Dragon Rights and Wrongs

"There weren't always dragons in the Valley. But just because there weren't, didn't mean that there shouldn't."

"That's dumb," a bored, clear voice cut through the classroom. "You're dumb."

The class tittered as the boy in front looked up nervously at the girl who had interrupted him. He cleared his throat, highly aware of the class trying to hold back their laughter.

"According to th-the words of Lekhmad Olfon," the boy stuttered on, "the height of magical ingenuity was to introd-duce something that had n-never been seen before."

"Would be magical ingenuity if I make you say something smart?" the same girl interrupted. "I've never seen that before."

This time the entire class burst into laughter.

"Quiet!"

At once, the class silenced themselves. The teacher, sat in the corner at her desk, glared at each and every one of them, her gaze lingering a little on the troublemaker, before turning her attention back to the boy in front. Her gaze did not soften.

"Please continue."

He gulped, looking down at his paper. Great, all the words were swimming in front of his eyes again. He resisted the urge to wipe the cold sweat off his brow, nervously shifting his weight from one leg to another. There was something stuck in his throat, keeping him from getting the words out, taunting. His own body was taunting him, repeating the same words the girl had thrown at him so casually.

"He's just gonna spout some more dumb Liza- sorry, Dragon propaganda," the girl called out again. "You can tell from what he already said."

The boy looked over to the teacher. She had her eyes down, ignoring the girl as she wrote down her notes.

Emboldened by her silence, the girl went on:

"If Dragons could really help the Valley with their magic or whatever, then why haven't they fixed their own places?"

The boy stood there, eyes frozen on his paper as the class began to murmur. He wanted to block them out, to focus on what was in front of him. Just read this damn thing and be done already.

"Magic is just a crutch that other beings use to get to our level," the girl went on.

"Elsie," the teacher warned.

The boy took a deep breath.

"What? I'm not saying anything bad," the girl, Elsie, retorted.

He closed his eyes, trying to block out her words.

"I'm just saying that we humans were doing fine before the Dragons came."

Her loud, clear voice rang through his head, as if she were speaking them directly into his ear.

"You could even say we were doing better," she snarled. "Until you stupid Lizards came and ruined everything."

"Elsie!"

BANG!

Elsie blinked, surprised. The teacher sighed, glaring at her student.

"Tekhmar turned sixteen yesterday," she told her student sternly. "You're lucky this was all that happened."

Elsie blinked again, then looked back at where the boy, Tekhmar, had been standing just a moment ago. She scoffed just a moment too late, crossing her arms.

"I'm not scared of stupid Dragon magic," she muttered.

Her teacher held back a sigh, taking off her glasses as she got up. Today was going to be a long day.

A sentiment which Tekhmar also felt at this moment.

He took a deep breath, the humid air making him feel like he was practically swallowing water. Calm down. He needed to keep calm. He closed his eyes, taking in another deep breath.

This was all normal. Just a normal part of being a teenager.

Well, of being a Dragon teenager.

Tekhmar had hoped that nothing like this was going to happen. After all, it wasn't like his mother had been from a particularly powerful family or anything like that. As far as either of them knew anyway. Still, he had hoped that his human father's blood would have diluted the dragon enough to keep from accidents like this from happening.

No, focus. Find out where you are now, think about teenager stuff later. At home. Or at school.

He opened his eyes once more.

Around him were trees, old and twisted. A canopy of green above filtered the sunlight from above, casting his surroundings with an almost ethereal solemnity. All was silent, save for the quiet whispering of the wind through the trees.

Breathe in...and out. Tekhmar looked at his feet.

Green up to his knees, with wildflowers in bloom every few steps. Thankfully, Tekhmar was in his mud boots, thanks to the long trek from home to the school.

He lifted a leg to inspect a boot. Yep, that felt like mud under his feet, and that sure looked like fresh mud on his sole. Which meant either there was a water source nearby, or it had just rained. And since it hadn't rained in the past week or so, that meant that there had be some kind of water close by.

That, or he had somehow teleported outside of the Valley.

Tekhmar shook the thought out of his head, muttering to himself. That wasn't helpful. What he needed to do was to find his way back. He looked up at the canopy, wistful.

His expression froze, then turned thoughtful. If he could teleport in a moment of desperation, then maybe...

Well, it was worth a shot. For a little while anyway.

He closed his eyes, then took another deep breath.

Then another.

And another.

He strained a little. And took another deep breath.

Slowly, sweat trickled down his forehead as he tried and tried to-

"What are you doing?"

Tekhmar slipped, falling face first into the mud.

He got up slowly to the sound of raucous laughter, face burning red. Thankfully, he wasn't too muddy; just a little from the base mud at his feet.

He glared up at the being in tree, laughing its translucent, pixie-wings off.

"Oh great," he said, loud enough to be heard. "A fairy."

He grumbled a little more, then began walking ahead, ignoring the laughter. At the same time, he was a little glad that it wasn't a human.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

Tekhmar ignored the fairy, slowly making his way through the muddy grass.

"You got something against fairys?" it called out from behind Tekhmar.

"I got a prophecy that a fairy would ruin my life," Tekhmar yelled back. "It's nothing personal."

"Really?"

Tekhmar flinched as the fairy popped up in front of him. His big, green eyes inspected him curiously, his little button-like nose sniffing him. A light hum filled the air as his lithe body was kept afloat by his buzzing wings.

He noticed that the fairy wasn't actually that much shorter than a normal human being. Maybe the size of a slightly tall child, but not unusual. At least, not unusual given the fairy's child-like features.

"...you don't look fate-touched," the fairy said, frowning.

"It was a joke," Tekhmar replied, irritated. "Can you get out of the way?"

"Oh! A joke! We don't do those," the fairy said, nodding. Thankfully, it did move aside, allowing Tekhmar to pass. However, as Tekhmar walked, the fairy did keep alongside him.

"Still, you do seem...magic-touched," the fairy went on. "Something...ancient. Bloodline? Warlock? Sorcerer?"

"Dragon," Tekhmar growled.

The fairy's eyes widened further in surprise.

"I've never met a Dragon before," he said turning his body to give Tekhmar his full attention. "What are you doing here?"

Tekhmar simply scowled, hoping it would be enough to scare the fairy away. Instead, it only seemed to make it more curious. He bombarded Tekhmar with a barrage of questions as the young half-dragon slowly made his way through the forest.

"Do you ever shut up?" Tekhmar asked, exasperated as he headed batted away a mosquito.

"Sometimes," the fairy grinned. "Now you have to answer one of my questions."

"No I don't," Tekhmar retorted.

"What's your name?" the fairy asked.

For a moment, Tekhmar said nothing. He stopped moving, then glared up at the fairy.

"You can call me Marek," he spat. "Now leave me alone."

The fairy grinned.

"Oooh, clever boy, aren't you?" he giggled. "But not clever enough."

"Or maybe, I've been sparing you."

Tekhmar suddenly grabbed the fairy's hand. He blinked, surprised by the sudden change in temperment.

"What's your name?" Tekhmar asked, his voice low.

The fairy struggled to get away.

"W-what? So intimate already?" he giggled nervously. "Aren't you too young for that kind of thing?"

"I've had a very bad day," Tekhmar threatened. "So tell me your name, and have this end already."

"Alright! Alright I'll leave you alone!" the fairy said, still struggling. "Just keep those eyes and voice away-"

"What," Tekhmar repeated, "Is. Your. Name?"

For a moment, he caught the fairy's eye. Instantly, he stopped struggling, unable to look away.

"Come on now," Tekhmar repeated. "Don't make this harder on yourself."

The fairy's cheeks ballooned as he held his breath. Slowly, his face turned purple.

"You want me to let you go?"

The fairy nodded.

"Then promise that you won't follow me," he said. "And that you won't follow or interact or try to hinder or even help me in any way."

The fairy nodded furiously, sweat beading down his face.

For a moment, Tekhmar smirked. Then he let the fairy go.

Immediately, it disappeared.

Tekhmar let out a sigh. Finally. He could have some peace. He shouldn't have any trouble from that annoying fairy anymore.

"Big mistake, kiddo."

Tekhmar immediately tensed up. Slowly, he turned to find the owner of the voice.

A large, muscled man, tattoos all over his chest and arms towered over him, almost blocking out the sun.

"Didn't your mom ever tell you that fairies never travel alone?"

Tekhmar raised his hands sheepishly.

"Hey...no need to be mad," he said weakly. "I was just joking."

"Fairies don't joke," the large fairy said. "Especially not about names."

"So it's fine for fairies to trick people into giving their names, but not for people to do it back?" Tekhmar retorted before he could stop himself. Then, because he was already in it anyway:

"Doesn't really seem fair."

For a moment, everything went still.

Slowly, the large fairy grinned.

"No, it doesn't seem fair, does it?" he said, teeth bright. Tekhmar's eyes widened as he realized his mistake.

He had just challenged a fairy.

A really big fairy.

"How about we make things completely fair then?" the fairy offered, snapping his fingers.

"Motherfu-"

For the second time that day, Tekhmar disappeared, leaving not a trace of himself behind.