Dragons in the Valley

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. To my knowledge, there weren’t always dragons on earth at all, but certainly not in my valley.

My biological survival instincts kicked in long before my brain understood what was happening. My breath stopped, caught in my lungs waiting for the next beat of my heart, which seemed to take much, much too long in coming. My entire body froze in place of its own volition.

I couldn’t have measured time in that instant, not if my life depended on it. But as it seemed my life did depend on it, it felt like an eternity existed in the span of mere seconds.

When my brain finally processed the information from my eyes, I understood that in front of me, not more than 20 feet away, was a family of dragons. Grazing on grass.

They reminded me of photos of kangaroos I had seen. Not that they looked anything like a kangaroo, but in the casual way the family milled about while the largest member of the family, I assumed the father, stood on guard.

He leaned against a large tree, in the center of the pack. His torso was a light shade of silver that seemed to reflect the sunlight. There were markings that caught my attention, pulling my brain into the details to prevent me from panicking.

I couldn’t tell if the shadows and striations were muscles, pushing up from under his smooth skin, or if he was covered in large scales that blended nearly invisibly into each other. As I squinted to understand, I moved my gaze up, causing my heart to stop in its tracks once again.

The dragon was watching me. He was making clear eye contact.

A bubble of hysterical laughter escaped my lips before I could consciously stop it.

There were tufts along the side of his head that moved, just enough to catch my attention. Ears? Were they furry?

Aside from the tiny twitch, he didn’t move, so neither did I. The rest of the family of dragons was oblivious, but his unblinking gaze was locked on me. If he moved, surely my body would tap into that survival instinct and flee. I would see the intention to attack in his eyes first, I hoped.

Until approximately 2 minutes ago, I was one of the dumb humans who believed the recent dragon sighting was a hoax, or possibly a publicity stunt for an upcoming movie.

Before this unbelievable experience, I whole-heartedly believed dragons were mythical creatures, alongside unicorns and fairies.

The video that went viral 3 days ago was believed to be fake, though no one was yet to identify the creator and it was said to be the best special effects work anyone had ever seen. 3 of the 5 hunters involved were still under heavy sedation in a psychiatric ward, the last I heard. What I previously assumed was a serious commitment to their art now seemed like a much more reasonable reaction.

They had been hunting Elk when they came across a dragon. A few of them were wearing cameras on their gear, to catch any large animal sightings. The dragon had been using a giant pine as a scratching post, kind of like a cat might.

When the hunters saw it, they started shooting. When they ran out of rounds, the dragon shook himself, like a horse shaking off flies. As the hunters screamed and ran for their lives, the jumpy, motion-sickness-inducing camera shot showed the dragon jumping straight up into the trees, going who knows where.

As I thought of that video while staring directly at an entire family of very real, much too close, dragons, I remembered something that had seemed odd. As the dragon shook, it looked like it was covered in long, loose, furry feathers. I’d never seen anything like it, even in dragon movies.

Carefully shifting my line of sight, I was surprised to see that this dragon was definitely covered in feathers, not scales and not smooth, muscled skin. Feathers that looked so fine they melted together, and had such shimmer, they glistened just like scales might in the sunshine.

The dragon didn’t appear to be bothered by my presence, so I started to move my eyes, still too terrified to move anything else. Getting a look at the smaller dragons, I could see that their feathers covered the entire body and were so long that, as they ambled about on all fours, the feathers hung and swayed, like the fur of a pristinely groomed Afghan.

The smaller dragons seemed to be about the size of cows while they were grazing, but every now and then, one would sit up, again reminding me of those kangaroos I had seen. I watched one of them clean its face, looking so catlike I was completely at a loss for how to mentally categorize these creatures. For a wildlife biologist turned ecologist, that’s frustrating, to say the least.

Each of the smaller dragons had mostly mottled brown feathers, with pale underbellies. Powerful hind legs and long, thick snaking tail with shorter arms enforced the kangaroo familiarity, though I could also understand where the models of certain dinosaurs and mythical dragons came from as well. Their back legs and tails seemed to be covered in fur, though it makes more sense - as if anything about this made any sense at all - that it would be soft, down feathers. Their arms and necks, however, looked dry and smooth, possibly scaled. It was hard to tell from this distance, close though I felt.

The heads were the most dragonesque, in terms of what artist renderings would have you expect. They had short snouts, flat heads with eyes to the side, and a stunning marbled gold and brown coloring. Down each side of their head was a short ridge of spines, that continued down their necks and got lost in the feathers that started just above their shoulders.

I counted five of the smaller dragons.

One of the smaller dragons stretched then, and I realized they had not just feathered bodies, and four legs, but also small wings. As it arched it’s back, the wings pulled up behind its head, now facing the sky. They were maybe a foot long, with feathers at least twice as long. I could see now that the feathers covering the body were much shorter, and flat against the body, looking almost interwoven. It was only the wings that had given the appearance of very long feathers.

The longer I watched them, the more breathtaking their beauty became.

There was one mid-sized dragon. It had escaped my notice at first because it was laying down behind the smaller ones. It looked much the same as the others, but the color was darker, almost auburn. When sunlight hit the feathers, there was glimmers of red. This one also has much more noticeable teeth, with pronounced fangs protruding out of the mouth. None of the other dragons had fangs like this, not even the large one I had decided was the father. Looking for other differences, I noticed the tail was also ridged with fierce looking layered spikes, almost like a shark’s mouth of razors.

The largest seemed almost gentle in comparison, though almost twice the size, with smooth curves and rounded head spikes. Its feathers were the most colorful, being mainly blue, but shimmering with shades of purple, gold, and green, depending on how the light hit it. Sitting up, leaning against the tree, this dragon was easily as tall as an elephant. A large elephant.

As I continued to watch, barely moving a muscle, the smaller dragons roamed the valley, staying very close to the two I assumed to be the parents. They were grazing on the grass and wildflowers of the valley, which seemed extremely contrary to what most people believed about dragons. This family did not seem to be fire-breathing monsters, but more like cattle.

Before I had a chance to ruminate on that thought, a yellow-bellied marmot decided it was brave enough to investigate the valley’s visitors. Five sets of eyes locked in on that marmot instantly, and the small dragons went as still as statues.

Curious as to what was going to happen, I watched the marmot hop its way forward, hesitantly. It made it about 2 feet away from one of the smaller dragons, which conveniently put it within striking distance of the red dragon’s tail. I knew this because without even opening its eyes, the dragon whipped its tail up and down, skewering the marmot before it even had a chance to feel its death.

Chaos ensued. The five smaller dragons immediately fell on the marmot, tearing it to pieces. The noise was unreal. I’d never heard anything like it, and odd mixture of chirps and snarling. The seemingly peaceful herbivores were transformed into bloodthirsty predators like Gremlins fed after midnight.

My heart was beating in my throat. The past few minutes I had spent watching this mystical family had relaxed my guard and I suddenly remembered just how close I was to these unknown beasts. My eyes darted back to the large dragon, who was watching me once again.

Its eyes were intelligent, and I felt like it was curious how I was going to react, what I was going to do. If I ran, I feel certain I would have been next on the menu. So I didn’t move a muscle.

When there was no more the marmot, not even a bone, the red dragon stretched and yawned, giving me a startling view of the incredibly sharp, long teeth.

Without so much as a glance at the rest of the family, it began to move, leading the way across the valley and into the forest of trees. The small dragons followed without hesitation, jumping about and playing like oversized baby goats.

The large blue dragon sat still for what felt like an eternity before flopping forward onto all four legs and following his family.

I watched them go, still frozen in place.

When the last tail was hidden within the trees, the trembling started. I could barely hold myself upright any longer. I felt as if every single muscle in my body was recovering from an electric shock.

I turned and started stumbling out of the Valley, making my way back home as quickly as my legs would carry me.

***

From the future back cover:

Across the globe, countries began reporting sightings of beasts described as dragons. The first came from the Northwest of Canada, reported by a group of hunters. Shortly after, water demons and giant toothed snakes were reported throughout Asia, furred beasts were taking up residence in Europe, and amphibious, flying monsters were turning the Amazon into a fortress from a mythical fairytale.

Where did these creatures come from?

Fighting the commercial interests of both global governments and the entertainment industry, one wildlife biologist turned ecologist and her team try are tasked with finding out if dragons were going to save the world, or doom it to an apocalyptic end.