The Burned Desert

"There weren't always dragons in the Valley", Alzena thought to herself, as she gazed up at the ancient ruins before her. She had walked for days through the desert to get here, to this sacred place. She was exhausted and covered in sweat and dust, her cool blue eyes taking in the vast expanse of golden sand.

"No one remembers then, but I do."

This storm crossed kingdom, all but forgotten, which now lies in silent sparkles and untouched dust.

"I was an Immortal then, I unraveled your secrets once. Now I only have to remember."

In the glow of the twilight lit path ahead lay the answers that could save them.

No, there weren't always dragons in the Valley. But now their destruction rose over the land in relentless waves like the beating heart of magma at the planet's core. With fury and fire and insatiable greed, they were destroying everything.

Their selfishness and hunger knew no bounds and the entire world was now on the verge of destruction. An apocalypse had risen red over the valleys and seas on antediluvian wings and the extinction of all species drew near, especially the extinction of people. Civilization was destroyed and mankind had already been transformed into a deranged beast, turned brutal and barbaric by the harsh struggle for survival. The world was no longer a tolerable place to live. Society was gone; and despair lingered in the air like the sour smell of death..

This hellscape was the new normal. Now the landscape was covered with endless flames that never stopped burning. Where there was once thousand year old redwood forests and lush green vegetation, there was now only a charred wasteland littered with bones and the dead remnants of once beautiful trees and buildings, a leftover husk of existence. Wildfires spotted the landscape like eternal bonfires, glowing eerily through the long days and nights.

She sighed, and resumed walking. Towards the entrance to the towering, cyclopean ruins.

She had come here, to this hidden corner of the world.. this last forgotten sanctuary, to find the key that would destroy the winged devils.

The light of the setting sun illuminated her way forward.

Soon the cold, heartless night would embrace everything, but for now, she felt a small wave of hope course through her.

~

Divine punishment can come in many forms.

Deep within the black heart of the volcano, surrounded by embers and crimson rivers of flowing lava, it took the form of a girl.

She was only thirteen years old, and looked unworldly and beautiful. A demonic angel, her translucent, alabaster skin was covered in black ashes, and her eyes glowed with an unearthly red light.

She had summoned the dragons. Awoken them from their long sleep deep within the ancient caverns in the center of the planet and depths beneath the oceanic crust. She was out for blood. She longed for the death and destruction of mankind, for she hated the world and she hated all humans.

She hated them with an uncontrollable rage.

From the time she was little, for as long as she could remember, they had done nothing but hurt her. Their cruelty was unbearable. It was her only experience of humans. She hated them with a relentless fury. She hated them with every part of her. Every atom, every cell, every neuron in her brain was alight with hatred. Her mother had neglected and abused her, her father was dead, and all the other children had made fun of her constantly for being different. They had sensed it perhaps, that she was not like them. And humans hate anyone who is different.

Even if there was no clear outward reason, she had always been mistreated, feared and hated for as long as she could remember.. the victim of her own mother's jealousy and torture. It had gone on for forever, and she knew humans only to be an evil species. She wanted them gone. Her only desire was to be free of them all. She longed for purity. A pure earth free from the taint of humanity. It was all consuming. It was her obsession. Killing them brought her pleasure.

It had started with a simple wish. A wish which led to a vision of the mouth of a cavern.. a waking dream which she had instinctively followed, trance-like, and there she had found the ancient dragons sleeping deep within the planet.. How long had they been asleep? Possibly for millennia. But with her wish they had awoken and rose to her side, to follow her every command.

She was their high commander. And it was as if their thoughts and wills were one thing. She could feel their hearts beating within her heart, could see the wild, snake-like shapes of the landscapes below when they flew over them, could see through their eyes, and feel with their hard, knobby skin.

As she walked out of the dark crevice of the volcano, covered in soot and earth, a white child turned black, the dragons followed..

They took flight and set off against the darkening, smoke filled sky, an obsidian horde of endless numbers, an army of dragons..

One dragon remained behind. It was the alpha, the original archaic one who had called to her in sleep. She told it to come to her, which it did obediently, lowering it's giant, horn encrusted head so that she could touch it. She ran her hand over its rough hide gently. It always humbled her, to touch such an animal. Her beautiful monster. Hers alone. It made her feel like a god. A demonic god, she would recreate her heaven now. Once most the humans were gone, finally the world would be right.

With one swift movement, she was on its back. They rose fleetly into the firmament as one being, of one will, following in the wake of the others.

~

The cowboy was riding his pinto mustang through the valley when he saw them. From the east they came, filling the sky like a flock of ravens. A cloud wall of smoke and fire followed from the bottom of the horizon. It reminded him of a sandstorm. There was nowhere for him to go. Nowhere to run.

Resigned, he dismounted from his horse and stood there, watching the nightmarish scene unfold. Bravely he awaited his fate, which he knew could only be death.

One of the dragons, a very large intimidating one, came down out of the clouds and settled several feet from him. On its back was a beautiful young girl, with long hair and ivory skin, covered in black ash, almost as if covered in warpaint.

Her name, he would soon learn, was Malak.

She gracefully dismounted and walked towards him, gliding across the sand like an ethereal phantom. Cowardice and surprise caused him to almost buckle at the knees..

"Kneel, slave."

Her first words to him did not seem to belong to the angelic child that stood before him. Her little girl voice had a strange timber to it, almost as if she was possessed by some alien being. A being far older than her. A being who had existed for as long as the universe itself. Possibly forever.

He obeyed without delay. Fear and shock consumed him in equal measure.

"Do as I say, or I will kill you now as you kneel there, insect." she said confidently.

"Do not doubt. I will turn you to ashes."

She was very condescending and arrogant. There was a rage in her demeanor, that did not become someone so young.

Then, she leaned over, held his chin up to her face, which had been pointed towards the ground in anxiety, forcing eye contact..

"Do you come from that city nearby? Tell me, where can I find my mother? Where can I find Igraine?"

She was not calm at all. She was practically screaming.

"I am su.. sorry," he stammered, "I do not know of any such person."

She studied his eyes for a moment, then let go of his chin. Paced for a few seconds in an angry half-moon arc. Then looked back at him.

"Wretched creature, you will do as I say. Ride fast. Find the woman named Igraine. Bring her to me tonight, at the volcano's edge. If you do not do this, next time I find you, you are a dead man. But if you serve me well, I may yet spare your life."

She grabbed him by his arms and pulled him to his feet roughly.

"Now go." She ordered arrogantly. Her eyes glowed for a moment, illuminated again seemingly by that otherworldly entity.

He got on his horse and rode towards the city as fast as he could, feeling thankful to just be still alive.

~

Seattle. It was nearly unrecognizable now. The buildings were stripped metal frames covered in ivy and burned to a crisp. Entropy had overtaken everything. The space needle, however, still gave the place it's distinctive atmosphere. Although in ruins and almost cut in half, the top third of it hanging over its edges, it still pierced the skyline of the cityscape with an enduring beauty. The Traveler had come here, to this alternate earth, seeking adventure and he had most certainly found it. Dragons, there were real dragons here. If not for his technology, he would have been killed by them already.

But they could not see or touch him. The cloaking force field technology his friends had invented worked perfectly.

Now he walked safely along the run down streets of this once familiar city. There was ivy and weeds still growing, but part of the place was now covered in sand and ash.

A cool wind blew the sand about in tiny dust devils.

He wandered rather aimlessly, enjoying the silence of this once crowded place. The quiet apocalyptic feeling of it was so peaceful in a way. Sometimes he would visit places he had once known, curious what had become of them.. an old coffee house, a familiar bar.. Walking to the next corner he saw another Starbucks sign, partly burnt, the other half of the sign surprisingly green and new looking.. having eerily escaped time and destruction. A remnant of the old capitalist society that had once so easily thrived here.

Complacency had no doubt fed that world. Artificial scarcity making people selfish and shallow; obsessed with money, status, and buying things. The people had been unconscious, oblivious and filled with desperation. It had been a society where egos and narcissism ruled. A society of automatons.. of hollow people; so empty, so isolated, and so alone. With no community, no commonality, no interconnectedness.. all separated by tribalism and dysfunction. Where no one ever helped each other. A corrupt world full of apathy and dead empathy. It's little wonder that their world had been destroyed. He was not surprised at all. They were consumers not citizens, they did not care about their fellowmen. They were brought up by the system to be uneducated, ignorant, dull, and heartless. To serve the system mindlessly; to produce and consume without thought or question. Was there really even any difference between humans and dragons then? They were both fueled by the same irrational instincts to multiply and consume everything around them, to destroy and self-destruct.. both dragons and men. Divide and conquer had been the name of the game in those times. It was a flawless strategy that had always worked.

Though even in that time there was immense beauty. And beautiful and peaceful and eerie that this desolate city now was, it saddened him. For the former city he loved and cherished and sometimes also hated was now dead. At least here.

He walked around the old Fremont neighborhood.. There stood the old Aurora bridge.. The place he had once kissed his long dead fiance in the rain. Such a romantic moment, it had been like a movie kiss in some old idyllic film.

That it was still standing made him happy.

In the corner in the opposite direction, on the opposite side of the street, the old pizza place they used to eat at had completely disappeared. A barren field littered with the remnants of the frames of crushed buildings was all that remained.

Next he sauntered to the bar where he had often drank margaritas, and then back to his old house up the steep hill in the Queen Anne district where he had lived for a short time.

He was again astonished to find that it was still there as well. The yard was a labyrinth of weeds and overgrown tree branches, but it was still there. He walked to the door and kicked it open..

Sat down in his old living room, then the kitchen, then wandered upstairs to reminisce some more. There was his old bedroom where he had spent his nights with his fiance.. Passion and warmth had filled them. A happiness that had deserted him for a long time now.

He decided it was time to leave. He was tired now. Tired of walking, tired of remembering. Quickly he hurried, back down the hill and to the freeway, through the endless streams of abandoned cars where everyone must have tried to flee at the same time when the dragons came. But there had been no escape.

Quickly he walked, back to his Interdimensional Travel Device. A new excitement filled him. He wanted to see what Vegas was like.

~

The rain that fell was a desperate relief to the streets of this last remaining desert city. A sweltering heat had oppressed it for weeks, unrelenting and foreboding. Why the dragons had left it standing, no one knew. It was the last refuge of civilization in a now savage and untamed world.

Because of that you would expect it to be crowded with survivors, but it was deserted. Almost everyone near enough to travel there had been killed. Burned instantly into nothingness by the dragon fire. The only people left in the city were those who had never left, or the lucky few who had managed to arrive and find sanctuary there the day the dragons were unleashed on the world.

In a small, dimly lit apartment, one woman sat at a round table, surrounded by the light of only a few candles, drinking tea.

The guards came next, breaking down the door abruptly and grabbing her, carrying her away into the quiet darkness of the empty, wet streets. Her tea cup fell from her hands and shattered on the floor, spilling liquid in a puddle of reflected candlelight. The puddle was all that remained of her, all that would ever remain of her.

____________________________________________________

Author's Note: **I composed some songs that go with this story. You can find them in the linked YouTube video. **

https://youtu.be/67DL__SazpU

https://soundcloud.com/devil-angel-286535894/sets/dreams-of-angels?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing