Forbidden To Love You, My Dragon Professor

Dragon

"I have to go," Nina said, slinging her bag back over her shoulder and standing up.

"Why do you always run from what you don't understand?"

"I'm good at running," Nina tried to joke.

"I've seen that over the last week," Professor Landrick said. "Why do you do it?"

"I thought you heard-"

"That's not the answer to my question. Why are you running from me?"

"I don't understand what I'm seeing."

"Do you even know who you are?" He asked, effectively pausing Nina as she attempted to get away from him. She turned her head to look at him. "I see you as you are, which means part of you is human, but there's another side of you that isn't, and that shows through your eyes whenever you're seeing through my magic."

Nina swallowed again. "My eyes?" she asked.

"Yes, weren't you listening? Your eyes turn gold when you see me. Every time. Your face also becomes more defined. You look like a high elf right now."

"A high elf? Are you joking me?" Nina growled. "Now I know you're f*****g with me."

"Well, a division of High Elven people," he said, correcting himself. "You, in particular, would be a of the High Elven Mages. They had the gold eyes."

"Had?" Nina asked, turning all the way around and walking back to him. "How is it you know so much and I know nothing?"

"Your father was probably the mage that got your mother pregnant," he shrugged, sitting back. Now that he had her attention, he seemed more relaxed.

"Oh is that all? He screwed also her life. You know she was in college when that happened?"

"She had you, that's something," he shrugged. "I'd be impressed if I were you. Most of them don't associate with humans. None of the ones left, anyway."

"So you know something," Nina said, now sitting beside him a little closer than before. "I'm going to let you think this is funny some more so you can explain what happened to my High Elf Mage father who got my mother pregnant and then left her to fend for herself."

"There was a war close to fifty years ago," he said, looking at her again, dead in her eyes. "Many of the elves were wiped out, from all races. I was there, and I saw most of it, but it wasn't my battle so I didn't involve myself."

"Okay, so you're ancient, too?"

"Don't you know anything about Mythology, Miss Reyes?"

"Would you just call me Nina?" she snapped. "Calling me 'Miss Reyes' gives me bad memories of high school." While talking, she used her hands to quote Miss Reyes, and giving him a glare to go with it. He nodded. "And I'm just making sure I have my facts straight before assuming you're a million years old when you're only like, two hundred."

"Fair enough, I'm 365 next week. Are you content with that?"

"What did you do before you became a teacher?"

"I'm not playing interrogation."

"That sketchy, huh?" Nina winked. He looked at her like she was taking this all too easy. "Yeah okay, I don't believe all this. How can you prove I'm an elven mage human thing?"

"Aside from your eyes?" he asked.

"Well, that would be a good start, too."

"I imagine you look in the mirror, right?"

"I'm a girl," Nina began and he nodded to her.

"Take out your phone," he instructed. She huffed at him and pulled her cellphone out of her pocket. "Look at me, then look at your phone with the camera on like you'd be taking a selfie."

"I'm surprised you even know that word," she mumbled but did as he told her. She put the phone up beside his face so she could see herself in it, and looked from him to her screen. All the muscles in her face dropped and she could only stare. They really were like liquid gold.

"So, are you going to listen properly to me?"

"I will try to take in as much as I can," Nina replied, looking back at him.

"Come with me, then, if you feel like I'm alright to be around now," he said, standing up and heading back to the school building. She knew where he was going, and it was going to be extremely private. What if she was heading into a trap by following him? What if this fight that happened 50 years ago was over his species and he was actually going to kill her?

"No, I wouldn't be that stupid," Professor Landrick assured her. "I'm not interested in that at all. I protected several of your kind on a few missions a couple hundred years ago. I'm not about to kill you."

"Good to know," she said, following him down to the lecture hall. "Wait a sec," she said, pausing at the door. "How did you know what I was thinking?"

"I can hear whispers of your thoughts, like any human's thought," he said, smiling at her as he unlocked the door. "You are half human, after all. Your whispers are a little more hushed, but I can hear them."

"Also good to know," she added, moving inside. "Now you get to know all my deepest fears."

"What are your deepest fears, Nina?" he asked suddenly, locking the door behind him. She froze as he turned back to her. "Just so no one comes in. You'd be surprised how many students have come in here looking for a quiet place to have sex."

"That's kind of disgusting," Nina answered, still not feeling great about the door being locked.

"I can see I'm making you uncomfortable again," he frowned at her. "I'm not about to do anything to you, Nina. I promise you."

"I'm... going to trust you, since you're a dragon," she answered slowly. He stood, watching her as she thought about her next move, and he nodded before she spoke. "What is it you can't show me outside that you can show me in here?"

"Me," he said quietly, moving toward her. She put her back against the wall as he stepped around her and went down to the podium. She watched with curious eyes and followed a little further behind. "Stay there," he warned before she took the last step down to the front. She stopped and moved against the wall in waiting, a careful fascination glinting in her eyes.

She felt a wind, or a kind of power beginning to move throughout the room. She looked around, almost able to see it herself as it emanated from Professor Landrick. She felt uneasy at whatever it was he was doing.

Suddenly the power became so thick around him that Nina could barely make out his shape, and it began to morph into something much larger. Great dark green wings expanded from where the professor had once been, attached to a large, spiked back. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped open as she realized what he was doing. He was showing her what he really looked like.

A dragon.

Her breath caught in her chest as his now complete dragon head protruded from the rest of the shadow he had been engulfed in, and as the shadow seemed to disappear, he stood on all fours, his wings stretched out and his long neck and dark spiked head turned to look at her.

He crawled closer to her, and she seemed stuck in place, eyes glued on his, and he spoke to her through his mind. "Your eyes are brown, now."

Nina let out a breath and tried to play it off like this was an everyday occurrence, but as he moved ever closer to her, and his nostrils almost touched her, she realized how massive he was. His head alone was bigger than her body!

"Nina, are you afraid?" she heard him ask softly in her mind. At that moment she wasn't sure. She was half terrified half amazed at the sheer size of him. All it would take was for him to open his mouth and grab her and she was finished. "That was never my plan."

"Just speculating," she whispered, finally finding her voice. He began to shrink back into himself and in moments he was back at his usual dragon-man self.

"And now I'm using magic to make myself look human." He smoothed out his clothes and waved her over to him. "Your eyes are golden again."

"Why is it that you're so interested in me anyway?"

"If you were part of the last elven groups, you wouldn't be going to college," he said, as if this was common knowledge. Maybe it would be for her if she knew anything about it. "Since seeing you walking in to my class, I figured you have no knowledge of what you are or of any of the power you possess."

"Why, would I be stronger than you?"

"That's like comparing a tree to a tiger," he answered.

"So which are you?"

"Excuse me?"

"The tree or the tiger?"

"Nina," he laughed, shaking his head and walking away from her to his office. "Follow me for a minute." She followed him in as he unlocked the door, and left it open for her. He had many different trinkets sitting around on shelves, along with books and small dragon statues. One in particular looked like what she pictured a high elf might look like. "Yes, generally speaking," he said, watching her eyes move about the space. She looked at him with a smile and he gestured for her to sit down. For the first time, she didn't hesitate to comply.

"So," she started as she continued looking from her seat. "What is it that I should be able to do?"

By the time she left his office, it was near dark. He'd shown her his personal collection of things he knew about the High Elves and everything related to them, such as the cousin mages - her - and the groups that really held no powers or were element power related. The High Elves held powers of light, and the ones they called High Elf Mages were a dying breed to begin with, but held the powers of both light and darkness. They were the only ones believed to be able to become 'Fallen' and that concerned Nina.

Had her father become one of the Fallen?

Was he even still alive?

As she walked into her dorm room, by herself, her mind wandered to the prof himself. Aside from the monstrous head and wings, the spikes on his back, neck, and super long tail, she had noticed his claws, like enlarged Eagle talons. Everything about him looked ferocious, yet he acted as though he was harmless. He held great power, she could feel it.