Dangerous, Diabolical

He rushed right past me, face determined. From above the beat of wings shredded the air and I felt the force of them pushing down as the beast followed after him. He spared a glance backwards to see its wings, the shadow blocking out what remained of the sun. Seeing him stumbling, I clenched my teeth sharply, standing to follow.

The screaming from the valley became louder, and the shadow from above sped past toward it, wings outstretched.

“No!” Leofstan shouted, unable to keep pace. Sliding in the dirt he stumbled his way down. I struggled to keep pace, tripping over bricks and sinking into the mud. Like a man possessed he barrelled his way down.

The flames from the town doubled, the screaming intensified and the air grew thick with smoke until I lost sight of him, shrouded inside of it.

“Leofstan!” I shouted, pushing my way past an overturned barrel. A dark silhouette was running in front, and I ran towards it. From above a giant claw outstretched.

“WATCH…” The loudness of my voice surprised me as it seized the person mid-swoop, jolting them off the ground with a sickening crunch.

I slid to a stop. “…Out,” I mumbled the last word, grimacing. Damn.

“Aenor!” Came the recognisable gruff voice further into the smoke. I took a deep breath as I realised that had been someone else. Following the sound of his shout, I travelled further into the smoke, squinting my eyes. A hazy patch ahead drew my attention, the smouldering glow drawing me closer.

It was the remains of where a wooden house would’ve stood. The thatching was almost burnt away, the timber beams splintered and collapsing under their own weight. A slim figure lay pinned under one of the collapse support beams. My heart skipped a beat. She was pinned, unable to crawl free and whimpering.

My stomach growled.

A small girl appeared, grasping uselessly at the pinned woman’s arms, trying to pull her free. The flames licked closely at her mud-soaked cotton shift.

Both of them saw him at once, looking towards the figure bursting from the smoke. The woman began weeping as he threw aside his shield and sword, throwing his arms to grab for anything he could get a purchase on to lift it. It didn’t budge.

He let out a long, deep guttural cry. Ugh, fine. I’d eaten a rabbit that looked less sorry for itself.

Meandering over I bent down to lend him a hand, reaching to wrap my arms around the scorching wood. Now I could add a lecture about my strength to the list of council woes.

Only, it didn’t work.

I almost toppled over as my hands passed straight through the wood. Jolting back to look at my hands they were unquestionably solid. Leofstan was still trying to hoist up the beam, his skin coated in sooty ash leaving the pinks of his eyes a stark contrast. Not once did he look at me, or the other two humans. As I looked down I realised my feet were completely clear of mud, and as I stepped backwards there wasn’t even an indent where I’d stood.

Holy cow I was dead, maybe. How did one decide if they were dead anyway? It wasn’t like I was in hell. To be honest, people dying, a village burning, and carnage were my idea of a good time. Watching Leofstan pull with every inch of strength he had, the fire burning deep into his arms made me realise if anything, this was his hell. But what had it got to do with me?

The little girl saw what he was doing and tried to help, attempting to lift helplessly too. She had Leofstan’s soft curling brown hair. “Fader!” She cried helplessly, then, a string of words from a language unfamiliar. The pinned woman tried to hold out her arms to him, and he knelt to her, tears rolling from his face leaving dirt-marred trails down his cheeks. She cradled his face gently, as he held her what he could of her.

Leofstan couldn’t move the beam pinning her, she knew, if he could, he would’ve already. Her face was contorted in pain, but her wide blue eyes still looked at him in adoration. Again, something intelligible was spoken. The little girl began to sob as he shook his head helplessly.

Leofstan looked to the sky, letting an anguished guttural scream into the darkness.

A roar answered; preoccupied he’d forgotten to watch the skies. Leofstan’s hands shot to cover his ears, the overwhelming pressure signifying the beast was upon him. And before there was even a blink, his daughter was gone. Smoke dispersing upon itself the creature rose higher.

“AENOR!” Leofstan screamed, voice guttural, his cry lost under her screams. The beast had her, her small body visible above in its claws, and then, in a heartbeat, they tore her apart like paper.

The woman screamed with the very last cry she could muster. Blood rained down on them, splattering their skin and soaking into the charred, muddy ground.

The girl’s corpse hit the floor with a squelch, the creature followed its kill to the ground, wings snapping shut as it crunched dirt on landing. Powerless, Leofstan watched teeth ripping into her corpse. He wasn’t even the size of its head and before he could react its slitted, reptilian eye fixed on him, shattering the bones of his daughter in its teeth.

Leofstan did the only thing he could, he ran.

For a moment I just stared at the scaled creature in front of me, a tingle flittering into my fingertips, and leaving my stomach doing flips. I had thought I was the only one left. My mouth hanging ajar, unable to look away, each step took me closer to him. Holding out a hand I longed to feel the strength of his scales under my fingertips. He had to be real; he had to be.

“Dragon,” I whispered. Taking a deep breath, I closed the last gap to reach him.

And with an exhale I was yet again sitting in the hospital room.

“There we go.” Leoftan let go of my hand, patting the back of it. For a second I couldn’t comprehend what happened. Once again I was sat surrounded by the same four walls, very much alive. Holding my breath was all I could do not to break down into tears. My heart thumped heavily, and my hand felt emptier than it ever had before. Devoid of the touch of scales, combined with the absence of Leofstans hand left it feeling like I’d never before seen the appendage.

The fingers twitched disbelieving. As I looked up it was as if time had slowed. I knew I was myself, in my own body. And yet I felt completely alien.

A remnant tear fell from my chin and I reached up to brush it quickly off my cheeks. “What’s wrong?” A frown crept onto his stubbled face, he was still himself but the memory of him with his beard, hair slightly longer, was burned into my eyes. He had more crows feet now, his nose was more crooked as if it had been broken a few times. Gazing long enough I could swear the lines of where the woman had held his cheek was visible.

I’d seen plenty of people die at the hands of a dragon, albeit, my fault, but it was the first time I’d experienced it from a ground-eye view. The overwhelming sense of loss was extravagant for just missing out on the dragon. It felt as if someone I knew had died.

Answering him ‘Oh I don’t know, maybe I just watched your family get murdered by a dragon’. Was another one of those conversations that seemed even more ridiculous than a disappearing spell-caster, or mutated wolf girl risen from the dead. His reaction wasn’t worth exploring right now. What if he cried and then I’d be trapped in the boring hospital bed with a room full of emotions, and that was worse than TV adverts. My chin wobbled, but I looked away, admiring a dusty abstract sunflower painting.

Had he not noticed the little trip down his memory lane that I’d just strolled through? The smell of ash and blood was still lodged in my nose.

“I feel much better, thanks.” I opted for instead. Despite the unease, my head was less stuffy and my tongue no longer had blisters.

Clenching and opening my fist a few times, feeling the weight of the jewel, it seemed slightly unnerving that it had not reacted when I’d cast, but he had. He’d not mentioned seeing anything when I’d been using magic, so maybe the thing was one way? Unless Leofstan was into sharing depressing memories, then the thing in my hand had to be to blame.

“Good.” Why hadn’t he tried to heal the lady pinned under the tree? Or blasted the dragon with his magic? Unable to ask him without first saying I may have been inside his head I remained silent.

Another knock at the door saved me from pondering further.

“Ah, Grahame,” Leofstan boomed. “Come in. Meet Ms. Doukas.” A stocky man slid into the room. I felt my metaphorical ears perk up as his scent invaded. He liked fresh human too, in fact, he’d had a very pleasant drink not a few hours ago. Curiously, his own body didn’t emit any sort of scent, yet his blood carried nearly ten different ones merged into one. He was like a many-layered trifle of people. When I realised he didn’t have a heartbeat it clicked into place. Vampire!

Wiggling up in the bed, my pondering forgotten, I tried to get a better look. So cool! I was meeting an actual vampire. I wanted to see how big his teeth were. If he tried to change me into a vampire would I then become a dragon-vampire, or only a vamp stuck in one form? If he bit me, would I turn into a vampire before a zombie? There was still the chance of zombism of course. Plus being stuck on two legs would suck, literally. But being a four-legged beast in the skies that also drank blood and didn’t have to worry about being killed off would solve a lot of problems.

“Hello!” I greeted him perkily.

He fixed red irises on me curiously, inhaling, his eyes narrowing. “What are you?” He demanded statue-still. Whoa, straight to the point. He was trying to establish dominance off the bat. Sorry Grahame, I’m the top predator in the room.

“Mostly human.” I smiled at him, keeping my teeth blunt but showing too much to be considered friendly.

Grahame tasted the air again, “no, you’re not.” His nostrils flared. “You smell like blood.” He narrowed his eyes at me.

My smile slipped into a smirk. Takes one to know one.

“Well, I was attacked. But the nurses managed to get most of the blood off?” I batted my eyelashes, forcing a sad pout. “I was waiting until I got home to shower.”

Grahame didn’t move, his glare unwavering. Without the breathing reflex, he could truly pass off a statue.

I retreated into the stiff mattress, flapping my hand dismissively at him. “Fine, I have some fire powers. Nothing drastic.”

Leofstan scoffed, for a moment he paused as if to say something more, but quickly looked away.