CHAPTER 2 Disaster

I awoke to sunlight.

For a moment, I had a sense of urgency. Something had happened. There was something I needed to do.

Then I became aware of something... different. A feeling in my limbs, in my face, in my spine...

My eyes shot open. I found myself staring down a long, white snout, covered in what seemed to be small shells. They glimmered white in the beam of sunshine from my bedroom window. Slowly, I turned my head, one eye regarding the scaly body stretched out on the quilt behind me. For a moment, I stared, uncomprehending. Then it's tail twitched. And I felt it.

I leaped out of the bed, hearing it protest over my shoulder. I hit the floor with a thump, and whirled around, toward my mirror. A long, lithe body confronted me, the huge green eyes set in the angular white face, reflecting my shocked acceptance.

Calm down. I've always known I was different. I knew that there was something that set me apart from everyone else out there. I almost... expected something like this. Still... a dragon? There must be a reason.

The jewel like eyes stared back at me from the glass, not blinking. I began to take in other details. The long claws, four on each forefoot, three on each hindfoot. The first claw in the back was long and curved, reminding me in a not-so-subtle way of a dinosaur's killing claw. I shivered, which rippled down my long, tapered tail. At the tip, a hooked blade curled inward from each side, almost like a dolphin had run it's tail through a can opener. The outer edge was jagged as a shark's tooth, and very sharp.

The feature that drew my eyes the most, was the wings. A great silken pair of canopies, rustling softly like a satin gown against my rough scales. Slowly, I spread the great fans, brushing the ceiling before I could extend them properly. They shimmered like a butterfly's wings, rainbow reflections dancing. I peered closer and saw that each little sparkle was in fact a tiny, iridescent scale, much like the tiny feathers that coated a butterfly's wings. I waved them slowly, delighted when I felt the air pull and tug at the light frame of the five 'fingers' that served as the mainstays for the glittering fabric in between. A single clawed thumb reached from the 'wrist' joint, giving the entire thing a handlike appearance.

I was surprisingly small for a dragon. Not that I would know, but in stories, dragons were always gigantic. My shoulder was about the same as it would be if I were human. That is, about five feet off the ground. With that height, my neck could stretch to almost eight feet. The long neck was accentuated by a stiff crest of spikes, which raised and lowered even as I watched. My face was long and narrow, and shaped rather like a horse's, with the exceptions of the horns, long fangs, and beaklike upper lip.

I was startled suddenly from my almost dreamy contemplation by a loud bang. It sounded as if our front door had been broken down. I heard my mother scream. I heard my father give a wordless yell... and then a loud thump, followed by the sounds of a struggle, and a cry of pain.

For an instant, I sat and listened to the commotion, completely immobile. Then I jerked my wedge-shaped head and lurched toward the door. For a moment, I couldn't grasp the door handle, slippery talons sliding right off. Finally, I yanked it open just in time to hear my father's weak, out-of-breath voice say; "What do you want?"

I crept slowly down the hallway, my side almost pressed to the wall.

"We come for the drrrragon." The voice, as much as the words, made me freeze. It was as if a viper had gained the power of human speech. The low, hissing rasp, like a shard of oiled ice slipping into the sea, crawled across my scales in a very unpleasant way. I almost shrank back, then steadied. I had to help my parents.

"Dragon? You must be mad! There are no dragons here!" My father's voice shook. I could tell he was just as unnerved by the terrible voice. Slowly, claw by claw, I began to creep forward again.

I heard a surprised hiss, like the dying gasp of a balloon. "You do not know? Then sssshhhe is adopted, yessss? You know nothing of her originsssss?" It cackled wickedly. Ice shattering.

My father's voice was so quiet I almost couldn't hear it. "I don't know what you're-"

"FOOL!" The voice roared, yet still seemed to whisper and hiss at the same time. "Your daughter, vermin! The one you call your own. The girl! We mussssst have her!"

"What does that have to do with a dragon?" My father's voice sounded determined." And why do you want our daughter?"

"You really don't know? But the queen was sure she would have manifessssted by now... but no matter. I will kill you and then kill her. To do otherwise is to be fed." A trickle of fear seemed to ooze through the hiss. " Though I suppose you should know her hisssstory, so you know why you have been killed." The creature chuckled wickedly.

I had made it far enough down the hallway to look around the corner of the wall and down into the entryway. I caught my breath. Gray, slimy, wax-thin scales, in thatched layers, covered what I could see of the beast. The creature seemed to float above the ground in a deep gray hood and cloak, the folds of which hid all but a pair of scaly gray 'hands', each with two long claws as fingers, as well as a strange greenish shine from the depths of the hood, where the eyes should have been.

I shuddered, my upper lip slowly curling back to reveal my new fangs.

"Your 'daughter'," it whispered, almost shaking with suppressed delight, "is a dragon."