A.N. I have no excuse for not updating in so long. I really had no ideas for the story but now I do.
The next chapter is already half done so it will be up in the next couple days.
I sat up in bed, my fangs sinking deep into my hand and I swallowed back the screams along with my blood. Images of what had happened kept flashing around and around my mind. The twins had been fine, but just as we pulled out the black cars had pulled in. I set my hand on the bed and winced. Blood was getting everywhere. I got up and pulled the blanket and sheet off the bed, wrapping part of the blanket around my hand to contain the blood and threw the rest under the bed.
My dragon was infected I was sure of it. Sometimes it barely moved and other times red hot spikes of pain shot up from wherever it was, making me dizzy. The rest of the day and evening Mr. Tiny had been polite sure, but there was no way I was talking to him about this. I shot a quick look at the clock and groaned. It was even earlier than normal: Two in the morning. I stared at my bed which now lacked a blanket and sheet and sighed. I was thinking about demanding that Harkat come back, but even that made me unsure. What if he was happy away from us at the Cirque?
"Shadow?" A tired voice whispered from the doorway. Bea was standing in soft striped pajamas at the door, rubbing her eyes.
I flicked my hands toward the door. She didn't need to be tired along with me.
"You have blood on your wings," Bea said her eyes widening. She shoved into the room and closed the door with a soft click. Her eyes rested on my blanket wrapped hand and frowned. She left the room and came back with a first aid kit and a couple damp rags.
I sighed even harder. Mr. Tiny had warned me that my wings could go right back the way they were if I didn't take excellent care of them. Of course that meant he wanted to apply more of that weird salve stuff which I had refused. I let Bea unwrap my hand and bandage it up. The twin holes didn't look that bad anymore, just very bloody. But Bea didn't even bat an eye and she had it taken care of in less than five minutes.
Bea held up the rags. "Can I clean your wings?" She asked. "I won't go back to bed until I do!"
I eyed her and nodded slowly. It took a minute for me to get my wing to stretch out and relax because I was so nervous but Bea waited patiently. When they were both out and filling most of the room Bea started on the very tip of one, barely getting them wet as she dabbed the blood off bit by bit.
"You know you remind me of the colts we get sometimes," Bea said and scrubbed a little harder at a tough spot. "All skittish and lashing out in fear. But you aren't that bad if someone gives you a chance," she said and moved higher up my wing.
I had to admit her idea of me was pretty spot on. I rested my head on the bed and my wings shivered. I wouldn't even pretend to know how my muscles ran into my wings but the higher Bea got her light tugging every so often pulled at tight muscles like a half massage. When she finished with the one wing, leaving me all puffed up I was sad. But she only switched to the other one and the feeling started all over again.
Soon Bea got all the blood off and she set the rag away but her hands kept petting my wings gently, smoothing out any feathers she had ruffled. "How is your dragon?" She asked.
I barely made my shoulders rise and fall in a half hearted shrug. I was being lulled into a state of bliss by her scratching.
Bea stopped and tiptoed out of the room to get something. She came back with the medication and I rolled up my sweatpants so she could apply the medicine to the dragon. When we both saw it our eyes widened.
The dragon was dull colored, far from its usual flowing splendor. There was no movement on it except a faint twitching of its tail. The area around the gash was darker then everything else, almost black. The second I laid eyes on it the echo on my ribs pinged with pain and I grunted.
"I don't think this going to help," Bea said and wiped her finger clean. She bit her lip and looked at me with wide eyes.
I lifted my shirt to look at my ribs and the same darkening was there too. If I was sick why didn't I feel bad? Just very, very tired. So tired. I yawned and rested against the bed again.
"Don't go to sleep! Maybe you won't wake up!" Bea said horrified and shook me. "We have to tell Mr. Tiny!" She didn't like him either but apparently the depth of her fear was enough to ignore that.
I shook my head. Mr. Tiny was sleeping. Besides I had vowed to ignore that man for at least a century. I crawled back into bed, folding my wings over my body and watched Bea pace around the room. Her pacing was making my eyes droop too.
"Shadow I'm sorry," Bea decided and raced out of the room, probably heading for Mr. Tiny.
I had a moment of absolute terror and I sat up before noting I could no longer see my legs. Interesting. I had turned myself invisible again. I rolled down my sweat pants after feeling for the leg of them and managed to stuff the bloody sheet and blanket into the back of the closet. It was odd seeing the blankets float in mid air even though I knew I was holding them. After that I waited. I could smell Bea and I didn't go after her only because her scent, besides spiking every so often was not scared or pain filled. I had to get into the rest of the house so Mr. Tiny had no chance of finding me. The thought of him looking at my dragon was enough to make me shake my bedroom. I reached for the doorknob but had to leap backwards when the door swung open, revealing Mr. Tiny in a green nightgown and Bea hovering behind his legs. I had to stuff my undamaged hand in my mouth to stifle the snort. Mr. Tiny in a nightgown?
"Where is he?" Mr. Tiny asked without an ounce of tiredness in his voice. He didn't sound angry, or anything just interested about the situation. I wondered how much Bea had told him.
Bea poked her head into the room. "I won't tell you until you promise not to hurt him!" She said bravely. "He is hurt but I still won't tell you anything else!"
Mr. Tiny rolled his eyes. "I will not harm him foolish child." His eyes scanned the room but never paused on me.
"It's his hand and his dragon. I think he bit himself. His dragon is all dark and its not moving crazily like it normally does," Bea said anxiously.
I wanted to get angry and throw things for Bea telling him, but I understood why she had done it.
"Really? Does his dragon have a wound on it?" Mr. Tiny asked and I could smell his entire being shift from only interested to intense about the whole thing.
"Yes. He told me that a bad witch hit him with a shovel," Bea informed the magician slowly.
Mr. Tiny clenched his hands into fists briefly. "I see." He looked around the room again. "Shadow?" he asked, like I would actually answer him. He turned to Bea and studied the girl. "Why were you in here?"
"I heard him and cleaned blood off his wings!" Bea said proudly.
"He let you?" Mr. Tiny asked disbelievingly.
"Yes and he got all silly," Bea giggled.
I had?
"He acted all sleepy when I was done and I thought it was because he was hurt but I think it started when I cleaned his wings," Bea added.
I blushed at the same time Mr. Tiny smirked.
Bea moved into the middle of the room and somehow her eyes flicked to the corner I was standing in. "Um, Shadow if you come out I promise lots of wing massages."
That sounded perfectly fine to me and I barely kept myself from appearing.
"Ill put the kittens on you too," Bea said. "Kittens and wing massages!" She stepped a little closer to me and then a little closer. Her hand rested on my chest and she grinned. "Hi."
Mr. Tiny snapped toward us and before I could bolt he had shunted aside Bea and wrapped his arm around my waist, carrying me kicking and screaming toward the bed. Bea started to scream too and pounded on Mr. Tiny's back, but she could have been an ant for all the attention he gave to her. I sank my fangs into his arm but all that gave me was blood I had been needing anyway.
"Stop," Mr. Tiny said and set me on the bed on my stomach.
I didn't stop of course and kept fighting like a wild thing, using my invisibility until it flickered out. Even then I fought harder until red ropes flowed from Mr. Tinys hands and wrapped around my legs, back and arms, pinning me to the bed.
"Kindly resume what you were doing with his wings," Mr. Tiny ordered Bea.
"No! You are a bad man!" Bea screamed and threw a book at him.
"Very well," Mr. Tiny said and ran his glowing hands over me until he found where the dragon was on my leg. He started to roll up my pant leg and I lost it.
I screamed so loud that the window blew out. The room temperature dropped about fifty degrees and I snapped the now frozen ropes. I sprang to a crouch on the bed and knocked Mr. Tiny over as I barreled into him, not intending to escape this time. I wanted to kill. Feathers flowed over my body until I had more of them then skin and I punched Mr. Tiny in the stomach, ripping and tearing into him with long claws. I didn't know if I was even doing damage but I was going to keep going until he was in pieces all over the bedroom. In the background Bea was dancing back and forth, lobbing whatever she found at Mr. Tiny. I couldn't believe Pandora hadn't heard what was going on.
" Enough Shadow!" Mr. Tiny snapped and lashed back at me. His blow caught me on the stomach and it was hard enough to launch me backwards, spinning into the wall where I crumpled to the ground.
I sprang up, wobbling unsteadily. The magic was at my fingertips, ready to be controlled but the problem was I had no idea what would take Mr. Tiny out of action without hurting anyone else. So I jumped out the broken window and onto the ground. But my body was boomeranged back inside before I had even taken a step, dragged to Mr. Tinys feet and hauled upright. It was satisfying to see that his nightgown was a bit shredded, but not nearly enough.
"Settle down. I have no intention of harming your precious dragon," Mr. Tiny said in what he probably thought was a soothing voice.
Frost was covering the floor and covering Mr. Tiny's hands where he held me now. I yanked backwards but his grip was like steel.
Mr. Tiny frowned and suddenly the bedroom vanished.
I stood up in a bunch of tall grass. Mr. Tiny was gone and nothing but fields stretched out around me. It took awhile for my magic to relax and seep back inside me but when it did I flopped to the ground and panted. If his idea of a punishment was to leave me in the middle of nowhere he was loosing his touch. I folded my wings and started walking in a random direction, but after only a minute a shadow fell over me. A very big shadow. I turned around and looked up. A giant red dragon was towering over me, bigger then anything I had ever seen in my life. I stared at it for a second before self preservation kicked in and I ran. My wings spread and I started to take flight when a massive paw closed around me, forcing my wings to fold. The paw lifted me up to the dragons face and I glared at it sullenly.
The dragon studied me before putting me down, and I immediately shifted into a dragon myself.
I was tiny compared to the other dragon but I faced up to it like an angry kitten and hissed, back arching. The wound on my ribs, not just an echo anymore ached and stung. I hadn't remembered it hurting that bad the last time.
The dragon looked amused and actually laid down, putting its head on the ground to be at my height. It was only by the look in its eyes that I figured out it was Mr. Tiny.
I wasn't nearly as afraid of him even though he had become much bigger. Instead I was feeling curious. I walked right up to his massive head and sniffed him. I squeaked like a baby kitten when a tongue as big as my middle licked the wound on my ribs, wiping away the blood that had started to stain my flank. Only when I was very soggy did he stop and study me again. If I had been human my cheeks would have been bright red. Who knew dragons could squeak?
A paw came down and easily pinned me to the ground. Apparently playtime was over.
I closed my eyes and shivered under the talons that could skewer me easily but nothing happened except strange warmth on my side. I opened my eyes and nearly had a heart attack. Mr. Tiny was breathing fire over my side. When the fire stopped there was no trace of the ugly gash and my pain was gone. I was no longer wet which Mr. Tiny decided to fix by once again licking me all over. Of course I squeaked every single time until I wanted to sink into the ground and die. The sound wasn't something I could control apparently, but for whatever reason every time I made it Mr. Tiny seemed to get happier. Maybe both of us had gotten cursed with personality transplants. When I was without protest sopping wet I shook myself and looked up at the dragon. Thankfully I had stopped squeaking and now I was just exhausted from fighting and being up at two in the morning.
The world shimmered and I was back in the bedroom. The damaged window was fixed and there was new bedding on the bed. Bea was asleep on one half of it. I hung from Mr. Tiny's grip without complaint and just stared at him. There was no other word for it; I felt like a kitten being held by its scruff.
"Was that so bad?" Mr. Tiny asked amiably. While the dragon had an odd sort of mothering personality to it, all traces of that in him was gone now.
I squeaked and clapped a hand over my mouth.
Mr. Tiny chuckled and deposited me on the bed next to Bea. "Try not to maul yourself before breakfast," he said and wandered out of the room. The door shut behind him.
I crawled under the soft blankets and stared into space. After I got over the shock I wrapped around Bea protectively and rested my head on the pillows. If I squeaked one more bloody time I was going to hunt Mr. Tiny down.
"Shadow you are squishing me!" Bea complained and poked me in the side.
I blinked and stretched. Instead of a normal greeting I rumbled at Bea happily, my entire body vibrating.
Bea giggled. "Are you purring?" She asked. She placed her hand on my side and laughed harder. "You are!"
I rolled out of bed and hopped around, trying to find a fresh pair of jeans. All the while I did not stop purring. I ducked into the bathroom to change and when I came out I was still purring. Bea giggled the entire time and it was only when I started to brush my teeth did last nights events come rushing back. I froze with the toothbrush in my mouth and groaned, thumping my head against the wall. I carefully lifted my shirt and sure enough the dragon was back to its usual wriggly, healthy self. I came out of the bathroom and finally the purring stopped.
"Aw," Bea said disappointed when she noticed and the bedroom door swung open, revealing Pandora. She stared around the wrecked room with her eyebrows raised. Mr. Tiny had done nothing about the stuff Bea had thrown at him. "I don't want to know," she said eventually and pointed. "Breakfast is done." She vanished.
"Why did you stop?" Bea asked immediately.
I shrugged and walked out of the bedroom with Bea close behind. The smell of bacon and eggs was too mouth-watering to ignore. I sat at the table in front of Mr. Tiny who had a newspaper over his face. Eventually he lowered it down and leveled me with a blank expression.
"It is time for us to move on," he said. "Shadow needs to be trained and he will do little here with kittens and little girls fawning over him."
My body stilled and Bea closed her hand around mine. It felt like the little bit of sturdy ground I had found to stand on had just crumbled away. If Mr. Tiny made me leave there was little I would be able to do about it.
"Really?" Pandora said disapprovingly.
"Yes," Mr. Tiny said and there was no room for discussion in his tone.
I stood up and glared at Mr. Tiny through blurred vision. "I hate you!" I screamed and ran from the room. From behind me came the sound of shattering glass and I guessed Bea had thrown a dish at Mr. Tiny. I ran to my room and stuffed my belongings back into the bag. Bea came in a second later and wrapped her arms around me in a big hug, sniffling into my shirt.
"Don't go!" She begged.
I crouched down and hugged her back. "Tell your mother thank you for everything," I said and pried Bea off me. I had enough blood for a couple weeks. "I will visit," I assured Bea and whispered in her ear.
Bea nodded and wiped her face. "I will." She stood back and watched as I shouldered my back and applied glamours over my non human parts.
I took one last look around the bedroom and wiped my own face before closing my eyes in concentration.
Mr. Tiny burst into the room, his hand outstretched and darting toward my collar. His mouth opened to say something but it was too late. I turned on my heel and with a loud crack vanished from the room.
I appeared on the sidewalk of a large city and looked around, easily melting into the crowd. Mr. Tiny would be hunting me but he would find nothing until I needed more blood. If the only way to make him learn was by taking the most drastic measures I would do it over and over. I pulled my hood low over my face and raised my hand for a taxi. Since the dragon was healed I could tell my body wanted to change again and I had to find somewhere quiet to do so. I hoped the tail and wings would leave. They were cool and all but having random humans stepping on it was not fun. My bag was safely hidden with a touch of magic so I didn't need to worry.
I didn't make it to the taxi and instead stumbled into a quiet alleyway where I stuck my bag into hiding and underwent a transformation. Instead of something happening with my wings or tail as I had expected my entire body stiffened and my vision went black for a second but I could feel my muscles and bones shifting and changing. When it was done I was standing in the ruins of my clothing and I had paws. Paws! I turned in circles several times to get a look at myself and groaned. I was some kind of dog. I dragged my bag into a better hiding place and practiced movement in the alley until I could walk in a straight line. I was shocked of course but also resigned. Hey, I didn't have a tail anymore and Mr. Tiny wasn't looking for a mutt.
I emerged from the alley and trotted up the street, weaving in and out of legs until I found a shop window to look at myself in. I was a large dog and I had a thin, tall body. I guessed I was at least partly greyhound but my fur was thicker then they usually had. My eyes were the same as they had been before so I would have to be careful. I could still feel the dragon but the fur hid it nicely.
"Hey pooch are you lost?" A mans voice asked and he tried to grab me.
I shot away and sent the man on his butt when he caught a glimpse of my eyes. It wasn't Mr. Tiny and I highly doubted he would ever say the word "pooch."
I marched down the main street and my nose twitched when I caught the smell of hotdogs. I gave into doggy instincts and shot away, racing through traffic toward the wonderful smell. If I was stuck like this for a while I was going to enjoy it!
*gives out free candy bars, popcorn and pretzels*
