Dragon Raja

30 - If Summer Lasted Forever

Arc 3 Prologue. The Dragon Girl. Part 1.

The first girl he fell in love with. A remembrance of Shavee; the girl who showed him the world, the girl he gave his heart to. And how she crushed it all beneath her human deceit and dragon claws. 

-

By the time Johann and Luminous had arrived at the Chicago train station after a grueling mission, they learned that the workers had all gone on strike. With waddled-up poster boards, trash scattered about, and no sound besides the echoes of their footsteps, the duo was left utterly alone.

The summer sun peeked through the windows of the station, showing evidence of dust particles floating about. The heat was at least a bit more bearable for the two of them as they sheltered themselves underneath a banner with big red letters spelling out; TRY A WEEK WITHOUT THE RAILWAY!

Luminous was a sweaty, incoherent mess. Mumbling and complaining about their unfortunate situation. A stark contrast to Johann, who remained cool and collected, even in the summer humidity and heat of Chicago. Despite fire flowing through his veins as an A-Rank dragon slayer, Johann was unfazed.

"I'm buying us a hotel room," Johann said, "we should stay somewhere until they're able to get the trains running again,"

Luminous groaned and threw his hands up in the air with frustration. "But for how long? I wanna go back to my dorm and play games!"

"We're just gonna have to wait it out," Johann told his friend.

While the two of them had previously believed they were the only ones scouting the abandoned train station, a loud, enthusiastic voice echoed from behind them.

"Did you say you were getting a hotel room?!"

The boys turned around, pointing their heads up toward the banner hanging on the balcony. From the top, they saw a petite girl with a wide grin on her face. Long, honey-brown hair framed her sharp jaw and radiant brown eyes. She looked like a troublemaker, yet completely innocent at the same time.

"Who are you?" Luminous questioned, heat rising to his cheeks immediately. He always got nervous when he talked to cute girls.

"I'm Sha—"

Before she could answer, the girl had unknowingly leaned over the balcony too far and flipped off, dragging the banner down with her.

"Wah!" She yelped and tangled herself up within the banner as she began falling fast to the ground.

"Oh no!" Luminous shouted, "what do we do?!"

Of course, his reaction time was fairly slow, meaning Luminous didn't notice that Johann was once again, he was there to save the day. His upperclassman was already in position right below the girl, and just before she was anywhere near falling and hitting the ground, he caught her safely in his arms.

She grunted at the impact but sighed with relief after Johann set her down gently on the ground, where she had no other chance to fall to her demise. All that, and not once even breaking a sweat. Luminous was in awe.

The light-weight banner was draped over her head, though the two boys could see her writhing beneath the sheet in an attempt to free herself. With little grunts and incoherent mumbling, the girl finally threw the banner off her head, her hair flying over her shoulders as she did so.

"Thank you for saving me," she gazed at Johann who simply nodded in response.

"Hey, you're pretty cute," Luminous blushed, inching closer to the girl. "What's your name?"