Weredragons

Clara's History

As Clara approached her house, shouts came from inside. It made her stop in her tracks, and she considered going back the way she came. It was nothing abnormal to hear screams come from her mother and sister, but she was always frightened by it.

She told herself there was no reason to be scared. They couldn't do anything to her under pain of death, and she knew it. Not only was the dragon inside of her fresh and young, but she had just had a flying experience and the dragon mind was out of control. Moreover, she saw someone or something in the sky last night, something shiny. Her scent was uncontrollable, so it did not help, but it was gone in a flash anyway. Clara touched her dull brown hair. The dragon scales were that color too, meaning she was a Flipper, the most common kind of weredragon.

Clara was an adopted child, for her weredragon parents, servants of the great Alpha Droma, had died on a boat mission when she was very young. She didn't know how to control her power, therefore, and was always getting into trouble. The fact that she was 15 made it even worse. A weredragon that is properly brought up stays away from anything new or excitable for the first 50 years of his or her life. If the family is poor, then they spend 15-25 years, weak, but able to plod through chores. If the family is Droma, like Frosta, then they spend a full 50, grown to the peak of strength and capability.

Clara had only 3 years of quiet time in her life. As a result, anything could make her mad and cause her dragon form to come out. She had no idea as to how to act calm or smooth-talking in front of others, and what the history of weredragon coins were. Her foster-mother had taught nothing in hopes of keeping the dragon down and away from Clara, but it only increased in its impatience and upsetting attitude.

Even though Clara had had less experience than Frosta with her dragon form and mind, she already enjoyed it. A Flipper couldn't hide very well at night, for their wings are very heavy and clumsy, but they are good at camouflage in hills and she often changed there. Clara liked flying with birds(some she ate before she realized it) and sneaking through towns(which was rather difficult). In all of her 12 years in LA, Clara had never seen another weredragon, and she was unsure as to whether that was good or bad. She knew that some animals could be territorial, and she hoped it was not so with weredragons, for she wanted a friend who understood her other part. Humans didn't really understand, and they couldn't teach her how to control her feelings and tune in her scents.

Clara counted slowly to ten and walked into the house and straight to her room. Once she was out of sight again, the two others started arguing once more. Clara tossed her school supplies under the bed, and flopped down for a Friday night's sleep. She looked at the pictures lining her wall. Living in LA, Clara had seen many movie stars and films going on. She had applied for tryouts two months ago, but no one had accepted her yet. Why would they? As a human, Clara was nothing special. And they didn't know that Clara was a weredragon. She considered her problems none of their business. But maybe it was their business? Maybe they needed to know what a dragon looked like, even if she was just a common Flipper. If she got them to believe her, she would be in for sure. But something always held Clara back from writing a better report. If weredragons were to be believed about by humans, then why weren't they? The human mind said that maybe she was the last one, but the dragon mind always encouraged her to go find the motherhouse somewhere in the world. The Alpha Droma would be looking for her, and she could meet her friends the vampire bats and werewolves and-

Clara shook her head. Vampire bats? Now where in the world did the dragon get that that information was true? It's bad enough believing that there are weredragons and to be one yourself, but influencing her human mind with tales of Vampire bats? No, no, no.

Clara closed her eyes and relaxed into a beautiful and unrecoverable sleep.

Clara was just an average girl in 10th grade. Janet and her parents adopted Clara because Janet's father had lost a bet while drinking and gambling. Clara had accidentally caused a lot of trouble in the orphanage, and the leaders wanted to get rid of her. When they found her on the street, the only tie that they knew to her background was a little necklace with the word Forga. She had a large imagination, as her new parents found out, and her senses were much keener than theirs. When her husband died, Janet's mother was overwhelmed when she saw Clara react to the news and change for an instant. She promised herself she would never tell Clara what had happened.

Well, you can delay a weredragon approach, but you can't stop it. She learned her mistake when Clara got into a fight with her, suddenly moaned, changed completely, and took off through the window. She was six at the time, but as smart as an adult at how to do things to turn the tide in her favor.

Clara was shipped off to an all girls school in middle school. Many of her fellow students liked her, but she never had any true friends. They didn't ever actually know who or what she was, for she always kept pushing back her feelings and emotions. For many years she longed for a weredragon friend, and hoped that there was another weredragon. She had not seen any for many long years.

Clara never got along with her sister Janet. Janet coldly considered her a monstrous and treaturous beast with a part human mind. Janet told Clara many times what she thought of her, a 'monster with an over-exaggerated mind that had no place in human society'. It was at these types of conversations that Clara would either mutter something under her breath, or change and zoom out the window and not come back until Janet began to worry. For her part, Clara didn't think much of Janet. Just an ordinary, regular human, living an ordinary, regular human life. Being a bully at school didn't put Janet in Clara's highest esteem either. Janet made Clara's judge of humans inaccurate, making her puzzle much more than necessary over the niceness of her classmates.

When Janet first approached Frosta, Clara was watching from afar. She hoped Frosta wouldn't be soft and tender underneath like too many other people had been, giving Janet a target for her next prey. When Frosta was smooth-talking to Janet's friends, Clara was amazed. Never in her life had she seen anyone stand up to Janet, and here was a new kid who cared absolutely nothing about what Janet threatened her with. Clara actually giggled as Janet's friends left. Not that Clara understood how Frosta did it, which is why she asked about the coin, but she was just so startled. Frosta stood up for herself. Then and there Clara decided she wanted to be Frosta's friend.