Meggin

Boards creaked and ice groaned under huge paws as a dragon creeped out onto a narrow frozen dock.
'Why am I doing this?'
She inched forward with a wide and very awkward stance, her retractable claws out and her feathered wings waving in an effort to keep her balance.
‘It’s going to break, I’m going to fall. That’s all ice. I bet the water under it is really cold.’
A paw slipped off the edge. She dropped down to her belly scrambled to regain her footing.
‘Hypothermia is not how I wanna go. Is that creature even worth it? I could just turn around.’
But she couldn’t just turn around. In fact, she wasn’t sure how she was going to turn herself around to get off the dock.
The dragon approached the edge and took a moment to wedge her wing blades into the posts on either side of her. She’d heard stories about people getting drug under and drowned by the things they tried to save. It might have been just a little beast, but there was no harm in anchoring herself. She wiggled her wings a little, slid her front paws back under herself, and looked down at the creature in the water below her.
‘I hate humans.
But it’s just a little one.’
There he was, curled up and gripping the base of a pole, shivering so hard that the water around him seemed to be vibrating. The lake was solid ice, and he sat in the only break in white uniformity.
‘I hate humans.
Oh my gods it’s cute.
What now?’
She leaned down a little, “Hey… Are you… Are you awake?”
He didn’t move.
She leaned down a little more and raised her voice over the snowfall, “Hey!”
The little human’s coat crinkled. He slowly looked up and squinted through the storm, snow clumping on his back and in his hair. He looked cold and tired and absolutely hopeless. The dragon's heart melted a little.
“Okay, listen, I’m going to pick you up okay? Don’t freak out alright? Please?”
She crouched, grabbed the back of his coat in her front teeth, and lifted him onto the dock. He went limp as she started to set him down.
"Oh no. you’re not well are you. Okay then, here we go."
She lifted her neck and shifted her weight back and forth, then pulled her legs under herself and spun around in a series of wild steps and beating wings, dragging her rescue with her and trying her best not to step on him.
The dragon paused, found her balance, and hurried back to the shoreline.
'That’s it. No more docks. Ever.'