Draconia: Forging Trust

Chapter 1

THE BEASTS stormed down the gentle slope of a rolling, grassy hill, making for the dense cover of the bluish-green forest. Their hooves beating the ground like thunder. They were quite fast for moderate-sized beasts confined to the ground, but Varthikes was faster. His great tan wings, folded back, carried his golden-scaled body in a dive toward the herd. Golden, vertically-slit pupils locked on one of the trailing adults.

Varthikes extended his foreclaws as he swooped and plucked up his target. He sank his talons deep into the animal's flesh, gripping its forequarters while beating his powerful wings to gain altitude. The beast bleated in panic as it found itself rising from the ground and away from its herd.

Unable to breathe through the death grip the Draconian had on its lungs, the beast had expired and was hanging limp by the time Varthikes settled down. The young Draconian now laid belly down on the grass with the animal before him, looking over his kill with pride. He inhaled deeply, filling his nose with the musky—and delicious—aroma of the dead beast and the warm, metallic smell of its spilled blood. He placed his left clawed hand on the hump and decided to start with his least favorite part—just to get it over with. He picked up the head and neck between his sharp, backward-pointing teeth and snapped it loose from the body. Too much bone and not enough meat, he thought as he quickly swallowed. The blood, at least, was good, warm and sweet on his tongue.

A strange hum—a monotone sound like someone yawning in the distance—reached his ears. Varthikes lifted his head from the humpco carcass and looked about, scanning the horizon, his golden eyes moving independently to locate the source of the sound. It came from somewhere higher than the ground. He tilted his head up... Something reflected the sunlight. The hum was coming from that. He made out a pair of wings attached to the trailing end of the ovular object as it glided across the turquoise sky toward the forest where he had chased the humpcoes. He followed with his eyes until it disappeared over the forest canopy. He held his eyes for a moment longer on the point where the object had disappeared before returning to his meal. He continued to eat, albeit slower as his mind turned over what he had just seen.

By the time Varthikes swallowed the last leg of the humpco, he made up his mind to investigate that strange object. After licking the blood from his face and hands, he rose to all fours. He leaned back on his hind legs and sprang into flight, beating his wings to gain altitude.

The cushioning air currents carried his wide-spread wings over the forest. On the way, he passed over a flock of blue birds with four wings, each pair flashing white and blue alternating between beats. He gave them a gentle croon as they scattered from beneath his shadow. Worry not, little ones, he told them, his eyes following them. I am hungry no longer.

Varthikes returned his focus forward and continued his flight. He soon found himself above a large glade. To one side there was a lake. To the other was a foreign object, which he recognized to be the thing that he had seen.

Varthikes had seen much of his world's wonders in the twenty cycles of his life, but never had he seen anything like what he saw now. It looked to be three times his length and half again in height—larger than a full-grown adult. Its smooth, light-gray surface curved at the edges and shone dull in the sun. The dark-gray wings he had noted while it was in flight were now folded up at the end pointing toward the lake. Connected to each at the distal end were cylindrical appendages, their purpose as mysterious as the object to which they were attached. And, there was no life to it. Not only was the warm glow it gave off not one produced by a living creature, but he would have been able to sense consciousness if it was alive.

He was beating his wings forward slightly to slow his progress over the glade when movement caught his attention. A small cavern split open on the side of the object facing the clearing, on the end opposite of the folded wings, and a broad, flattened appendage projected from the floor of the opening toward the ground. He banked to the right and started a gentle, spiral descent to get a better look. As he was doing so, Varthikes saw a creature emerge from the opening, creeping upon two legs with another two limbs hanging at its sides. Light fur covered the crown of its head. Incredible! he thought. First, a lifeless object capable of flight! Then, from that object comes a clearly living being, for which flight did not look at all possible! At least, not on its own.