Dragonized, chapters 0,1, and 2.

Chapter 0- through the fire and flames.

Fire and smoke... that's all that I could remember...

...Everything was hurting.... where was I? The smoke had started to clear some, but my eyes couldn't seem to focus on anything, it was all blurry... something green, I could see something green everywhere, and brown, below all the green was brown.

Red danced around me, coming from parts of gray stuck in the brown... why were my ears ringing so bad?

“Holy... are you seeing this Tanner?” Comes from off to my right, it was tinny, must have been the ringing, I try to look that way and everything flashes red, and I let out a roar of pain, but something was wrong, it was wispy, no strength to it, and my chest burned.

“It's alive too, damn!” Says another voice, something had started up out in the distance... what was it? Barking?

“Agh, we don't have time for this, they're still hunting for miracle man here. Getting close too.” says one I haven't heard before...

I try and say something, but all I could say was “What...?”

A new voice showed up. “We can't leave him, not when we have a chance to save him, if we don't he'll bleed out or the dogs will get him.”

One scoffs “Save something from those injuries? About as insane as how you got into these woods.”

Something limps into view. “And yet it's still possible, you people have no imagination.” the voice crouches down, suddenly it goes on with “Hey, hey!  This is going to hurt, but I need you to stay awake, you hear me? Stay awake! Corey, hold him down, he's going to thrash like a mother-” my vision flashes red again and I roar and thrash, but something had shoved me against what was behind me, something gets pulled out and I suddenly gasp in pain, just as it started to settle in a throb something snaps and my vision has blackness swarm around my sight...

“We need ta get him up, if we don't get him more medical attention soon he's going to be a corpse.” and with that darkness swamps me as something grabs my shoulders.


CHAPTER 1- The beginning

Three weeks earlier...

“What are you doing here?” I stare wide-eyed at my father, light-skinned and burly, he was a inch shorter than I was, making it where we met eye-to-eye. We were standing outside the high-school, near the side-parking lot, the tan-colored building at my back. He was looking at a small rock, red with black stripes, the moment I speak he looks up, putting the rock in his jacket pocket. The only resemblance we seemingly shared was our intense green eyes and dark hair, though he had slightly balding black hair, mine was chocolate brown.

“Hi son, I wanted to talk to you.” His tone was deep, like mine. I feel something tick in my mind, and the old rage that I thought that I had let go start to boil up again. “No, what are you doing here? You are supposed to be locked up for another six years, and on top of that, how did you find me?”Above of the anger, I could feel it, fear making me want to run.

“I had a friend help me with it, and listen Shane, I don't want to-”

“To what?” I suddenly snap “To cause trouble? To have an argument? To bring back the past events that made me hit the worst time of my life... or is it you don't want to say sorry for the misery you put me through?” His eyes widen a bit, shocked at the way I was acting.

“Shane, it's not about the past, I just want to talk to you.”

I narrow my eyes “Talk, you want to talk after all that has happened? Let me guess, you're seeking a second chance aren't you?”

“That's part of it, but-”

“No buts, it's the second chance you're after, you lost that chance long ago, just as I have lost my own second chance.”

His gaze had become pleading... almost at least. “Shane... son, there are some things that you should know.”

I scoff “And there are some things that I shouldn't know.” I bust into a rough fit of coughing, my lungs feeling like they've been stabbed by a bowie knife. “And onto that, there might be some things that I don't know, but there are things that I am certain of, and that's that whatever you say won't convince me to give you another chance. Mom wouldn't have given you another one either.”

I could see the hurt in his eyes, and behind that, the rage that I have seen in him, that was always a part of him “If you will just give me time to explain, I'm sure that I can-”

“No, you can't Sonney. And I'll only give you time to get out of my sight.” Another wracking cough seems to make my point. I could see the hurt double when I use his nickname rather than call him by a title he didn't deserve. I turn my back and start heading back into the building, feeling the hate rip away at my sanity, and make me want to tear something to pieces, which was really odd for me.

I hear him call out from behind me “Things are about to change Shane. If you ever change your mind, you know where to find me.” I hear a car start and peel out of the parking lot. The moment I'm inside I put my back against the wall and shudder, nothing like getting called out of your first day back at school to see the one person you never wanted to see again. I lean against the wall and let my anger boil out like steam from an open valve.

I felt like I was dying, every inch of my body was feeling numb, and I was tired to the point of falling asleep standing up and had done so through the past couple classes. The halls were silent, the fourth and final class of the day was going on. I make my way into the white bathroom across from me, brace my palms on the counter and stare at my disturbing reflection.

I normally had a slightly tanned complexion, but now it was ashen white, almost matching the color of my American eagle jacket. The change itself was shocking, like I had been dying the past few hours... who knows, maybe I am? A fly comes down and zips in-front of my face to annoy me, I swat at it and it buzzes up towards the ceiling, I look to trace it's path, and a jarring pain hits me in the back of my neck.

“OW!”

I about spasm from the pain and instinctively reach for the area, My fingers rub over something and a bit of pain makes my nerves scream. I gasp and screw my eyes shut, I think of what happened earlier. It was sprinkling, fog covering plenty of the ground, me just walking the quarter-mile of my road to the bus like normal, when something zipps and stings me in the neck, causing me to stumble forward. Recovering, I reach back to check my neck, and find a few drops of blood on my fingers, but no object. I whirl and look for anything I could focus on, nothing, just me and trees.

Must have been what hit me then. I grit my teeth and reach back, and yank it out before my mind realizes how much it would hurt.

“YAGH!” I yell in pain and slam my fist on the counter,  I wait for the pain to fade to a dull throb before looking at what I had pulled out, a scale sat on my hand, but not like any I've ever seen, it was translucent, and there was a bluish liquid that had dried on it apparently there was plenty of my blood on it too... It wasn't very big, maybe smaller than a penny, but still, it had a very sharp edge. I had no idea what this was so I just give it a good rinse in the sink and pocket it.

I head back to class, horticulture two (though it was oddly renamed greenhouse management and floral arrangement, imagine my surprise.) nobody really said anything to me, but I could tell from their looks that by all rights I shouldn't be here but rather at home sick. The class goes by fast and I head home, again nobody saying anything to me, but I was glad for it, I didn't feel like talking to anyone. I get off the bus and manage to get home to the old and severely water-damaged double-wide, barely keeping my eyes open, nobody was seemingly home yet except my cousin, and he stayed in his room most of the time when he wasn't off at work.

There wasn't anything to do so I take a ibuprofen for the headache that rose up and start playing my 24 hour-long music playlist and try and find something to eat. A few day-old biscuits catch my attention, the were cold and hard, but nothing a few seconds in the microwave can't fix. I eat all four while staring at the ceiling, trying not to go into another fit of coughing. I lean back in my small office chair... so tired...

The rest of my remaining family eventually comes home after I pass out on my office chair, I wake up hearing my aunt Barbara in the kitchen, followed by my uncle showing up a bit later, he was in just as bad shape as I was, at least with the coughing fits anyway, he wasn't anywhere near as pale or sickly looking as I was. After Barbara was cooking, and everyone else had eaten, I walk in, suddenly starving.  II find that two very good and large sized meals had been made, sitting on the stove was a massive skillet filled with spambolaia, basically just cubed spam, mixed with white rice, bell peppers, onions, and a bit of celery. And next to that was a skillet of fried potatoes, which I happened to love.

I load up a plate to the point that I was overdoing it, there should have been enough for two days on the spambolaia, but I almost take all of it. A rough cough almost makes me drop that plate, I sigh slowly, and take my plate into the living room, in barely no time at all the plate was scraped clean, even with me distracted with video games and music, and it probably would have been writing too if I didn't feel like I was going to drop dead any second. I put the plate up, and out of courtesy put the remaining spambolaia into a plastic bowl and shove it into the fridge, and shut off the kitchen light, it was around 9 now, and... ugh.

I get dizzy and almost collapse, I use the nearby fridge to steady myself and I ask out loud “What the hell is wrong with me?”  I don't expect an answer, and I don't get one, so I head back into the living room to shut off the light, TV and my computer, which was still playing music. They all get turned off and I shut the fan light off, I was about to just lay on the couch and fall asleep when things went off the scale.

I started to burn up, even with the cold weather, I unzip my jacket and toss it on the pool table that I had, and yet still the fever got worse by the second, along with a few more deathly coughs. I was about to lay down on the couch and accept that I was dying somehow when a shock runs up my spine and I fall to my knees, everything shuts down, and I black out.


Chapter 2- The wake-up committee.


“Hey, I think he's coming too.”

“Finally.”

I slowly open my eyes, but the world seemed murky. But I could manage to make everything out, I was in a building, head on a soft pillow, but across from me where two people. One was laying his back against the brick wall, and his left leg was bandaged below the knee. He was slightly pale, with really short black hair. He had a good build on him, muscles standing out from his arms, but he had an average frame size for a human. His eyes were a cold gray and were locked onto mine, not a hint of fear in them, more like amusement. His clothes seemed new, a pair of jeans, but he had left a shirt off, displaying some dangerous scars.

The one next to him was a good contrast, he was very tall, head almost scraped the ceiling, maybe over six feet from guess work, he had black hair like the other one, but it was long, with the exception for the front, which just had two bangs that barely reached  his eyes, in contrast to the pale stranger, he was relatively dark skinned. His blue eyes were holding on a calm gaze, but I could see his body movement, he was tense. His clothes were a lot less new looking, a pair of jeans that were slightly smudged with clay, and a maroon t-shirt that maybe once had words on it, but now it was just a solid shirt.

I think they were expecting me to say something, but every inch of my body was aching, and I didn't feel like talking, but it was a good idea to at least say something, so... “Am I in hell yet?”

The pale guy laughs, while the tall kid remains impassive. The pale kid says to me “You aren't yet, though it looks like you've been there at least twice. You should count your luck, anyone else would be dead.” Tall kid snorts, and pale looks at him “What?”

“Oh, nothing.” He says while pulling out his phone, an old blackberry, and starts typing out a text.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I try and move and several jarring pains make me gasp. Pale kid starts to get up as he says...

“Ouch. Really, don't move, most of your broken bones are still far from... and he's going under again.” My eyes start to shut, I could feel everything start to go blurry and dark as just about every injury hit my nerves.

“Damn. Well, seems it'll have to be later when we find out what this dragon's story is.” Wait, dragon? oh yeah, I was a dragon. And I fall into past memories.