The NDA Dragon

Chapter 1: Day of the Dragon

My story truly began in one place, in the middle of a tremendous human war. I forget which war it was or why we were fighting in general. I believe it was between America and northeast Asia. I think it was mainly North Korea and China, but my memory is a bit fuzzy. It's been almost 15 years since the end of that dreadful war. I have been through many battles. I don’t even know why I fought in the wars. Human affairs were never a simple matter.

I am not a human per se. I'm a race of dragonborn called Neutarians; from what little I understand, my people are not even from this world in the first place. My earliest memories were in Edo, Japan, when I was just a baby. This time was way back in 1620. I’m not exactly sure why I fought for America. I have lived in America, sort of since it was founded. Maybe it was the noble ideals of freedom or the just cause of their war; at this point, the reason eludes me. Oh, pardon me, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Sargent Shinatin Elizabeth Tatiana Tatech.

I fought in this war until I stepped on an active landmine and had my legs blown off. Don’t worry, and it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds. Regardless, I was still discharged from service, though there was a silver lining. I finally got to see my family for the first time in years. 

Soshi was my husband, and we had a son named John. When I returned home, it was a few months before John's 7th birthday. It wasn’t long after I came home that I became pregnant. Everything would change come to John's birthday. We had planned to take John out to the movies, there was some big movie he was super excited about, but I couldn’t cause my Neuarian morning sickness had me confined to bed that day. Despite the sickly haze I was in, there’s nothing about that night I don’t remember. I remember the feeling of anxiety I felt while waiting for them to return, the sound of the ancient hymns I listened to help me sleep, and that feeling of dread when I woke up to an empty house. I immediately tried calling Soshi, but there was no answer, so I called every authority I could. Days turned into weeks without any word on John and Soshi’s whereabouts. As months went by without a trace of either of them, I sank deeper into depression until a year went by, and I got closure. Though perhaps I would have been better off without it cause the box I receive at my front door would haunt me and burden my very soul until the day I died. Inside were Soshi and John, cut into hundreds of gruesome pieces.

I was alone once again. I only have Chizbit. Chizbit is the medical android that I built to keep me healthy due to my weird biology. He’s pretty sassy. He’s very against me marrying human or human hybrids. He wants me to marry the many asshole Neutarians who tried to r**e me. They are not exactly the gentlest of monsters. I hate my species. I started to drink and smoke after I lost Soshi to find some comfort.

I’ve been alone since I hatched out of my egg. I saw my parents get murder while I was in the egg. Yes, I say I saw in my egg. See, in a nuetarian egg, a nutarian kid needs to open their eyes as the egg’s membrane helps our eyes develop good eyesight. As I saw them get murder by my uncle and then my world went dark permanently. Now I see through vibration I feel through my feet and through electrons’ movement that I can sense through my horns, which gives me the illusion of sight. I know there are probably ways to see, but I don’t know if it would work for me. 

I learned early on that there is no comfort as all creatures must die except for me. For some reason, I can not pass on by any means. I’ve tried many ways. Chizbit has always been there for me, but he hasn’t always been warm to me. When I got r***d by my species, he yelled at me, killing them with my bare hands instead of marring those monsters and not a hybrid or a human. I hate that, though.

It has been seven years since my family died. I drink a lot of alcohol to the point I spent thousands of dollars on liquor. I was glad the United Nations was paying me for helping them write an international law to help keep track of mythical creatures. They were glad of that. 

I started looking for work because I hid from the world for the majority of the past 15 years and fell into a deep depression.  I also needed to get out of this empty five-bedroom, two-story house with a basement that leads into my cave system. It’s been a while since the photos on the wall faced outward. I’m pretty sure it was due to me grieving. I pick up the picture laying flat on the mantel of Soshi and John smiling at a raiders baseball game. I smile slightly at their happy face. I placed it face up so I can see it again. 

I walk out of the house and to my custom-made green and black Harley Davidson motorcycle. The company I brought it from customized it with a green leather seat and low handlebars. I ordered it so I could lower my body to be more aerodynamic. I placed my green and silver helmet on. On the sides were a silver dragon and snake battling. 

Today Thursday, May fifteenth, 2036, I went out to get some groceries and look for job offers. I drive to the Starbucks in downtown Quantico. While I was driving, I was thinking about the type of jobs I wanted. I knew I didn’t want a boring office type of job but something with action and excitement. I don’t think I would be good at customer service either. I have some anger management issues. 

Most of the time, I only go out at night because the fewer people that see me, the better. At night I go out in my Nuetarian form that looks like a dragon person from dungeons and dragon. During the day, I look like an elf with golden dots all over my body. I would cover them with makeup, but most makeup doesn’t help with the scales. Yes, the golden beads are scales. So I have one more form that I don’t go into very often, but it’s a giant dragon form.

As I pull up to the Starbucks and get off my motorcycle, I put my helmet on the handlebars. I walk into the store. There are about four to five people in line and about three people sitting around. I didn’t pay much attention to the people around me. The people in front of me order, and two people sit down, and the other two leave. I order a triple-shot espresso Caramel Latte and a bacon and egg sandwich. I sat down at a table and waited for my order while listening to some Japanese pop music. Without hearing them call my name, one of the employees places their hand on my shoulder, and my first reaction was to elbow in the stomach.

“OUCH,” they yell. I paused my music and looked at the person. “She’s super strong. I didn’t know she was going to react like that. I’m sorry, mam, for touching you without your permission or knowledge.”

“You should have never touched a person in the first place. You should always walk in front of them before trying to get their attention. Sorry for elbowing you.”

“Here’s your order.” She places them on the table in front of me. I start to eat my sandwich. Once I finished eating my sandwich, I picked up my book and started reading it. The novel was called ‘The Dragon’s Fire.’ The book was a steamy romance book about two dragons of different origins, and rival tribes fell in love and united the two tribes. 

I was about to get to the steamy stuff. I know it’s not the appropriate book to read in public, but I was never too concerned about what other people think. I was reading through my special mind powers. 

Every member of the Nuetaria has extraordinary powers and venom connected to their soul. My poison can kill anything in five seconds, and my skills are mind control and the ability to control the essential ancient elements. The classical elements consist of fire, water, earth (or rock), and air. I am the most powerful out of all of the Neutarians, and I am also the only one with golden scales. Soshi’s mother told me this. She also told me the golden plates, probably because I am considered to be albino. I don’t mind being pale as the paper is natural for me, but I burn easily. 

So I’m reading my book sipping on my drink occasionally. I ignored the person who sat across the table from me. Being out in public stresses me out most of the time. But reading this book calms me. There’s a lot of people in here now. About 10 to 15 people are sitting around the store. And six people in line. The time is roughly 8:30 am. People are just coming in before work at nine. It was hard to focus when the person that sits in front of me loudly cleared his throat. I slowly lower my book shooting daggers at the person. 

When I finally saw the person’s face, I was shocked. I recognized that scar-faced, military hair cut man anywhere. Though his hair had gotten shaggy in recent years, you can still the military hair cut. “Jim, how have you been? How long has it been since we saw each other? I don’t think we’ve seen each other since we were marines. What have you been doing lately?”

“I’ve been good, Shina,” he said in his gruff voice that just makes me feel like he’s in charge at all times. “I believe it’s been eight years when you were honorary discharged. I heard about what happened to your family.” I only told a few people about that Jim was one. “My apologies for the loss of your family. Did they ever find out who did it? I’ve been working at Naval Detective Agency as a special agent for the past seven years, and there’s an empty spot on my team if you would like to join. I know you could add a valuable asset to my team since you are knowledgeable of many things. You are especially making people talk just by looking at them.”

“They never find who did, but I have my suspicions. I would love to work for NDA. You sure I’ll be a good fit for the job. I haven’t worked in eight years. So I’m somewhat nervous, but I would love to work under you as a team member.”

I finish off my coffee, and Jim and I head off to the naval base. I follow through the gate and onto the grounds. We pass the sign for the NDA. The building that housed NDA was about five stories high. It was a brick building with several large dark tinted windows, and that the building looked intimidating from the outside. It wasn’t too bad, though.

“It’s stunning, hmmm. Just wait until you see the inside and meet my team. The team is a trip. The director is a piece of work, though. So be careful of how you react. He will talk down to you, but you show him who you are. Do you remember what the squadron used to call you?”

“The Dragon Warrior and I take no s**t from anyone even if they are higher ranked than me. Respect is earned, not given. I’ll respect you if you achieve it. Don’t even try to disrespect me because I will quickly put you in your place. We both know that, and that’s why I have tremendous respect for you. Let’s go in and get it started.”

We walked into the doors, and as we enter, we had to go through a metal detector which made me a little nervous. My head just barely fit. My arms and legs are cybernetic and can set off metal detectors if not appropriately covered. We head through another set of doors that again I had to duck for. I’ve banged my head one too many times on doorframes. Metal ones hurt like crap. 

We walked up to the elevators, and Jim pointed at the button and asked, “You wanna press it?” I press it, and the doors open at least the elevator was 7’6 tall. We walked in, and Jim pressed floor 4. We rode up to floor four and exited when the doors open. There was a lot of desk and computers. I noticed many people staring at me, and some of them were whispering about me, but in those situations, it’s better to ignore them. Jim took notice.

“All of you fools need to get to work now! My team stands tall when we come by.” As we walked to Jim’s area, three people stand up. One was a woman with a fox tail and a pair of fox ears. She also has several scars on the right side of her face that almost looked like claw cuts. The following person I noticed was a young man who had vitiligo. The last person I saw was this man who is blushing so hard his face was bright red to the point I almost missed the large scar that took up most of his face.

We moved to pass them and to a flight of stairs. We walked up the stairs and to a hallway. We walked into this little office. A woman was sitting at the desk staring at Jim and me with fury. “Jim, You might want to think about bringing that creature into the director’s office,” She said with such hatred. “He’s not letting you have another creature on your team. He simply won’t allow it.” 

“Excuse me? Do you want to repeat that woman? Because I don’t like your tone, and I don’t want to be your enemy,” I say aggressively towards her with my teeth bared and venom slowly showing up. Her face drained entirely of color. I think I scared her too bad. She calls into the next room and lets the person on the other side know we are coming in.

We entire into the next room. A man was standing in the office looking very annoyed and is staring daggers at Jim. “Jim, you know how I feel about this,” he said with annoyance and hatred. “I’m not in a good mood to deal with you and you bringing people and creatures from the street. You do this all the time, and it makes this agency look bad. Not to say you are getting this monster in here and trying to get her a job. Like seriously, does she have any qualifications to be an agent.”

“I’m standing right here. If you want to talk about me, you need to speak to me directly,” I snarled. “I am highly qualified. I am a proud marine with a history of people telling me everything in interrogations. I have a long account of military records. The united nations have hired me for security details before. So if anything, I’m overqualified.”

The room got so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The face of the director was in utter shock. I don’t think he understood what just happened, and I could listen to his brain do the dial-up tone. It is always strange how it seems humans shut down when something breaks their actual life knowledge. This man probably doesn’t understand. A few minutes later, he snapped out of his trance, and he simply said, you are hired.