Dracomorphs Chapter One

Blaze

Friday, May 30th at Greenforest Junior High.
The day before Summer Break, when everybody’s trying to finish as much put-off homework that has piled up over the semester so they don’t have to worry about it during the break, and everyone’s in a rush to turn it in before the teachers go home for the break. Tanner should have been home finishing homework, but there was a problem.
He was in detention… again.
Tanner Blaze was the son of Aiden and Pyralise Blaze, two of the richest people in the world. They had more money than the beach had grains of sand. The problem with having parents who had more money than they knew what to do with, was that people avoided him. Everybody acted like they liked him, but Tanner knew they feared him, from the way they acted around him, to the way they walked away from him whenever he came near, to the way they looked at him like he was something gross that was stuck to the bottom of their shoe. He knew why: they were afraid of his parents, and Tanner knew they had good reason to.
His parents had misconceptions about school. They thought that school was like a madhouse, and they always sent Tanner to school with bodyguards. So, whenever one of tanner’s schoolmates tried to make friends with him, or make any other kind of physical, vocal, or even eye contact whatsoever, his bodyguards would attack them, tie them up, and leave them in someone’s locker. This always got him into trouble, and he often had to deal with detention for the entire school year, even though he had told his teachers, time and time again, not to punish him for his parents’ crazy misconceptions about school. Add all of that to the fact that strange occurrences with fire always seemed to happen around him, and you have a boy who’s not really happy about school.
As the minutes of detention rolled by, Tanner pondered over how he had gotten into detention this time.
He had been playing (without his bodyguards) on the basketball court, trying to see how many shots he could get through the hoop without stopping, but his head wasn’t really into it. He was thinking about the envelope. Earlier that day, he had found a long, yellow envelope with his name on it when he had gone out to get the mail. It had no address, no stamp, and the letter inside it was unsigned.

Haunted Cave, Dead Man’s Canyon, 8:00 pm.
Sneak out if you must.

Those were the words that had been on the letter in the envelope. Haunted Cave, Dead Man’s Canyon, 8:00 pm, he repeated in his mind.
Dead Man’s Canyon was a few miles out of town, and it was one of the most feared places in town: mostly because a notorious axe-murderer had been found dead there. He was found with claw and tooth marks all over his body, and they weren’t small either. He had been massacred by something really big. Most people guessed he had been mauled by an abnormally large bear, but wildlife experts said that they had seen victims of bear attacks before, and this wasn’t like anything they had ever seen. Some people thought wolves did it; others thought that a mountain lion was to blame. In any case, people stayed away from there after that. Haunted Cave was one of the many caves in the canyon. It was well known due to its gargantuan size, and the fact that loud howls and wails coming from the cave made people believe that the ghost of the dead axe-killer lived there. It was probably just the wind rushing from the cave, but people still stayed away from there.
The myths about Haunted Cave and Dead Man’s Canyon might have perturbed a normal person, but Tanner was anything but a normal person. The only problem was how to get out of the house while his parents were still awake…
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Fire Freak,” said a familiar voice. Tanner turned around with a sigh. He came face-to-face with a large, stocky 14-year-old boy with messy red hair. “Hello, Quinton,” Tanner said.
Quinton Braxton was the top bully of Greenforest Junior High. He and his tag-alongs often taunted Tanner when his bodyguards weren’t around. They never tried to beat him up though, probably because they were afraid of what Tanner could do when he was angry and there was fire around, for which Tanner was mostly grateful. If he came home with a black eye or a bruise anywhere on his body, his parents’ level of over-protectiveness would reach heights never even conceived before.
“Where are your big bad bodyguards, Fire Freak? You thought you could take care of yourself now, Fire Freak?” said Quinton. “Oh, come on, Quinton,” said Tanner. “Don’t you think you could come up with a more intelligent nickname for me? Maybe ‘the Flame-inator,’ or ‘the Blaze-meister’? I mean, seriously!” “’Oh, look at me, I’m so clever, I know big words,’” said Quinton, in a mocking voice, “says the guy with the report card that would make a dunce look like a genius!” This earned a big laugh from his cronies. “Can I help it if my parents won’t let me go to school unless I let them send me with stupid bodyguards who always get me in detention?” said Tanner. “Well, I don’t see any bodyguards,” said Quinton, “and I don’t see any fire, which means there’s nothing to stop me from beating you up!” And before Tanner could react, Quinton had punched him hard in the stomach. A hard pain shot through Tanner’s abdomen, as Quinton’s cronies cheered their leader on. Quinton kept punching him, kicking him, and in general causing Tanner extreme pain all over his body, all the while earning jeers and taunts from Quinton’s followers. Tanner fell to the ground, and Quinton stood over him, a mocking sneer on his face. “Face it, Fire Freak!” Quinton said. “You’re a freak, and that’s all you’ll ever be!” Cheers of agreement sounded from Quinton’s cronies that had formed a circle around them. Tanner finally couldn’t take it anymore.
He snapped.
An intense warmth sprouted in his chest. It spread, until it felt as if his body was on fire. He began to see flames on the edge of his vision. He felt immense energy in his body, and something inside him told him to release it. He began to rise in the air. And then, all of the energy and heat exploded from his body in a fast-expanding dome of fire. Then, when all of the energy was released, he dropped to the ground, and you would have never guessed that he had just been in a fight with Quinton Braxton. There wasn’t a bruise or scratch anywhere on his body. The only thing abnormal about the scene was the immense, charred circle of burnt concrete with black, charred grass where the burnt concrete ended. Quinton Braxton and his cronies lay comatose at the edges of the circle, with their clothes singed, and minor cuts and burns on their bodies.
Ten minutes later, in detention, Tanner still wondered what exactly had happened.