The Ruler of Dragons is...a Human?

"There weren't always dragons in the Valley." Florena, the fairy who brought me to said Valley, filled with said dragons, gives this statement as a sort of twisted consolation prize - as we are now running for our lives away from scaly, fire-breathing jaws.

Why are we running? I'm not all that sure, honestly speaking. Here's the rundown - pun intended: they, the dragons, saw us, and we saw them. They approached us with a wide and, arguably, intimidating gait. Florena and I turned tail and booked it. We can sit here and argue if this was a wise choice on our part, but if an unexpected and fabled creature were to approach you - with their large teeth, heavy footsteps and glowing eyes, I might add - would you extend your hand in greeting? Remember: large teeth.

"The dragons are not what I expected. Nothing like the picture books depicted. Plus, they are not four-legged creatures, they walk upright like humans!" I manage to get this all out through heavy heaves and gulps of air. My lungs began to burn with fatigue and, ironically, I thought that maybe I would be the one to start breathing fire.

"Well," Florena starts, her yellow fluorescent wings fluttering in overdrive as she flies a bit ahead of me, "right now, they have merely taken on their - ah, what's the word - hu...human... ah! humanoid form. What we've seen was just a fraction of their size. Surely you didn't think dragons were only ten feet tall?"

Florena shakes her head with disappointment in my ignorance, her burgundy ponytail bobbing condescendingly. A part of me, deep down inside, wanted to yank that ponytail. However, there is no room for pettiness in this situation. That, and my arms are doing enough work already pumping to keep my balance and pace as I run.

Florena peers back at me in response to my silent reply, revealing the yellow glow of one of her eyes, filled with slight panic. Suddenly, her eye widens and the panic in it multiplies.

"Duck!" Florena shouts.

No questions asked, I duck. A fraction of a second later, I hear a violent whizzing of rope go past my head.

My arms begin to pump faster and my legs whine in protest.

"What in Orlo's name was that!?" I say through gritted teeth.

"A net - this is a good sign, though, as they didn't use their fire magic. They may not want to actually cause us harm - turn here! We are going to enter the forest," Florena says and makes a sharp turn into an alleyway.

My turn, unsurprisingly, was not as sharp as Florena's. My shoulder nicks the corner of the wall as I turn. A numbing sensation erupts in my left shoulder. Stinging tears begin to well up in my eyes; I wipe them away furiously in order to see where I am going. Florena shoots a worried glance at my shoulder but remains silent.

"It's funny that you mentioned Great Mage Orlo," Florena says, after a few paces of silence.

"Oh, yeah, why's that?" I shoot a glance behind me to find that our pursuers have lost us - for now at least. I slow my pace down to a jog. Florena slows down as well, finding a seat upon my injured shoulder. I was going to let out a protest until I felt the pain in my shoulder begin to greatly subside.

"Great Mage Orlo was the one who was keeping the dragons out of the Valley. I brought you here to help me investigate his sudden disappearance. I just never expected the dragons to repopulate the Valley so quickly..."

The questions I kept bottled up suddenly erupted from me: "You never explained why you chose me...let alone why I am even needed to help your investigation - now that I think about it, I don't even know who you are! You appear out of nowhere in my bedroom speaking nonsense and then teleport me to the Valley. I've been in the dark about everything and now my life is potentially in danger. Shouldn't you at least give some sort of explanation?" I realize I was beginning to vent and decide to stop there.

Florena lowers her head in shame.

"I-" Florena begins to speak, but is cut off by a distant scree - a dragon, of course.

"We can talk later!" Florena jumps off my shoulder and picks up her pace.

I follow her lead and soon we enter into a thick forest. The light from the Valley's town completely leaves us, the only source of light has become Florena's wings. We pass through many oddly shaped trees. Some trees stretched so high I could not see the tops of them - only a seemingly endless and abundant amount of thick leaves. Other trees seem to curl and intertwine their branches like tumbleweeds, their leaves making it hard to distinguish where one tree starts and the other ends. Then there were trees completely stripped of their leaves, seemingly done by fire.

"Over here" Florena whispers as she enters a clearing.

Upon entering the clearing, we both release a heavy sigh of relief. Of course, however, our relief did not last long.

"Ohoho! What's this? A fairy and a hu- no...you there, what are you?" A deep, smooth voice calls out coyly from the other side of the clearing. The owner of the voice was hidden behind thick bushes and with the aid of night. Glowing silver eyes appear from the darkness suddenly, revealing the owner to be a dragon - their eyes are unmistakable. The dragon slowly raises its head, still cloaked in the darkness of night; I watch in awe as I follow its glowing eyes rise up to what I can guess is a hundred feet in the air - or more.

Florena and I begin to slowly back away. In response, the dragon leaps from the bushes with such speed that my eyes couldn't follow, and sweeps us into its mouth. Florena lets out a terrified shriek and I am too frightened to let out a peep.

Calm down you two, your pursuers are approaching. I highly recommend silence if you wish to not be caught. The voice was that of the dragon who just stuffed us in its mouth, however its voice manifested itself in our heads.

Florena quickly calms down, as do I. However, I worried that the heavy sound of my heart beating in my ears would alert our pursuers nonetheless. The inside of the dragon's mouth is dry and warm. It's tongue, which we are currently stepping on, is black, thick, rough and scaly. The frightening teeth of the dragon were illuminated slightly, giving us a dim light to, at the very least, see the outline of each other; they looked as though they were made from pearl based on their smoothness. Suddenly, the dragon's tongue begins to move, it lifts us up and quickly flicks us to the side of its mouth. Not too shortly after, the dragon begins to speak,

"You are in my forest. Why have you come?" The dragon, I realized, was talking to our pursuers. Florena and I were hidden in the corner of the dragon's mouth, allowing for us to be both hidden and for the dragon to speak freely and without hindrance. To ensure that we are hidden, we feel the dragon raise its head above the meagerly-sized humanoids.

The humanoid dragons scree in response. They begin scree-ing more, making me assume they were speaking in their native tongue. I could feel the dragon nod its head every now in then, also offering the humanoids a grunt in response. The very first grunt was startling as it was unexpected. I ended up banging my head on one of its molars. I decided to just sit from then on. I watched Florena as she listened closely, also nodding at certain parts.

After more scree-ing, grunts and nodding, the dragon opens its mouth to speak,

"I understand. However, I have not come across any beings of the sort that matches your description. More so, I've not come across any being prior to your...unwelcomed arrival" the dragon lets out a growl to emphasize his disdain for their appearance in his forest.

The humanoids let out a quick scree of an apology and hastily depart.

The dragon waits a few moments before lowering its head and opening its mouth for us to leave.

We do so swiftly and gratefully.

The dragon keeps its head lowered so that it can get a good look at us. While doing so, it wraps its tail conveniently around the borders of the clearing, preventing us from scurrying away. With no where to go, I decided to also get a look at this dragon.

The dragon's teeth are not the only thing that had a slight glow to it - its entire body was illuminated. The dragon had stunning opal scales and obsidian nails. It's needless to say that this creature was huge, its snout alone the length of, at least, three giraffes.

"So," the dragon says suddenly, "why are you two here?"

Florena clears her throat, "I understand that there is no sense in lying to you as you've demonstrated your telepathic abilities...so...we are here to investigate Great Mage Orlo's disappearance.

The dragon cocks one of its furry eyebrows, "Orlo..." it says in a slow drawl, as if testing the sound of each syllable and comparing it to its memories.

"Yes...I know an Orlo..." the dragon says after a while of pondering.

"Do you know what happened to him?" I finally manage to find words to speak.

The dragon flicks its eyes towards me, almost in surprise, as if remembering my existence. Its eyes fill with curiosity and intrigue.

"What are you?" The dragon asks, eyes filled with anticipation.

"Uh - human?"

"Incorrect. Or more like, impossible" the dragon retorts.

"Um...uh" I am at a loss for words. I've never had anyone try to debate me on my species.

"I say this," the dragon chuckles while lifting one of his nails to point at my chest, because you have a dragon heart - er...no...what is that?" The dragon pokes at my chest as though I was some sort of bug squirming on the ground to be poked at with a stick.

I take a step back as respectfully as possible.

Florena is silent as she also looks at me as though I'm a science experiment. She catches my glare and gives a sheepish smile, fluttering over to my shoulder to finish healing it.

The dragon lets out a boom of laughter. The force of its laughter makes me fall on my butt.

Florena fails to stifle her laughter.

"How interesting!" The dragon says after taming its laughter, "You don't even know what you are, this fairy doesn't know what you are and - even more surprising - I don't know what you are! I've lived a very, very long time, mind you; I've come across everything in this world and even in other worlds...but you...oh this is exciting!"

Suddenly, there is a distant rhythmic thumping on one side of the clearing. I crane my neck to see where the noise stems.

The dragon is wagging its tail.

"Oh, absolutely, I must figure this out," the dragon speaks to itself, "It's been so long since I've been on an adventure, I longed for it, craved it, dreamed of it, and here it comes knocking on my door...an opportunity as such cannot be missed!"

Florena and I exchange glances, the dragon gives us a toothy grin and jumps up on all fours. Florena and I crane our necks to look at it. The dragon whips its tail around to us.

"Climb on up!" The dragon exclaims.

We do so hesitantly, but there is no defying a dragon regardless of our apprehensions.

"Where, um, exactly are we going" Florena builds up the courage to say.

"No clue!" the dragon gleefully laughs, "but we have to start somewhere in order to unlock the mystery that is your companion. I can even help you with your investigation."

Florena perks up at this.

"Really? How so?" Florena beams a smile.

We finally made it on top of the dragon's shoulder, it instructs us to grab onto its mane as "lift off" is pretty rocky. We do as we're told, and as we take to the sky, the dragon glances back at us and says,

"Because I'm Orlo."