I suppose it began when a drunk driver took the life of both my parents. The fact that I lost them was bad, but the fact that they died for nothing tore me to the soul. Ever since then, my life has steadily gone from bad to worse. I've lost my job, I've lost my credit, I've lost my life. The only time I ever feel alive is at the park in the evening. So, one morning as the early sun streamed through my window and into my eyes, I vowed that today I'd find happiness even if it were only temporary.
So that day, I made my way to the downtown area and searched the stores for salvation from my state of mind and found none. I had no need for electronics nor did I need expensive clothing. I stopped by several antique book stores in search of fantasy books about dragons, but ever since the war, items like that were considered evil and nobody seemed to carry them.
I spent nearly the entire day looking for some sort of happiness and I was becoming even more depressed. Then I saw an old jewelry store displaying an astonishing variety of jeweled mythological beings. I felt my spirits rise at the sight of crystal unicorns and golden werewolves right alongside silver angels and bronze otters. Of course these were all pieces of jewelry that I could never afford. But like a child, I cast those worries away and looked for any jewelry that resembled a dragon. There was none, and I felt myself descending back into the depths from which I had escaped. Then I caught glimpse of another display case deep within the confines of the jewelry store and I felt hope spark back to life. So, fearing that what I wanted wouldn't be at my destination, I made my way into the store and to the display case.
As I looked down upon the men's rings in the showcase, I felt my heart sink, I lifted my head, turned around, and began walking out of the store with an obviously depressed air surrounding me. I probably would've left the store right then, as I had with all the previous jewelry stores I had visited that day, but at the last second fate intervened, or I should probably say that the sales man did. I tried to quickly work my way past the old man. But surprisingly, his elderly looks were deceptive, and I found myself planted at one spot directly in front of the man.
"I think I have an idea what you're searching for," said the sales man holding me in place. "How would you know what I'm looking for old man?" I said rather roughly as I struggled to remove myself from his grip.
"Because," said the man, "I used to be in your exact spot." I looked into his eyes and felt compelled to cooperate, and I followed him as he lead me to the back room. As soon as I entered the back room, a fog of dust assaulted my nostrils. I adjusted myself to my surroundings and found myself in a rather old looking storeroom full of boxes of every shape and size.
Feeling that I owed the old man an apology, I humbly offered one that he accepted as he began digging through boxes, in search of some certain item. A few moments later he lifted a shoebox sized gold and black marble chest into my view.
"It's a beautiful box sir," I said as I got a better view of it, "but I'm afraid it's not what I want." At that the old man flung open the box, and shoved the contents of it into my hands, before I even had a chance to see what was inside.
As the old man began to rush me out of the store, he quickly said, "Do not put on the dragon rings here, it must be at an open place." Before I could even think of asking the old man what he meant, I found myself out on the streets, holding four rings in my hand.
I put the rings away in my pocket before I could really look at them, and decided to take the bus home before I ran into any more crazy old men. Hours later, when I was over looking the sunset alone at a park near by my house, I got a sudden compulsion to examine the rings the old man had given me earlier that day. As I took out the rings, their golden surface brilliantly reflected the setting sun, right in to my eyes.
I turned my head to get a good and long look at the rings within my hands. They were made mostly out of black marble and gold which had scales carved into them, the only thing that separated the rings in appearance, were the differently colored jewels, each shaped like a different style of dragon. I couldn't help but to marvel at these awe-inspiring jewels, they were exactly what I was looking for. Something to bring me happiness.
Quickly, I tried to put on one of the rings, but drew back after it was less than half way onto my finger. I brought the ring up to my eyes for closer inspection, and found that there was an exceptionally tiny blade in the inner portion of the ring. The ring was booby-trapped. The old man had meant me to put on these rings and experience yet more pain. All my muscles tensed, and I felt unfathomable rage erupt into my soul. I cocked back my arm, intent on throwing the rings into the lake and out of my life. But, I couldn't bring myself to remove such magnificent objects from my vision. They still gave me happiness.
I spent the next few minutes passing the ring from hand to hand, choking back tears as I did so. Almost before I realized it, I slipped the ring onto one of my fingers. A great numbing feeling spread throughout my body, and as I watched my blood falling from my hand, I felt my body begin to put on the rest of the rings without my permission.
As the last ring slid onto my finger, I felt as if my entire body had been shocked by wave of static electricity, and I found myself on the ground with my mouth open wide.
My body began to feel as if it were swelling and splitting apart all at once. My vision had already began to alter, but as I looked down at my hand that held the rings, I could clearly see a golden liquid flowing from the cuts on my hands and bond to the skin of my body taking on a more metallic shine as it did.
The next second, my attention was torn away from my hand as I felt a stretching on my back and near the base of my spine. As my neck also began to feel stretched out, I looked back at my now immense scaly body, and found a small pair of bat like wings growing out of my back and I could vaguely see a tail dragging behind me.
Many thoughts raced across my mind, such as "what's happening to me", and "why", I came to the conclusion, that the rings, which at that moment seemed to disappear from my hands, were the cause. My ongoing metamorphosis made it so difficult to think that it almost hurt, but somehow, I asked why I even wanted those accursed rings. I didn't know. That scared me so much that I forgot about what was happening to me.
I began to ask myself other question, like what my parents looked like, what I did for a living, and even what I looked like, but I didn't remember the answers to those questions. So ignoring the feeling of immense growth my body was going through, I asked myself one last question, what's my name?
I couldn't remember, but I didn't give up. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate as much as my body would allow me to. I felt pounds and inches being added to my weight and size being added to my body every second, I kept my eyes closed trying to remember the one thing I should never forget, and forgetting other things in the process.
Pounds and inches became feet and hundreds of pounds, but still, I kept my eyes shut concentrating with every ounce of my being, trying to remember who I was. I felt my hands, become opposable for-paws, but still I kept my eyes shut. Then, the feeling of growth left from my body, and I got all the answers I was looking for.
My name is Bahamut, I couldn't remember why telling myself that was important, but I felt it was.
I opened my eyes as the last of the sun vanished from the earth. My parents loved these kinds of evenings, and I did too, but the scene before me brought back sad memories that I would have rather forgot. My parents dyed in the war against the humans. They dyed defending their species. At the time, I blamed their deaths on the humans, because I needed a force of evil to blame it upon. But, since then I've realized that the humans were just like us, and that they weren't all to blame.
I could no longer face those memories and I quickly forced them out of my mind. I looked over at the nearby lake and saw my reflection, the reflection of a near thirty-foot tall gold and black Dragon lord, a reflection I was most proud of. I gasped as I realized that I had let my invisibility drop, and I quickly raised it back up to preserve my mission down here on earth.
My mission was to gather information about humans so we could understand them better, letting my invisibility drop was a huge mistake, because if even a single human were to spot me, my mission would be compromised and I'd never see the humans again. I didn't want this to happen, simply because I've developed a certain joy at watching the humans go about their lives, especially the children. But soon, I wouldn't need to worry about being seen by the humans, not until my next patrol anyway.
Night was falling, and the humans would be returning home, I would follow suit. But, before I would return to the flying city of Shiva, I made a resolution to visit the old dragon that disguised himself as a human at the jewelry store. His job was important. It was to find people who weren't happy with their lives as humans and make their dreams come true. Many of the dragons on Shiva didn't really believe that there were enough people like that on earth to send people like the dragon at the jewelry store to earth.
I twisted my reptilian lips into a smile at this. Those dragons knew nothing of the people on earth, because I have seen it done plenty of times.
THE END
