-OLD- The Dragon in Me Part6

When I woke up the next morning I felt somehow different. I decided to not care at the moment. I was sure I would find out during the day. I had discovered the most thing in the last days accidentally so why should this be different?
I got down just to see that Mom was already making lunch. I had been sleeping really long but my mom didn't care about things like this. I could stay in bed till the late afternoon and she would say nothing but something like `Wow, we have the honor to meet the high king´.
"Hey, the dragon has decided to get out of his lair." See, she always does this.
"Morning, Ma." I replied smiling, "When is lunch ready?"
"You just got up and instantly think about eating. It seems this hasn't changed and never will. But if you ask, I think it will take about thirty minutes." She turned around and continued making the meal. I went back into my room and when I entered my cellphone rang. It was Luke.
"Hey, Mark." He said.
"Hey, what do you want?" I asked. He never calls me without a reason. He isn't the person that just phones for fun. And I'm too.
"Have you something to do for the next days?"
"I don't think so. I'm just asking mom." I said as I walked down the stairs.
"Mom? Have you planned something for the next days?" I asked her.
"No. Why?"
"Why?" I repeated, speaking to Luke again.
"My parents allowed me to go camping. Chris has already said he would come and I thought you would like it. There are just you, Chris and me, so what do you say?" He asked. I was a bit surprised, his parents usually weren't the kind of parents that let her son go camping.
"It would be fun. How long have you planned to stay and where?"
"We would sleep on the big meadow in the east of the city. And I had planned to stay for two nights." There was only one really big meadow in the east, so I was sure which he meant.
"Can I go camping with Luke and Chris? We would stay till Friday on the big meadow in the east of the city." I asked.
"Sure. You're old enough to take care of yourself." She replied. I was glad that she was not really strict with things like this.
"Thanks." I turned around and went back into my room.
"My mom allowed it. What do I have to bring with me?"
"We can use the big tent of my parents, so you don't have to think about this. I also take the food with me but it would be nice if you could bring some snacks." I knew exactly what he meant with food. I smiled, this two days were going to be pretty unhealthy.
"Okay, I'll take some things with me. When should I be at your place?"
"Could you manage to be here in two hours?"
"Sure. I'll be there." I replied, "Okay, is this everything?"
"Yep, it is. Bye." He said.
"Okay, bye." I laid the cellphone back on my desk and looked at the watch above the door. Lunch would be ready in twenty minutes. I decided to read a bit, but because I had nothing at home I started reading `Eragon´ again. It was my favorite book and I had read the first part ten, the second one nine times, and the third only twice. I didn't know why but I couldn't stop reading every time I read it. I laid down on my bed until I heard the voice of my mom.
"Lunch is ready." She shouted and I went down. I sat down at the table and we started eating. When I took the first bite it was a bit different than usual. The taste of the meat was not much different but the vegetables tasted different. I had always liked the taste of them but this time they tasted stale. Not a bit sweet, just stale. My thoughts came back to the feeling that I had when I woke up. With some simple logic it was pretty obvious what was wrong. Something in me told me to eat meat. The rawer the better. It seemed that my dragon-instincts were stranger than I thought. I remembered how  I felt when I hunted the deer. For the draconic parts of my mind it had been a great feeling but the human ones had reminded me, that this wasn't something I should do often. I still thought like this but the dragon in me gained strength. I could only hope that I would be able to suppress it and remain the same person I had ever been. `Looks like I always came back to the same point when I think about me.´ I thought, continuing to eat. I ignored the tastes and just swallowed the most of the food without biting. I finished really fast and stood up. My mom had noticed that I acted different but she didn't say anything. I was thankful for that because I really didn't want to talk about this. I went into my room and looked for a backpack. I found one and tried to put it on. I had to length the shoulder straps to their maximum, but then it fitted without affecting my wings. I grabbed my wallet and put it into the backpack. Then I said goodbye to my mom and went out.
I flew to the next supermarket and went in. Everyone looked at me but I just ignored them. I stopped in front of the shelf with the snacks and sweet things and grabbed everything I wanted to take with me. Two bags of crisps, some packages of biscuits and many bags of sweet things. Everything from `Clever´, a cheap brand for almost everything that had to do with toilet paper and eating. The stuff of them was really cheap and tasted good. I went to the cash desk and put my things on it. The seller, a young girl, looked a bit nervous.
"Don't worry, I don't bite." I said with a smirk.
"Oh, I'm not afraid of you. It's just that you don't see a dragon every day." She replied.
"Yeah, I think it will take some time till all the people here get used to me. But I don't mind. I'm just happy that nobody runs away in fear when they see me."
"I don't think that anyone will do this. I think the ones that will be the problem are the ones who see you as a beast and want to kill you." She seemed to be a bit worried about me, although I didn't even know her name.
"Oh, don't worry. You have to know I can defend myself pretty well with claws, teeth, hard scales and stuff." I replied, while I shrank a bit in front of her eyes, just to demonstrate what I meant with `stuff´. She looked at me surprised.
"Wow, I didn't know you can do this. I think this is pretty cool. You have to know I always liked dragons and now one stands in front of me, showing me his abilities." She still looked at me with wide eyes.
"Looks like I have gotten a fan." I said with a smile, "How much does it cost?" I pointed at my purchase.
"Oh, sorry. Um, eighteen dollars and ninety-four cent please." She replied. I gave her twenty dollars  and she gave me the change.
"See you." I said to her when I left the supermarket. I flew back home and put the backpack nearby the door, so I won't forget it. Then I went up and sat down at the bed. I had still fifty minutes left till I had to leave, so I grabbed `Eragon´ and started reading.
After forty-five minutes I put it away and went down.
"Bye mom." I said, "I'll be back on Friday."
"Bye. Take care of you." She replied.
"Don't worry, I will." Was the last thing I said when I went out of the door. Then I took off and flew towards Luke's place. After five minutes I landed in front of their door and rang the bell. Luke opened and Chris stood behind him.
"Hi, Mark." Luke and Chris said and they both went out followed by Luke's dad, who pulled a big green and blue bundle out of the house.
"Let me take this." I said, because it looked like it was pretty heavy.
"Okay, I have no problem with this." he said. I grabbed the carrying handles and lifted the whole thing. It wasn't that heavy and so I didn't need to use the energy I had discovered.
"How do you want to get there?" I asked.
"With the car. What have you thought?" Luke replied.
"I thought you might want to use these. " I said as I spread out my wings. "I remember you having much fun last time." I added with a grin.
"I didn't think of that, but I would like to fly." He said and turned his head the Chris. "And you?"
"I would also like to fly. It was really fun last time" He said with a smile.
"Okay, then you will take the backpacks and I will take the bag with the food and the tent." I said as I put my backpack on the ground. "Do you mind if we fly?" I asked Luke's parents who were standing at the door.
"No. I don't have a problem with this as long as you fly carefully." His mom answered.
"I promise, I won't let them fall off." I replied. Then I transformed to a quadruped form, that was big enough for Luke and Chris. They climbed on me, already wearing their backpacks and Luke held mine in his Hand.
We all said `Bye´ when I grabbed the tent and the food-bag, one in each hand. Then I took off and flew towards the place we wanted to stay for two days.
"Have you planned something to do?" I asked Luke.
"Not really. I thought we would just do what we want, since we're pretty good at thinking up ideas." He replied, with a remembering smile. I knew that he was thinking of all the things we have done when we were bored. They were really various. Once we just grabbed a dictionary opened it somewhere and said `You will die because of´ and added the word we were pointing at. It was really fun, especially when the result is something like `You will die because of everything.´ It was a really silly game but it was fun.
We also invented some own games and it was always the same way how it happened. We took some various ball, went on the badminton field they had in their garden and started to toss it around. Sometimes with some things we used as rackets or just with the hands. Then we started to make a counting system for points, invented rules, thought of names for some special tings you could do and a name for the game and in the end we typed everything on the computer and printed it out. Then we played the game till we were tired or one of us had to leave.
I thought of some more things we had done till we reached the place we had chosen. I landed there, which was a bit difficult because of the two bags I was holding, and Luke and Chris got off my back. Then I shrank back to normal size, but stayed on all fours
"Okay, since we're here now, let's set up the tent." I said and put away the strings that held the whole bundle together. We put then tent pegs into the earth and started to set up the tent.
No one of us had set up a tent before but after some minutes of trying we managed it.
"What do you want to do now?" Luke asked.
"We could just stay here and talk. I like talking." Chris suggested.
"Okay if you want." Luke said, "I don't care what we do, as long as it's fun."
"And about what do you want to talk?" I asked while I sat down on the ground. Chris and Luke sat down left and right in front of me, so we formed a triangle.
"I would like to know how it is to be a dragon." Luke said and I sighed.
"Am I that interesting? Almost every time I talk, I talk about me and have to tell everything about me. But if you want so I can tell you some things. What do you know to want first?" I asked.
"Last time you told me almost nothing about you and I wanted to know what you can do with your body? I mean how strong you are, have you special abilities and so on." He replied.
"Okay, I think I'll start with the abilities. As Chris already knows, I have seven different breathpowers. They're fire, water, ice, cold air, acid, lava and some slime that turns into the same thing like the one it touches." I continued telling him about my photographic memory and the energy that allowed me to be much stronger than usual. "And I seem to have this urge to eat more meaty things." I said with a smirk.
"Wow. You can do some really cool things and the photographic memory, I think you're going to get even better marks than you used to." He said smiling. He was right, I had always got really good marks and now school was going to be even easier for me.
"You also said that you have a urge to eat meat. Are there more tings that have changed in your mind? I'm really curious." Luke asked next. This seemed to be more an interrogation than some simple questions.
"Well," I started, "About some things I think different but the thing with the meat is clearly the biggest difference." I didn't want to tell them, that I was a bit worried about further changes. "Can we talk about different things now? I didn't come here to talk about me."
"Okay, lets talk about school starting next week." Luke said to change the subject.
"I look forward to it." Chris said, "It is always fun to go to school, since we're in the new one."
"I wonder how the teachers will react when they see Mark." Luke said smiling.
"I think they will be really surprised but nothing more. They're all nice and I think they will get used to me pretty soon. I think it will just be fun when they come into the class and see me waiting for them." I said with a big grin.
"How do you think the other one's will react?" Chris asked, "I hope everyone will treat you the same way they have done before."
"Oh, I think they will. And if not," I said with an evil grin, "I'll show them why they should be nice to me."
"I'll have to remember that I should better be nice to you." Luke said laughing. We continued talking till the sun started to set.
"Now comes the fun part of camping." Luke said. "Doing stupid things when it's dark."
"Too bad it won't get dark for me." I said smiling.
"We could play hide and seek in the forest. I think it would be fun." Chris suggested.
"I warn you," I said. "I have many advantages. I don't think it will be easy for you two."
"I don't care." Luke replied. "It's for fun and not for being better than the other ones."
"You're right but I just wanted to say it." Then I got up and went into the woods. Chris and Luke followed me.
"Who seeks first?" Luke asked.
"I'll do it voluntary." I replied. I had some ideas forming in my mind, how I could have even more fun.
"Okay then count." Luke said. I turned towards a tree and closed my eyes.
"One, two, ..." I started and Chris and Luke went away.
"Twenty!" I yelled, "I'm coming." I turned around and looked around. I couldn't see them but I could smell them. It was odd to use other senses than only the eyes but I didn't care as long as I found them. I first found Chris.
"Stay here and be quiet." I said to him before he could say something. "I want to scare Luke." Then I turned around and sneaked around in the forest, till I picked up Luke's smell. I shrank, so he couldn't see me coming and walked behind the bush where he was hiding. He didn't notice me when I came closer. I stopped about four feet behind him and grew to a size that was a bit more scaring than the one of a mouse. It would look a bit odd when a mouse-sized dragon roared at you. I think Luke would just have laughed, so I grew to about nine feet height, without making a noise. I took a deep breath and let out a very loud roar. Luke jumped and turned around. He looked at me in shock and after some moments I started to laugh as hard as I could. Luke tried to look angry but he failed miserable and that made me laugh even more. Chris came towards us with a big smile on his face. He laughed too and after some moments Luke joined us.
After some minutes we had as fairly under control but it was really hard not to laugh when you see only faces with a very big grin on them.
"Don't do that again." Luke said to me after a while.
"Okay, I promise. But you have to admit that it was also fun." I replied.
"It was," He said, "but I nearly got a heart attack and that's not funny."
"Okay, okay. I know that it wasn't that funny for you but I couldn't resist." I still had a big smile on my muzzle. "Do you want to go on with this?" I asked.
"I would like to go back to the tent." Chris said. He turned around and walked out of the forest.
"Me too." Luke said and followed Chris.
"If you go, I'll go too." I followed Luke and we walked back to the tent.
"I'm hungry." I said when we reached the tent. "I think I'll eat some snacks." I grabbed my backpack and pulled a bag of crisps out.
"I love camping." I said while tossing them into my mouth. Luke and Chris went into the tent but I stayed outside and just put my head into it. We talked about various things till late in the night.
"I'm getting tired." Luke said.
"Me too." Chris groaned.
"I'm sleeping outside." I told them and curled together in front of the tent. I heard the zipper when Luke closed the tent. They climbed into their bedrolls.
"Good night." I said and the responses came out of the tent.
"Good night, everyone." I heard Luke's voice.
"Good night." Chris sounded really tired.
I closed my. I had to look like some warden. A big red dragon in the front of a tent had to be a rare sight. After some minutes I fell asleep. The next day was going to be fun.