Here Be Dragons
Originally published in MiNdGaMeS Anthology (2017)
Here Be Dragons was originally published in the 2017 edition of MiNdGaMeS Anthology. The story is presented here with permission from the author.
The hallway was surprisingly empty, but Kyle took advantage of the moment and dashed to the food court to grab a bite before any of the local jocks spotted him. For some reason, he had become the target of many of the football players’ practical jokes.
Maybe I shouldn’t have compared a football player’s IQ to that of a snail? He asked himself as he flashed a reflexive grin to his own comedy.
He rounded a corner a little too fast and ran into a brick-wall-of-a-guy coming the other way. Kyle dropped his binder full of papers, scattering them for the second time that morning.
“Why don’t you watch where you’re goin?” Kyle asked in his toughest voice, without looking up. A hand that dwarfed his own reached down and picked up Kyle by the arm. Luckily, Kyle had retrieved the last of his papers and had stuffed them into his binder. He dangled off the ground and then was planted on his own two feet. Finally, he looked up into his rescuer’s face.
“I was, but it’s hard to see below my chest.” The build of Seamus Callaghan stretched the limits of his T-shirt. Everything about the guy belonged on the cover of Muscle Magazine. Seamus left his hand on Kyle’s shoulder and bent down, looking Kyle in the eye with a grin that meant trouble.
Of all of the people he had to run into, Seamus wasn’t one he was ready for. “Ha ha, Seamus.” Kyle used the most sarcastic voice he could. “That wasn’t funny the first twenty times you said that to me either.”
Seamus brushed off Kyle’s shoulder and smiled. “So where’s the little elf off to this morning?” About a year ago, Kyle had helped Seamus write a last-minute term paper. Since then, Seamus had been his protector. He watched out for Kyle whenever he was around, but he still had a knack for coming up with repetitive, lame short-man jokes. Luckily for Kyle, Seamus wasn’t a football player.
“I wanted to audit a class about extraterrestrial life that a friend told me about.”
Seamus scratched his head. “Sounds like more work to me. I thought you already had a full course load. Why do you want to add more in that little noodle of yours?” He jabbed a beefy finger into Kyle’s temple.
Kyle batted away his friend’s hand. “Just because I have a full load doesn’t mean I don’t have time to make room for more information, Seamus. It might do you some good to get more in your noodle. I’m going to get something to eat. See-ya later.”
The food court was more crowded than the halls. A special on waffles and sausage drew a huge crowd. Fortunately, most of the people were too busy eating to notice him. He grabbed a breakfast burrito and headed to the west doors of the cafeteria. By the time he reached the science building, he’d only run into one football player. He managed to ditch that guy by hopping between the bike racks by the library and running through an elevator door before it closed. Sometimes being small and nimble had its advantages.
He guessed right about being late. When he got to the class doors, the professor was speaking with the lights turned down for a presentation. A few people with irritated faces turned toward the intruding light from the hall as he entered.
Kyle spotted an empty seat in one of the corners. It was far enough away from everyone that he felt comfortable, yet close enough he could still see the professor’s expressions.
“Who’s to say that intelligent life hasn’t already visited our planet already?” The professor questioned the class with a bit of a grin as she pushed her antique-looking spectacles up her nose. “Let’s look at the speculative characteristics of a silicone-based life form.” She pointed at a slide displayed at the front of the room. On the slide was a complex mathematical equation alongside what looked like a DNA strand.
“Given the makeup of the silicone life form, it wouldn’t have soft skin, likely only scales.” She changed slides, and another complex equation flashed on the screen. “Also, because it’s silicone-based, when it breathes oxygen, two things would occur. First, the chemical reaction within its cells creates helium and makes the creature lighter than air. Secondly, when the creature exhales, the mixture of gases and byproducts from its body would ignite on contact with our atmosphere.” She snickered at the last comment, as if everyone knew the private joke she was about to share. She then pulled up a slide that showed a huge pile of gold, silver, and precious gems.
“And, finally,” she pointed to the overhead projection, “In order to survive, it would have to feast on plenty of this stuff.”
“Are you suggesting, Professor Falk, that these aliens are dragons?” a kid in the front row asked.
“I’m doing more than suggesting,” Professor Falk said with a twinkle in her eye. “I’m saying that our ancestors probably drove them off for a simple reason—greed.”
Murmurs filled the auditorium, and Kyle suppressed a laugh.
He looked around to see who else found this class entertaining. Several people in the back of the class discussed it loud enough to be disruptive. “That’s insane! How could a medieval knight drive off a clearly superior creature?” A guy with red hair asked his friend.
“It’s obvious, you dork.” The guy next to him retorted. “Humans obviously had them outnumbered!” They looked like they were about to fight over it.
That’s when he saw her.
A girl in the back of the class sitting a few seats away. Her long blonde hair sparkled in the low light. Her eyes were a blue he’d never seen before. They almost seemed to shift shades of blue like the sky does from dawn until dusk. Everything about her was beautiful, but what caught Kyle’s attention was the lizard tongue that flicked out between her perfectly shaped lips.
Kyle blinked, rubbed his eyes, and looked again. Though he felt a little stalkerish, Kyle half-listened to the professor as he watched the girl out of the corner of his eye for the rest of the class.
Maybe I was seeing things? He questioned himself as he continued to stare sideways at this mystery woman. I’m sure I saw a lizard tongue!
Before the class ended, the lights came on and he peeked up at her as he picked up his backpack. She picked up her bag too, and she smiled sweetly like he’d imagined a mouth like hers would. As she turned away from him, she slowly licked her lips with a beautifully bright pink forked tongue.
Students made their way to the doors, quickly crowding between him and this mysterious woman. Lacking a vertical advantage, he lost the strange girl in the crowd. He pushed toward where he last saw her when a hand gripped his shoulder and held him in place.
“Where ya goin’ so fast, short stuff?”
Kyle turned to see John, the kid who told him about the class to begin with. Standing a whole six foot three with blond hair and blue eyes, he was the picture of most girls’ dreams, or so he’d heard.
Why are all of my friends so tall? “I need to talk to this girl, but you’re stopping me, man.”
“What’d she look like? Maybe I know her.”
John was probably right. If a cute girl was in John’s class, chances are he’d already introduced himself or she had found a way to talk to him. John never had girl problems like Kyle did.
“She’s about my height, golden-blonde hair, and deep blue eyes like I’d never seen before.” Kyle hoped John had a name he could look up in the student directory.
John stood there for just a second, scratching thehis stubble on his chin. “Nope, never seen her. Are you sure she’s not auditing the class like you?”
“What are the chances a beautiful girl, my height, would be auditing a class on Life in the Universe the same day I was?”
“You’re right, bro. You must have imagined her.” John threw his arm around Kyle’s shoulder. “Let’s grab something to eat. Maybe you can imagine me her taller twin while we’re there, and we could have a double lunch date.” Kyle knew it had been a joke, but his friend’s condescending words still bugged him.
As they headed to the food court, Kyle scanned the masses of students making their way to different classes, trying to find the blonde girl. John, all the while, chatted on and on about one of his many girlfriends. Kyle threw in an occasional, “That’s cool.”
Just before they reached the food court, Kyle saw her. He had a clear shot of her at the food court doors. She turned and looked at him just before entering. He was about fifty yards from the doors, but he was sure it was her.
Kyle sped up, but bumped into someone. He turned to apologize, only to jump back. The guy was covered in scales.
“What’s your problem?” A lizard tongue shot out of the guy’s mouth and licked his eye.
Kyle took a few steps backward, not wanting to believe what he’d seen. “Are you okay, Kyle?” John looked from Kyle to the guy, but didn’t seem to see anything wrong. John started to apologize for him when Kyle spun toward the food court doors, offering no explanation.
Before he reached the food court, John was at his side. He grabbed Kyle’s shoulder and spun him around. “Are you okay, short stuff? You looked like you’d seen a monster back there.” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “I mean, that guy was no model, but you were seriously freaked out. Are you okay?”
“I don’t know, man.” Kyle ran a hand through his spiky hair that never stayed flat. He thought about the girl and the extra class. “Maybe Seamus was right. Maybe I’m taking on too many classes.”
“You’re taking advice from that brick house? Now I know you’re not okay.” John opened the door for Kyle. “Maybe lunch will give you some time to relax a little. Get that big brain of yours some wind-down time.”
Kyle went through the door, followed by John. John saw that guy and he didn’t look like a scaly beast to him. Maybe I’m freaking out about this girl, too. Kyle hung his head and massaged his temples.
They made their way through the lunch line and found a table near the exit. For some reason, Kyle had always liked knowing that if he had to, he could get out of a room quickly. He ate while his thoughts ran deep.
John broke the silence. “I have to admit, Kyle, you’re starting to freak me out a little.” Kyle looked up from his slice of supreme pizza that he’d been picking at. John wore a concerned look. “I mean, it’s not like you to freak out like that, and you normally wolf down your food so fast that I have to grab a bag to go.” He pointed to Kyle’s tray, which held a slightly picked-apart slice of supreme pizza, a large order of fries, and some chicken nuggets. Kyle had ordered more out of habit than out of desire. “What’s going on? Is this about that girl?”
“Yeah.” Kyle admitted. “I mean, I don’t know. Maybe school’s getting to me.”
“What happened with that girl? Did she dis you or something?” John stole some fries from Kyle’s tray.
“No, I just saw something weird … something not normal.” Kyle shook his head. “Never mind—she’s probably long gone, and I don’t know how to explain it, except I must be stressed.”
As he looked up from his tray, he saw the blonde girl sitting a few tables away. When she smiled, metallic, razor-sharp teeth glinted in the light. Kyle bounced back in his chair, and he grabbed John’s shirt. Fear washed over him, and he held back as much as he could. He fought hard not to show it on his face.
“Tell me you see that!”
John looked over and back at Kyle, a little apprehensive. “You mean that hot blonde smiling at you, until you went all crazy? Yeah, I saw her.”
“No, it’s more than that! Her teeth were really scary and earlier she had a tongue to match!” Something over John’s shoulder caught his attention, and he twisted in his seat to look. Across the food court, two giant reptile creatures in campus security uniforms were walking toward their table. Kyle fell over, scrambling away from them, effectively knocking over his table and getting both of the lizard creatures’ attention.
Everyone in the food court had turned to see Kyle on his back, scooting to the door in a crab walk. All of his things were scattered on the floor. “Tell me you don’t see those two!” he screamed. John’s eyes turned a scary violet reptilian.
“I saw them, and they’re coming for you now. You need help, Bro.” John backed away from Kyle as the two lizard creatures approached.
“What’s happening to everyone?” Kyle screamed as he ran towards the windowed door behind him. He hit it with the full force of his body, rattling it loudly, as he struggled with the release bar. He looked up to the sky through the glass and saw the Earth hovering on the horizon, where the sun should have been.
Just as the door popped open, four scaly hands grabbed his shoulders. “Let go of me!” He fought the gripping hands. From across the courtyard outside, Seamus ran toward him at full speed, his brow creased and teeth grit in rage. “Seamus! Help!”
Seamus ripped Kyle out of the grasping hands. Seamus and Kyle fell to the ground. Seamus quickly slammed his feet against the cafeteria door, stopping it from opening. “What’s going on here?”
“Those things are trying to get me!” Kyle screamed as he got to his feet.
Seamus looked back at the security guards and then to Kyle again. “Those dudes are nothing but trouble.” Seamus said as he fought to keep the creatures contained.
“You see them, too?” Kyle asked.
“I wouldn’t be holding this door if I didn’t.” Seamus replied with a grin that highlighted his snarky side. “What’s this all about?”
“Tell you later, just get me back to my room, please.”
Seamus held his feet on the door to the food court, all of his weight on it. “If I let go, they’re going to snag you again.”
Kyle scrambled to his feet.
“I’ll hold them here as long as I can.” Seamus said, as he bucked against the creatures slamming into the door.
Kyle looked to see the security officers already on their radios, so he didn’t have much time.
“Thanks, Seamus. This makes us even.”
Seamus waved Kyle on as he pushed harder against the door. Kyle took off at full speed, ducking and dodging through the crowds. Several times he saw glimpses of other reptilian creatures masked as humans.
He rounded the corner of his dorm room hall, on to the final stretch to his room, when he ran smack into another reptilian creature in a university security uniform. This one wrapped him in a bear hug as another reptilian in a medical uniform approached with a syringe. Over their shoulders, he saw John, not his friend John, but a reptilian one.
“Why did you tell them where I live?” Kyle cried out as he fought to get free.
“You need help, Kyle. They can help you.”
Kyle felt a needle prick and things went fuzzy as he was moved onto a waiting cot. Once he was secured to it, the medical professional glanced back at John. “We see this more often in kids this age who are pushing themselves too much.”
“Yeah, it’s most likely a case of paranoid schizophrenia. It’s a human ailment that’s easily cured.” He licked his eye, moistening it.
Several students had come out to see what was going on in the hall. As the medics rolled Kyle away, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in athe mirror that one of the students had hung on the interior of their door. Kyle’s amethyst eyes rolled in his head, and he clenched his golden teeth. The black bristles on his head quivered. “Don’t trust them John,” he mumbled.
John went to the window looking out at the courtyard and gazed at the Earth above them. “All these years next to humans, you’d think we’d have vaccines for schizophrenia by now.” John sighed.
