Resurrection Dawn

by Marc Secchia

  Grief, how many carnoraptors? She could not have counted right.

  GRRRAAARRGGHH!!

  An awesome roar turned her spine to jelly. Heavens, here came mama monster, shaking the grotto with her wrath!

  That’s big. Holy Resurrection Dawn – very big! And close.

  Her day had just turned immeasurably more lethal than she could have imagined.

  The incoming body blocked out the light in that crack. Scales scraped against the crystal walls as a massive weight shifted forward. As one, the carnoraptors abandoned the idea of plundering the nest to attack the incoming beast.

  Leave them to it. She needed to find an escape route. Stat.

  Instead, Alodeé found herself turning to the eggs. “You alright there – you little – what?”

  Her jaw did a second round of sagging, this effort ten times more impressive than the first. She looked three times just in case her first glance had been mistaken, her scalp prickling with painful intensity. Only one word described what her eyes could not believe.

  Dragons!

  Way to pick her hiding place. A flaming Dragons’ nest, Alodeé? She might better have pointed a handy plasma cannon at her own head and let rip.

  A deep rumbling alerted her, announcing a wall of fire that thundered into the grotto. Alodeé dived for the ground. She kind of tried to pull the stones up over her head, or something equally ridiculous, because that – that’s a Dragon! Off went her brain, freaking out of whack. Fire. Fire-breathing monster. Dragon!

  Lick! A tiny winged golden creature danced over her back, slurping at the albumen stuck there. Others struggled out of the eggy mess. Wings. Sharp snouts. Tiny talons. They made angry, mewling growls at the commotion.

  Her fists clenched. Get up! I am not some shivering weakling!

  She had to duck again as the roars became deeper, more thunderous. Just in time. Fire rolled through the gap in a massive conflagration. The baby dragonets stilled as one. Roll over. Check them out – carefully. Wild dragonets were not toys. These kids already stood mid-thigh to her on all fours, their sleek jaws packed with fangs and their bodies spit and steamed with evident rage. The ruby-red beauty gazed at her with great suspicion. Mama fought ferociously in the crack, but would those carnoraptors have a numerical advantage and far more manoeuvrability, given the narrow space? Absently, she unstuck a piece of ruby eggshell from her thigh.

  Sss! The red snapped toward the movement, nearly helping himself to a few fingers.

  “Hey, I’m the help around here!” she yelped.

  Tiny eyes filled with flame regarded her askance, evaluating her response. This creature’s intelligent. It’s … amazing!

  To her everlasting shock, the red dragonet purred like a cat and moved forward to rub against her legs, almost knocking her over with wobbly baby enthusiasm. Now they were best friends? Right until it figured out she might be edible. Wonder, terror, frozen feet. What to do?

  Maybe she should shut off her ridiculous brain’s wailing about Dragons and get on with staying alive. How’s about that for an idea? Dragons hated carnoraptors, clearly. That made them allies, at least for a moment.

  Yep, until she shifted her butt at least 50 kloms from here!

  Nice one, Alodeé. Burgling a Dragon’s nest had to be the lowest of low points she had reached in her attempts to stay alive.

  “Eh … hold on,” she wheezed. “That’s Mama out there. You kids stay here.”

  Two golden dragonets, one ruby-red and one emerald-green all surrounded her, low snarls issuing from their chests. Unspeakably cute, unspeakably lethal. If the mother was anything like 20 times bigger than these creatures … oh! The platinum one had not broken the eggshell as yet.

  Mama Dragon’s thunder sounded afresh, but this time, it struck her as pained.

  Alodeé snapped up her blades. “Excuse me, I’m –”

  One … two … three … GRRRAAARRGGHH!! Orange, red and yellow billows of flame, smelling oddly like charred nectar, gushed past her nose as she snapped her head backward.

  “– off to do something insane!”

  Screaming a war cry, she hurtled into the narrow gap.

  Dragoness! Crud, she’s how freaking huge? Somersaulting over a whipping tail, she plunged her right-hand sword into a carnoraptor’s back. The other sword whipped around and upward, slicing into a neck. Dodging the sweep of an immense emerald paw, she launched off the wrist to ambush a carnoraptor clinging to Mama Dragon’s shoulder, trying its best to gnaw right through her neck. Already 40 cents deep and munching fast.

  Ignore how eye-wateringly humungous this Dragon was. Act. Move!

  Alodeé’s infuriated sword slash hacked right through the base of the carnoraptor’s wing, leaving the appendage dangling. The beast shrieked in pain. Crouching, she sprang upward all of 6 vertical mets, aiming to hit another beast clawing its way over Mama’s shoulder. They scrapped brutally before she landed a telling blow, sending the creature skittering backward minus half of its lower jaw. Twisting sharply, Mama Dragon crushed it against the garnet wall.

  Holy Resurrection –

  A bellows-like intake of air rushed into those 35-cent tall, slit nostrils. Fire! Alodeé leaped out of the way faster than stat. Flame gushed over one of the carnoraptors above her head, knocking it off its perch. She stabbed the burning creature as it fell beside her, before having to dive-roll out of the way of Mama’s descending paw. Talons the length of her arm gutted the carnoraptor.

  Through the briefest opening beside her flank, she saw daylight.

  No. She would finish the job. Do right. A carnoraptor attacked that sleek emerald head from above, trying to gouge out an eye. Springing upward, Alodeé ricocheted off the wall past Mama’s vast, startled nose to plunge her right hand, plus sword, up into the roof of its mouth. The jaw champed down, trapping her arm and the twisting motion completed popping her shoulder out of joint.

  She screamed, falling, cradling her injury as she bounced off a carnoraptor and landed heavily. Mama Dragon paused and then crunched an orange body which blurred toward her.

  Alodeé backed up, kicking with her legs as another predator tried to attack her beneath the mighty chest filling the crack. “No, not the fire. No!” An orange storm swept over her legs, missing toasting her flesh by a few cents. Still baking hot! “Mama, please …”

  She had to keep scrambling for her life as the creature shifted forward, forcing her head and muscular shoulders into the grotto. The jaw cracked open, displaying a set of fangs fit to furnish any nightmare, before she lunged at a carnoraptor attacking her babies. Crunch! Crrrrunch! Instinctively, Alodeé hurled one of her swords overhand, pinning a straggling carnoraptor which had dared to bite the green dragonet’s leg.

  Not dead? Heavens – what did it take to kill these beasts?

  Mama Dragon poured forward to step upon the creature’s back. With a twist of her wrist, she snapped its spine. Casually. Like snapping a twig.

  Despite several gaping wounds, Mama moved like water. In a moment, the entire bulk of her body filled the grotto. Alodeé did not want to even think about how much – ah, Dragoness, that was. She sidled toward the exit. Four dragonets rushed her as one, chirruping and fluting excitedly as they mobbed their new friend. Hopefully she had not swapped her breakfast status to this family.

  Mama’s growl was not a happy one.

  Alodeé backed up, trying to feel the damage to her left shoulder. “I’m sorry – I just –” I’m just the fumbling fool who led the carnoraptors straight to your eggs “– I was just trying to help, alright? Kids, please. Mama’s over there. Stay back or she’ll spread me on toast –”

  Eyes of violet flame burned upon her. Eyes the size of her head. Eight crystal horns sprouted from the sides of her flared skull. She stumbled backward until she hit Mama’s tail. “Please – I’m nice – nice Dragoness? Don’t eat me. Please?”

  Freakity freak, Dragons are real! her brain spluttered, tripping up her tongue.

  The tail twitched re
stively behind her.

  “Look, you’ve a beautiful family. Why don’t you meet your babies while I – I’ll just – slip out the front door and never come back? Ever?”

  Pointing at the platinum egg focussed monster Mama’s attention on important matters. The eyes softened, changing colour as she loomed over her brood. One, two, plus the golden twins made four and one egg which stubbornly remained whole. Had to be a boy. Reaching out, she tapped it with her talon. Metallic, yet translucent. What a weapon!

  She wanted to scream, ‘Holy Resurrection Dawn, Dragons are alive! They breathe real fire!’

  Time to clear this grotto. Stat.

  The crimson baby sniffed at her hand. She scratched it at the back of the skull like a canine. Ouch, you’re hot. The mite made a purring sound, with a demanding edge to it. Yep. Better keep going or face losing the hand. Such supple, gorgeous hide. Silken armour. The babies crowded around Mama now, even the red, sniffing the misbehaving fifth egg. Stealthily, trying to remain very much in the background, Alodeé retrieved her sword and sheathed both weapons on her back. Bow? Good. All set.

  One issue. Mama Dragon still blocked most of the entrance. Now, if she could sneak over the tail and squeeze between her hindquarters and the wall – hindquarters that towered over twice the height of her head …

  As she moved, the quartet of dragonets mewled piteously and rushed toward her. Cute traitors! Alodeé made a break for the exit, but Mama shifted to stymie that move. Underneath? Over? Sprinting up the curve of Mama’s back, she launched off her favoured left foot – and slapped into an upraised wing. Splat. A huge green paw followed. Splot.

  Alodeé found herself lying on her stomach, groaning beneath the weight and power of a paw that fairly much covered her entire body. Trapped! “No, please … please don’t! I’m sorry!”

  Massive nostrils snuffled around her legs, before shifting to inhale the scent of her hair. The Dragoness tilted her head back and sneezed fire. There came another monstrous inhalation, getting her scent deep, deep into the nostrils. The paw shuddered with the force of whatever emotions moved the mother Dragoness now. Bestial hungers. Fire. Draconic rage!

  Don’t move. Don’t speak. Do nothing stupid, for a change …

  The creature made a sound halfway between a growl and a purr. Immediately, the four rascals started chirruping away nineteen to the dozen. Bold red came over to squeak around her head – actually, he stood on her head in his excitement. Mama’s head lowered to fix an immense, intense violet eye upon her. At once, she was struck with a sense of intelligence, of wisdom, of a creature far more than merely animal, behind that gaze. The violet fires inside that orb swirled agitatedly, as if seeking a connection, a memory, a nuance that completely eluded the terrified girl lying prone beneath her paw.

  The Dragoness regarded her intently.

  Alodeé gazed back, trying to remember how to breathe.

  Words could not encapsulate that sense of connection. Almost, it was a loss when the huge eye blinked and the weight lifted off her shoulders.

  She’s …

  Raising her body, the Dragoness created a narrow crawl space. Her paw shifted, palm up – a clear invitation to depart.

  “Thank you,” Alodeé said quietly.

  Trying not to rush too obviously, she slipped away through the tunnel, collected her pack and parachute and took a running leap back through the waterfall.

  She let me go. Why? What does this mean?

  * * * *

  Shivering with wonder, she drifted on the breeze down over this new realm, seeking a place to land. A realm of Dragons. Wisdom said she should not tarry long here. Emotions ached in her chest; wonder crowded her throat, making it difficult to breathe. Everything they said about Dragons was true. Everything. 1,301 years since the First Expansion and the existence of these creatures had been roundly dismissed by true science, but held sacred by people like the Oraman.

  People said they were superstitious. Primitive, even.

  If pressed, the person dangling from this parachute would have said the same, just a few weeks back. Had something in that conversation with Giantixx touched her? How she would love to return to Settlement Central and bring the Oraman back here – wherever here was. 20 kilo-kloms or more from home. A magical land.

  Magic? Girl, get a grip. Magic is just science that isn’t yet understood.

  Dragons were serpentine, like snakes, but had the insane awesomeness factor in addition. Their young acted kittenish, but cracked the eggshell already fierce and fiery. She still could not stop shaking! Trying not to move her aching shoulder, which she had somehow popped back into joint, Alodeé glanced back at that waterfall. Were there any more of her around here? Many more? What made her certain that Dragons were so different from carnoraptors?

  She could not fathom this encounter.

  Deep breath. Puff out the cheeks. Try to get the heart rate back under 500.

  She let me go. That Dragoness held my life in her paw and refused to take it. Does that mean she’s at least as intelligent as I am? Was that mercy?

  Suddenly, a rich, thrilling song filled the air – faraway, at first, resounding from near the grotto she had left – a ruby-red Dragon circled beside the waterfall up there, his scales outshining the morning.

  Oh no. She had a bad feeling.

  Spreading his wings, he continued to sing, hauntingly beautiful, yet with a bestial, terrifying edge to whatever he chose to communicate. In reply, other songs issued from the nearest crystal towers out in the bowl.

  Yep, make that a very bad feeling.

  Alodeé’s neck jerked as she caught movement up above. Kloms above. Wings flitted across the sun, jade and amber, peach and sapphire, now a whole rainbow rush as the roosts emptied and Dragons poured up into the clear early morning sky.

  The game where students were hunted by drones was meant to mimic a situation like this.

  Nobody had described to her the kind of fear that jellified one’s knees and threatened to turn one’s bowels inside out. In an instant, she knew what it was to fear Dragons. Not just a moment’s heated alarm amidst a battle, then an escape while her brain had summarily failed to catch up on the import of what had just happened. This was real. True. Humbling and awe-inspiring.

  ‘Here be Dragons.’ Tomaxx had reminded her of the ancient saying, jokingly, during their flight to Brilliantine Mines. Giantixx had been much more sober when she whispered, ‘Here be Dragons. People say that for a reason, girlie. Don’t you ever forget it.’

  The Dragon spirits were about to speak one last word over her life. What little doubt remained, as a cloud streamed up toward the lone red, must soon vanish. Song spread amongst the throng as they neared one another, as the red Dragon surged away from the cliff, belling his terrible song – even at this distance, it slipped ice into her bones. Heads turned, searching for a girl with a parachute that happened to be just about the only bright yellow blot in the sky within a hundred kloms.

  Suddenly, acting as one, the mighty flight of Dragons plummeted from the sky, hot on the hunt.

  The sheer surrealism of the moment paralysed her for a long, long moment. Had she trodden upon some taboo? Had the platinum dragonet died? Had Mama Dragon changed her mind? Why?

  Then, she fled as far and fast as the winds could carry her.

  Chapter 18

  Standard 1301.07.16. Estimated – Hunted.

  SONG WASHED OVER AND around her as Alodeé hit the ground hard, rolling to absorb the impact. Up in a sec. She reeled in the parachute and stuffed it into her pack. She saw the fires in their eyes now. If these Dragons thought to find easy prey, they were mistaken. No, she would not fight. She would not take a life.

  She’d vanish.

  Somewhere in this land, she’d outwit and outsmart these creatures.

  After all, she was Class U. Unclassified, unknown and unpredictable. Picking up her knees, she galloped along a river, searching for places to hide. Her extreme speed accelerated her into a purple bamboo for
est ahead of the swooping hunters. No need to hunker down here, for these stems were 15 mets tall. What she needed to do, was to be careful not to disturb the stems in ways that were too obvious to hunters coming in from an aerial viewpoint. Smallness and slenderness were to her advantage. She passed through, changing direction to angle more to the south. She heard the draconic songs receding. Alodeé darted through undergrowth into a thicker forest.

  Try to find me in here.

  She jogged along for an hour, before finding a stream in which to wade, losing the scent. She ran through the shallows for a long ways before slipping out and doubling back, trying to suss out the hunt. They must have trackers on the ground now, following her scent, judging by the movement of the bamboo about 2 kloms off. How could she throw them off? Maybe … maybe the parachute material would smell of Humanoid. She must assume they had superior senses. Maybe distance was the answer. Being in the open was too dangerous, surely? They’d have hunters up above, scanning the terrain with eyes 50 times keener than hers.

  Bending beside a patch of purple grass, she cut enough to weave a rude, wide-brimmed hat. This would have to take her through the next open area. Would the ruse work?

  Two hours later, the sounds of eager song reached her ears once more. How? What had betrayed her? The Dragons poured toward her hideout in a clump of rocks, terrifying in their beauty and speed. Away she sprinted, searching for better cover, as wings wuthered in the heated noonday air above her. No! They had spread out, quartering the ground in which she sought to hide. Over hill and through forest, the pursuit continued. Night. Please let night come soon. She led the Dragons toward a nesting family of carnoraptors she spotted and managed to get the two sides tangled up.