by Andy Holland
The True Dragon
By Andy Holland
Copyright 2018 Andy Holland
Kindle Edition
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1:
Chapter 2: The Menace
Chapter 3: Plotting Revenge
Chapter 4: Frustration
Chapter 5: Welcome Visitors
Chapter 6: The Black True Dragon
Chapter 7: Back To The Valley
Chapter 8: Attack
Chapter 9: Safehaven
Chapter 10: The Plan
Chapter 11: Revenge
Chapter 12: The Lost City
Chapter 13: The Extermination Group
Chapter 14: Searching For John
Chapter 15: Trapped
Chapter 16: Failure
Chapter 17: A Painful Discovery
Chapter 18: Interrogation
Chapter 19: The Bronze True Dragon
Chapter 20: Training To Kill
Chapter 21: Evacuation
Chapter 22: First Attempt
Chapter 23: Captured
Chapter 24: Third Trip To The Valley
Chapter 25: The Island
Chapter 26: Final Chance
Chapter 27: Recollection
Chapter 28: Back Up To Speed
Chapter 29: Planning The Second Attempt
Chapter 30: Return To The Circle
Chapter 31: The Calm Before The Storm
Chapter 32: The Green True Dragon
Chapter 33: Indestructible
Chapter 34: The Other Hidden City
Chapter 35: An Impossible Fight
Chapter 36: The End
Chapter 37: Alive
Chapter 38: Epilogue
Chapter 1: Crystal
Crystal gazed down at the city of Furnace, circling high above the volcanoes that ringed the Red Dragon capital, lazily riding the thermals created by the morning sun. The city looked so peaceful from up here, with no visible sign of the scars from the recent war with the Blue Dragons. The King had ordered no expense spared in repairing the damage, and if anything, it looked better than it had done before.
The Red Dragon people themselves had recovered just as quickly as the city. Despite the terrible loss of life, especially in the south and the east, she had never seen the people as hopeful for the future as they were now. Living among the elite of the country, she was exposed to the cynicism and sneering that greeted the peace treaty when it was signed, but from what she had heard, the rest of the country had embraced it wholeheartedly and believed that it really was the end of all wars. Perhaps it really was.
She was flying higher than she usually would, but the cool air at this altitude didn't bother her. As a dragon, extremes of hot and cold made little difference to her, and even the thin air didn't seem to affect her breathing. She glanced at her shiny red scales and sighed inwardly as she remembered that this was not her true form and she was not really one of them. Adopted by high ranking Red Dragons when she was just a baby, she had grown up thinking that that was who she was, just another Red Dragon. Her blonde hair had always bothered her, making her stand out in a nation of redheads, but her mother had always assured her that it meant nothing and she was one of them. She had accepted this, until almost exactly one year ago, John had shown up.
John was the first person she had met who shared her hair colour, and she had taken an instant dislike to him. His presence served as a reminder that she looked different and in a Kingdom that hated all of its neighbours, different was not good. To make it even worse, he kept telling her that she was different, special, as he put it, oblivious to how much she hated being reminded of that fact. Of course, she had ignored him at first, and even treated him quite badly, but he had persisted with her, eventually having gained her trust and then her friendship, till he revealed what she really was. A Golden Dragon. Unique among all dragon races in the ability to take the form of any dragon that they had encountered. Her real parents hadn't been Red Dragons as she had been led to believe, but Golden Dragons, who were spying on and then murdered by the Blue Dragons. Her mother, poisoned and dying, had fled with her to the Red Dragon border and transformed into a Red Dragon before being found. Seeing a blonde baby with a dying Red Dragon mother, everyone had assumed that she was one of them. It was unusual, children born with any hair colour other than red, but not unheard of and it was usually due to questionable ancestry, but to her highborn adopted parents who were desperate for a child, it was something that was easily overlooked.
Before this revelation, Crystal had never heard of Golden Dragons before and wouldn't have believed that any dragon could do what they could do - taking other forms - but after seeing John do exactly that it was hard to argue. To say that this discovery was a shock would be an understatement, but tempted by the opportunity to find out more about her heritage she had agreed to go with John back to the land of the Golden Dragons. She hadn't gone alone, her four friends insisting that they accompany her: her adopted cousin Jenna, Jenna's boyfriend Prince Arthur, Arthur's best friend, Seth and Arthur's twin sister Daisy, who also happened to be John's girlfriend. It had been a crazy decision, the four of them coming along, but Crystal had been very glad that they had done so, the twins being instrumental in persuading the Golden Dragons to come to their aid in their fight against the Blue Dragons. Had they not done so, they would have not only lost the war, but the Blue Dragons would have killed them, leaving no trace of their existence behind.
Of course, this was the main purpose of their visit, to seek help from the Golden Dragons, but for her, there was much more to it. Once there she had learnt that she had a biological cousin, Leah, an ambitious young lady a few years older than her. She hadn't been able to get to know her cousin properly, the war having prevented her from staying long, but her stay had shown her who she really was and what she was capable of doing and that had really excited her. However, so far, this ability to take any dragon form had been theoretical rather than actual. It had been several months since John had told her who she was, but she was still unable to transform into anything other than a Red Dragon. Her cousin, Leah, had taken over the responsibility for training her after having moved to Furnace after the end of the war and although she had managed to teach her a lot, Crystal felt that she was no closer to learning how to become a Golden Dragon than she was at the start.
Still, disappointed as she was, she had improved in many areas, and she could now transform much faster than any Red Dragon. She was a long way from being able to perform the amazing mid-air transformations that John was capable of, but she was now very fast. She had made similar improvements in the air, both in speed and control. This was all built on the foundations that John had laid, but Leah had done a great job and Crystal was very grateful for her help. She was looking forward to impressing John with her flying skills when he returned, but unfortunately, that was going to be all that she could show off. And impressing John was important to her. She had no romantic interest in him, but she had grown very fond of him and felt a great debt to him. He had worked so hard to teach her, even when she had been so unwilling to learn and even hostile to him, which she had been for the first few months after meeting him. But John had been persistent, and after he saved Crystal and her friends from a sticky situation, Crystal had finally relented and agreed to let him teach h
er. He had spent months acting as her personal tutor, educating her about the world outside of the Red Dragon kingdom in an effort to prepare her for the knowledge that she wasn't one of them. Even before that, he had managed to be appointed as the school's flying teacher after the previous one had to leave for a family emergency, something Crystal now realised he did solely so that he could begin to train her how to really fly. And John really knew how to fly. Even for a Golden Dragon, he was exceptionally capable in the air, having inherited his father's ability and benefited from years of coaching from his father. Crystal was particularly grateful for this, as she had a knack for getting into dangerous situations and she was indebted to him for using those exceptional flying skills to save her life on more than one occasion.
Indeed, the whole nation was now in his debt. For the end of the war had happened in a way that no one had expected. The Blues had had a series of spectacular successes, sweeping across the Kingdom until reached Furnace and were only repelled with the help of their Golden Dragon allies. But this was just a temporary reprieve. Buoyed by their success the Red Dragon army flew to the capital of the Eastern Principality, Obud, which had been taken by the Blue Dragons, with the intent of recapturing it. The Blues appeared to be outnumbered and torched the city rather than defend it, provoking the army into pursuing them further to the East. This, of course, was a trap. The Blue Army was much larger than they had anticipated and had they reached them they would have found themselves outnumbered many times over and would have been completely destroyed. Fortunately, this was not what happened. To the southeast of the Blue Army was the Circle of Death, the home of three True Dragons, huge and terrible monsters that never transformed into human forms, even at night. These were creatures of such size and power that they were virtually unstoppable. Believing the True Dragons to be bound by the borders of the Circle the Blue Dragon army had ignored the risk they posed and had camped not far from the edge of the Circle. John took advantage of their mistake, provoking the monsters into following him and then leading them into the midst of the Blue Dragon army. They had wreaked destruction on an unprecedented scale, and the Blue Dragon Army had been forced to scatter and flee, leaving thousands of their injured dragons behind and even more left dying or already dead. The Red Dragon army had turned around just in time, or they would have suffered the same fate, such was the destructive power of the True Dragons.
And so the war had ended. A peace treaty had been signed, largely through the efforts of Prince Gerald, heir to the Western Principality and brother to Crystal's friends Daisy and Arthur, and Mark, a Golden Dragon who was John's brother. It was the first peace treaty that the Red Dragons had ever entered into; usually, wars ended with an uneasy stalemate or the loser being wiped out. But this was an exceptional war, both in terms of scale and the number of participants. Neither side could afford to continue the conflict so along with the other combatants, the Golden Dragons, Brown Dragons, Wasp Dragons and Sandy Dragons, they had agreed to sign an agreement that not only ended the war but established measures to ensure that another war like it never took place.
That had all been just a few months ago, but everything had returned to normal very quickly. Looking down over Furnace it was hard to believe that it had ever happened. She looked up into the deep blue sky. It was late summer, and it looked like today was going to be another beautiful day, a perfect start to the new school term. Although arriving late on the first day might spoil it a little, so she pulled her wings close to her body and began to dive towards the ground. She picked up speed quickly, the rush of wind past her feeling exhilarating. John was the master of this technique, but he had not managed to teach her how to do it, her prowess was something she owed to her cousin. Her dragon eyes, much more powerful than her human eyes, made out the features of her school when it was still way below her. She resisted the temptation to pull out of the dive early and continued to plummet, carefully correcting her course to head straight towards the school. The ground grew closer and closer until she could hold her nerve no longer and she threw her wings wide, abruptly slowing down her descent before landing gracefully on the school steps.
Very good, John commented from behind her. I see you've been working on your diving. What about your transformation? Are you going to need to find somewhere to hide or can you do that here?
Crystal turned and glared at him. He was sat on the ground as a Golden Dragon, his short tail wrapped around his body like some oversized pet cat. Where had he come from? Before she could reply, he transformed, a shimmer of golden scales before he appeared on the ground as a boy, fully clothed. Normally, Red Dragons took much longer to transform and appearing naked afterwards, she would have chosen a secluded spot so she could dress. John had always amazed her with his ability to pull on his clothes as he transformed. Now, however, he would be the one amazed. She shrank quickly, pulling with her claws on the strings that held her bundle of clothes together. Her body was now human-sized, although still covered in scales and she had to wrap her cloak around her quickly before the scales vanished to be replaced by skin. Just a few seconds after she started, she stood in front of John, fully covered and staring at him proudly.
"Even more impressive," he congratulated her. "Although you might want to make one or two adjustments…"
She realised that her cloak wasn't held together as well as she had hoped and she was in danger of revealing more than she wanted to. She quickly fixed it before sticking her tongue out at him defiantly, but she wasn't really annoyed and quickly laughed before running towards him and surprising him with a warm embrace.
"John! When did you get here? And what have you been doing all summer?"
"Last night," he replied. "And as for the summer, I've been doing quite a lot. As have you, from what I can see. Leah has been teaching you very well. Your diving is very good, and your soaring has come along nicely as well."
"John! Were you watching me the whole time? Where were you? And how did you know that was me anyway?"
He smiled and laughed in reply. "I always like to start the day with an early morning flight. I was in the air before you and realised it was you once you started to climb up high. Even if I hadn't recognised you that would have given you away. Red Dragons hate getting that high above the ground."
"Well, once you knew it was me you should have joined me and said something, rather than just spying on me."
He shrugged, unashamed. "I wanted to see what you had learnt. I was very impressed."
Crystal smiled proudly despite her intention to appear annoyed. "Thank you. But tell me, what have you done this summer? I haven't seen you for ages."
"I spent most of the time in the West, as you might have guessed. Everyone knew that Daisy and I were together by then so there was little point in trying to hide the fact. After we left you all, we went straight to her palace in the West to meet the rest of her family."
"Oh yes. How did her mother take that?"
John's smile vanished. "Not well. Daisy's grandfather is the Prince, of course, so his word is law, and fortunately for us, Prince Gerald had prepared the ground for me very well. He welcomed me like I was already part of the family and everyone is meant to follow his lead. Normally, her mother would obey him unquestioningly, but not when it comes to Daisy. She made it very clear that she was not going to tolerate her daughter ending up with someone like me. Arthur told me that she was trying to persuade her husband to have me banished from the Principality."
"No!" Crystal said in horror. "After everything you've done! Could he do that?"
"Not at all," John replied. "He may be the heir, but he has no more power than Gerald does. Fortunately, neither Daisy nor her Grandfather found out as it could have become quite unpleasant."
"Could have? What did you do, John?"
"I told her about my health," he replied simply. "Once she realised that I probably wouldn't live for more than another year she stopped worrying and became quite friendly."
Crystal's heart sank. John
had revealed his illness to her shortly after the war with the Blues, and she had hoped that he might have got better. It was particularly upsetting for her as she had been partly responsible for his condition in the first place. Almost one year ago, John had been forced to transform after sunset, to rescue Crystal and her friends from being eaten by some particularly ferocious big cats. Normally, doing so would be fatal, but miraculously John had survived. He had become very ill and for a few days looked as if he might not make it, but when he recovered everyone assumed that was the end of it. It wasn't. John experienced chest pains for some time afterwards, again, something that was dismissed, but when they travelled to the land of the Golden Dragons, one of their doctors examined John, initially because of other injuries he sustained on the trip but then in relation to his heart. They told him that he was dying and would be lucky to live for another year, something that John had kept that to himself until after the war, reasoning that there was a fair chance that he might not make it through anyway. He had only told her after the Blues were defeated, after which he flew to the West with the twins.
"Oh John, is there nothing you can do? I thought you were going back to the Circle to look for a cure?"
"I did," he replied. "I only spent two weeks in the West at first, before travelling to the Circle with Noah and Wami. We were there for almost a month but found nothing that would explain why I felt better while I was there. And I did feel better, but not completely well. Perhaps living there might extend my life, but not cure me. Although I think the others were starting to wonder whether that was just in my mind anyway. Eventually, the others had to head home, and when they did, I flew back to the West to spend the rest of my time with Daisy."
Crystal shook her head sadly. "So you're giving up? You're just going to accept it?"
John shrugged. "I'm open to suggestions. But no one has had any good ideas so far. Or even any bad ones." He smiled and took her arm, directing her towards the school. "Come on, why don't you experience what it is like to be early for school? You have a few minutes before the bell."