The Dragons of Midsummer Valley

Chapter One

The dragon crept through the grass, body low to the ground. His slitted amber eyes were fixed on the lair of his target. Flames flickered in his mouth, waiting for the moment when he would...

Crunch

"Shhhhh!" Said the empty air to his left.

Ignius glanced down guiltily at the twig that had snapped under his talon.

"This is meant to be a stealth mission!" The voice spoke again.

Ignius scowled in the direction the noise came from.

"Easy for you to say," He said. "You can turn invisible."

A sleek silver dragoness shimmered into view.

"Better?" She remarked.

Ignius rolled his eyes. "Why are we doing this, anyway?"

"Because this is the only place to get chicken."

"There are plenty of wild birds elsewhere."

"Chicken is way better. Believe me."

"Then why can't you come and get one while being invisible, rather than dragging me into this?"

"Because now you can chose your own. Shhh. We're here."

The so called 'lair' was actually a chicken pen in a suburban backyard. Earlier that morning, Cyrn had convinced Ignius to go take a chicken together from a human dwelling, nearby the hills where they and their families lived. Ignius was a Fire Dragon and Cyrn was a Space Dragon, a rare combination for friends. But the pair didn't care that they were seen as 'odd', and were always getting up to mischief.

Cyrn slunk over to the pen, and half flapped half climbed the wire on the pen. After a few thefts from different dragons, a roof and better latch had been added, but the dragons knew how to get around that.

"Ignius. Get over here." Cyrn hissed.

Hesitantly, Ignius followed. With a nod, Cyrn gestured to the latch. 

Ignius climbed the chicken wire on the outside of the pen, up level with Cyrn. By now, the dozen or so chickens inside were getting nervous, fluttering and squawking as far away from the two dragonets as they could. 

Ignius hissed, letting the hot flames build up in the back of his mouth. Then he exhaled, and a glowing stream of fire shot from his mouth and hit the metal latch. Cyrn covered her eyes with her wing from the blinding light. 

When they jumped back to the ground, the latch was melted and dripped onto the grass that shrivelled in the heat.

Now the latch was gone, the door to the pen swung open easily. 

Both dragonets thought they heard a faint popping noise, but dismissed it, focused on the chickens inside.

The birds were now flapping and shrilling in the terrified way chickens do. Ignius approached the closest one to him,  which was not much smaller than he was. He was about to pounce when a new voice spoke.

"Don't steal the chickens."

Both dragons whirled around in fright.

Cyrn let out a yell and disappeared.

Ignius glanced hurriedly to the patch of air where Cyrn had been, then quickly back to the other dragon, flames ready to use if necessary.

But this dragon didn't look particularly menacing. In fact, he didn't look like any dragon Ignius had seen before.

The dragonet in front of them was small, but looked about their age. His scales were a mahogany brown that glinted copper in the sunlight. He didn't have horns, but he did have two ears and little spikes below them that looked like a cross between Water Dragon ears and a Earth Dragon crest. He had the build of a Earth Dragon, but a Water Dragon snout, and he looked at them with a bored but pleasant expression, like he knew they were there all along.

"You're a hybrid." Cyrn said in wonder as she shimmered back into view.

The dragon frowned, obviously not liking the term. "My mum says I'm special."

He lost his calm stance and frowned suspiciously. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Ingius hesitated, then spoke, obeying the dragon courtesy of obeying another when on their territory. "I'm Ignius, and this is Cyrn. And you are?"

The copper dragon squinted. "Why should I tell you? You are on my turf."

A bellow from around the back of the house made them all jump.

"EROY!" The voice yelled. "WHERE ARE YOU? And WHY aren't WEARING your COLLAR?"

A dark blue dragon marched down from the house to where the others stood. She seemed to be a hybrid too, with the looks of a Water Dragon, but with blue feathery wings, gills, antennae, and a Earth Dragon tail. One thing that stood out was a light blue strap around her neck, with an engraved metal tag on the front. In her talon she held another leather strap similar to hers, but maroon in colour.

The copper dragon who's name must have been Eroy, groaned. "Way to ruin my intimidating interrogation," he said.

This time, Ignius' own snout creased into a frown. "Wait, you two are pets?"

"Yeah." The dark blue dragon said. "And if a stranger finds him without his collar, he'll go to the pound." She spoke while fasting a metal buckle to hold the strap on Eroy's neck. He frowned and scratched at it, making the tag jingle.