Mark Of The Dragon Book I: Past

Chapter 9

The next day

"Good morning!" My mother said.
"'Morning!" I answered as I walked into the kitchen.

You see, our home is a cave, so each room is a separate branch off of the main path of the cave. The entrance leads into the hall. If you carry on straight you reach the living room. To the left of the hall is the kitchen, which extends into a dining room. To the right of the living room is my room, and to the right of the hall is my mother's. The kitchen holds storage of food, and the dining room has a large table (made of stone) with chairs. (Also made of stone.) my room has my bed, (a stone slab with straw.) and an en-suite bathroom. Whilst my mother's has her bed and a bathroom.

We sat there eating breakfast. My mother had bought a pig (not alive) from the market yesterday, so we had a lovely breakfast. Well, it was lovely until the letter arrived.

The scroll that was left at the entrance read as follows:

It has come to our attention that the inhabitant of this address, 'Drakosima', has breached the safety act under section 6.7. To avoid future incidents, it is essential that this inhabitant agrees to the policy banning grievously dangerous breaths and extremely threatening abilities. If the inhabitant refuses, we will take action.

Signed, The Council of The Meadow.

Rampargaros, Kinasfar, Flaxuv, Toturar, Savghar

I dropped the piece of paper.

"We're going to see the council." My mother said calmly.
"What does it mean?" I asked.
"Were going to find out." She replied.

My mother stormed out of the house and I followed. The council building (or cave, really) was a giant cave near the centre of the meadow. (Everything is in caves to hide our presence from human eyes.) When we reached the entrance Rampargaros was outside.

"Aah! Drakosima! Are you here to sign the-" He was cut off.
"My son will be signing no such thing!" My mother cut off.

I've got to say, I don't like it when my mother gets angry at me, but when she gets angry at other people... It's awesome.

"It's just to keep everyone safe!" Rampargaros reasoned.
"Keep everyone safe!? He's 12 years old! Do you take him for some kind of criminal!" She shouted.
"No! Of course not! It's just-" He was cut off again.
"Just what!" She screamed.

Even though Rampargaros is a large dragon, twice the size of an average dragon, my mother still managed to intimidate him.

"Your son has a dangerous breath!" Rampargaros got out.
"So you want to keep him under padlock and chain!?" She screamed.
"Why don't we lock up everyone! Andrea (Bas' mother) could turn you to stone! Yet you harass my son with this 'being deadly' talk!"
"Look, your son's breath is something we haven't seen since... We're just trying to protect him." Said Rampargaros. "Come inside, I'll show you."

We followed Rampargaros into the cave, away from the crowd that had gathered outside. He lead us to a small room in the council building.

"Show us." He said to me.

I closed my eyes and felt my stomach begin to boil. I opened my mouth as my throat begun to burn. The same black flame spouted from my mouth, smoke billowing from my nostrils. The mark on my side tingled, it was glowing again. The air where the fire had been was smoking.

"Don't breathe it in!" He said to my mother as she examined it.
"Now, will you please agree to the policy." Rampargaros begged.
"What's the policy?" My mother asked.
"If Drakosima agrees, he will not be allowed to use his breath here without extremely good reason. If he does not agree, he won't be allowed to live here." Said Rampargaros.
"Drakosima?" My mother asked me.
"Fine."
"Thank you Drakosima." Rampargaros said.

He directed us out and as we headed home we heard screams. Heads turned and suddenly everyone was fleeing. Fires had appeared to start all over the meadow. My mother and I looked around desperately trying to find the cause of the commotion when we realised it was coming from the forest.