As most high school seniors do, Seth Young had mentally checked out of school after just the first couple of weeks. In all fairness he had tried his best to not fall into the trap of 'senioritis,' but Seth just couldn't force himself to focus on school anymore. Heck, half the time he didn't even go; instead he'd coordinate his skipped days with one of his buddies and hang out with them for the day, usually at their place because Seth's father would never allow it. Luckily the boy had become reclusive enough not to interact much with his father much anymore, giving him total leeway for such truancy... almost.

"So Halo tonight? Or Gears?"

"I'm thinking Army of Two, actually. Both those huge-name games had too many 12-year-olds last time." That was Seth's conversation with his friend Logan, one of the boy's enablers. The pair had just walked in Seth's front door only to find the young man's father waiting for them in the game room with a glare. Another child might have been scared of such a look, but Seth was already prepared for it... and had a plan to defuse the situation.

"Before you two sit down, I'd like a word with my buddy!" Seth was no fool; he knew his father was just being endearing in front of Logan.

Seth balked inside but kept a friendly demeanor out. "Well, can it wait, Dad? I kinda have company over. Maybe later?" This game of dodgeball with his father was the game Seth played almost every day for the past month, making it even more frequently played than all his other games combined. Part of that was because Seth always won this game with the same tactic: the buddy system. By keeping a teammate at his side in enemy territory at all times, he could never be caught off guard and was less likely to be ambushed.

"Logan, please go home," the father insisted, now less happy-go-lucky, "We have a family matter to discuss." This was about Mr. Young's only counter for Seth's buddy system. It didn't always come up, but Seth had a play for the, too.

All it took was for the team to keep a very tight formation, refusing to stray off. This prevented any one teammate from being the victim of a surprise attack. "But, Dad, Logan has to drive 45 minutes to get here! Are you gonna make him drive that distance and back for nothing? It's not his fault we live so far from the rest of human civilization!" Seth decided not to add, It's your fault, out loud.

Usually that play won Seth the round every time he tried it. His father was such a vain man that Seth was sure his father had to keep up appearances in front of someone who thought the man was a kind and perfect gentleman. Perhaps it that wasn't true anymore. "Logan, you're a nice boy. So, tell you what: you can stay. In fact, I'll even show you what the inner barrel of my .22 looks like."

Holy shit! Seth thought. For there it was: his father's true nature. Despicable and completely without regard to others, not to mention dishonest; he didn't even own a .22. But did he really just threaten Logan?

"Yeah... know what?" Logan started to back slowly towards the door. "This sounds like a personal thing I shouldn't be involved in. Mr. Young, bye for now!" Backwards Logan power walked out the door. Seth tried to follow and stop him, but the friend was jogging to his car by the time Seth reached the door. "Logan!" Too late. Logan's car backed out of the dirt driveway in a hurry, where a sea of trees blocked Seth's view of the car long before it would reach developed road. "Fuck! Fuck!" Unfortunately, Seth didn't have a protocol for how to deal with deserters. He ended up slamming the door.

"You shut that door quietly, Seth, before I come over there and show you how the door feels!" Seth knew that was an idle threat, but he supposed his only option now was containment and damage control. Without teammates to rely on, he would have to focus on just staying alive. So he obeyed and returned to stand before his father. "Seth, you're a smart boy, smarter than I even wish I was. So can you explain to an uneducated man like myself just why you're trying to piss away any chance you have of a future?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Seth was able to speak that lie with only numbness in his heart and a resting countenance. This, too, was a game the pair had played before, only it happened less often.

"Seth, school calls me every time you don't show up to class! I've gotten five calls this week!" Well, the jig was up. Still, Seth didn't break from his neutral, almost apparently catatonic state. The only thing that made him appear to have any life in him was that he made eye contact. "What's happened to you? You used to be a straight-A kid, and now you're not even showing up once over a week?" At least then Mr. Young's voice was shifting from accusation to concern.

"I don't know," Seth lied. For the sake of peace he felt he had to keep his mouth shut.

"That's not good enough. You need to know. Why weren't you at school today?"

"I don't know."

"Not good enough." That time Mr. Young had almost cut his boy off. "I wanna know why you weren't at school today."

"I don't know!"

"Not good enough."

"Fuck you! Nothing's ever good enough! Your wife wasn't good enough, your daughter wasn't good enough, and now I'm not good enough!" Seth's teeth were bared and grinding.

"Don't change the subject!"

"That is the fucking subject! You wanna lecture me about-"

"Don't you talk to your-"

"-pissing away my life when-"

"-Anna is not the woman you think-"

"-you pissed away the greatest fucking thing to ever fucking happen to you?"

"-This is about you and you and school!" The conversation didn't even have the charade of productiveness or constructiveness anymore. The two men were talking at each other and over each other rather than two each other. Seth hoped it wouldn't come to this, but apparently it did.

"This is about you cheating on and dumping off my fucking mother! This is about you remarrying to the fuckin' slut you were 'jogging and having coffee' with! This is about you dumping your disabled daughter on your distraught ex-wife!"

"Dyslexia hardly counts as a disability."

"This is about tearing my life apart for your own selfish gain! Fuck you, fuck all you stand for, and fuck the high horse you sit on while you preach about 'pissing my life away!'"

14-year-old Jenisa Burgolow put her hands over her mouth as she tried to stifle her anger. Did that asshole just call my mother a slut? God, Seth pissed her off. If it wasn't for the fact that he was about a foot taller than her and way more muscular, she'd probably had slapped him by now. She was no fan of Dustin either. If what Seth had said was true, then odds were Dustin was going to cheat again. Once a cheater always a cheater. That was something her father taught her.

Not wanting to get caught eavesdropping, Jenisa turned her heel and quietly snuck back off towards her room. Softly shutting the door so she wasn't caught, she quickly threw herself down on her bed. Sitting 'unlady like for someone wearing a skirt,' as her mother put it, she grabbed her laptop and stuck it right on her lap. Waiting for it to boot up, Jenisa stretched her hands above her head and waited impatiently.

If there was one thing she and Seth had in common, it was the fact that they both hated this. Neither of them could really do anything about it though. For Jenisa, it was was one day her mother was alone and the next day that her mother came bursting through the door announcing that she was getting married. Never once did her mother tell Jenisa about her boyfriend/husband-to-be, and it hurt. It hurt bad. Then Jenisa's life was just flipped on its head when Dustin and Seth moved in two years ago. She hated it. At least she had one thing that distracted her from the emotional pain: anime. Over the last two years she started watching anime like a maniac. First it was cutesy little anime like Yu-gi-oh!, Sailor Moon, Pokémon, Tokyo Mew Mew, stuff like that. Now she had moved on to the more adult anime: Elfen Lied, Corpse Party, Serial Experiments Lain, stuff that had a rather disturbing rap. Just something to numb her emotional pain was all she neeed.

Once upon a time there was a single mother of one for the longest time, and her name was Joan Burgolow. Joan loved her daughter more than anything but still felt lonely. Then one day, while taking her annual daily jog, a nice man jogged with her. After that they started talking more and more and, soon they were dating. Then one day, he popped the question, and she said yes, for once not thinking of her baby girl. Of course when she announced the wedding to Jenisa things didn't go over as smoothly as she'd have originally liked. Still, that was in the past, and now Joan was married with a wonderful husband, a rather moody step son, and a lovely, temperamental daughter.

Walking in through the front door, Grocery bags on her arms, Joan smiled, expecting to see her husband. What she didn't expect was a sudden, "-fuck the high horse you sit on while you preach about 'pissing my life away!'" Pausing, Joan only stood there, unsure of what exactly to say. Unfortunately, Seth only found someone else to turn his wrath upon. "And fuck you, too! It's been two goddamn years! Will you ever get the hint you aren't my mother? Yeah, do yourself a favor and ask this fuck who and where my mother is! I bet he never told you, did he?" At that point Seth turned his rage back on his father. "Fuck knows why I ever kept your dirty little secret, but that shit's done! You two have a lovely little chat, now, almost like a real husband and wife!" Then, still fuming, Seth stormed out of the room, out the backdoor, and off the property entirely. There was nothing back there but woods for miles, so it was an excellent spot to be alone... barring bears, moose, and such. I can't live like this! Something's got to give! was a thought he ruminated on as he stomped aimlessly.

Jenisa came poking her head down stairs at the sound of a door slamming. Being a curious one for drama, she bounded down stairs. Before she could walk in the room, though. all she heard from her mother was, "Not now Jenisa! Go do something else." Then the kitchen door was slammed in the girl's face.

With a bitter pout, all Jenisa could say at that moment was, "Rude." Sticking her tongue out, she turned and and sighed. Blood-C anime it was, apparently.

The way Seth was breathing almost made it sound like he was being chased by something, which isn't far from the truth because he felt like he was. Not a physical thing but his situation, his 'family.' And fuck Logan, too. It took ten minutes of aimless walking for Seth to become even remotely aware of his surroundings. He wasn't worried, though; besides having his mind on other things, two years was enough time to mostly learn his way around the woods. At least that was one good thing that came out of the move, but it hardly made up for anything.

Seth felt like he wanted to be isolated right about then, so he decided he'd head for the treehouse. Being up so high tended to make him feel safe and immune. According to his 'mother' and 'sister,' it wasn't actually theirs. They supposed it was built before they moved in. Seth's own opinion is that it was probably built before they were even born; there wasn't much left of it but 3/4 of the base platform and one wall. Unfortunately, just as he thought he was getting close he heard a growling, huffing sound. Shit... if that's a bear, I wanna keep my distance.

For that, the boy supposed he had to give the treehouse a wide berth. Supposedly they weren't far north enough to see many of the giant whitecoats, but grizzlies were still in play. That was why Seth had to spend an hour on some random log instead, waiting for it to leave. The boy didn't think he'd be able to tell when it did from such a distance, but longer waiting was probably better. Why am I in the middle of this? Why couldn't I have stayed with Mom? Why couldn't he have stayed with Mom? She gave him fucking everything!

An hour-and-a-half was almost the limit of Seth's patience. It wasn't, but that was when he had to flee; he ignored the groaning and growling at first because he was stuck in his own thoughts, but his senses soon came back to him... after a grizzly had already spotted him. "...fuck." The young man knew that all that play dead bullshit was, well, bullshit. A territorial bear might take that, but a hungry bear would eat what it could eat. The bear, though, a natural predator, started to charge before Seth could even sit up. "Shit!"

Well, at least Seth knew one place to escape: the treehouse. Fast as he could he got his feet under him and took off in a reckless sprint, not much minding footing or obstacles. That was about the only way to escape a charging bear, and if it was an endurance race the grizzly would win paws down. Seth's only hope was his own athleticism from years of school sports, whatever team he could get on. Perhaps it wasn't his passion, but it was a fun afterschool activity... and one that was paying off.

By the time Seth could grab the hanging rope of the old treehouse, the grizzly was almost enough to nip at his backside. The boy would have to make a great leap to get out of its reach quickly. Basketball, longjump, now would be a very bad time to fail me! With his eyes squeezed shut, Seth jumped as high as he could and hugged that rope into his body like it was his old teddy bear. Maybe I shouldn't think about bears! Cody almost lost one of his feet, but he had managed to bound just high enough not to by perhaps two inches. When he opened his eyes and discovered this, he whooped and fist-pumped. "Oh! Take that, bear bitch!" The grizzly, unamused by the taunting, began to rear up on its hind legs. "Oh, nope, gotta go!"

Knots tied along the length of the rope like bumps made it much easier for Seth to shimmy rapidly up it. A paw actually managed to swipe his feet that time, but they were merely knocked off the rope and not scratched thanks to his shoes. "Ah, shit, shit, come on!" Thankfully he got them back on the rope and pushed up with them fast enough to ascend a couple more levels of knots, now indisputably out of the ursine's reach.

The grizzly wasn't giving up, though. It sank down and seemed to think about the situation before, to Seth's horror, rearing back up and holding the rope between two paws. No! The grizzly gave it a tug, and Seth felt himself sink. He sank because the treehouse, essentially a flat platform, shifted and tilted. "No, no, no, not OK!" Seth had to keep shimmying to maintain his distance, but that became futile when the bear tugged again. If that thing doesn't give up he's gonna bring this whole thing down! Seth had made it almost to the top, about 20 feet off the ground, when another roar almost shattered his ear drums. Oh, how he wished he could have covered his ears, but his hands were occupied. "The hell?"

Seth's confusion was because of the roar's source: it wasn't below him, several feet away, but instead seemed to be... above him. God, no. The only good news seemed to be that the roar from above gave the predator below pause. It dropped back on all fours and became apparently wary. Seth wanted to be relieved, but a vibration along the rope... when the bear wasn't even touching it. That made Seth look up for once instead and- Oh, god! What is that thing?

Seth was making eye contact with... well, he didn't know. He couldn't see all of it, only a head and some claws poking over the side of the platform. It was no animal Seth had ever seen or heard about before, that was sure. The head reminded him of a lizard's, though. It was certainly scaly and reptilian in shape, and those scales all seemed to be the exact same shade of black as dark as an furious, stormy midnight sky. The only thing that made Seth think it might not be a lizard was its teeth: they were bared, pearly white, and shaped more like a shark's triangle than a terrestrial creature's dagger... and they were each longer than his middle fingers. The head containing all those teeth was about as long as Seth's abdomen, a giant. But the scariest feature? Definitely the eyes. Seth might have called them catlike the way they were slitted so narrowly that a needle might not have been able to precisely poke them... and that beast's muzzle was perhaps six inches from Seth's face.

"Umm... hi." It seemed the beast wasn't in a social mood. Even though it looked straight in Seth's eyes as it growled and eventually shifted to a grotesque half-roar-half-hiss sound (revealing its jaws to open even wider than Seth's head), the boy wasn't the only one who was frightened; the grizzly ran off almost as fast as it had run there in the first place, leaving Seth alone with the snarling... thing. Well, maybe I better get- Before Seth could even finish his mental command to get the hell out of there, the treehouse shifted some more without any help from the bear. "Shit." The black reptile seemed caught off guard by that, too, as it jumped and backed off from the edge a bit. That movement just caused the platform to tip more. "No, no, no, no!" Despite Seth's pleading, one of the branches holding the treehouse aloft snapped, sealing both creature's fates.

All things on earth fall at an acceleration of 9.8 meters per second squared, meaning the boy, the treehouse, and the beast all fell at the same speed. That gave Seth, after falling, no time flat to escape from under the rest of the pile. The good news for him was that the treehouse' floor only fell in him from the ankles down, though that still made Seth hiss and shout out more profanities with tears welling up in his eyes. "Ffffffffuck!" Even worse the beast landed beside the boy right about then. Still, it took longer than the rest of the debris, but Seth solved that mystery quickly now that he could see everything about the creature... and it only horrified him more.

It had wings. Not bird wings, more like bat wings. That was even more confusing because it was apparently lizard-like in design more than anything, but two bat wings jutted out of its sides right between the shoulders and hips that slowed its descent like a parachute... and, god, were they huge. That's gotta be... fifty feet, at least! They were almost disproportional to the lizard they were attached too, but not quite; the lizard's body must have been thirty feet, though about half of that was just a long, thin tail that appeared to have its own black 'wings' at its tip, though they more closely resemble fish fins or sails. Those sails were angled upward in a sort of V-shape which was reminiscent of the shape of the spines that ran down the middle of the black lizard's back all he way from the shoulders to the tail tip. "...no fucking way!" Perhaps Seth had never seen such a creature before in real life, but he had seen them plenty of times in his movies and games. He certainly knew a, "...dragon?" when he saw one.

The dragon, fortunately or not fortunately, was not being crushed by a tree house. So instead it circled the helpless boy once around and halfway again to stand behind Seth's head and with its own snarling muzzle over Seth. The boy was hyperventilating with lips pursed and eyes wide open out of terror, but he noticed the dragon, if that was what it really was, was rapidly exhaling its nasty breath in Seth's face, each burst of air feeling like a gust of wind. It's breathing hard... it's scared, too? That, or it's pissed! Well, maybe it wouldn't have worked on the bear, but with Seth's feet trapped he had only one option against the dragon.

The boy played dead... or, as dead as one can play when one's lungs demand a refill to capacity every half-second on the half-second. Seth lolled his head to the side and tried his hardest to force his muscles to relax. Fighting was just out of the question, and striking first seemed like a bad idea when the creature wasn't even trying to kill him yet. His best option was literally to lie down and do nothing, though Seth wasn't sure just how much better than the other options it really was.

It seemed a good sign that the dragon's lips slowly but surely shut, though it didn't stop making a constant rumbling noise that sounded like growling. The dragon jumped to its side, circling Seth again a bit but just, apparently, so it could make eye contact again. Seth wasn't sure if he should stare back or not, but he knew that among many animals prolonged eye contact was a taunt or a challenge. So he took the chance and rolled his head to the other side, which the black dragon didn't follow this time. Still, Seth was internally terrified because he couldn't watch the creature anymore.

The boy couldn't determine for sure what exactly happened after that, but he thought he could feel the tense atmosphere gradually diffusing... though the dragon didn't move from its spot for a good while. Wondering what was going on, Seth turned his head back to the dragon and almost instantly regretted it. The beast roared good and loud in his face, making his ears ring and hands jump to cover them. However, that turned out not to be a threat but a warning; the giant creature then leapt over Seth and ran off swiftly with all the grace of a wildcat out of sight.

"Oh, god... that bear bit me, didn't it?" Seth yanked both feet free of the crushing weight. "I'm losing blood and delirious. That's why I'm seeing dragons!" The next thing Seth caught by any of his senses was the cringe-inducing grind of metal on metal followed by that roar-hiss the boy had gotten before. It was higher pitched, though. Surprise? Pain? Unbelievable. Seth painfully rose to his feet, but that definitely didn't feel good; his ankles didn't like bearing weight. Still, his best guess was that there was no fracture. Walk it off, bitch!

Seth's curiosity overcame his caution, so he followed the sounds of then pained growls to find exactly what he expected to see: a dragon with one leg caught in a bear trap. "Hey, hold still!" Seth didn't really expect the dragon to follow orders, but he was surprised to see a defensive reaction again. "Oh, come on! Aren't we over that?" Seth supposed he couldn't back away now. The sight of suffering upset his stomach, and he knew the thought would remain if he fled. The dragon, though, seemed to want Seth to run if its next response was any indicator.

As soon as the boy took a step, the dragon opened its maw and launched a glowing white ball that travelled at the speed of a bullet. It almost reminded the boy more of a lightning strike than a fireball. The only reason Seth didn't get roasted was because he dropped to his knees and hands from the pain of standing in his injured ankles. As the air shimmered in the the ball's trail, Seth looked over his shoulder to find a fallen tree that wasn't fallen before. "How about some fucking gratitude? I'm trying to save you even though you almost fucking killed me three times now!" Seth tried to get his feet back under him again, but the dragon hissed to indicate it didn't want him to do that. Curiously, it went silent when Seth went back down. Maybe if I stay down he'll feel less threatened. Or she. Nah, probably he. Only a male can be such an asshole.

Unfortunately, the trap was on a foreleg. Had it been on a rear leg, Seth could disengage the trap without being in range of tooth or claw. A foreleg, though, meant Seth had to be exposed to free the dragon. I can't believe I'm risking my life for this. But despite Seth's own objections, he crawled forward to the black dragon, who stared Seth down the whole time. However, Seth observed, He's not spitting fire at me anymore. And he's not growling. Still, its eyes were narrowed and body tense, almost seeming to forget it was caught in a trap and worried solely about the approaching boy on all fours, so Seth was still cautious.

To his shock, the young man was allowed to kneel right before the bear trap without incident. That gave him some confidence in his safety, but the dragon was still obviously scared. How could Seth calm it? Maybe... It was risky, but Seth felt confident enough to reach up with his hand toward the dragon's snout slowly, hoping to stroke it. Easy, boy... The dragon growled then, but the boy kept it up... until the creature snapped at his hand. Seth pulled it back hastily and, fortunately, got to keep it. Too much too soon. So instead he placed both hands on the bear trap. Its spiked clamp was piercing the black scales and making the dragon ooze crimson. No way I can pull that thing apart if he can't. There's gotta be another way to release this fucker. An immediate look did not reveal that mechanism, though. It's official: I am not smarter than the average bear. The dragon huffed, and Seth took it as annoyance or frustration. "I'm workin' on it!"

Seth had to feel up the trap and inspect it very closely to to get an idea of the mechanics, and it took him a couple of minutes... during which, Seth noted, he wasn't getting mauled or fried. "Alright... friendly warning? This is gonna free you, but it's also gonna hurt. Do me a favor and don't slash my jugular." To Seth's surprise, the dragon huffed in response almost like it understood, but Seth didn't expect that it actually did. Still, maybe it knows I'm trying to be nice now. First, Seth straddled a pair of v-shaped bars with springs on either side of the trap. Stepping in each V-bar compressed the spring. That allowed Seth to slide a little key-shaped object hanging off each bar into a slot that seemed made for it. Seth hoped that would release the trap, but it still held. But maybe... keeping his weight on the bars, Seth quite carefully tried to pry the clamp apart. To his surprise, he was able to rather easily. But as the teeth of the trap came out and pressure was relieved, the massive dragon fell on the opposite shoulder barked. "Hey, hey, I warned you! That's normal when pressure is released, but it'll go away." What a turnaround. Earlier this creature seemed prepared to guiltlessly strike the boy down, and now it lay helpless and pathetic at his feet... relatively pathetic, that is. Even flat on the ground, the creature's shoulder was as tall Seth's if chest it Seth had been standing.

"Jesus..." inspecting the injury but without roughing the dragon, Seth thought it wouldn't kill the dragon, but the dragon would sure wish it did. A drop of blood fell on his hand then from above even though his hand was near the injury. "Hmm?" Looking up, it seemed that wasn't the dragon's only injury. It bore a gash on its shoulder, several puncture holes in its wings, and what looked like teeth marks in its neck. God, no wonder this guy's so scared. I'd be, too... only I wouldn't be so well-behaved. The holes in the wings seemed to concern Seth the most. God, I hope those can heal. I don't know anything about dragon anatomy, but- Seth interrupted himself to darkly chuckle. Dragon anatomy. I'm dealing with a fucking dragon.

There were some good signs to the injuries, though. Most of them seemed to have scabbed over already with the exception of the trap wounds; they had to be old injuries, perhaps already healing. Those were definitely inflicted by another animal... Seth inspected the bite marks more closely to find the bite radius was huge! Maybe even another dragon?

Speculation would have to wait. The dragon still wasn't standing up, and this time Seth just didn't know how to help. Best I can guess is more bloodflow to the area would help. But that means I have to... Seth and the dragon looked to each other's faces at almost the same time. Gulp. When Seth lifted a hand, the black dragon's pupils contracted and head reared back a bit. "Easy, easy, buddy. I'm much more scared of you than you are of me, but this should help the pain in your leg." Slowly, extremely slowly, Seth moved that hand toward the wound and paused before gently laying his palm on the silky smooth scales just above it. Huh. It's warmer than I expected.

The black dragon's leg tensed immediately under Seth's hand, but this time the creature didn't snap at Seth. It still seemed to be breathing hard, but not so much as before, and it made a sort of warbling noise Seth didn't quite get the meaning of. But it's not a roar or growl. I know that much. Gently, at first, Seth gently rubbed the site above the wound. Speaking softly seemed to have helped keep the dragon calm so far, so he kept it up. "This is gonna feel better in a couple minutes. In the meantime, you just have to relax for me, OK? You look calmer, but I know you're still a little nervous. And you being nervous is making me a little nervous, which makes you more nervous- well, you get it." Seth didn't really think the dragon 'got it,' but it responded as if it did; for the first time it finally looked away from the boy and actually lay its head down. God, I'm good at this. I should be a vet.

Seth thought he could get away with using a second hand below the wound, and it turned out he was right. The only reaction he got this time was a side look; the beast didn't even lift its head. "Staying off the ground was probably a smart move. There are a whole lot of bear traps out here, not to mention the bears themselves... though, that didn't seem to be an issue for you before, did it?" It was hard to believe for Seth that the dragon's scales were so smooth, almost like they were ice with little bumps in between. "See? You're not such a mean, nasty-" More of the dragons warbling interrupted Seth, and he took the rubbed leg's shaking as message to leave it alone. That seemed to be the right interpretation, because when Seth took his hands away the monster shakily, hesitantly got all its feet underneath itself. "Feeling better then?"

Seth was on his knees, so he couldn't compare himself to the dragon standing, but even if Seth was on his feet he was sure he'd be about eye-level with the shoulder if not lower. As the dragon looked at him, the boy noticed its eyes weren't slits anymore but wide circles. I guess that means he's calmed down. But now what? The boy supposed he should stand back up himself, but when he tried he had completely forgotten his own injuries by then; his ankles rebelled against bearing weight and sent him toppling forward... onto the dragon's head. No, no, no, no! Seth tried to throw his hands out to stop his fall, but the only thing he could put them on was the giant lizard's head, which he wanted to avoid because he didn't want to risk angering it again.

Seth feared retribution for that move, but the dragon didn't act. Actually, Seth could feel that the beast was pushing back against Seth's hands, like it's trying to help me stay up... I guess he understands I'm the good guy. The young man didn't have much of a chance to bask in the honor of that because he just wanted to try standing on his own. So gradually he took weight off of his hands and put it on his feet, which made him hiss though he knew it was necessary. He succeeded in standing independently for a few moments but felt himself about to stumble again. To make matters worse, the dragon lunged without warning and engulfed Seth's arm in its maw. "Agh!" he yelled quickly from the pain... only to find that the pain he had expected didn't register.

The dragon pulled with its body for strength and mouth as a grip to support Seth until the boy finally could stand on his own to the beast's satisfaction. At that point the black dragon took its mouth back, which was when Seth noticed, It has no teeth! I swear I saw teeth in there! Where did they go? But immediately after asking himself that, he got his answer: they had been retracted, and once Seth was free those teeth jutted back up and down from holes in the dragon's gums. Now that's pretty cool! Now that he was up, the boy realized he had been wrong about the dragon's height: the tip of its shoulder wasn't at Seth's eye level. It was an inch above Seth's own complete height.

The boy wasn't sure what to make of the dragon's warbling noises now or its catlike stare. Was it gratitude? Could the creature even feel that? I guess it's not out of the question; this dragon is basically a walking wildcard. Seth supposed he may as well be polite. "Thanks for that. I guess that makes us even... not counting you scaring the almost literal shit out of me." When the dragon's muzzle encroached on Seth's personal space, he wasn't nervous this time. He didn't necessarily expect to be nuzzled on the cheek Iike he was, but he was pretty sure he wasn't under threat. That wasn't random, Seth observed, That was a response, a response to my words. He understands me! He understands my meaning, at least, if not every word itself. That's unbelievable.

It was Seth's turn to tense out of fright when he felt something squishy and very, very slimy on his cheek. No way. By the time Seth could snap his hand to his cheek, the object had already brushed up length of Seth's cheek, temple, and into his hairline. A reptile with a tongue like a dog. Seth had to wipe his face multiple times with his sleeve to get the slimy saliva off of his face. "Ah, man, something tells me that's not gonna wash out."

Jenisa let out a low raspberry as she silently sipped her Pepsi while reading the manga Death Note in her hand at the kitchen table. Her mom and Dustin went out to have a long walk together, leaving her alone. Silently kicking her legs under the table, she knew she was getting the bottoms of her white stockings dirty, but she didn't care right now. Death Note just got really interesting, too interesting. Resting her head on the palm of her hand she hummed once more. Seth has been gone for quite a while. Maybe he finally ran away. That'd be one less problem for her.

Growing bored, Jenisa set her book open face-down and walked into the kitchen to grab some cookies. Her mother had been getting on her about her weight recently, but like before, Jenisa didn't really care. Grabbing the Oreos on the countertop, she walked back to her seat and started to eat while reading her manga. That was when the back door opened.

It turned out to be Jenisa's step brother back from wherever, only there was something... different about him. Maybe it was his attitude. For once, despite being alone, he wasn't walking around with a scowl or a frown. In fact, it was the strangest thing: there was some goofy grin on his face that he was maybe trying to suppress but losing that battle entirely. Even odder, Seth actually acknowledged Jenisa as he walked by. "Oh! Hey." Now, Seth didn't resent Jenisa like the others. He knew she was, like him, stuck in this unfortunate situation without say. He also knew that she had her own problems with that completely independent of his, though Seth couldn't be bothered with them on most days. Despite their common feelings, though, the pair wasn't very close. On a good day there might have been some extended small talk at the breakfast table, but it was more likely that Seth would just keep to his own.

Jenisa raised an eyebrow at him but then shrugged as she bit into another cookie. "Hey," she greeted half-heartedly as she continued to focus on L in the manga. However, her curiosity did get the best of her as she looked up at him from the top of the manga. "So, how was the woods today?" she inquired as she noticed the odd stains on the sleeves of his shirt along with some odd reddish brown substance on him as well. Did he get into a fight or something?

The fact that Jenisa's stepbrother narrowed his eyes and didn't answer right away seemed to be an indicator of defensiveness. Still, he told with as even a voice as he could, "It's the woods, Jenisa. Not much happens." He then redirected the subject to avoid the real one. Even if I tell Jenisa, it's not like she'll buy it. Or worse... she will buy it and wants to keep it. "You really still read that Chinese stuff? I thought that was for, like, ten-year-olds."

"Japanese, you brain dead senior. Also, tell me why a ten-year-old would have the balls to read about a man going evil with power and killing everyone who tries to get in their way?" Jenisa asked him. That was her button: hearing that anime 'was just for kids'. That was like saying all cartoons were 'just for kids' as well. Yes there are some for kids, but also some for adults, clearly... and just for adults.

"Whatever you say," Seth blew off. He wasn't really hanging around the kitchen for his own interest anyway. There was something else he was after: a good snack. But every cabinet seemed to lack the one he was after. "Hey, you seen my Oreos?" Seth got that question answered as soon as he turned his shoulder; there they were in Jenisa's lap. "Oh, you bitch!" he cried in annoyance, "Am I really gonna have to start hiding my treats from you again?"

"It's not like you marked them or anything!" Jenisa fought back. She scrunched her face up. "How dare you call me a bitch?" She stuck her tongue out at him finally in a childish fashion.

"Would marking them have stopped you?" The older brother taunted, "Never did before." On that note Seth snatched the box right from Jenisa's lap and started to pig out himself. "So when's dinner? I'm hungry as fuck."

"I don't know! Mom and Dustin left before dinner because of your screaming, so now we have to fend for ourselves." She bitterly humphed out as she stood and stretched. "Why were you out in the woods so long? Smoking weed or something? You sound like it." Snorting, Jenisa carefully marked the page she was at as she stared at him.

Seth completely ignored that question, hoping Jenisa wouldn't see that was deliberate. "Goddamnit!" He peered at the box in his hand. "I guess it's diabetes for dinner, then." With one hand he snatched about a third of all the cookies in the previously full box, sealed it, and tossed it underhand back at Jenisa, a strange gesture considering he was just upset about her eating them in the first place. I wonder what he's eating, if anything. What do giant, fireball shooting, flying lizards even eat? Maybe if he's still there I should try and sneak him something later.

Jenisa looked at the box and sighed. Yes, she had been just eating the cookies, but her mother taught her well in knowing that cookies for supper wouldn't fly. "I could make mac and cheese. That's about it," she told him before he left the room. Then she shrugged, "Or you could stick with diabetes. Your choice." Without waiting for his response, she got to work on her own dinner. Pulling a box out of the cabinet she opened the fridge to grab the milk and butter only to pause and sniff. She then let out a loud "Yuk!" and gagged as she grabbed the twin package of Bass fish from the fridge and threw it on the counter in disgust. "Only god knows how long that's been there."

"Diabetes is looking better and better." Since Jenisa rejected the cookies, Seth returned to pigging out from them. "Tastes pretty good, too." On that note, the boy crunched on cookies during his trip back to his bedroom, leaving his step sister alone in the kitchen with her disgusting fish. I definitely have to go back there soon, see if the dragon's still there... and take my damn phone with me a for picture, just for me if nothing else. If he's not there... I guess I can chalk it all up to a stress induced hallucination. Seth glances at his sleeve, though, still sopping wet, and his hands that were still covered in red dots despite his best saliva hand washing. But that doesn't look like a hallucination to me. Soon as Seth had returned to his bedroom he sent a group text to a few friends: "So, who's up for Army of Two?" Logan, of course, wouldn't be invited.