I think there is one person I owe this story to. No... I know there is one person I owe this story to. I wonder if even that person reads this.

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“You don’t like dragons?” She tilted her head mysteriously.

I shook my head, “No. It’s not that, I just don’t… know what dragons are.”

Her eyes did not widen in shock or in anger. She only looked down quietly, as though a soft snowflake had landed on her shoe. And my eyes averting from this way to that, gazing from the tall, high shelves, to the little benches toward the sides, filled, brimmed, and crowded with musty and cobwebbed books like tides. Yes, it was as though it wer an ocean within the basement, the crests of pages and different painted binds.

“Can I ask where you got all this?” I reached out, hesitantly, toward a book on the shelf, merely glowing.

She lifted her head slowly, and her eyelashes moving up and her hazel eyes resting upon the book, “I… used to live in them. They were my homes; they brought me away from this cruel world. I don’t belong here.” Her voice almost lonely and tired, a voice I had never heard from her before.

My fingers, nearly paralyzed by my curiosity over-filling, tremulously diving through the air and nearing the glowing book, holding the secrets to the wonders of the so called ‘book’ and interesting tales about dragons.

Dragons are mystical creatures, birds with glimmering scales, and the breath of a rising storm. Its teeth are used for magic potions, and tears placed in hearths to burn ash. These tales about dragons… so enchanted, don’t you think?

Desire growing and aching in my hands, but at the same time I feared. The government, the school, they would all find me here reaching for a book that was the key to immediate suicide.

And fairies! Pixies! Giants and goblins! The creatures of the mystical woods! Fairies are like dragonflies and butterflies, with gentle, delicate wings, and an aura and glow. They sprinkle magic everywhere they go, leaving footprints under a toadstool.

My hand touched the spine of the book, and I felt a jibe thundering down my own. But soon my courage forced me to pull off the book slightly, and have it plundering into my hands.

It was a shock.

My eyes squeezed tight with fear, I could hear the sirens and shouts… the mechanical robot after me. And those other robots… wearing badges, capering over and sliding the book through my hands, burning it, tossing it, and then having the metal stone cast at my neck. Hurtling into darkness… and the same voices… over and… over… and the flames before me…

“Salt.”

My eyes blast open, and the darkness engulfed by streaking light.

The first thing I saw was her face.

And then I saw the book, the cover glowering at me.

The cover was detailed with a great, noble creature with scales and fiery eyes.

“This is a dragon.” Pepper pointed at the picture, “The king of dragons.” She looked up at me and gave a sweet smile, “Why don’t you read it?”

I felt her hand collapse around mine, so icily cold, “You’ll be safe here, they won’t find you. I promise.” She led me to a bench, and then had me sit down between two stacks of books.

“Read here, absorb yourself in these books.” She winked and then sauntered away, leaving me with the book.

Book, and me, how am I to do this?

Hello book… my name is… Chaco. Yours? A great, giant dragon that is king of all dragons.

I chuckled. What was I doing? Books can’t talk.

Or can we?

I stopped dead.

Your name is not Chaco. It is Salt.

I couldn’t speak, my throat so dry.

And indeed… we can talk. Open the book and you will read our words. Open it.

Not hastily at all, but more like scared, I lifted the cover and found myself within the boundaries of words… and imagination.

I heard the voice, louder than ever: You have now entered, a book. You have now entered, the pages of imagination and wonders. Within these borders, you will find adventures and never-ending tales. And now you have only but one choice. Read.

And eyes shut for a second, and then opening. The words were there, read.

There weren’t any pictures, anymore of those like on the front. And I read. Yes, I read.

It began in the deep forest, where dwelling was a great dragon: the king of all dragons. There were beams and shafts of sunlight flooding through the peeping holes and branches of the trees. There was a trickling heard from the river nearby, and the earth formed of the purest dirt ever seen.

And the gentle steps I took, no matter how soft, it was beaten by the tranquility and peace within the forest. And any stir, my breath, a brush of my hand across my brow, it could be heard like a mutter in silence. My heart thudded, and a cave carved through a giant rock. Inside the rock, it was dark as the night itself, and deep puffs of smoke could be smelt feet away.

I almost lost myself in the pages… I was almost feeling it all myself.

When Pepper came down.

“Salt! Hurry!! Come this way immediately!” She grabbed my hand, “Take another book if you please, just hurry this way.”

Her footsteps pounding on the cement, and my hand clinging onto my one book.

She was swift and quick, but still quite clumsy. My nimble hand stooped down, lifted her, and flung her across my back.

“Where to?” I asked her urgently.

“Left, yes. Yes, left… no wait, was it right? Yes, right. No… left.” She was counting with her fingers.

“Right, left?” I was ready to vault through one of the directions.

“Oh I hate these types of things! Left!” She cried.

Immediately, I sprung to the left and dashed through the maze corridors. My feet would not stop, and she seemed to be quiet and still. I dare not ask her how she knew they were coming.

“There will be another fork up ahead, on that turn, I demand you to turn left once more. And then right… do you understand?” She was yelling.

“I do. Just make sure you’re right.” I was eying for another fork.

When I found it, I turned so abruptly, my left shoulder slammed against the wall, and I was nearly rolling.

“Jibble mice!” She screeched as she was flung off my back and onto the floor.

But she crawled up quickly to come to my aid, “Are you alright? Did you damage anything?”

I felt a wincing pain to my left shoulder, and then I felt her cold hands touch it. The pain easing away quickly, rapidly, and then I felt no more pain.

“It’s bleeding.” She mumbled quietly, and then I heard her ripping the hem of her plaid dress and tying it about my arm.

But there was no pain, and no numbness either.

And then some odd thing happened. I remember it to this day.

She put her mouth to my wound and sucked it.

No pain… no numbness… but a mouth sucking at my skin.

She stopped soon, but I felt the strangeness in me.

She only stood up as though nothing had happened, wound up the cloth again, and then helped me to stand up.

She pounced onto my back, “Hurry! Let’s go already!”

The book clutched tight still; I began to run.

Run… run… run… it seemed like years. Running through, running left and right… her orders, demands… but still my mind was far away else.

The dragon, the tale, the voice, and her mouth: What strange things have happened to me… how it will change my life… forever.