Seafarers vs Dragons 2

My tower towered over most of the kingdom. The people would have to be accepted into the palace first. Then they could take the many steps the circled around the tower. Once at the top you entered into a beautiful balcony with two ornate columns holding up an intricately decorated roof. The roof then attaches to a room with big wide wooden doors that were almost always open. You would enter to seem me laying on my hoard of treasures. Catered too by all manner of servants. And when the offering window closed and I was left with only my attendants I would step out onto the balcony and measure my wingspan with the columns and stare out onto the kingdom, and listen to the never-ending sound of the human society growing. There is now only silence.

I stretched my wings as far as they could go as the tips brushed the columns. I guess this is as much as I could grow here. To my left was the crumbling tower, where the human king of this island once lived. Though I suspect they purposely built my view with the intended design to have the king’s presence seem inescapable, but mine was clearly better decorated and made with more care. Though now the king’s tower had the added design choice of scorch marks and broken windows. Even a big hole or two. Below the debris filled palace courtyard leading to the broken palace gate. Then merchant’s houses just beyond the gates of the palace. The ones made of clay and stone somewhat still standing. The ones made of wood have burned down. After that is the abandoned bazar. And on the edge before the forest are the burned down huts of the common folk.

After running all the humans out of the kingdom, I spent the majority my time cleaning up the Bazar. I didn’t want all the food to spoil and smell. A year later and there are still too many unfound smells, broken crate, and dismantled shops. I have given up trying to bring back any sort of order to this destruction. Now I spend most of my days sleeping on my hoard. Day dreaming of servants bringing delicacies to eat and offerings to keep, but then I open my eyes to an empty kingdom. Had I truly grown as big as I could here? What was Bororailus thinking when he commanded us to drive the humans out to sea?

Movement suddenly caught my interest. On the horizon I could see what looked like a flying M in the sky. As this shape grew closer it passed by one of the two small villages of this island and as it did so a figure rose into the sky from that village and joined the small figure on its approach. As he passed the second village another figure rose up, at this point I could see that it was Gorung, one of the Dragon Kings Generals. Joined by vite and vex of the two villages. A thought protruded as I awaited the trio. “I could have grown bigger and stronger if those villages didn’t have to give their offerings to those two. I flapped this thought away as Gorung sailed in for a landing. His wings contracting so he can fluidly make it in with the tip of his wings brushing past the columns of the opening. Vite and vex’s wings fully outstretched would still be a quarter off from touching the columns.

Gorung was like a mirror opposite to me. He was top heavy. He looked like a bull frog in the front with his big teethy mouth and short neck extending into big powerful arms. He had sharp horns coming out of his elbows and forearms. From the back of his shoulders two massive wings jutted out, and then his body slimed into thinner hind legs and a short tail. In contrast I have a longer face like that of a crocodile. My horns coming out of the top of my head and bending around my ears to point forward. My long neck and mor slender arms lead to stronger hind legs and a long tail that starts as thick as a tree trunk. Vex and Vite both had snout like faces, but Vex had a long torso and Vite was round. To humans I could imagine them looking big and scary, but next to me and Gorung they might as well be a noodle and a ball.

“Thank you for hosting Corizaux.” Gorung said with a deep and throaty voice while looking around at the ruins.

“Yes, thank you though it only makes sense since you ended up with the kingdom.” Vite said with an undisguised measure of malice. And vex just nodded along with Vite.

“Yes well, I’m sure Vex and Vite will agree with me that it is an honor to host one of the kings Generals in our island.” I said cautiously.

“I would have expected the place to be more in order.” Gorung said as he walked past me and into my chamber. “Though it seems you gathered up a good bit of wealth for yourself.”

“Our areas are in much better order. Ready for anything Bororailus could want--”

“Your majesty or our king. Don’t be so forward with our ruler’s name.” Gorung said pressing his face right in front of vite. The first time he had faced any of us since he landed. The glow of green flames shining through his teeth as if he were a second away from leaving a Vite sized scorch mark on my floor.

“Well, it has been difficult looking over such a wide area given that I no longer have any servants, but I wasn’t aware that our king required us to keep the place tidy. We have done as was asked of us and kept the humans out when they attempt to return. As far as I know that is all that was asked.” I said pushing myself in between them and forcing him to face me.

“He will need it now.” He moved his hand under one of his wings and I noticed he had a leather bag wrapped around his waist. He pulled from it three papers and handed them out. They seemed to be blueprints for a sort of live stock housing. Once again, I was receiving orders I didn’t understand.

“What is the purpose of this?” I asked.

“Everything the king orders us to do is for the purpose of increasing the strength and growth of all dragons.”

“I’m going to need a little more information than that. I mean I still haven’t gotten an explanation for the last order. And by the way this would have been easier to build before we drove all the humans away.”

“You think the humans would have built their own cages?”

“Is that what this is? Well for the record it’s been my experience that, yes. We probably could have convinced them to build their own cages.” This made Gorung break into laughter. Which broke my concentration. As scary as he was angry, he was equally unsettling as he laughed.

“The humans worshipped us because they thought we provided them with prosperity, but the last few years there have been dry fishing seasons and food shortages. It was only a matter of time before they saw us for what we really were. A drain on their resources and not the fountain of fortune they had hoped. Do not mistake your invulnerability for immortality. Given enough time and the proper motivation humans could figure out how to kill us.”

“Ah, so that’s why the orders were to only kill if absolutely necessary. You wanted to drive out the humans but keep them alive so we could capture them later.”

“As I said, everything the king orders us to do is for our benefit. Now some kingdoms are much larger than this one and some villages are smaller than yours so the king has allotted 10 years for construction as you will have to do it on your own. If you finish early relax until the time is up. If you need help send word. That is all I needed to pass on.” After he was done Gorung walked past me with out looking at me and took off without looking back. Vite and vex were both still petrified holding on to their blue prints.

“Get out!!” I yelled and shot a few fire balls past their heads for good measure. Breaking them from their trance and hurrying them along.

For the next few weeks, I tried clearing out a space in the old bazar where this prison was supposed to go. I gathered what supplies I could repurpose from the nearby clutter, but I sat staring at the space incapable of starting. The directions on the blue print were extensive and took into account the type of resources we were likely to have. They were so simple even Vite and Vex could follow them, but still for 3 weeks I stared at the space without moving. To a dragon weeks or years are fairly meaningless due to how long our lives can be but those three weeks felt like an eternity.

Then one day when I had finally gathered up the tools to start, I saw smoke coming from my coastline. I had been too busy not starting this project perhaps I’ve been negligent on my patrol duties. I took to the air happy to have a distraction and took off toward the smoke. When I arrived at the coast, I saw a shattered boat the looked as though something lifted it in the air high up and dropped it down. And the charred remains of two humans. I felt the burn in my belly as fire flowed out of the side of my mouth in rhythm to my breathing. Those two little garden snakes have been hunting in my territory.

Suddenly I heard a scream from in the forest. I propelled my self forward with a flap of my wings. Breaking down trees on my way and I saw before me Vite cornering a small human child. Vex was on the other side helping to flank the helpless 10-year-old. I maneuvered my wings to whip my body around as I got to them so that I could smack Vite away bouncing him across a few trees. Vex went for the child and I bit down engulfing his whole head in my mouth. He tried shooting his pitiful fire down my throat, but I bit down and whipped him against a few trees. As Vite tried to come back I used Vex to whip him in the direction of their territory, and then I spat him out.

“Why are you defending this human?’ vex said in a shrill voice

“I’m not protecting a human. Im getting all intruders out of my territory!!” and as I yelled the last word a let a giant streak of blue flames erupt out above the trees and over their heads. At this the duo turned and fled. I felt a jab at my hind legs and I turned around to face this small black haired. tan skinned child holding a little dagger. The wound had already healed. I saw the whole story in his teary eyes. They broke his families boat toyed with them and killed his parents in front of him. There was no need for any of that. Our orders are to chase them away. Only kill if absolutely necessary. And now I looked at this child who couldn’t in any way shape or form leave my island and felt the weight of the words absolutely necessary hanging across my neck.

“I’ll kill you for what you did to my parents.” The boy tried to steady himself. I reach forward letting his dagger pierce my hand and I pulled it out of his hands. I grabbed him by the fabric of his shirt and propped him up on one of the broken tree trunks so he would dangle incapable of escaping. I then pulled the dagger from my hand letting him see how quickly my hand healed and for added fun I swallowed the dagger whole.

“For starters I didn’t do anything to your parents. Secondly, I hope you understand now that I could lay here motionlessly for months letting you and your dagger do your worst and still be fine at the end of it all. And lastly, I need you to sit there quietly while I try to figure out what I’m going to do as you are trespassing on my island.” as I said this Gorung’s words echoed in my head. “If given enough time…” I stared at the child for a moment. Another task I couldn’t begin. And then an idea began forming in my head.

“Hey boy, how are you at building?” the child looked at me through tears, confusion starting to set in. “if I were to give you tools and supplies would you be able to repair your ship and sail back to where ever you came from?” at the mention of where he came from, he burst into tears. As if he could no longer hold himself together. I pulled him down from the tree and lay down next to where I set him down. “it’s ok kid. Let it all out. I have plenty of time.”

He cried for hours until he cried himself to sleep. When it started raining, I shielded him with my wings and when I woke up. He was sleeping under my wings and holding onto my arm. Though when he awoke, he immediately pushed my arm away and scowled at me.

I found out his name was Freddy and that while he had seen his father do some of the repairs on the ship and had learned some basic sailing. He was nowhere skilled enough to rebuild the whole boat. So, I offered him a deal. I would teach him how to build by having him build the prison and when he completed it, I would provide him with the materials needed to build himself a boat that he could sail to where he came from. He only asked for two amendments to the deal. That I help him bury his parents, and that every night he gets a chance to try and kill me. Which all seemed fair to me.

Progress the first few months was very slow. He would end each night so tired that he didn’t even have the energy to fight me. But gradually his body grew stronger. And he became faster and craftier with the constructions. Skills that sadly translated into his fighting. Dragons are invulnerable which means no mater what damage he did to me my scales would reflect or my body would almost instantly heal. No human has ever killed a dragon. This however did not stop it all from hurting.

When I started the deal, I thought well a few months of a kid trying his best couldn’t hurt too much, but by the third year I was starting to get tired of all the pain. And with him learning how to build bars for the prison came the added pain of him learning how to craft a sword with which to use. Finally, 5 years later and construction of the human prison was complete. Often when he got a particularly painful blow in and I felt a surge of anger. I would remind myself that I was making him build prisons for humans like him. And then I felt like maybe the pain wasn’t enough.

The first day of boat building we learned that the building prison skills didn’t exactly translate. His first attempt crumpled in the oceans and he was nearly swept away by the current. I pulled him out drenched and coughing up water.

“Ok, you saved my life and im exhausted. So, I guess there wont be a fight tonight.” He said catching his breath.

“What do you mean? Of course, there won’t be a fight tonight. Our deal was you can fight me once a day while you build my building. Then I give you the boat supplies and you leave. It’s not my fault you built a bad boat. You can keep at it till you figure the boat thing out but our fights are over.” I said.

“Oh, come on Cor, don’t be like that. You got to let me avenge my parent’s deaths.”

“You know I don’t like that joke, and that I didn’t kill your parents.”

“Fine, you’re right. When I build my boat I should go find the disgusting duo and really avenge my parents deaths.”

“No!” I grabbed him with my tail and pulled him to face me. “You cannot attack those two. They would kill you and realize that I let you live here for years, then they would have the dragon king and all of his general enact retribution on me.” I tried to impress upon him the gravity of the situation but he had grown too accustomed to being around me. He just pushed my tail of himself and gave me that sly smirk he always gives when he thinks he has everything figured out.

“Please you’re a dragon they can’t kill you. Trust me I have tried.”

“No, maybe they can’t kill me, but they are bigger and outnumber me. They can capture me and even if I survive what they do to me. I can still feel pain.” This wiped the smirk off his face. It was as if in all these years he had never realized that one fact.

After that he focused on perfecting his boat design. And since we weren’t fighting every night. We invented other games instead. Some he remembered from his childhood and other we just made up. After several months I started to feel a strange pressure around my heart, but it was slight and I didn’t think there would be anything for me to worry about. One night Freddy latest test was successful. We had a celebratory dinner. We were to go to sleep and then he would be off in the morning. As I lay down he went to where his parents were buried. He said he just wanted some final moments with them before tomorrow, but when I awoke, he wasn’t back.

I checked the grave site and the ship and he wasn’t there either. I had a bad feeling that I knew where he had gone. I rushed up and over to the first village and I saw a trail of blood that ended abruptly I knew Vex had taken him to Vite. I rushed up to head toward Vites village when I saw them on my balcony. Vite was dangling Freddy waiting for me to notice. When his eyes caught mine, he let freddy go. I rushed toward him at top speed memories of the first day we met flashing in my head. I caught him just before he hit the ground.

“Sorry, I had to try, but the other one has gone to get the king. We should go!” he yelled through tears. Reminding me of the boy from so long ago. I put him down and checked him. minor wounds.

“Go! Get to the boat and sail away. I’ll hold them off.”

“I’m sorry Cor.”

“Just go!” he ran toward the coastline and I shot out to confront Vite. In front of my balcony, he had already started to sift through my hoard as if it was already his. He even seemed a little bigger. But he had no idea about the depth of my rage. I lunged at him grabbing his face in my hand and full force slamming him against the wall and I tossed him aside.

“Vex left yesterday night. The King will be here any minute.” As he said this he tried his strongest stream of fire but I burnt over his flames and through him. He lay on the ground not dead, but healing from the massive amount of fire. And as I looked at him I felt a cold thick hand grab my neck and pull me out of the balcony. His hand was enormous his thumb on my throat it had stretched out to me and then reeled right back to his body. I had seen before how big his body could get but he was able to adjust the build of his body. His scales were pale white he had one horn on his forehead and he currently had long slender legs and one long slender arm and the other was currently holding the top half of my body in the palm of his hand. In his slender hand he let the fingers grow long and sharp.

“Have you heard the phrase a dragon is only as string as his hoard?” he said in a clear and almost emotionless voice. To his left was Gorung and Vex to his right.

“I’m letting Gorung split your hoard among himself and the other two.” As he said this I could feel some powerlessness begin to creep into my bones. I felt weak and smaller. Around me I felt as if I could see Gorung and Vex grow. But a thought flashed that gave me strength. At least Freddy was safe. And I felt the pressure at my heart again. And it felt like there was a string tugging at my heart and connecting me to the boat which I could see sailing on the coast line below us. The expression on the Kings face twisted into anger. As if he too could see the string.

“This affection you feel for this human has made you weak. Let me show you.” He dug his long fingers into my chest as if he were trying to pull my heart out, and I could feel that it wasn’t healing as it normally would. But with the strength from my connection, I pulled his hand of and shot a fire blast to free myself.

As I could now fly on my own, I pulled back away from the King. I could feel my Chest healing wrong. For the first time ever, a scar had healed from the wound.

“Very well, I know exactly what lesson to teach you.” He shot such a quick and small blast that I almost didn’t register it, but a small white ball of flame hovered in front of him for a moment and then shot straight at the boar blowing it apart on the ocean.

“no!!” the sound almost didn’t make it out of my throat before two golden beams erupted from my mouth forward at the king searing his wings. It caught him off guard for a moment but then he disappeared and appeared above me smacking me down to the ground. I lay on the ground semi-conscious as they floated down to me. I felt all my power drain away.

“I will let you live here. Hoardless. An example to all others.”

And with that they left. I felt like I could drift off into nonexistence, but two things kept me going. One I could still feel the pull on my heart letting me know that Freddy was still out there, and I saw as the king flew away. That his wing had healed slightly wrong leaving an almost unnoticeable scar.