Light filtering in through the curtains struck my face as I yawned and stretched my arms before rolling back over in bed. My limbs felt incredibly stiff and cramped, as though I didn't quite fit in my bed anymore, but I ignored that in favour of getting a few more minutes of sleep. The house was quiet, offering me a gentle environment to slowly wake up in. I was so glad it was almost summer. Summer here didn't mean good weather, but it did mean no school.
My eyes shot open. School! Damn, I was late! I scrambled up and out of my bed...only to land flat on my face. I froze as an eerily unfamiliar, yet somehow familiar sensation hit me. It was the feeling of something attached the end of my body swishing about. I didn't want to turn my head to look, but I had to. My neck felt longer than it was supposed to, and more flexible too as I swung my head around to look at whatever it was. To my immense surprise, there was a long, golden, scaly, tail lazily waving about on my bed. I used my hands to push myself off the ground, not really wanting to acknowledge the fact that I suddenly had a tail, but started when I saw that they were gone, replaced by claws covered in the same golden scales.
I had to get a look at myself and figure out just what the heck was going on. Hoisting myself unsteadily into a standing position, I almost lost my balance and fell. My whole centre of gravity was messed up, and I seemed to be a little taller than I was last night. Ignoring the fact that it felt completely unnatural to be standing on two legs, and leaning on the wall for support, I made my way out into the hall to look in the mirror. For some reason, the mirror had a series of cracks that I'm sure weren't there last night, but it worked well enough. My jaw dropped as I beheld the image in the mirror.
Instead of a petite teenage girl, the image in the mirror was that of a large reptile with golden scales and sharp claws. A long serpentine neck supported a head with a maw full of sharp teeth. The long tail that had been on my bed had a spike on the end. Blue plates covered the underbelly, with strange fins on the head and down the neck, also blue. A set of wings like a bat's were folded at the sides, the membrane coloured the same shade of blue. Green eyes with slit pupils blinked in surprise as I realised that the creature in the mirror was mimicking my movements.
I lifted my arm, it lifted its arm. I nodded my head, and it copied me perfectly. I looked to the side, and surprise, surprise, the thing in the mirror did too. There was no denying it.
Somehow, I had become a dragon in my sleep.
As I contemplated how this happened, I couldn't help but notice how much sharper my senses were. I could hear everything that was happening in my house, including the creaks of it settling and water dripping from a tap. My sight seemed better too. Everything was in crisp detail, with colours that were just a little more vibrant than I was used to. But what really got my attention was the smell. There was a horrible, rancid smell coming from downstairs, and I honestly couldn't tell if it was that strong because of heightened senses or because it was just that bad.
Something came to me. What would my parents say? Would they call the government to take me away and do experiments? I shook my head. No. They wouldn't do that, because they loved me, right? I decided to go downstairs and find them, if only to get a bit of comfort. I half walked, half fell down the stairs and walked down the hall, adopting a four-legged gait that felt much more natural, if unfamiliar, along the way. Oddly enough, there were some strange marks on the walls and the front door was wide open. Choosing to ignore that for now, I made for the kitchen, and the horrible smell only got worse the closer I got.
I pushed the door open with my nose, and the smell hit me full force, making my eyes water. I nearly threw up, but somehow managed not to. To my surprise, the kitchen was totally empty. My dad wasn't in there making breakfast or drinking coffee, and my mom wasn't sitting on her laptop working. Even the fat cat who always sat by the door crying for food wasn't there today. The fridge door was wide open, and that seemed to be where the smell was coming from. Gagging, I approached it. The fridge's light was off, and it didn't seem to be as cold as it should be, even with the door open.
I finally managed to identify the source of the foul odour—a steak that looked like it had been there for a month, some eggs that were clearly rotten, some old chicken and a lot of sour milk. The fridge must've lost power overnight, and someone had left it open by accident. But something didn't add up. The food in it still shouldn't have decayed this much overnight. Just what was going on?
Turning away from the fridge and closing it before last night's dinner made a reappearance, I realised something I hadn't when I'd first walked in. The sliding glass doors were broken, and it wasn't an accident if the rock on the floor next to them was any indication. The kitchen also had several broken cupboard doors and it looked like most of our canned food was missing. That, combined with the strange markings on the wall and the open front door led to an obvious conclusion—someone had broken into my house.
Was that why I couldn't find my parents? Had they been...kidnapped? Or worse? I needed to call the police, ASAP. I climbed up the stairs on all fours like a giant scaly dog, up to the study where I had left my phone. I hoped my new claws would register, but if not I still had a stylus. After pushing on the 'lock/unlock' button a couple of times, my phone flashed the image that let me know it was dead. But that didn't make any sense. I knew it was charging when I went to bed last night, heck, it was still plugged in now. So why was it dead? I decided to try my mom's phone that was lying nearby, but I got the same result. The exact same thing happened with my dad's phone.
So I was dragon, I couldn't find my parents, someone broke into my house and none of the phones were working. This had been a weird and frightening morning, to say the least. If I couldn't call the police, I'd have to go directly to the station. If my almost useless sense of direction was to be believed, it was in town. Or maybe I'd run into a stranger who'd let me use their phone. I'm sure they wouldn't be too freaked out by the golden dragon asking to use their iPhone.
With no real options, I left the house through the open front door. I tried calling for my dog, hoping that she at least would still be around, but she didn't come. In order to get to town, I had to pass the local supermarket, so I'd surely run into someone there, right?
My neighbourhood was totally barren as well. Some of the neighbour's cars were missing, and most of the houses looked like they'd been broken into, same as mine. As much as I wanted to go check if they were alright, my family came first, and so I kept walking towards town. Aside from the occasional crow, dog, or cat, there was absolutely no movement in the street. The roads were devoid of cars, aside from a few parked ones.
The Supervalu that was just down the road from my house had a full parking lot, which was odd considering it looked closed, with all the lights turned off. The automatic doors refused to open, but as it turned out they didn't need to, because someone had broken them. Whoever was breaking into all these places sure had a penchant for breaking glass. The travelators inside weren't running, so I just walked down them, my new claws skidding as they tried to find a grip. Once I reached the actual shop, I suppressed a sigh as I came to another pair of broken glass doors.
I entered the shop, if you could even still call it that. It had the same smell of decay, and it wasn't hard to see where it was coming from. The place was in complete chaos, with the bakery bread all mouldy and disgusting, the milk gone sour, the fruit and vegetables rotting, and the meat turned putrid. Several shelves had toppled over, and whatever products had been on them were scattered all over the floor. The crisps and other sweets had been torn into by animals, and it seemed that those same animals had made a home in this place if the group of angry cats hissing at me was anything to go by. There was a huge puddle of spilled Coke that was being pecked at by a group of crows. As with my house, there was a weird lack of canned food remaining here, so whoever had broken in must have taken it.
How exactly had this all happened overnight? I came to this shop at around six yesterday and it was perfectly fine. Business as usual. So what was going on? Even if the shop was broken into, how had all these animals wound up in here, and how had all the food gone so rotten after just a day of exposure? And why was the power off?
With so many questions and no answers, I decided to keep going to town. Maybe there'd be someone there who had answers. Walking up Park Road, there were a few more break-ins, but not as many as there had been in my neighbourhood. What was driving the perpetrator to rob from so many homes, and why were they doing it in the most unsubtle way possible? Furthermore, how had I not noticed someone breaking a window to get into my house and steal my food?
As I pondered these questions and more, I became aware of a smell. Not the disgusting, rotting smell of the kitchen and the shop, but a nicer, sweet smell like shampoo. Maybe there was somebody up ahead! I broke into the fastest gait I could muster, which wasn't much to be honest, just a loping stride that was slightly faster than the cautious walk I'd been using up until this point. I spotted a pale figure further up the road, walking around the yard in front of the church.
As I got closer to them, I became aware of the fact that they weren't human. Whoever they were was standing on all fours, glancing around as though looking for someone. Maybe it was another person who'd been turned into a dragon like me? No, they were way smaller than me, so maybe it was just a big dog or something. But then why was the shampoo smell getting stronger?
I kept going anyway, if only to see just what the figure was. When I finally reached them, my jaw dropped for the second time this morning.
Standing on the footpath in front of me, and staring with me with wide, curious, and above all hopeful eyes, was the most adorable little horse-creature I'd ever seen. It had creamy coloured fur, with a long straight cut red mane and tail that was striped with two different shades of purple. The bit of hair that would normally fall onto its face was swept up in a high ponytail (hah), and it wore a large pair of glasses and a black sweater that looked really itchy. A spiral horn stuck out from its forehead, and there was a little tattoo on its butt, an image of three purple stars and a purple crescent moon. It was only about half my height, and it was so cute! A tiny little pocket-sized unicorn.
So why was there a little voice in the far reaches of my head telling me to either kill it or scare it into serving me?
I decided that maybe having it for company, if it could speak, would be better than having it as a corpse or a servant.
"Hello," I said, shuddering a little at my voice. It was still unmistakeably my voice, just extremely gravelly and intimidating.
The little unicorn looked frightened for a brief moment, before it spoke. "Hello. Are you a leader among ponies?" it asked, in a voice that was obviously feminine.
"A leader among ponies? I'm sorry, I don't know what that means. Do you happen to have a phone?" I said to the unicorn.
She looked sad for a moment, and then said, "No. I'm sorry, but those don't work anymore. Have you seen or met any ponies other than me?"
"No. Is that what you are? A pony?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "My name is Moondancer."
"Mine's Deirdre. Deirdre Rourke," I said. 'Moondancer'? What kind of name was that? She obviously knew way more than me, so I figured I'd try to learn from her.
"Nice to meet you. You're a dragon," she said.
"I'd gathered that," I said back to her, with a little more venom than I'd meant to.
There was an awkward pause in which the whole area around us was totally silent, until Moondancer spoke again.
"Were you something else?" she asked.
How much did she really know? I supposed that I'd best be truthful with her, and said, "Yes. I was a human last night."
A look of confusion crossed her face, followed by one of understanding. "Well...I can't help you very much, unfortunately. But there are other ponies around, ponies who were humans like you. If you find them, then I might be able to help you."
"Why can't you find them yourself?" I asked. "Or even help me find them?"
"I can't tell you that. The same way I can't tell you why I'm here, or help you myself. I'm sorry," she said, looking at the ground.
"That's, uh, that's ok. Really," I said, trying to comfort her. It worked a little bit, because there was a small smile on her horsey little face.
"I'll have to leave in about a month, but I promise I'll come find you again before then. But until then, can you promise not to tell anyone you saw me?" asked Moondancer.
Her eyes were just so full of hope that I couldn't say no. It would be like refusing a puppy, and just as guilt-invoking. So, without really thinking about the consequences, I said, "Yes. I promise."
"Thank you so much!" she said. Her horn suddenly lit up and flashed, and then she was gone. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was a dream.
So according to Moondancer, there are other people that have been transformed, only they've been transformed into ponies like her. Honestly, as cute as she was, I think I got the better deal. I get to be a fire-breathing flying lizard, and they get to...prance around and look pretty? Yeah...not much of a comparison.
Though I'd much rather be a human again, sitting with my iPad, or maybe one of my video games, talking to my family or friends and just generally having one of those lazy days you have when you scare the crap out of yourself in the morning thinking you're late for school, only to realise that it's actually a Saturday. As much as I love the mythology surrounding dragons and unicorns, I never wanted to become one.
But maybe I'd find my parents in town. Maybe there was a pair of bigger dragons, circling the town looking for their equally scaly daughter.
Well. There was only one way to find out. I turned towards the town and set my claws in the path determinedly. Into the breach!