The Dragons Mark

Chapter1: A Trip to the Zoo

     Teal climbed out of her bed and moved slowly around her circular one room flat. Everything was stacked on top of something else here. The bed was on top of the media center that also housed the washer and dryer.

Under all that mess was the bathroom with a toilet, tiny sink and a standing shower with the only mirror in the apartment in it. The bottom of the stack was the kitchen and closet. If you fell from the right step you would land on the kitchen table.

       Teal had been one of the refugees that came from the east, near the war front. She was grateful for everything she had but still missed her old life & family. All of which chose elsewhere to live, her family sided with one of the other sides of this stupid war and had managed to get safely out as the attack started. Not one of them had bothered to alert her at college so here she sat a glorified prisoner of war.

       Teal stood at 5'3", she just turned 23 years old and was quickly loosing a lot of weight due to poor diet or better put, the inability to acquire good food due to the law that states food goes first to those the Government deems important, a polite way to say refugees were not important. 

       Teal made her way to the bathroom gently, trying not to activate her tendency towards falling down the stairs. Once she made it successfully to the bathroom she let out a celebratory whoop and climbed into the shower to comb her short black hair that she streaked with shades of blue & teal to reflect her name.

       After she finished she stumbled her way down to the kitchen to get dressed and eat. Pilling her dirty clothes on the stairs to deal with later. Today was going to be exhausting, her class was going to the Zoo.

As a refugee she was required to take certain classes to prove she was capable of maintaining the preferred way of life in this region. A stupid law she thought considering she was in College when this all started... but there was no way around it. She hadn't chosen to be here, but she was given the choice; remain a prisoner of war or become a refugee and abide by the rules we give you.

So her she was, 23 years old and going to the zoo for the day with a bunch of 15 year olds. She hated the school, she passed all of the tests and yet they still forced her to go.

Grabbing a quick breakfast she left for the carpool, arriving at school the same way she did every day; by military transport. Yep, not only were they forcing her to go to school with a bunch of judgements little bastards but they also had to point out every day that she was a prisoner here.

As soon as she stepped off the transport the instructor hollered at her to join them on the buss. "Thrill..." she moaned out a complaint as she climbed onto the buss full of jeering teenagers that really needed to work on their vocabulary skills.

She ignored the comments as she took a seat in the only place she was allowed to, right behind the driver side by side with the instructor. She tried to relax to no avail. Today was going to be rough enough as it was she didn't need to make it worse by complaining about it to the wrong person.

       The ride was silent, mostly... she was not sure what this instructors name was and didn't care. This class was filled with the hard cases, the students that needed a little reminder that they were really useless unless the existing Government decided otherwise. So therefore the instructors rotated almost daily. Teal had given up trying to learn the instructors names after day two and resorted to nicknames for her oppressive classmates.

       When they arrived she was, as always forced to stay seated until all other students were off the buss. Teal was certain that this 'Last one on - last one off' rule was built just to humiliate her.

       One thing was certain, humiliation was the one thing that the students were very good at. One by one as they passed they either laughed at her or made a rude remark that was ignored by the instructor.

Once inside the building that looked like a grain silo for giants the students paired up and split off to do their own thing completely ignoring the instructor. Not caring he turned to Teal, "stay with the students, do what they tell you." He then turned and headed for the restaurant near the entrance, most likely to get drunk on the schools dime.

Teal turned and headed in, finding a group of students right away she followed them and stayed silent. The lead student was a female that Teal never bothered to learn the real name of. She was mean, vindictive and loved to torture Teal. Teal mockingly called her pinkie, an insult here where the pinker the skin the lower you are on the ladder of importance.

Today it seemed like Pinkie was hooking up with "Smart" a nickname again, this time short for Smart-Ass. Smart it seems was running this particular tour.

        "Today we are touring a commonly referred to facility as just 'the zoo' however I would like to point out that this facility is housing some of the most dangerous creatures in our world." As the group stepped onto the catwalks that randomly circled the inner tower he continued "please stay away from the edge, there are no nets to stop your fall."

       That is when Pinkie noticed her "Teal, you can go ahead and jump if you like, spare us all having to look at you" the group laughed as Teal put her head down and tried to burry the urge to punch her in the face. Past experiences proved that did not help.

       Smart gestured outwards "if you are lucky you will see one of the ugly beasts" he smiled "if you are unlucky you might get attacked." In the event of that occurring please drop to the floor of the catwalk and hold on to the ropes provided near the railing." His smile grew cocky "Teal, you can just drop..." he pointed over the edge and jumped in on the laughter from the group. Once again Teal had to remind herself that violence was not a good idea right now, but she was certain that her face was not getting the memo.

      They made their way inward, weaving in a unplanned fashion down the maze of catwalks. "These beasts have been captured and placed on display for our benefit" he smiled "it is always best to make sure the weakest have no authority over their own lives" he smirked at Teal. "That way they don't think they can effect yours."

       Before she could respond a glowing set of eyes could be seen in the distance and the group gasped. Pinkie was the one to say it "look, there is one now!"

       Teal watched uncertain of what she was looking at, she had only heard briefly about these facilities but had no clue what they housed. As she was trying to see the beast in the shadows she got closer to the railing. Just as her hands touched the rail the beast took flight and headed their way.

       "Oh my..." Teal was in shock "It's a Dragon!" She gasped "I thought they were extinct, you mean they are..." The horror hit her as she realized she would never be free, but always trapped just as they were. If these people had the audacity to keep such a creature as a prisoner she had no hope of anything but what she had now.

       "Snap out of it!" The scream hit her the same time as the object Pinkie threw at her "it's coming right at you!"

       Teal looked around quickly to see the Dragon above her headed just as Pinkie said. The red and black dragon was coming right at her its claws extended and a murderous look in its silvery glowing eyes.

       Teal dove down just seconds prior to the Dragon reaching her, as she braced herself against the railing she heard its claws scrape the rail just above her.

       Teal jumped up and ran towards the entry but the Dragon responded as if it knew she would try that. Sliding to a stop on her backside she scrambled backwards like a crab as the Dragon stalked her using the rail to walk on. It let out a ground shaking snarl as it lowered its head to mere feet from her.

       It was taunting her, it was playing with its food. A quick glance showed she was alone in this battle, every one else had fled and the doors to the room were being closed. She was alone...

I hope you like this story.
I will update when I can.