I crept as silently as I could from the approaching man, with my mind screaming "CRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAP" the whole time as I nervously edged my way around another tree, hoping the man wouldn't spot me.

My heart began to beat wildly in its place, drowning out all other sounds for a good moment of time as crossed my fingers (or claws, depending on how you looked at it…), hoping that the man wouldn't find me.

A rustle on my left indicated that I move, and I instinctively dropped into my belly into a prone position, staying out of the man's field of view. The man walked closer. Taking a good look at him, I could see that he was a lanky, middle-aged looking man who happened to have short, curly hair. I tried to crawl away from the man, but the sound of my scutes shuffling the grass below me gave me away.

I kind of sensed the man turning in my general direction, before stepping on my tail. I could feel him recoil for a moment before bending down to inspect it, and I took my chance.

Without sparing a second thought, I reached out and grabbed the man. I grabbed him and pulled him down into the grass, gagging him with my tail as I twisted his arms into a basic arm lock that my dad thought me when I was younger.

The man was held fast and facing the same direction was me, so he couldn't look behind him to see what had twisted him into the arm lock. The only things he could see were my scaly tail gagging him, and probably a small portion of my claws. His breathing became faster and more ragged as he continued to struggle in the arm lock, desperate to get away from whatever that was holding him down.

"Relaxxxx," I hissed, trying to sound as soothing as possible. The effect was totally different than I had imagined it to be, and I ended up sounding more serpent-like with the lisp that accompanied my failed attempt to calm the man down. "I'm not going to hurt you, I jussst want to make a compromisssse…" I said, breathing down his neck, letting my hot, damp breath lace the back of his neck.

The man visibly flinched as he realized that he wasn't dealing with a human or a common animal anymore, and to him it was probably more of something along the lines of a monster.

"I'm jusssst going to let you go…" I said, sounding quite menacing, "nothing ever happened here, and you definitely did not meet anything while you were in the bussshesss… Do we have a deal?" I said, pressing my index claw against his throat, right next to his jugular vein.

The man nodded vigorously as he continued to struggle in my grip, before a large blunt force impacted me from my right. I released my grip on the man, and I watched as he ran off through the tall grass, before running into his car and backing up and out of the road as fast as he could.

Strong arms grabbed me and wrestled with me as I fought back, but in the flurry of fighting I couldn't see who it was. The person was obviously trained as he or she soon gained control of me and in no time I found my muzzle planted into the ground as I was pinned down. I tried thrashing around, but it only earned my a rather hard smack in the back of the head.

"Now…" an all-too-familiar voice said, "what have you done to my son…"

"Dad?" I said, gasping.

"Nice try, freak. Now, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SON?!"

"Dad, it's me! Ryan!"

"Don't lie to me you animal! What did you do to my son?!" my dad shouted, his voice filled with grief and rage. His grip on me tightened and I yelped in pain, tears beginning to form in the corners of my eyes.

"Dad, I swear to you, it's me, Ryan! Remember what I said? I told you, something happened to me, and this is it!"

My dad seemed to lighten up at the sound of this, loosening his grip on me, but he didn't fully trust me yet. "Nice try." He said through gritted teeth, before tightening his grip on me.

I had to think of something, my dad was probably going to kill me by the end of the day if I couldn't convince him that his son had turned into a dragon. "The last time we played paintball in Malaysia with the family, all twenty-seven of us, I got shot in the balls by Uncle Edwin in the second round as I was storming his position!" I blurted out, hoping that something only I would know might help convince my dad it was me. "Don't you remember?!"

My dad let go of me. For once in his life, he seemed utterly unsure.

"Ryan?" my dad said, staring at me in disbelief "is that you?"

"Yes…" I said, shrugging.

"Oh god, what on Earth happened to you…" he said, reaching over to hug me.

I explained to my dad the entire story of what happened, save the information about the rock, being sure to add a few details to cover up the reason for my to be taking this shortcut in the first place.

My dad simply stared at me speechless, before hugging me once more.

"Your mother is going to have a fit when she sees you…" my dad said, sighing.

"Probably so…" I said, stretching myself. I was a little sore from being smacked into the ground like that, and I had to hand it to my dad, for a man who was almost 50, it was quite impressive that he managed to wrestle me to the ground.

"Now, how are we going to get you home?" my dad asked, nervously.

"Well, I was thinking that you could pull down the last and second row seats, and make a flat bed of sorts, so I could hide. As long as people don't look into the car, we'd be fine…"

Without another word, my dad walked over to the car and pushed the seats down, before gesturing for me to go in. He was obviously still also in a state of shock, but I ignored it as I climbed into the back of the car, laid down on my belly and curled up like a dog in the back of the car.

The road back home was ever so bumpy as we made our way back in silence, with my dad constantly looking into the rear view mirror to stare at me with any chance he got. Personally, I couldn't blame him. I mean, how often is it that your son turns into a large, scaled reptile with wings? Not something you'd see everyday…