Chapter 1

There are many legends in Switzerland, most are well known, passed down from generation to generation, but some are less well known. Some of the less well known are simply silly stories invented to pass the long winter nights, others are seldom spoken of because they are true, which of those is this legend? You decide.

Lucy and some friends are up in the mountains, skiing. but not on an official slope, they are far off the well used slopes, on a part of the mountain they've never skied before which would have been a lot more fun if it wasn't for the avalanche.

They heard the sound, and looked up, the snow high on the mountain was moving, gathering speed as it slid down towards the head of the valley in which they were now trapped, the sides much too steep to climb without equipment, and so they did the only thing they could, they sped up, trying to escape the steep sided valley they were in. Trying to get away before the avalanche spilled out at the head of the valley and turned towards them as it surely must. Below them the trees filled the valley, not a dense forest, just enough to obscure their view, but they had no choice, and going full speed they aimed for the gaps between the trees, ducking and weaving to avoid the branches, hoping the trees would slow the avalanche or that the valley would open out so they could get clear.

So they raced through the trees, fast and faster, until suddenly there were no trees, which was good but there was also no snow, no ground, no nothing. Which was not good.

A parachute would have been handy, but they had only packed a picnic, and picnics are well known for being useless parachutes, in the same way that parachutes taste awful.

Obviously gravity was not taking a day off, and they began to fall, actually they had no difficulty falling at all, even though they tried hard not to practice falling ever since they were kids. Anyway, as our heroine fell, she noticed that instead of the ground far below rushing up to greet her, as she feared it would, instead the light started rushing away, leaving an ever growing darkness which seemed delighted to make her acquaintance, which was not entirely bad, since hitting total darkness is absolutely painless. Unless of course something hard is hiding in it, like the ground, but nothing was, so our heroine fell through the utter darkness, happy that it was hiding nothing hard, when suddenly...

Splosh... !!

Now if falling though darkness has to end, then a 'Splosh... !!!' is not an ideal ending.

As our now soaking wet heroine will verify, being soaking wet in the dark having fallen off a mountain is not high on anyone's wish list, especially hers. Luckily our heroine can swim, even in the dark and especially when in the distance she can see a light, a light that looks very much like the kind of light that makes friends with an open log fire.

Oh, talking of friends, they also fell into the dark, and did the 'Splosh... !!!' thing too, and being good swimmers we can surmise that they are currently wet and busy swimming.

Back to our heroine who is swimming fast, partly because being in the light seems a good idea, but mostly because being warm and dry by a fire is better than being cold and wet in a lake.

So it was not long before Lucy reached the shore, climbed out of the water and walked cautiously towards the fire. Partly because she had seen enough silly DVD's where young women rushed blindly from one peril to another and partly because it seemed that a very lazy person had lit the fire. Most people chop down trees to make a fire, only the very lazy set fire to whole trees. Very lazy or...

Or Dragons.

Our heroine gulped, closed her eyes, opened them, gulped again, yup, a Dragon, except not having seen a real live dragon before, she only guessed that was what the creature was. It certainly had all the things that dragons are supposed to have, sharp claws and wings and stuff, except that our heroine could not remember ever having seen or heard of a pure white dragon before, or one that looked so, well, so girl-like, so well, sexy. That is if you ignore the sharp claws and razor sharp fangs which seldom appear sexy, even to other Dragons.

So carefully, as it seemed wise to let sleeping dragons lie, even sexy ones, our heroine crept closer to the fire, close enough so that she was soon getting warm, or at least she would be, once she got out of her soaking wet clothes.

Getting naked was not unusual for our heroine, but doing so close to a Dragon was a first. Even so she stripped off her wet clothes and carefully spread them out on some rocks to dry, before laying down on a large flat rock that seemed to have been warmed by the fire, it was very comfortable, even for a rock.

Soon our naked heroine was sleeping, just as soundly as the sexy white dragon, but without the claws and razor sharp teeth.

Now we need to leave our heroine for a while, because she's sleeping, and because it's my story and I'll tell it in my way.

So ... Long before our heroine met her friends and set out to go skiing, a girl was walking across a hillside, the sun on her face and the breeze in her hair, happy as a girl can be when she is doing what she loves, well, at least avoiding doing what she hates, for the girl is a seeker, a scout if you like, not exactly a hunter, she is in search not of prey, but of a rare and precious commodity, known in her world as humans, specifically female humans.

The girl's name is Kala and she is happy, walking across the hillside, happy because the sun is on her face, and anyone who has any authority over her is far away, but mostly because she is free to enjoy the alps and the sun.

Of course she is a very good seeker, so she is not wandering around aimlessly, she is heading for one of her favourite spots, one known for the appearance of humans, and soon she is no longer on the hillside, but in the forest, threading her way through the trees, heading for the lake.

Now, even though the girl has no idea what a DVD is, she is not so silly as to go to sleep in the forest all alone, oh no, even as brave and fit as she is, that is not a wise thing for a young woman to do, and besides it's damn cold in the alps at night, especially for a naked girl, so once she reached the lake she closed her eyes, made her mind do that weird thing, and kept her eyes tight shut as she felt her body changing. It's one thing for a beautiful girl to be able to change into a sexy white dragon, but quite another to see the change taking place, it still freaked her out a bit, so she always kept her eyes tight shut.

Even dragons feel the cold, but a few quick breaths of fire on a small group of tall pine trees and she had a nice fire going, then she settled down to sleep. After all, who is going to mess with a dragon... ??

When Lucy awoke she opened her eyes to find a girl standing over her, the girl was about her height, and pretty, not model pretty, but athletic healthy pretty.

What Lucy noticed most was the girl's hair and eyes, her hair was almost straight and seemed to be cut kind of ragged, it was the colour that caught Lucy's attention, it seemed that every colour imaginable was there, like a rainbow of highlights, her hair, together with the purest purple eyes Lucy had ever seen made the girl striking, and somehow friendly, as if nobody with such features could be a bad person.

Lucy remembered the Dragon, the sexy looking pure white Dragon, well if you discount the sharp claws and razor sharp fangs, neither of which Lucy found sexy, but looking around for the Dragon, all Lucy could see was the remains of the fire, the ashes of the burnt trees still hot, hotter than the morning sun that was still low in the clear sky. What Lucy could not see were her clothes.

Then the girl spoke, her voice sounded friendly, warm, but Lucy didn't understand a single word, could not even identify which language the girl was speaking, which surprised our heroine, who was fluent in several languages, and had heard many more spoken.

As the girl spoke Lucy began to realise that the girl didn't expect her to understand, it was almost as if the girl was speaking to herself, or talking just to reassure Lucy, either way it didn't matter much, as the girl reached out with one hand, not trying to take hold of Lucy, but more an invitation, her voice reassuringly calm and warm.

Lucy wanted to accept the invitation, but first she wanted her clothes, and so she kept her hands to herself and looked around, standing up to see better, but there was no sign anywhere on the rocks close by where she was sure she had laid them out to dry.

The girl spoke again, more insistent this time, and raising her arm she pointed, pointing to Lucy's clothes which now hung on the low branches of closest unburned trees to the fire.

Lucy smiled happily, said "thank you," and started to walk towards the trees, the girl following her, staying close, but not too close, watching as Lucy dressed, her clothes now completely dry and rather warm.

Ski boots, trousers and jacket, plus of course her small rucksack, which contained the leftovers of yesterday's picnic, a dry shirt, first aid kit, shovel, an emergency locator, ice axe, day-night flare and a space blanket. Lucy often ventured into the mountains, to walk, to climb, to ski, often with her friends, sometimes alone or with just a single companion. She had much more sense than to go unprepared.

So, dressed and feeling much more comfortable, Lucy fastened her rucksack, shrugged it onto her shoulders and turned to the girl who was once again beckoning invitingly.

An invitation Lucy wanted to accept, mostly because the idea of being alone was not very attractive, especially when the Dragon might return, and since she was sure it had been a Dragon, Lucy was certain that wherever she was, it was not where she had been.

But first she wanted to find her friends and that meant searching along the lake shore, which seemed a logical place to start. But when Lucy moved towards the lake the girl became agitated, jumping ahead of her, beckoning and pointing to the trees, she seemed so anxious that Lucy relented, and followed the girl to the trees, still looking at the lake, relieved when she noticed that the girl was leading them not deeper into the forest, but staying close to the edge of the trees, she too was looking at the lake, and so Lucy relaxed and allowed the girl to lead the way.

Lucy loved the outdoors, liked to swim and cycle, climb and ski, she considered herself fit, but the girl seemed tireless, agile and ever watchful. As the sun rose and morning became afternoon they seemed to have reached the far end of the roughly oval-shaped lake and were now heading back along the far side.

Twice Lucy had tried to head down to the lake to drink, but each time the girl had blocked her path, and so Lucy had reluctantly drunk the last of the water in her small rucksack.

She was just trying to think of a way to communicate her growing thirst when she heard the scream...

Lucy recognised the scream, it was her friend Anja. But a scream unlike Lucy could ever remember hearing her friend make before. By the time she realised that, she was already running towards the sound, up the slope, through trees that she tried her best to dodge even though she never slowed her pace, at least not until she reached the top of the slope and the girl grabbed her, almost jumping on her to stop Lucy running down the other side, Lucy shouted, at least tried to shout, the girl's hand had clamped over her mouth, silencing her anger at being stopped, even as she looked down the slope and saw her friends, a huge black dragon, and a man. A naked man pinning and even more naked Anja over a rock as her friend screamed and screamed.