Dragon Ryder

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. But that’s not where our story begins. First, I must tell you a story of a boy who came to a ranch to play behind a barn while his father tended horses. I must also tell you of a girl who lived in the house on the ranch where the barn stood. You see our story doesn’t start with dragons who haunt the sky above the valley. Our story begins in another valley or maybe the same one in a different time or a different universe where the valley exists simultaneously in a parallel space. In that valley far away from the one we are in now a boy who plays while his father works and a girl who is tired of having no one to play with at all will begin a tale of love, a battle of good and evil, and yes dragons.

On the first day the boy was brought to the ranch he was noticed by the girl, who was the only daughter of the rancher and his wife. The girl often spent her mornings in her room in a world of magical make believe while her mother cleaned up the breakfast dishes in the kitchen and before the girl would be called downstairs to begin her day. On the morning the boy came the girl was distracted from her usual games of castles, princesses, and knights. When passing in front of the window beside her bed she first saw the boy and then stayed to watch as he played in the dirt at the edge of the barn's outer door with his toys.

The boy had a metal tractor, plastic farm animals, and small plastic fence pieces to close the plastic animals in. As she watched the girl saw how much fun the boy seemed to be having. Watching him the girl decided she wanted to be down by the barn playing with the boy. Asking her mother for permission because she was a very polite and well-behaved girl, she gathered some of her own toys and headed out of her house toward the barn and the boy.

Without saying a word and without the boy noticing until she was sitting next to him the girl laid out four of her Barbie dolls, which were out of all her toys the favorite ones she had. After she put her Barbies down, she looked at the boy and waited to see what he would do. The boy looked at her at first then picked up one of the Barbies and asked, “Who’s this?” She answered “Clara.” The boy smiled and told the girl that was a nice name. In that moment, the boy and the girl formed a friendship that would only grow.

The boy in our story grew up to be very strong and kind and in years that passed as easily as the setting and rising of the sun the boy went from playing with his toys to taking over the care of the stables from his father who had grown too old for the work. Each day after he took over the boy would come to the ranch to tend the horses the way his father had and each day the boy came to the ranch, he would fall deeper in love with the girl who herself had become a very beautiful woman.

The girl would wait for the boy every morning. Getting up early she would lean against the edge of the same window she had first seen the boy from. When she caught the first glimpse of the boy’s truck coming up the road each morning her heart would leap. Because the girl was also falling deeper in love with the boy

When the boy arrived at the ranch each morning, he would hurry through his day finishing his work as soon as he could. The girl would take care of her daily chores and go through her riding lessons all the time counting the moments until she could spend the last hours before dinner holding hands with the boy and liking the way his mouth tasted of sweet jam sandwiches, he brought each day in his lunch when they kissed.

Before the sun slipped behind the mountains with every approaching dusk, the boy and the girl would make promises to never stop feeling the way they did. And after the sun went away each day, the boy would walk the girl home and she would reluctantly go inside for dinner. Each night the girl said goodbye to the boy her heart would long a little more to stay with him.

This is the way life went on for the boy and the girl and for a while it was enough, but eventually the boy decided he could not spend any more time away from the girl. After the boy made his decision, he spent each of his waking moments thinking of how he would ask the girl to marry.

On the day, the boy had finally chosen to ask the girl. He made a plan to bring her down to the creek that cut through the back pasture behind the ranch house and the barn. In its wide parts the creek was fifty feet across and lined on both sides with trees. The boy was sure it was the perfect place to ask the girl. At the creek’s edge he would hold the girl’s hand helping her to step inside the old rowboat her father had kept there for years.

After the girl sat on one of the boats two seats the boy would row to his favorite spot on the water, a half lagoon where the trees perfectly framed the skyline beyond the ranch. When the last rays of the sun were lingering above the horizon minutes before he would have to take the girl back to the house for dinner, he would hand the girl a bouquet of flowers he picked fresh in the morning. When the girl lifted the flowers to her nose to take in fragrance of their bloom the boy would lean forward to gaze into the girl's hazel eyes and confess his love.

When the time came, and the boy led the girl down to the creek to begin their lives together, tragedy struck. The girl slipped on an unseen tree limb lying on the ground. Before the boy could catch her, the girl fell. The crack of the bone in her leg was the most horrifying sound the boy had ever heard. Standing paralyzed for an instance listening to her cry in pain the boy felt real fear for the first time in his life. In a panic he picked the girl up in his arms and raced back to the ranch house. Refusing to give in to exhaustion he ran without stopping to the threshold of the house yelling for the rancher as he came.

In moments she was gone. The boy watched her as she left staring at the road long after the dust clouds from the rancher’s truck disappeared. Knowing he could not remain. Knowing he had to know what was happening with the girl, the boy got into his own truck. Making only one mistake before he left to follow the girl. Unable to keep the image of her falling from his mind he grabbed a bottle of bourbon from the rancher’s liquor cabinet. Driving too fast he drank the bourbon down in large gulps trying to ease his nerves. In the middle of a particularly large swallow the front tire on the truck’s left side blew out. When the tire blew the metal on the rim underneath the tire bit hard into the dirt pulling the truck from the road. Before the boy could regain control the truck crashed into a tree and he flew up against the steering wheel and the windshield.

I’m afraid this is where my part of the telling of this story ends. I may return to tell you more or I may not. You will have to follow to the end of these pages to find out if I do or not. But, as to the reason of my going. It is simple, this is not my tale to tell I was only here to narrate the very beginning. Now it is for the boy to tell you the story of the adventure he would begin in only moments after the crash with the tree. And, now that I have told you the beginning, I have nothing more to tell other than to say goodbye. And do please keep in mind I may see you again as the boy may need me to narrate another part of this tale.

For a moment I don’t realize where I am. I don’t remember Emma’s fall or the terrible agony in my causing it. But when I wipe the blood from my forehead it all crashes back in on me. The creek water the branch on the ground the sound of the crack in her leg. Without thinking I reach for the bottle of bourbon and finish it with a series of choking gasps. The bottle emptied I toss it on the seat next to me. With my left hand I try the door and am relieved when it opens easily. Stepping outside I take one look at the truck and know it is not going anywhere. The tree has folded the front into the shape of a v. A large pool of motor oil leaks out from underneath. My heart sinks. The hospital is miles away. Taking a deep breath, I curse and know I can’t just stay here waiting for someone to come along who may or may not give me a ride. Making my mind up before I can question it, I step away from the truck.

If I cut across the fields instead of following the road. I will make it to the hospital in half the time which will get me there sometime before midnight and well after visiting hours end. Shaking my head, I start walking. I keep walking as the night above me grows dark. The moon doesn’t provide much light, but my eyes adjust, and I manage to pick my way through the brushes and grass. I go on picking my way across the field and trying not to think of what has happened until I come to a stretch of ground I don't recognize.

Stopping where I am I go back through the times I've spent riding through the fields in this valley and I'm sure I haven't been here before. Looking around I'm surprised by this place. I didn't think there were any places left in the land that stretches between the borders of town and the ranch I had not discovered. For an instance I wonder if this place was always here or has just appeared.

The ground ahead of me is similar to the the ground I have been passing through since I left the truck except for a large shadow at least twenty feet across in the shape of a circle where there seems to be nothing at all. Still drunk from the bourbon I decide to walk around the shadow circle and keep going. Lost in my thoughts I let my eyes lose themselves in the stars. When I look down even though I have taken a path that should have given a wide berth to the circle I realize too late the shadow is right in front of me and I fall inside before I can stop my steps.

It has been two days since I have fallen through the hole which in this world resides in the sky above me and not on the ground. Standing up I pat the dirt from my clothes that are now ruffled and dirty from the days of wear. I can smell the odor coming from my body and wander if I will ever bathe again. I have been resting for almost an hour, but morning will be here soon, and I want to keep moving. With a glance I do what I have already done a hundred times since falling. I take the useless rectangle of metal and glass that use to hold so much of my life out of my pocket. I haven’t been able to bring myself to throw it away. I keep thinking it will come back to life. The screen will light up and I will be able to press the home button and call someone to save my life. Call someone to save my life, that’s funny. Who would I call? What would I say? “Hey, it’s Kade I fell through an interdimensional hole can you come and get me, please?”

I try not to think of Emma in the hospital, but my thoughts always return to her. I should be thankful for her memory, even though not knowing is torture and I pray constantly, she is ok. But her memory may be the only thing keeping me sane in the strange place I have fallen into.

This place, this world I have opened my eyes to after I fell from the sky and landed hard on the ground is a nightmare. There is an arid smell of dry death in the air. The ground is barren, and I have seen no signs of life other than the monsters in the sky. At first, I didn’t realize what the monsters were before it hit me like a ton of bricks with a sudden realization. They're dragons. Like the medieval times, fire breathing, knight killing dragons. I thought I was scared when Emma fell, but now I know there are more levels of fear. Still, in my heart I know if I could see her again, I would gladly face one of the beasts.

Here where I am in this land the dragons only fly above, but in the distance, they carry out a destruction that I can only imagine is decimating whatever is there. At night, I watch the light from their fire pouring down from the sky. Even in the dark the smoke is visible rising back from the ground. Faintly barely audible on the wind, I hear the cries of what believe are humans. It’s hard to imagine that humans would be here, but those cries in the distance as horrifying as they are, sound like nothing else to my ears.

If it is true. If there are somehow humans in this world fighting against dragons, they may be the only chance I have. If I can manage to communicate with them, I may be able to understand what this world is. At the same time, I warn myself that to be heard from this distance there must be hundreds if not thousands of them. And, while they feel like my only hope, they also feel like another danger.

The only thing that has kept me from collapsing from the pains of hunger writhing in my stomach is a single thought that has been growing inside me. A thought that came when I first saw the creatures flying in the sky before I realized they were dragons. A thought that I could use one of them to get back through the hole that brought me here. The more I have the thought the more I realize my only chance to get back through the hole to be with Emma again will be on one of their backs. It is a crazy thought, but it is all I have.

At first, I dismissed it. But now as impossible as the thought is I know I will ride one of those dragons back through the portal that has brought me here. How I will get close enough to get on one of the beasts, I don't know. What I will fashion a saddle out of or how I will lash it to the beasts scaled hide, I don't know either. I’ve broken horses in the past. I’ve ridden stallions that bucked for eternities before they settled, but I always managed to settle them. I know this will be different than that. This will be the hardest, scariest thing I have ever done. But I know I have nothing else. I do take comfort in the fact that if I die in my attempt, I will have at least tried.

My feet ache but I decide to keep walking. I have been afraid in this world to stay in one place too long. I don’t know if the dragons attacking in the distance are doing so for food or are locked in a battle of a larger war. I imagine it is the latter. In either case if they spot me lingering alone, I will be easy prey. The hunger inside me raises its voice again. If I go too much longer, I think I will try eating the sand that covers the ground to see if it will fill my belly.

I have spent many nights in my twenty-three years sleeping under the stars and camping in the woods. I have survived on nothing but what I have hunted and fished. There have been many whole weeks I have spent completely alone in the forest. Nature has always been a home to me that I never had to try to be a part of, but this land is different. This land offers nothing. The grass on the ground is singed. What is left of the trees is black and charred. In my thoughts I am certain the battle in the distance was here before it was there.

My eyes constantly search the horizon. My ears constantly listen for a sound of a small animal I could create a trap for and feed myself with. I long to see vegetation that I could judge whether or not was safe to eat. Or hear the sound of water flowing in a stream. Looking back to the scene in the distance I think whoever is there under the dragon's fire must have something to eat. My desire for food has led me among several other reasons to a decision I have not made lightly.

I have decided to head toward the battle where the dragons are still spitting fire in the sky. Every step I carry myself forward a stronger sense of trepidation grows in my heart. This may be the most foolish thing I have ever done in my life. But I feel I have no other choice. The land is baron in every direction I look. Heading toward the battle a place where I know there may be humans or something close to it is better than heading into nothing to starve to death. I would rather die violently than become food for the vultures or whatever scavengers inhabit this foreign land.

Wishing I had more belongings than a useless cellphone, a set of keys to a vehicle I may never see again, and a zippo lighter my dad carried most of his life I push my tired legs to keep moving. My hand goes absently into the pocket where the lighter rests to rub its worn edges. A familiar sense of my father passes over me. It is as if I am touching a part of him on the smooth metal surface. Time passes and the wasteland I pass through blends into a single desolate image.

When I started this morning, my pace was slow but now that the sun is well above me in the sky, I have found a faster rhythm. The painful ache of hunger is still growing stronger and part of me wanders if I can go on. Pushing back against the thought I admonish the hunger and the idea of giving up. If I am to make it, I know have to stop thinking. I have to accept the pain. I have to embrace it. I have to exist inside it. Keeping the horizon and fire breathing dragons ahead of me I trudge on turning my body into a mindless machine that just keeps moving.

The scorching sun in this valley burns hotter than the one in the sky back home. I know I am past the point where I have been too long without water. The effects of severe dehydration are setting in. My head is a cloud of heat filled fog. My grasp on reality has deteriorated to the point that I am not sure if what is ahead of me is real or imagined. I ask rhetorically if it is a cabin I see on the edge of my vision, or a hallucination brought on by the heat. If the cabin is real, I can see it has been badly damaged from a fire that has already passed. Attempting to clear my mind I shake my head back and forth which goes immediately wrong. For a moment I am confused to the point that it takes a moment to remember even my name.

Kade Weston, the kid who disappeared when he was eight for two weeks. The kid who could not explain where he’d been after he showed up wearing the same clothes back in the same place where he had disappeared. Shaking my head again repeating the same mistake, I rub my eyes. I’ve got to survive. I use the thought to cut against the haze clouding my head and repeat the mantra, I’ve got to survive.

The desire for food overtakes me and I begin to run toward the cabin. I do not care anymore if it is real or imagined. My hunger grows deeper with each stride, and it takes several minutes to close the distance. My mind has been completely overcome with the need for food and I am no longer thinking, I am just acting. By the time I reach the door that is attached only by the bottom hinge of the cabins entrance I am ravished. Without questioning it I move through the door.

Inside the cabin is small. It is wholly comprised of a single room. A bed stands against one wall opposite the door and a broken dresser is to its side. My eyes drift to the corner beside me and I immediately head toward it. It is the remains of what was a kitchen. Some of the cabinets are still unharmed by the fire that burned here, and I think of nothing else but what the cabinets may hold as I reach them.

Inside the first cabinet I strike gold. A can of peaches. I can hardly believe it. I whirl around and I know immediately my luck is changing. There on the floor not more than a couple feet from me is a knife. I scramble over to the knife picking it up before I plunge it into the cans top. Not seconds later the peaches are running sweet down my throat. They taste better than anything I have ever had in the world. As I finish, I relax for the first time since the hole in the ground swallowed me and spit me out of the sky.

My subsequent searches yield more food and even a jug half filled with water. After eating and resting against the wall beside the remains of the kitchen I feel my strength slowly beginning to return. Pushing myself back up from the floor I go back outside and take a fresh look at the strange land that has for better or worse become my home and prison.

The dragons are still waging war in the distance, but there is nothing I can see in any direction beyond their constant fray. The debate inside me begins anew. Do I keep moving toward the battle or do I rest in the cabin for the night? I know before the opening salutations of my arguments that I don’t have a choice. As much as I tell myself I need to keep going I also know I haven’t slept in two days. What may await me if I sleep here in this cabin can be no worse than what would find me in wasteland outside after I eventually fell over from exhaustion. Having decided I head back inside. I barely make it to the cabins bed before I fall deeply asleep.

When my eyes open, I know I have been asleep too long. It obvious I have slept not only through the night but well into the next morning. I try to comfort myself that I am on no deadline. As far as I know there is not a soul that knows I am alive in this world. Still the sense of urgency inside me does not subside. Rising I began making preparations to leave the cabin. In a more thorough search of the cabin, I come away with more food and a sack to carry it in. I find a sheath for the knife not far from where I first picked the knife up from the floor. Behind the broken dresser I find the most intriguing thing I have gathered in this cabin. A leather-bound book with a large dragon carved on the cover. The book has a lock on the side of its binding, and I have not been able to read any of its pages. But I think I can pry the lock open easily enough with the knife when I stop to rest after I leave.

Packing the food, I gather all the other items I have gained in the cabin and place them on the bed. The knife I slide into the sheath I now wear on my belt above my right hip. The sack of food I throw over my left shoulder. The jug of water I take in one hand and the book with the dragon on it I carry in the other. Turning to look a final time at the interior of the cabin I briefly entertain the thought of staying one more night in the safety of its walls before I dismiss the thought and turn to walk outside.

“Who are you?” The question startles me and I turn to its sound. A woman dressed in worn leather that wraps tightly from her neck all the way down until it disappears in the tops of boots that stretch almost up to her knees stands beside the charred remains of a tree. Staring at her I find I am unable to respond. I haven't yet gotten over the shock of her arrival.

“What are you doing in my father’s outpost?” The woman steps toward me. “Did you kill him?” I see the sword in her hand for the first time. My own hand touches the small knife at my waist. “What are you going to do with that?” She asks moving again. Fear rushes through my body. “Do you think you can kill me before I cleave you in two with my sword?” I look for what I will do and all I find is a thought of a hasty escape back through the cabin. In my mind I look at a small gap in the wall beside the bed I am sure I can fit through. Calculating if she will kill me before I make it, I take a step back. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The words surprise me, and I freeze. Smiling she motions with her eyes toward the back of the cabin.

That’s when I hear it the first time. I don’t know how I missed it before. Behind me is the unmistakable sound of wind rushing from nostrils. I recognize it immediately. I have heard the same sound a thousand times coming from horses only this time it sounds like a hundred horses breathing together at once. I do not need to turn to look behind me to know the sound is from a dragon. I can feel it getting closer as the heat of its breath grows stronger against my back. “I think you would be smart to take my father’s knife from his sheath and let it fall to the ground.” I weigh my options briefly again in my head before I slide the knife out and let it fall to the ground. “Should I know your name before I take your life?” Looking to buy time to escape I finally find the courage to speak while I simultaneously curse my decision to stay in the cabin.

“Kade Weston.” She doesn’t immediately raise her sword and I take this as a good sign and decide to keep talking. “I didn’t kill your father. He or whoever was here was long gone before I got here. I’m no harm to you. I’m no harm to anybody. I’m just lost and trying to find my way home.” She is still listening, and I know I have to keep talking to buy more time if I hope to escape. I re-calculate my chances of survival if I run back in through the cabin. Wandering if I will make it out before the dragon burns me to ash with one breath.

“I could believe that were true if you weren’t holding the Dragon book.” I look down at my hand and then at the book.

“This" I ask holding it up. "I found it in the cabin I haven’t opened it. You can have it if you want.” Without thinking I stretch my arm and the book toward her. I stop mid motion when she laughs.

“You just found the Dragon book that my family has passed down for generations. You just happen to find the most valuable possession in all the lands. A book a thousand men would die to have in their hands” She stops to twirl the sword in her hand. “You must think you’ve found a maiden girl. Is that it? You think I’m just a maiden girl here to fetch your water, wash your boots, and believe your lies.”

“N-no” I stumble out the word and toss the book toward her immediately realizing I’ve made a terrible mistake. Behind me the dragon moves his large snout against my back and knocks me from the steps of the cabin to the ground. The impact takes the breath from me, but I keep my head and push up with my hands on the hard earth to regain my feet. Before I can stand, I am knocked back to the ground this time on my back. She is faster than I can imagine. Her sword is at my neck before I can make another attempt to gain my feet. The soft features of her face are hard with anger as she presses the tip of swords blade down against my skin. Without taking her eyes from me she puts the book that is now in her hand inside the fold of her leather breast coat. The coat is so tight around her that when she closes it again, I can still see the books outline against it. “I was just trying to give it back” I offer trying to keep my voice from faltering as I speak. Her sword presses harder against my throat.

“The dragon book is worth more than your life. It is sacrilege to throw it on the ground.” The point of the sword is now so firmly against my neck that rivulets of blood are starting to run down its blade and my skin. “You have less than a dragon’s breath to make me believe why I should not push this sword down till it reaches the ground beneath you.” I don’t know if it is the culmination of the three days I have passed since I have fallen through the hole or the stress or just the desperation of my situation, but I let go a with a flurry of words without any care for my life or her response.

“Because I’m not from this world. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know who your father is. I don’t know who you are. I am a stranger from another land who is just trying to make it home again. If you don’t believe me, you can look for yourself at the hole in the sky I fell through. It is just behind your left shoulder. I didn’t know this was your father's cabin. I only knew I wanted food and water after not having had any for two days. I slept in the bed because I had not slept either. I don’t know what that book means. I took it because it had a dragon on it. I thought it might help me. I believe my only hope of going home is to ride one of dragons in the sky back through the damn hole and I thought the book might tell me how. That's it, that's all. So, if you’re going to kill me, make it quick. Run your sword through my neck or let me go but whatever you do hurry up and decide because I have already been through enough.” The last words come out in a shout which causes the blood coming from my neck to increase and run in a steady stream. I expect death at any moment, but to my surprise instead of killing me the woman pulls the sword back and puts it in the sheath she is wearing across her back. Taking a step away from me she crosses her arms. Behind her the dragon finally comes into my view and I am awe struck by its size. It is the largest creature I have ever seen.

“Get on your feet. I’m not going to kill you for the moment.” She says to me before turning away. I lean up on my elbows and watch her take a couple more steps. My heart requickens its pace when she turns back to me again. “Pick that knife up off the ground and put it back in its sheath you’re going to need it where we’re going.” With that she is gone, and I lay back down more confused than I have been since I fell into this world.