Burning the Dragon's Tongue

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. To most, they were mythical beasts’ things only found in fairytales and in the imagination, or that’s what was believe. But my clan knew better. We’ve known for thousands of years. About a hundred years ago a group of the beasts rose from their shadowy realm and made themselves known to the people. And declared themselves the secret protectors of our realm who now wished to make themselves known to us and enlighten us about their will to create a brighter future. To rebuild a perfect world. Many were amazed and believed that this was a blessing and that we would now have true lasting peace in our time.

They were sorely mistaken, only my clan knew and understood the truth. We were commissioned by the High King himself to slay these beasts to keep them from rearing their heads and causing death and deception. We’ve been continuing with that through the generations until my brother and I’s time. Once the dragons came to power in the Valley darkness fell upon everyone. The Dragons told the people that my clan and I had been keeping their existence a secret and hunting them trying to keep everyone from the knowledge that would propel them into glory. That’s what they were told and that’s what they believe, but the truth is a far different story.

………….

“Hope, we’ve got to move!” Hezekiah shouted at me as he grabbed my hand pulling my sleeping form from the corner of the underground safe house. My eyes snapped open as I felt his tugging, I stumbled as I got out of my scrunched sleeping position. I looked over to the stairway and heard the pounding against the barred metal doors.

“Guys come on let’s move to get out!” our aunt shouted as she and our parents pulled out their swords as the doors burst open producing a flood of people with weapons of their own with a dragon behind them. Hezekiah pulled me along as he pulled out his own sword just as our cousin pulled away from a wide plank of wood painted to match the brown brick wall, covering a square hole in it then pushed me through as the people surged into the room. Our parents and aunt were doing their best trying to hold them back without killing them and they were able to keep them back long enough for my brother, cousin, and I to get into the tunnel and get out. Andrew quickly pulled the We crawled along the tunnel in silence for what seemed like an eternity the sound of metal on metal began to fade behind us until it came to a sudden stop.

I stopped in my tracks and looked back at the darkened entrance where only a few dwindling streams of light could be seen from where I was.

“Hope, keep going.” Hezekiah’s whisper was hardly audible, but I knew what he wanted me to do.

“But Mama and Papa and Auntie, are still there we have to help them,” I whispered back pushing him to the side of the wide tunnel but was stopped by Andrew who was just behind Hezekiah. He was very tall and even though the tunnel was wide it was not accommodating to his stature. He was on all fours like the rest of us, but he took up more room. I tried to slip past him but he grabbed my arm and looked at me. His steadfast gaze held a deep sorrow as he shook his head in the dim light. His mother, our aunt we knew we probably weren’t going to see them again. My eyebrows knit together as I looked back at the dim light ragged fighting, metal on metal filled the dim space. And turned back around and continued away from the battle as I quickly pulled out a Ftar from my satchel and bit the little spheroid causing it to glow. I left it in my mouth and continued to crawl as the sounds of fighting slowly faded out until all I could hear was the memory of clashing metal.

As we crawled through the tunnels, we heard some shuffling and scratching sounds behind us, and the metal began to feel a bit warm. We turned and saw a reddish yellow beam of fire shooting toward us my eyes widened as we quickly scurried down the passage, but the flames were quickly catching up. The metal was getting hotter and hotter under our palms and Andrew hissed in I quickly glanced back and saw that the flames were almost right on top of him. I scrambled ahead as fast as I could, but I could still tell that I still wasn’t going as fast as he needed me to. Mercifully we came to the split in the tunnel with five different routes. We resisted the urge to cough however did snort and choke as we immediately dove into the tunnel that became a welcomely cool metal slide ending in a cool pool. Part of the fire still chased us down, so we went under, and it fizzled out just as it met the cooling ripples that were undisturbed by the fury of the blaze. When we finally resurfaced, the water temperature hadn’t even changed by a degree.

We essentially held our breath trying to make sure that no one was listening for us. After fighting the urge to cough from the smoke still in my lungs I finally was the first to let out as small of a cough as I could. Which still echoed throughout the underground cove, the boys followed suit and let out their own stream of coughs as we swam to the edge of the pool. I grabbed a crawled up on the cool grass and looked over to Andrew and Hezekiah who were laying on their stomachs taking in heavy breaths and coughing every few minutes.

I looked over Andrew’s back and legs and saw his clothing was very singed and he did look burned, but I thought he would be okay from what I could see. He would live and fight again, thank God. we sat in silence with only the rippling water and our ragged breathing to fill our ears. My mind however raced to our family, our parents were probably dead or worse. There were so few of us now. The question that had been asked too many times to count scratched at my throat.

“What do we do now?” I rasped then coughed again. Hezekiah and Andrew looked at me and gave the same answer.

“Same thing we always do, Hope. Regroup and keep fighting,” I looked at the soft matted grass then pulled my sword from its sheath. It gleamed even in the soft light, not a scratch on it, I looked at my reflection and pushed back tears, thinking of all the family they’ve lost to those monsters. An odd mixture of burning and sinking seemed to fill my chest. I was seething and I knew I shouldn’t, the mission was to save the valley.

But right now, I didn’t want to save them, right now I wanted to leave them to burn with the dragons. But I shook my head and stomped down those feelings. I placed the sword tip on the ground and used it to help me stand once I was up and helped the boys too.

“Are you guys okay going right now?” I asked, Hezekiah was leaning on my shoulder but pushed himself off and stretched his arms and legs. Andrew tried to do the same but winced as he tried stretching his left leg out. Hope and Hezekiah caught him before he fell over.

"I'm alright, I'm okay," Andrew said as he pulled out of our grip.

"It’s just a simple burn," he said as he limped through the cove. I looked at Hezekiah and he looked back we knew that he was going to try and keep going no matter what we said. So, we followed behind observing him as he put his weight on a few of the man-sized crystals growing like flowers along the path that we passed. Andrew continued to strain as we walked along until he stumbled and fell forward. I launched toward him and caught him by the wrist and pulled him up to lean on my shoulder again.

“No, we’re going to camp here for the night and treat those wounds,” I said in a hushed tone as I tried to sit him down which he heartily resisted.

“We can’t the survivors will think we’re dead if we don’t meet them soon” He replied in his low yet forceful tone, I always wondered how he could dismiss himself so readily and I always admire that selflessness but right now I could see that this was bleeding into foolishness.

“I think Hope’s right on this one Andy, if we keep going now your wounds won’t properly heal,” Hezekiah said in his calm tone that always hung about his mouth.

“And if we don’t get out something worse than a little sunburn might happen either to us or the rest of the clan,” I sharply inhaled at Andrew’s retort, but he didn’t notice and even tried to push himself away from my shoulder again, but I held him in place. Even though he was a foot taller than me he was not getting out of my grip today, not in this state at least.

“Andy, you’re not going to be of any help if you can’t fight let alone move. Your liable to be a burden if you don’t rest,” Andrew looked down at me for a minute with a frustrated stare. He eventually clicked his tongue in reluctant submission as he let his weight fall on me.

We walked back to the edge of the pool, and I made Andrew dip his legs into the pool as Hezekiah sat to watch over him as I went to get some leaves bark and fruit from the giant Crysendore tree near the center of the cove. I took them back and mashed them together as I began to remember our parents’ song mama and papa would always sing to us even when we said we were too old for it. My grinding came to a slow as I longed for that song just one more time.

Tears stung my eyes once more, but I refused to let them fall. There was no time for that so to console me I hummed the tune as I continued to grind the ingredients into a paste. Even though I didn’t look up I could hear the slightly ragged breathing of Hezekiah and Andrew, they were listening with hearts as heavy as mine, trying to hold back the memories of the ones we’ve lost. Trying not only to save the rest of our clan but the rest of the Valley

All I could think about was how many more would we lose. I was weary. After I put the paste on Andrew's legs we fell into a restless sleep.