The Heart of the Dragon

As she got back to her hut, Angie tried to not think of what almost happened at the waterfall with Hayden, in fact, she was trying not to think of him at all. But no matter how hard she tried, he kept coming into her mind as she took a seat on a log near her hut. Her mind was going crazy with mixed emotions, on one hand, she was glad they were finally going to get rescued by tomorrow, but on the other hand, she didn’t want to leave the island, she didn’t want to leave Hayden.

But her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a sudden sound behind her as she turned around and nearly jumped when she saw a dragon with cobalt blue scales sitting there. The dragon stared at her with its golden eyes, its teeth weren’t showing so she assumed it was a good sign. But she didn’t know what to do as she stood up from her seat as the dragon just sat there.

“Um-” she began to say when it suddenly stepped towards her as she stepped back.

“It’s alright,” Candace suddenly approached while putting her hand on the dragon’s head “He won’t hurt you, he just wanted to say hello.”

“Um... hello?” Angie waved at the dragon who gave a quiet rumble.

“This is Uther,” Candace introduced, “He’s the dragon who turned Hayden.”

“Oh, really?” Angie remarked surprised.

She looked down at the dragon who suddenly raised its head at her.

“You can touch him if you like,” Candace offered.

Angie gave a small gasp as she turned back to the dragon, she had almost forgotten that on her time on the island, she’s never gotten a chance to touch a real dragon. So as she tried to keep cool, she slowly reached her hand out towards Uther who sat still, and as she got closer, she placed her hand on its muzzle which made her gasp. Like Hayden’s scales, Uther’s scales were hard and smooth, perhaps a bit harder than Hayden’s. He let out a soothing rumble as she ran her hand across his scales, kind of like a cat’s purr. Angie gave a small laugh as she continued to pet Uther when he suddenly rolled on his back like a dog.

“He’s like a giant dog,” she laughed.

“Exactly,” Candace laughed as well, “See? Not all dragons are evil.”

Angie continued to laugh as she kept on petting Uther who seemed to be enjoying her touch. But as she did so, she didn’t notice Hayden watching her from the jungle as he smiled at the scene. But at the same time, he remembered that tomorrow was going to be the last time he’ll see her before she leaves, and he knew there was little chance of seeing her again after that.

All of a sudden, he heard footsteps from behind as he turned around to see Jackson who stopped when he was spotted.

“Hey Jackson,” he greeted with a smile.

“Hayden,” Jackson responded, “I was actually looking for you.”

“You were?”

“You’ve got a minute?”

“Um, okay,” the hybrid shrugged, “What’s up?”

“I wanna talk to you about Angie.”

At that point, Hayden felt his stomach dropped, seeing how this was beginning to look like not a good sign.

“Um, what about her?” he questioned, trying to keep calm.

Jackson’s face suddenly turned negative, showing Hayden that it was, in fact, not a good sign.

“I’ve noticed how you’ve been looking at her, how you’re always by her side.”

“Okay...?” the hybrid replied a bit confused.

“I know that look on your face, and I know it’s the same look I’ve been giving her since the beginning of high school.”

Hayden suddenly knew what was going on now as he tried to keep his temper.

“What are you trying to say Jackson?” he demanded.

“Look, I’m trying to make this a competition, but I just need you to know that Angie has been crushing on me for a very long time, and I’ve always felt the same way about her. But not only that, she’s leaving tomorrow, and there’s a very little chance of you seeing her again.”

The sound of that made Hayden’s heart crack.

“You know you don’t have a future with her right?” Jackson added, “I mean, she’s already got hers planned out. Once we leave this island, we’re gonna go to college, and we’re never coming back here. You even said so yourself, coming here is hard.”

Hayden felt himself clenching his fists as he stormed up to Jackson who stepped back with fright, exactly what Hayden wanted.

“If you’re saying I should stay away from her,” he growled, “I’m not going to. So what if I don’t see her again after tomorrow? That means I’m gonna make sure my last day with her will be memorable. And by the way, you may look at her the way I do, but I’ve never seen her look at you in the same way. So ask yourself this- does she still feel the same way about you?”

Jackson didn’t say anything as he glared at the hybrid who stepped back and walked off, not turning back at the jealous boy who was beginning to clench his fists. Once he was out of the jungle, Hayden spotted Angie talking to Tammy and Eli outside her hut. Already ignoring what Jackson had told him, he made his way up to the group where they stopped chatting and turned to him.

“You guys ready to leave tomorrow?” he asked them.

“Not yet,” Tammy replied, “I still wanna look around this awesome.”

“Be my guest,” he offered with a smile when he turned his attention to Angie who gave a bashful smile.

“We’ll leave you guys alone,” Tammy grinned before taking her boyfriend’s hand and walking off to leave the two alone.

“So,” Hayden began, “You excited to leave tomorrow?”

“Well,” she sighed, “I gotta be honest, even though I am looking forward to seeing my parents again, I kinda don’t wanna leave this place. For starters, I haven’t been here that long, and there’s still so much I want to do.”

“I had a feeling you were gonna say that,” he grinned while holding out his hand towards her, “Come on.”

Angie froze by the offering of his hand, knowing that this was going to be the first time touching it. But she calmed herself before reaching her hand out and gently placing it into his warm and rough hand. And with that, they began back into the jungle where Hayden led her to an empty spot where they stopped.

“Okay,” he began, “You know what I’ve noticed? Since you got here, you’ve never gotten to see what it was like to fly.”

Her face lit up followed by a small gasp.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” she grinned as he gave a small chuckle.

“Hold on tight,” he instructed as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders as he wrapped his around her waist and pulled her in.

“You ready?” he grinned while spreading out his wings.

“Bring it on,” she smirked.

Once they were ready, Hayden took off into the air causing Angie to shriek as she held onto him tightly as they landed on a thick branch on top of a tree. Angie kept her hold on Hayden as she looked down to see how high they were as she felt her knees wobble.

“It’s okay,” he spoke calmly with his arms still wrapped around her “I got you.”

As she tried to calm herself, Angie kept her grip onto the hybrid while gazing into his green eyes. Already feeling herself soothing down, she watched as Hayden spread out his wings again, and just like that, they were up in the air again. Feeling her stomach flopping as they zoomed down towards the ground and back up, Angie forced her eyes to open and couldn’t believe the scene she was staring at. Turning her head in Hayden’s direction, she was amazed by the view of the island.

As they soared through the sky, Angie couldn’t take her eyes off the amazing view, she wasn’t even thinking about how high they were, thus making her less scared.

“What do you think?” Hayden asked her with a smile.

“I’m loving this!” she exclaimed.

“I’m glad you feel that way.”

They continued to soar through the sky for a few more minutes until they landed in front of a treehouse near the main area as they let of each other.

“I wanna do that again before I leave tomorrow” Angie grinned while feeling the energy running through her blood “That was awesome!”

“I can make that happen” he smirked while opening the door of the treehouse “Wanna come in?”

“Is this your treehouse?”

“Yep.”

As they stepped inside, Angie was amazed by how stunning his treehouse was inside. Like any other room, it had a bed, a desk, shelves filled with different things, and a window, only this window didn’t have any glass, just a curtain.

“Don’t you need a glass for this window?” she pointed.

“I’m too lazy to get one.”

“What about when there’s bad weather?”

“Then I sleep at someone else’s house.”

“And they’re okay with that?”

“Sometimes,” he snickered.

She gave a small giggle as she began to admire the many items on his shelves.

“Where do you get all of these?” she asked while picking up a silver coin that appeared to be old and rusty.

“A lot of things tend to wash up on shore around here, plus I find things while swimming and I collect them.”

“Damn,” she breathed amusedly “A lot of the things here are really vintage. Do you have a favorite one?”

“I do. Although it’s not something I found, it was given to me.”

He pulled out his compass and showed it to her.

“This was my dad’s,” he explained, “He gave it to me when I was young.”

“Whoa,” she breathed while admiring the details “It’s beautiful.”

“It’s my most valuable possession, it’s actually one of the very few things that were from my parents that got saved during the crash.”

He went over to his shelf where he picked up a large seashell that was filled with small objects.

“In here I’ve got my parents’ wedding rings and their watches. It’s all I got left of them including the compass.”

Angie noticed the sad look on his face when he set the seashell down.

“You okay?” she asked him calmly.

“I’m fine,” he assured as he forced a small smile when he suddenly changed the subject “So um, you ready for college?”

“What?”

“Jackson told me that once you guys go back home, you’re gonna head off to college. Are you ready for it?”

“Well, yeah. I’ve been planning for college since I entered high school. Though I’ve been having some trouble trying to make enough money to pay it all off, which is actually the reason I came on this expedition.”

“Oh?”

“The expedition was to find this new species on an island near South America, and if we succeed, Mr. Monroe will get paid lots of money, and he was planning on splitting it with me and my friends so that we’d have enough for college. But now...”

“I’m sorry,” he sighed.

“It’s fine,” she assured, “I’ll just have to find another way.”

He was about to say something else when she suddenly spoke.

“Wait a minute,” a thought came to her “You were talking with Jackson?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s odd, I’ve never seen him talk to you before, in fact, I don’t think I’ve seen him talk with the other hybrids, what did you guys talk about?”

“Uh...” he froze, not knowing if he should tell her.

“Hayden...” she suddenly got serious “What happened?”

“Okay,” he breathed in defeat “First off, is it true that you’ve been crushing on Jackson for a while?”

“Who told you that?” her eyes widen.

“He did.”

“Jackson?” she gasped, “Wait, how did he know?”

“He didn’t say,” he shrugged “But he did say that he knew already and that he’s felt the same way about you since the beginning.”

Now Angie was even more shocked as she felt her jaw dropped.

“He knew all along-” she muttered, “And he never said anything?”

He just shrugged again.

“Oh my God,” she mumbled, still in shock “But wait, why did he tell you that?”

He let out a sigh, “I think you should ask him that.”

She thought about it for a moment before replying.

“You know what?” she said, “I will.”

“Go ahead.”

“I’ll uh- I’ll probably see you later.”

He gave her a small smile before she headed out of his treehouse. Questions filled up her mind about Jackson, starting with why he never told her that he knew.