Fiction logo

now we fly

Change is the only constant

By Peter RosePublished 2 years ago 20 min read
Like

Now we fly

Change is the only constant.

Chapter 1

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. For many years we had lived without the mess and noise they constantly create. We had always known they lived in the high mountains, places that sane people never attempted to visit, but then only ten years ago, one landed in our village main square. We did not know at the time, but it was a female and was looking for a place to birth her young. She had left it too late to reach the mountain top her kind usually went to. Most of the village people reacted with fear, some even left to settle further away; one family even left the Valley altogether and sought shelter in the great plains, that vast open space when no shadows formed. How you could seek shelter in a place with no trees, no hills, nothing to give shelter; was beyond me but it shows the level of fear the dragon caused. Our chieftain sent messages to other villages in the Valley while we younger people started to show we were not afraid of a dragon. Actually, I am sure the rest were as afraid as I was, but we were all more afraid of showing fear, than of the beast itself. Getting near to the square we took in the wonderful colours that radiated from her scales, she lay quietly just gently breathing, with her wings folded over her back and her powerful rear legs curled up under her belly. Her neck was telescoped into her body and that fantastic head just rested on the ground, her eyes never closed but she showed no aggression and just lay silently at rest. I had never left the Valley, never even explored the smaller valleys where other villages had been built; I had been taught about how other groups lived in other valleys but ours was the first, the best and so always “the Valley.” My life was to change on the day the dragon landed.

I walked slowly to that wonderful head and called up every bit of courage to reach up and touch her, despite the scales being as thick as the steel armour forged in the valley of fire and smoke; she felt my touch and turned one eye to look at me. I was obviously no threat since she made no effort to crush or flame me. Even curled up at rest it was twice my hight to her back and she was fully six times my hight, in length. I was later to find that when in flight with her neck and tail extended, she was twice as long as this. The smell of sulphur and burnt flesh was faint but noticeable. Her colour seemed to change with the movement of the wind, one moment dull and green the next gold and shining bright. I had always been told that dragon heads were different colours from the rest of the body, but this was untrue, it was one of those tales told by people who had never seen a dragon. She uttered a strange growling sound, one that rumbled up from deep inside her to emerge as a sound deeper than any lion’s purr. I had lost my fear, I do not know why, even to this day I cannot explain the reason I never felt afraid of these creatures. I saw that her body was rippling with something that moved inside of her. At the base of her curled up tail, an opening appeared, closed, and appeared again. Slowly a baby dragon, an exact miniature of her, emerged. I had helped with the birth of horses and an instinct gained from doing this took over; an instinct that was to change my life and all of our lives, in an instant. I picked up the baby and carried it to the mother’s head. She nuzzled the tiny creature and disgorged a foul-smelling mess that the baby instantly gobbled up.

As with a horse, that first moment of birth, was the one where I picked up the baby and was thus ever considered to be its master. A fallacy because just as with a horse, the dragon was always more powerful than I could ever be, but my scent was associated with the ability to lift it up and so it tolerated me as if I was as powerful as he was. In fact, within a week he could flatten me with one wing and weighed ten times my ability to lift. The growth was fantastic by any measure I had at that time. I asked my chieftain “what do dragons eat?” He consulted the elders and replied, “flesh, raw and fresh” In the Valley we did not live, as I was to find out, exactly the same as others lived. Our chieftain was head of the village, children were brought up in the village house, taken there the day after birth, then cared for until 10 summers had passed, by the wives of the chieftain. After those 10 summers the children were sent to learn the skills needed to survive. I had been sent to learn the hunting, this was some five summers ago and now I was as strong and skilled as anyone. While a child I had formed friendship with others my age but never knew who sired or who birthed me. We were a community all as one. We lived without any boundary of relationships, we roamed about watching and learning from all the elders. Only the hunters, which included me, ever strayed beyond the fields we cultivated. May be saying we cultivated is wrong, only those trained to the growing, did the cultivation, but we all walked the fields and we all Prayed to the Gods of the growing. I took it on myself to hunt for food for the dragon and the baby. I still filled the needs of the village with my share of prey, but I spent extra hours on my own hunting the wild goats and hares, to feed our newly arrived “guests”. Because I was the one bringing them food, I was the only one they seemed to welcome close by. Even the baby would hiss at all the others. The mother only had to raise her head to send everyone scurrying away. I talked to the elders, and they agreed I should name both the dragons and I remembered the stories we were told as infants and named the mother as “Frigg” and the son “Baldr”

After the passing of two full moons Frig started to stretch her wings, her tail and that graceful neck and she stopped eating the food I brought her in order to discharge the mess Baldr eat. Now she pushed the raw meat to him and let him work out what to do with it. At this time, I also became brave enough to climb onto his back and reach out to scratch the back of his head. He was pale golden colour all over and this stayed his colour, I later in life found that only the females changed colour the males stayed golden all the time, some a deep reddish gold, others like Baldr a light almost white gold. I found that if I could wriggle up his back to the base of his neck; I could both sit comfortably and hold onto the horn like protrusions from the base of his wings. I sat in this position several times each day, during breaks in my hunting duties, he accepted me so easily it was amazing, even Frigg took no notice when I climbed onto her son. After a week or so he started to walk about the village square, and I was able to stay on his back while he did this. His appetite was incredible, he would eat more than his mother. The rest of the villages became even more wary while I became even more attached to the pair of them.

The seasons moved as they always do and time passed, Frigg started to fly off to the mountains and I assumed she hunted her own food since she sometimes returned with a goat in between the 3 rows of teeth, that lined both upper and lower jaws, she would drop this carcass in front of Baldr and watch as he consumed every bit of it. Dragons eat everything ,skin, bones, fur, hide, whatever, they eat the lot and yet only seem to shit dry hard pellets, each the size of a water bucket. Which made looking after the village square easier than it might have been. I became so used the smell and to carting these pellets to the growing area, that it became unconscious, and I was surprised if others remarked on it. Every time Frigg launched herself into the air Baldr would stretch his wings and look up to her as she spiralled into the sky. If I noticed in time I would climb up to his back just before Frigg leapt into the air and so I gained confidence I could remain seated while he exercised his growing wings. After around four weeks of this Baldr actually became airborne, with me on his back. I had no control of where we went but remained in place even during a bumpy landing. Each day when Frigg flew away to hunt Baldr and I would start to follow her, but she soon left us way behind and Baldr would turn back to land again in the village. Another three weeks passed and Baldr and I flew higher and further each day. I carried my hunting bow, and we would land in the mountains, and I would kill a goat and drag it back to where Baldr waited. He would eat and we would fly back to the village. The day came when Frigg did not return with us, but Baldr never seemed to even notice. Each day he grew larger, and I rode his back to the hunting grounds where he would eat the first of the prey that I killed; then waited as I shot more goats or hares and we carried them back to feed the village.

Baldr grew at a fantastic rate. Winter came but we could still fly and hunt and so still feed the village, but people still feared the dragon, they wanted him gone despite his help in providing food. I had gradually found how to gain his consent to being steered and so we would return to the square drop the results of our hunt and then fly to the mouth of the Valley where I built myself a hut and he found a sheltered spot to sleep in. It was at this time that he first fired up that dreaded dragon breath, I was sure the first time was an accident, he belched, and the methane rich gas ignited. He seemed as surprised as I was, but he soon learned to control this. My new home was two hours walk from the rest of my people but only took a minute or two for us to fly there. A couple of boys and one of the girls of my own age and from the group who were taught together; used to come to visit and they gradually lost their fear of Baldr, and he lost his distrust of them. They even climbed up behind me for trips around the mountains. As winter grew harder, we flew further to find game. I had never been out of the Valley before and I lost myself in the marvels of how big the mountains and other valleys were. As the time passed and Baldr grew stronger, we flew higher over the nearest mountains and over the local valleys. We crossed the start of the plains and saw other village settlements but never sighted another dragon, not even one glimpse. The chieftain asked me to try and draw what I could see, make him a map showing where other valleys were and where the Valley ended at the plains. While winter in the Valley had just about ended the usual hunting on foot myself and Baldr roamed over the land and found food for him and the village in the herds of creatures that lived on the plains. On foot no hunter could even hope to get close enough to kill one of these and even if they did how do you carry such a burden ten days march back to home? Baldr and I did the journey in an hour and the weight was never a concern to the dragon. The chieftain grew to expect myself and Baldr to keep the people fed but the people never lost their fear, they thought I was part dragon since I could fly. My name became Dragonflyer and so it remains to this day.

Baldr was now full grown, slightly smaller than his mother and a different colour but still massive compared to we people of the valleys. He was bigger than the great beasts of the plains, even the great shaggy grass eating beasts who roamed from water place to water place all year long. Each one was ten times the size of a goat and 5 times the size of the creatures we now hunted. The Valley did not have a name for these new food supply and the chieftain and elders decided they should be named osslers; the great shaggy beast dwarfed even these osslers. One of these shaggy beasts would have fed the village for a week but my arrows could not penetrate the hide and our valley had never hunted them, although on my explorations on Baldr I did witness and extraordinary thing. From high up above them, way too high for them to even notice us, I saw a group of about 20 people who looked just like we do but were dressing in hide, no fur to keep them warm just hide. I watched as they slowly came up to a herd of the shaggy beasts, they kept down wind of them and crept so very slowly closer and closer. When they got close to the last beast in the herd, one ran close to it and as the beast looked up he swung a loop of rope round its front legs and all of them rushed to haul on the rope tripping the beast over. It made sauch a roar I could hear the sound from way above. The rest of the herd did not react at all, just went on munching the tough plains grass. The hunters swarmed over the beast and risked injuries by dashing in between the threshing legs to stab at the underbelly with spears. Baldr circled so I could watch, eventually the beast died. It looked as if two of the hunters had also been crushed to death. The hunters then signalled and four more arrived but this time they had an ossler covered in ropes, it was tied to the dead beast and dragged away the two dead hunters were left where they fell.

When I reported to the chieftain, he became excited and called a full council of elders. As a youth I had not known how limited our knowledge of the world beyond the Valley was. My report was the first evidence that the old stories about people living outside of the valley’s, were actually true. Our only records were in the heads of the elders, and these sometimes contradicted each other. One reported that these plains people were savages who killed valley people on sight; while another reported that the plains people were descended from valley people who were driven from the valleys a long time in the past. Why or what drove them out, no one knew; some even thought they were not people as we understand but were a type of animal with only two legs. I was ordered to find out more. I was young and part of me reacted against an order to do something that would show the chieftain and elders were in control of both Baldr and myself, another part of me was wanting to find out for myself who or what these plains people were. This was an internal conflict that I have felt many times over the years. We flew to the Valley mouth. The start of the plain. The tracks left by the village family who had fled when Frigg first landed, had long gone but they would not have walked far with just two horses to carry all their possessions. We circled over the area I would have expected them to reach. No sign of a fire burning to cook with, no sign of anything at first, then I noticed an area where the plains grass was shorter than the surroundings. Baldr reluctantly landed and I set off on foot. Baldr immediately took off again, circling over me. Within a short movement of the sky sun, I found a derelict building, one that looked as if abandoned before even being finished. The kitchen cooking pots were there, still piled up in a corner. The axe lay under a pile of dried plains grass, the bones of the two horses were just visible through new growth of grass, which was covering everything. I searched for some time and found clothes, the same as all our people wore, but no bones of humans, no other sign they had been here. They would not have moved while naked and would not have gone leaving the horses, or the building unfinished. Nothing had been burnt or cut down. The horses had not been butchered to allow the meat to be cooked and eaten, the bones did not have teeth marks of wild animals. I took the axe, such a valuable tool to us, then Baldr and I flew over the area again but saw no sign of any life other than the harsh and tough grass. Why were there horse bones but no people bones? Why had the clothes and the axe been left but the people gone? These mysteries I decided to leave to the elders.

A council of elders was called, and I reported what I had observed. I had mixed emotions at that council, part pride that one so young as myself has being listened to by all the elders but another part was frustrated by the endless talking about the past when all that matters is the future. After two days of going round in circles I took it upon myself to declare that I would go back to the plains and try to find where the hunters I had seen, lived and then observe their customs. I did not even wait to have agreement; this was something that was later to cause conflict between Dragon flyers and the elders. Baldr and I flew further into the plains than ever before. Even at the speed we flew it was near the darkness when we saw a settlement. At first, I could not understand how it was formed. There did not seem to be any defensive fence but the whole village was built on a platform of stones, I was later to see these stones where bonded to each other to make a solid platform. The dwellings were grass, simple structures not intended to last long. I thought the stone platform was to prevent a cooking fire burning the whole of the plains, but I was wrong. Baldr and I flew past this settlement towards the settling of the darkness, I wanted to land and make a simple camp but Baldr was strangely unwilling to land and we flew on until it was almost too dark to see anything but just before we had to stop we found a rocky outcrop, later I was to realise this was where the plains people got the stone to build their platforms, why they did not just live on the rocks I never found out, seems some God forbade it, but no one ever explained it. Baldr and I settled and rested, sleep came easy.

As the light returned, we eat from supplies we had carried, then flew back to the plain people’s settlement, this time flying low so they could see our approach; they scattered clearly terrified as we got closer, I did not want to destroy their grass huts and so we landed beyond the stone platform Baldr was again reluctant to land and fired the grass to make a clearing before he would settle. This was a new trick to me, and I was as stunned as the plains people. The wind created by his wings as he landed, beat out the fires he had started, and he settled on the burnt and baked hard surface. I climbed down and walked to the settlement. At first, they all hid behind the grass huts then as I just stood still on their platform but made no move to harm anything; they sent out their chief hunter to greet me. Although his voice had a strange slow deep sound, I could understand his words and he understood mine. We sat to talk and from him I learnt about the plains worms. Creatures twice the size of people. These strange creatures lived underground, had no teeth but used a type of acid generated in their gut to dissolve flesh which then then sucked away from bones, but this acid did not work on clothes. Which got left to dry out. The valley people who died had their bones removed by the plains people who did not use metal and did not see the axe. They did revere bones of other people and ground them into flour. The dead hunters were treated the same their bodies left to the worms and then after time for the acid to dry on their clothes, these and bones were taken back to their own settlement. I then realise the Baldr must know about the worms, and this is why he was reluctant to land and then he had worked out that if he baked the ground it would act like the stone platform the village was built on. I was slowly realising that Baldr was not a tame animal but was thinking and knowledgeable, as the years have passed, I have learnt that he is capable of so much more than I ever imagined in those early days.

Chapter 2

Save the plains people from worms Baldr flame pathways of baked earth for them

As Baldr grew stronger we journey to the high mountains and saw other females settling ready to birth their young. WE flew back and brought Tina- who was to become dragonflyerT and Joseph who was to become DragonflyerJ Other dragon babies bonded with riders at birth (by picking up the new-born) so in that first year we have 3 airborne villagers Over the following years this grew to be a flight of 10. As years pass we became more powerful ruling over not just the Valley but over other valleys then over the plains. After many adventures and fights we ruled all our world and turned our eyes to the beyond

Other animals in the Valley

What is beyond the valleys and plains--- set scene for other chapters

Other dragons from the mountains

Conflict with people from beyond the water

Gods and goddesses worshiped by the valley people.

Use steel for amour, the steel forged in the natural fires that burn deep in the caves under the mountains. In the Valley of fire and smoke

Describe the valley people describe plains people describe people from beyond the water

Fantasy
Like

About the Creator

Peter Rose

Collections of "my" vocal essays with additions, are available as printed books ASIN 197680615 and 1980878536 also some fictional works and some e books available at Amazon;-

amazon.com/author/healthandfunpeterrose

.

Reader insights

Nice work

Very well written. Keep up the good work!

Top insight

  1. Excellent storytelling

    Original narrative & well developed characters

Add your insights

Comments (1)

Sign in to comment
  • Dennis Fletcher a.k.a. Dragon Speak2 years ago

    Very good story.

Find us on social media

Miscellaneous links

  • Explore
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Support

© 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.