Chatper 5 Street Rats

Chapter 05 Street Rats

“Sandpit” 2109;

I struggled under Deakon’s weight, but eventually we made it to the out edge of the city. I laid him down between two shacks. He was barely conscious and fading fast. I looked down the walking path and into the city. I noted there seemed to be no vehicle marks, I didn’t know enough about an ancestral culture to really know for sure, but It seemed everyone walked or flew here. We were among the last to leave the prison, and as the sun was setting on this planet, I knew tonight would be a small wave in minor crime, as about 20,000 of us were hungry, weak, and seeking food and shelter. This would be to our benefit, I was in my element right now. I was back to street life.

“Deakon!” I said getting his attention. He looked up at me but not for long

“Exodus”

“I’m going to leave you here, not for long. PLEASE don’t go sleep okay? Just stay awake okay?”

“I can’t sleep, Exodus, I need to watch over you!”

“It’s my turn to watch over you, you need food in the worst way, I know I can find us some pretty quick okay?”

He nodded and struggled to keep his head up. For the first time in 5 years I left his side and ventured down the paths. There was a market area up ahead, seemingly it was closed and it’s inhabitants scattered early today. The booths and stand varied greatly from one to the next, some were modern, cables ran to nearby buildings for power, some even had solar panels on top of them for the refrigeration. Others were poorly made, simple planks spread across crates. I’m sure I would find something here.

I started searching, dropped food was my plan, it always happened. Those selling fruit would drop something under their stall and never see it again until it rotted and smelled. Then they go looking for it. Obviously I was looking for something fresher. After looking under several booths I found something. I’m not sure what it was but It seemed like a fruit of some kind, orange and firm. It looked relatively okay, at least okay enough to eat.

I kept looking.

One thing I learned in my life was just how strong the dragon digestive system was. Food poisoning wasn’t in our vocabulary. We could eat rancid meat and digest it. Of course it tasted horrible, it was disgusting, but that’s how I survived on Earth. I had eaten enough rotted food to know where the line was.

I kept looking under booths and stalls, even in items I thought might be garbage cans. Almost as if it were fate, I found a top, a hooded caplet similar to what I used to wear on Earth. It was solid yellow. Bright and attention getting, but at least it would cover me up a little, I threw it over my head and put up the hood, my horns fit perfectly through the holes in the hood.

As I searched there was a few booth owners still around. Closed up early today but staying nearby to protect things while this crowd from the prison ship wandered into town. I kept looking, soon I found another thing. Long and green, some sort of skin on it. It seemed edible too. I felt the urgency surging to get back to Deakon and give him what little I found when suddenly one of the dragons sitting behind the booth shouted at me.

“Hey you! Come over here!”

I approached in the fading light, very cautiously, it wasn’t until I closer they noticed my purple scales.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were purple” she said. “If I had noticed I wouldn’t have called you here” I sighed at the remark “But that’s okay, you’re here now. What are you doing? I see you found yourself a couple things under the stalls here, but you haven’t even taken a bite!”

I was quiet for a moment, but that intuition kicked in, something told me she was safe to talk to.

“It’s for my friend, he’s green I promise! He’s in a really bad way. He spent so much of his energy defending me and helping others when he ran out of food, I don’ think he’s going to make it through the night”

“He is on deaths’ door from defending YOU? That says a lot about him! Where is he?”

“I had to leave him, I think you can tell I’m small, I couldn’t carry him any further. He’s only a few hundred meters away” I pointed in the direction I came “I left him between a couple shacks”

“Show me what you have” She said, sitting up as if sensing my urgency. I showed her the round orange thing and the long green thing. She examined them and then told me something important “That green thing is called a payka, don’t let him eat the skin, or it’ll come back up. The last thing he needs right now. That orange thing is called a torla, it can be eaten whole. But hang on one second.” She reached over and opened a box, some fog came from within indicating it was very chilled inside. She pulled out a raw cut of meat “This is raw fish from one of the moons a few systems away. It’s kind of a delicacy but still fresh, it can be eaten raw and it’s got a lot of good vitamins packed into it, he’ll need this the most. It’s from my personal stash so don’t make me regret this”

“I promise, I know I’m purple, I know everyone fears me for some reason, but I’m nothing to fear, and he is really nice too! I promise, you won’t regret helping him!”

Then she pulled a bottle from other side. It surprised me, a water bottle, plastic, nearly just like earth but shorter and fatter. “Let him have this too, it’s pretty cheap, kind of tastes off. One more thing, feed him slowly, if he is close to death as you claim, too much at once might make him vomit. If he does that might also mean his digestive tract is shut down and he is already a lost cause. There’s not a lot of medical care here and the only way to save him that point it be fed intravenously and that’s not likely to be found around here”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” I was so happy I was nearly in tears “What’s your name?”

“I’m Sorah, nice to meet you. Now please take good care of Deakon!”

I nodded and turned to go back to him, but suddenly I felt strange, I wasn’t sure I ever told this woman his name. I stopped and turned to look back. She was picking up her things and seemingly getting ready to leave for the night. I decided not to bother her any further.

I ran off to Deakon. I got to him only a few minutes later, and he had fallen asleep. I had hoped it was only sleep. I started shaking his should and calling his name. He didn’t respond the first few times making me start to panic, but finally he did stir.

“Who are you?” he stared at my yellow hood for a moment “Oh Exodus it’s you. Sorry, you told me not to sleep but I think I might have a little”

“It’s okay Deakon, I got you some food okay? You need to eat this, but only a little at a time.”

He nodded. I started with the fish, it was a small cut but I held it up to his muzzle. For a moment he tried to reach up but didn’t have the strength. Slowly he took a bite from my hand and chewed slowly. It seemed to take for eternity to chew but after about 40 times chewing he swallowed it. He leaned forward and took another bite, again chewing forever. Eventually he ate the entire cute, but it would take time to recover, and time to see if he would keep this new food down. With something in his stomach he shortly feel asleep again. I was much less worried now that I knew something was in he finally got eat. As he sleep I started tearing the skin off the payka. It took me about an hour in the dark but when I was done, and I woke him up again. He still seemed very exhausted though something was a little different, a little more conscious when he woke up. I fed him the pakya and gave him some water.

“That was good what is that?” I explained the name of it, the other fruit I had. And told him about the dragoness who gave me the meat.

“Sorah? That’s my mother’s name! I really miss her right now”

“I hope you’ll see her again soon. I’d love to met her, the stories you told me made her sound lovely”

As he drifted off to sleep now the urgency was gone. He was keeping everything down, so he could be saved. I was convinced he was safe between these two shacks and walked back to the market in search of more food. It was very late at night now. I went back to Sorah’s stall to tell her the good news only to find the stall was not only she was no where to be seen, but the stall was now completely gone. She had packed up and left now I supposed. I hoped to see her again someday soon.

I spent a couple hours savaging for food. Found some coins under one stall even! I found another torla and a few more fruits. A cut of meat I found under a stall I took for myself. It seemed close to the border of making me sick, and I’m sure Deakon would not be able to handle it. After a couple hours later I walked back to Deakon, sleeping away in the alley, thankfully unbothered by anyone else.

I woke him up and tried to feed him. He already seemed more sensible and ever reached up to feed himself. I felt like this was going to be okay. He was on the road to recovery.

This continued for two days. Deakon sleeping in between small meals. While he slept I would search nearby places for food. Cities were so wasteful it was wonderful! I even found a half eaten meal seemingly like a sandwich in the top of a garbage can. Deakon was apprehensive on that one, but he got it down.

On the 4rth evening Deakon finally stood up again. I was so happy to see him moving, but he was still weak, but least he could move on his own. 4 days down really stood out to me on how close he was to the edge. He walked into the city with me, very slowly, skinny and defeated. We walked into the market where I had been hunting for food. I had hoped Sorah had returned, but her space was deserted, it seemed like it had been way for some time now.

I showed him to check under stalls and the tops of the garbage for anything fresh. At first he was very grossed out, but I told him this is what saved his life, then he became a little more open to the new ideas. We both sort of feasted that night. Wandering through the city and eating whatever scraps we found. We took to sleeping during the day, we learned quickly that riff raff like us was not welcome in the markets during the day. But we learned the layout of the city and locations of a few of these places.

We also discovered the restaurants where waste would be put out in trash cans every night. They would be collected by some of the few vehicles overnight. We learned to stay ahead of them, scavenge what we could before they were taken away. After a few weeks, I had lost count of the nights by now. We found ourselves behind some pub or bar, I’m not really sure what kind of establishment it was. Then a fat dragon wearing nothing but his grease stained apron flung open the back door. He didn’t know we were there and was caught off guard by two homeless skinny dragons eating from the trash.

“Well that’s not something I see every night, and I usually see a lot” He voice was nasally, a breathing apparatus was hanging off his chest and two hoses ran up to his breather over the end of this snout covering his nostrils. “A skinny green one with a purple one. PURPLE! I’d never though I’d see the day a purple dragon is going through my garbage!”

“I’m sorry, sir!” Deakon started pleading, worried we would be in trouble “We don’t mean to bother you or anything we’re just so hu-”

“I’m not worried, if you’re hungry enough to eat the rotting food from my garbage you can have it. No one is going to pay for this shit anyways. Just, don’t leave a mess or I will start chasing you off”

Deakon nodded, and the stranger left a large bag of trash next to the cans and waddled slowly back inside.

We would return behind this place regularly after that, knowing the owner didn’t care about us.

It took several weeks for Deakon to really have his strength return, but that’s when brought up a small problem. One ever I hadn’t thought about. He pointed out it had been now over 5 years since we flew at all. He mentioned his wings felt weak from being on the ship for so long. I felt the same.

So early in the mornings between the sun rising and us falling sleep for the day, we started walking out to the desert, maybe about and hour out and an hour back. And we’d try to fly. The first few tries where pathetic for both of us. Deakon had so much confidence in his old flying abilities I couldn’t help but giggle when he fell flat on his face on his first attempt. My first attempt wasn’t any better but at least I didn’t fall on onto the ground.

It took days of trying just to get our wings moving again. A lot of food to build wing muscle, and a lot of attempts. I was able to get up first, a short flight, only a few meters. Deakon was a couple days behind me. We kept training our wings, early in the morning, no one in sight. One morning I brought up something that I had noticed that was bothering me.

“Deakon?”

“Yeah?”

“have you noticed no one else flies either? I haven’t seen single dragon in the air since we arrived”

He put his chin on his fist for a moment “Do you think maybe we shouldn’t be trying?

“No, it’s natural, we have these wings for a reason, but no one uses them. Back on Earth I used to fly away from danger all the time. But here we’ve even seen people getting mugged and they never flap their wings.”

“Maybe it has something to do with just never using them? Look at us, after 5 years in that ship we basically had to relearn all over. Maybe it’s just too much of a bother for the others?”

I thought about it, but maybe he was right, over 5 years ago flying was as natural as walking, but after so much time my wings had atrophy and flying right now seemed much more trouble than it was worth. But Deakon and I, we kept doing it. Eventually we were full out gliding again. Jumping from anything we could find that was high enough and gliding down to the ground. Running and flapping took a while. Eventually though, after weeks of practice. Filling our bodies with literally garbage, we had enough strength in our wings again we could both leap into the air and fly some shorter distances. It wasn’t much, but now we could out fly anyone that tried to chase us.

We were making our usual evening rounds, skimming form trash cans, grabbing fallen fruit under market stalls. We made our way down the back alley where we had met the fat dragon before. Surprisingly he was outside, sitting on a crate, smoking something like a cigar. He seemed to be waiting for us. I followed closely behind Deakon and as we approached he actually greeted us.

“I was wondering if you two would show up tonight.” He took another puff from the stinky thing he was smoking “It’s busy tonight, I can’t keep up by myself, and one of my regulars needs something taken to her.” He pointed to some tall buildings barely visible over the roofs a couple kilometers away. “She’s over there in one of those buildings. She loves my food but she hurt her leg and can’t walk for a few days. She messaged me asking me to bring her something, she’s willing to pay, but it’s too busy for me to leave. Take it to her and I’ll pay you a little” He paused “I’m also not interested in walking that far myself”

Deakon looked at me then back at the dragon “Can they stay here with you? We don’t like to be separated much and ma-”

“Oh they need to stay here, I don’t want my customers thinking I’ve employed a purple dragon, they’ll never come back again! But don’t think I’m babysitting it or defending it if anyone shows up. I’m too busy for that.” He lifted his breathing mask, snorted and spit on the ground “You going do this for a few coins or no?”

Deakon nodded

“Okay good, maybe when you get back I might pay you some more to wash up some plates and glassware for me too, like I said, it’s very busy tonight” The fat dragon struggled to his feet, threw still burning cigar into the alley and walked inside, reappearing moments later with a paper bag, the building number and unit written on the bag. “Be quick, if it’s still warm she might even give you a little something extra”

Deakon took the bag and ran off, leaving me alone next to the trash bins with this bar owner. After Deakon disappeared around the corner of the building he looked at me.

“Well, like I said, it’s busy, so I have to go back to work. Don’t come inside purple thing” he walked back into his business.

I sat beside the trash bin, and snacked on a moldy stale piece of flat bread. About 20 minutes later Deakon came back with a smile on his face.

“She gave me enough we could eat an entire meal ourselves!” He was so pleased at the thought of fresh food. I smiled at him.

“What are you going to get yourself?”

“I’m going to get US something from this place, the trash is good imagine what the real food is like! You don’t get fat like him eating like we have been, it must be so good!”

As if he heard himself mentioned the door opened and the dragon stuck his head out.

“Good you’re back, it’s gotten busier, come in here help me out a bit and I’ll give ya some coin at the end of the night” We started walking towards the door and he put up his hand “Uhp uhp uhp, just this one, purple”

I stepped back and Deakon looked at me and I nodded.

Deakon stepped inside and as the door started to drift closed I heard the dragon speak to him “My name is Clay by the way, this sink over there” and the door closed itself.

I sat down in the alley for most of that night, at some point some other scavengers came along, digging through Clay’s bins just as we did. 3 of them, and not one had a shred of clothing, they might have been having a harder time than us. I hide behind the bin, wishing not to be seen, and as usual, staying still and quiet, I went unnoticed. A few hours passed by then the door swung open. Deakon came out with two plates in his hand, both full of steaming warm food.

“He gave me mine for free, but when I said I’d give it to you he made another but said he’d take that plate form my earnings for tonight. I was fine with that” and he handed me the plate. Some meat layered on top of a large round piece of bread, on top of that some sauce and topped with vegetables and lettuce. Deakon grabbed his off the plate and sort of rolled it up and started eating it like that. I followed his example and did the same.

I bit into the food and very quickly realized how that dragon got so obese. I lived my entire life on trash and human food rations, and this was the best thing I had ever tasted in my life. It was hot, not just temperature, but spicy, the right amount of spicy. The flavors danced around my tongue. This was so amazing I had to savor every bite. Deakon chowed his down quickly though, eager to help Clay out more.

He wiped his mouth and stood up “He still wants more help, but told me to take a break for a few minutes and have a meal, have you been okay?”

“Yes! Some other street people came by and dug through the bins, but I stayed hidden”

“Must have been hard in that bright yellow top” he teased. But then the looked on his face, the one when he gets when he has an idea.

“What is it?” I asked

“I thought, and idea we can try soon, but I’m going to back in for now”

He walked in, taking our plates with him. My belly felt so good being full of grade A food. Nothing else happened for me but now several hours later, very late into the night, Deakon appeared again. This time with more food but a different kind, strips of some fried vegetable, nearly like fries form earth but made form some sweet vegetable instead. We walked towards the desert as we ate to do our daily flying ritual, talking along the way about what it was like inside Clay’s bar, whether we’d get this lucky again, and he told me how much coinage Clay paid him. Enough for a few days food for both of us, in one night. But pointing out the blue tattered loincloth he was wearing, I suggested some new cloth for him. He seemed a little sad, it was the last thing he had to remind him of his family, but I reminded him he could keep it, just wear something a little newer.

That morning we flew our furthest yet, rejuvenated by the good food, and we got our exercise. We flew probably more than a couple kilometers. Took a break, and flew those couple kilometers back. Then walked to one of our usual sleeping places in the city for the day.

That evening when we woke up, I had to ask “So what was your idea you had last night?”

“Oh! Clay’s respirator, it gave me an idea! It covers a bit of his face, so I don’t really know what he truly looks like, but, what if we covered all of you? People won’t know you’re purple, probably assumed you’re a common color, and maybe they’ll treat you normally!”

I sighed, I didn’t like the idea of covering up, but he suggested it because he cared “You’re probably right, I just don’t to want be ashamed of myself for this”

“It’s not shame, Exodus, I’m not ashamed of being around you, and you shouldn’t be ashamed of who you are either, but they should be ashamed of who they are. I know it maybe a little odd but if it works why not try it?”

“Well okay, if it makes life easier we can try it”

We started our routine, but a little different, along with food scraps we gathered anything we thought that could to make things to covered every inch of my body. Our current lifestyle actually helped, we tended to sleep thought he heat of the day, the evenings when we would awake would be still be warm, but as soon the sun set, it would turn cooler. By the time we had made our way up the alley to the back of Clay’s place, I was nearly covered. We had found two sheets over my wings, a disposed body suit of some kind, covered in paint. And a pair of tinted googles over my eyes. Just my hands, feet, and face where left exposed now. We had even found a discarded pack to store our other things like my original clothing. My horns poked out the back of the hood, but they were white, just like everyone else.

As we walked up to Clay’s bins we found he was already outside, sitting on a crate and smoking again.

“It’s a slow night tonight, I won’t need any help tonight, but I got some extra fried torla for my favorite street rat” He stared at me for a second and looked up and down. “You know that’s a good idea! Covering it up like that”

Deakon nodded, “We just need to find something for their face, and a way to sew those blankets to the suit to keep the wings covered.

“I might have something for that” He went into his place and emerged a few moments later. He had two servings of the fried vegetables he talked about in one hand, and one of his respirators in the other. He handed Deakon the food and sat on the crate as he started prying the hoses off the nose piece. He grunted and spoke as he pulled on them “This one broke down a while ago, this will cover a lot of the face, but we’ll have to whip something up to cover the rest, like a mask or something. You can grab a pair of gloves from the kitchen, and tomorrow you can look for a pair of work boots. I’ll need you the next two nights, that should make ya enough to buy a pair.”

“How do you know it’s going to get busy?” Deakon asked, curiously

“The wet season is coming soon, a lot of tho locals have a little, kind of a festival, maybe a party, about the rain coming. The dragons that have been on this world also tend to have themselves sync up with the climate. It’s probably for the best you’ve got your purple friend covered now, some males are going to be aggressive for the next few weeks”

“What do you mean sync up?” Deakon realized as he said it, what it meant, and the spikes on his face turned a little rosy from embarrassment for not catching on right away “Ooooooh”

“It won’t be just the next two nights really, it’ll be slightly busier the next few weeks, dragons mingling and looking for a good time ya know” Clay finally popped off the second hose and handed me the now fake respirator plate. I put it on and instantly I could smell Clay’s breath on it, cigars and alcohol, some hint of the spicy food he makes. I took it off my face and handed it to Deakon.

“Can we wash this?”

“Oh! It does speak!” Clay, a little surprised, also surprised myself, forgetting I hadn’t said anything around him yet “I thought you were mute” Clay nodded towards the door Deakon “Go wash it in the sink” he chuckled, and Deakon slipped inside for a few minutes. Clay, oddly enough, turned his attention to me.

“How come you’ve never spoken before?” he asked.

Feeling very awkward by the situation, it took me a moment to speak “Can you imagine being like me? Having every dragon you meet just suddenly wish you were dead, like you were bad luck? I don’t talk until I know someone isn’t going to hurt me.”

“Hmmm, so you really aren’t some demon are you?”

“What?”

“There’s the old ways. Purple dragons were thought to be demonic. Giving people horrible nightmares and making people do evil things under their control. Giving people horrible thoughts. All kinds of bad stuff”

“NO! I could never do anything like that, as far I know, I’m just a normal dragon that happens to be purple!”

The dragon chuckled to himself “Well, I guess it’s my fault for believing in fairy tales huh?”

“Yea, but at least now I know where all this stuff comes from.” Mind mind started to process this new information. I knew my scale colors were very rare, I’ve yet to meet another one like me, even in this city of nearly a million. The thought of some old superstitions and childish stories were the reason behind my social out casting this whole time seemed so backwards. Our kind really was stuck in the past, yet somehow also far in the future.

Deakon came back out the door, the mask now slightly wet but clean, also a pair of dark gray kitchen gloves. I put on the mask, it smelled a lot better, then slipped on the gloves, now aside from some of my face around the mask and my feet, I was covered.

“We can get some fabric from the market, and make sort of a fabric mask to cover around the respirator and find something for you feet”

Deakon and Clay talked for some time into the night, thinking of plans for around my face, talking about the upcoming festival, surprising Clay stayed up late that night, even talking to me a little, getting to know my history, how I learned to survive so well. I think he felt a little sorry for me, now the he knew I wasn’t some demon.

When it got near the early morning hours, we departed for the desert again, a little later than usual, the sun already up by the time we got to the usual place. I stripped down the costume we made until I was nude, freeing my wings for our daily exercise. I looked over to Deakon, his face spikes had turned slightly red.

“Synced up to the climate already are you?” I teased

“N-no it’s, it’s not like that” He stared at the ground “it’s just, you know, we’ve. It’s. HEY it’s time to fly okay?” he fumbled, it was sort of cute.

We flew our usual kilometer out and back, then we went back our stuff, and I put the suit back on. We walked slowly into town talking about what this party would be like, about whether this suit idea would work. I told him what Clay told me about purple dragons. Deakon was annoyed that this whole time it was about silly old superstition. We found one of our sleeping places and slept for the day.

We awoke a little early that afternoon mostly due to the noise. Clay was downplaying the event. It was a full on festival. Colorful string banners where now across all the streets. Flags with lightning bolts hung from stands, Dragons wore tops adorned with various lighting decorations. The market stalls all decorated or closed as their owner chose to partake in the celebration. As we where walking we saw a large banner that read simply “ Happy Lightning Festival”. The timing of the suit worked out well, even though I wasn’t yet fully covered I could tell it was working. Most dragons walked past me without a thought, instead of staring me down as I passed. I hated that this worked, but this worked.

“I had better go to Clay’s right away” Deakon said “I think he’s going to be a little busier than he let on” and we made our way directly there, skipping our usual hunt for scraps.

Deacon was right, Clay wasn’t outside waiting for us but Deakon walked in the back door. I stayed in my usual place and thought about looking for breakfast. I didn’t have long to think at all when Clay pushed open the door and said something that surprised me.

“I’m going to need you both today, don’t worry, I’ll pay you the same, you get on washing dishes, I need Deakon to help me with the crowd”

I jumped to my feet, a little nervous about going inside but then Clay stopped me with his hand “Stay in the kitchen, keep that suit on, and don’t let anyone see a single purple scale okay? You know it’s nothing personal with me anymore, just my customers” I nodded, happy just to be given the opportunity to try.

For hours I stood in front of the same sink Deakon did and washed plate after plate, glass after glass. I could hear the crowd on the other side of the wall, murmuring all night, sometimes randomly cheering and yelling as someone would do something funny or some sort of trick. I could hear my kind for the first time enjoying themselves. A part of me wanted to be there too, just to know. But I did promise to stay hidden. Clay would come and go, cooking and taking the food out to his customers, Deakon staying out front the tire time just getting drinks for people.

The second night was the same, lot of partying and crowds having a good time, forgetting all the problems they had for a short time. Clay did very well those two nights, and in return he paid us both plus a little extra for helping so much. The third day we took our earnings and bought some boots as Clay suggested, not some common work boots, some really nice black ones with nice straps instead of any laces. I’m no going to lie, they were kind of sexy. We also bought some black comfortable fabric, and crudely cut it up and sewed it into a face mask to cover up the scales around my face not covered by the fake breather. We even had enough left over to buy a new bodysuit. We found it in a place that sells tools after asking around where we might find another. Folded up in a tiny package we had a clean version of what I was already wearing, so now I was not only fully covered, but no longer covered in paint and gross strains from the garbage version, although we had to cut off the sheets from the old one to sew to this one for my wings.

The third night was when things turned from a party to something truly incredible. As the sun set there were clouds on the horizon. As it got darker you could see the distance flashes. Tonight was the busiest of the 3 nights at Clay’s. Now completely covered and having less fear of being seen, I peeked from my place in the kitchen. The place was packed, but everyone was dressed so nice. Decorative tops and fancy loincloths. A few were even in costume with paint on their faces and bodies. A large portion of the were there more for the drinks and good times than the food. Barely anything was ordered to eat, leaving my life a little easier on cleanup duty, but the place was nearly dry after only a few hours. Suddenly I felt a huge boom and the place shook. That’s when the place suddenly emptied out. I was afraid, worried when something was wrong. But then Deakon pushed up the double door and with a smile said “Come on Exodus, you need to see this”

I started following him, a little nervous about what was going on. As I walked through the bar and out the front door for the first time, I was in amazement in what I saw.

The storm was nearly over the city. Nearly constant flashes of beautiful lightning as if this planet was showing off what it can do. Dragons were lighting off fireworks and carrying on. Many of them having had a few drinks, but what surprised me was the nudity. Nearly everyone had nothing on, not a big deal among our kind, but all the decorative clothing and fun costumes I had been seeing earlier were now all gone, replaced with mostly body paints, depictions of lighting bolts and other primitive designs. A bolt of lighting struck nearby followed by the loud crash of thunder, making everyone cheer. No one was seeking any cover from incoming storm. A slight breeze started blowing, cool air from the storm started flowing in. I looked for Deakon and found him a few seconds later. He was staring up into the sky and smiling, he had an energy I had never seen before.

“Exodus, I’ve always LOVED a good thunderstorm! Look at this! It’s going to be amazing!”

I swear his face was glowing, it might have been my imagination. Other dragons danced around, cheering, having a great time. The dirt street was full, a low cloud of dust form all the moving feet hung in the air, there was nobody inside a single building at this time. Another bolt landed nearby and the crash of thunder was nearly drowned out by the cheering. Nobody had any fear of this lightning, instead the celebrated it. We had been on this world for months now, and this was first weather I had seen other than hot sunny dry days.

The raindrops started to fall, very large as if they could turn to hail at any moment but never did. Instead, within 30 second it quickly developed to a heavy downpour. Suddenly the lack of clothing made sense. The crowd went silent but the noise was far from gone as the nearly constant rumble and roar of thunder driven by the frequent lightning kept going. Every dragon in the street, hundreds just around this area, stood still, folded open their wings, held their arms up in the air, and held their faces toward the sky. Each and every dragon enjoying the feeling of the rain on their bare scales, almost as if they were soaking the pure rainfall up through those scales. I retreated under the awning over Clay’s front door to keep my suit dry, but I still watched with intent and happiness. I raised my goggles off my eyes to take this in with my own eyes, a risk I know, but to take this all in felt important. Everyone is distracted by the storm, no one will notice, I thought to myself.

My entire life I only saw my own kind in a violent and hateful state. I knew from the prison ships just what every dragon can be capable of to survive. But in this moment I realized my kind also had a beauty to them. Together and peaceful they enjoyed the rain as one. Still and facing upwards as if to pray to the clouds that soaked them. Mostly silent but some sighed happily or moaned in delight of the cool wet rain provided relieved after months of heat. After a few moments some of them started to move again, back to celebrations, to dancing in the rain, as the raw power of nature provided it’s own fireworks show. It felt primal and instinctive but also somehow important. Together everyone celebrated the changing season.

Deakon came up from behind and draped his arms over my shoulders. I noticed muscle had returned to those arms. Still nothing like the farm boy I met 5 years ago, but no longer the skinny dragon clinging to life he was a few months ago. I’m not sure what came over him to hold me like this, I like to think it was energy form the crowd, it was contagious after all, for once I was feeling happy. We watched the storm our people celebrating it, and the first true feelings started to float form my heart. Even though I couldn’t go and dance naked in the rain with them, I was at least here, and for the first time I felt like I was sort of one of them. But something else started to flutter inside me, as my friend and protector leaned on me with his arms over me like this. I enjoyed our close moment and continued watching the storm together.