Tempest

There weren’t always dragons in the valley.

When I was a child, Papa used to tell me stories about how the fire breathers originated. He had heard these stories from his grandfather, who had heard it from his grandfather, who is said to have crossed paths with such a beast. The gruesome blackened skin of his left shoulder that bore the appearance of an alien disease was a testament of his encounter. And even though he was thought cursed, or bewitched, or even a fabricator by the townsfolk, he had always conducted himself with pride as a person who had survived the wrath of the beast.

They are said to have come from the great distant lands of the far east where few would dare to travel. History does not reveal why they did but that they just did. The King at the time had sent his army to vanquish the beast but the poor souls had charged in with valour only to meet the face of their creator through the agony of being scorched alive. The tale does not specify the number of beasts that arrived but the barren infertile land that lies to the north west that was once part of the great forest, home to the woodland people, suggest that there may have been more than one of them. It does not end with victory by the slaying of the beasts but rather by what is believed to be dark magic. In the midst of all the turmoil, an unknown man of unknown lineage had stepped forward and is said to have communicated with the ferocious creatures. And then, everything had stopped. The fighting had ceased and the dragons took refuge in the northern mountains of Rhüundhar, just at the end of the valley. And with the end of all the calamity, the mysterious man was never to be found. He had disappeared without a trace. Some say he was dragged into the abyss by demons for dealing with the devil and some others think that he was from the same land where the dragons emerged from and had gone back to his land. Josiah, who lives down by the river, says his father had told him that it was one of the gods that had descended to save mankind but no one knew for sure and the few to have witnessed it are not alive to confirm.

And so, centuries have passed since that incident and they have never initiated an attack and nor have we. You could occasionally hear their rumbling growl reverberate through the air and echo into the far distance but they’re harmless cries like a wolf in the dark of night. I have seen one with my own eyes. It flew right above the trees one time I was walking back from the market. It was black and the sun completely disappeared out of sight for the moment that it was above me. I remember ducking behind a tree in fear eyeing sharply as the black mass moved along and when it had moved out of sight I remember thinking to myself what a peculiar creature it really was. To be that big and have the ability to perish anything that gets in its way just by its breath. I was standing in the exact place that I was when the beast had flown past me previously and as I looked up, I wondered what it would feel like to be in its presence.

The sudden impact of a tiny stone on the back of my head jolted me out of deep thought and I looked backwards.

“I told you to wait for me!” It was Josiah and he was flinging a small leather pouch in his hand as he hurried towards me. The contents of the bag appeared to be metal-like as he approached. I took tell from the sound as he got nearer that it was money.

“Did you actually win?” I asked in surprise.

“Is that so hard to believe?”

“I left because I didn’t think that you were going to win.”

He dangled the leather pouch in my face and smirked in playful arrogance. “Well, you thought wrong my friend.”

He opened the pouch and tossed six silver pieces onto my palm. And then he tucked the pouch to his side. “For your patience,” He said with a slight bow.

“I reckon if it was my patience that you were paying for, it would honestly cost you more than this,” I pointed out. “But thank you.”

“What were you daydreaming about earlier?” He asked once we had resumed walking.

“Nothing,” I replied. “Was just thinking about the dragon.”

“The one you saw a couple of weeks ago?”

I nodded.

“What about it?”

“I was just wondering what it would feel like to be next to one.”

“Uh,” Josiah started and slightly paused to collect his thoughts. “The only thing you would feel is regret and then burn alive.”

He was not wrong. That is the most possible outcome of it all.

“But what if you could talk to them?” I reasoned. “Like that man had done centuries ago.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Uriah,” He said. “That was nothing but a tale and none of that is true.”

And whether it was true or not was something that I wanted to find out.

Something that I wanted to find out for myself.