Dragon Boy

Dragon Boy

Even though he was only seven, Timothy knew a lot about dinosaurs. He also knew a lot about dragons. The two animals just seemed to go together as far as he was concerned. After all, they were both reptiles. His teacher, Miss Naru, had taught the class that flying dinosaurs and dragons might have been related -- if dragons had ever lived for real. Timmy knew that the dinosaurs had all died off...gone extinct as it was called. But what if dinosaurs were still living somewhere in the world? Or better yet...dragons. Which he liked even more than dinosaurs. It wasn't the first time the boy thought to himself, hmmm….

Something else Timmy had learned in school really got his attention. It was about animals which looked like two or three different kinds, but all mixed up into one single creature -- like an armadillo or a duck billed platypus. They reminded him of those other things he’d heard about, called hybrids. His parents had just bought a hybrid car which ran on electricity and also on gasoline. Well, Timmy figured, since so much stuff was around that was part one thing and part something else, maybe there were prehistoric dragon hybrids. And maybe -- just maybe -- some of them were still around somewhere. But where? What if a couple lived near his old farm house out in the woods? With all the trees and bushes everywhere, who knew what might be hiding in his own back yard? And how cool would that be if they were? Very!

In addition to dinosaurs, dragons, and hybrid animals, Timmy thought a lot about being able to fly. Just like some of the dinosaurs once did. And dragons too, if they were around. He watched the sky a lot, hoping to see either fly overhead, but none ever did. Not yet. His best friend, Will, had a blue and gold macaw parrot. He had told Timmy that they were descended from flying dinosaurs known as pterodactyls. Oh, boy, Timmy thought. Pterodactyls, parrots, dragons. He looked up at the clouds and wondered, hmmm….

What Timmy liked best about Will’s parrot, named Friday, was how the bird was like a modern dinosaur and dragon all mixed up together, with all its brightly colored feathers instead of scales. Actually, Friday did have leathery, scaly skin on his face and feet, and he did have eyes like a dinosaur. Timmy couldn't help but think to himself, What if…?

“Mom, can I have a parrot like Will has?” While Timmy grabbed an after-school cracker, he pictured a dragon parrot squatted on his shoulder.

Timothy's mom, Nancy, smiled as she sat a glass of juice on the table, right next to the plate of crackers. “Friday is such a big bird, Tim. And Will is older than you. Maybe when you’re the same age as he is now."

“Will's only nine, Mom. I'm already eight, so I don't see what the big deal is."

"Ha, ha," Nancy chuckled. "You’re still seven, Tim. And you will be for another month. Don't forget, Will’s family raises those birds...those 'macaws' as they're called. They know how to handle them. Anyway, have you forgotten about our newly adopted cat, Margo? I know she can’t fly or breathe fire, but she really loves you."

"I know. I love her too."

"The two of you have so much fun together. Why don’t you take her down to the pond and look for frogs?”

“Come on, Margo," said Timmy, spotting her as she ran into the kitchen. "Let’s go look for bugs." Together, the two then headed for the big pond, the boy's favorite place inside his family’s really big backyard. The pond was mostly hidden by the big tall trees that formed a circle around it. It was wider across than Timmy’s whole house, and nobody knew how deep it was in the middle. He hadn't even been allowed near the place, not by himself, not until his swimming lessons were finished the summer before. Maybe that's why he liked it there so much. It made him feel like he was older now. Old enough to have a parrot, far as he was concerned.

A lot of the forest animals came to the pond when they felt thirsty. Most of them had grown used to Timmy hanging around and weren't afraid of him anymore -- not even of Margo. They were never fearful of the cat from what he could tell, which Timmy always thought was kind of strange. Speaking of things odd and out of the ordinary, the boy thought the water in the pond had a funny color. It was a weird sort of blue and green, not brown and muddy, and more like the turquoise in his mother's favorite necklace. One time when he had sipped the water, it tasted a bit like metal. He licked the silver band of his watch just to be sure and, yup, they both tasted the same. How freaky was that? It sure didn’t seem to bother Margo or any of the other animals who drank there all the time.

Then it hit him. Timothy found just the right word for the color of the water in the pond. Magical. That’s what the color was. And maybe that too was the flavor of magic: Metallic.

Suddenly something tiny flew over Timmy's head. “Zzzuuuzzz!” It looked like a hummingbird as it buzzed right past him, landed on a purple flower, and started sipping nectar. It was a hummingbird and he couldn't tell for sure, but he felt like the bird was watching him. Timmy sometimes thought that hummingbirds, with all their vivid colors, looked a little like miniature dragons. Just then, Margo jumped up and tried to catch the bird, who was much too fast for the cat. Timmy just laughed. Even the bird seemed to be laughing at poor Margo as it darted about and hovered, then zoomed this way and that. Timmy also began to wonder…what would Margo look like if she was part cat and part dragon? And what about that overly friendly humming-dragon-bird? Just then, the boy had a really crazy thought: What if humans could also be part dragon? A human-dragon-hybrid! How cool would that be? Very!

“Timmy, time for lunch. Timmy?”

As much as he loved being at the pond, the boy enjoyed his mom's special afternoon meals even more. She loved to bake cookies in all different shapes and colors, and she even made fancy sandwiches to look like different kinds of creatures. Timmy’s favorites were the birdwich, the snakewich, and the butterflywich. They all tasted great. All except the catwich.

“Where's Margo, Timmy? Didn't she come back with you?”

“No. She wanted to stay at the pond. She keeps trying to catch some weirdo hummingbird.”

Just then, something whizzed past the open kitchen window and made the strangest sound as it went. “Zzzzzuuuuuzzzzz!” A second later it was gone...out of sight. And out of sound.

After he ate one rabbitwich, a turtlewich and two cookies, Timmy went to his room and pulled out his favorite book: “Flying Animals From Around the World”. Inside the book were pictures of flying squirrels, flying lizards, and even flying monkeys. With so many flying animals in the world, the boy wondered why couldn't humans fly? Maybe humans had been able to fly, a long, long time ago. What if they still could? He put the book down, then flapped his arms wildly up and down, as much as he could. He'd done that before and each time nothing happened, except that his arms got really tired. And he felt a little silly for trying over and over again.

Timmy next turned to his favorite part of the book, where drawings showed a bunch of different kinds of dragons. Just because there weren't any photographs of dragons didn't prove they never existed. There weren't any photos of dinosaurs, either. Except for bones. And what if dragon bones got mixed up with dinosaur bones? How would they know?

One kind of dragon had big wings on its back and moved around on four strong legs. Another kind stood upright, almost like a person, and had wings where its arms should be. Or maybe the other dragon had arms where its wings should be. No wonder they got those bones all mixed up. Both types of dragons could breathe fire, though. At least that’s what people thought. People who said dragons really lived. Timmy wasn't so sure about the fire-breathing part, but he knew everybody agreed they had wings. Which meant dragons could definitely fly. Right at that moment, Margo suddenly appeared outside the closed door to Timmy’s bedroom, anxiously scratching to get inside.

“Hi, Margo! Guess you didn't catch that pesky bird, huh?” Timmy lifted the little cat and gave her a big, cat-size bear hug. “You know what, Margo? If you had wings, I bet you'd be able to catch it. Or him, I guess. What would you think about the idea of being a dragon cat?”

Timmy's nickname at school was “Dragon Boy”. He was proud of that, because dragons had been powerful and fierce. Plus everyone thought he was really smart for knowing so much about them, and because he had a notebook full of his own drawings -- pictures of dragons he’d seen in his dreams. Except he didn't talk about the dreams he had. Not even his parents knew about the things he saw when he slept. Especially that other world different from Earth. Where only dragons lived. A place that felt...familiar. How crazy was that? Very. Which is why he didn't talk about it.

Back in class first thing Monday, everyone was talking about the coming science fair and the special project each of the pupils was expected to make. "So, Tim," his teacher asked, whose first name was Nela, “what are you creating for your big science project?”

Before Timmy could answer, Will yelled out, “I bet it'll be about dragons!”

Timmy knew that Will also believed in dragons and that -- just maybe -- there were modern-day dragons still living somewhere in the world. Will had also made him promise to keep their shared feelings a secret just between the two of them. “Well,” Timmy finally said, “I want my project to be a big surprise. It's not going to be what everybody thinks." He glanced at Will who sat one desk over from his own. "But, yeah, part of it will be about dragons, but only just a part.”

"Oooh," Nela smiled, "a dragon mystery."

The rest of the class then mimicked the teacher and all at the same time, everyone said, "Oooh."

"That sounds like fun," Nela added.

Will then pulled out the bright blue and yellow macaw feather that he usually carried with him. The boy always had plenty from when his parrot moulted and got new feathers. “I've heard that my Friday is actually a kind of modern-day dinosaur. That’s what the scientist on TV said. Maybe my macaw is one of those pterodactyl dinos that Dragon Boy likes so much.”

As a lot of the kids could be heard giggling, Timmy blurted out, “Well, since I'm Dragon Boy, I guess that makes you Dino Boy!” Everybody laughed, including both the teacher and Will himself.

Unknown to the others, except for Will, the idea for Timmy's science project had come from his parents' new automobile. Their new Toyota was one of those hybrid cars which ran on gasoline and electricity. Thinking about how the car was half one thing and half another, is what gave Timmy his great inspiration. Only Will knew what Timmy was planning, and he had been sworn to top secrecy.

Once school let out for the day, the two friends went to play at the pond in Timmy’s backyard. As if that crazy hummingbird hadn't been enough, over the weekend Timmy had spotted a really bizarro-looking fish. Or what he thought was a fish. What else could it be? He was eager to show Will and when Timmy told him about it, his pal could hardly wait to take a look. “I'm telling you, Will; that fish had wings.”

"They were probably just big fins, Tim. You know, like those flying fishes that live out in the ocean."

"No way, Will. I know a lot about wings, and these were wings!"

Both boys sat by the edge of the pond and stared long and deep into the water. "Tim, I don't see anything but little minnows and tadpoles. It was probably just the light hitting the pond in some freaky way. Either that or..."

"Zzzzzzzzzuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzzz!"

"Will! There’s that hummingbird again. You know, the one I told you about."

This time the little flyer had come so close to Timmy that it mussed his hair.

"Hey, watch it!"

"I think your bird is trying to tell you something, Tim. Maybe you should try and see what it wants.”

"I don't know why it acts like that. He does the same thing to Margo, if it is a him."

"No wonder she tries to catch him all the time."

"Look, Will! There, did you see that?!"

Will twisted around where he sat. "What, where? All I saw was something blue and green -- and blurry. Are you sure that's really a hummingbird? Whatever it was, Tim, was going too fast to really see much of anything."

"Well, you just wait. I told you there was something strange happening around here.”

"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzuuuuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzz!" This time the hummingbird brushed right up against Timmy's face, hovered a second, then sped away.

"Whoa!" Timmy exclaimed. "Now that was way too close!"

Will's face turned pale as he spoke in a shaky voice. "Tim, I don't th-think that b-b-bird has any feathers. All I saw were lizard scales. He looks like a little dragon, alright -- snake skin and all!”

Both boys looked at each other as if they'd seen Bigfoot standing at the edge of the pond. Which wouldn't have been any more startling if they had.

"Maybe we think about dragons too much, Will. If they were still around, for real, wouldn't they hide from people? It was humans, you know, who almost wiped them out before. Besides, if anyone saw a dragon today, we'd hear about it, right?"

"Yeah, sure; I guess you're right." Will turned his head from side to side looking for their uninvited guest. "But I gotta tell you, Tim. There's definitely something going on around here. Maybe we should tell our parents. Maybe there's bigger things than hummingbirds that we should be worried about."

"Enough about dragons, Will. Nobody's gonna believe us anyway." As if he expected another swooping dive at any moment, Timmy urged, "Let's go back to my room. I've got a new video game where we can fly and do all kinds of stuff." If he couldn’t fly for real with his new dragon friends, then Timmy could still play pretend, which was better than nothing. Though he'd never admit it to Will, the boy was jealous of the hummingbird, or whatever it was. His resentment of the creature was really based on envy more than anything else.

Timothy's mother was at the back door when the boys got to the house. "Tim, did Margo come back with you? Your father and I haven't seen her all afternoon."

"No, Mom. We haven't seen her. She's probably still out by the trees and the pond, still chasing that crazy hummingbird."

"Well, maybe. You boys keep your eyes and ears open, and let me know when she shows up, okay? George didn't pick her up at the shelter just so she could go and get lost again."

"Sure, Mom."

"Yes, Mrs. Bradford."

But Timmy wasn't sure at all, not about anything anymore. And Margo had yet to come home by the time Will had to leave to have his dinner. Margo still wasn't back by the time Timmy went to bed that night. And by then, everyone in the family was worried about the new little cat, which was hardly more than a kitten. When the boy woke up just before dawn, Margo was nowhere to be seen and his parents were still asleep.

"Zzzzzzzzzzuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzing!"

Well, one thing was certain. That hummingbird was still around and hovering right outside Timmy’s open window. If it hadn't been for the screen, the boy figured the bird would have zzzuuuzzzed and zzziiinnnggged his way right into the bedroom itself.

"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzuuuuuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzzziiiiiiinnnnnnnggggggg!"

Okay, that was it. Timmy was finally convinced that Will was right. The zuzzer-thing, dragon-bird-whatever was definitely trying to tell him something. But what? Between the humming zuzzer zipping about outside his window, and the weird dreams Timmy had been experiencing lately, he was feeling very strange indeed. At first, he figured the dreams were related to playing too many video games where people could fly like Superman, or some other super hero. But if this was just another dream, it felt much too real. And too loud. Too zuzzy and also too scary. A lot of his dreams had been about flying and he wondered what it all meant -- if it all somehow went together. In the dreams he wasn't just a flying human, either. His flapping wings were part of his body. He was part boy and also part dragon. But what could that possibly mean? And where in the world was Margo? How strange were things getting? Very!

Timmy decided he had to go back to the pond as soon as possible. Making sure to be super quiet, he dressed quickly, then off he went into the half-black dawn, following the dragon-zuzzer-bird the whole way. The nearly hidden pond was still very dark, but not as dark as the night itself. Not even a moon to light the way. Good thing he remembered to bring a flashlight.

Funny, though, as the boy got nearer the pond. It wasn’t like the place was totally black or anything. As Timmy watched, the first glow of dawn began to spread across the water. Nothing looked the same as it did in the daylight, and he started feeling even more peculiar than he had before. Then again, he'd never been out to the pond at night, either. The buzzer-hummer-zuzzer was gone for the moment, but still no Margo. As he moved the flashlight around, the beam reflected off the water and sent eerie ripples of light dancing across the nearby tree trunks.

"Margo!" Finally there she was, just lying on the soft grass grooming herself. The cat didn't seem lost at all. When she looked up at Timmy, she also didn't look much like a cat anymore. And the dragon-bird-buzzer-hummer was there too, hovering just above Margo’s head. And both of them were staring at Timmy with eyes more reptilian than those of a bird or a cat.

"What?" Timmy called out, shrugging his shoulders. "Who are you guys -- really? And what do I have to do with any of this?" Will was never going to believe him anyway, the boy decided. That's when a sudden flash of light caught his eye. Which brought his attention to the very edge of the pond.

For just a second, Timmy thought sure he glimpsed that same dragon fish he'd seen before. As he leaned over the water, he realized it was more like he was seeing his own reflection. But that couldn’t possibly be right. What he saw in the water, looking back at him, looked like the face of a real dragon. Horns and all.

And then he knew the truth. What the animals and the dreams, even the pond itself had been trying to make him understand. It wasn't just Margo who was adopted and brought to live on the small farm. His mom and dad had known all along. They must have found him somewhere. But where? Wherever it was, that's where he belonged. A place that was his real home. And would be forever if he could ever find his way back.

A moment later Margo was purring and rubbing against Timmy's leg. And the hummer-zuzzer was perched quietly on his shoulder. While the sun was coming up fast, he spotted his parents still near the house but walking in his direction. They must have realized it was only a matter of time. And that he had to find things out on his own. Will was sure in for a shock. He'd probably never stop worrying that Friday would turn into a dragon some day. Timmy knew his friend had nothing to worry about. He didn't know how he knew, he just did.

Timmy also knew that even though Nancy and George weren't his real mom and dad, that they had loved him and always would. He tried not to cry when he thought about how much he was going to miss them. Let alone the farm, his friends, his teacher. The pond.

Staring down into the pool, Timmy saw the dragon fish swim by. There was the real answer he realized. The pond. Under the water and deep down to wherever it led. Another reflection then slid across the top of the water and headed towards him. He glanced up and saw a young girl stepping near to him. She also looked familiar, but that wasn't possible. Oh, sure, like all the rest of everything made loads of sense.

The same age as Timmy, the girl was lovely and dressed in some kind of light gown. When she reached out and clasped his hand into her own, he saw how the skin on her arms was covered in scales, just like the part-dragon bird perched on his shoulder.

"His name is Wingston," the girl said, her voice a soft whisper. "Margo, you know," she smiled.

"Wh-who are you?" Timmy asked, barely able to talk.

"My name is Katherine, but you can call me Katie. My friends and I have been looking for you a long time...Timtu."

"Timtu?"

"Yes. A long story for the long trip home. Your human parents knew this moment would come one day. And now that day is here."

Timmy looked over his shoulder and saw that his mom and dad had stopped a short distance away. Slowly their arms raised and even more slowly, waved goodbye. The boy saw how Nancy turned and leaned into George's shoulder and chest, and that she was crying.

"Timtu, we have to leave. Your human caretakers know there isn't time for anything else. They understand."

"Yeah, well I sure don't. What's the big hurry?"

"Look at yourself, Timtu. Every moment that passes now, you're becoming more dragon and less human. There isn't time to explain, but if we don't go now, you will never be able to change back."

"Back into a boy -- a human, you mean?"

"Yes. Please, we have to leave this very second."

"Where to?" Timmy looked around, between the trees, then at the nearby hills.

Still gripping the boy's hand, Katie looked downward, into the pond.

"Oh, I get it. Guess it's a good thing I took those swimming lessons." Timtu turned, waved one last time to his foster parents and wondered if he'd ever see Will again.

An instant later, a modest splash sent ringlets of waves lapping atop the mud that circled the pond. That was then followed by two smaller splashes as Wingston and Margo dove in after Timtu and Katie.

A long time would pass before the authorities stopped looking for Timmy and some girl who was also reported missing. The day would come, however, when rumors would become legends. And if you're ever passing through this part of Arizona, maybe find yourself lost and come across a small community called Walker Pines, don't dismiss too quickly what the locals have to say about their town's colorful past.

And two of its more interesting residents, named Dragon Boy and Dragon Girl.