Dragon Child

Mira

Mira was a small street girl who had no family; she was looking for a new place to live. Her last home had been an abandoned warehouse, but that had been taken from her by a gang and used to store illegal material. She was searching down a fairly run down neighborhood that was hardly more than ruins aside from the merchants dealing various things ranging from well guarded food to illegal drugs.

She saw that one of the buildings was even more rundown than any of the other buildings in the area. No stores had been seat up near it and people crossed the street to avoid the house. Mira grabbed a passerby who quickly grabbed his coin purse and searched Mira over for a weapon.

“Exscuse me sir,” Mira said in her best innocent child voice, “Who lives in that house.”

“No one alive lives in that house,” the man said glancing at the house.

“No one alive?” Mira asked sticking a finger on her lips and cocking her head, “What do you mean mister?”

“I mean that only a ghost and animals will live in that house.” the man said, “the ghost in that house has a deep hatred of anything alive. It will kill anything from humans to rats that happen to live in its home. Recently it seems that the ghost has become more active than usual.”

“How so?” Mira asked losing some her innocent child voice.

“People are reporting more death cries from the things the ghost kills over the last day or so. They are also reporting seeing old curtains move when there is no wind and hearing something moving around in the house. A few have even reported seeing an inhuman eye glaring out at them from behind one of the curtains only to vanish as soon as it notices them looking at it.”

“Sounds like an interesting place,” Mira said regaining her innocent child voice, “I think I will go explore it.”

“What?” the man seemed taken aback, “Why!?!”

“I’ve always had good relations with ghost,” Mira said with a wide toothy smile, “I have no doubt I will get along fine with this one as well.”

Mira turned and skipped toward the house before the man could say anything to stop her. She slowed to a walk as she approach the house; she knew that whatever was in the house was not a ghost. It was probably another homeless child or a dog that had made the place its home; it might even be a wanted criminal using the house's reputation to hide himself.

No matter which of the possibilities it was, each need to be approached with caution and in its own way. The dog might attack and another child would have the home field advantage in the house and might not want company. A wanted criminal had a variety of dangers to it. Yet Mira had not survived for nearly thirteen winters on the street by not learning how to deal with each one of the three.

Mira cautiously opened the door to the house, which squeaked on its hinges, and looked carefully at the floor, roof, and walls of the room. All showed no signs of a trap or waiting attacker. From deeper within the house, Mira did hear something quickly moving deeper into the house. By the sounds of its running Mira judged that the 'ghost' was animalin in nature.

Mira grabbed a board that had fallen from the railings and held it before her as a club in case the animal attacked. She heard a rustling sound from deeper in the house and turned to head in that direction. She quickly checked each room over thoroughly before she entered it and moved towards the place she had heard the rustling sound.

When Mira entered the dinning room, she saw that there was something that might well hide an attacker. In the corner near the basement door, lay a large pile of rubbish that looked big enough to hide a man. Mira advanced on the pile carefully and smacked it hard with her club, the club rustled the trash some but nothing in it moved. Mira was not quiet certain that there was nothing in the trash heap, she poked the trash with her club and saw that there was a large object in the trash but it turned out just to be a faded rug. Mira watched the rug for a minute and after seeing it was not moving as if something in it was breathing turned to the door that led to the basement.

Mira heard the rustling sound again coming from the basement again. She turned after double-checking the room she was in for any possible ambushes. Seeing nothing, she slowly descended the stairs down to the basement and checked the room over to the best of her abilities. It was so dark in the basement that she had to struggle just to see.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she started to get an understanding of the room. The basement was covered with trash and rubbish; one part of it in particular seemed to have been made into a bed or nest of some sort. One of the rubbish heaps seemed to be bigger than the others and, when Mira really looked at it, it seemed to have two eyes watching her from beneath the filth.

Mira placed her club before her and said in a calm voice, “I know your there, now come out and I won’t hurt you.”

The eyes dialated but the owner of them did not move in the slightest or give any signs that their owner was there. Mira repeated her order and started to move slowly toward the hidden figure keeping her club out before her.

A deep rumbling growl came from the pile of rubbish but Mira continued forward ignoring the growl. It seemed that she was dealing with a dog and a big one from the sound of the growl. Mira did not slow or let any sign of fear enter her; by doing this she showed the dog she was not afraid of it and that could have fatal results.

Mira jumped as the hidden figure seemed to let loose a sigh and them hissed and growled before leaving its hiding spot. The rubbish fell away as the hidden figure revealed itself, Mira gasped as she saw a dragon towering over her. Mira turned to run but another dragon was standing on the stairs blocking her path.

Mira swung at the dragon with her club as hard as she could and gasped in horror as the club shattered on the dragon’s head with out even causing the dragon to flinch. Mira screamed as loud as she could but was quickly silenced by the wings of the dragon behind her. Mira struggled but could not get free of the dragon’s grasp and she was pulled deeper into the nest.

The dragon on the stairs quickly moved back up the stairs and did not return for a few minutes. The other dragon soon came down the stairs and examined Mira’s struggling figure. The dragon looked at her for a moment before making strange hissing and growling sounds in a low voice. The other dragon responded with similar hissing sounds before looking at Mira and making growling noises.

Mira had started to cry softly, as she was sure she was about to be eaten, and the sound was drawing the attention of the dragons. The two dragons looked at her and they cocked their heads as if confused by her fear or her tears. The dragon from the stairs approached her and sniffed her before looking her over. The dragon nosed Mira softly and found half a loaf of bread Mira had been planning to eat later. The dragon quickly bit the bread in half and gave the other half of bread to the dragon holding Mira.

Both of the dragons gulped the bread down in an instant and Mira noticed that the dragons seemed rather thin.

“They are like me,” Mira thought her eyes widening, “in a place with no one to care for them and surrounded by danger.”

The dragon holding Mira made a few quick hissing sounds and the other dragon nodded moving behind her. Mira started to struggle again knowing the dragons where about to kill her for food. Nevertheless, the dragon held on tight and Mira could not get free no matter how hard she struggled.

For a brief moment, Mira was suddenly free of the dragon’s wings and inhaled sharply hoping to get off another cry for help. However, by the time Mira finished drawing her breath, the wings had already silenced her again. Mira continued to struggle hoping to scream for help but soon gave it up as hopeless and fell limp.

Mira saw one of the dragons walking up the stairs to leave and wondered what it was doing. The dragon holding Mira looked down at her with a curious glance and seemed to be thinking something. The dragon slowly let its wing move below her mouth, it watched Mira intently for a moment as if waiting to see if she would try to scream again. Mira remained silent seeing she was obviously being tested and that her life might depend on passing.

The dragon made a soft series of hisses and Mira flinched thinking that the dragon was mad at her for something. The dragon waited before it made the exact same hissing noises again, Mira thought it might want her to imitate it.

Mira tried her best and managed to roughly imitate the hissing sounds the dragon had made. The dragon sighed and tried again; again, Mira imitated the hissing sounds to the best of her ability. The dragon did sigh again but did respond with something different.

It hissed out one word, “Zahanort,” The dragon then repeated its previous hissings.

Mira thought on the new word the dragon had hissed, it sounded almost like a name. Mira thought that the series of hissings might be the dragon’s way of asking her name. Mira decided it would not make things any worse if she told the dragon her name.

“Mira,” she said softly.

The dragon smiled and this made Mira nervous. The way the dragons scaly face pulled back to reveal its pointed teeth just mad Mira shiver. The dragon made a different set hissing sound and ended with her name. Mira had no idea what the dragon was saying and the other dragon did not seem to be able to aid her this time.

Mira sighed and said, “I don’t know what you are saying Zahanort.”

The dragon cocked it head and gave her a quizzical look. Mira could not help but giggle a bit at the look on the dragon’s face, despite the fact it was a monster that could kill her in a second it looked cute when it did that. The dragon eyed her questioningly when she giggled but showed no other reaction to the noise.

Mira slowly reached up to stroke the dragon’s scaly face the dragon placed one of its large paws on her chest and flexed its claws. The message was unmistakable, do anything wrong and you die.

Mira gulped and slowly ran her hand across the spiny ridge above the dragon’s eyes hoping to make it easier around her by stroking it. The dragon closed its eyes, leaned into her hand, and crooned softly obviously injoying being stroked. Mira almost forgot that the dragon was a monster that held her in thrall and not some friendly pup.

Both Mira and the dragon jumped when they heard a voice hiss, “Zahanort!”

Mira saw that the other dragon had returned and had five dead rats at its feet. She also noticed that this dragon, while still as big as a man, was not as long as Zahanort but more muscular. Mira tried to be friendly and repeated the hissing sounds Zahanort had made to ask her her name.

The other dragon eyed her coldly before growling, “Drazealite.”

Drazealite turned and started a long spurt of hissing and growling and Zahanort seemed to shrink back from the hissing with a guilty look on its face. Zahanort straitened and started hissing back and even used his wings to illustrate whatever point it was making. The two dragons continued to hiss at each other in hushed tones, they seemed to have forgotten about Mira for the moment.

Mira started to slowly edge towards the exit of the basement knowing that screaming would probably get her killed at this point. Her only hope was to sneak out and alert the town watchmen to the dangers resting in this house. If she was lucky she might even get a reward for doing so.

She had not even gotten close to the stairs before Drazealite’s tail wrapped around her ankle and tripped her. Drazealite then quickly wrapped the end of his tail around Mira's mouth to keep her from screaming for help again. Mira had only one idea left, she tried to bit the dragon’s tail.

Mira was fairly sure that she had just chipped a tooth on the dragon’s scaly hide and had gotten no reaction from the dragon. Both of the dragons continued their argument more or less not noticing Mira’s struggles. Finally, Drazealite gave a particularly loud hiss and swung Mira onto the center of the nest of trash. Mira would have screamed and struggled if the dragon did not still have its tail wrapped around her mouth.

Drazealite looked at her angrily and hissed at Mira before releasing his grip on her. Mira tried to scramble away from the dragons but Drazealite simple grabbed her again and yanked her back onto the nest. Drazealite repeated his hiss and pointed at the center of the nest with one of his claws.

Mira did not move from where Drazealite had laid her and the dragon snorted before walking over to the rats he had caught. Zahanort joined him by the rats and they both bowed their heads and made soft hissing and growling noises before they started to eat the rats.

Mira thought that this seemed very close to prayer but knew it could not be because dragons where animals and incapable of intelligent things such as an idea of god.
The dragons both quickly swallowed two rats each before they both looked at the last rat. Mira thought they might fight over it and give her a chance to escape. The dragon named Drazealite pushed the rat to Zahanort and they both exchanged brief hissing noises before Zahanort lifted the rat in his jaws.

Mira was surprised when the dragon carried the dragon over to her and set it down in front of her. The dragon made a short hiss before nudging it towards her and making more hissing sounds. Mira was revolted at the idea of eating a dead rat that had been in a dragon’s mouth just seconds before. She noticed Drazealite glaring at her and she looked down at the rat and shoved it back towards the dragon called Zahanort.

“No thanks,” she said, “You can have it.”

Zahanort studied her face for a moment before bowing his head and swallowing the rat down whole. Zahanort made a brief hissing sound before using her name. Drazealite suddenly barked something with Mira’s name in it and Zahanort growled back. Mira heard no anger or threat in the growl; it seemed as much part of their language as hissing.

Mira for a brief moment saw the dragons as more than beast and as intelligent creatures that might just be civilized. Then society’s pompousness returned her to her former view of the dragons. They may be smart it was true, but no smarter than a pig or dog was. What she had almost mistaken for intelligence could be them simply mimicking things they had seen humans doing.

An idea came to Mira, if she continued to gain their trust, she could train them to listen to her or follow her. She could have whatever she wanted with two dragons to fight for her. She would become famous and possibly buy her way into royalty. Mira smiled at the idea.

Mira suddenly noticed how everything that had happened to her today had worn her out. She yawned which drew the attention of the two dragons to her for a moment before returning to their conversation. Mira curled up on the rubbish pile and fell asleep.
Mira awoke later that night to find that one of the dragons, she was fairly sure it was Zahanort, had curled up next to her. The other slept just on the other side of the first.

Mira hurriedly scooted away from the dragons, curled up next to the wall, and fell asleep.