The Dragon Queen

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. However, that changed 16 years ago. Like every other supernatural creature here, they came to live out their last days in Vallis Mortis, The Valley of Death. You see, the creatures that call this place home are the very last of their kind, unable to birth new life. That’s what happens when the Royal Timekeeper line of a species dies out. The rest of the species follows suit, unable to produce new life.

Timekeepers keep the balance of good and evil among their species, so when the line perishes, the balance gets disrupted, allowing evil to prevail. Those of us who are able to resist the darkness come here to live out our final days in peace without fear of falling victim to the darkness. Those that give in to the darkness become evil, and eventually end up dead at the hands of a species that is thriving. The dragons came when their timekeeper line perished, after a battle with the Vampire King and his dark forces, who have been working to acquire more dark power for centuries. His most recent queries have been for the Timekeeper Princesses, who are said to be the most powerful supernatural beings on the planet.

That’s how the dragons ended up here. The Dragon Timekeeper King had a daughter, a Timekeeper Princess. Rumor has it that in a last attempt to save the world from the darkness of the Vampire King, the queen killed the princess, to keep the darkness from acquiring her. Had the Vampire King gotten his hands on the princess, when she shifted on her 16th birthday, she would have been powerful enough to burn the world to the ground. They couldn’t allow that power to fall into the hands of darkness, so the queen killed her innocent, newborn daughter when she felt the tether to her husband and their older two children snap.

The Royal Timekeeper line of the supernatural world is different to humans in that the title of timekeeper king or queen is passed to the third born child, not the first. These beings are born with the power of time, they can pause it, rewind it, or speed it up, but their most significant characteristic is that they jump through time, space and dimensions during solstices and equinoxes. While every timekeeper boasts great power, the females are said to be significantly more powerful than the males.

The first and only female timekeeper to walk the earth until recently was a werewolf timekeeper, but it’s been six centuries since she reigned. The moon goddess was the first to create a timekeeper line, tethering the survival of the species to the life force of a specific chosen wolf. She did it to create balance within the species she created, and the other gods and goddesses followed suit centuries later when they began to understand the importance of having that balance. Creating the wolf timekeeper line took a lot out of the Moon Goddess though, so the others worked in pairs to create the rest of the timekeepers.

But they didn’t stop there. Many of them chose to enact a fail safe for their species as well, knowing that power that strong can create a sense of entitlement, which could also lead to the downfall of the species. So, the creator goddesses each chose one of their creations and bore them a son, thus creating the immortal Demi-God Kings. Every thriving species had two kings, a Demi-God King, and a Timekeeper King. Those that didn’t, well, those species ended up here in the valley.

We were all surprised to see the Dragon Demi-God King, Fiore, fly in with the rest of them. He was quite noticeable being that he is larger than the others, with his bright red-orange scales. He landed just outside of a cave on the upper portion of the west mountains before shifting back into his human form. In the past 16 years he has rarely come down into the valley, always choosing to send representatives instead. When the dragons first arrived, King Fiore was offered a seat of the council to represent the interests of his people, but he declined, choosing to instate a representative instead.

After doing a thorough head count, the representative, Dominic, stated that there were 258 dragons left. They had chosen to make the mountain caverns their homes, stating that they were cave dwelling creatures anyway. It’s been nice having them around though. They’ve been instrumental in keeping the peace over the past 16 years, which has really helped when the darkness takes hold of someone, particularly the centaurs. The dragons are able to end the terror they inflict quickly, whereas it used to take several centaurs several days to catch and put down their evil inflicted brethren.

They have also rebalanced the council, ensuring that the wellbeing and safety of all members of the valley is the priority. Before they came, only the strongest of the creatures among us received adequate care, which usually left the satyrs cold, homeless, and hungry. Not anymore though, now the satyrs had homes that the dragons had helped build, as well as lucrative employment working for the dragons, wheeling the gems out of the mines they had created. Since their arrival, the dragons had created an equal, unbiased community among the species living in the valley. They also patrolled the borders of the valley, to ensure the safety of the community from any dark and evil creatures that may believe us easy prey.

At least that’s what they allowed us to believe for 16 years. None of us living in the valley could have ever fathomed the truth of the situation. That is, not until that fateful night when the truth revealed itself. The night that we learned why King Fiore never came down from his cave in the mountains will forever be ingrained in my memory, as I had never actually seen dragons in action before. Fire rained down from the skies that night destroying this peaceful community.

The night began like every other as I finished my late shift at the mines. I went home to my parents and my siblings with my weekly pay, just like I did every other Saturday night. I had just gotten out of the shower and dressed for bed when I heard that first distressing roar that caused the entire house to shake. The roar of a dragon was different than that of any other creature, in that it was a mixture of both a high pitched screech and a low earth rumbling growl. It’s one of those sounds that is so terrifying that it never leaves your memory.

Next came the centaur horn, letting the rest of us know that they had not only breached the borders, but that they been spotted on the outskirts of town, and that the evacuation plan was being put into motion. My entire family had been woken by the dragon’s roar, so we immediately began to put our personal evacuation plan into motion. My younger brother and I would stay to fight, while my sister got our parents to the carriages that were waiting on the north side of the valley to take those who were unable to fight to safety. They would take the bags that were stashed behind the couch incase of an emergency with them, which held a few changes of clothes for each of them. The dragons had insisted on creating an evacuation plan for the community incase there was ever a large scale attack, and as we walked out the front door, I understood why.

Every able bodied man and woman were in the streets fighting off a combination of vampires, dark fae which are better known as freaks, and dark witches. The centaurs and the satyrs had been silent enemies for centuries before the dragons came, but you would never be able to tell looking at the carnage that was unfolding. Now, they fought side by side, protecting each other and giving their lives to save each other. Had it not been such a brutal, violent scene, I would have rejoiced at their comradery. But there wasn’t any time for that, so I pulled out my enchanted sword and joined the fight, praying that my sister and parents would get to the carriages safely.

The battle was never ending, with the forces of darkness coming at us from all angles. It seemed that every time I cut one down, another easily replaced it. It was during this monstrous fight that I was grateful for the early morning training that the dragons had insisted every able bodied member of the community participate in. They had even provided enchanted weaponry from their arsenal, assigning a weapon to every member of the community. My older sister was given an enchanted dagger that I prayed she wouldn’t need to use as she and my parents fled to safety. The enchantments on the weapons were to destroy darkness, so that even a simple cut would send a poison through the veins of the dark creatures that would ultimately kill them.

The valley lived up to its name that night, as corpses laid everywhere, mostly the dark creatures, but some were my brethren. My brother and I fought side by side, working our way through the masses, cutting down anything that dared to get in our way as we made our way through the streets to find those that we had spent decades calling friends. There were dragons in their human form on the streets fighting with enchanted weapons like the rest of us as well, protecting those of us who weren’t nearly as strong as them. I admired their protective stance over our community and was grateful to have them here.

Along with the many dragons on the ground fighting, there were several in the air as well raining fire down into the valley. They were targeting the areas where the dark forces were coming in, as well as where there were large forces of them advancing their attacks. The valley had become a raging inferno, with numerous fires raging out of control and lighting up the night. The streets were already stained red with blood and littered with corpses, yet they kept coming, relentless in their pursuit. It wasn’t until they began working their way up the mountain, that we realized they had come for Fiore.

Or at least that was what we believed at the time, as they began to retreat, their focus turning to the mountainside. We watched helplessly from below as the mountain began glowing from the dragon fire as the King Fiore and his inner circle began defending their territory. There was a screeching hiss that came from the mountains, sending chills down our spines and into our bones, letting us know that the Vampire King himself had come for Fiore. The vampires began continuing their assault on our valley when the Vampire King screeched, and before we knew it, we were back to plunging our enchanted weapons deep into the chests of the vampires and other dark creatures. The fight of our lives continued to rage on while the roars and screeching of the vampires echoed through the mountainous caverns and into the valley below.

I had just plunged my sword into the heart of a freak when I heard my brother’s agonized scream. I whipped around to help him, only to realized I was too late as I witnessed the vampire he was battling rip his heart straight from his chest. Aching swept through my bones as my stomach plummeted into the deep depths of my being. I raced to his side as his body fell to the ground lifeless. I cradled his lifeless body in my arms while salty warm tears flowed down my cheeks releasing the grief and allowing the anger to consume me. I kissed his forehead as I promised to avenge him, then carefully laid him on the ground before gripping the hilt of my sword.

The anger that flowed through me fueled my will to fight, so I proceeded to cut down any dark creature that stepped into my path. I plunged my sword into vampires, freaks and witches alike, but none of their deaths satiated my thirst for blood. It didn’t matter though, I would kill every single one of them until I eradicated their darkness from the earth or died trying. I continued fighting as the battle raged on in the mountain caverns, but when I heard an anguished earth rumbling roar, I knew that King Fiore and his forces had been overcome. Still, I continued to fight, knowing that there were still forces of good in the world and that each kill was one less evil creature that they would have to worry about.

I thought all was lost, that our community would perish at the hands of the dark forces, but then I heard the Vampire King’s screeching and just as quickly as they had invaded, the dark forces began to retreat. Cheering could be heard through the streets as they ran off, leaving us in our burning valley to tend to our wounded and bury our dead. I made my way back over to where my brother’s body lay in the street and fell to my knees at his head sobbing. I was leaned down with my forehead pressed against his when the dragons came down from the mountains to make their announcement.

That was when we learned the truth of the situation, when we learned why the dragons had put all the emergency protocols in place and trained us all to fight. They told us that the Dragon Timekeeper Princess was alive and well, that she had been living up there in the mountain cavern being raised by nannies that King Fiore had hired and protected by the King himself. We were told that the Vampire King and his forces had come in an attempt to take the princess, but that she had managed to summon the Hybrid Timekeeper Queen, who saved King Fiore and ran the Vampire King off. Apparently we hadn’t been the only ones fighting a battle against dark forces though, as they told us about how the wolf kingdom as well as the Fae Kingdom had both been fighting their own battles with the darkness this evening too. Three Timekeeper Princesses had been born all those years ago, and while the dragon and wolf princesses had been believed dead, it was all just a cover to keep them safe until they came of age.

But the dragon princess hadn’t come of age to get her full power back yet, so she was still vulnerable. Luckily, she was able to connect to the Wolf Timekeeper Princess, who had come of age, been marked by her mate, and become a Queen. Not only had she become Queen of the wolves, but she was a remarkable type of Timekeeper, with her mother being the child of a Witch Timekeeper. So, when the Witch Timekeeper King was on the brink of death, he transferred his power into her, his cousin, making her both the Timekeeper Queen of the Witches and the Wolves. She was inarguably the most powerful supernatural on this planet, which is why the Vampire King fled when she arrived.

She and the Wolf Demi-God King had taken King Fiore and Princess Ember to safety, but we were told that the Dragon King and Princess would be back to show their gratitude for us. King Fiore had brought the dragons here so that the world would believe that the princess was dead. Since their numbers and kingdoms had been diminished fighting off the darkness during the first battle over the princess, it made sense that they would come here had the princess really died, so I understood why they did. They informed us that the women and older members of the community had made it to the safety of the ruins that remained of the dragon kingdom. Each dragon that we crossed paths with as we cleared out our dead personally thanked us for our bravery and apologized for the losses of our loved ones.

It was a few days before King Fiore and Princess Ember returned to the valley, but the power that radiated from them was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. The two of them looked so regal, King Fiore was a dark skinned man, tall and muscular with short black hair and dark eyes, while Princess Ember was a fair skinned beauty with long fire red hair and bright blue eyes. She was much shorter than the King, but the way he wrapped his arms around her protectively, and how she looked at him as though he was her entire world told me that the two of them were mates. They thanked us for our help in fighting off the darkness and told us that their kingdom had entered into an alliance with the other timekeepers, and that they were going to help them rebuild their kingdom. Then, much to our surprise, they invited us all to rebuild our community within their kingdom.

Knowing that most of our families were already there, those of us that were left happily accepted. Some of the members of the community chose to bury their dead with their other family members that had graves in the valley. However, I chose to take my brother’s body back to the dragon kingdom, so that the rest of our family could say their goodbyes. The dragons happily accommodated those of us who wished to take our dead to have them buried in the kingdom, stating that it would be their honor to have those that died fighting alongside them buried where they would always be remembered. They promised that we would come back to pack up our belongings so that we could continue our lives in the Dragon Kingdom. So, we packed up what we could, got into carriages, and the dragons shifted and carried us away from the valley that I had called home most of my very long life.

I was a creature of the earth, so I had never been in the air before, but as we flew through the clouds, I was suddenly envious of the dragons. The fresh air whipped around me, sending an adrenaline rush through my veins and I had never felt more alive. The trip wasn’t nearly long enough as we landed in an open field near the ruins of what was once a majestic castle. Our families were there to greet us as we stepped off the carriage, and when I saw mine, my eyes instantly went to the ground in shame that I was unable to protect my brother. Yet, they still embraced me with tears streaming down their faces, knowing that he was gone.

His funeral was beautiful. Princess Ember and King Fiore made a speech at each and every funeral that was held on their land. When the funerals were over, they offered each family that had lost a member a special position on the council that would oversee all decisions made in the kingdom, believing that the members of the kingdom that weren’t dragons deserved their own say in kingdom affairs. But Princess Ember took a special liking to me, so she offered me a position as her own personal royal advisor. A position I have held since that day, helping to rebuild and shape the new dragon kingdom. When she finally came of age, her power expanded, even before she was marked.

Once Princess Ember was marked, we held her coronation. Royalty from all the supernatural communities came to the kingdom to witness the occasion. I stood against the wall while the Fae and Wolf Queen helped her prepare for her coronation. Though it wasn’t my intention, I couldn’t help but to overhear their conversation. The Queens were speaking about the fight against darkness, saying that their work was far from finished, and that they would have to continue to fight now that they had all come of age.

They spoke of finding the Vampire King, and eradicating the darkness once and for all, to which Princess Ember agreed. I chose to speak up, and let my Queen know that I was with her on this, that the dark forces must be wiped from this earth. She thanked me for my support and told the other Queens that they could count on her forces for the endeavor. Knowing that this fight was far from over put a smile on my face, and I nodded to her with a smile. The dark forces had no idea what a perfect storm they had awakened in the Timekeeper Queens, but they would soon find out.