Of the Real Monsters and Us // Short Story ✅

Of the Real Monsters and Us

Nobody has seen me before. Yet, they called me the queen of our kind. They said I could bear the weight of fifteen mountains on my back, silence the raging seas with a single breath and shake the entire planet with a single flap of my wing. But I didn't believe any of it.

How could I? The only thing I had seen were the faces of my mommy and daddy cooing over a little old me still sitting inside the base of a broken eggshell with its top stuck on my head!

I took a good look at my parents, who were looking at me as though I were a miracle. 

But, I was!

 I was born amidst war, a single-sided war between our kind and tinier, leaning towards them as it wasn't in our nature to fight.

The air was cold and wet. But that's the kind of place we lived in! We were what the small-creatures called "SNOW WYVERNS." We lived in a cave deep in the snowy mountains where no little person ever dared to enter.

According to my older sister sitting at the cliff outside the cave, I looked a lot like my dad. My little silver horns were bent down and outwards, cupping my small face. My bright and fiery orange-colored eyes took away everyone's breath. My red, pink, and black colored baby wings, white talons, and tail covered in silver scales, like the rest of my body, made me the cutest little wyvern ever born. So, mama told me.

But, what everyone loved most about me was the golden and purple colored mark on my forehead. Nobody in my family had the marking. Hence, they called me the chosen one. The one that would rule and protect our kind for years to come.

Mama and Daddy named me Áine, the goddess of summer, wealth, and sovereignty, which is ironic because we are snow wyverns.

But, what I didn't know back then was they didn't name me Áine because of what I was. But, it was because of what I was going to be.

"Mama! The humans are here!" my sister Electra yelled. Mama and Daddy were shocked. The humans couldn't live at such altitudes!

Mama rushed to see where the tiny creatures were. Suddenly, a weapon that looked forged in the depths of hell came shooting at her.

 
It penetrated through her scales and flesh and, mama came down crashing and bleeding. Just as Daddy went out to protect Electra and me, he too was shot down, and seconds later, Electra. The weapon was an arrow forged out of the dried scales of a dragon. The only weapon that can kill us is the scales of a dragon and, the little creatures found it.

Destiny and fate are strange things. Within the first seventeen minutes of my birth, my family died right before my eyes. The little creatures wanted to destroy their saviors because of their appearance.

Us Wyverns, along with the Amphipteres, Dragons, and Wyrms, were sent to protect humankind. The tiny creatures suffered due to droughts and famines after an imbalance among the elements. So, we came back to re-establish that balance with nature. All we needed in return was to feed off the corpses of the dead animals. But, our size and power scared them. They thought we were here to destroy and them. So, fear led them to kill us first.

Fear made THEM the real monsters.

Thus began the war.

But, the moment they killed my mama and daddy before my eyes, I vowed to destroy every one of them. We fed off meat very rarely. But now, I chose to swallow all of them alive.

Six months later, I attained my full size.

My old silver scales had turned into black as dark as the night sky. My wings were now the color of molten lava along with black. My purple mark grew down my forehead, giving me a royal look.

 A look fit for the queen that I was.

But, instead of maintaining the peace and harmony amongst our kind and the little ones, I chose to go to war. The Dragons and Wyrms agreed with us Wyverns. With a little convincing, the Amphipteres were on board too.

So, on that day, the 17th of November, the tinier kind would vanish. Forever.

In those six months, my power had grown immensely. I was now the largest wyvern to ever exist. Now, I really could bear a mountain on my shoulder if I tried. I could destroy towns with a single flap of my wing. I could silence the raging seas with a single breath.

I was the arcane Wyvern queen, Áine.

As I stood on the same cliff where my parents died, I let out a thundering roar. It set off an avalanche and, a few mountain tops came crumbling down.

I kicked the ground beneath me and flew a few hundred feet into the air. No human could stop us this time.

I let out another thundering roar and, the others of our kind roared with me. This time, it was a battle cry.

We came back to the world to maintain the balance they destroyed. But when one thinks about it now, the only way to keep it forever is to destroy the tinier kind.

I knew the littler ones had heard my battle cry as I heard them shuffle into positions to protect themselves. Just like I had expected they would after some of the mind-tricks I played on them.

Oh, the humans - the poor, vulnerable, naïve humans. So easy to manipulate...,

They thought they could fight us but were unaware that it was a queen who was waging war.

We flew into the air and, I let out one final thundering roar before leading our kind into battle. It was another one-sided battle. But, this time leaning towards us.

Manipulating the pieces according to your strategy is how a queen wages war and, this queen had no intention to lose.

If this queen wages war, she makes sure she wins.

   *****

TOTAL WORD COUNT OF THE STORY - 999

A/N - THIS IS MY ENTRY FOR THE #OFMONSTERSANDUS SHORT STORY CONTEST HELD BY !

I had so much fun writing this! It's one of my best short stories yet lol

Which inspired me to publish a collection XD

Hope you like it!

Do Vote, Comment and Share this story coz it would mean a lot :)

This is supposed to be a stand alone book so this one ends here. But, keep an eye out for more as a part of a collection!

Bye!

🖤,

Felicity