Scarlett Joanne Penndragon's Story

Scarlett was no stranger to danger, quite the opposite, and she thrived on it. The sounds of the great beasts around her shouting and roaring sent a valiant thrill through her like nothing else, and it called her by name. She was at least happy the guards hadn't caught her sneaking into the pegasus enclosure, the poor state of the cage made it all too easy to get in, and the decorative fauna did well in hiding her from guests with none too keen an eye, unlike herself. It wouldn't take long before they closed down the zoo and she could get what she needed to finally become a full fledged dragon...

But before she could celebrate her full success in infiltrating a zoo ran by a mad man, she was shook with the sound of a large cage erecting around her. Startled with the wild rampaging of the pegasi and the sudden magical fence that had sprouted before her. Sticking her head from the bush she was camping out in, she was amazed to see a slightly wilting metal cage outside of the pegasus enclosure, and a small mousy man struggling to use some sort of magic.

Scarlett knew this man all too well. He had ended many of her chances at becoming a dragon before, chasing her off of the property, but not any more, she would win this round. With a valiant shout, knowing she would be caught either way, Scarlett made a mad dash towards the wilting metal and rammed into it, breaking the fence loose and leaving a large hole behind her as she roared her victory. An honorable, if slightly weird action to take.

"Beware my powers! For I, Scarlett Joanne Penndragon, WILL become a full blooded dragon on this day!" Scarlett bellowed with a loud powerful laugh.

“You!” the repairman yelled, pointing an ominous finger at Scarlett as she barged out of the fence, declaring something about dragons. He wasn’t really listening, because he was too busy running after her, waving his hammer angrily in the air.

Well, it was more like hobbling. There was clearly no way he’d catch up to her. “Come Back here ya little-” he managed, just in time to trip over the remains of his own fence. His face hit the ground painfully, a muffled grumble escaping. A short moment later, the indignant half-dwarf had pushed himself up, face red with both rage and bruises. He shook his fist in the air and sprung to his feet.

“I’LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS, YA-” the rest of his sentence was a little too unsavoury for me to write, so I’ll leave it up to your imagination. He struck the ground again, sending a line of the same energy as before across the ground toward Scarlett. If it were to actually hit its target, a pillar would shoot out of the ground beneath her feet, launching her into the air and toward some nearby trees.

Meanwhile, Lestelle would receive a call. “Hello?” buzzed the radio, “Calling any members of staff, there is an emergency, several unicorns have escaped, and are rampaging near the entrance!” It was at this exact moment that the net of the enclosure chose to finally give way, three or four Pegasus soaring out of the display and swooping over the crowds below, making a cacophony of whinnying and snorting.

---

The unicorn that had charged toward Freda kept going, until with a thud it buried its horn in a tree. There was a lot of snorting as it attempted to free itself. “No, you will not!” Came a very imperious voice, along with the sound of footsteps. A woman in work attire, but wearing a traditional Nordic helmet of all things, caught up to the creature, grasped it by both the head and the horn, and gently but firmly freed the unicorn. She then gave a maybe slightly unnecessary shove, and the creature whimpered before fleeing back to its own enclosure. She looked very pleased with herself.

“Now then, is everyone here OK?” she asked. The helmet she was wearing looked quite old but well maintained, and while it was decorated with some knotwork patterns, there were no horns or wings on the sides to speak of. There was a rather large axe strapped to her back as well, which a few people had now noticed.

Scarlett laughed as she ran, her legs carrying her over long strides as she moved on towards a path through the trees to freedom in another section of the zoo. She might have been seen by the repair man, but there was no way that tiny man would be able to keep up with her long and strong strides to victory!

Her ear twitched as she heard a creaking cracking noise from behind her, her legs began to shake as she ran and a tingle up her spine. It was the familiar feeling of magic. She had hardly known the feeling for long, but she knew it when she came here. Like a metal detector, her body tingled at the feeling of magic, like a vibration in the air that shook her core and attracted her closer to it. She was drawn to the zoo with that feeling alone. With the pulsation of magic in her body, she turned to the direction the feeling came from and looked on, seeing a lighting bolt like light coming from the ground. That was weird.

Wait....

Without another chance to react, she was shot into the air by a pillar, launched high into the air and her eyes looked over the park. Time seemed to slow as she was able to see more of the park from the air. As she fell, she reached out with a scream, and with a hefty thump, she felt her body being hit with a large warm mass, her arms curling around it hungrily in search of comfort. When she felt her body lay stable on the mass and the sound of its breathing, she blinked open an eye to see a large blue maned white coated pegasus flying her over the zoo. He seemed calmer than the other pegasus flying around with wild abandon. He snorted and continued his flight towards the center or the zoo as chaos continued below them. Scarlett laughed quietly as she watched them scramble. Victory would be hers, so long as she played her cards right....

“You have got to be Kidding me!” yelled the repairman, eventually giving up on chasing the intruder, as he remembered the tear in the enclosure.

“I s’pose I should get to work on this, since they’ve already broken out.” He grumbled, shuffling toward the cage. He began hammering at the base, sending pulses of magic energy up the side which, slowly, began to repair itself.

Lestelle would hear a leafy crash and snorting. A slightly smaller than average Pegasus with a light brown coat had somehow got itself caught in a tree, and was thrashing around wildly. It seemed younger than the others, and the poor creature was clearly still spooked by the voices from earlier.

Meanwhile, Scarlett might notice several Pegasus following the one she was riding, almost like geese flying in a ‘V’. That, and the rather uncanny colouration of this one meant that everyone in the zoo could notice her very easily from the ground.

---

The helmet clad woman’s face split into a beaming grin as Freda introduced herself. She shook her hand back enthusiastically.

“Perfect.” She said, “We’re currently on the hunt for potential keepers. The name’s Hilda by the way.”

It was painfully clear that more keepers were needed. One thing the staff here had not expected, was how much the zoo had exploded over the first week. They had soon found themselves under siege by more visitors than their workforce could handle, leaving them understaffed and with more spendable profit than they’d expected (i.e any at all).

“Why, thank you!” she replied, replying to the compliment, “I’m afraid you might have to wait a couple minutes, we just have a minor issue that needs to be sorted out,” (it was hardly a minor issue) “I’ll call the manager to come here and see you!” and with that, she whistled harshly, calling down a proud looking Pegasus with a pale golden coat, jumping on its back, and gliding off.

A few minutes later, A very tried looking Connor, wearing slippers and pyjama trousers with his office shirt and tie, came running.

“Uh, is there someone here to apply to be a keeper?” he asked.