World War Dragon!

Chapter One - Escape From France

The noises were like thunder in their loudness, but far sharper and faster than any thunder clap. The young water dragon could feel them in the very pit of his belly.

"Like a stone giant drumming its fingers on your head" was how his little sister, Tender Leaf, put it.

An explosion loosened rocks in the great domed ceiling above them, making even the candle flowers flicker. The earth shuddered beneath the young dragon's feet.

"What are the humans doing?" Tender Leaf whimpered.

Nobody knew. Only days ago, they had had to abandon a higher nest, one closer to the Above world. Mother and Father had gone up a few times, along with the other grown-up dragons, to see what the humans were doing. But they returned quickly, tight-lipped. Now even this nest, far deeper than the last, was not safe. Where now?

They had been here eight days. The sounds got louder and louder.

Nobody could get any sleep. Their deepest nest was full, hundreds of terrified dragons, desperate to escape the destruction from the Above. Tempers were fraying.

Worried, angry dragons paced around the nest, the shell and winged fae fluttering and scattering in their wake, as they beat their great tails on the ground. Even Mother began to snap at the young dragon and Tender Leaf.

Other dragon clans were having similar problems. There were reports of humans breaking through into their vast complexes of tunnels – the Ley. But then, the messages stopped, the tree roots, centuries old, that linked all the Ley in the land together withered and rotted away.

"It must have been diseased," somebody said.

All the dragons were silent. Everybody knew it wasn't diseased. It had been destroyed, like everything else in the Above.

One night the usual explosions had a different quality. Louder, much more frequent, almost like a drumroll..

'Come with me', their mother shouted. They all rushed out of the nest towards a tunnel. A horribly bright light burst through the roof. As long rays struck the earth floor, the shell fae rolled into their shells and the pebble fae froze. Tender Leaf screamed as a huge rock crashed to the floor next to her. Seconds later, one of the hammocks full of dragon eggs hurtled down. SMACK.

The cracks were like the horrible crunch of teeth breaking against stone.

One egg landed right next to the young dragon and splintered. The baby dragon inside was still alive. It opened its eyes – a warm, deep orange, flecked with gold, like the very last of the autumn leaves. Its jaws opened and it let out a shiver of a gasp.

Its body was broken far beyond the repair even of the ablest Dragon Wizard. The young dragon brushed its back gently with its nose. Those glorious eyes closed, and he felt his own fill with tears.

'Move boy, now!' His father's voice.

Another explosion. An ever bigger crack appeared in the ceiling of the nest. The young dragon cowered. 'Run. Run with me,' his mother whispered. A protective wing fin covering him.

He could not remember much after that, other than their frantic rush through half-destroyed ley, some full of rubble, all devoid of candle flowers. When finally they did see daylight, he was almost blinded by it. They staggered out at a riverbank. His very limbs prickled at the thought of blessed, blessed water, at the joy of swimming and finally giving his feet some relief. But they had to show caution. They could smell humans. His mother and father could go invisible in an instant, but the young dragon hadn't mastered it yet. And Tender Leaf couldn't even fade slightly. Father and Mother ushered them out of the tunnel, hiding them beneath their wing fins as they crept towards the water.

In the gap between his mother's fin and her body, he spotted the humans, making their way in a long line along the opposite bank. They walked steadily, but wearily, heads down. It was not the first time the young dragon had seen humans. Father had taken him on a few trips to the Above. But...they had looked different before.

Now they were all wearing the same murky clothes, with lots of strange straps and buckles. And they all had odd hats that looked rather like shiny mushroom caps. They wore bags on their backs and each had a long wooden rod slung over their shoulders. The young dragon wondered if they were like the wands of the dragon wizards – but they were far too thick.

At the water's edge his father ushered them all quickly into the water.

They only made small plops as they entered, but even so a few of the humans looked up and shouted. They pointed their wooden rods towards them. The young dragon quickly dived downwards. Around him, tiny flashes. He looked one way and then another, thinking at first they were fish. But then he realised the flashes were metal, and frighteningly fast.

The family darted down the river together until Mother went to the surface to check and gestured for them all to join her.

'What were those things in the water... metal, like arrowheads?'

Mother and Father exchanged glances. Eventually, Father spoke.

'Those sticks they carry with them – they point them at each other. That's where the metal came from. They're very small, but if they hit flesh...'

"What is this?" the young dragon whispered. 'Some disease? A madness? What drives the humans to kill each other?'

'...and us,' Tender Leaf added, with a sniff.

Father shook his head. 'It has nothing to do with us.'

'Then why have they attacked our nests, destroyed the Ley?'

'This is why our ancestor dragons left the Above all those millennia ago. The humans don't realise those are our nests or that we are there. Their battles have never bothered us before, but this, this destruction, this killing is.... It is as though they wish to destroy the very earth they live on.'

Father would speak no more of humans after that.

They slipped back under the water, and swam downstream. And they did not resurface this time. On the way, more water dragons joined them. At first, it was just a few other families. But soon, the water was full of them, and they were as close to one another as a flock of starlings, a shoal of mirrors, tails quivering and wing-fins powering them along.

Eventually, the river widened out. The young dragon saw the greyness of seals in amongst the jewel-like scales of dragons. And he knew they had reached the mouth of the river and the sea. Father had said they were going to the island of Baedea – the green haven -, where they might find safety. The young dragon relaxed, as gradually the other dragons flowed out around them, and they all had space again.