Forewarned (BEING REWRITTEN)

I become Avery's little burglar

(sorry I'm late guys I was grounded)

The next day I woke with a loud yawn, blinking dully as I felt something squiggling around on my bed. Lazily rolling over, I peeked at Caedmon. He looked miserable, scratching himself as tiny black scales scattered the sheets. I could see patches of leathery skin underneath and frowned. “My poor buddy.”

At that time Avery marched, barking at us to get our butts up and it was time to march. I jumped out of bed, grabbing my pants and shoving them onto my skinny white legs before shuffling to stand in line, my toes on the line.

She paced in front of us as we stood at attention, chests puffed out, chins up, and eyes staring straight ahead. I felt like she was looking for a weakness in us and couldn’t help but feel nervous every time she did this.

Merman, as always, had slept through her yelling and he was rewarded with a swift zap to the butt. With a yelp, he flew forewards, standing at the line in his boxers, his hand over his butt. He gave me a look before he was zapped again, this time on the chest. “At attention.” Avery smirked at the expression on his features as she strode by.

Larissa started to cry as she swam in a circle in her fish bowl Merman had set for her by his bed. I could just see Merman’s resolve start to shake as his dragoness cried like a lost lamb, her sound the only thing that could be heard in the whole room. He was such a softy.  I guess I was too.

She held us there a moment longer, our every muscle stiff as a board, before she finally turned on her heel and said. “At ease. Justin, you’re coming with me. You have five minutes to prepare. Go.”

She always meant business. I groaned as I quickly shoved on knee  high socks and started pushing my feet in those black jump boots. Did I tell you how hard it is to get combat boots on fast? It’s a lot of fumbling, tightening, loosing, and tying. As I was working, tongue in teeth, Merman came up behind me.

“I swear she hates me,” he whispered as he put on his shirt. Before he did so I caught a glimpse of a blue tribal tattoo running up his side.

“Nah it’s just because you sleep through everything.” I laughed lightly as I shrugged on my jacket.

“My poor Larissa… her flipper got stuck under Toothless.” Merman sighed. What? I looked over at her fish bowl to find there was a small statue of Toothless in it. I didn’t realize that was what she curled around at night! I barely bit back a laugh as I rushed to the bathroom with the other boys.

Brushing your teeth and washing your face in the morning was a whole lot of elbowing. With ten sinks for twenty five boys, space was limited. I found I was already used to all the hustle and bustle. The only thing I had to watch out for was the little electric dragons, who got a kick out of crawling around and zapping your leg. I spotted the troublemaker as I neared my sink and lifted a foot to let the fat creature waddle past. My eyes followed it before I heard an “ouch! Hey!” and realized that the little dude had found a victim.

When I shoved my way to the sink I quickly washed my face. Soon as I closed my eyes, letting the water rush down my features, I could sense that familiar yanking feeling. It was like someone had grabbed me by my spine and yanked. Hard. My eyes opened quickly to find a swirl of colors, like I was scrolling through Instagram way too fast. “C-Caed?” I said in a squeaky voice.

As soon as I said it, I found myself standing on the porch. Outside. Caedmon was chattering and I suddenly had this mental image of me putting scale shine on him. He dragged me out here through the shadows!

I wasn’t even sure if I should be ticked off or impressed. I folded my arms staring down at him.

When he realized I wasn’t rushing to put scale shine on him, he leaned back his head to cry like a baby bird. In my mind, a movie clip was playing out. It was poor Caedmon, losing all his scales. Then he was naked like a clipped cat, shivering. Then he flopped on his side and died.