The Dragon by Palm
Chapter Two
Escape from the pain was the only relief she gained in sleep, but rest peacefully she did not. Nightmares assaulted her, death, fighting, and killing haunted her.
She was a little girl again, running down a dark path in the woods. Her mother was at the end of the path beckoning her to come to her. She ran harder but the closer she got the farther away she was from her mother. The image of her mother wavered then disappeared. Everything went dark, pitch black. She stopped running and stared into the empty darkness, she heard someone laughing. An evil greedy throaty laugh, then a face appeared in the darkness. A giant face and a giant body, he was horribly ugly and he kept laughing at her. He frightened her, so she started to run away. He didn�t move but she couldn�t get away, no matter how fast she ran! Her legs pumped and her lungs burnt, but she couldn�t escape. A metal cage dropped on her, she was trapped! She tried to scream for help but all that came out was a roar. Then she looked down at herself, she had claws and scales. She was a dragon, no one would recognize her, she had never told anyone about her strange ability. No one except that old man. She screamed in fury as she saw him taking money from the ugly man who had trapped her. She woke to the sound of voices, she couldn�t see them but she could hear what they were saying. They were in the middle of a conversation.
"I can work for food and shelter, and minimum wage." Someone said, his voice was soft and soothing. A welcome sound after that horrible nightmare. She silently hoped he got a job working close to her.
"I don�t think so kid, you look kinda scrawny to work around a dragon." She heard the boss�s rough voice reply. She held her breath
"What does strength have to do with it? I can fend for myself, but no one could be physically strong enough to defend themselves against a dragon." He said without hesitation. She cheered inside for the newcomer.
"We�ll see about that, punk. You been here long? Have any skills?" She was ready to tear his head off for calling the newcomer a punk. Wait a minute, I don�t even know this guy. Why am I defending him? She thought to herself.
"I�ve been here long enough. I�m very agile and good with animals." He replied in a calm tone that said he wasn�t sweating over this mini-interview. She cheered again.
"Well, I don�t really need any extra help but I�ll give you a try-out. Follow me and I�ll show you your first job." Ha, she thought, finding people willing to work around a dragon has been more than hard lately. What a cheap liar. The boss walked around the corner, with the newcomer in tow. She could only see half of his face, it showed wisdom and knowledge beyond his years. He didn�t even look at her as they walked by. She was instantly curious about who he was.
The boss opened a door at the other end of the room. "This is the feed bin, you�ll be doing a lot of feeding and cleaning." He walked over to the left. "And this is where the muck goes" He said as he pointed to another large door. She thought it strange that the newcomer still hadn�t said anything in her presence. "Your first job will be to put the dragon in the outside pen, and while it�s out there you can clean this cage. After that, put ten bales of feed in the cage you just cleaned. The Dragon will be in there for a while until it�s back in fighting condition. Then you can eat and sleep, enjoy." He promptly left, leaving the strange boy alone with her. For the first time, he let his gaze rest on her. He seemed to see something, there was a kindness in his eyes she�d never seen before except for one other person. He didn�t look at her as if she were a beast, he saw her as she had prayed to be seen. He saw her as a person. Memories flooded her mind, of her mother and happy times at home. Those days were long gone. She could barely contain the tears, but none slipped out to be seen. Thank goodness he didn�t see me crying, that could lead to disaster. She thought
They stood there, for what seemed like an eternity just staring at each other. Then he moved, he walked up to her cage and slipped through the bars with ease. He kept walking right past her, to the other end of the dark underground cage. There he pulled on a rope, opening the door that led outside. She was surprised that he would know where it was. Most new kids couldn�t see the door in the darkness, but he was different. She limped over to the door, the chain still dragged from her ankle. Her wings were a giant mass of pain from the bullet holes ripped through them, the miniature scales on the topside were torn and ripped. She would not fight for a long time. That thought more than made up for the pain she was in.
He stayed by the door until she was out. She glanced at him as she walked by, his face was expressionless as it had been before. She heard the door close behind her, and she gently laid down right where she was. She just laid there and thought for a while, mostly about him. He doesn�t look that old, but then I don�t even know my age so what right do I have to judge him by his age? I wish I could stop thinking about him. Isn�t it something like, out of sight out of mind? I wish. She looked up at the sky, blue and full of promises of freedom. She wished for about the millionth time that she could fly away and be free. Then she looked at the fence surrounding her, and the electrical towers that kept the force field in place over her head. They were about fifty feet up, so she had plenty of head room but she never forgot it was there.