Dragon Bound

Chapter 3

Dragons existed in stories and myths, in movies and tales, in children’s imaginations and prehistoric arguments, not in real life.

But right before Ryoka’s eyes were two gigantic dragons, they can’t be mistaken for any other creature, not with their six limbs -the four huge and bestial fore arms and hind legs ending in massive paws and the two great wings- their scales were glistening, their horns were gleaming, and their tails swished back and forth.

Her father had turned into a blackish colored dragon, a bit more massive in size than the other one, his scales glistened like obsidian and his nostrils steamed with vapor.

While the odd looking man had turned to a dragon with scales of the same color as his hair, reddish brown all over and despite being a bit smaller in size compared to Ryoka’s father, he still stood defiantly against him, he hard horns and spikes all over his body to place him well within equal fighting stance with Ryoka’s father.

Ryoka only kept looking in shock and horror, how had life suddenly taken this type of turn with her, at the moment she had even forgotten about the incident that had occurred to her on the football field as well.

All she thought was, 'Is this man really my father or am I dreaming?' Even though she had known only him all her life, yet the doubts still stepped in along with the thoughts that the whole thing might not be real after all.

The earth shook as the two behemoths clashed, and the shockwave ripples washed over the condemned car Ryoka was inside.

It seemed that that was what she needed to be shaken out of her shock, the rocking of the car from the shockwave brought her back to her senses and she snapped up, looking about as she remembered her father’s words, she looked for the easiest and fastest escape, somewhere where people or dragons as it stand now, won’t be able to follow right away.

Then she saw the forest a few yards away as the only option, but before getting to the forest there was just open land which means she would be visible while she made her way towards the forest.

She opened the car door and placed a foot down on the ground, she looked towards the fighting dragons, and as if on cue, one of them (she was sure it had to be her father) kicked up dirt that turned into a mini dust storm, the sand and dirt obscured clear view for a while.

In that short while, Ryoka sprinted along towards the forest and made it just in time as the dust started to clear and settle.

She slid down between a couple of covering bushes and laid down there staying still and watching in awe as the titans clashed.

To her it was obvious that her father was a seasoned fighter in his dragon state, he made maneuvers as he attacked and defended against the odd looking reddish brown dragon.

But then she saw as well that the odd man dragon was indeed pretty good as well, he was going toe to toe or rather massive paw to massive paw with her father despite the slight disadvantage in size.

‘He must be a seasoned fighter or soldier as well' she thought to herself feeling pity for her father who bellowed as the odd man dragon got a clean strike at him, although his own bellow followed right after as her father gave hits after hits to the odd man dragon.

Just then, Ryoka saw some other men in white suit start to gather, they must have recovered from the crash, she realized.

What would happen to her father now? She thought bitterly, but then she saw that the men didn’t try to join in the fight, but rather they seemed to be fanning out in a search pattern, which has to mean that they were looking for her.

Ryoka wished to stay and even if possible try to help her father, but then he himself had sternly told her to run instead, if they captured her now, her father would have done all these for nothing.

With tears streaming down her eyes, she turned away from the battling dragons and ran off deeper into the forest, and even as she ran, she heard another bellow from her father which only brought more tears to her eyes but she wiped them off and ran all the more.

She must have actually ran on for miles on end before finally stopping out of fatigue, all the while as she ran, she had been looking both behind her and up above her, no one knows when a dragon might pop up anytime anymore, since they are very much real now.

Ryoka remembered some of her father’s survival trainings, a few years back he had made her go through a couple of survival drills, at the time she had found them all plainly a waste of time and just unnecessary stress, but now, she could actually apply what she had learned, her father had known what he was doing back then after all.

She looked for a really sturdy tree, then made her footprints lead away from it some ways afar off before retracing those same steps back, then she covered the ones she made to the tree.

Then she climbed up after finding some strong vines and slept on a strong branch after tying herself firmly to the branch with the vines.

But before sleep could come sweep her off though, she had time to think, in fact all she could do was think, the events kept playing over and over in her head, from the car chase to the crash to the transformations.

Dragons, she thought, does that mean she was one as well? but wouldn’t she know if she was? or was there any chance that her father wasn’t actually her birth father and as such she wouldn’t be a dragon as well? and how come there are dragons actually? They must have been around for a while if there are those of her father’s age, and the size of him, oh it was massive.

She kept thinking about all these, reminiscing over them, over and over again, she still didn’t yet remember the incident that had even occurred to her herself before all these.

Eventually after a few minutes, fatigue of the mind joined with that of the body and completely took over her, and she fell into a slightly deep sleep, she had been running for most hours of the day after all, since the incident that took place that early morning.

Ryoka’s dreams were filled with different creatures and beasts, especially dragons, and then chains, brimstone, fire, lava and noxious gas, she dreamt of being forsaken, being left behind, being betrayed, being heartbroken.

In her dreams she wasn’t ok, much like the way she actually is in reality, she was being chased, and she herself chased, she was being hunted, and she herself hunted as well.

She heard cries from deep within her as if she wasn't the one crying, but at same time as if she was only being connected to those crying by something unexplainably supernatural.

She felt cold, chilled to her bones at their cries of a long-term suffering, she cried with them and longed to set them free, but they were beyond her reach.

Her eyes flew open as she woke up sharply, the thin rays of dawn had only just started to penetrate the sky, she was really surprised that she had been able to sleep for so long, despite all the dreams too.

She got down from her tree and sat at its base, she looked all around her, where was she to go to? She had no relatives save for her father, and thanks to the constant moving she had no friends as well.

“What do I do now?” she asked herself as broke down in tears.