Tucked away at a gas station, Sam and Tucker stare at their sleeping, blanket-covered friend and genuinely consider renting a U-haul or an RV.

"It should've worn off by now," Sam says worriedly. "It's only supposed to last an hour, tops."

Tucker inspects the coiled dragon in the back, truck bed facing the forest. "Maybe you shouldn't have fed it all to him," he snarks sharply, trace of a joke entrenched in genuine bitterness.

Sam snaps at that— "I didn't see you offering up any good ways out of there!"

"Still!" Tucker grits in protest, motioning demonstratively and desperately at Danny.

On cue, the dragon sleepily blinks into awareness in his uncomfortable pile of blankets as he lays atop the metal bed, lithe form uncomfortably coiled.

He stares down at his cramped body, looped in an uncomfortable knot. "I thought it should've worn off by now," he unknowingly echoes. As soon as Sam and Tucker place hands on his fur, leaning over the truck's edge to do so, he peakily asks, "why hasn't it worn off?"

"Sam fed you too much," Tucker deadpans, shooting the gothic witch a glare.

"It was not too much!" Sam exclaims back, gritting her teeth, unwilling to admit she was wrong.

"It sure was if he's still like this," Tucker barks.

Sam's response of a guttural growl is interrupted by Danny's wheezy, "am I stuck like this?"

Sam gives him a brusque pat. "It'll be fine," she assures awkwardly, gruff. "Nothing is wrong," she continues.

Tucker gives a scoff at Sam's statement, resulting in another glare from her as Danny stares down at his large form in apprehension.

"What do we do until then?" he questions, losing some of the stricken expression at the feeble reassurances. He tips his head at the two humans in sync with the question.

"Uh, lay low?" Tuck asks unsurely, pushing aside bitterness in lieu of bigger problems. "If it will wear off," he tacks on, equally as tenuous as the previous statement.

Sam huffs a little in a duh kind of fashion, rolling her eyes. "Find a place to camp and wait 'til it wears off," she grits surely (more sure than she feels). She turns to Tucker, instructing, "find the closest one, I'll throw stuff over Danny again."

"Wait, wait, I wanna stretch," he protests, uncoiling his stiff, lanky muscles and oozing out behind the truck. He looks like a freshly woken cat, wings fanning stiffly and tail curling.

After that illustrious stretch, Danny gives a chirpy, "ready," as he climbs back into the truck's bed.

Sam cloaks him in blankets once again, and the other members of the trio hop into the car crammed with their travelling materials to go wait it out in the woods.

xXx

A short drive later, the human duo attempts to pry their sleeping bags out of the quickly stuffed back.

Sam's pops out from underneath snack foods and food items. She then watches with snorting amusement as Tuck struggles weakly with his.

Already irate, Tucker grits his teeth and rolls his eyes at the mockery.

Danny looks up from dragging away a log in his mouth, spitting out bits of bark disgustedly and running his forked tongue through needle teeth. He trots to Tucker, frowning at Sam plaintively before balancing hugely on two legs, propping his front leg on the top of the car to stay balanced despite his lengthy form. Easily, he gropes and grasps at the sleeping bag to wench it forwards and out.

"You're tall," Sam comments, kicking off from where she was casually leaned against the truck.

Danny looks down from his position, cocking a head in surprise at the perspective. He wumphs down unsteadily, pushing away from the truck with a sour expression on his face.

"Rather not be," Danny humphs, tapping his wing against Sam.

She rolls her eyes. "It's temporary," she insists again. "Enjoy it while you can," the witch suggests.

"Enjoy it?" Danny and Tuck grind out at the same time.

Sam rolls her eyes once more, chortling, "I mean, you clearly like your dragon form," she explains. "Now you're even more awesome."

Danny cocks his head. "I do like flying," he concedes, thinking of how right it felt, "but I haven't exactly enjoyed being like this," he corrects. "It isn't really awesome," Danny concludes, aching with the displacement of his life.

"I mean, you've spent the last few days crammed in the back of the truck," Tucker adds in support of the not-great aspects, leaning against the dragon and laughing a bit.

Sam blinks owlishly. "But you're so…" she trails, thoughtfully reiterating, "much more than you were."

"It isn't awesome," Danny repeats, more of a barkish snap this time around. "I don't want to be stuck so huge I can't even fit in a car, let alone be stuck like a dragon at all in the first place," he hisses, voice edging on hysteria. "I just want things to go back to normal."

"Normal," Sam grits, rolling her eyes. "And cool off about the potion," she instructs insensitively, "it should wear off in a while."

At this point, Tucker snaps— "you said it should've worn off two hours ago, and there's been no change!" He pauses, glaring, before delivering a final blow. "If he gets stuck like this, it'll be your fault for throwing the whole vial into his mouth without thinking!"

Sam grunts. "Maybe a change for the bigger will be better, anyways. Make you stronger and cooler," she brushes off, nudging Danny.

The dragon recoils from the friendly touch. "Should've worn off hours ago?" he screeches in response to Tuck. "I don't want to be— this is—" his breaths turn wheezy, his form shaking as he curls in.

"It's not like you're that different from how you were," Sam insists insensitively.

Tucker shoots her another glare, mouthing the words "not better" before stooping down to comfort Danny with an awkward hug around the long neck. Even he seems confused on exactly why Danny is so upset, but says less than Sam and offers more help than the girl who left the discussion to go clear more rocks from their sleeping bag areas.

Tucker runs a hand down the soft swan-neck until he meets spikes. "Just go to sleep," he recommends. "It'll be better when you wake up." Hopefully.

He sounds more sure than he is, enough to convince Danny; anxious but drained, the dragon pries out and arranges stray blankets from the back to curl up in a fuzzy nest.

xXx

Sam and Tucker argue further while the tired dragon sleeps; argue over blame, over sensitivity, over solutions. A rift forms as Danny dreams— and oh, does he dream.

In the dream he at first hears the yelling of his closest friend and the gothic witch, but it fades in time, replaced by his house.

Home, he relishes, not realizing how homesick his departure had left him. He takes a step forward, his parents at the door. Reaches a hand out.

He stares. His hand twists, nails growing, hair on his arm darkening. From the door, his parent's expressions go from welcomingly warm to horrified as they draw their weapons.

"Wait," Danny tries to say, but it comes out as a snarly, unintelligible mess. "It's me," he pleads anyways in a whine, falling to the ground, completely draconic— yet it does not stop; as he curls up frightfully, his form painfully tears bigger, sharper.

The dream house windows reflect twisted needle teeth set in a long face with demon-eyes as the hunters close in on the beast.

Danny screeches an ugly cry awake, startling upwards.

In front of him, Sam and Tucker are collapsed, hands knit painfully around their ears.

Danny trills an apology, scraping claws on the blanket nest that has been twisted in the throes of the nightmare.

"You alright?" Tucker asks, inching closer until he's close enough to hover, fearful of the sharpness about him from his form and the defensive nature of a creature in a night terror.

Danny snakes his tail around the pile to Tuck. "Of course," he grinds out forcefully. Worry bleeds into his voice as he eyes Tucker's flightiness and considers the way he woke up to the two humans in pain— "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"He didn't hurt us, right Sam?" Tucker affirms, ending in that voice that says "you better give the right answer or else—"

"Well, that scream was loud," Sam begins. Tucker whips his head around, glaring and opening his mouth to protest. "Lemme finish," she snaps, then does so: "—it didn't hurt me, no."

Danny sighs, tautness washing away to leave exhaustion as he looks over himself. "Still big," he observes in a tired deadpan.

Though not touching the dragon, between Danny's ears-down look of desperation and Tucker's pointed glare, Sam can decipher the message decently enough. "Maybe it won't wear off," she admits. She returns to her earlier point, hedging, "maybe it's not so bad. Like I said—"

Tucker cuts her off with a frustrated, incoherent groan. "Not so bad?" he repeats. "He's obviously all stressed by it—"

Danny gives a half offended chirrup.

"Sorry dude, but it's true," Tucker sighs. "You're all worked up and you," he whirls on Sam, "are not helping."

"Well what do you want me to do?" she barks.

"Not be so…" Tucker trails and motions his hands in confusing silence, settling on, "rude. Just, I don't know, come up with a way to fix it or something," he says lamely. "And don't feed him dumb magic stuff without thinking or knowing about all this," he adds, glaring at her haughtily.

Sam glares right back, uncaring of de-escalation as always. She does not exactly protest the poorly laid out demands, instead saying, "magic's not dumb. Look at what it did to Danny, he's so much—"

Tucker cuts her off with a groan as the trio cycle back again.

"Clearly there's a fundamental difference in our views," Sam says primly.

"Big words for you being dumb," Tucker says childishly, patting Danny.

Sam ignores him. "He's bigger and more powerful, which is probably a good thing—"

"In your opinion," Tuck cuts in.

"He's better at fighting and—"

"Easier to be tracked," Tucker interrupts, finishing, "and clearly unhappy with it."

"And annoyed with people talking like I'm not there," Danny interjects, clawing at his head while prodding Sam with his tail to loop her in to the conversation. "If there's no cure, fine," he hisses, sparking green magic steaming from his mouth, "then we have to figure out how to deal." He pauses. "And maybe be less stupid with magic in the future," the dragon finishes, giving Sam a haughtily dissaproving look.

The goth snorts, ever prickly. "I got us out of there," she says smoothly.

Danny and Tucker glare for a moment at the witch before the dragon breaks his steely gaze. His dark slit eyes find Tucker, back to their normal black pupil set on green iris in a sea of blue, and Danny shakes his head in a message of let go.

Tucker sighs, but stops glaring. "Guess we'll need to deal," he echoes. "How do we do that…?" he huffs.

Danny groans, flopping down at Tuck's feet dramatically. "First we need to find a way to get around without size being a problem," he says, holding one claw up for first. He lifts a second one up, saying, "and we need to find something that's not obvious in terms of money if we don't want parents finding out," he holds a third claw up as he takes a breathing pause, finishing, "and we need to make sure I won't be seen but also not look like human traffickers."

"I didn't think about the last one," Tuck admits, considering a large van with tinted windows. He frowns, then— "and I'd guess we want something you'd be alright in," he adds. "Truck beds or moving vans aren't exactly comfortable."

Danny groans, dissolving the three held claws as he digs his paw into the ground. "Where're we gonna find something like that?"

"I don't know," Tucker admits— any sort of vehicle would be too expensive, any sort of cargo transport would be an uncomfortable steel box.

"Maybe we can just do nothing," Sam says from her relaxed position atop the truck's front. Before Tucker could even begin to glare, she explained, "well, that is, you could just fly behind. Maybe carry us."

"Just fly," Danny repeats in a deadpan voice— then blinks. "I mean, maybe?" he reevaluates.

"What about the stuff?" Tuck barks, motioning to the truck full of junk.

Sam rolls her eyes, gives a shrug. "We could take turns driving— one in the air to talk to you, one on the ground."

"Turns?" Tuck questions.

"It's cold up there— if it was only one, we'd be there a long time," Sam defends.

"And what about being seen?" Danny injects with an eye roll.

"We travel under cover of night," Sam motions dramatically.

Danny tips his head. "This could work," he says in a huff. "I guess we could try it."

Tucker, on the other hand, resorts to groaning and shuffling. "I don't wanna fly," he states with a nervous gulp. Danny tips his head concernedly, considering his friend's fear of heights, but before he can say anything Tucker gives a final groan of "fine. We have no other options, really. Can't explain buying or renting an RV, can't cram Danny in the back of the truck without kinking him like a broken slinky—"

Danny chortles at that, and Sam just rolls her eyes at Tuck's grumbling.

"You should probably wear your good coat you packed," Danny inputs tentatively, glancing towards Sam then up at the sky. "It'll probably be pretty windy, like you said," he trails thoughtfully.

Tuck sighs in defeat and begins stacking up things as Sam begins to fiddle with her phone. "We should probably call our parents again, too," she suggests, "give them an update."

Danny perks up for a moment— "take that potion and tell mine I'm doing fine at… uh… where did we say I was again?"

Tucker frowns, tipping his head. "Russia, I think. They've been very…" he trails.

"Quiet," Sam finishes. "Why aren't they after you by now?"

Danny tips his head and gives a shrug. "I'm not really sure. I mean, it's been like a week. Things should've stabilized and snapped me back by now, and they haven't even called."

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess," Sam shrugs, cool in the face of Danny's half confused disappointment (half of him wanting to indeed overlook the luck and the other half a little offended at being forgotten). She types in the number, gulping a vial of voice changer from her bag, and presses call.

Danny's ears twitch. A ringtone emerges from the woods. A familiar ringtone.

A voice: "Jack! The dragon could've heard us! Turn your phone off—!"

"But it could be—" Danny catches his father's voice before his ears slam down against his head and he gives a bark.

"We need to leave, now," he says.

Tucker moves towards the car, but Danny shakes his head. "We'll just fly," he says sharply.

"But the stuff—" Tucker points out.

Danny's ears flick back, tracking his parents' progress, and he cuts off with a snarled, "now."

Unhesitating, Sam vaults on his back. Tucker lags with an insistent, "why?" and a grumbly, "I thought we were away from those government guys."

Danny gives an upset bark, jerking his head to the sky wordlessly while shoving closer to Tucker. A clear message of let's go!

Tucker clambers on as Danny swivels his ears to his back, listening to the insistences of "I heard it!"

Danny breaks from the trees desperately, with screaming friends in tow just in time to avoid a harpoon singing with magic.

Tucker yelps as it embeds itself in bark below Danny's tail, the dragon's wings pumping in violent curves that rock his passengers. Stray leaves and branches wack at the group, clawing as though they are trying to restrain them as the trio plunges skywards, diving into the blue as though it were an ocean. The sharks of blue and orange snap at their back, though; Danny's parents hurl everything they have at him, his father aiming a bolted bow and his mother fire magic.

"He's taken humans, Jack!" his mother calls. "Be careful with your aim!"

"Explains why they're not shooting more," Danny wheezes with exertion, half in shock.

"How are they here?!" Tuck exclaims in pure shock between screams of the stomach dropping rush of bumpy flight.

Danny barely whizzes around another projectile that burns into the tree he claws the top of as a bounce board as Sam explains in Danny's voice from the potion, "they must've tracked the surge, too." Unlike Tuck, she is grinning, full of crazed adrenaline.

Already the projectiles are less steady, shot from further and further away, the drake and passengers being a shadow flitting to the sky in opposition to their opposing closeness.

And chased by a few stray fire balls and arrows into the oblivion, the dragon sails away.

xXx

This chapter is a bit repetitive, sorry, I was getting back in the swing after a crazy October!