They came in the middle of the night. One moment, Reece had been tucked up safely in her bed beneath her quilt and snuggling a teddy bear like a normal five-year-old child. In the next, her mother was hauling her groggily out of bed and into her arms, and then they were running for the storm shelter in the yard just as the skies around them exploded with the deafening roars of monsters. All around them, friends and neighbors were fleeing their houses as well.
They were halfway there when one of the massive creatures landed between Reece’s mom and the shelter. Its weight shook the ground and knocked the human woman off her feet. Reece cried out as she was flung to the grass. She rolled onto her butt and tears watered in her eyes as she froze in fear at the massive beast. It stood with a long neck that was as high as the roof of her house. Its long, serpentine body twisted gracefully, massive leathering wings folding against its sides as it lowered its head to stare at them with glowing golden eyes. It growled threateningly and curled its lips to reveal massive teeth and the glowing orange light building behind them.
Reece’s mother grabbed her and rolled out of the way just in time as the dragon opened its maw and shot a cone of flame across the area where they had just been. With a shout, Reece’s father jumped in the way as the dragon whipped back around for a second attempt. He swung a sword, but the blade merely clanged uselessly against the armoured reptile’s snout. It snorted and growled at him, and the distraction gave Reece and her mom time to climb to their feet. Her mother grasped her by the hand and hurried across the slick, dark grass. Reece looked back in time to see the dragon part its jaws and the back of its throat begin to glow before another jet of flame erupted from its maw. Her father did not get out of the way in time and Reece screamed at the sight of the charred remains dropping to the dust.
“Reece, look away,” her mother’s voice was nearly drowned out by the snarls of the dragons and the shouts and screams of the villagers as they fought and died for their lives and those of their families. She gripped Reece’s hand more tightly and nearly hauled the girl off her feet as they raced for shelter. “Reece, keep running, do not stop,” her mother ordered.
The pleading instruction was immediately followed by an agonized scream and then her mother’s hand was wrenched from her own. Despite the command, Reece cried out for her mother and turned to look for her. The dragon who had killed her father had lunged around and hauled her mother off the ground with her arm trapped between its teeth. It flung her into the air and with a snap of its jaws, Reece became an orphan. She stumbled back, but people were calling her name still.
She fled towards the shelter, where a few of her neighbours had made it and were beckoning for her. But before she could stumble more than a few steps, another dragon dropped a clawed foot down in front of her. If she were a little taller, she might have been able to dive over the claws and into the shelter, she was so close. This new dragon dug its talons into the earth and bent its head to examine her with a brilliant yellow eye. Its scales were a deep green and the mane of fur running down its long spine was more of a lime hue. It only focused on her for a second before swinging its head around with an open, glowing maw, and shoving its snout into the storm cellar. Bright green flames that looked almost liquid poured into the space, accompanied by sizzling sounds and screams of agony before the space fell silent.
When the dragon pulled its head away, green liquid clung to the sides of its lips. A drop fell into the grass and hissed against the grass before the glow melted away. Reece screamed and fell back into the grass as she tried to scramble backwards. The one responsible for the murder of her parents had caught up, and now she was trapped between two scaly beasts of death and destruction. The child cowered and threw her arms up over her face, expecting to be bathed in fire or acid too.
But before either of the two could deliver her fate, a third bowed its head and nudged Reece with the flat of its dull, brown nose. It hummed. “Put this one with the others,” it decided in a guttural voice.
Then it and the fire-breathing dragon turned away, leaving Reece sitting in the mud, her face streaked with tears and snot, with the green dragon staring at her with disdain. It huffed, bathing her in hot breath that smelled like rotten fish. “If you scream or struggle, you will die,” the dragon warned in a feminine voice. Its talons wrapped around her waist and lifted her off the ground, and Reece was too petrified to resist as it carried her, walking on three legs with its body weaving and bobbing with every step. It approached a row of cages, made of wood and bracken, and wrapped with thorny bramble vines to deter any escape attempts. The hatch of one was open, and the dragon shoved Reece inside, where there were already four other children, sobbing and shivering in their night clothes. She only recognized one of them. The other three were not from her village, but the oldest was only eleven or twelve.
After Reece was inside, the top of the cage was slammed shut and the green dragon jumped into the air, its powerful wings knocking Reece off her feet with the downward gust. It grabbed the cage with both back talons and hefted it off the ground before soaring for the skies. Having always been afraid of heights, Reece covered her eyes and cowered on the bottom of the cage. She cried for her mother and father, and some of the other children did the same.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Where are they taking us?” one child finally asked.
“Beyond the Eastern winds,” the oldest boy answered. “To Algaria. The land of dragons.”
“The land of dragons?”
“They say where the Eastern winds meet the edge of the world, there are large, floating islands in the sky. No person can reach them, but they’re said to be full of mountains and rivers and riches, and it’s where the dragons live and watch the lower lands. They take people back to serve them and destroy any place that displeases them. My papa always said the dragons were made by an angry god to prevent people from ever rising up.”
Reece shivered against the wind and her terror of the air. Whatever had made the dragons, whatever they were, they had just killed her family and probably those of these other kids too, and so many other lives back in the small town. To her, they were horrible monsters and she hated them.
It was a long flight and dawn was beginning to crest the horizon when the dragon carrying them suddenly angled up and began to fly faster. Reece was not the only one of the bunch to begin crying out in fear. She refused to look down, but reluctantly peeked from behind her hands to see them rocketing straight up towards a massive floating stretch of land with a waterfall plummeting down it. The green dragon skimmed close to the water and the mist soaked through Reece’s night garments.
When they finally reached the top, they were greeted with the sights of water so clear a blue that Reece could see the fish swimming below, large trees with glistening pink or green leaves, and epic mountains. So it was true. Dragons really did live above the end of the world. Here, the sun hadn’t quite reached yet, so when the dragon angled them down through a massive window into a marble palace, it was too dark to see much. But they could all see the narrowed, glowing eyes of two more dragons, each more massive than the ones that had attacked Reece’s village, and a smaller set that seemed to belong to a baby dragon, or at least a very young one, that was hunkered down beside one of the larger ones. One of the adults slithered forward and regarded them with pulsing red eyes and breath so warm that Reece was convinced it could cook them all without any flame required.
But it merely looked away and retreated back, the green dragon following, as more dragons began to arrive, each setting down another bramble-covered cage containing more people. Most of them contained other children, but one of the cages that was set down had a single adult. Reece leaned closer to the sharp brambles separating them. “Auntie,” she called through the cage bars.
Instantly, the older woman turned and her eyes widened. “Reecey, honey, where are your mother and father?” she pressed.
Reece felt her eyes sting with fresh tears and her lip quivered. Her aunt was her father’s sister, and a dismayed look crossed her features and she swore softly. “Okay. Okay, it’s okay, Reece, it’ll be okay,” she murmured. “Baby, just stay quiet okay? We’ll figure it out.”
Reece pulled her knees up and lowered her gaze. She knew her auntie was placating her and it was likely they were all going to die too. She reached beneath the collar of her sleep shirt and pulled a pendant out up and over her head. It hung on a leather cord and had been a gift for her fifth birthday, something that her mother’s mother had passed down, and now to Reece. She sniffled again and hugged it to her chest.
“Why have you brought an adult?” One of the dragon’s voices boomed demandingly as it posed the question. “They cannot be tamed.”
“It is pregnant,” another defended.
Once more, the dragon with the red eyes leaned close to the cages, this time, its attention fixated on Reece’s aunt. It snorted, blowing smoke over the cage occupants and making them all cough. “Once the infant is weaned, we have no use for the adult,” it decided. As it turned away, Reece saw how her aunt’s skin had gone ashen with horror, but she said nothing. “Sort them and get them all out of here.”
And then the cages were being tipped open, taloned hands dragging terrified kids from the confinements. The jarring motion made Reece drop the necklace, but a dragon grabbed her before she could reclaim it and she reached, crying out in dismay. “Please, it’s mine,” she begged. She could see it, still dangling on a bramble thorn that had caught it. But the dragon paid no mind.
“Reece!” There was chaos in the center of the room as they were all herded together, but Reece’s aunt waded through the cluster of kids to pull Reece close. Some of the other children huddled close to her too, and she whispered soothing words to them.
There was a moment of calm where Reece could almost feel safe, but it was shattered as two dragons, including the green one that had carried Reece here, began separating all of the children into two new cages, larger but not by much. Reece was ripped from her aunt’s embrace despite the woman’s pleading and shoved into one of the two cages with some of the other bigger kids, while all the really young ones were shepherded into the other, leaving Reece’s aunt alone in the room for a moment before a dragon simply took her away by hand. Reece called out after her, but had no hope of reaching her with the massive thorns making it impossible to even reach her hands through the wooden bars of the cage. As she gazed around, her eyes met the glowing pair of the small dragon’s again. It was still veiled in shadows, staring at her with a curious tilt of its head. The light was brightening the room just enough that Reece could see the stumpy horns growing from its skull and the vibrant hue of its irises, but nothing more. The dragon stared right back at her, both of them transfixed, though Reece was sure she was the only one who felt terror.
Even after another of the dragons hauled the new cage out of the massive stone building, Reece could still feel the small dragon’s stare on the back of her neck. She shivered and wiped at her tears as her heart experienced its first taste of hatred. Dragons were monsters and if she survived to see another dawn…she swore one day she would avenge her parents and all the others the dragons had killed tonight. She wanted them to suffer the way she had, the way her mother and father had, and the way she knew her auntie was going to, as soon as the cousin she would likely never meet was born.