meanwhile part 1

"time to sleep" I said while turning the xbox off and putting something on the TV. I completely laid on the couch, grabbed a pillow and put it under my head. If there was something good on, that would've make sleep more easily. And the moment came,- it was past midnight, it had to come eventually- where I closed my eyes. the last time I closed my eyes as a human.

Like it's usually with dreams, I don't remember that one. I just remember opening my eyes and seeing a muzzle blocking my sight. I sat on the couch, shocked- still not panicking. I saw the muzzle, I examined it, I moved it just to check if it was real. It was. "calm down" I heard someone say to me. how come I haven't noticed that? well, anyways, A dragon just told me to calm down, probably I should- I opened my eyes wide. I was frozen. "It's me... don't panic" whoever that was, I'm sure that he didn't wanted me to freak out. but I couldn't. I was frozen. the dragon sighed in relief.

"hey, it's me. I'm Jacob". What? My brother is a dragon?!

Wait, I still had a muzzle on my nose. I raised my hand, it was now a real dark purple, almost black. I was speechless. I looked at the dragon once more. it was standing on its legs. was the same colour as I my hand was. Actually, looking at it from distance, I found it familiar.

"Wil, we changed. Remember that poster from the dragon we used to had when we were kids? well, we are now the dragon" I couldn't find an answer. out of my mouth only came nothing. I blinked several times. I was blocked, unable to move by myself, until-

"ouch!" I said rubbing my just slapped cheek "thanks. what happened?!"

"I don't know. It happened at night. I was waiting for you to wake up ever since"

"wh- wha- ho- is this-" all my uncompleted questions deserved another slap. but knowing my brother, I stopped his hand coming to my jaw. "why?"

"I don't know. But I won't get out like this to find out!"

"have you called someone?" I said rubbing my eyes with my new hands. It felt way much different now.

"no one answers." I replied with a hum. I turn the TV on and trying to change channels with my new claws on the hands isn't something you get down right on the first time. but I managed to reach the news. Some channels were shut down. others were playing some advertisements, but there was no one on the news channel. The camera was shooting a scene of a desk in front of a mirror to the highway. behind that glass, there were crashed cars. fire, smoke and blood. one could tell only looking at the screen. We were both unexpectedly surprised. until I press the off button. What the hell just happened? I was a bit afraid. Almost ignoring the fact my brother and I had become dragons. The same dragon that was on our childhood poster. Seriously, we had the same scar on our necks. As if, we were twins, replicas. but, in a way we already were marked as brothers. we were abandoned and raised by our own. Both of us used to have a birth mark. Jacob was a year older than me (or so have the doctors said). Now the stain on our right arms were gone and replaced by a scar on the left side of our necks.

"should I look out the window?" I asked him.

"I haven't. what if someone sees me like this?"

"I'll be careful" out there, out of that room. there was a world. a waking up world. with no humans in it. there were nasty creatures. Like figures made out of darkness and they were feeding from other dragons and giant eagles and horses... wait those weren't just eagles and horses! those were gryphons! those were centaurs! I made a sign to Jacob to come closer and see. he was as perplex as me. we were both in a second floor, were the sun only shined as the reflex of a glass building. the smell coming out of the street was recognised by both of us as the stench of death, putrefaction.

"Wilhelm, do you see what I see?"I nodded.

"we need to get out. how?"

"not through the streets, apparently."

"no kidding, you genius!" My tone of sarcasm was replied. I got hit in the head. My brother apparently didn't controlled his new strength as a dragon and he hit me so hard, that I napped out of the pain with a little roar, tucking my wings in and somehow, going defensive stance. next words were full of regret and a bit of sadness

"I'm sorry! did I hurt you? are you fine?"

"you think that was nice?!" I shouted at him.

"oh thank god! I was worried."he paused "You gave me an idea. we will fly out"

"where to?" wait, wasn't I concerned by the word "fly"? that's weird...

"well, bro... there are some things that are a mystery. but we know something! and knowledge is power. I know I can trust you, even if you're a little bit of a hard-head sometimes"

"I know I can trust you, too, dummy. still, you didn't answer my question!"

"anywhere! to get help! to find somewhere safe!" he shouted

"calm down before I slap you!" He did calm down.

I laughed. Two brothers, in the form of a dragon from their childhood, arguing and slapping each other isn't something you see everyday. he chuckled too. I then wiped of a tear of laughter and told him:

"are you serious? we need to pack. Get all what you need. Don't carry extra weight. we need to fly, not take a plane."

"yeah, one question... do we go naked or will it do with just scales?" I looked back at the couch, which now had the clothes of yesterday all ripped off on it. I then realised we were naked, nothing but scales. it was kind of awkward. comfortable, but awkward.

"I really can't tell. clothes don't fit with wings and tails."

"look. it's the morning and we haven't had breakfast. you make something because I'm about to die from starvation. and I'll make some holes here and there and we'll have some pants." he grabbed the scissors from the drawer and a bunch of pants. I shrugged and open the fridge.

I went to the kitchen, focused on not to step on anything and not letting my tail smash everything on my way. it felt weird. now I had seven limbs, excluding head. I really wanted to see me in a mirror. but as far as I could see, I was identical to my brother.

"eggs it'll be" I said grabbing a bunch of eggs out and a pan. It took me three eggs until I've got the hand of how not to break them. We had our last breakfast in our department. we had a pair of scrambled eggs each and a cup of coffee. Weird thing, it was like a regular breakfast, as if we were just normal. one would think that as a dragon you should eat more. well, not really. we just ate all the things that could go bad and took the rest with us.

"I told you" I said with a grin.

"I knew you were going to say that" He knew what I was referring. I was talking about the dragon on the poster. we once argued about what kind of dragon was it. turns out it was a bipedal dragon. which is convenient to the situation. But it never really existed, until now. now there were two dragons. I chuckled and placed the egg in my mouth. My sharp fangs crushed it in a matter of seconds. sharpies, I thought.

I put the shorts on, first was the tail, then you had to tuck in your legs to make them pass through the hole. it was rather simple but worked. It is summer, so there won't be much trouble with not wearing clothes. we made a  backpack each. with blankets, food, some money, a cellphone, my brother took his laptop and music players, I took my book a blank notebook and a bunch of pens. And of course, I packed our chess set.

"you don't know if there's still electricity and don't know if those are going to last long..."

"it's worth trying. what if we found somewhere? or someone with a cellphone?"

"I guess one does never know"

we took each a butcher knife. One never knows what you may encounter. So we took the responsibility of carrying a weapon with us.

"ready to go?" I looked one last time at my former house. I nodded and let go my old lifestyle.  

we open the door to the hallway. For some reason we were quiet. probably because we weren't used to walk as dragons. the building we were living in was ten floors height, we took the stairs to the rooftop. but we heard something, when we reached the  ninth floor. It sounded like someone waking up in the morning.

It looked like someone was just about to get a surprise when he or she sees what happened. the noise came from behind a door, another department. I knocked the door. My brother angrily asked me in whispers:

"what are you doing!?"

"what if it is another dragon? we know nothing about nothing!"

The door started opening. The sight of what was opening it made me react almost instantly. I throw a fist on its face and closed the door.

"that was a zombie!"

My brother was just as shocked as me. there was a small silence between us, interrupted by some mourning's from the other side (which made us jump like little girls). But the door didn't opened a second time. and after some steps up, we got to the rooftop.

"what do we do now?" asked Jacob. I couldn't resist but to think one thing.

"Remember when we had chosen our names?"

"Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. We are to tell the tale"

"A name won't do enough. Now, I don't know much about dragons, but I know about flying." And I showed him how to move the wings in order to displace air to propel one self on air.

"so, it's like a spoon. Understood? it's likely that we won't be able to stay on one spot, just go forward. well, flying one-o-one is over. It's time for getting practical started."

And now that was a long time ago. Me and my brother were a bit afraid of the idea. We stood on the corner of an old buildings' roof. All of the sudden, we saw our fear in front of us, in the middle of our thoughts. And it said: "you'll never make it, you'll see. you'll meet the floor". Well, me and Jacob, we looked at each other, and we said: "don't care". And we ran as fast as our legs could just so happened to be, our first flight in this crazy world, the morning of a us as dragons. Looking from the sky, it was easy to see, we were side by side, bonded bonded by far more, than the destiny. Now, every time I take off, I know my fear is gone and his is too and we still grow old. Needless to say, where we headed. We flew with the wind- and the clouds followed us. and dragons ask us: "are you scared?" and we say: "Nay! We are but brothers!"

and that's the truth, I wasn't afraid. I was confident. I was with my brother all along. We were each others' missing wing. We were the perfect machine. we laughed, while on the ground was doom and devastation going on. We were kings of the beyond. Where we could've never reached before. we broken the chains, but it was hard back then. We weren't the aces we are now when we started. we barely flew and that was enough to make our day and we kept on studying to improve each time. But back then I realised something. we weren't there to tell the tale. We were there to make it.