Dragon Soul

Again With The Mutations

     It was late afternoon and I was going to the extensive park on the west side of Pendulum. It's official name was Gaitwright Park, named after one of the city's founders but, most people just called it The Green. In a city of bronze, silver, and chrome, the massive park was just pure green. My main reason for going was that the mutation was happening again. ever since the fire and the dragon became a part of my soul, I was in a constant battle for control. I couldn't imagine what would happen if there were people around when I didn't have the strength to keep it down. It had taken my family away from me, and I wasn't always strong enough. The Green provided a place for me to deal with the agonizing pain of turning mostly into some reptilian monster. I was already beginning to feel scales forming around my neck and hands. This part only gave me a stinging chill that slowly spread. It was the next part that was the the most painful.

     "You know that you're not strong enough, why don't you just let my take control from here." The beast was always trying to get me to do that. "Oh, I can remember when you were younger, you could barely even fight. I was just going easy on you then." The stinging was spreading. I pulled my hood over my head so no one would see my eyes turning into that not of a human's.

     I raced towards a darker part of the Green where no one would see me, just in time to. My feet were about to pop out of my shoes. I slipped off the boots I always wore and my socks sadly, couldn't be saved. The black talons that my feet had become had turned them to shreds. And it was at this points that my pain truly began. The fiery breath that the beast had was burning my lungs. It felt like I was drowning and I couldn't even swim up. The flames crept up my throat. The fire burned my insides and replaced them with inhuman ones. I tried to scream, but nothing came out.

     And then I lost control and everything turned black.

. . .

     I woke up barefoot and hungry. Looking around, all I saw was scorched trees and brush. I looked down and saw something unusual, a gold coin attached to a black cord was around my neck. When I stood up, every bone in my body ached and discovered a migraine to go with it.

     This was how it always went, excruciating pain, followed by a blackout and then waking up in the Bronze River Forest some ten miles from the city, and having no idea how long I was out. I stumbled around through the trees for what seemed to be three hours, but was probably only one. From the looks of the sky, I could tell it was late afternoon and the sun was going to go down soon. Soon I would need to find some shoes. When I finally got out of the woods, I was happy to find that I came out of the forest on the side with the highway. This area was far enough from the city that rush hour didn't effect the traffic, so running across the four-lane highway wasn't as dangerous as you might think. I walked in the grass for about a quarter of a mile and found a gas station.

     When I walked inside, the cashier smiled at me and said, "Hello sweetie, take as much time as you like, restrooms are in the back." She was an older woman, not grandma-old, but old enough to have wrinkles, graying hair, and optimism ingrained in her soul. then she noticed I didn't have any shoes. "My husband would call you a ruffian, but he's not around to stop me from finding you some shoes." She laughed, "Go find what you're lookin' for and I'll find you a pair of something to put on your feet."

     "Oh, um thank you," I said most gas station cashiers just ignored people until they were being handed money our being aimed at with a gun. I roamed the isles, picking up a few things I might need on the way back to the city. I ended up with a pack of gum, three bags of trail mix, a candy bar, and two bottles of water. I left the gas station with all my items and a pair of shoes that fit well enough all paid for by money the people of Pendulum worked hard to get and I worked not-so-hard to steal. After gulping down one of the bottles and one bag of trail mix, I started to run towards the city, the lights beginning to grow with the setting sun. I hated days like this, blacking out only to find that my day of pain made the sky beautiful.