Filthy, Rich

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. To be fair, however, there weren’t many creatures or people at all down there. It had long been accepted to be a massive, dried-up riverbed from ages past. Now it was more a canyon of cracked clay, a few sparce weeds, some rocks of various sizes, and a bed that stretched to either horizon. The Valley was as unassuming and uninteresting as the rest of the world of Naramir. Who or what was to blame for the dragons was debated from person to person, but all agree that the world would never be the same since they arrived.

Once the Golden Imperator came to power, the known world bustled with life… and death. Greed ran rampant as the Imperator demanded all jewels, riches and anything that looked “suitably fancy for his court” be brought to the capital. People would gather these things one way or another and offer them to the high court. In exchange, they would be offered food, land, stations, whatever would get their “filth” away from his majesty the quickest. The other cities were devastated from the raids and lost what wealth they may have had.

It wasn’t long before the capital was gilded from street to steeple in the empire’s riches. People would trek to the capital to gaze upon its beauty. To track in dirt was punishable by death, though few dared to venture inside despite having probably invested into it. Birds were also hunted continuously in order to keep the city clean and were declared a threat to the empire. Bartering rose in popularity as there wasn’t much in the way of currency with which to trade. The Imperator wanted more riches, but there were none. No other gold existed. Jewels were all confiscated and other treasures failed to turn up. If they did, the owners were accused of hiding them from the crown and were charged with treason.

Then one day a child wandered into the Valley. As bored children do, Yun wandered off from her family and skirted the banks. She dragged her feet and kicked up pockets of dust. She came across a couple small rocks and threw them down the bank. She enjoyed watching the small avalanches of dirt and dust. After one of her throws, she noticed something glimmer in the sun and then disappear under a new blanket of dirt. Yun slid down the bank and frantically searched for the mysterious shiny object.

“Yun?” someone called. “Where did you go?”

“I saw something, mother!” Yun called back continuing to claw away at the ground.

“Honey, I don’t—” her mother, Yin, crested the bank. “What on earth are you doing?” She looked down at the cloud of dust that was her daughter. “We must get you cleaned! Get up here at once!” A golden object shined in front of Yun and quickly disappeared again in the shifting earth. Her eyes shined with the same brilliance, and she doubled her efforts.

“Did you find her?” a man called.

“Yes, she’s over here! Sereb, get your daughter from down there! She’s filthy!”

Sereb, Yun’s father, came up beside her mother.

“Oh, today she’s mine? Why is that?” He looked down at Yun, caked in dirt and who knows what else. “Oh, lord. Alright, come on, honey.” He gently slid down to Yun. The gold glimmer returned.

“Look! There it is!” Yun exclaimed. Sereb reached down to pick her up and she grabbed the object. Another man approached Yin. The sheen off his armor was blinding at the right angle and the feathers in his helmet crest danced in the breeze. Yin bowed politely to the man.

“Our daughter just meandered,” Yin explained quickly. “You know how children are, Kessek.” She added with a shy smile.

“Disgusting,” Kessek grimaced. “She truly represents your village.”

“You were the same growing up around here,” Yin tried a laugh.

“Do not associate me with you peasants!” Kessek growled. Yin clamped her mouth shut.

“What do you have there?” Sereb asked. She proudly held up her hand full of dirt and clay to show her father. He looked at her unimpressed. “Very nice, dear. Let’s go home.” The wind picked up and blew away particles from her hand and he soon saw the gold object too. It was oblong, thin, and shiny. His eyes slowly opened, and his hands reached for the object. “Yun… do you know what this is?” Kessek saw the glimmer, too.

“Sereb!” he shouted.

Sereb snatched the object from Yun.

“Yes, sir?” he twirled around.

“What is that in your hand?” Kessek asked.

“Oh, just… something that—”

“I don’t have time for games, Sereb,” Kessek pulled out a dagger and grabbed Yin’s hair to yank her closer. “Bring it to me!”

“Mother!” Yun cried. Sereb held out a hand to stop his daughter.

“Move it, Sereb!”

“Okay! Okay, okay,” Sereb relented. He climbed the bank while Yun dropped to her knees and watched. Kessek tried to keep Yin’s clothes from touching him as she was dirty herself. Yin also tried not to brush up against Kessek as neither party would like what would happen if she dirtied a knight. “It was just something I saw buried. I was going to toss it back.” Sereb let out a weak chuckle, but he was too nervous to make it convincing. “Stones are everywhere, you know. Can’t barter with stones.”

A tear of anticipation slid down Yun’s face from dirt clump to dirt clump and it washed a path down her cheek. Sereb reached the top and Kessek held his knife closer to Yin. Sereb picked out the object and slowly presented it to Kessek. The gold glimmer shined flawlessly in the sun. Kessek stared into Sereb’s hand. At once, he pushed Yin down the bank and stole the piece from Sereb to examine it more closely. Sereb dove for Yin and Yun climbed up to her. The family huddled on the bank and looked up at the knight.

“This is gold, you idiot!” Kessek exclaimed. “You know the penalty for hiding gold?”

“I didn’t know what it was!” Sereb pleaded. “I’ve never held gold before in my life! You know our village! We- we found it! Here in the Valley! Buried!”

“You expect me to believe you?”

“Maybe there’s more!” Yun suggested. Kessek narrowed his eyes.

“Right, right! We can take a look for you!” Sereb offered. “We’re already covered in filth.” He turned to his daughter and whispered. “Where did you find it again, Yun? Show daddy.”

“Over there,” she whispered back and pointed. Sereb rubbed Yun’s dusty hair and clamored over to the spot and started digging.

“You better hope you find something,” Kessek warned. He dusted off his armor and watched as Yin and Yun both helped Sereb claw at the earth.

Sure enough, another golden glimmer presented itself to the relieved family. Sereb snatched it and presented it to Kessek.

“Call it serendipity, sir, but my family wasn’t hiding anything. Honest,” Sereb pleaded. Kessek thought it over and after a bit more searching, Yun held up a third piece.

“Congratulations, Sereb,” Kessek pocketed the gold. “You got your village a job.”

Shortly after reports of gold sightings in the Valley broke loose, countless thralls of people stampeded down the banks in search of gold. The Imperator issued decrees that all criminals serving time be punished by looking for gold. All craftsmen be granted leave of their duties so they could look for gold. All children were granted time from school so they could search for gold. Low ranking soldiers were free from their posts… so they could search for gold.

Over time, the barren valley became ripe with scaffolding as people would dig and dig. Huts, shacks, and tents were erected all down the valley. It wasn’t just gold that was found either. Jade, onyx, sapphire, ruby, emerald and topaz shards were found too, to name a few. One leather worker off-handedly thought their findings resembled scales, but he wasn’t asked for his opinion by the overseers and kept his future opinions to himself. The comparison was widely accepted by the workers, however, who often called the gems as such afterwards. The Imperator soon had such an overabundance of riches, he couldn’t order enough projects large enough nor fast enough to use them as they were carted into the capital, and they were sorted into respective piles. As the diggers went deeper, they soon found themselves in tunnels laced with these “scales.”

Time dragged on. Yun was older now and deemed old enough to join the tunnellers rather than the surface skimmers. She shuffled in line with everyone else and waited for the first group to emerge from the lift. Five people stood between Yun and the first person in line, her father, who held the lamp. A team of mules worked the lift and came to a halt. A wooden gate of crossed logs pulled to the side and revealed the coughing rabble inside. The weak tunnellers passed Yun’s team and were subjected to searches while Yun was pushed into the lift.

“There’s always one,” Kessek laughed. His crest was grander now and more vibrant. Yun turned around just as the gate was closing to see Kessek flick a ruby scale into the air after he finished searching someone.

“No, no!” the tunneller cried. “It must’ve fallen into my—” the man was pushed off the scaffolding and the lift started to descend. Yun’s father said nothing but found her hand in the growing darkness and clenched it tightly. His face was gaunt now and his health was clearly suffering. The Treasure Rush had not been kind to her family.

“Shouldn’t we light the lamp?” Yun asked. Someone coughed.

“Not yet,” Sereb answered.

Either the lift was extremely slow, or they were extremely deep. It was difficult to tell in utter darkness. A light started to dance below and quickly grew in strength. Sereb observed his daughter’s curiosity return for a moment and a smile crept across his face as the lift came to a halt. Another gate opened and revealed mounds of scales being sorted. The slightest light from set torches illuminated the massive cavern in an array of colors.

Sereb led his group along the cart tracks. Yun was lost in the color show, but they were already leaving the room before she could really appreciate it. Sereb offered over his lamp, and another scruffy man lit it.

The man looked familiar to Yun, but she couldn’t remember from where. As she walked by, the man winked at her. She remembered that wink. Mizu used to deliver water to her village. He always had the most extravagant ways to store water for his routes and used various pelts to decorate the devices. He would regale Yun with his plans to create a device to pump water to the villages so he wouldn’t have to work so hard. He always had some invention on his mind to ease his work and always promised he’d make time to show them to Yun. Then he would wink at her.

The last thing she remembered of Mizu was him talking about a “fowlskin” for water. He said he hated seeing how much of the birds would go to waste and was going to think of something for each bit. It must’ve been successful because the new delivery man said Mizu was called to the capital and soon most regiments supplied their junior troops with fowlskins. Now she looked at the lost extravagance of the man. He bid tunnellers farewell and directed carts of greed.

Sereb guided their group down their tunnel. The tunnel could’ve easily fit two of Yun’s family shacks stacked atop each other. Sometimes it was even bigger and scales were evident not just on the floor but in the sides and top of the tunnel. Scaffolding was erected here as well because of that. A metallic rolling sounded in the tunnel, and someone held their hand out to Yun. A cart violently raced into view and came to a violent stop at the end of the tracks.

“Let’s get to it, shall we?” Sereb offered then illuminated some staged torches. The scales were easy enough to find with the light. They were gathered up and thrown into the cart. Every so often, dirt came streaming down. “Other tunnels,” Sereb answered to Yun’s confused look. They plodded along and filled their carts which were taken away by another team. Streams of dirt methodically fell. Sometimes a cart crashed down and brought with it more tracks to lay to reach further into the tunnel.

“I think I’d rather be a skimmer than this,” Yun coughed. A weak agreement murmured from her group. A stream of dirt fell. Someone called down the tunnel.

“What was that?” Sereb called back. More dirt fell. Sereb looked up at the tunnel. A rock became dislodged and fell next to him. More cries down the tunnel. More dirt fell.

“What’s the matter, Sereb?” a woman asked.

“I don’t know,” Sereb paused. Metallic rolling. “Hey, we still have our cart!” Sereb yelled. It was no use. Another cart came screaming into view and smashed into the cart of scales. The group dodged the wreckage and collectively complained as scales and a set of new tracks scattered over the ground.

“Hey, daddy,” Yun chirped. “What’s wrong with these tracks?” Sereb walked over. The newest tracks were still sizzling red as if they were just forged. But they were contorted, and some were fused together.

“Stay vigilant, everyone. I’ll find out what’s happening,” Sereb ordered.

He hadn’t taken three steps when a deafening scream ripped through the tunnel and Yun’s entire world rumbled with it. The roar didn’t stop, and dirt freely fell into the tunnel. It was a continuous eruption of noise that knocked Yun’s team to the floor. She soon realized it wasn’t one roar, but multiple pitches and tones calling to each other and all at once they stopped.

“Dad?” Yun called.

“I’m here, honey,” Sereb looked down the tunnel but reached blindly behind him for his daughter’s hand. Yun grabbed his hand with both of hers. An anticipatory silence crept through the tunnels.

“Sereb, what do we do?” someone asked.

“We leave,” Sereb replied confidently. “I’ll take the blame. Come on.” The group stayed close to Yun and her father as they traversed the tunnel. The other workers already seemed to have evacuated or otherwise abandoned their posts. “Stay close, everyone.”

Yun heard what sounded like heavy breathing. She looked to each group member, but they seemed too scared to breathe.

“Dad?” Yun asked. “What’s that sound?”

Sereb turned around and lifted his lamp. Yun caught a quick glance of hundreds of red scales tightly packed together before more rumbling shook the tunnel and falling earth and rock blocked the view.

“Tunnel collapse!” a woman in the group yelled and ran for the exit.

“Stay together!” Sereb called for her. The rest of the group broke rank and ran as well while more dirt and rock fell. Another roar erupted directly behind Yun and Sereb which continued to the shake the very foundations they stood on. “Run, Yun!” He grabbed his daughter’s hand they followed the other tunnellers.

They came to an intersection of tunnels and tracks. Much of the way in several directions was lit by torches. Heavy thudding tracked their movements above followed by more roars and screams. The top of the tunnel partially caved in before doing so fully on some of the group. Yun noticed a light blue gleam through the dirt which pulled itself back up into the ceiling. A downdraft came through the hole and passed over one of the women in Sereb’s group. Yun ran over to the woman, but she didn’t move. She was ice cold and unresponsive.

“We have to keep moving!” Sereb demanded.

“We can’t leave her!” Yun argued.

“I’m not losing you in these tunnels too!” Sereb grabbed Yun’s wrist more forcefully this time and guided her and the remaining group back to the intersection. A couple of the other tunnels already collapsed as well.

“Sereb!” Mizu’s voice rang out. Yun turned to see Mizu riding a cart down the tracks. “This tunnel’s a bust. What are you doing here?” He pulled on a lever and halted his cart.

“Trying to leave! Do you know the way out?”

“Do I know the way?” Mizu asked in disbelief. “Get inside! All of you!”

The group clamored inside, and he released the brake. He held out a long pole and swatted a lever on the tracks so the cart could switch tunnels. Another tunnel collapsed and visible fumes seeped behind them.

“What happened? What is going on?” Sereb asked Mizu.

“Only thing I know is that the tunnels are the last place we want to be right now!” Rock and earth and various jeweled scales pelted the cart. Yun looked down to see the tracks were warping back and forth behind them and catching up despite the cart’s increasing speed.

Something crashed through their tunnel wall and began chasing the cart. Everyone looked behind at the black cloud that masked their pursuer.

“Excuse me, dear,” Mizu moved someone out of the way and prepped his pole in front of the cart. The cloud behind them snarled and giant claws decorated in black scales were soon visible pulling it along behind the racing cart. The claws raked against the tracks and caused the cart to toss to either side. A tunneller lost their grip and tumbled overboard. They were immediately engulfed in the cloud and at the speed of the cart, they were long gone in seconds. “Hang on, everybody!” Mizu swatted a lever and the cart quickly switched tunnels, rising off two wheels at the transition but losing whatever was tailing them. One of the tunnellers lost their balance and flipped over the edge of the cart. Sereb managed to grab a hold of them. “I said hang on!” Mizu called.

The tunnel structure was losing all stability as Mizu pulled on the break with the help of Sereb and another tunneller. Everyone exited the cart and raced for the lift. Once inside, Sereb pulled on the call rope. The tunnel continued to collapse but the lift didn’t move. Mizu grabbed the rope in two hands and forcefully pulled down. The lift shuttered and the cloud returned in the tunnel. The claws prowled toward the lift.

“Daddy,” Yun grabbed her dad’s hands. The lift started to ascend just as enormous teeth materialized from the black cloud.

The way up was going much faster than the way down. In fact, it was worryingly fast and was going faster by the minute. The lift suddenly locked up. Everyone looked at one another. The lift dropped several feet and stopped once more. It started to methodically bounce up and down and everyone grabbed the beams on the lift. The lift stopped moving a second time before rising at speeds far faster than previously reached.

“Get down!” Sereb covered Yun. The lift was falling apart from the strain. Yun could see the sunlight above and in seconds the lift crashed through the scaffolding support, tossing its occupants like ragdolls all around the structure. Yun, Mizu and Sereb painfully landed far away from the tunnel entrance and cracked the boards they landed on. The mules connected to the lift were gone and superstructure was heavily damaged. The structure gave way and Sereb found himself sliding over the edge.

“Sereb!” Mizu yelled.

“Daddy!” Yun yelled.

Yun and Mizu caught Sereb’s hands before he could fall and he dangled over the valley. Mizu was malnourished and it was a strain to keep holding on. Yun was still young and lacked any real strength.

All types of roars echoed throughout the Valley and Yun realized her eyes had been shut as she tried to pull up her father. She opened her eyes and was greeted by pure destruction. Fires ran rampant through the makeshift camps and buildings. Massive holes dotted the Valley floor. A rush of wind passed over her. She strained her head to look up and saw the cause of the destruction. Or at least one of the causes. The creature was impossibly large. It dwarfed any buildings she had seen before with its large forearms, back legs and wings to boot. All of it speckled in sparkling dark blue scales. Further towards the horizon, more creatures like it but of different colors were already threatening the skies.

“We need to move, my boy,” Mizu said to Sereb. “But you need to help us here.” Sereb found some reserve of strength and started to climb up when the scaffolding began to rock from side to side. The ground beneath bulged and sank. The scaffolding started to tilt towards the valley and Mizu and Yun slid toward the edge.

“Woah, woah, woah!” Sereb called out. The ground far below buckled and gave way to the black cloud. Two claws plowed through the ground and found solid footing on either side of the hole. The three of them looked down as the black dragon shook off the dirt and lifted itself out of the ground. The scaffolding supports started to fail and crack. Sereb looked back at Yun and then Mizu. Mizu just shook his head.

“Trust me when I say I know the look of a bad idea,” Mizu stated. “Don’t…”

“Don’t what,” Yun managed to ask between attempts to pull up her father. She looked at his loosening grip. “Dad… Don’t what?”

“Get her out of here. Take care of her,” Sereb said to Mizu. He looked to Yun. “Yun… my sweet daughter…” The dragon took a slow look at its surroundings before peering up. “I love you so much.” A tear streamed down her face and in turn down his as well. “Never forget that.”

“You don’t have to, dad!” Yun pleaded. The dragon roared and its wings erupted from its side, knocking out various other supports in a cloud of black smoke. “We can—”

“I love you.” Sereb let go and fell towards the hungry void below.

“No!” Yun reached down as the dragon lifted off. Mizu gathered his strength and managed to pull a struggling Yun away from the edge as Sereb became engulfed in the pitch-black maw of the dragon. Mizu and Yun fell off to the side as the dragon flew past and destroyed what remained of the scaffolding. Yun fell into a fit of tears while Mizu tried to console her. Other roars continued to plague the Valley and spouts of fire continued to raze the buildings from a newly emerged red dragon.

Another deeper roar sounded, and the rest of the dragons fell silent. The ground quaked and Mizu and Yun hugged each other in some vain attempt to protect each other. They could hear the emergence below. There was more movement and growls. Just over the edge, Yun saw some gold scales bobbing up and down. Then, a set of gargantuan golden wings unfurled. The wings beat with the force of a hurricane and kicked up everything in their wake. It put out fires and destroyed other buildings in the same pulse. Mizu protected Yun’s head from debris as the golden dragon took to the skies. The other dragons circled about and followed it up the Valley.

“It’s all my fault,” Yun finally cried.

“What?” Mizu asked. “No. No this isn’t your fault.”

“Yes, it is! I never should’ve run off! Stupid! Stupid!” Yun hit herself in the head repeatedly until Mizu grabbed her hands and protected her from herself.

“One thing at a time, okay? We need to discover if anyone else made it out, alright? Then we need to find food. Water. Shelter.”

“What’s the point?”

“What do you mean what’s the point? Your father didn’t sacrifice himself over there so you can die over here. We need to move, young lady!”

Yun’s eyes ran out of tears but not for lack of trying. She nodded to Mizu and they limped away from the disaster zone.

The dragons didn’t solely nest around the Valley but if anywhere was their home as a species, the Valley was it. News became sparce and unreliable around Naramir after the emergence of the dragons, but everyone seemed to agree that the dragons found the capital. Its opulence attracted the golden dragon which usurped the city from the Golden Imperator. The devices meant to fend off birds were no match for the jewel encrusted mammoths. The Imperator’s fate was unknown but also not a priority to the people. The lesser dragons seem to have divided the city’s districts amongst themselves or spread out to other towns, but they all heeded the calls of the golden one. Survivors banded together and struggled to maintain a meek living until finally some people were tired of living in fear and dared to resist the dragons.

Yun continued to fight with her own emotions over what had happened and if it had truly been her fault. She found her outlet by convincing Mizu to help her join a local group of newly formed hunters. The first target of her emotions would be the green dragon that slithered its way into her village and claimed it as its own, but her final pursuit would be the dragon wreathed in black smoke that stole the life of her father.