The deafening uproar from the crowd drives his fingers from his nose to his ears, and the boy turns his attention to the center of the circular enclosure. Two creatures the size of small planes face each other, baring white fangs and fanning their wings. Dragons. Young men sit atop each scaly spine, clinging with their legs.

The boys father nudges him with a turkey leg wielding arm. “Gonna be a good one today, innit,” he says gleefully, before ripping a piece of meat from bone with his teeth.

The boy nods, stretching his neck to see over the people in from of him. They were beautiful, the dragons. One green, with iridescent scales that glinted in the sunlight. One flaming red, with spikes sprouting from its skin.

“Like a horny toad,” the boy thinks.

He is fascinated by dragons. He spends hours upon hours at the library, reading about them and dreaming of one day becoming a dragon rider. He collects their scales and keeps them safe in a box underneath his bed. Whenever he is outside, he keeps a close eye on the sky, in hopes of catching a glimpse of their marvelous flight.

And now, at last, he’s seeing not one, but two dragons, right in front of his eyes. He feels a tinge of sympathy when he notices the chains around their necks. He forgets that in a moment, though, as the red dragon opens its mouth and expels a burst of flames. The boy, face aglow in firelight, has a sudden change of heart, regarding the chains

The green dragon returns a chilling wail and ascends with one foul swoop of its wings. As they flap, the wings generate a cyclone of dirt around the dragon. With a second wail, it sends the cyclone spinning into the red dragon, blinding it with dust. The green dragon takes this moment of weakness to attack the red dragon, feet first, claws extended.

The red dragon cries out, and the boy buries his face in his hands. He peeks through his fingers, moments later, to see the red dragon send another explosion of flame in the direction of the green one. The green dragon dodges the fire with a nimble spin of its body, inadvertently sending its rider hurling toward the earth. The boy gasps and squeezes his father’s arm as a siren blares through the stadium.

The green dragon rushes toward its rider, landing softly beside him on the ground. It nudges the man with its snout and rolls him over. Medicine men rush in, surrounding the unconscious rider. The formerly raucous crowd sits silently, breath held, waiting for a sign of wellness.

At last, the rider raises his head and looks around. Relief washes over the onlookers as the rider climbs to his feet and dusts himself off. He waves at the crowd and offers a smile. Then he looks over at the boy clutching his father’s arm, still wet behind the ears. He winks at the boy and tosses him a shimmering green dragon scale.

This is the scale the boy, now a young man, keeps in his pocket as he soars against violet skies on the back of his own dragon. A feeling so free and hypnotic as this could never be captured another way. That is, until he meets her. But we’ll save that story for another time.