Beast.

Hey folks! This is a snippet of a story I've had going for some time. Hope you enjoy!

SIZZLE. CRASH.

I wake up to the sound of debris falling from some where. Everything smells like smoke and the carpet in front of me is charred to dust. Looking up,  the roof is on the verge of collapsing inward from a large puncture right above where the coffee table had been.

“Caleb?” a sandy sounding croak…

“Jade, are you okay?” I sound fine. My face and neck stings; my shirt is scorched. Then I blink in the dusty air, where’s Malcolm? The middle of the room is obliterated and there’s only a eight foot wide, one foot deep depression left.

“No… I think it’s my ankle... Where’s Mal?” Jade’s voice comes from near the entrance of the room; where the enormous framed tapestry had hung.

“I don’t know. I’ll look” I get up, balancing shortly on one knee; despite the dust in my eyes, I still see stars of dizziness. My heart sinks fast, the furniture that had sat in the middle of the room, the books, the coffee table, the couch, were nowhere to be seen. My trunk wasn’t there anymore either.

“Is he there?”

“No”

The finality of the actual words sting in my throat, but that’s what they are now, fatally so.

I help Jade up, only to carry her to the unscathed kitchen, her left ankle is totally twisted and awkward, toes are already turning purple. Probably completely fractured; that tapestry had to be at least twenty pounds, never mind the frame. Well that would definitely hurt.

“AH…” Jade sighs when I put her gently but without ceremony on the cleared kitchen table.

“Do you think he could be,” Jade stops, puts a hand to her throat and then points out the kitchen window.

“What?” I ask, and then I inhale sharply at the sight I behold when I turn.

“It’s still here.”

The dragon is poised in a regal stance; claws viciously sharp. You can see them all the way back here, at the house. The bright yellow amber eyes glint in the dawn, surrounded by blacker than night scales. Suddenly all I can think of is Malcolm. I surprise myself.

“Jade. You don’t think he took Malcolm, do you?”

“What?” Jade gasps, forgetting, it seems, about her pain. “And, who says it’s a he. It’s beautiful.”

“I mean, the roof... it's not disintegrated.” I start, breaking the reverent phrase still hanging in the air.

"If it wanted to finish him it would've burned this place to the ground!"

Jade shakes her curly head and then says,

“Caleb Sanders you’re the craziest Dragonologist ever! If you're seriously implying that that beast is interested in preserving us, you're mad. Let's find Malcolm."

We’re both quiet after that. The dragon outside shifts from claw to claw… Then it lifts its mighty head, opens its powerful jaws and belts out a column of flame that falls, like an ignited snake to the parched ground. The next second, the beast is gone.