A New Divide

There weren't always dragons in the Valley.

In truth, there wasn't always much of anything here, really.

The Valley was a land of not much happening most of the time. The people were dull, the days were tedious, and the months were separated by the rare occasions that anything of consequence transpired, which was never often, mind you.

The birds flew, the dust blew, and the travelers passed through for no other reason than to get to where they wanted to go.

In other words, the Valley was nothing more than a pallid door to a quiet realm of withered dreams and faded schemes.

Insufferably... ordinary.

But as ordinary as it was, things did indeed happen, and when they did, in the rare chance that said "thing" was more than the birds, or the dust, or the travelers that came and went with the gusts, it was sure peculiar events would follow.

To not get into the particulars of the matter, this specific peculiar event turned this peculiarly ordinary divide between the mountains into a new divide of my own creation.

A divide between the drab oblivion I had known all my life betwixt twisted, disconsolate peaks and a new life. A more... interesting life. One that happened to start...

...Amid the musty, indifferent miasma of a timeworn prison cell.

And what would this new life be without a couple of masters to give it some structure?

The guard I disliked more of the two had a youthful, jovial face that belied his propensity toward unjustified provocation. His voice was soft on the ears but tinged with perturbing cruelty. Long, blonde hair shrouded parts of his sickening countenance from view for a few moments at a time as he had a tendency to swing his head flamboyantly while speaking. Worst of all, the yowling of cats in the throws of passionate coitus during the midnight hours was more tolerable than the jarring cackle this man would let out after his incorrigible jests.

In any case, his presence in this miserable place was just as natural as the presence of the prisoners, the rats, and the flies that circled aimlessly above the latrines. All paths would have led this odd fellow here, eventually.

The other guard was missing all but three teeth in his mangled maw. Blubberous and bald, I could not help but find him ever so pig-like in his mannerisms and movements. The periodic smacking of his drool-laden lips reminded me of a hog lusting after slops to consume at a grimy trough. Every word that left his mouth was accompanied by an intolerable stench that lingered in the air indefinitely.

Luckily, he did not speak much.

"Enjoy your new home! We will make sure your stay here is a comfortable one," the youthful guard said, twisting his neck as he spoke.

"...Yeah, enjoy your stay. We hope you will be hungry tonight, the chef always prepares a special meal for our new guests," the hoggish guard sneered.

"Wash your mouth out, cur," I growled under my breath.

"...What was that? Spit in your dinner?" the hoggish guard chortled, leading the youthful one to quickly chastise him.

"You lout! I will not allow you to disrespect our new guest like this! If tonight's gruel is a bit dry, we will have to treat him to a glass of our micturitions to wash it down," both of the guards howled with laughter as they locked the cell and walked away, their boots clicking bluntly across the cobblestoned floor.

I heard the two guards speak again, their words trailing off as they traveled down the long, dimly lit hallway.

"...What was he in here for again?" the hoggish guard asked.

"...Attempting to steal a dragon..." the other guard said.

"...A dragon?! How daft would you have to be to..." I could no longer hear them; their infuriating exchange faded away into the darkness.

To be clear, I had good reason to secure a dragon, no matter how daft it may have seemed to the prison guards.

The recent occupation of the Valley was strange precisely because the Antonian military never moved without good motives. With growing tensions around the world and the Valley's position near the ocean toward the eastern part of the continent, I wondered if they were strategically mobilizing for a potential threat from across the sea. Where the Valley had once been a desolate congregation of quiet villages, it was now filled with blindly obedient, cocksure soldiers and the dragons that carried them.

If a war was creeping toward us, I had no business being one of the first citizens to be caught in its grasp.

Fleeing the Valley on foot was treacherous. As beggarly as I was, I had no funds to purchase a horse either. Besides, horses could not easily traverse the mountains, let alone with a novice riding one. Acquiring a dragon was my only recourse to leave this drab oblivion behind before any escalation took place.

While I had never ridden a dragon, I knew the only opportunity I had to escape was convincing one to carry me out of the Valley. Intelligent beasts, I wagered that my freedom would rest in finding one that wished to run off just as much as I did. So, I took a job as a general custodian of the Dragoons stables, biding my time patiently for the perfect moment to take action. Reluctantly cleaning the foul waste off the stable floors, feeding the firebreathers, and maintaining an air of anonymity for a little over a month was a small price to pay for the chance to leave this land for greater opportunities elsewhere.

Between my daily pursuits of cleanliness throughout the stable, I took a liking to one dragon, Reticence, that belonged to an oafish soldier with a predilection for control. Reticence was a slower dragon and with this slowness came near-constant scolding from his master. In the banter between the soldiers before their daily training exercises, I overheard that Reticence would soon be replaced with a younger dragon that could keep up with the demands of the Dragoons.

With all this in mind, I made sure to engage with Reticence regularly. When circumstances would allow it, I would feed him extra during the dragons' meal times, which consisted of goats, boars, and other livestock. When no one else was around, I would talk to him calmly, assuring the grizzled colossus he was no less of a dragon than any of the others, despite his age and suboptimal performance in the field.

At first, Reticence responded gruffly to my attempts at companionship but soon enough, we built a mutual trust over the weeks that followed. Each positive interaction between us was a step farther away from his euthanization and a step closer to parts unknown.

Intuitively, after a month or so of minor burns and one-sided conversations, I decided to enact the final part of my plan. Quelling my unease, I walked to Reticence's cage, hopeful of our success.

"I know you hate being here just as much as I do. I can see it in your eyes. We can leave this place behind, you and I. Just--" a forceful yell echoed through the stables before I could finish speaking, startling me.

"You there! Get to cleaning! We've no time for your incessant mumbling! You've seemed more comfortable than usual around our dragons as of late. If you are lonely, you should find others to talk with!" the commanding officer of the Antonian Dragoons shouted while retrieving his dragon.

"Yes sir," I said hesitantly.

On his departure, a couple of wingbeats from outside reassured me that it was safe to talk with Reticence again.

"...Reticence, while your master is away, let us make haste to escape. Your saddle has already been prepped this morning by one of the other custodians. I will make sure to treat you just as well anywhere we go as I have here," I explained.

With a dejected snarl and brief spurt of fire, Reticence's defensive demeanor stoked feelings of uncertainty within myself. What if I did not do enough to push Reticence to aid me in my plan?

I entered his cage, putting aside my worries, slowly lifting myself onto his back.

"Alright, now is the time. Go on, let's go," I patted Reticence on his back, motioning him to start moving.

Reticence laid down, refusing my instructions.

"Come on, I know you are slow but please, just--" Instantly, I knew I had made a mistake with my words.

Reticence roared loudly before bucking me off of his back with tremendous force. Cornering me in the cage, he bellowed with flames emanating from his fearsome mouth. I gasped in terror, believing my final moments were soon to be realized.

After being alerted by Reticence's outrage, a few soldiers returned quickly, accosting me for my actions. A violent commotion ensued. Carried away by the angry soldiers, I locked eyes with Reticence one last time as he laid down again in a defeated way.

"Hopeless," I thought, dispirited.

After reflecting on it once more, I suppose it may have been a rather daft decision.

Along with me in the prison cell sat an older man wrapped in beige clerical robes. His hair was short and white, with a wrinkled face that glowed with veneration. My presence did not shake him from what seemed to be a state of solemn rumination. Of all the criminals I had seen when I was forcefully shoved down the hallway by the irksome guards, I did not expect a member of the clergy to be among them.

We both sat in silence on the cold, stone "beds" if you could call them beds, that were on opposite sides of the cell.

My curiosity led me to break the silence.

"...What are you in here for, Father?" I asked.

There was no response. I slumped back in the bed, figuring he had no interest in wanting to talk with me.

"This is going to be a long sentence," I sighed under my breath. A few minutes later, he answered my question.

"...Speaking the truth," the priest replied, curtly.

I nodded my head to acknowledge his response and went back to slumping on the bed to make myself comfortable. Silence filled the prison cell once more. Soon enough, he spoke again.

"...Just as idiotic around these parts as trying to steal a dragon, I'd say," the priest's frown changed into a slight grin.

Scowling, I scoffed.

"Truth you said? What truth did you enlighten the world with that secured your imprisonment?" I sarcastically inquired.

"The truth of the dragons. Are you a religious man?" he countered.

"Religious enough," I retorted blithely.

"I see. Let me share something with you. I have been a member of the church for many years, many more years than you have been alive. During that time, the gods have provided me with many blessings. Alas, those times have changed. The world has changed significantly since we were victorious over the Baenthans thirty years ago. You must be familiar with the Baenthan War, yes?" the priest leaned in after his brief introduction.

"Of course. Antonia entered the war at the request of the world's other nations to put an end to the Baenthan threat. The gods moved the dragons to come to our aid after much consideration to defeat the evils perpetrated by the Baenthan king. Their days of oppressing the countries of Principia across the ocean were only ended through the incredible strength of our dragons and military. The rise of Antonia has secured relative peace aside from minor skirmishes globally ever since," I recounted what I remembered from my earlier years in school.

"What if much that you were taught growing up was fundamentally... flawed?" the priest asked.

"I am not sure I understand but go on," I said.

By this time, I was sitting straight up listening intently without having realized it earlier.

"In our holy tomes, it was always stressed that we were never to interfere in the lives of the dragons. Aside from humanity, dragons were the gods' most beloved creations. They were to be respected, not used as tools of war," the priest asserted.

"The church taught us that the dragons were pleased to be of service to Antonia, did it not? How am I to believe you are anything but a heretic that has gone just a bit mad?" I asked skeptically.

"Please, you must understand that what I am telling you now is incredibly relevant to the turmoil that is currently pervading all the countries against each other and against Antonia. Child... I apologize wholeheartedly for what I am about to say. We... we lied to you," the priest began to shed tears from his grayed, sullen eyes as he spoke.

"Lied? That is impossible! No, it must be impossible..." I said unconfidently.

"Open your ears, boy. Let the gods strike me down now if I am not being truthful with my words.

...Humanity has always been stuck in an endless cycle of conflict and peace; a cycle that is intrinsic to our very nature. Dragons, unlike man, had no taste for bloodshed.

Our history claims that Antonia made the decision to join the war against the Baenthans to aid our allies and bring an era of peace to the world. To do so, it was said the dragons were called by the gods themselves to aid the armies of Antonia.

Baentha was no match for the beasts' storied might and strength.

With its king incinerated to ashes, its cities razed to the ground, and its citizens forever in fear of the tranquil creatures they believed were the bringers of prosperity before the war, Baentha became nothing more than a shadow of its former glory.

Antonia continued to uphold that the dragons were necessary to end the war. Our religion, which once vehemently held them as sacred and forbidden from human interference was soon silenced in favor of another holy doctrine; one that validated the belief that they helped us of their own accord with blessings from the heavens above," the priest, having composed himself now, seemed resolute in what he had said.

"So, you did lie. If all that you say is true, why did you lie to us?" I asked firmly.

"The Baenthans were unstoppable, having the largest armies in the world. It was seen as a necessary evil to rewrite the holy doctrines and dispose of any dissenters that wished to say otherwise.

The cruel reality of the matter is that we would have never defeated the Baenthans without our enslavement of the dragons; we decided to fight evil with a greater evil," the priest bowed his head shamefully.

"Enslavement? Reticence..." I murmured.

The priest continued his story with deep pain in his voice.

"The dragons bestowed one final gift to the Antonians for their victory over the Baenthans. With a chalice of their blood, the ancestry of dragons would run through the veins of every Antonian that followed.

As I said before, dragons were peace-loving creatures that were known to avoid chaos in all of its forms.

Against the one divine rule to never be broken, we enslaved the dragons for our own interests. Antonia, once the home of dragons, many of which lived in the Valley, became the very tyrant it had so quickly annihilated with their power.

The citizenry was to be conditioned by the church and the military to believe it was the will of the gods that turned the dragons to our side. In reality, we narcotized the dragons with special serums developed by the king's magicians to subdue them, turning them into mindless weapons with enthusiastic bloodlust.

The amount of influence commanded by Antonian leadership having complete control over the dragons quickly spread corruption throughout the land.

The country that mastered the dragons then became the master of the world," the priest concluded his speech, visibly tortured by all he had admitted to me.

I still had trouble believing all the priest had disclosed. All I could think of now was Reticence. It made even less sense to me that he did not want to escape the abuse he had suffered all his life. The abuse that his kind had suffered since the war with Baentha was an injustice I could not justify in my mind any longer.

We were both cursed now. He would live in his cage and I would live in my cell, never to escape death or the Valley that had changed so much in just a few months.

The priest shook me from my despondent contemplations.

"Child, you said something quietly earlier. What was it? Reticence?" the priest's piercing gaze reminded me of my final interactions with the dragon before my imprisonment.

"Reticence. He was the dragon I wanted to steal to escape Antonia before tensions got any worse. Nothing of interest ever happens in the Valley. There are no opportunities for me here. The recent occupation by the military was enough for me to take any risk necessary to leave. I would rather die than be doomed to a life of conscription," I explained.

"And your interactions with him? Did he ever talk to you?" the priest seemed pressed to hear my responses now.

"Talk? He would snort and nod and do all the other things dragons do to communicate with humans if that is what you mean by talk," I said, confused.

"No. Talk. Like you and I are talking now," the priest clarified.

"Then no, we didn't talk. It was already laborious enough to get him to do anything but blow flames at me or snarl from time to time. A couple more goats than usual normally changed his mood. He would always become more jovial after the extra goats," I smiled, surprised that I remembered my time with him so pleasantly.

"Hmm... What went wrong? Obviously, your ill-conceived plan failed. Extremely brave, of course," the priest said, not wishing to upset me.

"Reticence would not move. I told him we could escape, that his life would be better no matter where we went. He could count on the fact I would do my best to take care of him," I still felt awful after offending him with what I said; at that moment, I was no better to him than his master was.

"Perhaps he did not want to leave his brothers behind. Even after all we did to the dragons, they remain social with one another nonetheless. A life in captivity is all most dragons have ever known now. It would have been heartbreaking to him to leave his brethren behind. The serums can only break the dragons but so much. At their core, the love they have for their fellow dragons has yet to be vanquished completely," the priest knew a lot more about the dragons than he let on.

Reticence's apprehension made more sense now. If I left the Valley alone, I had no one else to worry about but myself. To Reticence, the other dragons in the stable would be doomed to the life I wished to flee; a life of reluctant conscription and endless monotony. There was no way out of this while we were apart. I felt an unrelenting determination now to free him and his brothers. At this point, they deserved freedom more than I did.

"There is a chance, then," the priest's ashen eyes lit up.

"Chance? Chance of what? We are stuck in this prison cell with the mad elf and grotesque hog governing us for a long while," deriding the priest for his hopeful statement, I stood up.

"Reticence may very well be having the same thoughts you are having now, child. You must feel it. Call out to him. Both of you wanted freedom, yes? Call out to him!" the priest yelled before I could cover his mouth.

"Have you gone completely mad? Keep quiet! We are entombed in this stone fortress and the Dragoon's stables are far away from here. What is calling out to him going to do?" I took my hand off of the priest's mouth after whispering my concerns to him.

"Trust me. Call out to him. If you want to leave this place and pursue whatever uncertain destiny lies ahead of you, call out to him. Or don't. You have made quite the pleasant company in this cell, after all," the priest smiled brightly.

"Okay... Reticence!" I yelled.

"...Now what?" the priest looked at me again with the same piercing gaze he had given me earlier in our conversation.

"Now, we wait. Be patient. If the guards come, tell them you sneezed. The dolts will surely fall for it," the priest snickered.

As expected, the guards rushed down the hallway to investigate the situation.

"Are you hungry, dragon tamer? Tell me why there is so much uproar coming from your cell?!" the youthful guard demanded.

"It is rather stuffy in here. Do you not sneeze from time to time?" I asked snidely.

"I am the only one who is allowed to make quips in this place! Gorm, come here at once!" the youthful guard called for his associate by name.

"An ugly name for an even uglier person," I thought.

Bounding down the hallway as fast as his pudgy legs would carry him, Gorm arrived, huffing for air.

"I... I came... I came as soon as I could, Gattle!" Gorm said, exhausted.

"And another awful name. Befitting," I mused.

"Dragon tamer! You sully the name of Gattle, given to me by my father who had this name, and my father before him! You will rue this day! The day you chose to slight the great name of Gattle!" he screeched, fuming with rage as his hair swung from one side of his face to the other violently.

"Careful, you will get a crick in your neck doing that," I chuckled.

Opening the doors to the prison cell angrily, Gorm and Gattle pulled me out and threw me to the cobblestoned floor below.

"You cretin! You've joked long enough!" Gorm screamed, kicking me in the back as I shrank in pain.

"Yes! Yes! Rough him up, Gorm!" Gattle yelled, licking his lips as I continued to recoil from the kicks I was receiving.

Before I could react, Gorm picked me up by my hair and slammed me into the prison walls. Collapsing to the ground again, Gattle stood over me menacingly, spitting in my face.

"You see, dragon tamer, torture excites me like nothing else. The king's laws mean nothing here! I invite you to act up again! We love prisoners like you. Your insubordination pleases us. I would love nothing more than to slam your little head against this wall until your skull gives way but I must save that joy for another time. You would do well to keep your mouth shut next time the dirt and grime tickle your nose," Gattle grabbed me by my shirt collar and shoved me back into the prison cell.

Suddenly, we all stopped at the sound of faint wingbeats that reverberated through the ceiling above.

"Do you hear that, dragon tamer? Do you not wish that could be you? Do you not wish you could be one of our gallant warriors in the Dragoons that serve our country so proudly? You filthy, disgusting rat, you could never! Our dragons rule the world! You would never be worthy of sitting on the back of even the most pitiful whelp! I will make sure that you never see the light of--" Gattle's arrogant speech was interrupted by a tremendous force that crashed through the ceiling, scattering rubble all across the prison.

Imposing, pale red wings cleared the dust away with incredible strength. I then realized who stood before us; the friend I had worked so hard to gain had finally come.

"A... A... A... Agh! Gods above, a dragon!" Gattle screamed in terror.

Blocking the prison cell with his tail, Reticence loosed hellfire upon the two guards, their futile wails drowned out by the deafening sound of his breath. Moving his tail away, red-hot stone and charred bones were all that remained. The heat caused both the priest and me to sweat uncontrollably.

"So, this is the great and mighty Reticence I have heard so much about!" the priest cheered.

Reticence turned to us and roared triumphantly. Bowing his head to us, I scratched his face lovingly before pulling my hand away in pain from the residual heat that rested in his cheeks. The roars and wingbeats of other dragons could be heard from above as we reconnected.

"Reticence! How did you find us?! I can't believe you came!" I exclaimed gleefully.

Reticence snarled at me, turning his head away as if to show he was hurt that I thought he would have done otherwise. Turning toward the priest, Reticence growled contentedly.

"Well, go on. The other Dragoon regiments will be here soon enough to catch the both of you," the priest said calmly.

"But Father! We can take you as well!" I urged the priest to accompany us to freedom.

"Child, do not worry for me. I am an old man with sins I must atone for in what comes after. You and Reticence must reach safety soon. You have done more than enough by listening to me. A greater, more dangerous journey lies before you now. Heed our conversation and carry this knowledge with you. If you remember nothing else, be sure that you remember this. You must understand that there is a great evil looming over us once again. The dragons must be freed for the world to not be turned to ash and soot. Go on!" the priest said earnestly.

"Before we go, what was your name, Father?" I asked.

"Francis. Carry it with you. When the time comes, you will meet someone who will find meaning in my name," concluding our conversation, Francis sat down on his bed as Reticence and I prepared to fly out of the prison.

Reticence's wings lifted us into the skies, the world below us growing smaller and smaller the higher we went. Reflecting on how we successfully fled from our captors, I heard a low, droning voice.

"Human... What is your name?" the dragon said.

"...Ellis," I replied, astonished to hear him speak for the first time.

"Dragons can talk!?" I asked excitedly.

"Ellis... there is much you will be surprised to learn," Reticence roared as we both flew away from the Valley, unsure of what the future would bring as we left our pasts behind us.