The Fight for Survival

3. A glimpse of an ancient shadow.

After the old-wack job had left the White Gates, I quickly finished off my drink and left, not wanting to stick around the still hostile bar. Thoughts of the old man with the sad blue eyes still swam in my mind.

I was intrigued, sure. But I was also a little scared. You don't just get strangers wonder up to you who want to"tell you a story." Maybe he was drunk? Forgot to take his medication? Or maybe he was just off hits nut, a loony. It was the most likely thing I could come up with at the moment.

I was just an average 16 year old. New to the town. Wanting to fit in.

Instead I got poison laced daggers thrown at me when I entered the pub for a coke, and strange old wack-jobs offering to tell me stories about dragons.

My life was never normal. Not really.

I shrugged it off and after leaving the White Gates, happily gulping in a lung full of fresh air, decided to take a walk on the beach and spend the rest of my day lounging around, exploring the parts of town I hadn't yet seen.

The weather was windy and wet, the clouds indecisive, often spewing water down on us and then stopping for a short break. I wobbled along the pebble littered beach, down tot he waters edge and scimmed some rocks.

I stayed for a good hour before I felt bored and decided to leave. Just before I left, I gazed up to see a beautiful sunset, just sinking below the horizon. I smiled at it, felt peace full and relaxed.

But then ice coursed through my veins.

At first thought I had imagined it. But with closer inspection through squinted eyes, I could confirm there was a small, black circle at the centre of the yellow pool of sun. I tilted my head curiously at it, jumping back as two shapes-- I could only describe them as closely related to triangles-- shot out on either side of the circle.

I ran tot he end of the peer, leaning over uneasily to try and get a better look. Staring at the sun this long was beginning to hurt and I was seeing coloured dots swimming in and out of my vision. But I didn't care. I didn't know why. But it felt like if I missed this, tore my eyes away from the sun to save my eyes of the growing pain, I would be tearing a piece of my heart out.

I felt I needed to do this, see this. I had to. I couldn't ignore it.

Another small arrow shaped shadow slid from the bottom of the circle, then a final odd shaped one at the top. For a second a strange and utterly ridiculous idea popped into my head. I frowned at myself and pushed it out. What in hell could that actually be? Was I hallucinating? Had the old man somehow spiked my drink?

A series of large ripples suddenly sped towards me from the horizon, as if something had leapt into the water a long distance off, the ripples attempting to reach me.

Then the cause of them rang in my ears. A blood curdling, yet outstandingly beautiful roar. The voice was smooth and angelic, somehow. Moments after it reached it, the shape shot from the sun, and into the clouds.

I looked up, searching for it. I think that was what changed it all. Changed my life. For better or for worse, I still couldn't decide.

My mouth swung open, my eyes nearly popped from my head. I dropped to my knee's, body shaking. I wanted to vomit. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. I needed someone next to me to explain what the hell I was seeing.

My vision blurred and I fell to the side, my head smacking onto the hard wood of the peer, the last thing I saw before I slipped into the blackness was a large, unmistakable shape of a dragon imprint in the clouds.