyes to see something large moving toward me. At first glance I couldn't believe what I was seeing, so I shook my head to clear my vision. Sadly this did not change the fact that approaching me was what appeared to be a large ferret like creature with thick white fur and roughly thirty feet in length.

The creature approached slowly, each of it's six legs moving with deliberate purpose as it watched me. I looked around and saw a knife close by, but everything was so surreal that I thought I must be dreaming. It was almost right on top of me by the time I thought of moving, on the off chance that I wasn't really losing my mind and the thing might think I was dinner. I only narrowly avoided it's lunge as I leaped to the side, grabbed the knife, and the creature slammed into the snow and ice where I had been laying only seconds before. It recovered quickly, turning to snap at me with really large and sharp looking fangs. Delusion or not I took off running.

I was running fast enough to keep ahead of the thing following me, just barely, but I knew that couldn't last long. My eyes darted around and I caught sight of an ice cave not far away. It looked small, probably too small for my pursuer, but I might be able to get inside if I crouched. Once again the creature's teeth snapped behind me and I could feel it's hot breath. Thirty feet... twenty feet... ten feet. I dove toward the little cave, hitting the ground in a slide which carried me inside just as the monster's jaws snapped shut behind me.

My slide carried me well into the entrance of the cave and I could see that it got bigger once further in. I crawled in further, until the ceiling was high enough for me to stand, and placed both the knife and a pouch that I was wearing with some sort of coins inside on a small ice shelf. Then, worried about both my exposure to the cold, and my close encounter with the strange beast, I set about going over a mental checklist. "Okay, head? Check. Arms and hands? Check. Legs and feet? Check." At this point I felt something swishing against the back of my legs and saw something long, furry and white with black stripes and tip. "Tail? Check.... wait, what the hell?!"

It was some time before I calmed down enough to think somewhat rationally. “Okay Alex, I don't think we're in Minnesota anymore,” I muttered. My hand flew to my mouth at the sound of my voice, it had a musical quality to it and was unmistakably feminine. “This has got to be a dream, I'm probably dying and having some sort of delusion.” I turned my head and gave my tail a good hard tug. "Ouch! Okay that hurt too much for me to be dreaming and now I know that that tail is definitely attached, but how did I get it? And what else has changed?”

Using my hands, and what reflection I could get from the knife, I began to take another mental inventory, this one of a more exploratory nature. I was wearing a black hooded cloak of some sort and a black body suit and, since that was all I seemed to be wearing, I wasn't about to take it all off to get a better look at my body. I was cold enough already, despite seeming to have a full body fur coat. Any further looking would have to wait until I was warmer. My hands and the knife would do for now. "Right, on to the checklist," I thought, taking a deep breath.

I was most definitely female, as some casual poking and touching in the right spots quickly confirmed, and I appeared to be humanoid in shape, but I had a lot of feline features. The fur on the exposed parts of my body seemed to match that of my tail, being predominately white with black stripes. White furred triangular cat ears rested atop my head poked out from waist length jet black hair. I had a kitty nose and lips, with a slight muzzle and fangs, and big green eyes with slit pupils which overall made me think of myself as pretty, if one has a taste for cat-girls. I was slim and muscular, both my fingers and toes seemed to have claws, and for some reason I was more comfortable walking on the balls of my feet, though I would have been even more comfortable wearing some warm footwear.

With my self-discovery inventory done, I turned my mind to how this could have happened and just where I was. I wasn't going to complain about my current situation, as going from a dying male body to the body of an apparently healthy female was a definite step up for me, but it still would be nice to know the where, how, and why of the matter. For the where, all I knew was that I was someplace cold and most certainly no longer on Earth. Well I suppose I could be on Earth, but it certainly wasn't my Earth. The how and why proved equally elusive.

With no answers forthcoming, I decided to take a good look around the small cave. The cave was just high enough that I wasn't bumping my head and got to about half my height at the entrance. The room itself was vaguely round, and about four times the height in diameter, with a slight depression in the middle. I briefly considered trying to go back outside to look for some sort of civilization, or at the very least some firewood, but my newly heightened senses could still pick up my large friend prowling around outside the mouth of the cave. With a sigh I laid down in the depression it the cavern floor and attempted to sleep.

Visanee was cold, so very cold. Her hands and feet were numb with it, in fact this entire unfamiliar body was. She had been told she could end up in a body very different from her own and she had prepared herself to feel out any differences, but at the moment she was too cold to feel much of anything at all, except for the shivers which seemed to wrack her body on a near continual basis. Someone beside her spoke to her and her eyes briefly opened to take in the visage of a very concerned looking Human woman with green eyes, auburn hair, and a face flushed from the cold. “Alex, try to stay awake, I've called search and rescue, they've got a medi-vac on the way."

The young woman kept talking to her, and occasionally shook her to keep her from falling asleep. She was so tired, why wouldn't this person just let her rest? It continued like this for some time, Visanee couldn't be sure how long, but after a time she heard something. The unfamiliar roaring sound kept getting closer, it sounded like some great beast and the *whup whup* sound, like the rapid beating of some great wings, that accompanied it kept getting louder. Her blurry vision tried to focus as a large red blur emerged from the snowy skies, landing nearby where the deafening sound, and the snow being whipped about by the beasts landing, made what senses she had kept about her practically useless.

More humans approached, she could make out their outlines, and they spoke strange words with many syllables. One opened her eye, shining a light of some sort in it as he spoke to the others. She was picked up and placed on something, and then she felt herself being moved closer to the strange red beast and it's odd noises. "Perhaps it is some sort of Drakan," she thought. The last conscious thought she had as the Humans fed her to the beast was, "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.".

I awoke on what I assumed to be Christmas comfortably warm, so warm in fact that I didn't want to move, but just languish in the experience of not being frozen. It was with great reluctance that I finally opened my eyes to see that I was not sleeping alone. There were white-furred creatures all around me, all snuggled together sharing body heat in the cold of the cave. I wondered if perhaps this was some sort of communal den, as there were well over a dozen of the creatures ranging in size from one to four feet long snoozing contentedly around and on top of me.

The animals seemed to be similar to the big one that chased me in here and I pondered the possibility that they may be it's children. I quickly dismissed that idea though for two reasons. Firstly, there was no way the larger creature could have made it in the cave to nest, and secondly if they all were babies they likely would have been here when I entered the cave. I felt that it was far more likely that my idea that this was a communal den was more accurate, and that this was some sort of smaller cousin to the creature from before.

I laid there comfortably for a time, feeling warm and secure as I pondered what I should be doing. My first priority would probably have to be finding some sort of food. I know that I probably could have eaten some of the creatures in the cave with me, if I could have found a way to cook them, but they were just too cute, it would be like eating a kitten. Also, they had kept me warm when I would have otherwise froze so it only made sense not to, since I may need that warmth again. Basically, to me it was the same concept as not peeing in your drinking water. I probably needed them for survival and I couldn't risk screwing that up.

Honestly though, they really were cute, especially when they started to yawn and stretch as they awoke. They weren't near as fearsome as the larger model. As they awoke the smaller ones began to play, chasing and nipping at one another and I assumed these must be kits. One in particular seemed to have taken a great interest in stalking my tail, which I was swishing about in an effort to get used to having it as an extension of my body. Okay, I admit it, I might have been playing a little, but there was nothing else to do. As I played I considered looking for food, or perhaps some trace of civilization, since surely I couldn't possibly be the only intelligent being here, wherever here was.

Soon the creatures began to leave the cave. Trusting them to know whether it was safe to do so I followed, hoping that they could lead me to food and water. Taking the knife and pouch, I crawled out of the entrance where I was greeted by a cool clear day. The sky was a beautiful blue and the air, though cold, was fresh and clean. I spent a moment taking it all in before my stomach decided to remind me just why I was out there. With a sigh I took a look around to find out where my little friends had taken off to, only to find that one seemed to be waiting for me. It just stood there watching me, balanced on it's four rear legs, until I began to make my way toward it. Then it took off, pausing only once more to make sure I was following.

My little friend, who I was almost certain was the same one I had been playing with earlier, led me to a valley that wasn't quite as barren as the rest of the landscape. The valley boasted some pine trees, shrubs, and a small glacier-fed lake. The water was cold and clear, and I quickly drank my fill before sitting down to consider food. Watching the snow ferrets, I saw that they were standing on their four rear legs while using their forepaws to grab at the shrubs. Both curious and hungry, I made my way to one of the bushes.

The shrubs had small almost triangular shaped leaves and some sort of pale blue, almost white, berries. Remembering my survival training from my scout days, I took one of the leaves and licked it experimentally. It wasn't bitter, so I took one of the berries and popped it in my mouth. The berry had a slightly sweet taste to it and I smiled as I began to pick and eat more of them. Before long my hunger was sated and I began putting as many of the berries as I could fit into the coin pouch.

I spent three days like that with my furry little companions; sleeping with them snuggled around me and leaving the cave whenever they did to forage food and water. Besides the berries, I also managed to catch some fish and some white creatures similar in size and appearance to a crab from the shallow parts of the lake. They tasted pretty good too once I managed to start a small fire and cook them. Most of my furry friends preferred them raw, though the one I had taken to calling Chrissy would mostly eat whatever I did. She, yes I did manage to check her gender, seemed to have taken quite a liking to me and had become my constant companion, even while the others were off doing something else.

On the fourth day Chrissy and I were sitting in the valley enjoying the heat of a fire and sharing a meal of berries, fish, and crab when it happened. My nose twitched as a familiar scent caught my attention. My ears twitched under my hood and my fur stood on end at the sound of something large moving through the valley. Chrissy seemed to sense it too, and her head swung around to the direction both sound and smell were coming from as she hissed. Her large cousin had found us, and it was between us and the path back to the cave.

I quickly took my knife in one hand as I used the other to grab a branch from the fire. The branch was only maybe a foot and a half long, but the end was aflame and I felt better with it between me and the monster approaching. As the beast came closer I tried to make sure to keep the fire between it and myself. It tried to move around the fire to get to me, but I quickly swung my torch at it, catching it with a glancing blow to the side of the head and it recoiled with a squeal as it was burned. Chrissy climbed my leg and back and hissed at the creature as she wrapped herself protectively around my neck.

We stood faced off like that for a while, the creature becoming more bold as time passed and my fire began to go out. I kept swinging my knife and torch at it whenever it would lunge at me, but with the flames starting to flicker out and me starting to tire I knew it wouldn't be long before I made a mistake and went from eating dinner to becoming it. A large shadow passed overhead, but I ignored it as I was far more concerned with staying alive at the moment.

Suddenly a brown and white blur dropped from the sky and landed on my opponent's back. Then everything kicked into high speed as the creature screamed and bucked, as whatever was on it's back stabbed at it and it's blood flew all over the place. I had to dive to the side to avoid being crushed beneath it as it bucked and rolled, trying to dislodge the new threat. I crouched in the snow ready to move again as the beast finally breathed it's last and I saw a creature atop it resembling a cross between a four armed man and a grizzly bear, wearing a pair of fur-lined boots and a white bodysuit that seemed to be made of something scaly. He watched me for a moment as he sat atop the dead predator, brandishing a bloody sword, then gave me what I hoped was meant to be a smile. “Trying to take on a Kythir alone face to face with little more than a dagger? You're either the bravest or the stupidest person I've ever met.”

I merely shrugged under my cloak as I offered, “Maybe I'm both. Thanks for the help.”

He laughed at my response as a large white creature landed behind him and the corpse. “The Drakan landing behind me is Runne, I'm Patar his Chosen.” I took in both Patar and the creature he referred to as a Drakan and tried not to show my surprise and wonder. The Drakan was covered in white scales and stood on it's hind legs looking to be over twenty-five feet tall. It had a long tail stretching out behind it and I'd say from nose to tail tip it would be over forty feet. It's forelegs resembled arms more than legs, which made sense since it stood upright, it had large wings with a wingspan of over thirty feet, and a slightly elongated neck was topped with a proud draconian head with jagged looking blue-white ridges atop the head which resembled an icy crown.

I felt I was doing quite well at not showing my shock until the Drakan opened it's carnivorous mouth and spoke in a gravelly and distinctly male voice, “You are fortunate we saw your plight as we flew overhead. We are looking for someone, perhaps you could help us.”

I stood up, giving Chrissy an affectionate scratch as we both began to calm down, and then approached the pair, lowering my hood as I shrugged. “I haven't seen anyone since I've been out here, wherever here is.”

Patar stared at me for a long moment before grinning and striding toward me. “We've found you.”