Cosmic Dragon Wagon

“There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. There were griffins and couple of ghouls. There was even a rumor of there being a unicorn. Until Bastion, king of Georgiana, had it hunted down so he could have the power from its blood and mount its head in his trophy room just to show how powerful he was. The pompous ass.” Ja tells me in his typical Bastion bashing fashion. We sit on the ridge and watch the biggest dragon we have ever seen start its dive for the flock of sheep down in the grasslands.

They call me Kid, it’s the only name I know. Both my parents were taken when I was very young. They were arrested, tortured and enslaved by King Bastion. He accused them of harboring dragon eggs. They were taken and held until they gave up the location where the eggs were hidden. The eggs were never found. Dragon eggs can take up to 100 years to hatch, so I am told I will probably never see my parents again. Ja found me a few days later in a cave, almost dead from thirst and hunger. He’s been looking after me ever since.

“He’s going in” I tell Ja. “Get ready with the net, he’s a big one! Do you think it will hold him?” I ask, hoping this time we catch the big guy. This is our third attempt, he keeps getting away. He’s just too damn big. He’s got be at least 800 years old.

“I don’t know kid, get ready with the dragon tranq just in case” Ja says out of the side of his mouth as he aims the net tarpoon at the spot he expects the dragon to fly past our rock outcropping with one of the sheep.

“He’s got one and is heading our way, steady, steady, NOW! FIRE! FIRE!!” I yell at Ja.

“Got ‘em” he says as the net flies out of the tarpoon, engulfs the dragon and tangles his wings. The dragon loses altitude fast and hits the side of the mountain with a ground shaking crash.

“Get the tranq kid, let’s get in there before he tears the net to shreds and comes after us.” Ja says as he throws on his pack, grabs the heavy tarpon and starts to run up the steep mountainside.

I am right behind him trying to not to drop the long tranq stick or accidentally hit Ja with it. We get to the dragon just as as it starts to burn and tear the net to pieces.

“There goes most of our profit kid, quick tranq the big guy” Ja says as he runs in front of the dragon yelling and screaming at the dragon, trying to distract him so I can sneak up behind him. It turns and looks at Ja and right away Ja knows he is too close. He drops the tarpoon and yells “Now kid, do it now!” turns, grabs his cloak and throws it over his head so his body disappears from view as the dragon lets out a hellacious stream of fire that cooks everything in its path.

At this moment I stick the dragon on the underside of the belly with the tranq stick and within seconds the big guy starts to stagger and falls. I run out from under him before he falls on me. I watch him go down, try and get up once and then he is out.

“Ja you alright?” I yell looking to see if I can spot him under his cloak. I know I won’t. They are special cloaks made from dragon scale they are fire proof and have a chameleon quality of instantly blending in to whatever surroundings they come in contact with. They’re tools of our trade as dragon hunters.

Ja whips the cloak off and stands up, he is smoking from the heat and looks a little burnt up in places but otherwise he’s fine. “Man that was hot, wow look at the size of that one. Too bad we don’t get paid by the pound”. As it is we barely get paid at all. A small fee to rid a township of a dragon. But we do get treated like royalty whenever we come to town. That is if we get the dragon before it does too much damage to the township.

“Ok good job kid, let’s get him trussed and comfortable on the dragon wagon before he comes to.” With a series of rope, tackle and come-alongs from the massive wooden wagon we’ve named the Cosmic Dragon Wagon we expertly maneuver the dragon into the holding compartment in the wagon. We mount up the horses and pull the wagon down out of the mountains and into the forest.

The Cosmic Dragon Wagon is our home. We pull it from town to town with a team of horses twenty strong. We live and transport dragons from the Northlands to the Southlands. We call it the Cosmic Dragon Wagon because once we have a dragon on board unexplained things happen, like time seems to be non existent.

We stop at one of the many caches we have throughout our territory, “Now we wait for him to wake up. You keep watch, I’ll get some supper going” Ja says to me as he climbs down from the wagon.

Ja and I have been catching dragons for at least 15 years now. I figure that’s about how old I am. There aren’t as many here in the Northlands as there used to be. Because of us I guess. Once we catch them we take them south out of the territory. Where we turn them over to the Hades Firedrakes, the dragon keepers, a clan as old as dragons themselves.

Most dragons want to go once they find out our plan. They see it as a huge honor to be accepted into the clan. We hope this guy will see it that way too. It is much easier and more profitable when we can get the dragons to just play dead while they get paraded through the township. If we got to tranq them then we have to take the chance of them snoring. All dragons snore, often with fire. The town folks throw valuables and food to us as we pass If they think the dragon is dead. They tend to throw other stuff if the dragon is still breathing fire.

I think my folks were part of the Hades Firedrakes clan, and they really were hiding those dragon eggs. I can’t be certain and Ja doesn’t like to talk much about it. He’s scared some one will figure out who I really am. He is afraid the word will get out and some one will try and kidnap me for the bounty that King Bastion has on my head. I guess he thinks it will make my parents talk. He really wants those Eggs.

Every time we visit the Hades Firedrakes with a dragon Ja try’s and gets a little more information with out prying to hard. It’s still a huge unanswered question for me, and I am always searching for answers. Sometimes the dragons have some information. A few have claimed to have known of them, and have told stories of them. Sometimes dragons just tell you what you want to hear so you will come closer so they can eat you. You should never trust a dragon especially if they say trust me.