The early morning sun gently kissed the grass as a gentle breeze blew across the grassland. Jet black scales cracked apart as Blackthorne began to stir. The sound of furious gnawing reached his ears not long after. Confused briefly by the transfer from one world to another, it took him a moment to realize what was happening.

He twisted his head around to look at his posterior. A rat fiend the size of a doberman busily gnawed at the scales surrounding his buttocks. It had not injured him in the slightest, but it was determined to get at those sweet, sweet, dragon meats.

"Fuck off," he said in annoyance. The rat fiend snapped its head upward and hissed menacingly. Blackthorne gave it a look. A wave of pure unadulterated fear roiled off of his body and washed over the hungry beast.

It shrieked in existential terror and fell over sideways. Its little rodent feet kicked at the air for a moment then it went still.

"Seriously?" asked Blackthorne. He rose to his feet then turned around to inspect the beast. His first days in the dream lead to a battle with one of its cousins. He proved victorious during that fight, despite taking damage. This time, however, he had given it a heart attack just by using his aura like a weapon. It was a good thing to know.

"Ah well. Waste not. Want not." Blackthorne began to clean the area, by way of a hearty feast. The horns on its little rodent head popped free, trophies from the battle. Otherwise, he ate his fill then smiled blithely through bloodied teeth.

Several onions drew close, but for some reason they did not attack. He glanced at them out of the corner of his eyes. They were smaller than the onions that he was used to seeing. Their orange outer layers seemed translucent. Perhaps they were akin to newborns?

He glanced to the remnant of rat carcass then back over to the onions. Were they waiting their turn?

Uncertain, but entirely curious, he looked to the onions then said, "Are you hungry, little ones?"

The onions hopped up and down. One adventurous onion even waddled forward a little, though it remained wary of the man-sized dragon with the bright red eyes.

Blackthorne watched it draw near. The little thing was clearly hungry, but it remained intensely wary of him.

He regarded the creature for a moment. Part of him wanted to lash out and destroy the monster. They had caused him an incredible amount of annoyance in his early days. The typical aggression of such creatures not being evident. It was as though these onions knew their place. They did not attack him. If anything they seemed to be on the verge of running away at the slightest hint of a battle.

"It's alright." Blackthorne offered the other onions a toothy smile. "Come have a bit to eat."

The onions slowly made their way over as though they understood his words. Soon, several of the weird little hamburger accessories munched happily at the tiny remnants of flesh that remained on the corpse.

In a way, it was almost an adorable sight. In another way, the little things were disgusting. Coated in blood and gore, the onions feasted on the rodent left overs for several minutes.

Once they finished their meal, they began to wander around in lazy circles. They seemed entirely content in the area now.

His thoughts seemed to echo inside of his mind. "Monsters... They're really just the animals of this world, aren't they?"

The adventurous little onion that came to him first chose that moment to do so once again. It came over to him then hopped up and down. Blood slipped down its translucent outer skin.

"You're welcome, little one," said Blackthorne.

The onions departed without any further incident, and did so with great speed. They were thankful for the meal, but not stupid enough to stay around until the dragon became hungry again. He was clearly the most powerful monster in the area and they would stand no chance against him should it come to a fight.

"Well, that was certainly a thing that happened," he said with a bit of good humor. It was nice to have an interaction with the onions that did not involve further bloodshed. Unfortunately, he doubted that the older onions would be so precious and receptive to his overtures. They would see him as a potential meal, even if he was still outside of their actual hunting range.

His thoughts soon turned to another matter. The reason that he was in the dream world was to test a few things. So far, the ability to transfer items had proven too costly to do in bulk. A few apples and items had passed across the dimensional boundaries, but for their plans to work they needed confirmation that large numbers of items could be brought from Earth in a quick and timely manner. He spent the needed money to bring Sonja back to the dream by his side.

Blackthorne grinned at her lightly. An expression that would have absolutely terrified anyone who did not know him. A dragon's grin was a bit, toothy.

Sonja wore her new backpack well, along with several bags that she held tightly in her hands, and it caused all manner of interesting imagery to occur since she also wore his loose fitting hoodie. The facts that she still wore the hoodie, and had brought over a ham sandwich, were good signs.

Sonja held up four former apple bags of random condiments then nodded to her master. Salt and pepper were cheap; and it would be a good test to see if everything transferred.

She looked down at the sacks of food then grinned. “Seems like it worked!”

“Good job Sonja!” exclaimed Blackthorne. This was an excellent sign, indeed.

“Thank you, though all I had to do was stand in place,” she replied, a smile on her lips.

“Well, you stood there like a champ.” Blackthorne raised his scaly thumb and winked at her.

Sonja laughed a little and her nostrils flared slightly, a soft pink tinge rose across the bridge of her nose. “I’m glad that you think so.”

He helped her search through her bags then they nodded to each other in agreement. Everything had transferred.

"This is great. Pretty much bankrupted the last of my Earth funds due to the transfer costs, but great." Blackthorne clapped his hands together then nodded.

"Wonderful news, really." Sonja inclined her head toward him. "Also. Where are we, exactly?"

Blackthorne chuckled at her then waved his paw around. "Give me a moment. I'll go up and see if there's any civilization around here."

He did the one thing that he should have done the moment he escaped the underground world. Blackthorne shifted into his midnight shadow form then drifted up into the air. Sonja watched as he rose higher and higher into the sky. Eventually he merged with the clouds high overhead.

It took some time for Blackthorne to search the area as there was no sign of civilization beneath the cloud layer.

"Man. If the town is close by it's outside of my range..." There was but one choice left to him. His senses while in shadow form were quite acute, but they had a hard limit. Once they reached the edge of their capacity it was as though the world itself ended. He was currently only strong enough to scan for a few miles in open air. If he wished to find the town, he would need to change into his dragon form.

He did so quickly, then immediately experienced the gut-wrenching sensation of freefall. It took his several seconds to collect himself, but once he did manage to do so he popped out his wings and willed them to grow larger.

Precious life force expended by the second, he shot down through the cloud layer like a meaty bullet then used his natural levitation ability to slow his descent enough that he could glide.

Blackthorne bugled in joy as he performed a swift spiraling loop in the air. The wind against his scales was a glorious feeling! While he was not truly flying, it was the next best thing!

Sonja was but a speck on the ground below for human eyes, but he saw her clearly with his draconic sight. He was momentarily tempted to dive bomb her just for laughs, but he managed to reign in that impulse.

Wild impulses under control for the moment, her spiraled around in the air and sought signs of civilization. At the very edge of his vision, he spied a cluster of farm houses near the hint of a road. Given how well he could see, that had to be a far distant location. If they ran hard for most of the way, he was certain that they could get there before dusk. It was too bad that Sonja could not glide like he could. Rising to such a high altitude then letting air and gravity takeover would have eaten away at that distance in short order.