Wings of Fear

The smoke from the chimneys swirled up in rings of grey and black as the bustling street below filled with loud honks from giant automated cars. Tzu in a striking, rainbow patterned tunic jostled through the crowd. “Move away, Klutz!”

A booming voice stirred up the otherwise slow mob, making Tzu run faster than one of the iron carts that picked up poor school children every morning. But luck seemed to not be in his favor as a particularly noisy van tried to overtake him, blowing repeatedly.

A man wearing a silver gear was going around looking for people to roast for the day. But the crowd was careful. They knew one toe out of line could end them up in a ditch. Tzu, on the other hand, was rushing past all these commotions while trying his best to avoid the ‘servant of the Council’.

“Did you not hear me?”

The question, the voice and Tzu knew he was done for. But he refused to turn around. He knew if he just gave into the gear-bearer’s will, it would be much worse for him. That was how things worked around here lately. The more you gave into metal giants, the tighter their claws dug into your skin.

“Turn around, skunk!”

The order fell to deaf ears. Tzu knew he didn’t have much time and as if proving his assumption to be true a loud blaring of multiple horns made the atmosphere tense up.

A wave of whisper flowed though the crowd. “The dragons are here.”

Tzu shivered, because of the chilly weather or the fear of facing the iron-winged creatures; he didn’t know.

The guy in silver suit leaned down to his ear and whispered, in a crooked tone, “You’re over.”

Though he wasn’t facing the guy, Tzu knew the yellowish gold rimmed crooked teeth of the guy were flashing through the greyish texture of his surroundings.

Tzu had the will to escape and if he actually tried, he probably could, but the clanking of heavy metals coming from all around him glued his feet to the dusty cobbled street. And, he slowly looked to his front and his eyes widened.

There they were. Huge metal wings and a scaly head made of crude iron with a glow of red. That was proof enough for him to realize those beasts had recently wrecked havoc on some street or neighborhood and he was sure if the Council had found out any ‘rogue’ like him the place was already a part of recent victor history of the council.

If it were anything else, he would have made a dash for it, but the dragons weren’t alone. They were never alone. Within their metallic cage, sat the keepers of the Council who drove every life in the city.

Before Tzu perceived what was happening around him, he realized he was being dragged towards one of the scaly beasts. Any normal person would thrash and struggle to get out of the grubby hands of the silver-clad guard. Tzu would have at least tried acting scared unless he hadn’t met with this perfect opportunity.

He took in some deep breaths, inhaling some of the smog, as he traced his fingers on the small remote stuck in his pocket. The moment he neared a heavily built fire-spitting monster and the guy who was dragging him towards it leaned down to whisper menacing words into his ear, he smiled, closing his eyes, “It’s done!”

In the end, nobody knew what happened as all of the dragons started to crumble down on their own and with loud howls they started melting, eventually leaving the spaces empty as smokes of dark and brown swirled up once again.