Prologue


If I had led a normal life,

                                       But I didn’t.

Would that still have happened?

                                                   Maybe…

What would my life be like?

                                             It wouldn’t be the same.

But would my parents miss me?

                                                   Or would they?

Of all the events that have taken place,

                                                              What is wrong here?

Might I still be alive?

                                  My life…

Would I?

              My life…




Never the same.


Chapter 1
     
     Where am I?
                         Why I can’t figure out where I am?
      I can feel the wind sifting her flowing fingers through my hair.
                           The ground is rough and hard.
     Why?
              Is it rock?
                             It’s hard enough to be.
     The sun feels brutal.
                                     I can hear many a creature calling.
     But what are they?
                                        Birds,
                                                 Wolves,
                                                              Or… is it something else?
                                  Who knows?
     What’s that sound?
     It sounds like footsteps.
     No, wait, it sounds like nails clicking on rock.
     Is it some animal come to eat me?
     “Hey, boy, wake up.”
     Is this animal talking to me? Why does it have a male voice?
     “Hey, uh, are you sunbathing or something?”
     I didn’t answer, but, then again, why would I? Animals don’t talk…do they?
      Ouch! What hit me? I think the animal kicked me in the gut, but how did it do that?
     “Would you wake up already?”
     What choice did I have but to open my eyes? I wish I hadn’t though.
     I opened my eyes and right away saw a bright red, 4-clawed foot in my face.
     “Ah! You’re awake, finally,” the owner of the foot grumbled.
     I looked up slowly and I immediately knew what the thing was even though it was a little hazy, a dragon.
     I was staring at a dragon.
     “Would you stop gaping already?” the dragon said, “Haven’t you ever seen anybody going up here to see this great view?” He gestured toward some point out of my vision.
     I still couldn’t take my eyes off him. My vision cleared and I could get a better view of him. He had bright red scales, piercing red-violet eyes and a deep red mane with a little silver in it. He had no wings, and he looked like one of those Chinese dragons. He had a pretty skinny build, too.
     “Well, if you’re not going to say anything, I’m leaving,” the dragon said giving me a cold stare.
     “Wait!” I yelled urgently, “You’re a dragon and you’re talking to a human.”
     “What are you talking about?” the dragon asked a little confused, “Humans are only a myth. They aren’t real.”
     “But, I’m a human.”
     “Cut the crap,” the dragon said arrogantly, “You’re a dragon just like me.”
     “What?!” I yelled. It was then I noticed my hand. I stared in disbelief. My hand had five claws and green scales. I looked at my feet. They were the same too! It was then I noticed my tail. I nearly fainted!
     “Jeez,” the dragon said, “you sure are weird. Hey, wait a minute. You don’t look familiar. Are you new to town? What’s your name?”
     I hesitated. What was my name? I couldn’t remember, but, wait, what was that slowly flowing up into remembrance? The thing was a word. It wouldn’t go away.
     “Firedraik,” I said suddenly, “My name is Firedraik.”
     “Well, welcome to the town of Dagals!” the dragon replied.
     “Where is it?” I asked.
     “It’s right down the mountain.”
     I looked over and was shocked to see a small little town below the sun. There were little houses and a few dragons flying about.
     “Wow,” I said shocked, “Are we going down there, um…What was your name again?”
     “Oh, my name?” the dragon said, “My name Regos, Regos Karvon. Pleased to meet you. Yes, we should go down. Shopping hour is just about to start anyway.”
     “Um, how do we get down?” I asked hesitantly. I couldn’t find any stairs.
     “We fly of course,” Regos said, “duh.”
     “Fly?” I inquired panicky, “We have to fly? Aren’t there stairs or something?”
     “Of course not,” Regos said rolling his eyes, “You look like you haven’t flown before.”
     “I have not,” I said sheepishly.
     “Oh, still going on with your human charade?”
     “I’m telling you, I am a human!”
     “Sure you are, now just fly.” And with that he took off and started to hover a few feet off the mountain’s edge.
     “How do you fly?” I asked a little scared.
     “Uh, I don’t know,” Regos thought (sure, that made me feel better.) “Just fly.”
     “Okay,” I said shakily, “Here I go.” I closed my eyes and jumped off the edge.
…
     Somewhere else, a big, gold dragon opened his eyes, sniffed the air and cried: “He’s here! He’s finally here!”
…
     For just one second, I felt like I was going to fly, but then, I felt that stomach churning feeling that happens when you fall down a colossal rollercoaster.
     I opened my eyes and began to scream. I was falling toward the ground. There was nothing to stop me from dying. I would hit the ground and lay there bleeding until I died. Right now I didn’t care. Let me fall, I didn’t want to find out why I was here. I didn’t want to go anywhere. I just felt like dying.
     I heard screaming and felt myself start to hit the side of the mountain. I felt pain, hatred, and confusion.
     I felt something grab me. It must have Regos. I brushed his hand away, but he just held me tighter.
     After a few minutes or so it felt, I came to a rest, the taste of blood in my mouth.
     “What were you doing?!” Regos yelled, “I told you to fly! I can’t believe that you would keep up that damn huma-” He stopped when he found out I was crying.
     I know I looked pathetic, but who wouldn’t cry? I had been through so much in the last two minutes. Nobody else would have survived this long, I think.
     I could feel my tears trickle down my snout and land with a gentle splash in a small pool of water beneath me.
     I let it all out, and it was only after I realized that Regos had scooped up a little water from the pool in a little glass bottle.
     “W-why did you collect the water?” I asked sniffling a little, “Isn’t it regular water?”
     Regos stared at me and then at the bottle and said: “That water has been murky and poisonous ever since I was born, and yet, when your tears dropped into it, the pool became clear and safe to drink. Why?”
     “Search me,” I replied honestly.
     “I think I’m starting to believe you.” He said sternly
…
    Do you know how you feel a lot better after letting it all out? I’ll tell you you will feel much better after letting it all flow out.
    Regos was ready to take off when I finished crying (much to my humiliation,) and kept encouraging me to fly. I didn’t want to try, however. Regos eventually gave up although I had suspicious feeling that he was going to try again in a few minutes for I could tell that he was that kind of person who won’t give up that easily, but I was too interested in looking at my reflection in the glittering pool of water to care.
     I had bright, yellow-green scales, and a yellow mane. My eyes were green with a little gold around the cornea. I was also quite muscular, although it didn’t it very well, and sticking right out of my head were two, tan, stag-like horns. One horn was broken a little and I had lost a few pointy teeth, plus I was bruised all over from the fall. I wondered what I looked like in full glory. Well, I knew I was about the same size as Regos which would have been, I think, about eight feet off the ground, standing on my hind legs which felt a little uncomfortable. I closed my eyes and tried to think why I was here.
     “Hey! Firedraik! Look! You’re flying!” It was Regos yelling.
     “What?” I asked confused.
     “You’re flying!” he cried in joy.
     I slowly opened my eyes and found myself floating a few feet in the air. I gave a whoop of joy and began to execute barrel rolls, loop-de-loops, and anything else I could and wanted to do. Regos flew up too and we both started to play. Regos copied my moves and I copied his. We were laughing and playing just as two, newborn babies would have.
     We got tired pretty quickly and we just floated there chuckling to each other. “That was the most fun since, uh, I got here, I guess,” I proclaimed.
     “Yeah, but we should get back to town,” Regos said (did I notice a hint of dissatisfaction?) “I have to get back before shopping hour to open up the shop.” I sighed and agreed.
…
     As we were flying, Regos looked at me and said: “So, what was your human family like?” That question hit me like a bullet to the chest. I hadn’t really given much thought into my human memories. I racked my brain, but I could not find the information I wanted.
     After a moment’s hesitation I replied: “I can’t remember. Much less, I can’t seem to remember anything having to do as a human.”
     “Well, until you can remember, you can stay with me;” Regos said cheerfully, “For now, you can help me open my shop.”
     “Oh, that reminds me, what is your shop’s name?”
     “You want to know my shop’s name? It’s pretty simple: Regos’ Treasures.”
     “What do you sell?” I asked, intrigued.
     “Oh, I sell tons of different things. It’s all pretty much crap to me, considering I don’t need any,” Regos said with a glint of humor in his eye, “I sell the stuff to make a living. You see we use small coins called ‘stels’ to buy things with. That’s all I need to buy the things I want.”
     “How many sti-stels,” I inquired, tripping on the word, “do you have?”
     “Only couple thousand.”
     “Wow! That’s a lot!” I could almost see my stack of stels.
     “No, not really, the rich dragons have billions. I aspire to become like them one day, although they are a bit snotty.” I couldn’t help but laugh.
     We then, passed over a forest of dead, white trees. “What’s up with the forest down there?” I asked.
     “That’s the Forest of Fire,” Regos said, “Before I hatched, the forest was alive and doing well, but for some reason, it burned down and the trees haven’t grown back. Now, look.” Regos then took out the tube filled with my tears and spilled all of it over the Forest of Fire.
     “What did you do that for?!” I cried.
     “Look,” I looked down and noticed that a lot of the trees were growing new leaves and were spouting buds of all sorts. “Wow!” I cried in disbelief, “How did you know to do that?”
     “Well, I noticed how your tears cleared that pool, and I wondered if the same principle would work for the forest.”
      “Wow, you are smart!”
     “We’re approaching the town,” he said, “See that hut on the edge of town?” I nodded. “That’s my shop. You can help me get stuff from the back. Just be careful to make sure no one sees you or else they might get suspicious.” I nodded again. “Oh, and before we go to the market, let’s get you cleaned up.”
     “What do you mean?” I asked confused.
     “See the pools down there? Well, those are the Pools of Healing. If you dunk in that water, you’ll be healed really fast.”
     “Cool!” I yelled and dove headfirst into the cool waters. Immediately, I felt a tickling sensation running down my back. I opened my eyes and was surprised to find that I could see perfectly underwater. I noticed some thing strange about my bruises. I looked and saw that they were disappearing one by one. Next, I heard a cracking sound and found my horn back on right. Finally, I felt five new teeth pop back into my mouth.
     I stuck my head out of the water, took a deep breath and turned around to get out when two big feet hit the ground in front of me. It was then I found myself staring into the eyes of a bright, gold-colored dragon. Everything was golden about him. His scales, his mane, and he also looked to be about in his golden age.
     “And who might you be, hmm?” He asked.
     “I-I, um, I,” the words were caught in my throat.
     “So your name is ‘I?’” He asked with a glint in his eye.
     Finally finding the courage, I said: “No, my name is Firedraik.” His eyes widened slightly and then softened so fast, I hardly saw anything.
     Something’s not right here, I thought.
     “Firedraik, hurry up! Shopping hour has almost begun!”
     “It already has Regos,” the golden dragon replied.
     “Oh, Grand Elder, I didn’t see you!” Regos said as he touched down, “I see you’ve met Firedraik.”
     “Yes I have. Is he staying with you?”
     “Y-yes, yes he is, Grand Elder.”
     “Good. Then he is in good hands, correct?”
     “Y-yeah, um, he is. Sure.” Regos looked like he didn’t agree, and that worried me.
     “Firedraik,” Grand Elder said turning to me, “I hope you enjoy your stay.”
     “I-I will,” I said shakily, “I will.”
     “Well, shopping hour has started, hasn’t it?” Grand Elder proclaimed.
     Regos looked a little panicked. “Hurry, we got to go open shop!” I hesitantly followed; I didn’t want to leave without finding out what the Grand Elder’s secret was. I knew he had one, I just didn’t know what it was, but I had to take when Regos urged me.
…
     “Yes, he’s the one,” the Grand Elder said silently, watching as the two friends flew off, “He’s definitely the one.”
…
     “Here we are!” Regos cried, as we landed in front of a little hut. There was a sign in peeling red paint saying “Regos’ Treasures!” The shop was in desperate need for a touch-up. “It’s not the best, but it’s mine!” Regos said cheerfully.
     This place needs a helping hand, I thought, Could I do it? “Hey, um, how did you let this place get so well, rundown?” I asked.
     “Oh, well I was going to decorate it, but I’m not that good an artist. So, I can’t get anything decent on there,” Regos sighed, “I might have to close up shop for good if I don’t get anything good on there.”
     I gasped, “You can’t do that! How else will you make a living? I’ll help you! Maybe I could draw something on there.”
     “I doubt it. Nobody is a very good artist unless they are gifted, like the Grand Elder.” There was that name again. There was something so familiar with that dragon. The golden scales; those sharp piercing eyes that seemed to bore holes through your body. What did it mean? “Firedraik? Firedraik, are you okay?”
     “Huh? What?” I said stepping out of my trance, “Yeah, I’m fine. So, where is the door?”
…
     Regos showed me the door and for a good half-hour, I gave him all the things a few dragons wanted.
     I had to get two pairs of Shors, three Gohar Berries, eight Slizor eyes, and a bunch of who knows what else.
     Someone ordered a few Slore shells and, as it turns out, Regos was out. What else to do but tell him? I walked outside with a basket just in case Regos wanted me to get some more. “I do hope their not slimy,” I sighed to myself.
     “Hey, Regos,” I said as I came out, “we’re all out of Slore shells.”
     “Oh, hello,” giggled a voice, “Who are you?”