Lazy Scales, page 19
part #1 of Lazy Scales Series
Lewis cast a furtive glance up at the elder dragon and was surprised to see him wiping his eyes. “Are you… crying?” Lewis asked, staring at the ghost in disbelief.
“No, no, I have a bit of vapor in my eyes,” Lasthope said, wiping them again. “Now then, that you have accepted your destiny as a dragon, we can go about all the lessons of things you did not get to learn as a whelp. To the peak!”
Lewis blinked as Lasthope drifted out of the cave and abruptly stopped twenty feet away. Lasthope thrashed his tail in a desperate attempt to keep moving. No matter how hard he tried, he would not budge. Was Lewis not following him? The ghost turned around to see what the holdup was and found Lewis lying on his belly, his chin resting on his claws.
“Lewis, come,” Lasthope ordered.
“I don’t want to,” Lewis grumbled as he dragged a claw through the rock of the cave. It came away effortlessly, like scraping away at frayed paper.
Lasthope drifted over to him and settled into a mirror of his own position, doing his best not to phase through the floor. Lewis hadn’t even realized it before, but Lasthope was a lot bigger than him, at least twice, maybe even three times his size! Laying down like this, his spectral bulk filled the entire cave mouth, even with his wings closed. It was no wonder that he spent most of his time phased through objects.
“I thought you wanted to learn to fly, Lewis?” Lasthope finally asked, cocking his head.
Lewis’s ears perked up, but he kept staring at the ground. “If I’m honest, I’d much rather be alone,” he muttered. “You can yell at me all you want. I won’t argue back. I’m just not in the mood.”
Lasthope took a deep, empty breath and scuttled closer to Lewis. They couldn’t touch physically, but the ghostly dragon couldn’t help but feel some paternal connection to the young bronze dragon. Lewis needed his help and guidance and had even called him Ghost Dad as a joke. It was not out of the question, he supposed, for him to behave properly like a father.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Lasthope asked, his voice dropping to a whisper, although the only person who could hear him was Lewis himself.
“No, I don’t,” Lewis growled, his eyes narrowing. “What are you doing?”
“I am trying to fulfill my duty as your Ghost Father,” Lasthope said, smiling sincerely down at the young dragon. “You are in distress, and I would try to ease it somewhat. After my father passed, I had no one with whom to discuss my troubles. I kept them locked within, and I ultimately found that to be more harmful than otherwise.”
“You’re talking about mental health?” Lewis mumbled, meeting Lasthope’s gaze. “You had mental health issues?”
“Is that what they call it these days? Yes, I suppose I had that,” Lasthope nodded. “It is difficult to be the last living member of your race, with no prospects for mating, and to have the entire future of your kind resting upon your shoulders. It was a lot for me to bear at your age, so I cannot imagine it being any less of a burden for you.”
Lewis’s curiosity immediately turned into a sneer, and he looked away again. “Yeah, well, your stupid destiny isn’t what’s bothering me! Go away!”
Lasthope looked genuinely surprised. “Is it not? Why else would you be moping like this?”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’ve had to surrender everything I’ve ever known and loved? Or maybe it’s because I was transformed into a monster against my will, and now that I am a monster, I have lost the ability to connect with the people I cared about? Because I’ve lost my support network, which further caused me to SPIRAL INTO DEPRESSION!” Lewis said in a single breath before shouting out the last three words with a gout of flame that caused Lasthope to dissipate in a gust of vapor.
It took the elder dragon very little time to reconstitute himself, and when he did, he half-phased himself through the wall so he could lay next to his young ward. “You are upset about what happened with your friends,” he stated.
“Yeah,” Lewis sighed, resting his head on the floor and putting his claws on his ears. They wouldn’t block out Lasthope, but it felt right to do all the same.
“For what it is worth, Lewis, I am sorry that events had to go this way,” Lasthope said, lowering himself again to the same level as the younger dragon. “I had never intended for you to deal with this; it was always my burden to bear.”
“Yeah, you were just going to kill me and snatch my body,” Lewis grumbled.
Just a day ago, he couldn’t understand why Lasthope thought that was an okay thing to do. Now that he’d had another day to fully experience as a dragon, he was starting to get it. The killing was just a part of dragon nature. As he thought of it, humans were killers too, at one point, but had grown so used to letting someone else do the killing for them that the idea of taking life grew disgusting to them.
Turning into a dragon had washed that all away. Not only did Lewis find he was okay with killing, he actually found he enjoyed it. It was kind of fun to take an animal apart and drink its blood, feast upon its flesh. The notion of chasing a deer across the mountain surface filled Lewis with a twinge of excitement.
But despite it all, he just couldn’t bring himself to get off the cave floor and do it. He was just so upset about what had happened with Dayton and his friends that the idea of getting up to run and chase a prey animal filled him with dread. The little voice inside his head whispered that he’d failed at everything before. Why wouldn’t he fail at being a dragon?
Sighing again, he turned to look up at Lasthope. The elder dragon was staring out at the horizon. The sun had climbed high and begun its slow descent into the evening. Lewis followed his gaze, guessing it was just after one in the afternoon now.
“I never meant it to be this way,” Lasthope sighed and shook his head. “You were never meant to be alive, and that body should have been mine. I wish I could investigate my spell work, to see what had gone wrong, maybe even try again, but alas, the hunters took my body away from there. I can no more haunt my spell than I can haunt one of your friends. I believe I could haunt my bones, but the dragon slayers have them now, and I want nothing to do with them.”
Lewis flexed his claws and looked Lasthope in his massive eye. “For what it’s worth, some part of me is glad the spell went wrong.”
“Pardon?”
“I don’t want to die, Lasthope,” Lewis said, his ears flattening against his head. “I know nobody expected me to do anything with my life, but I wanted to grow up and be something. If that something is a massive fire-breathing reptile, then so be it. I don’t want to die, though,” he repeated, quickly.
Lasthope took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes, I believe I understand. Part of me is also glad the spell went wrong. I am not sure I could handle the burdens of another entire dragon lifetime. Does that mean you will listen to my teachings?”
Lewis stretched out his claws and dug furrows into the cave rock beneath him. He ground it up into gravel for a moment before scattering it elsewhere with a swipe of his claw. “I didn’t say that,” he said, grinning up at the elder dragon, “but I’m not as opposed to it anymore, I guess?”
“Then we shall go now and have a lesson,” Lasthope grinned and hopped up onto his feet. He phased slightly through the floor for a moment before remembering that he wasn’t solid anymore and floating a few feet off the ground. He grinned a pale, toothy smile at his young ward and floated through the cave roof.
Lewis stared blankly at the spot where Lasthope had been not seconds before, his jaw hanging open in surprise. What had just happened? Had he only had a depression talk that led straight into school time?
Lasthope’s snout poked through the ceiling as he stared down at Lewis. “Do not dally, little one. We must go while the sun is still out. It will be much more difficult to attempt this in the dark.”
“W-what?!” Lewis stammered, watching as Lasthope slipped back into the rock. “Where are you going?! Lasthope!?”
“Come to the peak, Lewis,” Lasthope’s voice echoed through the cave, “and be quick about it. I assure you, you will enjoy this.”
Lewis shook his head and finally pushed himself off the cave floor. Bits of rocks stuck to his scales, and his belly gurgled angrily, but he ignored them both as he slipped out of the cave and looked upwards, towards the peak of the mountain. It was white with just the faintest bit of snow. He took a deep breath and began the long trek upwards.
It wasn’t really that bad. As a human, with small little legs, the climb would have taken hours. Still, with Lewis’s powerful dragon muscles carrying him, he made it up to the peak in under thirty minutes.
The view from above was astounding. He could see the entire town sprawled out below him like a map. If he squinted, he could even see his old house from up there.
“This is nice and all,” Lewis began, looking at the spectral dragon that was mostly blending in with the snow, “but what are we doing up here?”
Lasthope grinned and steepled his claws together. “Today, my dear boy, is a momentous occasion: you will have your first lesson on the proper techniques of flight.”
Epilogue
Dayton awoke with a start, sitting up in Brandon’s truck and looking around frantically. His heart was hammering in his chest, and he winced in pain as the motion jostled his horribly aching ribs. The pain made him want to cry out, but he managed to hold his tongue. Brandon’s eyes went wide as he watched the ginger man’s frantic eyes, as though he didn’t have a clue where he was. For all Brandon knew, that was probably the case.
“You’re fine, you’re safe,” Brandon said, in the most reassuring tone he could manage.
Dayton blinked in surprise, his eyes flicking around the truck nervously. They were back in town, driving through traffic.
Dayton’s heart slowed, and he examined himself. His ribs ached something fierce, and his head was killing him, but other than that, he was mostly unharmed. “What…” he muttered, looking at Brandon. His eyes rolled dizzily in his head, and he yelped in pain as the car once more lurched forward. “What happened? Where are we? I don’t remember…”
“That’s probably the concussion,” Brandon grunted, giving Dayton a sidelong glance. “You crashed your car as you were leaving the mountain, about an hour ago. I’m taking you to the hospital.”
Dayton frowned. That didn’t sound right. He was an excellent driver and was adept at controlling a vehicle even in adverse road conditions. Surely he wouldn’t crash his car over something so simple, so trivial, as driving down a mountain?
“The dragon…” Dayton muttered. That was right, hadn’t there been a dragon? He winced again as his hands brushed against his ribs. They felt wrong. Probably broken. “Hadn’t there… been a dragon?”
Brandon cocked an eyebrow and shook his head. “Dragons aren’t real,” he grunted. “Just a car accident.”
“Car accident….” Dayton repeated, laying his head against the car door and shutting his eyes.
Brandon hoped the other man passed out again. He’d been able to stay out while Brandon drove Lucy home, and he’d been hoping to get Dayton to the hospital before he woke up. He sighed, happy to be in silence again.
Just then, a loud roar could be heard echoing down from the mountains. Dayton sat bolt upright, his eyes wide.
“Dragon,” he muttered.
Detective Martha Smith clenched her jaw as she read the email over again. Mayor Weatherby was not happy with the news that there might be a monster rampaging in her city.
Of course, Martha had ended up being the one who had to tell her. She always got hard jobs.
She sat in her office, reviewing the footage from the squad car dashcams. The very same footage she had to send to the mayor.
The very same footage that was proving to be far more perplexing than originally assumed.
What they showed her was something out of her imagination. If she hadn’t known that the footage had come directly from the cars involved, she’d have assumed it was doctored. There was no other reasonable explanation. Nothing like what she was seeing could be allowed to exist.
It was a monster. It ran on four legs and looked like it was made of hammered bronze scales. A car crashed into it, and it barely budged, like the vehicle was so small, so negligible, that it was beneath its notice.
The part that always scared her was when it turned around and breathed fire at the squad of cars. Its eyes… Its eyes looked almost human. They were maddened and scared, like everything it was seeing, everything it was doing, was wrong. Then it disappeared off-screen.
Martha was about to rewind the tapes and watch it for the fifth time when a knock came on her office door.
“Come in,” she called, minimizing the videos on her computer and looking up.
A lean man with bright blonde hair stood in the doorway. He smiled at her as he stepped in, and Martha immediately noticed that he was loaded to the gills with combat gear. There was a knife on one side of his hip and an empty gun holster on the other. Judging by the stiffness of his shirt, she also assumed he was wearing body armor.
“A little heavy in the equipment department for a visit to the police station,” Martha said, tugging her gun out of her shoulder holster and resting it on the desk. She didn’t let go of it. “Why’d security let you keep the knife?”
“Oh, this thing?” The man said, tugging the blade out of its own matching scabbard. Martha immediately saw why. The blade was ground down until it was dull; it wouldn’t even be able to cut butter. Martha’s eyes narrowed as she glimpsed several Japanese characters carved down the length of the metal. They were the only parts untouched by the sharpening process. “Family heirloom. Mostly for show these days. Don’t want to get it sharpened anymore for fear it might diminish the blade.”
Martha narrowed her eyes at the lanky man.
“More than it already has, of course,” he said with a shrug, twirling the knife between his fingers. “Mind if I make myself comfortable, Miss Smith?”
Martha frowned at the use of her last name. It wasn’t unreasonable for him to know who she was, but there was something about how he said it that made her feel like he knew a lot more than he let on. She wanted to refuse him a seat but struggled to find a reason. “How can I help you, mister…?” she said, pointing to the chair across from her.
“Lambton. John Lambton,” he said, plopping into the chair and crossing his legs with a flourish. “And, actually, this visit is more about how I can help you.”
Martha raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
“You seem to have an animal problem, yes?” Lambton said. “A large, monstrous creature rampaging around town, killing people and destroying property.”
Martha’s eyes momentarily flicked to her computer screen, where the videos were still minimized. Still, it was enough to confirm Lambton’s suspicions.
“I’m something of an expert in how to deal with those kinds of creatures,” Lambton continued, fingers playing with the hilt of the knife at his hip. “They are extremely dangerous and not something that should be taken lightly.”
“I assure you, we’re not taking it lightly,” Martha said. “Normally, I’d thank you for being a concerned citizen, looking out for your fellows. You, however, aren’t from around here.”
“Guilty as charged,” Lambton grinned.
“We’re doing everything we can to make sure we deal with the creature properly,” Martha said.
“Really? Not from what I’ve seen,” Lambton said, that grin never once leaving his face. “You’re poorly equipped to handle this kind of monster, ma’am. If you let me and my crew step in, though, we can show you a thing or two.”
Martha’s eyes narrowed as she looked into John Lambton’s too-blue eyes. “What are you asking for, then? Money? Permission?”
“Permission, mostly,” Lambton said with a nod. “I want permission to do whatever is necessary to stop that thing. We already have a good idea of where it sleeps, and I have sent one of my men to go check in on it, just to be certain.”
“What exactly is necessary to get rid of this thing?” Martha asked.
“A lot,” Lambton admitted. “At least, for you, it would be a lot. For me,” he smiled and tugged the dagger out of its scabbard, showing the way the carved letters caught the light, “it only takes a single stab.”
Martha frowned as he slid the dagger back into its scabbard, still smiling all the while. “With all due respect, Mister Lambton, but I’d rather not give you free rein within my city.”
Lambton actually looked surprised by that. “I beg your pardon? I don’t think you quite understand the gravity of the situation.”
“Oh, I think I do,” Martha said, standing up. She kept her grip tight on her gun, but her finger away from the trigger. “I’ve seen what this thing can do. It has killed two people in my town and injured no less than eight others. However, this is the first time we’ve seen it or anything like it in the area. It’s just an animal, like any other. As long as we leave it alone, it should do the same for us.”
“It’s not just an animal,” Lambton said, narrowing his eyes this time. “It’s a dangerous creature. They are intelligent, hungry, and prone to extreme bouts of temper.”
Martha’s eyebrow raised in surprise. “Intelligent? On a human level?”
“Hold on, love, don’t misunderstand,” Lambton said, shaking his head. “These things are smart, but not in the way you’re thinking.”
Martha shook her head. “That changes very little. No, Mister Lambton, I will not give you permission to do what is necessary to kill this creature. You will stand down and let my men and I try to deal with it our way. You will, however, provide us with every scrap of intelligence you have on this thing.”
Lambton scowled. “You’re making a mistake.”
“No, I think you are the one who has made a mistake,” Martha said, sitting down again. “I’m not sure how many of these things you’ve seen and killed, but you’re fooling yourself if you think I will let you waltz into my town and start killing stuff. Now, start talking. I want to know everything you know about this beast.”
