Take Flight And Fall

- Factual -

What was true and not false in this world again? Reality or lies, fantasy or facts? Science was way beyond our reach and it wasn’t even normal anymore. I was talking that way due to what my eyes were scarily drinking in. Sure, they were Siamese twin mutants, but I didn’t know what type of mutants they were because their smell hardly gave away the scent of their original animal form. And that wasn’t even their shocking feature, it was their extremely abnormal height that made me feel like my ghost had ran out of my body. Standing over me was what one would call a literal giant. I wasn’t exaggerating because I was abnormally tall and they were a good seven heads taller than I was.

One of them rolled his orange serpentine eyes, an irritated look on his deeply tanned face. “What? Never seen conjoined twin mutants before?” he snapped, leaning forward to reach out a hand; this was Toph. “I’m gonna enjoy eating that scared look off your face.”

The other one’s forehead creased as a concerned frown worked its way onto his equally tanned face. “Toph please stop. I think he’s terribly afraid. Look at him! You’re frightening him.”

“I am you idiot!” he said, taking back the hand.

I quietly stared at them, my chest falling and rising with each breath I inhaled and exhaled. Finding a pinch of courage, I licked my dry lips and swallowed spit to wet my dry throat. “Um... what...” I swallowed again, allowing my gaze to rest on their calf that was thrice the width of my thighs put together. “What... type of mutant... are you?”

While Toph grunted with a stiff shake of his head, an irked smile on his face, the other one inclined his head away from the Toph’s; a thoughtful look dawned upon his face and he moved his gaze skywards.

“Don’t tell that me you really want to answer that,” Toph scoffed. “We don’t even have a clue of what we are. What the hell are you thinking for?”

He hummed in thought, the hand on his side moving up to hold his chin. “No, we don’t. But I’m trying to remember what that lady had called us.” He snapped his fingers and frowned as he whispered, “what was it again? A dura... A dagon... A dra—”

“A dragon,” I gasped sharply, my head swiftly moving up to look at them, my eyes wide. I swallowed more of my spit but nothing slid down my throat. Even my tongue had began to have a rough, spongy texture.

Toph rolled his eyes and their body crouched. They curled their fingers around my neck and pulled me up like I was a weightless ragdoll. Their hand had a chapped texture and it felt warm to the touch. The warmth of their skin was also not normal; it was that type of warmth that one had during a severe fever. And they didn’t look sick.

“Toph stop!” His eyes were big in utter surprise.

“I am so done with you and your foolishness Wyrm!” he hissed at his brother as he tried to object. “If you’re not feeling the hunger pangs well I am! We’ve been smelling humans for a while now. One’s literally in our hands right now and you want to be humble?”

Humans? I thought in confusion, tilting my head back as he inched closer to my face.

He opened his mouth and a foul, rotten smell drifted into my nostrils. I scrunched up my face in disapproval of the heinous odour. And being close enough, I could clearly sort out their charcoal and fire scent. Maybe they truly are speaking the truth. But who was this lady that had given them their category of mutant? For all I know, dragons are extinct.

“Ohoho,” he snickered, snapping his jaw in my face in an animalistic manner. “I’m going to enjoy this and savour your taste for years to come.”

He pulled me closer and opened his mouth. His jaw hung widely and I could make out a forked tongue. He moved my head to the side and his tongue shot out and lapped at my neck. But he withdrew his tongue at the taste of my skin on the tip of his tongue, and then stared at me in confusion.