Crystal of Creation

3. Dragon?

Kael trudged through the dense forest, his footsteps heavy with exhaustion. For months, he had wandered this strange, hostile world, a place where magic flowed freely, and danger was ever-present. Every night, he'd set up camp in some hollowed-out tree or among rocks, barely sleeping, constantly on alert for the creatures that stalked the night. His clothes were torn, his body worn thin, but his resolve remained strong. He would find a way to survive in this world, magic or not.

As the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting a blood-red hue across the sky, Kael finally saw something different. In the distance, nestled in the valley beyond the trees, was a cluster of buildings—if you could even call them that. From afar, it looked more like a graveyard of broken structures, their walls shattered, roofs collapsed, and smoke curling from a few scattered fires.

When Kael drew closer, he realized the full extent of the damage. The village was in complete ruin. Stone houses, once sturdy, had been reduced to rubble. Wooden huts had been smashed as though a giant had swept through them. The people who remained looked gaunt and defeated, their eyes hollow from fear and sleepless nights.

As Kael entered the village, a group of men and women, armed with crude weapons—rusted swords, wooden clubs—approached him warily. One of them, a man with gray hair and a scar across his face, stepped forward, his spear pointed in Kael's direction.

"Who are you?" the man barked, his voice laced with suspicion. "State your business, outsider."

Kael raised his hands in a gesture of peace, his rifle slung across his back. "I'm not here to fight. My name's Kael. I've been wandering for months and came across your village. It looks like you could use some help."

The man eyed him with distrust, his grip tightening on the spear. "Help? We don't need help from someone like you. We've had enough trouble already."

Kael glanced at the ruined buildings and the tired faces of the villagers. They were barely surviving. He could see the fear in their eyes—fear not just of the monsters that ravaged their homes, but of him, too.

"I'm not here to cause trouble," Kael said calmly. "I've got skills and tools you've never seen. Let me help you rebuild, strengthen your defenses. The monsters won't stop coming unless you do something about it."

The gray-haired man scowled but seemed to consider Kael's offer. "Why should we trust you? You could be another threat in disguise, waiting to stab us in the back."

Kael met his gaze steadily. "If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't have walked into your village unarmed." He paused, glancing at the destruction around them. "Look, if you don't let me help, you won't survive the next attack. But if you give me a chance, I can give you the tools to defend yourselves."

After a tense moment, the man lowered his spear. "I'm Jorvan, the village chief. You can help, but I'll be watching you closely."

Kael wasted no time. The villagers were clearly suspicious of him, keeping their distance as he moved through the ruins, examining the damage. It wasn't long before they started talking.

"There was a dragon last night," one woman whispered to another as they passed by him. "Its roar scared the monsters off."

"I heard it, too," another man said, his voice trembling. "The sound shook the ground. It must be protecting us."

Kael frowned. A dragon? Then he remembered the sound of his rifle going off in the middle of the night during his last encounter with a pack of beasts. The echo had bounced off the mountains, and the villagers must have heard it. They think that was a dragon?

He decided not to correct them. If the belief that a dragon was protecting them made them feel safer, so be it.

The next morning, Kael gathered the villagers. "If you want to survive the next attack, we need to rebuild your homes and build a wall to keep the monsters out. But not the way you've done it before—what you had was too weak."