The day dragons saved Earth was also the day they faded away.
It happened in ancient times, when humans couldn’t know what an asteroid was. For too little had they been present to have an understanding of what it meant, to have an enormous rock from outer space directed towards the only world you’ll ever get to know. But dragons’ ancestors were there. They witnessed the light among the stars becoming bigger every night, the day when it appeared visible during the day, the devastating, thundering noise, the unimaginable, titanic wall of dust that overwhelmed everything that existed, the bodies of dead animals filling the soil, the Sun and the Moon disappearing behind the layer of dust that remained in the air, for several thousands of years to come.
Only the strongest of the dragons’ ancestors survived, and lived to keep the heritage. Slowly they adapted their bodies, acquired wings and the ability to breathe fire and became the enormous, reptile creatures humans learned to witness once they came into existence. The descendants still kept the memory, while they struggled to keep their place while the bipeds, more and more numerous, established themselves on the top of nature’s chain.
It was by no means a peaceful coexistence. When a dragon made the error of hurting one human, dozens would take their vengeance. A dragon alone was an army by themselves, but it was overwhelmed by bipeds’ actual armies. So for centuries they fought, not constantly, but often enough to be sworn enemies.
And then, one day, the dragons saw something they hoped to never see. Something way more terrifying than one hundred army of humans.
A new asteroid in the night sky.
This time, they agreed, they wouldn’t live to tell the story. They were no more the dominating force of the world: that place had been taken by their nemesis. Their number had greatly diminished, and not enough of them would survive.
What to do, then, they wondered while looking at the light among the stars that was becoming bigger every night, just like millions of years ago? How to spend what they knew to be the last days of their kind?
This was what was debated in a large cave whose sight was away from human eyes, a cave which could host dozens of dragons at once.
“There’s nothing we can do,” pronounced Verheus, one of the newest members of the Dragon Council, which was summoned only during exceptional times. “The asteroid will come for all of us.”
“It will not come only for us,” replied Aghtar, the oldest and greatest of the Council. “It will come from every living being of the land we live in. If we cannot live to tell the tale, the role will have to be fulfilled by those who will take our place.”
“Who are you talking about, o wisest?”
“Isn’t it evident?” said Aghtar. “I’m talking about humans.”
The rest of the dragons sniffed at each other, like to confirm their senses still worked efficiently. Aghtar, the grandest, the most powerful dragon of their generation, suggesting saving humans, their arch-nemesis!
“Why do you say such an atrocious thing?” one called Regheon roared. “Our race will not make any favor to them!”
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“If we don’t leave the world to them, there will be no one else to leave it to!” Aghtar roared back. “In the history of the world, us and them have been the only ones that managed to reach our status of intelligence and world domination. If we remain motionless, one day there will come a third asteroid, and it will erase all that is around us into oblivion! Is this what you want?”
“How will leaving the world to humans be any better? Have you seen how they indiscriminately take over whatever is in their path? They do not have our self-control, they do not conceive anything about respect for the order of nature! They will do the same thing the asteroid will, only slower!”
“I do know that,” nodded Aghtar, gravely. “But they are everything that remains. If the choice is between having a remote hope and no hope at all, we must strive for the first. I call for the collaboration of what remains of dragonkind in their last days, to let them be that hope.”
“How can we ever stop the asteroid?” A dragon called Selethorun said. “A dragon is strong, but not strong enough for it.”
“You just need to imagine,” Aghtar answered, “the strength of all the dragons combined.”
“You mean…”
“Yes. I call for all dragons to fly towards the asteroid.”
“That is ridiculous!” Regheon roared again. “We do not have any chance against an asteroid!”
“We’re all going to die regardless, Regheon!” He replied.
But it wasn’t just the tiny chances to make him oppose Aghtar’s proposal. You must know, that dragons weren’t too inclined to collaborating. There was a reason why the Dragon Council was summoned only during exceptional times: only exceptional times could make them take the effort of making some collaboration. While humans are alone so weak they need to get close in search of strength, dragons alone are so strong, they need to stay apart from each other in order not to destroy everything around them, including their food.
Therefore, given this information, it should not surprise you that for a long time the whole Dragon Council debated violently, very little eager to work together, even if that advice came from their leader, and the wisest of the living dragons. There were lots of roars that shook the Earth upon the cave, fire breathed from their mouths as a threat to someone else, until the thundering roar of Aghtar silenced them.
“That is enough discussion for now. We cannot fight in this crucial moment. We need to act. Whoever is in favor of stopping the asteroid, raise your wings.”
Dragons were intelligent. Beyond their solitary instincts, beyond their primary need of avoiding fighting when possible and therefore avoiding other dragons, they could understand what had to be done.
One day, the humans saw something in the sky that would never be witnessed again.
Hundreds of dragons, flying over them, taking control of the sky. Every human who witnessed them ran in panic towards their homes, praying to not die in flames. Their roars were like bells announcing the end of the world to them. They couldn’t get to know it wasn’t the end, but a new beginning.
Suddenly, the dragons all gathered together to the same point in the sky. They weren’t directed at the human settlements, but they began flying high, and then always higher. Some humans began to get out of their houses, to watch what was happening.
Soon, the dragons were so high in the sky they could be seen by places in the Earth very distant from each other. They were acting like one immense creature, something no one had ever seen happening. The last time dragons had acted as one, humans still had to appear.
Then, they met a very luminous object in the sky. Humans had noticed it, but they hadn’t been able to understand what it was. Some said there was a sign of good omen, some a nefarious prophecy. There was a loud boom, and the dragons disappeared, together with the great light.
No one ever saw dragons anymore from that day. Though their memory was not forgotten, they faded into the realm of legends and fantasy. The hope of Aghtar, the last head of the Dragon Council, was not fulfilled: humans did not take care of the world like dragons would. With mankind remaining the sole advanced species left, there was destruction and catastrophe, which dragons had always strived to avoid. It looked like Regheon was right when he said they would do what the asteroid was able to do.
But there’s still hope.