Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Dragon Scar, Chapter 2

I sighed and readjusted my backpack. It was heavy, like it always was on the first day of school. I stumbled on an uneven sidewalk and dropped the pile of papers and notebooks I was carrying. With a sigh I bent to pick them up. A larger hand joined mine and i looked up into green eyes in a tan face, with long dark blonde hair in the eyes.

"Rough first day?" he asked, handing me my papers. I smiled.

"You have no idea," I said with a sigh. "At least I only have one teacher that decided she wanted to kill me this year." I joked.

"It's high school," Jake shrugged. "What else can you expect, really?"

"Teachers that DON'T want me dead?" I smirked.

"Well you'd have to be normal for that," he grinned. His own book back was thin and light I noticed.

"Hmph," I made a pouty face. "Why can't I be normal? People just HAVE to hate me. Just cause of this." I bared my left arm and showed the dragon scar from the "incident". When I was a little kiddlet, my house had been lit on fire by a bunch of people who didn't like the people in my family. I managed to end up outside, in a little basket, but not unscathed. I had a burn on my arm in the shape of a dragon, curling about my forearm it's head on the side of my wrist bone.

I tried to keep the history about that hidden, it was just too weird. I also tried to keep the gang of assassins I had following me around secret. But Jake was my bud, why try to hide it from him?

Well because I couldn't. When I was 7 and he was 8, we had been playing in the yard behind the orphanage. We were the only ones there, other than a tiny babe who lost her parents the same way I had, only she was a few months younger than I had been. Her name was Aria, and she was in a little baby seat on the porch. Madam was sitting with her, and went inside to get her a bottle.

When she was gone, a woman snuck into the yard in camo and black, armed with a sword and a dagger made of some weird metal that seemed to hum.

That was the first assassin that targeted me for 7 years. If Jake and Aria hadn't been there, the woman very well would have killed me.

But she didn't want witnesses, so she went for Jake first. He was big, looked about ten, and had a pipe he was using for a bat when i tossed a ball to him. he would've been the threat.

her deadly mistake was stepping on a small pencil. It snapped and Jake heard it. He jumped and swung around, surprised, and accidentally clubbed the woman across the nose. It broke and started bleeding, getting blood in her mouth. Jake let out a yelp, and that's what called Madam back out. She saw the woman and dropped the bottle, shattering it. the woman pulled out the dagger and just went for me.

I hate to admit it but the singing metal had me completely distracted. When she lunged I flinched enough to stagger to the side, tripping over a swing and landing on my butt in the mud.

I don't really know what happened after that. My arm began to throb and then the woman vanished. The grass was stained black for weeks afterwards, but neither Madam nor Jake spoke of it.

I wonder if I imagined it, but for whatever reason Jake still knew about me. He'd helped me out numerous times when an assassin attacked me in a back ally way on my way home or at the park.

So I never tried to hide it and we had adjusted.



I smiled and we walked towards the orphanage in peaceful silence. Until we saw the smoke. I dropped my bag and ran. Fire trucks were coming in from the other dirrection and smoke was billowing out the open door. I could see someone opening the window on the 2nd floor, and a little blonde head popped out, coughing, tears running down a soot blackened face.

"ARIA!" Jake yelled. He looked up at her. "Aria, jump!!"

"I can't!!" she cried. "My dress is caught!!"

"Who else is up there Aria?!" I hollered.

"Just Tammy!" she refered to the little toddler who had just come in.

"Aria grab Tammy and throw him down to me!" Jake yelled.

"He's too far away! I can't reach him!!"

I pulled my tshirt over my nose and plunged into the smoke. I ran up the stairs nearly falling through and narrowly missing a spitting flair as a gas line caught.

I swallowed my adrenaline and leapt over the banister. I slammed against the door but someone had locked it. I coughed and tried again. after a few more trials and errors, I gave up and backed a few paces away. I ran a step forward, and leapt upward, thrusting my foot through the wood by the door handle. I pulled my foot out and reached through, unlocking the door. I stumbled in and nearly immediately tripped over the little toddler. He was unconscious. I picked him up and patted out a small flame on his shirt. I ran to the window and looked down. Jake was still there. I held the toddlers wrist and held him down as low as I could get and Jake moved to catch him. I dropped him and he fell 4 feet soundly to Jakes upreached arms.

I turned to Aria. She had the hem of her dress trapped under the bed and she couldn't tug it loose or seem to rip the thick fabric. I lifted the bed frame enough for her to pull it free. She swung her feet over the sill and waited for Jake to reach up for a second, then jumped. I soon followed, without getting caught. I landed in a crouch, just as the first fire-hose got unravelled. There were three ambulances and one already had hold of the little boy. I helped Aria to the second one, leaving the third empty. The paramedic noticed my bare arms which had gotten burned slamming the door. Beside my dragon a new burn showed, but i quickly covered it.

"You're hurt. You should get to the other ambulance for treatment," the paramedic said. I merely shook my head at him.

"I'm fine, trust me," I said. He frowned but did not persist.

I became aware of the blood running down my forehead as the thick warmth hit my mouth and salt filled it. I frowned quietly and tried to run the blood away, without doing much to succeed. I staggered slightly as a bit of dizziness hit me. The paramedic reached out, but I fell and my world blacked out before he reached me.

More writing by this author

Blogs on This Site