The Moon Dragon

Chapter Three

The door to the girl's bathroom slammed behind Sylvia, but she didn't notice. Sylvia was only half aware that she was hyperventilating.

Her skin was burning, itching, as glimmering silver-blue scales burned their way up through her skin. She fell to her knees on the cold tiles, her screams echoing around the empty stalls.

The ceiling was shrinking, one portion of her brain that wasn't panicking noticed idly. Her sight became desaturated and sharper, static in the corners of her vision. In a moment, her head was pressed against the moldy plaster roof, She felt it crack against the widened surface of the top of her head, crumbling over her sideways-facing eyes.

The room had constricted around her. There was no room, her claws cracked the tiles, her wings pressed against the walls, her neck was forced downward. She still couldn't get out. She was still trapped. She needed out.

With a sudden lurch, she threw herself against the wall and it crumbled like clay against her thrashing. Dust and debris rained down around her. Her keen hearing heard someone in the distance scream. It didn't matter, because she was out.

The sky was open, and her instincts were all she heard as she took off, just like sprinting away but up, flapping furiously against the resisting air beneath her wings. Her tail swung to balance her, and getting away was so easy. She was free. She felt like nothing would ever contain her again.

Sylvia swung around and looked back one more time, seeing all the tiny people, students, classmates, standing at the edge of the playground in silent shock as a dragon crashed out of the building and flew away. She could see Grace standing there, phone to her ear away from the crowd, simply watching. She couldn't see Atlan.

Sylvia looked away. The buildings below her grew smaller and smaller as she flew higher and higher, but the height didn't scare her. People pulled their cars over to the side of the road, peering up at her with their hands shielding their eyes from the sun. a flock of birds let out panicked squaks, rerouting around her, like tuna evading a shark.

That's right. She was the predator up here. Nothing could hurt her here. This is where she was meant to be. Her heart sang, and she let out a roar of joy.

Suburbs became farmland below her, cows bolting at her presence and grain fields whispering under her wings when she skimmed low near the paddocks. She felt alive.

The only sound was the wind whispering over her ears and the steady beat of her wings. She could hear the sound of her heart, thump-thump-thumping in her chest, now with excitement instead of fear. She felt like she had been asleep her whole life, and had only now just woken up.

Sylvia kept flying, not really knowing where other than away, before she started to realize something was wrong. Her heart thumping was getting louder, steadily, and in a moment her keen hearing realized it wasn't the sound of her heart at all.

Sylvia twisted her head around just as the sound reached its peak, spinning blades whipping up wind and throwing her flight out of balance.

Oh no....

RATT-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-

The helicopter's machine guns burst to life, and Sylvia flapped desperately to the side to avoid the onslaught of bullets. Sylvia was terrified. Why were they shooting at her??

She broke into a dive and flapped as hard as she could, low to the paddocks and zig-zagging to make herself a harder target. The massive black military helicopter simply followed, guns trained towards her. Its blades sent waves of wind to flatten the short grasses beneath and churn up soil. Sylvia flapped harder.