The Pyro, part 2
#2 of The pyro
Okay, Part two. Much thanks to ervn92, Eodred, and Gren for their suggestions. This is not to say that others were of no help, but I cannot put everything in here all at once. I do hope all of you enjoy. As always, this is reader driven, so don't forget to leave comments with your ideas about what direction the story should take. General comments are accepted and greatly appreciated and always will be.
I reluctantly stepped out of the shower, the water's warm embrace made it tempting to just stay in there all day. Unfortunately, I was not blessed with such time on this day, for it was another day of school, another day of torment. It had been a week since I had returned to my single status and for some reason, my mind kept reverting back to this same day a week ago. I could still see her slender, supple body features. Those curves would set any man's heart aflutter and blood to their crotch. She had smooth black hair and her eyes were perhaps the most beautiful shade of blue imaginable.
Alex, please stop thinking of her so much. Talon, the other occupant of my mind said. He was the dragon within me. If he took control, my body would become one of a feral western dragon. He was an awesome source of power if the need arose, and a great friend for the rest of the time. You are only causing yourself more harm, and in effect, me. It pains me further to have you be like this.
"She said the she trusted me! She lied!" I screamed and my power over heat and flame got the better of me. The remaining water in the shower stall instantly turned to steam, making a thick pea soup cloud suddenly appear in the tight confines of my bathroom as my voice echoed off the walls. The warm mist began to help soothe the anger within me. Talon's own emotions began to show themselves as well, those feelings permeating through me, trying to snuff out the raging inferno that was my anger.
Alex, if you don't move on, you will destroy yourself._Talon said within my head in a calm tone of voice. _And I won't accept you acting like a child. So please allow me to be a little blunt about this; Get a hold of yourself damn it!
In response to my other half's words, I forced myself to regain my composure, even if only slightly. I remembered what day it was and picked up my personal data assistant to check to time, 6:45. I know what you may be thinking and no, I am not a geek. Yes, I know PDAs are outdated due to smart phones and such, but they come in handy and suit my purposes well. The Wi-Fi browser on the thing goes almost unnoticed on a wireless router, allowing me to do my online routine quickly and freely. Looks like it's gonna be a quick breakfast if we want to catch the bus. I said to Talon.
Indeed, He replied, you need to learn to take shorter showers. I cannot remember when we actually got to eat at a relaxing pace on a weekday morning.
I quickly dried off and got dressed before heading to the dark kitchen. My parents had gone to work over an hour ago, their business often saw them out of town for at least four days in a row. I flipped on the light and gathered what I needed for cereal; a bowl, milk, a spoon, and the cereal itself. I ate quickly. At my speed, one would say that I inhaled my food
With that task out of the way, I hit the switch to the exterior light, letting the bus driver know that I'd be riding this morning before going about the rest of my morning routine. I looked in the mirror, "Looks like we need a shave, Talon."I said.
Be quick about it. Talon snorted. You know how much I hate that wretched little device.
I allowed myself to chuckle a little as I retrieved my electric shaver from its drawer. For some strange reason, Talon despised the thing. I don't know if it was because of the noise or what, but all I knew was that he hated it fervently. I pushed the button and began the task, Talon snarling at it from within my head.
After that was done, I finished up in the bathroom with brushing my teeth and applying my deoderant. I sighed to myself, looked like it was going to be another boring day at highschool.
That thought lasted until about the last quarter of the day. I was at my locker, getting my my Algebra book when an empty milk carton hit me square in the side of my head, followed by the voice that I couldn't hate more than I already did.
"Hey, dragon boy!" That voice belonged to the worst person imaginable to me, Jacob Rheahty. He was a senior and the star quarterback on the varsity football team. And, he was such an asshole. The reasons concerning my recently acquired single status spread like a wildfire, Jacob was one of the first people to catch wind of it. He'd been nagging me about it nonstop ever since. Now, before I go on, you should know that my life has a tendency to get real nasty, real fast.
"What's my wayward good-for-nothing geek up to today?" Jacob continued, "Gonna try and fly?" He put his hand on my shoulder as he came up behind me. I could feel Joe Straus, Jacob's right hand man standing there as well.
I don't know why it happened. I just know that for whatever reason, that mocking insult set Talon off. He was usually the calm one, but not now. Before I knew what was going on, Talon was in control but staying in my human form and using my voice to speak. "If you value your life, Jacob, you'll remove your hand fom my shoulder."
"Ooo! A threat from a low life like you?" Jacob chided. "Pfft, what are ya gonna do? Breath fire on me?"
My voice dropped and gained a darkness to it as Talon replied. "No, something much worse."
"I think the little piece of shit wants to fight. What do you think Joe?" Jacob turned to his friend.
"I think we should put him in his place." Joe replied with an evil smile.
Talon turned our body around to face our tormentors. "Just try me." Talon said. Joe started to approach us but before he could take a second step, my left hand found its place around his neck. Fire burned in my eyes, Talon's anger was starting to affect me. I wanted nothing more than to smash Joe into a human version of a pancake. Talon smirked, "Bad idea."
Our left foot found itself shoved into Joes sternum as he was propelled backwards down the hall. I gave in to Talon's anger within me, a burning tempest in which I was about to unleash my hidden strength. Talon and I spoke as one, our minds perfectly synchronized. "Now for you." We grabbed Jacob by his collar and rammed him into the set of lockers on the opposite side of the hall. I removed my right hand, the strongest of the two, from his shirt and cocked it behind my head in a fist.
In an instant, my fist made contact with the cartilage in Jacob's nose, crushing it and creating a hairline fracture on the small bone behind it. A cracking noise accompanied the impact; I felt the trickle of a warm, red liquid run from the wound and down my arm. In my rage-fueled state, I didn't notice the movement of his arm until I was on the receiving end of a right hook that landed on my jaw. The blow was painless for me thanks to my secret, but that didn't keep my head from following the direction of the swing. I looked back at the bully and cocked head to the side, cracking my neck. "Big mistake." Talon and I said. We flung him down onto the floor. In an instant, I was down on my knees, raining down punches, alternating between left and right hands.
It must have been a full three minutes before a teacher pulled me off of Jacob. I was fine; however, the same could definitely not be said for Jacob. His nose and mouth were bleeding severely and I thought I saw one of his teeth on the ground.
The next hour and forty minutes in the assistant principal's office weren't something that I'd consider exciting enough to write about. Long story short, The Tom, as we called the assistant principal, sympathized with me. He knew that what Jacob did was sometimes grounds for punishment, but he was never caught in such acts. But that didn't mean that I was going to go unpunished. Strictly by school standards, what I did was enough to have me expelled for assault and battery. However, since I just did the whole school a favor, the assistant principal was willing to lighten my sentence to just ten days of out of school suspension.
My mother, obviously, was appalled by the news of what I did. My father, on the other hand, was elated to hear that I fought back and congratulated me on it. Not only had I held my own against two adversaries, but both opponents were seniors twice my size, while I was a sophomore; truly an awesome feat indeed.
When I was finally allowed back to school, I was approached by a girl named Kelly Choel. I'd heard the rumors about her. She had a reputation around school of being a fanatic about many things, one of them being dragons. Yet I had never met her. The sheer quantity of students at my school was such that I didn't even know half of my peers in my class. But, from all of those rumors floating about the school's campus, I didn't expect to see what I did.
Dirty blond hair and sky blue eyes on a beautiful and very feminine face were among the first things I noticed. The next thing was her bust, not big or small, somewhere in the middle. My eyes graced over her body, a slim figure but with more subtle curves than what Marie had and she was a head shorter than me. She smiled at me and I caught a glimpse of her flawless pearly white teeth.
"Hi." She said shyly, "I saw how you stood up against Jacob and his friend." Seeing my blank facial expression as I had never met her before, she introduced herself. "Oh, sorry, I'm Kelly Choel." She held out her right hand.
I shook it but found that my thoughts were an incomprehensible muddle. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop the sounds from leaving my mouth and neither could Talon. "H-hi, I malexes." I said. Thankfully, Talon took over before any more damage could be done.
"I mean, hi, I'm Alex Caes." He said for me. I am lucky that he did that. Had he not, I could very have destroyed something so profound in the future that it pains me to even think about it now.
***
A week had gone by since I had actually met Kelly Choel. In that time we quickly became friends, speaking to each other in the hallway when we could and the like. One thing that I quickly learned about her was that she was smart, very smart. Like me, she was in classes that gave college credits. For the most part, we had the same teachers, just at opposite times of the school day. The only differences between our classes were our electives; Whereas I took band, she took a visual arts class.
I occasionally got weird glances and stares from other students when I was with Kelly, but no one ever said anything. Well, almost no one. One day, my buddy, Cameron, stopped me at my locker.
"Dude, what the hell are you doing?" He said in a mildly accusing tone.
"Huh?" I said, caught off guard by his question. "What do you mean?"
"What are you doing hanging around Kelly Choel?" He restated. "You're a lot more popular now; and now, you're throwing it all away for what? A freak chick?"
"Cam, have you even met her or even seen her?" I countered.
"No." He replied. "But-"
"Then what do you truly know about her?" I asked forcefully.
"I...well...uh" He stuttered.
"Exactly, nothing." I said, more than a little mad at my friend. "So why are you judging?"
"Sorry dude, I just thought that you wanted to stay popular is all." He said sheepishly.
Sensing a choice opportunity, Talon took over. "And in five years from now, who's gonna care?" He said, still keeping to the way I would speak to my friend.
Cameron looked down with a defeated expression on his face. "No one."
"Now," I said, back in control. "if you'll excuse me, I have a Biology class to get to."
That night, I received a phone call that would begin to change my life.
"Hello?" I asked into the mouth piece.
"Alex?" Came the reply. It was Kelly. "Umm, hey, I'm having trouble with Algebra. Do you think you could come over and give me a hand with it?"
"Uh, sure." I said. "What's your address?"
That single question put me in a unique situation. Talon and I found ourselves spending more and more of our time with Kelly. A few months after we met, I invited her to my house.
"Alex, your room is amazing!" Kelly commented as she explored my bedroom. She turned around and laid eyes on something in a frame hanging from a wall. "That is the most realistic picture that I've ever seen!"
"Yeah, it's not really much." I played it off as nothing. "I've seen better." In truth, though, that picture was about as real as one could get with any picture. One day, I'd taken a camera with me out into the woods behind the house and managed to capture a photo of myself with Talon in full control. What kelly was looking at was an actual photo of the only dragon in the world, me.
I decided to tell her my secret. I don't know why, but I did. "Actually, Kelly, that is a real photo." I said, trying to hit off of her almost competetive need for facts. I succeeded in that.
"Oh, bull!" She replied confidently, "Dragons aren't real."
"Would you like me to prove it to you?" I asked with a slightly serious tone. "Come here and look at my eyes."
Despite the supposed absurdity of it all, she did it anyway. Talon took over and I felt my eyes change their shape from the rounded pupils of a human's and into more repilian slits.
"That's is really cool, Alex." She said. Based on the way she said it, I knew that she still didn't understand; that fact was further reinforced by what she said next. "How come I didn't notice that before?"
"Because they're not always like that." I said. I pointed at the photo, "That dragon has a name, you know. His name is Talon and," I motioned to myself, "he resides in me."
"And people call me crazy?" She said.
Talon spoke for me, "Do you trust me enough to really show you, or are you chicken?"
That question struck the note that I'd been aiming for. "Alright, prove it!" She said. It was exactly what I needed.
"Then follow me please." I said, but then remembered something. "Oh, and bring that picture along as well."
On the way out to the "Shift Clearing" as I called it, Talon spoke up within my head. I hope you know what you are doing, Alex. There is no telling what Kelly may do once we prove this to her.
Relax, Tal. I said confidently. Remember, she is still considerred a freak by our peers. So nothing bad should come from this.
Fine. He huffed, But don't be surprised if she freaks out on you.
We reached the clearing and I turned to Kelly. "Stand back please. No matter what happens, no one else can know."
She nodded, backed up to the edge of the clearing, and sat down to watch , the picture laying across her lap.
Your turn, Tal. I said.
I felt the familiar feeling one gets when having an out-of-body experience as Talon's mind came forward and pushed mine back. I felt my skin crawl as it was quickly covered in scales that sprouted from my pores. I felt areas along my spine split open as boney, ebony spikes poked their way out of my body, shredding my clothes. Shame, I liked that outfit.
I felt my fingers and toes take on different proportions as my nails grew into large onyx claws. My face elongated into a scaly muzzle and more spikes grew from my cheek bones while two black, slightly wavy horns sprouted from the top of my skull. To finish it off, a great crimson tail, complete with a row of spikes along the top and an extremely sharp spade at the end, shot from the base of my spine.
Our ear fins perked up a little as I heared Kelly gasp in amazement. "What?" I asked in a mocking tone, "You doubted me?"
"Alex! You really are a dragon!" Kelly exclaimed, still obviously a little shocked at my transformation.
"We rarely joke, Kelly." Talon said.
"We?" She asked.
"Ah, where are my manners?" My other half said. "I am Talon. I share this body with Alex."
We could tell by the look on Kelly's face that it was going to take a little more explaining to convince her...