You probably thought this was already a strange story, but hang on because here’s where it gets really bizarre. With all this new information, Dragon began to feel confused and disorientated, so he stepped outside for fresh air. As he did so, he noticed for the first time that it wasn’t ‘fresh’ at all but full of soot and fumes. He looked around at the exhausted people trudging home after a long day at work, and he could see they were afraid of him, but they also looked at him with contempt. It was as if they knew that he somehow lacked a soul.
Feeling hot and uncomfortable, Dragon scratched at his scaly skin until something strange started to happen: one of his claws had snagged a thread, which, in turn, pulled apart the seam that held his armour plates together, and, slowly, his dragon suit began to split and fall apart.
Light from somewhere outside was now streaming in, making his eyes hurt. After a few more scratches, the Dragon’s head fell backwards, revealing the sky above. George suddenly realised he was sitting high above the ground in what remained of the dragon suit.
“But I thought this was just a dream,” he muttered as he scrambled down the now lifeless tail to where a small crowd had gathered to stare at him. They first looked at the Dragon, then at George, and then at the Dragon again, unable to decide which was which. But gradually, they understood that a dragon had four legs and that George had two. Therefore, George was no monster, just a human like them.
George pushed through this docile knot and took off down the street as fast as he could run towards a neighbourhood he thought he recognised.
