The Flame Inside Him

Noah the Chained.

Noah screamed, a sound so full of pain it could scare the most toughest of men, if ever they were to hear that scream while walking in a silent forest or in a dark alley.

Noah Crowshire stood there in the depths of darkness with his friend, the Priest Garrett Skygate.

Noah felt the chains of his body turning inside him, and in that moment, in the most painful of the series of fits that he'd ever gone through, he cursed everything, above all his father, the Everflame.

"I'll ask again. Do you want my help?" Garrett asked. He was reading a book, but every now and then he fixed a look at Noah, mostly out of concern, but also a fraction, however small, out of curiousity.

"No!" Noah said between gasps and pants. It was quite impressive he was still standing, Garrett found. "Don't look at what he's done to me!"

"Oh bloody hell, Noah, let me ease your pain." Garrett said.

Noah looked at him, smiling. "Priests... shouldn't... curse." And he fell to his knees.

Noah raised his head, and in a fit of pain, he screamed, but this time no sound came out of his mouth. Only fire did.

Garrett stared at the torch of flames in disbelief. "The Flame will kill him." He suddenly realized.

"Noah!" Garrett spoke, 'I'm going to do something important. You must trust me!"

But Noah didn't utter a word. He was silent, fire the only thing his mouth produced.

Garrett let his book fall, searched in his pure white cloak and drew out a blood red tome.

He let it fall as well, and when it did, Garrett did a swishing motion with his hand and the pages began to turn rapidly.

When he found the page that he was looking for, he closed his hand into a fist and the pages stopped turning.

Then Garrett looked at Noah, and bellowed out the words he hoped would help his friend.

"Toreos Ente Atarare Miomna!"

The world stopped.

Noah began writhing in pain once more, and Garrett fell down, his body paralyzed and silent, his eyes wide open.

Noah stopped shooting out fire, but began transforming.

His eyes became blood red, his skin grey, and he grew scales.

His clothes were ripped to pieces, and his body grew to the size of a full-grown man.

A tail sprouted from the lower part of his back, around his waist, and his hands turned to claws.

The symbols of chains that he had on his arms and torso turned to the colour of burning metal, a deep orange.

In between his hair he felt horns and spikes coming out. On his back he felt wings growing.

He ran his hands, or rather, his claws, down his body and felt that his skin was harder and rougher.

He was no longer human.

He was a dragon.

When he no longer felt any pain, he looked around for Garrett.

When he found him, he tried to walk to him, but ended up just crawling and stumbling. He had to get used to all this.

Garrett was awake, but seemed weak.

Noah crouched down and grabbed Garrett with his claws.

Garrett looked at him, and smiled.

"Awaken, Belroar." And then he fainted.

Noah let out a blast of fire, one with so much anger that it could engulf the sun.