Mid Dragon's World Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Secret of the Closet

After we dropped Jericho off at his house, we headed straight for home. Alex and I said good night to Z’haer and Theian as they opened a portal and returned to the dragon realm. We opened the door and saw dad sitting at the kitchen table.

“Hey dad.” Alex said as we headed into the kitchen.

“So did you boys have fun on your little trip with Theian and Z’haer?” Dad asked as we sat down at the table.

“Eh. It was alright.” Alex said flatly. I guessed he was still upset that I made him show us his memories.

“Well I had fun. We didn’t get a lot of food but I did learn to use my powers. Thanks to them I was able to stop a bear that was gonna try to eat me and Jericho!” I said excitedly.

“Who?” Dad asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Jake’s new friend. He’s…a human.” Alex explained.

“Hmm…I see.” Said Dad, stroking his chin. “Well, if you say this boy’s your friend, then I’ll let you continue to see him. Just remember, Jakol: Don’t let your new friendship distract you from the task at hand.”

“Don’t worry dad. I won’t.” I smiled.

“Good.” Dad smiled back. “Now get to bed, you two. You’ve got a busy day tomorrow.”

“Okay.” So me and Alex left the kitchen and headed for our rooms. Shutting off all the lights, dad went into his room and shut the door so that only a crack of light was shining out.

As I took off my clothes and put on my pajamas, I could hear dad talking in his room. He did this a lot, ever since I could remember. Dad would open his closet door and he would talk to it, like someone was in there. For some strange reason he never let anyone go in his closet. Well, except Eig’nia. Sometimes when he spoke to whatever was in there, he’d say a name but I could never make out whose name it was. All I could ever make out was the first letter in the name: T.

Wanting to find out what dad was going to say, I opened my bedroom door a crack, then slowly opened it further. I tiptoed over to dad’s bedroom door and listened closely.

“Things are still getting underway…Yes…another one will be joining us soon, one of my Apprentices. Normally I wouldn’t do something like this but I can’t allow any risks. If he found out…No, best not to think about that right now. I know it’s taken a very long time but soon the preparations will be complete. I promise you, the world that you dreamed of will become a reality…Touraje.”

Touraje? Was that one of my dad’s friends? I remembered when I was younger, dad told me about a friend he had who wanted to make the human and dragon realms a better place. This friend wanted a world where humans, dragons, and half-dragons could all live together. Then something happened that caused his friend to die. Dad never told me what happened to his friend or even, until now, what his friend’s name was.

But then…if dad…was talking to Touraje…and he died…then did that mean that…what was in his closet was…Touraje’s body?! Just imagining dad talking to a dead person…dragon made me shiver all over. I hurried back into my room and jumped on my bed, quickly getting under the covers. I shut my eyes and tried to think of something, anything to push that image of a dead person’s body in the closet out of my head.  After awhile I fell asleep.

The next day, in the afternoon, me and Alex walked down the street to Jericho’s house.

“What!” Alex asked, not believing me.

“Sooo…let me see if I’ve got this right: you think that dad has been talking to a dead person, and you think he’s keeping the body in his closet?”

“Yeah. Pretty much.” I answered.

“Jake, I doubt there’s a dead guy in his closet. If there was, we’d know.” Said Alex.

“How?” I asked.

“Because dead people stink! That’s why they bury ‘em!” Alex explained.

“Makes sense I guess…” I shrugged unsurely.

We continued to Jericho’s house. It was only a few more blocks.

“So what are we doing?” Alex asked. “Dad’s going to get mad if he finds out we weren’t out doing what he told us to.”

“I know. That’s why I asked Theian to cover for us. Anyway, everyone’s out finding someplace to start with taking over the world and dad said he had to go to the dragon realm for something. So I think, while they’re gone, we sneak into dad’s bedroom and get a look at whatever he’s got in his closet.” I explained to Alex.

Alex sighed. He sounded like he didn’t think this would be a good idea. Maybe he was right. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea but I just had to know what dad was keeping in that closet that he didn’t want anyone seeing.

When we reached Jericho’s house, which was about thirteen blocks away from mine, I went up and knocked at the door. Alex hung out by the sidewalk. I stood there for a few seconds, then the door opened and there was Jericho, standing in the doorway.

“Hey, Jake!” Jericho greeted.

“Hey, man.” I greeted back to him.

Jericho asked if me and Alex would want to come in. I agreed to, although I didn’t know if Alex would want to. As I stepped inside, I saw Alex follow from behind.

Once we were in, Jericho shut the door and we followed him into the living room where he and his family were watching a movie.

“Mom, dad, this is my friend from school, Jake, and his brother Alex.” Jericho said, introducing us to his family.

“Hello.” I said, raising a hand.
Jericho stood in the center of the living room and introduced us to his family.

“Well you already know my twin sister Cassie. This is my older brother Brendan. He’s seventeen.”

“Hey guys.” Brendan smiled. He was a tall, athletic looking guy. He had dark brown hair and wore a light blue shirt with a darker blue pair of shorts. Below his lip was a darker brown mustache that made him look a little bit older than he really was.

“Hey.” I replied back.

“This is my little sister Elizabeth. She’s five.”

“Hi.” The little girl said in a shy voice. Like her older siblings, Elizabeth also had dark brown hair. She wore a bright pink shirt with a white unicorn in the center and a small pair of blue jeans. Her hair was tied into two pigtails in the back of her head.

“Hi there.” I said, smiling at her.

“And last but not least…my mom and dad!”

Jericho’s parents looked a bit older. His mom had a few noticeable wrinkles but she also looked really nice. The same was with Jericho’s dad. He wore a pair of glasses and also had some noticeable wrinkles.

Jericho’s mom and dad stood up and came over to us.

“It’s nice to meet you boys.” Jericho’s mom said, shaking our hands.

“So you’re the boy my son and daughter keep talking about. They tell me you’re a half…what was it?” Jericho’s dad said.

“A half-dragon, dad.” Jericho answered.

“Ah yes. A half-dragon. Now, what is that exactly?” Jericho’s dad asked me.

To answer his question, I turned around, inhaled deeply and closed my eyes. Alex asked me in a surprised tone what I was doing but I assured him it was okay and that we could trust them. I felt my wings rip through my shirt and my tail make its way out of my shorts. As soon as I was done changing, I turned around and looked at Jericho and his family. Everyone aside from him and Cassie looked surprised. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

Jericho’s brother, Brendan was about to talk but couldn’t find the right words.

“Well…that’s something.” He finally managed to say.

I urged Alex to show them his half-dragon form too. He sighed reluctantly. Not saying anything else, he did the same as I did: He turned around and changed into his half-dragon form. When he turned back to face them, he and I saw the shocked faces of Jericho’s family grew even more shocked.

There was a long silence as they tried to think of what to say. Then finally, Jericho’s mom spoke.

“So…those wings and tails…they’re…they’re real?” She asked, not knowing what else to say.

“Yeah. Me and Alex are half human and half dragon. We don’t normally show our half-dragon forms around humans.” I explained.

“Well I think that’s cool!” Elizabeth jumped up, grinning. “Can you fly?”

“Yeah. A bit. My wings aren’t that strong yet.” I replied.

“Do you two have any powers?” Asked Brendan.

“Yep. I can breathe and control fire and Alex can turn into a humanoid dragon.” I continued to explain to them.

Jericho’s family continued throwing question after question after question at me, making it hard for me to answer all of them. Every couple questions was followed by a comment about how cool they thought we were for being half-dragons and Elizabeth even stated she wished she could be part dragon. I felt a little nervous having so many people admiring me. I looked back at Alex, wondering how he was taking it. He was looking away, towards the door and although it was hard to make out, I could see it perfectly. Alex was smiling! It was a small smile but it was still a smile. I smiled back at him. It made me feel happy to see Alex happy.

I changed back into my human form, Alex doing the same. I asked Jericho if we should get going.

“Hang on a minute! I gotta get something from my room!” Jericho ran to his room. A few minutes later he returned holding a folded piece of paper. I wondered what it was but didn’t get the chance to ask him as we rushed out the door.

“Jericho!” His mom called to him. “Be home no later than five!”

“I will mom!” Jericho responded.

As we started on our way to my house, Jericho handed the folded paper to Alex.

“Here, Alex. This is for you.” Jericho said, giving Alex the paper.

“What is this?” Alex asked, looking at the paper that was still neatly folded.

“Open it.” Jericho insisted.

Alex stopped to unfold the paper. Once it had been unfolded, we saw what it was: a drawing. The drawing was of me, Alex, and Jericho with Theian and Z’haer. The five of us were together in the woods as we sat around a campfire. Strangely enough, the sky was colored a light blue, making it look more like it was morning or the afternoon rather than nighttime.

“Did you make this Jericho?” I asked.

“Yeah. I wanted to make something to try and cheer Alex up so I drew us in the woods.” Jericho explained.

“This is really good. I didn’t know you could draw.” I said, smiling at the picture.

“I draw sometimes.” Jericho replied.

Alex stood there, just looking at the picture. I didn’t think he knew what to say. After all, I didn’t think he’d ever gotten a present like that from a human before. I wondered what he was thinking.

He pulled away from Jericho’s drawing and looked at him. He slowly opened his mouth and it sounded like he was about to say something.

“Th…thanks.” Alex said, sounding surprised.

Jericho smiled at Alex. “No problem man! I hope it made you feel a little better.”

“Ye…yeah, it did.” Said Alex, folding the paper up again and putting it in his pocket.

We continued on our way back to my house. Once we were halfway there, Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out Jericho’s drawing. He looked at it while he walked.

“So hey…” Jericho said suddenly. “What are we doing?”

Alex folded the drawing up again and slipped it back into his pocket. “Jake thinks that our dad is keeping a dead body in his closet.” He explained.

“WHAT!” Jericho shivered. “Does…does he?”

“I don’t know.” I answered. “But every night for as long as I can remember, he would open his closet and talk to it. Something’s in there and I wanna know what it is. I mean, whatever’s in there’s gotta be important if he doesn’t let anyone look inside, right?”

“Or maybe he doesn’t want people going in his closet because it’s his. Besides, Jake, we’re supposed to be on a mission. I’m telling you, Dad’s gonna be pissed if he finds out we weren’t.” Alex said, sounding huffy.

“Don’t worry.” I smiled. “Remember, I got Theian to cover for us. We’ll be okay.”

Alex rolled his eyes and slapped his palm over his forehead, the bottom part of his hand covering his left eye.

After going down a couple more streets, we ended up back at home. I sighed, relieved knowing that dad and everyone else was out looking for places to take over. This made it perfect for us to sneak in and see what dad had in the closet.

We approached the door which was unlocked. I turned the knob and pulled the door open, letting us in the house. All the lights were off with the only light being from the sun. It was strangely quiet without dad or the others around. I wasn’t used to the house being so quiet or so empty.

Quietly, I led Jericho and Alex to dad’s bedroom. Opening the door, I looked around for a bit before going in. I was a little nervous. I had been in dad’s bedroom plenty of times but this was the first time I was going to see inside his closet. I really, really, really hoped that there wasn’t a body in there and it was something else.

The door to his closet was on the opposite side of the door we stood by, to the left of his dresser. We approached the door slowly. I was about to grab the knob and open the door when I pulled back. I didn’t know what to expect. What was going to be behind the door and would I be ready for whatever it was? My palms became sweaty. I forced my arm forward and grabbed the knob.

“This is it guys. Ready?” I asked nervously.

“Ready.” Alex said.

“Yeah. Go for it.” Jericho said.

It was now or never. We had already come this far and we were all ready. I closed my eyes and slowly opened the door. I pulled it open all the way, then let go of the knob.  Slowly opening my eyes, I saw that…

“There’s nothing in here. Just…clothes and boxes…” I said, feeling incredibly confused.

This didn’t make any sense! So this whole time…dad was talking to nothing? Could he have been talking to the boxes and his clothes?  No…this couldn’t be right. There had to be something else here! I wasn’t sure how but I was certain that something was in here.

“Hey, what’s that?” Alex asked, pointing to something that was poking out from between two boxes.

Alex got on his hands and knees and pulled whatever it was out from between the boxes. He got up and held it in both his hands. I knew it! I knew there was something else here. And there it was, resting in his hands.

“A sword.” I gasped.

I took the sword and held it by its  handle. I ran my hand over the blade. I had never held or even seen a sword before. Just holding it made me feel powerful. I felt like a knight who was on his way to save a princess and slay a dragon…Something I thought was kind of funny; a half-dragon thinking about slaying a full dragon.
I held the blade up and looked at it in awe. I noticed that there was something carved into both sides of the blade. Something was carved onto the blade in cursive. It was a little hard to read but the longer I studied the word, the easier it became to understand. T O U R A J E.  Touraje. That was the name dad said last night. So then this sword must have belonged to Touraje.

Suddenly, the front door opened, startling us. I was afraid dad might be back. And if it was him, then me, Alex, and Jericho were all in very big trouble.

The footsteps grew louder. Whoever it was, they were coming this way. I tried to put the sword back in the closet but it was too late. The person stepped into the bedroom and saw us standing by the open closet and me holding the sword. This person wasn’t dad but it was still someone who made me feel afraid.

“Oh! Hi, Eig’nia.” I said nervously.

“What on earth are you two doing here?” She asked.

When she noticed I was holding the sword, she gasped. An angry looked appeared on her face.

“Give me that!” She demanded, swiping the sword from me.

She held the sword close to her in her arms. She closed her eyes, a painful look appearing on her face. She turned to the three of us, her angry look returning to her face.

“Where did you find this?” Asked Eig’nia, sounding pretty furious at us.

“We found it in the closet.” I explained.

“And THAT’S where it should have stayed! You boys had no purpose sneaking around in your father’s closet!” Eig’nia exclaimed, sounding even more furious than she did before.

“We’re sorry, Eig’nia! Really! We are!” I pleaded.

Eig’nia looked at the sword, then looked at us and sighed. She set the sword on the bed and sat down next to it. She rubbed her eyes for a bit then spoke.

“Well I suppose you want to know the story behind that sword, huh?” She asked in a much calmer voice.

Me, Alex, and Jericho didn’t answer her. What were we supposed to say? We thought that any answer we gave her might just make her angry again.

Eig’nia told us to sit down and she’d explain everything. So we sat down in front of her and listened to what she was about to say.

“This sword used to belong to a very dear friend of your father and I’s.” Eig’nia began.

“Touraje.” I said.

“Yes. Touraje was slightly older than us. He was like our big brother. He was very strong and noble. He would have done anything to keep us safe. The three of us were apprentices to one of the previous Leaders of our village. While your father and I wanted simply to become Champion to our Leader, Touraje had a second goal in mind: He wanted to work with our Leader and make it so that humans and dragons would be able to live together peacefully. To better understand humans, our Leader would send us to the human realm to observe how humans live and interact with each other. On one of our visits, Touraje entered into a contest where he got this sword. It was also on that day that we met another of our friends.”

“Another friend?” Jericho asked.

“Yes. Like Alex and Jake, he was a half-dragon. And just like Alex, he was born to a mother dragon. They had been living amongst the humans for quite some time. His name was Cyrus. For a time, things were great. I thought that maybe I’d be able to spend the rest of my days with Saulstrance, Touraje, and Cyrus. But then…something happened to change all that.”

Eig’nia stopped for a moment and wiped her eyes. She took in a deep breath and, with a bit of trouble, exhaled. After a moment she continued with her story.

“A terrible event took place one night. As a result of what had happened, Touraje lost his life and we never saw Cyrus again.” Eig’nia sniffled. She wiped away a tear that was forming under her eye.

I wanted to ask her what exactly happened but I didn’t think it’d be right. She already looked like she was having a difficult time continuing. I felt so bad for Eig’nia and for dad. One of their friends was dead and the other they never saw again. I really hoped that wouldn’t happen to me. I didn’t know what I’d do if I lost Alex, Theian, Z’haer, Jericho or Cassie.

“I’m sorry Eig’nia.” I said in a soft voice.

Eig’nia wiped away a few more tears. She handed the sword to me and then stood up.

“Put Touraje’s sword back in the closet just like you found it and we’ll pretend this never happened. And I won’t tell Saulstrance that you weren’t on your mission. Is that fair?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Me and Alex said at the same time.

“Good.” She smiled sadly and left the bedroom.

So we did as Eig’nia asked and put the sword back where it was. I looked at Touraje’s name one more time before shutting the door and heading back into the hallway with Alex and Jericho. We saw Eig’nia, sitting at the dinner table, her arms folded, eyes closed, breathing calmly yet loudly at the same time.

“Hey, Eig’nia, can you do one more thing for us?” I asked.

“What is it?” She asked.

“This is the friend I was telling dad about. His name’s Jericho. If you’re not going to tell dad I wasn’t on my mission, then could you please not tell him Jericho was with us? He might think it was because of Jericho that—“

“Don’t worry Jakol.” Eig’nia smiled. “I promise I won’t tell him anything.”

I smiled back at Eig’nia. “Thank you so much!”

“But if I were you, I’d get out of here right now. Your father may be back soon and you don’t want him catching you boys here.” She said.

I gasped. “Good point! Let’s go!” I said to Alex and Jericho.

The three of us headed out the door and went down the street. Where we were going to go next, we didn’t know.  We just knew we’d have to go somewhere dad wouldn’t find us. I thought that maybe the three of us could go to the mall and spend some time there but it would be hard for me and Alex to fly if we were bringing Jericho with us. We could go to my school and stay there for a bit but what would we do once we got there? I guessed we had only one choice: Slowly go with Jericho back to his house and then slowly walk back to ours’.

I told Alex and Jericho what I think we should do. They agreed that that might be the best idea. I looked back one more time and saw a portal open up. From out of it emerged Z’haer, Theian, and Girido. I knew this wasn’t good. If they were already back, then that meant that dad was going to be returning soon. So, before they could see us, we headed further down the street.

“Hey Jericho, sorry we couldn’t hang out longer.” I said.

“It’s good! Don’t worry! We can hang out next weekend if you want!” Jericho smiled.

“Okay!”I smiled back.

We made our way down three blocks, continuing on our way to Jericho’s house.

“Man! That woman’s story was something!” Said Jericho with a look of surprise.

“‘Woman’? You mean Eig’nia?” I asked.

“Yeah, her! Man, what kind of stuff happened to your dad? What kinda guy is he?”

“Well…” I tried to think how I should describe him. “He…has a pretty scary face. And he doesn’t like when people fail him. He really, really wants to take over the world.” I tried to explain.

“Take over the world? But isn’t that’s what bad guys try to do?” Jericho asked

“But dad said he’s doing it to make the world a better place. He says that when this world is his, he’ll make it so that people don’t hate each other anymore. And people…like me and Alex won’t be mistreated by humans anymore either.” I explained.

“Can he really do that?” Jericho asked again.

“I think he can if we help him. Dad might be scary and really strict but he’s a good guy. Me and Alex…we believe in him. We have to.” I replied, looking down.

“I see.” I understand.” Jericho said.

After a few more blocks, we were at Jericho’s house.  We walked up to the door with him. Just as he opened the door, he turned to us.

“Well Jake, I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” He said.

“Yep!” I said back.

As Jericho entered his house, his mom came to the front door, surprised to see him home much earlier than she thought he’d be. He told her that we were going to go hang out at my house but my dad said we wouldn’t be able to stay. So, with nothing else to do, we decided to just hang out some other time.

“Well that’s good actually. Now you can help get dinner started.” She said, going back into the living room.

“Okay. See ya Jake. See ya Alex.” Jericho said before shutting the door.

I waved goodbye to Jericho. For some reason, when I saw him and his mom talking it made me feel…sad and jealous. My chest was hurting. It felt like it was on fire. I didn’t know what this feeling was or why I was so upset seeing Jericho and his mom together. I went back home with Alex, all the while feeling upset, trying to figure out what was wrong with me.