Marked By a Dragon

Chapter 3 - A Dragon's Flame

                “What’s so funny?” The dragon, for that’s the only person it could be, asked from right behind me. I stilled at his voice. It was the definition of perfect, a deep, husky timber with a touch of gravel thrown in. He had a voice you could listen to for hours on end and never get tired of listening to. Excited now to match a face to that heavenly voice, I quickly turned around, only to find that he was sporting just a pair of black basketball shorts. God help me now, I thought as I took in the dragon’s human form.

                He was perfect in every sense of the word. He was tall, topping at least 6’2, which to Ashlyn, at a respectable height of 5’5, made her feel very small. He had dark hair that was short and had a cute cowlick in the front, giving it a boyish look.  His eyes were now… blue? Confused, I shrugged and continued studying him. He had a chiseled jaw with a brush of dark stubble, giving him a rugged look. With a perfectly straight nose, strong jaw, and lips that were a sight pink color, but turned up in a smirk, she let her gaze trail the rest of him. Oh my, I thought as my eyes trailed down his body. He was perfect, literally, with a very defined six pack and v-cut waist, she started looking back up, noticing the scar on his right bicep, and the edge of a tattoo peeking over his shoulder.

                That brought her out of her studious study of him, her odd colored eyes snapping up to his crystal blue ones, anger flashing bright, which seemed to take him by surprise. “Look buddy,” I said, poking him in the chest and trying to ignore how warm he was, “you can’t just go around licking people in their dreams, causing them excruciating pain, and leaving a tattoo on their skin just for the hell of it. It is considered very rude in the world I live in. I don’t care how hot you are, that was uncalled for!” I finished, giving him an extra poke just to prove my point. He just chuckled in response. “Plus, I don’t even know your name, which just adds insult to injury.” I muttered as an afterthought. He laughed outright at this, and I was mesmerized by the sound of it.

                “Well Ashlyn, I’m happy you’re not freaking about the dragon thing, that’s greatly appreciated.” The dragon stated flashing me a cheeky grin. “Plus, I have every right to mark you; you are my Flame after all. Oh, and the names Talon.” Talon stated quite calmly, smiling at me, while a bunch of questions whirled through my brain. He turned to walk away from me, so I reached out to grab his hand, and flames literally started to lick their way up my arm. My eyes widened as I look up at him, then back to our conjoined hands.

                Looking back at Talon, I narrowed my eyes. “You have some serious explaining to do. So start talking mister. Now.” He chuckled, holding his hands up as if in surrender. A laughed a little too, because he tried to look so innocent while doing it that you could just tell he was a good guy, or dragon, whichever way you looked at things.

                “Where should I start?” He asked, plopping himself down onto the ground. I followed suit, then decided to just unload all my questions on him at once.

                “How could you mark me in my dreams? What does your mark mean? How are you a dragon? Is this kind of like werewolves? What the hell is a ‘Flame’? Why is it that there were flames on me when I grabbed your hand? How come your eyes where purple in dragon form but in human form they’re blue? How’d you get that scar on your bicep? Can I see your tattoo?” Then something else occurred to me. “Oh my god, can I ride you?!” I asked excited, then realized how wrong that had sounded. “In dragon form, of course…” I muttered, trying to make myself feel less embarrassed.

                Talon’s eyes were wide, probably not prepared for my onslaught of questions. I smiled sheepishly at him the reached out to place my hand on his arm to see if the flames would come back. They were small, but still they were there. I looked up into Talon’s eyes, the question shining clearly in my own. My brow furrowed as I looked at my hand on his arm. Where were the big flames that had licked up my arm earlier? As if he heard my unspoken question, Talon started his explanation.

                “Alright, that was a lot.” He chuckled lowly, smiling at me. “Well for starters, I’ve always been a dragon, always will be. I have old magic coursing through my veins, and yes there are others like me. No we are nowhere near those pathetic wolves, and I’m slightly offended that people are so excited about them. Personally I blame Twilight. God sparkling vampires? Really? That’s like saying dragons are the size of rabbits. Ridiculous. Anyways, the eye thing, well in our dragon form, our eyes show how much power we have, much like the color of our scales do. They’re blue in my human form because that’s the closest color to violet that won’t freak out the humans of the world. I got the scar from a fight a few years back. Nasty little bugger of a witch thought it’d be cool to stab me in the arm, the bitch.” Talon scowled, and I felt myself get a little angry at the thought of someone stabbing him. Why I was mad was unknown to me. Until Talon continued to talk.

                “Now as I said, I did have every right to mark you. See, Ashlyn, dragons have Flames, or what you humans call ‘soul mates’. Basically, our Flame is what we live for. She brings us into our full power, but not only that, she is our one and only. The only person that can willingly accept us into their heart. A dragon’s Flame is like his sun, she’s the only thing that can keep him alive and willing to try harder in a dire situation. She’s the one thing in the world he’s be willing to die for, because once you find your Flame, living without her is like living without your soul in a dark cave in the middle of Antarctica. Ashlyn, I already told you that you were my Flame, and that’s how I was able to find you when you turned seventeen. I actually didn’t mean to mark you last night.” Talon paused to chuckle, and I was stunned, but slightly calmed by the thought that there was someone meant for me, seeing as no one really ever wanted to be around me, except for Lynnie and my mother. My father left us when I was born because he said he couldn’t be the father of a freak. Now here I was, a dragon’s Flame. It was pretty bizarre if you really thought about it, but the bizarre had looked back at me from the mirror every morning for seventeen years. Which reminded me…?

                “Hey, how old are you anyways? Because there’s no way I’ll be ok with this if you’re over twenty. Nuh uh that would just be way to creepy.” I stated. Talon laughed so hard I thought he was about to die. I didn’t see what was so funny, seeing as I had just asked him a simple question. I glared at him as he calmed down enough to answer.

                “Ashlyn, darling, I turned eighteen two weeks ago. I’m actually headed to your school to enroll so I can spend some quality time with you.” He stated, smiling sweetly at me. I blushed. Mom would never believe this. My eyes widened as I thought of my mom.

                “Crap.” I said, jolting to my feet. “By Talon! Sorry to cut this short but I really need to start home to make my curfew. I guess I’ll see you at school tomorrow! Bye!” I called over my shoulder to him, rushing to get to the edge of the field when his voice rang out behind me.

                “Oh, and Ashlyn,” I looked back at him, pausing in my hasty retreat to see what he had to say. “You can definitely ride me anytime. In dragon form of course.” Talon stated cheekily, winking, and then laughing when I blushed and hurried even faster to get out of the clearing. On my way to my car, it dawned on me that thing would probably be different from now on. My life was changing, and all because of a dream, and some oddly colored eyes. I smiled, thinking that maybe this was for the best. Even if I was a dragon’s Flame.