A Sinner's Fate

A Human Encounter

Metal flashed as hungry blade hit flesh. The blade pierced through the thick black scales of Tonare's neck. A roar erupted from within the large dragon as he fell to the ground. He'd already taken too many wounds, lost too much blood. The last defence had crumbled, it now lay bloodied on the ground as life slipped away. Tonare, our leader, had been that. A tall human with black, untidy hair stood by the dragon's head. The human's armour clinked as he strolled closer to the dragon's head. I couldn't hear what he was saying as his voice was too low but by the weakening Tonare's expression, I knew immediately it was bad. This was it, the war would end and we would all die.

They had told me to run, and so I did. I never stopped running, even when the soles of my feet felt raw and sore. I was escaping the soldiers, the screams, and my bloody fate. My legs grew weaker with every strike my foot made on the hard rocky ground. Eventually I left my mountain home, or what was left of it anyways. The cold snapped at my exposed skin and bare neck that I arched to hide my face from the snow. A blizzard was growing and it would swallow me whole. I could feel my skin growing cold, the fire inside me becoming nothing but embers. I shivered violently, forcing each foot to drag onwards. My feet grew numb, my eyes stung, and my body became increasingly tired. I lifted my gaze to look ahead of me. Only a violent blizzard lay before me, no sign of anything else. I let out a whimper. I was alone. They had abandoned me. Death placed a hand on my shoulder. My legs buckled and my knees sank into snow, the sensation sharp and cold. Darkness cradled me, rocking me into slumber as my head hit the ground.

I could feel the weight of my body lifting, the frozen air snapping at my skin, well scales, again. In a weak attempt I tried to look around me, it was all a blur of whites, blacks, and blues. I felt my body slump over something hard- it smelt like the pine trees of home. A faint voice sounded from somewhere I couldn't place. A let out a low whine and a small cloud of smoke escaped my nose. There was a grunt, and I felt myself moving, the frozen ice scraping against my tail. I tried again to see where I was, but my eyes were stung by snow and my head only blurred at the edges with darkness. Limp my head fell as I slipped away again.

Warm. It was warm. I shifted as I awoke; my tired gazefell upon a fire. A strange comfort of yellow, orange, and red to see thefamiliar presence of flames. A faint sense of pain edged across my muscles, areminder of that cold blizzard and endless snow. My body tensed.

The snow.

Theblizzard.

The attack.

Fire? Where was I?

Muscles in my neck strained as Iforced my head to rise, and I began to focus myself on my surroundings. Theflames licked the air in my direction from where a fire burned in a stonefireplace. I stretched before I stood, a poor attempt to quiet my screamingbones. Something behind me shattered causing me to jump in surprise; I spun tosee what had caused the noise. Only more loud thumps and things shatteringfollowed, sending me into even more panic. I tried to collect my racingthoughts as I forced myself to stop dancing around in a circle. My tail waslifted into the air above me as I stilled. I had managed to knock strange objects off the wooden tables with my tail which had caused them to shatter across thesmooth, dark floor. The smell hit my nose and my fire sparked in response.There it was. My body arched, my head lowering to the ground, and a snarl creptacross my lips. Smoke danced through the air from the sides of my mouth as Inarrowed my gaze towards the direction of the scent. Immediate recognition sentmy thoughts spiraling. It was the same smell from the attack, so similar to the soldiers who had destroyed everything I had known. It was human.