Short stories

Story 2 : Dragons

Dragons

Majestic creatures that soar through the sky. They are of many different types, colours and size. Some are breathtakingly beautiful while others are huge and scary.

Dragons are wild creatures living in the mountains, on high altitudes, where it is easy to take off with the massive body of theirs. Though, you can see some near lakes and rivers where they come to hunt fish.

We, humans have very little interactions with them. Fortunately, most dragons aren't interested in devouring us and attacking us, unless they're extremely hungry or if a human is foolish enough to annoy them.

Humans on the other hand, wants to take advantage of whatever it sees. Dragons would help humans travel far away distance easily. Wars would be won easily using dragons and some other benefits.

Though I couldn't blame them. How amazing would it to fly on a dragon's back. But I don't think dragons find it as amazing as myself.

That's why some people try to tame dragons. Though they are very rare as taming a dragon is very difficult. Dragons are proud creatures, they wouldn't let anyone control them.
Those who succeed are extremely popular and are the most privileged people in the society next to the king.
Some people try to tame dragons only for the popularity and social benefits but fail so miserably, it's actually funny.

My house is at the edge of our town. Located near a river, and not so far away from a valley, a dragon paradise. A dense amount of trees cover the area between the valley and the town.

Though it's rare to see dragons nearby. I for one had never seen one up close in my 16 years.

Sunrise is the most beautiful time of the day over here. The sun shine it's first light of the day from behind the valley colouring the clouds above in a firey colour.

That's why I made it a habit to fetch water from the river early in the morning to enjoy the dawn.

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As I was filling the vessel with water. I heard a large thud not too far away behind me. Then some leaves being thrashed around very violently. Whatever it was, it was big and alive.
Going there to check what it is, was definitely reckless.

So if I wanted to go home, I had to take the long route. I grabbed the filled vessel and tried to get home by avoiding whatever it was. Or so I thought I would. Curiosity struck me and I couldn't help but want to see what was between all those trees.

I tiptoed my way to where I heard the thud, the creature was still thrashing around and wildly so. I was almost confident it wouldn't notice me, I had learned to conceal my presence and move without any noise, while playing hide and seek and tag with my little brothers. But I did not have a backup plan if it found me anyway.

I snuck behind a tree slightly far from the being and watched it. My doubts were confirmed, it was a dragon.

A white scaled dragon with hints of pinks across its body. The slenderness of its body told me it was a female. I had to be more careful females while beautiful were said to be very violent.

This was the first time I had seen a dragon up close. I had read about them though and watched them fly above us. This one was injured on its right wing and was bleeding profusely. The injury looked like one from a dragon's claw, which it probably got during a fight. Another reason why I had to be more careful of it.

After thrashing around a while, she calmed down and lied on the floor. She didn't fold her injured wing, but rather let it down. Blood was flowing out of it, and it was probably throbbing. The poor dragon was now exhausted and gave up on doing anything about the injury.

Pitying the creature, I got out of my hiding and carefully approached her. She opened her eyes to look at me then averted her gaze away to the side like she didn't care. I went up to her side, my heart racing from fear, sat down and examined the wound by look not daring to touch it.

I lifted my hand and slightly touched her neck to see any kind of response, when she did not respond, I gently stroked her neck to soothe her. She remained still so I relaxed further.

"Stay still, I'll help you, okay?" I told her and slowly got up and rushed back home, getting only a glance from her.

Once home, I quickly grabbed some herbs laying around and made a mixture out of it, put it in a cloth and folded it. I also grabbed a lot of bandages. I had learned much about herbal medicine from a book I had.

I put everything in a bag which I put over my shoulder, and slowly got out, not waking anyone.

When I got back, I realized I had forgotten to take the water at home. The vessel which was left beside the dragon, was now empty yet the dragon was in exact same position as I had seen it previously.

"You think that's gonna fool me?" I asked. She didn't budge. I sighed grabbing the thing. "I am going to get some water again." I said.

I soon got back and put my things down. I would start by washing the blood away but I had forgotten some spare clothes, so took some bandages to use as cloth.

She freaked out at the slightest touch on the wound and flipped her wing smacking my face with it making me fall backwards.

I groaned and got up rubbing the back of my head which had hit the ground. She was shrieking at me like a cat, taking steps backwards. At that moment, it was funny how a full grown dragon was afraid of me, a tiny human.

I sat down and put my hands up in defeat. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was trying to help." I said.

It was not helping.

A sharp stone beside me caught my eyes and my left hand reached out to it. I had an idea to make the dragon trust me, but it wasn't something pretty. But even so, my left hand clenched the rock, then moving on its own, the next thing i knew, my right arm was bleeding, more than I'd have expected it.

Cursing under my breath I quickly washed it off, put a bit of the medicine and bandaged it.

I exhaled as I finished and put my arm in front of the dragon for it to see and believe me.

"See? It's alright... I want to... heal you." I said, realizing how out of breath I was. Not only that, but I was on the verge of tears and was also sweating a lot.

The creature came near me and started licking my bandaged arm. Its saliva probably worked as an antibiotic but it could not reach its wing.

Then she brought her head close to mine and started rubbing it against my cheeks maybe telling me to never do that again or just wiping away my tears and sweat. But either way the violent creature just a few moments ago acted like it knew me for years.

I started to treat it doing it a little differently than my own. After applying the mixture I motioned her to lick the bandages to add the antibiotic effect so the wound would heal faster.

I had wondered if it didn't have any negative reactions, so I tested it by mixing it with a little bit of the medicine, and it didn't change smell or colour.

I figured it was safe but I applied the tiny amount of paste on my wound to make sure. It did burn a bit more but that was probably because it was getting rid of germs. Satisfied I did the same process with her wing.

At last, I wrapped her wings close to its torso not knowing how to bandage the wing alone.

Finally, I was done.

"I'm sorry, you won't able to fly for a while. But I'll check up on you regularly so don't worry okay?" I said stroking her head gently.

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Finally done!
I did not expect it to take so long, darn. Sorryyy 😢😢

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