Reversed Aftermaths

I.

The dust covered the town, causing the people that had managed to survive to choke on the congested air. The coliseum was nowhere to be seen. The spectators that had filled the seats in expectation of the show to come, had vanished. Smushed beneath the rubble of what was once an arena. The young boy tossed a broken piece of the building off of an old man’s corpse. The man’s eyes staring off into the distance with an unnamed sadness. The boy held onto his father’s lifeless body as he soaked the old man’s clothes with his tears. He could only tell himself that it wasn’t his fault. That he hadn’t known and if only he had, things would have turned out differently.

II.

The dragon flapped its wings with all of its strength, causing the coliseum to be filled with strong dusty winds that blew across the town with such ferocity it seemed the little town would be blown away. The dragon rose higher and higher into the sky, not caring to look down to people terrified below. For a moment, the people could not see the dragon behind the clouds and began to believe that they were saved from the awful disaster they had expected to come with the appearance of such an uncontrollable beast. Then not a second later, did a loud shrill echo through the clouds, a dark shadow suddenly appearing behind it. The dragon cried in terror as it fell down to the little town of Patmos as though it had forgotten how to fly or had fainted midair. With one loud thump, the dragon crashed to the ground, shaking the entire town and crushing the coliseum with its weight. With the air still covered with dust and debris, a young boy laid in the center of the arena, hidden behind the fog. His clothes were all bloody and tattered. His face scratched as though he had fought with a rabid animal. Amidst the numerous wounds, the boy still breathed.

III.

Staring into the eyes of the spectators was a real dragon. No one had ever seen a dragon, not here in this little town of Patmos. The dragon was bigger than anyone had expected it to be, though no one expected a dragon in the first place. It wore sharp black scales along its rigid body and pointy golden horns atop its large head. With bloodshot eyes, it found a particular audience member that had caught its attention: An old man. Masking his face with a gray full-grown beard, and wearing clothes in need of mending was an old man who miraculously did not faint when face to face with a beast. In fact, he looked pitifully at the beast as though he understood something that no one else quite understood. In that quick instant, it seemed as though the beast communicated with the old man, though if so, it didn’t explain why in the next moment the beast whipped its tail through the air and knocked down the archway of the coliseum, squishing people beneath its rubble. The dragon stared up to the sky as if waiting for something to come. And when nothing came the dragon let out a ferocious cry as though it had gone out of control.

IV.

The boy breathed a nervous breath as he made his way to the center of the arena. With golden horns coming out his brown head of hair, the people barely gave him a second glance. The most common of pairs was a goat. His father’s pair had been a goat, though he’d never seen it for himself. There was no way for him to prepare for this day. No child under eighteen was allowed to transform into their pair until the Day of Red Sun. The boy removed the bracelet that had helped him maintain his human appearance, and placed it in the pocket of his timeworn pants. Giving a nod to his father in the audience, he closed his eyes as though he were meditating. The boy stood for a few minutes with the crowd slowly growing more and more impatient. First, his golden horns began to grow taller and taller, and then sprouting around his arms and face were shiny black scales like the ones you might find washed up on shore from a harpooned fish. Now the spectators inched forwards in their seats, surprised at the unexpected transformation. The black scales began to cover his entire body from his forehead to his toes which had now snapped his boots in half because the large three-toed feet had grown much too large to fit inside the shoes. Next, a snakelike tail appeared behind him, swaying incessantly. When the scales had completely covered every inch of his skin, all that was left were his golden eyes staring helplessly at his father as if unable to control the transformation. And without a word spoken, the boy, now more a beast than a boy, began to grow larger and larger until he could barely fit inside the coliseum walls. With one last helpless look at his father, the dragon’s eyes glowed red.

V.

He hugged his father one last time before the old man walked off to find a seat in the audience of spectators. The boy stood behind the coliseum walls, hiding amongst the shadows as he watched the other children amaze the crowd with their transformation, one boy turning into a crow while another turned into a deer. He wished to do the same. To not just be a simple goat as everyone believed he would be. To be something more. Something that would surprise everyone and make his father proud. For that was what he most desired: to make his father proud. The young boy stood at the entrance to the arena, nervously awaiting his turn to step forward. First, his hands grew sweaty and then he began to feel feverish as he looked into the jeering crowd. Most were complete strangers that had come from far off places to see the show, but that thought only made the boy more anxious as this performance would be their first and possibly last impression of him. He felt underprepared for the task at hand and he had yet to find out how he was to accomplish it without making a fool of himself on stage in front of an audience but more importantly, his father.

VI.

The boy’s father smiled at his son. He was proud of him. The father took his son’s hands in his and felt the boy’s black-beaded bracelet with his fingers. It had kept him safe all these years. It had kept the family safe. Pulling his son in for a hug, the old man then gave the young boy an affectionate kiss on the forehead. Ducking under the man’s arms, the boy escaped his father's clutches. They laugh at the father’s beard that tickles when they hug. After eating lunch together in their one-room house, the two walk out the door side by side, smiling to each other as they walk to the towering coliseum that can be seen far off in the distance on the other side of town.