Igneous Range

The dragon leapt out of the coffee can and reached out to the tall, yellow August grass. It devoured the hay in big mouthfuls, sucking in the air and exhaling smoke, sending a black-haired boy, a yellow dog, and a swarm of yellow jackets flying in a whirling stinging flurry through the flaming night. Mehran heard the the distant sirens, and ran before the wasp swarm, desperate to be far gone before the arrival of the yellow-jacketed giants in their gigantic red trucks. He remembered how the giants rivaled the height of houses, and he ran harder yet.

Boy and dog ran through the streets of Bakersfield until the boy succumbed to exhaustion, and collapsed under the cover of a shrub. After a day and night of flight and hiding from the fire and his guilt, Mehran grew very hungry, and he looked at Mehrzad and knew the poor dog was doing no better, so they crept through the next town they came upon, scrounging whatever food they could, and continued to do so together for days and nights on end. And so the two brothers continued on from town to town, Mehran fearing the the scene of his crime, and Mehrzad was not about to leave his brother’s side.