Giljaras found his vision swirl as Drakreanor flew through the portal. He held himself as close to the large green dragon as possible. Rumor had it that if you fell off while traveling 'in between', you could end up split in half, or in the wrong destination, or find yourself as a kobold in a terrasques belly. Well, whatever was true or not, Giljaras did not intend to find out for himself.
Fortunately, the trip was rather short; no more than a minute had to have passed before Drakreanor emerged at the edge of a forest, landing on all fours.
"You see!! I told you that I would get you there no problem!!" said Drakreanor smugly.
"Yes, you did quite well Drakreanor," said Melchior, who was still behind him.
"This is the right place right?" said Giljaras. He dismounted from Drakreanor and looked around. Indeed, they were at the edge of a forest, and it did not take Giljaras long to see the lights of a giant castle, bright and festive. That must be Hogwarts, the place that he was going to be spending the next 7 years of his life.
"All right now," said Melchior. The bearded man pulled out his bow and his knife, which while woefully insufficient in a battle against the Malthinae (and he did have the good sense to be properly armed in those engagements) was good enough for the forest. "Let me go scout ahead to see if anybody noticed our arrival. Then I shall let you know when you can move ahead."
The ranger took off like a phantom, leaving Giljaras to unpack all of his belonings.
"Carrying you, Melchior and all your stuff is a lot heavier than it looks. I am no pack mule!" insisted Drakreanor.
"Too bad," replied Giljaras. Drakreanor often used his mental voice to project his communication to Giljaras. Dragons could speak with their jaws perfectly fine, but the human tongue was not built for the vocal chords of dragonkind, and Giljaras still did not have great command of his standard Draconic language, which was a series of grunts, hisses and growls, and not to mention used a completely different writing system, using symbols to represent words rather than connecting letters together. However, Drakreanor could understand common perfectly well, but used his telepathic speech to express it.
By then, Melchior had come back.
"What did you find?" said Giljaras.
"There seems to be this large goliath fellow named Hagrid who patrols these parts. Fortunately enough, if I have my intelligence correct, he seems to be the man who escorts the students to the school. If you hurry up, you should be able to meet up with him and then join up with the other students on the boat," said Melchior.
"Oh! So... that's good right!" said Giljaras.
"Yes, you are going to have to hurry though..." said Melchior. Giljaras suddenly realized he would be off on his own again.
"Y-you mean right now?" said Giljaras. Drakreanor also warbled unsurely; as much as he boasted, the prospect of leaving his friend alone was still frightening.
Melchior bent down to pat Giljaras on the head, "You will do well for yourself boy. Don't think too much about the mission for now, but try to make friends and fit in. If anything goes wrong, don't hesitate to call us and we'll be there to help all right?"
"Okay. The two of you are going to be all right?" said Giljaras.
"Don't you worry Giljaras, I'll make sure that Drakreanor is well cared for," said Melchoir.
"As though anybody can take down a dragon!" said Drakreanor.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," replied Giljaras, giving Drakreanor a pat. Drakreanor responded with a big winged hug.
"You'll knock them out Giljaras! Unlike those other kids, you are a dragon rider! Show them what you're made of!"
Giljaras nodded, and then headed off. Going off alone in the dark forest toward the lake in the middle of night was actually pretty scary when he thought about it. He closed his eyes and pushed his cart forward as fast as he could, as though that would get him to the lake faster.
Suddenly, there was a bump, and Giljaras tripped over himself and fell to the ground.
"Hey! Watch where ye goin' boy!" grunted a deep voice.
Giljaras gazed up at a huge, bearded man with a round belly. Each one of his arms were thicker than the boy's entire body, and those hands looked as though they could crush him with barely a squeeze. However, he couldn't show fear.
"Um... um... are you Hagrid?" asked Giljaras.
"Aye, that be me. Now, what would a first year like ye be doin' all the way out here?" said Hagrid.
"I uh... got lost and missed the train..." said Giljaras. He recalled Melchoir talking about how the students usually took a train to get to the magic school, which Giljaras found kind of funny in a way. One would think that they would have much more complex teleportation magicks and the sort...
"Heh, well yer lucky that you bumped into me! What's yer name boy?" grunted Hagrid.
"Giljaras Dragoner," answered Giljaras.
"Right, come with me then!"
Hagrid took hold of Giljaras' stuff and the boy followed after the giant, needing to run a bit to keep pace. Before long, the unlikely pair arrived at the edge of the lake, where a bunch of other kids Giljaras' age were being unloaded from the station. Fortunately for Giljaras, most of the other children did not seem to notice Giljaras not arriving by train, as they seemed too transfixed with Hogwart's magnificent architecture.
"So um... where are you taking my stuff?" asked Giljaras.
"Eh... the house elves take care of it!" said Hagrid casually.
Hagrid began addressing the other kids now, telling them to follow him. As it turned out, Giljaras ended up getting a seat next to Hagrid.
"So, tell me a little bout yerself young Mr. Dragoner? With a name like that, you have likin for dragons?" said Hagrid. Giljaras couldn't help but grin.
"They're fascinating! Its no coincidence that my family name has dragons in it, because we've been dragon tamers for generations!" said Giljaras. It wasn't exactly a lie, but it was far from the truth as well.
That made Hagrid more fascinated however.
"Really now! So that means you've met many dragons then! I'd always like to be able to own one!" said Hagrid.
"You can't really 'own' a dragon. They would see it as an insult. Rather, they 'allow' you to be in their presence, and they think that they're doing you a favor just by doing so. You always have to show respect to a dragon because they're very egotistical and they all think they're the greatest beings in all creation. Contrary to popular belief though, they don't really eat people, because its against their culture or something, but they see humans and the other 'smaller races' as useful for conducting their affairs," said Giljaras, glad to be focusing on a topic he had some knowledge about and one that he liked.
"Huh... ah never would have thought of it that way. So, by what yer sayin, yer actually tellin' me that we got it all wrong dragons are actually intelligent?" said Hagrid.
"Well of course they are," said Giljaras. "However, they sometimes like to pretend that they're little more than beasts just to play tricks on humans and get them to unwittingly do their bidding."
He imagined that he was telling a bit too much, because Hagrid would want to look into it more, and at this point they didn't need to know about Drakreanor.
"You and I, are definitely gonna have to talk more, Mr Dragoner," said Hagrid with a big, meaty grin.
Hey Gil! I've been scouting with Melchior, and I think we've managed to find a good hideout at the edge of the forest! The creatures I've seen so far are fascinating, and tasty beyond imagining!" said Drakreanor.
Good! But make sure to pick up after yourself otherwise the groundskeepers are going to get suspicious! Melchior isn't going to do everything for you, you overgrown lizard!" replied Giljaras.
"Are you my mother now?" snorted Drakreanor in amusement.
"Maybe not me, but Melchior might as well be!"
Drakreanor gave another grumble before he closed the telepathic connection.
"Hey! We're getting off the boat!" said a voice. Giljaras blinked, and noticed that they had arrived at the shore, and that he was the last one on.
"R-right!!" said Giljaras.
"Don't mind me asking, but what were you doing?" asked the black haired, spectacled boy.
"N-nothing," replied Giljaras. The boy did not seem totally convinced. Whoever this kid was, he seemed to be able to read the situation well.
"Where's Hagrid anyhow?" asked Giljaras, seeking to change the subject.
"Didn't you see him looking around trying to find Neville's toad?" said the boy.
"No, like I said, I spaced out..." replied Giljaras, as he clambered up the passageway.
"How odd, you're the first kid here not to recognize me," said the boy. Giljaras studied the boy, and then finally noticed that he had the lightning scar. Apparently, this had made him super famous or something.
"Umm... you're Harry Potter right? The one who is said to have defeated you-know-who?" said Giljaras.
"Yes, that Harry Potter apparently," he said. Giljaras didn't see what the big deal was. He just looked like another regular kid.
"I guess... that can be kind of awkward sometimes for everybody to already know who you are. You seem pretty regular to me. By the way, my name is Giljaras, so nice to meet you."
Harry seemed to appreciate the gesture and the pair shook hands. The boy who lived, however, also had the odd feeling that the kid with the brown hair and the green eyes was somehow different as well, though at this point, he could not say why...
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