Dawn of the Dragons

Chapter Four

Nickolai ran back to his village in a daze, as he approached, he was pulled into a furious hug by his mother.

“Where’ve you been? Do you know how worried we were!” she scolded. “I’m fine mum, I just…” he trailed off.

Nickolai knew that if he told his parents about Faustus they would never believe him, and even if they did believe the part about him running into a dragon, they’d never let him leave the house again. So he decided to keep his encounter a secret.

“Honey! I found Nick,”  his mother called out to his father as she led him back to the little house they’d built, he was so little back then but he did have some vague memory of helping his parents build it.

“Where were you?” she asked him again, “ I was out hunting,” Nickolai replied, just as his father came in. “You must’ve run into something good for you to have took so long,” he said looking him over, a questioned expression on his face as he looked at the melon he was still holding to his chest.

“You should’ve at least told us before you left, and don’t we always tell you never to stay out so late? We were worried,” his mother said.

Nickolai knew he should offer some explanation or at least say sorry, but suddenly he felt angry. Angry that no one had ever told him anything. Angry that Ricochi had been killed by humans. Angry that no one believed the dragons were good. Angry that he knew the truth but had no way of making everyone else accept it.

But most of all, the one question that bugged him the most, if his parents had thought that Faustus was dangerous, why weren’t they there protecting him that day, why was he left alone?

“Where’d you get the melon from?” his father asked, for the trees that they grew on were far too high for any humans to reach.

“Twelve years ago, when the dragon came to greet the humans with the tree bearing fruits, everyone thought he was evil and dangerous and everyone fled. I was left all alone there near the dragon that everyone thought was evil, where were you then, why weren’t you there protecting me?  And why did they shoot him when he hadn’t done us any harm?” He asked his parents, hugging the melony fruit tighter.

“Oh  Nicky,” his mother said with teary eyes, sitting down beside him and hugging him. “That was the worst day of our life, we thought we’d lose you forever."

“You were such an energetic child, we could never take our eyes off you for even a second. You don’t know how scared we were when the dragon came and we couldn’t find you,” his mother said to him. “By the time I spotted you and told your father, the dragon had seen you. It was your father who, with the help of a couple others, went into the spaceship and scared it off in time,” she said.

Nickolai was shocked, his own father had shot Faustus, and possibly…

“Did you cause the spaceship to blow up so it would kill the bigger dragon?” he asked, looking into his father’s eyes, curious but at the same time afraid of the answer.

“Oh no, that was the dragon’s fire that triggered the explosives,” his father reassured him.

Nickolai felt somewhat relieved that at least it hadn’t been his own father that had killed Ricochi, but at the same time it disturbed him that his father had shot Faustus.

“Nickolai, who told you about…this incident?” his mother asked him.

His parents looked at him, concerned. “I remembered when I saw the fruit, it’s the same kind the dragon had brought,”  he told them, he didn’t like lying to his parents but it was partly true. H

e sensed that his parents weren’t satisfied with the answer but before they could ask him any further questions he said, “the dragon wasn’t evil, he came on behalf of the other dragons to greet us, the fruit bearing tree was a gift, a peace offering. They didn’t want to harm us and we ended up shooting at one and killing the other one who was only trying to protect him.”

His parents stared at him in disbelief and disappointment. “Why didn’t you tell me before?” he asked. “We thought we’d tell you when you were older, “ his father said.

His father exchanged a glance with his mother and it seemed they’d decided to leave him alone for now.

His mother went and brought him dinner, he didn’t feel like eating but he did anyways since he knew his mother probably hadn’t eaten anything either and would only eat after he had. Then he fell asleep hugging the fruit to his chest, dreaming of dragons...