The Dragon Warrior

Chapter 1

Sarah and Daniel looked back to their children, fast asleep in the backseat. Noah, the eldest, lolled his head to the side, brown hair smushed awkwardly against the window. His younger sister Emma was more graceful, leaning back in her chair, blond hair swept over one shoulder. They looked like ordinary children.
But Sarah and Daniel knew better than to hope.
Sarah whispered to her husband, "What are we going to do?"
"Don't worry, darling. We'll figure something out."
Sarah nodded curtly and focused her eyes back on the window. Her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. The bridge they were approaching
was dangerous to their kind. They had made it over once, but she wasn't sure if they'd be as lucky this time.
Daniel kept looking back at the kids to make sure they were buckled in. Sarah stared straight ahead and tensed her foot on the gas pedal when they started to go over.
At once, black shapes surrounded them. Sarah threw a blanket over the children and covered her face. Daniel enveloped her in his arms. The last thing they ever remembered was going down, down, down... And then darkness.

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Noah woke to a dazzling sunlight shining brightly into his grey eyes. He groaned and rolled out of bed, slumping down the rickety stairs of the small house tiredly.

Rubbing his eyes walking into the kitchen, Noah sighed as he thought about the day ahead. They were boarding the train today, and he never liked the train. All it ever did was provide more misery to his life. How generous of it.

Noah laid his head on his arms as he waited for the matron to finish preparing tea and toast for breakfast. While they had to go without sometimes, this year the economy was going back up. Noah was grateful. He had learned to live with it, but he had never especially liked going to bed hungry and it was worse when he had to watch his sister, Emma, endure the same deprivation.

She came down the stairs herself now, her blonde hair golden in the morning sunlight. Twiddling with the light switch, she cast a brighter light over all of their faces before sitting down. For a moment her eyes sparkled and were full of spirit, but they quickly faded back to a dull blue. Noah observed all this with questionable interest while he ripped off the crusts of his toast nonchalantly.

The matron looked over at him. "Noah. You come downstairs this morning as white as a sheet and now you won't eat your breakfast. What's the matter?" Noah resisted the great urge to roll his eyes. When either he or his sister showed a sign of being any less than perfectly healthy, the matron grilled them about it so intently that they would consider not coming down for dinner. Which of course would only worsen the matter.

"I'm fine. Just tired." Noah tried to sound as polite as possible, but his natural inclination towards sarcasm was noticeable in the statement. Emma waited until the matron wasn't looking, and then laughed silently at him. He just smiled and then trudged upstairs.

Safe in his bedroom, he let the mask come off. He was perfectly awake; the only reason he looked like a ghost was because it was their last morning there.

Then again, it might be healthy for him to get away from the stares that followed him throughout the camp, the stares that seemed to focus on an invisible mark his skin had been branded with. Of course, it was fun to stare back until the original starer got uncomfortable and looked away.

He headed downstairs once again and met eyes with his sister. Her gaze pierced him, and he held it, not looking away. He felt like every feeling in his head was being examined by those icy blue eyes, but Emma's small face remained as kind as ever. Noah stared for one second, two seconds, three seconds... And then he looked away.

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The Gondars bundled up before heading to the station. It was cold in January. Though the cold sliced through his threadbare coat like a knife and chapped his dry lips, Noah was indifferent. He glanced towards the train and found, as usual, many pairs of eyes on him.

There were tearful children clutching to weathered teddy bears, yearning with all their hearts to go back home. They tried to come together to comfort one another, but no child had a filter strong enough to tell another it would all be okay.

There were haggard, pale adults who were just trying to put food on the table,  to put a roof over their family's heads. They whispered quietly to each other, bending down to hear the hushed words that could have the power to make every child on the train cry. Noah felt sorry for them.

But he wasn't afraid of them.

He was afraid of the stares that sent a chill up his spine, that caused his blood to freeze and his teeth to chatter. There were 8 men lined periodically up the cars, all dressed in rich black suits. From where Noah was standing, they looked velvet, which no one could afford these days. Noah frowned. They stood stock still, not moving one muscle. And their eyes were the thing that gave Noah the biggest shock, the shock that made him instinctively flex his muscles to run. One minute he was looking into to cool gold irises, the next into icy silver.

Eventually regaining enough sense to turn to the matron, Noah said, "We can't get on this train. Those men in the black suits are dangerous." The matron scoffed and chided, "Nonsense! This train has a sleeping bunk and a premium buffet for brea-"

"Whatever," Noah interrupted her as he turned the other way to a more sensible candidate for his advice. He said, "Emma, do you see the men in the black suits?" She followed his gaze until her eyes found the men. Her pupils dilated in fear and she turned to Noah. "We can't get on that train."

"Oh really? I thought it would be a great idea."

"I'm serious, Noah."

"Yes, well, how do we convince her to give up her precious buffet?" 

In response, Emma took out her pocketknife and slashed his face. It was very light, and it didn't sting at all after a few seconds, but Noah could still feel blood dripping down. He smiled. The matron was a sucker for injuries.

He turned back to her, tugging at her sleeve. She gasped and immediately dragged both of them to the bathroom to get cleaned up. By the time they returned, the train was leaving the station. Grumpily resolving they would have to wait for the next one, the matron  began preparing their tickets. But this train was no better than the first.

The same men were there, and they had brought along a friend. The creature was always shifting, his face morphing into a bear or a lion or a jaguar every second. His body contorted from green scales to thick black fur at the same rate, and frankly it hurt to look at him.

But the thing's eyes were the most frightening thing about it. They changed rapidly, from red anger to black storms and white fury. They were scanning the station, looking for something or someone.

Noah strained his neck, trying to see who the unlucky victim was. And then he realized something.
The beast was staring straight at him.

A/N
Hi everybody, I've decided to make my chapters longer, so that when I write (sorry I've been away for so long) you'll have more to read. I'm combining all my previous chapters and renaming them.

Thanks
~ Ashley ~