(CH2) From Soldier's Rifle, To Dragon's Wing's (Book 1)
There are many things we don't know about in the mysterious world of the military, Project Draco is one of them. I was recruted into this project against my own will at the age of 14. My life went from normal to dodging bullets everyday of my life. You could say that I know death personally. But when you have wings, scales, talons, and can breath fire, you already have a target on your head It's just a matter of time. This is the story of my life, as a Project Draco recruet............as a dragon.
CH2: A New Beginning~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A loud knocking on my door roused me.
"No ones home." I declared, rolling onto my back.
"Jack, get up and come on, you're going to be late." Sorrel said as she entered the room and looked down at me, smiling slightly at the sight of me.
"You've got briefing starting in about 30 minute's." I rolled onto my side and starred at her quizzically.
"briefing?" i asked.
"Yes Jack, now get up and meet me at room 315. And hurry." she said sounding a bit excited.
She then turned and left as I stood up and started to stretch. Lowering my front half to the ground like a cat. After a few moments of this, I turned and started to walk toward the door, my reflection in the mirror catching my attention. I then turned and approached the mirror, and started observing myself, starting from my head. My muzzle was about 6 inches long, my eyes were a weird mixture of green and gold, and I had 4 gray horns protruding out the back of my head.
I then turned my body so that my right side faced the mirror, and started to look myself over. Going from my chin, along my stomach, to halfway down my tail were dark red scales that mixed perfectly with the black scales covering the rest of me. I then opened my wings and was surprised that the outside membrane was black, but the inside was dark red.
"Man, I look good." i said smiling at my reflection.
I then shook my head to wake myself up as I remembered what I was supposed to be doing, and I then started to walk toward the door again. Only once I had reached it did i realize, there was no doorknob. I turned my head quizzically to the left as a memory of Sorrel pushing against it reached my mind. I then started to put my weight against it, and was then rewarded with a click.
The door opened, and I was sent face first onto the ground. A few people, who were passing by me, started to laugh at me. I quicky stood up and started to silently laugh at myself as they passed by.
"Wait, wheres room 315?" I asked myself as 2 men came around the corner of a door.
"Hey do you know where room 315 is?" I asked. One guy then pointed toward the way they had came from and said,
"At the end of the hall".
"Thanks." I said as I turned and started to walk that direction.
(I wonder what they're briefing us about.) I thought to myself as I reached room 315 and entered it. The room was huge, and was full of maybe 30 to 40 dragons of all colors, and sizes.
"Wow." I said in amazement.
"Jack, there you are." Sorrel said, cutting me from my observation.
"Come with me." she ordered before leading me through the crowd, onto a stage, and through closed curtains.
"Sorrel!" a loud voice commanded, making Sorrel stop abruptly and causing me to run into her. A man around 40 to 50 years of age approached us. His hair was short and was a mixture of gray and brown. His eyes were blue and he stood about 6.1.
"We will start the briefing in 10 minuets." He said as he passed us and walked to a man working some electrical equipment.
"Who's that ?" i asked.
"That's General Holland." She replied.
"He was a Project Draco recruit back in the day, but when they tried to mix his genes with the dragons, it failed. So now, he has the strength and senses of a dragon, but in human form."
"Wow." I said, surprised that the project actually had failures.
"He taught me hand to hand combat when I was first recruited." Sorrel said as she turned toward me.
"Why did you bring me back here?" I asked, tilting my head slightly to the left.
"Two reasons." she said smiling.
"You and I are going to demonstrate a few things...........then spar." she said sounding excited.
"Wait, you want me, to spar, with you?" I said in a shaking tone.
"Exactly." she replied as she started to walk to a small X that had been taped onto the floor.
"This is where you ll stand when we demonstrate ourselves." she said tapping on the X.
"YOU'LL DESTROY ME!" I said loudly.
"Look Jack." sorrel started as she locked her gaze with mine.
"You're different from the others, that's why I picked you to spar with. Now when the curtains open, you'll stand like this." she said as she placed her left paw onto the X making her left side face the closed curtains. She then flared her wings and held her head high in the air looking mighty and majestic.
"Like this?" I asked, copying her to the best of my ability. She then walked around me and kicked my rear left leg outward slightly.
"Just like that. I'll be doing the same over there." she said pointing toward a red X about 20 yards away from mine.
"So we just stand here?" I asked her.
"Holland will walk around us and point a few things out to the crowd, then well spar." Sorrel said smiling.
"Jack I presume." A male voice said catching me off guard. "Yes sir." I replied, turning to face General Holland. He then looked at me, then to Sorrel, and back to me.
"Shes a tough one Jack. Sorrel, try not to rough him up too much." Holland said smiling. I looked to sorrel who was blushing slightly.
"Get in you're positions." Holland commanded as he walked to a podium that I surprisingly hadn't noticed until now. Sorrel went to her X and I stood on mine ready to start the demonstration. The curtains started to open as Sorrel and I got into our stances and the noisy room became deathly silent.
"Hello," Holland began.
"I am General Xavier Holland, and I will be briefing you on what you're all here for. You've all been recruited into a top secret military program called Project Draco, where we will train you to be the best, of the best, of the best. He said as he turned and started to walk to me.
"You are all living, breathing, weapons of mass destruction, and you will be trained to use everything from you're claws," he said pointing to my paw.
"To your tail." he said moving to my tail,
"From your wings," he said pointing to sorrel.
"To fire." He said as sorrel sent a stream of fire high into the air. Holland then turned and walked to the podium. When he reached it, he glanced at Sorrel and nodded. Sorrel nodded back and charged me as Holland started another speech.
She struck at me with her paw at such a speed that I barely realized what was happening. I barely managed to dodge the initial strike, but her tail caught my front left paw and knocked me down. I landed with a thud onto my stomach as she caught herself and spun around at an amazing speed before launching at me again giving me 2 seconds tops to counter. I thrust myself upward and brought my wings down hard. I was sent into the air, and over the top of her causing her to miss once again.
She stopped abruptly, just feet from where I landed and brought her paw around, catching me in the neck, the strike shocked me. She started to bring her other paw around, and I ducked just barely dodging the deadly paw. With her chest just inches over the top of my head, I thrust upward, headbutting her in the chest and sending both of us onto our hind legs. Sorrel quickly countered with a lunge at my exposed neck. I lept backwards just barely dodging the lunge.
She did the same, leaping back then charging me once again. I jumped to the left, hoping to dodge her strike, but she followed bringing her head into the bottom of my muzzle sending me onto my hind legs revealing my neck to her once again. She leapt at my neck once more, this time successfully catching it in her powerful jaws, and with the force of her charge, sent me onto my back with her standing over the top of me.
"Never reveal your neck Jack, no matter who your going up against." Sorrel said scolding me. I rolled onto my stomach and stood up shaking my head violently.
"That was fun." I said as sorrel looked at Holland who was smiling. He then nodded to Her.
"Lets go Jack." Sorrel said as we walked backstage and out of the view of the crowd.
"You were the hardest person Ive ever had to fight." Sorrel said smiling.
"How many others have you fought?" I asked as Sorrel started to look at my neck.
"Allot. Only one tooth pierced the skin, you'll be fine." she said as a man came backstage and called Sorrel back on stage.
When she had left, the man who had called her walked to me and tossed a folder to my feet.
"Whats this?" I asked looking at him with a confused expression.
"This contains all of your information and new name." he said as he turned and started to go back on stage.
'Wait, new name." I asked still confused.
"yes!" he said loudly sounding very annoyed.
I watched him leave then turned my attention to the folder. I slowly lay down and opened the folder. The first page had me as a human with my weight, age, height, skin tone and so on. I starred at the picture of myself, looking at my dark hair, brown eyes, and pimple covered face, then laughed silently. I turned to the next page which had my dragon information on it. I was 6.3 feet tall, 5 feet long (not counting the other 5 feet on my tail), and weighed 643 pounds.
I then started to scan the page for my new name, finding it near the bottom under the tag Draco Id.
"Ahhh there you are." I said as I came across it.
"Taro." I said starring at it blankly.
"That's my new name......Taro." I grew silent and started to listen to Holland who was calling out human names then saying draconic ones. I listened for a moment, hearing him call out Cypher, Blaze, and Sora. I then turned back to the folder and started to read it. After about 25 minutes, the sound of footsteps caught my attention, I glanced up to see Holland looking down at me.
"Told you not to underestimate her Jack." he said as he turned and started to walk away.
He then stopped, turned to me, pointed to a door behind me, and said.
"Go out that door and board one of the trucks." I stood up, grabbed my folder, and replied,
"Yes sir." I then turned and entered the door whitch led to a large garage type room with a bunch of troop transport vehicles. There was a line of dragons that were being loaded into the trucks 4 at a time.
After a while of being in the line I had finally been loaded into the truck with 3 others. A man started to check the large metal door then moments later, closed and locked it. After about 30 minuets of riding in silence, a wingless dragon spoke.
"Was that you on the stage with that blue dragon." I glanced up at him and replied.
"Yeah." he smiled and said.
"Both of you were moving so fast."
"Didn't feel like we were." I replied with a smile.
"I'm Taro, and you." I asked. He locked his gaze with mine and said.
"Firedrake."