In Between an Ox and a Hard Place 
by Agent_410

Email:  box9missingno@hotmail.com   

(thanks InUrMsgSayMyName 
for the inspiration for that name)

Rated: PG/PG-13

Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully belong to FOX, 1013 
Productions and CC and Co., no copyright infringement 
intended. Just borrowed them for fun, will return them with 
their dignity in tact.

What it's about: Scully has to find out a way to save her 
and Mulder's relationship in an unconventional way.


Prologue

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. The time of 
staying in one place has come and gone, it's time for me to 
move on. If that includes looking back at what Mulder and I 
have been through, then so be it. I am not afraid to stare 
that part of our lives in the eye and be able to learn from 
it and grow. No matter what we've been through we've been 
able to move forward with grace and dignity. Whether it was 
real or imagined, they've helped to guide and shape us.

----------------------------------------------------------

Dawn was breaking as she shifted the boxes trying to find 
what she was looking for. She didn't know what to look for 
but she was certain it was an item or items that might help 
make her relationship with Mulder stronger again. 

So many memories, her and Mulder in the basement office 
meeting for the first time ("Was I really that young and 
na‹ve..." , She mused, as she continued to go through the 
boxes.). Both of them in the house in Arcadia village. She 
loved to look at that one, even though they weren't a 
couple then. It was nice seeing the contrast between then 
and now. Knowing now that they knew each other completely, 
faults and all, but there was still a sadness seeing them 
drift apart. They weren't planning on separating, but the 
stress of day to day was getting to them both.

She continued to search through the boxes, trying to find 
whatever she could that might help her. A picture in the 
corner of one the boxes shone in the dim light, she moved 
over and picked it up. It was a picture of her and Mulder 
in front of a large cavern. She had forgotten about that 
little adventure. It happened so long ago. But something 
was tugging at her to try and remember what had happened 
back then.

All she remembered were fragments, snatches of 
conversations... and something about a dragon. Laughing at 
the thought, she tried her best to recall some more. One 
thing she was sure of was the fact that she adamantly 
refused to believe that any such creatures existed. After 
what she and Mulder went through, she wasn't quite so sure 
anymore. Especially now, after all this time, she was sure 
that things weren't always as they seemed.

Sure, she was still skeptical, but Mulder helped her to see 
that there was usually more than one side to a situation 
and that it's always good to keep an open mind. Coming 
across a living, breathing dragon definitely qualified as 
one of those moments. 

She went back to the main part of the house carrying the 
box full of memories from that point in time to see if she 
could remember some more. Mulder came up to her and asked 
what she was doing... and all she could say was "I'm just 
trying to figure out something..." He looked at her 
perplexed, and asked if there was anything he could do that 
could help, she said not really.

"Are you sure, Scully?", he said to her as she went into 
the living room and sat down on the couch. "Yes I am, 
Mulder, but thanks for asking.", she said back to him in 
reply. She continued to look through the box for further 
evidence of this adventure, of this mystery. It was 
starting to get late, when she came across another object. 
A circular object, one that showed a jade dragon holding 
its tail in its teeth.

It had the phrase, "Si abeo cupio cupere cupiensentis 
abdodidi capto ab aenigmaatis praeter quam, abeo fio fieri 
factus sum aspectus memoria adeo abeo contueor. Incoho 
etiamtum arbitratus ab veritas ab cognitusa," inscribed on 
it. She remembered only the barest of Latin from college 
and got the phrase, "If you wish to seek the mystery 
beyond, you must look past what you see. Only then will the 
truth be known."

This only made her want to know more about this past 
adventure. She was beyond just basic curiosity now, and 
nothing was going to stop her from finding out just what 
happened. She was being drawn to this strongly and had to 
know how it related to the situation between her and 
Mulder.

She went to sleep thinking about what she had come 
across...


** Flashback **

Somewhere in the 90's...

"Scully, are you ready to go on that trip I told you 
about?", Mulder said to her over the loud whirring of the 
office's air conditioner. "What trip, Mulder? I seem to 
recall you going on about a cave of some sort that you 
wanted to go and explore. That doesn't seem to be much of 
trip to me, so much as a fishing expedition."

"It's not a fishing expedition, Scully. It's a search for 
the one creature that mankind doesn't think exists. 
Dragons."

"They don't exist, Mulder. They're a part of legends and 
tales. That's all."

"Believe what you want to believe, Scully. But they seem 
real enough to me. I think we have a good chance of at 
least finding evidence that they might have existed at one 
point in time or another."

She laughed at the comment.

"Mulder, if we do come across any dragons and they sound 
like you do while taking a nap, then we can say that 
dragons do exist."

"Are you calling me a dragon, Scully?", he said to her with 
an incredulous look on his face.

"Maybe...", she said with a small smile on her face.

He looked at her and wondered if they were ever going to 
get going. She looked back and said, "As soon as Skinner 
shows up with the rest of the data we need, we'll be on our 
way."
"That's good, Scully. Hopefully he'll show up, soon. It's 
starting to get rather late and I don't want us to be late 
catching our flight."

There was a knock on the door. "Here's the data, Agent 
Scully. The FBI isn't sanctioning this little trip. But 
since it's for a good cause, I'll let it slide." AD Skinner 
said to her, while looking at Mulder. "Just make sure to be 
back by Monday, or it'll be both of your hides, not to 
mention mine, on a platter."

"Yes, sir. Mulder and I will be back by then.", she said 
back to him, while giving Mulder a look. "No detours, 
Mulder... do you understand?" "No stopping by obscure 
tourist attractions, weird museums and that kind of thing. 
Our point is to get to the cave and back, nothing else."

"I get it, Scully. But what he doesn't know, won't hurt 
him.", he said to her with a wink. "There's plenty of time 
to do that on the way back.", he said to her, while 
gathering up some maps.

They went out of the FBI building and to their car (Good 
old Lariat rental cars!), and started off on their journey 
to Edmonson County, Kentucky, to go and search Mammoth 
Cave. Mulder had managed to get permission from the 
national park there to be able to search for the mysterious 
dragon that had supposedly been living there for thousands 
of years, undisturbed.

The trip was uneventful, with Mulder trying to sing random 
songs from the radio. Not that I didn't try my best to do 
the same either. We were both getting a little stir crazy 
in the car, since it was such a long trip. So 
understandably, we were trying to do our best to stay sane 
and not bite each others heads off.

We stop to have a bite to eat at the local diner, "The Eat 
and Slurp", "Classy name...", Mulder remarked, as we walked 
into it. We sat down and waited to order. The waitress was 
a plain looking woman, named Diana F., she looked familiar 
somehow, like we'd known her from somewhere, but couldn't 
quite place her. "What'll you two order? We have the 
tofurkey on special, along with turkey on rye..."

"Hmm, the salmon and salad looks really nice. I think I'll 
order some of that.", Scully said to the waitress. "And 
you, sir?", the waitress asked Mulder. "The tofurkey sounds 
really nice, I think I'll go with an order of that along 
with a side of your homemade fries.", Mulder said to her. 

"Ok, both of your orders will be out soon.", the waitress 
said back to them.

She walked away and Mulder started to look around the 
diner. "Scully, this place reminds me of restaurants that I 
went to with my family when I was a kid. It even has a 
jukebox. I wonder if it still works..." He said that as he 
got up to go over and try it out. He put some money in the 
jukebox and picked out a song...

"Bullfrog went dancing and singing one night,
came home and found a letter... it said that he
was destined to be a brave knight..."

The song played over the many talking people in the diner 
and Mulder went back and sat down with Scully to wait for 
their respective meals.

"Who is that song by?", Scully asked him. "It's by The 
Rhythm Tones.", he said back to her. "I've never heard of 
them before, Mulder. How did you find out about them?" "My 
parents used to listen to them, Scully. Not to mention the 
name of the group is by the song itself in the jukebox."

"Ah. Forgot about that, Mulder. It's been a long time since 
I've seen one of those." "Oh. Maybe we should have one 
installed in the downstairs office then.", he joked back to 
her with a grin.

The waitress came back with our dinner and Mulder stared at 
his meal. "This looks really good, Scully, you should try 
it."

"No thanks, Mulder, I think I'll pass. I'm not really that 
into tofurkey."

Scully thanked the waitress as she put down her meal. "Now 
this looks like a well rounded meal.", she said to him with 
a grin. "How can fish and garden lettuce qualify as a 
meal?", he asked her. "Easy, it keeps me awake and alert. 
So as far as I'm concerned that qualifys as a good, 
satisfying meal."

"Yea if you like to go and catch your dinner...", he said 
to her jokingly. "Oh, Mulder...," she said as she got a 
forkful of the salmon and started to eat it. He looked at 
her, grinned and started to eat his meal. 

The rest of the dinner was pretty much uneventful, until he 
showed me an article from the local paper, "The Kentucky 
Nighthorse", "Man gets killed by mysterious creature with 
glowing blue eyes..." This article looked promising, but 
whether or not anything would come out of it was anyone's 
guess.

"Mulder, is this the dragon that we'll be looking for?", 
she asked him curiously. "Yes, that's the gist of it, 
Scully. Hopefully we can find some proof of it. And survive 
to live another day, if it's as big as the article says it 
is."

"If it's as big as that Scully, we're going to need a 
bigger car...", he said to her, while looking out the 
window. "Mulder, in that case, we should have brought the 
Lone Gunmen's van with us instead..." "Scully, I was 
kidding, we wouldn't be taking the dragon back with us... 
just finding out why it was there in the first place and 
trying to see it for ourselves. It's a purely scientific 
venture. Nothing more."

She sat there in silent shock, seeing Mulder being as 
matter of fact as he was. Couldn't help suppressing a 
giggle though. 

"Scully, are you ok?" "Nothing, Mulder, I just felt like an 
idiot there. You were being so serious, that I thought you 
literally meant what you were saying." "Oh I'm sorry, 
Scully, I didn't mean to make you feel that way."

"That's ok, Mulder, I know you didn't mean it. And besides, 
we've got to get going pretty soon, it'll be late afternoon 
soon enough and we don't want to out there in the 
darkness." "Oooh, afraid of the dark, Scully?" "No, Mulder, 
I just have enough common sense to know that it isn't 
necessarily good to be out that late at night. Safety 
first."

He looked at her and nodded. "Yea I know. Scully, this meal 
has been really good. How do you like yours so far?" "It's 
good enough, will be enough to keep me awake during the 
rest of the drive.", she said back to him with a grin.

"Well that's good. Since we'll be listening to the best 
music of 1950's on the radio on the way there..." "Mulder, 
did you have to bring that tape with you?" "Why wouldn't I, 
Scully? Some of that music was really good."

She sighed, knowing that now it would be a really long trip 
there.

The waitress, Diana F., showed up at their table again, 
Mulder paid their bill along with the tab, and they were on 
their way again.

The afternoon air was full of maple and smoke, fall was 
fast coming upon us. There was a slight chill in the air, 
but Mulder, being ever the optimist, thought that there was 
still a chance of a nice Indian Summer. I disagreed with 
him of course, saying that there had been too much rain and 
wind as of late for temperatures to have a chance to go 
back up again.

We got into the rental car and were on our way. I put in 
some ear plugs that I had with me and it made the trip far 
more tolerable. Couldn't stand hearing Mulder's singing. 
Not that he could stand mine either. Singing about a 
friendly bullfrog wasn't exactly his cup of tea.

They finally made it to Mammoth Cave National Park, with 
time to spare. Mulder was looking around at the different 
species of birds that were flying around. A national park 
ranger whose name was Frank Carter, walked up to them and 
asked them why they were there. Mulder let him know about 
what was going on. "So you're the agent who I was talking 
to over the phone?", he said to Mulder. "Yes I am, and 
we'll do our best to stay out of your hair. We're just here 
to investigate a mysterious creature."

"I see, well that's ok. Just as long as you don't disturb 
any of the animals. That's a big no-no in our park. We let 
the animals have as much peace and quiet as we can. 
Respecting their peace and well-being." Scully nodded at 
this. "So you like it here, Agent Scully?", the ranger 
asked her. "Yes I do, Ranger Frank. It's very tranquil." 
"How do you like it, Mulder?" He made a small whistle. "I 
really like it, Scully. It reminds me of a camping trip I 
went on when I was a kid."

"You went camping? With who?", she asked him, curiously. 
"The Boy Scouts. Scout's honor.", he said to her while 
doing the Scouts salute to her with a grin. She laughed, 
and they both went and found the cave. They took out their 
flashlights and went inside.

The cave itself was full of sleeping bats and more than 
it's share of giant stalactites hanging from it's ceiling. 
The sun was still shining in the sky, but it was starting 
to dim and set, so it looked like it might be a long night 
for the both of us. We continue to search for the creature, 
supposedly a dragon.

We kept walking through the cave and saw nothing suspicious 
at first... then Mulder came across a set of human remains 
that looked far older than the ones hinted at in the 
newspaper article.

"Scully, it looks like this dragon might have been here for 
a very long time... and only now have reports surfaced 
about it. So it seems as if it's done a really good job in 
terms of hiding and staying in the shadows. Something must 
be driving it to kill. Or at least do it more in the 
open..." "That's what I was thinking as well, Mulder. 
Whatever this thing is, it's covered its tracks for a lot 
of years and no one has suspected a thing. So the first 
thing we do after we come across the dragon, is to go back 
and find out some more about the history of the town 
itself."

"That would be a good thing to do, Mulder, if we have 
enough time. But right now our main objective is to see if 
this dragon is real or not. Or if it's just a figment of 
some people's imaginations." "I know, Scully... and 
hopefully this will pan out. I've always been interested in 
the local lore and stories of an area. And whether or not 
they're real or just something that was made up to scare 
either little children or tourists away." As he said that, 
he made a scary face and stuck his tongue out at me.

"Mulder, that isn't funny," I said back to him, and smacked 
him upside the head. "Ouch, that hurt, Scully." We 
continued to walk in the cave, flash lights shining eerily 
on the cave walls. "This place is a lot bigger than I 
thought it would be.", he said to me, as we walked. "Why 
wouldn't a cave be big, Mulder?" "I thought it would be 
more narrow, Scully... not all caves are big."

"I know, Mulder... just figured that a cave that might have 
a dragon in it, would be a big one. I doubt a small cave 
would be able to hold a dragon." "I'm surprised to hear 
that, coming from you...", he said back to me with a grin. 
"I have a lot of surprises, Mulder... not that you'll ever 
find all of them out.", I said back to him with a wink. 
"You never know, Scully... what course our lives will 
take...", he said back to me jokingly.

"Yes that is true...", I said back to him, "But for right 
now, we're just on the trail of a "supposed" dragon, not a 
"what will our lives be like in the future" guessing game." 
"I know, Scully, but it's fun.", he said to me with a 
laugh.

A loud roar interrupted our conversation. "What was that?", 
Mulder said to me. "Was it a bear, Scully?" "Could be, 
Mulder, but it sounds like it would be a really large one." 
"Either that, or your stomach is growling really 
loudly...", he said to me kiddingly.

"We only ate an hour ago, so it couldn't be that, 
Mulder...", I said back to him jokingly. As we worked our 
way further into the cave the roaring continued to get 
louder, almost insistent. The sun was almost completely set 
by the time we got to the point in the cave where we could 
safely set up camp.

We got the tents set up as fast as we could and did a last 
minute check of the area just to make sure that there were 
no threats to our safety and then went to bed. We wanted to 
wake up early to get a head start on our day and make the 
most head way that we could to our destination.

"Are you sure we're heading the right way, Mulder?", I 
asked him. "Yea I'm sure, Scully. The article had pretty 
good information about the cave itself and I did some more 
investigating on the side to make sure that the area was 
the same one that was described there."

"That's good. We don't want to get lost in here, Mulder." 
"Yea the dragon could eat us...", he said back to me while 
sneaking up behind me. "Muah-ha-ha-ha..." "Jesus Mulder, 
now's not the time for that kind of thing. We're on a 
serious search right now for a mysterious creature that's 
putting other people's lives in danger."

"I know, just trying to lighten the mood a little bit, 
Scully." The roaring started up again right after he said 
that, before I could get a word in edge wise, and now we 
started to see flames rise up out of the depths of the cave 
itself. "Got any marshmallows, Scully? It's starting to get 
rather hot, and thought it might be time to roast some..." 
"Oh Mulder, if we got hit by those flames, we'd be roasted, 
dead marshmallows ourselves. And those marshmallows would 
be dust as well."

"That wouldn't be good.", he said back to me as we 
continued moving further into the cave. We started coming 
across random graffiti such as "I wuz here and so wuz 
Fred...", and "If you've gotten this far, you're hopelessly 
lost..."... so we figured we had to be at least halfway 
through the cave. So far no dragon, other than the hints of 
one that might dwell in the deepest depths of the cave.

The day continued onward and we stopped to have some 
lunch... egg salad sandwiches and tea that I'd packed. "Are 
you sure it's safe to eat, Scully?", Mulder inquired, as he 
started to open his sandwich. "Yes Mulder, it is. I would 
never poison anyone I know. Only bugs." "I see, thanks for 
letting me know...", he said as he started to eat it.

Lunch continued without any interruptions and we were on 
our way again. Getting ever closer to whatever may be at 
the bottom of this cave. The sound of the bats kept us 
alert and moving, and the continual roaring of whatever was 
at the bottom of the cave, dragon or not, had us watching 
our every move. The cave seemed to be getting larger and 
larger, and Mulder was starting to sing old camp songs as 
we moved along. Thank god I brought some ear plugs with me 
or else I'd have to hit him over the head with the pillow I 
have with me.

"Why are you looking that way towards me, Scully?," he said 
during a break of his singing. "Oh, nothing... Mulder. I've 
just got a lot on my mind.", I said back to him, not 
wanting to hurt his feelings. "Oh I see... sorry if my 
singing interrupted your train of thought...", he said back 
to me.

We continued onward silently, and then the roaring got 
really loud. "It's has to be only a matter of time, Scully, 
before we reach the bottom of the cave. The dragon's roar 
is getting deafening now." "I know, Mulder... I hope we can 
reach it by the end of today. If we continue the pace that 
we've been going so far, we might have a chance of doing 
so."

"That's good, I've been wanting to see this creature, 
dragon or not.", he said back to me with a grin. "Ever 
since I was a kid, I've always wanted to see some sort of 
mythological creature, Scully." "Even if it puts your life 
at risk, Mulder?", I said back to him, worriedly. "What's 
life without risk?", he said to me. "That's a part of the 
job as an FBI agent. No matter what we're tracking down, 
there's always a risk of getting hurt or killed. There's no 
avoiding it, Scully."

"I know, Mulder.... it's just that I don't want to see 
either of us have that happen. Part of the job or not, it's 
a risk that I don't want to turn into something that either 
of us cannot reverse." "I see, Scully, and I wouldn't want 
us to run into that kind of issue either. The best thing 
that we can do is just to try and take the best precautions 
that we can." 

We continued down to the bottom of the cave... and didn't 
come across much. At first. The roaring that we've heard 
throughout the cave, mysteriously stopped just as it began. 
It almost seemed to be waiting for us, what ever it was. 
"It's gotten way too quiet, Scully... I don't like the 
feeling I'm getting here..." "Me either, Mulder. It feels 
rather ominous, almost ancient."

Footsteps were coming closer to them from out of the 
darkness. "I've been waiting... people have been blaming 
these deaths on me, when in fact it has been an imposter 
committing them.", the voice from the darkness said to 
them. "Who are you?", Mulder asked it. "I am one who has 
seen Earth from near the beginning, one that can change 
form."

I stood there... in disbelief. Here I was, in front of 
something that we truly had nothing to compare to. It 
wasn't a true dragon, yet it wasn't human either. Mulder 
was just standing there as well, in awe of this being. 
"Scully, for once I don't know what to say. This being is 
just incredible. There's so much about this planet we don't 
know about. So much history. It's like traveling back in 
time and seeing dinosaurs, only without the poop."

The creature looked at them and cracked a grin." No one's 
been that curious, let alone courteous around me before.", 
she said to the both of them. She walked out of the 
darkness, shimmered and changed form into a relatively 
human shape. "My name is Azarwanita. Or just Azar for 
short."

"Nice to meet you, Azar.", Mulder said to her, while 
extending his hand to shake hers. She shook his hand 
gingerly. "You both have come a long way to see me. Stay 
awhile, there's plenty of room and the two of you can stay 
over night if you'd like. I don't bite or kill."

"That's only a rumor that people have perpetuated over the 
centuries. All of the deaths have occurred either by human 
hand or by other creatures. They've always figured it was 
more convenient to blame me for it then to find the actual 
culprits."

"I understand that one, Azer.", Mulder said, as he looked 
around the cave. "People generally don't believe me at 
first either, when I say that something might be true and 
should be looked at more closely." 

"Ah, well humans do seem to be rather limited 
creatures...", she looked at Mulder and sighed. "It doesn't 
matter how many times, people have tried to defend me, 
there were a few who did their best to stand up for me... 
but still no one would believe that a creature like me 
wouldn't do them harm." Scully looked at her with great 
sadness in her eyes. 

"So much time has passed since I first came into being, but 
nothing has changed. People have come and gone, and yet 
their attitudes toward beings not like their own remain the 
same." She looked at Scully and smiled a sad grin. "I truly 
appreciate when people can look past what they see, and 
know that I'm not out there to harm them."

Bats started to fly around the cave... echoing their loud 
sonic calls. "It must be getting pretty late, Scully. 
Either that, or the bats are getting an early start on it." 
She laughed when he said that and looked back at Azer. "So, 
you're truly with us staying here over night?" "Yes I am, 
it isn't the first time that a human has done so. The last 
time was a long time ago though, I'm afraid.", she said 
that to them with a note of humor and regret in her voice.

"You were in love?", Scully asked her. "Yes I was, a nice 
human man was able to see past what I was and saw that I 
was a decent being regardless. But that was years ago now. 
Never forgot him though and that's why I've been able to be 
as thoughtful to the both of you as I have been. He showed 
me what humanity could truly be like, if it wanted to be."

"That's in part why I've been in hiding for so long. People 
don't accept me for who I am. They look at me and see a 
monster. He did not, and I forever respect that. But for 
the most part, people only see what they want to see, what 
they're afraid of and what they fear most." "Yea the human 
condition is pretty narrow minded, Azer...", Mulder said to 
her, as he continued to move around the cave. "And it's one 
of the reasons why so many stories and tales about monsters 
continue to survive."

"And why so many people still think that I'm a monster...", 
She said to him with a sad smile on her face. "So much 
prejudice and hatred for something that they do not 
understand. It's no wonder why the world hasn't crumbled 
completely. They only want to fight each other, and find 
whatever reason to hate one another that they can find, no 
matter how inconsequential." 

Mulder nodded his head in agreement to what she had to say. 
"Yea wars still continue to go on, Azer, no matter how many 
people may be against them... a lot of those people don't 
have a chance to have an opinion, due to others who speak 
out louder for war itself. In regards to hatred, people 
look for anything, like you said, just to have a reason to 
hate. Same in terms of you as well. Due to the fact that 
you look like you do, their own version of a dragon, for 
the most part, they do their best to pin all of their 
anger, hatred and fear onto you."

She shook her head at him and let them know of a good area 
in the cave, that was nearby, where they could get some 
sleep and be able to get a good start on the day. "Thanks 
Azer.", Mulder said to her, as he looked back at Scully. 
"Thanks again...", Scully said back to her. "You both are 
very welcome. Being able to talk to the both of you openly, 
has been worth my time. It's been far too long since a 
human has taken the time to do so."

The night went by quickly as they slept and Azer kept watch 
over the cave. She'd been in dragon form for so long, that 
she'd forgotten what it was like to be in human form. Other 
than communicating using speech, she's stayed in that 
dragon like form. The last time she'd remembered being in 
human form was with her lover, so many years ago. But it 
seemed like another lifetime, a point in time where things 
seemed so clear to her.

Now things were that much more complex, with humans being 
able to communicate with each other so much faster than 
they used to, they're able to spread their rumors about a 
mysterious monster, that much faster then they had in the 
past. Before it was just via word of mouth, then telegraph, 
then newspaper. But now the internet, made any such 
nonsense spread like wildfire. It was getting harder and 
harder just trying to get by. She had to live by the 
darkness now, feeding off of what she could find.

And that's where the whole "eating humans" rumor got 
started. Some little kid and his friends came across her 
one day, and got scared so bad, that they told their 
parents that they'd seen a terrible monster that chased 
them out of the cave and tried to eat him. Which was far 
from the truth. She was only trying to defend her 
territory. Which in her mind was common sense. Little 
children just don't get the fact that there was such a 
thing as privacy and manners.

She finally went to sleep and the night continued on. 
Morning came as quick as night fall, and Mulder woke up 
early to see what was going on. Azer woke up next, followed 
by Scully. "We're going back up to the surface to check out 
town... and we were wondering if you'd want to come up with 
us, in human form, of course.", Mulder asked her politely. 

"That's a tough question, but since you asked so nicely, 
and since it's been a long time since I've been out of this 
cave... what the heck. Might as well let others see me and 
hopefully we can straighten out this mess in regards to the 
dead and missing children." "I hope we can help you do 
that, Azer.", he said to her. "It would be nice that you'd 
be able to continue on living your life in relative peace 
and comfort."

"Thank you. We need to get going though if we're to reach 
the surface quickly.", she told him, as she changed her 
form back to human. She'd changed back into dragon form 
overnight for security. People are a hell of a lot more 
scared of a dragon than a mysterious human like creature.

"Mulder, are you sure you want to do this?", Scully asked 
him concernedly. "Yes I am, Scully. People can only remain 
scared of something for so long before it becomes a 
hindrance for everyone involved. We have to move forward so 
the real culprit can be found." "Good point, Mulder. Are 
you ready to go, Azer?" "Yes I am, and there's a nice 
little short cut to the surface nearby, so we don't have to 
go back the way the both of you came. It'll cut some time 
off of the journey."

"Thanks again, Azer.", Mulder said to her with a smile. 
"Not a problem, and hopefully these people won't run away 
from me in this form as well.", She said to him with a 
chuckle and a grin. Mulder laughed and they started on 
their way. The cave was alive with the sounds of the 
stalagmites dripping water down them and they could almost 
sense the history that lived in it at one point in time or 
another.

They got to the back entrance to the cave by around noon or 
so. Azer stretched and yawned along with the both of them 
and they continued their way towards town. It was nearing 
the afternoon by the time they reached town. The sun was 
pounding down on all of them and the townsfolk were all 
hard at work, except for a group of young school children 
who were loitering around on the street.

"Is it just me, Scully, or is this town too quiet? It 
reminds me of a western film as the sheriff and the outlaw 
get ready for a show down." Scully looked at him grimly. 
"Yea it is rather quiet, townspeople working aside, it 
seems as if they're trying to do that really quietly, as if 
they're afraid of disturbing something."

Azer sighed. "I think they're afraid of waking me up. Not 
that I'm always asleep during the day. I tend to be awake 
at either time, depending on whether or not I need to hunt 
for food. And like I said before, it's not humans that I 
prey on. I prefer smaller prey, like snakes or groundhogs." 
She looked around and noticed someone walking their way. A 
man had come out of one of the buildings in town and 
started off towards them, with a gun in his hand.

"Woah there.", Mulder said with his hands up, "We come in 
peace." "There's a strange woman with you that seems like a 
threat to town, that's why I have this gun out. What is 
your name?" "My name is Fox Mulder, Agent Fox Mulder to 
you, from the FBI. You may call me Agent Mulder though. 
Never was fond of the first name much. And to the left of 
me, is my partner, Dana Scully, whom you may call Agent 
Scully." 

"Ah. Nice to meet you both. I'm still wary of the tall 
stranger that's with you. What's her name?" Azer spoke up, 
"My name is Azer. And I mean you and this town no harm." 
"How can I be sure that you wouldn't just go and try to 
kill me?", the man said to her, his finger still on the 
trigger, only now pointing straight at her. "Now honestly, 
why would I go and hunt and kill you? I go after smaller 
prey, non-human ones. Humans I wouldn't want to hurt. You 
may not like me, but it's not worth my time or worth my 
while to stir up such a hornet's nest."

The man continued to look at her, but he slowly lowered his 
weapon. "Name's Horace. Sorry for giving all of you such a 
fright. Children have been disappearing left and right, 
along with several of the other townsfolk. We've heard 
rumors about a mysterious creature being at the heart of 
it. So that's why she (He points his finger towards Azer.) 
has been the target of such hate and speculation."

Azer looked at him and nodded. "There's someone in town 
going around and trying to act like me, then?", she said to 
him grimly. "Yes I'm afraid. I've been keeping up this 
charade so as not to get his attention. Don't want to let 
him know that I'm hot on his tail." "That's a smart idea.", 
Mulder said to him. "That way we might be able to catch him 
in the act."

"Yes that's the general idea. We figure it might be someone 
who is a loner, someone who doesn't have much to lose, but 
yet is someone who on the outside appears to be quite 
charismatic." Scully took note of this mentally, along with 
Mulder as they continued to walk into town with Azer and 
Horace.

Horace, Scully, Mulder and Azer stopped by the town 
sheriff's office, and Horace walked inside. "Wait here. 
I'll go get the sheriff and deputy and we can get this 
sorted out once and for all.", he told them. 

"Mulder, I hope this works out for Azer.", she told him. "I 
hope it does too, Scully.", he said back to her, with a 
grim smile. "How are you doing so far, Azer?" "About as 
good as a 1,000 year old plus magical being could be doing. 
For the first venture out in many years, it's going pretty 
well."

Horace came back out with the both of them (the sheriff and 
deputy), and they looked at Azer and the agents with slight 
suspicion. "Are you for certain that they mean no harm, 
Horace?", the sheriff asked him. "Yes I am, Harry. They 
arrived in town without weapons and they weren't looking 
for any trouble. They're only trying to clear their friend, 
Azer, here of any wrongdoing that she did not commit."

Sheriff Harry Leggs (yes that is his real, given name... 
and more than his share of people in town make light of it) 
looked over at Mulder and company and talked to his deputy, 
Fred Knight. He turned around and said, "Fred's ok with it 
as well. We'll round up the rest of the towns people so all 
of you can get caught up on this. We want to find the sob 
just as much as your friend, Azer, wants to be cleared of 
any wrongdoing."

They continued their way into town, with Sheriff Harry 
leading the way with his bull horn. He let everyone know to 
come to the center of town, that there had been some new 
information regarding the missing children's case and 
people were required to come and let them know about any 
new suspects or information in regard to the case.

First to arrive was a young couple and their children. They 
let them know that they saw a mysterious figure prowling 
near the cave not too long ago. The next up was an old man 
who swore he thought the figure was from outer space. 
Following him were a group of teenagers who swore it was a 
large werewolf like creature. After them, came the rest of 
the townsfolk with a slew of suspects -- a clown, a big 
gust of wind that made a tree look like a menacing 
creature, a large black bear and finally a dragon.

Note that the final creature (the dragon) was thought to be 
seen by a small, yet vocal group of townspeople, so the 
sheriff and his deputy would have a harder time trying to 
convince them otherwise. They took them aside and let them 
meet Azer, so that she could get her side of the story 
across. "I still don't believe you...", a young woman named 
Joanna said. "You seem like a threat regardless." 

Azer sighed and turned to face the sheriff and the deputy. 
"I did what I could. But on a side note, I sense a 
malevolent presence here. Something doesn't feel right, as 
if someone or something is trying to control the situation, 
behind the scenes." She moved forward and through the 
crowd. There was a man in back that was standing there, his 
hands in his pockets. She looked right at him. "This is the 
man. I'm sure of it.", she told them. "How can you be 
sure?", the sheriff asked her.

"My own species have an ability where we can sense whether 
or not a person is sincere and genuine in their actions. I 
sensed that from the rest of town, but this person gives 
off a particularly disingenuous vibe. One that neither you 
or the deputy have either." 

The man started to look uncomfortable as Azer moved closer. 
He tried to run away, but Azer outpaced him. He looked at 
her and said, "It wasn't me, honest." She looked at him and 
shook her head. "I don't believe you. You have all of the 
hallmarks of a fire breather. Not a genuine one, but a 
mortal one that works at the circus. That would fit into 
some people's descriptions in which they mentioned a fire 
breathing dragon. Pretty convenient for an alibi."

The man started to finally talk... "My name is Uzami 
Koshama, and I've lived here for quite some time now. I'm 
sorry if I've offended anyone. But what Azer is saying I 
did, is not true." Azer moved in closer. "What is coming 
out of this man's mouth, other than his name, is NOT true. 
I can also see what else he has done in his life. He's a 
cannibal. I can also tell that by his teeth. They've been 
filed into unnatural points so they can tear up flesh 
easier." Uzami shifted his weight and sighed. "I had no 
choice. I haven't been able to get or keep a job for 
years... so I've resorted to this. Yes you caught me, 
Azer." 

He shuffled over to the sheriff and the deputy. They 
arrested him and put him in jail.

"Thank you Azer, for helping us solve this mystery.", the 
sheriff said to her. "No problem, Officer.", she said back 
to him. She looked back at Mulder and Scully and said, "I 
owe the both of you a debt of great gratitude.", she dug 
her hand into the pocket of her pants and pulled out a 
round amulet and walked over to them. 

She handed it to them and said, "This will keep the both of 
you safe from harm, and if you are feeling the need to move 
on, this will remind you to keep all options open and to 
remember why you care so much about one another in the 
first place."

They both looked at one another in mild surprise. Azer 
laughed. "I can tell that the two of you really care about 
each other. There's no harm in that, and if it ever becomes 
anything more, don't ever give up on it. True love is 
really hard to find."

Scully and Mulder shook their heads, both of them and Azer 
thanked the sheriff along with the deputy, then left town. 
They arrived back at the cave at sunset, and said good bye 
to Azer. She shimmered, turned back into her dragon form 
and went back into the cave.

"Well this is one adventure I'll never forget, Scully.", 
Mulder said to her with a grin.

"We got to not only help a being we never knew existed, but 
we got to help a town as well." "That's good Mulder, and 
seeing Azer helped me to realize that there's a lot more in 
the world and in the universe that we don't understand or 
comprehend. We still have a lot to learn."

And with that, they found their way back through the cave, 
out of the national park and back to FBI headquarters.

--------------------------------------------------

Morning broke and Scully woke up with a start. Her memory 
got jolted by the dream she had just had. She finally 
realized what that round medallion had stood for and what 
she had to do to save her and Mulder's relationship. She 
got out of bed, doing her best to not wake up Mulder.

She took a quick shower, got dressed and got out the 
medallion. As she held it in her hand, she felt an arm wrap 
around her. "What cha' doin', Scully?, Mulder asked, his 
voice still thick with sleep. "Just looking at something 
that meant a lot to us a long time ago.", she said back to 
him with a small grin.

"I had a dream last night about it, and found that if I 
hold it, it would help me in any times of trouble. 
Recently, I've been rather stressed out about our 
relationship. So I went in search of anything that could 
help me and us collectively. And this is what I came 
across."

She showed him the medallion. "Hey now, I remember that. We 
came across a real dragon back then, well not one in the 
traditional sense, but it still counts." "Yes Mulder, and 
she let me know that we liked each other and if we ever 
needed to be reminded of it, to just hold onto the 
medallion."

"Well she was right to not let go of one another, Scully.", 
he said to her as he started to kiss her ear. "Mulder... 
that right there is one reason, why I won't give up on 
you.", she turned around and kissed him fiercely. They went 
out of the side room together and lived happily ever 
after... for now.

PPS: Scully still lets Mulder know when he's gotten too 
wrapped up in a case, that is what IN PART was the issue.