The Dragons of the New World

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. In the past dragons were great, powerful, and a rare sight to see. They were old and special beings which dispensed wisdom if an adventurer helped them in a time of need. Everything changed in the early 1900’s. It was everyone’s belief that dragons sought after special metals because of their concentration west of the Rockies during the gold rush. After Las Vegas was built in 1905 however, they started flocking to the valley where Sin City was located.

A little over one hundred years of them being a common sight has revealed to humans that dragons simply enjoy indulgence and wealth. It doesn’t matter if its chips at a poker table or time spent gorging themselves on endless buffets. Las Vegas has become a hub of dragons. Many of them adapted over time. Some saw the humans in the valley and rejected the city. Those dragons are much more like the ones in old stories. Massive and a rare sight. Many aren’t sure if any actually exist anymore. Some utilized their old magic of shapeshifting to blend in with the humans too much and now look something more like a human and dragon mix. These are more often called Draconians. Finally, you have the dragons which leaned on the humans too much to get wealth and food. Draconids. Over time they became small and rodent like. These creatures are a common pest, now outnumbering many desert lizards.

That is where Rudy’s story begins. Rudy Sanchez is a native Las Vegan and works for the Nevada Wildlife Services. He tumbled out of the truck issued to him along with a couple of beer cans. He just turned twenty-one a couple of weeks ago and most of his friends were attending University of Nevada, Las Vegas. They had all the free time in the world and had been enjoying as many parties as they could. Rudy felt he had to catch up with them since he actually had to work and couldn’t attend all of the social gatherings of his peers.

“How many of these am I supposed to take care of before I can call it quits,” Rudy asked into the walkie talkie.

Rudy’s supervisor, Dave, back at their headquarters responded, “Look, man. You can head back when you fill the truck, the rock is clean of those lizards, or the sun goes down.”

Rudy adjusted his sunglasses and looked high up in the sky. It was going to be a longtime before the sun went down. Longer than Rudy’s phone battery would last. He scratched the stubble on his jaw and threw back his unkempt hair, trying to come up with any way to make something out of this workday. Rudy sighed. “Fine. I’ll be back around three.”

That was one of Rudy’s most redeeming qualities. When he put his mind to a task, he could always achieve it even if he was ill equipped. What he was equipped with was his old Zune he bought from a pawn shop. It had to have been owned and well-loved by someone born in the 60’s due to its number of 70’s and 80’s jams in a mix title ‘Pump Up Tunes’. The Zune was broken except for its play button and the charging port. Threw his headphones in, grabbed the net from the back of his truck, and stared down the plethora of cat sized dragons. These little things had wings, but they couldn’t fly, and Rudy ran short distance for the track team in high school. Rudy bounded up the incline to the tune of Tom Sawyer by Rush.

Two hours later, Rudy shut the gate on his second to last crate. Rudy breathed a sigh of relief only for the tiny dragon to push open the gate. “Dang!” He thought to himself that he must not have made sure the clasp shut tight. Instinctively, Rudy grabbed the dragon by its breast and threw it back into the cage. He slammed it shut tight this time and swore to himself. The soft burn on his palm was a reminder that he shouldn’t feel bad for these creatures being stuck out in the Las Vegas summer heat. Their own scales absorbed the heat better than the rocks in the valley so they could stay warm at night.

Rudy ran to the cabin and cracked open a now warm beer. The fluid burned against his hand in a way that felt oddly good. Almost like it was healing as the beer touched his palm. “Dang. You guys are a real pain huh?” There was something about the little dragons that he liked. They weren’t advised to be kept as pets. Sometimes people did raise them but there were occasional cases of house fires that always persuaded Rudy to keep his distance. Still, there was always a fascination with them. If he could afford to go to college with his friends he always thought he would study draconic biology.

Rudy’s focus was broken by the clattering of rocks up the hill. He looked back to the grates in the bed of the truck. “Just one left.” Rudy readied the net and head up the hill. The small dragon was green with a thin red line down its spine. It looked back at him like a scared dog and bolted up the mountain.

Africa by Toto guided Rudy up the rocky terrain towards the draconid. He swiped the net threw the air sure that it would pick up the creature, but it rolled to the side and skittered around a Plains Prickly Pear cactus. Rudy nearly dove after his quarry but stopped himself before tumbling into the sharp bush. Instead, he slid into the dry earth face first.

Rudy opened his eyes no longer seeing the world in a sepia tone through his sunglasses. Instead he saw the draconid perfectly clear as it bounced up the hill and through a small cave. Now Rudy had to go after it. Not because of his drive to finish the job. No, now it was because he couldn’t let a little rodent leave him in the dust like this.

Rudy stood up and went after the beast. The cool shade was a kind reprieve from the hot sunlight. That was one of the nice things about Las Vegas. Its dry heat meant you could instantly feel cooler the moment you found some shade. Rudy threw his hand threw his hair and flicked away the sweat that had collected there.

“Come on! How deep does this thing go?” Rudy whistled and called after the small dragon like it was a dog. Then he felt stupid for even thinking that would work but his walkie-talkie interrupted his self-deprecating thoughts.

“Rudy, come in. This is Dave.”

Rudy sighed, “Yeah?”

“Just checking in. You haven’t checked in recently. A couple hours maybe.”

Rudy crawled forward a couple more steps, but the earth gave away below him sending him sliding down a rocky slope. Any light he had from the outside had escaped him now.

“Rudy, are you drunk? I swear if we-”

A static whirred through the walkie talkie. Rudy brushed the dust away from his eyes and forehead only to notice most of it had already clumped up into pieces of mud around his eyes. The earth rumbled as he landed causing him to be wary of his next steps. “Strange.” Rudy realized he was sweating. He breathed a heavy breath only to realize how hot the air was.

“Strange? We’ve zzzz complaints zzzz. One more zzzz You’re out.”

Rudy was going to pretend he didn’t hear that and played into the radio interference. “I’m sorry Dave. You’re breaking up. Don’t worry man.” Rudy noticed a light flashing from below. “I’m almost done here. Just finishing up with a draconid in a tiny little cavern area. I’ll be back-“

Rudy aimed to finish his explanation, but the radio whirred the a strange interference. He clipped it to his belt and moved to the edge of the small cavern. Only it wasn’t a small cavern at all. It wasn’t the tiny draconid puffing little flames to light of the space either. Instead, Rudy pulled his hair back again looking at the snoring gold dragon. It was a full-sized dragon the size of the pool at the Bellagio no matter how you measured it. “Woah”.