fellowshippers | Don't Hesitate, Chapter Three

Title: Don’t Hesitate, Chapter 3
Pairing: DM/BB
Author:

cleanbc aka Coll
Rating: Probably PG-13 or R at the most graphic point, in the whole series.
Summary: What would happen if you feel asleep, and woke up somewhere not on this Earth? Billy and Dom go on a trip.
Disclaimer: Ok, so I don’t know, own, or have any influence whatsoever on Billy or Dom. This is AU, so it obviously did not happen. In addition, I stole many descriptions and ideas from Anne McCaffrey and her Dragonriders of Pern series, so the parts when it is good, I might not have written that.
Feedback: Always welcome, of any sort.
Notes: A completed story. This is a combination of two of my most favorite things, and I am stunned at myself that I did not think of this earlier. I want to thank my betas, everyone I sent the story to in it’s beginning of the end phases, you all really helped me improve the story, and make the story easier for those who haven’t read Dragonriders. I hope you all can overcome your hesitancy regarding AUs and give my story a read.

Previous chapters:

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Title: Don’t Hesitate, Chapter 3
Pairing: DM/BB
Author: <user site="livejournal.com" user="cleanbc"> aka Coll
Rating: Probably PG-13 or R at the most graphic point, in the whole series.
Summary: What would happen if you feel asleep, and woke up somewhere not on this Earth? Billy and Dom go on a trip.
Disclaimer: Ok, so I don’t know, own, or have any influence whatsoever on Billy or Dom. This is AU, so it obviously did not happen. In addition, I stole many descriptions and ideas from Anne McCaffrey and her Dragonriders of Pern series, so the parts when it is good, I might not have written that.
Feedback: Always welcome, of any sort.
Notes: A completed story. This is a combination of two of my most favorite things, and I am stunned at myself that I did not think of this earlier. I want to thank my betas, everyone I sent the story to in it’s beginning of the end phases, you all really helped me improve the story, and make the story easier for those who haven’t read Dragonriders. I hope you all can overcome your hesitancy regarding AUs and give my story a read.

Previous chapters:
<a href=“http://www.livejournal.com/users/cleanbc/163762.html “>One</a> | <a href=“http://www.livejournal.com/users/cleanbc/165175.html“>Two</a>

<lj-cut text="They walked out of the doorway and out into the next room. They stopped dead.">“Hey Dom. I know that woman told us to stay here, but I feel like I need a bit of fresh air. Let’s find the outside of this place, hey?” He set his mug next to Dom’s and stood up, stretching until his vertebrae cracked. He looked down at Dom. He was playing with that ring on the middle finger of his left hand again. A nervous habit that, but somehow Billy knew it as Dom’s, and only Dom’s.

“Dom? Dommie? Where’d you go?”

“Wha? Sorry Bills, just thinking. Your right, fresh air would definitely help this headache of mine. C’mon.” Dom stood up too, and mirrored Billy’s stretch with one of his own, complete with cracking vertebrae. 

They walked out of the doorway and out into the next room. They stopped dead. It was another cave, but at least 10 times the size of their little chamber. They ogled at what looked like a carved ceiling reaching up almost out of their sight. Unlike their own, however, it was more of three-quarters of a dome, with one end seemingly cut off to look outside. They could feel the circulating air, much cooler than the air in their chamber.
“Why this room must be the size of an airplane hanger,” breathed Billy. “What on earth would they use it for?”

“Err, Billy? Who cares about the room, look outside.” Dom ran over to the edge of the chamber and looked out over the ledge. Billy rushed to join him. He had thought his eyes couldn’t get any bigger than when he had seen the cavern. He was wrong.

Billy and Dom were standing on the edge of what looked to be only one of maybe 500 or so of these great half-moon shaped openings that dotted the walls of the inside of a huge dormant volcano. They went up for stories and stories. Moreover, to their every growing amazement, flying around the bowl, for that is what is really was, were winged creatures that looked suspiciously like…

“Dragons!” Dom exclaimed. “Look Billy,” he pointed at a green dragon on the upper levels that was just emerging from his (or her?) cavern. It jumped off the ledge, and opened its wings just in time to miss plummeting headfirst into the floor of the bowl. Billy’s heart went in his throat at this maneuver, for he could see the tiny speck of a human riding on the dragon’s back.

“Dom, there’s another one. And another.” Billy pointed at a two blues coming in from somewhere up above in the sky. He couldn’t tell from this distance, but they looked slightly bigger than the green that they had seen earlier. They glided down, and both Billy and Dom followed their flight through the bowl, from left to right, and over to the edge, where they were met with another surprise. There was a gap in the side of this vast volcano through which they could see another bowl. Yet, this one was strangely empty except for what looked like an enormous sand trap and a set of bleachers. On the floor of the main crater, near the gap, was a good-sized lake. The shores were dotted with the forms of animals that neither Billy nor Dom could discern, and the forms of what must be more dragons, sunning themselves on the floor, as well as splashing in the water. The two blues they had been watching back winged to land at the side of the lake, bent down to let their riders off, and waddled awkwardly into the lake.

Dom and Billy turned to each other with wide eyes.

“Um, Bill?”

“Yes Dom?”

“Did we just see…”

“Dragons?”

“Right. Dragons?”

“I think so Dom.”

“What is going on Billy?”

“I have no idea Dom.”

“Billy?”

“Yes Dom?”

“I think I need to sit down.”

“I think that sounds like a most excellent idea.”

Billy and Dom both almost-collapsed to the floor of the chamber. They were speechless. All they could really do was sit down, face outside of the chamber and watch the activity in the main bowl, dragons of bronze, brown, blue, and green flying back and forth, and, as they noticed later, people rushing back and forth from lower, ground level caverns on the main floor. No one seemed to notice them, and for this they were glad, because they needed time to take in their surroundings.

After a time, Dom scootched over next to Billy, and was about to ask him a question, when they both heard feet climbing stairs coming from somewhere to their left. They looked, and noticed a doorway they had not seen before, in the wall of the main cavern. It was actually only a few feet from the door to the sleeping chamber. The source of the footsteps turned out to be the same woman as before, this time carrying a pile of cloth; what looked to be towels and some clothes. She didn’t see them, and was about to go into the sleeping chamber, when Dom called to her.

“Hey! Over here.”

The woman started at the sound of his voice, and turned around. They could see, even from this distance, that she was upset that they had left their chamber, but as she approached and saw the awed looks on their faces, her features softened. She came up to them and looked out at the bowl. She smiled fondly, as if remembering something, and then turned to them. Speaking again in that mystery language, she made a motion with her head towards the stairwell.

“Merry,” said Billy in his best awed-Pippin voice, “I think she wants us to follow her.” He grinned as he looked at Dom.

“Aye, I think you are correct Pip. It would be wise to do as she says.” Dom got to his feet, and offered a hand to Billy. Over-exaggerating a moan and a grunt or two, he pulled Billy to his feat.

“Geez Boyd, you are getting fat in your old age! When was the last time you went to a gym?”

Billy made a mock swing at Dom. “I could kick your arse any day!” Dom snorted as they started following the woman.

“I’d like to see you try. I have chi on my side, you know. I shall release my all-powerful Dom Chi on you. Eeeeeeaaaaaaahhhh!” Dom moved his hands in quick but graceful martial arts motion as he elongated that final syllable, which was harder than it looked, as they were walking down obviously hand-hewn stairs.

“Dom, stop being such an idiot. You are going to scare the nice lady. By the looks of what she’s carrying, she wants to let us have a bath. And mate, you need it.” Billy giggled at his own joke, and as he could never not laugh when Billy did, Dom started to snicker as well.

The woman stopped and looked back at them, with a raised eyebrow. They raised their hands in defense and grinned at her. She smiled and shook her head, then turned around and continued to lead them down the stairs.

“Billy, mate, I think we’ve lost it. We are making jokes about my chi while walking down a stone stair passage, and right through this wall here, outside, is a giant volcano crater filled with dragons. That definitely qualifies as cracked.”

“Maybe,” said Billy seriously. “But Dom, this doesn’t feel fake to me. Does not feel fake at all. And that’s the scariest part.”

Dom only nodded.

They had gone down four flights of stairs, and now emerged onto the floor of the Bowl, the name of which both had unconsciously been capitalizing in their heads. They earned some strange looks from some of the passers-by on the Bowl floor, and Dom realized that all of these people were dressed similar to the woman. Almost medieval, but not quite.

The traffic was mostly men, but a few women as well, dressed in well-fitting leather pants, though they looked hand-sewn, large fur lined boots, and short tunics under leather tops, and perhaps a fur lined jacket. Some carried leather gloves in their hands, others a type of cap that was also made of leather, and still others various packages of different shapes sizes and contents. And of course, though they were the only ones gaping, there were still dragons flying about overhead. They tried to see everything, while still keeping up with the woman. This proved to be an impossible task, as they almost lost sight of her twice. Finally, they reached the other side of the bowl, and entered into another cave-chamber.

This one was a bit bigger than their sleeping chamber, but carved the same way as well as lit by those same strange glowing lights. On the far side, however, was what looked like a jacuzzi carved out of stone. The sides of the tub were maybe four or five feet tall and there was a set of wooden stairs near the edge. There was also a bench and some shelves for more towels. A wide ledge formed a partial lip to the uneven circle of the pool. They could see that the near section of it was sanded higher so a bather could stand comfortably. Then there was a gradual dip approaching the deeper water that slapped the rock wall on the farther side. Steam rose from the water, and to Dom and Billy, this was the most appealing thing they had seen since they had been here.

They looked at the woman. She took her bundle, which turned out to be just what they had thought: two large towels and two sets of clothing like they had seen on the people in the Bowl. She set down one set, pointed at Dom, and then back at the set of clothes and towel. She did the same for Billy. She also handed them a small leather pouch tied at the top with a string and made a scrubbing motion around her head, and on her arms. She looked at them for confirmation. They looked at each other.

“Any questions Billy?”

“Haha, very funny Dom.”

They turned back to the woman and smiled at her. She made sort of a bowing motion that looked more like a habit, and walked out.

“Well, time to get clean, I guess.” Dom opened the bag. Inside was… “Billy, this looks like sand.”

“I guess that’s what they use to clean themselves.” Billy shrugged. “It’s better than nothing.” Billy was anxious to get clean. He didn’t think he had ever gone this long without a shower, or, what now turned out to be a bath, after a night of heavy drinking.

Dom started to chuckle. He looked at Billy. “Which order shall we go in?’ he said in his best condescending Merry voice. “Eldest first or quickest first? You’ll be last either way, Master Peregrin.”

“Unfortunately for you, my dear Dominic, the attributes of our characters are reversed in real life. Plus, there is room enough for both of us in that big of a tub. Look at it, for crissake!”

Dom shrugged. “Ok, whatever. I’ll get in first, just turn around, will you? I don’t fancy you staring at my… my… well, at me,” he finished lamely.

“Oh don’t flatter yourself Dom. I wouldn’t stare.” But Billy turned around, and waited until he heard Dom enter the water.

“Ooh, it’s a bit warm, the water is. Careful when you get in, Billy.”

“Right. Now you turn around. Even though I have no idea where we are, or where she is, Ali would not be happy if she found out that you were staring at my man parts.”

“Don’t you mean boy parts?” Dom jabbed as he turned his back to Billy.

“I wouldn’t be talking Dom.”

“Eh Billy! Since when have you see me? For all you know I could have a good 11 inches.”

Billy snorted, but his snort turned into a gasp as he lowered himself into the tub.

“I warned you I did.”

“Aye, that you did. Now, hand me the soapy sand stuff, will you Dom.”

“Yes dear.” Dom grabbed the bag of cleansing sand and handed it over to Billy.

“That’s right. I always knew you were the bitch.”

“Hey, why you…”

The next thing Billy knew, he was under a wave of water. After it passed, he came up sputtering, and was faced with Dom’s cheekiest grin.

“That’s it, Monaghan, it is on!” Billy dived across the pool and, grabbing Dom’s head, pushed him under the water.

The sounds of splashing and the occasional low, or high, pitched yell echoed in the bathing chamber and floated out into the bowl. </lj-cut>

Don't Hesitate, Chapter Three

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