The Invasion of Smaragdus

There weren't always dragons in the valley.

Up until 50 years ago, there were only peaceful beings in this canyon which I looked at through eyes swollen with tears. Where hundreds of colourful, cozy wooden houses once lined the edges of the Sapphirus lake, there were now domineering, grey, square-brick settlements. Large pipes extended from the structures like thick, rubber entrails, plunging into a sliver of what the lake used to be. For every settlement, there was a dragon chained to the roof. They would often try to break free from their roles as giant, fire-breathing guard dogs. But the chains are unbreakable - just like we thought we were 50 years ago.

I remember so clearly how it felt, my brother Jasper and I sitting in our boat on the Sapphirus lake. This extraordinary lake was nestled comfortably in the Sapphirus Valley which ran through the center of our island, Smaragdus.

The waters of Sapphirus lake were so calm and the wood so sturdy we barely felt a ripple. My father and I had built a new boat from oak planks which we had been able to afford due to selling more Sapphish. We had our beautiful Chercat, Greta, to thank for that - every time we fished she sat at the bow of the boat, her lush coat brightly burning auburn as the sun beat down. She was big enough to see across the lake for long distances - her eyes, although smooth, large, and glowing like carnelian gemstones, were sharp as daggers, flitting over the glittering water, as if they were firing tiny arrows into the deep blue.

Often we got lucky on days when the water was clear. The Sapphish came within inches of the surface, and Greta was so fast, there were times I'd blink and she'd already caught three. Her record was 67 in one hour.

A big portion of Smagdarus's economy came from our large Sapphish population and the fact they grew and reproduced at rates that were higher than anywhere else in the world. As a result, many valley dwellers, including my father, my brother, and I, made our living catching Sapphish, and for centuries Chercats had proven to be invaluable companions for fishermen.

The seasons when the waters were cloudy and we were struggling to catch Sapphish were the times when Greta's skills really shone through - the long tufts on the ends of her ears rapidly extended and contorted until each tuft resembled a small fish. She then dangled her head over the boat and carefully threaded them into the water. Not only did this lure Sapphish to the surface - the tufts were highly sensitive to vibrations and could locate a shoal half a mile deep, telling us where to aim our fishing lines.

The Sapphirus lake had magical properties. If townspeople weren't making money from Sapphish, they were selling tomatoes the size of pumpkins and broccoli resembling small trees that had flourished with water from the lake. Every year my dad entered the valley's annual contest of who could grow the largest sweet potato - but to make it grow to the biggest size was a laborious task.

Tudwrig was a nocturnal capybara who my father had been friends with since I was a small child. Every year he volunteered a helping hand in the months leading up to the sweet potato contest, making sure the potatoes were thoroughly watered whilst we were sleeping. In exchange for his time, my dad gifted Tudwrig butternut squashes to keep himself and his large family nourished. They lived in the forested wetlands at the base of the valley where the land began to flatten out. The people who had journeyed out of Smaragdus were well acquainted with the capybaras as the wetlands were the only way to access the sea but most people who were born in Smaragdus happily lived out their whole lives there.

And a happy, peaceful life it was. Smaragdus had been a socially democratic nation for over a hundred years, and our current governor of 30 years, Ozgur, had taught the citizens of our small island to value community over wealth and to accept your neighbour no matter what colour, gender, age or species they were. Necessities were prioritized over dispensables and so natural resources were protected and shared equally among citizens. For example, if my family caught more Sapphish than others, we often sold our usual share and then gave the excess to our neighbours.

One morning, everything began to change. Our town Tel-i-can swooped into the valley in the early hours and we heard the thud of the daily newspaper on our lawns as the giant bird strategically dispersed them out of its throat pouch from a significant height. We heard its shrill squawk notifying us that it had finished the paper round before it flew away. The front page that day boldly read "Ozgur Baker, Prime Minister of Smaragdus, dies aged 97. Adopted son Jaxon Baker to become new ruler".

Jaxon Baker was an Immortal from a land across the sea known as Adamas Island. He had been discovered by Ozgur ten years ago when he washed up on the Smaragdus shoreline, his clothes ragged, his skin yellowing, blistering burns everywhere. He was only a teenager and it was obvious he had endured something unimaginable. Ozgur took him under his wing and gave him a place to call home in his monastery which sat comfortably in the hillside overlooking the valley.

"It will be strange having someone new in power after 30 years. But I'm sure Mr. Baker will carry on Ozgur’s legacy. Don't you think, Ruby?” My dad commented that morning during breakfast, sipping on his lavender tea.

I nodded my head as I tore off chunks of my pancake and tossed them into Greta's mouth. I wasn't sure how else to react. At the age of 15, I had known no leader other than Ozgur.

"I hope Jaxon is kind like his dad," said Jasper, "because if he's not, we're going to be stuck with him forever."

My brother's words have haunted me ever since.

About a month after Jaxon came into power, Tudwrig visited one evening. We had arranged to play a game of Risk before my father, brother and I went to sleep and Tudwrig watered our crops. When he arrived, he appeared visibly shaken by something. I poured him a fresh glass of water.

"Are you okay? Come on, sit down."

Tudwrig sat down, took off his herringbone cap, and started fiddling with it nervously.

"Have you seen anything strange happening?" He asked.

"Strange in what way?" responded my dad, a look of concern on his face.

"...I'm not sure if I'm losing the plot," Tudwrig continued, his voice cracking slightly, "but I think I saw the silhouette of a dragon last night. Flying towards the sea."

My brother, father, and I exchanged disbelieving glances across the table.

"Tudwrig…" my dad said, trying his best to sound understanding (even though we all thought he had eaten one too many psychoactive swamp-pods), "...you know there's never been any dragons in Smaragdus, don't you?"

My father was right. There had been a mandate in place for centuries, even before Ozgur, prohibiting any harmful species on our island which could be weaponized. Dragon eggs were traded illegally or between countries that were at war, as dragons could be trained to disintegrate entire villages in minutes.

"Yes… maybe I am imagining it." Tudwrig said, but then stated firmly, "But I'm telling you, something doesn't feel right about Jaxon."

A few days later, an ear splitting gunshot shattered the tranquil quiet of a Sapphirus morning. Due to our pacifist state policy, pretty much everyone in Sapphirus had never heard a gun in their life. Families who had been woken by the blast warily opened their front doors in their pajamas, many too nervous to take a full step outside. Their eyes frantically scoured the surroundings for the source of the ominous sound. Then a piercing scream immediately diverted their attention to one garden.

A little girl was looking down at the ground with an expression of pure horror on her face; her mother swiftly grabbed her and pulled her back inside the house. A small crowd of people soon formed around the garden, including me. It was our town Tel-i-can. He lay lifeless on the lawn, his belly exposed and wings spread out like a fallen angel. His head flopped sadly to one side, one eye still open but clouded over. Blood bloomed brightly from a single gunshot wound to his chest.

Feeling sick, I turned and ran as quickly as I could to our house. My dad had just woken up and was at our doorstep in his dressing gown. He noticed my panic.

"What's wrong, Ruby?" He asked worriedly, as I hurried down our garden path and past him.

"Tudwrig was right - something awful is happening. You and Jasper stay inside!"

I found our Wyrebird and opened its cage. It awoke with a chirp and hopped up onto its perch.

"Wyre, I need you to deliver a message to Jaxon Baker. Please send:

'We need your help. There are weapons in Sapphirus and somebody has shot the Tel-i-can dead. Please help us.'"

The Wyrebird whistled its riff to tell me it had finished listening, then opened its beak to play my message back to me in perfect mimicry. Once it had finished, the bird then played an automated message that it had saved in its memory:

"Would you like to re-record your message?"

"No, that's fine." I said.

The Wyrebird's chest began to blink with a red light, and I opened a window for it. It took off and made a beeline for Jaxon's monastery. Unsurprisingly, my Wyrebird was joined by many others that morning.

Someone had sent a Wyre to the Sapphirus vet asking them to examine the Tel-i-can and dispose of his body in a dignified way. By the time the vet got there, most of the townspeople had heard about what had happened and half the population of Sapphirus was now gathered at the sight of the Tel-i-can's brutal murder. This included me, Jasper, and my father.

The vet was a well-known Capybara who had family in the wetlands but resided in the valley amongst us humans, mainly because it was easier to tend to the sick animals of Sapphirus. A few hundred Sapphians watched as she danced gloved hands across the Tel-i-can's body.

"It looks like the gun would have been fired from a lengthy distance as he was flying." She said, examining the bullet wound. Puzzled looks were exchanged; there were no skilled gunmen in the valley to fire from such a distance.

She then reached deep into the Tel-i-can's throat pouch and pulled out the day's newspapers. As she began to unfold them, people huddled around as a foreboding image unraveled in front of our disbelieving eyes.

We saw what the clifftop albatrosses had reported to the Tel-i-can and his team of octopuses this morning - the octopuses had inked a silhouette of Amadas Island and the choppy sea that lay between us and them… in this picture, there was something on the water…

…In the meantime, a sound was heard by the Capybaras of the forest wetlands. It was the sound of many voices, getting louder, closer, and there were signs of movement in the trees. A brutal crack splintered through the air as trees, one by one, began to fall. Families of birds cried out as they were forced to flee their nests, creating a chaotic canopy of sound and distress. Tudwrig turned to his family and said "Run! Towards the caves!"...

…on the image we saw ships - huge, industrial, metal vessels, and many of them. People gasped and clasped their hands over their mouths; then we heard the birds.

We turned to see hundreds of them flying our way and for every tree that dropped our hearts dropped into the pit of our stomachs. Each bristling thud became louder as this unknown force cleared a path through the forest; their blatant disregard for nature was a harrowing introduction to the chaos which they were about to unleash upon us.

The fight or flight response kicked in and divided the people of Sapphirus; some of us ran to our homes and some of us stayed put, ready to face what was coming. I was amongst the latter.

For every tree that crashed to the ground, the clearer we could see them - a parade marched through the mangroves, clothed in white rags, some on horseback, many on foot. They were led by figures who were riding on the backs of 3 giant rabid beavers, their jaws gnashing violently and spraying hunks of saliva, their eyes bloodshot and angry as they craved more wood to devour.

The sight was truly haunting - we had never seen such pallid, sickly-looking creatures, swaying with each step. It didn't matter how frail they appeared - there were many of them in comparison to us, and strapped to the torso of each person who was riding a horse or beaver was something we'd all learned to fear - a gun.

At that point, those of us who hadn't fled to the safety of our homes ran to stand underneath our leader's monastery and scream at the top of our lungs for help. We had no method of defense if these invaders attacked us - we desperately needed Jaxon's help. My father and Jasper joined me.

The army of frail beings spilled out from the forest which now had a trail of destruction down its center and began to make a 'V' formation around the lake. As they drew closer, I started to feel slightly worried for their well-being. On their skin of ghastly white, many appeared to have blisters or open, weeping sores. The only time we'd seen that before was when Jaxon first washed up on our island. They began to separate into groups, drawing a suffocating circle around us first so that we couldn't escape. The others went towards the homes. My dad, Jasper, and I held onto each other tightly.

At that moment, there was a bellowing sound that was so deep it filled the whole valley and made the earth shake. We all turned to where it was emanating from - it was our new leader, walking out onto his monastery balcony with what looked like a giant, purple, spiralled horn in his hand.

It was the first time he'd shown his face since he became leader. Dressed in Ozgur's golden gown, he positioned himself in front of a shrike-o-phone, ready to speak. A woman stood at the side of him, also in front of a shrike-o-phone. The chanting of voices, the clip-clop of many horse hooves, and the snorting of the beavers was now deafening.

Jaxon began to talk in his native language and the woman on his left translated as he spoke.

"For the past ten years, I have watched humans enjoy this land and everything she has to offer. My father gifted you easy lives and looked after you as if you were his children.

Although he was a gentle man and sheltered me when I needed it, I wish he had cared about my own kind as much as the humans of Smaragdus. Whilst my brothers and sisters were suffering at the hands of your kind across the seas, you were enjoying the luxuries that had been handed to you. Ozgur called himself a democratic man, but ask yourselves this... why would a democratic leader put his species above others?"

"You're wrong!" I cried out, "and what 'luxuries'?? We work hard for everything we've got!"

The look Jaxon gave me sent chills down my spine. His head jerked in my direction, his eyes filled to the brim with black and I felt icy hands grabbing my arms and pulling me out of my father's grip. I looked up to find the hands belonged to two of the invaders, who we now knew were Immortals. Jaxon bellowed a command at them and I felt the rigid, cold metal of a rifle cutting into my ribs as they dragged me away from the crowd.

"Leave her alone! That's my daughter!"

"Dad!" I screamed.

Jaxon continued his tyrannical speech as I was pulled away.

"For years the Immortal race saw no joy, only fear... no love, only pain... no light, only darkness... but I washed up on this fruitful, magical island ten years ago for a reason. I was destined to make this island mine, make it a home for my people."

From the dark clouds which were pluming quick and fast, a distant roar rumbled like thunder.

"And starting today, we will make up for all those years you humans - you insignificant, ordinary mortals - took away from us."

The whole valley was plunged into darkness - but it wasn't the clouds; it was a great, behemoth, winged shadow.

"Starting today, Immortals will take full advantage of all that Smaragdus has to offer - the extraordinary water, the fertile land, the rare minerals, the animals... and you humans..."

That's when we saw it. A great, leathery war machine dropped nose-first out of the clouds, turned, and began to charge into the valley like an F-16 Fighting Falcon, smoke billowing from its nostrils.

"...You humans get to enjoy the power of our dragons."