Uprooted in the Valley, Chapter 1

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. As they preferred the cooler temperatures of higher elevations, they seldom bothered the etchins residing in the villages, tending to stick to the surrounding mountaintops. From time to time, of course, they would pass overhead or, even more rarely, land in search of shiny trinkets and plump meat. This was little more than an inconvenience for the small mining town of Glimmerpass; as they would often have an abundance of superfluous materials such as silver, gold and cobretwill they could easily spare when facing even the greediest of dragons, they needed not worry about making slogs to appease unsatisfied dragons.

But Conor did not live in Glimmerpass. He had the misfortune of living the next town over as he stared down the course snout of an adolescent dragon, still barely a third its size. Its slow, calmed breaths unnerving him with each draw, Conor gripped his daughter’s hand and fished into his pocket to find the sparest shiny object he could, but found nothing but lint. His skin began to crawl as fuzz and fear began to cloud his vision, his own breaths growing rapid and untamed. He had nothing to offer the dragon, but it demanded an offering nonetheless.

The dragon took a hefty step forward, startling Conor and his child. Gently, but firmly, its long, dark claws snatched her by the waist and set her gracefully upon its back to then use its long, ridged tail to hold her in place so she may not fall. Its harsh, burning orange eyes stared into Conor’s before it turned to face a high ridge upon a distant mountain. It stared him down once more before kneeling down and leaping, sending off a gust of air behind it that nearly knocked Conor off his feet, flying off toward the mountainside. Conor watched helplessly as the beast quickly shrank into the mountains with his only child.

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The tavern was unusually quiet. The bustle of the drunken shenanigans of local townsfolk was absent, replaced instead by an unnerving calmness. L’kas knew all too well that a quiet tavern and an uneventful night never went together, but he had nowhere better to be that night, nor any other night in recent memory. He watched on from his low-lit corner table, eyes peeled and focus keen. Several of the tavern’s usual patrons sauntered in throughout the night, but there was an unwelcome sense of malaise in their silence that he had no desire to investigate.

Two “distinguished” types, not the sort to frequent this particular tavern stepped inside with a disheveled couple by their side. Their pristine clothing and dutiful strides created no illusion of intent to wine and dine that evening. L’kas had seen these sorts before in larger cities frequenting brothels, but Dolewater had no such establishments. Politicians such as these meant business.

As they approached, L’kas scoffed. “Move on.”

“It’s a generous offer,” the larger of the politicians said, her voice rich with the drawl of a wealthier upbringing.

“I’m in no mood for a ‘generous offer’ from your types.”

“The offer is not from us,” the smaller, scragglier one said confidently, as though she knew L’kas.

L’kas eyed the politicians, keeping a stern eye on the couple beside them.

“Please,” one of them spoke, his voice cracking and tears streaming down his face. “Our daughter… she’s been taken.”

“Her name is Cless; she is only nine,” the other of the couple spoke with greater composure in her voice, distant as it sounded. “Please, I have not seen my daughter’s face in days…”

“You say she was taken? By who?”

“Not a who, sir,” the large politician butted in once more. “A beast. Foul and greedy, it has taken her into its cave in the mountains.”

It all finally clicked in L’kas’s mind, like some sort of cosmic joke and he finally understood the punchline. “You must be joking.”

“We need somebody to make the delivery from Glimmerpass. There are too many raiding camps along the pass to send a party, we need somebody who can deal with them on his own such as yourself.”

“You expect me to deliver a shipment of trinkets to a dragon, alone, through raider infested territory?”

“That would be about the gist of it. Sir, I, as the mayor of Dolewater, would be happy to pay you any price you ask within our means to ensure the safe return of Conor and Wendy’s child.”

L’kas thought for just a few moments. The journey to reach the cave would be nothing to write home about, but the return, with a child in-toe? There was sure to be trouble worth a hefty price.

“Ten thousand wedges, take it or leave it. Half up front.”

“It will be done,” the mayor eagerly accepted his offer. “Please, follow my friend here to my office and she will get you your down payment.”

L’kas stood up and followed the mayor’s assistant to the door before turning back to add one more thing. “I will need transportation to Glimmerpass tonight. I will not make that ride until sunrise otherwise.”

“Consider it done.”

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L’kas had not enjoyed his journey to Glimmerpass. Mayor G’elo had elected to make the journey with her rather unpleasant assistant rather than send an escort. L’kas spent the majority of the journey in the back of a carriage doing his best to tune out their discussions of Dolewater farming operations. They seemed at odds, though L’kas could not care less about the politics of that town nor anywhere else. He simply wanted to sleep. Upon arriving in Glimmerpass, the mayor negotiated a fair trade to receive superfluous goods: a sack of gold nuggets and cobretwill slabs to satiate the dragon’s greed in exchange for two months of grains and pumpkins from Dolewater. This trade was of little interest to L’kas. After a few short hours, however, he had the offering piled into a sack and strapped to his back, ready to begin the hike up the mountain Conor had informed him the dragon had fled to.

L’kas elected to leave a horse behind, knowing that once he grew nearer to the dragon’s lair the animal would inevitably be left behind to the harsh elements of the mountain, a fate he had witnessed many travelers and animals suffer in his time spent as an imperial mercenary, and a sight he wished not to see again so soon.

The mountain’s unkempt trail—if one could call it that—was simple enough to traverse at first; however, the crunch of the leaves and stench of death permeated L’kas’s senses after mere hours of travel. In the distance he could hear echoes of partying and screams of young raiders believing their youth made them immortal. They were not the sorts L’kas had much disdain left for after years of dealings with; he knew well enough their reputation for pillage and destruction was born simply out of a desire to be left to their own devices, and those who challenged them would be met thusly.

The pass gradually narrowed as L’kas traveled, growing colder and windier the higher he made it. The moon rose above as L’kas stared off at the icy sheets just a few hundred feet higher in the mountains. He stared down the slope to a shallow gorge not far below, slotted between the summit L’kas needed to ascend and its much larger neighbor. In the gorge he saw a small camp with fires raging all around it. Something terrible had happened to the raiders who had called it home, and not long before. L’kas elected to travel a bit further up the mountain to build a small camp for the night in hopes that whatever trouble raged below him would keep far away.

The nocturnal gales of the elevation wailed in L’kas’s ears for hours; though he’d finally settled himself upon a large boulder with his cloak draped over him as a blanket, it did little to shield him from the freezing temperatures, the harsh, cold wind shooting into his ears, making them feel as though his head were a balloon rapidly filling and constantly on the verge of bursting. It had been many years since his last trek to a mountain height such as this, and it was a feeling he did not miss. After finally drifting off for the night, he heard a rustling in the rocks and snow not too far down the pass he had come from. He gripped his sword and hid behind the boulder to wait for whatever unexpected threat may present itself.

The rustling grew louder, he could hear something dragging through the snow.

“Hello?” An aching voice called out from the dark. “Please, is anybody there? I—I heard yelling coming from here not too long ago… p—please… I am hurt…”

L’kas watched as a severely burned man stumbled past him, dragging his busted leg through the snow. The man’s arm was mangled past recognition. He stumbled up the pass for a bit before dropping into the snow. L’kas stepped over to the man to speak with him, but he was no longer conscious, so he dragged him to the boulder and set him atop it, listening to the man’s chest for a heartbeat, though all he heard was a faint flutter as the man passed away.

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The following morning, L’kas continued up the mountainside. It took no more than a few hours to reach the gaping mouth of the dragon’s lair, icicles along the opening giving the impression of teeth. L’kas could feel warmth emanating from within.

“Cless?” He called out. “Cless, are you ok?”

Moments later, the ground began to rumble. Bright, piercing orange eyes appeared in the darkness of the cave as the dragon stepped forward. L’kas unstrapped the bag from his back and set it before the dragon to present it, opening it so it may inspect its offering. Behind it, a young girl with frazzled hair ran out, but the dragon quickly turned back to face her and growled, glancing at L’kas out of the sides of its eyes.

“Who is it?” She asked.

“Cless, my name is L’kas. I am here to—”

The dragon roared, shaking some of the icicles loose onto the ground. It advanced upon L’kas until he was mere inches from the mountain’s ledge.

“It’s ok,” Cless said. “She won’t hurt you.”

“And you know this how?”

“She is friendly.”

L’kas glared at the child and held his hands up. The dragon backed up once more, seizing the offering and retreating into its cave with its new trinkets. After a short time away it emerged once more and lifted L’kas and the child onto it back. Its claws, though large and sharp, were strangely smooth. The dragon was incredibly warm, its scales proving a strange comfort after the harsh mountain. He felt as the dragon’s tail wrapped around his and Cless’s waists, firmly grasping. The dragon launched itself off the ledge and soared through the valley, the intense winds sheering through L’kas’s face. Within minutes they were already nearing the skies above Dolewater.

Thick, black smoke was billowing into the sky. The dragon set down outside of the village to set down its two passengers. There was a screeching noise as a large, white flash pierced through the air and sliced through the dragon’s wing. It cried out as several armor-clad attackers crowded around them. L’kas pushed Cless behind him as he drew his sword to defend them, though the dragon unleashed a bellow of fire around them, scorching the attackers. L’kas hurried to cover the child’s eyes from the sight before them. The dragon groaned and lay on the ground.

“Cless, stay here,” L’kas ordered. “The town is not safe.”

“But what about my parents!”

“Don’t worry about them, I’ll find them.”

He ventured into the smoldering ruins of Dolewater in search of the young girl’s parents. Bodies littered the village, dozens of arrows piercing bodies but no sign of any survivors. Tracks led throughout the town. Whoever had led the attack was long gone, only having left behind a few soldiers.

L’kas finally came upon Conor’s corpse, an arrow pierced through his head. Wendy lay nearby, struggling to breath as blood poured out from a wound in her abdomen.

“Did—did you find her?” She choked out.

“Yes, she is safe.”

“Good… good.”

L’kas watched as the woman faded before him. He searched the ruins for hours, but all he found were more corpses and stragglers moments from death. There was nothing left of value in the entire town.

L’kas strode back to Cless and the dragon.

“We need to leave,” he told her.

“Where are my parents?”

“They’re gone.”

“Gone?” The girl’s eyes darted throughout the town. “What do you mean gone? Where—where are they? They have to be ok. They have to.”

L’kas struggled to speak for a moment. “They’ve left. We need to head to the other end of the valley if we wish to catch up with them.” He stared at the dragon. “And she… she needs to come with us.”

“Why?”

“Cless, dragons are social creatures, just as etchins. Haven’t you ever looked to the sky and seen several of them flying about in a group?”

“Yeah…”

“If she has any friends, they will not be happy to find her here in this state. And they will not care who was responsible.”

L’kas looked back over the ruins of Dolewater and turned back to the child and the beast. Nothing remained but them.