Jacob - The Dragon-boy

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. But sometimes the reality turns out to be stranger than fiction, something incredibly dramatic was about to happen very soon, something which may sound to be fictional or mythological...

Our story starts in the 1920s when there was no dragon in this remote Dutch valley. The townspeople privately speculated about what could have scared it away. Some said that it might have been a forest fire that had left the valley barren for a time. Others said that logging had stripped the forest of its trees and underlying soil, leaving the valley exposed and inhospitable to them. The most popular theory was that the military had laid landmines during World War to protect their nearby weapons depot, later abandoning them after they realized how much they were creating havoc. But at the same time, some people never believed that any such creature(Dragon) ever existed in the history of human beings and they maintained that it is all mythological stories and exaggerations with no solid evidence found anywhere on the entire planet. But there were also the elderly people who always maintained that those Dragons were the real saviours of the human race on our planet Earth. They even talked about the origination of the Dragons, according to them they originated from an alien planet called 'Dragos' where there is a war going on between the Dragons & another powerful race for the past 5000 years. But How and why did they come to our planet Earth? and the most important question.. as to why they chose to visit our planet only in this entire universe? is something which is yet to be found out.

Now back to the Dutch valley...so eventually, everyone forgot about the dragon and went on with their lives. They started building houses, farms, schools, and orchards. They planted crops on what used to be fallow fields and forests grown over by scrubby grasses.

And then one day, (2021) 100 years after it vanished, a single dragon reappeared in the valley. It flew down from a nearby mountain and landed in front of an old but abandoned church. The Dragon was very young and small in size but seemed to have come out of a Sci-fi storybook with all the visible characteristic features of a mythological Dragon on its body.

Jacob, the young son of a farmer(Sam) was on his way to the orchards when he saw the Dragon landing with a vehement thumping sound which grabbed his attention to look towards the old abandoned church.

Once he saw the Dragon, he just couldn't look anywhere else as if his eyes were frozen and he couldn't move his feet or body anywhere else due to the mental shock that he was undergoing or experiencing after this unbelievable sighting.

For a moment he thought that it was a nightmare but the very next moment the Dragon looked up towards the sky and spit fire out of its mouth with a scream which brought Jacob immediately back into his senses and as the Dragon started to move towards him, he had no other option but to rush towards his house as fast as he could and as a result, he was sprinting like an Olympic champion runner and never cared about some of his (Water bottle & his favourite black cap) belongings that he had left at the place of the sighting.

All these years Jacob has grown up with a reputation of being a coward and a physically weak person. So, when he proudly tries to share his story of an encounter with a real-life Dragon, he finds no takers rather he becomes a laughing stock. Everyone finds his story to be ridiculous and amusing to the point that they give him a new nickname Jacob-the Dragon boy.

Even though nobody in the entire town believed him including his family members but with a couple of exceptions. His father Sam and childhood friend Sasha were the only two people who have always shown trust and confidence in him throughout his life.

One night it was overcast conditions and due to power failure in the town, it was mostly dark almost everywhere as the street light didn't have any electricity supply either. Jacob's elder brother Martin asks him to buy some groceries and come back before it starts to rain.

Accompanied by Sasha, he is on his way to a nearby grocery store when a group of miscreant guys try to taunt him by calling him Dragon-boy. As usual, he couldn't gather enough courage to face them but Sasha is a brave girl, she quickly opposes them by shouting back at them and telling them to shut up.

While coming back from the grocery store, it starts to thunder and Jacob doesn't want to face them again. Therefore, he asks her to take another route which goes via the old abandoned church area. Walking towards this long route, he recalls the Dragon sighting and he stops. He decides to avoid this route and turns around to inform her about it but she is nowhere to be seen. An already afraid and perplexed Jacob is now shocked to hear her screaming sound coming from the nearby bushes. Somehow, he gathers enough courage to check out the bushes and finds that the very same gang of boys were trying to misbehave with Sasha. Jacob pleads to them repeatedly, the gang then starts to assault him while Sasha runs away to get some help to save him. Bruised and battered but his miseries are still not over as the gang members throw him into the vicinity of the old abandoned church.

Sasha comes back for help along with Sam and local cops but they can't find Jacob anywhere. And as it starts to downpour heavily they have no other choice left but to run and look for shelter nearby. A monster Tornado is reported to be heading their way so, the cop promises to search for Jacob once the weather gets fine and takes them back to their home.

It seemed to be a creepy, satanic, dark endless night with loud thunderstorms and a huge Tornado disturbing the very peace of this town. Sam along with his family and Sasha couldn't sleep the entire night. They were worried about Jacob's whereabouts and his health condition. But there was another more worrisome and mysterious development taking place in this town.

Martin screams and asks everyone to take a look at the abandoned church from their window. Everyone rushed to the window and was struck dumb to see that the church building was repeatedly getting thunderbolt lightning strikes. Very soon the news spreads like a wildfire across the entire town but no one dared to visit the actual sight - the old & abandoned Church. People started to construe this event to be a sign of some curse or bad omen coming their way very soon.

Around 3 a.m. the Mayor(Mr. Walter) and the townspeople woke up to a loud, deafening sound which echoed everywhere causing window glasses to shatter. In the backdrop of a thunder lightning sky, right above the watchtower of the abandoned church, some sort of a giant humanoid creature with wings like a dragon could be seen flying and circling the church. Everyone is shocked to see this but Sam has a secret smile on his face as they all watch this incredible creature landing right above the watchtower and then go flying straight above towards the dark sky to vanish from the sight. Amazingly the very next moment the weather comes back to normal and there was pin-drop silence in the town.

The next day the local newspaper's first-page headline reads 'Mysterious Dragon-boy creature witnessed by the locals! Could it be the sign of an Alien invasion?'...A guy reading this news at a local newspaper shop has a bright smile on his face as he turns around and says " Yes, the Dragon-boy has finally arrived as a saviour!".

Do we have our own brand new Super-Hero in the making?!...

[to be continued...]