Alew || A Short Story Anthology

Dragons of War {Round Five}

    The air was cool and crisp. The wind sliced through the air like a double edged sword. Each crunch of the snow underfoot sent a new wave of chills jolting throughout my spine.

    "It's quite nice out today," Nikan mentioned. "The sun's out, the air is clean," he took in a deep breath. "Holy Mother Earth, have I missed being home."

    "If you consider the icy equivalent of Vuur nice," I chattered, "then yeah, it's nice."

    I watched a trail of steam leave Nikan's mouth as he chuckled. "You know, it's funny seeing you out of your element for once."

    "Remind me of that once we leave, and I'll make sure to find a nice, hot kingdom for you, yeah?"

    "Okay then." Nikan quickly turned my way to show me the smirk that had flamed to life, then turned his focus back to the trail.

    Fire, that would be nice. Oh gods, anything would be nicer than growing icicles off your eyelashes. Never mind burning alive, freezing to death would be far, far worse.

    "We're almost there." Nikan pointed towards a break in the trees.

    I sighed a breath of relief. Would it ever feel nice to get out of this stinkin' forest. For the rest of my days, I would never complain about going into our forest back at home ever again. The snowy forests of Qanikcaq were far, far worse than the plush, green and warm  forests of Malila.

    A monstrous roar sounded overhead, knocking me out of my daze.

   "Holy Vuur," I breathed.

    The roar came from a beautiful, navy scaled creature. A flying navy scaled creature.

    A dragon. A real life dragon.

    I witnessed a smile flash to life on Nikan's face. "You haven't seen a dragon before?"

    I only managed to shake my head. As we got closer and closer, the roars and grunts of the dragons became more plentiful, as well of the sounds of laughter and conversation.

    "Zillah, welcome to the Dragon House."

    I looked at the beautiful spruce building that stood confidently in front of me. Carefully carved, wooden dragon heads and figurines stood by the doorway, and a beautiful deck and railing surrounded the building. The building itself was full of windows, something that struck me as weird, yet, beautiful. A beautiful weird.

    "Nivia! Welcome home!"

    What I presumed to be an Elder walked out of the house, her arms ready to embrace Nikan in a hug. A silver bun crowned her head, which was accompanied by a few black strands that haven't caught up with the rest. Her lobes with the giving factor of her status, they had holes large enough to fit a medium sized log.

    "It's actually Nikan now, ma'am." Nikan was quickly pulled into the women's warm embrace.

    "Oh, Nikan. Your grandmother told me of this, I'm sorry dear." 

    Nikan smiled. "It's okay, thank you for understanding."

    The woman turned her focus to me. "Now, Nikan, are you going to introduce me to this lovely lady?"

     "I'm Zillah Darkheart, ma'am. I come from the kingdom of Halona."

    Nikan nodded, adding in the details that I missed. "I met her in the program, we were in the same unit. We looked out for each other."

     The woman nodded, satisfied with the answer. "A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Darkheart. Thank you for taking care of Nikan. I am Esther, the Elder responsible for taking care of the dragons and training the riders."

    "Wait wait wait, hold on. You can ride the dragons?"

    Esther laughed, the lines of her face creasing even more. "Yes dear, you can! In fact, this place is solely dedicated to training riders!"

    "That's why we're here, Zillah," Nikan reminded me. "Remember?"

    Upon hearing Nikan, Esther beamed and gestured for us to follow her. "Well then, come come! No use freezing out here if what you want is inside!"

    "Good idea," I remarked, "I'm freezing out here."

    This time, both Nikan and Esther laughed.  

    When we made it inside, I couldn't help the breath of awe that escaped my lips. There was a stone fireplace in the living room. The living room itself was filled with blankets, pillows, and so much cushioned seats. The kitchen was also wooden with beautiful, stone accents. Fruits and vegetables laid on the counter, which caused my stomach to growl in hunger. Upstairs was open to below, from where we stood I could see the hall of rooms that were associated to the riders and riders in training, as well as the mentors.

    The inner child in me screamed with joy. From the time I was a child, I had always dreamed of being a dragon rider. Flying through the air without a care in the world, with only me and my dragon. Now that I was actually here, the amazement and awe was overwhelming. It was like being in a real life storybook.

    Esther motioned for us to sit down with her in the living room.  

    "So, you two, how may the dragons and I assist you?"

    "Well," I began, "we need a way to defend our territory, the humans are talking about a war between us. Since, as you know, the program killed off most of our kind, we're very low on man power. With the dragons by our side, they can help us from the air. We can spy from the sky, and work our way to enemy lines."

    "These dragons could, hopefully, help us find more survivors too. That way, we can also gain more power on the ground," added Nikan.

    Esther nodded. "I heard the wind whisper about a war." Her tone was hushed, as if not to risk anyone else hearing. "Secretly, I was hoping it was untrue. Alas, the wind never lies."

    She turned her gaze away from us and focused on the snowy mountains in the distance.

    "These humans will stop at nothing to make sure our kind dies," she muttered. "They claim we're savages and unfit to govern ourselves, and yet, they're the ones that are murdering innocent elves. The one's causing us to have to abandon our ways of life in the first place."

    She directed her gaze back at us. Instead of the gentle expression she had previously worn, her face was hardened like stone. "I do have dragons here that are fit to fight. What I have may not be enough. If we want to defend ourselves, we'll need to train some more for war."

    "But Esther, Zillah and I have never even rode a dragon before, never mind training them."

    "That's what I'm here for, you silly boy." The familiar gentleness of Esther's face returned. "I'll send out a message to some of the other mentors in the area, they're a lot younger than I am." She chuckled. "Until then, I'll introduce you to the dragons. Bonding is important, a rider needs to be comfortable with their steed after all. Same goes for the dragon."

    Nikan and I chuckled.

    Esther gestured for us to follow her. "Come. The sooner we get you two trained, the sooner we can get our army together."