When Dragons Came Chapter 1: A Legendary Monster

My younger sister Cali and I had gone to the tall oak groves near the river north of my betrothed’s farm and were high up in the branches collecting acorns when I first spotted the purple dragon.

At first, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. “Cali, do you see that?” I called over to the next tree.

“I thought all the dragons were trapped beyond the borders of Hershal half an age ago,” she whisper-shouted back to me.

Dragons? Even though I knew that it had to be impossible, that Cali’s overactive imagination was getting the best of her, a shudder ran down my spine.

“We have to warn the village! I’ll tell everyone in the public square. You tell Khan and his family.” Cali scrambled down her tree and was pelting back toward home before I could protest.

We’d be laughing stock for sure.

Except—that shape in the sky was looking more and more like the beast of legend Cali thought it was. Maybe she was right. Maybe we should warn people.

I made haste getting out of my tree, but was stil slower shimmying down than Cali had been, and I know my run toward my betrothed’s farmhouse was slower than her dash toward the square, but even if I had gone at my top speed, I don’t know that I’d have beaten the dragon there. It flew faster than the wind, even on the most blustery days.

I wasn’t even halfway to the edge of the woods when it passed overhead, arrowing in the same direction I was running.

I ducked even though the creature wasn’t even close to the tops of the trees. As soon as it passed by, I picked up my pace, though what I hoped to accomplish, I had no idea. It was certainly a dragon, and it just as certainly would reach Khan’s farm long before I would.

Indeed, by the time I reached the edge of the woods, and the bluff where I could oversee Khan’s family farm, no warning could do anyone any good.

The farmhouse was ablaze, tortured screams coming from inside, and a giant purple beast crouched in the lower fields, watching the blaze, as if ready to pounce on anyone who tried to escape.

I wanted to cover my eyes, but I couldn’t look away as the monster fed the flames on the house, and devoured any who came near to defend it—first Khan, who didn’t deserve a fate like that, no matter how ambivalent I was about marrying him—and then his father.

Clearly, direct confrontation was pointless with this beast. But trying to slink away (as Khan’s younger brother Lark seemed to be doing) didn’t work either—the creature pounced, swallowed, and then returned to its watch on the burning house.

I don’t know how Rilla, my betrothed’s sister, found it in her to confront the creature. Horror had frozen me in place, shrinking further and further into myself, as if somehow, holding quiet and still could keep me safe.

Rilla didn’t seem to care about being safe. She ran right up to the dragon, shouting about revenge. Flames licked the fields around her, but she didn’t seem to notice any more than the dragon did.

A thought flickered through my mind that I ought to help her—but help her do what? I had no weapon, and even if I’d had one, I wouldn’t have known what to do with it.

Besides, I didn’t seem capable of moving. None of my limbs would listen to my commands.

For several long moments, Rilla and the dragon faced each other. Then Rillla’s bow fell from her hands, and she collapsed.

Instead of eating her immediately as it had her brothers and father, the dragon grasped her in one giant claw and flapped its wings, as if to take off, like some giant eagle with a rabbit, but from the woods, not far from where I crouched, a beam of light shot out toward the dragon, piercing its claw and causing it to drop Rilla.

From down below in the valley, shouts rang out, and soldiers stormed into view—dozens, maybe hundreds of soldiers, but they halted when they saw the dragon, knocking into each other almost comically.

The dragon roared and turned toward them, lumbering away from Rilla. It spouted fire, and most of the soldiers ran back down the hill.

But then, another arrow of light burst from the ground near me toward the dragon, catching the beast in the side this time. A great wound appeared along one flank.

A soldier shouted, “Sir Drake fights for us! Now charge!”

The rest of the soldiers rushed up the hill, spears glinting in the sunlight as they flew toward the dragon.

None hit it, though. Before the spears could reach it, the monster leapt into the air and flew back toward me, blood dripping from its side.

One giant drop fell nearly on top of me as the dragon passed just above the treetops. Finally unfrozen, I dodged out of the way, but not fast enough. The glowing red liquid splashed onto my shoulder.

Strangely, I felt nothing. I could see the glistening red, and even smoke rising from it, but I felt neither liquid not heat, and within moments, even what I could see vanished, leaving no trace that it had ever been there.

What was that?

Not real dragon blood, surely.

But if the dragon wasn’t really bleeding, wasn’t really wounded, why had it pretended it was?

Why had it left?

And was it planning on coming back?