Dragons and... Humans?

Chapter 1

Rider ran through the woods, pushing past the lanky tree branches of the dense forest. He wiped his eyes with his balled fists and continued to traverse through the dense forest in his rage. He hated them. All of them. His Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, Cousins. They didn’t understand. How could they? They were raised that way. To hunt and kill what they don’t understand. But he understood. Dragons were a great thing of the past. They’re in the past because of his family. How could they be proud? Proud of slaughtering those who meant no harm, caused no harm, were no harm. It hurt to hear the history of his family being told with a brave, hell, proud smile. He felt no pride in his history though. Who would be prideful of murder, slaughter? He needed to sit down and think, think about when it started to go wrong.

    “Rider, Honey! We’re looking through old family photos, come down!” Rider’s mom called from the living room. Rider rolled his eyes and decided to go downstairs. He had been doing homework all day and needed a break, anyway. He paused ‘Mask of my Own Face’, a song he had been listening to on repeat. He trudged down the staircase and took a seat next to his cousin Austyn on the couch. What was with his family and weird names? His Grandfather was on the rocking chair with everyone surrounding him. He opened a book that read ‘Wyrrent Family: History & Pictures’. Rider smiled dearly. He loved History class and was excited to hear about his family’s history.

    “Years ago, 78, to be exact, I was hunting with my grandfather and dad. I saw a great big one swoop over us and before I could tell my grandpa and pa, I shot the wicked beast. It hit that sucker right in his eye. He fell to the ground and pa looked right at me. ‘That was a great champ!’ he said. I’ll never forget those words.” Rider’s grandfather explained. Rider slowly looked around feeling disgusted and ill. How could someone do something like that? And then tell the story to five-year-olds? He looked around and saw all of his younger cousins looking at him in amazement. 

“That’s Amazing!” His one little cousin exclaimed, “I wanna be just like you!” Rider couldn’t sit there any longer just letting this happen.
“How could you? You took an innocent dragon's life! For no reason! You just let their poor body rot!” Rider screamed while jumping up.
“You’ve gone soft boy? So what if they're innocent? They are abominations. Disgusting creatures of science I tell you! Be a man and look at your history, this is who our family is!” His grandfather said. The old twat got out of the chair and smacked Rider across his face. The younger kids snickered.

“Your grandfather’s right, Honey.” His mother said in a sickenly sweet and stern tone for what she is saying, “It’s in our blood! Killing dragons is thrilling! You shouldn’t care how it feels, but how you feel. You're happy, who cares if a few  disgraceful creatures die in the meantime?”

“I care! Can’t you see that? Hunting dragons isn’t in my blood! Their beautiful creatures! They should be living amongst us, not extinct because of dead-beat murderers like him!” Rider pointed to his grandfather, he managed to control his rage and not kill the prejudiced man.

“If you feel that way then you can just leave! We don’t want nor welcome your kind here!” His grandfather said while pointing at the door. Rider balled his fists and punched the wall, making a hole in the drywall. His first was bloodied and his heart hurt. He didn’t want to punch the wall. He wanted to punch an old prat. Rider ran up to his room and grabbed his phone. He didn’t have any social media platforms so he just turned off any tracking apps and turned on airplane mode. He dumped his school bag out and went on his computer for the last time. He emailed his favorite teacher what was happening and told him not to tell anyone. Rider trusted him and knew he wouldn’t. Rider put all of his necessities in the bag, while still keeping it light. He shoved his phone in his jacket pocket, looked at his room one last time, and jumped out the window. 

Rider stood back up and walked further into the unknown abyss. He didn’t feel bad at all. He knows he made the right choice. That house was awful. Everyone would have shunned him afterward anyway so what would even be the point of staying. He doesn’t want to try and mend his relationship with insensitive, crude losers. What was he doing? He was fifteen! He couldn’t live on his own, could he?

    While Rider was thinking, He didn’t notice it got dark, he didn’t notice the fact that he had been walking for miles, and he certainly didn’t notice the stump he just tripped over.
“Ow!” Rider shouted, along with some profanities. “What the?” He turned to see what he ran into but instead was met with the stump having a light- barely visible- shining from under it. He looked around to make sure no one was in the middle of the woods at midnight before pushing the stump. Sure enough, more light came from under it. He pushed it until he could fit through the open area.

“Woah…” Rider thought as he stared into the hole. It reminded him of the scene in the Ice Age. With the crystal palace. Or the one in Dawn of the Dinosaurs. More like a mix of both. He looked down the hole, leaning over it. He could jump in. It would be his forever escape no one would find him. Just as he was about to jump in, something pushed him in. He looked back as he fell and saw a shadowy figure covering the hole up. The person looked so familiar. 

‘1, 2, 3, 4, yep, I’m going to die here.’ Rider thought in his head while counting how long he had been falling. He hit the ground and felt the sweet release of… nothing? Rider quickly sat up and looked around. ‘Did… did I die?’ He thought while standing up and brushing his clothes off. “Nevermind,” He said, dismissing the idea when he looked at his hands and saw blood still. He could feel them stinging now. He could feel every part of him hurting, aching, the pain being overwhelming. ‘What on Earth happened?’ ‘How did I survive that?’ Rider thought while looking up. He decided to brave into the unknown world, he was already there, after all. Rider walked out of the thick brush and into the mountainous area. The mountains were bigger than any he had ever seen, and he’s seen Mount Everest, not in person though. He climbed up the side and noticed how it didn’t get any colder. It stayed warm winter- Mediterranean winter climate.
He saw a cave and his curiosity got the better of him. He walked inside the cave and looked around. It was decorated? He saw beautiful fairy lights hanging from the ceiling and small creatures flying about. Were those fairies?

“Woah… this is-” Rider started,
“Pretty? I know” Rider spun around and saw a big, dragon with shimmering scales.

“I-I’m I’m sorry I didn’t know you were- that you- I’ll leave,” Rider stumbled, swiftly trying to walk out of the cave and passed that dragon with his head down.

    “No!” The dragon roared, “Sorry, but you don’t have pointy ears, do you?” The dragon said, more intrigued by Rider.

“Umm no?” Riding responded, confused as he subconsciously touched his ears.
“Oh! Oh wow! You’re a human! A real human! And… You’re not hurting me?” The dragon said coming forward while staying hunched back. 

“Of course I won’t hurt you! I’m not a dragon hunter. I’d never harm a dragon!” Rider exclaimed while gently stroking the dragon when it came near him.

“Oh thank goodness, I was worried for a second. My name is Niarmyg, but you can call me Niar for short.” Niarmyg said while leaning into Rider’s warm touch.

“My name is Rider, I ran away here after getting kicked out by my grandfather.” Rider said, looking up with confidence. He didn’t care that his mother hated him and his grandfather kicked him out. He didn’t care if the whole world up there hated him. Because he is down here now. In the land of the lost. The creatures that have been lost to time, hunters, anything/one. 

~•~☆~•~

“Rider?” Niar said while looking down at Rider.

“Yes?” Rider responded, his eyes still closed as he laid on the surprisingly warm cave floor.

“Do you want to go for a fly? I can introduce you to the other creatures.” Niar said while getting ready to fly out of the cave. 

“What kind of a question is that? Of course I do!” Rider hopped onto Niar’s back and they started flying around, laughing, and having fun. Both of them never wanted this moment to end. Niarmyg finally had a friend and Rider could live his perfect life, escaping all that was before.