Emmy’s perspective

I sulked in a cell. Well it wasn’t really a cell but it may as well have been. Some sort of government underground city was created and she was living in a rather nice house, all things considered. Our parents were worried about max, but I knew that if they were treating us this well, they weren’t going to hurt him.

I had just finished my “orientation” as they put it. They said due to my repeated visits to dragon land, I may be able to manifest superhuman abilities. My body observed so much raw energy that I should look like a cancer patient that’s on their last leg right now. Instead I’m heathy, much too healthy.

In the past fourteen years I hadn’t been sick once, no colds, no flue, not even lice. It’s like some force was protecting my body. Maybe they were right, I remember asking the dragons how they did some of what they do, the flight, the fire breath, the occasional magic. They gave us explanations but it was always vague, like they didn’t want to teach us, or maybe they believed we just couldn’t do it.

She closed her eyes and remembered, a warmth in her chest. Just like Ord said, a great warm power in my chest rising through my throat and out of my mouth to make a great plume of fire.

I felt an all too familiar feeling of something coming up. Uh oh, I looked around for a bucket but I was too late, a small flame burst from my mouth and I covered it in surprise. The lack of oxygen seemed to quell the flame, but it seemed that if I went through the thought process I could spit flame, as small as it was.

It wasn’t anywhere as impressive as the dragons flames, mine was more like a small torch than a dragons flames. But it was a start. I sat in silence pondering what I had done when a I heard a knock come at the door.

Is it a neighbor? Or the men in black again? I resolved myself to open it up and there was a single woman in a black suit on the other side. That surprised me, so far it had been only men.

“You need to come with me for a couple hours Emilia.” She said in a ‘you’re coming with me one way or the other’ tone.

I knew better than to argue at this point, “fine, just let me get my shoes on” I said as I turned to grab them.

Mom and dad came to the front in time to see me putting my shoes on with the lady standing by in the doorway. “What’s going on Emmy?” Mom asked, worry clear in her voice.

“It’s okay mom,” I assured her, “I’m going with her for a little bit and I’ll be back in just a few hours. Right?” I turned to the lady as I asked the last part.

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“Yes, we will be returning Emilia here in just a few hours. Due to some unforeseen circumstances we need to run a few tests.” She said as she nodded, “that is all I can tell you, and that itself may have been too much, come Emilia.” She turned on her heel and walked to a black golf cart outside.

I finished tying my shoes and I hugged my parents, “see, I’ll be back soon I promise.” I said

“You better,” dad said as he squeezed me back, it almost hurt, “I can’t lose you too.”

I let go and backed up toward the door, “you didn’t lose max dad, I’m sure he’s just fine.”

* * *

Max’s perspective

I was not okay. All around me were dragons running in a panic as Ord and Quetzal, and elderly yellow dragon, tried to explain what was happening.

“Now now everyone,” Quetzal said motioning with his hands, “we just need to help our young human friend here.”

“But what if the humans want more than just a scale or two?” Came a scared voice from Zak, the green head of conjoined dragon twins Zak and Wheezy.

I didn’t want to make my problem harder but I agreed with Zak, “oh come on Zak,” came his sister, purple head bobbing around in her silly way. It’s good to see some things never change, “it’s Max were talking about.”

“Actually it’s the United States government we’re taking about,” I interrupted, “they’ve done horrible things to get what they want and have even hurt and killed the peoples they’re supposed to protect just to see if one of their experiments work.”

Maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say as it seemed Zak was on the verge of a full blown breakdown as he and Wheezy started to argue back and forth, as did most other dragons.

“Enough!” Ord yelled with a plume of fire for emphasis, “our friends are in dire need of our help, it’s the least we can do to spare a few scales for now. If it gets worse then we deal with it then.”

I was tearing up a little, I knew I could always count on the big blue guy. Quetzal was quite old now and even struggled to stand most days. He was on his last leg and everyone knew it, but nobody wanted to admit it. Ord was taking the role of leader now as Quetzal had given the post to him. So when he made his decision, for better or worse, the others agreed.

After the discussion was properly underway as to who would be donating scales and in what rotation, Ord stepped away from the group to tell me it was okay to leave. I nodded and recited the usual chant to go home.

“I wish, I wish, to use this rhyme, to go back home, until next time.” The world around me warped once more and I was back in my room.

I quickly hid my original scale back in its spot and took the one Ord gave me and wiped it off as best as I could. The skin was still on it and I knew there wouldn’t be much I could do to properly get it off without them noticing it in the first place.

Just as I finished cleaning the scale there came a knock at the front door. I ran down and shoved the scale in my back pocket for now. I opened the front door to see the same man who was here when my family was taken away.

“Hello Max,” he said, “it seems you found the scale.” He didn’t say anything else and just held out a hand.

“Yeah,” I mumbled, I took out the scale from my pocket, “I got it.”

I put it in his hand and he inspected it, “hmm” he began to say, “I’ll be coming. Back for more, and seeing as you are being cooperative,” he put the scale into a cloth and wrapped it up, pulling out a business card and handing it to me, “this is my designation and how you can contact me. I would say call when you find another scale but we’re monitoring your house. So it’s kind of obvious when you’ll, ahem, ‘find’, another one.”

This bastard knew I still had my original scale and was saying he expected more? I thought it might come to this, it’s why we set up volunteers in dragon land to be safe but I hoped it wouldn’t come to it.

I looked at the card he gave me, “agent Smith,” I read out loud, “wow, how original.”

“I don’t get to chose my designation” agent Smith explained, “just like you don’t get to choose how things are going right now. Life’s unfair like that.”

With that he turned on his heel and began to walk away. I was going to slam the door when he raised his hand in the air as if to wave goodbye. “I’m sure I’ll be back to see you again soon max.”