Fire & Fog

Prologue

There weren't always dragons in the Valley.

Until I led them to us.

The dragons used to keep to themselves. They stayed where they belonged, at the rocky cliffs where earth meets ocean and sky. They built their nests and raised their young at this precipice, hunting in the depths of endless dark water. They laid their eggs when the constellation of Attenu was highest overhead, under the watch of the full moon, marking the end of the season of Rain and the beginning of the season of Fog. Three full moons later, the eggs would hatch and new dragons would be borne into the world.

That gave us three full moons to make the arduous journey from the Valley to the Edge of the World.

For years, we accomplished the great task of traversing the challenging terrain from the Valley, down the mountain, to the Edge. We waited and watched as the dragons leapt from their caves and soared into dawn's first light, before plunging into the Ocean to hunt. We repelled down from the cliffs and into their caves, harvested as many eggs as we could carry, and brought them home to our families.

We feasted upon the hatchlings inside and drew our strength from the power of the dragon, growing bigger and stronger than before. We adorned our bodies with jewels made from the blue and silver shells. We made weapons from unborn claws, teeth, and scales. Our people flourished.

On that fateful year when everything changed, the season of Rain did not so easily give in to the season of Fog. The rains continued, torrential, well past the first full moon when we'd usually begin our journey. The older, wiser men decided to stay home; one year without eggs would do no harm.

But I was young. Selfish. And my greed may prove to be the end of us all.

My wife was with child, and I wanted her to have the strength of dragons to bear me a strong heir. Against all advisory, I convinced two others to come with me and we left the village much later in the season than we ever had. The trek was dangerous, as much of the trail had been washed away in the floods. Despite the challenges, we made it, and worked as a team to repel into a cave. There were three eggs— one for each of us.

But it wasn't meant to be.

A fledgeling dragon, no more than two or three years old, landed at the entrance of the cave and blocked us in. Though he was too young to breathe fire, he was already five times our size and posed a dangerous threat. His red, slitted eyes bore into us, and his parted mouth revealed rows upon rows of teeth sharper than daggers. The three of us waved and shouted, moving as a team just like we'd trained, pushing the dragon to the back of the cave while we edged to the entrance. We could have escaped then, but I ordered the others to stay, to fight. No one had slayed a dragon for hundreds of years, and we were in the rare position to change that.

Within moments we had the dragon surrounded. The dragon, now fearing for its life, lunged, bit, and clawed. It was fast, but so were we, counter-attacking with our spears and knives. We drew blood, and the dragon roared a shrill shriek of fear and pain. I could taste victory. I envisioned carrying the head back home, bearing it as a gift to the Chief, and securing my lineage to the title for years to come.

It was then, when I was lost in my thoughts of victory and power, that the dragon twisted around and caught me off guard. His maw opened and his venemous fangs tore into the flesh of my thigh. I fell to the ground, wounded, but still alive.

The dragon used this opportunity to escape, fleeing out the cave and into the sky. We abandoned the eggs and the two others helped to pul me from the cave and hoist me back up the cliffs.

Though the wound did not seem fatal, the poison spread through-out my body. I barely made it home, staying alive long enough to say goodbye to my wife, and to our unborn child.

Though I was dead, I was not gone. Some part of me remained tied to this realm. Through the bite of that dragon I'd gained a sliver of eternity, existing within the mist of the forest, one with the circular motions of water through sky, plant, and earth.

It was not a blessing, but a curse. I was there, forced to bear witness to the death and destruction my greed had caused.

The trail of blood I left was enough for the dragons to track us back to our village, and the place we had called home for hundreds of years was no longer safe. The dragons returned the thievery of their eggs with nightly raids, setting the Valley alight with their breath. Our people fled, finding refuge in the Forest of Eternal Fog where the trees grew so tall they scraped the sky and blocked all light on its way to the forest floor.

My wife, grieving the loss of her love and her home, gave birth to our daughter, but gave up her life doing so. Our daughter, forever bereft from the strength we once gained from the dragons, grew up alone in a world of eternal fog, darkness, and fear.

She lacks the strength of dragons, but there is another power, deep within her, that can be harnessed.

I know in death what I did not know in life. I am one with the deep connection between man and dragon, earth and sky. There is a way to undo what I have done, to undo what our forefathers have done, and bring about a new era of peace and prosperity for all. Without these things that I know, the universal truths that bind us together, it's only a matter of time before the dragons find us again and destroy us completely.

If she is quiet, if she listens, perhaps she will hear me...

As a voice in the fog.