Here Be Dragons

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. It used to be a place so inconsequential that it didn't even have a proper name. For as long as anyone could remember, it was just "The Valley" that rested between 2 mountains and housed nothing but a handful of families on what would charitably be called farms. That is probably why it was so easy for them to abandon it and rejoin the town once the dragons made it their home.

The Valley was where Shand was born and, given his future venture, the place where he was increasingly likely to die. Die like all the other idiots that sought fame, glory, or wealth. Whether by killing, taming, or riding a dragon or by stealing a piece of the nonexistent treasure that legends say they hoard.

Once word spread of the dragons' arrival, the mad rush of soon-to-be corpses came. To their credit, the townspeople tried to warn the would-be adventurers. Still, it was soon apparent that there was nothing they could say or do that would dissuade them from their folly. So instead, they sold them maps and any number of the other supplies that would surely be burned and digested along with them.

With time and death, the rush of human kibble gradually fell to a steady stream and then finally to a faint trickle. But it was an embarrassing 5 years before the collective consciousness decided to move on to other foolish pursuits, and it had been close to a year since the last boastful adventurer made his one-way voyage. It was only then that Shand took the risk and traversed the Valley's narrow entrance for the first time.

Unlike the others, though, Shand was no idiot, and he had no delusions of grandeur. Not yet, at least. Just an innate curiosity to once again set eyes upon, from a safe distance, the place of his birth and the mighty creatures that usurped his home. It took more than a half dozen trips before Shand felt comfortable leaving the mouth of the entrance, and another half dozen before he would enter the Valley proper. It was only here, crouched amongst a rockfall, that he could see across the great divide and, for the first time, recognize how much it had changed.

He had half expected the landscape to be scorched and littered with nothing but remnants of its previous life. Instead, he saw a land awash in green that was just beginning to climb the sheer Valley walls. And amongst the sea of green, scattered white mounds extending out haphazardly in all directions that were completely alien to him.

From his vantage point, Shand could make out the old farms. Not by the obscured or overgrown homes or barns, but by the abandoned golden fields that, in their absence, had grown more bountiful than his rational mind would allow. Intuitively, he knew that whatever could bring growth like this had the power to change the world...by feeding it. No more hunger, no more famine. And if by some cruel joke, it was only found smack dab in the middle of the world's biggest death trap.

His mind raced like it was scratching at the edge of an answer, but couldn't quite grasp it. Lost in thought, he scrabbled out from the relative safety of the rocks to better see the Valley before him. He spotted the small lake where he learned to swim and almost drowned. He saw the long crack in the mountain wall where countless birds nested. But no matter where he looked, his eyes always fell back on the incongruous white mounds. They were the clear answer to this riddle, but he couldn't imagine what they were without getting closer, and the nearest one was miles away. As his mind pondered solutions, his eyes darted from one mound to the next. He looked in every direction but up.

The shadow rushed over him, and before he had time to process what it meant, something massive crashed into the ground in front of him. In half a breath, he was blasted backward, his vision went white, and he was overcome by a wash of heat that he knew meant he was about to die.

But he didn't die. Instead, Shand felt the ground slam into his back, and his breath leave him. Confused, Shand fought to breathe and made his way to his feet amongst a slippery mess. Back on his feet and his vision clearing, he could finally see the new, massive white mound before him, even if he couldn't understand it.

As he stared transfixed, he heard and felt a rhythmic rush of air pressing down on him. Terrified, he looked up to see the dragon's colossal form slowly descending towards him. Unable to move, Shand looked back and forth between the dragon and the giant white mound as the answer came to him, and 2 words escaped from his mouth.

"Oh...shit."