How can you
help? Heh. I’d love to know. More than you, probably. But I doubt you can. I
mean sure, you’re more than welcome to try – I’m not keen on being stuck like
this forever.
No, not up the
tree, I know how to climb out of a tree, thank you. I mean like this, in this body.
Well yes, I
suppose it is pretty, in a way. But it’s not… me. It was my great grandmother,
actually.
Er, sure, you
can touch the scales. If you can reach.
I dunno,
they’re probably magical. I really have no idea, though. Oh look, let me tell
you the whole story. Sit down.
Comfy? Okay.
It was a hot,
sultry Tuesday in that month full of Dragon Tuesdays, and Sham and I were
heading out for ice cream. There’s this great little parlour at the end of
Beech Avenue that does the real, genuine home-made stuff.
Although we
never said it, I knew we were both hoping that this time, we’d be the ones to
spot the dragon – the dragon that had appeared with perfect regularity, every
Tuesday of that month, somewhere around our tiny town. Seeing a dragon had
become my entire goal in life. Yeah, I know. Ironic.
So, we were
walking down Main, kicking up dust, laughing and joking and generally having a
good time. School was out, summer was on its way, and life was good.
We hit the ice
cream parlour – I got raspberry coconut swirl, just for a change – and took our
waffle cones outside. There we were, licking our ice creams, giggling and hot
and sticky, minding no one but ourselves, glancing casually around every now
and then, just in case.
I’d gotten down
to the cone and almost given up hope when there was an almighty crash-thud. A blinding
flash of light shone from a side street; we ditched our cones and ran towards
it.
“Dragon,” Sham
exclaimed, eyes all lit up.
I nodded. A
great beast, it was said to be, about the size of a wagon, metallic and boxy
and roaring and blowing smoke out its end.
Right as we
came around the corner, there was another almighty roar, and there before our
eyes was the dragon. We were shocked, but not half as shocked as we were when
there was a clunk-clunk, and the dragon’s body started opening up.
I shrank back
around the corner and clutched at Sham’s arm.
But that wasn’t
even the strangest: as the dragon’s body opened up, people emerged. Three of them: two men and a woman. They were
wearing strange clothes that gleamed, dark and form-fitting. They stared at the
buildings and murmured amongst themselves.
Mayor Francis
must’ve heard the noise, ‘coz he came striding out of the Hall across the
street, moustache twitching. He ignored us and marched right up to the dragon
riders. “And who are you?” he demanded.
Sham and I didn’t
hear their answer, so we edged closer.
They said
something about there being a leak in time, where they came from, so whenever
people drove through this one area, they ended up somewhere else entirely –
often here.
Weird.
I think they
were a bit you-know in the head, personally. Still, it was the most interesting
thing Sham or I had ever seen, so we followed them. Tailed them around from sun
up ‘til sundown, mostly without them knowing, while they wandered around town “taking
in the sights”.
Things were great
until they’d been there about a week. Actually yeah, it was exactly a week; I
know ‘coz it was Tuesday again. They’d been driving around in that silver beast
of theirs, which we heard them call a ‘car’, and when they stopped at the old
theatre, they left the back open.
They didn’t
know we was there, of course, or they prolly would’ve made sure it was locked
up real tight. But they didn’t, and Sham and I knew opportunity when we saw it,
so in we climbed.
We had a good
poke around, bouncing on the seats and hanging out the windows – and then I
found it.
It was stuffed
under one of the front seats, and I saw it pretty easily ‘coz in the darkness
of the under-seat, it sparkled. I pulled it out just as Sham hissed at
me to shut up, they were coming, get out – and I stuffed it in my pocket
without even thinking, and promptly forgot about it as we scurried away, with
the ‘car’ riders pelting things at us.
It wasn’t until
after dinner, up in my own room, that I pulled it out. It reminded me of the
empty lizard skins I’d seen out near the creek, cast off when the lizard grew
too big for it. Except this must’ve come from a huge lizar. I draped it over my
shoulders, wondering for a moment what it’d be like to be a lizard. The skin
was soft, flexible. And the colours…
I twirled and
it swung out, sparkling iridescent in the dim evening light.
The skin closed
over my shoulders; it fit so well. It seemed like the most natural thing in the
world to stick my feet through the holes that appeared, to wrap it tight around
me, to hug it around my chest –
Until the pain.
I screamed. I
screamed until my throat hurt, and then I screamed until I couldn’t scream
anymore, even though I wanted to. The pain, everywhere – it was insane.
Intense. The most horrible thing I’ve ever felt or imagined.
Mum burst in
and the look on her face was more terrifying than anything else.
“Oh, Chay,” she
said, dropping to her knees. “Oh, Chay.”
“What?” I tried
to say. “What is it?” But it came out as a strange sort of rasp. Panicked, I
looked down at my hands – only they weren’t hands. They were claws. Like a
lizard, only bigger and a shining, rainbow iridescence.
Just like the
skin.
So Mum took me
down to the kitchen and explained: my great grandmother had been the last of
the real dragons, creatures half the size of a horse with wide, barely visible
wings and a long scaly tail.
When she’d
become the last dragon – when her husband had been murdered – she’d done the
only thing she could: she’d shed her skin and taken the form of a human. She’d
remarried, had my mother – and my mother had had me.
And I’d somehow
gotten my hands on the skin. And because my grandmother’s blood flows through
my veins, the skin was able to transform me.
Mum told me all
this, and for a moment I was shocked. Then I was just plain horrified. I raced
away, half running, half flying, an odd sort of skipping gait that was mostly a
stumble. I didn’t have any idea where I was going; I just ran, maybe hoping I
could outrun my fate. I’d wanted to see
a dragon; not become one.
In my panic, I
ran right into the strangers. They took one look at me, and started screaming
and hugging each other. “Our dragon!” they shouted. “We found it after all!”
Something even
scarier that learning I was a dragon? Learning I wasn’t the only dragon hunter
in town.
My heart
pounded and I raced off again, barely ahead of them and losing ground. The
woman snatched at my tail and I leapt into the air in fright – which is about
the time I realised what my new wings could actually do. I flew, circling up
and away, and their cries died down behind me.
I could have
flown away right then. It might have saved poor Sham if I had. But maybe not.
And anyway, I didn’t, so never mind.
I hid that
night in the barn out of the back of my house. From up in the loft I could see
the light in the kitchen, and every now and then Mum’s silhouette passed by,
and I could see her, and feel a little bit like I was home.
I was drifting
off when I heard the door creak open, and with my new night vision and sense of
smell, I could tell it was Sham. I opened my mouth to speak – but another voice
beat me to it.
“Where is she?”
It was one of
the strangers, the tallest man – the scary one.
Sham froze. “I…
I don’t know.”
“Come now,”
said the woman, slinking over to him. “We know it’s her we want, and you know
it too. Just tell us where she is, and everything will be all right.”
Sham twitched.
Please, no, I thought desperately. Don’t tell them.
He didn’t. He
stared back at them, fists clenched, and said, “I don’t know what you’re
talking about. I don’t know nothing.”
I thought at
the time he was pretty brave. Now I’m not sure if he was brave, or just a
little stupid. But either way, the man had enough. “We saw the dragon!” he
yelled, right in Sham’s face. “We recognized our skin! You stole it, you and
that girl. We know you’re friends; we know
you know where she is, and you’re going to take us to her. Right. Now.” He hit
Sham as he said those last words, smashing a sparking rod across his head and
shoulders again and again.
Right then, I
realized how much I’d loved having Sham for a friend. He’d been there for me
when no one else had, and hadn’t even laughed that afternoon when he’d seen me
in my skin. He’d been the best friend a girl could ask for.
And if they
didn’t stop soon, they’d kill him for it.
I shivered,
wanting to do something, but knowing I was too small and powerless to do a
thing. I couldn’t even cry as I watched them beat him to a pulp.
He didn’t get
up again.
We shouldn’t
have hunted the dragon.
That… that’s
it, really. After what I’d seen them do to Sham, I was pretty keen that they
didn’t find me, so I ran, and I flew, and I hid. And I got lost.
And so here I
am. A shiny little dragon, the very thing I always wanted to see, hiding in a
tree, with no friends, and no future.
So, can you help
me, or not?
Why are you
laughing? It’s really not that funny.
No, it isn’t!
Um, I think you
should put that down. No, I really think you should put that…
