A Dragon's Tale #Watty's2015

Blades, Glory, Machine Guns And Old Friends

 "I'm sure", the male said again, "let me by."

The humans cleared out as a dragon walked in. He was mostly white with red and blue stripes with gold eyes. His wings were attached at his shoulders, rather than shoulders, down his back and rear legs like ours were and he didn't have a crest to speak of. He was about seven feet tall, twenty four feet long and looked to be Arctic. It didn't take me two seconds to realize who I was dealing with. The dragon was my friend Shadow. He and I had been close friends as cubs and when we were teenagers. The last time I had seen him was when he left for Basic training. I would have gone with him, but at the time, there was a skirmish going on with another dragon pack at Tacoma and I had gotten off.

"Leave us", Shadow said pointing to the door.

The men cleared out as Shadow turned back to us, smiling.

'Well holy shit", he laughed, "when was the last time the three of us saw each other?"

I laughed, "heck Shadow, I think it was shortly before my 15th birthday. About 11 years back."

Shadow laughed and we bumped paws, "good to see ya brother. You and Adelind decided to tie the knot huh?"

I laughed, "you could say that. Mind telling us why they got us here?"

"We brought you here, Major", Shadow stated, "acting on a standing order Johnathan Mason, or you, gave to every Draco operator nearly three decades ago."

'Whose Mason?", Tyson asked crawling out from underneath his siblings.

Shadow's smile dropped from his face, "Oh they didn't, but I was...fuck."

"I'll repeat Tyson's question Shadow", I said, "whose Mason?"

"Mason", Shadow began, "Is, or was you, sir."

"Come again?", I asked, "I guess you haven't noticed, but I'm a dragon, like you and I got four cubs with another coming."

"Yes", Shadow said sitting back on his haunches, "they warned me about this."

"Warned you about what?", Adelind asked sitting back.

"Warned me that he didn't know and that I should brake it to him in steps."

"Shadow, what's going on?"

"Tyro", Shadow began, "for almost thirty years, you were a human by the name of Johnathan Alexander Mason. He, or you, was the single greatest Marine in US military history with nearly two hundred successful missions and nearly a thousand confirmed kills and even more probables. Many countries that have warred with the United States have studied your tactics and trained their troops with modified versions or out right copies. During your last mission you were terminally injured by a rocket propelled grenade and a friend of yours by the name of Franklin Davis was killed by it. In an attempt to save you, your friends placed you in a branch of Project Draco dubbed Human Dragon Resurrection or HDR for short. At first, it seemed it had failed and you had not hatched out as a dragon, but not a week ago, your DNA tracker pinged."

I wasn't entirely sure what to make of his words. Part of me believed everything Shadow had just said. Part of me thought he was crazy. We locked eyes. Mine with his. Both of us were unblinking for the longest time. Before I had fully realized what I was doing, I had lept up and pinned Shadow against the wall and buried my claws so deeply into his chest I could feel his rib cage.

Shadow yelped from the pain and tried to pull my claws from his chest, which caused me to curl them around his ribs.

"Tyro", he choked, "get off of me! Please!"

"They say dying people tell no lies", I snarled, "let's see if it's the same policy here. If what you said is true, look me in the eyes and repeat it, word for word. Make one mistake, I'll rip your rib cage right out of your chest!"