The battle is over. I can feel the wind on my blood-stained face as I ride from the battlefield victorious once again. The sky is clear of all clouds. The sun is warm and relaxing. I can see the swallows flying above me and hear the drum of galloping hooves behind. Ahead of me is the city, bold and strong. The churches’ steeples rise to meet the sky. Its outer wall curves to enclose it in a wall of solid stone. The front gate opens upon our return. I ride right through the swarming crowd of people who have come to welcome us home with cries of welcome and head straight to where mother and father are waiting with my older brother and baby sisters. When I reach our house my father is waiting outside, his eyes are gleaming with pride as I hop off my horse and walk towards him. My father opens his mouth to speak, but when he does it’s my mother’s voice. She’s screaming my name.
I wake with a start. I’m lying in bed, my sheets wrapped around my waist. The hangings of my canopy sway in the soft night breeze. The smell of smoke fills the room from the open windows and the crackling of flames can be heard coming from outside.
“Caddis!” my mother screams as she rushes into my darkened room. Terror gripping her voice and making it shake. There’s more screaming down the hall and outside. My mother pulls me out of bed and we sprint down the narrow corridor and into the living room. I’m grabbed by my brother and dragged under the table where we sit on the rash mats atop stone floors with our crying baby sisters who want so desperately for the noise to stop. But it doesn’t. The room is lightly lit by candles, bathing the corners in a deep shadow. The teal drapes muffling the screams of frightened people. Something’s growling but I can't quiet think what.
“A Dragon has attacked the city. We have to stay in the house till the beast moves on.” My brother tells me as he tries to help our mother calm our two sisters.
“Where’s father?” I ask, panic and fear seeping in, making me shake. Mother looked at me with such pain in her eyes that I know the answer before it passes her lips.
“He’s dead.” she croaks. I slump onto my side and the tears come streaming down my face. I’m shaking and I try to stop but I can’t. Then it happens. Fire surges through the door. The screams outside get louder with the roar of the flames. We run to the back door as thick black smoke watches into the house. I make it out first but as soon as the others reach the doorway it collapses, trapping them inside the burning house.
“Run Caddis!” my brother yells though the caved in doorway. I turn and run down the cobblestoned streets. I can smell the heavy smoke that surrounds me. Feel the heat of the flames. The screams of frightened people deafen my ears. It feels cowardly to flee and leave my family, but nothing can be done about that now, out in the open street a ten-year-old boy such as myself would be easy prey for the beast. When I look back I can see the scaly black and brown body of the Dragon, the magnificent creature destroying everything in its path, leaving no survivors. Frightened and half blind from the heavy smoke, I continue to run till I reach a small, upturned fishermen’s boat. The Dragon’s heading in the opposite direction so I crawl under. Exhaustion and grief battle to win me over and after what feels like hours of waiting and crying exhaustion wins and sleep takes me in its arms.
I wake midday and crawl out from underneath the boat, unable to remember how I got there. The sun is bright in my eyes and the breeze plays with my dishevelled hair. My clothes are tattered and singed; I’m covered in a mixture of sweat, tears, dirt and ash. I dust myself off and look up. I’m greeted with a horrible sight. The city is in ruins. The buildings burnt to a crisp, my home unrecognizable amongst the rubble. My family is nowhere to be seen. A cold dread washes over me as the events of the night come rushing back. A heavy lump rises in my throat as I realize that for the first time in my life I’m completely alone. I walk slowly my sore eyes roaming as I make my way past the smouldering piles of wood that were once homes and market stalls. The streets are littered with the dead and the homeless. The cobbled stone paths are warm and charred under my bare feet. The Ruins of the city are quiet without the gentle hum of its inhabitancies or the lovely sweet song of birds. A few buildings are still a blaze the embers falling to the ash covered ground. When I reach the spot where my house once stood, now a crumbled mess of wood and stone, I can see the blackened lifeless bodies of my sisters. Their life taken cruelly from them before it even had the chance to begin. My mother is only a few feet away half buried in the rubble and my brother is in-between them. Only his head and right arm can be seen. Something glitters in the corner of my eye. My mother’s necklace. The one my father gave her after he had come home from his first battle. It was a red gem encased in gold with a silver chain. I pick it up. It’s cold and heavy against my small palm. I place it in the pocket of my tattered pants and leave. My heart aches and tears well up in my eyes as I turn and leave my crumbled home behind. A few miles down the road I see my father, dead in the middle of the street. Half his face has been burnt away and what’s left of him is badly singed. I feel like my heart will split open at any time, the pain is too strong for me to stay any longer. So I leave, tears splattering the ground as I walk along. Yesterday I was a rich boy with a family and a home. My father had been an honoured solider and my mother was a talented weaver, but now I’m an orphan. My entire life has been turned upside down in the blink of an eye. I walk for three more hours on tired legs. The sun sinks behind the horizon and my stomach grumbles but I have no food to eat. The ground becomes rockier and steeper. I continue to go forwards down the slope and after another half a mile someone calls out.
“What are you doing down here?!” Says a girl with long, messy blond hair. She seems to be calling to me. She looks about a year younger than me and wears loose fitting, baggy clothes tied around her skinny figure. Her face is wet and covered in ash like mine and her eyes were wet and puffy. Her home must have been destroyed as well. She walks up and looks at me with big, deep brown eyes.
“I’m sorry. I’ll just leave then.” I tell her and begin walking back up the slope.
“Hay, wait, stop, that’s not what I meant.” I turn around and she continues talking “What I meant to say was, what is someone doing in The Hollow of the Kings? I thought that everyone said it was haunted.” My eyes widen with fear I did not realise I had come to the hollow. Panic surges through my bones and I turn back, and run. But my legs can’t handle it and I trip over my own feet. The girl laughs and helps me up.
“It’s not really haunted though. I’ve been here since the dragon attack.” She says with a touch of sorrow in her voice. She’s silent for a while then after a deep, shaky breath she continues. “You can stay with me if you like. I have lots of room.” The girl offers taking my hand and leading me back down the slope. We walk for few minutes though the hollow then she stoops at the side of a massive cliff reaching as far as the eye can see a little further down I can see a hole with a curtain of some kind of moss covering it. The girl takes me though. On the other side is a beautiful cave with a big lake leading out to the ocean beyond. She leads me further inside and lets go of my hand.
“So what do you think?” she asked throwing her arms in the air. The cave was roomy with stalactites hanging of the ceiling like giant bats. Moonlight streams through the entrance of the cave, bathing it in a beautiful blue light.
“It's beautiful.” I breathed and she smiles looking around her cave in awe. “What’s your name?”
“Clarissa.” She says “hungry?”
