Mark Of The Dragon Book I: Past

Chapter 13

I opened my eyes and I was in a blank place. The floor, white. There was no ceiling or walls as far as I could tell. Just white. Piercing white. Everywhere. I got up. Nothing happened. I was lost, and I didn't have a clue what I was supposed to do, let alone where I was. Before I had to chance to explore, I heard voices.

"Do you think he knows?"

"He knows... But not the full extent of it." Said a gruff, deep voice.

"Well are you going to tell him?" Said the first voice again. It sounded like a serpent's. Echoey and manipulative.

A huff was sounded, as if the person giving it didn't really care. "No."

"Wait." Said the serpent voice abruptly.

I waited, but not even a sound was made. The voices seemed to be coming from... Above me? I tilted my head upwards, to look into the white sky again. I sat around the white 'room' thinking.

Whose were those voices? Where am I? Am I dead? What time is it? How big is my wingspan? Which came first, the phoenix or the fire?

Yeah... I kinda got bored.

After questioning the meaning of life, the white room began to evaporate. One side begun to disappear slowly, and it looked like I was looking into a room. But I was looking into a room. The whiteness was gone. And I was awake.

I was in a room. But not your average dragon cave. The room was made of wood, as was the majority of the furniture. I lay on a human-sized cotton bed, but I fitted it just fine. Sunlight was creeping into the room from a window behind me. Using the headboard I managed to look out of the window.

The cobbled streets were littered with people, all about their daily business. There were children playing tig in the streets, men carrying sticks with carcasses on them, women welcoming their husbands back from a hunt, then calling their children in for dinner. I appeared to be on a raised level to the rest of the town, as I had to look down to see the people. I jumped back from the window before anyone saw me. I suspected Quowal had caught up to me, but this seemed like an ordinary town... I turned around as the door opened.

"Ah, I see you are awake." Said a pitch black dragon. His deep voice sending shivers through my spine. His voice sounded familiar... But also like a complete stranger, one that couldn't be trusted. He was quite large, larger than my mother. He barley fit through the doorway, so he had to crouch to fit in the room. His charcoal black body had shining silver armour covering parts. Unlike Dracerier, who is dark purple, and Drakako, who has petrol-coloured scales, this dragon was pitch black. It emphasised his armour. He had a silver helmet on, that was fitted so he was able to move his mouth when he spoke and so his horns were able to stick out. His deep red eyes appeared evil, but it seemed there was something else there too. He had leg plates and a saddle-like piece of armour on his back in between his withdrawn wings. The end of his tail was completely covered in armour too, which made his arrowhead tail appear even more deadly.

"Where am I?" I snapped. On second thought it might not be a good idea to be hostile to a stranger.

The dragon chuckled, but with his rough voice it sounded more like he was coughing. "It's nice to meet you too." After another chuckle he gave me my answer. "You are currently staying in the Knight's Heart Inn, in the town of Kapolis."

I paused. Last time I bumped into humans they tried to kill me. Either way, I had a lot of questions.

"And who are you?" I asked.

"My name is Dramendax." He said. "And you are?" He laughed.

"Dragoron." I lied.

Dramendax widened his eyes. "That's a lovely name." I think he noticed my lie.

"How did I get here?" I asked.

"Well I found you in the forest. You were soaking wet and covered in mud. If I hadn't have found you... You might not be here today." He explained.

"Thanks..." I muttered.

"Here. Eat." He passed me a bowl of fruit. As much as I wanted to resist eating them, I was just too hungry. I ate them hurriedly, with Dramendax still awkwardly positioned in the doorway. He took the bowl from me, and as he shuffled backwards out of the room I sprung from the bed and slipped past him.

"Wait, where are you going!?" He shouted after me.

"I'm going home, thanks for helping me." I replied happily as I dashed down the stairs. I heard him shuffling about behind me, knocking paintings off of the wall. I got to the bottom floor of the inn. Several people were sat around tables. Two men arm wrestling, an old man with a long wispy beard and a green cloak, a giant snake, a guard of some sort, a- wait.

I had seen correctly. There, eating from a plate of cooked mice, was a large brown and yellow snake with very noticeable purple eyes. He was often given glances by the people in the room, and just before he gobbled another rodent, he gave me a glance of his own, and a look of panic flashed across his face. He slithered off the chair and made his way too me.

"Ah, you must be the dragon my master found in the forest." He hissed with a somewhat mischievous but worried look on his scaly face.

"Err, yes- no. No, you must be mistaken" There was no way he was buying that. It wasn't like dragons my age stopped by here often. It seemed like it wasn't often that any dragon stopped by here.

"Oh come on, you can trust me." He said creepily as he rose up to appear larger than me. I backed away slowly and terrified. He slithered toward me, until a hand stopped him.

"Come now young'un." The old man with the green cloak said to me, with his hand blocking the snake and leaving a path toward the door. Then it hit me. Wispy long beard, dark green cloak. This was the wizard who saved me from the humans the first time! I nodded, desperate to get away from that snake creep.

"Hey wait, where do you think you're going!?" The snake said desperately, but I was already at the door, old man following. A crash sounded before I could step out outside. A pitch black dragon had tumbled down the staircase finally. He stood up and began to walk towards me, knocking tables over on his way, the snake cowering in his presence.

"Drakosima come back here now." Dramendax commanded. I was tempted to listen, it just felt right. But I was hurried out of the door by the wizard. I didn't get to know how he knew my name.

"Grab my hand."

"W-what?"

"Grab it." He said more firmly as Dramendax came to the door. I grabbed it, but too lately. Dramendax bounded from the entrance and swung his giant claw at us before the wizard could finish his incantations. I closed my eyes, but opened them quickly realising I was unharmed. The same couldn't be said for my saviour. He fell to his knees, three red lines staining his green cloak on the front, and three tears in the fabric at the back where pools of blood were appearing. Dramendax growled at me, and he raised his claw again. I did what my instincts told me to do. I let a stream of fire escape my gut, catching his claw before he could strike.

"RRRHHHAAARRRHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

At first I thought he was screaming in pain, which was what I had expected with him not being able to get oxygen to his claw. But suddenly he started to laugh. He slammed his foot into the ground, leaving a crater. The fire had melted his leg armour away. And on his black scaled leg remained a mark. A mark he had tried to conceal. A mark long forgotten. The Mark of The Dragon.