Dragons Within

Chapter 1: When My Everyday Normal Came to an End

This story starts just like any other. Just a normal day with my normal friends at a normal school. Nothing crazy, nothing psychotic, nothing adventurous. Just a nice, relaxing normal day with my friends... At least, that's how it started. So anyway, my name is Tanner Boggs, as the story is partly titled. I'm 5 foot 7, I have smooth black hair combed to the side, and I normally wear a plain green shirt, light brown shorts with too many pockets, and I wear black and white sneakers. My life has been nothing but ordinary, just like everyone else. And I love it. I love how I'm not that "special" kid who has something normal people don't have. I don't have to be treated differently because I don't have anything special about me. But that's just life for most people, and I'm glad to be part of that percentage. See, I'm not a very exciting person. The last thing I want is for anything dangerous or exciting to happen in my life. The most exciting thing so far in my life was when I got an A+ on a huge test. Anything more than that is too much for me to handle. It's just that I'm not the biggest fan of risking my life to save the world or anything else like that. I can't even look at the massive rides at carnivals without turning away in fear. I'm just another tiny grain of sand on the beach of life. I was just an average high school junior who made decent grades, good friends, etc. My life was perfect... Then I got kidnapped by a dragon... OK, let me explain.

We were on a field trip to some museum of national history. Basically, we just walked around looking at words on rocks, plastic animals, and an exhibit specifically for cavemen while most pretended to listen and learn nothing from it. On the way back to school, my closest friend, Blake, sat with me the entire bus ride while keeping me company and making jokes as usual. Blake is 6 feet tall, has long blonde hair, and normally wears a white T-shirt with a rainbow and big yellow letters that read "LET THERE BE PEACE", always wears long blue jeans, and wears bright yellow and red sneakers. He's pretty much the yin to my yang. (Well, he's the yin to pretty much everyone's yang.) He's my polar opposite. He's probably one of the most energetic, popular, and fun people you'll ever meet in your life. He's the kind of person who wants to be part of something bigger. Says he feels "separated from reality and its people." He also says things like "If you look at the bigger picture in life, you can become part of that picture." I have no idea what he means even when he tries to explain, but overall, he's a good person. We've known each other since the 6th grade. I was the new kid in school and sat alone in lunch when we first met. He went up to me and made me feel like I was "part of the people" as he said. He instantly became a great friend and we've been that way ever since. He and I have always had each other's backs and he always knows how to cheer me up, even when I'm not sad. When you meet a guy like him, you know that your day will be a lot better then what it was before. He loves making people happy any way he can. He hangs out with you when you feel lonely and makes you feel like you're not worthless. It's almost like he can just look at you and know how you feel while sharing his feelings. He has the power to make everyone he meets have a smile on their face. Ironically, he hasn't been able to get a girlfriend with this so called "power" of his. So, anyway, we were talking about what to do for our next science project when Blake asked me "Wait... Did you hear that?"

I didn't know what he was talking about at first. I didn't hear anything for a second. Suddenly, I heard a boom in the distance coming from the right side of the bus. I looked out the window of the bus to see what it was. At first, when I saw it, I thought I was on a crap ton of bath salts. What I saw at that moment, and I swear to the lord himself I'm not lying about this, was a huge black dragon the size of a city building with wings that expanded over the trees and black spikes running down its back. "Blake, tell me I'm high right now. Tell me that huge dragon over there isn't real." I said to him hoping he would tell me what I wanted to hear.

But he just looked out the window and said "If you're seeing this, then it has to be real." At this point, I started to freak out. I didn't know what to do. Everyone looked out the window and was in awe of what they were looking at. They probably thought it was some kind of special effect for some kind of movie. At least, that's what I thought they were thinking. Suddenly, the dragon turned towards us and we immediately started screaming at the bus driver to go faster. He slammed on the accelerator and attempted to get away from the dragon. Everyone in the back kept looking at the dragon in fear.