Pandragon
A tale of unlikely accomplices
Tana closed her eyes, channelling the well-honed transformation she had relied on for years. The hazy memory of the accidental destruction of her family’s hoard still one she fought to vanquish; a memory one her parents had graciously never mentioned again, yet it was vivid every time Tana got hiccups.
Seraphina and Brímir had rebuilt their wealth, and the family home was remote enough that Tana had been able to flex her burgeoning wings and skills in relative safety. Her childhood solitary, with only her mother for reliant company, until she could grasp full control of her shifting. Once Tana could slip forms with ease, she had been permitted more freedom, and mainstream school.
She had been unsure if she preferred the large clearing, the woods of her home, or the connections she’d built despite the lies.
Now, in the sanctuary of her family’s meadow, she flexed her hands, watching the claws slide into the sunlight, watching the scarlet scales dance up her arm. The growing musculature of her body transforming with the softest of clicks to her bones, snaps to her tissue.
The pain was more a gentle ache; Tana had long since accepted that as the cost of her body’s wonderful manipulation.
The fuel for her heart’s fire.
With the unfurling of majestic blood-red wings, she rolled her neck and exhaled. A smoky breath coiled from her snout, her forked tongue tracing over sharp teeth. The stretch of her leathery wings absorbing the heat from the noon sun, readying to fly.
‘Have a good afternoon, my love,’ Seraphina called, leaning against the veranda’s wooden frame, a mug of tea in one hand.
One arm curled around his wife, Brímir met his daughter’s flaming eyes; her bright amber and crimson gleaming around opal black. His own sparked in silent confirmation of support.
A vow to rescue her, if she needed him.
Always.
Slow, Tana nodded, and flew.
The clouds were cool, webbing her scales in pearls of mist. It was a welcome shroud to dull her rapidly soaring pulse, the eager desire to act and deliver the gold home. A way to repay the debt.
Just because her family never mentioned it did not mean Tana did not feel the weight of obligation. All that money she had destroyed, accident or not, had been a constant thorn in her paw. A thorn she intended to rip out and burn.
And she had no intention of calling on her parents; they did not know her plans and she did not need to be rescued.
🐲
Landing in a litter-strewn alleyway, Tana willed her body to revert to her human form; the satchel which had looked so tiny in her claw as she tumbled through the sky, a trove of clothing she slipped into.
She knew her plan was audacious, especially in the growing twilight, and yet, Tana threw the now much lighter bag over her shoulder and strode into the street. Her mind ran through the research she had undertaken over the last few weeks, recalling where security cameras were situated, which establishments were busier, which offered refuge. The cap pulled lower over her fiery hair and unnecessary jacket drawn more tightly around her torso.
With blood more like molten lava, Tana had struggled to accommodate the requirements of human clothing in inclement weather. Rain was tolerable. Summer was paradise. But winter was stifling; wrapping up to fit in was frustrating.
Even in their well-suited city, where winter’s were mild.
Tana rounded a corner, her head twisting to check both location and destination. The street emptying as daytime work shifted to nighttime play, this brief moment sufficient to slip amongst those commuting either way.
A figure relatively unnoticed in the shadows.
Her focus on the protrusion of claws to break the lock and disappear into the cooler corridor of the bank. With a thick swallow, she summoned fire to her throat and directed a perfect exhale toward the camera above the doorway.
An act she repeated as she made her way through the hall; the lack of alarm snagging at her thoughts. Making her heart tighten.
Her tongue slithered over her lips, the forked flesh resting for a moment on her elongating fang. Tana’s feet kept moving, though; her eyes on the security office ahead, the stairs beyond. Her jacket shrugged off her shoulders and tied around her waist.
Then, she paused.
A noise.
A curse whispered and a metallic strike.
Tana flattened herself to the wall, steadying her breath, and readied herself to run. To fly. She felt the twitch of transformation in her blood, in her muscles.
‘Come on,’ the male voice begged.
She crept a little closer, her senses alert and pads of her fingers bracing her body against the paintwork. Daring to peer inside the small room, her brow furrowed with cautious anxiety.
With an unrolled leather pouch of small tools, a man, with fluffy black ears at the top of a thick hood, was disassembling the alarm and camera system. Every screen was static. The power to every wire and feed cut. Tana inwardly relaxed; all that time spent carefully melting cameras had been pointless.
‘Finally!’ The man reached for his pocket, pulling out a—
Tana’s eyebrows rose, her mouth falling open.
—stick of bamboo.
Her surprised laughter was quickly suppressed with a hand over her mouth, but she had not been quick enough. The man turned to her, the stick still in his mouth, and widened his eyes.
Eyes which were covered in black fur; the mask two elongated discs which, as Tana watched, began to shrink and fade. As did the ears and the mistakingly identified hood.
Now, it was her eyes which widened. ‘What the…,’ her voice faded, she was bereft of words.
Of course, had Tana considered it, she would have realised that as a dragon shifter, logic would suggest other types of shifters existed.
Yet, at this moment, such logic escaped her.
And him.
‘How did you get in?’ Shuchang asked, a flush of dusky-pink spreading over his cheeks. His body heating with embarrassment at the oversight. That he had somehow made a mistake.
More of a mistake, he thought.
‘The door.’ Tana shrugged. She straightened up, moving one hand behind her back as she willed it to transform; claws and scales replacing nails and flesh. Just in case.
‘I locked the door,’ he muttered.
Shuchang had not moved; the bamboo remained in his mouth, stuck to his lower lip, and the screwdriver remained in his hand. In the overhead lighting, his tools glinted.
‘What happened to your… mask?’ Tana guessed that had been his intention; to hide his features. Even if only for a moment. Evidently, this man did not deem her a threat.
Oh such a sweet fool.
‘Mask?’ Shuchang finally removed the stalk from his mouth, placed the screwdriver into the vacant slot, rolled up the pack.
Tana assumed he was buying time.
‘Your eyes,’ she prompted, ‘they… were black then weren’t.’
Shuchang swallowed, his back to her. ‘Look, I don’t know what you thought you saw… but, I won’t tell anyone you’re here if you don’t tell anyone I’m here, deal?’
‘I know what I saw,’ Tana said. The point of one claw slid across the wall, cutting through layers of paint, as she battled the urge to completely transform. Or at the very least burn the room.
She had a plan, and this was very much not it.
And she refused to go home empty handed.
But she could not kill anyone; that was a line she refused to cross.
He turned to her, the pack in his bag, bag on his shoulder. ‘I don’t think you do.’
Tana’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why are you here?’
‘Why are you?’
Her eyes rolled. ‘I’ve no time for this; you do you, I’ll do me.’ She pushed away from the wall, tempted to grip his neck with the power of her transformed claws. But every second she wasted with this… whatever he was, was a second taken from the task. Tana shook her hand, flesh replacing scales, claws shrinking a little.
But not completely.
Keeping her gaze in his rough direction, she began to exit. Her judgement of the state of the equipment sufficient assurance her next act would go unnoticed. Tana did not turn away from him until she was in the corridor and had taken five more paces. Only then did she dart around and descended the stairs.
He followed.
She sighed. ‘When I said you do you, that didn’t mean—’
‘I am doing me.’ Shuchang hesitated. Even with one set of stairs between him and the landing on which she stood, his body flushed with uncertain heat. In an effort to placate her, to confirm he meant no harm, he held out a hand and took another step.
And fell.
The hard edges of the marble staircase catching his limbs as he rolled clumsily from the top to land in an awkward pile at her booted feet.
‘Are you okay?’ It was instinct, she thought; just polite instinct.
‘Sure.’ He ruffled his hair with crooked fingers, made a bashful clearing of his throat and stumbled to his feet. Relieved she had not taken advantage of his accident, he offered a hand again. ‘I’m Shuchang, and I’m here to rob the vault.’
Tana, startled by his brash admittance, released an exhale thick with smoke and flames.
‘You… you’re, you’re like me?’ His hand dropped, an eager pressure to his gaze as he studied her.
Chewing on her lip, human teeth and human mouth, Tana’s breath hitched while her hands furled and unfurled. The silence dragging. Her eyes anywhere but his. With a shudder, she shook her head and continued down the stairs.
‘No, don’t,’ he said, tripping over his feet as he chased her quick descent, ‘I… I only want what’s in the vault—’
‘I don’t care.’ Tana was unsure if she meant it.
‘I’m not going to stop you, whatever you want to do,’ Shuchang said, ‘I only want something stolen from my family.’
Tana paused, the reinforced door of the basement vault before her. The only way through would be to partially transform, unless he had tools which would allow them in. Them. She closed her eyes; somehow Tana had gained an accomplice in this quest, and she was not entirely convinced that was a bad thing.
‘You can have everything else,’ Shuchang continued, dropping his bag from his shoulder, kneeling to empty items from it. His actions became frantic. ‘Damn, it’s not here,’ he muttered.
She inhaled deeply, eyes still closed. ‘What’s not here?’
‘I had something to unlock the vault,’ he said, leaning back on his heels, a forlorn expression on his flushed face, ‘but it’s not here.’
Slow, Tana licked her tongue over her lips, pressed them together, as she turned to him. ‘Maybe I can help.’
‘You can?’
‘But I need you to look away.’
He frowned. ‘I’ll look away, providing you do the same when we get into the vault.’
Tana raised an eyebrow.
‘The item which was taken,’ he explained, umber eyes anywhere but hers, ‘it can only be picked up by a… paw.’
She folded her arms, looking over the strewn pieces he had deposited on the marble. ‘And you have a paw?’
His face turned a deeper rose as he cleared his throat. Took the stick of bamboo from his pocket and took a bite. ‘Yes.’
‘Sorry, I didn’t hear you.’
Shuchang sighed, lifting his head and saying more loudly, ‘Yes.’
‘For a guy robbing a bank,’ Tana said, ‘you sure love to share.’ She smiled, her mind connecting the final pieces of his confessions, the misunderstood appearance when they first met. And, with an instinctual trust in a fellow wielder of such arcane magic, allowed her hand and forearm to transform.
His mouth hinged open, the bamboo falling to his lap.
🐲
Arriving on the edge of the meadow, Tana slowed and glided to a stop amongst the longer grass. From her claws, the stuffed bags of gold and jewels landed more heavily, breaking the drier stalks and flattening the fallen leaves.
Shuchang, despite his attempts to be graceful, fell from Tana’s neck. His paws padded for purchase on the scales, his eyes wide as the bag on his back tipped his balance further. He rolled when he made contact with the ground; black and white fur a monochrome spiral.
Until he accepted Tana’s strong support to stand.
Seraphina and Brímir, having seen Tana’s approach, continued their stroll, hand in hand. Their exchanged glances prolonged the closer they came to the pair.
Dragon and panda standing side by side.
And a pile of black bags by Tana’s feet.
‘Tana?’ Brímir looked to her, his own shift ready, should it be needed; though, he reasoned, if this creature was a threat he trusted that his daughter would already have dealt with it.
‘This is Shuchang,’ she replied, gesturing to him with the tip of one majestic wing. ‘He’s like us… kinda.’
‘Pleased to meet you,’ he said, rushing forward eagerly only to end up toppling back and sitting down forcefully. ‘Sorry, still figuring out how to move with this bag.’
‘You could always let me carry it,’ Tana said, eyes rolling.
‘What’s in the bag?’ Seraphina asked.
‘His bag?’ Tana saw her mother nod. ‘Some family thing.’
‘And the others?’
Now it was Tana’s turn to blush. The scales of her face shimmered with the inner heat which rushed along her spine. ‘I wanted to… the fire, and the hoard I destroyed.’
Seraphina and Brímir both frowned, confusion etching their features.
‘When I was still figuring out how to control this,’ she said, gesturing to her body with her paw, ‘and hiccuped.’
‘Oh, my love, that wasn’t you.’ Seraphina stroked a hand over her daughter’s shoulder. ‘That was your father.’
‘Really?’ Tana lowered herself to the ground, tail tucking around her and paws twisting slightly to form a loop for her parents to stand either side of her embrace. ‘I thought you just didn’t mention it because you didn’t want to embarrass me.’
‘We never mentioned it because it wasn’t your fault,’ Seraphina said kindly, her eyes veiled with love.
‘You know I’m prone to the odd accident,’ Brímir added.
From behind the trio, Shuchang made an attempt to stand and promptly fell back down.
‘Seems you’re not the only one.’ Tana met Shuchang’s masked eyes and smiled, laughter in her throat and a hiccup on her tongue. A breath of flame escaping her lips.
This is a continuation of an earlier story: Ashes
And while I hadn’t originally planned on adding to the tale, the idea of a dragon and a panda as accomplices took root from a poem created by Nimita Kaul and the more I thought about it, the more this story made sense.
Meet the adorable toddler-Tana, and the accident-prone Brímir, and the ever-patient Seraphina, as they navigate a destroyed hoard, ash-castles, and a rather disastrous heist.
© Ariadne Pautina, entirely human-made, 2026
Thank you for reading; I appreciate your time and your support. If you feel called to leave an offering, it would be sincerely welcome. But, your company is gratefully received regardless 🖤
Such a sweet story! Thanks for sharing! 🖤
Hahaha I love this! Absolutely adorable! 😍 Honoured to be part of this process!