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I knew what I agreed to.

It was a bargain... of sorts.

Not to a friend, or a banker.

Not even to a loan-shark.

I bargained with a dragon... or, rather, a dragon bargained with me.

Now, you may be thinking that it's impossible. I've heard them enough times too; three words meant to dissuade someone from daring to sample what mature adults consider to be delusion; three words usually delivered by adults to children when asked why nobody had ever seen one, and in a way that seems designed to punish them for having the gall to flit like moths around the light of pure, indulgent imagination; Dragons aren't real.

Adults were never afforded permission to bask in this sort of fantasy unless it was between the covers of a novel, or shown on the silver screen. Adults were told that to believe in dragons was to allow yourself to be caught in the depths of madness, or childishness.

And for me, I embraced that skepticism. I had to. If I let myself, I could easily become lost in my mind trying to find a way to explain why I didn't feel like I fit in in this world. How whenever I looked in the mirror, the face that stared back never felt quite right, and how if I looked out at the world around me it was like I was peering through an old window warped from age.

I needed to focus on what mattered in this life. And to do that, my desire to indulge in fantasy had to be limited only to what could be found on the sun-stained pages of novels where it was easy to tell who was good, who was evil, and the story played out mostly the same with the hero eventually figuring it all out... and if they were lucky, they may even get their happily ever after.

It tamed my imagination, and kept me on an even keel.

But I seem to be getting distracted so let me start at the beginning, on the day that all changed.

***

The sun was hanging high in the sky and what few clouds there were afforded no cover from it's stinging heat. It was the kind of day that sapped your strength and coaxed you to the cool shade of a tree.

Staring out the window at the forest behind my building, the trees' outstretched arms waved in the breeze as if to beckon me to join them. Since my shirt was plastered wetly to my chest like a second skin, it was an alluring invitation.

It would be good to get out of the apartment anyway. I had done what my agenda required me to do for the day and I felt a jitter in my legs that urged me to escape this. The claustrophobic monotony that grew around me as a result of slinking out of the rat-race on early retirement was a significant draw-back to my new-found freedom.

A plan to leave was formulated; I'd go through the forest to the cafe downtown. The smaller, independent one three blocks from the corporate chain. There I wouldn't need to face down the smooth jazz and tired eyes of an overstressed "beverage assistant." No. That cafe was the kind where the only uniform was a black apron and a name-tag. No failed startups or broken dreams; The staff genuinely liked what they did and it showed in their craft.

I rarely purchased anything that wasn't already marked down. That was a habit I learned early from seeing my family try to keep up with the Joneses, but couldn't afford the upkeep. As a result of seeing what that did, I felt like I had to make sure every cent I had was spent wisely, if at all. As a result of this I always went with what was cheapest... and that usually meant that I was ordering the daily special. The ingredients wouldn't be the freshest, but the staff always managed to make it good.

And a pleasant bonus was that since this cafe was often empty at this time of day, I would be free to sit for as long as I wished while I'd pick through the novel I was currently reading... and with the refreshing cool of air-conditioning.

I grabbed my keys, some cash, and with a novel wedged in my back pocket I made for the door.

Stepping outside into the heat was like walking into a wall of molten wax. But I endured it because the shade I was headed for was worth any fleeting moment of discomfort.

And once I had hopped over the cheap chain-link fence that served more as a suggestion to stay out rather than a legitimate barrier of entry, I was in the forest and on my way down-town.

This path was one I had traveled so often that I knew it like the lines of my palm. It would go in a mostly straight line, with only a few forks in between, and in no time at all I would be down-town and a block away from my destination.

As predicted, when I was able to hide from the worst of the sun's rays, my energy started to return. I whispered words of thanks to the trees, even though it felt silly to expect they could hear me.

The walk was as peaceful as I had hoped. The only sound being the rustle of leaves above, and the muffled sounds of the city just beyond the trees. I might have lost myself had I not started to feel something.

Something odd.

It started off subtle, barely perceptible. But as I kept walking, it grew. It took up the space in my mind that I'd normally fill with the comforting nothingness that could be found in this forest.

And it was tugging at me.

At first I thought it was merely the result of the heat, or maybe dehydration. Or maybe the breakfast I had earlier wasn't sitting well. But whatever it was, it burned like a sparkler in my belly and I found it more and more difficult to dismiss as nothing the further I went.

With every step I made on this path, the prickling tug grew. I tried to dismiss it, but it crept into my mind regardless of how much I tried to ignore it, and it filled me with the impulse to follow where it led.

This feeling was so distinct and different than anything I had felt before that my imagination was growing rabid in its desire to know why it persisted. Stopping to look around, I tried to see if I could spy something out of place that would explain it.

All I saw was the wall of trees surrounding me, and the cracked asphalt of the path underneath my feet.

The first fork I knew would be approaching soon was now coming into sight. I knew which direction I planned to take, but this pull started to impress on me the need to go the other way.

I didn't realize I had stopped when I did.

I stood there looking at the signpost wondering if I should follow, or just ignore it. Maybe if I did, this would be my last moment on earth and I would be done in somehow? Perhaps I was walking into a trap! Would I arrive at some strange place? A house made of pastries and candy? Or perhaps the intent was more benevolent in nature. Maybe it was a thread guiding me out of some sort of labyrinth, and it was there to help me escape the rapacious grasp of a minotaur that had been stalking me unseen?

No, I couldn't let myself fall into my imagination. Whatever it was, it never let up and seemed intent on leading me somewhere.

And before I understood what I was doing, I had decided to follow it... if only to figure out what it was guiding me towards.

I couldn't quite place how I knew this, but there was an urgency at the core of this feeling. A longing. I knew, on a deep, and deeply strange level, that something was waiting for me.

Someone.

And they needed me to find them.

So I kept walking. What doubts I had quickly faded as the pull gladly urged me onward.

Though there was one problem coming up; I knew this other footpath would turn to the right and curve around. It would wind its way around the forest and end up bringing me to where I set out to be. Though the long way around, I would still end up at the park's gates down-town.

But despite the path veering away, the pull urged me in a straight line, towards the thickest part of the forest.

It was odd to say the least, but my feet kept going. One foot after the other, right into the thicket that I thought would grasp at my clothing to then rake their thorns across my flesh.

However, when I had stepped into the thicket, it was like the vines themselves grew in precisely the right way to allow me to pass without anything trying to bind me. The forest itself seemed to be opening up and inviting me into it's unseen depths. And where I placed my feet, albeit never really focusing on where, they seemed to land in just the right spots to allow me clearance to continue.

I worried if I had fallen prey to some kind of madness from all those years of forcing my imagination to behave itself. Or perhaps I had accidentally been exposed to something that was clouding my mind and causing me to see, and feel, things that just weren't there.

It was a natural assumption to make. The forest itself seemed to be conspiring to ensure I was unimpeded as I was guided to wherever it needed me to go today.

And the strangest part was that in any other situation even remotely close to this, my anxiety would be rearing up to paralyze me. Weaving my intestines into a tapestry of knots... But, no, this sensation seemed to melt whatever fears I had within me and only seemed to coax me deeper into the forest that surrounded me.

So I kept walking.

When I no longer worried about where I was stepping, and I learned to trust that this pull wouldn't guide me to my doom, I let myself look around.

When I did, I gasped deeply. The way the light from above speared through the foliage, setting motes of dust glowing in their golden shafts, bestowed a mystical quality like I was looking at an illustrated story-book.

The branches above were gnarled and twisted, but not in a way that emulated the nightmares that would keep me from sleep. The curves and twists of their limbs were graceful and delicate as they held up their leaves to block out the sun. The light that did slip through leaving a marbled texture on the ground that behaved a lot like a stage-light, almost as if the trees were putting on a show to display their raw, primal beauty.

And looking ahead, the forest only seemed to part just enough to grant me passage... and where I was headed was obscured from my sight.

I kept thinking that this was a dream. That there was no way this could be real. Everything was too perfect. The shade, the trees, even the odd fungus here and there that seemed to take on the sense that I would glimpse a sprite or elf out of the corner of my eye.

The feeling also grew. The pulsating tug in my belly grew to a thrum, but faded. Over and over it crashed against me and receded like waves. Every time it grew, the desire to continue walking matched it and I had to fight to stop myself from running.

I eventually reached what I assumed was to be my destination. It started as a distant glow at the end of the path. When I came closer, the glow became larger, and brighter.

When I arrived at my destination, the sun shone forth brilliantly. But rather than hurting my eyes, and burning my skin, it only kept me warm. The clouds above were no different than before, but the light seemed just as intent on bringing me comfort and pleasure as the shade of the trees had.

It took some time for my eyes to adjust to the brightness. Squinting to help speed the process, when I saw where I was, my skepticism took a back-seat to the beauty around me.

The birds in the trees chirped out their reverie along with the love-song of the cicadas that droned on from their hidden alcoves. And the sound of the leaves rustling with every gust of wind calmed me as the breeze that caused it grazed against my skin like billowing silk.

I had stumbled on some secret place nature appeared to have hidden away from the prying eyes of civilization.

The clearing I was in was idyllic, and the trees that made up the circular wall around me seemed to be the same as the ones that guided me here in the first place.

It was a strange sight to be sure... but the strangest thing was in the center.

It would have been hard to miss because the ground was mounded up in a shallow hill, and sitting on the middle of that hill was a stone slab the colour of an overcast sky. Large enough to park a truck on, and just as imposing as the stone, there was another thing.

On the slab, coiled around itself as if slumbering, was a dragon.

A real dragon.

It had dark scales all along its body that caught the sun's rays to glimmer like obsidian. Its wings held neatly against its back, and a tail with some kind of fins on its tip curled around its body to where it's snout was tucked in like how a cat would sleep.

I wanted to assume this was a very well made sculpture. Perhaps an art installation. But, it was alive. It's chest rose and fell with every breath it made.

I again wondered if I was hallucinating. Surely this couldn't be real. But, the more I thought about it, the more I started to question my very mind. After all, I had been walking for quite some time and I knew I would have been through this forest three times by now.

My inner skeptic was raging, the answer that required the fewest assumptions was that this was reality and the dragon in the center of this clearing was real because all of the mundane explanations faltered under the lightest scrutiny.

And when I returned my attention back to the dragon, it was staring back at me.

My heart leapt in my chest threatening to shatter my ribs while a cold sweat on my skin turned the wind to ice.

Dragons, or at least the ones I read about, ate unwary travelers that got too close.

"You can come closer, little one. I will not bite," It spoke in a deep and calming voice.

It would have been a relaxing sound had the circumstances been different.

It was also speaking as if it was expecting me. The fins on sides of its head, which I mistook for strangely shaped ears at first blush, flicked as his head came lower, and closer to eye level.

"Am I going insane?" I squeaked.

"I would hope not."

"I must be dreaming. There's no way this is true," I blurted out, wavering between awe and terror. "Dragons aren't--"

"Real?" It cut me off. "Well, as you can see with your own eyes, we are."

"We?!" I shrieked. "There's m-more?" I was stammering now.

"Yes, little one. While we may not be as numerous as we once were, I am certainly not the last of my kind."

How did it know to speak like this? Was it using some sort of telepathy? Reading my thoughts?

No, couldn't be. I was seeing its lips move. When it spoke it seemed to be speaking in a tone that felt familiar, like I had known it once before. Though every attempt to try and identify where I had heard it failed to dredge up any memories.

"Most of us are in my world. Mainly because yours has become... hostile to creatures like us."

"Why? How?" I croaked out. "No, wait, if you can talk, then you can explain," Bold as I tried to be, my stomach was quivering, and I knew it was one step away from forcing it's contents on to the grass under my feet. This kind of fear and awe at the same time had never happened before and I had no clue how to control it.

"To explain this will take some time," Its head moved higher, but it never broke eye-contact. "But if you were the one that felt the call--"

"You did this?" I blurted out from a parched throat.

He paused to moisten his lips. "Yes, and no. I am the one that called on the gods above and below, but they were the ones that facilitated this meeting."

"This has to be some sort of trick. An illusion."

"I assure you, this is no mere fantasy," it said as he brought his head close-enough for me to feel its breath, hot and moist against my skin. If this wasn't real, it was the most compelling hallucination I'd ever experienced. "Your spirit, your life energy, or whatever you want to call it, was beckoning to me as much as mine was to yours," Its voice remained calm, but I could sense something beneath its measured words. "I am sure that this is quite a lot to take in. So, if you want to ask me anything, please do."

I had no idea what I could ask. My mind was swimming with so many thoughts that demanded answers, but each one of them was fighting against the rest to claim my tongue... until one of them crept out. An ungainly question at that.

"Are you male?" I asked.

I wanted to slap myself for being such a fool, but he chuckled. "I am," His eyes narrowed mirthfully as he shifted himself closer. "I could show you, if that is what you wish. However that may be too forward for our first meeting."

My cheeks grew hot. This provided him amusement because he then let loose with a hearty laugh that shook the leaves on the branches around us. Then after composing himself, he spoke words I never thought I'd ever hear.

"I am here for a reason. I come bringing an offer. Something I suspect you have longed for, but could not quite place why."

"And what would that be?" I asked.

"Have you ever felt that you did not quite belong in this world? In your body?"

I nodded.

"Then you may appreciate the bargain I am here to offer. It does come with a price, however. And if you accept it, I will need seven days from you," He came closer, his breath caressing my face with its heat. "Are you interested in accepting?"

As much as I was curious, I didn't want to enter into any agreement blindly. Emboldened by reason I stood my ground. "Seven days... for what?"

"To become like us," He moved his head up, a slow grin on his lips. "To become dragon."

My world stopped in that instance. Were it not for the ground firmly underneath me, I would have sworn that I was careening through the air. My heart beat fast and quick, in sight of an answer to an unknown question that had been weighing on it.

I took a pensive breath to stem the flutters inside trying to hold me hostage. The only thing I felt I could say were three simple words; "Tell me more."