[ WP ] You were born with a large birthmark in the shape of a dragon . However , this is just a coincidence ; there is absolutely nothing magical about it , and you 're getting really tired of explaining this .

If it writhes, it's only your imagination. 
 
 I have to remind people that all the time, even my family. 
 
 `` It moved,'' gasped my aunt Louise, staring spellbound at my neck while I was eating breakfast. 
 
 `` That's because I swallowed.'' 
 
 `` It's not that,'' Aunt Louise refuted. `` The dragon is rising. It could mean danger is coming.'' 
 
 `` Sure, danger.'' 
 
 Aunt Louise took that as confirmation and resumed eating her scrambled eggs, though her thoughtful look suggested that she was creating some fantastical story about the origin of the mark. 
 
 After a couple of minutes of silence, she decided to share it. 
 
 `` Your mother and I used to have a pet dragon.'' 
 
 My mother has never said any such thing, but I tried to give Aunt Louise the benefit of doubt. `` You mean a lizard.'' 
 
 `` No, an actual dragon. It was small,'' she indicated by cupping her hands together into a circle, `` and it had a tiny glowing red eye. It followed your mother everywhere. Then one day, when she was at a friend's house, it flew into a bug zapper and died.'' 
 
 `` Oh.'' 
 
 `` Your mother was very distraught. We buried the body in a box in our backyard and had a funeral. Then your mother said that someday the dragon would return to her. 
 Twenty years later, she had you.'' 
 
 `` And then?'' 
 
 `` And then you grew up.'' 
 
 This story did not seem to have any point to it. Surely if I were my mother's reincarnated guardian dragon, I would have done something out of the ordinary by now. 
 
 Aunt Louise stood up and collected our dishes. She gravely declared, `` Dragons never die.'' 
 
 `` But you just said the dragon did die --'' I tried to argue but she had bussed herself out of hearing range. 
 
 I wandered to the den and flipped on the TV. A news report warned about a forest fire spreading upstate. It showed footage of it winding through hills, overtaking the crackling dry pine trees along the roads. The investigation had not revealed anything to what had started the fire. 
 
 I changed the channel before Aunt Louise could see the resulting shape appearing on the screen. No need to get her building up more nonsense based on a coincidence. 

