Breath of Fire

Chapter Four

The guys jumped to attention as soon as the office door opened. As always, Blaise had a deep scowl on his face. Seriously? I was starting to wonder if that guy had any other setting!
    Caspian, Blaise, Terrance, and Elios lead me back down the hallways and out of the building and across the lawn I had been staring out at only moments before. I looked to the left and caught a glimpse of professor Pyrion sitting in his chair drinking his tea. I clapped my hand over my mouth to stop myself from giggling out loud at the sight. I stopped in my tracks. Something about this place seemed to have released another; lighter hearted, side of me. I could not remember the last time I had almost giggled like a little girl. Something was definitely wrong with me! Don't you go drinking the kool aid, Ari! I really needed to get out of here as soon as possible if I was suddenly letting my guards down! I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there was something about this place that almost seemed familiar. However, there was no way that was possible and it was too risky to stay here if my brain was going to start going loopy on me.
    I smiled at Caspian as he held open the door to another building for me. Nice to see that even in a realm of beasts, chivalry still existed. I couldn't name one guy back on earth who had ever done me such a courtesy. I shook my head as I realized I was again, letting my guard down. At any moment, any one of these men could turn into a giant winged monster and rip my body to shreds and gobble me up for a mid afternoon snack. Now was not the time to get complacent; no matter how nice Caspian was being to me. To get my mind back on track, I looked over to Blaise. His scowling expression was exactly what I needed to sober my thoughts back up.
    As I continued to trail after the boys, I did my best not to notice the several stares I was receiving from the other students meandering around. I tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear as I looked down at my feet self consciously. I hated it; but I went shy as a mouse whenever I felt like I was the center of attention. Most of the females I served at the bar loved being at the focus of everyone's attention, but I had never particularly enjoyed the feeling of being watched. I probably would not have as much of an aversion to the limelight if it weren't for the fact that I had been hunted my entire life by people who wanted to kill me, but sadly, such was my life.
    Several minutes later, we finally came to a stop. This time it was Terrance who pulled the door open for me with a wink that I tried my best to ignore. The room that met my gaze was another surprisingly human one. It reminded me exactly of every hospital wing I had ever seen. I was starting to think there might be some truth to what professor Pyrion said about humans being descended from dragons. It certainly would explain all the similarities. Be that as it may, it was still hard to wrap my mind around the idea that dragons had been around for who knows how many centuries longer than humans. How had they been able to exist for so long without anyone realizing they were real? To be fair, most humans didn't like to accept change easily so it was not impossible to imagine that anyone who had tried to speak up about the truth over the years had been quickly silenced or written off as mentally insane. But still...Clearly there had been enough belief in them for the fables and mythology to exist, but I would be curious to know if there had ever been a time where dragons and humans had coexisted peacefully. The way professor Pyrion had stressed so strongly the need for humans to stay ignorant about the existence of dragons had given me the impression that he was speaking from personal experience.
    The door had barely closed behind us before there was a flurry of movement in front of me and I suddenly found myself staring at the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. She had long blonde hair that fell in soft curls past her shoulders and sharp distinct facial features that gave her the appearance of being in her mid to late twenties. However, the gleam in her eyes showed a wisdom that spanned several decades.
    "Hello, your maje-" she suddenly broke off and I looked over to see Elios and his brothers shaking their heads at her with glares in my direction. Blaise, I understood, I mean he was always glaring at one thing or another, but I couldn't understand why the others were upset as well. As if nothing had just happened, the female turned to me with a sweep of her pearly white dress and strode over to me. "Well, hello there, dear. My name is Hyperiona, but everyone just calls me Peri."
    "Geeze, Pyrion, Peri, what's next? Pyrios?" I grumbled softly to myself, already picturing myself messing up with all of these names.
    "I know, my husband and I have very similar names. We joke about it all the time," Peri said with a soft laugh. Oh, crap. She must have heard me.
    "Husband? Wait, professor Pyrion is your husband?" I clamped my mouth shut before I could fit anymore of my foot in it. But holy fuck, my mind did not need the mental images that were flashing before my eyes as I tried to imagine the old professor Pyrion with the stunningly gorgeous female in front of me. Not to say that Pyrion was ugly or anything. In fact, the ages had been kind to him and I had no doubt that he had been quite the heart breaker in his day, but no offense, how the hell had he managed to land such a catch?
    "I am far older than I look, dear. But yes, Pyrion is my mated." I frowned at the unfamiliar term but decided to worry about that later. I just wanted to get this over with. I had never liked human hospitals and had a feeling I would not like dragon ones any better. Peri ushered me over to one of the large empty beds that lined the sides of the room. I sat nervously at the edge as I tried not to notice the fact that the bed was large enough to fit a dragon body and my tiny human frame was but a small blip in the white canvas. Hyperiona hovered over me, tutting every so often as she examined the many, many, scrapes and bruises that adorned my limbs.
    "You poor dear. What happened to you? What manner of mischief have these young rascals gotten you into? You look like you took a tumble off a cliff!" Peri commented as she went to grab a bottle of strange looking liquid.
    "That is precisely what happened," I hissed softly as she started spreading the purple liquid over my arms. "Fuck, that stings like a bitch! Whoops, pardon my french," I exclaimed as she looked at me reproachfully. I grinned at her as everyone but Blaise laughed loudly.
    "I knew there was a reason I liked her," I heard Elios comment as I clenched my teeth against the pain as Peri moved down to cover my legs in the strange purple goo. I chose to ignore his words and shut my eyes. I didn't want to appear weak in front of these dragons - well, any weaker than they must already think me to be judging from the way Blaise was looking at me. I didn't need to be a mind reader to see his clear disdain for me. And while the other brothers were treating me far better than he had so far, I could still sense their mistrust and suspicion as well; they were just better at not being so open about it as Blaise was being.
    My eyes opened wide as I suddenly felt as if my body was on fire. I looked down at myself and screamed. Flames had erupted all over my body wherever the purple slime had been smeared; which was almost everywhere...was this supposed to be happening? Or were my powers out of control again? I glanced up in fear at Peri and opened my mouth to ask, but before I could, I was overcome by a stabbing pain worse than anything I had ever experienced; and that's saying something, since I'd already been shot and stabbed enough times to be familiar with pain.
    "It's working...it's actually working? It should not be working! That should have killed her as soon as the healing started to take effect! No human has ever survived a dragon healing!" I vaguely heard Caspian exclaim in shocked awe as my vision swam and stars danced in my eyes. My body started to convulse and I screamed again as the fire within me begged to be released and join the flames that covered every inch of my exposed skin.
    "I would not call this a bloody healing!" I managed to grunt out as I squeezed my hands into fists. It felt like I was being burned alive. As my body continued to spasm against my will, the small part of my brain that was still working caught onto the fact that this stupid purple substance was supposedly meant to have killed me already. That confirmed it! I was right not to trust anyone around here. One minute they were claiming that I had the right to leave whenever I wanted and the next, claiming to want to take care of my wounds while in reality, covering me with toxic chemicals that were about to kill me. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Peri's face hovering over me with a worried expression.
    C'est la vie, world, I thought as I shut my eyes once more. This is what you get for trusting a dragon, Ari. Never trust a dragon.