Forced Magic (3 page)

The dragon's body was about the size of a German shepherd.
Its long neck curved up like a snake about to strike.  There were black and
silver scales covering its body, with a snout that looked like a horse's face
ending in two nostrils that had smoke gently coming out as it breathed in and
out. The two front claws were as thick as my legs. The back ones were twice as
thick. There was a strange movement on either side of it. It had wings. The
dragon moved them in a twitchy way, as if it was not sure what I was going to
do.
 Its eyes glowed and
changed color as it stared at me. I was on my hands and knees staring into the
face of a dragon! I was now convinced I was losing my mind. This was too
fantastic. First a fairy, now this. A cold sensation crept up my spine. The fey
must have sent the dragon when she realized the parasite lucky rock thing
didn’t turn into spiders and kill me. The dragon must be here to finish me off.

In the dragon's mouth was a bag from the local fast food
restaurant down the street. I could smell hamburgers and realized how hungry I
was. If I wasn’t so terrified at that point, I would have found this whole
situation funny. I mean, here I was covered in slime, clothes torn, weak and
helpless, staring at a dragon and I was feeling hungry. The dragon moved and I
sat back quickly moving against the wall of the tunnel. It growled a little.
Moving slowly, it set the bag down. Keeping its eyes on me, it stuck its snout
in the bag and pulled out a burger. Instead of eating it, wrapper and all, the
dragon took the burger in its front claws and carefully unwrapped it. Never
taking its eyes off me, it put the whole thing in its mouth and began to chew
carefully. I could see flashes of its sharp teeth as it finished chewing. There
was a loud gulping sound and a look of satisfaction on its face. Smoke poured
out of the snout and a sigh rumbled up from the back of its long throat.

My stomach growled.  The dragon stopped eating for a second.
Placing a claw over the bag of burgers in a protective way, it growled and
showed sharp rows of teeth. This creature was not going to share. It reached
back into the bag and pulled out another burger, unwrapped it and shoved the
whole thing in its mouth. As it chewed quickly, my stomach rumbled again. The
dragon stopped chewing and swallowed loudly. Staring at me, it seemed to come
to a conclusion. With another obvious sigh and a rolling of its fantastic,
ever-changing eyes, it picked up the bag and moved toward me.

I was pinned up against the wall unable to get away. It put
the bag of burgers down in my lap and nudged them with its snout.  This dragon
was offering me food. I was consumed with hunger.

It was hard for me to believe that I could actually think of
anything except the dragon that was staring at me. I reached into the bag,
pulled out a double cheeseburger, removed the wrapper and started eating. I
never took my eyes off the dragon as I ate. I was so hungry that I ignored the
slime that covered me.  I finished the burger. The dragon moved his head
slightly in my direction.

“Thanks," I said not knowing what else to say.

The dragon motioned with its head toward the bag, pointing
at it with a clawed hand. The gesture seemed so human. I reached in and pulled
out another burger.  I held it up showing the dragon I had got another one. It
nodded in a satisfied way. Reaching over and taking the bag out of my lap, it
pulled out another burger for itself.

The dragon had a pleased look on its face as I quickly
devoured the second burger.  The food seemed to help me. The soreness of my
muscles was beginning to drain away. It was like someone had pulled a stopper
in a bath tub full of water. Starting from the top of my head the muscle ache
was leaving my body. I was exhausted. I could have gone to sleep in that cave
covered in slime right then and there, if it wasn’t for the fact that there was
a dragon chomping down on hamburgers right in front of me.

I never took my eyes off the dragon as it sat there looking
at me.  A sense of wonderment filled my heart. I was actually face to face with
one of my favorite fantasy creatures come to life. A Dragon! It seemed to be
just as curious about me as I was about it.

This whole day was a fantasy straight out of a book. A
horror filled fantasy, twisted and weirder than anything I had ever read, but
still fantastic.

I thought of the dream I had woken up from. I wondered if it
was a dream at all. Maybe it was some sort of vision. Did the fairy have
something to do with it? It made sense that she did. After all, my crazy day
had started with her appearing across that street. The dragon must be here to
keep me from leaving until the fairy could get here.  I wasn’t sure if I liked
that thought, the dragon seemed friendly. If it wanted to kill me then why
would it feed me? What did the fairy want with me anyway?

I relaxed a bit as the food I had eaten settled in my
stomach. I took a good look at the dragon. It was enjoying another burger when
I saw its silver scales shimmer. They had a kind of rippling effect. The black
scales even seemed to glow. Black and silver scales that looked strangely familiar
to me.  Then it hit me. The dragon's scales were black and silver, the same
colors as my lucky rock. This dragon was from my rock. It was the parasite.
Spiders didn’t come out of the bubble like in my dream. This dragon did!

I didn’t know what to do. All of my life experience, all of
the fantasy books I have read, never could have prepared me for this.  My rock,
which I thought of as a good luck charm, had somehow been transformed into a
dragon.  In my mind’s eye I saw the fairy pointing at my leg. She had cast a
spell that created this creature that was now looking at me with the strangest
expression.  Its head was tilted to the side as if it was studying me, trying
to figure me out.  It seemed to have realized that something was wrong. My
heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest. I didn’t dare move, out of
fear that the beast would attack.  All wonderment gone, I just wanted to get
out of that tunnel. The problem was the dragon was blocking the way.

We sat there staring at each other. The dragon began to move
cautiously toward me, looking me over. Its eyes were really creepy, constantly
changing colors, red, blue, yellow, green, and purple. Every once in a while
they would go black. It moved in closer, smoke coming out of its nose so thick
I could feel it in the air. The dragon stopped about a foot from my face, its
mouth curled up in a snarl.

“This is it. I'm dead now. “
I thought as a growl
started rumbling from the dragon.

I panicked. Yelling at the top of my voice I took my fist
and hit the dragon underneath its chin. It moved its head back and made a
choking sound. With all my strength I swung again hitting it right on the nose.
A growl rose up from the dragon’s throat and its front paws went up to hold its
snout. I bolted for the exit.

A new feeling started to form in me. It started in the pit
of my stomach and slowly spread throughout my entire body. It was anger. I was
mad and I wasn’t going to take anymore.

“Well. Come on!” I yelled at the dragon. I sat up a little.
“Are you going to kill me? You going to eat me? What?!! What?!! Don’t just
stare at me, do it! DO IT!”

I started cursing at the thing yelling insult after insult
at it. The whole time it just sat there glaring and growling at me. It crouched
like it was about to attack.

“COME ON!” I screamed, “DO IT! TAKE A BITE!”

All of a sudden the dragon disappeared. One second it was
there and the next it was gone. But, before I could run, I was pushed up
against the wall. The dragon had reappeared. It had pinned me up against the
wall.   Its sharp glistening fangs were inches from my face. Smoke poured out
of its nose and the silver scales on its body glowed.  The smoke smelled like a
charcoal barbeque. The burgers must have been an appetizer and I was going to
be the main course. Its low growl vibrated all the way through my body.

I sat there frozen waiting for the worst. The anger drained
out of me.
“This is it,”
I thought,
“I’m dead for sure now.” 
I
thought of how unfair it all was. Why was this happening to me? Why was this
dragon doing this? Was it because it hatched on my leg? Was the fairy involved
in some way?

With the last of my resolve, I gritted my teeth, looked the
dragon in the eye and said, “Do it! Eat me! Kill me! Just do it you stupid fat
lizard!”

Its claws dug into my shoulders, scratching through the torn
pieces of my ruined T-shirt. I could feel blood running down the front of my
chest and I let out a moan. The dragon stopped growling. It loosened its claws
from my shoulders and backed up just a little. I could feel his hot breath on
my face. It looked down at the blood that was forming on the front of my shirt.
Its eyes changed to a deep glowing green. It opened its mouth slightly and
smoke, matching the color of its eyes, began to pour out of its mouth.  The
smoke smell changed from a charcoal smell to one like cinnamon and vanilla.
Heat was starting to come from its snout.  The dragon was about to breathe
fire. The dragon opened its mouth wider. I could see two rows of sharp teeth
and a forked purple tongue.

“So I guess you are going to eat my face before you burn me?
I guess you win.”

I closed my eyes and waited for the chomp. I could hear the
dragon take in a deep breath and then I felt a rush of hot air. I knew the fire
was coming next and I braced myself, saying a little prayer, hoping it would be
quick and painless. The dragon’s breath continued to get hotter. I felt my torn
clothes ripple as the dragon's breath ran up and down my body. As hot as it
seemed, I was not burning.  I cautiously opened my eyes to the biggest shock of
the day. My body was completely engulfed in flame, but I was not burning.

The dragon was blowing a steady stream of fire. This fire
was not a normal looking flame. It started as the same green color as the
smoke, but it began to change from yellow to blue, to purple, to deep red, to
jet black, to silver, constantly changing colors. As the dragon continued to
breathe out this amazing beautiful flame, it made a strange humming sound that
vibrated throughout the tunnel.  As crazy as it seemed, it was humming some
sort of tune.

My whole body was covered in this strange flame. I don’t
know if it was because I was in shock, or it was part of the magic of this
flame, but I was unable to move. I just sat there as this fire burned up and
down my entire body. I started feeling great, better, more relaxed, simply
fantastic. I felt energized and strong. Any pain I had left in my body seemed
to be stripped away by this flame. The dragon’s song continued to get louder
and the flame continued to change colors until all I could see was the flame.
Its color pattern got faster and faster and then; it stopped. My eyes had spots
in front of them, like I had been staring at a bright light, and it took a
while before I could see again. As my vision came into focus, I could see the
dragon sitting on its hind legs staring at me.  Its eyes were now wide and
blue.  The only sound now was the sound of a car occasionally going over the
street above us.

I sat up and moved to put my back against the wall. My butt
scraped the floor and I realized to my embarrassment that I was naked. The fire
that seemed to heal me burned away the remainder of my torn up clothes. Being
naked in a tunnel, under a street, with a dragon staring at you, is quite a
unique experience. I had the most embarrassing image of the fairy finding me
here like this. I absentmindedly raised my hand to my head and got a second
shock. I was now bald, no hair at all on my head. I felt down my face and
discovered that I had no eyebrows either. Feeling around I quickly discovered
that along with my clothes all the hair on my body had been burned away. I was
truly and completely naked.

Despite the fact that I was naked and bald, I had to admit
to myself that I felt pretty good. No aches or pains. If I had actually broken
any bones, the way I thought I had, they seemed to be fine now. I felt like I
could take on the world. Maybe I could even escape from this dragon and get
home. I stood up and faced this beast, determined to get the upper hand. It
looked at me unmoving, the eyes back to changing colors.

“Ok, look. You need to let me go now. I’m not afraid of
you.”

The dragon looked at me, its eyes returning to the glowing
green color. Before I could make another move, its tail whipped around and
slapped me on the side of the head. I fell over from the impact. I sprawled
there naked, my head on the ground and my butt in the air.

“Huh” rumbled the dragon deep from within its throat.

“You’re laughing at me,“ I said.

I felt my face grow warm at the embarrassing idea that, not
only had I been slapped down by a dragon, I was now mooning a dragon.  Slowly I
got to my feet. I could feel a breeze coming from the end of the tunnel and
fought to keep from shivering.

“Ok, you scaly lizard. I’m gonna tell you one time and one
time only
.
Never smack me
with your tail again.”

I surprised myself with these words. I was angry, but to
tell a dragon, who could breathe fire and easily tear me apart, what to do and
then call it a stupid lizard was entering a realm of idiotic bravery that could
easily get me killed.

The beast stopped laughing, it’s now green eyes narrowed
into slits. The tail came whipping around. This time I was ready. Bracing
myself, I reached up my hand and caught the end of the tail before it
connected. The dragon’s eyes widened. I had just caught the dragon by the tail.
Not knowing what else to do, I did the first stupid thing that came to mind. I
bit it. I opened my mouth and just chomped down as hard as I could. The dragon
tilted its head back and let out a terrible sounding howl. I giggled
maniacally. Instead of a dragon biting me, I was biting a dragon. How ironic.
It whipped its tail out of my mouth and again disappeared from view. I made a
mad bolt for the end of the tunnel again.

 “It’s going to kill me. It’s going to kill me. It’s going
to kill me,“ I repeated over and over again.

The beast reappeared right on top of me twisting me around.
It was mad. The smoke pouring out of its mouth was red and I knew this time it
was not going to be a healing flame. I wasn’t going down without a fight. I
punched and kicked and scratched blindly, trying to get it off of me. A finger
ended up in one of its nostrils. The dragon put a claw in my mouth, pulling my
lip to the side. As we scuffled, there was a strange chattering sound coming
from the end of the tunnel. We froze in our position, and looked toward the
tunnel entrance. I was drooling from the dragon's claw in my mouth. The dragon
made a strange whistling sound around my finger that was thrust up its nose.

At the end of the tunnel, standing on its hind legs, was a
big red squirrel. One of its tiny paws was clutching its chest. The other was
pointing at the two of us. The chattering sound we heard was unmistakable
laughter.  A squirrel was laughing at us.

We scrambled to get off of each other.  How embarrassing!
The dragon hung its head and sheepishly looked anywhere but in the direction of
the laughing squirrel. The little fur ball continued to laugh and point,
falling over backwards with uncontrollable chattering hiccups of mirth.
Finally, it got control of itself. It sat up and rubbed its beady little eyes.
It looked at us again and, with a little squeal of delight, fell over laughing
again. 

“Shut up you stupid squirrel.”

I looked around the floor of the tunnel hoping to find a
rock to throw at the little beast.  The dragon took care of it by letting out a
small burst of purple flame, catching the end of the squirrel’s tail on fire.
With a squeak,
the
squirrel jumped and started running around in a circle. With the end of its
tail singed and holding it carefully, the squirrel looked at the both of us and
jabbered angrily.

“BAH!” I yelled.

Shrieking and jumping into the air, it took off running. You
could still hear it jabbering at us as it ran out of sight.

“Ha!” I laughed.

The dragon grunted, pleased with it as well. We looked at
each other, cautiously. Neither one of us wanted to attack again as we sat
there in the tunnel.

The dragon stretched its neck out, and took the now
slime-covered bag of burgers in its mouth.  It immediately spit it out it with
a look of disgust on its face and, looking down at the now ruined bag of
burgers, it growled at me.

 “What? You think that’s my fault?” I asked.

I sat there looking at this dragon, not knowing whether to
be grateful for it not eating me, or angry for it getting me in this mess. 

“This morning you were just a cool looking rock. Then you
had to grow on my leg and turn my life upside down. So I guess the rock was an
egg with you inside. You used me to hatch didn’t you? You kind of fed on me and
hatched."

The dragon just sat there staring at me as I talked, its
eyes continuing to change colors.

“Well let’s get one thing straight dragon. I’m not your
mommy. “

Again it just sat there staring. A little puff of red smoke
came out of its snout.

“I never heard of a dragon hatching like that before. I’ve
read a lot of stories about dragons and I have never heard anything like that.”

The dragon looked down at the now discarded bag of burgers.
It began to poke at the bag as if it was hoping one burger made it out of the
mess.

“Are you with that fairy? Is she part of this? Did she a
cause you to hatch?"

No response.

“Ok then. Thanks for nothing," I said, annoyed with the
dragon.

Picking up the ruined bag of burgers, the dragon threw them
at me, hitting me in the chest. I got the message. I felt a little embarrassed.

“Uh, thanks for the food,” I said, “It really helped me.”

The dragon nodded its head.

“Can you talk?” I asked.

The dragon tilted its head to the side and huffed.  A thrill
of excitement went through me as I realized I was actually communicating with a
dragon. I smiled and to my surprise the dragon smiled back. Its wide toothy
grin was almost comical, if not for the rows and rows of sharp looking teeth.
It opened its mouth and let out a little puff of green smoke. I had no doubt in
my mind that it could easily bite through a car tire with those teeth and jaws.
I counted myself lucky that, in our little scuffles, it had not torn me apart.

I began to look at my new companion. Its whole body radiated
power and strength, from its short front paws, to the powerful back legs. Each
claw was equipped with curved talons. A perfect fighting force of nature. I
felt a little stupid at the thought of how I yelled at it earlier and he didn’t
tear me apart. But I still didn’t know why. The only thing that I could think
of, is that in some way, this magnificent creature felt some kind of gratitude.
After all, it did attach itself to my leg and, in some way I didn’t understand,
used me to hatch.

The dragon was unfolding its wings as if trying to get used
to them. The tunnel was too small to let them out completely. I reminded myself
that it wasn’t more than a few hours old. I wanted to think of it as friendly.
At least I wanted to believe it didn’t want to kill me.  But with a shiver down
my body, I remembered that I was naked, bald, and stuck in a tunnel under a
busy street, not to mention the incredible pain I experienced when the dragon
hatched. I shuddered again and thanked God that I must have been knocked out as
the dragon hatched out of my leg. The nightmare must have been a reaction to
the dragon tearing itself from my leg.

I put all these thoughts aside and decided I needed to get
out of here. Not sure if the dragon would let me leave, I decided that by just
talking to it I might get it to let me go.