The Valley

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. It used to be a safe haven. A halfway point between the city and large port towns to the north. Strangers, travelers, merchants, all kinds of wonderous people would settle down for a few weeks and move their trade on. Sometimes, when it got really cold, they would stay for a month or two, until the weather granted them safe passage again. There hadn’t been anyone new to town in over five years. There hadn’t been a safe haven since…well you guys remember the attack, don’t you? It could be like that again. Some of you aren’t old enough to remember before. But it was beautiful. The smells, the colours, the people. This doesn’t have to be the end. We don’t have to let them win—

“Jemmy! I thought you were on your way out to get us some proper food?” Jack bellowed. “You did say you was gonna.”

I slammed my pen down on my desk, annoyed at the interruption. “You know I’m about to try and contact the other encampments again.” I continued to ignore Jack’s bellows as he marched closer to what I’d claimed as my office – a small wooden shack that was falling apart.

“Jemmy!” Jack’s voice ricocheted off the cabin walls. “Jemmy? You getting us lot food or what? Some of us haven’t eaten in days.” None of us have eaten in days. No one has been able to find food within the perimeter for days. We stored oats for a while, until the rats ate most of it. The rest we had to throw out when it was apparent that eating rat infested food made you sick. “Jemmy? You listen to a word I’m saying? Food!”

“Jack, I heard you the first time. Stop screaming in my face.” I got up slowly, my limbs aching from being static for far too long. I look my time stretching out, watching the look on Jack’s face morph into a scowl. In truth I didn’t know how the letters I wrote would even reach the others. But we were trying to train this pigeon that looked more and more like food everyday.

“Jemmy!”

I smiled at Jack as if I had no idea what reaction my actions were stirring inside him. “I was just about to head out. Any requests?”

Jack looked at me like I was stupid. In a way I was stupid. I broke promises even the best of people wouldn’t be able to make. I didn’t believe it was wise to go beyond the perimeter to search for food even though we had exhausted the perimeters resources. I did a lot of things that people thought were stupid. I did them anyway.

“Anything you find will be fine. Just make sure it’s edible this time.”

This time. How was I supposed to know you couldn’t eat certain berries? At least I tried.

I was almost at the gate when Jack called again, “And maybe check out the grain Silo this time. It’s literally a foot past the perimeter, I doubt a dragon is waiting for you to step foot outside to gobble you up.”

Nobody knew why the dragons didn’t venture within the perimeter. It seemed this was the only safe haven left. Although, the dead would probably disagree.

I started with the usual places: the market stalls, the huts, the fishmonger’s. They were empty of course. They had been for months. But I couldn’t bring myself to look elsewhere. Especially not near the Silo. The others didn’t understand, they were too young to remember. But the Silo was the first place that was attacked. Everyone remembered it. The skies were clear one moment and black the next. The streets were bright and colourful one minute, desolated the next.

I stared at the silhouette of the Silo, a dull grey from the distance I stood. There was another reason I daren’t go near there, a reason I had yet to inform the rest of the guys about. It wasn’t a bad reason or unwarranted. But there was no way I could bring myself to face him.

I was beginning to give up as I threw the soggy cardboard aside and peered into another empty crate. You could live without food for about three weeks or so. We still had water to last us the rest of the week. That was truly our top priority.

I turned around, planning to walk back towards our encampment empty handed, again.

There were eight lads in my encampment, including myself, on the most northernest part of the Valley. All of us were between the ages of eleven and fifteen. None of us had set eyes on a girl since the attack. The women simply disappeared. The remnants of the men crunched beneath my feet as I took a wary step forward. I stood frozen as she turned to look in my direction. Now it was definitely a girl who stood before me in that moment. I wasn’t mad. As hope sparkled in my eyes, fear seeped into hers. I began to wonder whether or not a dragon lurked above us, until I realised she was scared of me.

Before I could take a tentative step forward she took off running. I tried to keep pace with her but my lack of a diet kept me back, further and further. My thick woolly clothes melted my skin causing the jackets to become heavier with sweat. I almost blacked out from exhaustion as I crashed into a barrel. When I regained my breath she was gone. But to my disdain there was only one way she could’ve gone. I hadn’t realised at the time how far we’d gone. I wasn’t inside the perimeter anymore. The Silo loomed above me and as I held off my immediate panic I saw them. The ghosts.

Some were soldiers, some were merchants, some were faces I recognised, some were not. But they were all ghosts. I spun around looking for him. I wasn’t sure if I should’ve breathed a sigh of relief at not spotting him or be worried. My chest tightened as my panic threatened to overtake my calm. I started side stepping the ghosts back towards the perimeter.

I wasn’t sure if the ghosts were harmless or not, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. I’d never seen so many ghosts together before. In fairness I’d never set foot outside the perimeter before and the only ghost I’d ever seen was …

My heart hammered in my chest, squeezing my lungs. I couldn’t remember if breathing was something we did subconsciously or if we had to send signals to our brains manually. The ghost in front of me shimmered slightly, the heat miraging his outline. He looked right through me as if I was the one who was dead. I knew his name. It was the only name of the ghosts I knew. We shared a name. Jeremiah Simmonds. We were both named after his father, and I was named after him. I refused to refer to him by his before name. When Mamma had disappeared that was bad enough. But losing him … he wasn’t his before self any longer. He was only Jeremiah Simmonds the second, a ghost of the merchant he once was. One of the first victims of the dragons.

I glanced behind him towards the fence where the perimeter started. That was my first mistake. He took the opportunity to grab me whilst I was distracted. My second mistake was screaming. My third mistake was running in the opposite direction to the perimeter and further into no-mans land. My fourth mistake was actually my first when I took off running after that girl. My true fourth mistake, which was really my fifth, was thinking I might as well follow her dusty footprints to where she hid since I was already running in that direction.

By the time I realised the crunching under my feet was no longer bones but white chalky gravel, the adrenaline that had kept my body going as I fled simmered down.

My body, fading in and out of consciousness from exhaustion, felt like I’d been up all night and was still refusing to sleep. I tripped, losing my footing on a loose rock and slamming into what was left of a broken cart. I winced as I tried to stand, my head throbbed, dizzying my vision. I slammed myself back down as I caught sight of it. It was flying about like a fly trying to block the sun. I knew that meant it was far away, but dragons could fly across great distances within seconds.

With my eyes clenched shut I didn’t hear her approach, she only giggled after way too long of me playing ‘if I can’t see it, it can’t see me’ with the dragon.

“My, my, my. We are a determined one aren’t we?” That was the last thing I remember before sensing something swinging towards my head.

***

The side of my head stung and a substance that could have been water dripped down my cheek. I pried one of my eyes open, the sun burning my already blurred vision. I slowly opened my other eye and blinked. In my dazed state it took me a while to understand why my limbs didn’t move the way they were supposed to. My hands were tied behind my back and I was propped up against a wooden post. I couldn’t make out what the structure used to be.

“Wake up sleepy head,” echoed around me. I tried to move my head but my body felt like it was dropping and leaving me behind. “I’m right in front of you. Look up.”

I did as was asked, slowly. The girl looked even younger up close. Definitely younger than me then. Her hair was a few shades darker than mine and she looked just as thin as the guys and I. She looked just as disheveled. She looked just as warn down. At least that was something. At least she wasn’t stuck in some palace somewhere having the time of her life.

“How are you a girl?” My mind was still trying to process how she could even be in front of me. The women disappeared, they wouldn’t have just abandoned us would they? Mamma would never …

“Brave of you to venture so far outside your comfort zone. Did the perimeter run out of food already?”

“I wa–I was following … you.”

“Yes, but your place is within the boundaries set out for you by us. None of the others have wandered past their grounds. They are hungry too.”

“Don’t care … ‘bout food. Just wandered about girl. You. You are a girl.”

“Yeah no kidding. My kind are still here.”

“What?” So they didn’t disappear? They truly abandoned us? But why? And why would mamma just leave me and pa–Jeremiah?

“My kind are still here. Unlike you men who do nothing but destroy.”

The fog on my brain began to lift slightly as I became more and more aware of my surroundings. We were still outside which should make for an easier escape. “Isn’t that sexist?” I began to ask, trying to formulate a grand plan to escape my strange captor. “Not every man destroys things. And the only one of your kind as you say that I've seen is you.”

“But it is true. You may not have seen any other women, but I certainly have. And tell me, whose bones is it you walk on daily when you scavenge for food?”

A cold chill ran up the sides of my arms. My brain caught up with what she’d been saying. She knew about the perimeter. She knew about the food shortage. She knew there were other perimeters, safe havens across the Valley. She’d been watching me. “The dragons killed those men.” It was my only defence.

“The dragons are detrivores. They eat the dead. But of course you would think that just because they breathe fire that they set this place ablaze and killed all the men. Leaving the women, like myself, to rule outside of your fancy perimeter.”

I couldn’t help the gobsmacked stare I was giving her. It was hard to look at her any other way. I wouldn’t have called her a woman myself. She didn’t look much older than I was, I was sure of it. I also thought she was an idiot. Of course the dragons ate the dead. Right after setting them ablaze. I was about to tell her such when a low-pitched swooshing sounded to my right. I had heard that sound enough times to know what it was, a dragon.

I struggled in my bands gasping. “We need to go. Get me out of here. Let me go, we need to –”

“Leave?” she questioned. “Why would I want to do that? I have you right where I want you.”

I stopped struggling and looked up. She seemed calm. Too calm. Perhaps she had faced off with the dragons before and somehow lived to tell the tale?

My questions were answered when a two legged, two winged dragon perched beside her. He was almost three times bigger than she was and its tail looked awfully like a stinger. The dragon rested on its back legs – as if preparing to lunge, its tail flapping in the wind like an over-excited puppy. Hard large scales ran across its stomach, different from its feathered upper body and head and thin bat-like wings. Its breath suffocated the air around me as its cooing rang through my ears.

It was clear to me that they were familiar with one another by the way they both leaned into each other. Almost like a pet and its owner. The only question that came to mind was – who was the pet?

“How?” was all I could muster to speak. None of this encounter made any sense. I felt like the girl lured me here somehow and then was angry when I eventually made it, as if I’d failed a test.

“How what? Speak up perimeter boy. I know you’ve got something to say.”

I had a lot of somethings to say. How could she speak to me like that? How could she be so familiar with a dragon? How could she tame the thing? How had the thing tamed her? How could they abandon us? We were just kids. How could my mother, who said she loved me most in the world, walk out the door knowing she wasn’t coming back?

Was that why she’d said it? Isn’t that what you say to loved ones before leaving? That you love them, so they think you do and they never stop loving you?

I tried to stop the tears from falling, I wasn’t one to let nobody see me cry. Especially not a little girl. Especially not a little girl who lured me to my death. But I had lost all control over my senses. My head had subsided its throbbing and my eyes had released the tension they were under. Ergo, the tears.

“What are you waiting for then?” The tears lodged in the back of my throat scratching my words. “You have a dragon. You wish to kill me, clearly. You lured me out here. What. Are. You. Waiting. For?”

“We are deciding whether or not to kill you. You are correct on that part. But you are wrong about me luring you here. You followed me, remember? I will give the killing blow of course. If there is to be one. As I said before, dragons are detrivores. This guy is truly harmless.”

A moment later the sky was blocked by large wings. The cooing call of another dragon pierced our ears. I almost laughed at the girl’s shocked face. Almost. Until I remembered my own predicament.

“Oh no.” It was the first semblance of fear I'd heard in her voice. How could this girl be so afraid of one dragon but be chummy with another? There you go, another thing I wish to say.

“Don’t worry,” I joked, “he looks harmless.”

The glare I received wasn’t unwarranted.

The dragon circled the sky above us, thankfully I had begun to get my senses back. “Hey um… if you’re not actually going to kill me, mind untying me?” she glared at me again. “Please?” that garnered me an eye roll. She began to cut the ropes. As soon as they fell I pounced. I held her by her scruffs and pinned her to the post behind us. I ignored the screeching from her pet.

“Now, let me tell you what’s going to happen. I’m going to take you back to the closest perimeter. You will tell me where that is. We’ve been trying to contact them for months.”

She started to shake her head and I pushed her harder. Her pet began to flap its wings. I shook away my nerves and growled in her ear. “You will do this. And then you shall bring to me to my moth–the other women. Your own encampment.” A well aimed kick rendered me useless on the floor.

“Now.” she began, all seriousness in her voice. “Let me tell you how this is going to go. I’m going to make sure we both don’t become dragon chow. Then we shall part ways. You go back to your camp, I go back to…to nowhere.”

I didn’t like the way she said ‘make sure we both don’t become dragon chow’ as if she only planned on saving herself. “Where is your camp?”

“It’s nowhere okay. I’m…a nomad. I wonder about. I have nothing.”

“But you said…the women–”

“Disappeared.”

“But you said–”

“I lied! Okay? I lied. It’s just me out here.”

“At least tell me how to contact the others.”

“The other? What others?”

I got up from the ground and stared at her. “All of it was a lie? Everything? There’s no one else is there? The dragons they–”

“Not all of them are bad! This one saved me. But the one up there will kill us. Don’t stand in my way. Or better yet do so the dragon can finish you off for me.”

“So you really weren’t being sexist? We really did destroy each other? I get the dragons probably helped but–”

“Look here Mister ‘I just realised I’m one of the last people left in the Valley’. Wake up. Men and women both destroyed each other. The dragons took advantage. And yes, some of them burned down the village to eat our charred remains – yeah I knew what you were thinking earlier – but now is not the time. Now is not the…”

She spun around so fast I barely registered it. She threw a spear I didn’t even realise she had and it pierced the dragon's side. She pushed me down as it flew overhead. Her dragon just shrieked. “That thing really saved you? From what?”

“Quiet!”

She reached up as the dragon flew over us again and ripped the spear from its side. Gooey gunk poured onto my head. I wretched as particles of it leapt into my mouth.

She ducked, lunged, parried its claws. She moved at such a trained speed I'd never seen before. What kind of girl needed saving when she could fight like that? Then I remembered how young we were, how young we were when it all started. A young girl, that’s who needed saving. A scared, frightened, lonely girl.

I looked away, amazed that someone could fight these things. If we really were alone, at least we had hope. I stared at her dragon as its eyes captivated my own. I registered the wind whooshing in my direction before I registered its tail.

***

I awoke to rain drenching my skin. My clothes, as thick as they were, felt heavy. Almost like an extension of my body. I coughed up the remnants of solidified dragon goo. I got to my feet and almost screamed. The girl was gone.

But I didn’t scream, I didn’t need to. In front of me lay the remains of a dragon. The bones of one, I should say. Relief flushed through me when I saw this dragon had a set of extra limbs and no stinger. It wasn’t her dragon then. Which meant she killed it, and skinned it. My stomach growled at the thought.

She had left a note stapled to the wooden post with a knife. ‘I’m sorry I lied. This is the first dragon I've actually killed. All the other perimeters are barren. The people are all dead, recently too. That’s why I was scared when I saw you. Be careful. You might be next.’

I saw the barrel filled with meat after I’d read the letter a few times over. So she was at least kind enough to leave us food. How long it would last, especially without salt to preserve it, I wasn’t sure, but we certainly weren’t going to die anytime soon.

***

When I had wheeled the barrel back to our encampment, I didn’t mention the girl. I didn’t correct them when they asked if I’d killed the dragon.

“Yes,” I replied. “We can kill those things. We can end this.”