Legends forgotten

There weren't always dragons in the valley. Or at least, that's what we always believed.

What our stories told us was that one day they weren't there, and then suddenly it was as if they were simply breathed into existence by the Gods overnight.

The mountains, rivers, and earth itself woke from eternal slumber and stretched themselves into new forms that would forever haunt us. Forever waiting for us to fall asleep only to bring ruin upon us.

The first day was chaos. Entire mountains missing, villages brushed into nothingness as the beasts rose deep from the earth and shook them off their backs, rivers and forests suddenly went missing and chaos ripped through the entire valley. Leaving nothing but despair behind.

Then came the anger.

Some blamed the Gods, some blamed the kings and queens ruling the lands, and others blamed the average Joe.

But nearly all were wrong in casting their judgment.

Something had woken them up. Someone had woken them up. And it was only the beginning.

-----

Millie Marharrow had just moved to her father's estate and she found that she absolutely despised it.

There was never anything to do, the halls were confusing, and her tutors were a bunch of idiots who thought of her as a spoiled child. Which she very well may be but no one was allowed to act like she was. Especially not in her presence.

One of the things that Millie never understood about adults was the fact that they felt the need to treat her as if she couldn’t understand them. Throughout her life she found that most adults were this way. Nearly ignoring her to the point of refusing her existence when they began to speak of things they didn’t want others to know.

She hated it at first. Until she figured out she could use it to her advantage. Aunt Claire and Aunt Karla spoke of the men that they fancied, and all Millie had to do was innocently bring up a name she had heard a few too many times in a conversation and then she was receiving luxurious gift for Christmas, her birthday, and any notable holiday that her family deemed fit enough to celebrate.

So when she received a book from one of her uncles, she assumed it was his way of trying to cover up one of his sleazy conversations she had “overheard” and that he had been warned by one of her aunts about her recent activities.

Millie barely glanced at the note that came with it, only recognizing the name enough to know it was one of her crazier uncles that had sent it. Though she could not for the life of her remember when or how she had met him, much less overheard the little conversation that he was trying to cover up with this gift.

She flipped open the book, letting it fall open to a random page while she sipped on her tea and tried to find a cure to her boredom. She paused as she read the page, her brow furrowing as she spotted the crude drawing of a large, unsettling eye on the page. Letting her eyes drift down the page, she nearly choked on a laugh when her eyes settled on the word.

“Dragon” she said with a chuckle, flipping the page again only to find a scribble of a large winged beast waiting there.

Millie was bored. She hated being bored. It was an awful day of dogging tutors and her father and there wasn’t much else to do.

So, Millie started reading the awful book about the winged beasts that didn’t exist.