Chapter 3: Getting Wings
"My name is Natoshi." the boy said. "What's yours?" He spoke with a slight accent Sienna recognized as Japanese. Something about the way he said it told her the boy was testing her.
Don't tell him, a voice instructed.
Sienna didn't say anything.
"Smart move," Natoshi commented. "You know, you are not what I expected." He began to circle her, like a predator sizing up its prey.
"What were you expecting?" Sienna snapped back, turning to make sure she was facing him at all times. "Some sort of superficially heroic chick?"
Natoshi eyed her knowingly. "Not exactly. More scales and leathery wings," he shrugged.
Sienna blinked in surprise.
"Why you?" he asked suddenly, his tone turning serious. He stopped circling. "A human. Why do you have a dragon's DNA signature? It's impossible...," his look became solemn.
Sienna remained silent, wondering to herself what he meant.
"Fine," he sounded tired. "I don't expect an answer. I'll find out for myself. It was nice to meet you. We'll be seeing each other again," he saluted her and vanished.
"What the heck was that about?" Sienna thought to herself. She turned and walked to her car.
The next day was fairly uneventful. Things were still strained between Sienna and her ex, she and Tiffany still hated each other, and track team still hadn't started yet. Sienna hated weeks like this when nothing happened. She was glad that it was Friday. The upcoming weekend would be a nice break from her now all too familiar school schedule.
On Saturday morning Sienna woke up, got dressed, ate breakfast, and went out for a run. As was said before, she loved to run. It made her feel free and weightless, almost like she could fly.
She charged through the nearby forest with a passion. There were virtually no trails, but Sienna had known these woods since she was little. She could find her way around.
She reached a clearing and stopped to rest, panting. She sat among the roots of a large oak tree and closed for a minute.
Suddenly she heard a voice shout "Sienna, get up!" Sienna's eyes snapped open to see a giant coyote. It sprang forward, jaws open. Sienna rolled out of the way just in time as the beast snapped the tree Sienna had been leaning on in half. Sienna gasped. She hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath. She had to make sure to breathe or she'd pass out from lack of oxygen.
That was the last thing she needed right now.
She got on her feet and stood, ready to fight or run.
"Quick! Transform!" a voice shouted.
"WHAT!" Sienna shouted back, not sure what to make of it.
Then something came over her. Words began flowing through her head, the same words over and over again. She knew what to do. She lifted her hand and in it sat a gold pendant in the shape of a fang. She didn't remember having anything like it. She lifted the object to her mouth and kissed it.
"Mew Mew Dragon Metamorphosis!" she commanded. Her body glowed and she felt a surge of power. After a moment the glow subsided, but the power and energy remained.
The coyote thing sprang at her and she dodged it with ease, but something felt different. She suddenly conscious of a weight behind her shoulders and lower back she wasn't familiar with. She was also aware she was suddenly wearing a skirt and boots. In her moment of distraction the creature attacked again but Sienna heard it coming and dodged it again.
"Now, summon your weapon," the voice suggested.
"Huh?" Sienna was focusing her attention on her attacker.
"Summon your weapon," the voice repeated patiently.
"What're you-?" she began, but suddenly more words popped into her head with ease. "Dragon Blade!" she called. There was a small flash and a sword appeared in Sienna's hand. The hilt was gold and shaped like a dragon's head and wings, just like the dragon Sienna had seen in her dream. At the end of the handle was an orange gemstone was attached. The blade was mostly strait but curved at the tip to be slightly better with slashing than stabbing, and was colored blue-green, like the scales of the dragon.
Sienna gaped in surprise, and was hit by the monster coyote, hard. Sienna was thrown back into the trees. She landed sprawling, rolling into a large redwood. She got up, gasping in pain.
"You need to fight back!" the voice called desperately.
"I know!" Sienna was getting irritated by the voice. She didn't need the distraction. "There's no safe haven to run to, anyway..." she muttered, glancing at the scene around her. She looked at the sword clutched in her hand. What was she supposed to do with it? In all her self-defense and karate classes the closest she'd ever come to using a sword was a wooden pole meant to be wielded like a katana! She'd never used anything like the weapon in her hand.
"Quickly!" the voice shouted. The monstrous coyote charged through the trees, straight at Sienna.
Sienna raised her blade so the tip was pointed at the coyote. She felt like she was watching herself rather than acting. "Ribbon...!" she began. Tilted the blade so the tip was at her lips and blew on it. She felt the energy go into the tip of the blade. Then she pointed it back at the coyote. "Energy Beam!" she shouted. Then a beam of light shot from the tip of the blade, into the coyote thing. There was a moment's delay, then, there was an explosion where the laser-like beam had hit. The coyote was blown back, and suddenly faded. A normal coyote and a jellyfish-like thing were left in its place. The strange jellyfish-like creature floated upward, to a figure hovering above the trees. It was Natoshi.
"What the -!" Sienna began, then she realized the answer to the question she was about to ask and decided to confirm another suspicion. "You did that, didn't you?" It sounded more like a statement than a question.
"You mean the Chimera Animal? Yes," Natoshi grinned mischievously. He seemed to be enjoying the situation. "I like the look, very ... orange. And winged," he finished with raised eyebrows.
Sienna glared at him at first, then looked down at herself, wondering what the guy was talking about. She gasped. Suddenly there was a skirt flowing around her legs, ending just above her knees, held up by a belt with a slightly darker shade of orange and a buckle made up of a round green stone. A pair of orange biker boots reached up to just below her knees. She wore an orange shirt that wound around her waist and rose to wrap around her neck. It covered her front well enough, but she felt that her back was exposed from the breeze against her skin and the blood running down her back from numerous scrapes and cuts from the battering she had just received. She reached up to feel the collar around her neck and felt the fang-shaped pendant hanging from it. Then she saw her hands. She wore gloves that came from just below her elbows to her hands, then narrowed and moved between her middle and ring fingers. Her palm and the back of her hand were partially covered, but her fingers and thumbs were left exposed, revealing sharp claws in the place of fingernails. As she looked down at her hands she saw her hair hang down. Hair she usually kept tied on a ponytail, but something had changed. Now her hair was a more carroty-orange than the red-orange she was used to. Then she caught sight of something blue-green. A dragon-like tail. It hung limply from below her skirt and curled back up at the tip to keep from dragging on the ground. Sienna tried to turn to get another look at it from over her shoulder, and came face-to-face with a leathery blue-green wing.
Sienna paused for a second, not believing what she was seeing. The she shouted angrily "What the HECK?"