Beacon of Fire: Shifting Fates

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. At least until we showed up. However, we did agree to assume the human form to peacefully reside in Beacon Valley among the other, actual humans. There are more of them than there are dragons here, but they don’t know that we exist; that we are dragon shifters, or how to tell us apart from themselves. I've often asked myself how they don't notice our refined differences, as our eyes are most noticeably different. They are more almond-shaped, yet slightly larger, than human eyes.

Beacon Valley rests right in the heart of a large open tropical island and was settled a little over 300 years ago, in 1525, when the humans still roamed the earth in tandem with dragons. It’s hard to believe that they once knew of us but have since thought that we have gone extinct.

It’s completely unnerving.

Greenery from the grass and trees go as far as the eye can see, with buildings no taller than 40 feet because we don’t want to hinder the view or make our short stroll to the beach any longer. Bright flowers expand far and wide over our island, but the sunflowers are my favorite. As far as we know, most of our island hasn’t been journeyed to yet due to the predators the humans would encounter. Little do they know that they live amongst the most horrific predator they might ever see, provided they knew who we really were.

We are a small village located in the center of Beacon Valley. Our population sits at a small size of 267 people, and that includes the dragons. I love our home here and enjoy living with the humans, even though some act as if they have a sixth sense from the dragons. Which causes them to treat us differently sometimes. It makes me wonder if some of them believe the stories that all their grandparents would tell them, the ones that were handed down for generations; that we existed and still live among them. However, it could be from our meetings we have since the humans aren’t invited to them. We attempt to be private about them, but word travels fast here, and we can’t always guarantee that all the humans will be at home and blind to the darkness when we assemble our gatherings.

"Saphira, are you paying attention?" My mother always scrutinized me during our private dragon meetings to make sure that I am paying attention well enough to have a full recap discussion at our family home once the meeting concluded.

“I am, Mama,” I answered, making sure she noticed my eye roll. She hated when I rolled my eyes at her. She would always stare daggers at me with her pale blue eyes, just like now. Though after 17 long excruciating years of existence, I think she should know that I have too much sass to care about her dagger stares.

As the meeting was coming to an end, Azar reminded us of the dangers if the humans found out about what we are, just as he does every single month, like he’s never uttered it before. “Even though we are bigger than them when we shift, they still outnumber us tenfold. I need to keep this community safe because we don’t know how many of us are alive anymore, we could be the last of our kind. Taking into consideration that we are outnumbered on this island, in our village, I can only imagine how we would be overrun by humans in the places we’ve never even been to before.

“Now, I understand that several of you are also concerned about us staying in our human form for too long, especially those of you who were born in your human form,” Azar pauses and seems to gape right at me, then blinks to force himself to look away. “I assure you I am trying to come across somewhere we can go to fix this problem, so the humans do not find out, and we continue to stay safe.

“Meeting is adjourned, you all have a great evening,” Azar finally commenced. He is our leader of sorts, though I don’t know who gave him that role or if he just found himself there. Azar is one of the oldest of our kind inside this valley, sitting at 148 years old. I hear that there used to be other dragons who are considerably older outside of here, some who used to be over a thousand years old, even. No one even knows if they are still alive anymore though.

“I guess it’s time for our usual recap meeting now, huh?” I questioned my parents.

“You got it, honey,” Dad winked at me as everyone else began collecting their notebooks and pens that they were writing, and no doubt doodling, on.

I peered over to my brothers while we exited Azar’s house to stroll the five blocks back to ours, our parents about 10 paces in front. “You think we can still go out to B. Park tonight?”

Attor nodded in response while Viper reacted with a large grin on his face. I furrowed my eyebrows at Viper because he makes everything so obvious.

Upon entering our house, I heard muffled words come from my dad as he started our recap meeting. I usually tune most of them out lately though because we always say the same thing. I just sit and stare off out our front window, waiting for something crazy to happen in this little village of ours.

I turn to gaze upon my mom, Adalinda, who has dark black hair that matches mine, which falls at our waist. Her blue eyes differ from mine, however, as mine are emerald. She is talking to Arrow, my dad, about her never-ending thoughts to keep our secret. My dad’s eyes are as dark as our hair with a hint of yellow in them and a broad scar on his cheekbone that makes him stand out in a crowd, while his hair is almost nonexistent these days. Viper and Attor are standing in opposite corners of the room, waiting on Mama and Dad to finish their partial disagreement. They are my identical twin brothers who are two years younger, though a small detail sets them apart from each other, their eyes. Viper has dad’s yellow gleam in them between the darkness, while Attor has my emerald glinting past in the inner corners.

Mama seems to think that the rules Azar put into place years ago are necessary so that we can maintain our low profile among the humans so that we can’t be seen for who we are. I think it’s time that we let the humans know whom they live amongst, and my brothers, agree with me wholeheartedly. I believe I’m beginning to get Dad on our side, as well, but we must have a unanimous household vote to bring it to the board during our meetings. That’s when we can also see if other dragons are wanting that too, to finally free ourselves of this form and be who we are meant to be. We are just tired of hiding.

I’m hoping by next month, Mama will be on our side.

~

I smacked Viper on the shoulder and then hit Attor on the back of the head, all in a loving gesture, of course, to get them to pay attention as I walked out of the front door. “Bye mom, bye dad.”

“Bye,” they said together as the door closed behind my brothers, who were following me.

Beacon Park, or B. Park as some of us call it, is where we go to hang out and sometimes shift into our true form because it’s the only place the humans never go deep enough into. Behind the park is heavily wooded so it’s hard to see that there is a sizeable meadow beyond the woods.

Attor, Viper, and I were making our way through the woods to join a few of the other dragons to our shifter party, if you will. There are about 7 of us who try to actively come out here to shift into our natural form since we aren’t allowed to anywhere else since we are supposed to keep our secret from the humans. I still think it’s time we change that, though I can understand why the elders are hesitant about it considering what happened in the valley before we all moved here; that was also before a lot of us were born, of course. The new dragons that are around our age are ready to make changes around here too.

Stepping through the dense trees, we finally emerged into the clearing of the meadow behind the park. It wasn’t that large, but it would fit about three of us after shifting into our dragon form, so we always have to take turns to make sure we aren’t attracting any humans that may still be walking in the park this late at night. And we, undeniably, aren’t allowed to fly.

“Attor! Viper! What’s up, guys?” Dracul called from the distance. I always loathed that guy, and I’m particularly fretful that my brothers are hanging around him and his group of other, equally appalling, friends. “Oh, hey, Saphira. Glad you could make it out tonight. No big date then?”

I grumbled and rolled my eyes at him, “Oh, shut up, Dracul.” My brother’s conversation with him became an incoherent sound behind me as I kept sauntering past him, not pausing for him to counter with another senseless remark.

“Wow! This grass really makes your eyes pop, Saph. Even in the dark.” I catch the memorable voice of my dearest friend nearing me.

I glowered at her, but still blushed by her comment. I have always loved the green glow of my eyes, it’s my favorite trait about myself.

Ember chuckled and bumped my shoulder with hers, “I thought you were bringing Ty out here.”

She was mocking me, in a lighthearted way. Tyson is my, of course, very human, and very secret, boyfriend. The only people that know we are dating are my brothers and Ember. If my parents were to realize that I have been dating a human for the past two years, I couldn’t even begin to know what they would say or do. I’m not really considering finding out, either.

Tyson still doesn’t know about us, what we are, what I am. No matter how many times I have hinted at it, though, I’m not sure I’m entirely ready for him to know. I went to him before and subtly asked him what he believes about the dragon “myth” that we hear about in school, but he doesn’t seem to have an opinion on the subject. He always shrugs it off like he doesn’t know what to think of the situation, which I guess is fine, but it’s almost like there’s something he isn’t telling me.

“Very funny, ha, ha,” I retorted.

Ember and I sat down on the southeast side of where the woods meet the meadow to observe the first few dragons shift. Attor was apparently beginning us off tonight. I watched him look down at his human legs and start wobbling a little, as we all do when we call forth the shift. His legs transformed into his dark forest green dragon legs and began to grow his long black talons where his toes should be. Attor’s wings burst from his back, and he made a slight grunting noise as he let them release from his body and then curled them around himself to shield the rest of his shift. As he let his wings expand, my brother was much, much larger. I smiled and gave him a big wave.

Ember and I burst up from the ground and turned around, hearing the loud snapping noises of the twigs behind us. Someone was coming but all the dragons were here tonight, so I knew it had to be a human. I whispered loudly towards the trees, “Who’s out there?”

“They might see them,” Ember nudged me, her face in a panic.

I turned to her, “You need to go tell them to shift back. Now.” She turned to walk away, but I stopped her with my hand on her elbow. “Oh, and Em… run.”

Ember sprinted off behind me shouting and signaling her hands in the air. I turned back towards the woods to hear more snapping and leaves crunching.

“Saphira, is that you? What are you doing out here?”

My emerald, green eyes grew wide, though Tyson’s soft brown eyes grew wider when he saw my brother, still in his dragon form, standing on his large four legs in the meadow behind me. Attor’s wings were still outstretched, and his enormous tail was swaying as Ty stepped into the clearing of the meadow. He inhaled a low, audible gasp.

“Ty, please, wait…” I started, as he circled to run back through the forest.

I peeked back to see Attor back in his human form, staring at me in disbelief. Ember was racing towards me now, but I focused back to the woods and darted after Tyson.