THE BRIGHTBOND

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. However, with no other choice left, we brought them to this new land. Our survival depended on it. What we didn’t understand then, was the price we would all have to pay.

Council historians told us that our once flourishing planet was full of life and abundance until dragons brought humans under a spell. By enslaving the humans to create a thriving society only for themselves, dragons oppressively ruled the planet. For thousands of years, dragons and humans shared a special link called a Brightbond. This bond was the enabling factor that granted dragons the ability to command the humans.

Non-bonded humans lived in fear of both dragons and their bonded humans, fostering feelings of resentment and unease. These non-bonded humans secretly organized their own militia, referring to themselves as the Unbonded, and plotted against the dragon’s regime. Gradually gaining in power, the Unbonded orchestrated a coup to assassinate Dragon Queen Baesoon. They had hoped killing the queen would rid them of the Brightbond forever.

Discovering the Unbonded’s plan, Resquk, the queen’s highest ranking dragon general, set out to save the queen’s life. But in doing so, he sacrificed its bonded human. Seeing Vin, the human, die when he didn’t have to, Queen Baesoon’s bonded human, Royal Bonded Orchidus, was devastated. Losing her betrothed, Royal Bonded Orchidus felt lost and betrayed. With her belief in the Brightbond shattered, Royal Bonded Orchidus could not bear the injustice she and her betrothed faced. As a result, she severed her bond with the queen dragon, becoming first in history to regain its freedom from the dragon kind. Seeing a leader in Royal Bonded Orchidus, all the non-bonded rebel humans joined with her, forming a new government—The Council.

However, as mage chronicler Archibald recently discovered, the historians’ tale was grossly inaccurate and misleading. Although only certain family bloodlines chose to bond with the dragons, the two species coexisted peacefully. Dragons never enslaved humans, and the Brightbond between them was beneficial to the planet. But as jealousy and envy swept amidst those who didn't bond with the dragons, a separation between humans rose.

But the council historians conveniently left those details out of their retelling of that significant event. And now, they are trying to hide that by severing her bond with Queen Baesoon, Royal Bonded Orchidus created a rift that has led to the planet slowly decaying with time.

Careful not to type in too many keywords that might alert the council of his snooping on their server, Archibald stopped mid-scrolling through the page he was researching. Furrowed brows, he fixedly stared at the cryptic symbol on his screen. Perplexed and curious at the somewhat familiar emblem, Archibald attempted to open the folder, but it was encrypted. Unable to shake the feeling that the symbol and the files inside were important, Archibald transferred the file to his personal hard drive for further inspection.

Presently, Archibald had to deal with a more pressing matter. After centuries of bad blood between the dragons and the Council, the Dragon Queen was working with council members by handing them dragon eggs. Nobody knew what was really happening behind closed doors. Archibald, however, was determined to find more information on what the Council was doing with the wyrmlings. Unable to go to the hatchery without immediately getting recognized, Archibald called on Agor, his most trusted apprentice, and tasked him to infiltrate the dragon's hatchery and stealthily bring one wyrmling.

Agor proceeded directly to the hatchery from Archibald’s workshop in the city. As he walked through the street small clouds of dust from his footsteps rose to meet the hot oppressive air behind him. Stopping on a knoll above the hatchery among a line of dilapidated and gnarled trees, he could see the smog surrounding the barren mountains in the distance. Below him laid the barn that confined the baby dragons.

The Council would never accept a mage coming this close to their facility without being escorted. The Council and Mage guild had a tenuous relationship at best. He needed to come up with a gameplan to better approach their base and see what was really going on. Staying hidden among the snags and dead wood as best he could, he surreptitiously observed two guards talking to each other. It appeared they were leisurely enjoying the end of their shift.

Seizing this opportunity, Agor stealthily approached the barn. The guards were stationed to the left, so he went to the right side of the barn where there was a heavy-duty metal wall about twenty feet high. Fifty feet or so further, the metal wall met with an alarmingly tall electric fence. Standing about ten feet high, the robust electric fencing gave off a high pulsation that would easily detour any potential intruders or escapees. Agor, however, had no choice but to move forward. Treading carefully to the edge of the wall, Agor peered into the paddock, and was instantaneously taken aback. Instead of the usual vibrant colors of dragons, in front of him were several dull brown wyrmlings huddled together in a dirt nest, resting in a sunspot. There was nothing magical or spectacular about these breeds.

Past the paddock and across a yard, a rather large male guard strode away from his post and away from Agor. Presented with the perfect opportunity to extricate one of the wyrmlings, Agor let go of his shock and quickly came up with an idea to get through the fence. Reaching for his Eldar-Orb that Archibald supplied him with, Agor swiftly and forcefully thrusted the wand into the charged field, disrupting the electrical connection. This overload in the system weakened the barrier, creating an opening big enough for Agor to sneak in. But he knew he didn’t have much time. For now, the hole was stable, but soon it would be impossible to go back through it.

The subtle stirring of the wyrmlings caught Agor’s attention, and he realized that the electrical disturbance was aggravating them. Remembering the intricately foreign words Archibald entrusted him, Agor rushed towards one of the baby dragons and chanted the sacred spell to hypnotize it into following him through the hole. The wyrmling immediately became docile with its eyes focused dully on Agor.

‘Neat trick, Archibald’, thought Agor as he proceeded toward the opening in the fence which was steadily becoming unstable. He picked up his pace and the wyrmling followed suit. Agor heard the other dragons rustling frantically behind him, while in front of him electricity began to strike out like lightning.

Upon clearing the fence, Agor paused to oversee that his captive successfully breached the hole. But in his haste, Agor did not notice four other baby dragons following behind. Unable to do much to control them, Agor watched as three of the wyrmlings successfully made it through the hole. But as the fourth one approached the rift, a flare of electricity lashed out, striking the wyrmling squarely on the nose. Squealing loudly in fear and disapproval, the fourth dragon instinctively backed away, spurring the other three who escaped to rear up and bolt off. Suddenly aware of the danger around them, the other wyrmlings in the paddock shuffled into one another in apprehension as they tried to remain a safe distance away from the source of the threat.

Remarkably, the enchanted wyrmling ignored all the disturbances around it and kept its eyes on its captor. Simply raising his eyebrows in response, Agor continued on his way back with the wyrmling in tow. Approaching the tree line, Agor pulled out a device from his coat pocket—an invention crafted by a preceding archmagister which looked similar to a compass. Pausing again, Agor scanned the line of trees when panicked and charged yelling behind him caught his attention. He looked back to see two guards inside the paddock, attempting to calm down the mass of squirming wyrmlings, while the large guard and a much smaller guard circled the three escapees.

Kirchip was preparing for her shift to start. Her job was simple. All she had to do was babysit a bunch of wyrmlings who didn’t do much. And even though nothing serious ever happened, she couldn’t complain—not when she was paid well and had great friends.

“Kirchip!” Emik, one of her friends, yelled as he marched rapidly toward her.

Nodding in response, she gave him a look of concern.

‘Why on earth was he so frenzied?’ Kirchip thought as she waited for her usually composed friend to reach her.

Stopping an armlength away, Emik announced frantically, “You need to hurry! Something is disturbing the wyrmlings. Three have already gotten out and they seem panicked.”

“Sure, let me finish belting up.” Kirchip calmly replied as she strapped on her stun prod and headed toward the electric containment center.

When they got there, three brown baby dragons, each five times bigger than a large man like Emik—and Emik was big and tall, almost like a giant—were charging haphazardly outside their containment. The scene in from of them was pure chaos. A hole in the electric fence gave off flailing fingers of lightning, frightening the wyrmlings, causing them to act out. Not far away, two more guards were brandishing their stun prods in the attempt to contain the rest of the very shaken baby dragons.

“Kirchip, take the eastside. We can flank them into a huddle. That should calm them down a bit.” Emik ordered.

Kirchip didn’t bother answering. Emik had been here much longer than her, and she figured he knew what he was talking about. So, stun prod in hand, Kirchip ran opposite her friend and nervously gave the wyrmlings a wide berth in hopes to encourage their escapees into a more relaxed state.

Aware that his small friend only had a few volts to defend herself should the wyrmlings stampede, Emik tried to draw the attention to himself by sharply squawking.

“Bah, bah, bah!”

Over the backs of the writhing creatures, Kirchip heard Emik’s crow and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. She wondered if Emik’s whooping would really work to draw their attention. Instead, all the dragons turned toward her chortling.

‘Uh oh’, she thought. ‘She was on her own’. Her other two friends were wrestling with the larger part of the herd in containment, and nobody could now cross the erratic barrier. The switch to the fence needed to be shut off without letting the whole herd loose.

Assessing the situation, Emik unsuccessfully tried regaining the baby dragons’ attention with his caterwauling. While moving toward the rip in the fence, he vigorously motioned to Kirchip with a raised arm, waving in the direction of the barn.

Quickly picking up that Emik wanted her to flip the switch, Kirchip slowly walked backwards towards the barn, never taking her eyes off the wyrmlings. To Emik’s and her surprise, they followed her step by step. This gave Kirchip an idea, and rather than following Emik’s order, she gestured with her hands that she would head towards the fence while Emik should handle the switch. When she turned to face the flailing electricity, Kirchip was astonished to see every one of the captive wyrmlings had calmed down and were attentively watching her. Stupefied at the turn of events, the guards inside the pen stared at her open-mouthed while Emik made his way to the master-switch. Stunned as well and out of words, Kirchip inhaled in a deep breath and slowly let it out before proceeding into the paddock as Emik turned off the electricity.

Trusting they had appropriately handled the situation; the guards relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. Their peace and victory, however, were short-lived. The moment the two groups of wyrmlings reunited, the spell they seemed under dissipated. Once again agitated and distressed, one wyrmling haphazardly swung around, side swiping Kirchip with its enormous tail. Taken by surprise, Kirchip was hurled several feet away, hitting the ground hard with her shoulder and the side of her head.

Temporarily dazed, Kirchip took a few seconds to open her eyes. When she did, through her blurring vision, she caught sight of a figure disappearing into the tree line, with one wyrmling obediently following behind. Exhausted and unable to do anything when they were already so far away, Kirchip laid her head back in the dirt, closed her eyes, and took another deep breath.

Witnessing Kirchip fall, Emik quickly restored the electric fence before rushing through the barn and running into the paddock. Once inside, the three guards huddled around Kirchip, gazing down at her with worry, “Are you okay?” they asked simultaneously.

Lightly shaking the fogginess, Kirchip opened her eyes saying “Yeah. I’m just badly bruised... I think.”

Moca, one of the other guards, carefully helped Kirchip to her feet. Looking to Emik, Kirchip dusted the dirt off her uniform and relayed, “One of the wyrmlings has been kidnapped. When I fell, I saw a figure disappear into the tree line with it.”

"The Council really isn't going to like this," Barg, the fourth guard, relayed while looking at Emik.

"No, they aren't." Almost like a machine, Emik inattentively answered. It baffled him why anyone would want to steal a baby dragon. But what further preoccupied him was the uncharacteristic behavior of the wyrmlings towards Kirchip. In all his time as a guard, he has never seen a baby dragon be in such a trance that they will ignore all noises around them and focus on one singular person.