Chapter Text
Margarine stared at the roof of his tent. He was having trouble sleeping again. The sounds of the wind and the quiet forest were surprisingly not that relaxing to fall asleep to. Only because he knew there weren’t any other cookies around him now.
He groaned. Sometimes he thinks he really should’ve just stayed back at home. It had been, what? Two weeks since he ran away from the clan? The screeches of the wyverns back home were terrifying, yes, but at least back home he had his family. He had protection. Now he was camping out in the middle of nowhere where really anything could kill him at a moment's notice. What was he even gonna do after this? Where was he headed? Witches, he had no idea.
He would start to hear some movement outside the tent as he kept twisting and turning in his “bed,” which was really just a poorly-stuffed sheet with a blanket he had kept from home. Whatever it was outside sounded pretty big. Great. Now he definitely wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight.
He then heard something get knocked over. Wait- now the thing was eating. Wait, dumbass, he left the fish outside! Damnit, it had taken him all week to gather those! Well, now he had to go out. That was pretty much all the food he had left. Yeah, he did not pack well.
Margarine grabbed his spear, really hoping he wouldn’t have to use it and carefully stepped outside. He squinted in the darkness of the night as he took up somewhat of a defensive position. A large shadow soon came into view. It looked like it had spikes, wings, and- crumbs. It was a wyvern.
The wyvern looked back toward him with a fish in its mouth, staring at him with those large, awful eyes. Due to not getting a good night's rest for over two weeks, it took Margarine a second to properly respond to what was in front of him. When he did he sort’ve just jutted out his spear and let out a very shrill scream, making the wyvern let out an equally shrill screech.
He shakily kept stabbing the spear in its direction, hoping to scare it away.
“Uh- G- Go! Go away! That’s my fish!”
The wyvern didn’t seem all that intimidated. What was a wyvern even doing all the way out here? They were only supposed to live in the mountains and he was far from there.
“GO AWAY!” Margarine suddenly stomped forward, aiming to throw the spear.
But before he could the wyvern just simply flew off back into the nearby forest. He remembered other wyverns being much harder to scare off but, oh well, he certainly wasn’t complaining.
He checked the crate of fish the wyvern had gone after and realized pretty much half of the fish were gone. Great. Well at least now he knew he needed to store his food inside next time.
× × ×
As the days went by, Margarine began to see more of this wyvern. Had it just always been here and he’d never noticed it before? Nevermind, he didn’t want to think about that.
But really, he wasn’t even sure he had to worry about this wyvern. It didn’t seem to want to get near him, and ever since he started putting his food away it never showed up at his camp again.
Seeing this wyvern from a distance would start to become a part of his daily life. He would see it flying overhead, hiding in the trees, and most of all, hanging around the lake. The same lake he was getting his fish from. It was fairly big, so when he did, he always saw the wyvern at a distance.
However, sometimes he would see the wyvern doing its own fishing, and when he did he found himself almost inclined to watch it. The way it dove down and snatched fish right out of the water, it was terrifying but also mesmerizing to watch in a way.
The first time he had seen it, it had been covered in shadows, but now that he was seeing it in the sunlight, he found it strangely beautiful. He was still terrified of it of course, but it really did look majestic when the sun shined on its pale scales.
Margarine was terrified of this creature, but he still couldn’t help but enjoy its company a bit. Even if they were quite far apart every time he saw it. It was the only company he had out here.
Sometimes, Margarine would leave out a spare fish or two if his fishing had gone well that day. They were always gone when he came back the next day, so he kept doing it. It sort’ve felt like he was giving offerings to this wyvern. Something to say, “Hey, look! I can catch fish for you! See? I’m useful! Please don’t eat me!”
After doing this for a few weeks, Margarine would go back to the lake one evening out of curiosity, just to see if the wyvern really was eating his fish or if it was just some other creature. He hid behind the trees as he approached, and when he arrived, there it was.
It seemed to be finishing up the fish. Damn, he had forgotten how big this thing was up close. He had also seemed to have forgotten just how good this thing was at hearing, since from just one small step, its head jerked over in his direction. He froze but the wyvern didn’t do anything. It seemed to freeze with him.
After the two stared at each other for an uncertain amount of time, Margarine raised a hand and gave the creature a tiny, petrified wave. The wyvern just stared at him, then tilted its head. He wasn’t sure what it was doing, but he had no weapon and he was too scared to move. Eventually, the wyvern flew off again, leaving Margarine alone once more.
× × ×
Margarine would continue to leave fish for this wyvern. He somehow felt like he owed it a fish or two every time he caught some. Like it was a way to stay on this creature's good side.
One day, Margarine was catching some fish for his dinner that week. He liked to imagine he was getting the hang of living out in the wild like this. Minus the fact he had only a few pairs of clothes and he didn’t have any means to defend himself if something actually happened. He really needed to find a village or something so he could buy better supplies with the little money he had brought with him. Suddenly, his eyes were torn away from his lure when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
He instantly recognized those pale scales in the brush. Crumbs, the wyvern was watching him. And he only had his fishing pole on him. Wait. Would it even attack him? He chose to not look over to it, hoping it would just go away. However, it did the complete opposite of that. Instead it just crept closer and closer to him with each passing minute.
He would eventually turn his head to it when it was a few feet away. The two would begin staring at each other again and eventually, Margarine would swallow his fear and speak to it.
“Um… hello?”
The wyvern continued to stare at him.
“Are… Do you want something?”
The wyvern continued to stare, then blinked. It crept closer. Now it was only five feet away.
Margarine swallowed but chose not to move. He didn’t want this thing chasing after him. Then, he saw it eyeing the fish he had already caught on his other side. He was about to argue with it, but then he remembered this thing was a wyvern and it had a jaw that could easily break apart his dough. He decided to just grab a fish and hesitantly hold it out to it.
“Um… here. Do you want this?”
The wyvern looked at the fish before suddenly jutting its head forward and snatching it out of his hand. He was pretty sure his heart actually stopped for a second there.
Once it finished swallowing that fish whole, it looked back at him again, perhaps with a softer look in its eye. It looked back over to the last fish he caught, but Margarine stood his ground this time.
“N- No. Sorry, I- This is my dinner.”
The wyvern looked at the one fish, then back at him. It turned to the lake and suddenly flew off. It dove a couple times until it had about four fish in its mouth. It returned back to the shore and plopped down the fish right next to him.
Margarine’s jaw dropped. Did- Did this wyvern just catch a bunch of fish for him? Why? Why would it do that?
“For- For me?” He gestured to himself, looking at it with shock.
The wyvern made a small bird-like sound before pushing the fish toward him. He hesitantly picked them up. When he realized the wyvern really was giving these to him, he looked back at it. He felt very confused but… grateful.
“Thank you…”