Kyrie and his Flying Beast

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. When I was much younger, my pa put me to sleep with stories of his childhood, before the dragons came. The Valley used to be filled with tall, verdant trees, millions of tiny squirrels and birds, and a wide, winding river where Pa and his buddies fished. He would describe yellow and pink wildflowers so vividly I could almost smell them. He told me once that he had even seen a bear, bumbling along the river’s edge and trying to catch fish. My older sister chuckled as he told me that story, later informing me that our grandfather was an ardent story teller and that he was doing just that: telling stories.

Even so, we learned about the Valley in school. The teachers also told us that it had been different before the dragons, but they never painted pictures of sparkling rivers, cheeky chipmunks, or towering trees like Pa did. Everyone always told the same tale of the dragon’s arrival, though. Huge, winged, screeching creatures descended upon the lush valley and tore it to pieces, plunging the entire region into chaos as fires swept up any green they embraced and the beasts consumed any unfortunate animals that remained in their new home.

“Why did the dragons come here?” I remember thrusting my tiny hand into the air, interrupting Madame Clauden as she was drawing a crude timeline on an oversized piece of parchment. Her hand came to a stop in fluid movements, and she paused, completely motionless, still holding the charcoal against the paper.

“No one really knows, Kyrie,” she answered, knitting her thin brows together. Her eyes narrowed as she mumbled “I wonder” to herself, then she fully turned to face the class. “What do you think, children? Why did the dragons come?”

I recall many reasonings were given that day. Most of the other kids believed the dragons had already destroyed their last home, bringing carnage to each place they tried to live. Avron, the small blond clown who would become my best friend, suggested there was treasure hidden in the Valley and the dragons came to find it. Another boy agreed; his father told him that dragons could not resist something he referred to as “the call of gold.” Many of our classmates began to agree and eventually would go on to spread the rumor of the “Valley Treasure” until it grew into something of an urban legend many years later. Another classmate attempted to interrupt the emphatic treasure discussion, though, and this chubby, red-haired girl quietly raised her hand and kept it high, even for a few seconds after Madame Clauden called on her.

“Um, what if, um, they were chased here?” The girl, named Astilbe, folded her hands neatly in her lap and took a large, audible breath as if a boulder had been taken off her shoulders. Madame Clauden began to write Astilbe’s idea on the parchment, but Avron and a few other boys laughed hysterically.

“Chased by what? Bears? Foxes? Raccoons? They eat those, you know,” Avron teased, still snickering.

“No! Other dragons!” Astilbe, Avron, and a few other students started to argue, and the laughter morphed into yelling. Madame Clauden calmly recorded Astible’s thought, then sauntered into the center of the room in silence. After a few moments, everyone quieted and trained their eyes onto her.

“We may never know why they came, but why don’t I tell you about how they left.”

Similarly to Pa’s stories, Madame Clauden graced us with a tale of the brave townsfolk who diverted the river at the entrance of our city so it couldn’t spill down into the Valley. They prepared for war as the beasts starved, but the dragons simply left. No one here knew where they went, but Madame said she had heard rumors that the southern regions were dealing with dragons.

“I assume they will take care to get rid of them much like we did,” she remarked, flipping her parchment and redirecting our attention to arithmetic.

“Wait, Madame Clauden!” I lunged my hand up again, stretching my arm to the point of pain. “What if they came to the Valley because other people forced them to? Like we did?”

“Kyrie,” she sternly said, “it really doesn’t matter how they got here. Now, please tell me what these equal when multiplied.”

I recently asked Pa why she was so short with me that day. He thought about it in silence for a few moments, then looked me in the eyes. He explained that people weren’t at fault for the dragons migrating, and he agreed with my class’ first theory… Dragons were like bears. They needed places to hunt, and happened to harm those places in the process. The hunting grounds didn’t have an entire winter of dragon hibernation to recover, though, so the dragons had to be forced out for the land to survive. Our city didn’t do this quick enough, according to Pa. The Valley was ruined forever. That meant the dragons would never return, at least.

I decided to stop asking about the dragons after that.

Mom didn’t enjoy me leaving the house as late as I was, so I left without telling her. Avron expected me just an hour or so after sunset, at the usual place. As I walked the main road, the moon’s light was beginning to shine, and the stars glittered against the onyx night sky. Fortunately, it had warmed up after a few days of chills that almost brought snow.

“Kyrie!” A girl’s voice whispered from behind. I turned my head to see Astilbe trot up beside me. She had grown into a rather attractive girl, with long, red curls, a smattering of golden freckles across her nose, and a surprisingly slender figure. I had wanted to say something to her about my attraction within the first few days of secondary school, but Avron told her of his first. They had been an item for years since, and thankfully I was able to quell any feelings and maintain friendship with both.

Astilbe and I made our way to the edge of town, right before the wooden bridges that would take us into the Valley. We could already see a small, orange fire dotting the very bottom, near the river’s old path. We hurried along the few bridges that brought us to the old river bank, then followed it through the dead bushes and trees until the debris thinned out into a small clearing. Giant, lifeless logs had been dragged into a circle around a makeshift fire pit, which was currently sputtering with a small, smoky fire. Avron and a few other young men were sitting around it, laughing together. The light from the fire gave an amber tint to Av’s bright blond hair that he kept short himself, and the shadows outlined his cheekbones and dimples.

“Bee!” He exclaimed as we entered the clearing. He stood tall to greet her, pulling her into his arms and giving her a kiss, then shaking my hand. “How are you doing, Kyrie?”

I sat to his left, Astilbe, his right. “I’m doing well. Mom doesn’t know I’m here.” He grinned in response, handing me a tankard of something he stole from his dad’s tavern.

“Nor should she! Though there’s nothing in the Valley.”

“Maybe she’s worried a tree will fall on me,” I joked, causing a ripple of laughter through the group.

“That’s about the only danger here,” Avron stated, then immediately downed his entire drink.

“Yeah, either that of the dragons coming back for that treasure,” another guy, Talon, said while chewing on a leg of something that looked vaguely meat-like in the low light.

“Actually,” Avron replied, “we haven’t looked for ‘treasure’ out here in years.” His eyes lit up and a smile found its way across his face. “We should go find stuff!”

Astilbe rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “Av, the shit we used to find were colorful rocks or odd-shaped sticks.”

“Well, let’s find some colorful rocks and crazy sticks, then! Kyrie!” He grabbed my forearm. “You’re with me since someone is being boring.” He began to pull me toward the opposite side of the clearing, facing into the Valley. “Everyone! Let’s meet back here in an hour. Whoever gets the coolest thing gets to take the leftover ale home!”

Everyone except Astilbe partnered up, and we all took a different direction. I think one pair was heading back into town for more ale, too. Avron and I started by following the river. The banks and the river bed had many tiny rocks, but all of them were various shades of gray, beige, or brown. In reality, the Valley had been devoid of any color since the dragons left, but as younger children, we scoured the Valley until we found anything remotely vibrant. Every year brought us less “treasure,” and every year we aged, we wanted to search less. It was nostalgic to be wandering the Valley with Avron again, without Astilbe. It reminded me of our time before she was wedged into our duo, when we used to tease her and chase her around at school. Don’t get me wrong, she was a fun and trustworthy friend. It just seemed that as time was passing, Avron had less and less time for just me.

“Does this giant leaf look cool?” He asked, holding a charred leaf from some kind of fern directly in front of my face.

“Honestly? No.”

We kept moving. Avron wanted to wander away from the river bed, toward the rockier edges of the Valley. I followed obediently, letting him lead me through dense, charred patches of trees, large piles of boulders, and dusty stretches of dead brush. We found nothing of interest, even after upturning countless rocks and logs. We both wanted to bring something back to the group, but there was just nothing to be seen. We reached the border of the Valley, and we decided the incline counted as part of the treasure hunt’s boundaries.

“We should split up to cover more of this. Time is running short,” Avron stated. I agreed, and he began to head up the slope. I walked further and headed up as well. The trees angled away from the ground, unless they had completely fallen already. The dirt was extremely loose and slippery; years without any vegetation allowed it to dry and crack. I stumbled and fell often as the path became more vertical, needing to grab at broken trunks and fragile branches. I still saw nothing interesting to bring back to the bonfire.

After a few minutes of struggling, I lost sight of Avron entirely. I called his name, but only my own voice echoed back in a whisper. I cursed under my breath and continued what I could only say was climbing at that point. Had the Valley always been so steep here? The mounds of boulders and loose dirt below me hinted that this was a newer development. I contemplated carefully sliding down the slope, but I decided to push on.

The Valley continued to become steeper as I moved farther away from town. The inclines were actual cliffs now, and I was wearing torn trousers and worn sandals. To clarify, my family wasn’t poor. I had other clothes, I just really despised wearing anything even mildly uncomfortable. I wished I had worn anything else to the fire, though, as these clothes were rather ill-suited for any physical activity.

Just as I was acknowledging my clothing catastrophe, my left sandal snapped apart, and my foot met nothing but crisp, evening air. I flung my arms wildly, eyes darting about, grabbing for anything to steady myself. I was able to wrap my fingers around a thick, dried root, but as soon as my grip solidified, a deafening crack sent me and the root sliding through the rubble, down the cliff. Sharp stones drew blood from my arms, legs, and back as I attempted to protect my head. I couldn’t tell if I was actually screaming or if my lungs were just being crushed.

An excruciating slam brought my body to a halt on the Valley’s floor. I struggled to breathe as my lungs panicked, not allowing anything deeper than a quick gasp. Darkness and purple sparkles creeped into my periphery, and a dull, but constant, pain overcame my being. I was able to take one regular breath before I fell asleep.

I came to, but my head was spinning and my vision was blurred. I called to Avron, but my voice met no response. I attempted to stretch my arms out; shockingly, I had no sharp pains as I did so. Gritting my teeth and tensing my chest and neck, I pulled myself to a stand. An entire cliffside seemed to have fallen with me. Rocks, charred roots, and piles of dirt laid around me. There would be no climbing the destroyed cliff face.

My broken sandal was missing, so I began to search through the debris. I chose the closest pile, and kicked through it. To my surprise, something moving scuttled out of the heap toward the cliff. It appeared to be some sort of lizard. The scales on its back matched the bister color of the dirt, but its sides transitioned to a rather vibrant green. I was astonished, and in pain, but I found myself following the critter toward the edge of the Valley. If I brought something alive to the fire, Avron and Astilbe would lose their minds.

As quickly as it had appeared, the tiny lizard reached the open rockface we had both fallen down. I attempted to reach for it, but my lacerated and sore arms missed the reptile entirely and slammed into the stone. I grimaced, and in doing so, pulled my arms abruptly to my sides, causing more rocks to fall off the rocky wall before me. An opening began to emerge where the lizard had crawled into the cliff. I stepped back as more rubble fell, carefully watching the hole grow until it had caved to an aperture twice the size of me. The collapsing slowed, allowing me to look into a newly exposed cavern.

I stood outside and looked to my left and right. Neither Avron nor anyone else was around to observe my discovery. It seemed as though enough light was pouring into the cave, and I was confident it wasn’t very large on the inside. I hoped to find the lizard again, or maybe some other creature that had taken refuge in this secluded place. I took one step inside, realizing that the actual cavern was much, much larger than I had anticipated. The walls were jagged stone, but the Valley side was significantly thinner than I could have fathomed before entering. Toward the back of the cavern were glowing blue and yellow crystals, wedged between slabs of dark stone. I took a few more steps toward them before realizing where I was, then abruptly turned around and began to leave.

Let’s find some colorful rocks! I heard in my head, jumping slightly as it seemed loud enough for Avron to have spoken it beside me. I drew in a cautious breath, and stepped deeper into the cave. The entire cavern was largely empty, save for a few odd stalagmites and potholes. I had no trouble reaching the other side, near the crystals, but the light from the entrance was fading the farther I got into the cave. I would be a legend if I brought back one of those crystals. I decided not to tell anyone where I found them; who knew when I’d need another cool thing to show the group.

There was one particular blue specimen I wanted. It sat lower than most of the other crystals, and looked to have been already knocked loose by something. I assumed the rocks shifted as the years passed. This place appeared untouched, as if from an illustration in a book. I reached up and rolled onto my toes, trying to reach for the glowing blue light. I was just shy of it if I jumped. Exasperated, I stepped back to study the rest of the cave again.

At one spot, among the yellow and blue, a smattering of deep red crystals disturbed the display. It was under this anomaly that the rocky walls of the cave opened to form a sizable alcove. I hadn’t noticed it before, but it was as far away from the broken entrance as possible, and the stones that formed its walls were much darker than the rest of the cave. I peered into the alcove, seeking other crystals that were closer to the ground, but there was no chance of seeing anything in the almost lightless nook. I sighed, exasperated, and stepped back toward the blue crystal that I could almost reach.

I began to pick up stone debris from the ground to toss toward my target, hoping to wedge it free with the right throw. I missed almost every try, until there were no more rocks under my feet small enough to fling at the crystal. I sighed loudly again, now annoyed, and the sigh echoed back. I froze. There had been no audible echo before.

My heartbeat sped up and I began to sweat as I stepped, carefully and silently, away from the crystals. I could feel numbness crawling up my arms and resting on the tip of my nose. Everything began to feel mechanical, every breath planned, every movement prepared. I hadn’t even come close to the center of the cavern when I heard the sigh again, this time accompanied by the sound of agitation against rock. I tried to breathe, but my chest had seized up completely and my neck was paralyzed. A last sigh passed over me from behind before I turned myself around, toward the shadowy alcove.

My terror-filled, wandering eyes met two monstrous, glowing, golden eyes, and a full mouth of glinting ivory teeth curled into a grin as the beast whispered, “Hello.”