A Dragons Fire

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. Not that they wanted to be there. Before the dragons arrived, the valley circled the hills where the village sat and the golden palace caught the eye seen from miles away. Its towers dwarfed the village houses below as the walls glistened and reflected the sunlight above. The courtyard was full of merchants selling food, fabric and flowers. Traders hidden in the shadows bartered for money and jewels as children chased after each other with wooden swords their laughter ricocheting of the castle walls. The king watched from the balcony with a satisfied smile, he glanced at his queen next to him as they looked over the courtyard at their people’s happiness. Everything was perfect…

“Help! Someone…please help!” A child’s voice screamed. The king searched for the origin of the little helpless voice among the business of the courtyard. “Help…please.”

He located a boy kneeling at the gate leaning over something, whimpering, tears ran down his face. The king looked closer, his smile now gone, a lump in his throat and a sick feeling shooting through his body. Without a word he slowly walked down the steps and across the courtyard. He could hear his wife questioning him but it blurred into nothing. Not a single sound could be heard now except the boy’s cries, every person in the courtyard watched the king as he walked. Some bowed but the king wasn’t paying attention, his only focus was the child and what he was leaning over. As he reached the gate he held out his hand to the boy who just shook his head and leant further over whatever he was hiding. Under him the king could see the rim of a cloak, it may have originally been pink or red maybe but not now. Now it was blackened and torn.

His breathing became shaky, “what have you done?” His voice shook as he glared at the boy, “What have you done!” He bellowed. The boy moaned and shook his head as he slowly lifted himself off a body. A young girl’s body. The king’s only daughter’s body. He heard screaming from the balcony but to him it sounded far away, he collapsed next to his daughter and reached a trembling hand to her blackened hair that had once been beautiful blonde. He could barely control himself as he surveyed the girl. It was he but she looked… different. Her face, like the boys, was covered in black dust except hers was also burnt, in some areas to the bone. The hair she had left was still smoking and her clothes were mostly gone apart from her burnt cape which had been wrapped around her. He could smell the ash and smoke coming from her still burning body. He stayed there for what felt like forever staring at the ‘thing’ that was his child. Grief and anguish flooded him as he wept beside her body, not caring that his people were watching. Then he sensed movement next to him, the boy was edging his way out of the gate. The king snapped back to reality and he could hear the mumbling of the villagers and the cries of his wife and the anger that was now boiling up inside of him.

“You!” He roared, pointing at the boy. “What did you do!”

The boy turned slowly to look at the king, he winced as he stepped forward, his entire body covered in burns. Not as bad as his daughters. “Dragon.” He managed to croak as he clutched his chest coughing as black dust splattered onto the floor in front of him. “There was a dragon sir.”

“Why would you take my daughter over the valley?” Questioned the king as he towered over the boy seething.

“I didn’t take her sir.”

“You didn’t take her? So am I expected to believe that my daughter, who up till now has followed my rules and never crossed the valley, suddenly now she decided to and dragged you with her?”

The entire courtyard held its breath for the boys answer, “She…we erm… we wanted to find a dragon, to kill it, to bring it back and show the village we don’t need to be scared. But… but then-“ He began to cough again and couldn’t manage the sentence.

The king looked down at the boy, at the same ocean blue eyes his daughter once had. At the same beautiful blonde hair. His face softened as he knelt down beside him and placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder who flinched. “It’s okay.” He said, “Where are your parents, they must be very worried.”

The boy looked down and shuffled his feet uncomfortably then looked up at the king, his blue eyes brimming with tears, “my family were killed already… by the dragons.”

The king sighed and turned away, his wife was being helped walk to the gate. He motioned to a guard to remove his daughter’s body before she saw then he took the boy by the hand and they walked towards the balcony. They reached his wife, her eyes red and puffy from crying, she still held a handkerchief to her face as the tears streamed down her face.

“It…it can’t be… please Leo, please… say that’s not our Eleanor.”

Leo looked with sorrow at his wife and bowed his head, her cries began again and she sank slowly to the floor.

“It is Eleanor. But this brave boy was with her the entire time, he tried to save her he brought her back to us and that’s all we could ask for. His entire family were slain by the dragons, he knows our pain…so I-“

At this the Queen looked up at the boy for the first time. At his ocean blue eyes her daughter once had. At the same beautiful blonde hair. She reached her hand out slowly to wipe he ash off his face and then gently pulled him closer.

“You lost everything. And so have we.” She whispered in the boy’s ear. “What is your name?”

He stared at the King and then back to the Queen and managed to choke out an “Aspen.”

The Queens breath shook, “Aspen? That’s a wonderful name.” Then she arose clutching Aspen’s hand in hers. Leo followed in her footsteps back up to the balcony as the courtyard stood stunned taking in everything that had just happened. As they reached the top step the Queen turned to address her people and declared in a defiant voice, “This is Aspen. Our daughter was just taken from us to soon but we have been gifted another who will raise as well as we raised Eleanor. I would therefore like to introduce to you for the very first time, Prince Aspen.”

The silence lasted only a second before the entire courtyard began cheering and bowing as Aspen stood motionless next to his ‘mother and father’. As the cheering began to quieten the Queen spoke again,

“Furthermore, I now order the guards and anyone willing to go with them to leave the kingdom now and not return until you have captured every last dragon this side of the forest!”

“Alannah, stop!” The king grabbed his wife’s arm, his eyes fiery but she just pushed him away and continued.

“They will be kept in the valley and from this day onwards, each year on the anniversary of Eleanor’s death we will hold a tournament.”

“Alannah!”

“The dragons will fight to the death. Or face the consequences!”