The presence retreated from the boy's mind as soon as it had felt Shane reach back. Instantly, the vision 'smash cut' to a view out the boy's own familiar eyes once again. He was on the ground, in the grass, gazing up at the clear, sunny sky with one hand in the air helping keep the sun out of his face. Shane actually hadn't expected to see anything, but in fact he now did: something was in the sky - a shadow against a bright blue background, so high and so fleeting the boy couldn't make out its shape well. His heart rate doubled in a tenth of a second as he squinted to get a better picture of the shadow dot, but just as he did it darted toward the only cloud. Shane thought he could track and identify the shape before it got there, but-

Honk!

"Jesus!" Having gotten so lost in his own head, Shane startled and bounced like a rubber ball onto his feet. A car horn had just blasted him from only a couple dozen feet away, and the boy needed a shake of the head in order to recover from that shock. After plopping himself in the passenger seat of an F-150, school bag at his feet, the young man complained, "You just had to shout, dude."

The driver explained, "You looked all spaced-out. I thought you were having one of your 'episodes.'" Like Shane, the driver was a young man dressed for outdoor activity. He had a ratty school bag stashed in the back seat, next to which Shane would set his own. The main differences between the two boys were that the driver was much taller than his passenger by almost six inches and had an ever-so-slightly darker complexion. And yet, despite these differences, it wasn't uncommon that the pair were occasionally mistaken for brothers at school.

"Well, I wasn't," Shane grumbled. He didn't think his driver could get away from this place soon enough; the passenger turned his head and watched the structure become smaller in the distance just to be sure it was actually gone. "Thanks for coming to get me early."

"Yeah, no problem," the driver casually replied, "You good?"

"Is there any point in saying 'yeah?'" the young man resigned. "Ali, I'm telling you, that guy doesn't get it." Even after the schoolhouse was out of view, Shane was letting his eyes drift out the passenger side window. He glanced constantly up at the sky, even while carrying on the conversation. "Mr. Dan doesn't want to help anyone. He's just out to make easy money as the only game in town and recruit for Jesus while he's at it."

Ali frowned. "I'm sure he's doing the best he can."

"Like hell," Shane spat, "I'm not going back. No offense, man, but schizoids need loopy pills and special teachers, not thoughts and prayers."

"Y'know that was kind of offensive, right?"

"Yeah, well…" Shane melted in his seat. Unable to make any more eye contact with his friend, the angry young man just kept his eyes on the sky instead. "…sorry. I'm mad." By this point, the boy has become fixated on the sky outside the window, particularly its only cloud. Silly as he knew it was, he wanted a glance at that which had been viewing him from above but a few minutes earlier. Shane made no disguise of the fact that he was watching the skies like a hawk, ready to catch anything that might emerge from that cloud. It's gotta be some kinda aircraft, he reasoned, with a camera. A helicopter or a jet or a drone. No way a bird could see like that from that altitude. Not even a person could do that. It was at this point the kid had to chuckle at himself. Yeah, and I'm sure it's the government, too. They're making sure I don't spill their secrets, and there's a missile with my name on it if I do. That thought was more tongue-in-cheek.

"I know you're not 'schizoid,' bro," Ali sighed, "OK? So you get a little moody, you space out, and sometimes you daydream. There's, like, lots of reasons for that." The driver shifted a little in his seat after proposing that.

"No, it's not like that," Shane insisted as he rolled down the window and craned his neck, "It's not daydreams. It's not just normal mood swings. It's like…" Shane struggled for the words to come up with it momentarily. "It doesn't feel like my own brain is doing this stuff, y'know? Like, right now- right now in the back of my head I got this… like, I'm really, really curious about something. I wanna see it really bad, and it's driving me nuts. But it's not my feelings. I still feel all my own feelings and also… that." The boy pursed his lips. "And the visions aren't just daydreams. It's always the same thing: no warning, I just start seeing things through a bird's eye view- like, literally, a bird. Sometimes flying, sometimes on the ground. But I'll tell you what, if that thing is a bird, it's the biggest, strongest bird I've ever seen. Like, probably bigger than a freakin' cow."

For over a minute, Shane paused there waiting for Ali to digest and respond to all that. He didn't. Instead, the driver just silently eyed Shane with a quizzical expression. Fortunately, the country road had not a single other automobile or obstacle to speak of, because Ali had well and truly taken his eyes off of it. Ultimately it was Shane who broke the silence yet again. "I should've said nothing."

"No!" Ali was quick to insist, turning around on his earlier silence. "Nah, bro, I get it. Really. But you're not schizoid. Is that even the word for it?"

"I dunno."

"Well you're not whatever it is."

"How do figure? You know something I don't?" The passenger had only been joking, but; again, Ali seemed to clam up. Shane probed again, "Hang on, do you know something I don't?" Ultimately, Ali's answer was to sheepishly turn his gaze back to the road. That almost seemed like the end until the driver appeared to change the subject entirely.

"Hey, when we get home, I got something to show you," Ali mumbled.

"Yeah?" Shane raised an eyebrow curiously. "Show me what?" Again, Ali seemed almost ready to talk before ultimately biting his tongue. "Come on, man! I'm in suspense over here." Shane pleaded, but the other boy stubbornly declined to open up. " Hang on," the passenger went on to guess, "Is this gonna be one of those things where military parents surprise the family by coming home? Am I gonna be in one of those YouTube videos?" Shane cracked a smile. "OK, is that it? 'Cause if I ask, you have to tell me. Pretty sure that's a law."

"OK, first," Ali chuckled, "That's for undercover cops. Second, that's also not a law. Third-" Ali's smile slightly drooped. "-sorry, it's not that."

"I kinda figured. It's OK."

"But I think you're gonna like it. Still not telling you, though."

"Why not?"

"'Cause it would ruin the suspense , bro!" Ali punctuated that with a playful shove off of Shane's seat.

"I'd be OK with that."

"Ha, I bet. But you'll see."

That was all Ali would have of that. Throughout the rest of the ride, the boy in the passenger seat of the truck continued to steal glances out the window at the sky. For most of the time this was unfruitful, but a couple of times Shane was convinced that the corner of his eye had caught the ephemeral image of that illusory shadow.

Shane used the time to cool down a bit in the pickup. After Ali had stationed the vehicle in the short dirt driveway of a quaint farmhouse, he opened the driver-side door and made a point to ask Shane, "Feeling any better?"

"A bit," Shane could fortunately answer honestly. Once the boys had both hoisted their schoolbags over their shoulder, he pressed, "But I still gotta talk about this therapy situation with your parents later."

"I think you're right, bro." As Shane stepped toward the front door, Ali called after him, "Hey! Nah, this way," to which the boy responded by lifting an eyebrow but obediently circled around the home behind Ali.

"This something to do with your big surprise?"

"Yeah," Ali admitted, "It's out in the barn."

Shane turned ghostly white and began to step less enthusiastically. "Uh, that's a joke, right?" he tentatively probed, "Your Mom made it sound like when I moved in, if I ever thought about peeking in there, she'd shoot me."

"Well, it's fine." Ali seemed a bit too confident and dismissive for Shane's liking as the former unlatched a gate that led into the horses' pasture. The boys had to pass through it in order to get to the imposing barn in the distance, although the pasture itself was an area of the Rashid farm Shane generally avoided as well. The property was only a small family farm, but in terms of crops and livestock it contained plots for a little bit of everything. It had been explained to the houseguest that the farm's main purpose wasn't commerce but literally to supplement the family itself; turning a profit might have been a financially risky and labor-intensive venture, but keeping the goal to just feeding the household felt to the Rashids more realistic as a goal and ostensibly more desirable as a lifestyle.

Shane had his guard up as he crossed the pasture, and not just because he feared he wasn't supposed to be there. "Can we go a little faster?" the boy murmured.

Ali, conversely, slowed down. "I said it's fine, bro."

"No, not that. I mean, also that but… y'know. The horses."

"Are you… are you still scared of the horses?" Shane didn't answer right away. He had accidentally made eye contact with a chestnut mare several dozen feet away. She did not approach, but she was curious enough to lift her gaze from her grazing. Now the boy was clearly too anxious to break it. "Yo!"

Without breaking eye contact still, Shane answered, "Yeah, uh, remember that pony from the fair?"

Ali had to laugh. "Bro, we were nine. And he just got a little spooked, that's all. Horses don't wanna hurt ya."

"No, I know," Shane insisted, "but ever since then I just- just don't like animals that are bigger than me." Having evaded the interest of the distant mare, he now circled cautiously around another, refusing to turn his back to her even if hers was to him. "Y'know? Like, a horse decides it's in a bad mood, and I can't fight it. The animal is in charge and we both know it."

"I thought living here would've cured you by now!" Ali's response came out like a friendly tease at first, but his expression ultimately soured with this knowledge. "Well… this'll be interesting."

Shane had always suspected the barn was many times larger than a small self-sufficiency farm should have needed. The boy thought it could have housed every horse, pig, cow, chicken, and dog (and their feed) with 90% of the square footage still free. It turned out, he was right. Though most of those animals were not present, it was still clear the space was incredibly barren. The Rashids didn't store much in here at all, and none of it was very out of the ordinary; mostly feed, fertilizer, a few machines. And yet, 14 months ago, Ali's mother impressed upon him heavily that, as a condition for living there, under no circumstances was Shane allowed to poke his head inside this barn.

It had seemed like a reasonable enough agreement at the time. The Rashids had become family friends with the Embrys through their jobs. So when Shane's parents left the country, making him need a new place to stay, they had welcomed the boy in. The conditions, so the boy believed, were reasonable and few: no drinking, no drugs, occasional help with chores, and keep his curious nose out of the barn. As long as Shane held up on that, it had even been something he could joke about with them. This had usually involved tongue-in-cheek allegations that the Rashids were secret pot farmers, meth dealers, arms traffickers, or exotic animal smugglers. This knowing breach of trust he was committing was part of the cause for the present pit in Shane's stomach. None of those pretend secrets, though, could have prepared Shane for the real one.

Soon as the door opened, Shane locked eyes with… some creature. Something big. By height, it was a draft horse. By length, it was significantly larger, having surpassed even an anaconda, and most of that was its tail. The length of its snout alone filled the distance between the top of the teenager's head and the start of his hips. Most of its body type was similarly reptilian - more lizardike - but for a pair of folded, batlike wings. The leathery bits of its wings were a dark green, but still not as dark as the rest of the creature's scaly form. The scales were so deep and dark green that they were nearly black. Those wings were folded partly out of necessity; Shane was sure the alien creature didn't have the room even in the oversized barn to fully extend those titanic wings. And yet, they did extend slightly outwards and upwards at the sight of the boys; a sign of anxiety or excitement, Shane might have guessed.

It rubbed off on him. "Jesus Christ-!" he exclaimed, hastily backing right up several steps. The boy might have kept going, but Ali was right there and prepared to intercept; he didn't let Shane make it but a few paces before catching Shane from behind and impeding his backward progress. "What the hell ?"

"Easy, easy!" Ali had to shout in order to make his voice heard over Shane's yelling, "I swear he's friendly!

"What the hell is that thing?" For the creature's part, it didn't respect Shane's retreat. It had been laying down, but now it stood up and approached the boy while keeping laser-focused eye contact. Its steps weren't particularly urgent, nor were they as heavy and loud as the beast's bulk would have suggested. If anything, they were tentative, as if the significantly larger 'reptile' were having its own reservations. Shane was sure he should have been afraid, which he most certainly was; and yet, just then, the boy recognized one of those 'foreign' feelings poking its way into his thoughts. Shane was fearful, but he was also ecstatic. And inquisitive. And he… wanted something. Shane couldn't have articulated what he wanted, but among the cocktail of emotions he'd just been fed was some sort of powerful desire.

The truth was, Shane knew what the beast was in the intellectual sense. It was just difficult for him to accept. "Is that a freakin' dragon?"

"Yes."

Yes.

Even though the deep green dragon was taking apparent care not to make a sudden move, Shane yelped and startled anyway. Ali had to pull the boy back into place after he unthinkingly quickstepped to one side. Shane hadn't expected the second response, and he most certainly didn't expect it from that same, familiar other presence in his brain. "Ali- Ali, tell me you heard that."

"I didn't hear anything," Ali, unfortunately, denied.

I was speaking only to you. By this point the dragon had slunk close enough to poke Shane in the belly with its massive snout. Contrary to his earlier behavior, the boy dared not move a muscle now and even tried to slow his breathing to an undetectable crawl.

Ali coaxed Shane with, "Hey. Relax," while planting the boy firmly in place by pressing on his shoulders. "He ain't gonna hurt you. Heck, the horses are probably more dangerous than him." The anxious boy was inclined to disagree; the creature's talons looked long enough enough to pierce a bull's heart through his back. Its fangs jutted a few inches out from beneath its top lip (those, in particular, Shane was not happy to allow so close to his unprotected abdominal area). The line of spiky spines that stretched from head to tail tip could have created awful lacerations if it swiped him with its tail, and Shane was convinced that if a horse could kill a man with a kick then this dragon certainly had the strength to crush his ribcage with even an errant thrash of its paws. Yet, it was not incapable of gentleness and care; as it learned Shane's scent for the first time, its touch, while intrusive, was not forceful. Its body language, while upright and forward, was not especially tense or defensive.

It doesn't need to be , Shane believed, it knows it can do whatever it wants, and I can't stop it.

You are frightened of me. That thought was not the boy's own. The intruder was asserting itself again. Because I am bigger and stronger than you.

Yes, Shane confirmed.

The dragon's nose began to lift, then pressed itself more assertively underneath Shane's jaw. The boy compliantly lifted his chin away before he realized he was just exposing his neck all the more to those deadly fangs. I am not going to bite. Shane still wasn't entirely sure how he knew that. It wasn't that the creature was thinking in plain English; instead, it seemed to be directly conveying its thoughts and intent without a need for verbal language, body language, or even a language at all. However it happened, the dragon's 'word' proved honest. Rather than take an easy bite, it kindly rubbed the tip of its nose along the area.

Shane was sure he could believe it. Before he really thought about it, he'd found his chin had relaxed. His breathing returned to normal. Without thinking, one hand came up to meet the massive dragon head. More than anything, the young man just wanted to know the thing he was seeing really had a physical, tangible form, a fact he was still wrestling with. However, just before his palm met those shiny green scales, Shane almost immediately took his hand back and whimpered, "Sorry!"

You may touch me.

Shane's hand hadn't completely dropped to his side, and yet he also did not immediately reach back out. Despite the explicit permission, the young man still didn't feel so sure about it all of a sudden. There had been a moment, just then, when Shane was able to forget that he was under the watchful gaze of a perfect predator. Curiosity had overridden caution for only that moment; the danger posed solely by the dragon's existence had been mitigated by some inexplicable sense of familiarity with it. But, no: the young man's entire arm tensed, and he lowered his arm without letting it be a sudden movement just in case.

It was at this moment Ali butted himself in with, "I guess you two made nice then?"

"Uh- huh?" It took the perplexed boy a shake of the head to reorient himself to the fact that Ali was also there.

"What'd you two talk about?"

"Just- it said I could touch it."

" 'Him,'" Ali instantly corrected.

"Oh. Sorry." Shane's apology was directed to the dragon, who acknowledged it verbally this time - not with a spoken language but with an animalistic huff out the nostrils. "So, Ali. Dude. I'm gonna try my best not to freak out," he prefaced, "But right now I really, really need you to explain how you just have a pet dragon." After the boy had said the words aloud, he sensed what he could now identify as a 'transmission' of sorts from the dragon: a feeling of humor and amusement. "Is something funny?"

Almost everything you just said was wrong.

"'Almost everything I just said was wrong," the boy repeated before addressing the dragon again, "Can you not just include him in the conversation?"

No.

Ali had at least heard enough to know he should butt in, "Dragons don't usually talk to humans." He explained, "It's like a pride thing, but deeper. Like, instinct..."

I am under no obligation...

Ali continued to speak a little longer, but Shane found it difficult to listen while the dragon spoke to him in his other 'ear,' so to speak. Conversely, trying to listen anyway was itself difficult with the dragon piercing his very soul with his own. "…I assume, anyway..."

To see into a dragon's mind is an intimate privilege. It is not a gift to be freely given, just like you wouldn't freely allow everyone to see into yours.

Shane privately conceded, Understandable, followed by, Not sure I remember letting you in, either. He didn't mean to send that thought, but immediately after thinking it he hoped to God that the dragon couldn't hear it anyway! Partly in an effort to avoid making the same potential mistake, Shane resolved to stick to verbal communication. "So what makes me so special?"

Ali jumped in, "It's-"

The dragon began to explain, -You are-

Shane immediately cut them both off, "Stop, stop, stop!" and flailed his arms a little. "I can't do this, OK? I can't listen to both of you! Can I just…" As nervous as he was about offending the dangerous-looking dragon, Shane ultimately decided it was important enough to ask, "Can I just, like, talk to Ali for a bit? Just 'cause I'm… y'know, used to his existence? Just to talk to one person right now?"

Again, the dragon communicated not with words but with flashes of someone else's feelings. This time, it was a walk of stubborn refusal. For Ali's part, he agreed and spoke to the dragon himself, "I think it'd be better if we talked in private." Apparently, the dragon did not. The beast showed his disapproval with a huff out his nose.

Tell him I insist on being there.

Shane relayed, "He doesn't wanna leave, and I'm kinda scared to argue."

But Ali fearlessly stood his ground and continued to look the dragon directly in the eye. "You'll have plenty of time from now on. Shane's understandably freaked out, and I think it'll all be easier coming from me. After that, he's all yours."

"I'm all what , now?" Shane recoiled.

The dragon blinked once, long and slow, before tensing and swiftly breaking into a brisk run. Shane and Ali both took hasty steps back and to either side of the barn in order to make space, as the beast had partially extended his humongous batlike wings on his way out the barn to help him catch the wind. As he built up his speed, Shane couldn't help noticing the way the sun glimmered off his green scales like a mass of dark emeralds. They seemed to grow several shades brighter in this light. Then, satisfied with his speed, the dragon fully extended those wings, raised them high, and leapt. The powerful jump alone almost looked like enough to be flight by itself, but the creature wasn't truly aloft until he firmly, yet fluidly flapped those wings. They caught the breeze and refreshed the upward momentum, sending the dragon shooting upward like a double-jump. Several flaps later, it wasn't long at all before he had achieved a comfortable gliding altitude… and by then he was no larger to the eye than a bird.

And yet, when he next 'spoke,' Shane heard him as easily as if they were in the same room. I will not wander far, he promised.

Shane admired the sight aloud, "Whoa."

"He's strong," Ali agreed. "You got lucky with him. Dragons grow fast, but he's something else."

"How did I get lucky?" Shane inquired skeptically. "Because your pet dragon talks to me?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ali chuckled a bit to himself. "Sorry. I just thought you figured it yourself: he's yours."

I read every review, and I never delete them. I'd love to see your honest feedback, whatever that may be. Don't worry about my feelings; my self-esteem does not depend on it.