Lazy Scales, page 16
part #1 of Lazy Scales Series
Why are dragon thoughts so hard? Lewis asked himself, frowning.
In truth, thinking like a dragon wasn’t hard. It was so easy for him to slip into the mindset of humans being food that it happened almost without effort. Lewis scrunched up his eyebrows and forced himself to think of anything else. Still, his mind always drifted back to the delicious flavor and the way the nurse’s blood had felt on his tongue.
He felt it the moment his saliva caught fire. He wanted to eat humans there and then, and it took a conscious effort not to coat his lips in burning drool.
“Lewis, we’re not mad at you for doing it,” Becca explained, running to Jeremy to step between him and the dragon. “We get it. You’re different now. You have different needs and tastes. We’re only asking you to never do it again.”
Lewis’s frown deepened as he looked up to meet Becca’s gaze. “Never do what again?”
“Eat a human,” Becca explained, pausing for a second, as though the answer had been obvious. “We don’t want to distance ourselves from you, but we can’t deny that you’re a lot more dangerous now than you used to be. You could kill one of us by accident and barely even notice. You’re just that big — that dangerous.”
Lewis held his front claws up to his face and flexed them. They were pretty big. He could easily grasp his friends and pluck them off the ground. He’d lifted a cow yesterday as though it weighed little more than a brick. He’d torn rock like it was chalk. He was definitely far stronger than he’d ever been before, and he had yet to fully grasp what the difference in destructive power really was.
“Think of this as a pre-emptive intervention,” Becca continued, drawing Lewis’s attention back to her. “We care about you a lot, Lewis, and we’re really worried about you. That’s why, as soon as Jeremy learned about the person you’d eaten, he messaged us, and we got this plan together. We wanted to show you we’re here for you, and we want to support you.”
“We just can’t do it if you go around eating people…” Jeremy quickly added. “We can’t be accessories to that…”
Lewis’s heart quickened as he frantically looked at each of his friends. Becca looked worried, but whether it was for him or about what he would do, he couldn’t tell. Lucy had a mixture of fear and fury on her face and had been slowly backing away throughout the conversation. She was a dozen paces back now and could easily bolt for safety. Brandon was his usual stoic self, his face not betraying how he felt. However, Jeremy looked angry, disgusted even, as though he couldn’t believe what Lewis had done.
Despite it all, Lewis was still having a hard time feeling bad about it. The nurse had been food, and he’d been starving to the point of insanity. What more was there to understand? He just couldn’t comprehend why they were so upset about this! It wasn’t like he’d eaten one of their family members! That he might understand. This was a complete stranger.
“You should send them away,” Lasthope whispered in his ear, his voice cold and harsh. “They cannot understand what it is like to be a dragon. They will never truly accept you as you now are. Humans are at best food and at worst vermin. Send them away.”
Lewis shivered and swatted Lasthope away with his wings. “So that’s just it, then? You want me to stop eating humans, or you guys will stop being friends with me?”
“It’s not that, Lewis!” Becca assured him. “We’ll always be your friends! It’s just we aren’t safe around you if you have a hunger for human flesh. What do you think would happen if you turned around and ate one of us? We don’t want it to happen, and we don’t think you actively want to do it, but the way things are going, it can only be a matter of time before you stop seeing us as friends and start seeing us as snacks. Keep in mind, you told us yesterday that we smell like food.”
“That’s because you do,” Lewis whined, shaking his head. “But, all right, all right, I get the point!”
“So you’ll stop eating humans?” Becca asked, elation on her face.
“I’ll stay off the human meat, if only because it means I get to keep you guys around,” Lewis grumbled half-heartedly.
“Do you really mean it, Lewis?” Jeremy asked, stepping forward to stand beside Becca.
Lewis groaned and sat upon his haunches. He raised one claw to the air and placed another over where he figured his heart should be. “I, the dragon formerly known as the human being Lewis Cooper, do solemnly swear not to seek out the delicious taste of human flesh, on penalty of losing your friendship. Happy now?”
Becca crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. Jeremy took a deep breath and adjusted the strap over his shoulder. Brandon shrugged.
“Guys?” Lewis asked, lowering back down to all fours.
Finally, Becca sighed and nodded. “All right, we’ll take what we can get for now.”
Lewis breathed a sigh of relief. “Now that we’ve settled the matter of my diet,” he said with a grin. “I have a request to make.”
His friends exchanged a quick look of confusion before he cleared his throat to draw them back to him again.
“You guys shouldn’t call me Lewis anymore,” he explained, lowering himself to their eye level. “It was my name as a human, but I have to come to terms with the fact that I’m not going to be a human again anytime soon. To that extent, I need a dragon name.”
“I did notice you said formerly known in your little oath, there,” Jeremy said with a frown.
“Have you chosen a new name?” Becca asked, with a raised eyebrow
“Sort of. Hey, Lasthope, what’s that thing you keep calling me?” Lewis asked over his shoulder, raising his voice.
“Do you refer to the insult I call you when you refuse to listen to me?” Lasthope asked, incredulous.
“Yeah, that one.”
“That would be lazy scales.”
“You guys can call me Lazyscales for now,” Lewis said with a grin, turning back to his friends. “Lazyscales,” he said again, tasting the way the name felt on his tongue. Despite it being an insult, it also felt right. It felt unapologetically him, in a way his given human name never had.
“That’s a terrible name,” Becca, Jeremy, and Lasthope all said, almost at the same time. “Could you not pick something cooler? More dignified?”
Lewis grinned and shook his head. Their reaction was proof that he’d made the right call.
Chapter 22
With matters settled between them about Lewis’s eating habits and his new name hanging in the air, the four humans and one dragon ventured into the newly cleaned cave. The walls were charred black by the heat and, to Lewis’s surprise, completely dry. Yesterday, the entire cavern had been dank and musty, with dampness that had permeated every fiber of his being and froze his bones.
Now, though, the cave was warm and inviting. The walls, floor, and ceiling were dry as a bone, and the flame washing had completely evaporated the stench of mold and guano. The cave was instead filled with the calming aroma of smoke and ash. Lewis took a deep breath of his new home. The change was comforting and reminded him of how his bedroom smelled as opposed to his parent’s room. There was always a sharper scent to their room, one that made him a little uncomfortable. In contrast, a space occupied solely by him was comfortable. He’d never realized it before how much scents mattered, but his draconic sense of smell had changed everything.
This cave didn’t exactly have the same kind of olfactory atmosphere as his bedroom. Still, already it smelled more and more like somewhere Lewis could be safe and comfortable. A few charred bat carcasses were strewn about the floor, and Lewis quickly scooped them up in his maw and chomped down on them, not caring for an instant that his friends could see him eat. They were burned and crispy, but they went down his gullet and settled into his belly.
“What?” Lewis asked, looking up at his friends once he realized they were staring at him. A bat’s singed wing was hanging out of his mouth, and he quickly slurped it up and swallowed it.
“That’s kind of gross,” Brandon grunted. “They’re burnt.”
Lewis shrugged his wings and shoulders. “They’re meat, as good as any other,” he said, patting his belly. “Though, not really substantial enough. I’m probably going to have to hunt today…”
“Oh! We actually figured you’d be hungry, so we brought you food,” Jeremy said, giving Brandon a significant look. “It’s not much, but hopefully, it’ll tide you over until you have a chance to hunt for bigger game later?”
Lewis swallowed nervously as Brandon set down his grocery bags and pulled out a few packages of wrapped tenderloin and pork chops. Lewis sniffed at them curiously and popped one into his mouth before his friends took the plastic off.
Lewis chewed the meat, his tongue expertly extracting it from the plastic, before swallowing it. It tasted fine, he supposed, but it was dry. There was no gush of blood, no sweet tang of flavors. As he spat out the plastic, he couldn’t help but dread eating the other packaged meat. It was boring. Had he ever really eaten this stuff? Cooked, no less, so even dryer than it was now?! Disgusting. He didn’t understand how humans could live like this! There was nothing more appetizing than fresh meat that gushed blood down your throat! At that moment, Lewis wanted nothing more than to slit an animal’s throat and chug its blood.
“Butchered meat, bah,” Lasthope growled, swatting at the plastic wrap Lewis discarded. “This is not healthy for dragons. Iron from blood promotes proper scale growth. Having a low-iron diet is how you get scale rot.”
Lewis gave Lasthope a quick look, as though to say they’d have to talk about it more later. “Thanks, guys, I really appreciate the snack,” Lewis said, trying to sound genuinely grateful.
His friend made a game of tossing the meat up into the air and letting him catch it in his maw. Whenever one of them looked like it would miss him, Lewis would crane around to catch it. The girls seemed to enjoy the spectacle of the giant dragon playing catch like a dog until the boys offered them a turn. Becca picked up a bright red chunk of beef and tossed it underhandedly. It landed cleanly on Lewis’s snout, which made everyone in the cave burst out into laughter.
Lewis shrugged his massive shoulders and tilted his head. The beef slid down his snout, and he caught it in his mouth.
To everyone’s surprise, Lucy had a perfect throw that landed right in the middle of Lewis’s tongue. Everyone cheered for her, and Lewis gave her two big thumb-claws up.
With Lucy’s toss, though, the meat was expended. Lewis looked disappointedly at the empty grocery bags, his belly barely full enough to stop growling. He put a claw to it, feeling a pang of hunger pushing its way into him. More than just the hunger, though, was an intense craving. He hadn’t realized how essential blood was to a meal until he didn’t have it. His throat practically ached with the need for it, and it was all he could do to push the craving from his mind.
“All right, that was fun and all,” Lewis said, laying on his stomach inside his cave. He pressed his bulk up against the far back wall, where it was too dark for his human friends to see without the use of a flashlight, “but you still have bags. Do you guys have something else for me, or did you come to tease?”
Now that Lewis had unintentionally displaced — eaten — the bat colony, the farthest wall in the cave was surprisingly the most comfortable. It was covered in an irregularly formed rock that rubbed pleasantly against Lewis’s sides, like a big back massager. Given the tunnel continued on past it, it was also colder to the touch than other walls in the cave, making it almost like a giant stone pillow for his entire body. He nestled against it and scratched an itch against its rough surface. He half-closed his eyes as a light tingle of pleasure ran down his spine.
“And why can’t it be both?” Becca grinned, propping a fist up on her hip and interrupting Lewis’s scratching session. She aimed her phone at Lewis, and the camera light on the back momentarily flashed in his eyes, making him squeeze them shut. “Jeremy has something for you, first.”
Becca turned the light away, and Lewis followed her gaze over to Jeremy, who was rooting around in his backpack, trying to grip something large and black. Finally, with a grunt of effort, Jeremy pulled it out and held it above his head.
It was like a sacred relic from a time long since passed. Lewis felt his tongue catching in his throat as he stared at the box. The memory of it was foggy, from when Lasthope had stolen and eaten chunks of it, but a spark of recognition still lit up in his eyes.
It couldn’t be… could it?
“Is that…?” Lewis jogged himself off the wall and slid carefully towards Jeremy. He reached out a claw towards the box but stopped himself from taking it. His dopey talons were just so big and clumsy, there was no way he could touch the delicate box without turning it into plastic shrapnel. “Did you…?”
“It’s yours,” Jeremy confirmed with a bright grin. “I snuck into your house to steal your Xbox for you!”
Lewis’s eyes grew wide, and his snout turned green. “You did what?” He asked, his voice so low it was barely audible. He lowered his head to Jeremy’s level and looked him in the eyes. “You did this… for me?”
Jeremy hesitated for a moment, then carefully tucked the Xbox under one arm. With the other hand, he rested it on Lewis’s snout and rubbed it. “Of course, dude. Just because you’re big and scaly now doesn’t mean I want to stop being your best friend. And, as your best friend, I know what makes you happy.”
Lewis pulled away from Jeremy and held his claws up to his face. “But these… they can’t hold a controller, let alone turn the machine on.”
“We thought of that,” Jeremy said with a grin. “Brandon, let’s set it up.”
Brandon dropped his bags and ran back to his truck. A few moments later, he returned, dragging a bright red box and some spools of cable behind him. He positioned the red box by the mouth of the cave and opened it up, revealing four panels of black glass. Lewis watched curiously as he pushed a button on the machine and then plugged one end of the cable into it.
The young dragon watched, even more, enraptured, as Brandon unrolled the cable and set it down near the back of the cave. He looked up at Jeremy and gave his kid brother a thumbs up. The two of them immediately got to work setting up the Xbox and a few other peripherals. Some of them Lewis recognized, while others were strange and unfamiliar to him.
Jeremy motioned for Lewis to back himself up towards the side of the cave while they worked, and it didn’t take him long to guess what they were doing. They’d brought a projector and hooked up to the Xbox!
“Guys, you really didn’t need to go this far!” Lewis insisted, his eyes wide but his voice excited. “Honestly, this is a bit much!”
“We haven’t even scratched the surface of how far we’ve gone yet,” Jeremy said, holding up another bag. “With this, you won’t need a controller!”
Lewis frowned in confusion as Jeremy pulled the adaptive controller out of the bag and set it up on the cave floor. Two giant red joysticks, complete with a handful of fat, colored buttons, were laid out and arranged into the familiar shape of an Xbox controller right next to the projector.
“It’s a little rough,” Jeremy said, “but it should do the trick!”
Lewis’s talons flexed as he reached out towards the buttons. They were right there, so very close… He could still play video games, even as a dragon? Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad…
“Lewis, this is wrong,” Lasthope whispered in his ear, his voice stern and concerned. “This is not how a dragon should fill their lair. Tell them to take it away, please.”
Lewis ignored him as Brandon fired up the projector. The wall across from Lewis flared to life as light and color filled the cave. Sounds echoed through it next as a tinny noise came from the projector’s built-in speakers. Finally, the familiar Xbox logo appeared on the wall, accompanied by the start-up noise.
Lewis felt big tears well up in his eyes. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed this until it was right in front of him. He reached out a claw towards the buttons on the ground. The set up was still much too small for him, but he found he was at least able to manipulate the joysticks as though they were analog sticks and still be able to reach the buttons. The layout was familiar, albeit a little uncomfortable without something to grip in his hands.
“What do you want to play first?” Jeremy asked.
Truth be told, Lewis wanted to play Fortnite, but he didn’t want to ask his friends about the possibility of an internet connection. They’d already done so much by bringing his Xbox back to him, by giving him the ability to play games again.
Lewis didn’t answer as he cycled through the list of games he’d already downloaded and installed to the machine. Memories of playing them in his bedroom flashed through his mind as he stopped on each one. In his head, he was sitting in his room, his big dumb claws wrapped around a controller perfectly sized for his hands. He knew those memories were wrong, but they gave him a small comfort.
There was a fair number of games already installed on the device, which was good since he wasn’t too sure when he’d get the chance to download something new. He decided that, since this would be the first game he truly played as a dragon, it should be something fun and familiar.
“I’m thinking Halo,” Lewis said, grinning as he clicked the start button.
The game started, and the familiar theme song hit Lewis like a truck. He froze, just staring at the start screen, as the music echoed through his cave. His face, illuminated only by the light of the projector, was practically aglow with joy.
“Lewis, please, this is wrong,” Lasthope said, floating in front of the bronze dragon’s face to get his attention. “Dragons should not partake in human toys.”
Lewis blew out the slightest puff of flame in response. It wasn’t a lot, but Lasthope got the message: go away.
Lewis’s friends stood in the cave, waiting for him to do something, when Lewis looked down at the buttons laid out beneath his claws. “What button does what?” He asked, frowning. There were fewer buttons laid out than usually there were on an Xbox controller.
