Secret Dragon

Sasha frowned. He always looked so frustrated during class, grumbling to himself. He was staring down at a piece of paper, our latest test. Another D. He crumpled the paper and threw it into his bag. “I hate this fucking place,” he whispered under his breath. He sat at a table alone behind us.

My friend Pam hazarded a look. She was a slender lizardfolk with sleek greenish skin. She had a long pretty face. “He’s failed again. I feel bad for him. Maybe he needs a tutor. You could.”

“I don’t know. He seems kind of intense.” I was larger that her. I was Komodo. I’d always been rather sensitive that I was larger than everyone else except other Komodo like me.

“Don’t be judgey Leila. Anyways let’s be partners for the next project.”

“Bet!” I said. Our professor spoke up from her desk.

“Alright class. Go check the list to see who your partner will be for the next assignment. Then join tables.”

Of course. Me and Pam rolled out eyes and laughed. “Or not,” she said, hunching her shoulders.

I glanced at Sasha. He just rubbed his furrowed scaly brow but didn’t bother to get up. I left mine with Pam.

I stood in a small line waiting to see the list on my way out the door.

“Leila and Sasha! Heh heh, good luck smarty pants!” I pushed Jonah’s arm. He was a greenish lizardfolk with big green eyes.

“Don’t be an ass. We will be fine.”

“He’s the worst student in class. Even you can’t work your magic on that.”

I folded my arms and watched Jonah walk back to his seat. Pam looked at me. “So about that tutoring then?”

I groaned. “He doesn’t even need tutoring,” I said under my breath. Even so, I could not afford to fail an assignment.

I stalked back to my seat and grabbed my things. Then went to Sasha’s table. We had never interacted before this moment. His skin was red and scaly. He wore a long sleeve jacket.

“Hi partner!” I said trying to be chipper. He glanced at me, his brow raised skeptically.

“Hi,” he said as quietly as he possibly could. His voice! It was deep with a curious rumble underneath. He didn’t speak to anyone, and never spoke during class, so I was a bit taken aback by it. “Smartest girl in class huh. Well I’m sorry you have to get me for a partner,” he whispered, a bit bitterly.

“U-uhm… no don’t say that. We’ll be just fine. So, right. We should decide on our topic for our documentary.”

He looked exasperated. “I know. I’ve thought about it. If you don’t mind?” He gestured toward the seat next to him. I was surprised he actually had an idea. I smiled and sat down. Hey, it wouldn’t be so bad if he was looking forward to it.

We all were told that Sasha was a lizardfolk like us, as that is what the story was when he transferred. But we assumed it was a cover because of his dad’s job as an ambassador.

I had my doubts about his lineage as well of course.

He was a big guy, and much more slow and deliberate with his movements than any of my fellow lizardfolk friends, regardless of their lizard ancestry. Some were extremely skittish, and others were a bit more regular speed. I was slower but not like him.

Now sitting next to him up close, I could see more aspects of his appearance. His teeth were thicker and sharp. His jaw strong. Even though he wore long sleeves—always now that I thought of it— I saw beautiful scales underneath on his wrist. He tugged his sleeve down, hiding them. He claws were similarly thick. They were like obsidian. They shone in the light.

I’d never met a lizard folk with scales like that. Sasha was always intense. But now, looking at his notebook, he seemed more subdued. He flipped through the pages.

He leaned over and pushed it toward me. “These are some ideas I wrote down over the week. They’re all kind of similar…” he said enthusiastically. Now that he was closer and speaking at a normal volume, I could hear that rumble underneath again, like a motorbike almost. A strange intense heat wafted from his mouth almost across the page. I moved my hand, and that made him clamp his mouth shut. “Shit…” he whispered through his teeth. That heat sealed the deal.

“Don’t say anything,” he pleaded.

“I won’t!” I said. He was searching my face, probably to determine if I was telling the truth. His eyes were green, the slit pupils ringed in green. He relaxed. “Thanks. We can talk about it if you like. It’s complicated.”

“Uh huh…” I said, dazed.

I must have been staring hard because I heard my phone vibrate. Shaking my head from my reverie, I saw that I’d gotten a text. It was from Pam. OMG GRL Close your mouth! Ur basically drooling!

“Fuck!” I whispered, putting my phone down. I wiped my lower lip.

Sasha glanced over. “What?” he asked.

“Nothing!” I said a bit too quickly. I quickly texted back while professors back was turned. OMG He’s like… idk. Fuck!

I had not idea what to say. He just raised raised his eyebrow and chuckled under his breath.

Damn he’s got you like that?? Pam texted.

Yes. His voice is so deep!

I saw my professor turning toward us so I pushed my phone away. “Right soooo. Ideas. Which do you want to do the most? I’m game for any of them.”

He inclined his head toward the page and tapped it. “This one. The True Life of Dragons.”

“Cool. What’s the gist?” I asked, taking out my notebook.

He lowered his voice. “We aren’t like what these books say. None of it is true. It is appalling and downright offensive some of the things we learn here. Dragontongue is much worse. As a native speaker, no one speaks that way. It is so robotic. It lacks any nuance at all.”

My eyes widened. “I wondered about that. Everyone knows about your grades. But you have near perfect grades in everything else.”

He sighed, heat gently rolling from his mouth. “I answer honestly, but get marked down because it does not line up with this horrible curriculum. I refuse to answer with untruths. Of course no one here knows. You wouldn’t know.”

I looked down in guilt. “Well I’m Komodo, and my ancestors are from Lyfax so I’ve known of a lot of the discrepancies. But I learned this version to get good grades. I’m studying abroad there soon.”

He smiled. “I knew it. I’m from Lyfax.”

“I know. We all know; your dad is to be ambassador but no one has seen him yet. And we weren’t certain about whether you were dragonfolk or not. Lyfax is diverse place.”

“Yeah it is. Sometimes people can be a bit funny about us dragonfolk. But…well the cat’s out of the bag already. I did not know people suspected.” He twirled a pencil in his hand. “So what do you think of this idea?”

I thought about it. How fitting it would be to document actual dragonfolk instead of the sanitized history we learned. It would certainly make a splash and shut up a lot of people about him.

“Okay,” I agreed. It was a gamble but an intriguing one. “Why hide it then? That you’re dragonfolk?”

He smiled. “I suppose you’re right if everyone knows already.”

He removed his jacket for once, revealing his large arms with sleek reddish scales. I place my clawed hand to my chest. My voice caught. Pam turned around to whisper something to me, but she stopped, shocked. She spun back around.

“Okay partner. We better get to work then,” he rumbled. “I’ve been looking forward to working with you anyway,” he laughed.

My phone buzzed. Ur in trouble

I was in trouble. But I was looking forward to it.

Edit: just a little more story below.

Edit: I cannot believe y’all got me to write a whole steamy story about dragons.

Edit: If you should come across this and want more. Stop by every once in a while.