Tough As Dragon Skin

Natalie, standing innocently (well sort of) in the middle of a empty, treeless spot, screaming her head off after confronting the closest thing to a dinosaur since she smashed a cockroach in skanky roadside petrol station in London calling her brother three days earlier, screamed yet again when Charles Weasley came sliding down a tree trunk about twenty yards away like he was Wile E. Coyote off the Bugs Bunny cartoons. She took yet another deep breath and, for the hell of it, screamed again, this time in a more excited manner. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her over to Charlie and launched herself in his arms.

"I'm so glad you're here!" she informed him in delight. "I do believe I have just confronted what easily could be a descendent of Patagosaurus. And," she tacked on dramatically, ignoring Charlie's pained expression, "I do believe the choana cavity is what the dragon uses mostly to hunt, because it certainly ignores anything its eyes see!"

"Riiiiight." Charlie peeled her off of him. "What did you just say, in plain English?"

Nat grinned. "That my paper for the Journal of Vertebrae Paleontology was right on target by saying that carnivorous dinosaurs used their sense of smell, not their eyes, to hunt."

Charlie just shook his head. "Actually dragons scent the same way snakes do, using their tongues, except the Chinese Fireball, which uses its tongue for just about everything from mating practices to taste."

Nat grimaced. "That's a disgusting yet fascinating tidbit of information." She gave him a hopeful look. "When will I be seeing a Chinese Fireball?"

"Never in Romania," Charlie assured her. "You realize you just missed confronting a male Horntail, right? It could .... have ...." Charlie's voice faded as Nat's face got more animated. "You didn't miss confronting him, did you?"

"It had to be the most fascinating piece of scientific field research I have ever done. The documentation alone on what I witnessed would be enough to -"

"Probably land you in a mental institution," Charlie finished for her. "We're going back to the tents and having a long discussion about what the term 'stay put' means in England, because apparently its different than in America."

"But!"

"No buts, Nat," Charlie shouted at her suddenly. "You obviously don't realize the danger you were in! That dragon could have eaten you, chewed you up and we'd have no clue what happened to you, unless peices of you came out the other end! Do you have any idea how lucky you were?"

Nat shrugged. "Sure I do, but it's all part of the job, right?"

Charlie smacked his forehead. "Reggie was lucky, Nat, okay? The dragon only swallowed him whole and the acid in her stomach hadn't secreted to where he was lodged inside her. Do you understand what I'm saying? Reggie would not be with us if she'd decided he was too big to swallow."

"I'm smaller than Reggie," Natalie frowned in concentration, "though I may outweigh him by about ten pounds."

"NATALIE! You could have left me!" Charlie shouted over her.

Natalie's eyes widened in shock a moment before Charlie's mouth swooped over hers, claiming a tense kiss. The kiss broke and they both took a deep breath. "I love it when you rescue me," Nat said stupidly. "Please. Do it more often."

I, uh," Charlie mumbled just as stupidly. "We got to figure out how we're going to get you back."

"Can't we use the broom?"

Charlie held up the handle, which was missing bristles. "That would be a 'no'."

"Well," Nat motioned back where she'd run from when she sat down on the dragon's tail. "How good are you at reading markings, because I apparently can't read my own trail."

"Is that what those crazy scratches in the trees are for?" asked Charlie, amused now.

Nat looked disgruntled. "I'll have you know that I learned that in the Girl Scouts!"

"Riiiight, having no idea what the Girl Scouts are, I'll assume that its something Muggle girls normally find useful but is useless to you." Charlie grinned when Nat became more outraged. "Face it, Nat, you aren't the most logical thing on the planet."

Nat sniffed as she began leading him back to where she'd seen her last marker. "I'll have you know that I am an expert on the obturator prong in most species as well as the choana. My research alone into the sclerotic plate was essential in the development of -"

"Okay you know dead lizards."

"Not all dinosaurs are lizards, Charlie," Nat snapped, as she shoved her way around a large bush she didn't remember passing but was she she had to have. "Many dinosaurs were warm-blooded mammals or even birds."

"Fascinating, but where's your markings again?" Charlie smirked when Nat stopped to look around in irritation.

"I'm sure I came this way."

"Riiiight."

"Willyou stop saying that?" Nat stamped her foot and the trees moved. Gaping at the ground, she stamped again and the trees moved again.

"Oh man," Charlie groaned, grabbing her hand and pulling her behind him. "Come on!"

"What is it?" Nat tried to keep up but Charlie's legs were longer than hers.

"Off hand I'd say a descendent of a Pagodasauron or whatever. I knew the female couldn't be too far from the male but I didn't see her from the air. Run, damnit, Nat, RUN!"

"Are the females worse?" she asked around a panting breath.

"They are nesting pair," Charlie told her with gritted teeth. "Take a wild guess. Now run!"

Nat ran.

She'd lost her mate. This was not a good thing. From the scent of him, he'd left in a state of agitation. Something else that wasn't good. Whatever was scaring males away had to be gotten rid of. She scented the air, caught the smell of the disturbance and lumbered after it. It took a moment for her to realize what the smell was and then she was just incensed.

Humans.

Or if Nat had the nerve to argue with a dragon over technical terms, homo sapiens.

She hated humans. They were always messing about with the nests, driving dragons from excellent breeding and hunting grounds and causing no end of mischief with hatchlings. She'd had to put up with humans her entire lifespan (so far 600 years) and she was fed up with it. These humans would know her wrath.

The humans in question had no doubt that they would know her wrath but she had to catch them first. Charlie was pulling Nat behind him and when Nat stumbled and fell, crying out in pain, he scooped her up in his arms and kept running. A male with a mate was a dangerous thing, but a female who was in season was an all out terrible thing. To escape a female in season once she'd caught your scent required the help of a lot of stunning spells and Charlie had only one wand. He and Nat's only hope was that Marty had sent out a search party and from the air could see the trouble he and Nat were in. He prayed Nat's luck was still good. After all, she'd faced down the male.

Nat's luck had run out.

"Charlie, please, can't we hide somewhere?"

"She'll find us," Charlie panted, stopping for a moment to set her down and catch his breath. "And we are in a lot of trouble, Nat. Unless Marty and the boys find us, we very well may not make it out of this. Females are quicker and much meaner."

Nat gulped. "I'm sorry."

"Worry about that later," Charlie told her and scooped her in his arms again. He smacked a kiss on her forehead and began to run toward the setting sun. "Camp's this way, I hope."

Charlie had no idea how long they ran but it seemed like it wasn't any time at all before a large black female Horntail bore down on them, roaring in rage and snorting flame. From years as a Quidditch player, as well as having multiple siblings (especially the twins) and his subsequent training as a dragon keeper, Charlie reacted quickly, jumping away, tucking into a roll and curling his body around Natalie as he did so. He rolled to his feet, jerked Nat to her own and gave her a shove.

"Hobble that way!" he shouted pointing into the dense forest. "Find someplace to hole up and don't make a peep!"

Natalie, terrified, did as she was told and hobbled almost at a run where he pointed. Charlie jerked his wand from his robes, thankful it wasn't broken and started hexing everything that came in front of him to distract the clearing incensed female Hungarian Horntail. The tail swished at him and he ducked and rolled, the spikes catching his robes. He heard them rip as he ducked behind a tree that was promptly aflame.

Shrubs into gnomes. Nope.

Bushes into Horntail eggs. Nope.

Leaves into birds. Nope.

Stunning Spell. Bounced.

Nothing was working and Charlie began to feel panic creeping in. There was no way he was going to get out this... Charlie's green eyes widened and he grinned as he ran the perimeter of the dragon, keeping an eye on her madly swishing tail and out of range of her fire breath. "ACCIO BROOM!" he shouted and waited.

Nope.

"STUPEFY!" The word, spoken by about seven different voices, was music to Charlie's ears. The Horntail froze in place and then landed with a graceful, yet loud, THUD!

"Hey Weasley, you're on fire!" came a shout and Charlie immediately dropped to the ground and began to roll, putting out the flames. His back was burning and the pain from putting out the flame was excruciating. There was a terrified scream and just before Charlie lost consciousness, Nat's face swam before him, crying his name, her hand reaching out to brush his cheek. He was out before he felt her touch.