Summit woke up in pain. It waved and pulsed through his body from his tail for every moment that passed. First I get up one morning to find that I'm a literal dragon, and then the next I'm in pain. Why does it have to be like this? I must be the most unlucky person in the world, he thought as he got out of his bed and walked over to his door while his tail dragged behind on the ground.
Summit got out of his room, luckily to find that his parents did not run away in absolute fear today. As per usual, Acorn and Oakley were speaking between themselves while they waited for their time to go to work. When Summit entered the room, they both were a touch shocked at seeing a dragon by instinct, but after a moment or two, they were about as calm as they could be while a dragon was in the room.
"Oh, good morning Summit!" Acorn said.
"Good morning Summit," Oakley added.
"Good morning mom, good morning dad," Summit said quietly with a small tone.
"Are you okay Summit? You don't seem happy," Acorn asked.
"No, not really. My tail's been hurting a lot since I got up, and I don't know why," Summit explained as he looked back at his tail in disgust.
"That sucks, I hope you figure it out," Oakley said.
"Me too," Summit said.
Oakley froze in a stood up position. "Oh, we have to get going, let's go!" He said.
"Oh my, I didn't know, I thought we didn't leave until a little later. I guess we have to get going Summit. Goodbye!" Acorn said.
"What am I supposed to have for breakfast then?" Summit asked.
"I'm sure you can figure it out, you're old enough," Acorn said quickly as her and Oakley walked out the door so they were not not late.
"Ummm… okay, I guess I can do it," but by the time Summit started to speak, he was alone. "Well, I guess I can take out food and eat it, that's pretty easy," he said to himself.
Summit walked over to the pantry as pain built in his tail, and his little talons clicked on the rough stone of the ground. Summit opened the pantry to find only the most basic foods. But Summit did not want that. He did not know why, he was fine with it before, but not that day. He wanted meat. Summit started to walk away from the pantry and towards a small box covered in insulating furs, an ice box. When Summit arrived at the ice box, he removed the furs and the lid from the box and found the chicken that was leftover from the day before. But as Summit took out his food, he realized that his plan had a fatal flaw.
How am I supposed to cook it? I can't use the furnace, so where am I supposed to get fire? Wait… dragons breathe fire, and I'm a dragon now. Maybe I could cook it! Summit thought.
To cook the meat, Summit put the meat onto a wooden plate and placed the plate on the floor so nothing but the plate could catch fire. Then, Summit got down on the ground while being very close to the food as he tried to breath fire. He tried, and he tried, and he tried to breath fire, but no matter how Summit tried it, he could not make a spark. What's going on? Dragons breath fire, so I should be able to breath fire! What's going on? And that was exactly when he realized what was going on.
"How did I never realize? I'm a sea dragon, of course I can't breathe fire! How did not think of that? I studied it a ton so I could memorize it," Summit said to himself. In defeat, Summit put everything back to the way he found it and just had some of the leftover bread that was lying around in their pantry. The bread was okay in Summit's opinion. It was stale because it was a day old, but it was still quite good, at least it kept Summit fed.
Well, I guess I ate breakfast, what now? Summit asked himself as he looked around for something to do. But after a few seconds, he decided that he just wanted to read another of his books. So, he walked over to his family's bookshelf and picked up one of his books. Summit started to slowly walk into his room, and once he was in his room, he hopped up onto his bed and got comfortable in it. The bed was rather small, as it was only made for one person, but if he laid in just the right way, he could lie down in a comfortable reading position. Once he got in that position, Summit began to read his book and for a while, he forgot that he was a dragon, he forgot about all of his problems, because all he could think about was the world that he was now engrossed in. The plot changed, it thickened, it entertained, and Summit was happy while being distracted by it. Because when he was reading, he was never really distracted.
Summit sat in his bed for hours as he read a book that he must had read nearly a hundred times before. But sadly, all stories must come to an end, and because of how comfortable he was with the book, he ran through it rather quickly. And by around 5 o'clock, he was done, and the afternoon had just started.
Summit returned the book to its original place on the shelf after he was done with the story, but after one thing was put down, what to pick up? Three Moons, it seems I've done everything I can do here, what now?
At a loss for things to do, Summit looked around everywhere. Summit looked in every nook and cranny for something to do in the main room and found absolutely nothing for him to do. He had read all the books, and aside from that, there was not much to do in there. So, Summit went into his room. It too did not have much, but it did have a source of infinite things to do within it that sat idly on his desk: his notebook.
Summit had never used his notebook for fun before; he could usually leave the house for something to do, but in this weird state of his, it would have to do. So Summit sat up in front of his desk and turned the notebook to a fresh page, filled with opportunity. With a blank page presented to Summit, and a quill in his talon, Summit did nothing, he could not think of anything to create. Summit sat in front on his desk, uninspired. Until inspiration struck, or to be specific, he sneezed. His violent sneeze caused him to accidentally make a stroke on the left side of his page with his pen. And like a lightning rod, inspiration had struck his brain, and he began drawing.
Drawing was not the expertise of Summit, he really was not one for the arts outside of dabbling with the violin for a few years, which he would still have if it were not for the destruction of Talisman. Regardless of skill however, Summit got to work on his piece, adding lines and shapes onto the page to work together to create one coherent scene. Once his line-work was complete, he added simple shading to create a black and white image.
After all those minutes had passed, he stared back at the most interesting piece of artwork that he was ever able to create, all because of one sneeze. The image depicted of a dragon wallowing by an impassible wall. On the other side of that wall were two larger dragons, equally depressed, staring at the wall, and the dragon that lied past it. The technique was not all that impressive despite it's effort. The dragons, although modeled after Summit himself, seemed unnatural and disproportionate to how they actually looked, the wall's perspective made no sense compared to the environment around it, and overall it was a shoddy piece, but Summit was still proud of his creation. Not because his intent, or his interpretation of it all, but simply because it was the greatest piece of art he had ever made.
After one drawing, Summit did not stop doodling. The next thing that Summit drew was no piece of art. Summit walked around his home, marking the shape of the rooms, marking down the shape of the furniture, the cabinets, the rugs, everything he could write down while he wobbled around on his two back talons.
While Summit was walking all over the house, the pain in Summit's tail came back like it had never left. But that time, Summit decided to look for the source of his pain. So, Summit looked back at his own tail, at first he was disgusted at the reminder of just how inhuman he was, but by that point, the annoying comments from his own psyche were normal. After close inspection, Summit could not find one injury on the to of his tail, so he decided to turn it over. And did he find something on the other side of his tail. There were many injuries on him that he had found. There was dried blood where his scales were dislodged, several scales had been smoothed the point of being flush with all of its surrounding scales, and when Summit tried to touch it, it only hurt even more. Summit's face turned a touch green at the sight of the backside of his tail. It was one of the most disgusting things he had ever seen, and he was a dragon! A creature that Summit thought to be one of the most disgusting things he had ever seen. Despite his desire to never see it again though, Summit had to figure out how to deal with the pain. Summit thought to walk into their small bathroom which had a little cabinet for medical supplies like disinfectant (which although would help Summit's health, were too painful to use), and bandages. Summit took the bandages and wrapped a lot of the bandage all over the damaged part of his tail, creating a white section of his tail. After that injury of his was attended to, Summit walked out of the bathroom with his tail up and got back to marking out his home.
Once Summit had completely marked out his small home, he went into his room and began to add detail to all the things that he drew crudely on his short travels. Once he was done delving in the intricate top-down details in his home's furniture, he had finally created a map of his own home. Why anyone would ever want or let alone need a map for such a small area, he would never really know, but he did enjoy how it looked, and he found it quite amusing to do cartography, so the use of his work was not his concern in any way, shape, or form to him. Summit had apparently been so versed in his work, that he never even noticed that his parents were home because all of the sudden, the door to Summit room shot open.
"Hello Summit! I couldn't find you anywhere! I just wanted to let you know that dinner's ready," Acorn said from the main room as the mesmerizing scent of a delicious meal marched into his room to delight him.
"Oh, okay mom, I'll be right there," Summit closed his book, caped his reservoir of ink, and walked over into the main room of his home.
At the dinner table was just about what he expected, there was the leftover chicken that Summit failed to cook that morning, along with some cooked potatoes, and some bread (hooray, more bread…).
Summit was really hungry, but he could not eat because his hands were too dirty from the ink and dirt that had accumulated on them. So, he walked over to the water reservoir to collect a small bucket of water and then he walked over to the bathroom. In the bathroom, he loaded the water from the bucket into a container above the faucet before turning it on and using the running water to wash his hands.
Once his hands were clean, Summit returned the bucket and walked over to the table on his hind legs as to not to get his front talons dirty again. When Summit reached the table, he sat up and set his front talons on the table. "Hi mom, hi dad," he said.
"Hi Summit!" Acorn said.
"Hello, Summit," Oakley said.
"How were your days? I didn't do much, I mostly just read and drew," Summit asked.
"Oh, it was alright, just baked all day," Acorn said.
"Did you go near the ovens mom?" Summit asked.
"Oh moons no. I would never go near an oven, they're too dangerous and hot," Acorn said.
"Dad, how was your day?" Summit asked with a little smile.
"Oh, it was fine, I worked at the front today again," Oakley said with little energy.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Summit started to grab food of the platters in the middle of the table and put it onto his plate.
"What did I tell you about grabbing your food Summit? Your hands are too dirty," Oakley said.
"It's fine, I washed my hands right before dinner, they're clean," Summit lightly raised his right talon.
"Ugh, don't show me that thing. Just eat your food and leave me alone," Oakley said with a raised voice.
Summit quickly lowered his talon back down to the table and lowered his head as he clumsily grabbed his utensils and started to eat his food. Summit's claws dug into the utensils forming little dents in them that Summit used to hold them properly while he ate. He opened his mouth to eat another bite as Oakley looked up at the person and dragon in front of him and saw Summit as he opened his mouth, showing all of his teeth and his forked tongue.
"Summit! Close your mouth! It's disgusting!" Oakley exclaimed to Summit.
"I can't dad, this is as little as I can open it while still being able to eat." Summit explained nervously.
"Well then don't eat, I don't care," Oakley said.
"Oakley! Why are you being so mean to our son?" Acorn asked him.
"How dare you insult us by calling that thing our son. That thing is a murderer, not a child, I don't want to see him," Oakley said angrily. Summit's eyes became misty as he heard his father's words.
"What did he do to anyone? All he did was wake up like this, I don't like it either but it's not his fault," Acorn rebutted.
"So what? He's a dragon, Acorn. It is his instinct to hurt and hoard," Oakley turned towards Summit. "So listen to me you beast," Oakley said with anger that burned like a brick oven. "Get. Out. Of. This. House," Oakley said with the rigidity of a log and a fist pointed squarely at Summit.
As Summit's eyes were locked with his vengeful father's, Summit's eyes turned from a jade green to a sky blue as they filled with uncontrolled sorrow and fear. Summit quickly ran far from the table and into his room again.
"Look what you've done to Summit Oakley! He's devastated," Acorn said to her disagreeing husband.
"What does it matter? Like I said, he's just a monster. Like the one that ruined our lives before. This one won't be any different," Oakley said.
"If you call Summit a monster one more time…" Acorn said.
"Okay then. Die if you so choose. I did warn us," Oakley said.
Acorn walked away from her husband and knocked on Summit's door.
Summit was bawling his eyes out on his bed while he was curled up in a ball. What's going on? Am I that bad? Should I stay? What's dad going to do to me? Summit thought before he heard knocking on his door.
"It's mom, I want to talk to you. It's okay, I won't hurt you," Acorn said.
Summit unfurled himself from his little ball and walked towards the door, and then he opened it. "Oh… hi mom. W-what are you doing here?" Summit said nervously.
"I just wanted to talk to you about dad," Acorn explained. "Can I come in?"
"Okay mom," Summit said nervously as he walked back over to his bed and sat in it. Acorn closed the door and followed him.
"Summit, I'm sorry for what happened at dinner. I don't know what's going on with your father," Acorn said.
"Well I don't really care mom, I just don't want him to see me again. I'm scared of him," Summit said.
"I'm sorry you're like that. I'm going to go talk to him. I can get you your food to eat in here if you like," Acorn said.
"Yes, I'm hungry. Please get me dinner," Summit said.
"Okay," Acorn started to walk towards the closed door before Summit asked her a question.
"Do you hate me mom? I know that you're scared of dragons, scared of me. But do you hate me?" Summit asked.
"No, you haven't done anything wrong. I will be scared of you, I don't think that I will ever be able to not be scared of dragons after what happened in Talisman, but I will be brave for you. You deserve it," Acorn said
"Okay mom, thanks for being strong for me," Summit said.
"It's my job," Acorn said as she left the room to get Summit's dinner.
After only a minute, Summit had his dinner given to him, and then all he could hear from outside his room was the muffled yelling of his parent's argument. It was not a calming background for Summit as he tried to keep calm under it all. A few tears fell onto his plate; he knew that Oakley did not want him anymore.
Why am I still here anymore. Maybe my mom wants me to stay here, but I don't think my dad will ever come around, Summit thought over the background of an argument. Maybe I should leave this place myself and be free of this mess that I've caused now. I never wanted to be here anyways. I just wanted to be in Talisman, where I could see the sun outside my window, where I was happy, where I wasn't a dragon, until that dragon ruined it all. Just like I am right now..
I ruined my life here, I need to leave the Indestructible City, it's the only way.