After The War

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

The world has changed quite a bit. It all started back in 2019 when the world was ravaged by a global pandemic, then two years later russia deceiced to invade Ukraine. But the shit really hit the fan three years after that when Russia started world war three and nuked Ukrane. But that's not the worst of it. When Russa bombed Ukraine, it cracked the Eurasian tectonic plate, which lead to an opening to somingthing deeper. And I'm sure you guessed it... dragons.

After the initail bombing there was a cascading of fissures that opened up all over the world. The world was then flooded with dragons. Which in a way was a blessing and a curse. Yes World War three had ended but the world was taken over by dragons.

A few months after the tectonic plates opened off the coast of Califronia I, and some other journalists friends, went inside of the opening to see where the dragons were coming from. The fissures that hadf opened were massive, like wide enough to fly a plane through, so that's what we did. We had gotten a helicopter and flown it down to explore what the varrying governments have been keeping secret from the general public. It was a breaking story just waiting to be told.

The pilot said that he wouldn't land, but he would drop us off through the way of a propelling down rope. He would then fly away and return for us at a designated time. When the group of us repelled down it was dark and the heat was blistering. There was a low orange glow all around us coming off the magma that was at the opening overhead. The heat was intense but it felt like the deeper we went the cooler it got.

As the dim glow from above diminished to nothing, we all took out our flashlights help guide us deeper. My flashlight wasnt working as the group was advancing, I started to hit mine against my hand to get it to turn on. But as the group got further away from me I would call out to let them to let them know I was still trying to get my light on. I took a few steps forward and then lost my footing. I fell hard to the ground.

It felt almost cold, the stone. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I noticed that there was a little greenish-blue glow coming from the stones around me. I walked up to get a closer look at them. Turning to still see my coworkers walking away, but if I could get my flashlight to work I could still catch up. I had touched one of the stones that had a combination of purple and orange glow that moved like the wax in a lava lamp.

When I touched the stone I had given me a little shock and the glow in the stone disappeared. And just like that, my flashlight truned on and as I turned to catch up with the group the ground began shake. I heard the group screaming and yelling from yards away. I started to make my way to them, each step harder and harder to place.

The ground fell out from under me. My stomach turned over on itself over andf over again until I landed, or should i say, ping ponged my way down to the ground. When I opened my eyes I was blinded by a bright white light.

After my eyes had adjusted to the light, and my ribs and shoulders had recovered from my landing, I looked around to see an unfamiliar world all around me. I saw clouds of mist, towering cliffs, lush greenery and pools of water. And amoung all of this unknown wonder was a bright sphere illuminating all things.

The world was so vast, expansive, and yet was here under the earth's crust for so long. How is it that all that we had known about the earth's core is not true? I guess some of those conspiracy theorists were right. The world is hollow and there are lizard living underground. They just also happen to breath fire.

As this thought crossed my mind, the reality of my situation snapped me back into perspective. My friends who came down to also explore the truth of what's truly down here must have also fallen into this strange world. I have to find them, and soon. I don't know how long I was out for or if I would be able to get out in time.

I looked around the area where I had landed to make sure that I didn't drop anything in the process of my crash landing to home of dragons. I had found my bag and to very much my luck, my flashlight was intact and working. I switched it off for now since I could see but I will need it as I head back to the surface. I looked for my camera to see if it had survived the fall as well, but that's where my luck ran out. The lense was shattered, and the housing was cracked, exposing the internal wiring. I also was able to see the purple and orange stone that I had touched earlier. It must have been dislodged in the fall. I decided to take this stone with me as a form of proof.

I looked up at the subterranean tree to see that the top of it was connected to the area that I had fallen through. I started my assend up the tree and when I made it to the top, I looked back the beautiful world that lay in secret just below the earth's crust. While doing so I saw a dragon flying towards me off in the distance which made stop taking in the view and scurry back up the dirt hole that was my only hope back to the surface. Grabbed my flashlight and switched it on.

When I made it through the other side of the hole and was envolloed in darkness again. My eyes overwhelmed by the ubra that surrounded me, needed some more time to adjust to the absence of all of the light that I was just basking in. When they were able to pick up the faint light coming from my flashlight I had noticed that all of the stones that had been giving off a dim glow had returned to their dormant state. I was standing in complete obscurity with only my flashlight to fend off the unknown.

I started shouting for my friends who came down with me to make sure that they were all okay. Thankfully everyone was safe other than some bumps and bruses from some of the rocks falling on them. But it's better than any other serious injuries that we could have sustained. We had all agreed to make our way back to the meeting spot of the helicopter to pick us up.

We thankfully all survived that exploratory excursion to the new world, and were safely back in the helicopter. After we had landed at the airport I had turned to my coworkers and friends to ask about the land under ground to see if they had seen things that I hadn't. They all looked back at me with confusion and intrigue.

"What do you mean? ", "What lands?", "We only saw that darkness of the cavern." " You must have hit your head on somthing down there". I had told them all of what I had seen but I just sounded crazy to them. I showed them my busted camera but that was not proof; just proof that I couldn't get any photographic evidence of the tale I was telling.

I decided not to show them the stone that I had taken back with me since it didn't corroborate my story of the world below, so I took it back to my apartment in silicon valley to inspect tomorrow.

I threw my things down on my couch and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. As I was getting undressed I caught a glimpse of somthing on my left shoulder. A burn mark. It must have occurred when I was in the fissure. When I touched it, the mark sgarted to burn my skin and the started to grow in size and the pain was excruciating. I had heard a thud from my living room and a strange glow but I had passed out from the pain before I could go to check out what had happened.

I woke up to hear something that sounded like a dog clawing at the door to the bathroom and when I opened the door I was surprised to see a dangerous monster in my apartment but in a cute minature form.

This creature. was definitely a dragon and not a dog since it obviously had two sets of wings, the first set was larger and further up above the other set of wings on it's back. Its body was covered in black, orange and purple splotches that blend beautifully from one color to the next. Its head was mostly black and it's eyes were purple on the outside and orange on the inside with oval pupils. It had a triangular shapped head and two small horns. Somehow a baby dragon had made it's way into my apartment, but how?

The panic that I had felt shot to my head, my heart beating fast. But as I was stood in the doorway of my bathroom looking at this dragon that was simply sitting there staring at me. As I calmed down I started to inspect this little creature and noticed that it was doing the same thing to me.

I stepped out into my living room and sat down on my couch and it followed me. It lept onto my lap and sniffed my face and hands. Then it jumped off of me and onto the floor. It's eyes shifted around the room and made it's way to the window. It looked at me and back outside, then it threw itself from the windowsill, through the glass and out into the night air.

I grabbed my coat and ran out the door after it. As I chased this creature gliding throught the night sky, I remember thinking to myself how crazy this night has become. I somehow felt responsible for the wellbeing of this baby dragon and didn't want him or anyone else to get hurt.

I found myself cashing this scaled into Hacienda Entrance to the Almaden Quicksilver County Park. I parked my car at the locked entrance and ran after it. I could see the soft glow of the little dragon like back in the cave when I had first seen the stone glimmering. As I was running after it, I heard some rustling in the bushes.

I had turned to look where the rustling was coming from, scanning my immediate vacinity but I couldn't find the source of the noise. I had looked back up to the sky to see if I could find the dragon but it had flown from out of my view.

I heard the rustling again and decided to head back to my car, but it was too late, I had caught the attention of a mountain lion. I remember hearing that I should walk backwards and make loud noises so that I could keep the mountain lion at bay. The cougar had made it's way outof the bushes and had begun stalking me. I could move but my voice was stiffled by my fear.

I had made it just about back to the beginning of the path when I had tripped on a rock, landing flat on my back. The cougar that was mirrioring my every step saw its opportunity to attack. With a couple quick steps, the cougar lunged at me. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the impending claws and fangs to pierce my skin. But the cougar's claws never found me. I opened my eye to see the dragon hunched over tearing away at something. As I watched on, I came to learn that the baby dragon was eating that mountain lion. Preditor had become prey.

The dragon had finished it's meal and started to walk torwards me, but i oddly didn't fear it. I mean sure, it just ate a revinous, wild animal, but I oddly felt that it doesn't wish me any harm.

I looked into the dragon's eyes and it looked back into mine. And for a moment it felt that it could hear my thoughts, and I it's. I brought myself to my feet and walked back to my car, motioning to the dragon to follow me. I opened the door and in climbed inside, curling up into a ball and falling asleep.

I carried the sleeping monster back into my apartment and crafted a bed out of my couch cushions and left it there to sleep. You would never guess what I awoke to find the next morning.