I finally arrived in the desert. My horse shook its mane as it struggled to drag the carriage behind it. Eventually, we came across a gorge. While going through it, I decided to stop since the horse became too tired to move. I hopped off and checked the carriage to check on my valuables. Once I confirmed my bag full of items were there. I reached in and dug a bowl out of it. The bowl was easily the most expensive thing I owned. It was made of pure gold and was adorned with rubies and diamonds. My horse kicked the sand and panted, signaling it was thirsty. I grabbed one of my canteens and filled the bowl with water. I held the bowl up to the horse's mouth, and it drank up the water quickly. It sneezed some of the water up and shook its wet nose at me. I smiled and patted its snout. I looked behind me, beyond the gorge was a city, I planned on staying there for a while before heading off to another city. It didn't matter where I went, as long as I was away from my own kingdom. From the corner of my eye, I saw some pebbles fall off the side of the wall of the gorge. My horse started to stir, and its feet started to kick. Fearing the gorge was going to collapse, I looked up. Instead, I saw figures looking down at me over the side. They all had large wings that flapped against the winds of the desert. They were all covered in stripes of war paint and were wearing wooden masks with feathers. Their leader was wearing a coat of fur across his back. For a moment, I saw him lift up his mask to get a good look at me. I saw the face of a young man around my age, and I felt at ease. That is until he put his mask on and pointed his spear at my carriage. At that moment, all the dragons hopped off the side of the gorge and flew down towards me. I dropped my bowl and tried to jump back on my horse. However, it became startled and jolted, I fell off and my face landed in the sand. I quickly scrambled up and ran. The gorge was narrow so there were no places to hide except for the large boulders that had fallen inside. I ducked behind one and stayed there for a moment. I quickly looked behind the stone and saw that the dragons already seized my horse and the carriage. I saw the leader pick up my bowl and turn it over in his hands. He nodded and they quickly detached my horse from the carriage. Suddenly, they swarmed around it and eventually were able to lift it off into the sky. I slammed my fist against the rock, how dare they just waltz in and take my belongings. I saw them heading to the city I was traveling to in the first place. I ran out from behind the rock and was able to catch my horse's reins before she became too frightened and ran off. I hopped on and began to gallop to the city.
I've never been to the city of Malik before. I've only seen it on maps and knew it was across from my kingdom. However I don't know the inhabitants, their culture, or their relations to my kingdom. It seems stupid though, if I'm going to be the new king, why would my mother and father not tell me about the cities that surround mine? It's almost like they're trying to seculde their castle from the rest of the world. I quickly realized the cities were full of the same creatures as the dragons I saw before. The city had a fissure of water running through it. The buildings were made of stone. Growing there were large trees, some dragons were napping in the shade while winged children were chasing each other up the branches. In the center was a huge, marble palace. And even better, next to it was a huge stone tree. Sitting atop it were the masked dragons I saw before, they growled at the children that tried to climb it. Eventually, a horn sounded and they flew off onto the ground. In fact, every dragon that was in the sky lowered themselves to the ground and began to walk home. I shrugged the horn off and ran to the stone tree, thankfully no one had noticed me. I had my horse stay at the base as I scrambled up the tree. Unfortunately, I wasn't the best climber and it was a fairly large tree, but when I got to the top I saw them. I was sitting over a ledge behind the palace. The ledge held a colossal pool filled with flowers. Inside was the leader dragon I saw before, now unmasked and in the water with a female dragon. He was leaning over the ledge while she was trying to scrub the war paint off his back.
