Runaway Dragon

Best and worst day of my life

I started to cry, my shoulders shaking as I fought to keep from bursting into my ugly bawling cry. Ari whined and reached out to touch my face but I slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me!” I sniffled.

Ari looked hurt and put his hand back to his chest, his lower lip wobbling.

“Don’t-don’t give me that look,” I sniffed and blew my nose on a tissue, looking back to the road.

He looked down and his ears lowered more, biting his lip with tiny fangs.

I straightened my spine and inhaled shakily. Ari may have been .. well he may have ruined my life. But he was all I got now. I reached over and took his hand in my own, squeezing it lightly. “Hey I’m sorry Ari,” I said earnestly. “I’m sorry that you have to be so scared on your first day.. of life.” I sighed, realizing how miserable I must have made him. It’s not his fault. “You’re mine, Ari. And I will take care of you.” I promised him.

“Rider.” Ari purred and rubbed his cheek on my hand, his lips twisting into a fanged smile, a smile that made my heart jump.

“R-Rider,” I echoed in a shaky voice. I struggled to keep my attention on the road as I felt his warm, smooth fingers explore my hand, and run up each one of my fingers. He poked a freckle curiously. “That’s a freckle,” I said insightfully.

He looked up at me and smiled and nodded, before pointing out every freckle running up my arms.

“Thanks for pointing that out,” I said with a sigh. I hated my freckles. Then my nose scrunched as he poked my freckled nose. “Hey I’m trying to drive, Ari.”

Ari made the cutest pouty face before pulling his hands away reluctantly. Then he started looking at his own fingers and hands with interest, frowning when he didn’t find any freckles.

“Well.. since we’re going to be partners you know.. I should tell you a bit about myself,” I said awkwardly, tapping the leopard patterned- wheel cover. “My name is Kara.”

“Rider.” He said as he felt his own lips with his finger.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “Yes. I was s’posed to be a Rider anyway. You know how hard I worked for that? I-“ As I started on my long rant of long nights and hard tests, and bragged a bit about being the top in my class, Ari listened with a rapt expression, still tracing his own face with his fingers. He pulled on his hair. He pinched his nose. It was all new to him.

But after I was starting to lose steam in my lecture, Ari pulled up his blanket to take a better look at his lower body and I quickly slapped the blanket back to his chest. “I prefer not to be flashed today, thank you,” I said, my nose and cheeks turning slightly red under my freckles.

He looked confused but didn’t pull back on the blanket again.

I clenched the steering wheel, realizing I had a naked guy in my car. I turned into my driveway and parked. In front of me an old farm house stood. And when I said old, I meant it. This house had been here long before the neighborhood surrounding it had been built. Standing defiant of the modern world, this ancient carcass was painted an unearthly white with baby blue shutters by the Civil-war-era windows. A chipped wood door had two painted hands. One was mine, and the other my brother’s. Mine was pink with neat little stripes of baby blue. And my brother’s was a plain black. Random and ugly to others, it made me feel welcome in this airy old house that creaked when a toad breathed on it.

I stared at the black handprint for a long time as Ari wiggled in his seat, obviously ready to get out. “How am I going to explain this to Remy?” I whispered to myself. I stayed there, trying to gather my mind enough to explain just how I left to become a dragon Rider and move out of this pitiful old house, but had only returned with a naked man.