What Am I To You?

Chapter 4

         A light in the middle of the stage suddenly flashed on. Willow watched as a guy stepped into the light, he looked to be twenty or so. He was tall and lean, he had light brown hair and bright red eyes. His eyes swept over the crowd and suddenly stopped on Willow. He smiled showing his pearl white teeth. Josh let out a quiet growl and suddenly put his arm around the back of Willow's chair.

       "Welcome ladies and gentleman! My names Wren and I'll be your host today!" Wren's voice echoed all around them. "First thing you are all going to need to do is get into groups of two." He looked pointedly at Willow and Josh. "I will call on random groups and they will get to choose their dragons first and name them. If you don't get called till the end, then well, too bad." With that the ceremony began.

        A circle of light suddenly started going around the room until landing on Willow on Josh. Willow looked up and saw Wren pointing at them and then signaling for them to come forward. Josh muttered something under his breath about being lucky. They stood up and walked to the stage. Wren appeared put of nowhere next to Willow and gently took her hand, he helped her up the stairs in the middle of the stage.

       "T-thank you." Willow stuttered and made a little smile.
Wren looked into Willow's eyes and licked his lips, "Anything for a pretty lady." Wren's smile dripped with poison, his eyes glowing an even brighter red. "Please, come with me." Wren tried putting his arm around Willow's shoulders.

       Josh beat him to it and gently draped his arm around her shoulders and brought her closer to him. He growled darkly, "Keep your filthy hands to yourself."

      Wren scowled and turned his back to them, "Follow me closely." He walked to the back of the stage and went down a staircase.

      Willow and Josh followed behind him and were careful not to miss a step. Willow was confused about what had happened earlier but didn't want to worsen things more. The staircase ended and a light shone through a window in the door before them.

       "Now before we go in, I need to tell you some rules. First of all, do not touch the dragons. Second, do not throw things at them. Third, do not let them lick you. That's all. Now then onwards." He smiled and pushed open the door.

       Inside was a large room with hundreds and hundreds of cages. Willow looked at all different colored and sized dragons. She didn't like how some of them were curled into balls and not moving. Willow came to the end of the row of cages and looked down the long aisle. She saw some dragons glance at her and watch as she ran all the way to the far wall. It was darker here, there were no lights above her. She looked in the cages around her, most of the dragons were watching her intently. Most people probably wouldn't come all the way back here. Willow thought as she saw a few dragons sit up. One cage in particular caught her eye. The cage was old and beaten, it looked like it was about to break. The cage was bigger than most that she'd seen, it had claw and bite marks all over it. She walked to it and looked in. She saw a huge black body towering over her, its tail was wrapped all the way around its body. On its head were black horns with dark green stripes they had a knife sharp edge, she saw its sharp jaw and sharp teeth. She looked straight into its eyes, they were the color of an ocean on a sunny Spring day. Its eyes burned with hatred but Willow could see behind the fury, she saw the sadness and hopelessness.

       Willow wasn't scared of this mighty being and asked firmly but gently, "What's your name?"

        The dragon turned its massive head and curled up in a ball, turning its back to Willow. She heard it though, the faintest whisper. Emit.

         Willow smiled, "I'll take this one." She said a little loudly and Wren appeared beside her.

         Wren looked at the dragon before them, "Uh, are you sure?" He was surprised at her choice. He'd thought she'd have picked a dragon that was smaller and kinder. One that fit her personality. Obviously though, he was completely wrong.

         "I'm completely sure." She was extremely confident in her decision.

         "Ok, um do you have a name for him?" Wren looked curiously at her then at the huge beast.

         "Emit. His name's Emit." Willow smiled and looked up at the mighty dragon. "Can you open his cage please?"

         "Of course, just choose a collar for him and he'll be yours." Wren replied and reached into his pocket, he took out four collars each a different color. The first collar was hot pink with white swirls on it. The second was bright blue and had black specks all over it. The third was red with black spikes. The fourth had black and green fire on it with a blue background.

         "I'll take the thir-." Willow stopped as she heard Emit grunt. "I mean the fourth, sorry." She apologized and looked up at Wren.

         Wren took the fourth collar and gave it to Willow, he put the others away, he walked to the cage and unlocked it slowly. He waited to see if the dragon would burst out like the many others had. The dragon just moved and sat up, he looked at Wren and waited patiently. Wren opened the door all the way and watched Emit's every move.

          Emit walked out slowly and stretched. Emit knew he had to have a collar put on so he laid down his head for Willow.

          Willow quickly put the color on his neck. She touched Emit's scales and was surprised at how soft they were. Willow stepped back and smiled at the huge dragon. Emit stood back up to his full height. He towered over her, she was at least two whole Josh's shorter than Emit.

           "Here's a leash for him." Wren said from beside Willow.

           "I don't want one. If he wants to fly away when we get outside, he can. I don't want him to feel like a trapped animal again." Willow gently pushed away Wren's outstretched hand with the leash.

          Wren looked at Willow and blinked. What a strange girl. Who leaves their dragon off a leash on their first day? Wren questioned in his mind. "Well, your free to leave now if you like. If you have any problems or questions please come find me and I'll be happy to help." Wren smiled at her and turned away.

          Willow looked around and found a huge gate in the corner closest to her. "Please, follow me." Willow said to Emit gently. Willow then went to the gates and unlocked them. She couldn't push them open so she left that to Emit who nudged them open easily with his snout. Sunlight streamed in and a gentle breeze blew, Willow saw Emit's scales glimmering in the sunlight. His eyes were closed and he was breathing in deeply. Willow thought she saw him smiling, but he turned his head away from her. She wondered why he wouldn't look at her. Was he happy now that he was finally out? Or did Willow do something wrong?
      
Author's Note
Sorry I wasn't updating my chapters, was a bit busy. This chapter is like 1200 and somethin' words. Anyway if you peoples have any ideas for this story, please do share them.