In a few minutes, they were at Orson’s shop. Orson worked as a mechanic, working on engines and busted up cars. He did the bodywork and a bunch of other things. As one of the few mechanics in the small town, it was a nice business, and certainly not a slow one.
Adam was put into a chair and Emma came in to examine him. After a few minutes, she turned back to Lyra and Orson, shrugging. “I don’t know what to tell you. He’s a little scared, but the kid’s fine. I want to believe that he just has a bit of that dragon physiology in him, that’s why he’s so hot. I don’t know jack about dragons, but I think I know someone who might, and I think you know him too.”
Lyra nodded. She had to go see the sorcerer, Bingwen.
“I saw something,” said Adam, in a small, petrified voice.
Lyra turned around at the sound of his voice, staring at him. “What is it, honey? What did you—”
Adam shook his head, looking away as he began to cry silently. “I don’t know, Mom. It was…its face, I didn’t look because its face was just bad, just evil. I was so scared.”
Lyra quickly got beside him on the chair, hugging Adam tightly. “Hey, it’s okay. You were just having a really bad dream, okay? There’s nothing wrong, Adam.”
“No, it wasn’t…I wasn’t dreaming, Mom. It was real. As I ran, it was there, it was really fast, going everywhere. It was faster than anything I’d seen and it was coming after me. I couldn’t get away.”
Orson took his hand, turning Adam to face him. “Talk to me, kiddo. You’re saying something evil chased you from the camp, that’s why you ran away?”
Adam nodded. “You won’t believe me, you’ll say it’s just bullies, but I know what I saw, and it…it said something to me. I understood, and I thought…I don’t know, but I heard it speak.”
“What did it want?” Lyra asked, rubbing Adam’s hand as fear ran down her spine. She had no idea what this was, or why it was happening to Adam. They needed to see someone who knew something about dragons, and if it was true that Adam was going to be a dragon, they would need to prepare him for it.
“It wanted to hurt me, it wanted to scare me, for me to run away, so it chased me, but…it could catch me, but it never did. It was playing with me, and I thought I could run but…I wasn’t getting far.”
Orson nodded, rubbing Adam’s hand. “Adam, I need you to think, try and remember what it said to you.”
Adam turned his head to the side, shaking his head again and again. “I can’t, I can’t…”
Emma quickly brought out a little notepad and a pen, placing them in Adam’s hands. She smiled at him. “Sometimes, when I can’t say what I’m thinking, I like to express it, I like to write it out. It’s easier like that. I want you to try, Adam. See if you can work with that.”
Adam nodded and quickly got to work with the pen. Lyra watched as he made a rough humanoid outline. But it turned out to be fairly larger, with large clawed hands, and a face that was devoid of features, just empty darkness. Adam left out white spaces to show the teeth of the creature, and when he was done, he held it up for them to see.
The figure had two arms and two legs, like a human, but the arms extended so low they were almost touching the floor. There were sharp claws on the hands and feet, and rows and rows of teeth on the inside of the mouth of the creature. At the bottom, Adam scribbled what the creature had said in his childish handwriting.
We kill everyone.
Chapter 5 - Levi
Levi and the other dragons waited at the edge of the small park, just a few meters from a nearby church. Levi looked at the pointy top of the building and smiled, knowing he could get that high if he ran and jumped. Being a dragon had several advantages, including enhanced metabolism, speed, strength, and durability.
There was also the added benefit of being able to control fire. When the pack had lived in the city, Levi worked as a fireman, and he’d had a really successful career. They had called him the smoke eater, as he did the crazy things that no one else wanted to do. Eventually, a house had collapsed while he was inside. While he managed to survive and even save the last human stuck inside, he knew that it would be really suspicious if he had been found without a scratch after such a thing.
Since the pack was already planning the move to Ridgeshire, due to excess violence from other dragons, Levi had gone along with them, and soon he became the leader of the pack. He looked behind him now to see the rest of the pack waiting casually.
Val stood beside him, her hands across her chest, scanning the horizon for an ambush. Their eyes met, and she smiled briefly.
“You can relax,” Levi said. “We’re out in the open. If I know Orson, he wouldn’t do something that crazy. We won’t get ambushed out in the open.”
“But there’s still a chance, so maybe I should keep watching,” Val replied, shoving him a little with her shoulder.
Levi chuckled. “Suit yourself.”
He turned to see Garret pacing back and forth. The young man paused his pacing and sat down in the grass, his hot hands heating up the grass and causing it to smoke. Levi raised an eyebrow, and he quickly lifted up his hands.
“Get a hold of yourself before you start a fire,” Levi said.
“I don’t understand why we have to answer to Orson, he’s just some trash werewolf. He shouldn’t be able to just summon us like this,” Garret shot back.
“He’s right,” said Adebayo. “Whatever this is, it can’t be good. Werewolves don’t like us, and I see no reason why they would want to meet with us now.”