Dragon Child

Dragon Child


Chapter 1- The Stone




Derrek woke early in the morning. He had no reason to, he just could not stay asleep any longer. Getting out of bed, he headed for the bathroom. turning on the sink, he splashed some on his face and combed his nappy brown hair until it was untangled. Rubbing the sleep from his hazel eyes, he walked downstairs. There was no one else in the house. His parents were out and wouldn't be back for hours due to work. No matter, he was old enough to be home alone anyway, being sixteen.

For lack of anything to do, Derrek desided to leave the house for a walk. Their house lived in a small town and not many houses were arround. It was a small town, roughly fourty homes and a number of stores. It even had its own small school, Police station, Fire department, and clenic. There was no need of a park since the entire city was surrounded by a forest and mountains, but the school offered public roam of its Field for soccer, basketball on the side court, and a picnic area for the high schoolers to hang arround when they had nothing else to do. The town was constantly surrounded in mist, only with the occasional day or week with the sun driving it off and getting through. Summers were nice and warm while winters were cold enough for plenty of snow. The town itself was elevated a big ammount from the mountain bases. The west side of the town was higher up then the rest, while the east side was the lowest part. The town dug into the mountain to give some level ground, roads slanting down to get to the other sections. It was a peaceful place to live, no loud noises from major cities, no Gang wars, there wasn't even a criminal rate. It was a perfect place to live for people who wanted to live out in the wild, yet be with other people, and feel free to open their doors without fear of crooks.

Derrek's parents worked out of town a few hours drive away. So he spent most of his free time eather roaming the forest he knew so well or hanging out with his friends at the school. Today he desided to go another walk through the forest. Closing the door to his house, he walked down the road. His house was on the lower levels, on the corner towards the inside of the mountain. He left the town perimiter and entered a dense, misty forest. He enjoyed the mist clinking to his hair and cheeks. The ground under his feet was level enough for him to concentrate more on the sights.

Several minutes passed as he assended the mountain. The mist was getting so thick that Derrek could only see a few yards in front of him. This was unusual. He came up her many times and not once did it ever get this dense in fog. He counted himself lucky for bringing his compass with him as well as a map of the area, otherwise he would be completely lost. Deciding not to push his luck, he turned and began to walk the other way.

A minute passed and he noticed something on the ground. It looked like a large stone. It had the markings of the dark green leaves in the canopy above. There were several different Shades mixed together, like that of camouflage. It was double the size of his head. If it wasn't for it sticking out in the open, he might have missed it entirely.

Bending down, he touched it with an open palm. Despite the mist, it fealt warm, which was odd. Droplets from the mist clung to it, making it glitter in different shades of green. It was a wonderful, yet odd looking stone. Derrek put both hands on the bottom half of the stone. When he lifted it off the ground, he found that it was suprisingly lighter than any stone its size. Opening his backpack, he set it neatly inside. With that done, he continued to walk home.

An hour passed before he made it back home. When he was clear of the trees, he realised that the reason for the thick fog was because of an aproaching storm. Running the rest of the way to his house, he closed the door behind him. He walked up the stairs into his room. Setting the backpack onto the bed, he took out the stone. It was warm to the touch. It was a fasinating find. Taking a pocket knife out of his pocket, he tapped the stone slightly, careful not to make any chips. It gave a low, hallow sound in return. Derrek looked at it with confusion, before he heard the front door of the house close shut. Looking one more time at the stone, he got off his bed and left the room to greet his parents. He wouldn't tell them of the stone yet, not until he found some more things about it, like that hallow sound it made. Meanwhile, in the bedroom, the camouflaged stone twitched almost unnoticeably before returning to normal once more.