The sun was about to rise; it was a few days later, and David had stayed up too late. He'd been enjoying the act of changing too much to stop trying out different forms. Inside the house, he couldn't change into the true dragon form. There wasn't enough room, but the other forms were fun nonetheless. 

His favorite was still the dragonfly. Though his father had winced seeing that form. Eventually, his mother came in and rushed David off to bed. 

Left alone, Jeremy slouched, putting his head in his hands. 

***

"Mommy," David hugged the blanket to his chest. He had never tried falling asleep when it was light out before. "Did the Shape Shifters create the humans?"

His mother tried fixing the blanket, but she stopped moving at her son's question. "Yes, David. I imagine so."

"Why do the dragons like to take human form? We could be different. We could be anything we wanted to be." David looked at his mother's confused face. 

Seeing his gaze, she smiled slightly. "I believe that the humans came first, but the Shape Shifters wanted something more, so they created the dragons. We are simply the second form of the humans."

"So we're better? The dragons are better in the eyes of the Shape Shifters?"

His mother sat down on the edge of the bed. "I suppose that depends on which Shape Shifter you ask. I imagine Life sees that all life forms carry the same weight."

David frowned. "I don't understand."

She shrugged. "I know of dragons that have chosen to live completely in a different form than that of a human. I suppose it's really just what we've all been taught."

"You suppose a lot of things." David wrinkled his nose. "Why can't the Shape Shifters just tell us things like this? Why does it have to be stories passed down?"

"And you ask a lot of things," Rachel Delmer patted David's legs. "Get some sleep, maybe the Shape Shifters will speak to you in your dreams."

She stood up and left his room. She stopped by the door, grabbing the doorframe. She glanced over her shoulder to smile at her son, before leaving David's view. 

He rolled over, trying to get comfortable. It was harder to fall asleep when light filtered through the walls. 

David couldn't shake the feeling that his mother hadn't answered his question. 

***

There was a patch of sunlight that hit the side of Aiden's house. It was a good place to relax. It was quiet; only the birds offered interruptions. Aiden would often sit against the wall, leaning his head back. Today, the older dragon was sitting there.

"Aiiiiiiiden." David skipped towards the house of his friend. 

Sometimes it was quiet. 

Aiden popped one eye open. "Scram, David." 

David pouted. "I just want to play."

Aiden groaned, closing his eye. "I don't." 

"What do you think of the humans?" David sat next to Aiden. 

A snarl escaped from Aiden's throat. Not opening his eyes, Aiden flashed teeth that he had allowed to sharpen. "Who cares about them?" 

"I don't know." David pulled at the weeds on the ground. "I've just been thinking..."

"Don't." Aiden jerked his eyes open. "I told you the humans hate things that are different from them. So don't think about them. They don't matter." 

"Yeah..." David looked away from the intense expression his friend had on his face. "But right now, we're both in the form of a human..." David frowned. 

"Doesn't make us human." Aiden pushed himself off the wall, but he didn't stand up. "Doesn't make us anything like them." 

"Oh." David pulled a weed out of the ground. He stared at the roots. "I guess that makes sense." 

Aiden stood up, leaving the sunlight's path. "Anyway, get lost, David." 

David stared at the older dragon. David must not have been old enough to understand what he had done wrong. 

David wasn't old enough to know what was wrong. 

Aiden looked over his shoulder. His eyes dropped to look at David. It seemed like even the trees leaned closer, anticipating the next words the older dragon would say. 

"Just..." Aiden turned away. "Just get lost." 

David watched his friend walk back into his house. At least the sun was warm. 

David turned his attention to the weeds he had pulled out of the ground. He arranged them into shapes. Using his finger, he drew lines in the dirt. 

He couldn't shake the feeling that his question hadn't been answered. 

Journal Entry

Aiden and I steadily grew farther apart, and his hair continued to get longer. I still don't know what Aiden was doing when he refused to let me hang out with him, but I have a good guess. I find comfort in the fact that my father probably knew what happened with or without me being there. 

35 years later, I eventually replaced Aiden with a boy around his age. He was one of the newcomers. They claimed to come from across the ocean. With a claim like that there was very little we could do to prove they weren't dragons. We never saw them change; well, some dragons didn't like changing.

They called themselves the Ziron. It was a funny name to me, even at the time, but— like the other dragons— I trusted them. The Darii trusted them, so who had a right to say otherwise? 

End Journal Entry