The Dragon Born

Deja Vu

I read the sign again. "Ender. Ender Dragon hybrid. 18 years old." I don't want to know how many of those years she had been in the cages, but I could tell that she doesn't like it. I shook my head and walked away. That wasn't even close to worth ten emeralds, let alone twenty.

I walked out of the park, feeling a sense of familiarity. I didn't understand, so I felt like the message was right in front of me, yet my old age, or what seemed to be, kept me from recognizing it. Was it the girl? No, I only felt familiar when a man about my age said her name outloud. The train? I felt familiar immediately, but it was only around the storage car. And I was just about to walk away when it hit me. No, literally. Apparently, no one looked around and decided to chunk hay into my direction. Suddenly buried by the hay, I shouted, "hey!"

Someone laughed, "well, look what the hay caught! It's a visitor." I shook all the hay and felt some of it go down my shirt. It was itchy, and I scratched my back a little, trying to get it out. Eventually, I got the last of it out. I sighed in relief and looked back at the worker. I guess he knew why, because he said, "sorry. Didn't see you there." He then continued shoveling hay in the pile I was struggling to get out of. I then jumped out of the pile and quickly walked away before I realized why I was feeling so familiar.

I felt myself go back in time, listening to the conversation about the baby girl while hiding in the haybales. I sat still as I listened closely, "you know, Bob? I think I should get out of here. This is ridiculous!"

"What do you mean?" Bob leaned on the wall. He then got onto his feet firmly, "and it's not like you can just jump off the train. You know that this is a job you can't just quit. Think of the media."

"So? That baby girl is where I draw the line. What did they name the girl again? Ender?" Bob nodded, and the other one continued, "I just can't handle the thought of a little girl being kidnapped for entertainment to strangers."

I felt a chill go down my spine. They are traffickers? Crap, I need out of this. The two men stared at each other for a while.

Bob spoke, "Nathan. You just made it sound like we are going to force her into prostitution. It's only educational, and the world might as well know about the new species."

Nathan scoffed, "yeah, and watch what a baby Ender Dragon hybrid looks like as she grows up inside a cage. Yep, definitely educational." I nearly laughed out loud. I like this guy, but I couldn't give myself out. Not unless I wanted to be part of the show.

The two men walked out of the car and left me alone. I shook from the new information. I looked out the open doors of the car and saw trees zip past the entrance. I knew the train was going too fast for me to jump out and give a tree a hug, so I just made myself into a ball and watched for any sign of slowing down. And it took a while until I saw that the trees were now slowing down and the men were shouting at something on the tracks. I shot from the haybales, not taking any notice of the shadows that were growing in size. I ran about two steps and was just getting my feet on the edge. Now or never. My mind chanted as I felt my feet push off the edge. I only felt about a milisecond of free falling before I was hit in the face. I felt myself fall to the ground, confused and in pain. I moaned as I heard the train rumble nearby and the ground quake. I opened my eyes just in time to see the sign on the side of the cars. "Behold the Traveling Zoo of the Extraordinary!" I didn't care about the name that much, but I was interested of where I was. When I watched the last of the train zip past me just before stopping and several men to jump out of the brake van to check out the front, I got off my back and started numbly walking away from the pole that stopped my flight abuptly. I started looking around, seeing that I was in the middle of nowhere. Perfect. I started jogging away from the train in excitement, hoping for a new life beyond being made fun of and being shunned by the rest of my family.