It all started the day Crystal set her homework on fire with a sneeze.
She swore up and down it was an accident, but the school kept telling her she was a pyromaniac (in polite academic terms, of course) and pyromaniacs weren’t allowed in school. She trudged home in the afternoon with note in hand calling her adoptive parents into a parent-teacher meeting to discuss her ‘attitude’...again.
It’s not her fault weird stuff kept happening to her; she didn’t mean to shove Jack, but the older boy had been harassing her and she had enough. How was she supposed to know he’d fly across the gym? Then there was the time she accidentally melted a glass beaker in chem...and by ‘accidentally’, she meant ‘was holding it’. Computers had randomly fritzed out around her, the fire alarm went off when she coughed, and apparently keeping un-owned objects in your locker was against school policy (although they never covered that in orientation).
The fire-sneeze was a new one, and apparently nearing the last straw for the school. Too much more of this and she’d likely get booted. Not that she’d cry over it; she had less than a handful of friends, and any social standing she used to have went out the window when Jack did.
She made it home while both her parents were still out, grabbed a short snack and headed upstairs. She had strong suspicions her room used to be an attic, what with the sloping roofline and the one tiny window near the center. It was better than her old room in the foster house, that was sure, and she valued the privacy of the stairs.
She tossed her backpack on her bed and laid across it with a huff. Life was just...not going her way.
She closed her eyes. Tried to enjoy the silence of her little den. It was quiet, calm...except that faint rattling sound.
She opened her eyes. The rattling was getting louder.
She sat up, swinging around. Her closet. The rattling was coming from there.
She slid off her bed. The rattling had turned to a shaking, her closet door nearly rocking itself off the hinges.
The wood buckled outward. With a yip she flung herself around the bed and ducked in time for the door to slam open. A person stumbled through, limbs flailing as he swung and slammed the door shut again, leaning heavily against it with both hands. His shoulders heaved as he shook, Crystal staring wide-eyed from her hiding place.
Inhaling half the room’s air, he stood straight and ran an unsteady hand through his wild brown hair before turning. His gaze swept around the room once, eyebrows going down as he looked around the second time. He glanced at a ring on one hand, giving it a shake with a gentle swear.
“A kid’s bedroom?” he muttered, walking a few steps. “I go for help and you send me to a kid’s bedroom?” He stopped. Crystal’s heart froze. He saw her. “...you sent me to a kid’s bedroom with a kid inside.”
Scuttling backward, all she managed to sputter out was, “I’m not a kid!”
He gave her a soft, somehow reassuring smile. “Of course you’re not.” He glanced around, spotting the room’s door. “Parents home?”
Crystal shook her head. “N-no...they’re out. Jobs.”
He nodded, peering around the room again before settling on her. “And your name is…?”
“Cr...Crystal,” she stammered.
“Well then.” He nodded. “Nice to meet you Crystal.” He started to her door. “Don’t tell anybody about this and they won’t think you’re crazy.” His hand was on the doorknob.
“Wait!” Her hand shot out. His hand jerked backward. He stared a minute before glancing back at her. She hardly noticed. “Who are you? How did you...Why did you come through my closet?”
He thought for a minute, turning to face her again. “I needed an escape route.”
Her eyes shot to the closet door. “From what?”
His eyes narrowed. “Ponderans.”
“...What?”
He nodded. “Nevermind. Who are you, again?”
She shook her head. “I already told you my name.”
“Right, but who are you really?”
“...what?”
He sighed, dangling his head for a moment. He took in for the fourth time the simple desk across from the single window, the regular human-looking bed, the tall cabinet that served as a closet. All very human things. It smelled like human in here. It looked like human in here. He glanced back at the door before walking around, inspecting the furniture while he spoke.
“You seem to be human,” he started, looking under her desk. “You speak and stammer like one, anyway. You didn’t know who the Ponderans were.”
“Of course I’m human!” she burst out, watching him move from the desk to her closet. She flinched when he opened the door, but there was nothing inside but her things. “Aren’t you?”
“Beside the point,” he muttered, glancing around. “Ponderans are aliens the earth has been in a secret war with ever since the 1500s.” Her closet was filled with trinkets, anything from a busted leather wallet to a small pile of jewelry. He glanced at her again, taking in her appearance; a little shorter than average height, a cropped jacket thrown over a T-shirt sporting some rock band, and jeans with a rip in one side. No jewelry on her whatsoever, save a small simple-looking necklace around her neck. No jewelry on her desk either, meaning the only bling was stuffed away here in her closet.
“That’s impossible,” she scoffed, making a show of crossing her arms. “Aliens don’t exist.”
“And men don’t randomly fall out of your closet either, I’m guessing.” He felt around the inside for anything...unusual. “You say you’re human, but without seeming to notice you put a magic seal on the bedroom door preventing me from leaving.”
“What? Prevent you from...what?”
“And before you say ‘magic isn’t real’, remember that I just came out of your closet with no real explanation as to how. He stood and turned back to her, waving a hand as he looked at her bed. “Magic ring, by the way.” Pointing at the backpack still slouching against her pillows, he asked, “highschool?”
She glanced at it without an answer.
He nodded. “Right. A sulk and refusal to answer. Sure, you’re in highschool. Anything weird happen to you lately? Anything suddenly beginning to melt or catch on fire?”
She stared, mouth slowly falling open. “Ah, bingo.” Walking to her bed, he felt under her mattress and glanced underneath. Her face flushed and she took a few steps forward, demanding he stop it at once, but it was too late. With a flourish, he pulled out one of her only hidden possessions; a book.
He ran a finger over the ornate yellow edges of the cover, pressed his thumb against the circle in the center. He flipped it open to find the pages blank, glancing up at her again.
“It’s...It’s the only thing I think is mine,” she explained. “I’ve had it since I could remember, and the woman who found me said I wouldn’t let go of it for anything in the world.” She took a few steps closer, wanting to reach out and nab it.
“It’s blank,” he said, holding it out to her.
“I know. But it makes me feel...happy.” She took it and ran a hand along the blank pages, finger pressing just enough to feel the fibers of the old paper. She looked up at him again, tilting her head. “How did you know…?”
“About everything?” She nodded. He smiled, leaning on the bed. “Remember, you’re asking a man that performed a real-life magic trick. Do one thing for me and I’ll answer all your questions.” He tapped the book. “Lean close to the cover and blow on the center.”
She hesitated. So many questions. So little words to cover them all. She decided against it, playing his game as she shut the book and brought it close. It smelled like heaven, old pages and dusty knowledge. She breathed out gently, aiming for the embossed circle in the center.
Nothing happened.
She looked back up at him with an eyebrow raised. He made a circle with his finger, pointing at the pages. “Open it up. Take a look.”
She did. As she looked at the blank pages, a small blot of ink splattered from nowhere, marring the white and spreading like a stain. She watched as it began to swirl and swipe its way across the spread, forming words and images as old as time itself. She didn’t understand the words, the language something she had never seen before. But somehow the meaning of the words became clear. It spelled out a story about dragons from another world, how they came here to save themselves. How they realized how quickly their bodies failed on Earth. How they took the form of humans so that their offspring would have a better chance of surviving...and how they spread their offspring around the world, so that humans would also accept them as human.
The man came to stand beside her. “Congrats, kid,” he said softly. “You’re a Dragon.”