The Ashen Forest

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. At least that’s what Nyro, the old storyteller, says when reciting his tales of wonder and adventure. He often sat in the village square and the children would gather to listen to his stories. I stood in front of The Wounded Boar, waiting for Darren the barkeep to be available; it was early afternoon and he would soon be preparing for the evening patrons. Although many of his stories were preposterous, I enjoyed the tales he wove; so I listened into his latest story while waiting for Darren.

Nyro ran a hand through his scruffy black hair, he gave a long look back at his small crowd, his amber eyes glancing as he continued his fable.

“The Elves were said to have had access to magic long before the Dragons.” Nyro recited in a gravelly tone “Kolvar, the first known King of the Elven people, was rumored to harness magic into crystals; he would provide offerings of these crystals to the Dragons in exchange for wisdom…”

“But Dragons ain't smart!” One kid interrupted in protest.

As always with the children Nyro was patient and just turned to the boy with a knowing grin answered back “Maybe not to you, or to anyone here; however, perspectives are a key to understanding. One cannot fathom what one hasn’t experienced themselves.”

One girl raised their hand “Sir, those were a lot of big words, what exactly does it mean?”

Nyro sighed and seemed to contemplate how best to respond. “It means you are not a Dragon, hence you cannot base intelligence based on what you view intelligence to be. Kolvar realized there were things beyond even his understanding so he chose to befriend the Dragons.” The old storytellers face grew stern as he lowered his voice “The humans however, were far more greedy; while the Elves worked to increase their knowledge and understanding of the world, the humans sought to increase their power. They observed how the Dragons ate these infused crystals and thus grew their potential for magic. The human King had heard rumors of a large crystal sphere, given to the Elder Dragon Quodreth. He enacted a heinous plot to murder Quodreth and steal the orb for himself.” He paused as gasps from the children were heard. I never heard the rest of the story as a shout startled me out of my focus.

“Oi Marlow! You actually have business here, or do ya want to join the pups listening to the senile old man?” I turned to Darren who was looking down at me disapprovingly, his 6ft tall muscular frame leaning against the door frame with crossed arms. He was intimidating in his own right; several scars lined his body including one over his right eye that ran all the way down from his short blonde-haired scalp. Darren like most adults disliked Nyro since his tales often spoke poorly of the government; however most of his stories did seem to come with valuable lessons.

I cleared my throat, not wanting to get into an argument with him. “Of course sir, would you like to see what I brought today?” Darren just gave me another hard look and ushered me inside. I quickly followed him into the tavern. The Wounded Boar had been in the village for longer than most people can remember. It was the only bar in the small village; the dining area itself was dimly lit with decor to make any hunter jealous lining the walls. We made our way over to the bar top and Darren began pouring a couple drinks while I sat and regarded myself in the full length bar mirror. I was looking rather haggard having just come from the edge of the valley where my little farm was – if you could even call it that, in reality it was just a small plot that grew potatoes. I noticed how thin I had become, in general I was very lanky to begin with, but it was becoming more noticeable, even my forest green eyes had become dull; generally speaking I kept my brown hair cut fairly short to avoid having to worry about it matting up, although not being able to afford the barber the cut self done and always looked rough and uneven. Not much can be done when you only have a couple farming shears to work with. As per customary for his business deals Darren pushed the drink to me; I ignored it being under-aged, I wouldn’t be able to indulge until I turned 16 in 2 more years. In fact, Darren would be upset with me if I did drink it as he was a stickler for the rules but whenever he did business he always poured both a drink for himself and his guest to be polite. As gruff as he was, he was honorable.

After Darren took a sip of his drink I began slowly pulling my wares out of my bag, most of the potatoes were small still, but it was hard for anything to grow properly in the valley with the dragons being there. In total there were 8 potatoes, a couple of small bones that I had managed to find, and a small pouch of berries that I luckily was able to find undisturbed.

The barkeep looked over the product and gave a heavy sigh “Slim pickings today Marlow.” I just hung my head, I knew it wasn’t much but I needed money for meat so I had to hope it would do. After a moment he just shook his head and grunted “3 coppers is all I can offer.”

My head shot up and I protested “But sir, surely its worth more than that, the potatoes are small I know but the berries should be worth at least 3 by themselves right?” Berries were pretty rare around here, my pouch was small to be sure, but I needed at least 5 coppers to afford even a small portion of cured meat. “What about 5 pieces? Could we make that work?” I bartered hopefully.

Darren just shook his head, he never haggled his price so I knew his response was coming “No Marlow, 3 is being generous, the potatoes are barely usable and I’ll have to do some work to extract the usable starch. The bones would be good for broth but there’s barely enough here for 1 serving let alone being able to use, so that I’m buying for personal use and to help you out more than anything, but I cannot offer more.” Begrudgingly I took the 3 coppers. It wasn’t enough but I’d have to try.

I thanked Darren and left, hurrying over to the Butchers. On my way I ran into my best friend Aiden. “Hey dude! Looking chipper as always.” He greeted.

Shaking my head I just snickered “Aiden you’re the chipper one. What are you doing? Shouldn’t you be training or something?” Aiden was adventurous and had dreams of joining the esteemed Dragon Slayers Union. The DSU was founded when the Dragons first started migrating off the mountains to attack cities and villages as a means to defend the civilians. The DSU used weapons given out by the government that allowed them wield magic like the Dragons did; only members of the DSU were allowed such tools. I admired my friends courage, I could never do something like that; hell I was too cowardly to kill the rabbit I caught in my trap earlier and ended up releasing it. Inwardly I regretted it now, I could of used the 3 coppers to pay the butcher to skin and clean it for me or just sold it to the barkeep.

Aiden seemed oblivious to my inner turmoil. “Nah too excited bro. Did you hear? The DSU is coming here!”

I raised an eyebrow at him “Really?” I wasn’t sure I heard correctly, they almost never come to the outer villages, usually wasn’t worth their time.

He just shrugged “Well, not here here. You know the valley, apparently they plan to make a strike against those lizards so they are marching on the Ashen Woods!” The Ashen Woods is the name we had given the valley, most of the valley from the Dragons breath were covered in ash and dead trees littered the forest floor the further down into the valley you went. It was something I had to contend with even on the outskirts where my little farm was.

“Anyway…” He continued “Darren give you anything good?” My friend knew about my dealings and always checked in whenever he could. Unlike most of the villagers here I was an Orphan, I didn’t know much about my mother but my father was a traveling merchant, I was playing with Aiden on a visit to the village when city was attacked by a rogue Dragon that came from the Ashen Woods. The caravan panicked and left without me, I wasn’t sure what became of my father after that but if he lived he never bothered to come back to check for me. I didn’t care, I vowed to make my own way. The villagers let basically live at an old shack that was abandoned and after the attack wasn’t worth fixing up. It wasn’t much but it was shelter, I only needed to figure out a way to live, hence began my excursions into the Ashen Woods to scavenge what I could and grow my little farm.

I shook my head “Unfortunately no, I got a couple copper but not enough unless the Butcher has excess scraps available.” I muttered dejectedly.

Aiden gave me a sympathetic look, before shifting back to his cheerful demeanor “Well today is your lucky day!” He exclaimed “It just so happens I was a bit overzealous, and picked up too much, here you go.” And with that he shoved a pouch into my hands. I looked inside and there was about half a pound of jerky.

Dumbfounded I stared at the mean “Aiden, you know I can’t accept this, there’s probably 10 copper worth here!”

He just shrugged it off “Nah, it aint nothing. My old man will get mad at me for splurging on more than what’s needed anyway, this way I can just tell him price was higher today, no big deal.”

I thanked him profusely; we walked together and continued to chat until he had to leave. Not having much to occupy myself I decided to head back to my shack to eat and prepare for the morrows journey into the valley. The shack that I called home was in rough shape, it had a fire pit that I crafted to cook food, a single pot, and some furs I had managed to scrape together and save enough money to get them tanned which helped keep me warm on the chill nights and winters. Heating up a pot of water to boil I ate at the meat I was given, glad to have something to build up energy. The rest of the day was spent doing minor repairs on the shack, mostly to the roof, and gathering up firewood. As the evening drew to a close I wrapped up a potato that I saved in some leaves and surrounded it in mud to keep it sealed; after dousing the fire I set the potato in the warm embers to cook overnight, it would be my breakfast in the morning. With a sigh I settled down into my furs and let myself drift off into slumber – dreams filled images of vast jungles and twin antlered white stags swirled together creating an enchanting experience; this was a dream I had often though I had no idea where it came from, there were no such wondrous places near the small village and the Ashen Forest. The only wonders here, was the fury on the Dragons.

The morning birds were my alarm to wake up in the morning. I could see the small rays of sun drifting in through the cracks in the wooden walls of the shack. Stretching I fished my potato from the now cold ashes and cracked open the dry mud. The potato was still slightly warm and I happily dug into it while gathering up my supplies, mostly some rope, my farming sheers, and hunting knife. I could never seem to get up the courage to kill anything but I was told it had belonged to my mother so I brought it along anyway. Leaving my shack I stared toward the village, for some reason I felt uneasy, like I should stay here. Chalking it up to paranoia I hoisted my weathered backpack of supplies over my shoulder and made my way to the cliff-side that marked the edge of the Ashen Forest.

Looking down into the valley it was eerily quiet. Almost unnaturally so; the morning birds which were normally in full swing were no-where to be seen or heard, the only sound was the sound of my own pulse, as if the world were still. Slowly and cautiously I made my way down the steep trail along the edge of the cliff, the trees in the valley below slowly rising up to meet me with each step. The feeling of trepidation grew stronger as even the normally strong winds were silent today, even nature itself seemed to be on her toes. Eventually I finished the descent to the forest floor; here I had to watch my footing as I was still far away from the bottom of the valley and while the forest floor was firm the slope was still treacherous if I were to slip. I continued making my way towards the clearing that housed my little farm, normally this walk was peaceful, I was still away from the scorched dead trees, although the wind carried the ash to the upper parts of the valley which still left a small coating on the forest bed.

When I finally heard sound, it wasn’t the soothing sound of nature resuming its melody. It was an ear piercing roar that echoed through the valley. Quickly I ducked beneath a tree and looked up. Through the tree line I could see the large shadow and feel the powerful wing-beat of the beast above me it crashed into the tree roughly 100 yards away, its massive frame making a clearing. I saw a figure jump from it as it crash landed, the insignia on the cap and armor were clear as day. It was a Dragon Slayer; he wielded a staff with a brilliant red crystal decorating the top, woven together with the wood itself. The dragon rose to its feet, silver scales shinning blindingly in the morning sun; the Dragon Slayer raised his staff and spoke something that was incomprehensible, but his efforts were a bit slow. As lightning cracked from the crystal towards the beast, the Dragon swung its spiked tail sending its foe flying into a nearby tree with a sickening thud. The mage crumpled lifeless to the ground, but its spell hit the mark, the lightning struck the creatures chest and it screeched flailing as it slumped to the ground unmoving; scars and burns from its battle could be seen all over its hide.

Curiosity got the better of me, and surely the beast was dead. I ran over to the lifeless Dragon Slayer, my intention to see if there was any chance they were still alive and if I could help; as I neared I could see there was no way, I didn’t even need to check for vitals, then my eyes shifted to the staff. I don’t know what possessed me, but I picked it up, enchanted by the glow of the small crystal. As I did so the crystal glowed and the wood unraveled causing the crystal to drop into my hands; it was warm to the touch. Mesmerized I stared at the crystal – it was the sound of something massive shifting that snapped me from my amazement. Fearfully I looked over the Dragon, its eyes snapped open, the brilliant Nordic blue eyes boring into my own; I could see the rage in its eyes and it left me breathless. Slowly its mouth opened in a snarl and I could see a bright glow. I knew what was coming, and there was nothing I could do. At least that’s what I thought, until the words of Nyro came to mind; it seemed silly but I was dead either way. I took a step towards the creature, knelt down in a bow and held up the crystal in offering to the creature. My heart racing the entire time; my head screaming at me that this was stupid and to run away. Any moment know I’d feel the burning flames surround my body and it’d be over. However, it never came, I wondered if maybe it didn’t have the energy anymore; slowly I looked up. The Dragon was still staring at me but its expression changed and its jaws were closed. It growled something in my direction. Was it trying to speak with me? I resolved that I must have been mistaken, Dragons were apex predators who killed without thought; why would it try to communicate with anything. It turned its head and looked towards a spot lower in the valley, I sensed it wanted me to go there. A pained expression dotted its scaled face, it shuddered once and thudded to the ground, no longer breathing.

I was stunned, this creature with its last breath was determined to kill me; but this crystal stopped it somehow. I was about to run back to the village, but something tugged at my emotions. With the last of its life this creature tried to relay something to me, I should at least see what it wanted. I sight and steeled my resolve – I had never been brave, in fact by nature I was a coward. A normal day, I would of fled, but this was not a normal day. I turned and quickly strode towards where the Dragon had looked in its last moments making my way farther down the slope than I had ever dared travel, not even knowing what I was looking for. Hours seemed to drag on, and I was about to give up, maybe I was mistaken. Then I saw it! A nest made out of dead tress and bone, and in the center of it was an egg!