The tattoo on my left arm burned, and again reminded me that it was still there. My hand shot to it in a knee-jerk reaction. That wasn’t going to stop the uncomfortable pain emanating from it.

“It’s like a built-in warning signal. Other Zodiacs are around.” Colin explained unhelpfully. That explanation made it sound like there was no way to make it stop.

“Uh huh.” I absentmindedly pulling up my sleeve to look at it. The Dragon wrapped all the way up my arm and onto my shoulder. It’s face was fierce, and bared its scary teeth at me. I didn’t like the way it looked. Why couldn’t it appear a little less violent? I wasn’t really the type that liked scary things. Granted, I didn’t like cute and fluffy things either. It was more of a healthy balance in the middle.

I pushed my sleeve down to cover the embarrassingly large tattoo. It was bigger than anything I ever thought I would get. I did want a tattoo; I was thinking of getting a small one on my left forearm. Guess that isn’t an option anymore. In front of me was an empty field of grass surrounded by trees.

I tried to tell myself that I wasn’t bothered by where we were. I tried not to panic about being so far away from home. Two hours by flight was apparently days by car. What would my parents think of this trip? Would they freak out? No, of course not, Sam. They would be more freaked out by the ten foot dragon with wings.

“Where are we?”

“Outside Whimsul Village, near the council building. Follow us.” Colin motions for me to follow him as he walks toward the center of the field. Now, I know, I don’t know anything about magic, but I didn’t see a building in side for miles. So unless they somehow made an entire building disappear, we were in the middle of nowhere land.

I trudged through the knee-level grasses to catch up to Colin. As we neared the center of the otherwise empty grass field, I began to notice a shimmer in the air. I picked up my pace to match Colin’s. The closer I got, the more visible the building appeared. The shimmer reflected in the sunlight and made the building almost impossible to see, but somehow, a large white building sat perched right in the center.

I stand corrected.

I was amazed by the exquisite carvings dug into the sides of the white marble walls. Drawings of creatures with magic flowing from their hands in ancient drawing styles. I stopped a few feet before the sliding glass door that acted as the entrance, and let my head fall back. I felt like I needed to stare straight up at the carvings. I never wanted to look away. The sheer size would do me in alone, but the ancient air around them spoke volumes about how sacred this place was. Was it insulting to allow me, a human-bred mistake of a dragon, to be a Zodiac?

“Wow,” Was all that could come from my slack-jawed expression.

“Come on. Stare later, be a Zodiac now.” Colin continued in his usual way by tugging harshly on my bad arm. My neck bent back more to adjust as we neared the building. When the art was completely out of view, and all that was left was office style ceiling, I focused my attention on the problems at hand.

I was having strange thoughts. What if Colin and I came back here later, and just laid under the stars and watched the carvings? I could make some ham sandwiches, pack them in a basket and we could have a picnic date. A date? Was I insane? I see ancient paintings of creatures on the wall for half a minute and suddenly I’m planning a picnic date. I need to get my head checked out.

But then I was back in that dream like state. Colin laughing at something I’d said, Colin enjoying the food and pointing out carving and explaining what they meant. Me, leaning closer and closer until my hand was touching his-

“What are we doing?” I tried, and utterly failed, to change the direction of my uncontrollable thoughts.

“You are going to a meeting. Three minutes from now. It’s rude to be late.” Colin scolded me. His voice and attitude were nothing like those daydreams I had. We passed what looked like a front desk, and down a hallway. There were pictures of older Zodiacs hung in decondant gold frames. A long line of pictures later, the hallway opened up into a large oval shaped room. It had a beautiful oak table centered in the middle with people milling about around it.

I looked up and was met with more moving images on the dome shaped ceiling. High white pillars rose up from the marble white ground, and lead right into the beautifully painted Zodiac Constellations. I watched as the animals like taurus charged toward the other side of the ceiling, and the dragon slithered around like a snake with wings. I knew the story behind the dragon constellation as it was told by humans, but not by actual dragons. I wonder if Colin’s story of Draco would be different.

Colin gently pushed me into one of the chairs while I still stared at the ceiling like an idiot. I couldn’t seem to stay focused. Everything was new, everything was worthy of staring at for hours and wondering things that I really shouldn’t wonder. That image of Colin sleeping on my shoulder itched the back of my brain. There was no way to scratch a thought away.

“Uh, hi, I’m Sam.” I felt like I had to say something. There were small groups of people all murmuring and talking amongst themselves. Have you ever been to a government meeting, or a court case? It was that time before official things started where people just talked about things while ignoring everyone else. Needless to say, no one acknowledged me.

“The waiting room is down that way,” A man with a dark black and purple cloak pointed toward the hallway we’d just come out of. Oh, that’s right. Colin said no one knew that I was the Zodiac yet. In order to save Colin the embarrassment of having to explain why we were here, I had to tell him who we were. I hadn’t introduced myself- no that wasn’t the word he used- he said that I had to announce myself. I can do that. Easy as pie.

“Hello, everyone. My name is Sam Reid, the new dragon Zodiac. Nice to meet all of you.” I stood, and spoke over everyone else. The murmuring stopped dead, and I was left to drown in the sea of blank eyes and dropped mouths. I did something wrong again, didn’t I.

“Right, well I’m just dropping this off.” Colin patted my shoulders once in acknowledgment of “this”.

“Wait, Colin, please stay.” My cheeks burned fire. If I could mess up this bad in the first thirty seconds of being here, Zodiacs help me, I won't make it through the whole meeting alone. Colin gave me sympathetic look and shrugged his shoulders in a “What can you do” sort of way. There were plenty of things he could do. He could get me out of here, for starters. I wanted so badly to be anywhere but here. My legs felt like cement blocks and refused to let me run away.

The man at the head of the table had a label reading “Axrus Warren, Warlock Zodiac”. Axrus laughed as hard as he could when he saw me beg like a small child. The red of embarrassment spread from my cheeks down to the back of my neck. I averted my eyes to the ground. The room tensed.

A sharp inhale came from Colin and his mouth was open like he was about to say something. Instead, he bowed low and turned his back to me. As he walked away, something small in my heart gave a little. He didn’t defend me and he didn’t stay- why would he anyway? What did I expect from a guy I barely knew?

“The council convenes, by order of the Zodiacs.” Axrus hit his wooden gavel against the table top and a loud bang echoed through the room. The people hurriedly took their seats. The girl to the opposite of me, “Mariana Mae, Merpeople Zodiac”, had slightly tinted green skin, and wheeled herself up to the table in a wheelchair. I averted my eyes to avoid staring.

I decided I’d better not accidentally insult anyone, or say anything more stupid than I already had.