When We Were Dragons

by Brandon Berntson

  The smell of fresh green grass was in the air. A woman across the street worked in her yard, planting flowers. Apparently, summer was right around the corner even though it had been winter on Earth only weeks before…or close to it.

  After breakfast, Charlie asked me:

  “So, if you’re really dragons, how come you don’t look like dragons?”

  I’d been waiting for this. Charlie was wearing his hat and cape. I suspected he wasn’t going to take them off anytime soon. He probably slept in them.

  “Would you like me to prove that we’re dragons?” I asked.

  He grinned. Jody’s and Mellicent’s eyes grew wide. They wanted to see this spectacle, too.

  “Let’s go outside,” I said. “There’s more room out there.”

  The family followed. Holly looked intrigued and worried at the same time. I assumed she was concerned we might terrify the children. Karen and I stood on the front lawn. I looked over at her, and she shrugged, as if telling me to go first. I nodded and willed the shift. For a second, a slight hum filled my ears, then a flash of red.

  I was as big as one of the smaller moving vans. We are not enormously grotesque dragons, but we do grow in size with the change. I could carry all three of Holly’s children on my back without any effort. I looked at the kids, then at Holly. Their eyeballs were enormous, perhaps a little fearful.

  Karen changed after me, a resplendent, beautiful blue dragon with big black eyes and powder blue scales. Our hair was gone. I spread my massive red wings and took to the sky, letting out a loud dragon cry. I noticed several people on their lawns watching in amusement, including the woman across the street.

  I flew up to the top of the house and hooked my talons into the shingles. I kept my wings spread, angled my head toward the sky, and roared. A great, rolling ball of fire billowed from my mouth, and disappeared in a black plume of smoke.

  Karen flew as high as she dared, then plummeted fast to the ground. Before she smacked into the grass, she willed the change, and was Karen again. I flew down from the roof and landed beside her, willing the change back as well, and looked at Karen.

  “Show off,” she said, and I smiled.

  “Holy cow! Holy jeez!” Charlie exclaimed. His eyeballs were enormous. “That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen! Did you guys see that? How cow! Holy jeez!”

  He was excited, no doubt about it. Holly, Jody, and Mellicent looked at us with wide eyes as well, but they didn’t seem as excited as Charlie. They seemed more shocked than anything else, or perhaps awed. It was hard to tell. This wasn’t something we had to perform back home because everybody knew what we were.

  “We didn’t scare you, did we?” I asked Holly.

  She was quick to shake her head. “No,” she said. “I…I just…you were. You’re…beautiful,” she finished.

  Jody and Mellicent nodded.

  I raised my dark, sinister eyebrows. “Beautiful?” I asked, as if the thought were absurd.

  She nodded.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been called that before,” I said.

  “I think they were talking about me, sweetheart.”

  Obviously, Karen had learned to adopt their sarcastic humor, and she was using it now on a regular basis.

  5.

  Karen

  Dearest Justin,

  I don’t know if you remember the time we met, but I guess I’d be upset with you if you didn’t. I’ve wantED to write to you for a long time, and I guess, in a way, this might be a letter a long time coming. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell you how I feel about you, and this is the only way I can express my devotion. I know what you’re about to say, so just keep it to yourself, lover. Yes, I’m here to remind you how important we are for each other, so just get used to it, and don’t make a bunch of gagging sounds, please.

  Gill says he likes you quite a bit, and Gill is usually rather standoffish. He doesn’t like many dragons. He says the first time he saw you, you were leaning against the side of one of the thatched cottages in the middle of town in Delayne. You were smiling from ear to ear. I guess, it was one of the times I was fabricating one of the many stories I tell about Paramis, the Old Ones, and Cerras. I don’t remember the tale exactly. I have to keep my audience mesmerized, and there are a lot of children on Paramis. I had a group of maybe forty kids around me. I was sitting on a small stool, while Gill, being the joker and thespian he is, acted out the tales according to how I told them, landing on his hands when I told a joke, or mimicking a sword fight between men, or flying when the situation called for it. Gill is always a good sport about that, and the children laugh and love his ridiculous theatrics.

  He approached me later after I told the story, and the kids returned to their homes. “I believe, dear Karen,” he told me, folding his purple arms across his chest, “that you have an admirer.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “And who, pray tell, would that be?”

  “Did you not see the red dragon by the cottage?” he asked.

  “I can’t say I did.”

  “Well, I saw the red dragon,” Gill said, adding drama to his description. “And he is a dragon to watch out for. He breathes a scalding, yet freezing cloud of flame. His skin is the hue of smoldering coals, and his eyes as red as rubies. I have seen this monstrosity in the clouds, and I have challenged him once to a duel. He laughed, declining my offer, saying he didn’t want to humiliate me in the eyes of the Old Ones. Rather arrogant, that. Though, I do not believe he is an evil dragon. He is not one of Lane’s. He is a superior dragon, schooled by the Old Ones, though he is a trifle cocky.”

  I shook my head at Gill because when he gets in this mood, there’s nothing you can say or do to displease him. Any game you play only fuels his fire.

  “Gill,” I said. “You’re drama is poorly played.”

  He raised his eyebrows at me. “Oh?” he said. “Perhaps you’d care to be informed that he has appeared day after day in the same square, in the middle of town, listening to you weave your enchantments to the children. I have seen him, sister of mine, and he has a huge smile on his face day in and day out. So, call it what you will. He is an admirer. I believe—if I may be so bold as to say—that our fire-dragon even fancies you.”

  You know how Gill is, Justin. He is the sweetest brother a girl could have, if not a little pestering an obnoxious.

  I thought nothing of it at the time, but he was persistent.

  “See, tomorrow,” he said. “Look, when you are telling your tales to the children, and you will find him. He will be there.”

  Of course, the very next day, as I told my tales, I looked for you. And, of course, Gill was playing with me again, because you were nowhere to be found. You were, in fact, nowhere at all, as if you’d read Gill’s mind and decided to play a game with me, which I learned, was exactly what you did. You are quite the nefarious dragon when you want to be, Justin. I think it’s the reason you have the color skin you do.

  I was finishing one of my tales, and the children were drawn to Gill as he blew fire from his mouth, enthralling them with juggling, walking on his hands, and transforming as only he can do. Gill is a thespian, but I have to admit, he is strangely loveable when it comes to the children, and they adore him immensely.

  And, of course, you startled me.

  “You have quite a natural ability.”

  My heart leapt into my throat. I turned and there you were, a blazing inferno of a dragon, smiling at me.

  “Sneaking up on ladies is not a way to win their affections,” I said.

  “Forgive me, milady,” you said. “But I could not help it. For the last week, I have watched you enthrall the children of Delayne, and indeed, I have found myself under the same, hypnotic spell. You have witchcraft in you voice, Karen.”

  “How did you know my name?”

  “You’re brother, Gill, told me,” you said. “I accosted him earlier, and asked if any suitor had claimed your pretty, powder blue hand. He politely told me no. I asked him if I had his bl
essing, and he laughed and told me, of course, I had his blessing. I like your brother. He is a gentleman and very talented.”

  I looked over at Gill, who, of course, noticed we were talking. I shot him a deadly glare, and all he did was hold his palms up.

  “I have a suitor,” I said. “And he is not a dragon of conflagration like you.”

  “You wound my heart, my dear,” you said. “And you lie.”

  “I am not interested in a suitor,” I said. “I am perfectly happy on my own.”

  You smiled, because I realized you knew I was lying as well about this. All us dragons and our different talents! The fact is, Justin, you mesmerized me, and I think what entranced me about you was the fact that you were drawn to my stories, the fact that I enchant children with stories as a hobby, nothing more. I love the children, and I knew you understood this. And I think the children enchanted you. It explains so much about you, despite your nefarious appearance. And this was why I could not say no.

  That was many years ago, of course. You and Gill became good friends, and we all shared the wisdom we’d learned from the Old Ones, and I think that wisdom brought us closer together.

  For more than seventy years, I have been with you now, and I do not regret a single minute.

  I have a feeling that there is a change in the air, however, and I am not sure what that change is, but I know it is coming soon. I do not know if I will ever give you this letter, but I want you to know (as I write this in the library of Delayne) at least in my own silly way, that you mean the world to me. You treat me with fairness and equality, and I think we learn a lot from each other.

  I look forward to many years with you still and hope the future spans a lifetime of happiness.

  For the moment, I am going to close this letter, and hope that many more will come in the future, and maybe someday, when we are old dragons, and sitting around the ancient tables of the Old Ones, I will read them to you if you’ll let me.

  Thank you for your patient kindness, and your gentle heart, despite your wicked guise. I know, deep down, better than anyone, that you are the furthest thing from wicked.

  Thank you for being with me, and for the love you share.

  Always yours, for now, and forever…

  Karen.

  6.

  Charlie

  School wasn’t all that great to begin with. I had some friends I liked there, and they thought it was cool I did card tricks and all, seeing their eyes get big and stuff. I would do some things at home for Mom and Dad, but nothing like what I’ve done lately. Dad was always cool about my magic tricks. He’d get the family together and say things like: “Gather round everybody! The Great Charlie is about to dazzle our eyes with impossible feats! Gather round, gather round!”

  Dad was always cool about stuff like that. He liked the performances more than I did. He was my assistant. He’d tie me up, and I’d slip through the ropes without any effort at all. Once, he tied me up pretty good, and I couldn’t get out. I forgot a crucial part of the trick, but I can’t tell you what that is because it’s a secret, and magicians never tell.

  I looked at Dad and said, “Another trick?”

  “Huh?” he asked.

  Mom, Jody, and Mell were sitting on the couch with their eyebrows raised.

  “I can’t get out,” I told Dad.

  “You can’t get out?” he said, looking confused.

  Mom and my sisters all looked at one another. Jody started laughing.

  “I pooped it, Pop,” I said. “I shanghaied the booby-shoot. I plucked the peacock’s feathers.”

  Mell started giggling. She knows this is my form of swearing. Everyone else just looked at me as if I were crazy.

  I was tied to one of the dining room chairs. My feet were tied to the legs. That sounds funny, doesn’t it? My hands were tied behind me. I couldn’t feel my hands because they were so numb.

  “You mean, you screwed the pooch?” Dad said.

  “Carl!” Mom said from the couch, blushing. Boy, was her face red!

  Jody and Mell were still laughing. I didn’t know what was so funny. I still couldn’t feel my hands and feet, and my ears were getting all tingly.

  “Yes, Dad,” I said. “Pooch screwed.”

  “Charlie!” Mom said, again, and that made everyone laugh.

  Dad just stood there as if he couldn’t believe it. “But you’re the Great Charlie!” he said, as if that explained everything. “I might add that you are the greatest magician the state of Colorado has ever seen, and there’s no doubt in my mind, Son, that you can get out of any knot!”

  “Not this one,” I told him, simply. “Jeez, Dad, I’m only nine.”

  Dad looked like I’d broken his heart. “But how is that possible?” he said. “I don’t understand it.”

  “Come on, Dad, untie them,” I said. “I don’t have any feeling in my feet and hands.”

  Jody and Mell kept laughing. We settled for simple card tricks, and although, I think they were disappointed, they were still entertained.

  Besides all that, I couldn’t get the dreams out of my head. I’d been having weird dreams a lot lately. I didn’t think too much about them at first, at least not until I started having them all the time. I thought they were just nightmares, you know? But there was something nice about them, too. It was weird, as though I were looking through the eye of another world, and it was filled with more magic than I’d ever dreamed of!

  A shape hovered outside my bedroom window. It came night after night, hovering there like a huge bat, or a figure of a man, only it had huge, black wings. Sometimes, I think it wasn’t a dream at all. Sometimes, you have dreams like that, when you wake up and can’t believe how real it is, because you can taste and touch and smell things, and the colors are vivid and everything.

  Anyway, there was this thing outside my window, this creature made of shadow, only it wasn’t a shadow; it was different. You could touch it. I know that sounds stupid, but it’s true. It was…alive. It had thoughts, could talk, but I couldn’t see its face. It had no eyes or mouth, just the form of a man with huge, shadowy bat-like wings, but he didn’t have any legs, either.

  And there was this other person, too. She was a woman, and she looked weird, but she was pretty at the same time. She had a very intense look on her face. Her skin was solid green, like grass, and she had long, red/orange hair, like fire. She had yellow eyes. A huge knife hung at her waist.

  She stood in my room while the bat-like creature hovered outside the window.

  “Hello, Charlie,” she said, and smiled. She didn’t have any fangs or anything, but a very quiet, very soft voice, and she sat on the edge of my bed. “Do you want to come outside with me? I want to show you something.”

  I shook my head, not so much at her, but at the thing outside the window.

  “What’s the matter?” the woman asked, frowning.

  “There’s something out there,” I said, and I was afraid, so I pointed to the window.

  This was weird, I thought, because it was, like, I was dreaming, but I was awake, too, like I had just woken up. I was still in bed, but I wasn’t sleeping. Was I awake now? But that couldn’t be because there’s no such thing as green-skinned women and shadowy monsters. At least, I didn’t think so. The woman smiled. She turned to the figure at the window.

  “Go away, Latress,” she said.

  For a minute, nothing happened. I think the shadowy thing at the window got angry because it let out a strange cry. The next thing I knew, it was gone, black smoke separating and disappearing.

  “He can’t hurt you, Charlie,” the woman said. “Will you come outside with me now?”

  I nodded and got out of bed. I walked downstairs and outside with the woman. But it was different outside. It wasn’t my neighborhood. I knew I had to be dreaming then, and it wasn’t real because the world was different. Ours was the only house on the block. There were no streets, no roads. It was like being in the countryside. Tall, dark mountains stood in front of
us, trees, a place I’d never seen or been to before. The woman was tall, taller than Dad, and I felt really small next to her.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “Lane,” she said. “I’m from Paramis, Charlie. That’s where we are now.”

  “What’s Paramis?”

  “A world, much different than your own. Come on. Take my hand. I want to show you something.”

  I reached out and took her hand. I didn’t think she was scary at all, except for maybe her yellow eyes. They were spooky. But she was pretty, and she was nice, so I took her hand. When I did, the world changed again. We were in a place made of ice and mountains. It was suddenly very cold. The wind was blowing. A million stars were in the night sky, constellations I didn’t recognize.

  “Do you believe in gods, Charlie?” the woman asked me.

  “You mean God?” I said.

  “There is no one God, Charlie,” she said. “Don’t make that mistake. There are many gods. Some evil. Some good. We’re going to see Cerras.”

  “Cerras?”

  Lane nodded.

  “There’s an overall good, Charlie. But Cerras isn’t part of it. He’s evil.”

  I was scared. I didn’t want to see an evil god, but I wasn’t sure how to get back home, so I stayed with Lane.

  “Don’t worry, Charlie. He’s already dead.”

  “Dead?”

  Lane nodded again. “Harmless,” she said. “Dead. He can’t hurt us.”

  “Then why are we going to see him?”

  “Because he is still powerful even though he’s dead. His eyes are made of stars. There is great power in the Eyes of Cerras.”

  “But it’s an evil power?” I asked.

  “Now, it is an evil power,” Lane said. “But you and I are going to change all that.”

  She looked down at me and smiled. She gripped my hand tighter, like she was trying to tell me everything was going to be all right. I didn’t understand what she was talking about, so I just nodded and followed her as we walked.