Flames of the Night

Chapter One

"Look what we have here."

I was walking home from the last day of school and the school's-over high that I had been riding began to retreat at the voice. I hoped she would just ignore me; she had been for the last three months after all. No such luck this time.

"Look at me, you pathetic human!" she screeched, she always managed to sound like those stupid girls one only found on a bad teenage movie. The first time I'd heard her, I'd laughed. I didn't laugh now.

Turn around and face me, worm." I gulped and did as she said, no one wants to piss off a dragon.

I tried not to fidget, but I couldn't stop my eyes rom darting around like a frightened mare's. "Can we please not do this today? I've got somewhere to be."

"Hear that girls?" Valarie asked the gang of shifters around her. "The little worm had somewhere to be. I wonder what we should do about that."

My eyes locked with one of the girls behind Valarie. Convince her, I begged silently. She shook her head and appeared suddenly very interest with the trampled grass around her toes. I looked at the dragoness again, "please Miss Pire, I don't want to set my grandmother off, she can be a real dragon when she's angry."

Valerie's eyes glimmered with a dark amusement. "I'll show you what a real dragon is like." And with those terrifying words, she dropped to the ground where white flames engulfed her.

The rest of the girls surrounded me, not seeming to hear my pleas over the crackle of the flames. Or maybe they did, when a few began to smile. "I'll kill her!" I screamed at them all.

Janice, Valarie's second, patted my shoulder so hard my knees trembled to keep me standing. "Don't worry, Val won't kill you today." She whispered into my ear before licking it. The way a predator does when they're getting ready to kill their cowering prey.

My fear had reached its breaking point. Shaking shoulders and darting eyes steadied. My gulping throat and desperate lungs calmed, I did not flinch when I saw a scaled snout reach out to me from the receding flames. I cracked my knuckles the way Grandmother taught me and shook my head so my hair was loose around me. I did not tense in fear when large hands grabbed me by the shoulders to hold me steady, to stop me from running away. And I did not scream when the great blue beast roared at me, her thick saliva covering my face. I smiled instead.

It was not the smile anyone wanted aimed their way. It was the smile Valarie had given me ever since I knew her, it was never the smile I'd given her.

I pivoted three hundred and sixty degrees, on the ball of my foot the way a dancer does, grabbing the gryphon by her still outstretched arms as I spun.

Before anyone could register what I had done, I threw Janice into Valarie's ugly snout. I think I think I heard bones break, probably the gryphon's ribs, and laughed. It was quiet funny watching Valarie being forced onto her fat rump by someone she had considered human. (Until a moment ago, I'd say.)

Then the taunts began.

"Really, snake? You think your tiny, fat but is scary? I think you should slither away before I lose my temper." Never call a dragon a snake – it's the worst insult that can be given and works the way a backslap does.

She charged me, roaring.

Her maw was wide open and I could smell her breath from here. I knew she was no way near good enough to kill me with her claws, but that awful breath of her just might.

If it wasn't for what happened next, that is.

Great Grandmother came swooping in, showing her power through her appearance alone. Most shifters can appear only human or only beast, but some of the more powerful ones could change their eyes and claws. Great Grandmother was still human, but she had not only brought out her eyes and claws, but her wings and horns as well. I could even see fangs poking out from the corners of her mouth. Great Grandmother was the only dragon powerful enough to bring out as much of the beast as she did and still remain human.

And everyone knew who she was.

All around me, the girls were on their knees, their heads bowed. It was satisfying to see them all this way, but I scowled all the same.

When Great Grandmother's feet finally hit the ground I walked up to her through the sea of evil minion flesh. There were a couple of whimpers when I stepped on something I really wasn't supposed to have. Not that I cared.

When I got to the outer ring of the pack, I pull up the little wolf that was still kneeling. And dragged her with me. I didn't struggle with her weight even when she dug her heels into the ground.

"That was my fight!" I shouted at Great Grandmother as the cowering girls gasped in fear and shock. One even jumped up and ran after me.

Putting her hand over my mouth, she bowed her head at the half shifted dragoness in front of us. "My apologies, great Matriarch. We are sorry for disturbing you. We will not do it again."

I bit the palm covering my lips, but it didn't let go of me until I tasted blood.

Great Grandmother just raised an eyebrow at us. "This fight seemed intentional." Was all she said.

I growled at her. "It was!"

Great Grandmother still did not reply as she looked at me. All the teenagers around us tried to insist that there was not fight, nor any intention of one.

"You took my fight away from me." I pointed at her rudely. "I wanted that fight."

Over the continual horrified gasps of the shifters around me, as again and again I "disrespected" the dragoness matriarch in front of us, Great Grandmother laughed. "Oh, dear Granddaughter, what am I to do with you?"

"You could let me fight." I pouted.

"Now, now." She wagged her finger at me, "you know unsanctioned fights between hatchlings of different clans are forbidden.

"But she's part of your clan Great Grandmother!" I stomped my foot.

Great Grandmother just laughed again. She walked over to me and kissed my forehead gently. "But unfortunately you are not. Now fly home before I tell all your grandparents."

I widened my eyes at her, if Great Grandmother said all – or any of my grandparents said all, really – when talking about my grandparents, I knew she would be going back to the grandparents of my grandparents' grandparents. I shivered, "not all of them?"

"Yes, all of them. Unless you fly home now."

"Fine, but leave Marg Loup alone – she's my friend."

Great Grandmother said she would leave my little wolf friend alone, so I ran home.

I didn't need to actually run, but I love the exhilaration.

I loved the speed against my skin, the tired ache of well used muscles. The shortened breaths, my pounding heart.

So I ran, and I didn't stop running until I'd slammed the front door behind me.