The Dragon Valley

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. In fact, it had once been a lush, green paradise filled with all manner of plants and trees. There had been many different animals, and quite a few people, that chose to call the Valley home, but there were certainly no dragons. At one point, after the discovery of large spirrium deposits, there was even a rapidly growing town. Spirrium was in high demand, and as mining operations grew, so did the Valley’s population. It was still a mystery as to why dragons began to arrive in the Valley, but what had started out with only a few sporadic sightings, soon became daily encounters. In no time at all, people began finding nests filled with dragon eggs, and dragons were fiercely protective of their young. Dragon attacks increased as they tried to claim the Valley for themselves. Whether it was intentional, or perhaps just an accidental result of spitting fire everywhere, the dragons all but destroyed the vegetation of the Valley. Fires burned everywhere and smoke filled the air, making it hard to see, and even harder to breathe.

The Valley should have been abandoned and left to the dragons, but the king would not give up such rich deposits of spirrium. There were no other readily available sources, and it was used in crafting too many products to simply leave the mines forgotten. Finding workers willing to brave the Valley had proved to be quite difficult, so prisons became the main supply for the workforce, but having people perform labor against their will was very inefficient. Having to maintain a security force just to supervise those people was even more inefficient. The king soon realized that if he was paying exorbitant amounts of money to have people in the mines anyway, he might as well just pay for skilled miners and forget the convicts and security forces.

The moment Caleb had heard the king was going to be paying small fortunes to anyone willing to travel into the Valley, he signed up immediately. He was inexperienced and young, barely twenty years old, and he knew he could not possibly hope to find such a well-paying job anywhere else. Caleb had no family and no attachments, so braving the Valley each day seemed worth the money he was receiving.

Today was the start of Caleb’s third month of work. He knew his job well and was used to the same routine each day. Caleb looked around at the eleven other men riding with him in the transport vehicle, with six of them seated against each of the side walls. Every man was wearing specially designed armor and helmets, made from the very spirrium they were being sent to mine, which would protect them from heat and filter the smoky air. They all looked identical, other than designation numbers on the upper left side of their chest armor. Caleb was 0210, showing that he was the tenth member of the second shift. Everyone’s armor was dirty and grey, meant to be utilitarian, with no concern for looks. Helmets were never to be removed, and so there were some members of Caleb’s shift that didn’t even know what the others looked like.

Caleb leaned his head back against the wall behind him. The journey to the mine took about two hours and no one seemed to be in a talkative mood today. Caleb guessed there couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes left before they arrived, so he shut his eyes to have a rest. His eyelids had barely closed when he abruptly felt the vehicle slow.

“Sensors are showing possible dragon activity headed our way,” said the driver’s voice over the intercom. “Code six.”

Caleb sighed to himself. Code six meant that the transport would power off and everyone was to remain absolutely silent. The lights went dark, and he could feel the engines shut down as the transport settled to the ground. He had yet to be involved in any incidents involving a dragon, and these stops always felt like a waste to him. Caleb knew very little about dragons, but he couldn’t see them bothering to harass such a small transport. Surely, they would just ignore it.

Despite there being no windows in the transport, everyone’s head raised to look towards the ceiling when there was a sudden, resounding roar from a dragon above them. It sounded like it was directly over top of the transport. Caleb’s eyes widened a bit in surprise at how loud the noise had been, even after passing through the audio filters of his helmet. This was the first time he’d actually heard a dragon, and he was beginning to re-think his stance on these encounters. Maybe making a quick stop to avoid detection wasn’t such a bad idea.

The minutes passed by with no further signs of danger. Caleb watched as the interior lights turned on, signaling the start of the power-up procedure for the transport. The first thing to come back online would be the electronics and sensors, so the driver could determine if it was safe to continue starting the engines.

“Looks like they’ve carried on, and there’s no sign of any other trouble,” the driver told them over the intercom. “Code two.”

The engines slowly started, and the transport lifted itself off the ground, resuming its standard hovering height of about two meters, before beginning to accelerate. Code two meant that everything inside the transport would return to normal and they would continue towards the mine, but at a reduced speed.

Caleb found he was surprisingly relieved upon hearing the dragons had left the area. He hadn’t realized how much he’d begun to worry when he heard that dragon roar. Thankfully he had his helmet to shield his expressions from the rest of the crew, because he suspected there may have been more than a hint of fear on his face a few minutes ago.

“That was crazy loud,” said Kal. “I’ve never heard a dragon before. Are they all like that?”

“No, that must have been a little one,” answered Jacob.

“Are you… are you serious?” asked Kal.

Liam, the shift leader, laughed. “He’s just messing with you. Yes, all dragons are that loud. Big animals make big noises.”

“I wasn’t joking. You think these are big?” Jacob asked rhetorically. “I’ve been up to Drunsloh. That one they’ve got in the castle up there makes these little guys look like babies.”

Everyone could almost feel Liam’s eyes roll. “Yeah, yeah, we’ve all heard how you’ve been to Drunsloh. First of all, that one in the castle is not just any regular dragon. It’s a prime dragon, and we don’t have anything like that around here. Second, that dragon is domesticated, and these ones around here are wild, so they can’t be compared anyway.”

“Domesticated?” Jacob laughed. “You can’t tame a dragon.”

Caleb didn’t usually join in the conversations of the crew, but he couldn’t resist this time. “I heard they have dragon riders up there. Is that true?”

“Absolutely. I’ve seen them,” said Jacob.

“How do they have dragon riders if the dragons aren’t tamed?” asked Kal.

“Yeah, Jake, how do they have dragon riders if the dragons aren’t tamed?” repeated Liam.

“How would I know?” Jacob replied defensively.

“I thought you were the dragon expert,” said Liam mockingly.

“I never said I was-“ Jacob was cut off as an alarm sounded over the intercom.

“Code nine-nine, code nine-nine,” came the panicked voice of the driver. “Prepare for possible code Victor.

“What’s a code Victor?” Caleb asked. He was sure he knew all the codes, but he’d never heard of that one.

The transport lurched forward as the speed increased rapidly. Code nine-nine meant they were about to make a full-speed run for the mine to avoid an unavoidable incoming dragon attack. The transport was close enough to its destination that the driver felt they could outrun the attack.

“Everyone be ready to abandon the transport!” shouted Liam.

“What!? Boss, what’s a code Victor?” asked Jonah, the newest member of the crew.

Caleb was glad he wasn’t the only person on the crew who didn’t know what was happening. Judging by everyone else’s confused response at hearing the code, most of them were lost as well.

“If things go bad and we can’t make it to the mine, the driver may, at his discretion, call a code Victor. If he does, that means the transport will not survive the attack and we are to evacuate immediately,” Liam explained.

“Evacuate? Are you insane?” Jonah asked, forgetting that he was talking to his boss.

“These transports are tough, but they’re not invincible. In certain situations, we’re better off to abandon it. The reasoning is that the transport will distract the dragons long enough for us to escape the area.” explained Liam calmly. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but we need to be ready.”

There was a loud bang as something impacted the side of the transport, causing it to veer off course. Another bang, and then another. Whatever was happening outside was not good.

“Code Victor,” the pilot shouted over the intercom.

The ramp at the back of the transport suddenly opened, falling down and dragging in the dirt below. All that could be seen through the clouds of smoke and dust was the orange glow from the many fires burning all around them.

“Everyone out!” Liam yelled at his crew. “Abandon the transport!”