Cover Art by Lugh Delaney Boyle

© 2020 DM Gilmore

All rights reserved

More books by DM Gilmore

The Lazy Scales series

Lazy Scales

Idle Claws

Dull Teeth

Broken Horns

Kindled Flame

Beating Wings

The Centre of Magical Affairs series

Drake

Trace

Poach

Prologue

The circle was finally complete. The dragon gazed down at his work, inspecting every claw-hewn rune, every inch of the spell work, to make sure it was correctly done. He had been painstakingly building this spell for a decade, making sure every single inch of it was perfect. Twice before, he had melted the stone with his fire to wipe away the work and start anew.

He would not have time to do it again.

The hunters were coming for him, after all these long years.

They were in the cave system. He could smell their foul odor, hear their guttural language. They were drawing closer by the second; time was running out!

“Ancestors,” he said, whispering a brief prayer in the long since forgotten language of his kind, “please watch over me. I need to finish my work.”

With delicate claws, he pushed a poultice of dried leaves and various herbs into the grooves of the spell work before breathing a spark of flame and setting the entire thing alight. At first, the circle glowed red as the leaves burned. Then the fire turned a violent shade of blue.

“Ancestors, guide my path, to be born anew and fulfill my duty,” the dragon chanted in the ancient tongue, clasping his talons in front of him. His ruby red scales gleamed in the pale light of the spell circle. “Burn my soul into another, so I may be reborn and live again.”

With every word, a rune in the spell circle grew brighter and brighter, the flames rising higher and higher.

The hunters were drawing in. He could make out the words they were saying now.

“This way,” one of them called, “I can hear the beast in here.”

The dragon did not move. “Ancestors, guide my path…” he repeated the chant and felt his scales grow cold as the magic pulled from deep within him, grasping for the very part of himself that made him him . “Burn my soul into another…”

“There he is,” came the voice. The dragon dared not move to see him. He knew who this human was.

A blonde-haired man stepped up to the carved spell work circle and looked it up and down as the dragon continued his chant. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the man bend down. He took a dagger in his hand and prod at the ash within the circle.

“I’ve come a long way to find you, dragon,” the man said, rising to his feet and staring up at the dragon with his piercing blue eyes. “You’re the last one, aren’t you?”

“Ancestors, guide my path,” the dragon continued, ignoring the human. The spell must be completed. He could not stop now, even if he wanted to. If he died here, his race would be extinct forever, but if he succeeded, if his spell was cast, he would have another chance. He would have a new, youthful body. “… so I may be reborn and live again.”

“What are you doing?” The hunter asked, putting a hand on the dragon’s haunch and feeling the rise and fall of his breathing. He poked at the dragon’s scales with his knife, and the dragon’s chanting faltered for a moment as he felt the prick of the blade grab him by his very soul.

The dragon picked up speed. He could not afford to let this human do to him what was done to so many others of his kind before, but he was powerless to oppose him. The spell required his absolute attention.

The circle responded to the dragon’s pleas as the blue flames slowly turned gold. One by one, each rune changed color and grew brighter. The hunter cocked an eyebrow at the spell and waved over one of his companions. The second hunter, a stocky man with ginger hair, carried a red metal canister with a black nozzle.

“Sorry, chap,” the blonde-haired hunter said, patting the dragon on the haunch again, “but I’m afraid I cannot let you finish whatever it is you’re doing. I’m sure you understand. It’s not that I’m not curious, this is a fascinating looking spell, but we just cannot afford to see what it does.”

The dragon ignored the hunters and continued his chant, his eyes focused and hard.

The blonde man sighed. “You’re boring, you know that? Your father had some banter in him. ‘You’ll never take my whelp! The hope of my kind!’ he’d roared. He fought gallantly. He died fearlessly. You, however,” the hunter said, tapping the knife against the dragon’s leg again, “are just sitting there, chanting. You’re boring. Put up at least a bit of a fight.”

The dragon’s eyes narrowed at the mention of his father. He could scarcely remember the elder dragon, who’d died when he’d been nothing but a small whelp. His mother had been dead long before that. Their parents, too.

He was the last of his kind. He knew this.

Did the hunter take pleasure in reminding him that there were no more dragons left in the world? That, once he was dead, the dragon race would disappear from the earth, never to be seen again? Of course, he did. Sick, twisted humans. All they ever did was take pleasure in the suffering of others, in hurting that which they could never understand.

“Take it out,” the blonde hunter said.

The dragon continued chanting, even as the ginger hunter raised the canister and squeezed on the handle. A splash of foul white foam shot out and began covering the dragon’s meticulously laid spell work. As the flames in the runes sputtered out, the dragon felt an overwhelming sense of cold wash over him. It was over. They destroyed the spell. There was nothing more he could do.

The dragon felt tears welling up in his eyes. A century of planning, research, and practice had gone into the design and development of this spell. It had taken everything he had to cast it. Whether or not by the hunter’s hand, the dragon knew he would not survive this day.

The dragon’s heart slowed as the fires of his spell went out. He kept his claws clasped together, determined to try to finish the spell, even as his fingers went cold and numb. His toes went next, leaving him with a prickling sensation where the icy stone ground of his cave should have been. His tail vanished next. It was still there, but he couldn’t feel it, couldn’t feel anything.

When he lost sensation in his wings, he knew that it was all well and truly lost. He had failed in his duty. He had been unable to find a way to save his race. There was nothing more that could be done.

And yet, even as more and more of his body grew stiff and cold, his mouth refused to stop working. His eyes glazed over, and his vision went blurry, but his lips still formed the words, his tongue again formed the sound.

His body was dying around him, but he could not stop chanting.

The blonde-haired hunter watched him curiously, even as he continued to speak the words. The last remnants of the spell vanished with a puff of smoke, casting the cave once more into darkness. The hunters lit their flashlights, drowning the cavern in an unnatural white light, and the hunter scraped his knife down the dragon’s scales.

The dragon couldn’t feel it anymore. He knew that the knife was there, only by the way it seemed to grab what little essence he had left, but there was no pain, no sensation of metal against scale.

“You’re determined. I’ll give you that,” the hunter said, nodding in mild approval as the dragon’s body sagged. “Even when all hope is lost, you attempt to cast your foul magic. I suppose you’ll never do me the courtesy of telling me what it does.”

Against the dragon’s will, his body collapsed to the ground, heavy and stiff. Even as his chin rested against the cooling remains of his spell work, his mouth continued to speak. He croaked the last few lines of verse, his voice barely more than a whisper.

“You’ve lost, dragon,” the hunter said, his voice rising, “accept your death with dignity! Fight me! Bathe me in your flames! Do something !”

The dragon paused his chant only long enough to laugh. Who’d have thought ignoring the hunter would frustrate him? There was only one verse left, and then the spell would be finished. The dragon figured that there would be no harm in saying it in the hunter’s own, disgusting language.

“Ancestors,” he growled, the words squeezing out of his throat with great difficulty, “guide my path, to be born anew and fulfill my duty.”

The hunter’s eyes grew wide. “Stop him!” He barked at his companions.

Before another word could slip through the dragon’s lips, the hunters wrapped a chain around his snout, squeezing it shut. And yet, despite the restraint, his tongue still formed the words. His voice struggled out, but he spoke the chant.

It was harder to speak the human tongue. The words felt alien against the dragon’s teeth and were difficult to shape, especially with his snout squeezed shut. And yet, he continued his chant until there were only a few words left.

The hunter didn’t give him the chance to say them. The dragon stopped, the last word he uttered being reborn, as he felt the hunter’s dagger plunge into his side.

“ Let no creature born of dragon blood survive this blade ,” the hunter said, in a language not his own.

The dragon had thought his body was cold before, but this was a whole extra dimension of chill. Every fiber of his being went still.

His heart stopped beating in his chest.

His lungs stopped filling with air.

His tongue stopped moving.

The dragon stared down at his body in shock. He was dead. The hunter tugged the knife free from between the dragon’s ribs, and he saw it glowing with pale blue light. If he was dead… then why was he able to see?

“Is it dead?” The blonde hunter asked, wiping the dragon’s blood off the blade and carefully slipping it back into a sheath.

“Yes, sir,” called the ginger hunter. “He doesn’t breathe or speak.”

The blonde hunter nodded. “Let’s pack up and move out. Take the skull with us and give this place over to the Crone. She has to make sure he really was the last of his kind.”

The dragon stared in awe. How could he see this? He was floating, weightlessly above his body. He tried to look down at his claws. They were still there, but his ruby scales were now white, almost pale green. He raised them to his eyes. He could see through them!

It took him a second to realize what had happened. His body was dead, and he was now a naked soul, a spirit floating through the world.

Did that mean his spell had worked? Did that mean the Ancestors were guiding his spirit to a new body that he can change and shape to suit his will?

As the hunters hacked and carved away at his corpse, the dragon looked off into the distance. He could feel that he was trapped here. He could not move too far away from his body. But there was something else… He could sense another place he could be ensnared, somewhere else he could haunt. It was far away, on the other side of the world. Good. It would be secure, for a time, from the hunters. That should give the dragon enough time to prepare his new self for the battle ahead.

The dragon took one final, pained look at his corpse as the hunters began sawing his head from his neck. He felt a rage building in his gut at the sight of such desecration, but when he breathed, there were no flames, only a harmless cloud that did nothing but make the slayers shiver. He was powerless to stop them in this state.

No, he had to move on. There was nothing left for him here.

“Until we meet again, in the next life, Lambton,” the dragon whispered into the ear of the blonde hunter, “then I will finally taste your accursed blood.”

The blonde hunter didn’t so much as shiver at the dragon’s words.

The dragon snorted a cloud of white vapor at his hated enemies. Then he was gone.

Chapter 1

There was a ghost floating in Lewis’s classroom.

He stared at it, jaw agape, as the teacher continued her lecture. She was droning on about Arthurian myth this and Merlin the Great that . Lewis couldn’t bother to pay attention, not while there was suddenly a giant ghostly dragon floating above his head.

He gripped his desk in shock as the massive beast’s spectral visage swiveled to look around, glancing at every student in the classroom. Nobody else looked up or showed that they were aware of the intruder in their midst. Jeremy tapped Lewis on the shoulder, catching his attention.

“Are you okay, dude?” Jeremy asked, adjusting the glasses that had once again slipped down his nose. The smaller, weaselly looking boy met Lewis’s gaze and blinked in surprise. “You look like you saw a ghost!”

Lewis’s eyes were wide. He had seen a ghost. By now, the ghost dragon had noticed him and watched him thoughtfully, his spectral tail swishing ominously through the crowd of students. The translucent beast licked his massive chops as though expecting Lewis to run, so it could chase him.

“Interesting choice,” the ghost whispered, his voice like claws on stone as they scraped across Lewis’s ears. “I would have chosen someone else, but you will do nicely.”

Lewis blanched again and bolted upright, knocking over his chair. His seat crashed to the ground, making every other student in the classroom jump with surprise.

“Lewis,” the teacher asked, drawing his attention away from the ghost for a moment, “is there a problem?”

“B-bathroom,” Lewis stuttered, his tongue numb and barely obeying his commands.

The teacher rolled her eyes and waved a hand at the classroom door. Lewis lowered his head and walked at a brisk pace out the door and into the hall. Jeremy watched him go with a frown before shrugging and turning his attention back to his notes.

In the hall, Lewis watched the ghostly dragon drift through the wall to follow him. “It’s not real,” he whispered to himself, “it’s not real. It’s just a daydream. Go splash some water on your face, go wake up, just ignore it.”

“Oh, I am quite real,” the ghostly dragon said with a grin, its massive snout floating next to Lewis. “No sense running from me. It would appear that I am haunting you.”

“Leave me alone!” Lewis shouted, breaking out into a sprint and running down the school hall.

He passed the janitor, mopping the floor and giving him an odd look. He weaved through two other kids his age as they blocked the hall and talked about nothing important. He noticed the principal as he was walking the halls with his phone out. Lewis slipped on the freshly mopped floor as he passed the older man and fell on his back.

The principal sighed as he looked down at the dazed boy and shook his head. Lewis stared up and caught the ghostly dragon mirroring the principal’s expression.

“Hi, Mister McNally,” Lewis mumbled, waving shyly up at the principal.

“Mister Cooper,” the principal said, offering a hand down to the boy, “what are you doing out of class?”

“B-ba-bat,” Lewis tried to stutter as his eyes flicked between the ghost and his principal.

Finally, he took Mister McNally’s hand. He allowed himself to be dragged off the ground and back to a standing position.

“Bat?” Mister McNally asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Bathroom, sorry, I’m not feeling well,” Lewis mumbled. Before the principal could ask for further explanation, Lewis had broken into a run again before turning the corner and practically diving through the bathroom door.

He tried to slam the door shut behind him, but the door resisted his push and closed at its own leisurely pace. The ghostly dragon stuck its face through a urinal and looked around the room. Lewis tried to ignore it even as he rushed into a stall and plopped himself onto a toilet.

“Hiding from me is useless. Again, I am haunting you,” the ghost said. “This would be much easier on us both if you cooperate. I promise it will not hurt much.”

“Leave me alone,” Lewis whimpered, burying his face in his hands. His hoodie felt tight against his skin, and he tugged his hood over his head before pulling the drawstrings tight. His hood squeezed around his head until only his nose and mouth could be seen through the hole.

Even with Lewis’s eyes closed and blocked, he could still see the ghost. It floated through the dark of his mind, playing with the shifting colors behind his tightly squeezed eyes. It batted at the swirls of color with a claw and sent them spinning away until it was the only thing that Lewis could see.

“I am afraid I cannot. I have too much work to do, and you have become essential to it,” the ghost explained with a shrug. “Sorry, but you are stuck with me until the day you die. Hopefully, that will be soon. I would hate to do all this work and then need to wait a human lifetime to reap my rewards.”

“Leave me alone!” Lewis shouted, his voice echoing through the bathroom.

Suddenly, there came a sharp knock on the stall door. Lewis jumped in surprise, tugging off his hood to get a better look at the shoes just beyond the door. They were black and shiny.

“Lewis,” the principal said, knocking again, “are you okay in there?”

“Go on,” the dragon ghost urged, “tell him you see the ghost of a dragon. See what happens.”

“I’m fine,” Lewis squeaked, hugging himself for a moment. The truth was, he was terrified! He didn’t understand what was going on. A ghost dragon was haunting him, whispering things to him, and it looked like nobody else could see it!

Had he snapped? Had he gone crazy?

Was he experiencing some kind of feverish hallucination?

Or maybe he had schizophrenia, and just nobody had ever diagnosed him properly?

“Excellent, then you wouldn’t mind accompanying me to my office?” Mister McNally asked through the stall door. “I’ll wait outside for you, don’t be too long.”

Lewis waited until the sound of the principal’s footsteps were gone before he unlocked the stall door and stepped outside. There was the ghost, still phased through the wall, watching him with an icy grin on his reptilian snout. He rested his chin in his claws as he floated three feet off the ground, as though propping his elbows up on thin air.

“Best not to keep him waiting, lad,” the dragon whispered, breathing out a flume of frosty air. “Run along. I will be right behind you, now and forever.”

“Go away,” Lewis hissed at the dragon, “shoo! Begone!” He waved his hand through the dragon’s snout, trying to banish the specter, but all he did was plunge his fingers into an eerie chill. He shivered and made a cross with his index fingers. “The power of Christ compels you!”

“Does it? It is not very compelling…”

Lewis heaved a sigh before turning and marching out of the bathroom. There was the principal, waiting outside, exactly like he said he would. He eyed Lewis with a cocked eyebrow before motioning with a hand for him to follow. Lewis hung his head and marched after the older man, glancing over his shoulder to check and see if the ghost was following behind.

Sure enough, it was.

Mister McNally sat Lewis down in one of the large, plush chairs that furnished his office. They were usually there for guests, like parents or the superintendent, and occasionally a student who wasn’t behaving according to the school’s ludicrous standards. Lewis had a favorite of the two chairs, and he stared at it longingly until the dragon’s ghostly snout rested on the back.

Lewis started, and the principal stared at him in confusion as he stared at his hands, clasped in his lap.

“What is going on with you today?” Mister McNally asked, stepping around his desk to sit in his own chair. “You’re not normally this jumpy. You’re acting like—”

“I’m seeing a ghost!” Lewis blurted out before the principal could finish the sentence. “There’s a ghost dragon following me around and telling me it’s haunting me, and I don’t know how to make it go away!”

Mister McNally paused with his mouth hanging open, staring at Lewis with an unimpressed gaze. He blinked a few times, shut his mouth, and tapped on the keyboard in front of him a couple times. The computer on his desk whirred to life, and he typed in some information. After a few seconds, something appeared on his screen, and his eyes scanned over it.

“Let’s see, I have had you in here for skipping class, skipping detention, failing a class, interrupting a class, faking sick to get out of school, faking sick to get out of a field trip, forging field trip documents…”

Lewis’s eyes widened, and he looked away as the principal continued down his long line of infractions. He’d done just about everything short of cheating on tests to wind up in the principal’s office, and he was only in the tenth grade.

“I have never had you in here for,” Mister McNally paused and looked down at Lewis with a raised eyebrow, “what did you say the issue was?”

“G-Ghost dragon. It’s haunting me,” Lewis said, realizing how stupid he must sound. To say he saw a ghost was unbelievable enough, but to say that he saw a ghost dragon was just ridiculous. If anybody had said the same thing to him, he’d look at them like they had three heads and a tail!

“Never heard that one before,” Mister McNally chuckled. “Kids and their imaginations.”

The dragon chuckled too. “It is quite funny when you think about it,” he said to Lewis, with a sly grin on his face.

“I’m not in trouble for this, am I?” Lewis asked, slumping into his chair.

“Trouble?” Mister McNally scratched his chin and grimaced in thought. It wasn’t that the principal didn’t like Lewis. The older man never made an effort to dislike any student if he could help it. Lewis knew he was a problem case, but he couldn’t possibly be the worst one he had to deal with. “I wouldn’t call it trouble, but I would call it a cry for help. I’ll book you some time with the school counselor, and hopefully, she can get to the bottom of your issues. They’re deep if you’re making up stories about ghost dragons to get out of class.”

“The counselor?” Lewis groaned. “Come on, don’t you think I’m suffering enough?”

Mister McNally cleared his throat loudly and drummed on his desk. “Lewis, this is the third time I’ve caught you skipping class for one ridiculous excuse or another. First, you claimed it was your Granny Crona’s funeral. Then you claimed your father was in the hospital. Now, you expect me to believe that there is a ghost dragon following you around?”

“It is not exactly the most believable thing in the world,” the dragon agreed.

“Shut up,” Lewis snapped at the dragon.

“I beg your pardon?!” Mister McNally’s expression darkened, and he stared at Lewis.

“No, no, not you, sir! I was talking to the ghost dragon, I swear!” Lewis quickly explained, raising his hands in a placating gesture. “Oh, I’m in trouble now, aren’t I?”

Mister McNally’s storm cloud gray eyes narrowed. “The joke is over, Lewis.”

“I’m not joking, I swear!”

“This isn’t funny anymore.”

“It was never funny!”

“I’m glad we are in agreement,” the principal said. “Let’s start with detention. Today, after school. I’ll book that appointment with the counselor, and I expect you to make time for it. Every session you miss will be another day of detention.”

Lewis groaned even louder. “Now you’re going to say ‘I’ll also be calling your parents.’”

“I’ll also be calling your parents—” Mister McNally stopped and stared at Lewis. “Do you want it to be two days’ detention?”

“No, sir,” Lewis mumbled, “sorry, sir.”

The principal grumbled something under his breath and pressed a few buttons on his keyboard. A few seconds later, a sheet of paper shot out of the printer. The principal read it over a couple times, before nodding in approval. He signed his name on the bottom and then turned it around and handed Lewis a pen.

Lewis reached out with shaking fingers and signed his name along the bottom of the page, a written promise that he would do everything that the principal had asked of him. He had no intention of actually following through on it. There was a ghost dragon following him around, like hell he’d caught dead sitting in detention!

“See you after school, Lewis, in the usual room.”

As Lewis stepped out of the principal’s office, he risked a glance to see if the ghost dragon was still following him.

He wasn’t even surprised when it waved cheerfully at him.

Chapter 2

“I’m telling you, Lewis, you seriously looked like you’d seen a ghost,” Jeremy laughed as the two of them walked side by side. Jeremy adjusted his backpack over his shoulder as he walked at a brisk pace to keep up with the taller boy. “You were all pale and shaking. I know you’re normally out of it, but that was weird, even for you.”

Lewis stared straight ahead, even as the ghost dragon floated around him in lazy circles. It waved a claw at him, and Lewis lowered his head and walked right through it, shivering at the touch.

“Lewis? Dude?” Jeremy tapped Lewis on the shoulder again, trying to get his attention.

Lewis jumped and cried out in surprise, enough to cause Jeremy to stagger back too. The pair of them met eyes before laughing at the absurdity of what had just happened.

“See, this is exactly what I’m talking about. You’re not normally this jumpy,” Jeremy said, furrowing his brows in concern. “Are you okay?”

Lewis considered for a moment exactly how much he wanted to tell Jeremy. The principal hadn’t believed him that a ghost dragon was following him around, which was why he was now skipping detention. Lewis did not want to be stuck sitting in a room for two hours after school, only to have its ghostly jaws looming over him. He had to get away, as far away from the ghost as possible. And yet, even as he power-walked off school property and into the town of Barrington Hills, the spirit followed. The Barrington Mountains loomed to the north, filling the horizon with their peaks, and rolling hills flowed to the south. Even in early spring, the mountain town was chilly. It was cold enough that a nice, thick hoodie kept Lewis comfortably warm, without being too harsh that he needed gloves.

The ghost dragon took in the surroundings, nodding in approval towards the mountains. “That will make for a fine territory,” he said, floating closer to Lewis and tapping him on the shoulder with a ghostly talon. “Are there any nice caves up there? Perhaps we should go scout for one, while we have time?”

Lewis shivered at the touch but tried to ignore what the dragon was saying. He wanted to get away, as fast as possible, and figure out how he could get rid of it.

“Lewis,” Jeremy called, trying again to get his friend’s attention by snapping his fingers in front of Lewis’s eyes. “Dude, you’re acting really spaced out, even by your standards.”

Lewis blinked a few times and met his best friend’s gaze again. Jeremy had his arms crossed, his eyebrows raised, and was giving him an appraising stare, as if trying to decide whether or not his friend was all there.

“Sorry,” Lewis muttered sheepishly, blinking and looking deliberately away from the ghost dragon. “I’m kind of not all here.”

“No kidding? Something bugging you?”

“You wouldn’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

Lewis made a face and cocked an eyebrow at his friend. “A ghost dragon is haunting me.”

“Ah. I see.” Jeremy nodded a couple times, tapped his chin, and nodded some more. “You’re right. I don’t believe you.”

Lewis groaned and picked up the pace again. He should head home, go to bed, and try to sleep off whatever delirium caused this hallucination. Still, he remembered that he was skipping detention and let out another exasperated groan. He couldn’t head home, not yet. His mother would get suspicious.

Surely she’d get even more suspicious when the school inevitably called to let her know that he was skipping detention. Still, by then, he should at least have figured out a way to banish this pesky ghost.

At least, he hoped he could figure out a way to get rid of it.

“Lewis, where are you going?” Jeremy called, running to keep up with his friend. “Did you forget where you live?”

“I’m not heading home, Jer. I’m going to church.”

Jeremy stopped for a moment to give his friend a curious glance. “Since when do you believe in God?!”

“I don’t, but do you know a way to get rid of a ghost?”

“No?”

“Me neither. I’m hoping maybe a priest can help.”

“You’re acting weird, Lewis. Like, way more than usual,” Jeremy said, crossing his arms. “I don’t think you need a priest; I think you need a psychiatrist.”

Lewis whipped around and was about to retort when somebody else walked through the dragon’s misty form and stood next to Jeremy.

“Hey losers, what’s happening over here?” the girl said with a grin.

“Hey, Becca, Lewis has finally lost his mind,” Jeremy said, shaking his head up at the girl next to him. “He sees dead things. Specifically dead dragons.”

Jeremy and Becca were complete and total opposites. He was thin and slight and stood with a bit of a slouch to make himself appear small and unnoticeable. He liked to wear shirts with pop culture icons on them, like Star Wars or Harry Potter, and covered them with a ragged old plaid coat. He wore baggy jeans passed down from his older brother and kept his dirty blonde hair short enough to be presentable. For all intents and purposes, Jeremy looked like he’d walked off the set of a high school drama.

Becca, on the other hand, looked like she’d come home from Dracula’s castle. She was tall, to begin with, but the black leather platform boots she wore only made her even taller. She had her ebony hair cut short and shaved on the left side, so it hung over the right side of her face, slightly obscuring her eye. She wore a black leather jacket with a black skirt and black spiderweb stockings, and she had a pair of stud piercings below her black-painted lips.

“It’s about time, Lewis,” Becca laughed, clapping Jeremy on the shoulder. “We had bets going on how you would lose your mind. I always knew you’d start seeing things eventually, with how often you daydream. Pay up, Jer.”

Jeremy grumbled under his breath and reached into his pocket to retrieve his wallet. He fumbled about for a five-dollar bill before holding it out for Becca to take. She grinned as she snatched it from his fingers and stuffed it into her jacket pocket.

“What’s the hallucination, anyway?” Becca asked, cocking an eyebrow at Lewis.

“A ghost dragon,” Lewis grumbled, frustrated about repeating it again. “It’s haunting me.”

“Really? That’s weird, even by your standards,” Becca said, frowning.

“That’s what I said!” Jeremy said with a laugh and a nod. “To think Lewis had enough of a brain to conjure that kind of image!”

“Guys! This is serious!” Lewis groaned, pinching his nose. “I feel like I’m losing my mind, and I really don’t know what to do about it!”

“You should go scout out a nice cave,” the ghost dragon suggested. “I am not very fond of mold, but I will clean the place up when I am done with you.”

“Shut up! Stop talking to me!” Lewis snapped.

“Dude!?” Jeremy started, giving Lewis a confused, hurt expression.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m not yelling at you, I’m yelling at the ghost dragon!”

Becca and Jeremy shared a nervous look. Becca took a step forward and put a hand on Lewis’s shoulder, drawing his attention to her. “Are you okay?” She asked, genuine concern in her voice. “You look kind of pale.” Without warning, she put a hand to Lewis’s forehead and yelped in surprise. “You’re definitely running a fever,” she said, shaking her hand as though Lewis’s skin had burned her.

“What?” Lewis blinked in surprise.

“Like, a boiling fever! And your skin is all clammy! It’s no wonder you’re seeing things,” Becca explained, tightening her grip on his shoulder. “Let’s get you home. You must be really sick.”

Lewis blinked as Becca guided him, with a firm grip on his arm, back towards the direction of his house. He blinked in confusion. Sick? He’d considered that maybe the ghost was just a figment of a feverish hallucination, but to have somebody else tell him that was the problem…

Lewis allowed Becca to guide him gently towards his house. As they got closer to his street, the burning beneath his skin only got worse. His hoodie was growing sticky with sweat, and his hot breath turned to steam in the cold air, despite it being above freezing temperature. His vision swam, and he fumbled his steps as his balance evaporated.

Even with Becca there to support him, Lewis collapsed to the ground.

He lay there, on his side for the better part of a minute, his vision spinning. He could feel the blood pounding in his head as his heart hammered in his chest. His ears were ringing, and his stomach was churning like a stormy sea.

“Lewis!” Jeremy and Becca called, their voices like faint echoes through water.

“Oh dear,” the dragon whispered in Lewis’s ear, “it would appear that we will not have time to pick out a nice cave. Such a shame.”

“Lewis, buddy, speak to me,” Jeremy whimpered as he looked down in shock at his prone friend.

“Jeremy, call 911,” Becca ordered, dropping to her knees next to Lewis. “Lewis, can you respond?”

Lewis groaned before croaking out a painful “Yes.”

“Can you feel this?” Becca asked, poking his left arm and then his right.

“Yes. Yes.”

“Okay, that’s a good sign. It might not be a stroke,” Becca whispered, carefully maneuvering Lewis onto his side. She rolled him just in time. As soon as his head was resting against his arm, he threw up on the ground, painting the sidewalk with bright orange bile.

Jeremy gagged audibly as he fumbled with his phone before bringing it up to his ear and jabbering.

“It’s okay, let it out,” Becca whispered, rubbing Lewis’s back. There wasn’t anything she could do for him beyond keeping him comfortable while whatever happened ran its course.

Lewis threw up again, this time coughing and sputtering as steaming vomit splattered the nearby grass. Everything hurt so much. His skin felt tight, his lungs were on fire, and his heart… Was his heart always so big?!

“Get up,” the ghost dragon ordered, nudging Lewis with a chilly claw, “get somewhere safe, away from all these humans.”

Lewis groaned as he struggled to stand. Becca immediately shoved him back down to the ground, but Lewis pushed her away and sat upright. His hoodie was covered in hot, sticky puke, but he ignored the rancid, metallic stench as he shakily rose to his feet.

“No hospitals,” the dragon whispered.

“No hospital,” Lewis repeated, his mind fogging over as he tried and failed to process what was happening. “Can’t afford one right now.”

Jeremy looked from Becca to Lewis and back again. Becca shot him a steely glare. “Sorry about that, never mind,” Jeremy said into his phone before hanging up.

“Lew,” Becca said, slowly standing up and bracing her friend by the shoulder. She shot Jeremy a glare. Had he really just hung up on 911 because Lewis had told him to?! “Lew, you should really go see the doctor; you really don’t look so good!”

“I’m fine,” Lewis croaked, dizzily swaying from side to side. “Just… need some rest…”

“Lewis, I’m pretty sure you just had a stroke. You really shouldn’t be standing,” Becca insisted, grabbing his arm.

“No,” Lewis barked, pulling out of her hand, “just… home…”

Jeremy looked frantically between his two friends, unsure of what to do.

“Jer, help me get him home. His mom will probably call an ambulance,” Becca grumbled, grabbing Lewis by the arm again as her friend stumbled from side to side.

Jeremy swallowed nervously before nodding and grabbing Lewis by the other arm. He gagged at the sight and smell of the vomit, and together the three of them headed for Lewis’s house, just a short walk further down the road.

Lewis’s mother, Jane, answered the door when they rang. She threw it open, first with a furious glare on her face. Still, her expression quickly softened before turning into a look of horror and worry as she saw her son hanging limply between his two friends.

“What happened?!” She blurted, her eyes wide as she ushered them into the house.

“We don’t know,” Jeremy blurted. “One minute, he was fine, and the next, he’d collapsed! He hasn’t been feeling well all day!”

Lewis’s mother led them into the living room, where they lay Lewis down on the couch. He groaned but made no further effort to stand up. Jane peeled the sweat and puke drenched hoodie off her son before tossing it onto the floor. The t-shirt beneath it clung to his chest as though it were drenched with water.

“He was running a high fever,” Becca said. “I did some simple checks for a stroke, but I don’t know for certain what’s wrong with him.”

Jane bit her lip before grabbing a blanket from off the back of the couch and draping it over her son. “Lewis, can you speak to me?”

“Hey, mom,” Lewis croaked. “Sorry, I skipped detention. Not feeling good.”

“It’s okay, I’ll call the school to tell them what happened,” Jane whispered, putting a hand on his head. She recoiled in horror at the temperature. “You’re burning up! I’m calling an ambulance. We have to get you to the hospital.”

“No hospitals!” Lewis barked, grabbing her by the wrist.

Lewis, Becca, and Jane stared down at him in shock, and he let go of her with a groan.

“Tomorrow,” he mumbled, “I’ll go to the hospital tomorrow.”

“You might be dead tomorrow,” Jeremy whispered, fidgeting nervously.

“Just need rest,” Lewis insisted, shutting his eyes. “I’ll be fine in the morning…”

The last thing Lewis saw before sleep took him away was the ghostly dragon smiling down at him. “You’ll be perfect,” the dragon whispered. “Absolutely perfect.”

Chapter 3

Lewis wasn’t out for more than a few seconds before Jane rose to her feet, met Becca’s eyes. “Call the ambulance,” she ordered, her voice hard but calm.

“But Lewis told us not to!” Jeremy said, immediately protesting.

“I don’t care what my son told you to do. He’s still a minor, still living under my roof, so I’m telling you to call an ambulance,” Jane said, giving Jeremy a quick once over. “I’m going to get some ice to help lower the fever. Jeremy, you still live on a farm, right?”

“Y-yes ma’am,” Jeremy stuttered.

“Excellent. Put those farm muscles to good use, come help me fill bags with ice and carry them over,” she ordered, nodding towards the kitchen.

Jeremy glanced down at his thin arms, then tossed his bag onto the living room floor and followed Lewis’s mom into the kitchen. Becca tossed her own bag aside and whipped her phone out of her pocket so fast she nearly threw it across the room. She had two new text messages waiting for her, both from Lucy.

Hey, babe, how was your day? The first message read, followed by, Hey babe, have you seen Lewis? Apparently, he was supposed to stay for detention. The monitor’s pretty mad.

“Sorry, Lucy,” Becca muttered, as she closed the messages and swiped over to her phone app, “I’ll message you back later.”

The phone rang for barely a second before somebody picked up. “911, what’s your emergency?”

“Hi, my friend is having a stroke. We need an ambulance right away!” Becca said, surprised by the sense of urgency she was feeling. If only Jeremy hadn’t hung up the first time! Stupid Jeremy, if he wasn’t such a coward and folded to everything Lewis said, Lewis would already be in an ambulance and on his way to the hospital! He would probably be there by now! “Please come quickly, it’s an emergency! He passed out!”

“Okay, miss, calm down. What’s your full name?”

“Rebecca Moran, calling on behalf of Lewis Cooper.”

“Okay, Rebecca, don’t hang up. Is there anybody with you?”

Becca took a deep breath, and at that exact moment, Jeremy ran in with two large plastic zip lock bags full of ice. He draped one over Lewis’s chest, carefully lifted his friend’s head, and shoved the other under it.

“Yeah, another one of our friends is here with us, and so is Lewis’s mother, Jane Cooper,” Becca said into the receiver.

“And you’re sure it was a stroke?”

“What else do you call it when somebody sways side to side, slurs their speech, and collapses without warning onto the sidewalk?!” Becca barked, pulling the phone away from her ear to yell at it.

“Miss, raising your voice will not help the situation.”

“Sorry,” Becca grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose, “stressed out. Scared. You know how it is.”

Jeremy cast a worried glance at Becca, who waved him out of the living room as she rubbed her eyes. Her fingers came away black with her eyeliner, and she quickly tried to wipe them off on her skirt. Her cheeks were wet and sticky. Was she crying?

“Where are you right now?”

“At the victim’s house,” Becca said, quickly rattling off the address. “Please hurry.”

“Miss, an ambulance is on the way. Please stay on the line for further questions.”

Becca took a deep breath as Jeremy came running back in with two new bags of ice. He made an uncomfortable squeaking noise as he threw the covers off of Lewis and draped some ice over his friend’s groin and legs. Lewis was still sweating profusely, to where his hair had become damp. The ice draped over him was already looking slushy and melted.

“Is there anything dangerous around the victim?”

“We’re covering him in ice if that counts?” Becca said.

“Ice?”

“He’s burning up with a really high fever,” Becca explained, “we don’t know why, but he’s boiling and clammy to the touch.”

Becca heard typing, and when the person on the other end of the line spoke again, they sounded confused. “A high fever is not a symptom of a stroke,” they muttered, as though reading off a document in front of them.

“Well, don’t tell the ambulance to turn around!” Becca said.

“Miss, of course not, this is clearly an emergency. Please try to remain calm.”

“I am calm!” Becca shouted.

Jeremy looked up at her with a skeptical look, and she shot him a glare.

“Miss,” the operator warned.

“Sorry, sorry!” Becca grumbled, rubbing her eyes again. Once more, her fingers came away black with makeup, and she groaned. “How long until they get here?”

“A few more minutes. Thank you for your patience. You can hang up the phone when—”

Becca hung up and ran into the kitchen. Jane had another bag of ice already full and ready to go. She was halfway done filling up another when Becca burst into the room. She grabbed some paper towels off the counter and wiped her eyes. The rough sheets scraped against her eyelids and came away black with her eyeliner. She swore under her breath but didn’t dare run into the bathroom to wipe it all away.

“Well?” Jane asked with a scoop full of ice in her hands. She’d been digging through the freezer ice depository, and it was already looking pretty empty. All that was left were a few stray shards and ice shavings. She sprinkled some salt into the bag of ice, a trick Becca knew would make it colder, before sealing it shut and holding it out to Jeremy.

“The ambulance will be here soon,” Becca said, nodding. She snatched another already full bag of ice out of Jeremy’s hands and rushed back into the living room.

Lewis was stirring, his eyes squeezed shut, and his hands gripping the sofa cushions so tight Becca feared he might tear through them. His jaw was clenched, and his lips peeled back, showing off his teeth. As Becca propped his lower legs up on the fresh bag of ice, she couldn’t help but notice just how hot he was. More than that, he was dry too. His sweat had dried up.

In a panic, Becca ran her hands down Lewis’s chest and arms. Before, he’d been so sweaty his clothes had stuck to him. Now he was as dry as a bone. Even his hair was drying up. It was like all the moisture in his body had evaporated, leaving him as dry as a desert.

But he was still burning up!

“Misses Cooper!” Becca called.

Lewis’s mother came running. She dropped to her knees beside Becca and touched her son’s skin. She paled at the temperature and dryness.

“He’s dehydrating and fast,” Becca said, her eyes wide. “I don’t know what to do. This is beyond any first aid training I’ve ever had.”

Misses Cooper opened her mouth to respond when suddenly a sharp knock rang on the door. Before either of them rose to their feet, Jeremy had run over and pulled it open.

A pair of paramedics in blue uniforms ran in, pulling a stretcher between them. They took one look at Becca and Misses Cooper before the two of them scrambled to get out of their way. They quickly moved Lewis onto the bed when one of them yelped in surprise at the heat.

“What the hell?” she said, her eyes wide. “He’s on fire!”

“We’ve been doing everything we can for that fever,” Jane said, “but he passed out and started burning up faster!”

The paramedics exchanged a few looks before they quickly finished moving Lewis onto the stretcher and then grabbed the bags of ice and arranged them around him. Jeremy was whimpering in a corner as they wheeled him out, and Jane was scrambling to grab her jacket and tug on some shoes so she could follow.

“Becca, lock up using Lewis’s key,” Jane ordered, as she was running out the door. “Go home. I’ll call you both once we get to the hospital and figure out what’s wrong.”

Becca nodded and scrambled for Lewis’s vomit-covered hoodie on the floor. She gagged at the metallic stench before fumbling through the pocket and retrieving a lanyard with a key dangling from it. She held it up, and Jane nodded in approval.

“Derek will be around later. I’ll have to text him to let him know what’s happening,” Jane said, tears welling up in her eyes. “Oh dammit, I left chicken thawing on the counter for dinner. I’d better—”

“Misses Cooper, just go,” Becca said, nodding, “we’ll tidy up in here.”

“Thanks, you two,” Jane’s expression softened, and she rushed out the door.

Jeremy watched through the open front door as Misses Cooper climbed into the ambulance and sat next to her son. The doors were slammed shut; the sirens blared, and soon enough, they were on their way.

Becca breathed a sigh of relief and collected Lewis’s discarded clothes off the floor. She wrinkled her nose in disgust at the metallic stench and chilly dampness. Still, all the same, Becca carried them into the laundry room and tossed them into the washing machine. She set the appliance to a high power wash before marching back into the kitchen. Just as Jane had said, there was a packet of chicken thawing on the kitchen counter. Becca didn’t give it a second thought as she tossed it into the freezer and slammed the door.

As she returned to the living room, she found Jeremy spraying the couch down with anti-odor fabric spray before flipping the sweat-stained sofa cushions. Good. At least he was useful for something. Becca stopped as she realized her fists were tightening while she looked at Jeremy.

“Becca, is something wrong?” Jeremy asked, looking up and meeting her gaze. He adjusted his glasses with his free hand and tightened his grip on the spray bottle with the other.

“You’re an idiot,” Becca said, crossing her arms. “Why did you hang up on the ambulance the first time?”

“Because Lewis told me to? Because he said he couldn’t afford an ambulance, to begin with?” Jeremy shrugged. “I was just deferring to him. I don’t get why you’re mad at me.”

“I’m mad because you shouldn’t have listened to him! He could have been at the hospital by now if you had just stayed on the line.”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? What was I supposed to do? Not listen to my best friend?”

“You should have trusted the friend who was conscious and lucid, not the one who was slurring and running a fever of a hundred and twenty,” Becca snapped. With a groan, she felt her phone vibrate in her jacket pocket and saw that another text from Lucy had popped up.

Hey Becca, checking in again. Monitor’s SUPER pissed. Any idea what happened to Lewis?

“I-I’m sorry, okay? Are you happy now?” Jeremy stuttered, looking away.

“I’ll be happy when Lewis is out of the hospital,” Becca grumbled, her fingers flying over the keyboard. Hey babe, sorry about the late reply. Lewis is at the hospital; he had a stroke. I was taking care of him.

The response came within seconds — a shocked-face emoji.

“I’m going home,” Becca announced, glaring at Jeremy again. “Come on, that means you have to leave, too. I’ve got the key.”

“All right, all right, I’m leaving,” Jeremy grumbled, grabbing his bag and passing Becca her own. “You don’t have to be so snippy, Beccs.”

Becca glared at Jeremy but said nothing. Even when he’d headed down another street, straight out of town, she’d kept her mouth shut and silent. She probably wasn’t justified being so mad at him, but she couldn’t help but blame him for Lewis’s worsening condition. Still, she didn’t want to say anything more; Jeremy was already feeling horrible about the entire ordeal. She felt a little bad about adding more weight to his conscience, but he had to understand that there were consequences to his actions!

She just hoped that it wasn’t too late for the doctors to help Lewis…

Chapter 4

“Wake up, Lewis,” a voice called from within the darkness.

The world moved by in a blur. The swirl of colors and images blended together in a dream-like haze. Lewis’s eyes fluttered as he tried to open them. Bright light, a blinding flash of color, and then he squeezed his eyes shut again. His eyes hurt to open them for more than a few seconds.

There were sensations, too.

Cold, like hugging the cool side of a pillow while nestling under a warm blanket.

Dampness, like his body was dipped in icy water repeatedly.

Heat, like a fire burning inside of him, begging to be let out.

Lewis wanted to move, but his body wouldn’t answer his commands. He lay stiffly on his back, his teeth clenched together, trying to will himself to stand, to move, but from the neck down, he could do absolutely nothing.

“Wake up, Lewis,” the voice called again, urgent and harsh, like claws scraping against his ears.

Something moved behind his eyelids, familiar and yet all together frightening. It was white against the darkness and the flashes of color of his shut eyes, and bright where no brightness should have been. It hurt his eyes to look at, and yet he couldn’t tear his eyes away. He’d seen it before, hadn’t he? He knew what it was.

“Lewis,” the specter hissed, wrapping the boy in its bright white claws, “you need to wake up! We will be in danger if you do not!”

The ghost dragon. The memory of it came flooding back to Lewis, along with a fraction of lucidity. His eyes fluttered open again. There was the ghost dragon, floating above him but surrounded by bright light. There were faces around him, too. His mother was there. People he didn’t recognize were there. The lights flew past as they ran alongside him. He was lying down, yet still clutched in the dragon’s grip.

“Lewis!” his mother shouted, briefly drawing his attention. His eyes hurt to look at her. “Lewis, focus on me, baby! Stay with us!”

Lewis blinked.

When he opened his eyes again, he was somewhere else. The ghost dragon was still there, still gripping him in its claws. The people he didn’t recognize were also there. He wasn’t moving anymore. Had he been moving before? He couldn’t remember.

“Lewis!” the specter roared, baring its fangs down at him. “Move! Get up! Do something!”

Lewis blinked again.

Something pierced into his left arm. He felt a rush of refreshing fluid surge into his bloodstream. He sighed in relief, not knowing how badly he’d needed that. There was something else in the water, something that made him feel tingly and good. He let out a giggle. He thought he heard the ghost roar at him again, but the voice was distant this time.

His mother was in the room again, fussing over him. She was adjusting his position to make sure he was comfortable, whispering kind words to him. Occasionally, she would check her phone, but she would always be back by his side within a minute. Lewis smiled at her but couldn’t say anything. She smiled back and ran her fingers through his musty, dry hair.

Lewis allowed whatever they’d given him to send him off to sleep.

When Lewis next opened his eyes, he was lying in a bed. A hot, damp, sticky bed. He was covered in sweat and lying on his back. He frowned as he tried to take in his surroundings, to figure out where he was and what was happening. He looked down at his arm. A long, thin tube was running up the length of his arm and into a nearby IV drip. He blinked slowly as his brain desperately tried to process what he was looking at. The bag was nearly empty and swung back and forth as the motion of his arm jostled it.

He tried to raise his left hand, but the tube in his elbow made that painful, so instead, he raised his right and wiped his eyes. His eyelids were caked with dry sweat and sleep gunk, and as he rubbed it all away, he grew more and more lucid.

Memories of the day came rushing back to him. The fever, throwing up, slurring speech.

But he was okay now, wasn’t he? He didn’t feel dizzy anymore. He didn’t feel hot anymore. He felt good, like he could get up and walk around. In fact, that was precisely what he wanted to do.

Lewis threw off the thin covers of the bed with a grunt and swung his legs over the left side, next to the pole holding his IV bag. He was draped in a sweat-soaked hospital gown that clung stickily to his front. He sneered in disgust at it before shaking his head and grabbing the IV drip pole — no sense in trying to leave that behind since it was quite attached to his arm. With a grunt of effort, he pushed himself up to his feet. His vision swam for a moment, and for a split second, he feared he would topple over again and pass out. Then it passed, and he was upright. He clutched the pole tightly for support and started making his way towards the room’s door.

There was a spare bed in the room, next to the one he’d been in, but it lay empty. Nobody else was in the hospital that he could see or recognize. Good, then there would be nobody around to tell him to go back to bed.

He was thirsty. What he wanted, at that exact moment, was a soda. Preferably grape flavored.

Lewis was about to step out of the room when he noticed his phone and wallet resting on the bedside table. His clothes had been neatly folded and placed nearby. With a grin, he stumbled over to the table and reached out for his wallet. He was about to slip it into the pocket of his hospital gown when he remembered what it was. It had no pockets. He sighed and left it where it was. If he found a vending machine nearby, he’d come back for it.

He stepped out of the room and into a hallway that stank of cleaning chemicals. He coughed and gagged at the stench and nearly keeled over on the spot to puke.

“Lewis,” a voice whispered in his ear. He couldn’t stand up just yet, so he wasn’t able to tell who it was. It was familiar, but he couldn’t remember how or why. He blinked a few times as he tried to recompose himself, glancing around for the source of the voice.

“Hey, you shouldn’t be out of bed!” A second voice called — this one in front of him.

Lewis looked up and saw a nurse in bright pink scrubs running over to help him up. She took one look at the paper bracelet around his wrist and waved him back towards his room.

“Soda,” Lewis croaked, realizing for the first time just how dry his throat felt. “Thirsty.”

“We’re not supposed to give you anything; you’re on an IV drip for a reason,” the nurse informed, as they slipped back into the room.

Lewis looked at her with pleading eyes, and she gave him a stern glare. Frowning back, he stuck his tongue out at her, and she gasped in shock. Lewis’s tongue felt like sandpaper as it scraped past his lips and hung out of his mouth. He couldn’t imagine it looked much better.

“Okay, that’s way too dry,” she said, her expression softening, “let me get you a cup of water, at least.”

Lewis remained standing as the nurse slipped out of the room. She returned a few minutes later with a plastic cup in hand, and a couple of pills in a second, smaller container.

“Drink this, and try to take these,” she said, “they’ll help you sleep.”

Lewis eagerly grabbed the cup of water out of her hand and was about to raise it to his lips when he felt something hot and sticky spill down his fingers. He blinked for a moment and looked down at the cup.

The water was boiling, and the plastic had melted, shriveling and shrinking as it slowly crumpled into a squealing, steaming ball of slag. The boiling water spilled all over Lewis’s hand, splashing against his hospital gown and the nurse alike. The nurse screamed in pain and tugged her scalded hand away, dropping the cup of pills as she held her hands close.

She glanced from Lewis to her hand and finally to the pole holding his IV bag. Lewis followed her gaze towards his hand, which had yet to actually leave the metal.

He let go.

The top half of the pole collapsed to the ground, the metal beneath his grip having melted and deformed. The tile beneath his feet hissed and smoked. The nurse screamed in surprise as Lewis’s gown caught fire.

“It has begun,” the spectral voice whispered.

Lewis looked over his shoulder. There was the ghost dragon by his side once again.

“What has begun?” Lewis wanted to ask, but it came out instead as a low, dry growl. He put a hand to his throat, suddenly aware of how tight his neck felt.

The nurse was still staring at him, unsure of what to do. The ghost dragon snorted at her and then drifted around Lewis. With a flick of his translucent tail, he slammed the door shut. The nurse jumped and screamed, glancing from the shut door to the boy, who was suddenly covered in heat and smoke.

“A growing dragon needs meat,” the specter said. “She is regretfully skinny but will suffice nonetheless.”

Lewis didn’t understand what he meant, but at that moment, he didn’t care. He suddenly keeled over, snarling and growling as a fresh pain ripped through his entire body. It was like his skin was too small, and he needed to tear it away. His jaw ached, and he tasted the coppery tang of blood as, one by one, his teeth dropped out of his head.

The nurse screamed again and turned around to open the door.

“Forgive me, but we cannot have you escaping, my dear,” the ghost dragon whispered, flicking the lock shut with a claw.

The nurse struggled with the door, unaware of the ghost speaking to her. She twisted the knob uselessly and pounded on the help needed button. An alarm began blaring through the halls, and the spirit winced at the noise. That would be bad news.

Lewis roared again, louder this time, as he felt his chest bulge out, his stomach barreling, his hips shift and twist. Bones snapped and cracked, muscles tore themselves, and tears streamed down his face. It was painful! The most painful thing he had ever experienced in his entire life! What the hell was this!?

There was a tearing sound, and Lewis felt patches of pale skin fall away in sizzling clumps onto the floor down below. For the first time in his life, he felt alien muscles in his back stretch out, brushing against the walls of the room. He touched down onto the floor, slamming his hands into the tile, which first cracked beneath his weight before sizzling beneath his heat.

He roared again, louder this time, as his jaw stretched. His head tore open as skin and hair fell away in thick clumps, splattering against the floor with a slight splash of blood. He had to help it along. It was too much to bear.

The nurse screamed as Lewis flayed his skin with long, dark nails, revealing a fresh bronze color beneath the pale white. Black bony protrusions sprouted along the crown of his head. A whiplike appendage flailed behind him, tipped with a menacing spike. Claws raked the ground, shredding what remained of the hospital gown and Lewis’s fallen skin.

Lewis opened his eyes and roared one last time, meeting the nurse’s gaze. She screamed as she first met his eyes, which had gone a fierce shade of green, and then fainted as a fresh set of long, dagger-like teeth pushed through his gums.

Before Lewis even realized what he was doing, he lunged forward, stretching out his neck to wrap his massive jaws around the nurse’s arm. He bit it clean off, spraying the wall and the floor with a spurt of blood. It tasted like the best thing he’d ever eaten in his life. Like bacon, grilled to perfection. Like the perfect bowl of ramen. He moaned in pleasure as he swallowed the arm, barely even bothering to chew.

He wanted more. He needed more of that delicious flavor!

His nostrils flared as he stared down at the fainted nurse. There it was — food, glorious food. Delicious meat. Lewis licked his lips, tasting the sweet tang of blood on his teeth. There was so much of it spilling out of her. It was a shame to let it go to waste.

Before Lewis knew what he was doing, he had bent down and licked up the blood off the floor. Then, he bit off the nurse’s head and allowed the body to gush more of that sweet, tangy blood into his mouth and down his throat. His dry tongue was finally wet once more.

The ghost dragon floated down next to him, a note of confusion on his face. “This is wrong,” he muttered, eyeing Lewis nervously. “It was not supposed to be this way.”

Chapter 5

Lewis didn’t have time to finish his meal. While he slurped down the nurse’s sweet, delicious blood, there came a hammering sound from the other side of the door. His nostrils flared, cataloging a whole new array of scents he had never noticed before. Fine leather, cigars, and wine. A plate full of a dozen fresh cheeses. Birthday cake, full of custard. Somehow, his confused and addled brain recognized all these haphazard scents as one thing.

The humans — the food — was here.

“Lewis, there is no time to explain,” the ghost dragon hissed, drawing his attention to his floating form. “Out the window, before somebody sees you!”

Lewis blinked sleepily. He looked down at the mangled corpse of the nurse, the flesh and bones he’d eaten sloshing around pleasantly in his gut. He wanted to eat more. Why would the ghost dragon be telling him to run? It was just a couple of humans; what could they possibly do to bother him?

He bent down and tore the other arm off the nurse before popping it into his mouth and chewing. It was just as delicious as the first!

“Lewis!” the ghost roared, floating in front of his face. His spectral eyes flared, and Lewis backed away in surprise. “Run! Before they see you!”

See him? What would be so wrong with that? It wasn’t like humans had never seen him before. He’d lived among them his whole life!

“Now!” The dragon ordered.

The door to the room was finally thrown open. In the threshold stood two security guards and a second nurse. They took one look at Lewis, with blood dripping down his chin and the remains of an arm hanging out of his mouth, then looked down at the bloody corpse of his meal. The nurse immediately screamed and ran, while the two security guards exchanged looks of confusion, unsure of what to do from here.

Lewis swallowed the arm and put a protective claw on top of the mangled corpse. That was his meal! They would not stop him from eating it, and he certainly had no intention of sharing! He bared his bloody teeth and growled menacingly, crouching lower to the ground. He tried to open his wings, but the tight, cramped space made it impossible.

“Lewis, those are your instincts talking. You need to fight them! You need to run! You are in danger!”

Danger? No, there is no danger! Lewis was powerful! Strong! A predator! He could kill every single one of these humans and then feast upon their flesh! That soft… succulent… delicious flesh…

Burning drool sizzled down Lewis’s chin at the thought of eating the people in front of him. They just smelled so good. He wanted to snap his jaws around them and gobble them up, if only to savor that amazing flavor again. He didn’t even care if he already had a half-eaten meal in front of him. There was so much food to go around!

The ghost dragon growled in frustration. If urging him wouldn’t work, then another tactic would be in order. “Lewis, are you hungry?”

Lewis looked up at the ghost dragon and nodded his head, immediately forgetting the two security guards standing in the threshold. One of them talked into a walkie talkie, while the other held a nightstick as though it were his only defense. As far as Lewis could tell, it was. He didn’t see them carrying any pepper spray, nor did he see any guns strapped to their hips.

“There will be more food for you if you can get out of here,” the ghost dragon promised. “You need to run now, and I promise there will be an amazing feast later.”

Lewis blinked slowly as his brain tried to make sense of what the ghost was telling him. Why would there be food later? Food was here now. It was an all he could eat buffet of humans, and all he had to do was lunge forward and snap them up in his jaws.

“There is something even more delicious than humans, would you like that?” the ghost asked, in the softest voice he could manage.

Lewis’s eyes widened in excitement, and he nodded his head. More delicious than humans? How could that be possible? Humans were the most delightful thing that Lewis had ever eaten. He just wanted to eat more and more of them!

But… if there was something even more delectable than humans…

Lewis’s mouth watered so much that steaming hot drool dripped down his chin and splashed against the ground below. The security guards yelped and took a few steps back in fear.

“Then, you must obey me and run!” The ghost roared.

Lewis looked sadly at the humans but rose back up from his crouch and swatted the mangled corpse away with the back of his claw. Fine, he would surrender this meal to the humans! He had a better feast waiting for him.

“Turn around and jump out the window,” the ghost ordered.

It was a monumental struggle to obey the command. The room was so cramped, so small. Had it always been this tiny? How had he fit in there the first time? Come to think of it, how had he been able to leave through the door when he’d gone to fetch a drink? It was hardly larger than his head, let alone his shoulders! Despite the cramped space, Lewis tucked his wings and rolled until he faced the window. His claws scraped against the shattered remains of the beds. His tail tore the curtains off their track and ripped a television right off the wall. Some tiny part of Lewis knew he should have been concerned about that, but he found he had difficulty caring. All he wanted was food, as much of it as his belly could hold.

The window was the only thing blocking him from that fabled delicious meal. With a roar of defiance, he smashed into the wall. He tore the windows down. Glass shattered on the ground below as the wall crumbled away, exposing Lewis to the fresh night air.

He rumbled happily as a breeze brushed against his scales. He wanted to unfurl his wings and catch it, so it may carry him away, but this room was too small, too cramped for him to extend them. With a snort of frustration, he leaped out of the hole and into the night sky.

Or at least, what he thought was the sky. In actuality, he had barely gotten his wings unfurled before he touched down on all fours. He huffed in frustration, looking up at the hole he’d made not minutes ago. The security guards ran to the hole in the wall and stared down at him.

“Run!” the ghost ordered.

Lewis growled and turned away from the hospital to run. It seemed natural, running on all fours, but he couldn’t remember ever doing so before. His tail thrashed around behind him, and he tucked his wings in tight against his back, immediately concerned about keeping them close and safe.

“You need to find a safe cave to rest in,” the ghost whispered in his ears, floating along beside him, “head towards the mountains.”

Lewis didn’t know how he knew where the mountains were, but he pointed himself in their general direction and picked up speed. He could see them, somehow, in the dark. They filled the horizon on the other side of the city. Between him and safety, however, were roads. And buildings.

And people.

Lewis’s heart hammered in his chest as his nostrils were assaulted with the luscious scent of human flesh. Oh, how he wanted to eat every one of them, to sample their succulent meat and sweet, tangy blood. But there would be time for that later. For now, he had to run.

Lewis ran out into the streets and heard a blaring screech hit his ears. He turned towards the sound, his ears perking up, and saw a strange metal box careening towards him. Did this thing want to challenge him to fight?

Before he knew what he was doing, he lowered his head and charged at the metal box. The box squealed and honked in protest until its front end collided with Lewis’s horns. The box crumpled inwards at the impact, and Lewis staggered back, momentarily dizzy and roaring in frustration. He shook off the daze before grinning down at the box. A human staggered out of it, a gash bleeding from its forehead.

Lewis bellowed his triumph and stomped his front claws down on the box, flattening it beneath his weight. He knew vaguely that, at one point, he’d been small enough to fit inside one of these strange machines, but the notion seemed preposterous to him. He was bigger than this tiny box! He would never be caught dead riding inside one of them!

“Lewis!” The ghost roared again. “Focus! Mountains! Now!”

The short, curt words were enough to grab Lewis’s attention again. He looked up at the ghost and wagged his tail as if to say, look, dad, I made a mess! The spirit rolled his glowing eyes and pointed a claw towards the mountain range. Lewis huffed and turned tail, once again breaking into a run down the streets.

As he crossed over into the other lane, another one of those foolish metal boxes crashed into his leg. He staggered to the side before roaring and swatting the box with his tail. The box tipped over onto its side, and the human within immediately passed out from the impact. Lewis wanted to play with it some more, but he could already sense the ghost’s frustration. There would be time enough to play later. Run for now. He huffed in frustration. There was so much fun to be had! It wasn’t fair that he had to ignore it!

Lewis had scarcely made it halfway down the road when he heard an ear-piercing wailing noise. He slowed down momentarily, searching for the source of that horrible noise, and noticed that four more metal boxes were chasing him. He bellowed at them, and they responded in kind with more high-pitched wails. Lewis growled at the sound and folded his ears against his head to block it out. These four boxes carried bright blue and red lights atop them, and occasionally one of them would pop loudly. At one pop, Lewis felt something hot and sharp graze the tip of his tail. He roared in anger and wheeled on the boxes.

“Lewis, no!” The ghost ordered. “Run! Do not fight! Safety first, play later!”

There was no time to run. The angry boxes were almost upon them. Lewis opened his mouth and bellowed his rage.

His rage wasn’t the only thing he projected from his mouth.

A cone of brilliant flames shot from the back of Lewis’s throat, dousing the center two boxes in a raging inferno and causing them to crash. The other two accompanying vehicles veered off the road in terror at the attack. Lewis ceased the flow of flames and snorted smoke in triumph.

“Ugh, fine, you have killed them, now run!”

Lewis shrugged his wings and turned tail again, heading straight for the mountains. Humans and their strange metal boxes mostly stayed out of his way. The few that saw him coming veered off the road to avoid him. Those who didn’t were trampled beneath his talons and swatted aside by his tail. As the ghost said, he didn’t have time to play as much as he wanted to.

It took Lewis a mere 10 minutes of running to make it out of the city and into the safety of the foothills forest, and that struck him as odd. First, that he could run for 10 entire minutes, a feat he had never before accomplished. Second, it had only taken him 10 minutes to run beyond the edge of town. He could swear that it would typically take at least 30, and that was when he was on his bike. Lewis frowned at the memory. When had he ever been small enough to fit on a bike?

Lewis slunk through the shadows of the treeline and crouched down, observing the chaos of the city down below. He’d left quite a trail of destruction in his wake. It wasn’t safe for him to stay there; someone could easily trace his path and follow him.

Without needing to be prompted by the ghost that insisted on following him, Lewis turned tail and began the trek up the foothills to the side of the mountain, searching for somewhere better to hide.

The ghost watched patiently, relieved that Lewis’s bloodlust had finally passed. His relief was short-lived, though. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong. His spell had, to an extent, worked. And yet, it had not functioned as intended.

Were he able, the ghost would have swallowed nervously. He wished he could investigate his spell, but he could already tell that his corpse was no longer there. He could haunt other places, but they were disparate, and he was unsure exactly what was where. Better to stay here, for now, with Lewis.

He could, therefore, only hope that Lewis came to his senses soon. They had a lot they needed to discuss.

Chapter 6

Lewis came to a stop at a mountain stream. The water was scarcely deeper than his ankles and wrists, but it babbled happily against some rocks and splashed around the banks. Without a word, he dipped his snout into the water and took a deep drink. It was crisp and refreshing on his tongue, and his throat relaxed as it splashed down his gullet. Even his stomach settled a bit. He hadn’t been aware of it, churning away at his meal, but it felt heavy and burdened.

He paused for a moment, blinking down at his reflection.

Then he screamed.

The ghost dragon watched with idle curiosity as the young dragon thrashed about in the creek. Lewis rolled over himself as he tried to get a look at his new body from every angle. His scales were a polished bronze in color, tipped with oxidized green in some areas, particularly around the wings and shoulders. He had a couple of long, black horns at the top of his head, with a smaller pair below the larger two. He instinctively knew this to be the unmistakable sign of a male dragon. The spike on the tip of his tail ended in a point and was flat like a blade. He had three toes and a dewclaw — fingers and thumbs on his front claws — per foot. Each digit was tipped with a long black talon sharp enough to cleave flesh from bone.

Lewis held his claws up to his eyes when he finally noticed the snout filling the bottom half of his vision. He felt it up, screaming all the while. The ghost floated in front of him for a moment. Again the screaming grew louder as Lewis stumbled backward, falling over his tail in the creek.

“Are you quite finished?” the ghost dragon said, crossing his arms in a human-like gesture and glaring down at the still thrashing bronze dragon.

Lewis panted and heaved as though he were going to throw up. To the ghost’s surprise, he merely belched. The spirit was thankful he could no longer smell anything.

“What’s going on? What happened? Why am I a…? A…?” Lewis began, looking again at his talons in confusion.

“A dragon,” the ghost provided, rolling a claw. “You are a dragon.”

Lewis perked up, the pointed ears on the sides of his head unfurling to their full length. “I’m a dragon?! How? Why? W-what’s going on?!”

“That would be mostly my fault.”

“Mostly your fault? How can it only be mostly your fault?!” Lewis barked, rolling onto his belly in the creek and standing on four wobbly claws.

“Stop thinking about it so hard. Your body knows how to work itself,” the ghost snapped before sighing. He had no lungs with which to breathe, but he felt the act of sighing still relieved some pressure in his mind. He patiently waited for Lewis to regain full control of his body. When Lewis nodded for him to continue, he met the young dragon’s gaze again. “My name is, or I suppose it was, Lasthope.”

“Last hope?” Lewis said, dragging the name out, before snorting some smoke. He took a moment to recoil in surprise at the vapor wafting from his nostrils before he recomposed himself and glowered at the ghost. “That’s pretentious.”

“Not when you’re the last dragon on the face of the planet,” Lasthope growled, spectral smoke billowing from his own nostrils in frustration. “For 700 years, I was the only dragon alive. I narrowly evaded capture and killing more times than you can comprehend. I had but one duty: resurrect my lost race.”

Lewis blinked a few times and cocked his head. “Your only job in life was to make more dragons?”

“That is correct.”

“And it took you… 700 years? What, was there no lady dragons around for you to bang or—?”

Lasthope’s eyes narrowed. He bared his teeth and growled at Lewis. “Do not question me, whelp. It was 700 years of researching magic, developing spells, and evading dragon slayers” Lasthope pinched the bridge of his snout before continuing. “My last spell, however, did not work as intended.”

Lewis lifted a claw and unfurled his wings. “I’m a dragon. Sure sounds like it worked to me.”

“Yes, but you were supposed to be dead.”

The scales around Lewis’s face momentarily went a pale shade of green. He looked up at Lasthope and swallowed nervously. “W-what do you mean, dead?”

“I mean, that beautiful, young, dragon body you are inhabiting,” Lasthope began, his voice dropping to a deep, menacing growl, “should be mine.”

“You were… going to kill me and take my body?” Lewis squeaked, backing away from Lasthope as though the spectral dragon was the most dangerous thing in the world. “C-can you still do that?”

Lasthope snorted white, ghostly smoke and shook his head. “I have already tried to wrest control away from you while you were off on your little rampage. No, I cannot kill you now and take your body,” the ghost dragon lamented, holding his own translucent talons up to his eyes. “Were but these talons solid. I have minimal ability to interact with the world now. It seems limited mostly to things that are not alive. That rock, for instance.”

Lasthope picked up a boulder resting pleasantly in the creek and tossed it further upstream. The sudden change in volume caused the waters to drop around Lewis’s talons. Lasthope then reached out to grab Lewis around the throat, but his spectral claws passed through harmlessly, doing little more than send a shiver through Lewis’s spine.

“So… what happened, exactly?” Lewis asked, still unsure about being close to Lasthope. If the dragon had tried to kill him once before, who’s saying he wouldn’t try again?

“I was slain before I completed the spell. Clearly, I had cast enough of the spell to create a new dragon,” Lasthope said, grinning. “This is not the worst situation we could find ourselves in. Had I been slain earlier in the cast, you might have ended up partially dragon, rather than a beautiful, full dragon.”

“Okay, but why me?!” Lewis asked, stamping a foot in frustration. “Why would you choose me? Why turn me into a dragon? I’m nobody special! I’m just a dumb kid who plays too many video games!”

Lasthope cocked his head to the side and floated closer to the bronze dragon, examining him curiously. “What makes you think I chose you?”

“Y-you said you were planning to kill me and take my body,” Lewis stuttered, leaning away from the ghost to try to maintain distance.

“Yes, as a necessity. I did not choose anybody. The spell selected a candidate who would be most suited for becoming a dragon. In the case of a tie, it was to select one candidate at random. Congratulations.”

Lewis blinked. “You mean… The reason I’m so,” he lifted a hind leg and shook his tail, “is because I won the worst raffle prize in the world?”

Lasthope snorted in disgust. “Worst raffle prize? How dare you say such a thing after having been blessed with such a body?”

“I never asked for this!” Lewis growled, instinctively raising himself up into a battle stance. His wings unfurled to make himself seem more intimidating, and he puffed out his chest. Smoke drifted from his nostrils again. For a moment, Lasthope wondered if he was about to set the forest on fire. “Change me back!”

Lasthope blinked a few times before bursting into a roaring laugh. Lewis stared, first in surprise and then in anger.

“Hey! Stop laughing, I’m serious! Change me back! I don’t want to be a dragon!”

“Apologies, young one,” Lasthope said, raising a placating claw as he tried to catch his bearings again. “Apologies, apologies. It is just naïve of you to assume that I have any power at all, in this form, let alone enough to cast a spell to change you back.”

“What do you mean?”

Lasthope drifted closer to the bank of the creek and quickly scratched a circle into it. When he finished, there was an intricate rune cut into the earth. Lasthope muttered a few words, but the rune did nothing. Lasthope shrugged, as though what he was trying to do was obvious.

Lewis disagreed. “Well?” he asked, rolling a claw.

Lasthope growled and rolled his eyes. “I cannot use magic anymore. I’m not alive and therefore have no energy to give to a spell.”

“So, you can’t cast a spell to change me back?” Lewis asked.

“I have no knowledge of any spell capable of such effect. I suppose we might spend some time researching it if you truly wish to be human again that badly. How long do humans typically live in this day and age?”

“Uh, 80 years, give or take?” Lewis said, scratching the base of his neck. “Though that number might be going down...”

Lasthope shrugged. “If you wanted to help me research, we might have a spell to change you back into a human within the next hundred years or so. Though that would mean going back to my old lair, which will certainly be crawling with dragon slayers.” The ghost dragon’s eyes glazed over as he remembered his expansive collection of magical tomes. “Those blasted barbarians probably burned my collection to cinders by now.”

“Could you at least teach me how to change into a human form? That way, I get to enjoy the best of both worlds?”

Lasthope blinked curiously at Lewis. “I just said I cannot change you back to a human.”

“Yeah, yeah, but in stories, dragons always have magical powers. Flying, breathing fire, changing into a human shape to hide among them. Stuff like that. If you can’t make me a regular human, can you teach me how to do that? Then I could be, like, a superhero! Secret dragon man or something!”

“Flight and fire are natural abilities, there is nothing magical about them,” Lasthope’s ghostly brows furrowed, and he cocked his head. “Is shapeshifting really something dragons can do? It never even occurred to me to try… Fascinating…”

“You mean you don’t know how to do it?!” Lewis balked.

“I mean that, if it ever was a power that dragons had, it is not something I am familiar with. Frankly, it sounds like a load of trite that humans tell themselves. Beware the monster hidden among us. I do not believe dragons ever could assume human shape.”

Lewis took in Lasthope’s words, and his expression fell with every passing second. “So, I’m just… stuck like this?”

“Yes, that was the intention.”

“I’m just a dragon for the rest of my life?”

“It will be a long, illustrious life. Dragons typically live for 800 years.”

Lewis winced. Everyone he knew and loved would be dead long before he died. “How do you know that if you were the last dragon alive?”

Lasthope looked down at Lewis with a pained expression on his face. “My father, Longsight, had an extensive collection of books on dragons, the accumulated history and knowledge of all dragon kind. All the information I could ever want about my kind was in that collection. He taught me to read a dozen languages by the time I was 5, making sure that I could consume every tome in his hoard. Then, he sent me, and it, far away from the rest of the world to hide. At the same time, he lured the dragon slayers away on a chase,” Lasthope’s eyes glazed over, as though he were living in the past, but a quick clap from Lewis was enough to bring him back. “Naturally, I have had to move it myself a few times over the centuries. The dragon slayers confirmed to me, before they struck me down, that he too is dead. I was the last. Now, that burden falls to you.”

“I’m… the only dragon…?” Lewis whispered, bewildered.

“Aside from myself, yes. Again, my plan was to take that body for my own, but naturally, that fell through.”

“I guess we kind of need each other,” Lewis grumbled. “I need you to teach me how to use this body, and you need me because…”

“You are the last hope of the dragon race,” Lasthope finished with a nod. “You can continue my grand work, as I did for my father before him!”

“I guess that makes you my Ghost Dad!” Lewis said, folding his wings and wagging his tail cheerfully.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You are my dad!” Lewis sang in an off-key tune.

“Stop that.”

“And just like my actual dad, I will ignore all your wisdom until a time that I find it directly useful!”

“Please do not do that,” Lasthope groaned. “I assure you, you will need my help more than you know.”

“Whatever, Ghost Dad!” Lewis chirped. He turned tail and sniffed the air.

“Well, for now, I suggest you find a cave to settle down in for the night,” Lasthope grumbled, shaking his head. “We can discuss more in the morning.”

“Yeah, forget that I’m going to show Jeremy how cool I look!” Lewis said, grinning a dagger toothed smile up at Lasthope. “He’s so going to freak out!”

“No! You should not reveal yourself to humans! It is bad enough you caused a ruckus in your escape!”

“Hey, Ghost Dad, remember when I told you I would ignore all your wisdom?” Lewis reminded Lasthope, smiling a toothy, insolent smile. “This is exactly what I was talking about.”

As Lewis turned tail and headed back in the direction he’d come from, Lasthope could only groan as the short range of his haunt forcibly dragged him along. This was one downside of haunting an insolent young dragon. He would have to address this attitude sooner rather than later.

Chapter 7

Lewis trotted along at a leisurely pace, tracing his own trail back through the woods. All the things he could smell surprised him, now that his nose was so much more powerful. He could sense a herd of deer not too far away and marveled at how quickly his brain could identify their scent. He could smell birds in the trees up above and paused, staggered to discover that even through the dense foliage, he could make out their shapes.

His nose wasn’t the only thing to have improved with his transformation. His eyes were better, too. He could see farther, despite it being the middle of the night, with the moonlight blocked by the canopy of trees. In the distance, he could see a coyote cowering away from him nervously. He instinctively bared his teeth and growled at the animal. The coyote yelped and fled with its tail between its legs.

“This is so cool,” Lewis giggled, as his nostrils flared, taking in more scents of the world around him. He found his own scent with relative ease. It was difficult for him to put into words. Still, his brain automatically associated it as Me the moment it touched his nostrils. He snuffled the grass, finding it, and taking a deep whiff: it had a sharp, metallic tang, mixed with the faint aroma of smoke. That scent trail led all the way back to the city. He considered for a moment following it again, though reconsidered after a moment. It was likely crawling with cops by now.

Lewis grimaced as he remembered the destruction he wrought when trying to run away. It felt strange to him now. He hadn’t even been thinking; he’d just been doing what felt natural. He hadn’t meant to destroy all those metal boxes — cars, he quickly corrected himself — but he’d felt attacked and had needed to defend himself. The more he thought about it, though, the stranger it all became. He hadn’t been able to recognize the vehicles as cars, only as things that wanted to hurt him.

He furrowed his brow and sat on his haunches, tilting his head at the confusing haze of memories. There was the girl, too, the nurse he’d eaten.

Eaten. The word stuck in Lewis’s head for a moment. He’d eaten a person. He’d eaten a person! He liked it, too. There were still little scraps of meat stuck between his teeth, and he picked them clean with a claw before swallowing the bits. Delicious! Her flavor was excellent, even after being stuck in his mouth for a while. He sighed, regretting that he hadn’t brought her body to finish eating her, and had to pause.

Why didn’t he feel bad about it? Killing people was objectively wrong, wasn’t it? That was something that had been drilled into his brain from day one. Now, though, he was having second thoughts. The absence of guilt over having killed and eaten a person gave him pause more than the act itself. He’d been so hungry, he’d just needed to eat something. She’d been there, at the wrong place and the wrong time, and wound up being dragon chow. He was a starving dragon, who needed to eat, right? It wasn’t his fault he’d had to kill her!

And yet, he was hard-pressed to feel bad about it.

Lewis shook his head and focused. He had to get to Jeremy’s house, for now. There would be time later to ruminate over the night’s disasters. He sniffed the air, trying to think about what Jeremy would smell like. He’d never really thought about it before, and that felt rather strange to him. It was a little difficult for him to remember that he hadn’t always been a dragon. Some deep part of him knew that this was an unfamiliar experience. Still, whenever he looked back on his memories, it was always through the perspective of being a dragon. He couldn’t even really remember what it felt like to be human.

That gave him more pause than even killing the nurse. He frowned and cocked his head, tapping his temple with a claw. He could remember what he looked like as a human, but he struggled to imagine himself ever being that. He objectively knew that’s what he had been, and yet…

“What is wrong?” Lasthope asked, drifting into Lewis’s field of view.

“Nothing,” Lewis snapped, hopping to his claws and trotting right through Lasthope as though the ghost wasn’t even there.

“I very much doubt that,” Lasthope noted.

Lewis tried to push the thoughts away. There would be time to address everything later, when he got to safety, for now, though he had to get to Jeremy’s house. Jeremy would know what to do; he always knew what to do!

Lewis exited the forest and kept to the shadows just outside the town. Jeremy lived on a farm beyond the other side of town. It wouldn’t be safe for Lewis to cross through the city streets unless he wanted to be seen and chased again. Swallowing nervously, Lewis looked over his shoulder at the drifting shape of the ghost.

“How do I fly?” Lewis asked, unfurling his wings and letting them catch the wind. It felt so good to stretch them, and he gave them a few test flaps, just to get a sense of how they worked. They seemed strong, and he could feel the muscles in his chest swell and contract as they moved. “It’ll be much easier to get to Jeremy’s if I could fly.”

Lasthope furrowed his eyebrows at Lewis. “You cannot properly take off from here. You are too low to the ground. If you were to climb the mountain, then you could take off and fly to your friend. You can also climb a sizable building and use that as a leaping off point.”

“I can’t just flap my wings and go up?”

Lasthope snorted a laugh. “As you are, your wings are good for little more than gliding. Yes, they can carry you interminable distances, and once you have some practice, they can help you ascend. However, you do not currently possess the muscle strength necessary to generate the lift needed to get off the ground. It takes years of training your wing muscles before you can do that. As feeble as they are, your wings are little more than those of a freshly born whelp.”

Lewis stared blankly at Lasthope, blinking slowly.

Lasthope groaned. “No, you cannot fly.”

“Oh. Shame.” Lewis grunted, shrugging and turning back to town. “I guess we’re walking.”

Lewis looked both ways up and down the street to make sure no cars were coming and bolted towards the other side. His claws scratched at the pavement as he ran, leaving deep gouges in the asphalt. He vaguely noticed this but paid it no mind as he dived for the safety and darkness just beyond the other side of the road.

Once again hidden from sight, Lewis resumed his trot. He saw a truck pass along the street, heading into town, and his vision momentarily went red. Lewis wanted to fight the truck. He hastily shook the idea from his mind. That was stupid. The vehicle wouldn’t even be a challenge. He momentarily wondered why he would even think of trucks as something worth fighting. His mind immediately drifted back to when his mother was teaching him how to drive.

Truck drivers were always jerks on the road. They hog the street, going under the speed limit when ahead of you, going above the speed limit to ride your tail while behind you.

Lewis vividly remembered all of this, but his brain replaced being in a car with being in his current dragon body.

“Okay,” Lewis muttered, as he slunk behind a drugstore to keep out of sight, “trucks are a dragon’s natural enemy.”

“Pardon?” Lasthope asked, drifting closer to hear what Lewis was saying.

“Nothing, don’t mind me, just talking to myself, Ghost Dad.”

“Please stop calling me that.”

Lewis ignored Lasthope and continued on his way. He tried to ignore his own thoughts, too, beyond trying to remember where Jeremy lived. It was so weird trying to remember his life through the eyes of a dragon that it was giving him some severe dysphoria.

Lewis knew that he used to be human, but he just couldn’t hold that in his head, no matter how hard he tried. It was like being a human was wrong, and he’d meant to be a dragon all along. The thought made him shudder, and he tried to push it aside, but still, his racing mind continued down that path, even as his claws carried him further and further across town.

He thought about what Lasthope had said, how the spell had selected him from a roster of potential candidates. What exactly had made him a likely candidate? What was so special about him that made him ideal to become a dragon?

“Lasthope,” Lewis asked, sliding to a stop in a grassy field and glancing over his shoulder at the elder dragon. “Why me?”

Lasthope blinked his glassy eyes and glanced down at Lewis. “Pardon?”

“You said your spell selected a suitable candidate, right? Why me. What makes me more suitable than literally anyone else?”

Lasthope scratched his chin and mulled the question over. Lewis resumed his walk while the old dragon thought until finally, Lasthope shrugged. “Truth be told, I am not sure. You are youthful, which is a benefit given my prior body was nearing the end of its life. I cannot as yet have an inkling of your mental and physical faculties, so it is difficult to make assumptions.”

Lewis stopped again and blinked in confusion at the old dragon.

Lasthope rolled his eyes. “I do not know if you are smart or strong, yet. Your qualities as a human should have carried over. Even if I were to take that body for myself, it would carry with it your limitations. If you were stupid, I would regretfully inherit that upon stealing your body. As such, I needed a body that was possessing the capacity for intelligence.”

“Wow, your spell must’ve really gone wrong. I’m not any of those things,” Lewis said.

Lasthope sighed. “Yes, I am beginning to realize that.”

“Sucks for both of us,” Lewis grumbled.

“I fail to see the negative on your end. You have ascended beyond the limitations of the human form. You should be thanking me,” Lasthope growled.

Lewis didn’t think so. He hadn’t asked for this. He just wanted to live his life, hang out with his friends, and enjoy the simple things. Video games, soda, and a bag of chips. That was all Lewis needed to be happy. He could remember that despite his jumbled memories. Chilling on the couch with his best friends, playing some racing game on his Xbox. In his mind, the controller fit perfectly in his claws.

He sighed wistfully. He couldn’t wait to do that again.

The bustle of the city streets quickly gave way to country roads, while farmland replaced the busy shops and buildings. Jeremy’s house wasn’t too far now! Lewis broke out into a run, not caring that he fully exposed himself on the road. He could hear cars coming from a mile away and didn’t worry in the slightest. His sensitive eyes focused on the shape of a house just up the road.

Lewis slowed himself to a halt so he wouldn’t shake the earth with his footsteps as he approached and had to frown at the house. Had it… always been so small? He stared at the building, sniffing at it curiously. It was covered in a scent that Lewis thought belonged to Jeremy, but the building felt positively miniature. He was big enough that he could peek into the second-story windows, barely standing on his hind legs.

Lewis scratched his head. He could have sworn he remembered the house being bigger, big enough for him to fit inside. He snorted in frustration at his confusing, disorganized memories.

He considered for a moment tapping on a window to wake Jeremy up, but one look at his massive claws told him that would be a terrible idea. One clawed hand was wider than a window on the compact farmhouse. He was ten times more likely to break the damn thing than he was to wake Jeremy up.

No, he’d have to wait for the morning if he wanted to talk to his best friend. He sighed, and twin pillars of smoke billowed out of his nostrils in frustration. He’d just have to find somewhere to hunker down for the night, somewhere safe, where he could hide away from the rest of the world.

Further, into Jeremy’s land, Lewis could see the familiar shape of a barn. That would do.

As carefully as he could, he slunk around the house and tiptoed towards the barn, being very careful not to wake up anyone asleep inside. The barn was much the same size to him as the house: too small. Despite that, though, it was still better than sleeping out in the elements. With a bit of effort, he pulled the barn doors open and squeezed inside.

The barn reeked of cows and hay, and Lewis wrinkled his nose at the smell. The cows smelled delicious, but there was something wrong with the hay. It was rotten and musty, and it was all he could do to keep from gagging and coughing.

“Well, this place is homely,” Lasthope muttered as he floated through the wooden walls of the barn to get a better look at the place. “I suppose I could be comfortable here if I had nowhere better to be, though I would still prefer a nice mountain cavern than a barn.”

“I want to be close to my friends so I can talk to them in the morning,” Lewis hissed, keeping his voice down low. He could hear Jeremy’s two cows, Bessie and Bertha, panting in their sleep, and it amazed him that his scent hadn’t woken them up, nor the noise he was making alerting them to his presence. They were both getting on in years. Their senses might have deteriorated too much to be of use.

Lewis yawned, stretching his mouth as wide as it would, letting his tongue loll out. Lasthope watched as the younger dragon walked in a circle for a moment before curling up in the middle of the barn floor. Lewis draped a wing over his head to block the light from his eyes and let out a low yawn.

“Sleep well, Lewis,” Lasthope whispered. “In the morning, starts your new life as a dragon. It will be wondrous, I assure you.”

Lewis wanted to make a witty retort, remind Lasthope that he didn’t plan to listen to him, but as soon as he shut his eyes, he fell asleep.

Chapter 8

The approaching scent of scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash browns slowly woke Lewis from a peaceful, dreamless slumber. His stomach rumbled angrily, reminding him he hadn’t eaten a full meal since lunch the day before and that he should probably wake up and get something down his throat. He blinked blearily, aware that his wing was still draped over his head, as the approaching scent stopped nearby.

The barn doors creaked open, and the scent of breakfast assaulted his nostrils. Lewis licked his lips and could not keep from drooling in anticipation. It smelled so good! He couldn’t wait to get his mouth around that delicious aroma and devour it whole.

There came a sound of metal clanging against the ground, and Lewis’s heart leaped into his throat. The sound startled him for a moment, but then the delicious scent moved away.

“Breakfast?” Lewis slurred, struggling to uncurl himself from the barn floor. His back and tail were stiff, and it took him a second to lay himself flat on the ground. The cows began mooing loudly at the sudden movements. Lewis rubbed his eyes, trying to banish the cobwebs of slumber. “Breakfast, where are you going?”

His stomach growled angrily again, and he blinked away the last vestiges of sleep.

“Lewis, you need to run! You are in danger,” Lasthope urged, trying in vain to shove Lewis. Naturally, the spectral dragon’s claws slipped uselessly through Lewis’s idle bulk.

Lewis shrugged at Lasthope, disappointed by the absent smell, and draped his wings over his head once more. He was still tired and wanted more sleep.

The smell of breakfast came back a few minutes later, this time followed by the scent of hamburgers and root beer floats. Breakfast and lunch, all in one meal? Lewis’s mouth watered again, and he fantasized about all those foods dancing above his head. He licked his lips, and his stomach growled menacingly.

It was the sound of metal clicking that snapped Lewis out of his reverie.

He blinked in surprise, trying to remember why that sounded familiar. A memory of watching Jeremy shoot a rifle at paper targets flashed in his mind.

Lewis unfurled his wings and cracked open his eyes. Jeremy was over by one cow, trying to calm her down, while another human was standing in front of Lewis, with a gun pointed straight at his head. There was a metal bucket rolling along the floor near the door, likely the source of the clanging sound he’d heard earlier. Lewis blinked in confusion. That was odd. Where had Breakfast and Lunch gone?

“Brandon, what the hell is that thing?” Jeremy whimpered, hugging the cow’s neck to get her to settle. “It was talking! It called me breakfast!”

The man with a gun, who Lewis vaguely recognized as Jeremy’s older brother, didn’t answer. He narrowed his eyes at Lewis and pointed the gun directly at the dragon’s snout. “Don’t move a muscle, you hear?”

Lewis sniffed the air and realized that the scents he’d been associating with food were coming directly from Brandon and Jeremy. He blinked in surprise. That was strange. Had Jeremy always had an aroma like scrambled eggs and bacon? Had Brandon always smelled like hamburgers and root beer?

From a distance, Brandon and Jeremy looked nothing alike. While Jeremy was short and thin, Brandon was tall and thick. A lifetime of living and working on the farm had resulted in a massive, cornfed build. Memories flooded through Lewis’s mind: Brandon taking them for a ride on his tractor, back when they used to grow corn and other crops. Brandon teaching Jeremy how to shoot. Brandon, plucking a chicken for the evening meal.

Lewis raised a claw, and Brandon shook the rifle as if to remind him not to move. “Easy, guys,” Lewis grunted, rubbing his eyes and setting his claw back down on the ground, “it’s me, relax.”

Brandon frowned and said nothing.

Jeremy blinked in surprise and adjusted his glasses as he tried to get a better look. “W-who?! What?!”

“It’s me, Lewis.”

Jeremy’s jaw dropped, and Brandon tightened his grip on the gun.

“Brandon, shoot it,” Jeremy said, stuttering over the words as he clung to the cow. “Shoot it, now!”

“Guys, wait! Hold on, I can prove it!” Lewis said, scrambling to get to his feet. His claws scraped against the concrete floor of the barn, and he yelped in pain as he bonked his head on a rafter. It didn’t even hurt, but he still felt his horns rattle in his skull. “Jeremy, your middle name is Marion! Brandon, you got pulled over by a cop two years ago when he caught you speeding, and you convinced him not to ticket you by bribing him with a crate of fresh corn! Jeremy tried to ask Becca to homecoming as a joke, and she said yes! The two of them went together, with Lucy, as a trio!”

The two brothers exchanged a look of surprise, but when they returned their gaze to Lewis, Jeremy looked unconvinced. “That proves nothing! That doesn’t prove that you’re Lewis!”

“Guys, come on, I promise you it’s me! What do I need to do to prove that?” Lewis asked, lowering himself closer to the ground in a demonstration of submission. His instincts were telling him that, to look sufficiently cowed, he needed to lower his tail and chin until they touched the ground, with his front claws on either side of his face. He did his best to mirror the image in his mind, but he could feel his tail filling one of the empty barn stalls behind him. His stomach grumbled and tightened again.

Brandon risked a glance over at Jeremy for assent. He thought long and hard for a moment before finally, he looked up at Lewis and narrowed his eyes. “There is only one thing that only Lewis would know something he would never reveal to anyone in the world.”

Lewis’s eyes widened.

“What was Lewis’s original Minecraft username?”

The scales on Lewis’s face turned a brilliant shade of green, and he covered himself with his wings as embarrassment flooded into him. Even with the memory of his human body being replaced by that of his dragon self, he could still clearly remember that terrible embarrassment. He’d been a little kid, but only a few years later, he was so embarrassed by the name he’d made a whole new account just so he wouldn’t have to live with it. Now, Jeremy wanted him to reveal his greatest shame as proof of his identity?

“That’s a low blow, Jer,” Lewis winced.

“I’m waiting!” Jeremy snapped.

Lewis groaned in frustration and pulled his wings away from his face. “BaconSwagusRex666,” he grumbled, looking away from the pair of brothers. A green blush stained his scales and crept all the way up to his ears. He didn’t want to look at them.

The barn fell silent, as even the cows ceased lowing nervously. Then Brandon snorted a laugh, and Jeremy chuckled lightly.

“There! Are you happy now?!” Lewis barked, tucking his wings in tight around him.

“That’s not the worst I’ve ever heard,” Brandon shrugged but kept the gun trained on Lewis. “Is that right?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Jeremy said, shaking his head in bewilderment. “I guess… it really is Lewis…”

Brandon nodded towards the gun. “Still want me to shoot him?”

“No! Don’t shoot the dragon, please!” Lewis insisted, immediately returning to his submissive pose. “I’m a nice dragon, I swear!”

“You weren’t a dragon yesterday,” Jeremy reminded him. “This is… a shocking change.”

“Yeah, you’re telling me,” Lewis grumbled, shaking his head.

“Did you just… wake up like this?” Brandon asked. “Jeremy told me about the stroke, but I guess that’s a bit of an understatement.”

“I don’t… think it was a stroke,” Lewis grumbled, looking away. To the pair of brothers, it looked as though he were looking out into the distance. In actuality, he was shooting a glare at the floating form of Lasthope. The ghostly dragon was hovering just over Brandon’s shoulder, glaring down at him in frustration.

“You were never in any genuine danger, Lewis,” Lasthope assured him, “I would have ripped the gun out of his hands if he had been serious about to shoot you.”

“To answer your question, this happened in the middle of the night,” Lewis explained. “One minute, I was awake and trying to get a drink, and the next, my entire body’s on fire and bursting at the seams. I busted out of my hospital room and made my grand escape.”

He left out the part where he’d eaten the nurse.

And attacked some cars.

And set fire to some cops.

And caused copious general mayhem.

There was a lot from the night before that he wasn’t incredibly proud of, but as he thought back on them, he still had a hard time feeling bad about any of it. He’d been so hungry, and the nurse had been delicious. The cars were coming at him, so he had defended himself. Even the cops had tried to attack him, so he’d only retaliated in kind.

Curiously, he craned his neck around himself and gazed at his tail. There was a splintered scale where a bullet had hit him, but besides that, there was no evidence of serious injury. He grumbled to himself as he instinctively bit down on the broken scale and tugged it free. It came out with a bit of blood, and he dropped it to the floor, where it clinked like a fallen coin.

“Okay, so,” Jeremy said, taking a deep breath and stepping out of the cow stall. “Lewis is a dragon now. That’s new. That’s different. What are we going to do about it?”

Brandon shrugged and began unloading the rifle. He eyed Lewis carefully, but when the dragon made no move to lunge at them, he turned his back and walked out of the barn.

“I guess we should probably call your mom to let her know what happened,” Jeremy said, tapping his chin.

“NO!” Lewis roared, loud enough to send the cows into startled lowing again. “Sorry, sorry, not used to my voice,” he said, as both brothers rushed over to calm the cows again. “You can’t call her. You can’t tell her anything! She’ll completely freak if she finds out I’m a dragon!”

“You’re twenty feet long. What are you afraid of?” Brandon asked with a frown.

Lewis opened his mouth to answer and promptly closed it again.

That was an excellent point.

He wasn’t some puny human that his mother could discipline whenever she wanted. He was a god-damned dragon! That had to come with some perks, right?

All the same, despite his jumbled memories, he could still distinctly remember all the times his mother had yelled at him because he’d done something she hadn’t liked. This would absolutely earn him a stern yelling. No, he was better off looking for somewhere he could stay without the risk of parental discipline.

“What about school?” Jeremy asked next. “They’ll want to know why you’re gone.”

“Tell them I had a stroke! They won’t question it! They might call my mom, and she’ll confirm the story!”

“What about the hospital? You said you busted out! Won’t somebody notice that you’re missing?”

Lewis hadn’t thought about that. He growled in frustration. “Look, nobody can know that I’m here! This has to stay between you two and me, okay? At least until I find somewhere safer that I can stay.”

“Like the mountains. Like I told you before you came here,” Lasthope reminded him. “If you bothered to listen in the first place, we would not be having this conversation.”

Lewis wanted to snap at the ghost, but he didn’t want to have to explain Lasthope to his friends.

At least not at that exact moment.

“Okay, tell you what,” Jeremy said, once the cows had stopped freaking out. “After school, Brandon and I will help escort you up the mountains, and we’ll find somewhere for you to stay, okay?”

Lewis grinned a toothy smile at his friends. “Thanks, guys, I’d really appreciate that!”

“Don’t thank us yet,” Brandon grumbled. “Think you can stay hidden in here until later this afternoon?”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll totally be fine! I’ll just nap or something!”

Chapter 9

Becca looked at the shattered hospital in horror. There was a hole torn right out of the third story wall, and from inside, she could already see that it was swarming with security personnel and cops. She couldn’t see exactly what was going on inside the torn out room, but it can’t have been good.

“I really hope Lewis wasn’t in there,” she said, turning to face her girlfriend.

Lucy looked cute that day. She was wearing a pink skirt and a matching pink shirt, and her blonde hair had been recently through the curler. She smiled up at her girlfriend, slipped her fingers out from Becca’s hand, and made a series of quick hand gestures.

I’m sure he’s fine, Lucy signed before pointing at the front door. Come on.

Becca smiled and retook Lucy’s hand, quickly kissing her on the cheek. Together, they walked towards the visitor’s entrance of the hospital and stepped inside.

There was a lineup of people waiting to check in to see friends and loved ones just inside the front lobby. To Becca’s surprise, a trio of police officers was going down the line to ask them questions. Becca frowned. Why on earth would they be asking anyone here questions?

“Excuse me, miss,” an officer said, strutting up to them. She was heavier than the other cops, wearing a dark blue suit, black skin, and hair tied back. The only evidence Becca had that she was even talking to a police officer was the badge hanging around her neck. “I’m Detective Martha Smith. Do you have some time for a few quick questions?”

Lucy squeezed her hand to get Becca’s attention and signed to her quickly.

“I’m sorry, is your friend deaf?” Martha asked, looking from Becca to Lucy and back again.

“No, just mute,” Becca said, interpreting as Lucy quickly signed for Detective Smith. “She asked what you want to know.”

“Last night, there was an explosion in one of the hospital rooms. It killed one kid and a nurse. We’re still trying to determine if it was a gas explosion or a bomb,” Detective Smith explained.

Lucy’s eyes widened, and she quickly tapped Becca to get her attention before signing rapidly again.

“Babe, slow down, slow down, I can’t follow,” Becca said, raising a hand. “Again, please?”

Lucy took a deep breath and then began again, slower this time so Becca could have an easier time following. Becca followed along as best as she could, interpreting as she signed.

“Both of us weren’t here last night. We’re just here to check in on a friend. His name is Lewis.”

“Lewis Cooper?”

“Yeah, that’s him,” Becca said, a sinking feeling forming in her gut. “Why? What’s wrong?”

Detective Smith paused for a moment before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a notebook. She flipped it open until she came to a mostly blank page. “What are your names?”

“Rebecca Moran and Lucy Mason.”

She quickly scribbled that down in shorthand. “Can I please get the two of you to follow me?”

Lucy and Becca shared a concerned glance before Lucy immediately reached out and took the taller girl’s hand. The two followed behind Detective Smith as she walked through the hospital, leading them up to the third floor and past a security blockade of cops with guns. It was an awful lot of ordinance for a hospital. Lucy hugged herself close to Becca at the sight of them and didn’t ease off until they were well out of sight.

Detective Smith came to a stop in front of a room. The door was torn off its hinges and crumpled inwards by some unspeakable force. There was an outline on the floor where a dead body might have been, but usually, those had heads and arms, don’t they? Not just legs?

“This was the room that they assigned Lewis to for his stay at the hospital,” Detective Smith said. She raised the police tape and waved for Becca and Lucy to enter.

“Are we… allowed in here?” Becca asked, squeezing Lucy’s hand tighter.

Smith nodded. “We scrubbed it clean of major evidence a few hours ago. All that’s left are a few of my colleagues and me. We’re still trying to figure out how this happened.”

Lucy and Becca shared a glance, and Lucy quickly signed O-K . Becca nodded, and the two of them stepped under the police tape and into the crime scene at large.

Crime scene , however, didn’t quite fit the room that they found themselves in. It looked more like a disaster area than a crime scene. The hospital equipment was destroyed, and there were deep claw marks all over the floor, wall, and even the ceiling. The floor tiles were melted in some places and covered in blood in others. Lewis’s wallet and cellphone lay in a heap in one corner of the room. Becca recognized them both, on top of a pile of crumpled clothes.

There were patches of blood all over the place, too. There was one big one, right by the entrance, that Lucy stared at in horror as they tried to slip past without stepping in it. There was a smaller patch a few feet away, clumpier than the first.

Blood was everywhere: on the floors, on the broken beds, on the walls, and one gigantic mess in the middle of the room where it looks like somebody took a blood-soaked paintbrush and spun it around a few times.

The torn out wall looked strange, too. The story they’d been told was that it was an explosion, and yet the hole was haphazard. Some parts of it were more torn out than others, leading to an uneven look. Other than the melted floor tiles on the side of the room opposite the window, Becca couldn’t see any evidence of anything resembling an explosion.

“I don’t understand,” Becca began, catching Detective Smith’s gaze, “where’s Lewis?”

“We weren’t able to find a whole body,” Detective Smith explained with a frown. “He’s there,” she said, pointing to the chunky patch of blood not too far from the more massive puddle. “There,” she said, gesturing at the bright red streak painting the wall. “There,” she said, pointing at the swirl of blood on the floor. “And there,” she finished, pointing to the blood on the ceiling.

Lucy made a choked squeaking noise, and Becca pulled her in tight for an embrace. “That can’t be true! You’re lying!”

“I’m sorry, sugar, but that’s the truth,” Detective Smith sighed and shook her head. “Our current theory is that Lewis blew himself up, and the explosion blew up the room and killed a nurse. Personally, I’m not a fan of this theory; it seems a bit too wild for my tastes. Still, it’s a lot better than some other trite the security personnel was giving us.”

“That’s disgusting. This is disgusting! Why would you show this to us?!” Becca said, feeling her cheeks grow wet . Dammit, don’t cry! Don’t start crying now! She had to be strong for Lucy!

“Because we need to know if blowing up a hospital is something Lewis could do,” Detective Smith said, her voice hardening and becoming deadly serious. “We’ve stopped short of calling this a terrorist attack on the condition that it was contained. We cannot think of anyone else who could have done this other than somebody in the room. Lewis and a nurse were the only people in here. It’s spontaneous combustion or a failed suicide bombing.”

Lucy squeaked again and squeezed Becca’s hand so hard that she nearly yelled, then released her grip and signed rapidly at the detective. Becca fumbled for a moment as she tried to catch up and quickly signed for Lucy to start over again. Lucy made an exasperated face and started over from the beginning.

“What’s she saying?”

A lot of words I shouldn’t repeat to a cop, Becca thought. “She’s saying she doesn’t believe you. There must have been somebody else here. Lewis would never hurt somebody, especially not like this.”

“How well did you know this Lewis Cooper kid?”

“He’s been one of my best friends since grade school,” Becca said. “Lucy’s known him since the start of high school when we started dating.”

“So you know him relatively well? You’re confident this isn’t something he would ever do? He’s never spoken about wanting to blow up hospitals or shoot up a school or something?”

Lucy’s jaw dropped, and she shot daggers at the detective. Becca quickly grabbed her hand, which earned her a hurt look from her girlfriend. “Sorry,” she whispered. She knew better than to grab a mute person’s hands unprompted. It was like gagging somebody who could talk. She just didn’t want Lucy to sign things that might get them in trouble. Lucy was angry, and Becca knew she had a habit of signing profanity when she thought nobody else could understand her.

“To answer your question,” Becca quickly said, as Lucy tugged her hand out of Becca’s, “no, Lewis would never do anything like that. He’s a geek. He plays video games, watches a lot of movies, and listens to terrible music.”

“Define terrible music?” Detective Smith asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“I don’t know, dubstep, I guess? Maybe a bit of punk rock, if I’m the one controlling the music.”

The cop made a note of this on her pad, nodding briefly. “A lot of geeks are terrible people,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “A geek with a grudge is just as dangerous as anyone else.”

“Lewis isn’t like that! Besides, he’s too lazy to ever make a bomb, let alone devise a plan to set one off!”

“Lazy?”

“Yeah! He always leaves his projects to the night before they’re due, he always spitballs his presentations, and he’s always late whenever we make plans for the day!”

Detective Smith made a face, then looked from Becca to Lucy, and back again. “Okay,” she said, snapping her notebook shut and holding out a pristine white business card. “If anyone contacts you with information about this, though, please call me immediately.”

Becca nodded and accepted the card from the detective. She stared at it and swallowed nervously.

Lewis couldn’t really be dead, could he?

Chapter 10

It frustrated Lewis to find that he couldn’t just nap or something . As soon as he heard Brandon’s truck pulling out of the driveway, he’d draped his wings over his head and tried to go back to sleep. Try as he might, though, his body was awake, alert, and demanding.

As soon as he shut his eyes, his stomach took control. It growled incessantly, demanding nourishment. Images of Jeremy and Brandon on plates danced behind his eyes. They really had smelled exactly like food. Lewis’s mouth watered at the memory alone, and he idly wondered if maybe he should have eaten them to check if they tasted as good as they smelled.

Once that thought popped into his head, he knew something wasn’t right. With a groan of frustration, he folded his wings and sat up, once again bonking his horns against the barn rafters. The cows mooed nervously, eyeing him from their respective stalls. He idly found his eyes drifting towards them as his stomach rumbled angrily. He wondered if cows tasted as good as humans…

“Lewis,” Lasthope said, floating aimlessly through the air and drawing Lewis’s attention away from the animals. “You cannot stay here. You should leave before those humans come back, if only for your own safety.”

“Those humans are friends of mine. This is a perfectly safe place for me to stay,” Lewis insisted, huffing out a puff of smoke and readjusting his position on the ground. His stomach grumbled angrily. He repositioned himself so he was applying pressure to it, hoping that would silence the hunger pangs. “Besides, where would I even go if I ran away now?”

“Back into the mountains! Where a dragon is supposed to be!” Lasthope snarled, with only the slightest hint of exasperation. “Humans belong in towns! Dragons belong in caves! That is the natural order of the world.”

“Until a few hours ago, I was still a human,” Lewis reminded the ghost, crossing his front claws. “There has to be an adjustment period, you know? You can’t just drop me into a big bronze dragon body and expect me to know how to act.”

“I do not expect you to know how to act. I am trying to teach you,” Lasthope sighed, giving up all pretenses of not being annoyed. “Had I but claws that could move your lazy scales!”

“Yeah, well, you don’t. You should have been more specific with your spell if you didn’t want to get saddled with someone like me,” Lewis said, unconsciously flashing the ghost his teeth. “I don’t want to go into the mountains, and that’s final! I want to be close to my friends, so they can help me through some nasty growing pains!”

“The only help they will provide is attracting the dragon slayers and luring you straight into a trap,” Lasthope grumbled. “Fool of a whelp.”

“Yeah, don’t be doing me any favors by moving on to the next life,” Lewis grumbled back, resting his head on his hands and shutting his eyes.

There was no point in pretending to sleep, but he figured that, eventually, his body would settle down as long as he let it. Lasthope’s spectral form drifted into his mind, still shaking his ghostly head at him.

“You know that will not stop me, Lewis. I’m haunting you. You cannot be rid of me so easily.”

“I’m not trying to get rid of you,” Lewis groaned, “but I do want to be left alone with my friends.”

“I cannot leave you alone. I am haunting you, Lewis,” Lasthope reiterated again. “From now until the day I fulfill my grand destiny, we are together.”

“What if I ripped out my eyes and tore off my ears?” Lewis growled, his eyes snapping open to glare at Lasthope’s hovering form.

“Is that something you would truly do just to spite me?”

Lewis’s mouth hung open as he pondered his response. He’d been bluffing, but he hadn’t expected Lasthope to call him out on it right away. “All right, fine, you got me, I’m not going to mutilate myself.”

“I thought not. Now, move your lazy scales and get back into the mountains. You are hungry and should hunt for food.”

Lewis’s stomach grumbled so loudly in response that the cows mooed in fear and backed up in their stalls, as far away from Lewis as they could get. Lewis shot Lasthope a glare but found his eyes drifting over to the cows again, no matter how much he tried to focus on the ghost. As his eyes met theirs, he felt the hunger in his gut tighten.

He wondered what it would be like to eat an entire cow. He’d eaten some large steaks before, but as he looked back on the memories, they hardly seemed appetizing, let alone meal enough for a dragon his size. The cow, however, looked like more than enough to sate his hunger for days.

His mouth watered, and fiery drool spilled down his chin, sizzling as it hit the concrete floor of the barn.

“Hey, Lasthope,” Lewis asked, his voice growing quiet, “what do cows taste like?”

Lasthope raised an eyebrow, then followed Lewis’s gaze towards the terrified cows. They were both eyeing Lewis in terror and mooed frantically as more burning drool dripped down his chin and splashed on the ground. Lewis didn’t even notice that his saliva was on fire. This time, he was too focused on the animals.

“They taste delicious,” Lasthope said, whispering in the young dragon’s ear like the devil on his shoulder. “Juicy meat covering thick bones full of sweet, buttery marrow.”

“Marrow?” Lewis whispered. He couldn’t remember ever eating marrow, but the thought suddenly filled him with desire. He wanted to devour those cows, to taste their blood on his tongue, to have their meat filling his belly. His claws instinctively flexed, digging deep scratches on the concrete floor. He wanted them so badly, he could almost taste their scent on the air.

“Everything a growing dragon needs can be found in these fine animals,” Lasthope continued. “All the vitamins and minerals your body needs. Do it, Lewis. You are hungry. I can practically feel your hunger in the air. You need nourishment.”

Lewis licked his chops, a light tingle dancing across his lips as his flaming drool coated them. He barely even noticed the heat as he reached his claws down into the stall and plucked the cow up. She was plump, her udder swaying as he hoisted her into the air. His arms tensed with the effort, but she wasn’t so heavy that he was afraid he would drop her.

“Look at her, how weak she is,” Lasthope continued, grinning as Lewis held her up. “She is prey, Lewis. Food. She is meant to be eaten. If not by you, and if not now, then eventually by another. Go on. You need this.”

He was in too much of a daze to answer. The cow mooed loudly as Lewis took a deep whiff of her scent, filling his nostrils and lungs with the sweet aroma of fresh cow meat. Then Lewis grabbed her by the head and twisted.

There was a sharp crack and then stillness.

The cow fell limp in his hands as he snapped her neck, and he dropped her to the ground. The body bounced before flopping harmlessly on the floor. The other cow began mooing frantically, but Lewis could neither hear her nor care. Only one thing occupied his mind.

Food, glorious food .

Lewis dug in, tearing off a leg with his bare claws. Blood poured from both it and the stump where it had been. He dove first into the stump, tearing off a massive chunk of meat with his teeth and swallowing it. It was delicious. Nowhere near as good as the human he’d sampled the night before, but it was good enough that he wanted more.

He tore into the leg next, tearing off massive chunks of meat before crunching the bone up in his jaws and slurping down the soft, buttery marrow. His tongue tingled with the new, exciting flavor, and he relished it as he sucked the bones dry, then crunched them up more and swallowed them too. The hoof was a bit too hard for his liking, so he tossed it off to the side before diving back in and shredding the cow’s belly with his claws.

Lasthope observed Lewis’s feeding frenzy with mild amusement. He was a dragon nearly starved, so it came as no surprise that Lewis could barely control himself. He should have followed the ghost’s advice and left. Now he would have to explain to his friends why one of their cows was now inside his belly.

It made no actual difference to Lasthope. Dragons ate prey animals, and cows were among their numbers. Still, humans had a sick sense of property that they believed needed to be obeyed. They always got worked up whenever a dragon ate their property animals. Lasthope scoffed at the notion. As if anything gave one creature a right to own another. Preposterous.

Lewis was halfway through digging out the cow’s entrails and slurping up its intestines like a mile-long noodle when suddenly he paused. His ears flicked as he heard footsteps approaching. Frowning, he bit down on the organ, letting a loose end of it drop to the floor. His nostrils flared as he dropped instinctively into a fighting stance and put a claw protectively in front of his meal.

The door to the barn opened, and a small woman in a bright blue sweater peeked inside. She took one look at the shredded remains of the cow, then another up at the large, imposing face of Lewis the dragon, looming above the animal he had just butchered. He raised his ears, opened his wings as wide as they could go in the cramped barn, and bared his bloodstained teeth. Flaming drool sizzled around the corners of his lips, and smoke poured from his nostrils.

The woman screamed.

Lewis stopped growling for a moment as he sniffed the air. The fresh scent of humans was enough to pull him out of his feeding frenzy without putting him back in the mode to hunt. He backed away from the butchered cow, looking down at his bloodstained claws curiously. The woman continued to scream as he raised them up to his eyes and licked them clean.

It wasn’t until the woman ran off that Lewis paused what he was doing and realized who that had been. “Jeremy’s mom just saw me!” he said in alarm. “Oh no, that can’t be good!”

“The mother of your friends?” Lasthope rumbled, floating longingly near the remains of the animal. The foolish young dragon that he was, Lewis had left behind the head, the most enjoyable part of the body! What a waste. Lasthope reached down to caress the cow’s skull. He could touch it, but it hadn’t been dead long enough for him to have any manipulation of it. Still, there was something there that he could move. He reached inside the cow’s body and pulled out a wisp of white. A soul, perhaps? He didn’t question it. He swallowed it and felt a sense of satisfaction at having done so.

“Lasthope! Lasthope, what do I do? I didn’t have time to explain who I was to her!” Lewis said in exasperation. “She’ll call the police or-or animal control or something! What do I do? What do I do?”

Lasthope frowned at Lewis, as though the answer should have been obvious. “Burn her house to the ground and eat her body, obviously.”

“No! That’s a terrible idea! I can’t torch Jeremy’s house and eat his mom! He’ll never forgive me!”

“Then what do you expect me to tell you? You are a dragon, Lewis. I will always tell you to act like one.”

Lewis hopped on his front claws as he looked around the barn in a panic. The last remaining cow mooed frantically. He contemplated killing and eating it for a moment, forgetting that there was still half a cow left cooling on the ground.

“I’ve got to run!” Lewis said quickly. “I have to get out of here before some authority types find me!”

“That is something I told you to do many times, yes,” Lasthope said. “I suppose you are true to your word, ignoring my wisdom until it is immediately useful.”

Lewis scrambled with the door to the barn, struggling to push it open and squeeze out. His tail thrashed from side to side, making a wreck of the place. The half-eaten corpse of the cow was thrown aside and splattered all over the place, creating an absolute mess as he absent-mindedly beat it down into a pile of offal.

Lewis took a deep breath of the fresh air to clear his nostrils of the moldy barn stench and then pointed himself directly at the mountains. They weren’t too far away. He could definitely make it before anyone saw him, right?

A sharp pain suddenly shot through his flank. Lewis staggered for a moment, wincing, and looked over his shoulder. There was Jeremy’s mom, Brandon’s rifle in hand, and pointed right at him. She had tears streaming down her face and was cocking the gun again. Lewis instinctively bellowed his fury at her, making her scream and drop the weapon.

With the danger out of the way, Lewis turned tail and broke into a run. He let his body move of its own accord. He pointed where he wanted to go, tucked his wings in tight, and set off at a run.

He silently hoped Jeremy wouldn’t mind the mess too much.

Chapter 11

Jeremy looked up from the math problems he was working on as the teacher approached his desk. The classroom phone was pressed against her ear, and an expression of panicked concern on her face. She barely spoke, just nodding silently along with whatever was being said on the other side of the line, before finally, she pulled the phone away from her ear.

“Jeremy, you need to go down to the principal’s office,” she said.

Jeremy blinked a few times and frowned, glancing momentarily at his math homework. “Right now?” he asked, giving the teacher a nervous glance.

“Immediately,” she said, a sense of urgency in the words.

The class broke out into catcalls and ooohs , and Jeremy’s eyes widened in horror.

“I-I’m not in trouble, am I? I haven’t done anything wrong!” Jeremy stuttered, his glasses slipping down his nose.

“You’re not in trouble, but I don’t feel comfortable discussing it publicly. Please, just pack your things, don’t worry about the homework for tonight,” the teacher said before pressing the phone back to her ear and speaking into the receiver. “Yes, I’m sending him down right now.”

Jeremy blinked in surprise, and the classroom fell deathly quiet. The teacher wouldn’t tell him something like that unless there was something seriously wrong. Jeremy swallowed nervously and packed his things into his bookbag before slinging it over his shoulder. The entire class watched him leave with hushed whispers. As he turned around to close the door, Jeremy cast a nervous glance at the desk that had been empty all day.

Lewis’s desk.

Had something gone wrong with Lewis? Had he burned down Jeremy’s home? Eaten his mother? Jeremy realized that they really didn’t understand nearly enough about his condition. Stories about dragons were as diverse as any mythology could get; there’s no telling precisely what Lewis would be capable of now that he was one! They shouldn’t have left him alone like that!

As Jeremy briskly walked down the hall, he bumped into Brandon’s imposing form. His brother grabbed him by the shoulder to keep him from falling down and gave him a worried look.

“I think something might be wrong with Lewis,” Jeremy whispered as he continued heading towards the principal’s office. “Did you get called down, too?”

Brandon nodded. “Yup.”

Jeremy swallowed nervously. That couldn’t be good. The last time the boys were called down together, their father had just passed away…

As they stepped into the office, Mister McNally offered each of them a seat on one of the enormous guest chairs. They each dropped their bags to the ground and took a chair. With both of them seated, the principal sat behind his desk. His face was grim, as though he’d just received terrible news.

Oh no, Jeremy thought.

“I’m sorry to drop this on you boys, especially considering what happened to you yesterday, Jeremy,” the principal began giving both boys an apologetic smile.

It took Jeremy a moment to realize he must have been talking about Lewis’s stroke. Nobody else knew that he’d turned into a dragon. He wondered for a second if perhaps he should let Becca know about what had happened.

“Did something happen?” Brandon asked, drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair.

“Your mother was just admitted to the hospital,” Mister McNally explained, his eyes meeting Brandon’s. “She was having a bit of a neurotic episode, and the authorities felt it was prudent that she be admitted, for her own safety if not yours. She is currently drugged and under observation.”

Both brothers exchanged a look. Neurotic episode? Their mother had had nothing of the sort before. She wasn’t the calmest person in the world, but that often came with being a farmer’s widow and not knowing how to operate the farm. She was just their mom: loving, attentive, and careful. She made cheese; she took care of the cows—

Jeremy’s eyes widened. The cows! Neither he nor Brandon had milked the cows that morning! Their mother must have noticed and gone to do it herself and encountered Lewis!

“What exactly did she say?” Brandon asked, coming to the same conclusion as Jeremy.

“That there was a giant metal monster in the barn eating one of your cows,” Mister McNally explained. “It was dripping what she claimed was gasoline everywhere, and there was a shredded cow corpse in the barn. The authorities did, in fact, confirm there was a dead cow in the barn and a trail of blood leading away. Authorities suspect it was a pack of coyotes that got in, and your mother freaked out. She kept saying bronze repeatedly.”

Jeremy swallowed loudly, catching Brandon’s gaze. It had to be Lewis. Lewis had eaten one of their cows before scaring their mother half to death. He supposed he should be grateful Lewis hadn’t tried to eat his mother, especially after calling him breakfast.

“Anyway, boys, we felt it best to let you know of what was happening and to send you home for the day,” the principal continued. “The two of you are no doubt under a lot of stress, between Lewis having a stroke and your mother having some sort of episode. The authorities are investigating to see if maybe they both ate something that would cause them to be sick like this.”

Brandon looked to Jeremy and cocked an eyebrow. Jeremy nodded.

“I guess we’ll be leaving,” Jeremy said, as both he and his brother stood up. “Unless there is anything else you want to tell us?”

“Do you have a way to get home? You’re not going to take an Uber, right?”

Brandon chuckled. “I drove my truck today.”

“Do you have anyone at home to take care of you? I know your father passed away a couple years ago and—”

“Brandon is 18,” Jeremy blurted before Mister McNally could dive further into that touchy subject. “We’ll probably give our aunt a call when we get home, just to let her know we’re okay.”

Mister McNally stopped and rose from his seat behind the desk. “All right, boys,” he said, first offering a hand out to Brandon. After the older brother gripped and shook it, he turned it to Jeremy. The principal’s grip was tight and firm, and it reminded Jeremy of his father’s grasp. “Be safe, the two of you. Check your home for any expired foodstuffs. Or maybe something a parasite could survive in. Maybe mold. It’s hard to say.”

“Right, yes, sir,” Jeremy said, shaking the pain out of his hand.

As Mister McNally ushered the two brothers out of his office, they shared a glance of concern with each other. They had screwed up big time. By letting Lewis stay in their barn unattended, they had risked letting him eat their mother. The notion hadn’t occurred to them. At the time, they were just so shocked to see that Lewis had turned into a dragon! A dragon!! The shock of the situation had overwritten the fear of it.

They should have been more careful than to allow a giant, potentially fire breathing, possibly man-eating monster anywhere near their home and livelihood.

What if Lewis had eaten their mother? What would they do then?

Jeremy realized what he would do. He would hunt Lewis down and kill him. He’d already lost one parent; he refused to lose another, especially not to somebody that was supposed to be his friend.

As Brandon and Jeremy neared the front of the school, the imposing figure of Becca suddenly stopped them. She stepped in front of the door to block their exit. Her eyeliner had been running again, judging by the streaks running down her cheeks. Lucy was nearby, too, cowering in a corner.

“Jeremy, we need to talk. Like right now,” Becca said, her voice hoarse. Jeremy figured she must have been crying. He risked a glance at Lucy and noticed her eyes were red and puffy too. Had both of them been crying?

“Sure, what’s up?” Jeremy asked.

“I’ll go get the truck,” Brandon mumbled, stepping around the younger kids and through the door.

All three watched as Brandon left and waited for the doors to shut again before Becca cleared her throat and spoke. “Lewis is dead.”

Jeremy paused for a moment and thought about the corpse of the enormous dragon lying dead on the side of the road. Just like that? Lewis is a dragon, and now he’s gone? Jeremy thought with a frown. Wait, Becca doesn’t know that Lewis is a dragon!

“Dead? What do you mean dead?” He asked in confusion.

“I mean, we went to go visit the hospital during our free period. The entire place is crawling with cops. Apparently, there was some kind of explosion in Lewis’s room last night. It killed him and a nurse, some girl named Jen Cravalho. All that’s left of our friend is some blood splatters,” Becca said, choking on her tears again. “I wish I hadn’t seen it… I wish I could wash it from my mind… It was like he’d exploded… I hate that cop for showing it to us…”

Lucy rushed forward to wrap her girlfriend in her arms. Becca buried her face into Lucy’s bright blonde hair and sobbed loudly. They stood like that for a minute until Lucy pushed Becca away and signed quickly.

“Right, sorry, forgot about that,” Becca coughed and nodded. “Thanks, babe.”

“What? What did she say?” Jeremy asked, looking between the two of them.

“The cop who showed us the room, Detective Martha Smith,” Becca explained, “she thinks Lewis might have been responsible for the explosion. She might come by to question you about him, okay?”

Jeremy blanched. “What!? She thinks Lewis blew himself up!?”

“I know, right? The dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Becca tried to laugh, but all that came out was a pained sob. “Just thought I ought to warn you, Jer.”

“Thanks,” Jeremy mumbled, his brows knitting in a frown.

He looked up and met Becca’s gaze again. She was watching him intently, as though trying to gauge whether he would say something dumb. If he told them now that Lewis was a dragon, that would play into the notion.

There was nothing for it. Jeremy had to show them what Lewis had become. There was no other way.

“You two had better come with us,” Jeremy grumbled, shaking his head. “I have some stuff that I need to explain to you. It’s probably easier to understand if you see it, though.”

Becca gave Jeremy a confused look, and Lucy signed something quickly. “What kind of crack are you smoking,” Becca translated, “your best friend is dead! Why aren’t you in a puddle of tears?”

Jeremy looked out the doors to the school as Brandon pulled up with his truck. “The rumors of Lewis’s death have been greatly exaggerated,” he said, glancing back at Becca.

Becca blinked slowly before shaking her head. “You weren’t there, Jeremy. You didn’t see the room. There’s no way Lewis survived that.”

Jeremy clenched his jaw and stepped outside, with Becca and Lucy following close behind him.

“You two really wouldn’t understand if I told you what happened,” Jeremy said, turning to them. “Are you okay with skipping school? If you are, I can show you. The only way you’ll really believe what I’m saying is true is if you see it for yourself.”

Lucy winced and stepped away, shaking her head. She quickly signed to Becca, and Becca responded by nodding or shaking her head as she signed back. Finally, Lucy shrugged and gave Becca a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Love you, hon,” Becca whispered, kissing her back.

Lucy signed I love you too , one of the few phrases Jeremy had ever learned to identify in ASL before turning around and running back into the school.

“Lucy doesn’t want to skip class. She says I can get her up to speed on what happened later,” Becca explained. “I’m coming, though. Whatever it is, you have to show me. If it proves that Lewis is still alive, it’s worth the weekend detention I’ll probably get.”

Brandon and Jeremy shared a look. Brandon’s jaw tightened, and his hands squeezed tightly around the steering wheel. Jeremy could already tell he wished he’d shot Lewis in the head when he had the chance. Maybe they would have the opportunity to do it again.

Then again, maybe they wouldn’t need to? There was always the chance Lewis was a nice dragon, right?

“Well, are we going or what?” Becca snapped, climbing into the passenger side seat.

Jeremy sighed and climbed in after her.

Chapter 12

The farm was a complete catastrophe. Rather than pull into the driveway, Brandon pulled off to the side of the road and let everyone out. He then immediately ran into the house and left Becca and Jeremy to their own devices.

“What happened here?” Becca asked as she noticed the trail of blood leading from the barn down to the road.

Jeremy didn’t answer. He didn’t even want to think about what could have happened here, but he knew he’d have to, eventually. He put it off for now. Taking a deep breath, he marched up to the barn.

The door was ajar, swaying slightly in the breeze. A fetid stench wafted on the air from the open barn, so intense that it nearly knocked Jeremy off his feet. It reminded him of a mixture of feces, rotting meat, and blood. So much blood. Jeremy wanted to keel over and vomit, but he held himself steady even as his stomach lurched.

Becca arrived a moment later, giving him a concerned face before the stink hit her. Immediately, she recoiled and backed away, covering her mouth with her hands. Her eyes watered, and she coughed to purge the odor from her lungs. “What is that?!” She cried, her stomach lurching as she did everything she could to keep its contents down.

Jeremy couldn’t speak with his breath held and instead shook his head. It took some effort to throw the door open the rest of the way, but when he did, he knew immediately where that horrible smell had come from.

One of Jeremy’s cows wasn’t just dead. It was shredded into a mass of giblets, gore, and offal. Its entrails were splattered all over the concrete floor of the barn. Its blood coated the walls and stall doors. Its severed head lay near the door, staring blankly up at him, and Jeremy swore to God its intestines had somehow got up into the rafters. They swung lazily in the breeze, like the world’s worst party streamers.

Jeremy couldn’t take it anymore.

He grabbed the milk bucket he’d dropped earlier in the day and emptied the contents of his stomach into it.

Becca stared with wide eyes at the carnage before her, unsure of exactly how to process it. She’d seen Jeremy’s father butcher an animal before, but that was an entirely different affair. They’d been kids back then, and the art of butchery had fascinated Becca. This, however, wasn’t the clean, practiced skill of a farmer preparing meat for the market.

This was utter destruction, wrought by some mad, hungry animal.

“Jer,” she whispered as he heaved and threw up again. He coughed and sputtered as bile dripped down his chin, and she rubbed his back to help him along. “Jer, what happened here?”

Brandon came out of the house with a notepad in hand. He rushed over to his puking brother and slid to a stop as the stench hit him. “That’s foul,” he gagged, covering his nose with his sleeve.

Jeremy continued to throw up for another minute, emptying his stomach of anything and everything. When he finally finished hurling, the bucket was nearly full, and he was doing little more than hacking and coughing.

“You okay?” Becca asked as she led him away from the barn.

“That was the worst,” Jeremy mumbled, coughing again. Chunks and spittle dripped down his chin, and he subconsciously wiped his face on his shirtsleeve. As soon as he realized what he’d done, he groaned in frustration. Now he would need to change!

“Can you deal with him for a bit?” Brandon asked, waving the notepad around. “I got info on where Mom is. I’m going to go check on her.”

“Yeah, sure,” Becca nodded.

Brandon clapped his younger brother on the shoulder, then rushed back over to his truck. The tires squealed loudly as he did a quick U-turn and peeled down the road.

Jeremy waited for his brother’s truck to disappear up the hill before he turned to Becca and sighed. “Sorry,” he coughed, tugging off his glasses to wipe his eyes on his sleeve. He hesitated only for a moment, to make sure it wasn’t the sleeve with puke on it.

“For what? Throwing up? Did you forget what happened with Lewis yesterday? That was way worse than what you just did,” Becca laughed and squeezed his shoulder. “Let’s not make daily throw-ups a habit, though, okay? It’s still gross, and I definitely don’t want to deal with it more than necessary. Hopefully, there won’t be another accident for a while.”

“Sorry,” he said again. He made sure he was steady on his feet before marching over to the barn and looking inside again. This time, when his stomach lurched, there was nothing inside for him to eject. He held himself steady, taking deep breaths through his mouth to avoid catching another whiff of that God-forsaken stench.

Becca came over again, too, and looked inside. They both noticed that the second cow passed out in the corner of her stall, her eyes shut. She was still breathing. Jeremy couldn’t tell if she was asleep or if the shock of what had happened had caused her to faint. Could cows even faint? He didn’t know, and he wasn’t sure it mattered.

“Poor Bessie,” Jeremy mumbled, turning to study the severed head. His stomach, void of its contents, twisted into a knot at the sight. His body rejected the image so thoroughly that it was all he could do to stay standing as his legs twitched from shock.

“What happened here?” Becca asked, coming up behind Jeremy.

Jeremy took a deep breath. Should he tell her the truth? Was that something she’d want to learn? Lewis was her friend, too, but she already thought he was dead. Maybe it would be better to leave it that way.

Then again, he’d already told her Lewis was technically still alive. He was in this for the long haul, whether or not he wanted to be. He sighed, regretting letting her tag along.

“Lewis happened here,” Jeremy explained, looking up at his friend.

Becca raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “Jeremy, I’m serious.”

“So am I! Lewis did this!” Jeremy said, waving his hands at the messy barn. “He was hiding out in our barn, and we figured he couldn’t do any serious harm in there, so we left him alone! Then we get called down to the principal’s office, and McNally tells us our mom is in the hospital, and one of our cows is—” he paused and waved his hands at the splattered blood and offal again before throwing them up in exasperation.

“All right, and I get that this is gross, but why do you think this was Lewis?” Becca asked.

Jeremy raised a finger, opened his mouth, and stopped. Could he reasonably tell her that Lewis was a dragon now? Would she think him crazy?

“Like, unless Lewis was a werewolf now, I don’t see how he could do this,” Becca continued, sensing Jeremy’s hesitation. “If he was a werewolf now, though, that would be impressive. Werewolves are hot, especially if they’re big and buff.”

“You have a girlfriend,” Jeremy reminded her.

“I’m also bisexual and have a thing for monsters with giant teeth, sue me,” Becca said, upturning her nose haughtily. “Seriously, Jer, what happened here?”

Jeremy took a deep breath and looked down at the ground. He immediately noticed the bloody footprints that could only belong to a creature as big as Lewis. Frowning, he quickly bent down to look at them closer.

When he’d been a little kid, his father had taken him and Brandon on dozens of hunting trips. He wasn’t too fond of killing animals; that had always been more of Brandon’s thing, but it had thrilled him to learn the other survival skills his father had taught them. Camping was fun, but tracking animals was something different altogether. He wasn’t like Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings . He couldn’t deduce the outcome of an entire battle just by looking at where things fell. He could, however, follow just about any animal tracks.

It wasn’t like Lewis’s tracks would be hard to follow, either. They were big and deep, each claw large enough that it could wrap nearly around his torso. The blood was almost unnecessary. Jeremy was confident he could track Lewis even in the dark. His prints were just that big and obvious.

“These are Lewis’s tracks,” Jeremy explained, looking up at Becca.

She stared down at the claw prints in confusion. “Those look like they belong to some kind of monster.”

Jeremy didn’t respond to that.

He rose to his feet and followed the tracks, moving swiftly at first as he monitored them.

For the first mile or so, they were easy enough to follow. Then the blood dried up. It took Jeremy another ten minutes to pick up the trail again. It wasn’t easy, given they were walking down the road, but once he found what to look for, it was a simple matter of following them. There were gouges in the asphalt that was roughly in the same size and pattern as Lewis’s claws, that lead in the same general direction as the dry, bloody prints. As they followed them, Jeremy noticed an identical pair of tracks going in the opposite direction on the opposite side of the road. He had to pause and laugh.

“What is it? What’s so funny?” Becca asked as he went back to the original set of tracks he’d been following.

“Lewis is obeying traffic laws,” Jeremy chuckled but didn’t explain further.

The tracks got easier to follow once they reached a field of tall grass. Lewis had shoved plants out of the way, creating a blatantly obvious path that anybody, even Becca by herself, would have been able to follow. The claw prints were more visible, too, leaving defined shapes in the soft earth. If Jeremy didn’t know better, he’d suspect Lewis had left the trail for them to follow on purpose.

It was in this field that Jeremy found one of Lewis’s scales. It was splintered, and there was a bent and misshapen bullet wedged in it. He gasped when he saw the glint and held it up for Becca to see.

“I don’t get it. What is this?” Becca asked, giving Jeremy an incredulous stare.

“Lewis got shot,” Jeremy exclaimed, “but his scales are strong enough to stop bullets!”

“His scales?” Becca crossed her arms and glared, incredulity replaced with frustration. “Jeremy, I swear to God if you’re pulling my leg, here…”

“Look, I know this looks like a crazy set up for a prank, but I promise you it isn’t!” Jeremy insisted, raising his hands defensively.

“Where’s Lewis? It feels like you’re wandering aimlessly,” Becca said, shaking her head. “I’m getting sick of this.”

Jeremy took a deep breath and raised his hands in a placating gesture. “I’m sorry, really, but we have to follow the trail! We might lose it if we aren’t careful!”

“Jeremy,” Becca said, her tone warning. “Where. Is. Lewis?”

Jeremy swallowed nervously. “I don’t know. This is his trail, but I don’t know how far it goes. Look, will you at least stay with me until I lose it?”

Becca sighed and nodded.

The trail took Becca and Jeremy on a twisting, winding path. It brought them just outside the edge of town, across a highway, and up into the foothills. As they stepped into a mountain forest, Becca nervously picked up a stick and used it to help her walk.

“You know I’m not wearing shoes for a mountain hike, right?” Becca sniped, panting with exertion from the hike.

“You’re the one who insists on wearing platforms every day,” Jeremy reminded her, crouching down to feel the loam. “If you wore normal shoes, you wouldn’t have this problem.”

“And give up my sweet look? How dare you,” Becca said playfully, propping a fist on her hip.

“Let’s break here for a bit,” Jeremy said, as Becca dropped to the ground with a sigh of relief. “I need to find the track again.”

“Did you lose it?”

Jeremy grimaced but didn’t answer. The earth was growing harder here. Lewis’s tracks were still mostly present, but they were definitely growing fainter the further up towards the mountain they went. Jeremy winced. They would lose the tracks, sooner rather than later, if they didn’t find Lewis soon.

Before Jeremy stood up and explained that to Becca, though, she was back on her feet and looking around the woods with a quizzical expression.

“Do you hear that?” she asked, frowning.

Jeremy paused and held his breath. At first, he heard nothing, just the breeze through the trees. It sounded like waves to his ears.

Then the tickle of the breeze ceased, but the waves didn’t.

Not waves, he quickly realized, splashing.

Jeremy broke out into a sprint towards the source of the sound, and Becca struggled to keep up. She hobbled for a moment, before finally she unbuckled her boots, tugged them off, and ran barefoot alongside him.

Jeremy stopped twenty feet away from the sound. From the cover of the trees, he could see what was causing it. He could see Lewis’s imposing form splashing around in the creek. There he was, still a dragon.

Becca’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of the dragon, and Jeremy quickly clapped a hand over her mouth. He didn’t know if Lewis was dangerous, but he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to take that risk.

“Stay quiet and observe,” Jeremy whispered to her, “we don’t know if he’s dangerous.”

“Is that Lewis?” Becca whispered once Jeremy had removed his hand.

Jeremy nodded. With a nervous swallow, they slowly crept towards the creek.

Chapter 13

Lewis scrubbed his claws in the creek, desperately trying to get the blood out from under his scales. His belly sagged beneath him, heavy and full. For the first time since becoming a dragon, his hunger seemed decently sated.

The mess, however, he could live without.

Despite all of his best attempts, his claws absolutely refused to come away clean. There were still splatters of blood beneath his scales, and his talons themselves looked as though they would be stained for life. He tried everything, from scraping with his claws to using the creek silt to exfoliate. Nothing worked to get them clean.

“Come on,” Lewis moaned, dunking them back into the creek and scrubbing them furiously again. Downstream, the water had already gone a muddy brown, between the violence of his scrubbing lifting the creek bed and the blood on his claws coming away.

“That is not the dragon way to bathe,” Lasthope explained, watching Lewis with a cocked eyebrow.

“Yeah, well, piss off, this is how I know how to bathe,” Lewis grumbled. He pulled his claws out again and turned them over. They were still dirty, but he figured this was as clean as he would ever get them. With a sigh, he shook the water off of them and craned his neck around to check his hind legs and feet.

His tail was probably the messiest part of him. Blood covered the underside, and chunks of entrails were stuck to his spike. With a grunt, he swung his tail around and picked off the meat. He considered tossing it away but ultimately shrugged and popped it in his mouth. It tasted fine, and it wasn’t like a small snack would hurt him.

With a sigh, he lumbered into the water and set about scrubbing the blood off his tail. The water wasn’t enough to get the blood out between the bronze scales, but he tried his absolute best. The creek ran red with his effort. With a frustrated grumble, he resolved himself to never be clean again and collapsed into the stream to wallow in it.

As the water settled again, Lewis could get a better sense of his reflection. Blood stained his snout, no big surprise there, and there were a few pieces of meat stuck between his teeth. Frowning, he set about cleaning them before scooping up a mouthful of water and swallowing it down. It splashed down his throat and settled into his already weighted belly, along with his meal.

With a contented sigh, Lewis lay down in the creek and blew bubbles into the water. He wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and fall asleep. A sizeable meal and a brisk run were all it took to tire him out.

“Do not look now, but you are being observed,” Lasthope’s voice whispered into his ears.

Lewis’s jaw clenched, and his ears immediately perked up, but he did not rise from the water. Every muscle in his body tightened as though preparing for a fight. He took a deep breath through his nostrils to sniff the air.

The first scent he recognized was that of breakfast. His mouth watered at the thought of scrambled eggs and bacon. There was another stink there, though, but not one he recognized. No burgers and root beer float this time. Lewis slowly twisted around in the creek, trying to identify the scent. It was a scent like a five-star dinner: steak and onion chips served with mashed potatoes and green beans.

He licked his lips and felt the slight tingle of his drool. Were his mouth not submerged in the creek, he suspected his lips would have been on fire.

“Jeremy?” Lewis called, “is that you?”

There was a rustle from the brush, and Jeremy stepped out. He nervously stared at Lewis, twiddling his thumbs. “H-hey,” he stammered.

Lewis’s eyes flicked around. The other scent hadn’t stepped out yet.

No matter, he could figure them out later.

“How did you find me?” He asked, snaking up to the side of the creek. The water flowed around and beneath him, tickling his sagging gut.

Jeremy took a step away, stopping Lewis in his tracks. “S-stay right there!” Jeremy said, raising his hands in self-defense. “I’m not so sure I want to be too close to you, right now.”

Lewis blinked and cocked his head in confusion. “Why not?”

“Lewis! You ate my cow! You called me breakfast! You put my mom in the hospital!” Jeremy sputtered.

Lewis frowned and cocked his head the other way. “Your mom’s in the hospital?”

“Yeah! They said she had some kind of episode, and they put her there for her own safety!”

“I mean, I’m sorry I scared her, but she shot me, so,” Lewis shrugged. “Fair’s fair?”

“What about my cow, Lewis? You ate Bessie!” Jeremy shouted. “How could you eat Bessie?!”

Lewis paused for a moment to really think about that. It suddenly occurred to him he hadn’t even been thinking about eating the cow. He’d just been so hungry that he’d needed to eat it, and he’d acted on his instincts. Even now, he was having a hard time feeling bad about it. It was a prey animal; it was meant to be eaten. She would have eventually ended up on a dinner plate, whether or not she was a well-loved animal. Why was Jeremy in such a rage over this?

“I genuinely don’t understand the problem,” Lewis finally admitted, shrugging.

“There should be no problem. You are a dragon. You were hungry. You ate food. Such is the natural order of things,” Lasthope growled, floating over Jeremy’s shoulder. With a snarl, he grabbed the boy’s shirt and tugged it back, making Jeremy stagger. “Eat this stupid boy, and be done with it.”

Jeremy stumbled to the side and looked around frantically, but couldn’t see what had pulled him. Shivering nervously, he turned back to Lewis and started up again. “The problem is that she was our cow, and you ate her! We’re down to one cow now, and mom won’t have enough milk to make her cheeses and butter! We need the money from that, Lewis!”

On some level, Lewis knew that this was true, but all the same, he was having a tough time processing the issue. He understood what the word money meant, but he found himself struggling to understand the concept. He scrunched up his face in concentration but ultimately allowed the thoughts to slip away. Jeremy was giving him a hard look, and it was making him uncomfortable.

“Fine, fine, I’m sorry I ate your cow. Happy?”

“No, I’m not happy,” Jeremy sputtered, “let’s not forget you called me breakfast!”

“In my defense, you absolutely smell like breakfast,” Lewis quickly said, rolling his eyes. “Your odor is like scrambled eggs, bacon, and—” he leaned forward and took another deep sniff, powerful enough that it tugged Jeremy forward, “—mm buttered toast. You have a complex yet delicious aroma,” Lewis added, pulling away with a chef’s kiss.

Jeremy took several steps back, staring up at Lewis in terror as the enormous dragon looked down at him hungrily and licked his massive lips.

“Relax, Jer, I just ate half a cow. I doubt I’ll be hungry again until tomorrow,” Lewis laughed, waving a claw as though he hadn’t just described his best friend as a delicious meal. As if to prove his point, he stood up on his hind legs to give his sagging belly a quick pat. “See? Nice and full! No room left in here!”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you keep telling me I smell like food,” Jeremy stammered. “Not cool, dude.”

“That’s because you do smell like food,” Lewis rolled his eyes again. “Seriously, it’s no big deal. Everyone smells like food to me now. Don’t take it so personally.”

“What about me? What do I smell like?”

Lewis stumbled backward as Becca stepped out of the brush to stand next to Jeremy. She held her platform boots in one hand, and Lewis noticed that she was barefoot. The odor of the deluxe steak dinner wafted off of her in such force that it was overpowering. His mouth tingled with burning drool as he stared at her.

He was suddenly overcome with a desire to devour her on the spot, to savor her warm, succulent flesh, to drink her blood. He wanted to chew her bones and brains and feel her eyeballs gush between his teeth. His mouth hung open, and droplets of fiery drool splashed down his chin, hissing against the moist creek bed.

Lewis immediately buried his snout into the creek and snorted water to wash the scent out of his nose. He coughed and sputtered, snorting out steam to purge the essence of Becca from his nostrils.

“Breathe a bit of fire,” Lasthope explained, “it will help clear your senses.”

“I don’t know how to breathe fire, yet!” Lewis snapped at the ghost.

Becca and Jeremy exchanged a confused expression. Jeremy shrugged and shook his head.

“Lewis?” Becca said, raising an eyebrow and turning back to the dragon.

Oops , Lewis winced, realizing he’d just yelled at the ghost with his friends around. Well, they were going to find out sooner or later.

“Sorry, sorry, I wasn’t talking to either of you,” Lewis explained. “I was talking to my Ghost Dad.”

“Please stop calling me that,” Lasthope protested.

“Is that bet on how Lewis would lose his mind still going?” Becca asked, glancing at Jeremy.

“No, I already paid for it,” Jeremy grumbled, crossing his arms.

“Guys!” Lewis groaned in exasperation. “I’m serious!”

Becca took a step towards the creek, dropping her boots by the smaller boy’s side as she approached. “Lewis, is that really you in there?”

Becca reached out a hand towards him, her fingers spread. She wanted to touch him. He could sense that, but the closer her scent got to him, the more overwhelming it became. Why was her scent so powerful compared to Jeremy or Brandon’s?

“S-stay back,” Lewis mumbled, backing up in the creek. “It’s not safe.”

“Lewis…” Becca said, hurt in her eyes.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he admitted, “but I’m… different…”

“I can see that,” Becca laughed. “You’re different from how you were when you had your stroke last night. Come here. I want to get a closeup of those teeth.”

“Becca,” Jeremy warned. “You shouldn’t get too close.”

“Oh please, Jeremy,” Becca waved him off as Lewis slowly approached and bent down to get a better look at her. “He’s Lewis. He won’t hurt me, right?”

As Becca’s hand touched his snout, an overwhelming desire to bite it off filled Lewis. His pupils dilated to slits as the scent danced across his nostrils. He flicked out his forked tongue like a snake to taste the air. She just smelled so delicious. One tiny bite couldn’t hurt, right? Lewis slowly opened his mouth, showing off his dagger-like teeth.

“Whoa, those are so cool,” Becca said, grabbing one of Lewis’s massive fangs and running her thumb down the length of it. It surprised him that he could feel her fingers running over his fangs. “These are huge! They’re serrated, too, like shark teeth. Perfect for tearing flesh from bone!”

“B-Becca!” Jeremy squeaked, staring as Lewis’s tongue reached out to brush against her hand.

Lewis’s feet collapsed out from under him, and his eyes bulged painfully. It was like an explosion of flavor on his tongue. She tasted just as delicious as she smelled. At that moment, Lewis wanted to do nothing more than to bite her hand off and swallow it whole. He practically moaned with desire.

Becca, sensing the change, pulled herself away from him. “Hey, are you okay?”

Lewis quickly dipped his head into the creek and scooped up a fresh mouthful of water. He clamped his jaw shut and swished it around his mouth before spitting it out in a spray in front of him. Becca screamed in surprise, and Jeremy shouted in horror too.

Lewis bent down again and sniffed Becca’s hair, trying to find that alluring scent again. To his joy, he could still detect it, but it was buried beneath the smells of the creek and the sharp, metallic tang of his own aroma. He sighed in relief and sat back in the water, shaking his head.

“Lewis, what the hell?!” Becca yelled, shaking off some water.

“Sorry,” Lewis said, his snout going green with embarrassment. “Your scent is stupid strong. I don’t think I could have kept from eating you if we were like that much longer.”

“Becca, get away from him! He’s dangerous!” Jeremy shouted.

Lasthope sighed and floated nearby. “Foolish whelp. She was practically offering herself to you. You should have eaten her.”

“Shut up!” Lewis barked, flashing his teeth at the ghost.

Jeremy screamed and fell backward to the ground.

“No, no, not you, Jer, I’m talking to my Ghost Dad!” Lewis quickly said. “Seriously, he’s a jerk, and sometimes I have to tell him off!”

“Ghost Dad? Lewis, are you nuts?!” Jeremy said. “Ghosts aren’t real!”

“I spontaneously turned into a dragon, but you’re drawing the line at ghosts?! REALLY?!” Lewis sighed in exasperation before looking up at the floating form of the ghost dragon. It was grinning down at him, as though to say he’d told him so. He had mentioned as much to Lewis before. “Lasthope, can you prove you’re there?”

“Why on earth would I ever do that? It is much more enjoyable watching you alienate the humans. Likely it is better for your future, too.”

“I’ll go walk into town right now if you don’t say hello.”

“Are you bluffing again?”

“Do you want to test me?” Lewis snarled.

The spectral dragon sighed in annoyance before scratching two words into the dirt beside Jeremy. Hello, food.

Jeremy screamed again.

“Thanks, Lasthope, extremely helpful,” Lewis grumbled sarcastically, shaking his head and flashing a half-hearted thumbs up at the ghost.

Becca looked from Jeremy to the message that had turned up on the ground beside them, then back up to Lewis. He risked grinning down at her, the vibrant green blush shooting up his face towards his ears. She looked into his emerald eyes and could utter only a single word.

“Awesome.”

Chapter 14

Lewis sighed and sat on his haunches in the creek. His tail swished through the water, making waves that bubbled against the opposite bank from his friends. Becca couldn’t stop staring at him in some combination of fascination, awe, and maybe longing. Her scent was still sticking to the insides of his nostrils, but now that he’d masked it, it was less potent, less overwhelming.

Jeremy was scrambling to get away from Lasthope’s message. At the same time, the ghost floated lazily above him, watching the human boy with a curious grin.

“This scrawny one doesn’t seem like much of a meal,” the ghost admitted, waving an intangible claw through Jeremy’s body. “Likely why your brain only associates him with breaking the fast, and not a more substantial meal.”

Lewis looked up from Becca and shot the ghost a glare but didn’t dare respond. They already thought he was crazy, between the spirit and describing them as food. He needed to come up with something else to say to drive the topic away from his condition.

What else was there to talk about, though? His state was undoubtedly the elephant — or dragon, as it were — in the room!

“How does it feel?” Becca asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. She reached out for him again, and Lewis recoiled. Even with her aroma being less robust, the slightest whiff of it filled him with renewed hunger, despite the meal weighing down his gut. It was all he could do to keep from wanting to eat her.

There was something different about Becca, the way she smelled, which made her more appetizing than anyone else. Lewis couldn’t figure out why, and it scared him to ask Lasthope openly about it. He was positive the elder dragon would know, but given nobody other than Lewis could hear the response, it would be a very awkward conversation. He didn’t want to talk to his Ghost Dad more than necessary until his friends went back home.

“How does what feel?” Lewis asked back, remembering that Becca had asked him a question.

“Being a dragon? What’s it like?”

Lewis scratched the back of his head as he considered his answer. His ears flicked, and his nostrils flared as he played with various parts of his body. He lifted his tail and let it slap the earth before stomping with each foot, splashing around in the creek. He opened his wings a touch and fanned the air.

“Truth be told, it feels normal,” Lewis admitted with a shrug, closing his wings again. “It feels like I’ve always been this way.”

“But you haven’t,” Becca reminded him. “You were human just yesterday. You’ve been human your entire life.”

“Being human feels like a dream, though,” Lewis continued, shaking his head. “It’s like, I know I used to be human, but I have a hard time remembering what it was like. And, honestly, now that I’m looking at you guys… I can’t help but get the feeling being human would be horribly uncomfortable.”

Becca blinked in surprise and shot a look over her shoulder at Jeremy. He was finally pulling himself back up to his feet and dusting off the dirt and mud that was caking his pants.

“I mean, have you looked at yourselves at all recently? Like really looked at yourselves?” Lewis continued, as though he hadn’t said something alarming. “You guys walk around on two legs without a tail to support you! It’s so weird! No other animals do that! Even other apes prefer to go about on all fours or have a tail to help them along. And you have no natural weapons! You’re like the most poorly designed animal on the planet!”

As if to prove his point, Lewis lifted off the ground and stood on his hind legs. He wobbled for a moment before his tail began acting as a third point of contact, offering support. For extra balance, he spread his wings and flapped them a bit. They helped keep him upright, despite everything.

“Oh, look at me,” Lewis said, in his best impression of a snooty human, “I’m a human being! I’m an average of six feet tall and have terrible balance at all times! I’m scared of bugs and mice even though I’m a billion times their size, and they can’t even hurt me! I can’t protect myself against predators, and yet somehow, I’m at the top of the food chain!” With a snort, he dropped back into the creek, splashing Becca up to her thighs. “Humans are an embarrassment to evolution,” he grunted, dropping the impression.

“How could you say that…? You were human just yesterday,” Becca said again, frowning.

Lewis grimaced and scratched his head. “It doesn’t feel like I was ever human,” he repeated. “My memories are jumbled. Again I know I used to be human, but I can only ever remember being like this,” he gestured to himself. “This is my normal now.”

“How did this even happen?” Becca asked as Jeremy joined her by the creek bank. He stood a couple paces behind her, just in case Lewis got too hungry and wanted a snack.

Lewis shrugged at the question. “I don’t understand it myself, but according to Ghost Dad, there was a spell that went wrong, and poof, I’m a dragon.”

“That is a gross oversimplification of events,” Lasthope growled, floating over the heads of everyone.

Lewis looked up. “He just confirmed that that is basically what happened.”

Becca laughed. “All right. Lewis turned into a dragon. This is cool.”

“This is nuts,” Jeremy mumbled.

“Do you think he could do the spell to turn someone else into a dragon?” Becca asked. “Like, say, me?”

Lasthope paused where he was floating and turned to stare at her. “Did she just ask me to turn her into a dragon?”

“Did you just ask if my Ghost Dad could turn you into a dragon?” Lewis parroted.

“Sure? Why not?” Becca shrugged with a grin. “You don’t hate it, and I think it could be cool to be a giant fire breathing reptile.”

“Dragons are not technically reptiles. We are not exothermic, for starters. Our phylum is closer related to birds than lizards,” Lasthope grumbled. “It is a subphylum we have labeled as Hexapod Vertebrata , if you were wondering,” Lasthope said, noticing Lewis was shooting him a confused glance. “To answer her question, I would love to turn her into a dragon, but I have not the power to do so. As I stated before, in my current state, I have not the energy to fuel a spell, let alone one as grand as a transformation spell.”

“Uuuuh Ghost Dad says he would, but he can’t,” Lewis summarized. “Something about not having the energy to fuel the spell.”

Lewis expected Becca to be disappointed. Instead, she shrugged, as though he’d denied her a pure curiosity and nothing more.

“Anyway, you two,” Lewis said, stretching for a moment before climbing out of the creek to sit beside them, “I think I’m ready to head home.”

“Home?” Becca asked, incredulous.

“What?!” Jeremy squeaked.

“Yeah, I only came out here to get cleaned up,” Lewis explained, showing off his talons to the two smaller humans. Becca pressed her hand against his claw, marveling at how much larger than her it was, while Jeremy recoiled in fear. “There really was nowhere to bathe on Jeremy’s farm. Now that your mom knows about me, I’m sure she’ll have absolutely nothing against having me around, right?”

“Dude!” Jeremy shouted, pushing the claw away. “You scared her half to death! She’s in the hospital!”

“Even better! She won’t be there to protest me living in the barn!” Lewis chirped. He took a moment to orient himself, then hopped to his feet and set off at a leisurely pace.

Jeremy watched frantically as Becca shrugged and followed after the bronze dragon. He couldn’t really let Lewis stay on his farm, could he? He’d already eaten one cow! There was no telling what else a dragon was capable of!

Jeremy had to stand his ground, there and now! “Lewis!” He shouted.

Lewis continued trotting along, smiling down as Becca ran up alongside him. He crouched down and nodded for her to climb up onto his back. She looked up at him with star-filled eyes before scrambling up his shoulders and throwing her legs around his neck.

“Hang on tight,” he whispered as he rose back up to his full height.

“Lewis!” Jeremy shouted again, stamping a foot in frustration.

Still, the dragon refused to turn around and acknowledge him. Jeremy felt his fists tighten, his glasses fogging up as his face grew flush with anger.

“LEWIS!” Jeremy shouted at the top of his lungs.

The dragon finally stopped and slowly turned around to face him. “What’s up, dude?” He asked, cocking his head.

“You can’t stay with us,” Jeremy said, adjusting his glasses on his nose.

Lewis blinked a few times, his emerald eyes flashing for a second as they locked on to the human’s smaller brown eyes. “Why not?” He asked, his voice dropping. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Of course we’re friends, Lewis,” Jeremy said, shaking his head, “that’s not the issue! The issue is that you scared my mother half to death and ate one of my cows!”

“Are you still not over that? It’s just a cow, dude. They’re just dumb prey animals. She’d have been food eventually. I don’t get why you’re making such a big deal out of this.”

“Lewis!” Becca said in shock, causing the dragon to crane his neck to look over his shoulder at her.

“What? It’s true!”

“Lewis, those cows were all we had left of my dad’s farm,” Jeremy said, his voice cracking. “We needed them to help pay for it! Mom’s homemade cheeses, jars of butter, and stuff! That was important to us!”

Lewis’s brows furrowed, and he shook his head. “I don’t… understand…” he said, scratching his head. “Lasthope, I…” Lewis looked up at the floating shape of the ghost dragon and shook his head.

“It is a human thing,” Lasthope said, as though this explained everything. “You are not human, and therefore cannot understand it.”

“Lewis!” Jeremy said, raising his voice again. “You can’t stay with us, not while you’re a dragon! We can’t risk you eating our second cow, or worse, eating one of us!”

Lewis’s eyes snapped from Lasthope down to Jeremy, and his mouth hung open in astonishment. It genuinely hurt him that Jeremy would even suggest he’d eat one of his friends, especially after he’d struggled to keep from eating Becca.

At the same time, though, he knew that Jeremy was probably right. Humans smelled like food to him, and he could still distinctly remember the taste of the nurse on his tongue. He wanted to taste human flesh again as soon as possible.

Now was regrettably neither the time nor the place.

Besides, these were his friends. Did he really want to risk accidentally eating them?

“O-okay. You’ve got a point,” Lewis finally said, looking up sadly and meeting Jeremy’s gaze. “I’m sorry I ate your prey animal.”

“Cow!”

“Cow, I’m sorry I ate your cow,” Lewis quickly corrected, smacking his snout in frustration. Why was this so hard? He’d been a human not even twenty-four hours prior. Surely all the habits and mannerisms that came with it wouldn’t have evaporated in that small amount of time?

“Now that it’s settled, that you can’t come with me,” Jeremy said, doing a poor job hiding the relief on his face and in his tone of voice, “where will you be staying? You can’t reasonably go home, right?”

“Absolutely not!” Lewis barked a quick laugh. “Mom would freak if she found out I’m a dragon!”

“Oh shit,” Becca whispered, smacking her face as realization dawned on her, “your mother! Your parents think you’re dead!”

Lewis swallowed nervously, shuffling his claws. “That’s probably for the best right now,” he admitted. “I have enough problems to deal with as it is. I don’t need parental worry to factor into them.”

“Lewis?” Becca whispered, rubbing up and down the length of his neck.

“Let them think I’m dead. Let everyone think I’m dead,” Lewis mumbled.

“Are you sure?” Becca asked with a note of concern in her voice. “That’s pretty morbid.”

“It’s for the best,” Lewis croaked.

Jeremy and Becca exchanged a look before nodding. “Okay,” Jeremy said, “if that’s what you want… But that doesn’t change the fact that you can’t stay with us! So, Lewis, where are you going to stay?”

Chapter 15

Lewis trotted up the mountainside, with both Becca and Jeremy on his back. They weren’t particularly heavy. It reminded him of wearing a backpack full of school books. Jeremy weighed next to nothing, and Becca was only heavy because she was still soaking wet. Lasthope floated nearby, keeping an eye out for anything that might serve as a suitable den for a young dragon.

They stumbled across a bear's den dug into the hillside, not too far into the journey. Lewis could immediately tell it would never work. At present, the hole was occupied by an angry-looking grizzly and her cub, who bellowed at them as they got close. Lewis bared his fangs and roared back at them, making them dive for cover into the tiny hole.

Even if Lewis had the heart to evict them from their home, there was no way he could make their den his own. The hole was so small that he could barely fit his snout into it, let alone the rest of him. He shook his head and moved on up the mountain until they couldn’t hear the bear cub crying anymore.

He contemplated building some kind of shelter out of wood by knocking down trees and bending them to make a fort. It wouldn’t be too hard. He was strong enough now that he could knock down trees with barely any effort and strip them into logs in minutes. Lasthope recommended against it, as a dragon living in a wooden structure was typically an awful idea.

“Dragons live in mountain caves,” he explained, “what you should search for is the smell of bats. They typically inhabit caves that would make for a decent home.”

When pressed for what bats smell like, Lasthope could only shrug and tell Lewis to search for the smell of poop, and bats will not be far behind.

It wasn’t until they got near the edge of the foothills that Lewis spotted something he could acceptably call a home. A cave yawned into the mountainside. The mouth was enormous enough that Lewis could stand in the entrance and spread his wings and only just barely brush their tips against the sides. He could stand on his hind legs and not bonk his head on the ceiling. He took a quick sniff of the air, and the smell of poop permeated his nostrils. He recoiled in disgust but then took another deep breath. If he had to live here, he’d have to force himself to get used to the smell.

“I think this is it,” he said, crouching down to let Becca and Jeremy off his back. “I think this is my new bachelor pad.”

“It’s a cave,” Jeremy said.

“It stinks,” Becca added.

“It’s a bachelor pad,” Lewis corrected, turning up his nose haughtily. “All the fashionable young dragons have to have one.”

Becca and Jeremy shared a confused glance, and Lasthope gave Lewis a disgusted sneer from over their shoulders.

“You guys are no fun,” Lewis scoffed and trotted a few steps into the cave.

It was damp and cold and lacked anything that made it feel even remotely homey, but it also felt right. Stalagmites and stalactites lined the cavern. At Lasthope’s instruction, Lewis set to work clearing them away. It surprised him how easily the wet rock broke away at his touch. It practically crumbled into powder with the slightest exertion. Whether it was because of his draconic strength, or a weakness in the material, he didn’t know or care.

It didn’t take long for him to clear a circle of cave clean enough for him to curl up in. “Tada!” he said, showing off his new home.

Becca and Jeremy looked unimpressed. Lasthope, however, was nodding in approval.

“You can carve out this entire cavern,” the ghost said excitedly, floating a little way into its depths. “There’s a bat colony you’ll end up displacing, but you can likely snack on a few of them before they can make their getaway. This is an excellent choice of home.”

Lewis wrinkled his nose at the idea of doing more work. He’d made enough space to sleep. Why would he need even more space?

“Come, Lewis, you need to clear out the rest of the cave,” Lasthope reiterated. “This place is perfect, but there isn’t enough room for you yet.”

“I disagree. This is plenty of room, right here,” Lewis said, looking up at the ghost and patting the semicircle of cleared space near the mouth of the cavern.

“I don’t know, Lewis,” Jeremy said. “You’re exposed and practically out in the open here.”

“The cave mouth won’t provide a lot of shelter,” Becca agreed. “You’ll have to dig deeper to get out of the elements.”

Lewis rolled onto his back and stuck his claws in the air. “But that sounds like wooooooork,” he whined, puffing out a glob of smoke.

Becca grinned and elbowed Jeremy in the side. “See that?”

“Definitely still Lewis,” Jeremy said, nodding.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lewis barked at his friends. When they merely snickered in response, he growled and turned his attention back to Lasthope.

“Anything worth doing is hard work,” Lasthope said, shaking his spectral head. “Get off your lazy scales and start clearing out the cave.”

“Can’t you do it, Lasthope? You can move stuff that isn’t alive, and you’re a ghost, so you never get tired.”

In response, Lasthope snapped a nearby stalactite off the cave roof and threw it at Lewis’s head. The stone shattered against his chin, and he yelped in pain. It hadn’t hurt a lot, but it was enough to startle him into sitting up.

“What was that for?!” He barked at the ghost.

“You are the one who has to live here; therefore, you should be the one to clean it up!” Lasthope snarled. “Now, get off your lazy scales and clean!”

“All right, all right, I’m cleaning, I’m cleaning!” Lewis grumbled, rolling over onto his claws. “Can you guys help me out a bit?” he asked, glancing down at his two human friends.

“I don’t think there’s a lot we can do for you,” Becca admitted, shaking her head. “I don’t think we can break rock like you.”

“Just move the rubble out of my way, so I don’t have to stop clearing to get it out of the cave,” Lewis said, pointing with his snout at the shattered rocks near the cave entrance.

Jeremy shrugged and got to work, scooping some shattered rocks off the ground and building them into a pile outside the cavern. They were damp and slimy and stank of mold and other foul things that Jeremy really didn’t want to think about. At the same time, though, he couldn’t help but think maybe smelling bad around Lewis would be for the best. It might be enough to mask his scent, like Lewis had done with Becca’s smell, to make them less appetizing. To test the theory, he rubbed one of the damp rocks up and down his sleeves and recoiled at the putrid moldy stench.

While Becca and Jeremy moved the rocks out of the way, Lewis rose to his hind legs and raked his claws across the cave roof. Almost immediately, thin teeth of rock dropped away and shattered against the floor. He then dropped down to all fours and carved away the stone on the floor, clearing more and more space away for him to move. His human friends proved to be relatively inefficient at moving rubble, so even with their help, he ended up pushing most of it out of the cave himself.

As the pile outside the cave grew larger and larger, the room inside the cave grew deeper and broader. At the end of a solid hour of work, Lewis had a cave large enough that he could walk around in. He grinned as his mind whirled with thoughts of how he could make it even more comfortable.

The bats on the far end of the cave were eyeing him nervously. His vision, in the dark, was surprisingly good, and he could see their tired little eyes watching him in fear. He had left them alone, as they were beyond a wall of jagged rock that he didn’t really feel was necessary to clear away. It smelled terrible, but so long as the bats stayed out of his way, he didn’t really feel the need to harass them.

“I think this cave is acceptable,” Lasthope said, once Lewis had cleared away the last of the rubble. The ghost floated up to the ceiling and ran his claws along the surface, scoring away a few of the larger chunks that Lewis had missed, but beyond that, he left everything as it was. He nodded approvingly at his hard work. “Well done, we might make a proper dragon of you yet.”

“Can’t wait,” Lewis grumbled, pacing around the cave to admire his hard work. It amazed him how much space there was, now that he’d taken the time to clear out the cave. Before, when there had only been enough space for him to sleep, it was like leaving a bed inside a broom closet.

Now, though, the cave looked like a wide-open bedroom with enough space for dragon-sized furniture. He could already picture where he would put everything.

“Let’s see,” he mumbled, pointing to one corner. “I think that’s where the bed should go, there,” he continued, nodding to a side wall, “would be a perfect place for a couch, and right here,” he said, stopping in front of the opposite wall, “is the ideal space for a TV.”

Jeremy and Becca exchanged a look. They had a tough time seeing into the cave, so both of them had turned on their phone lights to see better. The wall Lewis had chosen for a TV was flat, with only a few grooves in its surface formed from dripping stone.

“And my Xbox, I’ll need my Xbox back…” Lewis mumbled as he paced the cave some more. “Guys, how hard do you think it would be to get some internet up here? I’d still want to play Fortnite and stuff.”

“Lew…” Becca said sadly, seeing her friend inside the dragon he’d become. Even under thousands of pounds of scales and dragon muscle, he was Lewis, her childhood friend. “You can’t play Xbox anymore…”

Lewis stopped and blinked at her. “Why not? It’s not like I have any parents telling me not to, aside from Lasthope, I mean, but we’re not really counting him.”

“No, she’s right, man,” Jeremy said, shaking his head. “Dude, you’re… well…”

“A dragon? I know, but why should that stop me from playing Xbox?”

“Dragons do not play Xbox,” Lasthope said.

“Shut up, Ghost Dad, I didn’t ask you.”

“Lewis, stop and think for a moment,” Becca said, walking up to him and putting a hand on his claw.

Lewis looked down at her, flexing his talons beneath her hand. He stared at them for a moment, genuinely puzzled by what she could mean. In his memory, he’d always been able to play Xbox, so it took him a minute to realize what the issue was.

The memories were wrong.

When he’d turned into a dragon, his entire perception of self had changed. The memories of his life until that moment had changed with the rest of his body. How he perceived himself now was not how he’d been his entire life. He was different. He couldn’t play Xbox anymore because he was just too big.

They didn’t make Xbox controllers large enough for dragon claws. He was physically incapable of ever playing video games again.

Lewis’s ears drooped, and he curled up into a ball on the floor. He wrapped his tail around his feet and draped his wings over his head. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying not to cry. He didn’t want his friends to see him like this.

“Lewis?” Becca called, tapping on his wings to get his attention.

“I’m fine,” he croaked. He wasn’t okay. This revelation genuinely upset him. He’d cleaned the whole cave out and made all this room, and now he had no way to use any of it! He felt like crap. “You two should go.”

“Lewis—” Becca started.

Jeremy shook his head and took Becca by the hand. “It’s getting late,” he mumbled. “We really should get going. It’ll take us at least an hour or two to walk back down to town.”

“All right,” she muttered, giving Lewis a sad look. “We’ll be back soon, okay? We promise.”

Lewis said nothing.

As they headed back down towards the foothills, Becca kept checking over her shoulder at the cave until it was out of sight.

“We should do something for him,” Becca said as they re-entered the woods. “He looked so…”

“Pathetic?” Jeremy offered.

“Distraught,” Becca said, shaking her head.

“What can we do? Build a dragon-sized Xbox controller for him?” Jeremy said.

Both of them paused in their tracks and exchanged a look.

“Saying it out loud, that doesn’t sound like a terrible idea,” Becca admitted.

“Now that I think about it,” Jeremy muttered, “I might be able to do it.”

Chapter 16

Lewis wanted to sleep, but much like before, he just found that he couldn’t. His body was shivering, and he was covered in dampness and sliminess. Try as he might, he just couldn’t get to sleep.

It frustrated him to no end. He worked his tail off to make the cave comfortable and livable, only for him to be unable to get comfortable enough to live in it! It was ridiculous!

Then there was the idea that he could never play his Xbox again.

He hadn’t taken the time to think about it before. Playing video games had only casually slipped through his mind: he remembered sitting on the couch with a controller in his claws. Even now, that memory felt normal and right to his mind. Shouldn’t there be a controller he could use if he could remember it? Shouldn’t there be a way he could continue playing video games, despite being a dragon?

And yet, objectively, he knew that there wasn’t. Everything was wrong and different, and he hated it. He curled himself into a tighter ball and felt a few stray tears well up in his eyes. He covered his head with a wing to hide. He wanted to feel warm and safe. He wanted to be comfortable and happy.

He wanted to go home.

In Lewis’s mind, Lasthope drifted lazily through the swimming thoughts. He batted them out of the way with his white claws until the only thing left for Lewis to focus on was the translucent shape of the ghostly dragon.

“Stop feeling sorry for yourself,” Lasthope demanded, beating his wings and narrowing his eyes. “We are not finished yet.”

“I don’t care,” Lewis grunted. “Leave me alone.”

“Come now, Lewis,” Lasthope sighed, shaking his head. “Get up. There is still work to be done to make this cave properly livable.”

“Go away,” Lewis mumbled, turning to face away from the ghost. He’d forgotten that, since he saw Lasthope through his mind, the spirit would always be there, no matter where he looked. “I don’t want to do this right now.”

Lasthope snarled as Lewis’s racing thoughts tried to bombard him out of the way. The ghost dragon dodged between the images, grabbing one with his claws. He held the picture and stared at it with a sneer. “Are you seriously pouting over a toy? A stupid human toy?!” Lasthope growled, waving the image of an Xbox around like a photograph. Shaking his head, Lasthope ripped the picture to shreds and vanished from Lewis’s mind.

Good riddance, Lewis mused. He tried to go back to wallowing in his own self-pity again, only pause in momentary confusion.

What was he upset about, again? Something about… video games?

Lewis tried to concentrate but found that he couldn’t remember what Lasthope had taken. “HEY!” He barked, leaping to his feet and opening his eyes. He spun around the cave frantically until he spotted Lasthope floating in a corner. The ghost had white spectral dust floating around him, which he was lazily slurping up as they drifted close to his snout. “Stay out of my head,” Lewis growled, baring his teeth at the ghost.

“I am not currently in your head,” Lasthope said, batting at the floating particles, “and neither, it would seem, is the toy.”

Lewis opened his mouth to retort as Lasthope licked one particle up and slurped it down. “What did you do?”

Lasthope shrugged. “I have not a clue. I assume I took the memory of this toy from you,” he added, slurping up another particle. “Bland and tasteless, like all human triviality.”

Lewis felt his scales go cold as his face blanched. “You can tear apart my memories?” he whispered nervously.

“So it would seem. Likely a side effect of haunting you,” Lasthope shrugged, licking another wisp out of the air.

“Well, stop it!” Lewis growled, rising to his hind legs and grasping for the wisps of memory. As soon as he touched them, he could remember what his Xbox looked like. The image was fuzzy, no doubt because Lasthope had eaten part of it, but at least the memory was there. As he collected the wisps, the memory grew sharper and more defined. Some parts of it never truly retook shape, likely a side effect of Lasthope eating some of it. “Never do that again.”

Lasthope shrugged. “It would seem I finally have a way to control you, even a bit,” he said, grinning maliciously at Lewis. “To be fair, I am not even sure how I did it. Though, if I figure it out, I could use it to wipe away your entire human identity. I could leave you nothing more than a young dragon who desperately needs my aid.”

Lewis felt another chill go down his spine. What would happen to him if Lasthope erased his identity? It was bad enough the ghost had stolen his body. What would Lewis do if Lasthope took his old life…? “Could you? Could you really do that?” He asked, gulping nervously.

Lasthope floated up to Lewis and reached for his head. The bronze dragon recoiled, but when Lasthope’s claws came back out empty-handed, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Lasthope sneered at his empty claws and shook his head. “It seems, for now, you get to keep the last vestiges of your pathetic humanity. Make no mistake, Lewis, that if I ever gain the ability to strip that away, I will.”

Lewis swallowed again and curled back up into a ball. It scared him to close his eyes, for fear that he would think about something and give Lasthope the ability to rip it away. Still, soon enough, his eyes squeezed shut, and his mind whirred with thoughts and possibilities.

He thought about what his life would be like, now that he was a dragon. He definitely felt like it was the best decision to let everyone think he’d died in the hospital. His life had already improved in incredible ways. He would never need to go to school again, which was a plus.

No more detentions. No more homework. No more boring teachers. No more math! That last one made Lewis grin happily. He hated math with a passion.

At the thought, Lasthope popped into Lewis’s mind again and drifted through memories of equations and arithmetic. He sneered in disgust at Lewis’s apparent lack of skill and popped out of his head again.

Once Lewis was sure Lasthope wasn’t listening to his thoughts again, he kept thinking.

He’d miss his parents, but not having them hound him to do chores was also a plus. They would never tell him to clean his room ever again; they would never tell him to eat his vegetables.

At the mere thought of vegetables, Lewis’s mind churned in disgust. The thought dragons don’t eat vegetables popped into his head, and he wasn’t sure if it was Lasthope’s whispering or a genuine thought all his own. Either way, that was a relief! Vegetables were gross. That was true whether Lewis was human or dragon.

There were some things he realized he’d miss, though. Sure, his Xbox was among their numbers, but it was also the least of it.

He’d never get his driver’s license. He was too big to drive a car now, let alone get the permit for it. He supposed he could still learn the rules of the road. He wondered how fast he could run and if maybe he could reach full highway speeds. That would be an exciting experience, for sure.

He’d never get to go to the movies with his friends again. He’d miss out on all the latest films in his favorite franchises. Maybe he could talk his friends into getting DVDs or digital downloads for him to watch, so he could at least watch them in the comfort of his cave. Or maybe they could find a drive-in! That would be cool, too!

He’d never get to graduate high school. The thought of going to school repulsed him. Still, graduation, the dream of being free from the shackles of adolescence, had been something to look forward to. He’d never get to have that experience. He’d never get to go to college or have a career. That was all gone, stolen away from him.

The one that hurt him the most, though, was that he would never get to fall in love, never get married, never get to have kids. It wasn’t even a matter of being a human versus being a dragon. If there were female dragons to choose from, Lewis might have been of a different mind. There weren’t, though. He was alone, with nothing but a crotchety old ghost to keep him company.

“Lewis, get up,” Lasthope finally ordered. “I am tired of listening to you wallow in your own thoughts. Get up and let us finish cleaning the cave for proper dragon use.”

Lewis folded his wings and sat up to look at Lasthope. He glanced around the cave, noting that there weren’t any hanging rock formations that posed an immediate danger to him, and shivered as a drop of water splashed against his head. His wings had been blocking it before, so he hadn’t even noticed it.

“It looks clean enough to me,” Lewis shrugged, laying back down on the wet floor.

“Foolish whelp,” Lasthope sighed and shook his head. “The cavern is full of mold, guano, and water. You have cleared away debris, but you have yet to sterilize the cave. That would require a proper flame washing.”

Lasthope drifted to the cave mouth and beckoned for Lewis to follow. The bronze dragon groaned in frustration before rolling onto his back and sticking his legs into the air.

“That sounds like woooooooooooork,” Lewis whined.

“Lewis! Now!” Lasthope barked.

Lewis rocked from side to side in protest but ultimately stood up and trudged over to the cave mouth.

“You know, I still haven’t figured out the fire breathing thing,” Lewis said, turning to face the cave mouth. The sun was setting, washing the mountain in warm orange light.

“You have done it before,” Lasthope reminded him, “when you were escaping the hospital. You breathed fire at the police.”

Lewis blinked a couple times. “I don’t remember how I did that, though. It was all instinct. My body was on autopilot.”

“Then allow your body to run on autopilot. Your body knows how to work itself,” Lasthope explained.

Lewis groaned and rubbed his eyes, lazily batting away some rubble from the cave mouth with his claws. “All right, fine, what do you want me to do?”

“First, I want you to listen,” Lasthope said, making a show of clearing his throat, despite not needing to breathe. “A dragon’s fire is one of the most useful tools at their disposal.”

“Is this a lecture? This sounds like a lecture.”

“This is a lecture. Sit down and listen.”

Lewis groaned and sat down on his haunches. So much for not having school or teachers anymore.

“In addition to being a powerful weapon, your flames are an excellent way to clean yourself and your environment. They are, however, still a danger to you,” Lasthope rambled. Lewis only half paid attention. “While you are resistant to higher temperatures, you are not immune to fire. It can hurt you if you are not prudent. That is where your saliva comes in.

“Within your mouth is a pair of specialized glands,” Lasthope continued, pointing to a spot right under his jaw. “Beneath your tongue, coupled with your salivary gland, is your retardation gland.”

Lewis couldn’t help but snicker at the word. Lasthope popped into his mind to see what he found so funny and sneered at what he saw. With a growl, he tore the thought from Lewis’s head, a ghostly white wisp clutched in his claws.

“H-hey!” Lewis yelped as his understanding of the word retardation was torn straight from his mind.

“Retardation means the act of slowing something down,” Lasthope growled, slurping up the memory before Lewis could snatch it back. “Not whatever offensive drivel you’d thought about.”

“All right, all right, I’m sorry, please continue,” Lewis said, shaking his head. “And stay out of my head! That’s really gross… Like you’re invading me, I feel violated ,” he added, with a shudder.

“The retardation gland produces a chemical that mixes with your saliva. This chemical, as expected from the name of the gland, is a potent flame retardant,” Lasthope explained, going back to pointing at the gland. “This is why tongue bathing frequently is optimal. Suppose you regularly coat yourself in this chemical. In that case, it will allow you to use your fire on yourself without harming yourself.”

Lewis felt around his mouth with his tongue for the gland in question. He found it in short order and shivered. It was cold! Ice cold. “Brr!” Lewis ran his tongue over his teeth to get rid of the chilly sensation. “It’s like I’ve got coolant in my mouth!”

“That is precisely what it is,” Lasthope confirmed, “a naturally produced coolant.”

Lewis cocked his head to the side and thought about that for a moment. “In mythology, some dragons can breathe ice. Is this where that comes from?”

“Some dragons throughout history could project the chemical from this gland,” Lasthope confirmed, noting Lewis’s curiosity, “however they are very few in numbers.”

“Okay, the retardation gland puts out my fire, but how do I breathe it?” Lewis asked.

“Breathing fire is a bit of a misnomer. It is a lot closer to projecting than it is breathing,” Lasthope explained, now pointing to two spots, directly behind his chin and under his ears. “Just before your throat, where tonsils would be on a human, are your fire glands. They produce a natural aerosolized chemical that, when exposed to oxygen, can spontaneously combust.”

Lewis raised his claws to his neck and felt around his chin. He found them in short order. There were two bulging spots, just beneath his ears, that were warm to the touch. When he pressed down on them lightly, he could feel a bit of warmth leak into his mouth, and his drool immediately began to burn. Lewis raised his eyebrows as he noticed that nothing inside his mouth hurt. His retardation gland at work, he figured.

“You have a limited supply of fire, though,” Lasthope explained. “Do you recall the blast you used on the police? At your size, your glands are large enough to do that two, maybe three times before emptying, I would imagine. It would take a large meal and eight hours of rest for it to refill completely.”

“Okay, but how do I do it? Breathe fire, I mean.”

“Use the muscles in your neck to squeeze on the glands, and they will project the chemical outward.”

“That’s it? That’s… not very helpful.”

Lasthope frowned. “This was how I learned to breathe fire. It makes perfect sense to me.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not used to having muscles in my neck that can squeeze glands!” Lewis protested, shaking his head. “So what, just squeeze the glands and bathe the cave in fire?”

“Correct. Sterilizing the cavern will likely use all the reserves of fire you have but will make it a much more comfortable place to live. Dragon fire gets hot enough that it should dry your new home out completely. You will typically need to do this once every few years to prevent rock formations from regrowing.”

“Great, more room cleaning,” Lewis lamented, shaking his head. “All right, here it goes.”

Chapter 17

Brandon met Jeremy and Becca at the base of the mountain and picked them up in his truck. They relayed their day’s adventure to him, and he listened mostly without saying a word. If it wasn’t for the fact Jeremy knew Brandon had seen Lewis as a dragon, he’d have guessed his older brother thought him crazy. Truth be told, Jeremy wouldn’t blame him. The whole day’s events were beyond weird, and Jeremy was having a tough time convincing himself that any of it had really happened. For all he knew, this was just a nasty dream, and Lewis was still out cold in a hospital bed.

“That’s a lot to take in,” he grunted as his car peeled out onto the main street.

“Yeah, there’s going to be an adjustment period,” Becca said with a shrug.

“Do you think he’ll ever be able to change back?” Jeremy mumbled, his eyes downcast.

Silence fell over the truck. Nobody had a good answer.

Jeremy twiddled with his thumbs for a moment before choosing to change the subject. “How’s mom?” he finally asked.

Brandon made a face and sighed. “Could be better. They’re keeping her sedated. Every time she wakes up, she freaks out.”

Jeremy sneered and tightened his hands into fists. “Has she said anything about Lewis?”

“Whenever she becomes lucid, she mutters about monsters, but they put her back down again before she can say much,” Brandon said with a shrug. “Doctors think it’s a neurotic episode. Kept asking if this was normal for her.”

“Obviously not,” Jeremy grumbled, his fists tightening.

They drove in silence a bit more, before Jeremy tapped his brother on the shoulder and pointed vigorously at a shopping center a little way up the road.

“Can we stop at the game store?” Jeremy asked. “There’s something I want to pick up.”

Brandon frowned but agreed. He pulled into a parking spot and waited ten minutes with Becca as Jeremy ran in and came back out with an enormous plastic bag in hand. He propped it up in his lap as he squeezed back in between his brother and friend.

“It’s something for Lewis,” Jeremy said when he noticed the other two were giving him odd looks. “I have an idea that might cheer him up a bit, but I’ll need to test it and set it up first.”

“Any reason a dragon might need a…” Brandon paused and tugged down the bag a bit to better look at what Jeremy had bought. There were several peripheral pieces and one branded package labeled Adaptive Controller . “An Xbox controller?”

“Lewis is too big to use a normal Xbox controller. This is designed so that people with disabilities can play video games. I figured it should work for a dragon, right? That reminds me, I need you to stop by his house so I can grab his Xbox,” Jeremy said.

Becca frowned at the two brothers. “Can you take me home first,” she said, crossing her arms. “I’d rather not be an accessory to larceny.”

“It’s not larceny! We’re just acquiring something and returning it to its owner!” Jeremy protested as Brandon peeled out of the parking lot.

Becca lived in the same residential area as Lewis, a few blocks away from his house, so it was little trouble at all for Brandon to stop by her place on the way. As she was getting out of the car, Jeremy asked her if she still had Lewis’s house key on her.

“Are you going to do something stupid?” Becca asked, reaching into her jacket pocket and tugging out the lanyard.

“It’s for a good cause, I promise!” Jeremy assured her.

Becca made a face and handed it to Jeremy. “Promise you won’t do something stupid, Jer.”

“Come on, have a little faith in me,” Jeremy said with a forced smile.

Becca shook her head and ran around the corner of her house.

Once she was gone, Brandon put his truck into gear and pulled away from her house, heading down the street in the general direction of Lewis’s place. “Are you sure this is such a good idea? His parents are probably home.”

Jeremy nodded and bit his lips. “I know. I know it’ll probably suck if I get caught, but I want to do this for him. Just because he turned into a dragon doesn’t mean he stops being my best friend.” Although he might stop being my best friend if he keeps talking about how much he wants to eat me, Jeremy silently added.

Brandon gave Jeremy a stern look before shaking his head. Finally, he turned right and headed in the direction of Lewis’s house.

The house looked much like they left it the other day. It was clean on the outside, like just about every other house in this subdivision: pinkish bricks and painted white wood. There were no cars in the driveway, but they might have been in the garage. Jeremy eyed the house carefully, contemplating how he wanted to go about doing this. Finally, an idea struck him.

Lewis’s parents were under the impression he was dead. If they weren’t home, they’d have their phones on them. He didn’t have the number for Lewis’s dad… but his mother…

Jeremy pursed his lips as he whipped out his phone and cycled through his contacts. He and Lewis had been close friends since childhood, so naturally, their parents had grown close, too. As a result, Lewis’s mother had requested they all have each other’s contacts in cases of emergency. Did this technically count as an emergency?

Hello, Misses Cooper, sorry to bother you; just wanted to tell you your son is alive, but now he’s a dragon, don’t go looking for him!

Jeremy dialed the number and pressed the phone to his ear. It rang a few times before finally, the other end of the line clicked loudly. “Hello, Jeremy dear,” croaked the familiar voice of Lewis’s mother.

“Misses Cooper, hi, I just wanted to—”

“Lewis is dead. Did you hear? I think Becca was in earlier,” Jane said, interrupting him. There was sobbing in the background. Jeremy could hear Lewis’s father, Derek Cooper, screaming “whyyyyyy” loudly.

“I… haven’t really spoken to Becca today,” Jeremy lied. “I got sent home from school. Mom took her own trip to the hospital…”

“That was Brandon I saw here earlier,” Jane said, in between loud sniffles. “I hope she’s okay.”

Jeremy felt his throat tightening. He should tell them that Lewis was okay, but there was no way he could do that without revealing that Lewis was a dragon. He really didn’t feel like that was his decision to make. Surely, if Lewis wanted people to know, he would have told them himself, right? Even with the supposed ghost dragon telling him not to?

“Where are you now?” Jeremy asked, looking up at Brandon as he unlocked the car door.

“We’re still at the hospital,” Jane said, her voice hoarse. “Between doctors checking that we’re mentally stable and the police asking us if our fifteen-year-old son had terroristic tendencies, we’ve been stuck here all day,” she tried to laugh, but it only devolved into more sniffling and sobbing.

That was all the information Jeremy needed. The parents weren’t home, which meant it was safe to break in. With a deep breath, Jeremy hopped out of the car and jogged up to the house. With a quick flick of the wrist, he unlocked the door with Lewis’s key.

“So, Lewis, you said he was dead?” Jeremy said. He had to keep them on the phone and let the conversation end organically, otherwise, they might get suspicious of his call.

The sobbing grew louder. “They said earlier it was a bomb, but now they’re telling us it was some kind of animal. All they were able to find of him was blood and—and—and…”

“It’s okay, I don’t need to know,” Jeremy mumbled as he pushed open the door and stepped inside. “Are you… planning to hold a funeral?”

“We haven’t made any arrangements yet. We haven’t even talked about it. We’ll let you and yours know when we have something figured out, though.”

Jeremy didn’t want to know when Lewis’s funeral was. It would be uncomfortable to go, knowing that he wasn’t dead and was just hiding.

“Thanks for telling me,” Jeremy said, trying to sound hurt and sad.

“Of course, dear. You’ve always been like a second son to us,” Jane sobbed.

“I’m going to… go…” Jeremy mumbled. He pulled the phone away from his ear and tapped the end call button before Misses Cooper had a chance to tell him goodbye.

She was genuinely hurt at the thought that her son was dead. More than that, Lewis’s father sounded like he was handling it even worse. Jeremy wondered if maybe there was something he could do to make them feel better.

As Jeremy slunk through the house, he stopped in front of the kitchen. There was a notepad on the fridge that the Coopers usually used to write grocery lists. An idea occurred to him, and before he could come up with a reason not to, Jeremy took the pad down from the fridge and, using the pen that had come attached with it, he wrote a quick note.

Mom & Dad

Just want you to know I’m alive.

Please don’t come looking for me.

I’m okay, but I’m different, and you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

Just know that I’m safe and not in any trouble. I just don’t want to be seen like this.

Not yet, at least.

I’ll come to you when I’m ready.

Love Lewis

Nodding in satisfaction, Jeremy put the notepad back on the fridge. Lewis would thank him later. It would be much easier to reveal himself, at a later date, if his parents didn’t think he was dead.

Pleased with himself, Jeremy quickly bolted upstairs to Lewis’s bedroom and nearly had to stop himself as all the memories they’d shared in that place bowled over him. There was a bed pushed up against one wall and a television on the wall opposite it. They’d used that bed as a couch once Lewis’s parents had finally agreed to let him move his Xbox up to his bedroom from the living room.

The room was in a state of chaos normal for a teen Lewis’s age. Clothes were strewn about everywhere. The desk in the corner was covered in at least a dozen books, and a stack of loose papers buried a laptop. The plastic laundry basket, full of clean clothes, was pushed up to the foot of the bed, which was still unmade. Jeremy wanted to sigh at the familiarity of it all. Sure, the room was a mess, but it was a comfortable, lived-in mess.

The room looked and felt like it belonged to Lewis, his best friend, the boy who’d been like a brother to him ever since they were kids.

As soon as he had the thought, Jeremy felt guilty. Lewis wasn’t dead. He was just different. Different enough that they could never share this space again. This room belonged to Lewis, the boy, not Lewis, the dragon.

The only space in the room that was clean was the shelf the Xbox was on. A few wires were leading up to the wall-mounted television from the device. Jeremy nodded at it, then looked around for something he could pack it in. There was one of Lewis’s old backpacks in the closet, so Jeremy quickly emptied its contents and unplugged the Xbox.

The device, wires, a couple spare controllers — normal-sized, for him and Becca — and six different game cases were shoved into the bag. Satisfied that he had everything, Jeremy zipped it up and slung it over his shoulder. He marched confidently down the stairs, checking the place over one last time to make sure there was no evidence he was there.

A thought occurred to him that maybe the police could check for his fingerprints. Would they be able to do that with a piece of paper? They likely couldn’t do that with the doorknob since it was such a widely used part of the house, and Jeremy had been a frequent visitor for years.

The pen, though, was not something he usually used.

Biting his lip, he ran back into the kitchen and snatched the pen off the notepad. It just wasn’t worth the risk of leaving it behind. He hoped Lewis’s parents could forgive him for stealing it and the Xbox, but it was necessary.

He was sure that once they knew everything, they’d understand.

Jeremy stepped out of the house and locked the door, making sure nobody was around to watch him. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he ran down the steps to Brandon’s truck and hopped in. He carefully set the bag down near his feet and buckled himself in.

“Mission successful,” Jeremy grinned at his older brother. “I have acquired the payload. Let’s move out.”

Brandon took one look at the bag his younger brother had carried over and then looked up to meet Jeremy’s eyes. “Nerd,” he grunted, throwing his truck into gear and peeling out of the driveway. Within minutes, they were back on the road, heading towards their house.

Chapter 18

As Brandon’s truck pulled into the driveway of their farmhouse, the two brothers had to exchange looks of confusion. A black eighteen-wheeler truck was parked on the side of the road, and the property was crawling with people.

Eight men in heavy gear were scouring the premises, some with metal detectors or various other tools, and some taking measuring tapes to patches of earth. One man, lean and tall with blonde hair, stood in front of the barn, observing and ordering around the others.

Brandon killed the engine on the truck and stepped out. With Jeremy in tow, he marched up to the blonde man. “Hey! You’re trespassing!” he said, pointing at the man in black. “Get off my property!”

The blonde man turned his attention away from the other workers, who promptly ignored the angry farmer boy. He gave Brandon and Jeremy a quick once over before meeting the elder brother’s eyes and smiling warmly. “Apologies, chum,” the man said, with a thick English accent. “We received a call that there was a wild animal attack in the area, so we just came in to do some quick investigation. We’ll be out of your hair soon enough.”

Jeremy pushed his glasses back up on his nose and frowned up at the blonde man. His eyes were just too blue. It was unnatural. When they glanced down at Jeremy, he felt like he was seeing more of him than he reasonably should. “You’re animal control?”

“Of a sort, yes,” the man said. “My name is John Lambton, and this is my crew,” he held out a hand for Brandon, and they shook hands for a brief second. “Are you the owners of this farm?”

“We’re the owner’s sons,” Brandon explained, “and again, you’re trespassing. We didn’t call for animal control.”

“Naturally, you didn’t,” Lambton said, raising his hands in a placating gesture. “I completely understand. It must jar you to come home and see eight strange men crawling all over your property with no regard for your personal space. I can imagine how uncomfortable that would make you.”

The way Lambton talked immediately settled Jeremy’s mind. He was just a man doing his job and wasn’t here to cause any problems. Was there really any harm in letting him do his work and then leave?

“It was just a couple coyotes,” Brandon said, using the story that the principal had told them earlier in the day. That was likely the one the police had said to these animal control people if that was how they got their information. “Did the police call you down?”

“Ah, allow me to address both of your concerns one after the other,” Lambton said with a smile. He draped an arm over Brandon’s neck in a friendly fashion and gripped Jeremy’s shoulder. He casually led them over to the barn with a grin, where he released them both from his grip and pushed the door open.

The barn looked much like it had when they’d checked on it earlier in the day, save that it was now painted a dark, sticky red from the dried blood of Bessie. The cow’s entrails and body parts had been removed, and now there was a thick, black, plastic bag resting near the barn door. An awful smell was wafting up from it, and Jeremy had to cover his nose to keep from gagging.

“We handle the cleanup when a particularly dangerous breed of animal shows up and causes havoc,” Lambton explained, nodding to the bloodstains. “We’ve done about all we can for that mess, I’m afraid. It will take some serious power washing to get that out, and we don’t do that without an owner’s express permission.”

Jeremy looked around frantically and spotted Bertha chewing hay in her stall. Despite all the strangers and smells, she appeared relatively calm. She watched Jeremy with wide, brown eyes and mooed happily when he came over and rubbed her neck.

“Hey, girl,” he whispered, “you must have had a stressful day.”

Bertha mooed softly and leaned into his hands, encouraging him to rub harder.

Lambton grinned and stepped fully into the barn. “Anyway, we haven’t seen an animal attack like this one for a while, so we want to make sure we’re thorough in our investigation. Again, we apologize for encroaching on your space without your permission, but it is our job. I promise that we’ll be out of your hair in another hour or two, nothing more.”

“You still haven’t told us who sent you,” Brandon said, crossing his arms. “Was it the police?” he asked again, narrowing his eyes.

“Ah, see, that’s the funny thing,” Lambton laughed and clapped Brandon on the shoulder. “Technically, nobody sent us.”

That was enough to make Brandon and Jeremy start in surprise.

“We only deal with a particular kind of animal, you see. We are experts in handling its kind, but we find it better not to announce what it is to the public.” Lambton smiled and tapped a sheath hanging from his belt. An old dagger was strapped to his hip, and his fingers reflexively gripped it by the handle.

“What kind of animal?” Jeremy asked, his voice low. He already suspected he knew what kind of animal Lambton dealt with.

“Definitely not coyotes, I can tell you that much. Come, follow me, and I’ll show you,” Lambton said, waving to the two boys. “It’s really quite fascinating. We’ve hunted these creatures all over the world, and whenever we think we’ve finally got them extinct, another one just pops up.”

Brandon and Jeremy shared a nervous look as Lambton led them out of the barn and back into the yard. A few of his men had erected squares of string, and Jeremy immediately recognized the footprint in each of them.

“Do you see these prints here,” Lambton said, crouching down near one square. He pulled the dagger from his hip and used it to point at the claw mark in the dirt. Jeremy, however, had eyes only for the weapon. It looked like a short Japanese tanto, about six inches long, with no guard to speak of. Curiously, tiny Japanese characters were carved into the blade. They almost seemed to glow blue in the fading daylight. “These prints belong to the beastie that slaughtered your cow,” Lambton said, snapping Jeremy’s attention back to the mark in the dirt. “By our analysis, we estimate it is a male between the ages of 10 and 25 years. He’s clumsy, careless, and messy, too, judging by the trail of blood he left behind. How he could evade our detection for so long is frankly a greater mystery than whether or not one of his kind did this.”

Jeremy paled for a moment as he realized what Lambton had said. Lambton knew how to track Lewis!

Brandon, reaching a similar conclusion, stepped in to steer the conversation. “So what is it, exactly? Crocodile? That’s a wide range of ages you’re guessing, too.”

Lambton chuckled lightly and rose to his feet, sheathing the dagger again. One of his men ran over and handed him an instrument. The man was thickly built with ginger hair and was carrying a black box in hand.

“Boys, this is Dayton, my right-hand man,” Lambton said, hooking a thumb at the heavy man. “What have you found?” He asked, turning to the ginger man.

Dayton nodded in greeting at the two boys and held the black box out to Lambton. “No traces of phosphorus. It’s safe for civvies,” he added, nodding to the boys.

Lambton checked the readings on the black box himself before handing it back to Dayton and nodding.

“What does that mean?” Jeremy asked with a frown.

Lambton blinked, as though he’d forgotten the smaller boy was there. “Ah, the creature produces a naturally occurring chemical, one half of which is raw phosphorus. Since raw phosphorus is highly reactive and doesn’t occur naturally, it’s easy for our instruments to detect.”

Brandon blinked slowly and crossed his arms. “So, it’s not a crocodile…”

Lambton barked a quick laugh and patted Brandon on the shoulder again. “This creature is far too large to be a crocodilian. To be frank, we consider this kind of creature to be highly unnatural. It decimates entire ecosystems, it can raze towns to the ground within an hour, and only specialized bullets can stop it.” As if to prove his point, Lambton reached into one pocket on his outfit and pulled out a dented bronze scale nearly as wide as his palm. It was splintered in the middle, but there was a clear hole where a bullet had hit it. “Their scales are nearly as strong as steel, and they’re covered in the buggers. They can spit flames up to twenty feet, and once they are old enough, they can fly interminable distances without getting tired. I’ve heard they can even fly across the ocean in half the time it takes an airplane to complete the same trip. Not sure how true that is, to be honest.”

“It sounds like you’re describing a monster,” Brandon grunted, narrowing his eyes.

“To a certain extent, you are correct. This kind of creature really is a monster,” Lambton said, nodding in agreement as he slipped the scale back into his pocket. “That’s why we keep an eye out for whenever one of them appears and try to exterminate it before it can cause any actual harm.”

“But there wasn’t any actual harm here,” Jeremy protested, jumping into the conversation unprovoked. That was his best friend they were talking about! Sure, Lewis was a dragon now, but he was still a person with feelings!

“Here, specifically, there was no real harm. Thankfully it was just a cow. There was, however, actual harm not too far away from here,” Lambton explained, as his expression grew morbid. “This creature alone has already struck once, and there is little to nothing preventing it from striking again unless my men and I can put it down.”

Jeremy opened his mouth to speak but was quickly silenced by Brandon's firm hand on his shoulder.

“Can you elaborate?” Brandon asked.

Lambton’s expression grew even darker, and he waved for the boys to follow him again. They trailed after him as he marched over to the giant eighteen-wheeler truck. He threw open the door to the trailer and climbed inside for a moment. From what the boys could see, it was full of shelves, tools, and places for the other crew members to sit. Though, at the very front of the truck was a bleached skull hanging from the wall, so large that Jeremy could have comfortably fit inside its mouth with room to spare.

A dragon skull, he realized. They’d shaved its horns off so it could fit in the truck, but it was unmistakable.

“Here we are,” Lambton said, hopping out with a black zip-up binder in hand. He quickly opened it and turned it for the boys to see. They were met with a photo of two police cars, their front ends melted into black slag. Off to the sides, two other police cars had been driven off the road. “The pictures you are about to see are only from last night,” Lambton explained, flipping the page and showing them another pair of pictures, these of civilian cars. Their hoods were crumpled inwards, as though they had hit something or been hit by something at top speeds. One of the two vehicles was flattened like a pancake, as though something large and heavy had squashed it.

“This happened when it crossed a highway in the early hours of the morning,” Lambton explained, reaching to flip the page. The next photo was of the hospital, which had a wall torn out. There were two photos taken, one from inside the hospital and one from outside, both of the same hole. “This is when it attacked the hospital, likely searching for weak prey that it could eat.”

Jeremy’s blood ran cold. Brandon’s grip on his shoulder tightened.

“These next pictures are graphic, but it’s important that you understand the severity of the situation,” Lambton explained.

It was a picture of a body with its head and limbs missing. “These are the remains of one Jen Cravalho,” Lambton explained. “The marks along her neck and arms are consistent with what we find for this kind of animal’s teeth, suggesting that it snacked on her.”

Jeremy gagged. He wanted to keel over at the sight, but he just couldn’t bear to look away. Brandon held him steady for fear that it might be too much and he’d faint. Jeremy wouldn’t faint, though. He’d stay strong. He had to.

Lambton flipped the page again, showing off the blood-stained walls of the hospital room. “This is all that we could find of one Lewis Cooper. There were no remains. We suspect the beast completely devoured him.”

Chapter 19

While Brandon hung around with Lambton to oversee their work, Jeremy slipped back into their house and ran up to his bedroom. He passed several closed doors along the way but didn’t pay them any mind. This was more important. Swallowing nervously, he slipped into his bedroom and shut the door behind him.

His bedroom was much like Lewis’s, in that it was messy. Jeremy was better at keeping his floor clean, with his dirty clothes in the hamper and his clean clothes in the dresser. Every other surface, though, was a cluttered mess. There was a stack of fifteen books on his nightstand, shoving a lamp out of the way. There was another stack of books on his computer desk, some of which had fallen on his laptop.

That was fine. He didn’t need his desk for this next part.

Biting his lip, Jeremy whipped out his phone and clicked on his messenger app. He was about to tap on the usual group chat to send a message when he paused. He could still see Lewis’s picture, his friend’s face photoshopped onto a spacesuit, in the group chat. If somebody had access to Lewis’s phone, that meant they could read their messages. That wouldn’t be good if they wanted to keep his existence as a dragon secret from anyone.

Shaking his head, Jeremy quickly created a new chat and added Becca, Lucy, and Brandon.

Hey guys, he typed before hitting send.

What’s up, nerd? Lucy responded first. That didn’t surprise Jeremy in the slightest. She was fast at typing and usually had her phone on hand in case she had to talk to somebody who didn’t know ASL.

Hey, came Becca’s reply a moment later.

Brandon’s icon zoomed through the chat, showing that he read the messages, but he didn’t respond. That was fine. As long as he kept Lambton and his men busy.

So we might have a problem, Jeremy typed, his thumbs flying over the keyboard as his phone made a clicking noise.

Did you do something stupid? Becca asked.

More than usual? Lucy asked.

Becca, is Lucy up to speed? Jeremy asked.

There was a pause as both Becca and Lucy started typing. Lucy stopped when she noticed that for herself and waited for Becca to send her message first.

Oh, no, I haven’t told her yet, Becca admitted. Lucy, Lewis turned into a dragon .

There was silence in the group chat as Lucy’s icon appeared in the typing a message section. It stayed there for a solid three minutes, and Jeremy was worried that maybe Lucy didn’t believe them. That was fine; she hadn’t been there. It was really something you had to see to believe.

It came as a bit of a surprise when Lucy’s message finally popped up as a simple, Okay?

Yeah, we didn’t fully believe it either, Jeremy admitted, but it’s true. Lewis is a giant fire breathing reptile.

Another pause. That’s kind of hot, Lucy typed.

THAT’S WHAT I SAID! Becca wrote, adding several laughing emojis.

Lucy responded with an eggplant emoji, followed by a dragon emoji.

OH MY GOD, Jeremy said in the chat. Can you two focus? We have a problem!

There was another pause as both girls stopped typing for a moment. Lucy sent a concerned face emoji, while Becca sent a gif of a boy blinking his eyes in surprise.

I think there are some people out there that are hunting Lewis, Jeremy explained, sending a worried face emoji. Brandon, are they still around?

There was a moment as they waited for the older brother to reply. Yup, he finally typed, saying something in the chat for the first time. Packing up, but still around.

Shit, Lucy swore, so first, there’s a fucking dragon, now there’s fucking DRAGON SLAYERS?

Jeremy winced at Lucy’s language. He knew she swore a lot in ASL, but it always struck him as unnecessary how much she swore in group chats. She used curse words as emphasis for everything, even when they didn’t add much.

Do we know that for sure, Jeremy? Becca asked. Do we know for sure they’re here to kill Lewis?

They were using plain language, Jeremy explained, sending a worried face. Talked about making his kind extinct and things. It was really uncomfortable to be around…

There was a pause in the chat, and then to Jeremy’s surprise, Brandon was the one to speak up.

They’re heading out now, won’t tell me where, he said.

Did they say they’re going to hunt the dragon now? Or follow the tracks? Jeremy asked.

They left in the opposite direction. Said they’re going to study the evidence.

So we might still have some time, Becca said, but Lewis is definitely in danger?

I think that’s a safe assumption, Jeremy said.

Jeremy started pacing about his room, biting his fingernails worriedly. There came a sharp knock on his door, and Brandon opened it up a moment later, with two bags under his arms. One of them was the shopping bag from the game store, while the other was the backpack with Lewis’s nabbed Xbox.

“Awesome,” Jeremy grinned, taking both bags from his older brother. “We’ll also need some cables and a generator to power everything.”

Brandon frowned and scratched his chin. “I think we got one of those in the shed,” he grunted. “Solar-powered, too.”

“That’s perfect!” Jeremy exclaimed, beaming up at his older brother.

“How were you planning on setting this up?” Brandon asked. “You still need a TV.”

Jeremy opened his mouth to explain his plan and paused. Brandon was right. “I uh haven’t thought that far ahead, I guess,” he muttered sheepishly.

This whole idea of his was proving to be a lot more expensive than he’d initially thought. He couldn’t afford to go out and buy a brand new tv, let alone one big enough for Lewis to use.

Brandon bit his lips in thought. “You know,” he mumbled, “I think we still have that projector we used to use when we were kids.”

Jeremy’s eyes lit up. When they’d been younger, and their dad was still around, they used to have regular family movie nights, where their dad would project films onto the side of the barn. At first, he’d used an old-time movie projector. Still, not long after that, he’d upgraded to one of a digital variety. It was still old, which meant it wouldn’t have HDMI capability.

Jeremy tore open the black backpack and dug around quickly, looking for a specific cable. He grinned as he pulled out the familiar red, yellow, and white heads of the component cable. “I think we can work with that,” he said, grinning up at his older brother.

Brandon flashed him a thumbs up. “All right, I’ll go clean it up and make sure it’s working,” he grunted, slipping out of the room and running down the stairs.

Jeremy grinned as he popped open the box for the adaptive controller and laid it out on his bed. He casually sorted the bits and pieces as he tried to figure out the most optimal way to arrange it for a dragon to use. He’d nearly forgotten about the group chat until his phone vibrated angrily.

He blinked and snatched it up. Becca had tagged him in a post, likely to draw his attention. He excused himself and quickly got up to speed on what they’d been talking about in chat and frowned.

They were discussing the best ways to keep the slayer’s away from Lewis.

I think we can all agree, Becca said, that letting them get near Lewis is an awful idea, right? They can kill him if they get close.

Not sure we can stop them, Brandon replied. Eight of them, four of us.

Four of us and ONE DRAGON, Becca pointed out, throwing in a smiley face emoji. Surely that has to count for something, right?

Lucy sent a skeptical emoji before replying. If things get hairy, you can count me out, she said. I’m not putting my life in danger for a fucking dragon, no way.

Jeremy winced. Of the four of them, Lucy knew Lewis the least. She’d only started hanging out around them when she and Becca had started dating.

We can try to keep Lewis away from them, at least, Becca said. If he doesn’t know they’re around, he won’t go looking for them, right?

Is that fair? Keeping him in the dark about a potential danger? Jeremy asked, with a contemplative emoji for emphasis. Shouldn’t he know what’s coming so he can prepare and protect himself?

There was a brief pause in the chat before Becca started typing again.

I’m not sure fair matters, Becca said. If this is about his safety, and we’re the only ones who can protect him, does the responsibility not fall on us?

I guess… Jeremy answered.

Look, my concern isn’t just that they’ll find him. I think Lewis can protect himself if they come looking for him, Becca explained. I’m just worried he’ll go try to start trouble. We can’t control him if he chooses to attack them. If they lure him out, he’ll be an easy target to kill.

Nobody answered. Jeremy turned his attention back to the adaptive controller as he thought about it. Becca sort of had a point. If Lewis knew that there were dragon slayers in the area looking for him, one of two things was sure to happen.

The first, and the one that raised the most immediate concern, was that Lewis would try to stop the dragon slayers before they were ready to face him. Jeremy did not understand what Lewis was really capable of, but he’d heard enough from Lambton earlier in the day. His scales were nigh impenetrable except by specialized weapons. He can breathe freaking fire and probably fly, too. It wasn’t out of the question to think Lewis felt invincible thanks to his transformation.

Except he wasn’t invincible. Lambton even admitted that he had weapons capable of killing dragons. If Lewis went after them, he’d be in grave danger and likely wouldn’t survive the encounter.

The second thing that could happen is that knowledge of the dragon slayers could send Lewis running. He might flee the area to hide from the slayers. He was already somewhat committed to living out the rest of his days as a dragon. Why not do that in isolation from the rest of humanity and further hide from people who would do him harm?

Sure, Lambton said he could track dragons, but could they really follow him if he flew away? Maybe for a bit, but they’d quickly lose the trail, and then they’d be right back where they started. If Lewis kept to himself and avoided people and towns, it would be pretty much impossible for the slayers to find him.

Neither situation sounded ideal to Jeremy. In either scenario, he lost his best friend forever. He paused for a moment as he realized that his eyes were stinging with tears. Gritting his teeth, Jeremy tugged his glasses off and wiped his eyes.

One thing is for sure, Jeremy typed into the chat, once he’d stopped crying, we have to keep Lewis alive. If that means keeping the slayers away from him or stepping between them and our friend, then so be it.

Chapter 20

Night had finally fallen over the mountain. It was growing colder, and Lewis’s scales were rattling against each other as he shivered. He was making a scrunched-up face as he stared into the cave mouth, focusing as hard as he could to try to make it work this time. He tried to squeeze his neck or gag on his tongue — anything to make fire come out of his throat.

“Do not think so hard,” Lasthope whispered, as he floated above Lewis’s shoulders. “Remember, your body knows how to act. Do not think about it at all, if you can help it, simply do.”

“Listen, Yoda, it’s not that easy!” Lewis snapped, wheeling on Lasthope with smoke curling from his nostrils.

Lasthope raised a curious eyebrow. “I am unfamiliar with the term Yoda .”

Lewis looked up at the ghost in surprise and sputtered for a moment before deciding it wasn’t a battle worth fighting. He shook his head and turned back to the mouth of the cave.

Inside, he could see the colony of bats that inhabited it watching him nervously. Once he’d stepped outside, they’d gotten bolder and had flitted towards the space he’d cleared out. They were having a harder time gripping the ceiling without rock formations to hold on to, but those who were struggling found purchase by clinging to their fellows.

Lewis opened his mouth to spew out a gout of flame at the same moment that a tiny bat, it couldn’t have been older than a year, met his gaze and stared at him curiously. It looked kind of cute, and it bothered some part of him that he was about to cook the entire bat colony to a crisp. Oh well, they should have known better than to stick around near a dragon. He opened his mouth, tried to squeeze his neck muscles, but all that came out was the tickle of heat in his mouth, and acrid black smoke.

Lewis dropped to his belly, coughing and gagging on the smoke as he tried to clear his lungs. Lasthope floated down and shook his head in disappointment.

“What went wrong this time?” Lasthope sighed. They’d been through this over a dozen times already, and Lewis was still proving useless in the art of breathing fire. Were it not because he’d already shown the ability, Lasthope would have assumed that his young ward’s fire glands were damaged, and he could not breathe fire at all.

“Damned if I know!” Lewis barked, baring his teeth at the elder. “I think we just need to give up and admit that I just can’t do this.”

“Yes, Lewis, you can do this. Judging by your shape and build, you are of my dragon tribe, the Wyrms. All dragons of our breed can breathe fire. It is part of our basic biology. You are not some dumpy Persian Wyvern, with their venomous fangs, or an enlightened Asian Long dragon and their steam,” Lasthope said, sneering at the last few words. “You are a Wyrm! Have pride in your breed, and for Ancestor’s sake, act like one!”

Twin columns of smoke began drifting up from Lewis’s nostrils as he stared up at Lasthope. His vision went crimson with fury, and he felt his claws dig into the gravelly dirt beneath them as he flexed his talons. “I never asked to be a Wyrm dragon. I never asked to be any kind of dragon at all, come to think of it!”

“No, Lewis, you did not. You did not have a choice in the matter. Had I the choice, do you honestly think I would have chosen you!?” Lasthope growled as matching columns of white vapor wafted up from his own ghostly nostrils. “I intended for the original host of that body to die, and were my spell not interrupted, I would have succeeded. That body should have been mine.”

Lewis hopped off the ground and stamped a foot in frustration. “Yeah, well, it’s not! This is my body, and you’re never getting it!”

“We shall see about that!” Lasthope growled.

As one, the ghost and the young dragon opened their fang-filled maws, and twin jets shot out at each other. One was blazing orange and full of heat. The other was as white as fresh snow and as cold as the grave. Fire and frost met in full force with a blast of discordant temperature. Lasthope’s breath, while frigid, had no actual substance to it.

The stream of fire blasted through Lasthope’s breath attack as though it wasn’t even there before shooting through him. The ghost cried out in surprise before vanishing into vapor as the flames passed through him and struck the side of the mountain.

Lewis blinked in surprise as the rock turned black with his heat and cracked as it quickly started cooling down. “Lasthope?” He called, taking a confused step forward. “Lasthope, did I obliterate you? Are you finally gone? Out of my scales for good?”

There was no answer.

“Oh no,” Lewis whimpered, hopping on his claws nervously. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no! I still don’t know how to be a dragon! Or how to change back! Lasthope!? Lasthope, where are you?!”

Lewis paced around the cave entrance, terrified that he had just extra killed his mentor. The bats were squeaking in fear at the heat and the strange smells. A few of them risked flying over Lewis’s head in the commotion, likely to hunt for their own food or to escape from the angry dragon. Lewis largely ignored them. They weren’t relevant anymore.

Lewis’s mind reeled with all the things that he still didn’t know how to do. He didn’t know how to hunt for food, or fly, or amass a hoard! He barely knew the basics of being a dragon! He didn’t like the old ghost, but he’d depended on Lasthope to teach him how to survive in this alien body.

Without Lasthope around, he was doomed.

Lewis collapsed to the ground and buried his snout in his claws. He started sobbing, terrified at the sudden thought of being alone, and trapped as a giant fire-breathing monster for the rest of his life. He couldn’t go home to his parents. They wouldn’t understand his condition. His friends would die long before he ever did. Everything he’d ever known or loved would be stolen away from him by the passage of time and the curse of a dragon’s life span.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” Lewis repeatedly croaked, squeezing his eyes shut and begging for the power to undo his mistake. “Lasthope, come back! I still need you!”

“I never left, you fool of a whelp.”

Lewis’s eyes snapped open, and he looked up. Lasthope’s face was floating in front of him. Wisps of white dust were floating through the air, slowly reforming into the familiar shape of the spectral dragon. Lasthope twisted his head around, as though it were still attached to a neck, to inspect the damage done to his body. He snorted out a puff of white smoke as his body slowly manifested its shape, flexing his claws as they fully reformed.

“It would appear that you temporarily weakened me to the point I could not hold a manifestation,” Lasthope grumbled. “Please refrain from doing so again. That was an unpleasant experience.”

“I—I what?!”

“Your fire caused my spectral self to temporarily lose the ability to manifest my ethereal form.”

Lewis’s jaw hung open in confusion, and Lasthope rolled his eyes and groaned.

“Fire makes ghosts go poof for a bit,” Lasthope explained, in much simpler terms.

“Oh! So, if you annoy me, I can get rid of you for a bit! Awesome!” Lewis said, wagging his tail happily.

“No, that is not what I said! I said that your flames caused me to temporarily be unable to manifest! I was still here, you imbecile, and I could still hear everything you said.”

Lewis’s scales turned a vibrant shade of green as he looked off to the side. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“Of course, you know nothing. The entire point of your tantrum was that you do not know how to be a dragon, and the thought of being one for eight human lifetimes scares you. That does not even touch upon your fears of outliving all your loved ones.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I wouldn’t be so scared if you weren’t such a terrible teacher!” Lewis growled.

Lasthope’s eyes widened, and Lewis’s gaze dropped to the ground. He lay down on the gravel and buried his snout in his claws. In the air before him, more and more of Lasthope was taking shape. He flexed his translucent wings while his hind legs were reforming again.

“I am a terrible teacher?” Lasthope breathed, blinking slowly.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Lewis croaked, his throat going tight around the words. “I don’t know how to do anything in this body, and I’m scared, and all you do is berate me and yell at me. I want to go home. I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Lasthope was about to open his mouth to yell at Lewis again and paused. That was precisely what Lewis was talking about, wasn’t it? “I… apologize,” Lasthope grumbled, looking away. “I suppose living in isolation from others of my own kind for so long has done… damage is a good word for it… I did not prepare myself for the role of teacher, and that is my own fault.”

“What did you think was going to happen!?” Lewis snarled. “That you’d just turn somebody into a dragon, and they’d go along with everything you told them to?”

Lasthope sighed. “The spell was supposed to rip your soul from that body so that I might fill it with myself,” he explained, hanging his head in shame. “There was never meant to be an adjustment period. My prior body was old and weak, nearing the end of its life. That is why I used every last drop of power I had on this spell. My prior body was never meant to survive it.” Lasthope raised a spectral claw to his eyes and turned it over, as more of its shape reformed. “That I would be doomed to this partial existence feels like a punishment for my willingness to destroy another soul’s chance at a full life. It seems fitting.”

“Do you think that makes this okay!?” Lewis growled. “That you’re stuck as a ghost as punishment for turning me into a dragon!?”

“It is not— Lewis, you need to understand that I am trying to help you,” Lasthope said, his voice growing much softer. “I am trying to explain that this was not the situation I had intended for either of us. I had intended myself to have a new, younger body with which to continue my research in reviving the dragon race.”

“And you’d intended for me to be dead,” Lewis added, sniffling loudly. He wanted to cry. He hated this. He just wanted to go home, to curl up in his bed and play his Xbox. That would calm him down.

Except he couldn’t do that anymore. He couldn’t do that ever again.

“I had intended for someone to be dead, Lewis,” Lasthope said, as though this could reassure him. “It was never meant to be you, specifically. Our relationship is coincidental, not intentional. Were my spell properly completed, I greatly doubt it would have chosen you.”

“It still sucks,” Lewis grumbled, dragging his claws through the dirt. “I’m just a kid, man. I never got to grow up, or go to college, or live my freaking life! Now I’m a dragon, and I’ll never be able to do any of those things.”

“That is correct. You are a dragon now,” Lasthope agreed. “Those things are beneath you. What is a college but a miserable pile of misinterpreted human knowledge? I possess the accumulated knowledge of all dragon kind. If you want to attend a college so badly and are willing to learn, I can prepare a curriculum for you. I know magic. I could, eventually, teach it to you. That is something you would never learn at a stupid human college! ”

Lewis looked up and cocked his head. “That… would be kind of cool,” he admitted, though his expression didn’t change.

“Growing up, for humans, is a misnomer. They do not even match your tail in length when fully grown. By the Ancestors, I would wager you were already fully grown before being elevated to dragonhood,” Lasthope said. “You are but a child now, practically fresh from the egg. Dragon males take 66 years roughly to reach maturity. In 50 years, you will be fully grown, and you will tower above every building in that pitiful, insignificant town.”

Lewis blinked and thought about it. It would be cool to be that big…

“As for living your life,” Lasthope sighed, curling his tail beneath him, “I will admit that one might be difficult. We have a duty, Lewis, to preserve and resurrect the lost dragon race. We have a lot of time to work with, given the length of a dragon lifespan, and I still remember the vast majority of my research. Still, eventually, it is something we will need to do. When it is done, Lewis, you will have many human lifetimes left to live, and I can move on and take my place among the Ancestors.”

Lewis said nothing. He simply looked down at his claws and sighed. He wanted to be furious with Lasthope. He wanted to flame him again and watch him dissipate into nothing. He could feel his fire glands pulsing angrily, igniting his saliva with their burning chemicals. Twin columns of smoke were wafting out of his nostrils again. With a sigh, he spat a flaming loogie onto the ground next to him. The gravel hissed and sizzled with the heat, but there were no plants there to burn.

He wanted to be mad, but all he felt was tired. He wanted to slink into his cave, curl up into a ball, and sleep. Before he did, though, there was one more thing he had to do.

Lewis could remember what it felt like to apply pressure to his fire glands and project his flames outward. He’d done it instinctively when he’d lashed out at Lasthope, but now that he had, he found that the muscles responded more readily to his command. He could feel them in his neck, twitching and pressing up against his fire glands. It would take almost no effort now to breathe fire.

He looked up at the night sky, at the moon overhead. It was only half full, but from up on the mountains, it seemed closer than ever before and brighter than he could ever remember seeing. He smiled up at it and almost felt like it was smiling down at him. For all he knew, it might be. Lasthope often spoke of the Ancestors. Lewis knew nothing about the dragon religion. Maybe dragon heaven was on the moon, and the Ancestors were smiling down upon him?

“Who are the Ancestors?” Lewis asked, not taking his eyes off the moon.

Lasthope blinked. “The dragons who came before us. Our fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. Those whose lives were stolen and those whose lives came to an end at their appropriate time,” he explained, his voice growing quiet. “They watch over us and offer us guidance. My father always said if you listen closely, you can hear their whispers in the wind.”

“Do they see me, even though I wasn’t born a dragon?”

Lasthope didn’t have a good answer and ultimately said nothing.

It was beautiful out here on the mountain. More impressive than he thought it would be. Lewis met Lasthope’s gaze and rose to his feet again. Slowly, he turned his body around and faced the mouth of the cave. His cave. His new home for the foreseeable future. He’d have to hit it just right, to burn the entire thing. He could feel exactly how much fire he had in each gland. The right gland was running a little low. He had one good blast in him, and then he’d be done.

He took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and squeezed his glands. Twin jets of aerosolized chemical shot from either side of his throat, igniting almost the exact instant it left the glands. A brilliant pillar of flame ejected from his maw and filled his new cave home with heat and light.

Lasthope smiled softly at Lewis and nodded in approval. “We will make a proper dragon of you yet.”

Chapter 21

The cave burned well into the night, to where it got so late that Lewis curled up by the warmth of the flames and fell asleep. He slept peacefully and dreamed of the wonderful taste of food and blood.

He woke early in the morning to the sound of a truck rolling up the mountain trail and stopping nearby. He stretched out, with his eyes squeezed shut, desperate to glean a bit more sleep. Try as he might, though, the noise was too loud.

“Lewis, I believe your friends have just arrived,” Lasthope grumbled, nudging the sleeping dragon with a ghostly claw.

Lewis sleepily cracked open an eye and saw four people jogging up the hill towards him. He rolled over onto his back and lazily rubbed at his belly. It felt empty again and gurgled angrily. He wanted food, but he was just so comfortable, laying on the gravel, that he was loath to even move. Maybe the people had brought him food?

“Lewis!” a voice called. Lewis blinked as he tried to recognize it. Male, young, a bit nasally. Maybe Jeremy? “Wake up, dude!”

Lewis blinked his eyes again and rolled back onto his stomach. The earth shook as he shifted his bulk, and he turned his neck towards the four approaching figures. Yawning, he dug gunks of sleep from his eyes with his claws. One of the coming people didn’t smell immediately familiar to him. Still, the other three were scents that he instantly recognized. There was something else, though, something far more potent that masked their usually enticing aromas.

Lewis coughed and sputtered as the overwhelming stench of body spray assaulted his nostrils. His throat and nose immediately filled with smoke as he desperately tried to purge it, and he leaped to his feet and backed away from the four people as he gagged on his own flames.

“Dude, what’s wrong?” Jeremy asked, cocking an eyebrow. He had a backpack slung over one shoulder and another plastic bag in his opposite hand. He quickly adjusted his glasses as he met Lewis’s gaze.

“You stink!” Lewis coughed, covering his nose as his eyes watered. “Ugh, Ancestors, you all stink! What did you do, dump an entire bottle of Axe on yourselves?!”

“It’s just a precaution,” Jeremy explained, setting the bags down. “You masked Becca’s scent yesterday to keep from eating her, so we figured we’d all do the same before coming today.”

“Okay, but did you have to use so much?!” Lewis whined, dropping to all fours and lowering his head so he could be at eye level with his friends. Lucy was among their numbers today, half hiding behind Becca and staring at him with wide, horrified eyes. Becca wrapped her arm around her girlfriend’s waist, holding her close and tight, as though to promise everything would be fine.

“We didn’t use a lot,” Brandon said with a shrug. He had a few plastic grocery bags in his hands and a backpack of his own slung over his shoulder. “Just a few quick sprays each.”

Lewis risked opening his nostrils for a second and was once more assaulted by the vile stench. He coughed and gagged again before aiming towards the side of his cave and spitting a quick spurt of fire. The flames licked the inside of his mouth and nostrils, cleaning away the stink and leaving behind the comforting aroma of smoke. It wouldn’t last long, and he’d likely need to do it again in a few minutes to keep from gagging.

Finally, Lewis took a deep breath and looked back down at his friends. “Hey, Lucy! I guess it was too much to ask Becca to keep me a secret from you?”

Becca let go of Lucy’s hands so she could sign quickly and then interpreted for her girlfriend. “She says that she didn’t believe you were real, and now that she knows you are, she’s unsure what to really think.”

“How much did you tell her?” Lewis asked, directing the question more at Becca than at Lucy.

“All of it. She’s your friend, too. She deserved to know what happened.”

Lewis growled. He wouldn’t have agreed to that, but given he hadn’t been around to decide, he supposed it would have to be that way. “Can she at least keep me a secret?”

Lucy gave Lewis a distressed look, which quickly devolved into a frown as she rapidly signed, her eyes narrowing angrily.

“That didn’t look good,” Lewis mumbled.

“Yeah, she said ‘who am I going to tell?’ but with a lot more cursing,” Becca said, cocking an eyebrow at Lewis.

Lewis looked away sheepishly, his face going green with embarrassment. “Right, right, sorry, sorry.”

“You would be wise to be careful,” Lasthope whispered in his ear. “The more people who learn about you, the more dangerous your life will get.”

Lewis didn’t bother responding to him and instead smiled a toothy grin down at Lucy. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re here. It gets lonely up here, by myself, so the more of you who can come to keep me company, the better.”

The four humans exchanged a quick series of looks. Brandon and Jeremy met each other’s gaze and held it for longer before Brandon finally nodded for him to proceed.

“About that… Lewis, I have a question for you, and you may not like it,” Jeremy said, shuffling forward a few steps.

Lewis scrunched up his eyebrows but once more lowered himself to eye level. “Sure, what’s up?”

“Do you know a Jen Cravalho?”

Lewis blinked his large green eyes slowly as he tried to remember the name. His memories were muddied in matters of self-image and identity. Still, for any other issues, it actually seemed sharper, more precise. He could remember things in more detail. His mind raced as he tried to find the source of the name. It definitely felt familiar to him, but he’d never heard it before.

He had, however, seen it before, on the name tag for the nurse at the hospital.

“Oh,” Lewis whispered, as the memory of the name hit him. “She was a nurse at the hospital I stayed in before turning into a dragon.”

“The nurse you ate ,” Jeremy corrected him, with a sharp tone.

Lewis swallowed nervously and looked down at the ground in shame. “I…”

“Lewis, we get that you’re dealing with new instincts and tastes and stuff, but you ate a person. This goes beyond eating a cow,” Becca said, stepping forward and speaking with a calm, reassuring tone. “You killed somebody, bit her head clean off her shoulders.”

Lewis went through each of his friends, meeting their gaze one by one, before casting his eyes back at the ground. He shuffled his front claws from side to side. What exactly could he say to this? It wasn’t like he was ashamed of eating her! He knew he should seem guilty about it, about a lot of things he’d done since turning into a dragon, but he found it challenging. Human thoughts and dragon instincts didn’t mix.

“You have nothing to be ashamed of,” Lasthope reminded him. “You are a dragon. Humans are beneath you, no better than any other food.”

“Why did you do it?” Becca asked, putting a hand on his snout.

The scent of smoke in his nose was clearing up. Still, the stink of body spray was so strong that even with her hand touching him, he could barely detect the delicious aroma directly underneath. He shuddered and looked up to meet her gaze. “I was hungry. She was food.”

It was the most straightforward way he could put it. How else could he describe the situation? That humans were just so delicious, it was almost impossible to resist eating them? That excuse wouldn’t cut it. Some part of him knew it was wrong, that he used to be one of them, but some other part screamed that it shouldn’t matter. They were small, delicious, and really, what could they do to stop him?

Jeremy and Lucy each took terrified steps backward. “You’ve been describing us as smelling like food, too! Is that all we are to you now, Lewis?” Jeremy asked.

“No, no, guys, you misunderstand!” Lewis said, rising and shaking his head. Becca had to take a few steps away from him as he pulled away from her touch. “I had just transformed into a dragon, and I was so hungry that it was driving me insane! I literally did not understand what I was doing, I needed to eat something, and she was there, and she smelled so good, so I took a bite and—”

“Three bites,” Jeremy said, taking a deep breath and clenching his fists.

“What?”

“You took three bites. Both arms and her head.”

Lewis clamped his jaw and met Jeremy’s gaze. How did he know about that?

Becca gave Jeremy a confused look, too. He’d told the others about the pictures Lambton had shown him, but he’d neglected to go into as much detail. “They were precise, meaningful bites, Lewis,” Jeremy said, eyeing the dragon. “It wasn’t like with my cow, where you tore her apart and made a mess. Every bite you took out of Jen Cravalho was intentional, the act of something deliberately choosing where to eat.”

Lewis stared at his shuffling claws. What could he reasonably say to that? His friends wouldn’t understand that he didn’t suffer any remorse over killing her. They were probably confusing his expression for guilt at that very moment! He wasn’t guilty; he was just confused.

The more he thought about it, the muddier it became. He was a dragon , a creature so far removed from humanity that eating them was normal. After all, who was going to tell a hungry dragon not to eat something?

Why are dragon thoughts so hard? Lewis asked himself, frowning.

In truth, thinking like a dragon wasn’t hard. It was so easy for him to slip into the mindset of humans being food that it happened almost without effort. Lewis scrunched up his eyebrows and forced himself to think of anything else. Still, his mind always drifted back to the delicious flavor and the way the nurse’s blood had felt on his tongue.

He felt it the moment his saliva caught fire. He wanted to eat humans there and then, and it took a conscious effort not to coat his lips in burning drool.

“Lewis, we’re not mad at you for doing it,” Becca explained, running to Jeremy to step between him and the dragon. “We get it. You’re different now. You have different needs and tastes. We’re only asking you to never do it again.”

Lewis’s frown deepened as he looked up to meet Becca’s gaze. “Never do what again?”

“Eat a human,” Becca explained, pausing for a second, as though the answer had been obvious. “We don’t want to distance ourselves from you, but we can’t deny that you’re a lot more dangerous now than you used to be. You could kill one of us by accident and barely even notice. You’re just that big — that dangerous.”

Lewis held his front claws up to his face and flexed them. They were pretty big. He could easily grasp his friends and pluck them off the ground. He’d lifted a cow yesterday as though it weighed little more than a brick. He’d torn rock like it was chalk. He was definitely far stronger than he’d ever been before, and he had yet to fully grasp what the difference in destructive power really was.

“Think of this as a pre-emptive intervention,” Becca continued, drawing Lewis’s attention back to her. “We care about you a lot, Lewis, and we’re really worried about you. That’s why, as soon as Jeremy learned about the person you’d eaten, he messaged us, and we got this plan together. We wanted to show you we’re here for you, and we want to support you.”

“We just can’t do it if you go around eating people…” Jeremy quickly added. “We can’t be accessories to that…”

Lewis’s heart quickened as he frantically looked at each of his friends. Becca looked worried, but whether it was for him or about what he would do, he couldn’t tell. Lucy had a mixture of fear and fury on her face and had been slowly backing away throughout the conversation. She was a dozen paces back now and could easily bolt for safety. Brandon was his usual stoic self, his face not betraying how he felt. However, Jeremy looked angry, disgusted even, as though he couldn’t believe what Lewis had done.

Despite it all, Lewis was still having a hard time feeling bad about it. The nurse had been food, and he’d been starving to the point of insanity. What more was there to understand? He just couldn’t comprehend why they were so upset about this! It wasn’t like he’d eaten one of their family members! That he might understand. This was a complete stranger.

“You should send them away,” Lasthope whispered in his ear, his voice cold and harsh. “They cannot understand what it is like to be a dragon. They will never truly accept you as you now are. Humans are at best food and at worst vermin. Send them away.”

Lewis shivered and swatted Lasthope away with his wings. “So that’s just it, then? You want me to stop eating humans, or you guys will stop being friends with me?”

“It’s not that, Lewis!” Becca assured him. “We’ll always be your friends! It’s just we aren’t safe around you if you have a hunger for human flesh. What do you think would happen if you turned around and ate one of us? We don’t want it to happen, and we don’t think you actively want to do it, but the way things are going, it can only be a matter of time before you stop seeing us as friends and start seeing us as snacks. Keep in mind, you told us yesterday that we smell like food.”

“That’s because you do,” Lewis whined, shaking his head. “But, all right, all right, I get the point!”

“So you’ll stop eating humans?” Becca asked, elation on her face.

“I’ll stay off the human meat, if only because it means I get to keep you guys around,” Lewis grumbled half-heartedly.

“Do you really mean it, Lewis?” Jeremy asked, stepping forward to stand beside Becca.

Lewis groaned and sat upon his haunches. He raised one claw to the air and placed another over where he figured his heart should be. “I, the dragon formerly known as the human being Lewis Cooper, do solemnly swear not to seek out the delicious taste of human flesh, on penalty of losing your friendship. Happy now?”

Becca crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. Jeremy took a deep breath and adjusted the strap over his shoulder. Brandon shrugged.

“Guys?” Lewis asked, lowering back down to all fours.

Finally, Becca sighed and nodded. “All right, we’ll take what we can get for now.”

Lewis breathed a sigh of relief. “Now that we’ve settled the matter of my diet,” he said with a grin. “I have a request to make.”

His friends exchanged a quick look of confusion before he cleared his throat to draw them back to him again.

“You guys shouldn’t call me Lewis anymore,” he explained, lowering himself to their eye level. “It was my name as a human, but I have to come to terms with the fact that I’m not going to be a human again anytime soon. To that extent, I need a dragon name.”

“I did notice you said formerly known in your little oath, there,” Jeremy said with a frown.

“Have you chosen a new name?” Becca asked, with a raised eyebrow

“Sort of. Hey, Lasthope, what’s that thing you keep calling me?” Lewis asked over his shoulder, raising his voice.

“Do you refer to the insult I call you when you refuse to listen to me?” Lasthope asked, incredulous.

“Yeah, that one.”

“That would be lazy scales .”

“You guys can call me Lazyscales for now,” Lewis said with a grin, turning back to his friends. “Lazyscales,” he said again, tasting the way the name felt on his tongue. Despite it being an insult, it also felt right. It felt unapologetically him, in a way his given human name never had.

“That’s a terrible name,” Becca, Jeremy, and Lasthope all said, almost at the same time. “Could you not pick something cooler? More dignified?”

Lewis grinned and shook his head. Their reaction was proof that he’d made the right call.

Chapter 22

With matters settled between them about Lewis’s eating habits and his new name hanging in the air, the four humans and one dragon ventured into the newly cleaned cave. The walls were charred black by the heat and, to Lewis’s surprise, completely dry. Yesterday, the entire cavern had been dank and musty, with dampness that had permeated every fiber of his being and froze his bones.

Now, though, the cave was warm and inviting. The walls, floor, and ceiling were dry as a bone, and the flame washing had completely evaporated the stench of mold and guano. The cave was instead filled with the calming aroma of smoke and ash. Lewis took a deep breath of his new home. The change was comforting and reminded him of how his bedroom smelled as opposed to his parent’s room. There was always a sharper scent to their room, one that made him a little uncomfortable. In contrast, a space occupied solely by him was comfortable. He’d never realized it before how much scents mattered, but his draconic sense of smell had changed everything.

This cave didn’t exactly have the same kind of olfactory atmosphere as his bedroom. Still, already it smelled more and more like somewhere Lewis could be safe and comfortable. A few charred bat carcasses were strewn about the floor, and Lewis quickly scooped them up in his maw and chomped down on them, not caring for an instant that his friends could see him eat. They were burned and crispy, but they went down his gullet and settled into his belly.

“What?” Lewis asked, looking up at his friends once he realized they were staring at him. A bat’s singed wing was hanging out of his mouth, and he quickly slurped it up and swallowed it.

“That’s kind of gross,” Brandon grunted. “They’re burnt.”

Lewis shrugged his wings and shoulders. “They’re meat, as good as any other,” he said, patting his belly. “Though, not really substantial enough. I’m probably going to have to hunt today…”

“Oh! We actually figured you’d be hungry, so we brought you food,” Jeremy said, giving Brandon a significant look. “It’s not much, but hopefully, it’ll tide you over until you have a chance to hunt for bigger game later?”

Lewis swallowed nervously as Brandon set down his grocery bags and pulled out a few packages of wrapped tenderloin and pork chops. Lewis sniffed at them curiously and popped one into his mouth before his friends took the plastic off.

Lewis chewed the meat, his tongue expertly extracting it from the plastic, before swallowing it. It tasted fine, he supposed, but it was dry. There was no gush of blood, no sweet tang of flavors. As he spat out the plastic, he couldn’t help but dread eating the other packaged meat. It was boring. Had he ever really eaten this stuff? Cooked, no less, so even dryer than it was now?! Disgusting. He didn’t understand how humans could live like this! There was nothing more appetizing than fresh meat that gushed blood down your throat! At that moment, Lewis wanted nothing more than to slit an animal’s throat and chug its blood.

“Butchered meat, bah,” Lasthope growled, swatting at the plastic wrap Lewis discarded. “This is not healthy for dragons. Iron from blood promotes proper scale growth. Having a low-iron diet is how you get scale rot.”

Lewis gave Lasthope a quick look, as though to say they’d have to talk about it more later. “Thanks, guys, I really appreciate the snack,” Lewis said, trying to sound genuinely grateful.

His friend made a game of tossing the meat up into the air and letting him catch it in his maw. Whenever one of them looked like it would miss him, Lewis would crane around to catch it. The girls seemed to enjoy the spectacle of the giant dragon playing catch like a dog until the boys offered them a turn. Becca picked up a bright red chunk of beef and tossed it underhandedly. It landed cleanly on Lewis’s snout, which made everyone in the cave burst out into laughter.

Lewis shrugged his massive shoulders and tilted his head. The beef slid down his snout, and he caught it in his mouth.

To everyone’s surprise, Lucy had a perfect throw that landed right in the middle of Lewis’s tongue. Everyone cheered for her, and Lewis gave her two big thumb-claws up.

With Lucy’s toss, though, the meat was expended. Lewis looked disappointedly at the empty grocery bags, his belly barely full enough to stop growling. He put a claw to it, feeling a pang of hunger pushing its way into him. More than just the hunger, though, was an intense craving. He hadn’t realized how essential blood was to a meal until he didn’t have it. His throat practically ached with the need for it, and it was all he could do to push the craving from his mind.

“All right, that was fun and all,” Lewis said, laying on his stomach inside his cave. He pressed his bulk up against the far back wall, where it was too dark for his human friends to see without the use of a flashlight, “but you still have bags. Do you guys have something else for me, or did you come to tease?”

Now that Lewis had unintentionally displaced — eaten — the bat colony, the farthest wall in the cave was surprisingly the most comfortable. It was covered in an irregularly formed rock that rubbed pleasantly against Lewis’s sides, like a big back massager. Given the tunnel continued on past it, it was also colder to the touch than other walls in the cave, making it almost like a giant stone pillow for his entire body. He nestled against it and scratched an itch against its rough surface. He half-closed his eyes as a light tingle of pleasure ran down his spine.

“And why can’t it be both?” Becca grinned, propping a fist up on her hip and interrupting Lewis’s scratching session. She aimed her phone at Lewis, and the camera light on the back momentarily flashed in his eyes, making him squeeze them shut. “Jeremy has something for you, first.”

Becca turned the light away, and Lewis followed her gaze over to Jeremy, who was rooting around in his backpack, trying to grip something large and black. Finally, with a grunt of effort, Jeremy pulled it out and held it above his head.

It was like a sacred relic from a time long since passed. Lewis felt his tongue catching in his throat as he stared at the box. The memory of it was foggy, from when Lasthope had stolen and eaten chunks of it, but a spark of recognition still lit up in his eyes.

It couldn’t be… could it?

“Is that…?” Lewis jogged himself off the wall and slid carefully towards Jeremy. He reached out a claw towards the box but stopped himself from taking it. His dopey talons were just so big and clumsy, there was no way he could touch the delicate box without turning it into plastic shrapnel. “Did you…?”

“It’s yours,” Jeremy confirmed with a bright grin. “I snuck into your house to steal your Xbox for you!”

Lewis’s eyes grew wide, and his snout turned green. “You did what?” He asked, his voice so low it was barely audible. He lowered his head to Jeremy’s level and looked him in the eyes. “You did this… for me?”

Jeremy hesitated for a moment, then carefully tucked the Xbox under one arm. With the other hand, he rested it on Lewis’s snout and rubbed it. “Of course, dude. Just because you’re big and scaly now doesn’t mean I want to stop being your best friend. And, as your best friend, I know what makes you happy.”

Lewis pulled away from Jeremy and held his claws up to his face. “But these… they can’t hold a controller, let alone turn the machine on.”

“We thought of that,” Jeremy said with a grin. “Brandon, let’s set it up.”

Brandon dropped his bags and ran back to his truck. A few moments later, he returned, dragging a bright red box and some spools of cable behind him. He positioned the red box by the mouth of the cave and opened it up, revealing four panels of black glass. Lewis watched curiously as he pushed a button on the machine and then plugged one end of the cable into it.

The young dragon watched, even more, enraptured, as Brandon unrolled the cable and set it down near the back of the cave. He looked up at Jeremy and gave his kid brother a thumbs up. The two of them immediately got to work setting up the Xbox and a few other peripherals. Some of them Lewis recognized, while others were strange and unfamiliar to him.

Jeremy motioned for Lewis to back himself up towards the side of the cave while they worked, and it didn’t take him long to guess what they were doing. They’d brought a projector and hooked up to the Xbox!

“Guys, you really didn’t need to go this far!” Lewis insisted, his eyes wide but his voice excited. “Honestly, this is a bit much!”

“We haven’t even scratched the surface of how far we’ve gone yet,” Jeremy said, holding up another bag. “With this, you won’t need a controller!”

Lewis frowned in confusion as Jeremy pulled the adaptive controller out of the bag and set it up on the cave floor. Two giant red joysticks, complete with a handful of fat, colored buttons, were laid out and arranged into the familiar shape of an Xbox controller right next to the projector.

“It’s a little rough,” Jeremy said, “but it should do the trick!”

Lewis’s talons flexed as he reached out towards the buttons. They were right there, so very close… He could still play video games, even as a dragon? Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad…

“Lewis, this is wrong,” Lasthope whispered in his ear, his voice stern and concerned. “This is not how a dragon should fill their lair. Tell them to take it away, please.”

Lewis ignored him as Brandon fired up the projector. The wall across from Lewis flared to life as light and color filled the cave. Sounds echoed through it next as a tinny noise came from the projector’s built-in speakers. Finally, the familiar Xbox logo appeared on the wall, accompanied by the start-up noise.

Lewis felt big tears well up in his eyes. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed this until it was right in front of him. He reached out a claw towards the buttons on the ground. The set up was still much too small for him, but he found he was at least able to manipulate the joysticks as though they were analog sticks and still be able to reach the buttons. The layout was familiar, albeit a little uncomfortable without something to grip in his hands.

“What do you want to play first?” Jeremy asked.

Truth be told, Lewis wanted to play Fortnite , but he didn’t want to ask his friends about the possibility of an internet connection. They’d already done so much by bringing his Xbox back to him, by giving him the ability to play games again.

Lewis didn’t answer as he cycled through the list of games he’d already downloaded and installed to the machine. Memories of playing them in his bedroom flashed through his mind as he stopped on each one. In his head, he was sitting in his room, his big dumb claws wrapped around a controller perfectly sized for his hands. He knew those memories were wrong, but they gave him a small comfort.

There was a fair number of games already installed on the device, which was good since he wasn’t too sure when he’d get the chance to download something new. He decided that, since this would be the first game he truly played as a dragon, it should be something fun and familiar.

“I’m thinking Halo ,” Lewis said, grinning as he clicked the start button.

The game started, and the familiar theme song hit Lewis like a truck. He froze, just staring at the start screen, as the music echoed through his cave. His face, illuminated only by the light of the projector, was practically aglow with joy.

“Lewis, please, this is wrong,” Lasthope said, floating in front of the bronze dragon’s face to get his attention. “Dragons should not partake in human toys.”

Lewis blew out the slightest puff of flame in response. It wasn’t a lot, but Lasthope got the message: go away.

Lewis’s friends stood in the cave, waiting for him to do something, when Lewis looked down at the buttons laid out beneath his claws. “What button does what?” He asked, frowning. There were fewer buttons laid out than usually there were on an Xbox controller.

Jeremy picked up the adaptive controller's central console and traced each cable back to their respective labels. “The joysticks work as you expect,” he explained, “while those buttons are for your guns and grenades. That button is for jumping, and that one cycles through your weapons.”

Lewis took a deep breath as he cycled through the menus and fired up a new campaign. The projected screen faded to black for a brief second before the cave filled with the lights and sounds of the opening cinematic. A single stray tear rolled down Lewis’s cheek. He was playing video games again!

Jeremy, Brandon, Becca, and Lucy all took a step away from Lewis, as he quickly lost himself in the joy of playing a game. From the light of the projector, they could see the smile on his scaly face. Lewis was happy again for the first time since becoming a dragon.

“How long do you think this will last?” Becca relayed, as Lucy quickly signed to the other three. “He can’t stay like this forever.”

Brandon looked down and shook his head, and Jeremy took a deep breath and nodded. “I know, but we need to at least give him an adjustment period,” Jeremy said, crossing his arms. “He has to come to terms with what happened to him, and he’ll never do that if he’s stuck up here alone. Besides,” Jeremy added, looking over his shoulder as his friend continued playing, “he looks happy. I mean genuinely, happy.”

All four looked up and watched Lewis play. It was true. He focused on the game and barely paid attention to the way the adaptive controller’s slightly different layout changed how he played.

“He can’t play with human things forever,” Brandon grunted.

“No, he can’t,” Jeremy agreed sadly, “but it shouldn’t be our choice to take them away from him. It wasn’t fair, either, that he had to give up things that made him happy just because of a change that he couldn’t control.”

Becca nodded in agreement. “The best we can do now is guide him towards the right decisions. If that means giving up on human things, then that’s what we push. We all know how much of a space case Lewis can be. If we don’t encourage him to pick up better habits, he might never adapt to his new body.”

Jeremy nodded. He hadn’t thought of that when he’d brought the Xbox up the mountain. He’d only thought about what would make Lewis happy. He didn’t regret his decision, though. One look at the dragon’s face told him he’d made the right call.

The four of them were about to head back into the cave to spend some more time with Lewis before they had to leave when suddenly they heard a car pulling up the hill. They looked down and noticed a black sedan rolling up next to Brandon’s truck, with a man inside.

Jeremy cast a worried glance inside the cave, where Lewis was still blissfully ignorant of his surroundings as he played his video game. That might be about to crash down around him…

Chapter 23

The man cut the engine and stepped out of his vehicle. He had bright red hair and was dressed from head to toe in black combat gear. There was a gun strapped to his hip that he was resting a hand on as he eyed the kids warily.

“What are you four doing up here?” he asked, narrowing his eyes as he met Jeremy’s gaze. He had a distinct English accent, though it was thicker and deeper than Lambton’s.

Jeremy adjusted his glasses and looked away from the man, trying to catch his brother’s attention. Brandon, however, had his eyes narrowed and his fists clenched. Something was very, very wrong.

“Who’s asking?” Becca said, cocking an eyebrow.

The man cocked an eyebrow and slammed the door to his car shut. “Me. I’m asking,” he said.

“Why? Are you a cop?” Jeremy asked.

“I might be, depends on why you’re up here.”

Jeremy and Becca exchanged a quick glance. Lucy cracked her knuckles between her hands. Brandon narrowed his eyes.

“We’re smoking weed,” Becca lied. “Nobody else comes up here but us.”

The man narrowed his eyes. “What, do you think I’m dumb? I don’t smell weed. Try again.”

Jeremy felt his blood go cold. There was something familiar about this guy, but he couldn’t really tell what. “L-look,” Jeremy stuttered, trying to keep his voice steady, only for it to crack, “we just wanted some privacy. There’s nothing wrong with that, right? We’re not hurting anyone.”

“You could be the ones getting hurt,” the man said, cocking an eyebrow.

Lucy flipped the man the bird and quickly signed at him, her motions so fast that it caused her long blonde hair to bounce. The man eyed her warily, and Becca’s eyes widened as she processed what her girlfriend was saying.

“What? What’s she saying?” The man barked as Lucy finished her signing by crossing her arms and grinning in satisfaction.

“To summarize, is that a threat?” Becca interpreted. “Also this,” Becca added, before flipping the man the bird.

“You little brats,” the man growled, his hand reaching for his gun. “You’re really going to talk to me that way?”

“Sorry, we don’t even know who you are,” Jeremy blurted, stepping between the man and the others. “You just come up here, randomly start asking us questions! Are you a cop or not?!”

“He’s one of Lambton’s men,” Brandon said, putting a hand on Jeremy’s shoulder. “I recognize him. Dayton, I think his name was.”

At the name, Jeremy froze, his tongue caught in his throat. Lambton sent him? This was one of his men? That meant he was a dragon slayer! Jeremy’s heart hammered as his mind whirled with thoughts. They couldn’t let him get anywhere close to Lewis! Jeremy risked a quick glance at Becca and met her gaze, and she nodded curtly. She’d likely been having the same thoughts.

Becca quickly took Lucy’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Lucy gave the taller girl a wry smile and promptly signed O-K with her free hand. Becca swallowed nervously and nodded to her girlfriend.

It would be okay.

They would be okay.

Dayton met Brandon’s eyes and scoffed. “You the farm brats who tried to throw us away for doing our job? Thought I recognized you. Run along. I have work to do.”

“Why?” Brandon asked, narrowing his eyes and taking a protective step in front of Jeremy. “Nothing’s up here but us.”

“Oh, like hell, there is,” Dayton grunted. “You expect me to believe you didn’t see the smoke coming off the mountain last night?”

Jeremy blinked in surprise, and Brandon shot him a glance from over his shoulder. Neither of them had seen anything, but they had spent most of the evening indoors. They likely wouldn’t see smoke from the mountain against the black of the night sky.

“For all, you know, that could have been us smoking weed,” Becca said.

“Not the amount of smoke we saw,” Dayton said. “There was too much of it, so unless you made a bonfire, you should move along.”

“We’re staying,” Brandon grunted.

“What does smoke have to do with anything, anyways?” Jeremy quickly added. “You guys are some kind of animal control, not firefighters.”

“The things we hunt like to start fires. The boss sent me up here to check in on everything, make sure our quarry isn’t hanging around razing the forest or nothing,” the older man explained. He gripped his gun and slipped it partially out of the holster. His finger rested lightly on the trigger, as if telling the kids he could shoot them whenever he wanted. “This cave seems like a viable candidate for its lair, so I’m going to check it out, see?”

Becca straightened her face and hoped the others were putting on a mask of their own. They couldn’t afford to let Dayton get anywhere close to Lewis. If he saw Lewis, it was game over. “Well, you can move along. That was us. We had a bonfire last night.”

Dayton gave Becca a stern look.

Becca crossed her arms defiantly and narrowed her eyes at Dayton. “There’s nothing up here but us,” she said, her voice calm and controlled.

“Right!” Jeremy said in agreement, while Lucy and Brandon nodded their heads vigorously. Jeremy didn’t know what Becca was planning, but if she had a way to keep Dayton away from Lewis, he’d play along with anything she said.

“Are you dumb or something?” Dayton said, frowning as he looked at each of the four teens. “I know these two,” he said, nodding towards Jeremy and Brandon, “they saw the carnage left at their farm. They know perfectly well what we’re hunting, and they know how dangerous it can be. If we don’t stop it, it will keep killing people. If you want to know why it’s so important that we kill this thing, ask them.”

Jeremy risked a glance over his shoulder at the cave and took a deep breath. He could still faintly hear the tinny sounds of the Xbox inside. An idea sparked in Jeremy’s mind.

“We come up here to game privately,” Jeremy said quickly, pointing at the bright red box in front of the cave. “We’ve set up a whole gaming station in here.”

Dayton blinked and looked past the kids, narrowing his eyes at the box. “Seriously?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow at Jeremy. “All the way up here?”

“I know it’s n-not ideal,” Jeremy stuttered sheepishly at the lie. “Mom doesn’t like us spending too much time in the house.”

Dayton gave Jeremy a look of disbelief.

Lewis was engrossed in his game, but not so much that he didn’t notice his friends hadn’t returned. Frowning, he fumbled to pause the game, delicately clicking the button that Jeremy had rigged to the start function, and glared at the cave mouth. He could hear some kind of commotion happening outside, and his ears perked in curiosity.

“At the risk of sounding contrary, stay out of that if you value your scales,” Lasthope whispered in his ears. “There is nothing but danger out there.”

“What do you mean? My friends are out there,” Lewis asked, frowning at the ghost. He slowly rose to his feet, craning his neck to glimpse what was happening.

Lasthope floated in front of Lewis and shook his large, spectral head. “Lewis, I know you have not wanted to listen to me before unless it would be of immediate value to you. Please, trust me when I say, for your own safety, do not go outside the cave right now. Return to your human toy. It will be a suitable distraction for now. I will alert you if danger further presents itself.”

Lewis’s scowl deepened, and he stepped right through Lasthope. He kept himself close to the ground, his wings tucked safely against his sides as he scuttled like an alligator towards the mouth of the cave. His belly, as empty as it was, scraped along the ground as he moved.

There was a man in black, with a gun at his hip and his hand resting on it. He was talking loudly to Lewis’s friends. They’d all moved further down the mountain, to where he was hidden within the cave mouth by the incline.

Lewis frowned as the tinny echoes of the projector drowned out the voices of the people down below. The man in black looked angry, though. His face was contorted in a scowl, and he still had his grip on his weapon. Lewis struggled to pick up what was being said, but the stupid projector was being too loud. Lewis contemplated turning around to turn it off when he noticed the man’s grip tighten on his weapon.

If he pulls that gun on my friends…

The thought of it made Lewis’s vision turn red.

“Lewis, you need to control yourself right now!” Lasthope hissed, his voice growing frantic. “Lewis, listen to me! Focus on the sound of my voice!”

Lewis’s jaw clenched shut, and twin columns of smoke began pouring out of his nostrils. His claws dug deep furrows in the ground as they tightened.

“Lewis, dragons are very possessive creatures,” Lasthope continued, begging the Ancestors that his young ward might listen to him. “You are not seeing people! You see a threat to what you consider property. Do not act on that impulse!”

Lewis couldn’t hear him. He only had eyes for the man down below. A threat to his friends. His friends! His friends, who had stolen his Xbox and gone through the trouble of making sure he could play it. His friends, who were standing by him despite everything that had happened. His friends, who forgave him for killing people and eating them.

His friends, who he loved more than he cared to admit.

This human will pay.

Before Lewis could stop himself, he bellowed from deep within his throat and sprayed fire into the air. All five humans looked up at the cave mouth as Lewis came down in a charge, black smoke spilling from his maw and hunger in his eyes.

Dayton took one look at the furious dragon running towards them and scrambled towards his car. For a moment, he fumbled with the door before tugging it open and sticking the key in the ignition. The car flared to life, and Dayton threw it into gear.

Lewis tried to ignore that the man smelled like coffee and donuts as he quickly scooped his friends up in his claws and set them down further up the mountain. All four of them looked into his frantic eyes, terrified at what Lewis was about to do.

Lewis didn’t know for sure what he would do, either, but that man would learn a valuable lesson.

“Don’t kill him!” Becca shouted as Lewis turned tail and ran down the hill, chasing after Dayton.

Dayton had a rough time driving as fast as he wanted. The mountain path didn’t provide good traction, so his tires slipped and skidded as he made his way towards the foothills path.

Lewis had no such problem. His claws effortlessly gripped the dirt, his heart pounded in his chest as he gave chase. There would be blood! There would be pain!

The car was fast, but with his traction, Lewis was faster. Despite the substantial lead it had earned, he was catching up.

He would catch up, and when he did, this man would taste his fire, and Lewis would taste his blood.

Dayton lowered the rearview mirror and caught sight of the furious dragon charging towards him. He was getting closer by the second, black smoke flowing from his maw in a raging cloud. Dayton threw the car into low gear, hoping that maybe it would help him get to the road faster, but there was no such luck.

Lewis lowered his horns and struck, catching the vehicle on his head like a battering ram. Dayton screamed at the impact as it lifted his car off the ground and flung it to the side like a child’s plaything. Lewis growled as he tore the door off the upwards facing side and reached in to pluck Dayton out of his seat. The man hadn’t even bothered to put on a seatbelt in his hurry to get away.

Fool

Lewis gripped the man in one claw, like a toy in the hand of a child.

Lewis held the man up to his maw and took a deep whiff of the scent. Donuts and coffee. Delicious. His drool burned as he imagined biting this man’s head off, drinking his blood like a juice box. It would be so easy, and he wouldn’t even need to feel bad. He’d been a threat to Lewis's friends, and now he would pay.

“LAZYSCALES!” A voice screamed from up the mountain. Lewis looked up and saw Becca running down towards him. “DON’T DO IT! DON’T EAT HIM!”

Lewis frowned. He was hungry, this human smelled good, and he had threatened what belonged to Lewis. Why shouldn’t he be eaten?

It was then Lewis remembered his promise to his friends, the one he had made not even an hour earlier. He’d promised he wouldn’t eat humans anymore, on penalty of losing them. He ground his teeth and clenched his fist tighter.

Dayton was frozen in terror, staring up at Lewis, so it came as something of a surprise when the dragon met his gaze and said: “you’re lucky I’m on a diet.”

Lewis tightened his grip on the little man until he was struggling to breathe. The little man gasped for air, but Lewis kept squeezing, his lips curling up in a smokey sneer, even as the human’s ribs cracked beneath his claws. With a growl from deep in his throat, Lewis vigorously shook the pitifully small human.

“Let this be a reminder to anyone who wants to hurt my friends,” Lewis snarled.

Dayton tried to scream, but between the grip on his chest and the thrashing, he had no breath left. Finally, he went limp in Lewis’s claw. The dragon held the tiny man up to his snout and sniffed him a few times just to make sure he wasn’t dead before snorting in frustration and dropping him to the ground. Dayton’s limp body flopped forward, laying face down in the dirt.

“Lew—Lazycales, oh my god, did you—?” Becca panted as she slid to a stop a few yards away from him.

“No, I didn’t kill him,” Lewis growled, pawing at the ground in frustration, “but I wanted to, and I think I should have. He threatened my friends. That is unacceptable.”

At that moment, Brandon and Jeremy joined Becca at Lewis’s feet. Lucy was still closer to the cave, walking at a cautious pace rather than running.

“I didn’t kill him because you guys asked me not to eat humans anymore,” Lewis explained, “so I hope you’re proud of me.”

The three of them exchanged a nervous look, glancing from the crumpled wreck of a car to the unconscious man.

Chapter 24

“Lewis, there’s a lot more going on here than whether or not you ate a person!” Jeremy insisted, panting and wheezing as he struggled to catch his breath. “You seriously hurt him!”

“And I should have done a lot more than just that,” Lewis growled, stamping a foot in frustration. “He was threatening you guys, my friends, and I couldn’t let that go unpunished! I think a few broken ribs and a concussion are the least I could take from him!”

Becca and Jeremy’s eyes widened, and they exchanged a severe look.

“Lewis,” Jeremy began, forgetting for a moment that he didn’t want to be called by that name anymore, “he wasn’t threatening us.”

“Yeah, right. He was waving a gun in your face. If I hadn’t stepped in, he could have shot you,” Lewis said, snorting out a plume of smoke and loomed over his friends.

“He never actually pulled it out,” Becca said, shaking her head. “In fact, he was about to turn around and leave.”

Lewis blinked slowly and shook his head. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t about to take that chance. He could have pulled the gun out at any time and killed any of you. If you want an apology for scaring you? Fine, I’m sorry that you were frightened. Don’t expect an apology for hurting him, though. I was protecting you! I should have killed him, and you should thank me for saving you!”

“Lewis, can’t you hear what we’re saying?” Becca shook her head and took a few steps away from Lewis. “We didn’t need protection. You just hurt a man for no reason.”

“No reason?” Lewis growled, his face contorting into a mask of confusion and fury. “Guys, somebody just rolled up the mountain with a gun. A gun! A lethal firearm that I can survive, but you can’t! I dealt with him — without killing him, just like you asked, by the way — to protect you! What exactly is the problem here?”

It was at that moment that Lucy stomped over to the rest of them and signed frantically. Becca motioned for her to slow down, and Lucy took a deep breath and started up again.

“I’m done,” Becca interpreted as Lucy signed. “I signed on for this because I heard Lewis was a cool monster. Nobody told me there would be people with guns and manic dragons. I want to go home.”

“Babe, you can’t just—” Becca started but was interrupted when Lucy held up a finger. Her girlfriend signed something and then crossed her arms. Becca nodded and gave Lucy a quick kiss on the cheek. “She says that what just happened was too scary, and she doesn’t want to be a part of this anymore.”

Lewis frowned down at Lucy, confusion rattling his brain. What was going on here? Why was everyone acting like he’d done something wrong? He’d been protecting them! He’d dived in to save them from a guy with a weapon!

“I’ll drive her home,” Brandon said, nodding. “I’ll also drop Dayton off in town and give him a story he can believe. I’ll tell him he crashed his car or something.”

Becca kissed Lucy again and waved to her as Brandon lifted the red-haired man into a fireman’s carry, and the two of them marched up the hill, back to his truck. A few minutes later, the truck rolled down the hill, towards the road that Lewis and the wreck of the car obstructed. With a sigh, the dragon turned the crumpled vehicle out of the way for them to pass.

Once they were gone, Lewis stomped back up the mountain, his tail thrashing so hard that Becca and Jeremy were scared to follow too close behind.

“Lewis, wait up, man!” Jeremy called, as he slipped on some loose gravel. It was only thanks to Becca catching him that he could remain upright. “Lewis, come on! We need to talk about this!”

Lewis, however, didn’t stop until he reached the mouth of his cave. For a moment, he considered unpausing his game and playing some more since video games had always been an easy way for him to calm down. Right now, though, he didn’t want to calm down. He was angry and confused, and nobody was making any sense to him anymore! More than that, though, he felt his anger was justified.

He’d been trying to protect his friends. Why were they acting like he’d done something wrong? He’d even gone out of his way not to kill the stupid human!

“Lewis, are you okay?” Becca said, coming up to the cave just as Lewis curled himself into a ball in its mouth.

“Of course, I’m not okay! Ever since I turned into a dragon, you guys haven’t been making any sense!” Lewis mumbled, not meeting her gaze. “First it was eating the cow, then it was telling you guys you smell good, then it was about killing and eating people, and now it’s about protecting you! I don’t understand what the problem is!”

“Lewis, come on, we really didn’t need protecting...” Jeremy said.

“That wasn’t how it looked from where I was,” Lewis grumbled.

Becca shook her head. “Okay, look, I think we can all agree that Lewis had the best intentions when he attacked Dayton just now.”

Jeremy and Lewis grumbled in agreement.

“I think the bigger issue, here, is how quick you were to attack him,” Becca said, giving Lewis a concerned look. “You seriously hurt him. I don’t think you realize how easily you could have killed him.”

Lewis’s eyes narrowed to slits. “I know exactly how easily I could have killed him,” he growled, curls of smoke drifting up from his nose. “It would have been effortless. One little bite. He’d be dead, and I’d have a satisfying meal.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened in horror, and he took a step back in shock.

“Lewis, I really thought we got through to you earlier,” Becca said, shaking her head. “You can’t go around killing people, even if you think they might be a threat.”

“I wasn’t going around killing people,” Lewis snarled, “but you’re dead wrong. This was precisely the right time to kill someone.”

“No, Lewis, it wasn’t,” Jeremy said, hard. “Killing people is wrong!”

Lewis didn’t respond. He rolled over to face away from his friends and growled deep within his chest.

“Lewis… What part of this is hard to understand?” Becca asked.

Lewis didn’t want to admit it, but none of it was making sense to him. It would have been so easy for him to bite Dayton’s head off and guzzle his blood. He regretted not doing it, too. How could something so easy, so natural, be wrong?

The human within Lewis told him he should feel terrible for hurting Dayton.

The dragon within him told him he should be mad. He hadn’t hurt Dayton enough .

“Lewis,” Jeremy muttered, taking a step towards the dragon. “Are you… really having that much trouble with this?”

Lewis let another growl escape his throat. “You guys are wrong,” he craned his neck around and flashed Jeremy an emerald glare. “He deserved to die. It was stupid of me to let him live.”

Lewis’s brows creased, and his eyes narrowed as he gave it some thought. The more he mulled it over, the more wrong his friends sounded. He’d been right to eat Jen Cravalho. He’d been starving, and the nourishment he’d gained had been enough to drive him away from insanity. If he hadn’t eaten her, he likely would have remained a rampaging monster until he’d eaten something else.

He’d been right to kill and eat Bessie, the cow. Again, he’d been hungry, and she was just a stupid prey animal. Their entire point for existing was so they could be eaten! Even the humans slaughtered them by the thousands every day expressly so they could feed their masses! Why was it so wrong that he did the same?

Then there was this human, this Dayton. Lewis was just protecting his friends from a threat! Since he left him alive, that meant he could come back and be a threat again! He should have killed Dayton when he had the chance to permanently neutralize him.

“Lewis,” Becca whispered, getting his attention again. Lewis hadn’t noticed, but he’d begun digging his claws into the ground in frustration. “Lewis, we want to be here to help you, but you really can’t just go around killing people.”

“I’m not killing people, though,” Lewis growled, uncurling himself and stamping a foot in frustration, “I was protecting what’s mine. My friends.”

Jeremy shook his head slowly, staring at the dragon in disbelief. This didn’t sound like Lewis anymore. Lewis wasn’t the kind of guy who would go out of his way to kill somebody who slighted him. Lewis didn’t think it was fine to hurt someone as punishment for threatening his friends. The words tumbling out of the dragon’s mouth… These weren’t the words of Jeremy’s best friend.

“We don’t want to be protected if it means you have to kill people,” Jeremy breathed, looking up and meeting the dragon’s eyes. For the first time since Lewis had become a dragon, he wasn’t sure how much of his best friend was really left in there. “You shouldn’t kill anyone. Ever.”

Silence fell over the trio. Lewis shuffled his claws, looking away with smoke curling from his snout. Becca hugged herself and looked at Jeremy for advice. Jeremy looked only at Lewis, trying to determine if his best friend could really be saved.

Is this monster really Lewis? Jeremy thought. Or is Lewis dead, just a ghost that this monster could imitate?

“I’m not allowed to kill people,” Lewis said, his voice low, glowering at Becca. “I’m not allowed to kill prey animals,” he continued, his gaze drifting next to Jeremy. “What exactly am I allowed to kill? I’m a dragon! I have to kill to eat! That’s part of the package!”

“You could just eat produce and market meat,” Jeremy suggested. “We could bring you some more food. You don’t have to kill to eat, Lewis.”

“Market meat lacks blood, and I need blood to keep my scales healthy. Try again,” Lewis growled, his jaw clenched tight.

Lasthope drifted lazily above the conversation, and Lewis could swear he saw a smile plastered on the ghost’s face. “Lewis, now is the ideal time to drive them away. They cannot understand you, and you cannot understand them anymore. Tell them to leave.”

“Lewis,” Becca mumbled, trying to catch the dragon’s gaze again. “We’re only doing this because we care about you, and we’re worried about you…”

Lewis looked away from the ghost, looked away from his friends. He stared deep into the depths of his cave, where the projector was still on, showing the Halo pause screen. He didn’t even want to play the game anymore. It just didn’t feel right, with the different controller and display being projected onto the cave wall.

It didn’t feel right because it wasn’t right. None of this was.

Lewis was a dragon.

He didn’t belong with humans anymore; he belonged with his own kind.

Except he had no kind. He was the only living dragon on earth.

I’m alone.

“I am all you have,” Lasthope whispered in Lewis’s ear. “As long as I am here, you are never truly alone. Send them away.”

Lewis took a deep breath and met his friends’ gaze again. “You guys don’t get it,” he said. “You guys will never understand what it’s like to be,” he paused for a moment and raised a claw up to his friends. He reached out towards Jeremy, and the small human boy backed away from him. When he was just outside Lewis’s grasp, the dragon closed his claw into a fist, slicing the air with his talons. “You’ll never be able to understand me. I get it now.”

“Lewis?” Becca said, backing up towards Jeremy and checking to see if he was okay. The smaller boy’s eyes were wide with terror, and he was shaking. Lewis’s claws had come so close, just a few more inches, and Jeremy’s gut would have spilled on the mountainside. He’d have been nothing more than meat for the dragon to eat.

“You two should leave,” Lewis hissed, rising to his full height. He opened his wings, blotting out the light coming from inside the cave and the sun above. The shade he cast was enough to cover up the solar generator, and the sounds from inside the cave abruptly stopped as everything lost power. “Leave now, and don’t come back.”

“Le-ewis?!” Jeremy squeaked, backing away from him, his eyes growing wide.

Twin pillars of smoke wafted up from Lewis’s nostrils as he stared down at his friends.

His friends.

His meals.

“I’m not Lewis anymore,” he growled, as fire lit the inside of his maw. It would be so easy to cook them both to a crisp, to devour their delicious flesh. One gout of flame was all it would take.

Lewis licked his lips, vaguely aware that he was coating them in burning drool. Even through the putrid scent of the body spray they’d used to mask their odors, Lewis could still smell the succulent flesh beneath them. The tasty, delicious, juicy, fresh…

He didn’t want to eat his friends, but there was the hunger gnawing in his stomach and the frustration of realizing they’ll never understand what it was like to be him. He wished with all his heart that he’d just eaten Dayton, appeased the pain in his belly, and suffered whatever consequence his friends wanted to lob at him.

This would have to suffice.

“Leave,” Lewis growled, as smoke poured freely from his mouth and nostrils. “Leave now, and don’t come back. I don’t think I could stop myself from eating you, even if I wanted to.”

“Lewis, what has gotten into you?!” Becca said, her voice rising. She stepped protectively in front of Jeremy and put an arm across him, as though to say that she would be his shield. “We’re your friends!”

“Really? You don’t see it?” Lewis asked, narrowing his eyes. The flames wreathing his mouth glowed in the shadow he cast.

Becca gave him a stern glare but didn’t respond. Jeremy’s breathing was sharp, but he remained equally silent.

“I’m not the Lewis you know and remember,” Lewis growled. “I’m a dragon now. I’m a predator. I need to kill. It’s in my nature,” he explained, holding up his claws. “These are the tools of a predator whose purpose in life is to kill. You two are humans, though. You could never understand what it’s like to be this way. You’re food to me now. I just refused to see it before.”

Becca’s already pale face went even paler, and Jeremy took a few more steps away, adjusting his glasses as he did.

“You don’t want me to kill anymore or eat anyone,” Lewis growled, taking a single, menacing step out of the cave. The liquid fire sizzled down his chin, and smoke curled around his four horns. “You don’t understand what you’re asking. You’re asking me to deny what I am. I can’t do that anymore.”

“Lewis, come on, please! We’re your friends! We care about you!” Becca shouted.

“I care about myself too. That’s why you have to leave,” Lewis snarled. “Humans and dragons shouldn’t associate.”

“You haven’t always been a dragon!” Becca desperately reminded him.

“Doesn’t matter. I can never be human again. Go away before I make a meal out of you.”

At those words, Jeremy felt any hope he had that Lewis was still in there shatter. It was as though his entire life caved in on itself. Lewis took another step forward, forcing the humans back another couple of paces. The dragon’s face glowed as he coated it in more flaming drool.

This monster, Jeremy thought, meeting the dragon’s emerald eyes, isn’t Lewis. That’s not my friend.

Jeremy’s fists tightened, and he shook his head. He took a deep breath before turning on his heels and marching down the hill. Becca did a double-take, looking from the encroaching dragon to the boy who was fearlessly heading down the mountain, away from it.

“Come on, Becca,” Jeremy shouted over his shoulder when neither the dragon nor the girl followed him. “If Lazyscales wants to eat us, we’d better make the job hard on him!”

Lewis blinked in surprise when Jeremy used the dragon name he’d given himself. Used it and meant it. Odd.

Becca took one look up at Lewis, who was staring slack jaw as Jeremy put more and more distance between them. The dragon glanced down at her, and she shook her head in disappointment.

“We wanted to be here for you, Lewis,” she said, “but if you were trying to drive us away, you’ve done it. Goodbye.”

Jeremy waited at the edge of the woods, where Brandon’s truck had been parked earlier, as Becca ran down to join him. Both of them looked up at Lewis, who was just staring at them. He shut his jaw, the smoke in his nostrils slowly dying down as they turned around and walked away.

As they disappeared beyond the trees, Lewis sat down on his haunches. Had that really just happened? Had he really threatened to eat his friends?

Had they really taken me seriously? He silently asked himself.

Lewis’s eyes frantically scanned the treeline. Any second now, his friends would jump out, shout surprise or something, and they’d all have a good laugh. His friends wouldn’t really abandon him, would they?

He waited in the mouth of his cave for 30 minutes.

Then he waited a bit longer.

At the end of the hour, it was clear that they weren’t coming back. Lewis bit back tears as he bellowed in a fury to the sky. His roars echoed off the mountainside, sending flocks of birds scattering into the air in terror. The forest rustled with life running away from him.

And all the while, Lewis’s hunger gnawed furiously at his stomach.

Chapter 25

Lewis roared in fury as he stomped back into his cave. With black smoke pouring from his maw, he tore apart the nest of cables and plastic that Jeremy had just brought up to him. The human part of him was upset with the idea of destroying his beloved Xbox, but the idea of ever touching that machine again frankly disgusted the dragon part. What would he do with it now? It wasn’t like he could push the buttons or put in discs.

He took one last look at the black box, and it didn’t fill him with sadness. It filled him with rage. This wasn’t his anymore; it was some relic of a different time! Roaring, he stomped on the black box, breaking it into splinters. He destroyed the projector next, along with the controller and the generator. Lewis didn’t stop smashing until everything lay in a massive pile of plastic and metal shards. By the time he was done, his heart was hammering, and smoke billowed freely from his nostrils. He dragged the shattered remains out of his cave and piled them up on top of the rubble from the other day.

With a deep breath, he breathed a plume of flames over the pile of destroyed electronics. The plastic stank of toxins as it melted into a mess of slag, but Lewis continued watching as it burned away and left nothing behind that was recognizable. As the logo on his Xbox melted and vanished in the bubbling mass, Lewis had to concede that he had finally admitted it to himself.

He would never be human again.

He sighed and shook his head as he slunk back into his cave. The thought gave him pause, but not sadness. It wasn’t even a surprise to him to find that he didn’t want to be human again. Humans had to deal with school and stupid rules about killing. Humans had to struggle and fight against their own system just to get by.

Dragons didn’t have that problem. The more he thought it, the more liberated he felt. If he was hungry, he could go hunt and kill something. No more worrying about money. No more fussing over getting an education to get a job to slave away for a wage that wouldn’t support him — not that he understood what wages were anyway. Everything he needed, he could take with his own two claws.

Giving up on human limitations was just so easy.

“You did the right thing, Lewis,” Lasthope reminded him for the thirteenth time. “Driving them away, casting off the shackles of your former life. This was the right thing to do, to move forward and grow, as the dragon you now are.”

Lewis cast a furtive glance up at the elder dragon and was surprised to see him wiping his eyes. “Are you… crying?” Lewis asked, staring at the ghost in disbelief.

“No, no, I have a bit of vapor in my eyes,” Lasthope said, wiping them again. “Now then, that you have accepted your destiny as a dragon, we can go about all the lessons of things you did not get to learn as a whelp. To the peak!”

Lewis blinked as Lasthope drifted out of the cave and abruptly stopped twenty feet away. Lasthope thrashed his tail in a desperate attempt to keep moving. No matter how hard he tried, he would not budge. Was Lewis not following him? The ghost turned around to see what the holdup was and found Lewis lying on his belly, his chin resting on his claws.

“Lewis, come,” Lasthope ordered.

“I don’t want to,” Lewis grumbled as he dragged a claw through the rock of the cave. It came away effortlessly, like scraping away at frayed paper.

Lasthope drifted over to him and settled into a mirror of his own position, doing his best not to phase through the floor. Lewis hadn’t even realized it before, but Lasthope was a lot bigger than him, at least twice, maybe even three times his size! Laying down like this, his spectral bulk filled the entire cave mouth, even with his wings closed. It was no wonder that he spent most of his time phased through objects.

“I thought you wanted to learn to fly, Lewis?” Lasthope finally asked, cocking his head.

Lewis’s ears perked up, but he kept staring at the ground. “If I’m honest, I’d much rather be alone,” he muttered. “You can yell at me all you want. I won’t argue back. I’m just not in the mood.”

Lasthope took a deep, empty breath and scuttled closer to Lewis. They couldn’t touch physically, but the ghostly dragon couldn’t help but feel some paternal connection to the young bronze dragon. Lewis needed his help and guidance and had even called him Ghost Dad as a joke. It was not out of the question, he supposed, for him to behave properly like a father.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Lasthope asked, his voice dropping to a whisper, although the only person who could hear him was Lewis himself.

“No, I don’t,” Lewis growled, his eyes narrowing. “What are you doing?”

“I am trying to fulfill my duty as your Ghost Father,” Lasthope said, smiling sincerely down at the young dragon. “You are in distress, and I would try to ease it somewhat. After my father passed, I had no one with whom to discuss my troubles. I kept them locked within, and I ultimately found that to be more harmful than otherwise.”

“You’re talking about mental health?” Lewis mumbled, meeting Lasthope’s gaze. “You had mental health issues?”

“Is that what they call it these days? Yes, I suppose I had that,” Lasthope nodded. “It is difficult to be the last living member of your race, with no prospects for mating, and to have the entire future of your kind resting upon your shoulders. It was a lot for me to bear at your age, so I cannot imagine it being any less of a burden for you.”

Lewis’s curiosity immediately turned into a sneer, and he looked away again. “Yeah, well, your stupid destiny isn’t what’s bothering me! Go away!”

Lasthope looked genuinely surprised. “Is it not? Why else would you be moping like this?”

“I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’ve had to surrender everything I’ve ever known and loved? Or maybe it’s because I was transformed into a monster against my will, and now that I am a monster, I have lost the ability to connect with the people I cared about? Because I’ve lost my support network, which further caused me to SPIRAL INTO DEPRESSION!” Lewis said in a single breath before shouting out the last three words with a gout of flame that caused Lasthope to dissipate in a gust of vapor.

It took the elder dragon very little time to reconstitute himself, and when he did, he half-phased himself through the wall so he could lay next to his young ward. “You are upset about what happened with your friends,” he stated.

“Yeah,” Lewis sighed, resting his head on the floor and putting his claws on his ears. They wouldn’t block out Lasthope, but it felt right to do all the same.

“For what it is worth, Lewis, I am sorry that events had to go this way,” Lasthope said, lowering himself again to the same level as the younger dragon. “I had never intended for you to deal with this; it was always my burden to bear.”

“Yeah, you were just going to kill me and snatch my body,” Lewis grumbled.

Just a day ago, he couldn’t understand why Lasthope thought that was an okay thing to do. Now that he’d had another day to fully experience as a dragon, he was starting to get it. The killing was just a part of dragon nature. As he thought of it, humans were killers too, at one point, but had grown so used to letting someone else do the killing for them that the idea of taking life grew disgusting to them.

Turning into a dragon had washed that all away. Not only did Lewis find he was okay with killing, he actually found he enjoyed it. It was kind of fun to take an animal apart and drink its blood, feast upon its flesh. The notion of chasing a deer across the mountain surface filled Lewis with a twinge of excitement.

But despite it all, he just couldn’t bring himself to get off the cave floor and do it. He was just so upset about what had happened with Dayton and his friends that the idea of getting up to run and chase a prey animal filled him with dread. The little voice inside his head whispered that he’d failed at everything before. Why wouldn’t he fail at being a dragon?

Sighing again, he turned to look up at Lasthope. The elder dragon was staring out at the horizon. The sun had climbed high and begun its slow descent into the evening. Lewis followed his gaze, guessing it was just after one in the afternoon now.

“I never meant it to be this way,” Lasthope sighed and shook his head. “You were never meant to be alive, and that body should have been mine. I wish I could investigate my spell work, to see what had gone wrong, maybe even try again, but alas, the hunters took my body away from there. I can no more haunt my spell than I can haunt one of your friends. I believe I could haunt my bones, but the dragon slayers have them now, and I want nothing to do with them.”

Lewis flexed his claws and looked Lasthope in his massive eye. “For what it’s worth, some part of me is glad the spell went wrong.”

“Pardon?”

“I don’t want to die, Lasthope,” Lewis said, his ears flattening against his head. “I know nobody expected me to do anything with my life, but I wanted to grow up and be something. If that something is a massive fire-breathing reptile, then so be it. I don’t want to die, though,” he repeated, quickly.

Lasthope took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes, I believe I understand. Part of me is also glad the spell went wrong. I am not sure I could handle the burdens of another entire dragon lifetime. Does that mean you will listen to my teachings?”

Lewis stretched out his claws and dug furrows into the cave rock beneath him. He ground it up into gravel for a moment before scattering it elsewhere with a swipe of his claw. “I didn’t say that,” he said, grinning up at the elder dragon, “but I’m not as opposed to it anymore, I guess?”

“Then we shall go now and have a lesson,” Lasthope grinned and hopped up onto his feet. He phased slightly through the floor for a moment before remembering that he wasn’t solid anymore and floating a few feet off the ground. He grinned a pale, toothy smile at his young ward and floated through the cave roof.

Lewis stared blankly at the spot where Lasthope had been not seconds before, his jaw hanging open in surprise. What had just happened? Had he only had a depression talk that led straight into school time?

Lasthope’s snout poked through the ceiling as he stared down at Lewis. “Do not dally, little one. We must go while the sun is still out. It will be much more difficult to attempt this in the dark.”

“W-what?!” Lewis stammered, watching as Lasthope slipped back into the rock. “Where are you going?! Lasthope!?”

“Come to the peak, Lewis,” Lasthope’s voice echoed through the cave, “and be quick about it. I assure you, you will enjoy this.”

Lewis shook his head and finally pushed himself off the cave floor. Bits of rocks stuck to his scales, and his belly gurgled angrily, but he ignored them both as he slipped out of the cave and looked upwards, towards the peak of the mountain. It was white with just the faintest bit of snow. He took a deep breath and began the long trek upwards.

It wasn’t really that bad. As a human, with small little legs, the climb would have taken hours. Still, with Lewis’s powerful dragon muscles carrying him, he made it up to the peak in under thirty minutes.

The view from above was astounding. He could see the entire town sprawled out below him like a map. If he squinted, he could even see his old house from up there.

“This is nice and all,” Lewis began, looking at the spectral dragon that was mostly blending in with the snow, “but what are we doing up here?”

Lasthope grinned and steepled his claws together. “Today, my dear boy, is a momentous occasion: you will have your first lesson on the proper techniques of flight.”

Epilogue

Dayton awoke with a start, sitting up in Brandon’s truck and looking around frantically. His heart was hammering in his chest, and he winced in pain as the motion jostled his horribly aching ribs. The pain made him want to cry out, but he managed to hold his tongue. Brandon’s eyes went wide as he watched the ginger man’s frantic eyes, as though he didn’t have a clue where he was. For all Brandon knew, that was probably the case.

“You’re fine, you’re safe,” Brandon said, in the most reassuring tone he could manage.

Dayton blinked in surprise, his eyes flicking around the truck nervously. They were back in town, driving through traffic.

Dayton’s heart slowed, and he examined himself. His ribs ached something fierce, and his head was killing him, but other than that, he was mostly unharmed. “What…” he muttered, looking at Brandon. His eyes rolled dizzily in his head, and he yelped in pain as the car once more lurched forward. “What happened? Where are we? I don’t remember…”

“That’s probably the concussion,” Brandon grunted, giving Dayton a sidelong glance. “You crashed your car as you were leaving the mountain, about an hour ago. I’m taking you to the hospital.”

Dayton frowned. That didn’t sound right. He was an excellent driver and was adept at controlling a vehicle even in adverse road conditions. Surely he wouldn’t crash his car over something so simple, so trivial, as driving down a mountain?

“The dragon…” Dayton muttered. That was right, hadn’t there been a dragon? He winced again as his hands brushed against his ribs. They felt wrong. Probably broken. “Hadn’t there… been a dragon?”

Brandon cocked an eyebrow and shook his head. “Dragons aren’t real,” he grunted. “Just a car accident.”

“Car accident….” Dayton repeated, laying his head against the car door and shutting his eyes.

Brandon hoped the other man passed out again. He’d been able to stay out while Brandon drove Lucy home, and he’d been hoping to get Dayton to the hospital before he woke up. He sighed, happy to be in silence again.

Just then, a loud roar could be heard echoing down from the mountains. Dayton sat bolt upright, his eyes wide.

“Dragon,” he muttered.

Detective Martha Smith clenched her jaw as she read the email over again. Mayor Weatherby was not happy with the news that there might be a monster rampaging in her city.

Of course, Martha had ended up being the one who had to tell her. She always got hard jobs.

She sat in her office, reviewing the footage from the squad car dashcams. The very same footage she had to send to the mayor.

The very same footage that was proving to be far more perplexing than originally assumed.

What they showed her was something out of her imagination. If she hadn’t known that the footage had come directly from the cars involved, she’d have assumed it was doctored. There was no other reasonable explanation. Nothing like what she was seeing could be allowed to exist.

It was a monster. It ran on four legs and looked like it was made of hammered bronze scales. A car crashed into it, and it barely budged, like the vehicle was so small, so negligible, that it was beneath its notice.

The part that always scared her was when it turned around and breathed fire at the squad of cars. Its eyes… Its eyes looked almost human. They were maddened and scared, like everything it was seeing, everything it was doing, was wrong. Then it disappeared off-screen.

Martha was about to rewind the tapes and watch it for the fifth time when a knock came on her office door.

“Come in,” she called, minimizing the videos on her computer and looking up.

A lean man with bright blonde hair stood in the doorway. He smiled at her as he stepped in, and Martha immediately noticed that he was loaded to the gills with combat gear. There was a knife on one side of his hip and an empty gun holster on the other. Judging by the stiffness of his shirt, she also assumed he was wearing body armor.

“A little heavy in the equipment department for a visit to the police station,” Martha said, tugging her gun out of her shoulder holster and resting it on the desk. She didn’t let go of it. “Why’d security let you keep the knife?”

“Oh, this thing?” The man said, tugging the blade out of its own matching scabbard. Martha immediately saw why. The blade was ground down until it was dull; it wouldn’t even be able to cut butter. Martha’s eyes narrowed as she glimpsed several Japanese characters carved down the length of the metal. They were the only parts untouched by the sharpening process. “Family heirloom. Mostly for show these days. Don’t want to get it sharpened anymore for fear it might diminish the blade.”

Martha narrowed her eyes at the lanky man.

“More than it already has, of course,” he said with a shrug, twirling the knife between his fingers. “Mind if I make myself comfortable, Miss Smith?”

Martha frowned at the use of her last name. It wasn’t unreasonable for him to know who she was, but there was something about how he said it that made her feel like he knew a lot more than he let on. She wanted to refuse him a seat but struggled to find a reason. “How can I help you, mister…?” she said, pointing to the chair across from her.

“Lambton. John Lambton,” he said, plopping into the chair and crossing his legs with a flourish. “And, actually, this visit is more about how I can help you.”

Martha raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“You seem to have an animal problem, yes?” Lambton said. “A large, monstrous creature rampaging around town, killing people and destroying property.”

Martha’s eyes momentarily flicked to her computer screen, where the videos were still minimized. Still, it was enough to confirm Lambton’s suspicions.

“I’m something of an expert in how to deal with those kinds of creatures,” Lambton continued, fingers playing with the hilt of the knife at his hip. “They are extremely dangerous and not something that should be taken lightly.”

“I assure you, we’re not taking it lightly,” Martha said. “Normally, I’d thank you for being a concerned citizen, looking out for your fellows. You, however, aren’t from around here.”

“Guilty as charged,” Lambton grinned.

“We’re doing everything we can to make sure we deal with the creature properly,” Martha said.

“Really? Not from what I’ve seen,” Lambton said, that grin never once leaving his face. “You’re poorly equipped to handle this kind of monster, ma’am. If you let me and my crew step in, though, we can show you a thing or two.”

Martha’s eyes narrowed as she looked into John Lambton’s too-blue eyes. “What are you asking for, then? Money? Permission?”

“Permission, mostly,” Lambton said with a nod. “I want permission to do whatever is necessary to stop that thing. We already have a good idea of where it sleeps, and I have sent one of my men to go check in on it, just to be certain.”

“What exactly is necessary to get rid of this thing?” Martha asked.

“A lot,” Lambton admitted. “At least, for you, it would be a lot. For me,” he smiled and tugged the dagger out of its scabbard, showing the way the carved letters caught the light, “it only takes a single stab.”

Martha frowned as he slid the dagger back into its scabbard, still smiling all the while. “With all due respect, Mister Lambton, but I’d rather not give you free rein within my city.”

Lambton actually looked surprised by that. “I beg your pardon? I don’t think you quite understand the gravity of the situation.”

“Oh, I think I do,” Martha said, standing up. She kept her grip tight on her gun, but her finger away from the trigger. “I’ve seen what this thing can do. It has killed two people in my town and injured no less than eight others. However, this is the first time we’ve seen it or anything like it in the area. It’s just an animal, like any other. As long as we leave it alone, it should do the same for us.”

“It’s not just an animal,” Lambton said, narrowing his eyes this time. “It’s a dangerous creature. They are intelligent, hungry, and prone to extreme bouts of temper.”

Martha’s eyebrow raised in surprise. “Intelligent? On a human level?”

“Hold on, love, don’t misunderstand,” Lambton said, shaking his head. “These things are smart, but not in the way you’re thinking.”

Martha shook her head. “That changes very little. No, Mister Lambton, I will not give you permission to do what is necessary to kill this creature. You will stand down and let my men and I try to deal with it our way. You will, however, provide us with every scrap of intelligence you have on this thing.”

Lambton scowled. “You’re making a mistake.”

“No, I think you are the one who has made a mistake,” Martha said, sitting down again. “I’m not sure how many of these things you’ve seen and killed, but you’re fooling yourself if you think I will let you waltz into my town and start killing stuff. Now, start talking. I want to know everything you know about this beast.”

Lewis perched on the mountain peak, with his wings spread wide. The daylight was fading quickly over the horizon, leaving him standing between darkness on one side of the sky and light on the other. He stretched his wings out as far as they would go, feeling the way the cold mountain winds tried to catch them and drag them away from him.

Every time he thought his wings could relax, the wind would pick up and grab him again. More than once, it had been enough to send him tumbling back down the mountain, forcing him to restart his climb in frustration. To his own surprise, though, he didn’t want to give up. Quite the contrary. Every time he failed and fell down the mountain, all he wanted to do was climb back up and try again.

He didn’t even fully understand what they were doing, only that, while he was up there, with his wings spread and catching the wind, everything made sense. His head felt clearer, his depression felt further away, and his problems felt smaller than ever.

Lasthope floated around him as he dug his claws into the mountain once more and spread his wings wide, feeling the way the wind filled the leathery membrane like sails.

“Good, good,” Lasthope said, “your wings must slice through the air like a knife while simultaneously holding it. There are four forces when it comes to flight: lift, thrust, drag, and gravity. They all must be in balance for you to fly.”

“Right, right, we learned all that in science class years ago,” Lewis said, grinning. He stumbled for a moment as his right wing faltered, and he struggled to straighten it again. It surprised him that, although they looked and moved like arms, it was his chest that was hurting from the exercise.

“Did you now?” Lasthope said, floating in front of Lewis. “Repeat the four forces.”

Lewis rolled his eyes. “Thrust, lift, gravity, and…” He paused as his memory blanked on the fourth force. “Debris?” He asked with a shrug.

“Debris,” Lasthope said, cocking an eyebrow. “Drag, Lewis, it is drag.”

Lewis shrugged, the motion of which jostled his wings. He yelped as the wind snatched them like sails and sent him tumbling once again down the side of the mountain.

Lasthope watched his young ward fall and shook his head in disapproval. “Ancestors, watch over us,” he muttered, looking up to the sky where only the faintest of stars were shining. “We have a lot of work to do.”

Like this book? Want to know what happens next? Find out in book two of the Lazy Scales series: Idle Claws

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