Beasts Beyond the Horizon

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. For centuries, human beings inhabited the area, managing to keep these water beasts away. But the Earth was changing. In the past 15 years, the Earth seemed to begin to side with the dragons as the sea levels rose, allowing more and more beasts to populate the area and threaten the livelihood of the human community in the Valley.

Dragons hunted human children. A century ago, it was believed that dragons hunted children because they were Satanic creatures after the most precious thing human beings had. Now, it was understood that dragons targeted children for no theological reason. Due to their small size and weight, dragons rarely attacked adult humans, especially not those trained in dragon-fighting mastery. Children and cattle made for easier targets.

Shanina was twelve when she witnessed the brutal murder of her four-year-old brother. At the time, Shanina did not entirely understand what it was. A dark shadow closed in on the running children, rising from the water into the sky and then plummeting back to the ground, taking Shanina’s brother Jacob along with it. Jacob didn’t even have a chance to say anything. As Shanina reached for him, he screamed for help and then, in mere moments, he was gone - lifted into the sky and taken into the deep waters of the Ogoro sea.

Shanina knew she was supposed to run for her life. Dragons were social beings known to hunt in groups. Yet, filled with uncontrollable panic, Shanina ran towards the water instead, screaming for her brother, begging the old Gods for grace. This alarmed the villagers whose houses were the closest to the shore. It was a common practice to keep quiet on the shore if one chose to even approach it. The beasts were gifted with supreme hearing abilities and were known to target those making the most noise.

As Shanina ran into the water, an old fisherman dragged her out, roughly pulling her by her elbow, his second hand covering Shanina’s mouth.

“Shhh…” he whispered into her ear, pointing in the direction of the horizon above the sea. It was nearly sunset when Shanina’s brother was taken. Shanina’s eyes were clouded by tears so it took her a moment to understand what the man was pointing to. Finally, she saw the horrors of the sea for herself.

There was a group of dragons quite a distance away. There were five of them, flying low above the water, their claws touching the surface as they flew above it. They were hunting.

Shanina no longer fought the villager as he dragged her into his hut. It was an old rusty home that smelled like fish and metal. Shanina knew she was not supposed to be around strangers but the stranger had just saved her life so she didn’t think anything of it.

The man poured two shots of whiskey into his rusty old cups and passed one to Shanina.

“I am twelve.” Shanina managed to say, letting the old man know she was not supposed to be drinking alcohol.

“Drink.” The man said indifferently and Shanina obeyed.

Her insides burned. It was disgusting and Shanina didn’t understand why adults would do such a thing in the first place. A moment later, as a wave of relaxation dropped onto her, Shanina understood. She reached for the bottle set before her on the table but the man pulled it away from her.

“You are twelve.” He said as if Shanina didn’t just say that.

The whole night after this moment was a giant blur of unimaginable grief and heartbreak. The village man left his home to find Shanina’s parents and make them aware they had lost a child tonight.

***

Ten years later, Shanina was one of her town’s strongest coastguards known also as dragon hunters. She was patient, confident and precise. She disregarded any compassion for the creature and aimed her bone arrow directly in the dragon’s mouth - its weakest point - an immediate death.

When she first began training to become a coast guard at fifteen, Shanina’s biggest strength and weakness simultaneously were her grief. The memory of her brother’s murder haunted her. She fantasized about finding the dragon and finally getting her revenge. In her dreams, she didn’t envision shooting him in the mouth but rather decapitating him - it was a far more satisfying ending.

She was motivated and strong but she was also “too involved in her own emotions” according to her teacher, which made her a weak hunter. Grief and rage needed to be transformed into skill, her teacher explained. On their own, they were just a weakness.

Now, seven years later, Shanina managed to accomplish that. Her grief and her anger were still within her but they were transformed on the surface into her immaculate hunting skill - her ability to stay quiet and invisible to the creatures, her ability to catch the precise moment the dragon opened its mouth to attack and rip that opportunity out of its claws. Shanina was good at what she did. In the two years she was an official coast guard, she killed twelve dragons, which was the closest any hunter had managed to get to the highest number of dragons any Valley coastguard had killed - seventeen. She was the town’s hero but she still hadn’t managed to kill the very dragon who took her brother.

She knew he must be enormous now - the dragon who had killed Jacob. Dragons needed to be killed off within ten years of their birth, otherwise, they continued to grow into huge beasts capable of slaughtering entire cities with their fire. In recent years, no one had seen any creatures bigger than a bear but it was commonly known that if not killed early in their lifespan, a dragon could grow to be the size of two-three elephants combined.

Despite the fact that the dragon who had kidnapped her brother might long be dead, killed off by another hunter, Shanina had a strong intuition that one day she would face him again and it would be her destiny to destroy him. All dragons looked unique but similar enough for simple humans to not distinguish among them. The murderous dragon who targeted Shanina’s brother, however, had a bright splotch of red in between his yellow eyes. Shanina referred to that “third eye” as an identificator. She knew one day, she would see it again.

***

Around five am, the coastguards residing at the Rora Castle were woken up by an emergency alarm. Shanina opened her eyes to see her roommate Al quickly put his clothes on. He looked rough so Shanina knew he had been drinking the night before.

“What’s going on?” Shanina asked, quickly jumping out of bed and starting to put her uniform on.

Her roommate snorted, “probably one of the petty officers,” he said.

He could be right. New trainee officers had been causing a lot of trouble recently, ringing the emergency alarm at any minor threat of dragons at the shore.

Shanina ran into the bathroom where she quickly washed her face and brushed her teeth. In under a minute the roommates were out of their room, joining dozens of other guards leaving their sleeping wards and going downstairs into the lobby where the morning meeting would take place.

Their captain, the only senior officer at the facility, and the living legend who had killed seventeen dragons so far, stood by the central staircase, watching the officers line up on each side of him. He looked distressed, which worried Shanina. It wasn’t just a petty incident, that was clear.

“Good morning, coast guards!”

“Good morning, captain!” The officers chanted in unison.

“This morning, one of our new recruits, Diego Mendoza,” the captain gestured at a short, skinny, probably fourteen-year-old boy hiding behind him. Diego stepped to the side when the captain acknowledged him,” witnessed something extremely concerning, something we have always been worried about but prayed won’t happen.”

A murmur passed through the lineups of officers.

“I will let the man himself tell you what he saw.” Captain said, stepping to the side. That’s how their captain was - he liked to include everyone, he liked to consider everyone his equal, even the petty officers like Diego.

Diego, however, didn’t seem to love the idea of public speaking. In fact, the moment the captain stepped to the side, allowing him to speak, the boy’s face lost all its color. He looked so absolutely terrified to be the center of attention that Shanina felt a twist in her stomach just watching him suffer.

“Uh… hey guys,” he said and cleared his throat. Luckily, most coast guards had their hearts in the right place so they listened attentively regardless of the rank.

“About fifteen minutes ago, I was in the observatory tower, doing a regular check of the sea with the telescope…”

Shanina’s least favorite person Oliver snorted dismissively. Shanina threw him a stern gaze - fucking asshole.

“And… and I witnessed something we haven’t seen before, not in our generation, not in our parents’ or grandparents’ generations.”

“Get to it already.” Oliver whispered and a couple of his jackass friends giggled.

Diego cleared his throat and straightened, his face turning red but his expression growing serious.

“I saw a dragon the size of ….. I would estimate its length to be about 100 feet.”

Shanina felt sick. A shocked whisper moved through the crowd.

“Are you sure though?” Oliver asked loudly, putting his intimidating face on. Oliver was one of those people who thought he was better than everyone without a particular reason for that.

“I have never been this sure of anything in my life, officer.” Diego responded confidently.

The whisper of the crowd turned into full-blown chaos.

The captain took a step forward. “Quiet!” He said and the group quieted down immediately. “We have a very serious situation at hand.”

“But how can we know for sure that’s what he saw, captain?” Oliver questioned. “He is a trainee and I am assuming there are no other witnesses of this unimaginable beast?”

“Captain, may I?” Diego said before the captain had a chance to respond. Shanina felt a weird sense of pride seeing Diego stand up for himself.

“Officer Jacobs is right. I am a trainee. I am not skilled in battle. I barely know anything about your craft.” He admitted. “But what I am skilled at is math.”

Some officers chuckled.

“The beast was about 2.5 miles south of the shoreline. An average-sized dragon wouldn’t even be noticeable through the telescope at such a distance. Considering his size and the distance to the object, I estimate the beast to be 100 feet long and over 150,000 pounds. It’s enormous. It’s unlike anything we have seen before.”

A scared whisper moved through the crowd.

“If this beast chooses to come to our city, we stand no chance against it.” Diego concluded.

The officers were now dead quiet.

“While the safety of our city is of utmost concern, “ the captain spoke, “ there is yet another pressing issue.”

Shanina knew what the captain was about to say before the words left his mouth.

“As you are all aware, there is a team of six coastguards, heading south of the shoreline on the mission to free the Black Island.”

Shanina felt a twist inside her stomach. Her best friend Roe was on that ship.

“Now, the chance of catching up to the ship is low but not nonexistent. The team left for the mission yesterday night so if we act quickly, we may be able to prevent a heart wrenching tragedy at the hands of the colossal monster Officer Mendoza was referring to.”

The captain cleared his throat, looking at Shanina. She knew once again what the man was going to say before he said it.

“Officer Shanina Barlowe,” he said. “Would you like to lead the rescue operation?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Officer Jacobs,” he turned to Oliver, who was the second best hunter after Shanina.

“Yes, Captain.”

“Officer Laurier.” He acknowledged the new foreign recruit, a beautiful gentle looking girl who was much tougher than she seemed. There were nine dragons embedded into her uniform, indicating the number of targets she had successfully eliminated.

“Yes, Captain.”

“Officer Mendoza.” To everyone’s surprise the captain turned to the math enthusiast who looked like he was going to faint.

“Yes, Sir.” It was improper to refer to Captain as Sir but he never cared about such formalities.

“Alright, then, departure is in one hour sharp. Everyone I haven’t named is dismissed.”

Everyone left except for the four officers called for the mission.

“Officer Barlowe,“ the captain addressed Shanina. “This is a rescue operation only, is that understood?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“As much as you enjoy the craft of hunting, this is neither the time nor the place for it. Our primary goal is to get the Black Island operation team out of there safely.”

“Understood, Captain.”

“We don’t know what we are stepping into. We don’t know if the creature Officer Mendoza had witnessed is the only one of that caliber. Come to think of it, Officer Mendoza? Any specific identification features?”

“Uh… Yes, dark coloring, yellow eyes and… He had this strange red discoloration in between his eyes actually.” Diego responded.

Shanina felt the ground move beneath her. Yellow eyes, red discoloration… She remembered the dragon’s features like it was yesterday. It had to be him - the dragon who killed Jacob.

“Officer Barlowe, are you okay?” Diego asked.

Shanina blinked. The news stunned her so much she had forgotten about the people around her entirely.

“Yes, thank you.” Shanina managed to say.

Diego didn’t look convinced but the Captain didn’t seem to be concerned.

“Alright, let's go over the details of the operation,” he said.

***

Shanina stood at the cathead of the ship, looking out for predators. She wished she had a day or two before the departure to process that she would be coming face to face with her oldest enemy - the one who took her four-year-old brother away from her and turned her entire life upside down.

Shanina had her priorities straight. She knew the primary goal was to rescue the Black Island operation team. However, what no one knew but herself was her intent on murdering the monster who had wronged her family so many years ago. She wasn’t sure how she was going to accomplish that or how she would even escape the sight of her teammates. All she knew was she had to do it. Or she would die trying.

A loud vomiting sound interrupted Shanina’s internal monologue. She looked to the side and saw Diego on the main deck, leaning over the railing and violently vomiting into the sea.

“Officer Mendoza,” Shanina called. Diego clearly did not expect to see her. He wiped his face with his sleeve and looked at Shanina with embarrassment.

“Officer Mendoza, did you not take the sweetwater brew?”

Diego opened his mouth to respond but another wave of sickness hit him as he crouched over the railing and violently threw up again.

“As you can tell, Officer Barlowe, I have not,” he breathed out weakly. He turned around slowly and slid down into a seating position, leaning his back onto the railing.

Shanina pulled something out of her pocket. “Here.” She passed her vile of sweetwater brew to Diego. “I get sea-sick too.”

Diego looked at her in disbelief. “The Monster Eater gets sea-sick?”

Shanina wasn’t sure if Diego was making fun of her but he didn’t seem to fit the type so she went with it.

“The Monster Eater?”

Diego uncorked the vile and took a large sip. “That’s what the kids at the Academy call you.”

Shanina laughed.

“The Monster Eater… Not gonna lie, it's kind of a sick nickname.”

“It is. I was scared of you…” Diego said. “Well, I am actually still scared of you.”

Shanina laughed. “I am harmless to humans most of the time.”

They were quiet for a moment.

“So, this is not your thing, huh?” Shanina asked.

“Oh, why would you say that? I love it!” Diego said as sarcastically as humanly possible. Shanina smiled. She really liked the kid.

They were quiet again but this time Diego himself interrupted the silence.

“You don’t believe me, huh? About the dragon?”

Shanina tensed up, a memory flashing before her eyes - two golden eyes with red coloring in between them.

“I know that you are telling the truth.” Shanina said.

“How would you know that?”

“I know the dragon… The mark you described… I…” Shanina decided not to tell the entire truth. “I had a run in with him years ago. He left unharmed. I thought he might have been dead by now but it looks like the motherfucker survived.”

Diego’s face relaxed. Shanina knew it was important for him to be considered trustworthy.

“What will we do?” Diego asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Say the operation is successful and we bring the team home safely. What’s next?”

Shanina considered it.

“We kill him before he kills us.”

Diego didn’t look faithful but he had also never seen Shanina’s nearly flawless performance. She was used to people underestimating her because she was a woman. She was sick of it but at this point, she knew she had nothing to prove. She was the best hunter in the area with one exception being the captain himself.

Shanina noticed Diego stare at her uniform engraved with twelve golden dragons. His own uniform was empty of any engraving.

“That’s pretty…” Diego began speaking but the sound of loud steps approaching interrupted him.

“Shanina,” Oliver ran up to them, disregarding Diego entirely. “There is something you need to see.”

Shanina and Diego followed him to the port side of the main deck. About 900 feet from them was a tiny uninhabited island named Gora. From where the team stood, they could see a massive volcano peeking through the jungle with three ten-feet long dragons flying above it.

“Holy shit.” Diego whispered.

“They are huge.” Shanina breathed out.

“That’s not our biggest concern.” Oliver said, leaning onto the railing, indicating for Shanina and Diego to continue watching.

The dragons continued flying above the crater in circles until all of a sudden, one of them flew up rapidly and then changed his trajectory entirely, dropping from the sky and diving into the crater.

A loud explosive sound followed the dragon’s dive. Diego and Oliver stepped back from the railing instinctively. Shanina stood where she was, watching.

“What’s happening?” Diego asked. “Did he just…?”

“Hold on.” Oliver interrupted.

In mere moments, the dragon who had seemingly committed suicide, reappeared above the crater his body covered in lava.

“Holy…” Diego murmured.

Shanina took a step forward, watching the second dragon dive into the crater. They had never witnessed anything like this before. It seemed that the dragons were not only immune to lava but somehow, powered by it.

“Officer Jacobs,” Shanina turned to Oliver. “Write an incident report and send it to the captain immediately. Use Yoyo.”

Oliver raised an eyebrow. “What’s a Yoyo?”

“Our best pigeon.” Shanina responded.

Oliver sighed loudly.

“Why can’t this guy just do it?” He gestured at Diego dismissively.

“Officer Jacobs.” Shanina said sternly. She probably could ask Diego to write the report but quite frankly, she questioned his ability to transfer the urgency of the information considering his minimal knowledge of dragons. And, she didn’t like Oliver so keeping him occupied seemed like a good idea.

Oliver nodded and walked off. Shanina continued watching the third dragon dive into the crater of the volcano.

“This may be a dumb question but how come we couldn’t send a pigeon to the Black Island mission?” Diego asked.

Out of all the questions the boy could have asked at this moment, this was the last thing Shanina expected.

“Pigeons can only fly from ships back to the base, not the other way around. They aren’t intelligent enough to find a ship but they have an instinct to return to the base, which is why they can only be used for one-sided communication.”

Diego cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind, I have more questions.” He said.

“Go ahead.”

“Aren’t dragon water beats?”

“That’s what we thought.”

“So, like this whole volcano diving thing is unlike anything we know?”

“Correct.”

Diego leaned onto the railing, his face growing paler with every moment.

“Could this imply an entirely different breed of dragons?”

Shanina considered it.

“I think it's a good guess,” she responded after a moment. “It would explain why some dragons develop the ability to breathe fire and some don’t.”

Diego sighed.

“I should have just been a fisherman like my father.” He said weakly.

Shanina furrowed her brows.

“Is that what you truly want?” She asked.

Diego didn’t have a chance to respond. A loud quickly approaching screeching sound filled the air. Shanina grabbed her bone arrow only to be thrown into the railing as the ship took a massive hit. She hit her head against the railing, blood gushing from her forehead, her ears ringing from the explosion but she managed to stay on her feet, her shaking hands holding onto the bone arrow as if she was holding on for her dear life. The air around them was quickly filling with smoke.

“Diego?” Shanina called out.

The smoke limited her vision but she saw him a dozen feet away from her covered in debris but alive and attempting to get onto his feet. The boy was not even armed, what an idiot.

“Get your weapon now!” Shanina yelled back at him, switching into hunter mode, watching the sky carefully as she quickly moved towards the quarterdeck - the epicenter of the hit.

Before she reached her destination, Shanina saw it - a massive dragon in the air mere feet away from her. She ducked behind a utility closet door but the dragon had already spotted her. He opened his mouth and breathed fire. Shanina pressed her body against brooms and deeper into the closet so the fire wouldn’t reach her.

She knew she had to act quickly. The moment the fire stopped, the moment in between breaths, was the moment Shanina needed to catch.

The flow of fire stopped and Shanina peeked behind the burned door. She aimed her bow at the dragon's head and shot. The dragon moved just in time for his ear to be hit instead of his forehead.

The beast cried out in pain, its eyes filling with tears. His movements were no longer precise and rhythmic. The dragon receded and disappeared out of Shanina’s sight.

Swoosh. An arrow traveling from above passed Shanina. It was followed by another cry of pain somewhere beyond Shanina’s vision.

Shanina turned in the direction the arrow had been fired from and saw officer Laurier crawling off the main mast. Shanina gave her a confirmatory nod.

“Great work!” She said.

Officer Laurier didn’t acknowledge that. Instead, she was looking at her feet that were now covered in water. They were sinking.

“Where is everybody else?” Shanina asked.

Laurier shrugged and the two moved towards the quarterdeck. The dragon flew by again, screeching, breathing fire, destroying everything in its wake. Shanina could spot an arrow in its wing. He was losing, his wings flapping uncontrollably without rhythm.

“Everybody, get off the ship!” Shanina commanded, watching her ankles quickly submerge in water.

They were now at the head of the ship, Shanina looking around for a boat.

“Off the ship!” Shanina screamed and began lowering the boat into the sea.

“Wait!” Oliver screamed running towards them from the main deck.

Shanina looked around for Diego. He was nowhere to be found.

The team jumped into the boat, the ship sinking behind them. Oliver began paddling.

“Stop!” Shanina commanded.

“Shanina, what the…”

“DIEGO!” Shanina screamed. “Diego!”

“Who the fuck cares about him?” Oliver whined.

Officer Laurier hit him with her elbow.

“Shut the fuck up already.” That was the most Shanina had ever heard her say.

Shanina turned to Oliver and Laurier.

“Go to the island and hide close to the beach. I’m gonna get Diego.”

“No.” Officer Laurier said.

Shanina did not expect that.

“Officer Laurier, it’s an order.”

“I don’t take orders from officers in my rank.”

“The captain assigned me as the leader of the mission.”

“We will wait.” Officer Laurier said calmly.

“Now, what?” Oliver barked.

Officer Laurier nodded at Shanina. There was no time to deal with her disobedience right now. Shanina jumped back onto the deck and ran, yelling out Diego’s name.

There was no sight of Diego and the ship was at its last breath. Shanina looked around one last time and was almost ready to give up when she saw him, not on the ship but in the water.

A dark memory flashed before Shanina’s eyes - her twelve year-old self running into the water in an attempt to save Jacob.

“Diego!” Shanina screamed but he didn’t seem to be responsive.

Shanina jumped into the water and swam towards him. She reached him and turned him towards herself. Water was flowing out of his mouth.

“LAURIER!” Shanina screamed. “HERE!”