A Story Of Shadow

A Story Of Shadow / The Unexpected

I was there, lonely creature, sitting in my enlightened containment chamber, staring at my tail as I made it define small circles in the air, when I heard a strange noise. It sounded like two bodies of steal colliding with each other. I didn't get too worried at first, because I had heard lots and lots of different weird noises in this place before. Some reminded me of thunder, while some others seemed more like explosives doing just what explosives do. It took me a while to get used to those unusual sounds, but I heard most of us stoped panicking after two weeks. So then again, it's not that bad. Not for me at least.

One of the reasons why it hadn't taken me long to get comfort out of those sounds, was that Menelik, the man who gave me his memories, had grown in what his friends literally called a haunted house. They called it that way because of all of the creepy sounds that came from the  attic. Some of them said there were rats upstairs, while some others actually believed that there were ghosts.

But Menelik knew there was no such thing as ghosts. He knew there were no rats. His house was simply older than their's. The floors creaked from ever corner. His parents had had trouble with money during his whole childhood. He had had trouble at school. He hadn't passed a single history test since his dad had left his mom. He had never seen him again. His passion for learning was already low, but that event had pushed it into the negative numbers.

Menelik had grown with the need to fight for his life conditions. He was not only a fighter but a winner as well. He had reached summits that would have seemed impossible to others. He had started taking old computers and disassembling them. He tried to reassemble them afterwards. Sometimes it went well, sometimes it didn't. After a little while, he understood the engineering behind every device he could get his eyes upon.

He had then started his own line of electronic technicians. He could fix any problem from any device in a maximum delay of a week. That including the times when he didn't have the parts. In such cases, he could find a durable solution by making artisanal parts himself. He eventually didn't need to fix the devices himself anymore. He had employees to do it for him. He had the money for that.

Menelik had received an opportunity to change the place he lived in. I didn't have such luck. I never will. In maybe thirty minutes, I'll have to go pass a second test. I'm pretty sure this one should be more related to physical capabilities. I just hope that I'll have what it takes. Maybe that test isn't so dangerous as I think. Maybe they'll just test my capability of using my "integrated weapons", as the androids say. Or maybe it is dangerous and I'll have to go through a series of deadly obstacles.

Whatever it is, I hope I'll be good enough. No this is ridiculous. Of course I'll be good enough! After all, I posess the same attributes that many other dragons have used to pass this challenge since decades! I have already seen a few older members of my class. I know they are, because we were the only fully black scaled dragons ever designed. Some of them looked very strong and dominant. I can't look at myself in a mirror here though, so I guess I'll just be confident and if I'm lucky enough, it will go just fine.

After a while, I thought back to that moment I had with "her". If I can't do it for myself, then I should do it for her. I looked at the door, imagining her dark-blue scaled body, in a sitting position, looking at me and smiling. This thought brought me joy.

Unfortunately, I still have chances of being terminated today, and I have to go pass a second test. But I now have a motivation even stronger than fear. I need to see her again.

My assigned droid got my door opened and came in without ever bothering of what I thought about it. Maybe droids are effective, but they can be quite rude sometimes. I wish they still hired actual people for these jobs. I heard that they actually did at one point. But that was a while ago. When I first met with the droid, it had explained to me that there had been lots of incidents in the past, and apparently, a particularly dramatic one had lead to the decision of using droids instead of human staff members. They had decided that working alongside of such powerful creatures was too dangerous to be acceptable. They had also been pressured by all of the complaints which they had received from the suns and daughters of the victims, requesting for a reform of the system.