Born of Fire: The Dawn of Legend Read Online Free Page A

for Goran to see the faint glow coming from his red eyes, and feel his hot breath against his face as he got an uncomfortably close look at Rex’s serrated teeth. “I hate being interrupted once I get on a roll. Shall we?” He could see panic set in the man’s face, or rather could smell it pouring off him in waves. It was so sweet, like an elegant perfume that rivaled even the sweet smell of Allison. Rex had always been keenly aware of what others around him were feeling, even if they themselves were not. He could read people’s emotions like an open book. In fact, all people were like books to him, the events that shaped them like the pages in their story. This, however, was another reason why he found it increasingly difficult to make any sort of connection with them. They were too transparent, lacking any real depth into which he could delve. He always felt as if he was standing in shallow waters when surrounded by them.
    Rex now felt light, as if his body was slowly rising off the ground. He could hear Goran’s heartbeat increase as if someone was pounding on a war drum. His eyes tracked a bead of sweat as it traveled down the tall man’s face and fell, where it proceeded down to the floor and hit with a splash.
    “Uh…yeah…” Goran struggled to find his words, his gaze no longer meeting Rex’s. “All right…I’ll let it go this time, but don’t let me catch you doing this again. Get to the cafeteria.”
    “Yes, sir,” Rex answered with mock cheer and walked past him down the hall and towards the cafeteria.
Walked away from another one
, Rex mused to himself.
Still, I hope I scared him enough to keep his mouth shut. I really don’t want Dad hearing about this
. It used to bother him that he could intimidate people with his appearance alone. He had learned early on that people feared what they did not understand, and he most certainly fit into that category. Still, he knew how it made his father feel, and so for years he would ignore his natural instinct to strike fear in others, as he knew he so easily could. After all, how would people ever come to accept him if he gave any sort of validation to what they were feeling towards him?
    However, as time marched on and their attitudes grew judgmental and fearful, Rex began to find himself on the receiving end of violence. What started as teasing from afar evolved into being jumped after school. At first he tried not to fight back, instead opting to just take it so as not to stir things up further. After all, it was not like they were really doing any damage. Part of his superior physical prowess came not just in being able to dish out punishment but also take it. So he would just sit there, letting them unload all their fears and hatred on him until they grew tired or fearful when they realized that ten solid minutes of beating barely resulted in so much as a bruise. After that, they kept their distance, but by this point the real damage had already been done, for while he remained physically intact, any chance of a desire on his part to understand them on equal footing had been beaten out of him, replaced with a sense of contemptuous superiority. While he had no desire to use this sense of power to lord over them as a tyrant, he also felt no need to try to meet them on their terms. He saw them as insects crawling beneath his feet, and if one had the gall to try to sting him, he would crush them underfoot. Perhaps this was how tyranny began, he often thought, not by choice or desire but by circumstance. An interesting thought, indeed, but one that was interrupted by his growling stomach.
Philosophy later, food now
.
    He sat by himself at the far table in the back of the cafeteria. To his surprise, no one who usually picked fights with him bothered him today. He wondered if his father had called the school and told the teachers to tell them to stop bullying him. That would not surprise him, especially with the way his father insisted he eat lunch here today.