What is it with little dogs?

As they say, a Blue Dragon is made of Thunder and Lightning, and Fred is finding out the hard way that volume control isn't something that comes naturally. Combined with the echoes of the cavern and the small shower of loose stones his voice dislodged, perhaps it was no surprise that the dog didn't roll over for snuggles.

To the little dog's credit, though, it didn't turn tail and flee, either. Instead, the bold canine drops the woman's leg and takes up a defensive position between the victim and the dragon, barking fiercely as though sheer bravado is all it takes to drive a mighty wyrm away. The sight of this woman's tiny defender - who looks even smaller from Fred's new draconic perspective than it would've before - rekindles the lightheartedness and joie de vivre Fred was enjoying before he fell, and he can't help but appreciate the absurdity of his current situation. Injured and vulnerable in the lair of his enemy, and of all the monsters that could stumble upon him, what comes to take advantage of the situation but a plucky little dog that Fred could fit in one hand?

Fred himself gives a short grunt of surprise as the dog leaps at Fred's clawed hand, latching on just below the knuckle. Tenacious little thing, he thinks approvingly as he lifts his hand, barely able to even feel any pressure, to get a better look at the dog. His scales don't give much grip for the dog's teeth though, and the dog slides off his finger and claw to land on the ground again, leaving powdery white lines on Fred's iridescent blue fingertips as a demonstration of the relative hardness of dragon scales and mammalian teeth. No sooner is the dog back on caverna firma when it starts barking at Fred again as though it had just demonstrated some mighty feat of alpha predator-ness.

The dog's tirade of yips and barks begins to trail off as the dragon goes into paroxysms of laughter. They start low and slow, like the sound distant rolling of thunder from clouds still off at the horizon, but soon swell into a raging storm as Fred completely loses his composure.

The dragon glances at the dog, whose tail wags slow and cautiously, as the canine looks worriedly between beauty and beast as though it has no idea what to do next. This sets Fred off all over again, and as he succumbs to mirth the dragon can feel the lightning welling up inside of him. Fred quickly whips his long neck around to fire the bolt away from the dog and its ward. The dog backs away, tail between its legs as it presses up against the red-haired woman lying on the ground, eyes never leaving the spasming dragon and the light show that makes the cavern alternatingly blindingly bright and impenetrably dark.

The thin ceiling protests being pummeled with lightning and shaken by thunder by showering more dust and debris on the cavern's occupants. Soon larger pieces are falling and the ceiling begins to collapse completely. The dog yelps as it dodges a rock the size of a human skull only to be pelted by shrapnel thrown when it shatters on the floor.

Fred catches himself when he realizes what's happening, swallowing his laughter and throwing himself overtop of the two strangers to protect dog and damsel from the onslaught - and not a moment too soon! Fred's scales protect him from the worst of it - though a few blows to his injured wing-shoulder certainly make him wince. As the cave quietens again he looks up - waaay up - where Fred can see signs of the tunnel that he had been walking down before he fell in, including a patch of illusionary ceiling that's now apparently floating in mid-air. He then twists his serpentine neck to look down between his arms at the two figures. Both are bleeding slightly from a few superficial injuries, but nothing looks too serious.

1. Fred tries very hard to whisper as he greets them again
2. The Aqualarian warrior-woman's eyes groggily open
3. Unfortunately, with all the rubble on his back, Fred can't move without endangering someone
4. Fred's wing-shoulder is bleeding now, and he's about to learn something interesting about dragon's blood

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