Dawn of the Dragons

Chapter One

Millions of years after the apocalypse peace had finally returned to the land, dragons had finally come out of hiding and now roamed the land, free of all concern, until one day...

...to the shock of the dragons, a great roaring, mechanical whirr breaks the peaceful silence of the land, and an enormous metal contraption crashes into a clearing burning up the grass and foliage around it: the humans had returned.

Faustus was the first to see them come, one by one they swarmed out of the metal machine they called their spaceship. He guessed there were about 300 of them, he watched them for a moment, in curiosity, at the way they huddled together gawking at their surroundings, before he silently flew out to tell the others.

A great assembly was called. It had been a long time since Faustus had seen all the Dragons gather together. He looked around and at once was aware that he was the smallest dragon there, he felt grateful for Ricochi, his great great grandfather's company. Everyone fell silent as Ricochi and the elders explained the situation to everyone, for it was a very peculiar situation indeed.

Dragons had roamed the planet freely at one point in time, long, long ago. Then the asteroid had come and plunged the planet into darkness, few dragons survived, many other creatures, magical and non-magical, died out and were never to be seen again. The dragons went into hiding, in order to keep the dragon race alive.

Then came the humans, mundane as they were, they were an intelligent life form that soon came to populate the planet. They built cities and machines that began to take over the trees and wildlife, they experimented with harmful objects and released dangerous chemicals into the environment. The dragons became worried but the wise elders told them to sit still and wait it all out, "those petty humans are intelligent but their curiosity and hunger for power will be their downfall, they are playing with the balance of nature unaware and ignorant of the consequences. We could try to help them but they would fear us and in their fear they will attack us, try to capture us. Have you not seen what they have done to the rest of the creatures on the planet? We do not have the power in number to face their machines at the moment. Therefore we must wait."

Of course there were those who tried to aid the humans nevertheless, but they only succeeded in proving the wise dragons words right. And so the dragons watched the human race destroy themselves. Thousands of years later, as the planet became habitable once again and nature's balance was restored, the dragons finally came out of hiding and all was well until the humans showed up again.

Faustus listened intently as the dragons discussed what should be done next. No one was really sure as to how they felt towards the humans, their return was certainly something the dragons had not anticipated. There were those who wanted to kill the humans for unleashing terror upon the planet and then daring to return after all they had done, "they don't deserve to live," they said.

Others argued,  "they must have learned their lesson after almost wiping out their race, they deserve a second chance to learn from their mistake. Besides, they have not done the dragons any intentional harm, they said. And they cannot be blamed for their curiosity and lack of intelligence that brought on their downfall, they cannot be blamed for their will to live, to survive, that brought them back; its the way they are, the way nature created them, and we cannot hate them for that." 

"Who are we to decide if they deserve to live or not, their ancestors have wronged mother nature and she has let them live...

Faustus personally thought they should be left to live, to forge their own path on the planet, he was also curious about them. He wondered what they were doing right now, unaware of the creatures that were arguing about their fate. He was itching to go back and see, but he also wanted to know what the dragons decided.