Slayer Search

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. And there wasn’t always a slayer that could end their reign of terror.

Louisa stared at the tagline for FAE Network’s newest reality show Slayer Search and wondered just what she’d been thinking when she agreed to be one of the twelve contestants who were going to risk their lives competing for a prize of one million crystals. Of course, when she originally filled out the application and sent in an audition tape, she was responding to a casting call asking for “twenty-somethings who want to travel across the southern lands and win money - all magical beings welcome.” And as a witch who was preparing to graduate with a potions degree in an already saturated market, she figured she wasn’t in any position to ignore an opportunity to earn some extra income during the last summer break of her college career. But she certainly wouldn’t have wasted her time going to group interviews with trolls and centaurs if she’d known they were going to travel to the legendary Valley between the Southern Mountains to challenge the most dangerous creatures in all of Druia.

Nevertheless, there she was, surrounded by blinding fey lights and cameras laced with some of the most extravagant enchantments ever cast, breathing in the conflicting smells of blooming spring flowers and decaying animal carcasses, whilst trying to control her clattering teeth. As she rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms, she silently cursed herself for wearing her most flattering, yet impractical, red dress. For some reason, she’d always imagined the Valley would be as hot as the flames of the dragons that resided there, but she supposed everywhere in Druia got a bit cool after nightfall. She just hoped the sleeping tents that production had set up for the cast contained heating charms.

She looked over at the purple-striped, copper-colored tents. They reminded Louisa of the circus her parents had taken her to as a child, but she doubted these tents were charmed to smell of caramel. Standing nearby the campsite, feeding on grass, were the winged horses that pulled the carriages the cast and crew had arrived in earlier that day. Louisa was watching the horses graze and staring at the daisies being crushed under their hooves when she realized that she hadn’t seen a single butterfly or bee flying around any of the flowers that afternoon. Nor had she heard the chirping of birds overhead, which was normally common in the spring. She was just beginning to ponder over why that was when a nearby cast interview caught her attention.

“And who do you think will be your biggest competition here?” Louisa overheard a tiny, glittering, pink fairy ask another contestant.

“I have no competition. I’m the only one here who possesses the skills necessary to slay one of the winged beasts. I just hope none of the other contestants hurt themselves trying,” said Alexander, a rather handsome elf, as he gave the camera a flirtatious wink.

The fairy’s wings seemed to flutter just a bit faster every time he did that. She was now looping around the camera so quickly, she appeared as nothing more than a mesmerizing pink blur. “Thank you, Alexander. That’s all for now. Next!”

Louisa released a sigh of relief. She felt as though she’d been waiting hours for Alexander’s interview to end. The fairy seemed to have endless questions for him regarding his motivations for coming, the skills he thought would be the most useful, and how he planned to spend the prize money. But at least Alexander’s generally long-winded answers gave Louisa plenty of time to think of her own. So, as she listened to the sound of brittle grass crunching under her feet with every step she took, she tried to ease her nerves. She was only slightly jittery as she stood in front of the floating camera and squinted at the unnecessarily bright fey light.

“Hello, I’m- “

“Why do you think everyone is fawning over Alexander?” the fairy asked without looking at her.

“Umm,” Louisa blinked. “Well, I suppose they think he’s really handsome. He certainly has the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen and he’s obviously very muscular.”

“Thank you. Next!”

“Oh, are we running out of time? Do I need to be ready for another interview later?”

“No,” the fairy squeaked, still not looking at her. “We have everything we need. Next!”

Louisa took a flustered step back and bumped into the next contestant. She turned to say sorry and jumped when she saw that it was the towering cyclops that didn’t seem to speak the same language as anyone else on the cast. She wondered whether or not the fairy could translate her questions into Cyclipsh as she muttered a quick apology and stumbled away, trying to get out of the shot as quickly as possible.

“Congratulations, you’re now going to be the girl unrequitedly in love with the winner. You probably won’t make it past episode two, but at least audiences won’t remember you enough to hate you,” said a familiar, melodic voice.

Louisa turned to see the infamous Diona Shell staring back at her. The mermaid was shockingly beautiful as human. Her hair and tan were both golden and she had a smile that could charm any creature on land. Still, Louisa always thought Diona was far more breathtaking in her aquatic form. And Louisa had seen her plenty of times in both forms, because unlike the other contestants, Diona was no stranger to reality television. The last time Louisa saw her, she was swimming away from an underwater palace, heartbroken over being rejected by a powerful merman on his quest to find his happily ever after.

It took a moment for Louisa to realize that Diona was still waiting for her to respond.

“Oh, that?” She nodded towards the fairy, who was now struggling through her interview with the cyclops. “No, I don’t think so. I was saying why others might be attracted to him. I wasn’t saying that I wanted to date him or anything like that.”

Diona gave her a sympathetic, if not slightly patronizing, smile. “You really are new to this, huh?” She gently patted Louisa’s arm. “Try not to be too disappointed with the final edit. We can’t all be winners. It’s going to be Alexander this time, but maybe it will be you next time. So long as you never get the villain edit, you could be a winner.”

“How can you know Alexander will win? The competition hasn’t even started yet?”

“First of all,” Diona said as she started raking her nails through her long, luscious hair, seeming to lose interest in the conversation. “This isn’t a ‘competition,’ it’s a reality show. Did you not see that specified in the third paragraph on page one hundred seventy-one of the contract?”

Louisa felt her face flush. Truthfully, she’d been so exhausted from spending the night studying for her Poisons and Other Deadly Brews final, that she didn’t actually read much of anything before signing the three-hundred-page contract.

“They clearly want Alexander to be the star of this, so when the fairies cast the illusions, they’ll give us dragons that are bloodthirsty and impossibly fast, while his dragon will probably aim all of its flames into the sky.”

“What do you mean enchantments? Are you saying there aren’t actually any dragons here in the Valley?”

Diona rolled her eyes. “Well, of course, there are actually dragons here. We just won’t see them. No one who’s visited this place has actually crossed paths with any of them in years. Do you honestly think the FAE network would be filming here if anyone had? Do you think they’d want the insurance liability from having contestants fight actual dragons? They may not care about us, but they do care about our lawyers.”

As Diona stepped away to reapply fairy dust to her cheeks, Louisa wondered why she didn’t feel more reassured by the knowledge the mermaid had shared with her. Shouldn’t she be relieved to know they won’t be facing any actual dragons? Shouldn’t she feel at ease knowing no true danger would be present? She knew that the answers to both questions should be yes, and yet she couldn’t fight off the tense feeling of apprehension that had been polluting the air around her ever since the goblin producer told them where they were going and what they were going to do there.

The goblin, who went by the name Gaines, chose that moment to call for the fairies to begin spinning the illusion enchantment of the first dragon. Gaines stood three feet tall, had alligator skin, two rows of pointed teeth, and two black orbs for eyes. Louisa didn’t have much experience with goblins, but she knew she never wanted to give the mischievous creature a reason to dislike her.

Louisa looked up into the blackened night sky and physically felt her jaw drop as a dozen fairies, representing all the colors of the rainbow and a few shades found during sunset, spun around each other in the air, weaving the silhouette of a castle-sized creature that was more than capable of inducing a few nightmares. She was so awestruck that she’d nearly forgotten her prior fear when the thunder started.

It was the most menacing thunder that Louisa had ever heard. The rumbling was so loud and commanding she was surprised the ground beneath her feet wasn’t vibrating.

“Alright, hurry, hurry!” Gaines shouted at the fairies, still working on the illusion. “We need to get at least one shot in before the storm hits.”

Louisa’s eyebrows wrinkled. None of the oracle reports had called for a storm when she’d checked earlier that morning. If they had, she would have worn a jacket. Groaning, she crossed her arms over her chest and silently cursed her foolish fashion choices for what felt like the tenth time that evening.

Time seemed to tick on slowly. Louisa’s feet were beginning to throb, as she shifted from foot to foot to try and keep herself awake. It seemed like lifetimes had passed by as the fairies put the finishing touches on their enchantment. Though, when they were done, Louisa had to admit the dragon looked quite real. From its inky black scales to its glowing red eyes, it looked just like the pictures Louisa had seen in her school textbooks. Even the aggressive way the dragon’s grayish spikes seemed to tear out of its spine looked eerily realistic. Every inch of it looked tangible and terrifying. Only when it shook its head too jerkily or flapped its wings too quickly did it appear to be a bit translucent. And Louisa doubted that anyone would be able to detect that at home.

Gaines clapped his hands together and bit down on his thin lower lip as he looked up at the illusion that reared its head back and released bright flame into the otherwise unlit sky.

“Good, good, very good! Alright, where’s our first contestant?” The glee vanished from Gaines’s face, just as quickly as it had appeared. He was now back to looking impatient as he snapped his clawed fingers in the direction of a purple fairy. “Have someone try to slay the beast! We’ll start with just one dragon a piece for tonight’s challenge. Tomorrow night, we’ll see who can slay two!”

Louisa was unsurprised to see Alexander called up first, especially considering, as Diona had predicted, the dragon before them appeared rather tame and exclusively aimed its flames overhead. And she was even less surprised to see that the brawny elf approached the dragon shirtless, despite the chilly temperature. Arrogance seemed to gush out of him as he wielded his silver sword, likely enchanted with elven magic, and twirled it around with a flourish.

“For centuries, we have moved civilization farther and farther away from this valley, out of fear of the monsters that dwell here,” said Alexander, as he angled his body towards the nearest camera. “But that fear ends here and now. No longer shall we cower at the mention of these fire-breathing demons. Tonight, we make them fear us!”

Another booming wave of thunder coursed through the sky. Somehow it was louder this time, and a gust of hot wind caressed Louisa’s face. It was the first burst of wind she’d felt all night that wasn’t icy.

A sudden, violent chill tore down Louisa’s spine as she realized why she hadn’t been able to relax, even when she was told it had been years since any dragons were spotted in the valley.

It was because, in addition to smelling the lovely aromas provided by the nearby rose bushes and budding peonies, she could also smell the foul odor of rotting animal flesh in the distance. It was because she hadn’t seen any other living creatures since the cast and crew arrived in the Valley. It was because, as she walked across the valley to do her interview, the grass beneath her feet had crunched a bit louder than the rest had. Because that particular grass was dry and brittle, as though it had been scorched. And she realized, with a twist in her stomach, that it wasn’t thunder they’d been hearing all night; it was growls.

For a moment, Louisa couldn’t speak, she could barely even think. It was as though a fog had fallen over her as she watched Alexander throw his sword into the illusion. Though it fell through the incorporeal dragon, a gushing wound still appeared, and the dragon released a heartbreaking screech as it thrashed about.

Then another screech tore through the sky, only this wasn’t a cry, it was a roar.

Blinding orange flames burst through the illusion as a real dragon came down upon them.

It moved faster than Louisa would have thought possible and was large enough to crush the entire set simply by laying down. Each flap of its wings sent down gusts of wind so violent, they nearly knocked Louisa off her feet. Screams of genuine terror surrounded Louisa as the dragon released another scorching set of flames into the air, only this time, they were targeted at Alexander.

He didn’t even have time to flinch before he was completely engulfed in the flames. Louisa didn’t wait to see what became of him though; she had already turned to run. As did everyone else.

She could already feel her skin growing slick with sweat from the heat of the fire as she raced with the others to get away from the danger. They were running the wrong way, though. Because another dragon appeared at that precise moment, barreling through the midnight sky. And it only took seconds for it to set the production’s entire campsite aflame.

Louisa instinctively turned away from the second dragon only to see the first one, still there waiting for her. For a heartbeat of a second, she felt hopeless as she stared at the raven-colored creature, whose glowing red eyes seemed to match the sky behind it as the growing flames cast a threatening glow over the valley. All the smells she’d detected earlier were now cloaked with the smell of smoke, and the wind from the two dragons’ beating wings was causing Louisa’s brown hair to painfully whip around her head, occasionally slapping her in the face. In the distance, she saw the winged horses flying away, leaving all of the wingless beings deserted.

She was about to turn to her right and start running towards the nearest mountains when she saw Gaines running in that very direction. And she wasn’t the only one that saw him.

The first dragon swooped down and inhaled Gaines as though the goblin was nothing more than a grape someone might thoughtlessly chew as part of a summer afternoon snack.

Petrified, Louisa once again found herself frozen in place, her body tensed so tightly it was as if she’d been cursed and made stone. The high-pitched cries of the production fairies sounded overhead as Louisa thawed just enough to dodge the debris that was quickly polluting the air as the two dragons continued their reign of destruction. Giving up on running, she decided to crouch beside a large rock that seemed heavy enough to withstand the attacks from the wind. It was then that she saw the tall cyclops she’d bumped into earlier running, at a relatively slow speed, and calling out to others. Though if anyone understood him, they didn’t turn; they were all too busy fleeing themselves. The cyclops’s one eye began watering as the panic on his face grew more and more severe and his screams grew more and more desperate.

Then the second dragon came down and snatched the plump cyclops off the ground with its talons, and his body was jerked upwards so savagely that it caused a gut-wrenching crack, and the cyclops’s limbs instantly went slack. He didn’t scream anymore as he went soaring with the dragon into the air.

Deciding she didn’t want to see any more, Louisa laid down in the rubble beside the rock and threw her arms over her head. Squeezing her eyes shut, she silently willed the attack to be over.

Although she could no longer see the gore, there was little she could do to stop herself from hearing it. The agonized cries and frightening screams seemed at war with each other as they continued to sound until Louisa’s body ached from remaining tense and still for far too long. But even as the noise began to die down and the turbulent night air began to calm, she remained unmoving with her eyes closed. Only when she could hear nothing but the crackle of the nearby flames, did she risk getting up.

As she emerged from hiding, she was instantly attacked by the cloud of smoke that surrounded her. Her eyes burned and she choked on every breath she attempted to take as she looked around for other signs of life.

There wasn’t much to see.

Devastation and gore covered every bit of the valley visible through the fumes. Remnants from the carnage littered the ground and the production set up seemed to only serve as food for the still-growing fire.

With a jolt, Louisa spotted Diona, still very much alive, despite being coated in dirt. And sitting nearby was one of the crewmen. A ginger-haired faun, who was clutching onto a seemingly injured hoof. They both looked just as horror-struck as Louisa felt. But frightened as she was, she didn’t realize her legs were trembling until they gave out on her and she collapsed. As soon as she crashed into the ground, she threw her hands over her mouth to try and block out some of the smoke that seemed determined to suffocate her and wondered who else had survived.

She felt a squeezing, nauseating pressure in her chest as she realized that she and the other survivors would have to quickly find a way out of the valley before it was too late. She was going to have to fight to escape the dragons after all, only now, if she succeeded, her prize wouldn’t be one million crystals, it would be her life.