by Katie Cherry
“Thank you,” I respond. Greg comes racing back as we climb onto the dragons, squeaking in terror but pressing forward regardless. I decide to ride with Tatiana while Nathan climbs onto Victor. I hold Eric close to me, keeping his head on my lap. Greg scrambles up the dragon’s leg and into Nathan’s lap just as the dragons crouch to leave. Nora hovers above us, waiting. The two then launch powerfully off the mountain, heading NorthEast. Nora flies alongside us for a while, but she soon gets tired and lands on my lap to rest.
The dragons fly so fast that we cover hundreds of miles in about an hour and a half, with the dragons creating a pocket of air around us so we can breathe and stay warm. Finally, I see a vast, ominous looking mountain ahead. “Is that Dragon Mountain?” I ask Tatiana.
“Yes. It is the only mountain with hollow insides large enough to hold so many of us. I do not enjoy being there, though. It is a dark, joyless place. Nothing grows there, and nothing has for hundreds of years.”
“Why?”
“Because Dragon Mountain is a volcano. When it erupts, it causes devastation for miles around. Plants grow back everywhere else, but never on the mountain because of the noxious fumes that come from it.”
“Um… is it really a good idea to meet there, then? Couldn’t you just meet outside?” I ask, concerned. I don’t know much about noxious fumes, but I know that they won’t do good things to Nathan and me- or our Familiars.
“No,” she says sadly as we prepare to land on the mountain. I can already detect a strange smell lingering in the air. “We can no longer do something like that.”
“Why? Nothing is more powerful than dragons, right? What do you have to fear?”
“…The Dragon Hunters. If we were to risk meeting in the open, the large number of dragons would certainly attract their attention. Normally, we wouldn’t fear them, especially when we are in a group, but we have recently discovered that they have created weapons of mass destruction,” she says as we land. “With these tools, they would be able to take out a large number of the dragons there. There is nothing we can do about the weapons, unfortunately. They are impervious to fire, and are strong enough to endure the power of our claws.”
“…Oh,” is all I can say as I climb down, Eric happily bounding after me. I don’t know what to say. I would like to help the dragons, but I don’t know that I can. It sounds to me like these weapons are indestructible. What could I hope to do against something like that?
As we walk into the mountain, the strange smell gets stronger. I start getting really concerned. “Um… Victor? Will these fumes hurt us?”
“No, not that I know of. It doesn’t do anything to dragons, but it could be different for humans and animals. Still, the fumes aren’t as strong as they once were, so you should be fine for a while.”
“…How long do you think this will take?”
“I don’t know. There isn’t usually this many things that need discussing. Maybe a few hours, perhaps longer.” I start feeling lightheaded and my stomach churns.
“I don’t think we have that kind of time. Do you think we can do this any faster?”
“No… but I have a solution. Your friends will have to wait outside- including and especially Nathan- then you can turn into a dragon to bear the fumes. They will no longer affect you, and it won’t matter so much how long this takes.”
“Why especially Nathan?”
“Because many of the dragons have begun to assume that all humans are like the Dragon Hunters… it would just be much safer for him to never enter.”
“But won’t it still affect them while they are outside?”
“Possibly, but it would at least take longer. Your friends should be able to last all day. They will likely have a fierce headache, if I understand humans correctly, but it’s the only way.” I hesitate, but it does make sense. I take a deep breath. I guess I’ll just have to face all these dragons alone.
“…Alright. I guess that’s what we’ll have to do,” I decide. Turning to Nathan, I tell him the plan. He isn’t happy about it, but the fumes are starting to make him feel sick, and Greg has already passed out, his little body overcome by it. Nora goes with him, riding on his shoulder since she’s too weak to fly.
My nausea is building as well, so I quickly concentrate on the feeling of being a dragon- I don’t picture a dragon this time, because that would make me shapeshift into a dragon already in existence. I want to see, once and for all, if I really am this ‘Dragongirl.’ So in theory, this should turn me into the dragon I’m meant to be.
I’m unprepared, however, for it to work.
Before I realize what’s happening, I am suddenly just a little smaller than Tatiana. I’m surprised to find that I’m not green like the two of them, however. I crane my neck around to take a look at myself. I am differing shades of blue and gold. All my spikes and claws are a bright gold- beautiful but obviously deadly, while my scales are a dark, vibrant blue. I wait for draconic instincts to try and take over, but nothing does. I am myself, yet, impossibly, I am a dragon with deadly power.
It’s inexplicable since I’ve never felt like this before, yet it doesn’t feel surprising. It’s new and unexpected, yet normal, like this was a part of me that was buried deep underneath, just waiting to be let into the light.
“Wow!” both dragons exclaim, stepping backward in shock. Victor continues, “I… I’ve never seen any dragon like you.”
“Really?” I ask, nervous. How was I supposed to blend in with these dragons if I’m so obviously different? “Are all dragons green? Is that what it is?”
“No, there are different colors of dragons, but none… I have never heard of a dragon of more than one color. You are unique indeed. No one would doubt that you are a child of Alex and Jack. Do you… feel any different? I understand that humans lose themselves to the power and complex minds of dragons…”
“No, I feel fine. Better than fine, in fact. You were right. It seems that I am indeed part dragon. It feels… natural to be in this form. It’s not foreign at all, although it should be.” I look down at Eric. He doesn’t seem surprised to see me like this. Maybe he saw the dragon in me before I did myself.
The four of us continue into the mountain, completely unaffected by the noxious fumes. Soon we emerge from the tunnel into a vast open space filled with dragons of all colors and sizes. At first, I am overwhelmed by them all. There must be hundreds, all different shades of red, light blue, sapphire, purple, lots of greens, blacks, and some silver. But like Victor said, there are no others with two colors.
There are some that are many times bigger than me, and very few that are smaller. We must be the youngest ones here. I suddenly feel claustrophobic and tiny. Most dragons are at least twice as big as me. Intimidated, I pull my wings up over my head and focus on just breathing for a minute, trying to collect my former confidence that I gained from changing into a powerful dragon. I lower them again and feel a little better. Eric, daunted by both the number and size of the dragons as well, climbs onto my back and tries to hide behind one of the large spikes there. I can hear many conversations raging in my head, but they are all quiet and in the background since none are directed towards me. I can gather, though, that they are waiting for something- or someone.
All conversation suddenly drops as a colossal gold dragon saunters into the room. He stops and calmly gazes around the room. I vaguely notice that all the dragons are bowing their heads to him, but I am too astonished by this dragon’s presence to do the same myself. He notices me and begins making his way toward me, dragons parting before him to make room. I can feel the eyes of every dragon in the room watching me. The weight of their stares is suffocating.
As he gets nearer, I manage to bow my head respectfully, although I feel more like I’m hiding than paying my respects. My head to the ground, I can only see one of his enormous claws as he stops in front of me. I take a deep, anxious breath. This dragon obviously has power and strength and can easily affect the rest of the dragons, and I have a
feeling it has nothing to do with the fact that he’s simply the largest dragon I will probably ever see- even bigger than the silver one with the Sohos. If he wanted to, he could probably order all of the dragons in this room to attack me- if not just take my head off himself with one lazy flick of his paw. Who knows? I don’t exactly belong here anyway. This dragon could tell that at a glance- and judging by the whispers in the back of my head, the rest could as well.
I then hear his deep, rumbling voice in my head, drowning out the whispers. “Hello, child. I can see that you are new here. What is your name? I have never seen you before- nor any dragon like you. Although your scent is somewhat familiar. Who are your parents?”
“I… I…” I stammer, unable to form words. I’m so in awe of this dragon that my brain doesn’t seem to work right anymore. I force it to work anyway. It’s rude not to answer a question- and I certainly don’t want to make him mad.
I swallow and force myself to look up at him. It’s a long way up. “My… my name is Crystal… Dragon. And you’re right, I’m new here. My parents are…”
“Pearl and Alexander Dragon,” he says thoughtfully. “I should have known. Those two are some of the most incredible, brave, and caring humans that I have ever met… and I have lived a long time,” he adds, chuckling. I try to smile, pulling my lips up over the long, sharp fangs in my mouth. “I should have known that their child would be the long-awaited Dragongirl… how are they? Doing well, I hope. I haven’t seen them in quite some time.”
I swallow again. “Um… well, not really. They… they are in the hospital at the moment.” I quickly explain the whole story to him, about my brothers and I being stolen and my parents’ hearts being broken, keenly aware of the dragons still staring at me the entire time.
“Ah. That would explain their absence… Well, it’s good to have you with us, Crystal. I thought you would be coming soon.”
“How… how did you know that I was coming? I didn’t even know until about two hours ago!”
“Because you are the Dragongirl. It was prophesied that you would aid us in our time of need, and that time is now. I should have known that it would be at our council… it all works out perfectly. …But what is that on your back? Could it be… is that the child that was lost after his mother died?”
“Um… yes,” I reply. “At least, I think so, unless it happened to more than one family of dragons. His mother and siblings died. I rescued him and named him Eric.”
“Well, hello, little one,” I hear the big gold dragon say to Eric. Eric, rather than responding, just ducks behind my tail to hide. “There’s no need to be afraid. We are all here to help you. My name is Gale the Gold.” Suddenly Gale looks up, seeming to finally notice all the dragons watching us.
“I must go, Crystal Dragon. I must start the council- the other members are already here and waiting.” I glance over at the highest point in the room, and sure enough, there are four other dragons there, waiting. All of them are the biggest and oldest dragons here. There is a sapphire, a silver, a black, and a white, but Gale is the grandest dragon of them all. “I will talk to you again soon. Very soon, in fact, since the matter of Eric is the first thin we shall attend to. The matter of you helping us is the other. I will do my best to be fair, but I cannot guarantee what the others on the Dragon Council will decide regarding everything we discuss today. Now then, let’s get started, shall we?” With that, he slowly walks to his place.
Once there, he turns and addresses all of the dragons in the room. “Hello, my friends, and welcome to this Dragon Council! As all of you know, I am Gale the Gold, the oldest dragon alive- thanks to the Dragon Hunters killing Asoka,” he adds, bitterness in his voice. “Our first item of business today is that of Jasmine’s lost child, who has finally been found!” He pauses as the dragons murmur amongst each other. When that dies down, he continues.
“He was found by a human- a member of the Dragon family. Crystal Dragon has raised our lost family member, naming him Eric, and is now returning him to us. The only thing to be decided now is to whom Eric should go. Jasmine had a large family, so more than one dragon may decide to claim him. Victor has expressed his interest to me previously to be his mentor. Victor, please come forward.”
His head held high, the green dragon, dwarfed by most of the other dragons, quickly makes his way to the front. He bows his head to Gale and stands behind him and to the left.
“As Jasmine was your sister, you have a right to this child. Does anyone object?”
“Yes,” A deep, angry voice growls. I look around, trying to discover the source of the voice. A dark black dragon a little bigger than Victor steps up, a proud look on his scaly face. “My younger brother does not reserve the right to our sister’s child. He has not yet even earned his title. As the oldest, I should be entitled to raising young Eric. It is my right.”
“Very well. Please come forward, Vincent the Proud. We will have to judge who is worthy of raising this child.” With a satisfied smirk, Vincent strides haughtily up to Gale’s side. He doesn’t bow to him. My wings flutter a little with anger. I notice many other dragons are irritated as well. I cannot believe that this jerk thinks he is so much better than everyone else and everything is his right. The air about him just seems… wrong, somehow. All I know is that I don’t like this dragon. Not at all.
“Does anyone else make a claim on Eric?” No one says anything. “Very well, then. Due to time constraints, we will decide after the meeting who Eric will stay with. We may even let him decide. But for now, we must move on to our other item of business. We have an extraordinary guest with us today.” Gale turns and looks at me as Victor and Vincent go back to their places.
“Crystal Dragon, would you please join me in the front of the room?” I swallow hard, my wings fluttering with nervousness as the eyes of every dragon in the room once again land on me. I hear hundreds of conversations erupt in my head, almost deafening me. I walk slowly up to Gale’s side, barely remembering to bow my head first. My tail swishes from side to side anxiously as I stand there.
At first, Gale tries to wait for the dragons’ conversations to die down, but they just get more and more excited as they realize what this must mean- especially when they notice my multicolored scales. So after a few minutes of this, Gale has to roar loudly to silence them all.
“Good. Now that that’s over with… I know you have all heard the prophecy of the Dragongirl. It was not specific, but it is obvious that Crystal is the one. Never before have I seen, in all my years, a dragon of two colors. Likewise, I have never seen a human become a dragon and not lose themselves to the form completely. It is an excellent sign that she is here. Our dark days are coming to an end! This dragon-human will help bridge the gap between our two races and defend us against the Dragon Hunters and save our world!”
I quickly interrupt. “I never… I never said that I will take on the Dragon Hunters for you.” Complete silence. That is what my statement causes. Shock and anger spreads across nearly every dragon’s face. Glee spreads over Vincent’s.
“I knew it!” he exclaims, striding up and standing proudly in front of Gale. “I told you she wouldn’t help us! She is a human, after all! Everyone knows how selfish they are! I’ll do it! I will save us! I will take on this Patrick guy myself! He doesn’t scare me…”
Gale growls loudly, cutting off his tirade. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You have never seen the Dragon Hunter’s power. You have no idea the havoc they can- and do- cause. I understand and respect Crystal’s hesitance. She is wiser than you.
“However,” he continues, turning to look at me with one great, golden eye. “I strongly urge you to reconsider. I appreciate that you do not wish a prophecy to rule your life; govern your every action. I know how that feels. Regardless, I have discovered that eventually, you end up fulfilling that prophecy whether you meant to or not. It is still up to you, of course. What does the rest of the council say?”
The sapphire dragon steps up a
nd stands on the other side of Gale. “I think that we should leave this up to the Dragongirl, but before she makes her final decision, we should do what we can to show her how much we need her help. Then we let her decide.” Her head swings around and she peers at me. “…I trust that she will make the right decision.” She lets this hang over my head, a subtle threat. I respond by dipping my head respectfully to her. She returns the gesture before returning to her spot.
The silver and white dragons agree with her, but the black one does not. He stands and strides to the front. “I disagree. You are all too soft. I think that the Dragongirl should either help us or get out of our way. She must do as the prophecy says. However, I don’t believe that we really need her help. We can solve this ourselves. Since when do we need a puny human to help us? We are the strongest, most powerful race in all of Zilferia- in all of the realms. So help or not, I don’t really care, as long as we dragons don’t sit back and do nothing. If nothing else, my clan and I can take care of this threat,” he cockily promises as he sits back down, satisfaction written plainly on his face. I can tell that he’s probably related to Vincent- he’s so full of himself. But then again, Victor wasn’t like that, even though they were brothers.
“Are we in agreement, then?” Gale asks, looking at the council. “We let her decide, but try to help her make the right choice?” They all nod at this, looking satisfied at the compromise. Vincent and many of the other black dragons, however, do not. But majority rules, I suppose. Gale turns to me. “Do you agree to this?” I nod, grateful that they’re letting me add my voice to the decision. “Thank you, Crystal. You may return to your spot. I will speak with you afterward.” I nod again and head back to Victor and Tatiana, feeling the tightness in my chest finally ease.