that was now covered in red scaly skin and tipped with black talons.
“You would put me in league with that creature?” he growled. His voice had become deeper as if his chest was massive. “Have I ever done anything to make you believe that I would kill the innocent for my own gains?”
“No, Chang, but we’ve both got our secrets.”
His smile widened and he gave a little shake of his head as if he pitied me. I was beginning to feel like I deserved a little pity but that thought was lost to me in the next second as the air tingled with a rush of magic. A bright light engulfed Chang like it had the white-haired man, and my heart stopped for a second in my chest.
Where the other man had transformed into a large white owl, Chang was larger and far more frightening. When the light waned, I blinked my eyes, trying to get them to adjust to the normal light levels of the room, but I immediately wished I hadn’t. Standing before me was a dragon.
I tried to take a step backward but I simply fell on my ass, staring up at the massive creature. He was huge in the small, confined space. His wedge-shaped head nearly brushed the two-story ceiling and his long tail was wrapped around his body to keep it from crashing into any of his shelves of treasures. His entire body was covered in dark red scales and his black-and-red wings were folded against his back. Lowering his head to me, he cocked it slightly to the side as if to say “Happy now?” No. No I wasn’t. I was so much better off in the fucking dark on this one.
“I thought all the dragons were gone,” I said in a rough voice.
It was probably the most inane comment I could have made, since Chang really didn’t need to be reminded that all the dragons had been killed by the Towers, but then my brain wasn’t working properly. There was a voice in the back of my head screaming for me to attack or at least put up some kind of defensive spell, but I couldn’t. And it wasn’t because I was faced with a dragon, one of the most magically powerful creatures in the world. It was because this dragon was Chang. I’d worked with Chang for years. I wouldn’t necessarily call him a friend, but I had never gotten the impression that Chang hated me either.
“No, we’re not all gone,” he replied, his voice a deep rumble that shook the ground beneath me. “But our numbers are very few.”
Chang exhaled and a cloud of smoke swirled around me. I coughed and waved one arm in the air before me, trying to clear it away. When the smoke finally thinned, I found that we were no longer in Chang’s underground warehouse of goodies. Now we were in the middle of a green field with snowcapped mountains rising up in the distance against a pale blue sky. At first I thought it was all an illusion because it didn’t feel as if we’d traveled across any great distance, but I could feel the warm sunlight on my face, and the sweet breeze ruffled my hair.
I looked over at Chang to ask him where we were, when he lifted his head toward the sky. Following his gaze, I gasped and nearly fell back against the ground to see dozens of dragons soaring across the sky, their massive wings spread on the wind and their brilliant scales reflecting the sun.
“There was a time when our numbers were great. We filled the sky and made the earth tremble with our roar.” Chang’s voice was a deep rumble as he watched his brothers and sisters pass overhead, swooping and circling in a beautiful dance. “And when we wished to watch the other creatures of this world, we changed shape and walked as humans. Despite our new forms, some humans knew what we were. They recognized us.”
“Warlocks and witches,” I whispered.
Chang nodded. “Recognizing their great gift, we taught them magic.”
“No,” I cried, shaking my head in denial.
The dragon ignored my outburst and continued his story while watching the sky: “We taught them to control the weather, the seasons, life and death. We showed them how to extend their lives and how to heal nearly any injury. In the end, they were more like dragons than humans, but there was never enough power. We showed them how to stop