Destiny and Dystopia: A Tale of Dragons and Humans Book One: The Red Eyes

Tunneler

Smokefire blinked in shock, taking a step back. How was it possible that there was someone still ALIVE down here? How had he survived? This didn't make any sense. Why was he still down here, why hadn't he left, this could change everything! What if there were more? Smokefire stared open-mouthed at the purple dragon, absolutely unable to believe what he was seeing. 

The Tunneler was purple, with spindly horns on the top of his head, although not large ones. His wings weren't quite the size of a full grown dragon's, and he was about Smokefire's size. So Smokefire guessed this must not be a full grown Tunneler. He had gray eyes, with innocence to them. His childhood innocence had not yet been lost.

"Smokefire!" Athian's frantic voice whispered into Smokefire's ear. "Are you seeing it too?"

"Y-Yeah..." Smokefire glanced at the sand dragon. She'd completely lost her composure. Her usual attitude had entirely vanished. Which made sense, what Smokefire and Athian were seeing was, quite frankly, impossible.

"Um, hello!" Smokefire's attention was quickly caught at the words of the nervous purple dragon before them. The Tunneler was trying his best to look friendly, but he seemed like he was trying to mask fear and confusion. So all three dragons were on pretty much the same page, then. "I've never seen dragons like either of you before, I don't think... Where did you come from?" 

"We came from the surface." Athian stepped past Smokefire, which honestly made him feel relieved. If Athian was taking charge, it meant that he didn't have to. She was more suited for it anyway, with her harsh attitude and inability to be patient. "You know, up above." She added as the Tunneler cocked his head in confusion. 

"Up... above?" The strange dragon's gray eyes suddenly lit up with excitement. "That's where the sun and the wind are, right? I went there once. It was nice!"

"It really is nice, isn't it?" Smokefire joined into the conversation. The surface was such a great place, far better than this cave with no wind and no light. The Tunneler switched his attention from Athian to Smokefire. Realizing what he'd inadvertently done, Smokefire quickly tried to contribute something helpful to the conversation. "Um, so, hi. I'm Smokefire, and the harsh gold dragon is Athian."

"Oh! N-Nice to meet you both!" The dragon smiled big at both of them, friendly. While he did, though, there was an awkward lull in the conversation, brought to its' end eventually by Athian, as one might expect. 

"Let's just cut to the important stuff, shall we?" Athian made direct, intense eye contact with the dragon who was evidently already a nervous wreck. "How is it possible that there's a dragon alive down here? If you survived the cave-in, you should've come to the surface and let us know that an entire race HADN'T been annihilated." She hissed out her words, Smokefire not envying one bit the dragon whom all her angry energy was focused on at the moment. "Doesn't make much sense to me, Tunneler." Smokefire felt as though she was probably too paranoid.

"Oh, you don't have to call me Tunneler!" Offered the purple dragon helpfully. 'I'm Hornibus!"

"Nice to meet you, Hornibus." Smokefire felt great now that all the introductions were out of the way. Things would be less awkward now.

Athian rolled her eyes. "That's great and all, but you did NOT answer my question." 

"R-Right, sorry!" Hornibus smiled sheepishly. "I tend to be a bit forgetful. Well, I suppose I'll tell you what I know regarding that... incident. And the other stuff you asked."

Smokefire settled back, ready to hear the story. Athian glanced back at him, huffed, and settled as well. 

"As I already mentioned, my name is Hornibus." The purple Tunneler began to speak in a halting fashion, likely never having recounted this story before. Not like there was anyone else down here to talk to, as far as Smokefire could tell. "And I'm a Tunneler dragon. Th-That's about all I know about myself. You see..." Hornibus's voice stopped, as though he wasn't sure how to phrase what he was about to say. 

"I guess... well, it would be a really long time ago now. I don't know how long exactly. But there was some sort of cave-in. I think it may have been a really grand Tunneler festival, but I'm not sure. All I know is, I woke up in some sort of hole in the wall, a little away from the rest of the Tunneler village. My head really hurt, and I didn't remember anything from before. So I left the hole, scared and confused, a-and that's when I found out that... e-everyone was dead and the cave was destroyed. I only had bits and pieces of memory, but I'm pretty sure that as the cave-in was starting, I panicked and hid. Even though that wasn't the safety protocol we were supposed to follow..."

"Some protocol..." Athian murmured. 

"H-How much DO you remember?" Smokefire asked, a little bit in shock. He never could've imagined that something like this would happen.

"Really, really not much. A sound or two, wind, a voice... I-I don't know."

"Well, I suppose that's a fair explanation..." Athian paced, eyes narrowed. And then she suddenly came to a stop. "But why didn't you LEAVE? You didn't have to stay in this... place of death!"

Smokefire thought that was a fair point. Granted, Hornibus had been terrified... maybe he hadn't felt like he'd be safe outside. 

"B-Because..." Hornibus fidgeted awkwardly. It was a movement Smokefire knew well. It was the movement of someone being asked for answers they didn't have. "I-I don't know how to." 

"The horns on your head!" Athian, continuing the trend of taking no notice of Hornibus's nervousness, snapped at him impatiently. "Look, like the ones on Smokefire's head...? The horns of Tunnelers!"

"Ohhhh..." Understanding seemed to hit Hornibus far faster than it would've taken Smokefire. That made sense. Smokefire wasn't the brightest at times. "And to think I waited down here so long, wishing for a rescue... I could've rescued myself?"

"Yes." Athian seemed to have no pity in her heart for the young dragon. "You could have." 

"But you probably never learned to Tunnel anyway." Smokefire offered, hoping to give some consolidation. "So it would've been difficult even if you'd known it was possible."

"Oh yeah. That's true!" Hornibus looked up at the roof, probably in awe of the fact that he had the ability to Tunnel through that. "But you can teach me, right?" He made direct eye contact with Smokefire, who gulped. He'd never had to TEACH anyone anything before. Plus, his lessons on Tunneling hadn't been very extensive. Tyrilyth hadn't seen the point when all the Tunnelers were dead. 

"Sure he will." Athian spoke for Smokefire. His eyes widened at Athian, wondering what he'd done to earn her doing this to him. "In fact, your first lesson can start right now. I'd like to get home by dawn, please."

"Athian-" 

"Look, Smokefire, he can't wait!"

Athian was right. With a sideways glance to Hornibus, Smokefire saw excitement and reverence in his eyes. Wonderful. He really had been backed into a corner, hadn't he?

"Okay." He shut his eyes and sighed deeply. "Listen carefully, Hornibus, and I'll teach you all I know of Tunneling."