A Brief History of Dragons

'There weren't always dragons in the valley. Nor do they belong there. They were a gift to the Princess for her sixth birthday. But the Mad Wizard changed everyone's fate.... However, it is not in our hands to undo anything that caused this to happen in the first place. Only the Mad Wizard, the Princess or the Maker can do that. But there have been no signs of the Maker for the past 300 years. His whereabouts are unknown. Nobody knows where the Princess is either. Some say that the fire-breathing creatures have eaten him, while some say that the Maker may be alive and trapped in the valley.”'

These words were said by the Grand Wizard today in his lecture on A Brief History of Dragons. They kept playing in Doris's head as she and her friend Gretchen faced a gigantic grey gecko with wings, eyes fuming with fury, and a watery-mouth looking at them. It flashed its yellow, sharp teeth, and licked its mouth. waiting to get a bite of the mouth-watering prey that stood before them.

Gretchen's stomach started to churn. She was so scared, that she was about to piss in her pants. Oh my god, this is not happening, she thought. While Doris started to have the 8x10 flashes of her entire life. However, I must warn you to never try to even go near that place. Those who went, did not come back, the Grand Wizard had added. But that did not stop Doris from stealing the map which marked X on the rumored spot of the dragons, and of the Maker. The lecture on the myth and history of dragons in the valley had made Doris curious. And today, curiosity was going to kill the cat.

Both Doris and Gretchen remembered the sign outside of the gates of the valley that said 'BEWARE! DRAGONS RESIDE HERE. DO NOT ENTER! We should've taken that sign seriously, they both thought. But they didn't, and now we're about to become a dragon's meal, Gretchen thought. But Doris was not gonna let that happen. She took a deep breath in, and watched as the dragon started circling around her. As soon as it opened its mouth to take a bite of their heads, Doris took out her mighty sword, took a leap into the air, and wedged it into the dragon's fiery-red eyes. It moaned out of pain, and fell back. Doris grabbed Gretchen's hand and yelled "RUN!"".

Both girls ran as a fast as they could. They didn't realize that they were running deeper in to the valley. They ran as fast as they could run, past the burned buildings, past the skeletal remains of those who tried to trespass, and past the dragons' caves. The rest of the dragons came out of their caves and started flying in the sky, trying to catch the girls. One of the smaller white dragons managed to fly ahead and block their way. Gretchen pulled out her pepper spray, and sprayed in to the dragons eyes, blinding him, while Doris held her sword and slashed the dragons wings. They decided to run in to the forest. Although most of the trees were leafless, it still gave the dragons’ low visibility while trying to look for tiny human beings. Anytime the dragons sensed movement coming from the forest, they let out their fiery breath and burned the tree to the ground.

“We have to get to the tower!” Doris said, hiding behind a trunk, while trying to catch her breath.

“We can’t do that, with these gigantic geckos flying over our heads! We have to do deal with them first.” Gretchen replied.

“I think I know what we can do. I have the Grand Wizard’s spells book in my bag. We can become invisible, and attack the dragons, or we can transform ourselves into a dragon and fight them”

“Hold up, you had your wand and the spells book with you the whole time?! Gretchen was pissed. She felt betrayed thinking that her friend knew how to get out of this mess, yet didn’t tell her for the past half hour, and their lives were at stake.

“There’s no thrill, if we would’ve done that”. This response pissed Gretchen off even more.

“Do that when you’re alone, don’t risk someone else’s life with you. Wait you said we can become invisible, or turn ourselves into a dragon and fight them off? Why can’t we just fly out of here, if we’re going to be dragons?”

“The spell book says this spell will only last for 30 seconds for those who are still in their junior year”.

“What about the invisible spell?”

“That one will last only five minutes for those who are still in their junior year. How else do you think I managed to steal the map, and the spell book from the Grand Wizard’s office?”

Doris and Gretchen knew they didn’t have much time to think, as the surrounding trees were being burnt to ashes. The longer time they took, the closer and closer the dragons were getting to them. They decided to both be invisible, and slash as many dragons as they can before the spell wears out. ‘By the wand, and by the cloak, now you see me, now you don’t’. Now invisible to the human, and mythical creature’s eye, the young wizards executed their plan. They braced themselves, and slashed the wings, and poked the eyes of the dragons. One by one, the slashed dragons fell to the ground, and turned into statues. However, the gigantic white dragons were difficult to defeat. Every time, Gretchen or Doris tried slashing their wings, or their tails, or their eyes, they would just grow right back.

Doris noticed Gretchen's shoes starting to appear. The girls realized that the spell was starting to wear off, so they decided to run towards the tower.

By the time the girls reached inside the tower, the spell of invisibility had worn off. Junior wizards could only use it once. Inside the tower, there was a long spiral staircase that went up to the top. The young wizards took the staircase up to the top of the tower. There were spider webs brimming the corners of the walls, and something scribbled all around the walls. ‘Emerald shall be thy name. serving the….should thy …extinguished …flame.’. The words seemed to have been covered by ash and dust, so It was a little hard to read. There was a small window that exposed the outside view. Gretchen popped her head out to see where the dragons might be.

“Get your head back inside, and get down! You’re going to get us killed!”

Both girls looked around to see where the voice had come from. After all, they were the only ones in the room. Or were they? Or was it their heads messing around with them? They looked around, there were nothing but spider webs across the bricked wall.

There were yet white fire-breathing dragons that were flying around, stomping and sniffing around in hopes of catching a glimpse of their next meal. A black spider crawled up to them. And right before their eyes, what seemed to be human hands started to pop out, and human legs, and the insect started to take the form of an old man with a long white beard, touching the floor, with a long cane to help him walk. He adjusted his glasses and looked at Doris and Gretchen.

“Aaah, you finally came, didn’t you?” he said to Doris, as he smiled. There was a strange sweetness in his smile, Doris felt, as if meeting a long lost friend. But she felt confused. How did this old man know her?

“Don’t be too worried your Highness, I don’t expect you to remember me. After all, it’s been 300 years. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m the—

“Maker” Doris whispered, as she reminisced the old man’s identity. The Maker smiled, and said “yes”.

“I am the Witch Princess Doris of the Black Cloak Witches tribe.” Pieces of Doris's past life started to come to her.

"Your father, King Leopold of the Black Cloak Witches, cast a spell on you that would block your memory, only IF and until you find my secret location and reach to me safely and soundly.”

Gretchen was just even more shocked and confused than she had ever been in her entire life. Witches, Maker, spell, blocking memory, nothing was making sense to her.

“Where are my parents? I’d like to meet them.” Doris asked hoping that her parents would also pop out from one of the corners of the wall, and be happy to see their daughter back.

The Maker’s smile faded. “Unfortunately, your Highness, your parents were killed on that tragic day. They fought hard to protect the valley, and its residents. But to no avail. The dragons overpowered them. That is why your father had cast a spell to block your memory, and wrapped you up in a blanket, and asked the Grand Wizard to take you away, and to be reared in his presence where you shall learn wizardry and witchcraft, and carry on the legacy of your parents. I myself, too tried to escape, but it was too late. The dragons had breathed their fiery breath, and burned my house to ashes. The evil wizard’s henchmen looked for survivors and fed them to the dragons. I had quickly transformed myself in to a spider, and crawled out of there. I decided to stay in the valley, and hid in the tower, hoping that one day you will come and find me.”

"So, the rumors were kinda true. You were alive this whole time. For 300 years." Gretchen said , while still in shock.

“But we came here because the Grand Wizard gave a lecture on the myth of dragons existing. We were just curious, that’s why the----“

The Maker gave her a look that said the lecture was also given intentionally, to get you to come here. Gretchen understood that look, and got pissed even more thinking that dimwit knew that we could’ve lost our lives, and still planned to send us here.

“What exactly happened? Please tell me everything.”

“Let me tell you.” Another familiar voice had spoken in the room. The Maker smiled, and turned around to see a white dragon with a green spot downsizing and flying in to the tower.

"Emerald." The Princess whispered. Suddenly, everything started clicking back. Why she always had a soft spot for the mythical dragons. The other wizards would laugh at her, but she didn't care.

"My name is Emerald. I was one of your pet dragons". As the dragon told his background story, the Princess reminisced the memory of the six white dragons.

They were made by the Maker as a gift to the Princess when she turned 6. They were based on her favourite fairy-tale book ‘The White Dragons and the Princess’ that the Maker wrote for her. Six white dragon toys for her sixth birthday. One of them was a white dragon with a green spot named Emerald, and he was the Princess’s favourite. But the Princess remained unsatisfied, so the Maker gave life to the toy dragons, and enshrined their powers, and their purpose in the Book of the Unseen. Each dragon was given powers to clone himself, but only for the purpose of serving the Princess. These powers could only be used during the day-time. At night, they would have to go back to their original state as toys. If the toys broke, they would die.

The dragon’s qualities were written as such: ‘Dragon shall be thy frame, serving the Princess shall be thy game, should thy deviate from thy purpose, extinguished shall be thy flame’. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, the Maker’s enemy the Mad Wizard, found out about these majestic creatures. He told one of the dragons , that he could give him eternal life and he wouldn’t have to serve anyone, but in return he has to tell him where the Book of the Unseen is. So the dragon flew him over to where the Book was. He stole the Book of the Unseen, and scratched the Maker’s inscription, and wrote a new purpose. The new inscription transformed the obedient, majestic creatures into fire-breathing murderers that caused destruction, and set the entire city on fire, and made the valley their home.

Since then, no living creature has been able to live here. Well, except the Maker of course, with his secret cover.

"When I had realized what had happened, I tried to look for ways to undo this wretchedness that has been enshrined."

"The Grand Wizard said that only the Maker, me or the Mad Wizard can undo whatever happened." The Princess replied.

The Maker sighed, not wanting this deadly excursion of the Princess and her friend to go to waste. But he had to break the news to her.

"You can't your Highness, and neither can the Maker. Didn't you see how every time you tried to kill one of the Six White Dragons, or slashed their wings, or eyeballs, they would just grow right back. Only the Mad Wizard can do that. But nobody knows where he is."

Emerald did not want to sadden the Witch Princess of the Black Cloak, but yet did when he told her how this was going to end.

"There's one way. You have to read the spell. That will put us back into our original forms. We will go back to being plastic figurines. Then you have to take the figurines and burn them. That will extinguish our flame. This land will no longer have to face the horrors of dragons. Peace shall be restored in the valley"

Doris now understood what 'extinguish thy flame meant. She also understood what the scribbles on the walls were. They were the spell engraved on to the wall to destroy the Six White Dragons.

Hey eyes started to get watery. But with a heavy heart she took out her wand, and pointed at the Six White Dragons . She read out the spell 'Dragon shall by thy frame, Serving the Princess shall be thy game, Should thy deviate from thy purpose, extinguished shall be thy flame". One by one, the Six White Dragons, what were once large creatures, downsized and fell to the ground, and transformed in to plastic figurines. Emerald was the first dragon to return to his original state, as a toy dragon. The Princess put him in her bag, and collected the other dragon figurines. One by one, she threw them in to the fire.

They all walked out of the valley, and headed towards home. The Maker, Gretchen, and the Grand Wizard congratulated, and thanked her for such a brave act. Night was starting to fall, and they all decided to go to sleep, and then announce the restoration of the valley tomorrow.

Doris and Gretchen went into their dorm room. Gretchen laid down on her bed, sighing out of relief that today's nightmare was over. No more dragons, no more spooky stories of dragons destroying lives. With that thought, Gretchen dozed off.

When Doris knew that Gretchen was asleep, Doris pulled out something from her bag, and placed it under her pillow. It was the figurine of Emerald. She threw all the toy figurines except for Emerald. With the thought that Emerald was always going to be with her, she too fell asleep. She dozed off planning to find the Mad Wizard and compel him to tell her how to get Emerald back to his sweet self. The poor being did not know that the Mad Wizard was lurking outside her dorm room. He caught a glimpse of Emerald the plastic figurine, and smiled his evil smile thinking that the Princess had just made his mission easier. The Witch Princess of the Black Cloak and those around her were unaware of what was to come.