The Tiniest Dragon

Chapter 1: Elyse

Dragons had always been intelligent creatures, smart and often allies of men in times of need despise their differences. Some were houses of power capable to move hills, others were incredibly smart creatures able to speak with humans and to cohabit alongside them. This could have been meant to last if it was not for their pride and will to dominate that grew stronger with the passing centuries.

On one fateful day, at the beginning of the 11th century, dragons started to rampaged around the world. At first they seemed to be peaceful beast that should be left alone but still reasonable. It quickly turned into a worldwide massacre. Humans had become prey, dragons reigned over entire territories despises their small numbers and no one could even hope to be above them.

That is for all but one, a dragon named Elyse. As fearful as her fellow dragons, able to burn like them and to fly like no other, the only difference was her very small size. Despise being older than most dragon, she never grew above the size of a whelp, not bigger than a cat if not smaller and taking away any chance to intimidate anything beside herself.

She had become a prey for many creatures that would have enjoyed a meal like her. Humans always thought that she was a newborn and tried to kill her before she could grow even if it would never happen. Her own race, the dragons, were sometimes chasing after her but she always managed to get away from them thanks to her size and she soon got a name for herself, one that was synonym of shame and laugh: the Dark Dragonfly. Not worthy to be compared as a dragon, all would mock her size if they didn't mistaken her for a whelp and would then try to eat her as an appetizer. Her four legs wouldn't satiated a dog and her wings were too thin to be considered a proper source of meat, only her small body would make it worth it to attack her and it would not be her dark scales that could protect her, too weak to even stop a poorly sharpened blade.

This was a heavy burden, a shame that she had to carry for centuries while trying to avoid any contact with anyone, hiding in the shadows, killing small animals and stealing food for survival. But that shame soon became a strength when she heard that all the dragons were getting killed by humans, one after the other with only the strongest to survive. Elyse had no doubt that someday humans would remember her and tried to hunt her again and with that in mind, she choose to leave her small nest in the mountain of Nebelhorn, in the south of Germany, and to look for a peaceful place.

Her travels led her to Spain where she hid for more than two hundred years, moving between mountains and villages until the day where she heard humans speaking about a new land full of gold and spices, where no humans had any knowledge about dragons. Seeing this as her best chance of survival, she embarked on a ship to leave this continent for another.

The travel was long and hard, months stuck in the sea while being careful to not being noticed by the sailors and eating the few rats that managed to get inside before attacking the reserves of fish. One day the man of the crow's nest yelled and all men onboard looked at the front of the ship and even her got curious of this new land and rushed through the small holes in the ship to see the green trees behind a large beach of golden sand with a very young town ready to disembark the ship.

When the ship finally stopped moving, she waited for the night and rushed outside to disappear in the forest, leaving the human world behind her, hoping to never have to see it again. Her small wings carried her above the forest, avoiding the many new dangers of this land and discovering its new preys, traveling through the jungle, forests, rivers and seas until she reached a desert of red stones in the north.

Even if it was hot in the day, the nights were cold and comfortable with enough food for a small body such as hers and seeing that there wasn't a human soul on thousands of kilometres around her, this would become her own territory for the centuries to come.

And so time flew. Elyse's plan to escape both dragons and humans turned out to be an immense success. Not only nobody but preys good enough for her would come in the small cave that was her nest but she never saw a single dragon or human in more than five centuries.

Carved into stone high above the large canyon in front of her, her cave was a tall one, good enough to allow a man to enter but not for a dragon and that became one of her requirements when she was looking for a place to live. Her lifestyle remained the same for centuries, staying in the cave the day to avoid the crushing heat outside and going to hunt at night. The preys that she was looking for were always the same: birds, rats and mouses, some snakes and even some rare small sheep. Even better, sometimes the food would come to her cave and she would just have to kill the poor animal that thought this high spot to be a safe place.

And while she was probably the most dangerous creature out there at night, the day she would let the great condor rule the skies as even he would be too much of a challenge for her. She even saw one dive straight for a sheep three time larger than her and killing it swiftly before taking it away.

This day wasn't different from the past few thousands. She was resting in her cave, in the middle of her nest made out of many small branches that she collected through the years and regularly replacing them. She also made a little coat of plants and grass to make it more comfortable and placed it carefully at the end of the cavern where it would be too hard for an eagle to see it. A few bones were left on the ground after her meals but she would often threw them outside as a point of honor of all dragons was their nest and even if there wasn't a single dragon to judge it, it pleased her to see her well maintained little cocoon. With this perfect resting nest, she was hunting at night, only sleeping a few hours a day and spending most of her time hanging to the ceiling of the cave with her tiny claws to surprise any animal that would come inside. 

Even from her position and despise being far in the cave, she could feel the heat of the sun outside, the very same and strong enemy as she had a very poor resistance to heat that could probably kill her in a matter of hours if she didn't find a shadow to rest. 

But that wasn't her daily spot. Stretching her wings and legs, she walked out of her nest to jump in the air and flying to the ceiling, waiting for a prey. Some could say that it was a boring life for a creature with such a long lifespan but it didn't bothered her at all, it was in her blood and it has been her way of living so it seemed perfectly normal to her. More than once she wondered what happened on the other side of the sea, if there were still dragons and where were the humans, if they managed to reach her despise not having seen one in centuries. 

The only thing that changed happened in the last few years and it made her extremely worried at first. Large white flying creatures high in the sky, leaving a trail of white clouds that would disappear behind them in a few minutes. She thought for a few times that it was an unknown specie of dragons coming to explore this land but she noticed that they never changed direction and were also flying far higher than any dragon ever did. Since none of them ever came closer, she was now certain that she was perfectly safe in her cold and cozy cave.

Many noises were coming outside of the cave but the main one was the wind, strong and mighty protector but also a good ally when she needed to fly quickly without much efforts. Her excellent ears could hear it move and guess where it was blowing, which path would be the safest and where it would lead her.

But one that she hoped to never hear again was brought in the wind, one that send a shiver on her spiky spine.

"I think I can see a cave" Said a voice.