The Valley

“There weren't always dragons in the Valley.” Her mother says to Roxy, pulling the covers up to the young dragon’s scaly neck, tucking her into bed.

“Then where did we come from?” Roxy asks the giant cloud white mother dragon.

“No one really knows. Some people say we’ve always been around but were in hiding for years. Others say we just came here one day from a faraway place.”

“What about us?” Roxy asks.

“Well, we’ve been here for hundreds of years. The Valley has always been home to our family.” The mother dragon says in a soft voice. Roxy cannot get the idea of dragons having to hide out of her mind. The humans seem so nice, at least what she has seen while staring down from the top of the mountain. Her mother would never let her go down into the valley to see for herself. Her mother always told her she was too young, maybe when she was older.

“Why would we be in hiding? Were they scared?”

“Well, people haven’t always been nice to dragons.” Her mother says.

“Are dragons bad?” Roxy’s ice blue eyes start to well up with tears.

“Oh gosh no. Dragons aren’t bad at all.” Her mom gives Roxy a smile and pokes the little dragon on the nose. “Just look how cute you are. How can something so cute be bad? Some people are just afraid of what’s different. They see how big we are and just assume we are going to hurt them. The people here in the Valley just aren’t used to us being around.”

Her mother leans over and kisses Roxy on the forehead.

“Go to sleep now.”

“Alright mom, I love you.” Roxy says with a big yawn.

“Mom?”

“Yes sweetie?”

“Can I have some light?” Roxy asks, turning her head away from her mother feeling embarrassed for even asking. “I mean I’m not afraid of the dark, I just like the warmth.”

The giant mother dragon turns back to face her daughter and with one quick breath the candle hanging on the rocky cave wall next to the young dragon’s bed flickers to life with a warm flame.

“Thanks mom, you’re the best.”

The mother dragon slowly walks out of the bedroom, the dirt, and rocks of the cave floor cracking under her giant paws.

“Now go to bed, we have a big day tomorrow.”

“They don’t need to be afraid of us.”

“What’s the sweetie?”

“The humans, they don’t have to be scared of us. One day I’m going to make them see that we aren’t bad.” Roxy says as her eyes get heavier, and the little dragon falls fast asleep.

“I know you will sweetie, I know you will.”

Roxy jolts awake from the sound of a large boom, followed by cracking coming from the cave walls of her bedroom. Chunks of rock fall from the cave ceiling. A chunk crashes into the hanging candle that was bringing light into the young dragon’s room. Flames ignite next to the bed and Roxy leaps up into the air, hovering over the now flaming bed. Screams ring out from somewhere else inside the cave, but Roxy does not know where from. She glides across the bedroom which is slowly being engulfed with flames.

She checks the other rooms as she glides down the long hallway but does not see her mom. She yells out for her but hears nothing. As she gets closer to the living room, she hears screaming. It does not sound like her mom, but Roxy cannot figure out what or who it is. She enters the living and sees a man on the dirt floor covered in fire. The man rolls around trying to extinguish the flames but there are just too many and in no time the man’s screams stop. Roxy sees a bright flash of the light coming from the open cave entrance. The night sky is brighter than Roxy has ever seen. Flames erupt from all around the cave. Men wearing shiny grey suits stand around the entire area. She has never seen this many humans before and never dressed like this. She hears a loud roar and turns to see her mom laying on the ground. There is some type of giant net laying over the massive mother dragon and some of the shiny men are putting shackles on her giant clawed paws. Before Roxy can understand what is happening a man yells out from a top of a giant machine.

“There’s the little one. Load the net. Don’t let her get away.”

Just then Roxy wakes up in a panic, sweat covering her enormous snout.

“Just a dream.” She says to herself softly. She is used to this dream, it is the same one she has been having ever since that night, almost eight years ago now.

“Oh, did you have a bad dream?” A mocking voice calls out to Roxy from across the room. “I hope it wasn’t too bad.” Roxy looks over to the mocking man, who is sitting in a small cage hanging down from the cave ceiling. She slowly walks over to the hanging man.

“Let me guess, it was about your mom, wasn’t it? That night we took her from you?” The man says with an evil smirk.

Roxy lets out a puff of smoke right into the hanging man’s face. The man coughs violently and Roxy turns away from the man.

“Well don’t worry, you’ll see her soon enough, when we do the same thing to you.” Roxy turns back to the man and in the blink of an eye the cage and the man inside erupt into hot white flames.