Daddy Dragon's World - The Original

Strike a Match

He got up, looking over to the figure laying beside him. Good, she was still asleep... He quietly got out of bed, walking silently out of the room, out of the castle, and out of sight.

He made his way down the Blackstone stairs, the sun hadn't even risen yet, and the birds hadn't even begun their chirping. He was walking in the time no player or beast was supposed to walk, the time where there was no noise, no activity, nothing, just the ringing of emptiness.

The only noise he could hear was the crunch of dirt beneath his shoes. He guided himself to his destination not by what he could see, but memory. It was to dark to see anything anyway.

He stopped, his gaze rising. The moon faded out of a cloud and illuminated the tree in front of him.

Sunflower's home...

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a match box. A smirk plastered on his face and pure evil in his eyes. He pulled one out, holding it up and glaring at it.

Flick

The sound of the match striking against the box echoed loudly in the silent night. He looked into the fire, how could something so small hold so much power? With a chuckle, he tossed the match onto the tree and watched as the flames began to spread.

He spun around on his heels, a mischievous grin painted on his lips as he began walking. The heat on his back was all he needed to confirm the tree's approaching demise...

As he walked off, a wall of orange rose up behind him, sizzling loudly as branches fell with every second.

Narrarator's P.O.V

Ranch was awoken not by an alarm, but by a feeling of dread knotted in her stomach. She got up, grabbed the sword next to her bed and walked to the door. Gripping it tightly, she grabbed the handle with her free hand and opened the door.

Smoke

All she could see was smoke. It clouded the sky which should've been bright with the sunrise by now. Ranch coughed, trying to pin point where it was coming from.

When she looked towards Sunflower's house, her stomach dropped. "SUNFLOWER!" She screamed, dropping her sword with a loud clang and sprinting off towards the burning tree.

She ran up the stairs, trying desperately to dodge the flames threatening to burn her. She didn't even stop at the door, Ranch rammed her elbow into it, ignoring the heat increasing around her.

"SUNFLOWER" She screamed out again, she looked around, coughing from the smoke. Her eyes watered from the heat, but she searched until she found Sunflower sitting on the floor, unconscious.

Running over, she picked up her arm and slung it over her back, holding it with one hand and starting to stumble back out of the house. Her foot landed on a burned board and she managed not to get stuck, practically dragging Sunflower out, she stumbled down the stairs a collapsed onto the grass, gasping and coughing.

After 15 minutes straight of coughing, Spade and Tarter finally arrived, Tarter looking slightly more concerned then Spade, and both breathing heavily from running towards the smoke.

"What happened?!" Spade shouted, looking over her shoulder at the fire which was still going strong. Tarter glared at Spade "Do you need someone to spell out F. I. R. E. for you? It's pretty obvious what happened." Spade growled quietly at Tarter's comment.

Sunflower looked around worridly. "Where's L-" She was interupted by slightly pained yips and the patter of paws on the dirt. The black dog ran over to Sunflower, jumping on her and kicking her face. Besides a few burned batches of fur, she appeared to be okay.

Sunflower sat on the ground with her dog sitting on her lap, tongue lolling out and eyes closed in content. The rest of them stood in a circle around her. "I don't think this was am an accident..." Ranch speculated, looking g at each set of eyes staring back at her, everyone seemed to hold a skeptical gaze. "Everything around here is 'never an accident' to you Ranch, calm down" Spade scoffed, looking straight at Ranch in annoyance.

"Guys, look" Tarter was kneeling on the ground near where the fire started, everyone walked over. Tarter picked up an end of a match that surprisingly didn't burn. "I think she's right, again..." Tarter eyed the wooden stick. "Something's definitely going on again."

At that moment, Ray and Dean walked up behind everyone, Ray had a look of confusion plastered to her face. "What... what happened?" While Sunflower did her best to explain, Ranch was looking past Ray, at Dean actually. His purplish eyes had disappeared, replaced by dark brown ones. He looked past the crowd, over to the tree that now was only a blackened stump, and Ranch watched as a smirk formed on his lips...

One Week Later...

Tarter sat there, staring out of her window at the water. Ever since the... incident, everyone had basically kept to themselves. She couldn't understand why. If anything, it should've made them talk more, but she'd only seen Ranch outside of her basement once.

She flopped onto her bed, closing her eyes and quickly falling asleep, just a quick nap wouldn't hurt... Right?

He crept closer, this time, there was no darkness to hide his presence, there was silence though. He didn't know how silence could be so deafening... He guessed he just wasn't used to Fabania being this quiet during the day.

He arrived at Tarter's house and peered through the window. Good, she was sleeping. In one movement, he grabbed another match, struck it on the box and held it in front of him. He was about to toss it when he heard something near him, he ran into the forest and searched the beach for what he heard.

Suddenly, he realized in his panic he had dropped the match. "Shit" he muttered to himself. That's when he saw Ranch walk over and pick it up, that's when he knew, he would have to either lie low, or do something about her.

'Daddy Dragon doesn't "lie low" ' He growled...