Her eyes slowly flutter open, taking in the warm, pink, early
morning light that filters through the glass window. Her smooth hair fans
around her head and falls perfectly as she turns onto her elbows. The girl
gently lifts herself off the floor and walks, feet barely grazing the floor, toward
the bold front door. Her mind is sluggish and her thoughts are repressed, but I
can still feel them. The back of her consciousness tells me this is her
cousin’s house. Jill’s. I wonder: why am I seeing this? A harsh knock breaks my
focus and turns me back to the girl. She squints through the peephole.
“Jill?...” A soft voice calls from the girl, trailing off like a wisp of cloud
in the sky.
My perspective
zooms, refocusing in high definition on another girl with dark hair and dark
brown eyes. Jill looks so much like her cousin.
“It’s your turn, Becca,” Jill says, speaking through the
door. For…? Jill smiles up at the eyehole. Becca opens the door and is led by
Jill up the street to a man in a Dodgers jersey. A blue glare cuts through his
glasses. Again I wonder why I am seeing this. The vision seems random, like a
child’s dream, but I wait. I’m sure the purpose will soon be revealed.
“Hi
Becca. We need your help.” The man gets right to business (unusual for this…
Mr. Waters. Becca’s 4th grade teacher). “We need your help, Becca,”
the man continues-I wonder who ‘we’ is-“because the city is in trouble.
Camarillo is being terrorized by a dark force, powerful and dangerous. They
lurk in the shadows, waiting to strike. As crazy as it sounds, there is a
dragon haunting this city.” Becca’s eyes widen.
The
misbelief written all over her face pours into her words, “A dragon?” A dragon?
My heart trembles. I know why I am seeing this now: the vision is a warning.
“A
dragon.” Mr. Waters confirms with a soft nod. “Please, Becca, we need your
help.”
“How
could I help?” Becca asks incredulously, not as ‘how can I help’ but as ‘how
could I, Becca, possibly stop a
dragon”. Apparently Becca isn’t all that selfless. Not when her life is on the
line. The muscles around my mouth twitch upward. She sounds like me. So many
humans believe selflessness is a virtue, when selfishness, to some degree, is
required to survive.
~ ~ ~
Suddenly,
the view changes and I see Becca and Mr. Waters alone in an imposing stone tower
that looks over Camarillo. Becca shakes her head, confused and unbelieving. I
watch from the window behind them, beating my heavy wings to stay afloat. The
reflection off my gold scales is blinding and I make no effort to stifle the
loud beat of my huge red wings, but the city pays no notice, oblivious and
ignorant. Baring my fangs, I knock twice on the glass pane. Knock. Knock.
Slowly, Becca and Mr. Waters turn, Becca’s heart beating loud enough to hear
through the glass. Smirking, I blink slowly and- like I predicted- Mr. Waters
disappears to a building across from the tower. Becca is frozen in fear and
awe, but I am patient. I will wait for as long as it takes.
~
~ ~
Finally,
the fear drains from her eyes, shadows shooed away by the realization dawning
on her face. Her thoughts are jumbled. I see visions of silver, a sleek dragon,
a ring… Unable to decipher her tangled mess of a mind, I focus back on her
physical form. Determination sets her mouth into a hard line and lights a fire
in her brown eyes. With inhuman force, she launches herself at me, fists
outstretched- like Supergirl; like in the little pictures humans watch. She
crashes through the glass, barely fazed. Her consciousness practically screams
at me, and for a moment I am stunned. I have enough sense to move out of her
path, letting her fly past me, falter, and drop. I turn away before she hits
the ground; it’s almost lunchtime and I don’t want to upset my stomach. How
could she think she could beat me? I’m a dragon, born of the Wastes and trained
in the Dying Kingdom. I am astounded by her foolishness. Perhaps not so much
like me after all. What could she possibly hope to achieve with that little
punch?
I find out as hot blue flames roar beneath me.
The dragon from Becca’s thoughts glares up at me, her white scales like a
breaking wave across pure strength. Powerful silver wings launch the dragon who
replaced Becca up surprisingly fast. Before I can think, claws rake my
sides and Becca’s mind laughs at me. A flash of silver, a heart of gold makes
up a sharp blade that pierces my unbreakable gold hide (and of course, an
actual blade, dipped in the Stix). Flames blur my vision and I use Becca’s
sight to find her and claw at her. My razor sharp talons bounce off. With a
swipe of her tail, Becca knocks me off balance and I fall to Earth, barely
conscious. Becca watches my descent, her heart bursting with triumph, mind
burning with disgust. At the edge of my sight, darkness creeps in. I crash into
the ground, the last image to flash through my mind: a ring of black stone on a
white talon layered in silver. A talon sharp enough to pierce an impenetrable
hide. My vision fails and my consciousness flees.
~
~ ~
I
enter Becca’s conscious. I stay at the back of her mind, observing. She is in
human form again but is staring into a mirror at silver eyes and silver hair in
the place of brown. The silver leaves her face as she removes a ring- that
ring- from her finger. Her reflection scrunches and her eyes look far away, as if
answers hang in the air. Dark bursts into the room. My eyes open; the vision
abandons me, but my eyes might as well be closed for all the good they do me.
My orange flames lick the darkness and my situation is illuminated. Black bars
form a cage around me. Something tells me they’re made of the same stone of
Becca’s ring and unbreakable, unbendable. I’ve been abandoned; no hearts beat.
They left me to rot in this place. A glint of orange glances off a smooth pane
of glass. A wicked smile spread across my features.
