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The Everlasting Flame

So you're a dragon now...

Red stares at the girl, wondering what kind of drugs she's on. "This has to be a game. How else could you do this crap to me and NOT get in trouble?!" He yells at her, and is surprised that his mouth was moving, and that she heard him, and that his voice was almost the same as normal.

"Simple." She says. "They took out just enough DNA to grow the egg and stored your body. If you had died, your body would have been found. Your parents and family are still looking for you, after all! You didn't die, so now, you'll grow here, learn what you need to learn, and visit your family later to tell them what you now are." She says, shrugging. She blinks and perks up. "OH! And don't worry, your family still has hope because the local police have been told to keep saying 'they have hope they'll find him alive' or something."

Red can't believe this and is standing there with his mouth slightly open, staring at the girl. She doesn't seem to care, busy fishing around in her fanny pack. She pulls out an iPhone. "Now, here's your EF. It'll help you get to know things." She says, putting it down next to him, and with dread he recognizes the device that got him into this. "Let it walk you thru the 'so you're a dragon now' orientation." She says, smiling, and turns to leave.

Red watches as the device kicks on. It shows a picture of him, both his dragon form...and his human form. "This thing is bugged! It's TAUNTING ME!" He's pointing incredulously at the thing, his head turned to scream out the door. "It's showing me my HUMAN form!" He yells as the girl leaves the room.

She waves her hand as she walks out. "It's not a bug, it's a feature! It'll be explained to you later!"

He draws a deep breath. "GET ME OUTTA HERE!" He yells. "I WANNA GO HOME! THIS ISN'T FAIR!"

She is smiling as she walks down the hall, amused by his reaction. She does have enough decency to respond, however, and turns to say, quite cheerfully, "See ya later!"

"You BITCH! I don't WANNA be a dragon!" He yells at the top of his lungs. He then sighs and slumps down to the ground...nest...whatever he was sitting on. He doesn't care right now. A tear slides down his cheek.

"Voice print confirmed." The EVA chirps. "Re-establishing neural connection." Red twitches, it feels like something just poked his head. He looks around, then eyes the Enduring Flame suspiciously. "Neural connection established." It says in a chipper and unrepentant voice. "Welcome to the world of the living, Redneck." It says. Red growls again. Now it has a sense of humor? Or was that just some programmer's bad joke? He starts growly grumbling at that thought.

"You are a dragon now." The EVA says, pointing out the obvious, breaking in on his growling. "You will be fully grown in two week's time. " A picture pops up on the screen, showing his dragon form going from small to large. "During that time, you will take several classes." It shows a small dragon going to class. "These classes will teach you how to walk," Shows a small dragon walking a straight line, like a drunk. "How to fly," It shows a small dragon struggling to take off. Really REALLY struggling to take off, with anime style stress veins on its head, and only an inch off the ground. "How to breath fire," Shows a small dragon with black covering his face with only wide, white eyes showing on the head, smoke coming from his nostrils as he looks at the screen. "and other, non-essential tasks." It shows a small dragon learning how to dance, having a good time!

"At the end of these two weeks, you will be shown how to use your powers to transform your form so you may interact in normal society." It shows the dragon form shrinking and turning into a man. "At the point that you have mastered this ability, you will be allowed to return home to your family." It shows a picture of a guy waving to the family at the door as he walks towards it, the family there at the door and the dog rushing out to him. This brings a few tears to Red's eyes! He could go home! He could tell them what happened to him! He could..."Informing family of your experiences is expressly forbidden unless family signs a nondisclosure agreement." It shows each member of the family signing a piece of paper, even the baby is holding a pen. "If they breach this nondisclosure agreement, punishment will be swift and severe." It shows a skull and crossbones, making Red gape at the screen.

"This concludes your orientation into being a dragon." The screen goes blank. "If you have any questions, please direct them to your instructor. Thank you." It goes back to the regular screen, showing his vital signs. Red keeps on staring at the screen, mouth agape. This can't be real. It just CAN'T be real! He flicks the Enduring Flame OFF the table and lays down, sulking. Great. Now he's a dragon that can't tell his family what he went thru to BE a dragon, or that he IS a dragon for that matter. He sighs and hops down from the table he had hatched on and acks, the floor was COLD! As he step marches to warm up his feet, he looks back at the table and notices it was covered in pillows and...egg fragments. He doesn't even want to know what that dripping fluid is.

So he turns and goes to walk down the hall, but stops at the door as Clover comes in. "Hey!" She says, waving a hand. She promptly comes fully into the room, scoops up his Enduring Flame, and walks over to him. "Alright, come this way, Red." She says, and leads him, her walking him running, sliding, and tripping, around the hall and into a room. This was his room, apparently! It had his name on it. Once he's let inside he notices a big, vast...emptiness, and five other doors. All of them were huge! "Why are the doors so..." He stops himself, figuring it out, and gives that "I knew it all along" grin. "Right." Clover says, giggling a little. "You'll need this." She gives him his Enduring Flame, which he doesn't pick up. "And that's your rack over there." She says, pointing to what looks like a dog bed!

"I am not sleeping in a dog bed!" He yells at her, his wings mantling a bit, smoke coming from his nostrils. Clover rolls her eyes and picks him up. "It's not a doggy bed." She whispers, walking towards it.

"Yes it is! It's a doggy bed! It even says Petsmart on it!" He says, as she puts him down. "I will not! I'm not a dog, dammit!" He says, turning around, his feet pushing into the cushion. It feels so soft... "I demand a real bed!" He says, laying down, feeling the softness on his belly. "When I have to come in here next time...I want a bed." He yawns. "With a blanket..." His head slowly sinks down to the cushion. "A-and pillows...." He says, sleepily, voice just a whisper, eyes half shut. "With...a pillow...top...." He's out cold. Clover just rolls her eyes again and lays his Enduring Flame next to him, then heads out the door.

About three hours later he wakes up, partially, looking up from his doggy bed, seeing them taking another dragonet into the room. This one was already asleep. The dragonet is put down in its own dog bed and doesn't know any single bit of what's going on around it. He then looks down, something red and round catching his eye. He growls and flicks the doggy bowl away, ignoring the 'woof woof' that's on a sticky note inside the bowl, and grumbles, turning his back to it and falling asleep again.

The next morning Red wakes up and stretches out, getting out of his bed, going over and sitting down in front of a chopped up meal with a fork made up for dragon hands, that is, with a handle that it meant to catch on their fingers. He uses it to pick up his chopped up pieces of eggs and sausage and eat up, not noticing that he's gained a few feet overnight, only noticing he is ravenously hungry. The other dragonet across the room, a bright silver one with golden markings running across her body, is waking up too. She had a certain look to her, decidedly non-human and gorgeous. Normally he wouldn't care about such a thing, but right now, she looks...beautiful. When he finishes with his breakfast, he makes his way over, just in time to see another dragonet get up next to her, a blue dragon, with black markings running along her back and green along her head, and green eyes. "Hi!" She says. "I'm Chaos! What's your name?"

Red is a bit taken aback by this, but he does manage to catch himself in time to not be rude. "I'm Redneck." He says. The silver dragonet's head comes up, yawning. "Hi Redneck..." she says, her voice sweet sounding, "I'm Starla." Chaos climbs over Starla and offers her hand to Red, as strange as that was. Red takes it and shakes it. Of course, Starla pushes Chaos aside and shakes Red's hand too. The two look at each other sideways, but it's been established, neither will let the other push them around!

"Nice to meet the both of you!" Red quickly says, to keep them from fighting. "How did they get you?" He asks. Starla shrugs. "I was a winner in a local Black Ops contest." She says. "And number three of the people on the top ten in the global leaderboard."

Chaos preens herself. "I was pretty! They wanted me to model for them!" Starla snorts at this. "You're not pretty as a dragon, why would you be pretty as a human?" She asks. Chaos whirls on her. "CAN IT, WHORE!" She yells, showing her temper, then turns to Red again and says, in a nicer tone. "I was a pretty good wilderness girl." She says. "They found me in a tent, asked me if I wanted a job, told me what it would be about, and here I am!"

"And I was the top person in the last EndWar tournament!" Another voice comes, this one just as pretty as the other two, as if they were all trying to be their prettiest. A bright red dragon comes walking over. She looks like she's developing some black markings along her back, and a little bit of orange under her snout. "Name's Tokaimura. You can call me Toka!" She says, smiling to Red. She looks at the others. "And nice to meet you all too!"

A louder, but still decidedly feminine voice rings out. "Good, you've all met." They all swing around and look up, seeing an ungodly black head looking down at them with blue eyes. "I'm Cynder." She says. "And I'll be teaching you how to use your new forms." She motions with her head. "Now walk." She says. "Give me some laps around the room. When you can do that without staggering, start to run." The dragonets just look up at her with blank expressions, so she breaths some fire down in front of them to motivate them. "Go!" She barks.

As one unit, the dragonets all turn and start to run, most of them falling over, Chaos being the only one to keep her feet, although shakily. When it's obvious they aren't going to be toasted in their scales, they get up and start trying to walk, doing so shakily at first.

"That's good." Cynder says. "You four, along with myself, are the only good dragons in existence." She says. "We need to all stick together, but before we can, you need to learn how to move properly."

Toka pipes up. "But, they made us dragons, we weren't born that way." She says, looking over at Cynder, then falling flat on her chest. As she gets back up, Cynder gets up and walks into the center of the room, revealing her full black and pink body to the dragons. "Yes, and as far as we can tell, so far, you're the only ones we CAN do it to. We tried it with some hobo...I mean, volunteers who were paid for this work, even tho the Enduring Flame didn't show a draconic form for them." She seems so cheerful. Likely they paid the hobos enough for a bottle of alcohol to try this. "The results weren't pretty. The eggs failed." She says, matter-of-factly.

Red looks over now and staggers a bit, but keeps his footing. "The eggs failed? They died?" He asks. Cynder nods. "Yeah, pity, oh well, less homeless to worry about." She says, shrugging. She had a wretched lack of care for life! At least human life. "Starla, you seem to have gotten it. Move to a run." Starla nods and tries to bolt, but trips over her back legs and falls. "You've all seen how horses, dogs, cats, and other four legged animals move. Mimic them." She says, testily. Red does that, moving kinda like his beagles did back when they were around, and finds it's a bit easier. When he moves to a run, he mimics how big cats move on the plains, and actually manages to keep on moving!

"Very good!" Cynder says. "Good to know the only male can keep his shit together." She nods her head approvingly, then winces as Red doesn't quite make a turn and skids sideways a few feet. She was enjoying herself, she had to admit it! "Oh! I forgot to mention, spread your wings just a bit to keep your balance while running. The weight dragging on you may be what's making you all fall." She says.

Fifteen minutes later, all the dragons are running about. "Good!" She says. "Now, come outside." She says, and turns, walking to a large hangar-like door. One push on a large button and the door opens for them, letting in the rays of a beautiful day...on an island. Red can see the sea and the mountains nearby.

"Now, let's teach you how to fly..." She says, padding out without a care. "You can't be dragons unless you can fly!" She spreads her wings. "Now, you'll naturally draw in a deep breath when you spread your wings...just like this." She says, and holds her wings up above her head almost, fully extended. "Now you jump and up you go!" She says, and jumps into the air, flapping down powerfully, and she's up and into the air! The others watch her, gawking, as she circles a few times, then comes back down. "For now, just work on taking off." She says, and sits down to watch.

Two hours later, the dragons come back into the room, dragging their wings in exhaustion a bit, until Cynder calls out one name or the other, then they all make an effort to pull up their wings. "I'm soooo tired!" Starla whines.

"Can we sleep?" Chaos asks right after. Red was too tired to say anything and was half supporting Toka.

"Yes...go to your beds." She says. "In an hour, you'll be going off with individual instructors to learn your own techniques and abilities." She says, smiling. 'And your doctors will check up on you, too!" She pushes Red off to his separate bed. "Go on."

Red, too tired to argue, goes to his bed, tail dragging, and plops down, rolls onto his back, and promptly falls completely into sleep. This gets a chuckle out of Cynder. This male had spunk and potential, she'd give him that. But so did all the others! Maybe they wouldn't be the total waste of time she had feared they'd be.

End of Chapter 2! I'll put up the next one shortly, and then put up the next chapter of Children of Earth. Nope, haven't forgotten that story! Just had a lot on my plate. Comments welcomed! And if anyone wants to draw these dragons for me, be my guest, tho I must warn you, I'm broke.