Tattoo

He was a real artist. The ink flowed on to her skin like oil on canvas. The black, reds and blues so vibrant that the dragon seemed to be perched above the skin not on it. She had never had a tattoo before and probably would never have one again. It was very painful, more so than she had imagined.

Eric Sung stopped his work, as the girl slumped in the chair. He had laced the drugs into the ink the way the ancient scrolls had instructed. He remembered the burning feeling when he had first been inked. He felt the mark on his neck, placed there when he was only a toddler. He had been chosen, this was the only way to be free, he hoped. This girl carried the symbol, burned into her neck. She was marked and he would use this to his advantage.

The needle moved in his hand with a supernatural precision. The dragon fighting every step of the way, writhing its coils and lifting its head trying to break free. The transfer was too early. He was supposed to carry the dragon until he was 60 years old, but he couldn't take it anymore. The dreams, the slaughter, the blood, was more then he could take. She was marked. She had come to him. Eric hoped he could change his destiny.

Rose woke up in the chair. The burning still enveloping her whole arm. Eric was placing a cold pack on her arm. It didn't help.

“You passed out. It's not unusual,” he said.

She was very embarrassed. All she wanted to do was get out of there. “How much do I owe you?”

“I was inspired by you. I can't charge for this tattoo. It is my gift to you.” Eric's eyes welled up as he hoped his burden was transfer to the girl.

“It still hurts, and it feels like its moving,” she said.

“It's temporary,” Eric lied.

She got on the train and headed home. She would have to hide it from her parents for a while. She would be 18 in just 3 weeks and every one of her friends had tattoos.

Long sleeves hid her defiance from her parents, but her friends were impressed. The dragon looked more beautiful every day. Its colors iridescent over the black background made it appear to move. She was very happy until one week after its placement. The pain was gone but the movement continued. It was like it was alive, squirming under her skin. And then Rose looked at it closely. The dragon's talons protruded from her skin for a second. She was sure she saw it, positive. She screamed and clamped her hand over the tattoo. It was moving.

Her mother found her on the floor of her room. The emergency room people gave her pain killers and a broad-spectrum antibiotic to fight a presumed infection, but she knew it would do no good.

The next day Rose took the train back into the city. The tattoo parlor looked abandoned. No one answered her calls or knocks on the door. She went to the alley behind the place and found an unlatched door. Eric Sung, the proprietor, lay on the back-room floor covered with blood. The skin of his arms lay peeled off, his body raked with slashes. It was a gory sight. And even worse the skin was clear of his dragon tattoo. Rose was too frightened to call the police. She sunk down in a corner and cried, trying to figure out what this meant for her.

The nightmares began that night. Rose was exhausted from her horrible day, so she fell into a deep sleep. She thought she was asleep. The pain was incredible. The skin around the tattoo pulsed and squirmed like it was infested with worms. She felt it break out of her skin. Blood oozed out of the gash flowing quickly on the bed. The dragon once manifest, turned and licked her arm causing the bleeding to stop. He stared at his host. The shinning yellow eyes glinted in the dim light of the bedroom. This was the worst dream she had ever had and then she looked at her arm. The tattoo was gone.

Rose's dreams were sketchy, she knew she was flying, no hunting. The flow of wind under her body lifting her up into the sky. She could feel the invincibility and the hunger. A sudden movement on the ground, and a dive so steep that it caused instant vertigo. The target a large herd of goats, left out to eat the tall grass in the park. Rose had spotted them when she went to the city.

He knows what I know, she thought. “Yes,” came the answer deep from within her dream. The goat tasted good.

The tattoo was back on her arm when she awoke. What could she do? She couldn't tell her parents. This was her fault.

Liu Wei Sun examined the half-eaten goat. He realized that the girl had no control over her dragon. She was too young to be entrusted with such a power. He didn't want her to wind-up like Eric Sung. These dragons required care and training. He felt his twin dragons flex their wings in anticipation. He had to find the girl. It was his duty and his honor. His family had been tending dragons for over 2,000 years.

Night fall found Liu outside of Rose's house, waiting for her dragon to emerge. His twin dragons wound around his arms like wolves waiting for the hunt. They snapped and circled; an errant dragon was their specialty. The twins, Sha' and He' Ping were the law keepers, more powerful than any individual, their strength was unparalleled. And they knew it.

Roses' black dragon shot into the night sky at around nine o'clock. The evening was cold and cloudy with a full moon lighting up the sky and reflecting off the heavy clouds. Liu raised his arms and released his dragons. They did not need instruction. They knew their duty.

Sha's enormous wings flared out launching him into the air. His golden body and hooked beak silhouetted against the sky. He' Ping sliced into the air and headed in the opposite direction from her brother, low and to the east. Her silver body quickly hidden behind a large cloud.

The black dragon was headed toward the city. He was hungry with the appetite of a fledgling. Liu could sense his dragons' plan. Sha' would attack, drawing the prey back toward the suburbs and together he and He' Ping would force him down and finish him in the woods.

The great golden dragon flew down from above striking the black wing with just enough force to rip half of its membrane. It caused Rose's dragon to spiral toward the ground, almost crashing into a tall bridge on the outskirts of the city. He righted himself, swooping back toward the suburbs and the safety of Rose's arm. Sha' drove him on, clawing at his tail and raking his back. His injured wing made him fly lower and lower until he finally had to land. He' Ping dropped from her hiding place in the clouds, breaking his back. The fight was over. Sha' landed and mercifully gave the final bite. The black dragon was dead.

Rose awoke the next morning. The dream of fighting the two dragons remained. The last thoughts of her black dragon burned into her memory. I am too young to die.

She looked at her arm, only a long, jagged scar remained. She was free.