The sound of Dexterous' knocking reverberated through the room. The sudden noise made Summit's talons slip, which caused several of his book's pages to tear in the grasp of his sharp claws.
Summit's pupils dilated and stared at the front door in fear.
Why did I have to invite him? Summit asked himself. Why could have I have just not enjoyed the last days of my childhood? Summit pondered.
As Summit thought, Dexterous knocked again. "Are you there? You told me to be here today,"
the muffled voice of Dexterous said.
Why did I not think of that? I knew this was going to happen. This is all my fault. I should of thought of a plan. Well, I can think of one now I guess. But what to do? If I let him in, I could be doomed, but if I don't let him in, I loose my only friend. Me, or Dexterous? This dilemma stunned Summit while he pondered his few options at the moment. He tried to look around the room he was in for an escape, but it was no use. He had two options nonetheless that would work in the future. But there was one that would work for a bit: stall.
"Can I have a second?" Summit asked.
"I've got all day," Dexterous responded.
With a few more minutes granted towards him, he started to search for a solution, but he found nothing at all. All he could do was say yes or no. Yes or no. Yes, or no...
Summit took an incredibly deep and profound breath as he prepared for the worst case scenario.
Dexterous was waiting patiently for his friend. What's taking him so long? It's not the morning anymore, he should have gotten up a long time ago. He thought.
From the other side of the door, all he could hear was some light pacing, and then a deep breath from Summit. Then Summit had begun to speak through the door again. "Okay, I'm, all ready now. Can you come into my place first?"
"Sure, I guess. But why?"
"I'm a little nervous right now, I'll explain it in a bit."
After a second or two, the door opened, to show... nobody. Summit must have opened the door so that he could not be seen.
Dexterous walked in slowly through the door. He looked around the room, there was nobody that he could see. After he walked through the door, it was closed behind him. Dexterous looked around. And the only thing that he saw: a dragon, staring right at him. Dexterous ran and screamed away from the monster that preceded him, narrowly escaping his surely imminent demise. After a few seconds of running, he was right against a wall, right as he was violently pulled back into the grasp of the dragon.
Well, I mean I could have been dead by now, so this is fine, Summit thought after pulling back his friend. Because of Summit's relatively small stature, he was not really able to hold his friend. So instead, he just gave Dexterous a very strong hug. After a few seconds of Dexterous realizing what was going on, Dexterous slowly stopped making noises of fear, Summit decided to let go of his friend and let Dexterous slowly get his bearings. "Please, don't scream again, I won't eat you, I promise. I just don't what them to know," Summit gestured towards the front door.
Dexterous brought his gloved hands towards Summit as a little bit of safety as he nervously looked around in search of a way out "What's going on? Why can you talk? Dragons don't talk. Where's Summit?"
"I'm right here. I'm Summit," Summit said. It's over, I'm going to loose him, and he's going to be the death of me...
"No, that's not how the world works...you must have eaten him already!" Dexterous said.
"And I said the same thing. It's me, you have to believe me, please."
"Then why are you trying to scare me, you beast?" Dexterous gestured to the menacing look of Summit's face with an open hand.
"I'm not trying. I'm just stuck like this, okay?" Summit extended his head forwards and gestured towards it with his hands. "I don't want to lose you, you're my only friend."
Dexterous was breathing heavily, "No, you are a monster!" He spent a few more seconds breathing heavily while he looked around. "I don't trust you, you're keeping me in here, you must be planning something!"
"Fine, then leave if you want, just don't tell the Lord. I want to live." Summit pleaded to his friend.
Dexterous looked at him, seeing him like that. He hesitated a little. There was no way that this Summit could be lying to him, right? "...Is it really you Summit?"
"Yes! That's what I just told you!"
"Fine... I'll listen then, I trust you, somewhat. Just, what's going on?" Dexterous continued to look around the room as he slowly backed away from Summit.
"I don't know," Summit said. "When I got up today, I was just like, this... My parents freaked out, I freaked out. It was a whole situation. I don't want to talk about it..."
"Okay," Dexterous walked towards a chair to sit in, but while he was walking over, his foot was caught in a small dent in the floor. The small hole caused him to fall over. Luckily, he managed to use his hands to catch himself, but as he fell a small gold coin fell from his pocket. The scratched token rolled around to an empty part of the floor. The coin immediately caught the attention of Summit, as his pupils shrunk and he started running clumsily to collect it, which he was able to do since Dexterous was too distracted with getting back up to notice.
The ruckus of sound made by the clicking of Summit speedy, clumsy talons made Dexterous see what was going on. Dexterous saw that Summit was holding the gold coin right in front of his face, admiring the shimmer it possessed with wide eyes. "What are you doing?" Dexterous said with confusion and disgust. "I've never seen you do things like that. Is this like, a dragon thing?"
Summit pivoted his head towards his friend with surprise. "Ah!" Summit quickly let go of the gilded object and jerked back, before recollecting the coin. "I don't know why, but I want it. I guess it is a dragon thing."
"But can I have it back? It's mine, and I want it. It's so shiny..."
"I guess it's contagious then? Maybe you've got a bit of dragon in you too."
"Hey! I'm no dragon," Dexterous objected. "So can I have it back?"
"...fine" Summit said as he offered the coin to Dexterous. Quickly, he grabbed and pulled it out of Summit's talons. Because of the sharpness of Summit's talons, the coin now had two little scratches in the soft gold, but it was still beautiful and shiny.
"Hey, you scratched my coin!"
"Well, you did steal it from my... talons? I guess that's what I have now..." Summit said with a frown, staring down at his mock hands.
"That sounds like the right term to use for a dragon."
Yes, the right term for a monster, a menace, a killer, a hoarder... Summit thought.
"So, I guess you can't do your apprenticeship now, that must suck." Dexterous said.
"I'd be lucky to be able to go outside without being executed on the spot. Everyone hates dragons, especially me."
"I guess that's how it will be with you, that sucks," Dexterous said.
"Yeah..." Summit said.
Dexterous looked around the room. He locked at the kitchen, he looked at the various chairs, he looked at the dining table that a family enjoyed, but the one thing that he would not look at was Summit. While Dexterous looked around the room, he also took a few steps towards the door.
For the first time, Dexterous looked at Summit fully. He could see the unnatural light blue scales that covered his strange body, his horns that curled behind his head like they were pretending to be hair, and were those gills on the side of his chest? Why is he keeping me here, I want to go, I want to escape, I want out. I don't care if he used to be my friend. I don't need a friend. I need to survive, Dexterous thought while he stared at the door.
"I guess that there isn't very much to do here, do you mind if I get going? I'm think my parents want to spend some time with me." Dexterous explained.
"I guess it is pretty boring around here. I guess I'll see you sometime soon? It gets pretty lonely in here, and I haven't been here for even a day!" Summit asked.
"Okay, goodbye," Dexterous said. Only a second later, Dexterous had disappeared into the city once more.
After a swift thump from the door, Summit was alone again. His muscles calmed due to the advent of solitude, and that he no longer had to worry about scaring someone to death, or scaring them so much that they decide to cause his death.
After looking around for about one minute, Summit decided to get back to the book he was reading but an hour ago. Summit collected the novel and examined the many damages it had accumulated from its accidental beating. Its hard cover seemed rather untouched, just a light scratch in the degraded green fabric. But when he examined the book's pages, many of them had been heavily ripped, shredded, and scratched from his fumbles and follies. A dozen or more of the pages had had many words rendered unreadable, and even a few whole pages were made incomprehensible. Perhaps he could find a copy from the library and copy down the lost pages to fix it. Maybe it could be an adventure for another day.
I feel bad for any dragons that would ever try to read, if they even do. Do dragons read? I guess I will never know. Summit thought
Luckily, the pages ahead were still perfectly fine to read, so he did. He quickly ran page by page, chapter by chapter, through the book. Sadly, only a few chapters before the end of his book, his parents had returned with the materials for dinner. It seemed to be some bread buns, and a whole chicken, ready to be cooked.
"Why did you get a chicken? We never do. It's too expensive, right?" Summit asked.
"Well, because you've been having a hard day, we thought that we could make you something nice," Acorn explained.
"Yeah, it has..." Summit closed his eyes partway. "I needed this a lot. I'll be in my room in case you need my help with anything. Let me know when dinner's ready," Summit picked up his book and scurried into his room.
Summit decided to continue to where he left off, reading his book until the very end. In Summit's opinion, the ending was most likely the worst part of the book. It did not feel very satisfying in his opinion, but he read it anyways because it was better than no ending. After reading the book, he pushed the green covers back together, and placed it the side of his desk. Unlike much furniture, it was made of wood. Oakley had made it himself, it was the first time he had gone through the whole process of making furniture. From cutting to staining. And it was rather nice, being a pleasing coffee brown with some nice edge smooth edges that were soft to the touch.
Summit pushed his chair out of the way as it now served no purpose to him; he could never fit in one of those again. Summit looked around his desk until he found a small leather-bound book, a reservoir of ink, and an iron dip pen. Summit pushed away all the clutter on his desk, and arranged his writing equipment to be used for the first time in about a week.
The book that Summit held was a journal of sorts where he would write down anything important to him. Weather they were lists of items, important events coming up, ideas for things to do, or important moments that happened in that day that he wanted preserved. Quickly flipping to the first open page he could find, Summit began to write.
Felsite 17, 5012
Today has been rough. After all I only write in here when something is worth remembering first hand. Today I have woken up to find that I've become a disgusting dragon. This has been terrible. I can't go outside, I will never be able to become an apprentice, and it feels that everyone is scared of me or does not want to see me. Well, my parents seem to be trying, but I am still uncertain if they are being truthful or not. I'm scared. I might be alone in a cave for the rest of my life, with no one but my parents to talk to until I die as I slowly getting bigger as it becomes harder for me to move around this already cramped home. Or maybe Dex has already told others and someone is coming to have me killed as I write here. I guess I won't know until later, but right now I kind of hope that an executioner is on his way. It's pretty lonely in here anyways, what's the point of me being in prison for life when I will not live a good life either way. Or maybe, just maybe, I could try to get out. No, that would never work. I would never see my parents again. I would just die that way too. Or I could be free. But it seems more likely that I would be killed by a night guard. Hopefully my parents are here to help me, and that Dex cares in some way.
Hoping that I never have to write in here again,
Summit.
Summit waited just a few seconds for the bold ink to dry onto the papyrus. Then Summit closed his book. "Dinner's ready!" Acorn called after she opened up the door to his room.
Summit stepped away from his desk in a clunky manor and walked over to the main room to eat with his family. As he arrived at the dining table, Summit pushed his chair to the left and sat on the ground where the chair stood so he was right in front of his plate. On his plate, there was a piece of the chicken, along with two buns served warm. Even though there was more on his plate than usual, it was exactly what needed because of how hungry he was. But right before Summit started to eat his tempting meal, he was interrupted by his meal.
"How was your day while we were gone?" Oakley asked.
"It wasn't good, but Dex came by to visit. That went fine I guess," Summit said.
"Three moons! How did he get here? What happened? Will you be safe?" Acorn said.
"Okay, I'll explain it then mom," Summit said. "The reason he came over is because we agreed on it yesterday. Like I said, it was fine, he freaked out a lot, but after that we had an alright conversation. He didn't stay long; there's not much to do here, but he promised that he would not tell anyone, ever. I'll be fine." Summit explained.
Summit stared down towards the delicious meal that sat before him. "Can I eat now mom? I'm really hungry. I haven't eaten since breakfast," Summit said as he started to eat.
"You didn't get any lunch?" Acorn asked.
"I thought that's why you made me such a big plate of food," Summit said.
"I made it that big because you're growing, a lot. And I think that a dragon needs more food anyways," Acorn explained.
Right, that what I am. I love being reminded of that. I love being reminded that my parents are nothing like me now, Summit thought.
"Yeah, well thanks for getting me all this, it looks great!" Summit said. Summit stopped talking to his parents and they stopped talking to them as he ate his food. All he needed in that moment was something to eat. It was delicious. His parents had years of experience making food for themselves and him after all. It only took a few minutes, but his plate was entirely clean of food. Despite that, Summit still wanted more food.
I guess Acorn was right, Summit thought.
"Is it okay if I have some more food? I'm still hungry," Summit said.
"Of course, just don't take too much, I want to save some for myself," Oakley said to his scaly son.
"Okay," Summit said as he collected some more food. But as he went to grab some chicken, his father slapped his talon to stop him.
"Don't use your talon! You use that to walk, it's dirty. I can get it for you, just don't make my food dirty," Oakley interjected.
"Okay, dad," Summit responded as his father put more food on Summit's plate. After his plate was refilled, Summit ate all of his food. And after that, he was finally full. It was a good feeling to have again to say the least.
Why am I tiered? Summit Thought It can't be that late right now, right? Well, I guess I'll go to bed anyways, Summit thought.
"Hey, I'm feeling tired, can I go to bed?" Summit asked his parents.
"You're tired already? It's not that late! Can't you stay up a little longer?" Oakley said.
"That's what I was thinking, but I do still want to go to bed dad," Summit said.
"Okay, then. Goodnight!" Oakley said,
Summit got up from the dinner table and began to walk towards his room. As he did that, a flurry of that day's memories rushed over Summit. Him waking up, realizing what he had become, him being in fear, the people around being scared of him, and all the other terrible things that happened that day. All at once. It was very overwhelming to him. But luckily those thoughts faded away as fast as they came to him by the time he was in his bedroom.
Summit walked over from the entrance of his room to his bed, and looked at it. How was he supposed to sleep? In the moment, he decided to do it as he always did: lie down with his legs and arms parallel to his body. It felt very uncomfortable, so he decided to instead go into a fetal position so his wings, tail, and head had more space to breath and get comfortable and lie on the ground. After a minute, Summit's eyes closed, and he was asleep.