It's a Wild World

"Oof-"

Not hurt, no; but the wind was certainly knocked out of the small boy a little bit. Granted, Cody hadn't been looking perhaps quite as well as he should have, either; for several days, now, he'd been venturing out into the forest during daylight hours, wondering if he might find some trace of the dragons he'd encountered at the beginning of the month. They had been such fascinating creatures - unknown to man, as far as he knew - and, while Cody had no wish to intrude on their privacy, he couldn't help but wonder if he might find... footprints, perhaps, or some other trace to say that they'd been there again.

So far, he'd come up with nothing; but after a week of doing so, when he didn't have chores around the Sunggly Duckling, Cody had come to enjoy the practice, even so. There were many smaller animals to meet, who he found it easier to build trust with than the dragons, and he was working up to the point of letting them know they could call on him if they were ever in need of help.

He'd just finished seeing to a couple of small rabbits when it had happened; without thinking to look around him first, Cody had stood up straight into the path of a yellow-clad woman who he hadn't even realised was there. Taken by surprise by the impact, the boy found himself on his rear again without quite processing what had happened; at least, for as long as it took for the face to lean over him and a very human voice to ask if he was alright.

"Oh... yeah, I'm okay. You just startled me."

Climbing to his feet for the second time in as many minutes, the child glanced up at the woman who'd bumped him. As was so often the case, he felt a certain degree of wariness towards a fellow human; not since he'd lost his dad had Cody felt like he'd fully understood and been understood by another of his own species, not the same way that he did with animals. But he also wasn't inclined to be hostile at the outset, not to anyone who wasn't obviously a poacher.

And besides, one feature of the woman drew his attention: the sketchpad she clutched to herself. Cody didn't consider himself an artist, by any means; but all the same, there was a similar - if smaller - pad tucked away in the pocket of his shorts, on which he sometimes sketched animals he came across. Animals like that moonlit dragon for example, whose visage filled the first few pages of this particular pad; who had been so unfamiliar to him that he wanted to preserve some reminder of that encounter.

Quizzical gaze still lingering on her pad for a moment more, he tentatively raised the question.

"Were you looking for anything particular out here?"

Surprise was the first expression to cross the boy's face, his gaze lifting to regard the woman more thoroughly as she explained that she was looking for interesting animals, though that quickly gave way to a guarded expression. There were two reasons, so far as Cody knew, that someone might be looking for rare animals: either because they, like him, had a natural affinity towards them... or because they were a poacher. And while the lady didn't exactly look the part, and he could see no gun on her...

His run-in with McLeach had made Cody significantly more wary than he had been in the past.

All the same, he couldn't imagine any poacher showing enough interest in his or her quarry to go to the length of drawing them, if that was indeed what the woman's sketch pad was for. His guard didn't lower completely, but if she was an artist, then he had no reason to begrudge her her passion.

And she was looking for a--

Dragon?

His breath left him in a poorly-concealed gasp as she dropped the word. Not of disbelief, or of astonishment that such a thing existed... but of shock that someone else besides him knew that fact. No-one who he'd quizzed around the Snuggly Duckling had been able to tell him more about the dark and light creatures he'd encountered...

But there it was; a dark dragon just like - or exactly like? He didn't want to assume - the one he'd seen the week before. Dark eyes were wide as he stepped forward, raising a tentative hand to touch the drawing. It certainly looked like the dragon who he'd encountered, who had mimicked him and written in the dirt something that he was starting to believe must have been her name.

"You're an artist?"

Perhaps not the obvious first thing to ask; but Cody wanted to make sure, before he gave voice to any of what he'd seen, that the lady meant the dragons no harm. As and when that confirmation came, he would relax somewhat.

"Actually, you might not believe me. But that isn't the first time I've seen one of those."

"Sorry... I've had bad experiences with poachers before now."

Cody had relaxed visibly almost as soon as Jane had answered his question. It was quite obvious, to the boy, that she was telling the truth; and zoologists, those who did something like what he did, only in a professional capacity, had a lot of Cody's respect. He simply hadn't quite expected to just meet one out here, with no forewarning whatsoever; and as such, the explanation for his initial wariness tumbled from his lips in a rush.

The return rush of questions left Cody blinking for a moment, before his expression broke into a grin. He'd not had anyone to talk to of his passion for animals, not since his dad had died - Mom, great though she was, just didn't have the interest in wildlife that her husband had passed to him - and the boy was quick to find himself in his element.

"Well, I think they might be nocturnal, because I saw them about midnight out in the forest here. There were two of them; I think one looked just like that. I couldn't see her well in the dark, but she had purple eyes--"

He couldn't tell, from the sketch, what colour eyes Jane's dragon had had, but he assumed it would be the same if, as he suspected, this was the same dragon he had encountered.

"And I don't think she liked humans very much."

Not that he could blame her, there; Cody often didn't like a lot of humans very much, either. Of course, he could name at least a handful of exceptions to that, just off the top of his head; but he could also understand where the dark dragon was coming from with that. If her only encounter with humanity had been people like McLeach... well, it would be no wonder she was so soured on the whole species.

"And the other... hold on..."

He delved one hand into the pocket of his shorts, retrieving his own sketchpad. It was smaller by far than Jane's, enough that he could get one hand around it easily; but as he flipped it open, the images etched on it, of the brilliant white dragon, were easy to see.

"She was pure white. It was like she reflected the moonlight." It had been almost hypnotic, in its way; Cody recalled finding it hard to look away from the beautiful she-dragon. Even in picture form, even for as much as Cody would claim that he wasn't much of an artist, something of the white dragon's beauty, of the gently curving lines of her head and shoulders, was easily discerned.

"I don't know where they come from, but it's not here; she told me she was a long way from her home."

If he'd missed one of her questions, Cody had lost track of it for the initial moment; there was so much he wanted to say about the dragons he'd encountered - to someone who knew what he was talking about, no less! - but he suspected that he should take it slowly enough to let the woman process some of what he was saying before continuing much further.

"It was back home- well, in the Outback, that is."

It seemed his mention of poachers had killed the woman's enthusiasm for the topic at hand; and while Cody certainly couldn't blame her for that, he also hastened to dismiss the incident. It hadn't... well, no, it wasn't true to say that it hadn't been a big deal, and it still made Cody feel a bit weak at the knees to think of what had almost happened to Marahute. But he was a brave child, with less fear of death than most his age, and didn't want a lot of fuss made over him when it was the animals who had really suffered.

"They're a big problem out there, and the Rangers can't always deal with them all. So me and my friends go out a lot to rescue any animals we learn of who get caught in their traps."

That was how he'd met Marahute. At the thought of her, it hit Cody like a ton of bricks just how much he missed his avian friend; but, all the same, he was glad she was relatively safe back home raising her chicks. He'd never forgive himself if she had come out here along with him, and got hurt on his account.

Still, even in spite of not wanting her to fuss, it felt... relieving, almost, to be able to talk to someone about the experience. He'd glossed over most of the details when explaining it to his Mom, knowing that she'd just worry or not understand; she wouldn't have wanted him to risk his life for a bird, no matter how gentle, how caring, how magnificent... so he'd sat on the tale for the longest time. Even Faloo and his other friends, he hadn't elaborated too far on the matter.

(He had, however, made a point of dropping a word to the Rangers about the location of McLeach's lair in the abandoned opal mines, to make sure Krebbs and Frank and the others got set free.)

"Have you ever seen a great golden eagle? That's what my best friend, Marahute, is. And the poacher captured me because he wanted me to betray her to him, and I wouldn't."

He didn't GET it. How could the life of an animal, any animal, be worth any amount of money to snuff out? If someone offered him all the money in the world, in return for even the least animal, Cody would flat-out refuse. Life was far too valuable.

It surprised him, though, that Jane had gone through a similar experience. Or, perhaps, surprised wasn't the right word, because poachers - in his experience - were without conscience and would certainly set themselves against anyone who tried to cross them. Cody just didn't expect anyone else outside of the Outback to find themselves in such a position.

"Mine's Cody." He returned her introduction, thick hair bouncing slightly as he nodded, but then paused as the rest of her words caught up to him. It was certainly a valid question, but not one that Cody was used to being asked, nor quite sure how to answer. He was used to being far from home, along except for his friends the animals; the Outback was wide, and he roamed freely across it with no-one questioning it. Not even Mom, so long as he was home in time for supper.

"I've been wandering a bit, meeting the animals. I want them to know they can count on me if they're ever in trouble."

That was the truth of the matter. Cody would never refuse to help an animal in need; but he also knew that a lot of animals would be reluctant to accept help from a stranger. The best he could do, then, was to make sure that he wasn't a stranger to them, that he was someone who they felt like they could trust. As for why he was doing it alone, well...

"And I'm good at being alone. Mom never minded me going out across the Outback on my own, at home, as long as I stayed safe. And I like it that way."

Here was, he would grant... different from the Outback in a lot of ways. But at the same time, it seemed far less full of danger, generally speaking, than his home territory was.