The Dragon Curse

What's going on?

"Hey, Mark. I was about to go into the town. Do you want to come with me?" asked Felix excited.

"I'm okay here," I answered.

"Please. You have to do something funny. Working only is so boring. Come on." he continued, giving me the puppy eyes, but then we heard some noise, coming from the shed.

What is Jack doing? I hope he is okay. Felix stepped inside and asked curiously.

"What was this?"

"Maybe just the rats," I said and tried to push him back out and keep him there. "Or the birds."

There was another noise like something broke and it was louder than the other one before. Felix looked at me to explain this, but I was just smiling at him.

"Was it a rat as well?" he asked when he saw that I won't say anything.

"I need to go, Felix. You said you want to go to the town, so bye." I said and pushed him out, closing the door in front of him.

I know it's rude because he is my friend, but I can't let him find Jack. He would've probably taken him to the soldiers because he is afraid as well as everyone else in the town. I could hear him banging on my door to open up, but after a while, he stopped and I assumed that he even left. I ran outside into the shed to find Jack on the floor, struggling and moving around in pain.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I kneeled beside him, but he couldn't speak. "Hey, Jack. What is going on?"

He grabbed his side where his wound was as the pain hit in again. He rolled onto his other side and screamed loudly. I looked under his scaled arm, where the wound was, but it was now healed a little bit. What was more shocking is that his side was covered in scales as well. I looked at his back and half of it was scaled like his arm.

He screamed once more, then he closed his eyes and laid across the ground. Is he dead? I put my ear on his chest and luckily I heard his heart, beating. So he just passed out. But what is happening with him? I better lay him down on my bed instead. I grabbed his arm and put it over my neck and slowly started walking with him back to the house. I laid him down and checked his wound again. His side wasn't scaled before, right? Or I just don't remember it.

I lied down on the ground to sleep, thinking that I'll ask him when he wakes up. He knows this better than me. But of course, I couldn't sleep. My mind was racing about what we were talking about before Felix interrupted us. I probably wouldn't believe him that he is a dragon if his arm wasn't scaled.

The next day I woke up as someone called my name out, almost shouting, so it scared me a little, but when I opened my eyes, I saw Jack wild awake, looking at his side then at me.

"What happened?" he asked worriedly, pure shock on his face, but I couldn't answer his question.

"I thought you might now," I said as I stood up and went over to a little bowl, filled with water and washed my face, to make myself wake up more.

"Nothing happened like this before. I don't know anything," he said, still frustrated and scared of his own body.

"Hey, calm down. We will figure this out." I said and sat beside him on my bed. "Maybe, you're changing back."

His eyes widened in more fear and stood up quickly, looking at me. He started walking back and forth, pulling on his hair in both anger and fear.

"I can't. No... this can't be true, right? But still... oh dear God, please... no." he said and I didn't understand why was he freaking out this much.

"What's the problem?" I asked, but I regretted it as soon as Jack came up to me and started shouting at me.

"What's the problem?! Are you serious, Mark? I can't hide from the soldiers if I turn back, and then they will kill me, just like they did with my parents." his voice was cracking from the shouting, but from the building up urge to cry as well.

His eyes were filled with tears and he soon started heavily crying, collapsing in front of me and putting his head on my knees.

"I don't want to die like them...." he whispered in his cry. "Please... I can't end up like that."

He was truly scared. But what can I do for him? I'm just a man. I'm not a wizard or anything like that to change him back... Wait! Wizard or a witch. They can help though. But where could we find one? Only in the town, but it's too dangerous for him there. The pub... yes that's a good place. There should be somebody who knows things like this, right?

"Hey, Jack," I said and he slowly looked up at me with his tearful eyes. "I think I know a place where we can find someone who can help."

"Really?" he asked, wiping his tears away.

"But it's in the town, so..." I said, but he didn't let me finish my sentence.

"I've been there thousands of times, so I know how to be invisible to them. This can't be a problem." he stood up and went for his cloak to put it on along with his hood.

"We still should be careful," I said and grabbed mine.

We went out and along the road till the town. It didn't take long to get there and soon we were standing in front of its big open gate and nervousness got me, what Jack saw too. He put his hand on my shoulder and smiled at me, which made me a little bit calm. We went in and the float of people was filling the streets. Everybody was running or heading somewhere, loud noises were heard with horses as they ran down on the stone roads with soldiers. Markers were shouting to sell their goods, so it added more noise to the already uncomfortable area. This is why I hate this place.

We arrived at the pub and we looked at each other, before entering. I stepped in first then Jack after me. The whole place smelled like alcohol and drunk men were seen everywhere. Some of them sleeping on the table or the floor, while others were loudly chatting and laughing along with women whose job was to entertain the guests. This place is disgusting. Then I remembered that I've never actually asked Jack what happened here.

We were wandering around for a while, looking for someone who can help us, but without any chance, so we split up. I was paying so much attention, when suddenly somebody spoke to me, from a corner table which was isolated a little from the other tables.

"What are you looking for gentleman?" asked the person, who was a man with short brown hair.