Kathryn
She wheeled out of the changing room, her hair still wet. In her haste to leave she’d forgotten the swim cap she normally wore, and was now going to pay the price. Her hair was so thick it took forever to dry.
Callan was standing there waiting, leaning against the far wall perhaps twenty feet away, his eyes on his phone. She stopped and watched, but he just tapped a button. A moment later the screen lit up again and she could see he was getting an incoming call, but he tapped the button and put it in his pocket, having noticed her arrival.
“Are you going to answer that?” she asked, heading left toward the exit.
“No. I have more important things to do.” From his pocket it started to buzz again. He grabbed at his jeans and fumbled with the outline of the phone and it fell silent.
“Where are we going?” she asked when he simply fell in step next to her, not offering an explanation of what he’d promised to tell her.
“There’s a forest behind here, right? I seem to recall seeing it.”
“Yes, it’s got a nice big pond at the center, though there are no actual paths to it. We used to go in there as kids to hang out to get away from the grown-ups.”
“Perfect, that will do,” he said, holding the door open for her.
Kathryn followed him out and down the ramp that led around the back of the community center and pool building, wondering when he would realize the problem with his plan. They kept walking, heading right toward the end of the path as it meandered along the edge of the forest, ending at a little playground in the middle of a grass field on one side, trees on the left.
“You better not be luring me into the woods to kill me or something,” she joked, trying to lighten the tension just a bit.
Callan shot her a wounded look that made her feel bad for the joke. He seemed to have been genuinely hurt by the jab. She spent the next few minutes trying to puzzle it out with everything else he’d told her. She was no closer to figuring it out until they came to the end of the path, where he gave her the answer inadvertently.
He looked around first, shaking his head as if it weren’t a good enough place. “Do you trust me?” he asked as her wheelchair came to the end of the paved walkway.
Trust. That’s what this was all about for him, wasn’t it? About the two of them learning to trust each other enough that they could speak about their issues and try to work through them together.
And she’d gone and insinuated that he was abusing that trust by taking her out into the woods to kill her. Joke or not, it was ill-timed, and frankly rather rude. She wanted to offer an apology, but decided otherwise. Instead of that, she was going to show him that she trusted him.
“Yes.”
Callan took a moment to evaluate her answer, then nodded and without warning picked her and her chair up as if it were nothing, holding her once more to his chest. Then he set off into the forest, the open field and any other people quickly lost to their view.
“Where are we going?” she asked as he deftly picked a path through the tangle of brush and trees.
“Somewhere where others can’t see.”
Despite carrying her and the chair, and having to crouch low, duck his head, and lift her over things, he never seemed to appear strained. His arms didn’t start to shake and his breath never grew short. Kathryn knew she was no featherweight, but it didn’t faze Callan in the slightest. Just how strong was he? She decided to just ask him.
“How are you doing this without breathing hard?” she asked. “Or getting tired. I’m not that light, and you have my chair as well.”
He smiled. “You aren’t that heavy either. But coming out here is going to allow me to show you. It’s part of the reason, I guess. I know that’s cryptic, but I’m going to show you, I promise.”
Kathryn sighed in exasperation. “This better be a damn good reason,” she told him. “Dragging me out here like this in a chair is a little weird.”
“Oh, it’ll be pretty magical, you can trust me on that one,” he said slyly, the first hint of a smile crossing his face since he’d shown up.
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Contemplating everything in silence, wishing she could just know the answer already, it caught her by surprise when they emerged into a rather large clearing. There was no pond nearby, which meant they weren’t at the center, but it was still rather big. She saw Callan eying it, sizing it up.
“It’ll be tight, but it should work. I hope.”
She got the distinct impression he was talking to himself, and decided not to interrupt.
“Yes. Yes this will do,” he said at last. “Can I leave you here?”
The sudden change in tone meant she didn’t fully pay attention to what he’d said. “I’m sorry, pardon?”
“Here. Can I set you down here, will you be okay?”
“At the edge?”
“Yes. You’ll need to stay here.”
“I…guess? Callan, what’s going on?” She was growing uneasy as he set her down so she could see the entire clearing without issue, her chair on as firm, level ground as he could manage.
“I’m about to show you.” He sucked in a big breath, blowing it out slowly.
He’s nervous. What the hell could someone as big as he be nervous about? It made no sense. But he had the jitters and his pupils were dilated. The effect of it was making her nervous as well. What was he planning?
“Callan, I’m getting really uneasy here.”
“I’m sorry,” he said instantly. “It’s just…I haven’t shared this with anyone in far longer than you can imagine. I’m not sure how you’re going to react either.”
In his pocket his phone started ringing again. Callan slapped a hand against it, fumbling quickly to shut it off. “Look,” he said, eyes going skyward for a moment, his weight shifting from one foot to the other. “What you’re about to see is likely going to freak you out. But I promise that you are in no danger. Absolutely none at all. It’s also not a magic trick. This is…me.”
“You’re starting to really make me worry here.”
He jogged to the center of the clearing. “I know. But you want to know the truth about me, Katy? About why I’m different, and why you can trust me?”
She had to speak up for her voice to carry to him. “Yes.”
“Well here you go, I’m about to trust you with a massive secret.”
Kathryn blinked once, and in the space of those microseconds, her world changed forever. One moment Callan was standing there, arms spread wide, and the next he was gone. The clearing wasn’t empty though. In his place there was a massive black shape so large it occupied almost the entire clearing. Trees groaned and bent backward all around her as the black blob pushed outward.
No, not a blob, she realized, looking up at the head that hung at the end of a long, winding neck.
A dragon.
It was a dragon. A motherfucking dragon.
Reality slammed home and she lunged backward from the creature so fast her chair tipped and she fell backward, going ass-over-shoulders out of the clearing.
He’s a dragon.
Then she passed out.