Prima's Message

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. Until recently, they didn’t even know dragons existed. They were considered a mythical beast.

That is, until the day I was born.

It’s a story I’ve heard over and over, nearly everyone older than me in my tiny town has told me about the day the dragons came. Even my cousin Margie, who was only three months old at the time, claims to remember the way the earth shook when the first dragon landed.

Margie doesn’t actually remember, but she’s the type of person who always has to be the center of attention, even if that means lying through her teeth to get that attention. She would never admit it, but I’m sure she wishes the dragons arrived when she was born.

I wish they arrived when she was born too.

The minute I took my first breath, I’ve been told, the valley rumbled with the deep growl of a giant dragoness, who was eventually nicknamed Prima. She was a dark burnt orange color, with spikes down her spine and smoke coming out of her nostrils. She had giant, papery wings that when stretched out, spanned across the whole valley. Not many people live down in the valley, most live in the surrounding mountains, but the few who do immediately called the local sheriff. News spread fast, and pretty soon the whole town was down in the valley, using their phones to take videos of the giant reptile. No one knew what to do. Do we leave her be? Run her off? Kill her?

Killing her was the option they went with. People shot at Prima with guns and arrows, they even tried to knock her down with a tank, but her skin was so thick and she was so strong that she didn’t even care. The tank made her flinch, but that’s about it. After years of dragon research, we now know that dragons have very thick skin and don’t feel pain the same way we do. It’s annoying to them, kind of like someone kicking the back of your chair at the movies. They’re fighters, and can’t be stopped by measly human weapons.

As time went by, Prima just got more comfortable. It was like she thought humans would be scary, but then realized they weren’t much more dangerous than a bunch of ladybugs. She laid down and started taking a nap when the US military showed up, flying planes above her, trying to catch her with long ropes and chains. This was a horrible idea.

“If you take anything away from this story, it should be that you never try to trap a dragon,” my teacher once told my class during Current World Problems.

That is a well deserved main lesson because as soon as they tried to tie her up, Prima effortlessly blew fire on the planes which instantly blew up and crashed to the ground. In a fight with a single dragon and the entire US military, a dragon easily wins, we learned that day. Planes started crashing to the ground, as people on the ground ran around, trying to get to their cars so they could get out of the area. People and cars were going in all directions.

The dragon seemed unbothered by the chaos she was causing, until a plane crashing to the ground caught her eye. A fiery plane started plummeting towards a two-year-old version of my best friend, Indigo, who had wandered off while her parents watched the dragon in awe. Baby Indie stared up at the giant ball of flames helplessly, as her parents tried to rush to her aid.

It all happened in a flash, but luckily news crews were there with their high-tech cameras so we continue to watch it all happen in impressive definition today. When the plane looked like it was heading straight for Indigo, Prima lunged at the flames, pushing the plane towards an empty pond, saving Indigo. The dragon quickly landed back on the ground, almost as if she had never moved at all.

Most people on the ground were too concerned with their own lives to notice. But it was captured on international news coverage, which is lucky because it caused the president to call off the military attacks, thinking the dragoness had America's best interests at heart. That wasn’t actually true, she just had Indie’s best interests at heart, but it was best to call off the military anyway. Fighting with dragons only ends in death.

Having seen what Prima was capable of, people left and kept their distance, only watching from afar with telescopes or binoculars. Prima didn’t leave the area for weeks. Not until my parents finally went down to see her. My mom really wanted to go down and check out the situation, but she had a hard birth with me. She had started hemrogening and needed time to heal before jumping in the car to go visit a giant dragon.

My grandma was understandably a little concerned about her healing daughter and newborn granddaughter going down to the valley, but my mom insisted on going. When that became a lost cause, my grandma changed tactics, to begging my mom to leave me at home. My mom did not want to be separated from her baby, even for only an hour, so she forcefully told my grandma that no, this would be a family trip, but if my grandma was so concerned, she could come with and stay in the car with me while my parents got out and explored. My grandma begrudgingly agreed.

I, of course, do not remember this trip, but nearly every news station in the world was on dragon watch, so there were plenty of cameras pointed towards the dragon. The drive down to the valley was quick, and my parents got out to explore while I slept in the car with my grandma watching over me. I’ve watched the footage of my parents going from burn site to burn site, checking out her footprints and other relics of her existence, without getting too close. Prima had gotten used to the humans at this point, and slept as they walked around.

After they wandered around for about 5 minutes, you can hear faint baby cries in the footage. Prima’s eyes opened right as she heard me, but she did not move. You can see my grandma get out of the car, and yell to my mom that I was hungry. My parents walked back to the car, grabbing me, and started feeding me while walking around. You can see my grandma is not pleased that they are walking around with me, but my mom could not be stopped.

The moment Prima saw me, she began to get up. Her eyes drilled onto me. In the footage you can see my grandma start to panic as my mom tells her it’s just a coincidence and to calm down. I stopped eating, and my mom sat me up to start to burp me. Obviously upset about the change of position, I started to cry. In a flash, Prima bolts over to us, and before anyone could do anything about it, she shot a fireball, headed right for us. My grandma screamed, my dad yelled, my mom stared in awe, and I stopped crying. As the fire came shooting down on us, you can hear the newscasters in the background start to panic, but as the smoke clears, you see that the fire was in a ring around my family. Prima flew over us, and I locked eyes with Prima and smiled. Prima soared higher and higher, until she left the valley and we have been untouched by the dragons ever since.

For a while, it was thought that children were loved by all dragons. That has proven to be false. Since Prima, dragons have landed all over the world, some are destructive and some are benevolent, but none seem to care about the age of the human they are interacting with. The best way to deal with dragons is to just leave them alone. They are like hurricanes, impossible to control. It’s best to just leave the area. People have lost everything due to dragons, including their lives, their families, their entire community.

While all dragons act very differently, one thing remains the same: they all love Indie and me. It’s probably why we are such good friends. We’ve spent a lot of time together, being flown around the world to see how different dragons interact with us. We both grew up with a weird level of celebrity. We’re protected when we are in our town, but as soon as we venture out, crowds gather and we suddenly turn into monkeys at a zoo.

We try not to leave, but it is hard when you live in such an unpopulated area. Sometimes you want to shop at a mall or go to the movies or eat food from a restaurant. When we do leave, we always go incognito or bring along Margie. She’s truly the most annoying person, and because of that, the crowds usually don’t linger when she’s around. She wants the attention so bad, and people sense that and leave. Which is why we let her go with us to the neighboring “big city” with us when we just wanted a day out.

“I don’t get why you guys want to buy so many graphic tees and Vans, you’ll look like skater boys,” Margie said while we were walking around the mall.

“That’s kind of the point, Marge,” Indigo responded, knowing fully well that Margie hates being called Marge. It reminds her of the Simpsons and she wouldn’t be caught dead with a blue beehive. “It’s the look we’re going for.”

“Well it’s not a very flattering look.”

“We aren’t trying to impress you Margie,” I responded, thinking more about how good a burger sounds than about my cousin’s opinions.

“You should be thinking about how you present yourself. You won’t be able to get a job, much less a boyfriend without dressing like you care.”

“Hey, want some lunch?” Indigo said, looking towards Chile’s. “Maybe eating will shut her up,” Indigo whispered to me as we walked into the restaurant.

When we walked in, it was eerily quiet. Everyone was standing around the TVs in the bar, looking at a fiery blaze.

“Uh oh, what happened?” Margie said.

“The dragons attacked Brookstone, you know, the town they first landed at,” an older man said to Margie, eyes not turning from the TV.

“What? Brookstone?” Indigo said, her voice thick with tension.

“Yeah, it’s really a shame, it doesn't look like there’s much left of the town,” a young woman responded. She glanced over at us and gasped. “You’re Katrina Moore and Indigo Waggy!”

“Coming to you live from Brookstone, Idaho. The dragons have demolished the entire city, killing an unknown number and injuring many. Dragons are now leaving the area, with every building burning but one,” the newscaster blared on the TV. The screen changed to an image of a single tan bungalow, surrounded by flames, but completely unscathed.

“Wait, Kat, that’s grandma’s house!” Margie yelled. “Why is grandma’s house the only house they decided to save?”