The Dragons Mark

Chapter 2: Dinner or Playtime

The dragon paced in the air above the catwalk, drooling, grinning and watching her closely. It was clearly plotting.

     Teal crept slowly towards one the emergency exits near her. "Good Dragon, stay there..." she tried to sooth the beast but the anger from earlier had her more interested in punching this thing.

      "I'm not tasty at all" she pressed against the railing on her left and scooched slowly forward as the Dragon seemed to smile at her "I haven't had the best diet lately, I'm skin & bones..." she noted what the look in its eye said; "is it really trying to eat me... or is there something else going on?"

      Her thoughts immediately popped back to her classmates and she wondered if this was a prank somehow. She followed it as it paced in the air "what exactly are you doing?" in response the dragon lunged at her, she rolled to the right to evade his attack and rolled right off the catwalk.

     Down she plunged as the dragon spiraled around her. Fear swirled into her as as she fell. "Is this how it ends?" At the last possible moment the dragon snatched her out of the air with its large claws and bolted back up to the top of the building. Where it dropped her on the highest catwalk with a loud thud.

     "Fuck," she winced at the pain of the impact then glared at it as it smirked, it's eyes flaring wildly.

     "Should I say thank you," she screamed at the Dragon "or should I just flip you off?" She was out of breath and annoyed. The fear had left and all that remained as the pent up anger "You do know you're an asshole right?" She stood up and glared at it as the beast circled her proud of itself.

     "You're proud to be an asshole, really?" The dragon huffed as if laughing. Teal reached beside her and pulled one of the rails free and spun it like a baton. "Okay bastard, game on!" She hissed angrily at it.

The dragon dove at her with its teeth exposed, it dodged and spun expecting her to attack. Teal swung the rail in a single controlled move and hit her target squarely on the shoulder right above its left wing. She spun around following the surprised beast as it tried to recover.

Teal laughed as the dragon lurched to the side and snarled. It's wing finally went limp and it focused its gaze on her as it landed hard on the rails of the catwalk right in front of her. It's eyes now read surprise for a brief second.

     She could see the calm as it seeped into its eyes at it stared her down. "You're enjoying this?" She glared back as the realization hit her "fine then I won't play!" She sat down with the rail in her lap and folded her arms faking her best pout, her eyes still seething with anger. "But if you come near me I will smack you again!" She warned him but inside her thoughts begged him to try.

     The dragon winced and lowered its head. Teal noticed that its left wing hung limp, "pinched a nerve, did I" she smirked. Teal looked around her and realized that this catwalk was no longer attached to any of the other catwalks. There was nowhere for her to escape to, she was stuck.

     "So, here's the deal," she stared it right in the face "you put me down somewhere that I can get out of here if I can get past you and I hand over this" she twirled the bar just to taunt it "without hitting you again..." do we have a deal?" The dragon slapped at the bar but missed and received a wack to the hand for its efforts.

     "Naughty, naughty..." she toyed with it as her pride swelled "you have to put me down there before I hand it over." She smacked it again just to prove her point this time making contact with its forehead.

     The dragon snarled and swung at the bar again, this time it made contact and sent the bar flying. Before Teal could react the dragon scooped her up in its massive jaws and took off in lopsided flight spiraling down to the base of the tower.