Dragonskin

Chapter 1

The room was empty. The wooden planks were rotting all around, and cobwebs covered the strongest ones. In the center of the room laid a nest of eggs. They were huge, about the size of a grown man's head. It seemed like none of them were alive, but then one of them started to move. It started to shake slightly, and started to move more and more. Finally, it stopped shaking, and a tiny little fist poked through the shell.

The fist was as small as a baby's, but it was scaley. The egg then started to shatter, and a little baby lizard was born. His scales were a tan color, and his head had three tiny horns growing on it's snout in a row. The snout was rounded, but curved after it spread farther than the head. The baby may have looked like a lizard, but he was the size of a human baby, and when he would grow, he would: walk, talk, and think just like a human. In fact, it wasn't a lizard at all, it was Dragonskin.

Thirteen Years Later...

Enzo's hands started to hurt carrying the heavy set of firewood. Though the scales on his hands stopped most of the pain, some of the wood would splinter, and poke the bruises on his hands from earlier. He was leaning forward, trying to take some of the pressure off his back, since it has been hurting like crazy for the past few days, but it barely helped.

While Enzo traveled along the side of the road, he saw the usual horrific sight that was just an everyday occurrence to him now. He saw a carriage of a family being pulled, not by horses, but by his kind, Dragonskin. They were muzzled into place, and their arms tied together. It was obvious that they were broken, and experiencing hell everyday, but that was always a sentence, for those born of Dragonskin.

As soon as the carriage passed, Enzo sighed and continued to walk on the dirt road. He hated the daily firewood chop the most, since he literally had to chop down trees and cut them up. He had to do chop them down deep in the woods, or Enzo would get reported, and have to be whipped again. The axe they gave him for work didn't make it any easier for him. The axe was rusted, and he thought a nail could cut through trees faster.

After about ten minutes of walking, Enzo finally got to the house. It was a large cottage that was amazingly built with white bricks. For this day and age, it showed hard work and promise, since most houses were made with magic; earth magic to be precise.

Enzo walked over to the side of the house, and placed down the thirty pound set of firewood. The second he did so, he stretched and brushed off the the wood scraps and dirt from the rags he was given as clothes. Right after he finished brushing off the dirt, he heard something that had to be about the second worse thing he had to do as a slave.

"Dwagon!" He heard from an eerie scream. When Enzo turned around, he saw three little kids running towards him. He wanted to run away, but he knew that he would be punished for it, so he stood there, and prepared for the worst. After just a few seconds, he was surrounded. His leg was being strangled by one of them, his tail was being harshly tugged, and when he realized he could see the third kid, he realized he was on his back.

Enzo tried to get the third kid off his back, but he was already around his neck. The little kid reached his arm from under his neck towards his head, which was a really bad idea. Before Enzo could do anything he heard a thud from behind him. He jerked around to see what made that noise, and was horrified at the sight. It was the kid that was on his back just a few seconds ago, and his finger was cut, and was bawling. After a quick examination he saw that the prick on the kid's finger was caused from one of his horns on his snout.

After he realized this, Enzo was horrified, since he knew what would come next. Suddenly, the owner of this house, Master Rodgers, ran out of the house to see what all the commotion was about. His face turned to sadness when he saw one of his son's crying, and laying on the floor. After comforting his son for a few seconds, his face turned to anger, and he jerked his head over to Enzo.