The last of the Dragons-Set 2

233

    The others all watched me as I sat down right next to the fire, using its light to read as I opened to the first page. I blew over it to rid it of the dust that covered it, before I started reading.

"The fighting has raged on for countless years, and the death toll is unimaginably high. The once proud dragons that owned the skies above without question have not seen battle in several years, regardless of the desperation for their use. Once, endless numbers of dragons fought on both sides of this brutal war, each fighting for their master. But, after many years of war, virtually all dragons have died off. The few that remained on each side were pulled back, and kept as last resorts. The rules of the war on our side had changed with the death of the dragons, leaving the brutality of battle to be limited to the ground, and the ground only. Once, hundreds of thousands of dragons existed and fought in the skies above. Now, only thirty-eight dragons remain in the world. Of these, six are small, useless little creatures that could do little in battle, the smallest of which was only a newborn. The other thirty-two dragons are split in an uneven fashion between the two sides. Our foe possesses only twelve dragons. Tario, Demorio, Gorgon, Serion, Keplerio, Vermon, Mulon, Tinclar, Tilsing, Lucrod, Hungron, and Demion, and four of the six young dragons that remained unnamed, useless in battle. We on the other hand, had run off with twenty dragons in the midst of the fighting. While all of the others were killed in the war, the twenty we had taken many years ago had survived along side us on an island just off shore from our homeland. Of those twenty, eighteen had grown large enough to return to the fighting. Yurkon, Forion, Zavinano, Polirano, Byrion, Jumio, Vertio, Hugon, Teramex, who is the largest by far, Starlight, Tormon, who was the smallest, Morning blaze, Sun ray, Termision, Golden tip, Bloom, Rectar and Sloono. The remaining two were mere hatch-lings, hatched only recently by two of our dragons, Starlight and Tormon. The dragon I personally bonded with was the dragon Starlight. One of the smaller dragons of the group, she was a mere thirty-one years of age at the time this is being written. She earned her name from the stunning display of colours she offered to the eye. Bright silver and gold stripes lined her body and wings, backed by a deep, shimmering blue body.

Starlight had only seen two battles in her life, both of which yielded no dragon combat in the skies. She fought along side three other dragons, all of which were shot down in the fighting. Not long after the second battle Starlight fought in, I took my dragon and fled to the coast line, joined by several others that had the same intent as myself. The bond with my dragon runs strong as she sits along side me, tending to her hatch-lings. The two hatch-lings were similar in colour pattern to their mother, which was rare to happen across. Both had the same pattern, but one was blue with green and red stripes, the other was dark black with bright white stripes. Starlight and I, along with the remaining dragons who had formed a deep connection with their riders, had remained hidden from the fighting for several years. It was assumed by both sides that dragons had long since gone extinct. The kings dragons were only known from the aid of scouts who made their way into the centre, and played themselves as one of the kings own. To avoid confusion, the scouts were one of our own. I personally never had the displeasure of acting as a scout, but, those who did had learned of the dragons behind the kings hand. In seven years, dragons had been assumed gone. The king seemed to fear the death of his final dragons, and thus decided to keep their existence a secret, in order to protect them until needed. Now, dragons would again be unleashed, but this time, the war would be decided only by the sky.

Now, we will make our last stand.

Jack Ransor."

I paused for a moment as I folded the top corner of the page to mark it, before I slowly shut the book and placed it back into the bag with the others.

"More later. We've got to sleep. Tomorrow may be the day." I said as I set the bag down.

Without word, everyone rested down on the ground, and within minutes, everyone but me was asleep. I turned my head sideways as I tried to sleep to look at the dragons one last time. Their thin, yet firm wings, their long, sharp and shinning claws, and their eyes glowing like those of wolves in the dark of the night. Something about their majesty just... Helped me... Fall... Asleep....