Berk's Forumvine

A fine city riddled with tunnels.

The bedrock of Norfolk and Suffolk is made of chalk which has many uses, including making quicklime to spread on fields which neutralises the acidity of the soil.
Another use is as a mortar for laying bricks, used for hundreds of years before cement came about.
Since about the 10th century Norwich, along with a lot of Norfolk and Suffolk. Has been mined for its chalk (for years before it was just 'quarried').Riddling the fine city with tunnels. The last mine closed down just before the outbreak of ww2, but many were closed down long before, their entrances getting lost to time. Now there's only 3 you can get in.
"Officially" sealed and inaccessible, their whereabouts are kept hush hush by those, "in the know" and not many people know the exact location of the entrances.

Bruce and Lucas were 2 people who did, they had been down 2 of them countless times. and the 3rd one once. as the council sealed it off with iron bars before another visit could be made

o0o

Lucas started to wake up, he felt dreadful. He had been hung over before but this was on a different planet. Every joint, every muscle screamed out in agony his mouth had never been drier and he had the worst headache that he had ever experianced
He felt awkward his arms and legs felt like they were splayed out in strange positions, his head likewise. and he was sure he had his back agenst something hard which was sticking right into his back and coxics makeing the whole airea radiate with pain and discomfort he started to wonder what he had done whilst out drinking
He couldnt see any light comming through his eyelids so he knew it was still dark
he furrowed his brow in fustration and pain
A big mistake, a bolt of pain shot through his entire head forcing him to control his breathing to stop himself yelping out in pain knowing that opening his mouth would yeald even more pain
just breething hurt somewhat
very quickly memory's from the night before started to come back.....
But no, hang on it wasn't night Lucas thort to himself
he renemberd just finishing off an argument with his girlfriend over the phone when Bruce rang saying he had gotten his licence back.
he renembered going round soon after
then a dragon...no two dragons had appeared out of nowhere before attacking them both with its strange blue fire.
"WHAT ON EARTH DID I DRINK LAST NIGHT, none of that could of happened.....could it"? he shouted to himself again

He decided to open his eyes knowing it would probally be painful, but he wanted to know where he was. Slowly he opened them and took a quick painful look around. even moveing his eyes about hurt he quickly let his eyelids close again
Wherever he was it was inside as it was pitch black not just dark like it would be if he was sleeping on the street, again he had to steady his breathing from the pain of doing the simple task.

thats when he relised he must be at home sleeping on the hard wooden floor or maybe in the kitchen on the tiles
"What on earth did I do" he again asked himself.
At this point he started to notice the smell, it wasn't particularly bad or unplesent like vomit, just strong, but he recognised it he couldn't place where he had smelt it before but it was defiantly familiar. and it deffinatly wasnt home he started to worry slightly worry about that

He quickly grew too tired to continue thinking what had happened and where he was, knowing it was still night and he wasnt cold or wet so was likly indoors somewhere safe and with his head swimming and thumping with the effects of what he thort was alcohol he decided to just let the alcohol just take him back into a deep slumber
it took no longer than a minuite for him to pass out again
0o0
many hours later Bruce started to stir, like Lucas every joint and muscle hurt. his back and coxyix airea felt the same as his firends his head like lucas's felt like it was about to explode

at first he also came to lucas's conclusion that he was drunk but bruce came to the conclusion that he had badly fallen over causing all this pain he was in and was laying on the hard floor that made up most of the the downstairs of the house he lived in
having just made it throuh the front door before collapsing
or was possably sleeping outside on one of the pathways around the small village he lived in
or perhaps he was on the field that was next to his house he had woken up there one or two times before it wouldnt be a supprise if it happened again

but then like his friend he started to remember that mornings events the last thing being that strange blue flash of light that came from the second dragon. he furrowed his brow at the strange memory
due to natures atrange ways this hardly hurt bruce and nor did it hurt much when he opened his eyes to see where he was
He couldn't see a thing it was pitch black. as opening his eyes was nowhere neer as painful as it had been for lucas Bruce didn't know his next move would be incredibly painful.
He tried to move into a more comfortable possition he didn't get very far before letting out an aaaaahhhhhhh of agony......Except the noise that left his mouth wasn't a human scream....But a dragons roar.
"WHAT ON EARTH" he roared, faltering when he relised it was him makeing the noise
although not as painful as it would have been for lucas it was still very painful to move his mouth about and he squeezed his eyes shut at the pain
"Is that you Bruce" Lucas asked quietly and painfully making a low warberling moaning sound similar to the sound a dog makes when it 'talks' except the two humans-turned-dragons noticed that the frequency changed extreamaly rapidly far too quickly for the useless human ear to pick up on but to the sensative dragon ears it was obvious
not that the humans noticed this

both friends hearts almost stopped
what came through their ears was the low warberling of lucas but their brains were somehow automatically turning that warble into normal human speach and even stranger to both friends was the fact that lucas's question still sounded like his human voice in their heads even though through their ears all they could hear
and make with their mouths was the sound of some strange animal

yeh......its me bruce replied slowly and shakerly with a dazed tone to his voice again all that came out was the strange moaning that came out of lucas's mouth a few seconds earlia

They both laid there in silence for a good 10 muinits, dazed and astonished at what was going on trying desperately to think of a reasonable explination for this unexplainable situatoin they were in
they had woke up a little now and both had relised they wernt drunk at all and the last memory that was burned into their minds was of those black as black dragons the glowing blue mouth of the second one and then the flash of blue light that followed
bruce broke he silance
lucas all i can renemer are a couple of dragons comeing into my dining room we went and touched one of them then the other started to glow blue then a bright blue flash then i wake up here i cant renember aything else....am i going mad.....what do you renember
zacly the same mate lucas replied himself sounding dazed his voice void of expression
they both sat there in silance again resighning themselves to their own thorts untill they fell asleep again

The friends were woken up several hours later by one of the dragons gently moaning "humans wake up, you need to eat and drink. You've both been asleep for 4 days."
again all Lucas and Bruce heard was the warberling moaning that came out of the dragons mouth but somehow their brains translated the noises into perfectly understandable english
they were just beginging to stir when from behind their eyelids they saw another blue flash followed by a yellowy light comeing from directly in front of them
they both opened their eyes to a small pile of wood that had been set alight by the dragon that stood close to their heads

then they looked at each other
They both took a short sharp intake of breath.
They weren't much bigger in size than when they were human, but looked exsacly like small versions of the dragon that stood close to them.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO US bruce roared
ive transformed you into dragons the dragon replied calmly
but why groaned bruce he had forgotten how much moveing hurt and was in quite alot of pain after the sudden scream
please stay calm you will only make everything worse the dragon replied again ive transformed you because thats what the life force fortold.... it was ment to be

the 2 friends just laid there looking at each other they diddnt know what to say or think or do
they wanted to get up and fight this dragon but were in too much pain to do so they wanted a propper explination but had no idea what to say they wanted an argument but knew they couldnt possably do so with the pain that corsed its way through every fibre of their bodys so they just laid there taking it all in trying to think what this dragon and 'life force' wanted with them
they slowly took in what each other and themselvs looked like now
just like the the dragons their skin was thick and leathery with large scales placed in roughly the same places as the dragon standing close to them they both had wings which they guessed why they had such pain along their backs where their wing ended a long black tail protruded out from exsacly where the pain in their cocyx originated from

After about 20 minutes of paitaintly waiting the dragon cleared the silance and started speaking in the same calm voice "right I know you both hate me right now,you have no trust in me, and have a head full of questions to ask this is toatally understandable but your bodies have gone through a great shock and you must eat and drink to build your strength up. now youre awake i will go get you something
the friends stared scornfully at the dragon as it went off to get their food and water.

"Well what now" Lucas mumbled as not to move his mouth around too much.
After a short pause Bruce replied, mumbling for the same reason his friend was.
"We wait mate, it's not like we have much of a choice, we can hardly move let alone run. We don't know what will happen if we go out on the street, how will other people react. And science cant make us human again,
"I feared you would say that. But you've always got a plan inside your head somewhere, are you sure thats the only thing we can do."
"That is my plan" Bruce interjected "gain their trust, listen to what they have to say, and go from there it's our only option mate. we cant do anything else we shouldnt trust their reasoning but i think we would be stupid to ignore advice like eating and well......possably flying which looking on the bright side might be fun"
lucas pushed a few pufs of air out of his nose in a polite chuckle
Silence again fell upon the two friends while they let the pain in their jaws and throats subside.
"Where do you think we are anyway" Lucas asked. slowly looking around
"A chalk mine I should think, cant you smell it let alone see it"
"I did think that to be fair. Which one though, I don't think I recognise it."
"Well unless the dragons carried us to all the way to Bury
(Bury St Edmunds (pronounced berry))
where the next closest ones are, I should think Norwich."
"Are you sure, I don't recognise it. I don't remember there being one this big it's much wider and taller than the others."
"I should think it's Newmarket road, we only got down there once before it got gated if you remember."
"Ahhh Yeh good point" replied Lucas "I forgot about that one I reckon you're right."
Again they sat in silence for a few minutes before Bruce started to murmur to Lucas.
"I'm so sorry mate."
"For what" Lucas replied.
"Well if I had behaved different around that dragon, and not tried to touch it" he paused for a second. "Well maybe it wouldn't have done this to us." He finished, sadly.
At this point the dragon walked rounded the corner into the little alcove that the friends were laying in. It was carrying an old tin bucket of fresh fish in its mouth, and 2 tin dustbin lids were balanced on its head.
It was followed by the second dragon also with a bucket in its mouth although this was filled with clear water.
The second dragon put down its bucket, and took the dustbin lids off the first dragons head so it could put down its bucket.
"No" the first dragon said, firmly but with just as much calmness he had spoken in before.
"your actions were as the prophecy foretold. you shew bravery where others wouldn't have had any, and you diddnt quickly attack like others would have, that shows courage and cleverness where many wouldnt have had.
If either of you two would have done anything different I would have killed you both on the spot."
The friends stared at each other wide-eyed at this revelation.

Bruce looked at the first dragon, who he could see was dotted with scars from his head to his tail and so was clearly much older whereas the second dragon seemed to be compleatly clear of such damage.
still mumberling bruce said "But the only reason I came up to you was I thought you were a dream....a figment of my imagination."
"But how much did you believe that yourself" the dragon retaliated calmly. "And how much were you just trying to take control of the situation, and keep both yourself, and your friend from panicking. And you (looking at Lucas.) You hardly believed that it was a dream at all, and yet you still came over to me. I apologise for terrifying the both of you, but I had to be sure you were the right humans. And I could only do that by doing what the life force told me to do
only you two would have had those reactions when faced with us.
"Anyway" the dragon continued seeming to lighten up a bit "I should stop calling you humans, as you're not anymore. You still have the memory's from when you were humans, and have the same personality's but that's all nothing else is shared with what you were. and what you are now you will be able to shoot fire at those you dont like and at food to kill it you will be able to fly through the night sky faster than any other dragon there is"
lucas stared at the dragon
again mumberling in an attempt to cause himself less pain he said sarcasticly
well doesent that make me feel alot better turning angry he carried on
what do you want with us why us
still being calm the clearly older scarred dragon replied
well as ive said it was the life force who told me how to find you i dont know why she chose you or knew you would be the perfect choice for what we need to do but i trust her to have made the right desition
as for what we need to do..... well thats a very long story streaching back over 10,000 years and will take all day to tell you i think it will better to tell you the full story in a few weeks time once your pain goes away

"Anyway we haven't introduced ourselves yet. I already know your names, one of you goes by the name of Bruce and the other Lucas."
Both were supprised at this.
"Yeh I'm Lucas" he stammered, "but how did you know? Was it this life force thing that told you."
The dragon let out a hearty laugh. "you've said each other's names several times in my presence, I'm a dragon I'm not deaf.
Anyway my dragon name is Livskraft Mottaker or just Mottaker if you prefer
And my friend hear is Makt Kaste, Makt for short. She was the one who threw the flame of power at you, turning you into what you are now.
"She" questioned lucas. Earning a firm yes from both dragons.
"bruce thort carefully about what mottaker had just said
what do you mean by your dragon names he said You mean to say you have other names"
"thats part of our long story we will tell you but as i say thats for another time.
"Anyway, you need to eat so let's get started" continued Mottaker.
The two dragons first put an upturned lid in front of Lucas and Bruce. Then helping each other, they poured half the water in each lid, followed by the fish, which had been de-boned, and ripped into small pieces by Mottaker and Makt.
"It's so you can digest it better" said mottaker "in a few weeks you will be able to eat fish whole, bones included. But for now with your fragile newly made stomachs this is all you can digest. And don't worry if don't like the idea of eating raw fish, as I've already said its only your memories and personality that are the same. Things like your sense of taste are of a dragons now, and not influenced by your old body's.
Starting at Lucas, the 2 dragons then picked up the upturned bin lid in their mouths and told Lucas to just swallow as it won't need chewing, then slowly poured it into his open mouth letting him gulp down the wartery fishy mixture at his own leasure.
lucas liked fish but for some reason it tasted much better he reckoned it was his new dragon body
the two full sized dragons Then did the same to Bruce. who diddnt normally like fish and hadnt eaten any in years but Mottaker was right the raw fish tasted very nice. for whatever reason
due to the pain that the two friend were in it took a long time both to eat their meals about 20 muinits each
once they were finished mottaker put one bucket inside the other leaving the dustbin lids dragons dont need to eat from clean plates

he looked back up to the two newly transformed dragons
"I know exactly how you feel right now" Mottaker told them in a soft, concerned manor. "I know you hate me, I know you don't trust me and I know you also just want to be turned back to how you were. That, unfortunately is imposable. Even the life force itself couldn't do something like that. And lastly I know scared you are youre not showing it but i know you both are"
"How can you possibly know" Bruce said rather angrily.
"Because both me and Makt were once human, Makt has been a dragon for only about 2 years. But me, I've been a dragon for over a thousand years, but I can still remember how scared I was as a kid when I was transformed."
"You were once human,..... over 1000 years ago" Lucas said, astonished.
"Yes" came the simple reply.
mottaker picked up the 2 buckets and left the alcove
makt stayed and looked at the lucas and bruce the two friends may have only been dragons for a few days and only been awake an hour or so but they reconized pity when they saw it
dont worry she said softly everything will get better soon enough
With that the second dragon left the alcove.

it took a long time for the friends to fall back asleep almost every feeling anybody (or anything) can feel was going through their heads
they were scared and aprihensive about what the future held
hate toward the two dragons who had done this to them
and hate towards whatever the life force was for choosing them
they were in alot of pain from the transformation and from talking and eating despare that the dragon had said that going back to being humans is impossable they diddnt know weather to belive mottaker or not but it was still very worring
they were even happy in some ways that they were going through..... whatever they were going through together
bruce was even hanging on to a glimmer of hope that this was still some long horrible dream and he would wake up in his bed with his own arms and legs not the black leathery apendages he had now

A/N Everything I've said about the mines under Norwich, Norfolk, and Suffolk are true. Google it if you like, there's pictures online and yes I have been down them all myself.
The 3 I talked about are.
Rosary road.
Harford hills.
And Newmarket road. (where this one takes place)
There's also on one Earlham road which a bus fell into on the 3 March 1988 (look it up it's a fantastic picture.) that one however was filled up with expanding concrete
norwich's city motto is: "norwich a fine city" and to say it is riddled with tunnels is no understatement not by a long shot hence the title of this chapter
bury st edmunds is named after king edmund of east anglia who was killed in the year 869 by the vikings (yes the real vikings) when they invaded
the word bury however is germanic in origin and meant fort or castle
there are however many villages throughout the county whoes names originate from old norse and even our dialect has some perculialitys that can be traced back to old norse