Rico could not stand the confines of the mansion or its grounds any longer. The wyvern shifter felt he had made leaps and bounds since the time he arrived at the mansion all those months ago, and thus, took it upon himself to shift and take flight. Rico was still plagued with nightmares, the faces and screams of those he had killed and devoured. Rico came to the conclusion that if he was ever going to find peace, he must go into the world and do some good. He left the mansion on a Friday night and stuck to the areas away from the hustle and bustle of New York city.  

It did not take him long to find a van speeding down a highway with the sirens and flashing lights of pursuing police cars. The back doors of the van was open and a masked gunman with some kind of harness over a jumpsuit was shooting wildly with a assault rifle Rico had never seen before. The wyvern watched from the drama unfolding below and contemplated leaving it to the police, but he soon came to the conclusion that he was there and he could help, so that is exactly what he did.

Folding the bat like wings to his side the black wyvern dived through the night air and used his strong legs to smash into the van sending it flying over onto its side effectively putting a end to the chase. Rico did not slow and continued away only to turn his long neck around and see that the police had everything else covered. 'Good', Rico thought to himself and continued on through the night. The next day he took shelter in a cave and slept all through the day to conserve his energy for another night of activity.

There was a glow in the horizon of the night and Rico adjusted his path by tilting a wing and banking left. There was a apartment building on fire and firefighters were already there desperately trying to control the blaze. From the fire erupting out the windows like a deep rage it was clear that if any humans were still alive in the lower floors, they would not alive much longer. But there was a woman crying for help from a window on the top most part.

Rico was about to land and ask the first responders what he could do but the building made god awful sound as it caved in a few floors down from where the fire raged the worst. With the building mere seconds if not a minute away from collapsing completely Rico made the split second decision to dive through a windowed wall. Dragon or not the heat inside was unbearable, the very air itself burned his lungs with every breath, scales even started to melt and fuse giving off the appearance of glass, Rico would need to act quickly to save the trapped woman. Outside a wall exploded in a cascade of fire and embers as the wyvern came busting out with the upper part of his body wrapped in the wings like a blanket.

Landing on the ground with enough force to crack the asphalt Rico pulled out his neck and head from under the wings and slowly pulled them back to reveal not just the woman, but the baby in her hands. The wyvern did not stick around though and already was limping away into the night. There were to many holes burned into the membrane of his wings and Rico needed to find a place to rest and heal. Despite all the pain his body, eyes, and lungs were in. Rico left with a profound sense of satisfaction and joy in his actions, and for the briefest moment, the wyvern found the peace that he wanted.

When Rico walked back into the surrounding woods away from the town he collapsed and had the first peaceful nights rest in a long time.

When the rift had first happened, it had been something nothing short of earth shattering.  There was another world out there?  Both the same and different than the one they all currently lived in?  Not only was there another world, but they could now visit that other world?  She'd read the news stories about how, on the night of the eclipse, the world went crazy, the rift appeared and people were violently sucked into it, apparently on both sides.  At first she'd been horrified but the more she thought about it, the more fascinated by the idea she became.  How utterly amazing, the thought of a whole other universe to explore.

When Ambrosia had first brought up the idea of an exploratory visit, her friends' reactions had ranged from cautiously against to horrified by the very thought.  It was dangerous, they said.  She had no way to no what horrors awaited her on the other side.  Safer and better by far, to remain in their own world where they knew what was what.  What if there were horrible fiends on the other side just waiting to devour anyone that went through?  It didn't take long for the latter argument, at least, to be proven mostly false.

Sound though her friend's arguments may have been, she'd always felt herself to be more of a flying cat dragon with scales than a lizard, and cats do have their curiosity.  As the days ticked on and the rift proved itself to be stable, that curiosity ate at her, slowly taking over her mind like a cancer.  She couldn't think about anything else except what might be behind that damned rift!  Finally, unable to take it anymore and despite the fact that no one seemed willing to go on a proper adventure with her, she gave in.  It was time to see what was on the other side.

She chose nighttime for her little expedition and dragon form.  As a dragon, she could cover a lot more ground and at night there was less of a chance of being noticed.  Flying up to the portal, there were people around but no one made any attempt to stop her as, taking a deep breath, she flew through.  A moment's disorientation before she found herself...back in the city.  Well, that was a little anti-climatic.  Still, there had to be something different about this other world and she wasn't about to simply give up and go home just because she hadn't ended up on the Wildlands or someplace equally exotic.  

Picking a direction, she began flying, taking note of the city below her.  She'd always had an excellent sense of direction and had little fear about finding her way back to the portal.  It was the small things that were different: A different store in that location, a different color and shape of building in that other one.  It was her city but, in so many small ways, it wasn't her city.  Fascinating!  As she continued to fly, city gave way to suburbs which eventually gave way to forestland.  

With dawn just starting to crest over the horizon and her thoughts starting to return to the idea of going home, Ambrosia spotted something on the ground.  Were those scales on that creature?  Black scales?  She circled around for a better look and, sure enough, it was definitely a large, black scaled creature.  In fact, in many ways it looked very much like a larger, less colorful version of her!  She spotted a long tail, folded bat-like wings and she was pretty sure if it opened it's mouth it would also sport a snoutful of needle-sharp teeth.  She'd never met another dragon before!  

Said dragon appeared to be sleeping, but that wasn't about to stop her.  "Hey, dragon.  Wake-up!"  So, maybe yelling at the dragon wasn't the smartest thing she could have done.  An angry dragon many times her own size could be dangerous.  Still, she was pretty sure she was more agile than at and could get away if needed.  Probably.  Cat's had 9 lives, so why couldn't she?

Rico grumbled as he left the world of dreams, in part anyway, rolling onto his back without even opening his eyes the wyvern took a wing joint talon to scratch his chest then went down to scratch between his legs with no shame or even awareness there was another there. The female voice was still partly on his mind though and Rico grumbled. "Five more minutes mom". A curious young squirrel had hopped up close to the sleeping wyvern but had to flee rather quickly as Rico rolled over onto his side and nearly crushed the poor little thing.

It scampered up the dead rotting trunk of the tree Rico was sleeping under and cursed out the sleeping wyvern in its kinds own way with angry chattering. The world seemed to work in mysterious ways and in a strange act of karma, the rotting tree limb the squirrel was on broke off and fell down to smash in two right over Rico's head.

Snorting and raising his head the wyvern blurted out. "I'm up! I'm up!" Blinking his eyes rapidly until all the foggy white was gone from his vision a small figure came into view. It was a small creature no bigger then one of those large house cats old lady's always seemed to have on there laps. This creature was a sight more pretty though with the mixture of bright blue and purple. With the tail and wings he could safely say it was like a small version of him.

"Hello", Rico said to the little dragon and moved his neck to rest a chin on a large rock and watch intently, not with hungry eyes, but ones that were full of curiosity. "I always thought I was alone, it is wonderful to see others like myself."

The dragon began to stir and Ambrosia hopped up to a nearby tree branch.  Just because she may or may not have had nine live and just because there may or may not be solidarity with a fellow dragon didn't mean she was going to take any chances.  Who was to say that said dragon would be as interested in seeing her as she was in seeing it?  Who was to say it wouldn't take a snap at her, half asleep and still groggy, not realizing what she was?  If it so chose, it could probably devour her in only a couple of bites.  Definitely better, therefore, to remain out of dinner range.

As it turned out, the dragon did not, in fact, appear to be especially dangerous and thank the Earth Mother for that.  A curious squirrel, apparently either more brave or less intelligent than she, also took an interest in the dragon.  Unlike her, however, it didn't seem to have any fear of the size of the creature's teeth or its ability to devour it whole.  In a less than graceful moment, the skitterings of the squirrel resulted in a rotting tree branch falling squarely upon the dragon's head and she had to struggle to stifle a laugh.  Laughing at the great creature would likely not make for the best of first impressions.

"Why hello there, great dragon.  I didn't know there were any other dragons out there either.  Such a pleasure to see I was wrong."  Walking to the end of her branch, she stretched and extended her wings out to their full 40 inch span, displaying her bright blue and purple scales.  A little bit of ego was expected.  She was a dragon, after all.  This stranger might be larger than her, but she was just as sleek and beautiful.

Rico had to blink several times to adjust his thoughts at the voice and clear the blurriness from his eyes, after a few shakes of his head, and a few shameless scratches with the main wing join in some nameless places like the typical shameless male he was, Rico's vision finally cleared and a figure came into focus.

"Why hello there, great dragon.  I didn't know there were any other dragons out there either.  Such a pleasure to see I was wrong."  

Rico could not help but laugh at the other mutants words. "There are no dragons, they are nothing but myth and legend. But if you mean it is nice to see a fellow mutant......", at that he paused before adding. "Then Its a pleasure to meet you." Still resting his chin on the rock he studied her with curious eyes and spoke. "My name is RIco, though most choose to call me Níðhöggr because of my appetite. So tell me, is your name as pretty as you are?"

Yes he was shamelessly flirting. But flirting was just a fun game in Rico's eyes. A fun game that sometimes yielded rewards, other times not so much. But it was all just still, a fun game.