When Dragons Need Self-Help Books

Damn it.

The tracker had followed her into the bookstore. Unfortunately, dragons gave off a particular scent that was easily identified by those who hunted them, even when they were in their human form. Sybil scurried down one of the many aisles of the brightly lit store, trying to avoid drawing attention to herself. If she could just blend in with the humans that perused the shelves for long enough to mingle their scents together, she might be lucky enough to slip away. The good thing was that trackers were not allowed to reveal themselves to the humans. The bad thing was that neither was she. Humans weren’t supposed to know about the magical beings that walked among them. She turned down another aisle, head low, keeping her footsteps soft on the carpeted floor.

           Once, only a year ago, Sybil would have been revelling in the hush of the store, and the smell of crisp white pages of the thousands of books that lived here. Had it really only been a year since everything had changed? It felt like a lifetime. She hadn’t come here since that fateful night when her life had been turned upside down. The night when The Guild had come to her and told her that her whole life was a lie. She was adopted. Her parents weren’t actually her parents. As if that wasn’t enough to take in, it turned out her real mother was a dragon. She had laughed in their face; there was no way dragons were real. They had ignored her, tore her away from her life and thrust her into a world she hadn’t known existed; where all the mythical creatures from her books turned out to be real.

Tears pricked the back of her eyes as she remembered her parents. Not her biological parents but her adoptive ones. The ones who had raised her like their own. The ones she still felt more connected to than the dragon mother who was always away on some mission or other for the Crown Prince of Travchem. The Guild had insisted that they needed to fake her death to remove her completely from her old life. It was for the best they said. It had broken her parents’ hearts. It had shattered hers. The Guild had filled her days with training on how to fight, how to harness her magic and how to transform into a dragon at will. She was always so exhausted she hadn’t had the time to properly grieve for her old life.

Shaking off the memories, she refocussed on hiding from her pursuer. She grabbed a book blindly off the shelf, opened to a random page, and buried her nose in it. Words came into focus and she read, “When faced with unavoidable conflict, be prepared, take control of the situation and don’t show weakness! In this chapter, we’ll break down the different types of colleague and customer that you are likely to clash with and show you, step by step, how to show them who’s boss!”

She snapped the book shut and looked at the cover. A perky businesswoman in a slimming black dress grinned back at her beside the title, “A Step By Step Guide On How To Succeed In The Corporate World.” A hysterical laugh tried to bubble its way out of Sybil’s throat as she realised she was in the self-help section of the book store. Oh Gods, the irony. Technically, the infuriatingly cheerful woman wasn’t wrong. She needed to stop playing the role of the mouse and figure out a way to fight this guy on her terms.

She slipped the book gently back onto the shelf. Another title caught her eye, “How To Use Your Own Life Experience To Be A Winner.” That was an interesting thought. Sybil knew how to fight, although she wasn’t sure she could take on a tracker with a lifetime of experience when she had only been in training for a year. She knew how to transform into her dragon form at will now, but the tracker would have combat training in killing all manner of beasts. Plus, if she revealed herself to this many humans, she ran the risk of having her magic taken away by The Guild. She’d heard about magical creatures who had flouted the law and had their magic removed. The loss of that part of their soul tended to send them crazy. It was a fate worse than death; she refused to risk her sanity unless she had no other option. She cast about in the recesses of her mind to come up with an idea that would give her an edge over her would-be attacker. She knew this bookstore like the back of her hand from when she used to visit it every month in her past life. She knew how humans thought, better than most of the self-absorbed Guild Members. Another book jumped out at her, “HELP! What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do.” This was getting weird now. It almost seemed like the books were trying to help her. As she reached the end of the aisle, one last book grabbed her attention, “So You Want To Be A Security Guard.” How bizarre. She could hear the soft padding of the hunter as he turned down the aisle behind her. There was nothing else for it. She screamed, “Help! That man is following me! Call security!” The bookstore seemed to spring to life with the sound of many feet as a crowd rushed toward her. As she expected, the humans would always offer aid to a young female being threatened by a man. She knew there was a security guard at the mall next door who would only take a minute to arrive. She was counting on the fact that the tracker wouldn’t risk exposing his true nature to such a large number of humans. She caught his eye as he bolted out the door away from the horde. He glared daggers at her, his teeth bared in a snarl of frustration. She took a shuddering breath as comforting hands patted her back. She was safe, for now at least.

Thank the Gods for the self-help aisle.