Tephra the Ash Dragon

The angry, black, jagged rocks of the Cendre Peaks peered through the haze of an eruption that began just hours before Tephra could hear the faint, muffled cries of a child from outside his cave.

Tephra snorted, his nostrils blasting blue cinders that gleamed through the black ash.

The mountain rumbled again.

Pieces of lava rock from ancient eruptions shook off the sides of the walls and ceiling, raining down on Tephra’s scaley head. He shook the rock off, like flicking at an irritating fly, and slid his head further beneath his large forepaw. Retracting his claws, he nuzzled his head deeper into his chest, extending a black veiled wing over his body and head, shielding himself from further disturbance to his slumber. This action stifled the eruption’s rumblings and the child's distant fading cries but only for a moment.

The muffled sobs grew louder and closer to the mouth of his cave. Tephra wondered how it could be so near the eruption, this close to his lair and survive this long.

He moved his wing back against his thick onyx scales and shifted his paw, sitting up, blinking bleary-eyed, and slowly opening his eyes that appeared as two bright blue slits in the darkness.

The cries became louder with brief muffled pauses but closer.

Tephra stood up, almost filling the massive cave with his twenty-foot-tall stature. He spread out his forty-foot wings just partially and arched his back, stretching his thirty-foot-long body and muscular arms and legs, extending his paws and arching his hind legs. He expanded his claws again, gleaming white with a hint of blue light shimmering off their luminous sheen. They scratched against the rock, creating blue sparks that danced like tiny fireflies in the gloom. The embers danced into a pool of pure sulfur, igniting a pit of magnificent blue flame illuminating the once pitch cavern. Suffocating cinders floated in the cave, filling the air with harmful, toxic ash.

Tephra sat straight, brandishing his smooth, black, scaley, fifteen foot long tale around his legs and paws. The tip twitched with irritation while he waited and watched ash swirling around the mouth of his cave.

The cries stopped.

He tilted his head, straining to hear any other noise through the after quakes as the angry peak continued spewing its frustration into the now unbreathable air, its bluish-purple lava cascading down its dark, glistening face.

A muffled shuffling noise as though a creature were passing by, walking through the thick ash and coughing as it struggled to breathe, caused Tephra to perk his ears up. He strode to the mouth of the cave, extending his long neck, he peered out. His ancient face gleamed in the ensuing blue and orange firelight.

He could see the village far below engulfed in bright red and orange flames. The surrounding trees and what was once lush farms and tall cascading hills were now only pure sulfuric rivers of blue fire and red/blue gleaming lava. He glanced around with his ambient infrared vision and looked hard into the bleak landscape.

A small specter came into view. It looked like a ball of ash scuffling along the ground. It stopped and coughed again. A tiny head turned from side to side, its arms and small hands rigid. Little white dots blinked in and out of view from where its face would be.

Tephra tilted his head, observing the tiny creature. It couldn’t see him yet. If it just looked up, it would notice his bright, gleaming, blue eyes peering out from behind shiny, black scales. Seeing this monstrous creature staring down at it through the pitch, he knew it would be frightened.

Tephra huffed, snorting white and crackling blue smoke again from his nostrils, and waited.

The tiny creature looked up and stopped momentarily, gazing up at Tephra, trying to make out the strange form in the darkness.

Tephra leaned his head, bending his neck low to the ground. He recognized it as a child of one of those beings’ called humans that lived off the rich growth of the Cendre peaks. These humans didn’t dare come near the rigid upper mounts where only rock and smoke resided. He’d seen villages come and go over the thousands of years he had lived and traveled to and from the mountain.

When he was a hatchling, he watched as his siblings grew and flew off to find their caves. He’d chosen this cave and tended to the mountain and the surrounding lands, traveling only at night during the waning moon and shrouded in the dark of night.

He stayed inside when the moon was bright or full and succeeded at not being seen too often. In times past he'd been spotted and hunted and regrettably defended his life and home, raining his toxic black ash and blue flames down upon his unfortunate victims, taking the lives of this tiny creature’s ancestors. He’d never attacked unprovoked and vowed he never would.

These creatures tended the land in their small way to live and prosper while he protected the lands from other more destructive beasts from dark and shadowed worlds and beings unknown to the fragile and primitive species.

Every time the volcano erupted, it destroyed these frail creatures, and none survived until now. It was just the way of things and like most dragons, he gave little thought to it.

Tephra peered into the tiny humans' white eyes. The child stared back, frozen and unsure of what to do until it did something. It reached a small hand to Tephra’s Black, scaley face and touched the top of his nose. It smacked his nose and rubbed it curiously.

Tephra slightly pulled his head back, causing the child to stumble. It started to cry and cough again. Its raspy, desperate cries stirred something in Tephra’s heart he’d never felt in all his lonely years. Curious, he pressed his face back into the child’s hand.

It stopped crying.

The volcano shook once more, more violent this time. Tephra knew the mountain wasn’t done and wouldn’t be satisfied until every creature beside him was gone. The mountain knew that he was a part of it, just as fierce and just as timeless.

Instinctively, he slumped down and spread his massive wings around the toddler, enclosing it entirely in the vast, black, and blue, iridescent folds.

More ash, rock, and fire rained down all around them. They were sliding off the thick and powerful webbing of Tephra’s wings. The light glowed through the tough sheen of leathery skin between long, black, bone-like veins and pointed tips illuminating the inside of the makeshift enclosure.

The child should have been terrified and only showed mild discomfort as the ground shook. It was brave. Tephra thought wisely.

When the shaking stopped, the toddler stopped pressing on Tephra’s nose and sat down on the ground, looking up and around at the beautiful blue glow of light reflecting through his wings. Tephra noticed what it was gazing at and marveled. If he could have chuckled, he would have.

The child lay on the soot-covered ground cupping its hands under its head and closing its eyes. Tephra blinked, marveling at the tiny creature. Its labored breath seemed to rattle as its sides moved up and down. The toddler fell asleep.

Tephra sighed and did something he’d never done before. He scooped a human child up in his massive paws, careful not to crush it by creating a dome around it with his claws, and leaped into the air exuding immense force with his hind legs, extending his wings to full breadth.

He soared magnificently forward and upward away from the storms. Through the ash and cloud, he swiftly swept the cinders and fumes away from them until they were clear of the volcano. The ashen red sky extended for miles in all directions. Tephra knew it would be many leagues before the child could breathe and hoped it would survive.

Why he hoped for this child’s life and hadn’t cared much for the others of its kind through times past, he couldn’t tell and puzzled over it in his ancient mind as he flew as high as he dared. These are delicate creatures, he knew. He’d seen them freeze and burn and was careful to keep the child where he hoped it would be safe, high enough that the ash had thinned a bit but low enough to stay out of the cold heights of the heavens.

Tephra knew of a place where such monstrous mountains didn’t exist. The land was low and green, surrounded by clear, green-blue waters and happy creatures like this child. The destruction they faced came from the sea. They were resilient and always rebuilt if their homes failed to temper the storms. He knew it would be safer there, so he continued forward for what seemed like a time until the sun rose, though red rather than a usual cheerful yellow, and the sky appeared a hazy blue.

The child stirred in his palms. Its little fingers scratched his thick leathery skin with its tiny, soft nails. Tephra flapped his wings more fiercely and quickened his speed until he saw the island and village.

They’d never seen him before, and he paused for a moment before approaching them and hovering in the sky. His wings created a mighty wind that cooled the air around them considerably while he thought for a moment and felt the toddler shiver against his skin. He’d better wait until dark, but where to go? Where could he land and rest? All he could see was the ocean and the island far below.

Tephra flew behind the clouds concealing himself as he descended to the other side of the island, far from the settled villagers, and landed softly. He opened his palms, and the creature looked up, its eyes white against the black ash smeared on its face. The tiny creature smiled, revealing white teeth that gleamed against the black, caking ash. It hugged his finger tight.

He sat the toddler down carefully on the sand, then curled up, resting his hind quarters and paws. He tucked his wings against his body and watched the child, hoping it wouldn’t wander into the sea.

The child looked around, its eyes growing wide as it realized it didn’t know where it was. Its eyes filled with liquid, and crystalline drops streaked down its cheeks, smearing the ash.

Tephra knew that these creatures ate food the same as he did, so he searched around until he saw a coconut tree ripe with fruit. He stood up and took a few steps toward it. Then with his massive paw and claws, he snapped the top of the tree off its trunk and brought the bunch of coconuts back to the child laying its long branches and leaves on the sand. The creature looked at the fruit confused and watched as Tephra picked a coconut off a branch and handed it to the toddler. The toddler fell back in the sand and sat up, grasping the coconut bewilderedly.

Tephra nudged at the fruit with his snout. The child began to cry.

Tephra sat up, startled and worried, glancing around the edges of the trees to be sure that a villager hadn’t heard the cries and come running, and then he saw the toddler do another unexpected thing. It stood up and shuffled its feet awkwardly through the sand with the coconut to a rock and started hitting the coconut on it, but its weak little arms couldn’t accomplish the task.

Tephra reached down, plucked another coconut off the felled tree, and, copying the child, smacked the coconut on the rock. It shattered, and coconut water sprayed all over the creature. The child looked startled and was about to cry again when Tephra quickly picked a nearby flower and handed it to the toddler. It reached for the flower and smiled, sitting again on the sand. It started playing with the petals.

Tephra took another coconut and cracked it open with his powerful claws until it split in half, and he carefully kept the liquid in the fruit, laying one half of it by the child. It laid the flower down and drank the juice from the shell greedily. Tephra took his claw and scratched at the white meat in the other coconut shell until flakes of it broke off, making a little pile of it for the toddler to consume easily. The creature ate the pieces hungrily and began playing with the flower again.

Tephra sat and watched it play happily, kicking its little feet in the sand.

Turning his head, Tephra Looked over the ocean. He could see his home far away, surrounded by black clouds. It would erupt for a long time, maybe for months or years. He didn’t know, but it was his home, and he didn’t belong here in the sun on the beach with this little creature who was now homeless. Tephra snorted with frustration and shook his head irritably. How would he get this child to the village without causing a scene? He didn’t want to hurt anyone, and he didn’t want this child to be frightened or hurt anymore.

He looked back to where the toddler was sitting, but the child was no longer there.

Tephra startled and stood up, carefully moving around, looking for the fearless creature. It was gone as though it had just vanished. Tephra leaped into the sky and flew just a short distance before looking down and scouring the island with his penetrating gaze. The child was further down the beach, toddling with its feet kicking in the water. Tephra soared back down and crouched low, hoping no one had seen him, and kept a closer watch of the creature now, too worried to take his eyes off it for a second.

It got on its hands and knees and rolled in the water. The gentle waves washed over its ashen body. Tephra could see the creature's hair was as black as his scales, its skin dark like the cocoa beans that grew on the cocoa trees in the forest near his home, and its eyes as black as night and as shiny as the stars. The child smiled gleefully, splashing and kicking, grabbing great mud globules, and squishing them between its chubby fingers.

Tephra felt an emotion he couldn’t quite place. He imagined it must be something like the care elder dragons feel for their whelps until they come of age to venture out on their own.

The night would be falling soon. The weather can turn as quickly as the night falls. He had to get the creature to its kind.

Waddling over to a shady tree, the toddler lay in the sand with its head turned sideways, its thumb stuck in its mouth, and closed its eyes. Now and then, it let out a whimper.

Tephra watched it curiously, feeling his own eyes get heavy. He was usually asleep during the day. He tried not to fall asleep, afraid the child would be gone when he awoke.

A gentle breeze blew over the beach, causing the glistening sand to dance and sweep down to the shore. The breeze ruffled the leaves in the trees.

Tephra scooped the child up again into his paw, cupping his other paw over the child to shade it. It stirred a little, scrunching its little legs up into its chest before settling back into a restless sleep.

The wind picked up. The waves did too.

Tephra looked into the sky and saw a storm moving in quickly from the sea. The dark clouds illuminated streaks of lightning further away. Tephra sighed, knowing what he had to do.

He lifted his powerful body into the air and flew as high as possible before circling the island back to the village.

The people had seen the oncoming storm and were moving inland to emergency huts they had built with slightly more robust materials.

Tephra searched for a clear place to land, but many villagers were all along the beach. He chose a sandbar near the shore where the water was shallow and easy to tread.

He flew closer and landed carefully.

The village chief saw him and yelled orders for their warriors. They couldn’t surround him and stood guard nervously, grunting, chanting, and stomping their shields and spears threateningly.

The Chief’s wife and daughter ran up beside him, he pushed them back and urged them to run to the shelter, but they stayed, frightened and encouraging him and the warriors away from the fearful beast.

Tephra snorted again, letting out a bit of steam and blue sparks, shaking his head with frustration, and fanned out his wings.

The warriors stepped back but stood bravely along the shore.

Tephra sat the child gently on the sand and looked at the Chief and his wife with a piercing gaze. His blue eyes shone bright and wise against the silvery skies.

They looked back at him with fear and confusion.

Tephra's' tall, dark form was ominous against the oncoming storm, looking evil even to a most discerning eye. He raised his body to the height of his stature but remained still and motioned with his head to the erupting volcano far in the distance.

The Chief and his wife followed his gaze, and a look of understanding replaced their fear. They turned to look at the child.

The Chief was amazed but nodded back at the dragon, standing resolute with perceived understanding. The Chief called off his warriors. They stepped further back hesitantly.

Tephra bowed his head to the child standing now, tired and rubbing its eyes. Tephra nudged the child, and it placed its tiny hand on his nose again. Tephra gave a little snort, and the child giggled.

The Chief and the Queen trekked across the sand bar and stopped ten feet from where Tephra and the toddler stood, too frightened to come any closer.

The Queen called to the child, and Tephra was relieved to see that it understood their language. They were neighbors though separated by the sea. This island would now be its home, and Tephra made a silent vow to patrol and keep an eye on this island as well, though from afar.

The child ran to the woman. She knelt on the sand with outstretched arms, and tears replaced the fear once in her eyes. She embraced it and hurried away, worried that the dragon would change its mind or that they may have misunderstood, and the dragon would be angry at her for taking the child.

Tephra nodded at the Chief and bowed its head. Once again, the Chief looked baffled, stood bravely, and nodded in response.

Tephra leaped into the air, his massive wings unfolding and blasting the Chief and his warriors with the frigid wind as he departed.

They watched in awe as Tephra flew undaunted across the sea and into the storm.

A sense of loss filled his heart, but he felt contented returning to the heat of his cave knowing that the child was safe with its new family.

The toddler peeked out from over the Queen’s shoulder as she tried to hurry off the beach and into the forest where their shelter awaited. It gave one last wave goodbye as Tephra soared fearlessly into the storm and back to his cave deep within the belly of the raging volcano.

The End