Scenarios

Bring It On

I smile as the shore comes into view, and pick up my pace. The beating of my wings disturbs the water below me, but it's hardly all me. I glance down and see a number of shadows moving below the surface of the water under us. Aquatic dragons that we picked up along the way swim beneath the waves. They know exactly where we're going and they didn't want to miss out.

A look around reveals hundreds of other dragons sharing the sky with me. Colors fill the air. Fur, scales, skin, and more. Most of us are water or ice dragons, but not all of us. While a fire dragon can't exactly help put out fires, it can help usher animals out of harms way, or help transport wingless dragons. Some of us flyers are actually carrying other dragons without wings or any special skill in swimming. So many of us have come together for this.

We finally pass the threshold from sea to land. We're officially in Australia. The shoreline practically explodes as every dragon that was below the water charge onto the shore and begins walking or running. There's almost a hundred, and they keep pace with us remarkably well.

Even this far out, the sky is hazy with smoke. Far ahead the entire sky becomes filled with a thick, black cloud of smoke. I try not to think of all the people dead or hurt or missing because of this fire. I refuse to think of all the families and homes destroyed by this. We're here to help now.

As if a switch is flipped, I suddenly can't see ten feet in front of me. The smoke is so thick here, and I cough in surprise.

"Dive dive! Get below the smoke!" Someone calls.

I begin my descent, and someone else calls out. "No! Just land. We're a hundred meters off. Non water users, keep going, get ahead of the fire," He says.

I recognize his voice. A fire dragon called Ealandor. He took charge when he showed up, and most of us were content to follow his lead. I keep descending, and then spread my wings as the ground comes into view and land heavily, sending the smoke around us into the sky, actually clearing the air around us. More dragons keep falling from the smoke above and landing hard. Each time, they send more smoke away, until there's about ten here and I can see a good distance ahead of us. I'm sure there are more of us spread out along the entire fire line.

The fire glows through the smoke almost fifty meters away. I get moving on that direction. The ground is warm beneath my feet, and the smoke around us makes it hard to breath. It's already encroaching again. No one talks, we're all too stunned by the damage we can see in every direction. This whole place is charred. This'll leave a scar across the continent that you'll be able to see from space. But it will regrow. Like a phoenix from back home, this whole area will one day be green again, full of life. It just needs our help.

We start seeing small piles of rubble still smoldering, and they're quickly put out. The air is really starting to warm up. It is not comfortable with all this fur I've got. But, screw that. I pick up my pace, and I find a few others following along with me. Bring it on, Mother Nature! This fire is going out today!  "Bring it on!" I say, out loud, right as I burst through the last layer of smoke and see fire everywhere.

I immediately let loose. Steam flies in every direction and mixes with smoke as boiling water spews forth from my mouth. Hey, it's still water, and it's working. Fires up to ten feet in front of me are doused and put out instantly. I keep it up. Dragons on either side of me also send sprays of water out in front of them. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a thin layer of ice undermine a huge area of fire. The fire sizzles and poops before another layer of ice spreads out on top of the first. The fires, with their bases blocked off from their fuel, go out quickly. Someone else sprays some cold water over the ice and it slides right across it to the fires on the far side of the sheet, where it sprays against even more. I feel my fur doused from above as some dragons behind us take off and just start pouring water over the area.

All the while I keep galloping forward, an unending supply of water coming from my throat and extinguishing raging flame after raging flame. It takes hours, but I can finally see clearly. The smoke is clearing, steam slowly taking its place, but that rises and disperses quickly. I raise my head, the flow of water finally ebbing, and see more dragons in the distance fighting their own battles against the fire.

I see a pair of green, wingless dragons herding a number of animals through the fires and to safety. Kangaroos look uncomfortable surrounded by so many predators, but they seem to trust the dragons behind them to lead them to safety. A large family of koalas clings to one of the dragons' back spikes.

I spot a patch of raging fire in the distance with no one on it. What gets me moving towards it, though, is the female kangaroo in the center of the fire, with two crying joeys in her pouch. I can't put out the fire or I might hit her with my boiling water. I don't let that slow me down, though. I barrel right through the wall of flames and without slowing, gently scoop up the kangaroo with my forelimbs as I pass. She yelps in fear and surprise as I hold her against my chest. "It's ok," I say. "I got you."

Now on two feet, I spread my wings and take off. Fire blows out beneath me as my back draft hits it. I flutter over to the two dragons herding animals and drop off the mother and her kids. One of them looks at me, shocked.

"I didn't even see her in there," He says, as the roo scrambles to join the others. "Thank you."

"Of course. Just doing my part," I say.

I turn back around to get rid of the flames I rescued the mother from. I spray my water and  the area is quickly doused. I look around and see the fires in this area finally ebbing. We'll be able to move farther inland soon. Hopefully we can make a dent in these fires. We have to. But, this is no time for breaks. There's more work to be done. I spread my wings and take off to look for more to help out with.

"This is a story to help raise awareness for the fires raging in Australia right now. Half the country is on fire, and they need all the help they can get. People are injured, dead, and missing. We can help stop this. Spread this story around, and help spread the word. There are so many people taking donations that'll be sent to Australia to help them deal with these fires and rebuild. Plantatreeco on Instagram, for example, is donating a dollar for every hundred people who repost a certain picture. Everything helps, and anything you can do to contribute will be greatly appreciated. Help our brothers and sister on the other side of the world." -Tiny.