Knowing there was no way for the dragons to outnumber the humans and their advanced weaponry, Damien ordered the soldiers to retreat and try to fly as fast as possible so as not to leave a trail. But, of course, once the humans knew of the dragon race, they deployed all possible forms of weapons – from airplanes and drones to tanks and marines – to make sure they don’t lose track of the beasts.
“If we follow them,” said one leader, “we will find their headquarters and the rest of them.”
Damien knew they would do all they can to find their valley, and once they do, they will kill every mother and child they come across.
“We’ll mislead them,” said Damien, looking at William and holding his shoulder fast. “Have the majority fly in the complete opposite direction. Whatever you do, make sure they do not find the Valley.”
“Yes, Your Grace!” replied William, and then suddenly soaring amidst the battle skies.
“What have I done?” said Damien, whispering to himself. “What have I done to my people? I’ve driven our kind to its very own grave.”
William ordered the majority to fly as far as possible from the direction of the Valley, with only a couple of dragons going back to warn the others. It seemed to work at first, and the surge of drones and airplanes followed to the opposite direction. Yet, once one of the two others were spotted heading to another direction, the humans left nothing to chance and ordered a few to follow them.
Damien looked around him, finding Viera desperately trying to shield herself and the others from the human strikes, William trying to stall most of the fighters before they followed to the Valley, and the others trying hopelessly to combat machinery that was twice the size and might of even the largest dragons.
And then it happened, some airplanes had followed the two dragons across the waters until they found it – the Valley of the dragons. Before they attacked or even approached the valley, they reported the location back to their headquarters.
“That’s it!” said one leader, “we found it.”
“Found what, sir?” another asked.
“Their little hiding place,” he replied with a crooked smile on his face. “Where they the rest are. Where they all are and have been all these years.”
“Shall we deploy operation B71?” asked the commanding officer.
“Yes,” replied the leader. “It’s time. The moment we’ve all been waiting for, and they’ve led us right to their doorsteps without us having to lift a finger.”
The commanding officer left the room to see the details of the operation. Meanwhile, the leader stood up and said, “ladies and gentlemen, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. This is a legendary moment of human discovery. Once again, the human race, in all its power, stood face to face with unimaginable creatures and proved the strength of civilization. Let us remember this day, and the bright young men who fought for its achievement!” The others filled the room in powerful applaud, and remained seated in anxious anticipation of the latest military updates.
Dragons back at the valley had been warned, and they all huddled up inside the castle. The women and children were inside, and the male dragons protecting the palace from the outside. Fear filled all hearts, and many were already in screams and tears, fearing what could be the end of the dragon race altogether. Damien was informed that a change in the humans’ military tactics took place. They had all abandoned their bases, and were flying right towards the direction of the Valley.
“They know,” said Damien, his eyes wide open and his heart beating fast. “They know where the valley is. They know about the others!”
“Your Grace!” said William, suddenly showing up and clearly having heard of the news. “We must fly to the Valley at once! They are already miles ahead of us!”
“Abort this city!” yelled Damien. “Back to the Valley, everyone! Now! We must protect our kind!”
The dragons all flew back to the Valley, their wings soaring with enormous speed, their mouths, noses and ears blowing fire in preparation for battle. By the time they arrived, the humans had already begun launching their mission – to kill the males and take the mothers and children back to the city in cages.
The only thing to do was for Damien and William to take as many dragons out of there as possible, and into a different hiding place. That is, at least if they wanted any to be left alive. They started sneaking them out one by one through underground tunnels that took them to the other end of the Valley where they flew in groups across the waters.
Damien returned his gaze to the burning homes. How has it come to this?
He had thought the peace would hold for at least another century. He had brought his people out of hiding under the pretense that they would be safe, that the race of man had finally come to accept his own and was willing to live side by side without further war. But he had been wrong. His race had hidden for so long, they had forgotten how deceitful mankind could be.
“We must go now if we are to escape,” William cut through his thoughts.
“Look at what has become of us, William,” Damien said, his voice low, almost a murmur, as if he were talking to himself. “How could we be so blind?”
“You could not have seen this coming,” William said, resting a hand on Damien’s shoulder.
“I should have,” Damien shook his head in anger. “The warnings were there, the stories passed down from my father and his father before him. Man can’t be trusted, and I ignored that.”
“You did what was best for us all,” William said. “Your people would have died had we stayed hidden any longer.”
Damien suddenly started to hate himself for what he had done, for how he had led his people to their deaths.
“My people are dying now.”
When William didn’t reply, Damien shook his head in frustration and curled his hands into fists. If it were up to him, he would have kept his race hidden for all eternity, but it was getting harder to survive. Living so long underground, with food supplies dwindling and mankind encroaching more and more onto their hunting grounds, they would have eventually been forced to step out of the shadows. He had hoped that doing it this way would have ensured their survival.
“King Damien?”
Damien felt the anger inside him course through his veins, his own wings shuddering with the force of his fury. He took a step forward and felt William’s strong hold on his arm.
“Your people need you,” William hissed.
“My people are down there, burned and hunted like cattle.”
“But the ones who have survived are not,” William said. “And they need a leader.”
William looked at Damien, noticing his eyes wide with fear and tearful with regret. He was not sure how to give him back courage, how to remind him that he is, after all, the only leader they’ve got. Damien’s pain, William felt, was more than any friend can alleviate at this point. But he must try nonetheless, for the sake of their people.
“Damien!” William shouted. “My king, and my friend!”
Damien turned to him, his eyes struggling to stay fixed on anything, roaming around in frustration. Then William remembered Damien’s father, and how he was stabbed to death on sickbed. Oh god, he must be remembering him right now, thought William. But then he realized that there was no time to dwell in the death of loved ones. We must try to save the lives that can still be saved, he thought.
“There are two hundred dragons out there!” William cried. “Women and children, and soldiers who need guidance. You are their leader now, and they need you to be the man you were raised to be.”
“I have failed them,” Damien replied, his eyes fixed on the flames that burned below. “How can they trust me again?”
“Because they know no other way!” William said. “Because you are the last remaining survivor of the royal family, and that means something to them!”
Damien suddenly then thought of Kelly, and how she would be left lost if he doesn’t try to save the remaining lives. Looking at Will
iam, he began to cross over the waters in attempt to save what is left of their race.
They flew over to the other side of the Valley, where the tunnel that ran through the mountains ended and where they had been smuggling groups of dragons from the palace. Everyone was frightened, the women and children in tears, and the population in complete panic, knowing this might truly be the end of it all. Damien went to help the others cross over the waters and stay out of human sight, and William accompanied him until they heard a sudden blast. It was so loud they thought it could be the beginning of an earthquake.
“Dear Lord,” said Damien looking behind him. “What on earth was that?”
“Oh my god,” said William, “I think I might know what that was.”
“Speak up, boy!” cried Damien. “What was that?”
“I think,” said William, “that it was what the humans call an atomic bomb.”
“A what?” cried Damien, his eyes wide open and his jaw dropped.
“It’s one of their latest forms of technology,” said William. “One or two of those could have the entire line of mountains collapsing in seconds.”
“We have to go back,” said Damien, trying to turn around again, yet William holding him by the arm and refusing to let him go. “Let me go this instance, how dare you!”
“We spoke about this!” said William. “We can’t leave the survivors here, we have to keep moving!”
“They could destroy the others still back at the palace,” cried Damien. “With that kind of weaponry, the dragons protecting the palace don’t have a chance! We have to go back, don’t you see?”
William stood silent for a moment, his eyes roaming the skies in confusion and his heart pounding faster by the minute. He was frustrated and wasn’t sure what to do. Should they go back or stay with the survivors and help them cross over and lead them to a new hiding place? He wasn’t sure if Damien was thinking straight, or acting solely out of fear and impending feelings of self-loathing. He then decided that if someone was to go back, then it ought to be him.
“Your Grace,” said William, “I will go back and lead the forces against the humans. You stay here and take the others to a new hiding place.”
“What are you talking about,” cried Damien. “This is absurd. I am their leader, which means I should lead them to battle not hide in cowardice.”
“What I am trying to say, Your Grace,” said William, “is that your life is far more valuable than mine. If someone ought to lead the dragons to what is probably a fatal battle, it should be me.”
“That is very brave of you, my son,” said Damien, resting his arm on William’s shoulder. “A true mark of courage. You have certainly just spoken like a true general.”
“No go!” cried William. “Take the others to a safe hiding place.”
“Good luck, my boy,” said Damien.
“And your Grace,” added William. “If you must know, I have always been in love with Kelly. But I feel that her heart belongs to someone else now.”
“When we love someone so dearly,” said Damien, “we must learn to let them go.”
William gave a subtle smile, and flew off to the other side as Damien continued to help the others cross over the water in groups.
By the time William reached the front side of the valley, it truly looked as if hell broke loose. The humans had deployed an enormous amount of weapons completely unfamiliar to William. They had man-like machines that were over twenty feet tall, and huge tanks that threw rockets in the sky and shot dragons dead to the ground. It was like nothing William had ever seen before. Bodies lay bare at every corner, most of them skinned and left to rot under the sun. They were either beheaded or had their hearts cut out, left to bleed under the fiery clouds above. It was the most horrid thing he’d ever seen, so horrid that it brought him not only to tears but also to unprecedented rage. He saw everything he held sacred before him collapse and burn into ashes. Dragons believed strongly in the holiness of souls, in the sacred nature of one’s soulless bodies. All William saw in that moment was humanity’s transgression, their utter disrespect for the holiness of souls, the sanctity of life and death.
What are these beasts? He thought. How could they be so cruel, so vulgar, so abhorrently immoral?
He spread his wings and spurred into the chaos with a thousand, vicious fiery screams.
Chapter 10
Meanwhile, back in New York, Kelly and Crown were still in hiding, with Crown sticking to his human form and refusing to let Kelly get back to the Valley of the Dragons.
“We can’t just leave them there,” cried Kelly, pacing back and forth across the office and refusing to stand still. “We have to go back, Crown! We have to, how can you not see that?!”
“Kelly, please,” he said. “We can’t go back to the Valley. Not anymore.”
“What?” she said. “What do you mean we can’t go back anymore? What do you know?”
Crown looked to his feet, trying to hold back his tongue from telling her what had really been happening back at the valley for the past few hours. She then held him from the arms, shook him as hard as she could and yelled, “Tell me! Tell me now!”
“They know where the valley is,” said Crown. “The humans, they have found the valley and have attacked.”
“Oh god,” Kelly said, falling to her knees and trying to keep herself form weeping. “Oh god, the women and children, they’re all there. We can’t stand here and let them die.”
“Kelly, please calm down,” said Crown, lying next to her on the ground and trying to hold her.
She then pushed him away and cried, “No! I will not calm down! How can you tell me that when our people are slaughtered like cattle by my very own kind?”
“Because going back wouldn’t do anything besides the very last heir we have to the dragon thrown!” Crown yelled. “I’ve been ordered to keep you safe, and keep you safe I shall!”
“Then there must be something else we can do!” she cried. “We can’t just stand here and hope that you and I are the remaining two of the dragon race!”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” said Crown. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but you and I are helpless at this moment.”
“Don’t say that,” said Kelly, looking Crown in the eye and trying to wipe her tears away.
“I am receiving news from the rest back in the Valley,” said Crown. “All we can do is wait to hear what’s happening, and if there is anything they will need us to do, then we will do it.”
“Can’t we negotiate, try to talk more to them, anything – “
“Kelly!” cried Crown, coming closer to her and forcing an embrace. “I am here, and I will never leave you. But all we can do is wait and pray. So, come and pray with me.”
They both sat on the ground, bowed and on their knees, holding hands and praying for the dying dragons back at the valley, and for the brave souls that perished for the sake of their people.
Hours passed, and they both were still on the ground praying, reciting hymns and trying their best to comfort one another. Suddenly, Crown heard something. It was a series of chants, of large groups of people marching and saying things that he could not quite make out.
“Do you hear that?” he asked, his eyes wide open and his posture fixed upright.
“Hear what?” Kelly said, raising her head from Crown’s shoulder, tying to listen.
And the she heard it. They were clearly a bundle of human voices all chanting together.
“Stop the killing! Save the Dragons!” they chanted. “Bring back the era of peace!”
“Oh my god!” said Kelly. “I do hear it.”
“Are they saying what I think they’re saying?” asked Crown.
Kelly and Crown both quickly got up and stood by the window, looking out into the vast city to find an avalanche of protestors. They were by the hundreds and thousands, all marching and holding up signs that read things like, “save the dragons”, “peace not war”, “stop the killing”, “end the murde
rous enterprise”. It was all too beautiful to behold. The faith they’ve all had in humans had finally been restored, and the beautiful spirit of solidarity and collective faith showed itself in the passionate chants of the humans. It was then that Crown realized that his father was right to believe in humans.
“It’s all so beautiful,” said Crown. “I knew it. My father told me to have faith in humans and he was right to tell me so.”
“This is amazing,” said Kelly. “Think of the enormous pressure they could all put on their leaders! We could lead these humans to spiritually fight against the powerful few who think they can bring back that wretched enterprise.”
“I think you’re right, Kelly,” said Crown. “But what do we do? How do we get them to push their leaders’ decisions to the fullest?”
“I think it’s time you turned back to your dragon form, my dear,” said Kelly, looking at Crown with a wide smile on her face.
Love of A Dragon (Exalted Dragons Book 1) Page 9