Dragon Masters

I woke up, surprisingly enough, still laying in the trash and bread twists. The searing light of the sun burned my eyes. It was morning, and I went all night laying here wounded and alone without anyone noticing. Wounded?

Sending my focus down my body, felling my arms and legs, and my back. No pain, nothing. Either I was dead, still possessing my body, or alive and paralyzed, unable to feel anything. Only I was wrong on both accounts. I pulled my hand up to my face like I’ve done millions of times, except my hand was different. Faded black lines snaked out from under my sleeve and up my hand. Five lines split from a single line from my wrist and traced the back of my fingers. My finger nails were black where the lines met nail and faded to normal tan at the tips. “What the…” I asked the open air.

I pushed myself off the ground easy enough, and my shirt fell down my arms, the entire back ripped in half. Blood stained the once white cloth. So much blood covered the shirt and the surrounding ground beneath me.

I would think I would be woozy or dead if it was my blood, but was it mine? I felt fine, even pretty good if I dare say. Thinking back to last night, could the dragon have blown up or something? It wasn’t a dream, other wise I wouldn’t be covered in dried blood and cinnamon icing.

Pushing most questions aside, I scooped up my tattered shirt and threw it over myself before stumbling out of the alley. I knew I should’ve gone to a medical center, but I just wanted to go back to my dorm. And so, covered in either my or a dragon’s blood, cinnamon icing and a few bits of trash I would rather not identify, I did.

After I made it back to my dorm, managing to avoid nearly anyone who might be out and about this morning, my first move was to strip and hit the showers.

I shrugged off my shirt’s remains and emptied my pockets. My scribe’s glass was cracked, but the truly horrible part was the eighteen million missed calls and messages from Gwen occupied the majority of the notifications. Scrolling through, messages like, ‘Where are you?’, ‘Are you coming?’, ‘Where are my bread twists?’ and the like were repeated several times.

I considered calling her, letting her know I was sorry for completely disappearing on her, but I wanted to be clean first. I looked down to unbutton my pants and noticed something wrong, or really really good. It’s not what you think, get your head out of the gutter.

My body was bigger. Yesterday, I was scrawny, nothing but skin and bones, but now I had muscles. Defined abs, pecs, biceps and broad shoulders. My body looked as if it belonged to a god, not some stupid kid with a name like Viktus. The only thing wrong with my new developments was the tattoos. Faded black lines, like those on my hands. An overly simplified version of a skeleton traced my own over my skin. A few bands of black intersected with lines traveling down my arms, one around my biceps, another around my wrists.

Scared I had the image of a skull plastered on my face, I raced to my small mirror by the dresser. To my relief, I didn’t have a skull tattooed on my face, but I did have a line petruding from my ears to right under my eyes, and two lines intersected that line on the out sides of my eyes. Other than the band of black around my neck, I’d say I looked pretty cool, but tattoos were usually more detailed, made of program and execution nodes for people to use magic. I’ve heard of body enhancing magic tattoos, Thomas and other athletes use them for magi-ball all the time, but these designs looked solely decorative. But that doesn’t explain the change in my own body and who would put magical tattoos on some random guy in the street?

“I wonder.” I said as I began to think if my transformation was more than just cosmetic. Bending down by the dresser, I wrapped my fingers under the wooden box and heaved. In an instant, I threw my school issued dresser into the ceiling, shattering it into a shower of wood and clothing. I only meant to pick it up. Blocking my face from rain of wood, a shard of wood with a screw in it scratched my arm.

I hissed in pain and held my arm to my chest. I pulled my hand away to see blood on my palm, but when I went to inspect the wound, there was nothing. Just a smear of blood and a light pink welp where the screw got me.

Looking down at the mess of my dresser and the fading scar on my arm, I say, “Well, the tattoos aren’t just for show. I’m gonna have to talk to someone about this.”

Just then, a knock sounded on my door. Ah gee, I wonder for what reason there is someone at the door, I thought to myself as I stepped over the pile of wood and clothes. I scooped a t-shirt up off the ground and threw it on before answering the door.

A head shorter than me, a woman stood before me with her hands on her hips. Gwen’s face was twisted in anger and her hair a fiery red to match, “Where were you last night? I needed your help with my project and you completely bailed.”

“Wait, hold on. I can expla…”

“I don’t want to hear any excuse.” She interrupted, “You made a promise and you broke it. You even played with my love of bread twists. I’ve cut people for less, you know.” She held a finger under my nose, keeping me from saying anything else, “And it looks like you stood me up to go get tattoos. Really? Did you really choose something you could have done any other time over helping me?”

I grabbed her finger and pushed it down, “I didn’t stand you up, I got attacked.”

Her anger dimmed, “W-what?”

“Get in here and I’ll tell you.” I said as I dropped her hand.

She picked up a box at her feet and stepped inside. Before the door could close, she tripped over a piece of wood laying on the floor, “Sorry, that just happened.”

She dropped her box on my bed and turned to me, holding my tattered and bloody shirt from last night, “What in the name of the moons happened?”

As I began to pick up my scattered clothes from the pile of dresser, I told Gwen everything that happened last night. I tried to describe the dragon, and how it attacked me in the alley as best I could, but bits of the memory started fading, getting harder to grasp in my mind. “When I woke up, I felt fine. I thought I was going to die.”

“Are you serious?” She said, totally not believing anything I’ve said. “Dragons don’t attack people, not like that. There hasn’t been a single serious dragon attack, not one report. So unless you’re lying to me, or you have the protection of the moons.”

I gestured to the mess before us, “How else do you explain this, or these?” I held up my hands.

“Uh, a hammer? A tattoo parlor?”

“Then what about my sudden growth spurt, huh? We were almost the same height yesterday, and I weighed as much as a wet cat. Now look a me.” I said with my arms open.

She looked me up and down and at the left over pieces of the demolished dresser, “Okay, so you can throw furnishings. You could start a moving company with your new found abilities.”

“Oh, haha. Would you take this seriously?” I asked.

“How could I? You got attacked by a dragon, that never happens. And if I’m to believe your story, some random guy tatted you up with apparently new magic. The only thing that could possible make any sense would be…”

Something slid down my back and hit the ground behind me with a hard thud. Gwen pointed at my feet in the middle of an exaggerated gasp. Without moving my feet, I rotated my body to look down at the new development. A curled up figure all in black laid still behind my feet.

“Vik… Is that what I think it is?”

Recognition pinged in my brain, “That’s it, that’s the dragon that attacked me.” I said in a low tone, trying to keep from waking the sleeping being.

“That’s the dragon?” She gasped and pointed up at me, “You’re a dragon master!”

I looke up at her in shock, “No I’m not. There’s no way.”

She held her hands out at the dragon, “Are you saying that thing just hitched a ride on you?” I shrugged and she huffed, “Don’t just shrug at me. You remember what my dad said, dragons choose their masters wether you like it or not. And like it or not, I think you’re a dragon master.”

A small purr emanated from behind me and the dragon lifted it’s head. Bright yellow eyes looked me in the eyes and the color blue flashed in my mind. I had the distinct impression the dragon was feeling contempt. In a blur, the dragon uncurled and dashed up my person and pertched itself on my shoulder. It’s eyes scanned the room and then fixated on Gwen and didn’t waver. “Gwen… What’s it doing?”

“I don’t know. I think we should talk to my grandfather.”

“Your grandfather?” I asked, side eyeing the dragon.

“Yeah, as far as I know, he’s the only person alive that’s actually seen a dragon master before. Something like five hundred years ago?” Gwen said, keeping her eyes on the dragon as well.

Dragons are notorious for being outside animals. Nobody can keep one inside for long without them going nuts, we had to watch it in case it decided to start spazzing out. But it never did.

“Okay… Let’s go see your grandfather.” I said, starting to turn.

Gwen grabbed my arm and pulled me back around. She was holding her nose, “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to say anything, but if we’re going to see him, you should shower first. And I’m sorry for not believing you about last night.” She said it in a nasally tone.

I lifted my free arm and sniffed; Gwen was right, as always. As if the dragon knew what I was wanting from it, the winged creature jumped from my shoulder and gently soared across the room on to my bed. It sniffed and inspected the box Gwen brought with her. Once satisfied, it sat down and tucked its wings in like a bird. Watching the dragon fly across the room, I noticed the tear in it’s wing from the night before was gone.

I scooped up some clothes off the ground to change into later, and looked to Gwen, “I’ll only be a minute. Watch him… her… the dragon for me. I can’t explain it, but I’ve got the feeling it won’t be any trouble.”

She nodded as she looked at the pitch black beast, “Don’t take too long. It’s not that I’m affraid of dragons, but I’ve never been alone with a bonded dragon.”

“What’s the difference?” I asked.

Her long ears twitched as she stared daggers at me, “I don’t know. Which is why I’m a little on edge.” She sighed and looked away, “Just hurry up.”

I smile, trying to be comforting, “Okay, I won’t be long.”

After I closed the bathroom door behind me, I disrobed and examined my full figure in the mirror. The sight of those black lines sent shivers down my back. So many changes has happened in such little time, stopping to think about the possible repercussions terrified me.

What if bonding to a dragon shortened my lifespan? What if the dragon gets bigger and turns on me? What if the dragon attacks someone else? What if the dragon attacks Gwen when I’m not around? Do I have any control of the dragon, and if I do, how do I control it?

My head began to spin, and my stomach lurched into my throat. I pressed my ear to the door, listening for any kind of betrayal from my so call bonded dragon. I could hear the clinking of metal on metal. What were they doing in there?

Before I sent myself into a panic, I pushed myself from the door and turned on the shower. A small rune on the shower head glowed red and the water falling to the tub began to steam. I took off my glasses and set them on the sink. The room blurred and I realized that this bond thing can fix wounds in a matter of seconds and strengthen my body to an impossible degree, but my vision was still just as bad as before. Why didn’t my vision fix itself?

Stepping into the shower, I washed off the previous day and night. I also realized that the black lined reached my feet as well and five seperate lines split from each other and stopped at the beginning of my toe nails. My toe nails though had turned black, just like my finger nails. I’m not sure I like the look, but I don’t think I could have had much choice in the matter.

Completing one of the three S’s of the bathroom, I dried off and put the clothes on I brought in. Jeans and a black long sleeve shirt. Comfy and practical. I grabbed my glasses and threw them on before leaving the bathroom. The world came back into focus and Gwen and the dragon did as well.

Gwen was sitting at my desk, a small bronze frog in her hands. Her dyed red hair was pulled back into a horse tail, keeping out of her face as she worked. Small metal working tools layed out in front of her and a notebook was open beside her. I looked over at the box she brought with her, the container that the frog came in, and saw that the dragon was lightly gnawing on the cardboard.

“Is it alright for the dragon to be eating your box?” I asked, pointing to the small beast.

She nodded and blew off a few metal shaving off the frog, “As long as it’s not eating me. Can you come here real quick?”

I step on over and look down on her project, “You said you were having trouble with the power containment, right?”

“Yeah, you saw the video. Every time it starts up, it ends up over heating and exploding.”

I looked over at her notebook and examined the drawings of magic circles and notes on how they work. Gwen was technically older than me, by a few decades; elves live a lot longer than humans, but she was two years behind me in our magical mechanics major. The frog protect was supposed to be an easier first introduction to magic circles’ effects on physical objects. I had to take this class too two years ago, and I came across a similar problem.

So, after looking over her notes, I knew what was the problem, “It looks like the energy has no escape. If you can incorporate an escape for residual energy during it’s cycle through the array and the material of the frog, it shouldn’t over heat and continue to collect power. Not much can hold a never ending collection of magical energy, or else it ends up like the other frogs. Here.”

I pulled open a drawer on my desk and flipped through a few notebooks of my own. I freed a notebook I had for the same class and flipped open to an execution node that would expel energy, “Incorperate this into your designs and you should be the proud mother of a fully functional and non-exploding frog.”

She took the notes and read them over, excited, “Thanks, Vik, I knew you could help. Did you come up with this yourself?”

“No, I got it from an upperclassman too. I couldn’t figure it out on my own either, but don’t forget; you didn’t get this from anyone.” I held a finger up to my mouth, hinting her to keep it a secret.

She made a motion of using a key to lock her mouth closed in response. She then copied the notes into her own notebook and then picked up a small carving tool. “Give me a few minutes and my baby will be ready for a test run.”

And in a few minutes indeed, the once smooth bronze frog became littered with runes, complexe arrays and symbols covered its whole body. While she worked, I sat on the floor, watching the dragon. Most of that time, the dragon did the same and stared up at me with it’s large yellow eyes. It looked like it was waiting for something, like pets or something. But when I reached my hand out to the small beast, it turned away and walked under my bed and finding a place to lay down. It was asleep in seconds.

“Done!” Said Gwen, her completed frog sitting on the desk.

I stood back up and peaked at the automaton, “It’s ready for a test?”

She nodded and bit her lip as she activated the frog. Slowly the frog came to life a lot like the video, hopping around the desk, but it never started to glow hot. It was working the way Gwen wanted it to. “Yes, finally!” She exclaimed, “I’m not gonna fail!”

She hopped up out of her seat and jumped in excitement. She then jumped on me, wrapping her arms around my neck, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

I gave her a squeezed back around her waist, “You’re welcome, but weren’t we supposed to go see your grandfather?”

She pulled back with shock on her face, a gasp escaped her lips, “You’re right. I’m so sorry, I got distracted.”

She let me go and caught the frog and deactivated it. Packing her things together back into the now chewed up box. “You can leave that here if you don’t want to carry it around.” I suggested.

“Okay, thanks. That should give the drool on it time to dry anyway.” She said as she wiped a hand on her pants.

She picked up her purse she carried with her and started heading to the door. I looked down at the base of my bed, the dragon still laying underneath. “Hey, dragon. We’re leaving, come on.” I demanded. I didn’t know how the dragon would respond, if at all, but it stuck it’s head out from under the bed and looked up at me.

In fluid motion, the dragon dashed out from under the bed and charged me. I stuck my hand out to try and block it, but before impacting my hand, the dragon dissolved into a black mist and absorbed itself into the black lines on my hand and disappeared. Gwen stared at my hand in shock, “What just happened?”

“I… I don’t know. But I think it’s coming along for the ride.” I say, just as bewildered as she was.

“Okay, lets get going then. My grandfather should know what’s going on with you and that dragon.” She said as she picked up her pace out of the dorm, with me right on her heels.