Frostum

Frostum

Dragon Hunter

By

Mike Cornish

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Their arrival was a disaster. This was once a futile productive community. The dragons took our livestock and burned our crops. At first we thought these creatures were wantonly evil and their destruction of our lands mischievous. However the burning of our crops was to chase their pray out into the open, but that explanation didn’t help us.

We built large barns to protect our animals and store our crops, that hadn’t been burned. The dragons ripped the barns apart. We built stone structures that lasted better but in the end the dragons broke through. They would take the unwary if caught in the open or smash our homes.

The community came together to decide how we were to survive. Jaoll was the most outspoken. She had lost her partners and two of their offspring in a dragon raid. She had become the de facto leader of the community. “We need to build a fortification.” She cried. “One that we can defend. It must be of stone so it won’t burn and we must be able to defend the walls so the dragons can’t tear them down.”

Stroul whose pale blue skin was pocked with burn scars from his own close encounter suggested “It must be large enough to house all our livestock and store our crops and fit us all in.” His speech was slightly garbled because of the scar tightness around his mouth.

Shaus, aways pragmatic, flashed her cheek flaps impatiently. “Building such a huge structure is going to take ages in the meantime how are we going to survive? I think we need to leave the Valley and find a new land.” This argument had been raised many time before and caused a murmur to ripple through the throng growing louder as more and more got caught up in the debate.

Jaoll looked across at Shaus. Her reddened cheek flaps showed her frustration. She squealed loudly to get everyone’s attention. “Xionn has been out of the valley looking to see if another land can be settled.” Xionn was one of her brothers. Everyone knew he had agreed to leave the valley some time ago in search of new lands when the idea of leaving had first been raised. “He has reported that the dragons have destroyed the lands all around that our valley is surviving better than anywhere else. We need to stay here and protect ourselves and what belongs to us.”

Shaus was no to be put off so easily. “Where is Xionn? He should tell us what he has seen. Perhaps we need to travel further away and look for lands where the dragons have yet to invade.” She said adamantly. “What you are suggesting is just not practical, we don’t have the time or resources to build such a structure.”

“Xionn died shortly after he got back. He sacrificed himself to inform us.” Jaoll informed the gathering. Shaus cheek flap turn bright red with embarrassment and sorry.

Deion an elderly farling well past her birthing years. Her cheek flaps drooped white with age. “If we build against the cliffs, half of the defensive structure is already in place.” She suggested. ‘We can carve our stores and shelter by removing the stone which we can use to build the outside defences. It will make the job much quicker. we create the covered spaces we need while sourcing the stone we need to build the defensive wall. We would only need to worry about half of the approach.

Jaoll spoke up again. “We need to form into three teams.” she suggested. “One of builders to escalate our home and build the defences, one of farmers to tend our crops and livestock and one of hunters.” Now she had everyone listening. After years of attempts at protection and failure everyone was keen for something else.

Shaus still not satisfied. “What do you mean hunters?” She asked aggressively interrupting Jaoll.

"I mean we need to form a team who specialise in hunting and killing the dragons.” She offered. “Up to now everything we have been doing is defensive. I think it’s time we went on the offensive and actively hunt for and kill these dragons.” A resounding cheer went up even Shaus found herself grinning

“None of us knows how to kill dragons.” She protested.

Jaoll replied. “That’s why I want you to lead the hunter team.” Deion nodded approvingly. “We need someone smart who will think about how to kill them without losing themselves in the process. I think you would be perfect.”

Shaus felt as though she was growing bigger. In spite of her initial resistance she found herself liking the importance of the role. “I” she hesitated “I don’t know. I mean I don’t know where to begin.”

Jaoll knew she had Shaus, she called out loudly. “Shaus will need volunteers.” She turned to Shaus as almost every adult and many of the farlings raised their hands and called out their willingness. “Shaus the task is yours I suggest you select a small team at first to figure out how to kill dragons. You can train the hunting team once you know how.”

Shaus nodded her agreement. “For now.” Jaoll continued. “We need birthing farles and juveniles to focus on food production and the adults to build. It is going to take a long time so we need to get organised.”

“Stroul. You will lead the builders.” Jaoll commanded. No-one challenged her.

Deion hobbled over. She took hold of Shaus hand pulling her to Jaoll as she waved Stroul over. “Now you three.” She commanded. “You have to work together and I know just where we are going to build our new home.”

She lead them outside moving surprisingly quickly for one so old. Jaoll, Shaus and Stroul had to hurry to keep up. After a long walk following the stream that ran through their lands they came to a water fall. She pointed, off the the side was a crease in the rock face forming a partially enclosed area. It had been where the river and its waterfall had been until some event had changed to course of the river to its current path.

“You see we have water, and we can build our defensive wall across here.” The three leaders looked at where she pointed. It was quite a large area surrounded almost three quarter of the way around with steep cliffs. “We can mount lookouts on the top to warn us of dragons approach. We can then herd the livestock to safety and mount our defences against them.”

Shaus looked up at the cliffs. “We can attack the dragons from up there as well. We have plenty of water to put out their fire.” She went quiet as she tried to imagine how this might occur.

Suddenly a dark shadow passed over head. They looked up as they fell to the ground. The beast was huge. It’s scaly body gliding overhead on its outstretched wings. Its underside was pale pink marking as a juvenile. Dangerous still but no old enough to produce fire. It had to bank to avoid crashing into the cliff face as it peeled away Shaus noticed that Jaoll had pulled her bow from her should and had an arrow ready to fire.

The gesture was instinctive but, unless incredibly lucky, unlikely to do much hard. Shaus though was transfixed as an idea began to form in her mind. ‘What if we mounted big bows up there on the cliff perhaps we could penetrate their hides.’ She wondered. ‘Perhaps Jaoll was right to give her \the task.’

The dragon whirled around circling back and landing on the the flattish land a little further away it started to make its way up the slope toward them. That set them sprinting, it might not breathe fire but it had very sharp teeth and long talons. Deion lagged behind until the other farles got either side of her running, they made it to the base of the cliff. There they found a small crevice with just enough room to squeeze in.

The young dragon clawed at the opening but its paw was too big. It tried to bite the rock away but made very little impression. It breathe was very warm so it wouldn’t’t be long and it would be able to produce fire. It persisted with its task as the sun started to set. This made the situation even more scary because now they could see the fire glow in its eyes.

Eventually it left them taking off to fly back to its roust. The four darlings scrambled out of the crevice to a host of groans as they stretched out muscle held still for so long. Jaoll worried “I think we are not going to make it back to the camp.” At night farles eyesight is poor, you never knew what nocturnal hunters was out. Deion reached into her pouch pulling out a small orb and a little bottle. She removed the stoppers and poured the liquid of the bottle into the orb before closing the lids on both. After a few moment the orb began to glow and the glow became brighter until it produced a circle of light around them. “Now we will be able to see our way home.” she declared.

That was the beginning of how our community dealt with the dragon menace. We did build our fortification just where Deion suggested and Shaus designed a range of defensive structures up the cliff face. Stroul arranged workers to carve out the home. Caverns were hewn high on the face with slot windows behind into which Staus built huge bows that could propel spears hard enough to puncture the dragon’s tough scaly hide. Teams of hunters practiced shooting and reloading these huge bows. The spears were lightly painted so the practice shots could be easily found.

Several large caverns have been dug at the base of the cliff. Over time the sounding of the alarm horn has trained our livestock sending them running for these shelters. At the centre of the enclosed area secure inside the cliff is our home. Outside the perimeter wall we grow our food. It is rare these days that the dragons incinerate our crops as they are driven away.

I’m Frostum and I’m a dragon hunter. I’ve been trained since I was very young. I am partnered with Joyis who is our carrier and Frida who is our birther. I’m a good hunter but the dragons are smart. At first we were very clumsy and suffered losses but we learned, so that most of our spears found their mark and the dragons were driven off to lick their wounds. Lately however they have changed their tactics. No longer diving on us spewing fire, they have taken to dropping large rocks from very high onto our fortifications. They fly out of the sun diving to release the boulder and flying away before they come into range of our spear bows. There is almost no warning as the rocks fall silently striking anything in their path.

The hunters have gather to discuss how to deal with this latest threat. Jasswan is speaking. “The dragons are practicing. At first the projectiles were somewhat random doing damage where-ever they fell. But now its seems they are targeting our spear bows. One hit one of the shot slots this morning.”

“It held.” I observed.

“Yes but it showered the interior with shards of stone. Unfortunately catching Noull in the eye.” Jasswan answered. This caused a ripple of conversation through he group.

I remained silent while thinking. I shrilled for their attention “Jaoll our ancestor charged Shaus with forming the hunters. She did a good job and we have defended our home well. I think it is time we went out hunting these dragons.” I suggested. “We need to search for their lair and take the fight to them. Otherwise it will only be a matter of time before they break through.”

Jasswan responded. “You need to lead the mission.” he suggested “In the mean time we need to improve our spotting and our defensive range.