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My Father’s Dragon

Part 1

I’ve always looked up to my father. He had been a local symbol. Sure, he was only a veterinarian, but he had cared for many of the community’s pets and animals for over two decades and that meant a lot to many people. It’s what influenced me to become a veterinarian myself.

School was hard but gratifying. Having a father who was a leading expert in his field helped as well and I noticed that he seemed to have an extreme amount of knowledge in herpetology despite having worked on very few reptiles in his career. He chalked it up as a simple curiosity. I think there’s more to it.

My dad had always been a bit of a secretive man. He felt that if someone didn’t need to know about something, there was no need to tell them. His friend, Tommy was similar in that regard as well.

Tommy was a long time family friend, he was a bit slow as well. Now, I don’t want to sound insensitive, but I never really understood how my father shared such a close relationship with the man, but who am I to judge. Uncle Tommy, as I grew up to know him, had been a very positive figure in my life. Despite having no blood relationship to me, he pretty much was the uncle that I normally wouldn’t have.

A few times, I would ask Tommy why he and my dad hung out so much. It wasn’t that it was so unbelievable that my dad and Tommy were just really good friends, but I remembered my mom talking about how my dad used to just tolerate Tommy and then almost overnight, became very close. Just seemed suspicious.

However, despite my proddings and hoping that Tommy, being slow, would slip some information, he didn’t. He became very serious whenever he realized exactly what I was asking and quickly did his best to divert the conversation. Eventually, I just gave up and lost interest and went on with my life.

Since there could only really be so many vets in an area, I decided to move away from home. At first, I went just across the state, but eventually settled down about two hours from home once home sickness set in. I did end up taking some of my dad’s business, but he was close enough to retirement that it didn’t bother him any and having people who were familiar with the family name come to me made work a tad bit easier. There I stayed for about a decade until my father died.

Cancer really is a terrible thing, but it brings the family closer together. I packed up my things and went back home to care for my dad in his final days. It was hard saying goodbye but those last few months were among the happiest we had all been and it was there that I got my first hint into my dad’s secret life.

“Come here for a moment,” my dad waved me over with a thin arm. Chemo and the cancer had ravaged his body, but his warm smile showed that it had not touched his soul.

I got up from the soft couch I had spent most of the past few days on and walked over to the bed where I took my dad’s hand into my own.

“I know I’m not the most forthcoming person alive,” he said and rolled his eyes a little at the face I made. The small movement made him seem so fragile and his hands were so bony. I tried not to think too much about the state he was in.

“You can say that again,” I chuckled. “Whenever mom baked cookies, you’d take one and never tell even when she asked you. You never lied. You just never told.”

“Best cookies in the world,” he grinned and then frowned. “But that’s not why I asked you to come over.”

I frowned as well. “Okay.”

“I know that you suspect that I have some big secret between myself and your Uncle Tommy. A big conspiracy of sort,” he waved his free hand over head and then pointed at me. “Well, you’re right. There is something that we’ve kept between us and no, it’s not some scandalous gay romance, so you can get that mental smirk out of your head.”

I did as he said. “You’re only telling me something I already know. I just never figured out what it was.”

“And you shouldn’t,” He said and then went into a coughing fit. I grabbed a tissue from the nearby night stand and handed it to him. He took it and wiped his mouth. There was a little blood. He tossed the tissue aside. “Some things just shouldn’t be known.”

I was about to protest, but he held up a finger. No matter how sick he was, dad was dad and he had authority.

“Do this for me.”

I couldn’t just say no to him in his dying moments. Clever bastard.

So, I made my promise to not pursue this secret of his and I wouldn’t bother Tommy about it either.

Dad died a week later peacefully in his sleep. It drew a few tears, but I had strengthened myself for this moment for a while now. It was at that moment that the world decided that it had other plans.

The funeral was only three days later. Preparations had been made in advanced. Dad even picked his own coffin, a rather spartan steel box with just a few cushions. He didn’t care about the luxury of the dead.

It was supposed to be a small procession, but dad had been responsible for saving more than a few beloved pets. A good portion of the neighborhood showed up to the point that people were parking at the school two blocks down to show up to the small church. Many said their thanks and last words to dad’s open casket. He looked peaceful in his favorite black suit.

Tommy was the last one to go up. He didn’t say anything. Merely nodded and with that, I along with several other of dad’s friends bore the casket out of the church and to the cemetery where we put him in the ground. Just like that, he was gone.

I stayed behind for a few hours. It was tough and I wasn’t sure how I should react. I had been mostly quiet the entire time, just saying thank you to all the people who gave me their condolences. It was there that this secret began to unravel.

“He was a good man,” said a man in a quite expensive looking suit. He was tall with bronze hair and a distinctly Arabic accent, but not so strong that I had difficulty understanding.

“He was,” I said and turned from the gravestone. “I knew a lot of dad’s friends and acquaintances, but I don’t think we’ve met before.”

“No,” the man said. He looked up to the trees for a moment where I saw that he had quiet the set of green eyes. He then looked back down to the grave. “We didn’t know each other for long, but I feel confident that we’d consider each other friends. I’m Terrance Dracon.”

I expected him to put a hand out in the customary handshake that came with such an introduction, but it never came. Instead, Terrance just stood there for a moment. I guess we were both trying to figure out what was supposed to come next. I felt that Terrance should have that honor. He did start the conversation after all. Eventually he did speak and it was as if nothing had happened at all.

“Years ago, before you were even born, your father did a great service to me. Him and his friend, Tommy,” he said, his eyes never leaving mine even as I glanced away on occasion.

Extended eye contact was not high on the list of things I enjoyed. It was about as high as pooping in a stall with a broken lock. That and waking up only moments before my alarm. I guess he must’ve sensed my discomfort.

“For what he’s done,” Terrance finally continued. “I’ve made a promise to myself to watch out for him and his family. Sadly, I couldn’t do anything about this sickness.”

“Cancer’s a bitch,” I said and sighed. I held back a chocked up cough. Already, any mention was getting me emotional. “I’m not sure how you can help though,” I then said. “Financially, me, my mom, we’re set.”

Terrance gave a weak smile. “Not what I meant, but just know that what he did for me wasn’t the most popular thing with some of my peers.”

Instant alertness came to me. “What peers? What did he do?”

“I’ve said too much,” Terrance’s smile vanished quickly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. If you’ll excuse me.”

Terrance turned to leave, but I reflexively reached out and touched his arm. He turned quickly and there was something in his eyes. It wasn’t anger, but it was enough to make me back off.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” he said and then left.

I don’t know how long I stood there for, but when Tommy touched my shoulder, I jumped which made him jump a bit as well.

“Tommy,” I said, holding my hand to my chest. “I’m sorry. You scared me.”

“It- it’s okay,” he said, though I could see that something as simple as getting startled did more than give him a minor jump. He was already red and flushed, sweating a little as well. Made me feel bad even though he was the one that scared me.

“Want to head inside?” I asked, knowing that sitting down would be good for him.

He nodded.

The inside of the church was simple and being a small church in a good community, the doors were always open even if no one was home. We sat down on the front row of pews near the corner. A statue of Jesus on the cross hung high above the center podium and the windows were stained glass of a mirage of colors that lit up the small church beautifully in the evenings and mornings when the sun was low enough.

“I saw that you met Terry,” Tommy said. He was better now. His normal color came back to his skin. He was fiddling with a little golf pencil that he had taken from one of the pews when we walked in. He prodded the tip with the end of his finger, occasionally wiping away the lead on his pant legs.

“He’s interesting,” I said as I watched him for no other reason than that him and the pencil were the only thing of interest to watch in the church. “Definitely not from around here. Sounds like he came from the Middle East or something from his accent.”

Tommy paused for a moment and looked up at me with a flat face before going back to his fiddling. “Not from around here.”

Was the pause because I was on to something? Or was it just because he felt like it. Either way, I remembered my dad’s promise. I couldn’t push for anymore.

“He just came by to say his final goodbye to dad,” I said.

Tommy set down the pencil, the tip now thoroughly worn down to a dull point. “That’s nice. He doesn’t come by often and even then, only to check up on me. He never visited your dad. Said he was doing just fine.” He began tapping his foot. He hated just sitting there and doing nothing. Always had to move a little. It wouldn’t be long before he excused himself to walk home. He didn’t own a car and didn’t care how far the walk was. It was a short one this time, but I was gonna offer him a ride home. It was along the way.

“Said a few things like that as well,” I mentioned and then sighed. “Not anything he could do about cancer.”

“Yeah,” Tommy said and clenched his fist and then unclenched them. He looked directly at me, making the dreaded eye contact. “Your dad was a good man. I’ll miss him.”

Before I could say anything, he got up and left. I sat there for another ten minutes before going home, but not before going back to the grave and shedding a few tears.

Nothing really happened for a while. I took up my father’s clinic and quickly fell into the daily routine of dealing with a wide variety of pets and the ailments that afflicted them. With summer in full swing, simply receiving heat exhausted pets that had been in the sun too long became a more common occurrence.

Summer turned to fall and the number of overall cases diminished as I entered a slow part of the year. It was then that they came.

It was two people, a man and a woman. They didn’t have a pet with them, but that wasn’t entirely unusual. Sometimes people came in to ask about symptoms before bringing in the animal or they were trying to get a price estimation for certain medications.

They came in and the woman quietly sat down in the chair by the fish tank while the man came to the front reception desk and asked to see me. I was currently busy with an elderly man’s shitzu who had a slight ear infection, causing some irritation. It was simple, just some ear drops to be applied once a day for a week. Afterwards, I went out to meet them.

I’m not sure what happened after that, not even an inkling. I simply went out and blinked. Next thing I knew, I was somewhere else.

It was a cave, or rather a very large cavern. It was lit by an assortment of strung up lights, like the ones in mines which showed shiny rock walls that dribbled with water. There was a single large mouth to the cavern that led somewhere out. I was on a cot when I woke up, instantly alert, but confused.

“I think we used too much of the powder,” the man from my office said as he looked down on me. “He was out for too long.”

“It’s fine,” the woman said. She too was looking down on me. “It’s only too much if his eye color changes. They’re still brown.”

“Can I help you?” I asked, though many other questions would have been appropriate at the moment, but it hadn’t occurred to me that I had been kidnapped.

The two looked at each other and then the woman shook her head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“We already did this much,” the man said back to her. They were speaking as if I hadn’t said anything and it was honestly annoying. “Might as well go all the way.”

The woman frowned, but didn’t say anything.

The man shrugged. “It’s not up to us.”

The woman sighed and then nodded. “Fine. Don’t say that I didn’t warn them. It’s all gonna blow up in our faces soon enough. Might as well light the fuse now.”

The man chuckled and then the two turned and started to walk away.

At that point, I sat up. “Hey,” I cupped my hands over my mouth and yelled out. “Come back!” I glanced around, getting a slight sense of claustrophobia. “Where am I.”

Without turning, the man held up a finger. “Just wait one moment. You’ll be taken care of here in a bit. Please try to not shit yourself. I like that cot.”

I looked down at the cot for a moment. Nothing special about it. When I looked up, the two had left out of only entrance. Then I was alone, but not for long.

About a minute later, I heard something that reminded me of my old high school teacher. She had these long, painted nails, totally real, not fake. She would tap them on her desk all day long and now I was hearing an echoing sound from the sole entrance that was just like it. I waited and stared in anticipation.

The echoing got louder and louder. I could begin to hear each individual clack and it became obvious that it was coming from many sources.

Hairs raised on my neck and my heart beat profusely. I became keenly aware that there was nowhere to hide. It was just me and the cot, which I thought briefly about cowering behind. I would have to face whatever was coming towards me.

I heard it’s voice first. “Ahh, the child. All grown up now.” It was deep and very baritone. Morgan Freeman with a mix of Vin Diesel came to mind.

“Who’s there?” I squinted my eyes as if that would allow me to see whoever was talking to me. “I- I don’t want any trouble.”

“Oh, we believe you,” a sweet and soothing feminine voice sang. “However, sadly, that was not a choice you were given the chance to make.”

Then they came into the light where I could see them.

First thought was giant Komodo dragons, like from an old monster film with the ridiculously green screened animals made to tower over everything around them. I held onto that thought until they came further into the light where I saw their wings. They were dragons, exactly like from all the picture books and movies. No doubt in my mind even if large parts of it were screaming to not believe it.

The male dragon, brown with the occasional black scales spotting his hide, tilted his head to the side and made an undeniable frown. “I do tire of the look the human give us.”

The female grinned, her scaly lips parting only slightly, but enough that I could see a set of white razor sharp teeth underneath. She had ashy yellow scales with a slight hint of green around her paws, like socks on a horse. “Oh do hush. We’re not here to discuss every little thing that annoys you. The human would be dead by then.” She gave a glanced over to me. “I do apologize. How rude of us. I’m Cyvil.” She raised one of her paws to her chest.

“Atheleon,” the male dragon grunted, only giving me a sideways glance at me before looking back at Cyvil.

Cyvil then looked at me expectantly and I realized that a metaphorical ball had been tossed to me and I was expected to catch and then toss it back.

“Oh, uhm,” I stuttered. The fact that I was talking to a pair of dragons was still overwhelming me, so give me a moment’s respite. “I’m Sean.”

“Well,” Cyvil said and gave a slight bow of her head, “we are very glad to be acquainted. She looked over to Atheleon and gave him nudge with her muzzle when he refused to look over to me.

He gave a slight growl that put me on edge. He glanced at me once again. “Very glad,” he mirrored.

I would have to watch that one if I were ever alone with him.

“Don’t mind him,” Cyvil said.

At this point, the dragons had stopped approaching me and were now a respectable ten yards away. Still not far enough that I could run, though I doubt that I could run from them no matter how far away they were from me. Their entire bodies looked built for speed in every way possible.

“Why am I here?” I finally asked.

“Your father,” Atheleon answered and both Cyvil and I looked at him as if he were going to say more. He didn’t, so Cyvil went on.

“Yes, your father,” she continued. “He once aided one of us.”

Atheleon growled loud enough to interrupt Cyvil. She shot him a glare, her pointed ears rearing back. He harrumphed.

“He helped a dragon once,” she said once the tension between her and Atheleon seemed to dissipate slightly. “One that had been Marked and therefore shunned. Lending aid to a Marked is prohibited, however, your father was wholly unaware of our traditions and an exception was made for his case.”

“Barely,” Atheleon said.

I was starting to get real annoyed with Atheleon, but his size, claws, teeth, him being a dragon and me being a small human, kept me from saying anything.

“Then this dragon approached you.”

“When?” I asked. “You’re the first dragons I’ve ever met.”

Cyvil sighed and shook her head slightly. “He approached you through his Warg.”

“If you’re wondering, human, wargs are humans that share a bond with us. We can read their thoughts and they can read ours,” Atheleon said, though I know he said it just to make me feel stupid. “There’s also a certain amount of influence we have over them as well.”

“It requires absolute trust,” Cyvil tacked onto the end of that. “Still, this Terrance was the dragon-in-question’s warg and therefore an extension of himself. He has pulled you into our politics.”

“I didn’t know any of this until you kidnapped me,” I felt myself rise up and point an accusing finger. “Why couldn’t you just leave me alone?”

Atheleon hissed like a snake and a set of gill like flaps extended from his neck. They began to vibrate and I heard the sound of a dog whistle which quickly grew in volume and pitch. It was about to cross the threshold of pain when Cyvil, her wings fluttering and tail thrashing, hit Atheleon across his ribs with her paw. He yowled and then stopped, the flaps folding back against his neck.

Cyvil and Atheleon were both trying to stare down the other. Both were of equal size, but eventually Atheleon looked away. The male dragon then silently padded away. He didn’t leave, instead, he kept to the fringes of the cavern where he paced.

“I do apologize,” Cyvil said to me in a seemingly genuine tone. “There’s bad history and Atheleon isn’t the kind to forget or forgive.”

I sat back down, shaking my head to get rid of buzzing behind my eardrums. “So then, what happens to me now?”

“We don’t know,” Cyvil said. Her wings arched up just like a shrug. “That is still being debated. Some say that taking you was a mistake. Others say that you should be killed. Many want to use you as bait to lure in the Marked. Many options are being considered.”

I gulped at the thought that I could be killed. “What do you think?”

“Me?” She took a step back and looked up wistfully. “I do not know if you can be trusted to keep our existence secret, but I do not believe that murder is necessary.”

“So, you’d keep me imprisoned here,” I said and sighed. I looked down at my feet. My shoes were scuffed, the nice leather of the loafers ruined.

“That is not for me to decide,” Cyvil answered, sadness on her voice. “Whatever happens, I do hope that no one is hurt.”

She left shortly after and then Atheleon followed. I was alone again, but I knew better than to think I wasn’t being watched. Atheleon wanted me dead and I hadn’t even had the chance to even try and wrong him. He’d look for any reason to kill me. Trying to run would just be too easy for him and I imagine that if for some reason he could maul me to death, he’d use those weird gills and make my head explode or something. So, I did what any reasonable person would do and waited.

My phone didn’t have much charge left and being underground, there was no service, but I did have some music to pass the time.

The sound of rock, country, pop, a little of every genre bounced off the walls of the cavern as I walked it’s edges. I had nothing else to do.

It was four hours later that my phone died. It resorted to throwing pebbles, to see if I could throw them to the other side. A slightly bulgy rock that looked more like a tiny overstuffed sack of potatoes almost made it across, but none did.

After less than ten minutes of that, I began to jog. I stripped to my boxers and began to jog. I only did that for a lap, which I estimated to be just over five hundred meters, before I felt too aware of eyes on me. I couldn’t see them, but I knew.

Afterwards, I went to the cot and laid down. I wasn’t tired. Not even close to being tired and my watch told me that it was just past four in the afternoon. I wouldn’t normally got to sleep for another six hours. So, I laid there.

I was there for three days.

The wargs came back every so often. They would have food and twice a day, they would take me out of the cavern to an actual bathroom. It was odd. About fifty meters out of my cavern was a door that led into a perfectly normal looking restroom. I could relieve myself and take a shower where they had simple clothes to swap out for me. They didn’t answer any questions of mine. They only told me that a plan was in the making.

Three days is a long time to wait while doing absolutely nothing and it was a long time to be goaded by the silence and an open way out of the cavern. I decided to run for it.

I waited until my watch said it was midnight before I made my move. The cavern was always lit and so I didn’t bother sticking to the shadows, I straight up walked out. I got to the bathroom where I stood. It was always on my mind that I could have just walked to the bathroom myself if I wanted to without issue and so it took some courage building to go further. I simply reminded myself that my mother was at home alone now. It was my responsibility to care for her. That was enough.

The cave, as my current luck would hold, was a maze. Lots of intersecting passages. More like the interior of an office building than a natural formation. The halls were also tall and vaulted. Large enough for a dragon or two to go down side by side. It was too open and made me feel exposed as I slowly crept along, dashing occasionally to hide behind a metal support beam when it came up.

It was extremely quiet in the tunnels. There was only my foot steps and the hum of the lights that were strung along the ceiling, sending down an oppressive, sickly yellow illumination down on me. The longer I went, the more I began to compare it to a horror movie. Wasn’t far from the mark.

Nails, or in this case, claws big enough to disembowel me, began to click and clack against the stone somewhere behind me. It was close already. I had been stalked and now the hunter was going to toy with me.

Adrenaline rushes through my veins like water struggling through a too narrow pipe. I felt my whole body rush with energy and my mind focus. I was panicking. The body’s natural fight or flight response kicking in and no way in hell was I going to fight a dragon.

Don’t think I ever sprinted so fast in my life. Everything became a blur around me and yet I saw it all as clear as crystal. I was only barely aware of my heartbeat, a thunderous racket in my chest, as if ready to launch itself out of my throat. I swallowed it back down.

The clacking of claws behind me picked up in tempo akin to the rise in some classical music I had listened to before. It didn’t have the beat that would make me think the dragon was running, maybe a light job. It was totally playing with me. Atheleon was a cruel thing.

Door and corners. I looked for them. Anything that could send me somewhere safe, if such a thing currently existed. My eyes darted left and right, scanning so fast along the walls that I didn’t see the stairs that were right there.

The cave tunnels had been slowly rising and at some point there had been stairs. Not much, just three or four steps. I don’t know why they would be there. I suppose it made sense to whoever designed the place, but for me, it was a total surprise.

I saw them at the last moment. I didn’t recognize them as stair until I had already been in the air, mid step and too late to do much other than let out a sheepish yell. My foot landed on the corner of the step. I saw my foot twist upwards, toes touching my shins.

Next, my shins hit the corner of the next stair up. That point of my leg became a knee as it bent back awkwardly. Muscles tore, tendons snapped and bone cracked. It was sickening and yet oddly fascinating. It was something I hadn’t seen before. Not on a human. Not on myself.

It had all happened so fast and yet, I could recall every last detail right down to the moment the pain crippled whatever part of me hadn’t been physically broken. It came in one big slap that turned that small sheepish yell into an agonizing scream.

I flew over the stairs and landed hard on my front. My ribs flexed at the impact and my head only just barely avoided being cracked open like an eggs on the stone. I tumbled a few times until I finally came to a stop and was able to suffer my dues in pain.

I rolled and held my mangled leg. It was all I could do right then.

Could have been a minute, could have been an hour. Time had an odd way of going both fast and slow at the same time in a situation like this, but the figure coming out of the shadow froze it.

Amber eyes looked at me and I looked back at it with bloodshot eyes.

“Wouldn’t expect anything less of your kind,” Atheleon said with tone of superiority.

He padded over to me slowly. Every step he took seemed calculated to make him appear regal. Didn’t matter to me if he pranced over to me. Right now he was the emissary of death.

Atheleon grinned down at me. He loved to see me like this, broken and incapable. He’d love to see any human like this. What did his warg think, I wondered for a fleeting moment.

“You knew there was no chance, didn’t you?” Atheleon asked though he didn’t give me a chance to answer. Wouldn’t have answered anyway, was still cradling my leg. “Yet you still ran.” He chuckled as if he made a clever joke.

I suppose there were worse ways to die. Killed by a dragon was up there for pretty cool deaths. Not dying would have been much better and the universe had a funny way of working.

“Atheleon,” a voice came from the other side of the passage and both the dragon and I looked to see who it was.

Another dragon, covered in midnight black scales, stepped seemingly from out of the shadows. He was smaller than Atheleon, but covered in sharp ridges that made him look more like a futuristic warship with legs than a living thing.

“Faedon,” Atheleon said, unable to hide a slight hint of surprise from his voice. “I didn’t know you were here. Then again, you Belgian Melders are known for that. Just appearing out of thin air.”

Faedon chuckled. “You flatter me.” His scales then changed color, so subtly that the dragon could have turned completely white and there would be a chance that I would miss it. He turned a deep maroon with marbling all across his body. Now he looked like an expensive countertop.

I was seemingly forgotten just then and only just managed to drag myself to the wall before Atheleon stepped on me. It was painful as anyone could imagine, but more of a raging burn with the occasionally stabbing of a red hot sword kind pain now. Much more manageable.

The two dragons reared up. Straight neck, backs stiff and wings slightly extended, this was a testosterone fueled face off.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” Atheleon said, an edge to his voice. A promise of violence. “This is my territory.”

“Please,” Faedon rolled his deep blue eyes. “Such notions such as territory as medieval. We all belong to the Clan. All belongs to the clan.”

Atheleon’s nostrils flared. “The Marked proves otherwise.”

“Only if we let it,” Faedon countered and then glanced down at me. “You’re letting it. You were ordered to let the human be.”

Atheleon shrugged, an act that seemed overly human for something that hated us. “They were going to kill him anyways.”

Faedon’s eyes narrowed and a grumbling noise rose from deep in his chest. “That was not for you to decide.”

“Then whose decision is it? Hmm?” Atheleon took a step closer to Faedon, the gills now visible on his neck. I heard a whisper on the wind. “We all know that the Lords are a tiresome bunch who can’t decide on anything important.”

“So you decide for them?” Faedon asked, though he kept talking. His eyes darted to me and then to Atheleon. “Doesn’t matter anyways. They have already made their minds. The human goes free. The Lords wasn’t any to see him. My warg will handle him.”

The gills flared, but did not start to vibrate. “He is mine. My prey. You will not have him. Even if you get past me, Cyvil will stop you.”

“I’m afraid not,” Faedon said and smiled. He looked beyond Atheleon where the female dragon had appeared.

Cyvil’s head was lowered, her body hunched over. There was none of that pride that I had seen in the others. “I’m sorry,” she said, barely a whisper. “The Lords have made their mind. I must obey.”

“I am your mate!” He shouted loud enough that dust came from the ceiling. “We obey each other.” He bared his fangs and looked at Faedon. “I’ll kill you first, then the human.”

“You will try,” Faedon said and widened his stance out.

A lot happened very fast. Atheleon’s gills started to vibrate. I was going to cover my ears, but Faedon spat out a green gunk. It covered one side of Atheleon’s face and his gills. The sound was much more manageable, but the sound from the one remaining pair of gills was still enough to give me a headache.

Faedon’s scales shifted color to a bright amber and red as he tackled Atheleon. The two males sounded like a pair of lions as they snapped at each other and fought. I was afraid that I would be crushed by them, but they rolled down the passageway away from me.

Cyvil, with the other two preoccupied, approached me. I recoiled away from her. I wasn’t in a trusting mood at the time.

“Don’t fear me,” she cooed and her warg stepped out from behind her. Atheleon’s warg was nowhere to be seen.

“You’re a dumbass, you know that?” The warg said and then kneeled down next to me. She had a medical bag in hand. She opened it up and pulled out a set of metal poles which she screwed together. She put two next to my leg, one on either side.

I watched her with an unnerved curiosity. She looked entirely bored with the situation. “Where’s the other? Your partner in crime?”

She glanced up at me for a moment and I bet that if she was chewing bubble gum, she’d pop a bubble. “He’s fine, just knocked out. Used the same powder on him that I had used on you. Won’t be waking up anytime soon.”

“Oh,” I said and then watched her work and I wish I hadn’t because I knew what she was going to do.

“This is gonna hurt,” she said more as an after thought than anything else. She grabbed my shin and then my knee and pulled.

I had passed out and she had also set my ankle during that time while bandaging the metal rods to my leg to make a splint. I guess Cyvil had also come into play as well because I was laid out across her back, my head resting partially on her wings.

“I don’t blame you for fainting.” The warg said. She was kneeling over me.

I could still hear the fighting between Atheleon and Faedon. I guess the goo on Atheleon came off because there was also a high pitch whine coming from behind us. It was a ways away, but still damn loud.

“What happens now?” I asked. My head hurt, but just my head. I think the warg had given me some pain meds because I was also feeling a bit high.

“We take you to the Lords of the Clan,” Cyvil said without turning her head. “From there, I can’t say. All I know is that they want to see you.”

The fighting either stopped or became too far away to hear eventually and I ended up falling back asleep. I was exhausted and even though I was laid across the hard scales of dragon’s back, it felt like a memory foam mattress to my fatigued body. It wasn’t good sleep as I fazed in and out of consciousness, but at one point, we were outside.

It was the cool wind that kept me awake. It wicked the sweat from my body, chilling me and it took me a moment to realize that we had stopped and the warg wasn’t looking for me.

“Tarragon,” Cyvil said. “This is a surprise.”

I lifted myself onto my elbows and the warg, who I still had no idea what her name was, put a hand on my chest. She shook her head at me. “Stay low.”

“The Clan has gone too far this time,” Tarragon said. I could only just listen to the conversation. “They won’t stop me this time.”

Cyvil hissed. “You can’t keep trying. You almost died last time!”

Cyvil’s warg grabbed me then and without much regard to my leg, she pulled me. I screamed and then she shushed me as if that would stop the pain.

The dragon lowered herself down low enough for the warg to pull me off and onto the ground. I felt like a sack of potatoes that was too heavy to lift.

“Stop! Just stop.” I struggled then, pissed off and wounded, I decided to fight this time instead of flight.

The warg held onto me. She began to reach into her pockets, probably for the powder when I was able to twist away from her.

Her eyes were wide with surprise and her mouth was in a angry scowl. Her hands still in her pockets, she took a step towards me and the she seized up. There was a clicking noise.

“Not so fast.” Terrance stepped out of the treeline, a taser in hand and connected to Cyvil’s wargs back by a pair of thin wires.

The warg collapsed on the ground in a spasm. Her eyes were glued on Terrance the entire time up until the point he reached into her pocket and grabbed some of the powder. He the sprinkled it around her mouth and nose. She tried to hold her breath, but it did no good. Her eyes closed a few moments later.

“Get away from her!” Cyvil screeched and was going to turn to Terrance when Tarragon closed the distance in a single leap. Cyvil gasped.

Tarragon’s eyes began to glow as he made eye contact with Cyvil. The air around the two seemed to distort and I got a pretty bad headache again.

“Sleep. Forget,” Tarragon said and then Cyvil crouched down, curled her tail around herself and went to sleep.

The words had an effect on me because I was overcome with a deep sense of tiredness and confusion. I suddenly didn’t know where I was.

My leg hurt. Why? It was perplexing to me. Everything that I had just known ceases to be known as if my whole being had been wiped and then replaced with a copy that had never experienced what had just happened. I could have been dropped off at my home and told that I had fallen down some stairs. I would have believed it, but Terrance slapped me.

“Ow!” I held my cheek. The memories flooded back in. I was myself again.

“No time for dreamland right now,” Terrance said and put an arm around me. He didn’t drag me like I had been all day, instead he helped me up and let me lean on him.

“Please, just let me go home,” I asked. I didn’t struggle as I was walked to Tarragon. It was still pretty dark out. I could only see due to the full moon.

“Not much of an option, I’m afraid,” Tarragon said and kneeled down to bring his face down to my level. “I owed your father my life and so I will repay that debt to his child. They would have killed you. They will keep trying. I won’t let them.”

I had no choice. I had to trust him.