Scales Form The Story

“There weren’t always dragons in the valley…” I tuned out the audio book the teacher was determined to make us listen to. I had heard the short story for years; it was a repetitive hassle at this point just for the English grade. Taking a look around the classroom I saw the teacher had her head in the book as well. My inner me grinned with a devious glint as I popped an earbud in under my mass of hair. Looking at my phone on the sly, I noticed my girlfriend had shot me a text. Checking to make sure I still had clearance, I responded really quick and opened a music app.

We were in different classes and after this, I had a free period that I had planned to spend in one of the band practice rooms with my royal blue Gibson Schecter Solo-II. I had a song I was working on for that cutie I was dating as a surprise. The local ‘Band Fixation Contest’ was coming up and I had a few finishing touches I wanted to clean up and perfect. Still watching out for the teacher, I looked at my notes for the sheet music I had been working on. It was upbeat and I hoped our bassist was up for the challenge because it had a pretty killer bass line if I would say so myself. The song had a brightness and gentle push that made it feel like a spring love. Like it was tree blossoms, soft heat and the excitement for no classes paired with music.

Our drummer was a chick barely to my shoulders; barely could be seen over her drum set, but she understood musicality and had mastery that flowed from every inch of her. The bassist was this fellow with amazing hair. Everyone fawned over his hair, even my girlfriend. She planned on styling all of our heads for this gig, and we knew we would look awesome. But he was older than me and stood about 6’4” with natural ginger hair. He normally had it up in a messy bun or in a hella severe nape ponytail. His lip was pierced, and he had a few earrings; his personality was a juxtaposition to the exterior. Rikki was so easy to fluster! Talk about sexy thing and his cheeks were stained red for the next half hour. What was painful was watching him around Leyna, our drummer. She looked like the “perfect child” if you based it on looks. She was petite, had good grades, way above average looks and was soft spoken… until she sat behind her drums.

She teased him mercilessly, but I knew why. She was head over hills for the big lug and he had no clue. I knew they liked each other more than friends even though I couldn’t get my homie to see that. I can be brash and loud, but I wasn’t trying to give the dude an aneurysm. At least not until after BFC.

Scouting the classroom, I looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. There was only seven minutes left until I could be reunited with my Blue Belle. The Lore of Dragon Valley was an easy read because it was only about twenty pages in our textbooks. My family came from the region where the tale began so, I had heard this as bedtime fodder for many years.

The story was simple, there were dragons that coexisted with humankind for centuries. A war broke out and some groups tried to stay out of the fray. One group of humans forced a group of dragons into the war on their side and then the other side of humans begged for help. The other dragons were divided between helping, staying neutral and completely cutting ties with both factions. This caused turmoil in the groups among the valley known now as “Arabian Valley.” It was said that the factions couldn’t be there if they couldn’t live and exist together peaceably. I knew this was absolute bs, but it was an easy A, and it gave me more time to focus on the song selection.

Hearing the bell ring, I slid everything back in my bag and darted from the room, happy to stretch my legs. Moving quick as I could, I retrieved Blue Belle from my locker and flew into my favorite practice room. Once the door was shut, I took her from her case and began warming up my fingers to her frets. Satisfied that my fingers had the appropriate amount of flexibility and nimbleness, I started on the first song, Unbroken Dawn. Feeling the light from the sun warm my skin through the window, I felt it energize me in depth. The notes flew from my hands and out the amp like a direct current. The flow of the song made me happy with just the guitar part; I knew that Rikki and Leyna would pick up the feeling soon as I handed them the basic sheet music with room for their input. Loosing myself in the music and my daydream of my sweetie’s reaction to this song, I let my fingers burst with the inward need to let my unusually soft side loose.

Seeing the room darker than when I had begun, I looked to the window before screaming. There were large slitted pupils looking at me from above. Much bigger and higher than anyone else could create. Opening the door to the sound reducing practice room, I heard the screams coming from the hallways. Students and staff ran into each other, pushing and shoving each other into and out of rooms. Cries and cussing were heard with frantic slams of doors and lockers. I quickly saw my girlfriend stuck in terror about fifteen feet from the band room door. Without thinking, I dashed out, snatched her hand, and pulled her into the room as a few others took note of the open room too. Slamming the door and barricading it, we looked at each other before her eyes started watering and I had a chest full of navy-blue curls. Her sobs were sharp, and panic filled as the adrenaline left her…

The others were a mixture of everyone and anyone. I saw Rikki and Leyna were in there and I felt my own relief, but more questions had erupted from the rest of the room in large whispers and barely restrained shouts. No voice rose more than a louder talking tone because the fear of what was waiting outside.

“What the hell happened out there? What were those things?” One guy, that was a pretty well-known jock, had to ask the obvious. By me staying in the practice room and only seeing the piece of whatever it was, I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t until another girl and guy spoke up. Both were regarded as being nerds, but I didn’t care about that.

“We caught footage of the beasts. It would appear to be some sort of dragon but those are fictitious. I’m not aware of any movie filming in our area or surrounding areas.” Dragons? What the… there is no way… none. But, for all my normal rationale and explosive energy, I had to pause. Letting go of Claudia, my girlfriend, I went to look at the images over the two social outcasts’ shoulders. I knew my eyes had widened and foul words left my mouth but there, on the phones were pictures of dragons. Actual dragons! One was more of a Chinese style dragon with a long sleek body, shimmering green and gold scales with a long, slender snout. It had four legs near its lower half and two shorter arms near its upper body. It had long flowing whiskers and its mouth was open slightly. Rows of sharp, dripping teeth were visible as it was captured on film with it staring down at a terrified student.

The other one was more terrifying! It was more Arthurian with heavy scales like armored plates. It could walk, ungainly, upright with a heavy bottom and powerful legs. Its arms were longer and thicker than the Chinese style, but they were still short compared to its over all body size. The tail was another armor-plated nightmare that had raised scales that made it appear more like a mace. The body was a dark brown with brownish black scales. The eyes were golden with red veins throughout, a menacing look while seeing blood covered teeth and smoke rolling from the exposed maw.

The only word I could mutter was a simple and all encompassing “Fuck…”

Feeling the eyes land on me as if they had just realized I was there. Sure, I wasn’t a tree like Rikki but I was a respectable 5’10.5”. The looks were eating at me, but I knew I had to share what I knew.

“Yes, dragons are real and yes, we are possibly screwed.” I was honest but before the words could sink in, my phone vibrated. Looking at the caller id from my watch, it was my aunt. Quickly answering the phone, it was a video call and I had never been happier to see this woman in my life.

“Oi! Think you can give me a head’s up if your alive next time? Crying because my adorable nephew might be dead is not good for wrinkles and fine lines, brat.” I was baffled, embarrassed, relieved, and mildly annoyed.

“Where are you? And any word on what the hell is going on outside?!” I had to ask and at this point, the stragglers crowded around my phone trying to see anything they could on the six-inch screen. My aunt flipped her camera around and showed me the roadway as she drove. There were dragons of all shapes and sizes. Humans with some and some dragons just circling. Bursts of fire could be seen over head and the occasional thrown object that should NOT leave the ground.

“Remember the Lore of Scale Valley? Yea, that. That is what you are seeing with your little friends. Why now? I have not a clue available. I’m waiting on your dad to call me back and see if he can get into the vault. I need real artillery. A glock and a 30-30 are not sufficient.” She gave some info, and the rest were the ramblings of a scatterbrain with a weapon fetish. Feeling the building shake, they all ducked and covered their heads until the heard a loud scraping sound. It was like someone was drawing metal along a concrete slab but at a much larger scale. Before we could think, there were pieces of the building crumbling and falling from the ceiling. There were dragons. Lots of them and we were sitting ducks… The breeze off their flapping wings moved chairs and music stands like they were props in a tornado movie. I felt hands grab at me, pulling me to move but I never felt my feet take the first step.

The next thing I saw was nightmare fuel from a masterpiece horror producer. Leyna had on her platform tennis shoes. Normally, they only gave her a few inches in height. I had never seen her trip wearing these, not even while she was chasing me for snatching her last strawberry or running off with her drumstick. Never. Not once. Not until it actually mattered. Her scream was felt like an air pulse. I know what people mean when they say, “it happened so fast…” and when they say, “It happened in slow motion.”

When she fell, I saw Claudia turn and dart back. It was then I realized I was being carried by the muscle head that hid with us. That part moved in high speed as she grabbed Leyna by her arm and started pulling her towards the doors. Leyna managed to get her footing by kicking the shoes off, choosing life over shoes. But as they got to the doors, time sped up. Time fast forwarded without my consent, and I was useless to it, a dirty gym sock in a basket of laundry. Just a body taking up space.

Claudia screamed. She cried. She begged. A scale covered arm had her body in a firm grip as she flailed trying to do what she could to make it drop her. The dragon had a single-minded focus on her as it was over before I could process. A sickening crunch of bones being snapped into pieces like a Jenga puzzle collapsing on glass was louder and softer than I could have imagined. I saw this from the doors in the hall outside the band room where they had been only minutes before. I heard a cry like a wounded animal, and I prayed like it was the rapture for it to be one of her bones piercing the soft innards in vengeance. But arms wrapped around me, and I realized it was Rikki and Leyna. The wounded animal sound my ears heard was me. I was the one sounding like my soul was shredded from me like someone was skinning my flesh from muscle, later to pour alcohol all over and lay me in a bed of salt.

That was the longest day. I got another call from my aunt. She told me that she was able to get close to the school without being detected. I couldn’t even feel joy at imminent safety. Rikki shook me and took my phone. I heard him talking to my aunt, but the words were garbled. I felt Leyna’s hands on my back and arm, steadying me and providing a focal point. A focus for what, I didn’t remember. I saw the tiles and debris at my feet with her bare feet near me. I don’t remember why she was barefoot and why that fact seemed significant in the scheme of things. Why her voice was getting farther and farther away was also odd and where Rikki had been with my phone, he faded to silence. I remember asking why the sky was getting dark in a small space.

I felt my head pounding and I heard the voices return from barely there whispers to a full on, heated debate with a dash of panicked shouts. Suddenly, arms were around me and there was light in my eyes, making my headache protest loudly at the abuse.

“Well nephew, you are determined to make my skin wrinkled as a linen suit balled up in a suitcase for three weeks. Good thing you have friends that can keep their wits about them. Oh, I have armor-piercing bullets, missiles, a few cases of grenades and I may have a questionably acquired grenade launcher.” I could see Rikki sitting there, arms under his chin as he leaned forward on the back of an office chair. Leyna… Leyna was beside me and was the arms I felt on my chest. Her hair was dyed a cotton candy pink with purple roots. It was loose and wavy, taking up much less space than Claudia’s own navy tangle of coils that smelled of caramel, toasted vanilla, and berries. Looking around, I saw Rikki, and felt Leyna. My aunt was turned back to her desk, and I finally realized where we were.

My family were nutcases, and I was the most normal out of all of them. But when it came to intelligence and craftiness, we could be called geniuses. My grandma had migrated to Arabian Valley about a hundred years ago where she met my grandpa. She’d left to study the lore as she knew their town knew more about it and he was trying to study it. They spent 20 years building an underground bunker that had multiple exits, tunnels to supplies and plenty of living space with growth areas for sustainable vegetation. It was a heavily armed and ridiculously fortified underground citadel that could house about 75 people with ample space and resources. The bunker had various vehicles, motion systems, radar and sonar, ground to sky missiles, and systems so sophisticated that the CIA, KGB, and Interpol wants the information. Those bells were added by my dad when he panicked about three years ago. The explanation was loose then, but I really didn’t care about myth and lore while I was trying to carve out my space in high school. Becoming the person that has an awesome hobby and past time, pretty good grades, and a really genuine and cute girlfriend. A girlfriend I had yet to see.

“Where’s Claudia? Normally, she would be balled up nearby.” I asked but the artificial air became stiff. It felt starched and oppressive; funeral best, casket sharp and Easter Finest were terms humming in my inner ear. Rikki’s long arms fell as he looked to my aunt, lounging at a desk while lazily clicking through a multitude of screens. Not liking their blatant lack of response, I shrugged the thin arms from me, moving to stand and put space between us. More than ever, I felt like there was something not being explained. I was pleading to my memory to fill in the blanks. Why were there gaps in my mind? Why did Rikki look green when I asked about Claudia? Wait, why hasn’t Leyna said anything yet? They were close, right?

My questions bounced from temple to temple without regard to my steady headache, but I needed to know.

“Leyna, tell me please. Where is Claudia? Y’all are close right? Is she hiding?” Her eyes were wide in fear. Not fear, the look was more like unrivaled horror. The type of vision that haunted every minute of your existence. The type that crushed your mind and left you in the insane asylum, waiting on the orderly to give you meds to numb you in little paper cups.

Coming back to where she sat, I stepped in closer until I heard a crunch. I felt my heart stop as I heard screams. Loud, haunting, terror inflicting cries for the voice I haven’t heard yet. The sound of dense material crunching, gnashing, and grinding of a heavy material filled with gelatinous… I felt my stomach roll violently as I dashed for the entryway. I got no further. My stomach emptied until I was heaving, and nothing remained, not even stomach acid. My eyes were wet with tears as the afternoon slammed back into me like a dodgeball at gym class. She was gone. The bones, the crunch, the gnashing? It was her. My sweetheart. The girl I’d been planning on playing that song for. She was gone. Nothing left that her parents could use for closure. Hell, the fact it took me so long to notice the lack of caramel berries, navy fluff and chubby cheeks would piss any parent off. I can’t face them. My thoughts swirled and spread, clinging to an invisible anchor with the textile strength of cotton candy.

“Oi, it hurts. When your uncle passed, I cried. I was pissed and I wanted revenge for him leaving me in that state of emotional waste. But it doesn’t fix it. I felt better screaming to the four corners. It felt okay to beat the punching bag until my knuckles bled, but it didn’t fix my pain.” Her hands cradled my cheeks like when I was a kid and I would fall outside, skinning my legs and hands before crying like I was being tortured. There was a bottled water pressed into my hand as I was guided from my disgusting yet, impressive puddle of sick. She guided me to the couch in her office between Leyna and Rikki as their warmth radiated against my tired frame.

“So, what do we do? Why are dragons from mythic times flying like geese overhead?” I’m glad Rikki asked because my brain had given up on making sense of anything from the last twenty-four hours.

Feeling my aunt’s brown eyes regarding me as if trying to determine what to say, she fiddled with a few buttons on her desk. The suspicions to what was being unearthed were confirmed when I saw the panel in the ceiling open to let down a motorized arm with a mounted screen. I felt silver-blue eyes trying to get my attention, but I shrugged. No clue as to what my aunt was about to unpack, I kept my eyes ahead.

“You know the Lore, give us the short version, brat.” She never looked at the folks in the room, but I already knew she was referring to me.

“Ok… A really, really, really long time ago, Dragon Valley was home to a few human groups and dragons. They coinhabited the land for years without conflict. Some years later, there was a problem, I think.” My aunt nodded in confirmation, hand above her head rolling as if to spool the words from me. “A human clan head was found dead with claw marks and bites that matched some of the dragons there. The other human village found a wounded dragon after getting word of the human’s death. They kept and tortured the dragon until it died. Each group kept retaliating until it blew up and became a war. Some humans that were sympathetic sided with the more feral dragons. Others that felt the dragons couldn’t be trusted at all were against the feral dragons. Other humans that wanted a tribunal hearing to handle the deaths fair and reasonably sided with the dragons that had the same views.” I finished and I still couldn’t meet my bandmates’ eyes. I knew it sounded nuts. Hell, I sounded nuts! Yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the other shoe was far from falling. My aunt pulled the map of Arabian Valley up and pinged it with a few icons. Turning and leaning back in the swiveling office chair, she used a red laser pointer while looking at all of us.

“This is where the conflict took place.” She pointed at an area that was about sixty miles south of our current location.

“This is where the bodies were found or left.” She pointed to three dots on the map but, I was confused.

“But only two were killed. What was the last to die and how was this conveniently left out?” Hazel with green shards took a moment to look me over, each moment that passed made another bead of sweat form on my neck.

“He was human, and he left his mate behind.” That was the first time I heard this variation, and I was floored.

“I’m sorry and you have been really nice to us for saving our rumps, but this is not making sense. What does a fantasy myth, make believe and awesome for a project, have to do with us?” And there was the blunt little homie we all knew and loved. Leyna was leaning forward all while looking back at Rikki and my eyes, trying to get a gauge on this madness.

My aunt was exasperated but recovered well. She showed the map with lines across the terrain. None of them even or in a specific pattern that would draw attention before the womanly alto, was used again. This time, accompanied by a raised eyebrow, and without missing a beat from our quiet ignorance, she dropped a bomb.

“These are ley lines. These are points of supernatural energy convergence. All life has energy; it’s how we run, but when an area experiences and absorbs certain energies, it gains memory. If the wrong parties are aware of a particular wealth of energy, what do you think will happen?” she leveled us all with a look, her eyes focused on who would make the invisible connection she was grasping at.

“They can try and use it.” When I heard Rikki speak up, I looked at him only to be met with the same unwavering concentration I had used minutes before.

“What was not mentioned in the story was that your grandmother was pregnant by her mate when she left the valley. The man you knew as grandpa was her first husband.” The deep voice that I’d known since I could process being alive spoke up. So engrossed in the tale, new information and my own thoughts, I never heard the entry warnings. Coming from the tunnel leading out the basement storeroom was my dad. He was just under six feet tall with messy dark brown hair in loose waves. He wore glasses from years of computer use, years of sorting lab data with extremely tiny print was the main occupational hazard.

“How does her mate who was her husband have to do with this? This makes no sense and the lore is not making this better! JUST TELL US THE TRUTH! I’ve seen too much today. Please? Just. Tell me. The facts.” This was too much for my brain. At this point, I’ve almost perfected a song confessing my love to her, hid from beasts that should be fictitious, apparently, saw my girlfriend become a dragon snack and found out my grandmother had essentially, two husbands.

“I didn’t say she had two husbands. I said that she had a mate, and later, a husband. There is a difference.” He was cleaning his glasses on the swath of cloth he always carried with him, part of the occupational hazards I presumed.

“Dragons mate for life?” Wavy strands of pastel pink whipped into my peripheral vision as if she had been hooked to a livewire. My aunt looked like an overly satisfied cat that drank a whole bowl of stolen whipping cream. My dad stood there, smirking, making finger guns and chanting ‘Bingo!”

“Ok, I had 2 to 4 grandpas, but this doesn’t clear up why these flying nightmares are out now and what we have to do with it?”

“Our family is the descendants of the clan head that died. My mother, your grandmother, is a dragon. When she left the village, it wasn’t for research. It was to live. The clan head was her father, her mother was a dragon with the ability to shift. She fled because they tried to pin his death on her. She was mated to him and dragon’s mate for life. The only thing that can keep her inner nature from following her mate is a strong enough reason to live. Most likely, a child.” He sat on the floor in front of me as I sat back, head leaning against the back of the couch. My brain has checked out and I no longer can process anything that required more thought than to blow spit bubbles.

“Is that everything I need to know? I’m descendant to a dragon and human, most of my childhood has been built on stories that fit delusions of grandeur and I still have no idea what needs to happen from here forward to try and live like a normal person.” Being done with the day, whatever emotions resided in my body had given up and fled at the sight of vomit. Leyna had taken to giving hugs as much as she could the whole time we’ve been discussing this. Rikki had a calculating look in his face, one I usually saw when he was trying to decipher if all payments had been withdrawn from the account BEFORE he purchased the item.

“Rikki, I know you and I are cool as hell, but don’t you dare. I need sleep before you try this route. Please?!” I had to try. I had no chance of getting out of this unscathed.

My dad looked at him eye to eye before getting up and opening a panel on the wall. His hand held a book that looked as if it had descended from time itself. It was a hide of sepia, worn and smooth from repeated handling. The pages were a pale beige with an image of a dragon depicted on the side while closed. There were note tabs peaking from between the upper pages, neatly pressed.

“Son, do you know what this is?” his pale hazel eyes waited as I wracked my already taxed brain for anything familiar.

“Why do you think we know so much of the lore? Just because our family ‘came’ from there? No, this our actual history,” he paused to turn to a tabbed page, skimming it before turning to the next page and reading it aloud.

“Neither side stood down from battle. Man and Drake alike lay slain as the war continued. Hatchling, and child alike cradled the fallen. Temporary orders to remove and honor the dead rolled throughout and the fighting ceased.

As she looked at the carnage before her, her path cleared. When dark fell over the land, she vanished into the wilderness of the valley. The night had brought loss to her home and her life would be forfeit if found.

She knew the ways would be addressed again with more destruction to follow. With one hundred years, she would be ready. The ways of both would be needed to stop the hurt.

With hand across her stomach, she assumed the life of a human woman. She would teach the young the ways of her people and help usher in the treaty times. It would rest on the child with all their bloods, but she would ensure that her home was peaceful and safe once more.”

When my dad stopped reading and closed the book, he leveled me with a look.

“Your mom is from the other dragon tribe, and you know of us. Levi Avagis Grinderson, you are the Child of Lore.”

As I fell to the floor, I heard a voice say, “Welcome to your destiny.”