Light as a Cloud

Chapter 10

Meanwhile further in the East, where the morning sun was lifting in a haze of gold, an enormous dragon was looking for a place to nest. It was one of the Big Dragons, and it was a legendarily big dragon indeed, so large that it could barely fly. But it could fly, and so it did, among the high peeks of the rough Spring Mountains.

Somewhere on the south edge of the mountains, the dragon noticed a row of dwarves, in his eyes as small as ants, carrying gold into a cave. The cave entrance was small, too small for the dragon, but had sparked his curiosity.

However, the shadow that he casted over the dwarfs did not go unnoticed. A scream, an order, and the dwarves had found shelter in all directions, whichever they could reach the first. A Little Dragon may be hard to battle, but a Big Dragon is simply impossible to defeat if you're humanoid. They can be as big as elephants- imagine fire-breathing elephants in the sky!- so if they're hostile, a dwarf isn't making it for too long. No wonder then that the dwarves, although openly armed as dwarves are, hid away as fast as they could. None of them was proud and brave enough to stand.

On the now open plateau in front of the cave entrance, the dragon landed, throwing up clouds of dust and sand. The entrance was only just wide enough to let his head through. His eyes pierced through the torch-lit hall, where the flickering flames reflected in many dwarves' eyes and on their blades.

Rich dwarves; the dragon smelled gold, silver and gems, presumably in the next hall. Exactly what he needed. Here he could build his nest to lure in a cute female dragon. He was already wondering how many eggs they could have together: Four, five, maybe six? His sister, that had been killed with her group by a horde of Little Dragons last year, had dreams that he now had to realize for her instead. Seven eggs would do.

The dragon pulled his head back through the opening and then smashed his mighty horns against the wall, and again, and again. With a loud noise, the walls started to crack and crumble, until they fell apart into loose debris. Now the dragon could enter. The dwarves, horrified, fled away deeper into the mountain, to their safer caves with thicker walls. Their lives were more important than their treasures- and they knew they would get their treasures back eventually, once the baby dragons fled the nest.