The Land of Dragons

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley, or anywhere else for that matter. Up until today dragons were only a myth; a legend, fantasy creatures that were commonly overused in fantasy stories. Although Evelyn was hard-pressed to find anyone who remembered that version of yesterday, a yesterday with no hint of dragons existing outside of imagination.

She knew from the moment that she woke up something was off. Her phone played slightly different music than normal as her alarm. A fact Evelyn only half noticed as she clawed her way out of bed. At first that’s how it all went; slightly different clothes hung in her closet, slightly different paint and pictures on the walls. She tried to shake it off, her mind playing tricks on her; it wasn’t until she saw the cereal box with a new dragon ascetic that she knew for certain that something was wrong.

Taking her bowl of cereal to the front room, Evelyn quickly turned on the local news station. Eyes wide she stared at the TV screen as they made a report on a 60-foot dragon that had to have its wings amputated. On the screen, a dragon with dark green scales lay sleeping with two stumps covered in bandages. The footage cut to an interview with one of the employees at the zoo where the dragon was kept. Evelyn’s spoon clattered in her bowl as she stared at herself answering the reporter’s questions.

“Leyland here was a great patient during the surgery on Wednesday,” the voice of Evelyn from the TV seemed to echo around the small apartment. “Now we begin the long road of recovery. Of course, dragons can thrive without wings, but it can be a difficult transition. Still, we are confident that Leyland will make a full recovery.”

Scrambling for the remote, Evelyn paused the broadcast on a picture of her own smiling face with the dragon out of focus in the background. The version of her on the TV wore a shirt similar to the one she would normally wear to work only it had a patch which read Timberland Park Zoo instead of Woodland Park Zoo which it said yesterday. Looking down at the shirt she had on she noticed the same difference on the patch was there too.

“This has to be a dream,” Evelyn muttered, slapping herself in the face a few times, but nothing happened, she didn’t wake up.

Heart racing Evelyn made her way back to the kitchen and opened her laptop sitting on the counter. In the search bar, she typed: “When did dragons first appear”. The only results were mainly on the evolution of dragons and some discussing the introduction of dragon species to new environments making them an invasive species. Trying again she typed: “Where did dragons come from”, but again the results only pertained to their evolution on different continents and ecosystems. “Why were there no dragons yesterday” Evelyn typed desperately, but nothing came up, at least nothing helpful, not even on some dodgy message board sites.

Fighting the urge to smack her head against the counter, Evelyn grabbed her computer and headed back to the couch. Her own smiling face was still paused on the screen. Rewinding the TV, she began the segment over again, unable to tear herself away from watching. In the middle of the segment, the reporter turned from the sleeping dragon to the camera. “Now,” the reporter said, in a voice that sounded artificial, “I get to talk with Timberland Park Zoo’s leading herpetologist, Evelyn Beasley,” Evelyn paused the segment again.

“Herpetologist?” Evelyn muttered. “I don’t study lizards; I’m a zoologist.”

Looking down at her watch, she nearly launched herself off the couch. “I’m going to be late!” she breathed, placing her bowl in the sink, and reaching for her pre-packed lunch in the fridge before stopping. “They are going to expect me to be some sort of dragon expert,” she realised, “but dragons haven’t existed before today,” she paused a moment. “On the other hand, I would be able to ask people some questions, and possibly see and work with a real live dragon.” Fetching her purse, Evelyn raced towards her car.

She hadn’t realised how much the world had changed thanks to dragons until she arrived at the building’s car park, although, there weren't any cars there at all, just different variations of motorcycles. Most of them were bigger than any motorcycle that she had ever seen, made to fit more people without the use of a sidecar. Evelyn found the spot where her motorcycle was parked and looked it over. She had never driven or even ridden a motorcycle before. Opening a small basket on the back, she placed her purse and lunch before sitting down on the seat. Putting on a helmet and a leather jacket, her body seemed to move on autopilot as she started the engine and drove out of the garage.

Evelyn barely paid any attention to what she was doing, her body seemed to do it automatically, which ended up being a blessing as the streets were organised very differently. Cars and buses were few and far between in this version of the world if they exist at all; the streets were made for motorcycles with narrower lanes although they were about the same width overall, so more people could be on the road at a time. She barely noticed the 40-minute commute from her home city, Maple Valley (which Evelyn calls “the Valley” since it sounds cooler) to the zoo in Seattle.

“Great job during the interview yesterday,” Evelyn’s boss, Sasha, said as Evelyn placed her things in her locker.

“Thanks,” Evelyn said, turning to look at her, “It’s funny, I can barely remember doing it.”

Sasha chuckled as the two of them walked out of the locker room. “I know what you mean.”

“You do?” Evelyn asked, her heart skipping a beat.

“Oh, yeah,” Sasha replied smiling. “I had a meeting with Kurt Higgins last Tuesday on the importance of Leyland’s surgery and why it was a necessary expense. Did not retain much from that meeting.”

Evelyn sighed, a knot forming in her stomach. “At least he signed off on it.”

“Barely,” Sasha groaned as they approached the door to Leyland’s den. “You ready for this.”

“Not really,” Evelyn admitted, taking a deep breath. “I’ve never rehabilitated a wingless dragon before.” Not exactly lying.

“Me neither, should be fun!”

A tray of raw meat sat next to the door to the den, Evelyn waited for Sasha to do something, but she just looked at Evelyn. “Oh, me,” Evelyn said, reaching for the gloves next to the tray.

“Yes, you,” Sasha said, her tone making it sound obvious. “You are his favourite after all.”

“Sorry, Sash,” Evelyn apologised, grabbing the tray. “My brain is a bit scrambled this morning. Everything just feels… I don’t know, off.” Sasha just raised her eyebrows, her expression not amused, as she opened the door for Evelyn. Taking a deep breath, Evelyn walked through the door, into a room with the 60-foot dragon.

Seeing the dragon in real life, information about it started running through Evelyn’s head. Leyland was an adult Amazonian green dragon, native to the Amazon rainforest of South America, which ate mainly the local mammals, including sloths, monkeys, and even dolphins. Hundreds of more facts flooded her mind, almost causing Evelyn to lose her balance. Leyland slowly lifted his head, turning to watch Evelyn intently as she moved over to one side of the enclosure. Evelyn’s brain seemed to be working on two distinct levels; on one level she was freaking out and had no idea what she was doing in the den of a dragon, a real-life dragon, on the other, more subconscious, level, Evelyn moved through the enclosure like she had done it hundreds of times before, carefully placing the meat on a small platform at the edge.

Taking a couple of steps back, Evelyn watched as Leyland spout a small burst of flames at the piece of meat before eating it. Then Leyland turned his head to look at Evelyn. He manoeuvred slightly to better face her, which caused his snout to contort in pain. Bringing his nose uncomfortably close to Evelyn he sniffed at her for a few moments, his eyes bearing into her soul. Leyland’s lips parted in what looked like a smile, but Evelyn’s body quickly jumped out of the way as flames burst forth from his lips toward the spot she just was.

Hurriedly, Evelyn got out of the enclosure where Sasha was waiting, eyes wide. “He hasn’t spat fire at a human in years,” she breathed, “and he loves you!”

“Not today,” Evelyn said between heavy breaths. “Maybe you should take over for today,” she suggested, and Sasha nodded in agreement.

Life seemed to continue as normal for Evelyn, well as normal as it could be with dragons everywhere. There seemed to be no part of life that the existence of dragons did not morph. As she continued information about dragons and this new world came back to her in spurts, only when she needed them. Although this did not happen for memories in this version of events. When going out with friends they seemed to have a slightly altered version of the same memory, with only a few that had no overlap at all.

The incident with Leyland was not a one-off; all dragons seemed to dislike her to some degree, especially the ones in the zoo, which everyone agreed was really odd. Still, every day Evelyn attempted to spend time with Leyland, and over time it got to the point where he seemed to tolerate her, but he still liked every other zoo staff member better.

Humans and dragons lived in some sort of harmony with one another in this reality, with much less deforestation and pollution as the dragons protected their home environments. The wild dragons seemed to have adopted a “you don’t mess with us; we don’t mess with you” philosophy and the humans followed suit. The domesticated dragons, on the other hand, were used in all sorts of aspects of modern life. Airplanes, helicopters, and drones never needed to be invented, so they weren’t. The world as a whole seemed to be healthier with wild dragons going after people who would try to pollute or exploit the land or ocean. Ecosystems worked very differently from what Evelyn learned in college, but they weren’t out of balance, it was as if these ecosystems evolved to work with dragons as a part of them.

Through all of this Evelyn marvelled at the difference and how much of a utopia this world felt like, at least in comparison to the one she grew up in. And yet she continued to look for an explanation, but everyone she talked to looked at her like she was insane. The only ones that seemed to notice something was off were the dragons themselves, but only about her and not about the world as a whole.

She lived in this world for months, constantly trying to find out how it was this world came to be. No one else seemed to remember a world without dragons, much less one where dragons appeared overnight. She attempted to adapt to this new way of life but through all of it something seemed off. Still, Evelyn thought she was getting a handle on this new world.

***

Evelyn awoke to someone roughly shaking her shoulder. Snapping awake, she looked up to see an unfamiliar face staring down at her. “Lyn, dawn is breaking, we should get moving,” the man said before walking out of the room. Heart racing, Evelyn slowly sat up, eyes wide as she looked around. She was in an unfamiliar room, laying on the ground with nothing but a thin blanket on top of her. The room around her was dark but she could still see some of the floorboards were missing, apparently burned away, and junk was scattered throughout the room.

Forcing herself to take deep breaths, Evelyn cradled her head, letting her body take control as she got ready. She wore jeans and a long-sleeve shirt, and she found herself putting on a breastplate made of leather with a thin metal plate nailed on top, as well as a few leather straps for her arms and thighs, and she reached for a bow and a quiver of arrows. Turning the bow over in her hands she stared at it wide-eyed, her hands trembled as she forced herself to walk into the next room.

Two men sat at the dying embers of a campfire, both packing up their own blankets and supplies. Evelyn barely noticed the two of them, instead, she stared out at the gaping hole in the side of the building, overlooking downtown Seattle, or what used to be downtown Seattle. The city was burned to the ground, smoke billowing in the air. A dragon with red and gold scales glided through the air, a tower of flames extending from its mouth to the ground below. The first rays of the sun broke over the horizon, reflecting off of the dragon’s scales. The dragon turned toward the sun and roared, before retreating toward the mountains in the distance.

Evelyn could barely swallow, but she couldn’t take her eyes away from the sight. One of the men came up behind her. “Damn dragon,” he spat, placing a hand gently on Evelyn’s shoulder. “Come on, we need to get back to camp.”

As the man walked away, Evelyn kept looking out toward the fire burning on the buildings, one question pounding in her mind. What is going on?