A Dragon's Tale #Watty's2015

Daggers

I woke up several more times over the course of the night ton check on Nina, Shadow and Mnerloth. And let me tell you, all three of them were emotional wrecks. Mnerloth didn't stop crying all night and Shadow managed to stop and get to sleep at about five in the morning. I felt guilty. Mnerloth had lost everything, Shadow at least had his Mom back, but how long before that changed? How long before Nina ate a bullet?

Then there was Lung, I couldn't shake it from my mind. Why did he betray us? Again I wondered if he'd been blackmailed into it or if there were other factors at work. Did he know of Romeo's location? Did he already have spies here? Was there a blown invasion force on the way? Would we be able to push off a complete assault from the American Military? Emelia and the pilot who flew us here had said that no one knew, but I wasn't sure that I believed it. I had so many questions. And no answers. The only thing that was clear, was that I had to tell my parents about Taro and Hunter.

When I woke the next morning, I ached everywhere, feeling almost like someone thrown me into an industrial blender with the setting turned to obliterate. There were a few drops of sweat gathering at the tip of my nose and I felt hot and sweaty everywhere. Adelind was curled against me, some how managing to sleep. I yawned and rubbed my eyes, feeling Adelind stretch out and kick lightly. I smiled a little and licked her forehead.

She yawned like she was a newborn and returned my lick.

“Morning my boy”, she said quietly, “I take you didn't sleep well last night?”

“Not really”, I answered, “I was thinking about everyone all night. I got up to check on Mnerloth and Shadow a couple of times too. What I found sure didn't help me sleep better.”

Adelind sighed, “go see your parents. I'll get the kids up and around.”

I sighed again and rolled out of bed. I slid my tags over my neck and pulled myself into my uniform, quietly slipping out the door. No one else in my barracks seemed to be awake yet, just tired from their previous, month long mission I guessed. I walked out of the barracks, down to the base entrance and to the city. My parents lived in a house in the inner city, so I had some walking to do. The sun was out, the sky was a clear, orange and pink swirl and the city, as always, was busy. I could see school buses, expensive looking sports cars, huge pick ups and even a few MYTs.

I walked down the sidewalk that ran parallel to the base's wall and down to a four way intersection. The light there was green and there was a lot of traffic, even for rush hour, heading through the intersection. At the corner of the sidewalk was a pole that had Walk and Don't walk signals on it and a silver button inside a yellow case. I pushed the button to turn the light red and then quickly trotted across the street. On the other side, there two humans who appeared to be about 17 or 18 years old and a couple of dragons who looked to be the same age. The dragons weren't dressed and the humans were dressed like they were going to a pool party, which they might very well be.

I followed the sidewalk past a few stores and a couple of loan offices out to another intersection where it was the same drill. I waited for the light to turn red and then crossed the street. There was a doughnut shop on the corner and I was hungry so I dropped in.

The inside was painted in a tan color. There were six red tables lined out on a tole floor with three chairs around them each, most of which were occupied. There was a small, carpeted area that had two couches, a bean bag chair and a coffee table in between them. The shop was pretty crowded. There were two guys on one of the sofas, a little dragon the size of Ace on the bean bag and a couple more people and Anthro's at the tables. Aside from the little boy on the bean bag, I was the only Feral there. I walked up to the counter and looked at the menu while I waited for service. They had coffee, egg sandwiches, bacon, breakfast pizza and sausage and of course, doughnuts, doughnut holes and a bunch of other stuff.