Night of the Shrouded Curse

There weren't always dragons in the Valley.

There weren't always dragon tamers riders, or Magik Users either.

In Eldpriire, it was usual to see werepeople, vampires, and the other "freaky" outsiders. However, there were no dragons. In Eldpriire, if you heard of a dragon, it was likely a rumor. You were born here in the Valley, and you died here in the Valley. It was like there was some curse on us. People couldn't leave, and the only people that could come in was one seemingly every few weeks, maybe once a month, and it was to die.

I wholly believed there was a curse placed on us by a witch. My parents both called me crazy for listening to the rumor going around town. According to them, the witch didn't exist, and since the witch didn't exist, neither did the curse.

"I'm not the only one who believes Old Lady Aurel!" I shout at them, running around, with my arms outstretched.

"Fynn!" My father barks at me, "Be careful! You almost knocked over your mother's chrysanthemums."

Oops. I think to myself, giggling.

"Go Outside if you're going to do shit like that, but make sure you're back before Curfew!"

Rolling my eyes, I leave the downtrodden hut, jumping down the stairs. My paws hit the pavement, and I start sprinting.

I may have been only 11, but I didn't understand why my parents were together. He was a jerk. He treated her, and me and my four siblings, like dirt. He always yelled at me and the others, and picked on the youngest of us, Lucy, the most, because she was small. She was the runt of the litter. I was in between Lucy and the Twins, Jasmine and Jaxon.

Arriving at the edge of the town, I get to where the "force field" is. There isn't anything actually there, but if you get up to a certain point, you just get forced back. That happens to everyone, except for those of us under the age of 18.

I step through the force field and into the "Outside" as we all called it. I slow to a stop, breathe in the fresh air from the valley, and enjoy looking at all the trees that surrounded it from all sides. This was so much nicer than being stuffed in that falling apart hut.

Taking off sprinting again, my paws took me towards a section of the woods, which is my favorite. It has a small clearing, with a small little pond and the freshest water. The absolute best place to take a nap and just not exist for a few hours.

After sprinting nonstop for several minutes, I reach the edge of the clearing. I slow down and walk to the pond. I kneel and cup my hands into the water. I bring it to my face and sip at the clear liquid.

This pond always stayed clean, clear, cold, and refreshing. Us kids never understood why, but it always was. No matter how many times we came here. And it always stayed at the same level of water. We could even swim in it covered in mud, and we could watch it become clear again. We understood that Magik was afoot, but we didn't understand why.

Once I fill my belly with water, I lay parallel to the edge, hands behind my head, looking up at the sky. The sun feels nice on my fur, and I find myself closing my eyes.

I don't know how long I was asleep, but some time later, I feel someone shaking me.

"--up! The force field will close soon!"

I open my eyes groggily, and I see Lucy, my sister, on top of me. "Lucy? What?'

"The force field will close soon!

"Let it." I say shrugging.

She crawls off of me and gets to her feet. "You know the force field won't let that happen!"

I get to my feet with a sigh, and I take her small hand in mine. "You're right, let's go.

Her hand fidgets in my grasp as we start walking towards the force field. We walk for a while, in silence, her hand fidgeting getting worse. We're about halfway there

"We're not going to make it, Fynn! We have to run!"

"You run! We both know that if I run, I'll leave you behind!"

She started running at her full sprint, and when I could no longer hear her, I started up a slow jog.

But then--

A large crack that shakes the ground knocks me to my feet. I'm immediately able to get to my feet, and I start looking around wildly. The ground looks fine, but there is a smell of burnt something in the air, but I can't put my finger on what it smells like.

"Lucy?" I yell out.

"Fynn!" I faintly hear her call out. I start running towards her voice.

"Are you okay?"

"What was that?"

"I don't know, but are you okay?"

Yes, I’m okay!” Her voice was getting louder fast.

A few more strides later, she enters my vision.

"Oh, thank goodness." I sigh in relief and pull her into a hug.

We stay like that for a few moments when--

Gong. Gong. Gong.

"Curfew..." she whispers.

We both anticipated to be pulled by the force field, as it always happened when Curfew hit, but so far nothing.

We continued walking, both of us giving the other looks of confusion. We were silent the rest of the way back to the force field, and when we got there, we were surprised to see that there were others, a few older than 18, outside it, there was a large crack down it, and there were others still on the inside. Everyone was looking as confused as we were.

"Look there's Lucy and Fynn!" Our mother, who was still inside, shouted, pointing as us.

Our siblings ran over to us. "You guys didn't get Pulled?"

"No." Lucy shook her head.

One of the towns elders came over, hearing that. "Children not being Pulled at Curfew, a large crack of something that destroys part of the force field..... Times sure are changing..." A cryptic smile played across his face as he looked at me and Lucy, and then he slowly walked away.