The Cursed Dragon

by Rachal M. Roberts

  Ravanan was incredulous, “Is that what you think? That I’m influencing you?”

  “I don’t know! I just need to have some time alone, away from you, to put some distance between us so I can think.” Kalara was flustered by his heated reaction.

  “Why? Why would you do that when I’m trying to help you?”

  “Look, I know you can calm me with a word, freeze me, who knows what else you can do? How can I ever trust you when you captured me!?!” Kalara yelled.

  Each waited to see what the other one would say or do, taking time to consider their next course of action. Staring and thinking they rounded on each other, keeping their distance like fighters in a boxing ring. Kalara couldn’t help but to once again become aware of his tall build and broad shoulders. Despite her efforts of confrontation she was drawn to him still, and didn’t want to upset him. She became angry with herself, why couldn’t she stop thinking such desirous thoughts? Ravanan had to be in her head, making her feel this way. Lust was winning over her anger and accusations. Kalara recalled the warmth of his body back at the mall, she wished he would come closer so she could feel it again. Even as she leered at Ravanan, she wanted him to take her hand in his. If she could just bring him closer...

  Kalara stopped herself. Did she really want him or was she just unconsciously obeying his charming command? How could she know for sure? Was he summoning her or was it the other way around and she was wanting him? Just then, Ravanan took a step towards her.

  Did she make him do that? She didn’t think so. He must have stepped closer to gain more control over her. It scared Kalara. She didn’t want to be helpless and be made to obey him.

  She needed to get away from him. Kalara backed away on her newly healed feet and took off for the other side of the lair. The floor was smooth from centuries of sleeping but there were still rocks and mounds that she had to avoid, they slowed her escape. Even the smallest of step ups and downs were difficult for her stiff muscles. The black robe swished about her legs and did nothing to stop the cool cavern air from touching her skin and lace-covered breasts which in turn caused the sexual feelings within her to perk up. The way she was feeling about Ravanan was crazy and all too soon for having just met him, he wasn’t even human. Something was going on. There had to be more to it than simply escorting her back to Brazil.

  Kalara was winded and had to stop short of the wall, she rested on a large rock.

  Just as a body guard always stands within arm’s reach, Ravanan came to be at her side.

  She couldn’t take it anymore, her anger was rising in her throat. “Please leave me be! Get away from me! I don’t even know you!” She glared at him. The fear in her eyes was dangerous and she was dizzy from trying to sort out her thoughts. She couldn’t focus on any one thought for very long which only added to her aggravation. Deep down she knew she was hopelessly lost and that Ravanan was her only chance at finding herself, but how could she ever learn the truth with him manipulating her for his own dark purposes? She viciously lashed out, “You’re only confusing me further! If you want to help then make me organize my thoughts – you’ve got magic, cast something! You obviously want to!”

  “No, I don’t.” Ravanan’s voice was level “But I’ll listen while you set them in order.” Seeing the rage in her eyes, her outburst was exactly what Ravanan worried would happen. He needed her and her memories intact, and he was afraid she might totally lose her sanity. Ravanan added “Kalara, I’m not controlling you. Once you’re back to normal you’ll understand.”

  “Normal? But what is normal for someone like me?” She screamed at him. “I’ve been living and believing I’m human, that magic wasn’t real and my dreams were simply metaphors. But then you showed up with a far out explanation for my condition. A dragon. I was a powerful, magic using dragon, but not always. I don’t remember being a dragon. It’s not in me, and I can’t explain you being one. I feel like a human with a human life back in Oklahoma, my human roommate probably called the cops for a missing human report. But they will never find my human body. I should call her to let her know I’m OK. But my phone and purse are back at that mall.” she started to cry “Everything in it, my stuff, my cash, it’s all gone. Everything that I had attained to start a new life, everything that defined me is worthless, and I’m back to being a lost soul.

  “The whole city, everything I know, is nothing but dragon food. I bet you’d eat Jenniffer if you had the chance. Am I supposed to eat them too?”

  Ravanan interrupted her “You’re getting ahead of yourself, slow down. You never have to eat a human if you don’t want to. Have you seen me eat a human?”

  But Kalara drove on “I want a pizza damn it! I’m hungry and I’m tired of cooked unseasoned meat! Teach me how to summon a pizza with no cell phone. Go ahead, teach me how to control a dangerous thing like magic! Better yet, show me the manual that will explain everything for me. Take flying for instance, how was I flying? And what is it with the whole mind control thing? I just got the feeling that I was commanding you to come to me, or were you making me think I was? Somehow I was sensing your warmth and I know humans can’t do that. But how am I making it all happen?

  “How do I handle a sense of magic, a sense beyond the known five, assuming there really is one? Talking about senses, why am I so strongly attracted to you? That is not me, I keep my feelings in check, especially around guys I’ve just met. I practice self-control, I’m not some easy whore who is available on a first date. But this isn’t a date, it’s a rescue mission by an incredible hot guy – no, I take that back – dragon who could kill me with a breath. How can I fight against that? How would I even know if you were controlling me? I’m defenseless against you and I am messed up. I need my dragon memories back while keeping my human memories to save any clues I was too blind to notice while believing I was a human. I need confidence in abilities in which I just discovered in order to regain those same abilities back that I once had every confidence in!”

  She was overwhelmed, her tears were a steady flow. Her newly healed legs were throbbing from the short jaunt and she knew there was no way she could ever get away from him.

  Ravanan was already mentally working out ways to counteract her muddled mind. The confusion and memory loss had pushed her so far from herself that killing her would be easier than fixing her. But her death wouldn’t help him; so rather than kill her where she stood, he would at least address her immediate problem to stabilize her long enough so they could eventually fix the rest. Attempting to help Kalara was the same as trying to hold a frantic tiger without hurting it.

  “If you can trust me, you’ll have the answers you seek.” he answered back. “I can show you how it feels to be totally without magic, how bare it feels, and then when the spell ends you’ll feel your magic rush back to you. Then maybe you’ll recognize the subtle change you’ve made since I found you and you’ll know if you’re being controlled.”

  “Is that possible?” Kalara sniffed and asked through bleary eyes.

  “Yes it is but only for a short moment. It’s a terrible thing to do to another dragon; to strip their magic away – even though it’s only for a few heartbeats. It’s even worse to experience it first hand, but it may be just the thing you need.”

  She wiped her eyes, “I’ve got nothing to lose and nothing to fight you with. Do anything you want to me.” Feeling dejected and tired, Kalara let herself slide down to the floor.

  “Don’t say that.” Ravanan warned with a stern voice, “Don’t give me that power.”

  “Why not? I can’t stop you, I’m tiny next to you.”

  “Enough.” He was repulsed by her attitude. “You were and will again be as powerful as I. Even though you have no memory of magic, you have to admit it is real.”

  His words snapped Kalara back to attention, “I know that I can’t explain all the things you are able to do. I know that I was seriously injured from an unknown attacker. If that is magic, then yes it exists.”

  “It does exis
t. If you don’t trust me then at least trust magic, it is neither good nor evil, and you’ll find it to be your best asset.”

  “How is magic even real? Why aren’t humans magical?”

  Ravanan found a rock near her and sat down. “Our magical blood comes from the comet that destroyed the dinosaurs; we call the place where it landed Vya Matros because it is the center of where magic started. The impact would have killed us all if our lairs had not been underground, only a few of us remained, mostly those diamid dragons on the other side of the world far from the blast zone. In the long, dark aftermath that covered the whole planet our blood mutated and began to obey the instructions of the mind. We continued to exist, slowly, and we eradicated anything else with magic. Over the eons we studied and perfected it. We are the guardians of magic and thrive because of it. Humans came along only a few lifetimes ago – long after the infectious clouds had faded away.”

  Even though she’d seen a lot over the past few days, Kalara was still having a hard time settling into the idea of magic and dragons. She pointedly asked “Then how come dragon skeletons have never been found?

  “Look, I really want to believe you, but humans are a great people – I’ve lived among them. It’s all I know. They have done many things, they own the world. They’ve gone to the moon, they have radar. Their scientists have mastered the atom, they know how the continents fit together, and mapped DNA, but nowhere do intelligent humans think dragons or magic exist. How can they not know?”

  Ravanan retorted “How can you not know? How can you have no recollection of the past 2,200 years that you have lived? You ought to know what I’m telling you is true. Yes, the herd is clever, inquisitive, and has made superb discoveries that dragonkind has learned from, but they are a wasteful species and have a remarkable knack for ignoring the problems they don’t feel like dealing with. Dragons may lack curiosity and creativity, but humans more than make up for it in their blatant disregard. It’s really quite easy to avoid humans.

  “If you weren’t so addled and gone you’d remember the deep ocean trenches are our grave yards, far from curious human eyes. We value our solitude from humans more than being careless enough to leave a dead dragon lying around. We even went so far as to erase our bones from the rock layers that record life to keep our secret.

  “Not only do we carefully hide our dead, but we are also careful to not hunt too much. We purposely keep our population in check to maintain a healthy and growing herd. The more humans that disappear the more they would question it and find us. Then they’d never stop. They would hunt and search until we were all dead. Humans are forever searching; the search itself gives them a sense of purpose.”

  Kalara tried to understand “So dragons are always near humans then; hunting them and tending them like sheep? Why wasn’t I eaten when I was among them?”

  “We don’t eat our own kind. Other dragons would have sensed your blood just as I did and assumed you were hunting or playing with your food.”

  Kalara had a look of disgust on her face but Ravanan didn’t care and went on. “Humans are entertaining and they’re everywhere now. Acama was right, their population did explode and we have had to adapt. Take Merlin the Topaz Wizard for instance, he really embraces humans and lives with them. He actually vacated his lair, gave it up completely, put all his treasure in a human bank except for a couple of pieces, and went to serve a human king until the king died of old age. As the court Wizard he advised the king on which fair maiden to sacrifice and then turned around to be the dragon that ate the girl. To hear him talk you would think he invented human sacrifice.”

  Kalara stopped him “Did you say Acama?”

  “I did. Why? Do you remember something?!” Ravanan’s voice raised with excitement, hope filled his eyes.

  “I’ve heard that name in my dreams before but that isn’t my name. Who is it?”

  Ravanan answered “Acama was a dragon who died years ago. Death among dragons is rare, old age is our only real threat and we use magic against that. So his untimely death merits remembering, it wasn’t for nothing.”

  “And.... is that all?”

  “No. You see, before humans we were the biggest and best predator on earth. And even after they showed up we were still better. We noticed how they were self-aware, they had music and spirituality, different than all the other animals we ate. That was their business and we still hunted them – it made no difference to us.

  “There weren’t enough humans to worry about them seeing us and the few humans that did see us, and lived to tell about it, made up fantastic tales of monsters, wizards, and dragon slayers which all worked to our benefit.

  “But who could have predicted the tremendous impact they would have on dragonkind? We blossomed because of them and we took their discoveries as our own. Dragonkind jumped forward. We took on their form and discovered the benefits of it, we’ve studied alongside humans, have even added their alchemical findings to our own. This is a new age for us.

  “Then Acama the Malefic Jade Dragon hatched right in the center of the human Olmec empire in Anarchelos Xylo. They were his food source as a hatchling and on after he grew up. Word spread of the Olmec’s numbers and a diamid dragon showed up to hunt. Acama fought hard, defending his herd, but when he got the upper hand the wounded diamid flew off and hid, only to be found by the Olmec and finished off.

  When Acama saw how they mutilated the body he turned on the Olmec; eating every single human that had come in contact with that feathered dragon’s blood. He became merciless in his feeding. The Olmec kings pleaded with Acama, offering cups of blood and bodies through ritual, and it worked for centuries until the younger generations forgot about the massacre and wondered why they had to offer anything. They rose up mightily, only to meet a terrible end by Acama. The few remaining Olmec scattered across the land.

  “After that Acama didn’t seem to mind if other dragons hunted in his territory. He invited us so that we all could feast at leisure, you were there too, just like me. In the Mayan lands he loved to pit city against city, having us all join in, we’d each take our own. It was like a giant game – and they would have been great warriors had they not been fighting dragons in disguise. The warring cities were devastated by dragons and a 200 year drought didn’t help either. So we all left and went back to our own lairs and herds.”

  “But Acama stayed. It was a lean time and he never forgot how all that surplus of food had helped him study new spells and he wanted that energy again.

  “Eventually he found that energy in the Aztecs, becoming their first Tlatoani and secretly eating their sacrifices, trying to be more careful about keeping the herd’s numbers strong. The Aztecs called him Acamapichtli and hailed him as a mighty leader. And in his royal palace he sat alone, raising them for food.

  “He watched them grow. He saw what they were capable of. They were intelligent, curious, and joining together into societies that were far greater than any one human or dragon could ever be on his own. There was power in having a society. He began to really think.

  “Acama followed the thread of existence, looking ahead, and imagined a horrible road before us. He could see dragons wiped out by scores of humans, our blood used by them for their devious pursuits; it would be our annihilation. Humans were multiplying and they were so inquisitive. He also saw how the Olmec and Maya fell before him and how dragons could easily hunt humans into extinction. He believed humans and dragons had reached a critical moment, an impasse that had to be addressed.

  “Now it’s possible that other dragons in the world saw it also since we were thriving because of the human cities that were springing up everywhere. Take Atlantis for example, the older dragons at Acama’s Calling spoke of their debacle there and the tragedy they had caused. But Acama was the one who did something about it. To make his plan work, every dragon in the world needed to know his concerns and ideas. But we are, by nature, solitary with no need of government and he knew the only way to get all dragons together was with a
magical summoning. This had never been done before and hasn’t been done since.

  “Acama did something odd then. He used paper and ink to record his fears and proposals. It was odd because even though dragons can easily decipher human languages, we don’t use books; we have our minds to preserve information for our young to inherit. He sealed the writing in a box that could only be retrieved and read by the final dragon to arrive. Then he chained the box around his neck and traveled to Vya Matros. Once there, he cast some type of high level spell to summon all dragons to him. Eventually all the dragons of the Earth arrived and found the box on his dried up carcass that was resting inside a bubble on the shallow ocean floor.

  “The spell had taken every drop of his blood, vaporized it – he must have known it would kill him. Until then we didn’t even know verbal spells used blood, for all the many verbal spells we cast only drops are lost. That was by far the highest level spell I’d ever seen cast, Acama must have ate thousands of Aztecs just to craft and practice an extreme spell like that. It was an ultimate spell, there can be none higher than the one that kills you.

  “We took his body to shore, cleared the beach of the few humans there, then read his notes and agreed with his predictions that humans would rapidly multiply and find a way to defeat us. He wrote that we have an unending food supply in humans, that they also supply information to us, but that they are also dangerous. Because of his notes, Dragon Law was made, and it is very small and simple.

  “It’s two-fold, first is don’t fight over food or hunt too much to avoid discovery and second is to completely hide from humans. Hiding is the main component of the law and the law would only work if every dragon in the world agreed to it. Because of the law we now hide our dead, place our eggs in solid rock, hide ourselves and lairs, and erased our story from the rock record. And for those eggs that were not at the summoning, each one was kept with its dragoness until it hatched so it could know the Dragon Law that resulted from Acama’s Calling.”