Tail problems (I)
Can you remember what your oldest memory is? The very first thing you remember as a baby or as a kid?
Some will answer with things that happened around their 6 years of age, others with something around their 2 years of age and some exceptional cases will remember their own birth. In my case I remember even the days before I was born.
I'm awesome, aren't I?
Oh well, I don't really know if it's normal for my species anyway.
In my old world I would call my current body something like a lizard that spits fire and flies around. Yes, I would be a member of the fabled species known as dragons. But I don't know how to spit fire nor fly. I was born yesterday, quite literally.
And today is a big day. I'm leaving home!
I'm one day old after all, but I couldn't keep myself from feeling insecure, you know…about the flying test and me not knowing how to fly.
I would really appreciate if my instincts would awaken my inherit skill to flight. A video tutorial would be helpful too. Because I'm a slow learner, I recognize my own limitations, I won't fly perfectly the first time…more like I will crash to the ground. I will surely crash to the ground.
But life is hard, isn't it? Some parents help their sons in excess to not fail and as a result they are useless doing anything, but my reptilian mother's educational skill is the old school type. So, to teach me, my brothers and sisters to fly she is throwing us, her children, from a high altitude in the middle of night…
So here I am, in the middle of a family activity with my brothers and sisters, spacing out and thinking about my short life while I see the ground approaching with every passing second.
****
Late at night, in an ordinary city, in an ordinary home was a young man sitting in front of his computer.
In his room there was a silver plate with the shape of a play button reflecting the only source of light in the room, a led monitor.
"I should cut this to…and that needs a redo…*argh* the mic was off there…" He was murmuring under his breath.
He was tired and sleep deprived, why did he need to overwork if he technically was a freelance? Oh, yes…he needed money.
The fridge broke down while he was outside, and it happened to be the warmest month of the year so more than half of his food gained the additional status effect of sending him to the hospital.
Because of that he was working his ass off to make and upload content to his channel in hopes of gaining more subscribers and raising his income.
He could live without a fridge but going to shop everyday was a pain in the ass with the scorching sun and ordering fast food everyday was expensive.
And the instalment? With an irregular source of income? Better not to risk going into debt.
Only when he made sure that the video was OK did he open his favourite flan as a reward for his work.
The flan was from his favourite brand, it was unheard-of and hard to find, but he liked it a lot and it was worth the trouble to find it. It was uncertain if he could eat it in the future because it was harder to find it in the supermarkets, so he was eating them sparsely.
Taking a big mouthful of flan, he pressed the button to upload his video. He liked to take his time eating his flan while waiting for the video to upload correctly.
Strange…the taste of the flan was a little off and it was starting to make his throat itch…like when…
Moving his line of sigh to the packaging of the flan he noticed a little speech bubble that read, "Now with nuts!!"
Before he always had adrenalin with him but…he got relaxed about it over the years.
He needed to remain calm, panicking never helps. First search for the mobile and call emergencies. The room was a mess, but he was lucky enough to find it fast underneath all his clothes on the floor.
He was starting to have problems breathing when he found the mobile. He anxiously turned the mobile on hoping not to be too late.
But only a dark screen and a [empty battery] image greeted him. It was late and it was to be expected that the mobile was dead because he was too focused on editing and wanted to finish it sooner that he forgot about charging it.
Throwing the mobile aside he ran outside the house to find help. He couldn't breathe anymore neither could he shout, and it wouldn't take long before choking to his death.
He went to his neighbour's door and started knocking it with all his might, but nobody came. Why is nobody responding? It was at this moment that he knew, he f***ked up.
The house where he had been knocking on the door…was vacant since last year!
Five seconds later he was in the floor incapable of moving and with his vision darkening.
"So, this is how I'm going to die …" He thought while all around him was turning black. With the certainty of his death all the anxiety he was feeling about dying was gone, and his mind was clear again.
"My entire life was unlucky until the end…" Were his final thoughts.
****
"And now for the local news" said a beautiful newscaster while the image of a flan was being presented on the screen.
"Yesterday a young man died of hypoxia due to an allergic reaction caused by this flan. The company responsible of making this flan has announced the withdrawal from the market of the forementioned product. Here are some words of the president of the company".
"It was our mistake that this unfortunate incident has occurred, it's an unpopular product and we considered that it's better to cease its production". Said an honest old man that seemed deeply sorry. Maybe it was time for him to retire. Lately business was difficult, and the recent event didn't do to the company any favours.
****
It was dark and warm. He could barely feel his body and couldn't move at all.
"Where am I?" He thought in confusion.
His thoughts and memories where all messed up with large chunks missing, even his own name was missing.
The only thing that he remembered clearly was his own death. Right, he was supposed to be dead. Maybe he wasn't dead, maybe he was in a coma at the hospital. He thought about some possible explanations but the drowsiness he was feeling in this unknown place was making him fall asleep before he knew.
****
The species commonly known as Ancient Dragon lives in the far north where the sky is painted in a gloomy blue stained with grey all year around, in the land known as No Man Zone. Their height is around 5 meters, with a pair of membranous wings in its back and scales that covers their entire body.
These are the only common features within the species since every member of this race, albeit being born with the same physique, gains additional characteristics with the passage of time. Such as getting spikes on their tail, a small change in their overall constitution or the presence of membranes in some places are the most common changes.
Because of the low survival of the offspring, these creatures consist majorly of very old dragons that rarely move outside their turf. They only move outside for mating, something that happen every few decades.