A Plague of Dragons (A Dragon Anthology)

by Jason LaVelle

  Worries of fatigue plagued his mind. How long could he endure before he’d have to take a rest?

  Water was no friend to fire-breathers. Bulky as he was, swimming was not a viable option either.

  Dax pushed on, determined to reach his destination. The human realm was out there. He would find it. Remembering that and holding on to the excitement and anticipation acted as a balm to his aches. If he could make it to land, he’d finally come face to face with the humans he’d long been curious about.

  Another hour passed, and still no sight of land. Excitement had its limits, and true panic threatened to cripple him and send him to his watery grave.

  No land within sight; no end to the vastness of the sea. He’d fall out of the sky with exhaustion, and the water would extinguish his flames forever.

  Dax mumbled a curse at Ramos. His friend. His brother. They were supposed to be doing this together. They’d planned this since they were hatchlings. As boys, they used to pretend the wyvern islands were human settlements and practice their sneaking and exploration techniques. How could Ramos abandon their dream? He was the better flier and navigator. Had his brother come, Dax had no doubt they’d have found the island already. For all Dax knew, he could be circling the same few miles of water, spending hours on an endless loop that could only end in one way. Just another dragon lost to the dangers of leaving their island home, he’d be forgotten in another century as his body rotted at the bottom of the ocean.

  Irrational fear had him raving about his friend as his wings trembled. Aching and weak, more than once Dax hit pockets of low pressure and nearly nose-dived into the sea.

  Just before exhaustion completely consumed him, as if in answer to his prayers, he heard the roar of an airforce-one above.

  A beacon of hope, it pulled the rational part of his mind out of the death spiral that fear had started. Those cloud riders had to land at some point.

  That was the boost he needed, and remaining low enough to the water to blend in, he followed the same path as the flying beast above until a giant mountain peak appeared on the horizon.

  Land.

  The Human Realm

  Veering off course slightly, Dax headed instinctively toward a volcanic tunnel leading into the island. Melted rock and sulfur welcomed him with acrid smoke, as if he’d come home, but there were other smells he’d not experienced before. New and fresh. He hadn’t even seen a human yet, but these strange, subtle differences piqued his interest.

  He found a safe spot to land and used his tail to hold his satchel as he delved deeper inside to see where it led. Gone were the aches and pains of overused muscles. Only the ghost of their memory remained as eagerness to explore reinvigorated him.

  The volcano was active, of that he was sure, but the heat it produced radiated from elsewhere, as if the volcano had cooled and hardened and then warmed again, getting ready for a fresh wave of Mother Nature’s blood to come rising to the surface. Still, it would make for a good place to curl up and sleep at night. Not that sleep was on his to do list. So close to finally meeting a human in the flesh, Dax felt ready to take on the world.

  If only he could figure out that smell.

  It seemed to permeate the air all around, almost flowery despite an unnatural edge. It wafted through the caves, teasing him, stronger in some areas and completely absent in others.

  The ground rumbled as if the volcano recognized Dax for what he was and welcomed him home. He tried to follow the scent, but the tunnel began to shrink where the fragrance was strongest.

  Then he heard voices. There was only an echo of words at first, but it was enough to set Dax’s heart thrumming with excitement.

  Humans!

  And they were getting louder.

  Dax pressed himself up against the wall, using his long neck to peek around the corner, hoping to catch a glimpse of them as they approached.

  Ramos’s words echoed in his memory: Please don’t allow yourself to be seen.

  The voices were coming in his direction.

  Dax set down his satchel and closed his eyes, imagining himself as a human. Tall and tan, with hair as black as charcoal and eyes to match his shimmering scales. He crouched down, tucking his wings next to his body, and willed them to shrink. Bones and muscle contracted as his body reshaped. His scales melted into smooth flesh. His claws receded into tiny nail beds. Massive as his tail was, it shrank to nothing as his body reformed. The spikes on his head, rather than disappear like all his other features, exploded into a wild mess of dark hair.

  The moment he took his other form, the heat from the volcano intensified. His skin – thinner now that his scales had faded – stung slightly but not uncomfortably. It was enough to make him aware of the limits his new body might have.

  The transition from drake to human happened painlessly but left Dax disoriented and unsteady. He breathed through the dizzy moment and gave himself a chance to regain his balance on his two back legs before picking up his satchel of clothes. On the Teevee he’d seen how humans wore them, and tried to mimic putting on the correct items. Those creatures had far too many layers for his liking. Covers for almost all parts of the body, from top to toes. He wondered why they bothered to hide their bodies from others. Dragons needed nothing of the sort; they were proud of their scales. Dax especially so. But despite the discomfort of so much cloth on his body, in the end he felt he’d done a good job dressing the part.

  An angry rumble shook the entire tunnel, a warm-up for the show the volcano was preparing. The voices spoke frantically, just around the corner from where he stood.

  “Jane, it’s time to go,” a deep male voice said. “Seismic activity is increasing. And the heat sensors are going berserk. Look at these readings.”

  “I know, I know. I just want to place this last camera so we can record the flow,” a female, Jane presumably, responded.

  This was it. The moment he’d been waiting for. First contact.

  Dax shouldered his bag and took a few wobbly steps, trying to balance. Four legs were better than two, but he had to look the part, and that meant walking like a human.

  If I had the use of my tail, balancing would be so much easier, he grumbled to himself, holding out his front limbs and pushing against the wall for support.

  Rounding the corner, he nearly ran head on into one of the humans.

  “What are you doing here?” The startled voice was female, but her face and body were covered by an odd-looking shiny protective suit. At first he thought he might not have brought the right coverings to wear, but after a quick search through his memory, he felt confident in his clothes. It was these strange humans standing in front of him who were dressed differently, as if they were trying to be dragons. Their suits shone like scales, but they were smooth and flexible. The coverings concealed all their features including their faces.

  Had they discovered Dragonkind and were trying yet again to replicate a metal version of their own protective skin? What lengths would humans go to be like his kind?

  The female barked at him again. “Hello? Are you okay?”

  Though her words had been shouted, Dax understood the undertone of worry in her voice.

  “I…Uh…” He fought to come up with a response, half in shock that he was actually standing toe to toe with a human, and at the same time completely unprepared for this first meeting. He knew their language from the Teevee, but in that moment Dax’s mind had gone blank, unable to summon appropriate words to explain himself.

  “Idiot tourists.” The female reached out and took hold of his arm. Surprisingly strong, her grip on him was uncomfortably tight. She pulled him as she turned to head down the smaller end of the tunnel. “I’m not having another one of you die on my watch.”

  Dax lumbered behind her, confused but more than willing to follow her lead. This was it. His first encounter with a human. A real human. They were shorter than he’d expected. Or maybe that was just because this one tugging at his arm was female. The other one stood a bit larger.
But it was so hard to tell with those silly suits they wore. The other one had to be male; his voice had a deeper tone. He walked alongside Dax, mumbling, “He’s not choking right now.”

  Dax turned his head to look at the male, not that it did him much good. The suit he wore covered his face just as completely as it did the female’s. It was the tone he used that piqued Dax’s curiosity. She seemed angry and concerned about him, but he sensed none of that from the man. Curiosity, maybe, though not surprise.

  Before he could muster up some words, a tiny handheld device in the female’s hand squawked. “Seismic activity too high. We’re coming to pull you out.”

  She punched a button on the small square device and shouted, “We’re on our way out. Picked up a straggler from the lava tours. I’ll need O2 and medics on call for our arrival.”

  She continued to pull Dax’s arm, increasing her pace as they headed toward sunlight.

  “I’m fine,” Dax tried to say, but it appeared his words were useless.

  The male’s gaze traveled down to the ground and back up to Dax multiple times. “Where are your shoes? Aren’t your feet burning?”

  The female didn’t stop but hit her little handheld device again. “Bring a burn kit as well.”

  The wheels in Dax’s head began to spin. He wasn’t supposed to reveal himself, and he’d already attracted attention. And now they were asking questions he couldn’t answer. On top of that, they were bringing more people with them, additional humans who would ask more questions.

  Ramos had warned him before he left, and he’d arrogantly ignored his brother’s pleas not to cause trouble. Not even two minutes and Dax had screwed it all up. This first meeting was nothing like he’d imagined, and no doubt would get worse the longer he remained with these people.

  He had to get away. Fast.

  They were closing in on the edge of the tunnel, and Dax sent up a silent prayer that the exit would be clear. The one holding him had a strong grip, but her smaller stature would give him the leverage he needed to break free without hurting her in the process. If luck was on his side, he could run before more humans came to their aid.

  The little handheld device chirped, and a voice squawked, “ETA five minutes.”

  “Make that two, Charlie. I have a liability here. Asswipe thrill-seeker in the active tube. No telling what state his lungs are in, and his shoes look as if they’ve melted to his feet,” she responded. “I need you here, like, yesterday!”

  “Really. I’m fine.” Dax tried one last time to get her to listen.

  “If we bring him in, it’ll be on our insurance. Maybe we should let him go. We don’t need the bad press his condition might bring,” the male said in a reasonable tone.

  Dax agreed completely. But the female wouldn’t let him go, and kept pulling him along briskly as if their lives depended on it.

  They came out of the edge of the tunnel, and when he saw there were no others waiting, Dax ripped his arm from her grip and took off in a sprint, running as fast as his new legs could carry him.

  Smoke billowed out from various places all around them. He realized quickly they’d made it to the center crater of the volcano with nowhere to go but up if they wanted to get out.

  The female shouted for him to come back, but her voice was drowned out by the beating of wings from a large flying beast. Like a stuttering roar with no beginning or end, it droned on, increasing in volume as it appeared over the edge of the rocky walls and slowly descended toward them.

  Unlike the airforce-ones he had seen from a distance, this one was no larger than a Drake, but its wings, rather than flap, spun around its head, creating that terrible stuttering sound. It swirled the smoke into a thick fog as it came closer to them, reducing visibility to almost nothing.

  As much as Dax wanted to get a good look at this new metal flier, instinct told him to get out of there quickly. He ran hard and fast over the rocky surface of the crater, his legs surprising him with their strength and stability as he hunted for another cave or lava tube to disappear into.

  Bright lights flashed overhead as the metal creature closed in.

  The earth rumbled violently this time, as if answering the mighty beast’s call, and a small explosion of lava belched out from a trench ahead of Dax.

  He altered his course, turning back to avoid the hot pumice raining down around him.

  The wings of the metal beast beat harder and it lifted up again, rising to the edge of the crater as rocks pinged against its body.

  The earth continued to rumble, Mother Nature’s warning that fiery rain would soon come.

  His people were heat-loving, their scales stronger than rock and their bodies already boiling inside with their own magical fire. The great Mother’s flames still burned hotter but brought with them rebirth for the land. His people celebrated these eruptions with parties and games, staying out of the direct explosions while basking in the heat they brought.

  But this was not his home, and the other people in the crater with him were not Dragonkin. They would surely die if they remained.

  Another explosion of magma sprang upwards into the crater, beautiful and deadly at the same time. A sprinkle of melted rock hit his face, the sting an instant reminder that he was not in his true form. Without his armor of scales, his human skin would burn.

  Just like the real humans, he would not withstand a minor blast, and this volcano was signaling she was ready for a release.

  The metal beast circled around a few times, as if trying to find a place to land. Loud voices called out to the humans below who’d first found Dax, and he watched them scurry toward the flying machine.

  The male reached it first and climbed into a hole in its gaping belly. From his vantage point, Dax judged the female to be only a few steps behind. She looked back before she reached the beast, as if searching. He’d been told humans were savages, but though he couldn’t see her face, he knew she was taking one last look for him. She had tried to save him despite his protests. Maybe humans weren’t just savage creatures.

  Another rumble shook the earth, creating new cracks below the flying beast’s legs.

  The female lost her footing on the shattering ground, and her body slammed down hard. A fissure opened up between the female and her metal flier.

  With the earth still threatening destruction, it lifted up into the sky, its tiny circular wings beating so hard they looked as if they were one solid rotating circle.

  The female reached a hand up, screaming for help, but the volcano’s mighty roar drowned out her cries as the earth fractured, coughing up clouds of steam. The flying machine lifted slowly upwards.

  Another spray of hot rock shot up into the air. More would come. This was only the preshow.

  Leaving the girl stranded as it was pelted with pumice, the flying beast spun out of view.

  How could they do that? Leave one of their own behind to die? And a female at that. Perhaps it was only the male members of the species that were savage.

  Horrified by what he’d just witnessed, Dax sprang into action without a thought of the consequences. Humans stood no chance against Mother Nature’s molten heart.

  He tore his clothes off and shifted quickly into his true form.

  With a mighty leap he covered the distance between them and landed over her body. Clasping her gently in his back claws, he lifted the female up and took to the sky, carrying her under cover of the smoky clouds toward the beach.

  ***

  From the sand Dax watched the mountain continue to rumble, but the explosion he’d been expecting never came. The whole island growled like an angry creature, belching smoke out into the sky from various craters sloping up toward the main caldera of the volcano. Giant plumes of gray blocked out the sun, but the heat and magma he’d hoped to see never reached the top.

  Below his claws, however, heat radiated from within the earth. There would be no further explosion; at least not today. Mother Nature’s blood ran hot through her veins just below the thin cr
ust of dirt where he stood.

  In his true form, he connected with the earth on a level only his kind could understand. Born of flames themselves, Drakes were one with the volcanoes they inhabited, caring for them and nurturing their fires.

  The female had lost consciousness somewhere between the top of the crater and his swift descent to the beach. Small mercies. He could at least change form before she awoke. That would save him an awkward explanation about his dragon form, but he couldn’t with a clear conscience leave her out in the open all alone. Humans – from what he’d seen on their Teevee – were not survivalists. They lived in close proximity to one another, and he worried that alone, she might not make it back to her people. Despite the almost certainty of consequences, honor demanded he ensure she returned to her people before he left her.

  With a deep breath, Dax shifted down again, trading his magnificent wings and shimmering scales for a pair of legs.

  So many transitions in such a short amount of time left him disoriented and uneasy in his new skin. The feeling passed after a moment, and Dax was able to stand without his head spinning. He wobbled a few steps as he hunted for his satchel, trying to regain the balance he’d had earlier. If Humans only knew how much easier it was to balance with a tail, they’d probably manufacture one.

  Dax pulled more clothes from his satchel and remembered to put shoes on this time.

  Once he felt he looked the part, Dax returned to where the female lay, still unconscious, and bent down to inspect her more closely. He unsnapped the strange metallic hood on her suit, curious to see the face that it hid.

  He’d seen humans before on the Teevee; they were curious creatures just as varied in color as his own people. This one, however, looked somehow less delicate than he’d expected. Her face had no colorful paint on it. Women on the screen he viewed were smooth and had deep reds in their lips; too perfect to be real. But this one had scars and splashes of light brown dots across her snout, almost as if she’d had scales that had shrunk and faded.