Dragonchild

Tiber Everett

Tiber Everett

In the city of Nocturn, it was a normal fall day, I was on my way home from school with my best friend Elly, we both lived on the riverfront, a district through which ran a river where we grew up playing together.

"Does your dad have guard duty tonight, Tiber?" Elly's sweet voice took me out of my thoughts as the leaves of fall floated by in the river.

"Yeah, I believe so, why?" I turned my head to the half-elven girl who had her long blond hair in a braid and tucked behind her pointy ears.

"Oh, I thought I might come over and study with you?" Elly smiled widely, showing off her teeth on her otherwise blushed face.

I sighed, "Sorry, I can't tonight, I have to help my mother with the laundry..."

Elly's face sagged but a mischievous smile appeared, "Tag!" she poked me in the chest, before sprinting off. "No backsies until tomorrow!" she yelled looking back at me.

I turned the corner and entered the street in which I lived, tall stone buildings overtook me, having been painted all kinds of colors, from red to yellow to even green. I tucked my brown hair behind my ears as I headed for my home, with the crows staring me down as I walked through the narrow street.

My mother turned around upon hearing our wooden door creak. "Home so soon?" she tucked the cloth she was cleaning with into her belt. "I thought you would study with Elly?"

I pointed at the big bag of laundry which sat in the corner of the room. "I thought you wanted my help with the laundry?"

A calm motherly smile appeared on her face, as she tapped herself in the forehead. "That is true, I had completely forgotten about that..."

And so my mother and I took to the river, in which we washed our clothes, talking of my day at school and hers at the house. My father was working a night shift, he was one of the local guards in our city while my mother tended our home.

The both of us had our dinner, which was cabbage soup. Which was a clear sign that we were running low on coins again.

I went to my room with a rumble in my stomach later that night after having done all my chores, staring out my window which overlooked our harbor district before eventually falling asleep.

I woke with sharp pain, I tried to gasp for air but I couldn't, I flailed around on my bed as I choked. This was no mere itch of the skin, I felt something crawling under it, centipedes biting into my flesh and from it growing what felt like glass.

By now I had managed to topple over just about everything that stood on my bedside table, to which an angry mother barged into the room ready to accuse me of waking her from her sleep.

She stood by in a moment of horror when she ripped away my sheets, in the pale moonlight it showed my body torn and open, cuts covering my body. My mother went in for a touch but pulled her hand back swiftly.
"Tiber! You're freezing." Her eyes were wide and her mouth hung open in horror. "I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do..." she kept on whispering to herself.

She lept over me and swung open my window fully.
"BRETT EVERETT!" her harrowing scream echoed into the streets.

But my father did not come, I lay the night writhing in pain, though as the night progressed something came from the slits in my body, something which resembled scales...

As morning light broke, the clunking of armor sounded in our street, it was my father returning home. My mother who had sat beside me all night softly opened the windows again, and demanded my father to come up.