2 Scourge

I was lost in thought. Which had me thinking, how can I be lost in thought if I am dead? I remembered I was killed a second earlier by a child, but how could I remember if I was already dead?

All I knew was that darkness surrounded me. It was pitch black. There was nothing near me. Wait, there was something. I just realized I was trapped inside of a box more than half full of liquid. An oval-shaped box.

'It must have been a bad nightmare huh?' I thought after I realized I was probably just knocked out and kidnapped.

It was such a weird interaction too. Muerta? Who would ever name their kid Muerta.

I felt emptiness. For the first time in my entire life, I felt regret. What happened, and how did I get here?

My mind was clouded by negative thoughts. Now that I had time to reflect on my life, I felt like a loser. My annoying attitude knew no bounds and I lived my life like some kind of god, such arrogance was not what I wanted to be remembered by.

Now that I thought back, I realized I hadn't done anything with my life. I had accomplished nothing with my life. I hadn't lived long enough to matter at all to the human civilization. Now I was probably going to be ransomed off at an unpayable price or worse I pondered my only option. Escape.

Wait a minute. What should I do now? How do I get out of here? This place was surely strange… I felt a bit weird, like my body was somewhat foreign to him, I also felt a certain heaviness and a sense of weakness assault my muscles.

It was at this moment that I noticed an unusual feeling. A lack of air when breathing, and it was only getting worse! My body reacted instinctively and urged me to break free from this prison immediately!

Driven by my latent desire to live, I repeatedly bashed my head against the prison's surface. But the lack of air and strange heaviness made each strike weaker.

My mind panicked. My heart pulsed with fear as I did everything I could to survive. My movements became more desperate as time passed. I scratched the surface of the prison, kicked it, and tried to bite at it while also slamming my head into the wall hoping it would free me.

But the lack of air made all my struggles for naught. My energetic movements started to slow down, and sleep threatened to show me the last night of my life.

Suffocated and tired, my eyelids were too heavy to keep open… I knew that if I fell asleep now, death would claim him.

When I was about to reach my breaking point, my entire life flashed before my eyes… I could only helplessly watch my life flow by like a movie while my body started to lose its functions.

Recent memories scrolled through my mind. My mom. I needed to go back home. I already missed my mom, and the pain from my nightmare still haunted me.

It refuted my fury and I went at it once again.

My dying heart pushed itself in an all or nothing attempt to break through the wall.

I bashed my head against the wall again and finally felt a reaction. My movements started to get even more intense. I could barely breathe and my head still hurt, but the pain only served to keep me awake and push myself even harder.

GO! GO! GO!

GOOOOOOOO!!!!

My body was already at its limit, but when my resolve started to fail again I felt the pain of being torn in half once again.

A deep roar sounded inside my heart. A roar full of pride, that wouldn't allow me to stop!

"AAHHH GOD DAMMIT, GOOOOOOO!" I screamed.

With one more strike, I broke through the prison. A strange transparent liquid escaped from the opening that I so desperately sought. Victorious, I greedily sucked in the newfound air.

Feeling a sudden surge of energy and a latent desire to be free, I used whatever ounce of strength I still had to propel myself through the hole.

I stepped outside my prison and collapsed. I crushed the remainder of the egg I was trapped in and looked up at my pitch-black scaly claws.

'What the hell am I?' I thought as I gave in to the sweet harmony of sleep.

Still exhausted, I slowly awoke from my slumber. I looked around to check my surroundings only to realize I was suspended in a cliffside cave 50 feet from the ground. The cave looked out on an enormous, ashen forest valley. As I crawled out from my incubative prison, I scanned my surroundings, curious as to what I would find.

Turning away from the 50 foot drop, I saw what seemed to be five red winged dogs staring back at me. They were huge.

"Ahh!! What the hell?!" I exclaimed as the dragons came into view.

"Aww, is little brother scared of us?" A female voice sounded out

"Well no shit he is ashen… and weak…" A male voice replied in a disgusted tone.

"Hahaha, of course! One of us had to be the weakest," another boy added.

"What's going on?" Magnus asked in a trembling voice.

"W-wh-why can I understand you guys? Why are there dragons here? What type of weird experiment is this?" I asked.

"What do you mean kid? You may be ashen but I didn't know you were stupid. You hit your head on the eggshell or something?"

While I did indeed hit my head on the eggshell, I had recovered during my subsequent 30 minute nap. Everything going through his mind was jumbled, but my main thought stuck out, 'am I a dragon?'

I looked down at my hands. Instead of seeing those I had come to know, I saw scaly black claws with long, sharp talons protruding where his fingers were supposed to be. Looking right and left I saw two large wings about the same length and height as his draconic form. Looking back to what I assumed to be my siblings, I could only see three differences; I was a good bit smaller, frailer, and jet black.

"This can't be happening! What is happening? Am I a dragon? Why are you guys so calm? Weren't you kidnapped too?"

"Yo dude, you need to chill out. We were just born a few minutes before you. Watching you try to break your egg with that frail body was hilarious. I thought you were going to die!"

"It would have been better if he did!" the biggest of his siblings said with such arrogance it caused the others to pause for a moment.

At that moment, a heavy flapping sound was noticed by all the dragons. With every passing second, the flapping grew closer. A massive red dragon came into view, blocking out the entire entrance. A fully grown adult bear was dangling from its left front claw. When the giant beast landed, it waltzed into the cave shifting the bear to its mouth for safekeeping.

Once she saw the shattered eggs and six hatchlings, the dragon could not contain her excitement. She ran over to her spawn and embraced them all in her winged arms.

"Well, aren't you guys the sweetest little things in the world!" The large female dragon exclaimed while nearly suffocating her children.

As she pulled the children away from her chest for a better look, she saw something odd. One of the kids was black. Immediately she recalled her frontal legs away from the children.

"Ashen tongue!!" She exclaimed with both urgency and dread.

"Ashen tongue?" Magnus shot back at her with curiosity.

"You are cursed! One in a billion! There have only ever been 3 cases in the history of our species. They all died of weakness before they reached their triple digits! Ashen-diseased dragons only have a fifth of the strength of a normal dragon; they can't breathe fire, and they can't even fly! You are a disgusting abomination that will bring me great shame!... Keeping you alive is a courtesy to your siblings. Be grateful little one."

"..." I was astounded by what I just heard. 'I'm a freaking dragon!' was my first thought, but after that speech, the only thing I could think of was on how I got here.

"What the hell is happening to me?"