Audrey Wright

The attack. The wings. The fire breath. The nose, The massive mouth. The creature.

The dragon!

As much as I wanted it all to be a nightmare, I knew that it hadn’t been. Now, standing before me, was a man I had never seen before. He was staring at me, an expression of worry on his chiseled features. He was hot, I fleetingly thought, but I wasn’t concerned about that. I was freaking out because I was in a strange place, and my body hurt like hell, and the pain was so incredibly intense that I didn’t know if I should scream or cry.

Of course I ended up doing both.

The man jerked back as if shocked. I had probably startled him, but I didn’t care. I had done my best to avoid getting scorched by the dragon, but his claws and his tail had hit me, and my left arm felt wrong. I couldn’t move it. Dislocated maybe? And I had some serious abrasions on my left upper thigh from when I had tried to slide out of the way. My ribs had caught the tail. Thankfully, it hadn’t been spiked. If it had been, I doubt I would still be able to scream right now.

Another man rushed over from the doorway. He was even more good looking than the first guy. I was making a scene. I couldn’t think too clearly, but I got the impression that these men didn’t mean me harm. They could’ve hurt or even killed me already if they had wanted to. I could hardly move. My own screams were dying. I could hardly catch my breath. It felt like no air was entering my lungs. What was happening to me?

The two men were talking, but I could hardly hear what they were saying. It felt as if their words were coming from super far away, like the words were filtered through a long tunnel before they could reach my ears. Their expressions of worry and fear were easy enough to read, though.

“Dragon,” I murmured. “A dragon… Killing people…”

The two men exchanged glances. Of course they wouldn’t believe me. That was all right. I didn’t care. I just wanted to sleep…

No. What if I never woke up? I forced my eyes to stay open.

The first guy seemed really familiar. He kept staring at me more than the first, acting overly protective of me. At least that was how it came across to me. He reached down and brushed some of my hair back, and I got my first good look at his eyes.

A deep dark color. Identical to the second dragon I had seen. Yes, there had been two dragons. The first had been so aggressive that I hadn’t the chance to fight him. The second dragon had injured or even killed the first before turning on me. I vaguely remember picking up a rock and throwing it at the dragon. Some throw. The rock had landed in front of my foot.

The second dragon had then lain down. I collapsed at that point. Now, I was here. With these men. Who were strangers.

The first guy was taking off his shirt and rolling it up. He was pressing it to my side. Was I bleeding? I couldn’t tell. I felt no pain, just a steady coldness.

Wait a second. On his left shoulder was a tattoo.

Of a dragon.

Coincidence?

In my line of work, there are no such things as coincidences.

“Are you a dragon?” I blurted out. Even my voice was weak. I hardly got the words out, and they were slurred. He probably couldn’t understand me.

The guy cupped my cheek. “You’ll be all right,” he murmured. “Don’t worry.”

I wanted to laugh. Sure. I’d be fine. I felt like I was dying, but no worries. I was all good.

I lolled my head to the other side. The second guy was talking about my breathing. I was having such a hard time of it now that I doubted I could say another word. In fact, I doubted I would be taking that many more breaths.

The second guy held up his hand. Before my eyes, his pointer finger transformed into a claw that he then jabbed me with.

I let loose a scream, and then, my world went dark.

When I woke up however many minutes or hours later, I was alone in the room. My body was no longer in pain. I had a huge bandage wrapped on my side where the first guy had bloodied his shirt. My ribs felt maybe a little tender, and I could feel a slight bump where the claw had punctured me. My abrasion seemed to have healed. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I had been sweating earlier. I wasn’t now.

I sat up and spied a tray on the nightstand. Cream of potato soup, a roll, and grape juice were waiting for me. Grape juice? Really? Disgusted because I’m not a huge juice fan, I took a sip anyway because I was thirsty. Not juice after all, unless you consider wine juice. I probably shouldn’t have, but I gulped that down. After what I had been through, getting drunk seemed like a great idea.

The soup was hot but not too hot, the perfect temperature to eat immediately. I dunked some of the roll into the soup. So flaky and fresh. The soup was amazing too. Whoever had brought it to me couldn’t have dropped it off more than a few minutes ago.

In all, it took me maybe three minutes to eat everything. I put the tray back on the nightstand. I knew I should get up. Learn where I was. See who these people were. Make my way out of here.

But my belly was full, and my mind was buzzing from the drink, which wasn’t like me. Normally, I needed at least three glasses of wine to get tipsy. Maybe I’d lost too much blood, so I couldn’t handle even the one. Regardless, I hadn’t the strength to fight off sleep, and my eyelids closed of their own accord. Immediately, I was asleep and dreaming of two huge winged creatures fighting to the death in the skies.