Sonja Snow

Valley of the Great Lake

Chapter 1 There weren’t always dragons in the valley. The beasts of ash and fire were drawn, as all the creatures were, to the water. A lake gleamed at the floor of the massive ravine; it provided the singular clean water source within the mountainous and forested region. Here, life teemed…..and roared and growled and grunted and chirped. Most of the valley’s inhabitants were winged. The birds nested and sheltered in the surrounding pines while the dragons ran rampant among the stone, grass, and brown, coarse soil. An occasional herd of wild boar might charge their way down from the rock face to partake in the clear nourishment only to return in haste to the thick of their wood to avoid becoming a meal. Rarer still, a wild horse from the hills might stray down, find the lake, toss its head at the scent of the dragons, and quickly leave if it was in good fortune.