The Dragon's War

“From the heavens the stars battled, from their highways they waged war…” Sefer Shoftim 5.20

Chapter 1: The New Boy with The Weird Name

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. The small towns, that made up this area near the border of south Texas was one of the most boring hometowns anyone could visit. The dragons definitely changed things around here when they came. It was on May 11th, 2055, that the first of the dragons started coming through portals that appeared all over the world. The first was in Australia, near Hamilton, a small city near the Grampians National Park. It was before I was born, but my grandpa told me it was the day every single person on this planet would never forget. My grandpa was there when the first of the dragon battles came to the U.S. He was retiring, and working his last week at his job in Portland, Oregon. I still remember how still he sat in his favorite wooden chair when he first told me the story.

“It felt like I was in the middle of a volcano. Fire everywhere, people screaming as they melted before my eyes. It was pure destruction.” I was sitting on his lap at that time. My grandpa looked down to smile at me.

“I still have no idea how I survived, but I am very grateful I am alive now to meet you Anna, and your brother.” He continued with how the armies of earth banned together to take out the dragons. They tried everything, even nuclear weapons but they had no effect. The few times a missile actually made its mark, the dragons just ignored it and continued fighting each other. I remember my mom getting angry at him for telling me when I was just six. He passed away when I turned seven.

It was worse than any of the past wars. I say wars, because that’s what this was. A war of dragons, and we were the bystanders that were getting killed by their giant, destructive battles of fire that would annihilate a whole metropolitan city if they were close enough. Eventually the governments around the world decided to focus on protecting their own cities by building steel walls around their capitals and creating a sentry alarm system so they could alert their citizens of any incoming battles. That’s how it was in the first decade of their arrival.

When 2066 came, things got worse. By this time, we had discovered that there were only two types of dragons, the Umbra and the Astrum. Those that we called the Umbra were like shadows in the night. Eyewitness, those that survived, say that they were sleek in shape and smelled horrible. They barely came out in the daylight, and when they did, they seemed to be surrounded by dark fire that increased with every flap of their two pairs of wings. Wherever the Umbra were, you could see the effect it had on the nearby area. Trees, and plants would die quickly, and any town, or city nearby experienced chaos. I guess whatever the Umbra did to the earth, they also did to us humans. Those that lived in the area of their territory began going crazy. The majority of the survivors would just go mentally mad, but there were others that would incite violence and start a movement of anarchy. When things got bad enough those cities would eventually become ghost towns, like the ones in those old movies I used to watch with my dad before our TV was stolen.

Then there were the Astrum. The first time I saw one was when I was eight years old. I was taking out the trash and saw it soaring over the night sky, its three pairs of wings elegantly guiding the iridescent body through the clouds. Despite being born into a war between two races of dragons and constantly facing the probability of being annihilated at any moment, I couldn’t help but stare up in wonder at the sight of the Astrum that night. It was brighter than any of the stars and left a trail of burning light as it flew high over the Valley. I remember running back inside the house to my mom screaming excitedly about the Astrum dragon. I also remember seeing the panic on her face when I told her. We spent the whole night inside our self-made bunker with my dad and older brother. I hate that bunker, even now.

No one knows what the effects the Astrum had on the land. Our government leaders still haven’t figured that one out, but they have learned that the dragons are territorial. That would explain the effects the Umbra had on the lands it conquered. My dad has a theory that since they are the ones fighting against the Umbra then they must have a counter-effect to their destruction. We have been lucky enough to not experience a full out battle in the Valley, we just see Astrum dragons fly over occasionally, except for that one time when someone claimed to see one land a few miles north of Rio Grande City. I can’t say the same for Mexico.

We live about two hours away from the border. I’ve never been near it, but my brother Antonio, when he turned 14 years old, got permission to go with our dad to work one day. Our dad is a border patrol officer along with my uncle, Rogelio, dad’s younger brother. I call him Uncle Roger. When they came back Antonio told me how bad it smelled when the truck got close to the border. The land was like night and day compared to our side. He told me that everything was completely dry and black, and he had to wear special goggles and a mask so that the smell wouldn’t harm his lungs. I was ten with this happened and begged my dad if I could go with him next time. He just smiled while pulling on one of my braids.

“You’re too young Anita. I wouldn’t want one of the Umbra dragons to come and take you.”

I pouted for days but my dad didn’t give in. When I couldn’t get his permission, I remember bugging by brother to take some videos on his phone the next time he went so that I could at least see what it was like. He said it wasn’t allowed, but I kept bugging him. I did it on purpose of course because I knew eventually, he would say yes just so I would stop pestering him about it. So, on the next day that Antonio was able to join my dad and Uncle Roger, I grew so excited I couldn’t stop moving the whole day. My mom kept telling me to sit down but I just couldn’t. When four o’clock came around I waited near the front door for them to arrive. They were about two hours late, but when they finally came home I at first didn’t notice how somber their faces were. Instead, I asked my brother about the videos, but to my disappointment he hadn’t been able to take any. That’s what he said anyways. Upset, I started whining but then he suddenly snapped at me.

“Shut up Anna! Who cares about the videos!” I did shut up then because he had never yelled at me like that before.

“What videos?” My mom had asked, the two lines of worry between her eyebrows growing deeper. By this time, it was a constant addition to her pretty face. My brother didn’t answer her and instead went to his room slamming the door. My mom started making her way to him when my dad stopped her. Finally, I had noticed how dirty his face was, and the redness of his eyes made him look exhausted. After giving my mom a slight shake of his head, he turned those reddened eyes to me next and told me to go to my room. I went to the hallway where my room was, but instead of going in, I closed my door as loud as I could and went back to the living room. I snuck behind our old sofa and sat down.

“Que pasó Samuel, yo pensé que era ilegal tomar vídeos?” They were talking about the videos I asked my brother to take for me. I frowned; they only spoke in Spanish when they didn’t want Antonio and I to know something. It didn’t make sense to me because while we couldn’t speak it well, we both could understand it. The next couple of words I couldn’t really hear because they started talking very quietly. I remember cupping my hand to my left ear to better hear them. The only two words that I could pick up were, “…otro aniquilación…” My mom’s sudden sobbing made me run back to my room.

It was the following day that the whole world knew of Monterrey’s complete destruction. We had a lot of family there and after a couple of days we all lost hope of contacting them. Buildings had been burned down to almost nothing, cars were melted pieces of charred metals and anything organic had been completely incinerated, which meant no bodies to identify. The city had become another wasteland.

The following weeks my dad would always come home late and very tired. The border patrol officers were hired to help other law enforcement sent by the state to help clean up all the poison gas that came from the Umbra’s fire. It took all summer for that cleanup operation to be finished, and by the end of it my dad and Uncle Roger had to take a sick leave, along with many of their co-workers. We feared the poison gas had somehow made him sick, but fortunately the doctor told us it was just fatigue and stress. My dad did recover, but he changed that day when he came back with my brother. I don’t know how I knew but little by little he stopped playing with me and my brother. After work, he’d lock himself up in the room he shared with mom and would barely come out. My mom tried helping, so did my Uncle Roger after he recuperated, but it was no use.

Right before I started fifth grade, I asked Antonio about that night when Monterrey was destroyed. He had just looked at me without saying a word and then walked away. I never asked a second time. His eyes told me everything.

That night I went to sleep and dreamt of the Astrum dragons. I was flying in the sky, with two of them on either side of me. The wind soft on my face and in my hair. The beams of the sun shining like spotlights through the clouds in the horizon. Then the Umbra dragons appeared behind me and my sentry of the two Astrum dragons. Black fire would shoot towards me getting dangerously close. I swear I could feel the intense heat from it. The dragon’s started battling, and one Umbra always made it through and flew at me with its black teeth and red eyes, its mouth filled with black fire about to consume me. I recall the panic and fear being so real that I woke up screaming. It was my mom who I saw first through the clouded terror I felt. My brother and dad were at the door to my room, their eyes so wide I could see the white color surrounding their brown eyes. My mom slept with me that night. Since then, I’ve had to sleep with a night light on.

I still remember the dream even now after two years have passed. Despite it having a bad ending, I liked doodling the beginning of it in my notebooks during my classes here at Rosalina Middle School. I was drawing my second sketch of an Astrum dragon when I heard a voice slightly above me.

“That’s a pretty good Astrum Ms. Oliveira. How long have you been working on it?” My favorite mechanical pencil froze on the arc of a wing. I looked up to find my World History teacher, Mr. Palmer staring down at me with a whimsical glint in his hazel eyes that were framed by his large circular glasses.

“Um…” I began saying when I heard my fellow classmates snickering around me. I felt a blush coming on and was glad I still had my hoodie up.

“By the looks of it, I’d guess a couple of hours. It seems like the past three classes haven’t been able to keep your attention.” Mr. Palmer continued after my impressive one-syllabic response.

“I uh…” This time I accomplished two syllables before he walked past me to the display board he was currently using to show the topic of today’s class. To my surprise it was a rendering of a medieval dragon staring down a knight in armor.

“Alright class, let’s continue.” Mr. Palmer said tapping his pointing stick on his desk in order to get his students' attention again. I watched as he adjusted his glasses. He kind of reminded me of that one Disney character in that Atlantis movie. I forget his name, but they had the same enthusiasm for all things ancient.

“As I was saying, today’s subject is an unusual study topic that you don’t see in American schools nowadays, unless you’re specifically going into medieval literature, but considering the times we are living in, I gather there will be some interested. Who hear knows the overall story of King Arthur and Merlin?”

The inevitable silence that followed didn’t affect the obvious excitement on Mr. Palmer’s face. His passion would always bubble to the surface whenever he introduced a new historical figure. Well, this time, a legendary figure. I knew the story, but I wasn’t going to be the first to speak up. I had to keep my reputation as the brooding, silent girl intact. Never could I be seen as the know-it-all that I knew my fellow classmates would call me. They do it to Martin Kowalski, A.K.A. Marty the Smarty Farty all because he gave a long speech on the process of nucleotides during Pre-AP Biology and let out an embarrassingly loud fart at the beginning of school.

“No one? Oh, come on, there must be at least one of you that knows the epic tale of Arthur and the Sword in the Stone.” Mr. Palmer’s eyes roamed the room, when they came to me, I avoided his eyes. I prayed he wouldn’t call on me, like he did that one time when we were studying the Conquistadores and their trek through old South America. There were a couple more moments of silence before he spoke up again.

“Alright fine. I’ll make sure to go through every detail of the wonderous adventures of Arthur and Merlin so not a single one of you will ever forget.” He finished with a sardonic smile as muttered complaints popped up around the room. I sighed in relief and sat up in my chair. I knew I was one of the few who was sincerely interested in what Mr. Palmer had to say. However, he was interrupted by two loud knocks at the door to the classroom. All the students were suddenly at attention. They all turned almost simultaneously to stare at the door. It was one of our counselors, Mrs. Aguilar and she wasn’t alone. A boy wearing blue jeans and a light grey sweater walked in after her. His brown curly hair almost covering his eyes and ears. The two adults exchanged a few quiet words before Mrs. Aguilar left. Once the door closed behind her Mr. Palmer told us the obvious.

“As you can see class, we have a new student and his name is, Elimelech Isaiah.” He slowly said the boy’s first name in hesitation. It sounded odd, that’s for sure.

“You can just call me Eli, Mr. Palmer.” Our new classmate said, giving the history teacher a modest smile. He had to really bend his neck when he spoke to Mr. Palmer. He was kind of short compared to our teacher, but then again, Mr. Palmer was the tallest teacher in our school.

“Excellent.” He replied with a grateful smile. “Let’s have you sit here then, since it’s the only open seat we have.” Eli nodded and went to a seat at the very front of the class. Once he was settled Mr. Palmer went back to regaling the class about the boy Arthur and how an old mysterious man named Merlin guided him to his destiny as King of Camelot.

P.E. was my last class of the day. I quickly got ready, while many of the girls took their time. I walked by Shauna, our local fashionista, as she carefully hung her ironed khaki, smooth pants, belt and all in her locker, next to her equally immaculate collared shirt. Did I mention we had to wear school uniforms? Yeah, not much to look at.

“Hey Anna, you’re playing centerfield today.” Carmen Lopez, our seventh-grade star athlete said throwing a baseball glove at me.

“I hope you look forward to missing the homeruns I’ll no doubt be hitting today.” I gave her a glare and showed her what I thought about it with a not -so-nice gesture. She just laughed at me and slammed her big hand against my back. I slightly stumbled from the force of what was such a cliched move of hers. Carmen was still laughing as she jogged towards the exit of the locker room but turned around still jogging mind you.

“Come on Oliveira! You’re the only one worthy of being my rival out on the field.” She called out, her five-foot six figure seamlessly jogging out the door. I sighed as the other girls walked past me, some giggling from witnessing our ridiculous exchange. I didn’t hate Carmen; she was just annoying and seemed to constantly seek me out whenever she wanted to compete in sports. All because I was lucky enough to catch her kickball a few weeks back. I almost had the wind knocked out of me from catching that rough red ball with my stomach.

The softball game passed by quickly, Carmen hitting a homerun that no one could catch. She had a huge smile on her face the whole time she ran through the bases. It wasn’t too bad, it was a pretty nice day, most of the sky was filled with clouds. At least it wasn’t disgustingly humid like how it usually is. That’s one of the things I really hated about this area. The Valley’s summer season lasted nine months of horrible humid weather, then two months of what you could call fall, and then maybe one month of okay spring. We have no winter.

Since we still had some time left Coach Garza let us take turns on the tires. When I got in line, I noticed a group coming around the bend of our track field. It was the seventh-grade boys jogging in three lines led by Coach Berry. I quickly noticed Martin lagging behind the group, his stick for legs barely keeping up with the others. When they reached the starting line of the track they stopped. Coach Berry said something I couldn’t hear, but I guessed it had something to do with taking a break. He had them sit at the benches where it looked like he had previously set up some cups and a container of water. The boys all crowded around the bench, then I noticed a small commotion to the left. It appeared Martin, or as the others called him Marty the Smarty Farty, was being picked on by Nick Cabrera the up-and-coming basketball star, and some of his friends. I thought Coach Berry would stop it right away, but he was instead making his way over to Coach Garza for a chat and didn’t see what was happening. I took a step to start making my way towards them when Carmen told me it was my turn. I told her to go ahead of me.

That’s when the shouting started. A scuffle had broken out along with a cheering circle of sweaty boys, egging on whoever was fighting. Both adults immediately ran to the growing chaos. We all followed right away, eager to see what was happening.

When I got there, I saw who was fighting. It was Nick, and the new guy with the weird name, Eli. I was able to see Nick punching Eli, who was protecting himself with his arms over his head. The coaches shoved their way inside the circle and pulled the two fighters apart. Nick almost escaped Coach Berry’s grip but was quickly subdued when the thirty-six-year-old added his other burly arm to restrain the hotheaded pre-teen. Nick had such a thunderous expression on his bleeding face. His nose was crooked, both nostrils covered in blood. I looked to where Eli was with Coach Garza. Our, straight out-of-college coach had gone pale. I’m guessing this was her first fight on the job. She only had a hand on Eli’s left shoulder, and he only had a bloody lip. Nothing else.

“Enough Nick!” Coach Berry shouted when Nick kept struggling. He soon stopped when he realized he was going nowhere. Coach Berry let him go and stepped to stand between Nick and where Eli and Coach Garza stood.

“Angela, please take everyone back to the locker rooms, and then tell Principal Alvarez to meet me at the nurse’s office. I’ll be taking these two there.” Berry said using Coach Garza’s first name.

“Yes of course. Everyone, let’s go.” All of us followed her back to the gym. On the way there some of the girls began whispering quite loudly in small groups about what had just happened. The boys unabashedly doing the same thing but louder. Coach Garza didn’t even try hushing us up.

“That new kid looks like he packs a mean punch.” Carmen commented. I looked back to where Coach Berry was escorting the two boys across the track field while giving them a lecture. I could only pick up some of the words “…violence…” and “…going to call your parents…”. Sounded like the old speech for troubled young boys.

“Yeah.” Was all I said. Carmen waited to see if I would say anything else. I watched as her left brow arched, then slightly jumped as her raucous laughter burst out. Geez, this girl sure had some lungs in her.

“One of these days I’m going to get a fountain of words out of you Anna Oliveira.”

“Sure.” I said and increased my stride. I knew it was pointless to out-walk her, but I never stopped trying, and she always caught up effortlessly. I would never tell her this but sometimes I envied how energetic she was and how easy it was for her to make friends.

“So, you excited for the homecoming dance?” Carmen asked only two seconds after she caught up with me. I frowned at her for asking me such a ridiculous question. I still didn’t understand why the school kept running things as if we weren’t in the middle of a war, literally. Food was starting to become a problem since much of the land was being burned beyond use for farming. There was always one or two blackouts every week without fail and not to mention the steady looting of property.

“No.” I replied.

“You should come with me and my group of glorious gals. We’re all planning on wearing something from the 1920s. Have you ever seen the dresses from that time? It’s so vintage. Funny how old stuff keeps coming back. My Tía Carolina told me that she saved our great-great-great-grandmother’s dress…”

I tuned out the rest of what Carmen was saying as we walked the rest of the way to the locker rooms. As we went inside none of us noticed the growing storm clouds to the east, and the distant thunder that closely followed.

When the bell finally rang, I wasn’t home free yet. Coach Garza stopped me before I left the locker rooms to tell me I needed to go to the counselor’s office. I sighed already knowing what this was about. I was failing Pre-AP Math. I played with the idea of not going but I knew my mom would yell at me about it later. I hitched my backpack higher on my shoulders and weaved my way back through the crowds of my fellow adolescents. It was tough going against the current of impatient students wanting to go home. When the majority of the crowd finally passed me, that’s when I heard our school’s Principal, Frank Alvarez’s voice. It was coming through a slightly ajar door to the nurse’s office.

“Mr. Isaiah, I know this is your first day here, but you must tell us what happened, and I mean all of it.” There was a pause and then a quiet voice responded.

“Yes sir.” It was Eli’s voice slightly muffled by the door. I couldn’t see him through the small vertical window on the door, but I did have a clear view of the principal who was currently taking up most of glass. I could also see the nurse sitting on a stool tending to someone.

“Nick says you started the fight.” Principal Alvarez stated patiently.

“No, I did not.” Eli’s reply was quickly followed by Nick’s indignant rebuttal.

“He’s lying sir!” Coach Berry shushed him, telling him that his time to speak was over.

“No, I didn’t.” Eli reiterated this time with some frustration.

“Yes, you did! You got all up in my face!” Nick yelled, this time stopping some of the students outside passing by. They, along with myself stayed still as we all listened to the next part of the conversation.

“I only stepped in front of you, so you’d stop bullying Martin!” This time I was able to see Eli when Principal Alvarez had taken a step back in surprise at his outburst.

“I wasn’t doing anything to Marty the Smarty…!”

“That is enough! Both of you sit down!” Principal Alvarez’s voice was so loud it carried itself down the hall almost three classrooms down.

“Nick please be quiet, and let Eli tell his side of things.” I heard Nick scoff.

“It doesn’t matter. My friends can tell you the same thing I just told you. None of us were messing with Marty.”

“I told you to be quiet Nick.” Our agitated principal warned as he crossed his arms. Now that I could see Eli, I saw how angry he was. He was glaring at wherever Nick was sitting. Principal Alvarez again asked him to speak up about what happened on the track field. When Eli turned his attention back to the principal, our eyes locked. I saw surprise there. I felt shame when he spotted me. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but hey that’s how it usually happens right? I swallowed as he kept staring at me, and was about to walk away, when something stopped me. I realized I was the only one, outside of Nick’s friends who saw them picking on Martin. I warred with myself internally finally realizing that what I knew impacted Eli’s case big time. I took a deep breath as I felt my heartbeat pick up for what I was about to do. I pulled the door to the nurse’s office wide open and stepped inside.

“I saw Nick and his friends picking on Martin.” All eyes landed on me, except for Eli who was already looking at me. I felt my face grow hot at that moment and wished with all my heart that I was invisible. No such thing is possible of course, unless I steal the stealth panels used by military jets and build an igloo around me with no opening.

“Anna, what are you doing here?” Coach Berry was the first to speak up.

“Who the hell are you?” Nick quickly followed with his own degrading question. I ignored Nick and tried answering Coach Berry.

“I um, heard you guys, and well…” I grew quiet and cursed inwardly for putting myself in this situation.

“Please come here Ms. Oliveira and tell us what you saw.” Principal Alvarez beckoned me to a stool near the nurse. I nodded and went to sit on the stool but when I looked up, I froze. There beyond the huge window next to where the nurse and Eli were sitting, I saw a black funnel begin to form out of heavy storm clouds. I watched in horror as the dark tornado landed in the farming field in front of our school. I barely heard when the nurse fearfully whispered her shock as everyone in the room turned to see what I was looking at.

“Santo Dios.” Those two words seemed to trigger something in the petrified atmosphere surrounding us.

“What happened to the alarm?!” The principal yelled as Nick began pushing and shoving to get to the door. The others were starting to raise their own voices in panic. All I could do was stare as the tornado solidified itself. That wasn’t the end of it. I screamed as I saw flying creatures come out of the tornado like wasps, fast and vicious. Followed by the most chilling deep roar I’ve ever heard. It was the distant roar of an Umbra. That’s when I fully understood the meaning of the phrase, “All hell broke loose.”