Young Adult
The Anti-Quest
There weren’t always dragons in the valley. There weren’t always daily fires from their angry breath or scattered quakes from their earth-moving roars. There wasn’t always terror, internalized in the residents of the exterior hills, as they attempted to continue living their former, routine lives.
By Karina Palukaitis4 years ago in Fiction
The Aspects Six
“There weren’t always dragons in the valley,” Rorick said raising an eyebrow and leaning towards the young boy across the stained table. He stroked the length of his ill kempt beard for a moment, letting his mind dip into thoughts long forgotten. Like a quill plunged into a well of ink, the memories of those times rushed back with a flowing vibrance. Fondness lingered in his eyes as stories and names steeped in the passages of time came back to him.
By Tony Galbier4 years ago in Fiction
The Dragonsborne
There weren’t always dragons in the valley. It was a phrase she had trained herself to repeat whenever she crossed the trail. A tool she always carried with her so that in passing through these smoldered ruins she might so suspend her own disbelief. It was a hard thing for any knight, let alone a night of Demores to trust that the smoldered rock, the old edifices which she approaches were once castles that tickled the belly of the sky. Now, as she nears, they appear as gigantic candles, melted and bent, luminous in the moonlight. A city lost to fire, a quiet sanctuary where hordes of refugees once made camp. A decade ago, life had flourished in these hills, but now they lay silent, charred, barely good enough even for the temporary housing she is tasked with prohibiting. The only comfort the relics have to offer is the knowing that if ever again she must take flight, their walls may shield her for a night or two. A possibility which grows more threatening, which teeters on the border of probability with every passing day. All because of the monstrous, winged, fire breathing beasts. No, there weren’t always dragons in the valley, but certainly there are now. And for a young woman who might just as easily be killed in the valley as behind the castle walls, disbelief is not something she can afford.
By Charlie Botzman4 years ago in Fiction
Wind and Flame
There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. And when there were dragons, they almost never arrived unannounced. Yet the bone-chilling roar that reverberated across the Valley of Light was unmistakable. Tír Obai, his 15 year-old daughter Alys, her 13-year old sister Rai, their 15-year old friend Declan, and a squad of a dozen Rangers turned in unison to the direction of the roar. Against the light of the setting sun they saw the approaching silhouettes of not one, but three massive dragons flying in close formation. One unannounced dragon was enough to raise eyebrows, but three flying so close together could only mean that they were a family of wild dragons, and encounters with wild dragons were never not dangerous.
By John Takano4 years ago in Fiction
Taste Of Survival
Chapter One There weren’t always dragons in the valley, where they are feared across the globe, they are welcomed at the Armada. We serve them the greatest of meats to the finest of fruits, when they fill their rounded bellies, Spider fills his pockets.
By Safy Kezzim4 years ago in Fiction
Dragon's Wish
“There weren’t always dragons in the valley. Now all we hear is roars echoing, and the ground trembling every time they move around. Everyone’s on edge, exhausted and worried that the dragons will attack again. They seem to be louder and more restless lately. If we could just figure out which one granted wishes, we could just WISH them away and save Queen Elvira! Alwyn says, frustratedly, walking alongside Izor as his royally-appointed guardian.
By Rose Rossenbach4 years ago in Fiction
Auden and the Dragons
There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. I was only ten when they first arrived, but I remember that day well. Mother woke me early so we could claim the best spot at the market to sell her remedies, which just so happens to be under one of the largest oak trees in the Valley. Not that we needed the best spot for sales, everyone knows mothers potions fix any type of ailments. She claims they're old family recipes passed down from her mother and her mothers mother and a lot of mothers before that. Some of the townys call her a witch, some call her a goddess of mother nature. Regardless of what they think, they all come to her when they have a pounding head or a burning heart. We claimed the spot and set up quickly, just in time for the morning market goers.
By Stephanie Watts4 years ago in Fiction
Tales of Ulrica
"There weren't always dragons in the Valley." Absalom lifted his eyes from the glass of ale he had been nursing. It was the word dragon that caught his attention. There was a since of strangeness in how it was said. The tone was colloquial, as if talking about dragons was a part of an everyday conversation, like how people talk about the weather or the latest gossip. Is this what the world has come to, he thought. Are dragons just fun topics to gab about while you work your crossword puzzles?
By Joshua Roberts4 years ago in Fiction
A call from the ocean
Marcus looked out towards the ocean, the water stretching from one side of the earth to the other and he felt an indescribable emptiness sink into his chest. The grey and lonely sea cried a million tears, drawing the weak and hopeless to its depths. Marcus sometimes felt he could become one of its victims, like he could drown out there, tangled amongst choking seaweed. When he had been younger he used to race down to the shore, letting his arms catch in the wind. He would feel the shells crunch beneath his toes and look down as he let them scratch sharply into him. He never seemed to care of the pain of a thousand shells causing blood to drip from his skin. He would sit on the edge of the sand where the vast ocean lapped against him and let the salt water sting him like bees in his eyes. How lonely he felt, there all alone and into the night he would sit, he would wait, wait, and wait. Sometimes the ocean would speak to him, howling and panting it would scream in his direction, but often it was just the voice of a lonely fisherman who had spent countless hours without catching a fish.
By Sophie Stevens4 years ago in Fiction
Dragon Speaker
There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Before long, they’d be gone again. Ery had seen what the Valley would become. The potential futures plagued her mind incessantly. Green would turn to black. Hazel trees, to white ash. The sound of chirping birds and rustling animals replaced with the stillness of death.
By Joshua Trockel4 years ago in Fiction
