WingWard

Nightmares

"Cathie hurry up we're going to meet your Counterpart."

"Mommy, what's a Counterpart ?"

"Well, a counterpart is a dragon that is tied to a human, kinda like how Mortsyks is tied to King Dean."

"They're best friends!" She exclaimed.

"Yes, they are." She smiled that loving smile that still appears just before she gets taken in my nightmares. "They came up with the whole program to promote friendship between humans and dragons."

"Sooo... Who's my counterpart?" asked little Cathie.

"His name is Levarg, I met him once, he's stormy grey and reminds me of reading on a rainy day," she said like she was in a dream daze, as they passed under the shadow of the castle courtyard arch.

Not the arch, please not the arch.

"How big are his wings?" She said, jumping with her hands in the air as if trying to take flight.

No, please no, wake up already.

"You'll see soon," she smiled.

That's when the 6-year old version of me saw the black shape on the arch.

Not again, not again, please wake up!

It swooped down like some demonic scaled phantom unfurling it's black wings just in time to dig it's claws into my mother's shoulders, sending a stream of blood to stain her white dress.  She screamed like a banshee until she disappeared into the clouds. Unlike me, I was still screaming.  I was scared.  I didn't have anyone else.

"WAKE UP!" I screamed. "WAKE UP, SHES GONE!"

Dragons shoot into the sky after the black dragon, while guards dressed in red and orange ran to the screaming child.

"Cathie..."

"SHE'S NOT COMING BACK, GET OVER IT!"  I screamed kicking what I thought was the walls.

Three grey dragons had come towards me, the two largest ascended into the sky following the creature that had stolen my mother.  The one left was only slightly bigger than her.

"Cathie, I'm sorry but you're going to hurt yourself if you keep doing this."

He was obviously a hatchling. His eyes were the colour of grass and they had a second ring of brown on the outside.  He tried to calm me down but it wasn't helping.

He tried at least.

Cold pain pierced my arm like a blunt knife, snapping me to me senses. "Ow! " I said.

"I stabbed you in the arm with my claw, I think that deserves more than an Ow!"

"Oh, hey Levarg" I said.

"Hey Cathie," said Levarg, resting his head on the side of my bed, just like an overgrown, grey, puppy dog with wings.

"Why did it do it?" I asked half heartedly, the sound of my own screaming still bouncing around my head.

"You know how there are bad humans?"

"Yah."

"There are bad dragons too," he said.  There was silence for a minute or two, but then he sighed and continued to talk in a soft whisper. "We need to figure out a way to stop you doing this."

"Why are you whispering?"

"Loud noises agitate small creatures," he smiled slightly for a moment and then continued. "Seriously, we need to get you to stop doing this."

"I know."

"You are going to hurt yourself badly again, and I can't just keep stabbing you whenever you start to scream, have you seen your arm recently?" He said with absolute seriousness.

"No but..."

"Look at your arm," he growled. I think there was a hint of persuasive magic in his voice, it sounded a bit like a whisper was speaking at the same time as him, he's getting pretty good at that, jerk.

I looked my arm, it was a painful looking blend of red and purple, there were streams and pools of dried up blood mixed with the bright red oozing out of the most recent claw mark.

"Ok, that's disgusting."

"If anyone sees that, I'll be executed for causing drago-huma harm and if you tell them the truth about why I do it you'll be sent to some mental facility on some island that looks over the ash fields, where I can't get to you, but that won't matter cause I'll be dead."

"If I could I would stop, its not like I enjoy getting clawed."

"I know that," he said.

"Are you sure you can't just blast me with some magic brain spell and make me forget everything?"

"I'm pretty sure there's a law against that or something, plus I think only a dragon like Mortsyks could perform an incantation that powerful," he said,  "and even if I could cast the spell, I'd have to erase everything, you've been having these nightmares your whole life."

That's true.

If my dad being pretty much non-existent and mom being carried off by an evil dragon wasn't bad enough,  I have all these nightmares I can look back on, and plenty more to look forward to.

After mom was taken, I was pretty much an orphan among dragons for the next few years of my life. Levarg's family pretty much raised me until Levarg and I knew the basics of human and dragon curriculum, then they flew off, dragons are weird like that.  They have this whole teach yourself thing going on, but regardless I thank them for being my part-time family. Since Levarg is my dragon counterpart he's been with me for as long as I want to remember. He's smart, caring and really does remind you of reading on a rainy day. Speaking of which, where was he yesterday? He wasn't there when I got home.

"Where were you yesterday?"

"Uhh... Secret meeting, dragons only, can't tell you."

"Do I really seem that gullible?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?"

"Was that a rhetorical question?"

He was kinda glancing around the room, like he was scanning for a way out, but he gave up eventually.

"Fine!" He faced the ground and huffed a bit of smoke out of his nose in defeat.

"Go on..."

"They finally let us into the Arcane Tower!" He exclaimed, showing dagger-like teeth in his winning dragon grin.

I smiled, if he wasn't around I don't think I'd ever smile. "You could already get in to the Arcane Tower." I said.

"Yes, but now I don't have to break in!" He spread his wings out to emphasise his joy.

"Does that mean I can go to the Arcane Tower too!"

"I told you, dragons only." He said it in a matter-of-fact tone as his wings returned to his side.

"That's not fair!"

"Don't worry it's not you, it's the rest of your species." He said proudly.

"How is that supposed to help?"

"Shhh... be calm, all that matters is that I got into the Arcane Tower and it's Saturday! Let's go do something fun."

"Like what?"

Levarg tilted his head to the side and gave me a quizzical look. "How the hell should I know?"

"Cause it was your idea?"

"Uhh......... We could, go to the markets?" He was speaking in a rather sheepish and un-dragony manner.

"And what exactly are we going to do there?"

"I don't know, eat live rabbits or something?" With that weird, distasteful, suggestion he walked to the other side of the room and left.

Guess we're going to the markets.