I don’t know how long I slept but when I awoke several of the women’s bellies were swollen and I could hear heartbeats thrumming in them. As I stirred a commotion started and several of the younger children rushed to me and jumped with excitement. Instantly they started pointing to paintings made upon the walls while I slept and even some on my exposed wing. The babbling filled me with joy. The storyteller rushed in from the entrance of the cave and collapsed against my snout. The warm embraces of the people soaked into me.

They unburied me from furs and I stood. The necklaces placed on my horns rattled as I shook my body loose and several peels of laughter erupted from the children as they rushed to catch them. I looked upon my charges and grunted and motioned to the paintings wanting to hear stories that I had missed. The chattering of the people asked me to be patient and they would tell me tonight. I stretched and kept my claws from cutting divots in the stone.

Emerging into the great beating sunshine the air was noticeably warmer and dryer than before. I felt the presence of the storyteller press against one of my legs. She pointed to the skies and told me I had slept through seven moon cycles. That the cold cycles and rebirth of life had passed in my slumber. She bid me to fly and visit the men.

It took me a few more strenuous beats of my wings to get into the air and soar far above the land. I felt great streams of hot air fill my wings and I glided effortlessly upwards. I scanned the world now far below me. The river had become more and more curved in my rest, changing the soft earth into new shapes. New packs of animals trampled across the land almost as if they frolicked in their freedom. Along the river I spotted the men. Several of them lazed in the sun soaking their feet in the river. Two of them lay bare to the world and basked in the sunlight. My shadow put them in the shade as I landed nearby.

They ran to me and threw handfuls of water against my skin hooting with joy. To see them celebrate so much at me waking meant something deep and filled me with a stronger desire to make these people safe for as long as I could. I grunted telling them to dress and hunt. Empty stomachs were waiting for them to succeed. I sent them off to hunt and looked into the sunlight and warmth. I felt alive and returned to the skies.

I wondered what other foods tasted like and how the humans found that things were good for them and what caused them to be ill. The phantom memory of the spit of meat filled my mouth and the cool crisp water flowed below me. I stalked the skies and peered all around for signs of the eight legged ones.

I spotted one of the large birds that flew the skies as it sped towards me crying shrill and loud. It went to claw and rip at my large wings as a few more tried to surround me. I spun in the air and swatted two from the sky with my tail with a crack of thunder. A third went to claw and my eyes and I closed them tight feeling the bird dig its talons into my scalp but they were not powerful enough to puncture my scales. I snagged another with a blind swipe of my clawed hands and gripped it crushing its thin bones. Suddenly they were not assaulting me and a group of two more flew off into the distance. I decided not to let them go to waste.

Gripping the three birds I had slain, I brought them to the cave people. I placed them down upon the ground and grunted loudly drawing attention from the women. They inspected the birds closely and marveled at the large feathers. They discussed with quizzical looks upon their faces and I surmised they must never have caught their own birds. As we puzzled over the creatures I felt something ominous creep up my spine.

I turned and looked off in the distance. I could hear screaming, a chill went down my spine and I charged towards the sound. The tall grasses were crushed beneath my weight as I swiveled and turned. The screaming was moving. I spotted the men trying to fight a fearsome beast. It was unlike the eight legs and it had erupted from the river. Three men lay still torn to pieces.

A large flat snout was filled with thick sharp teeth. It crawled upon its belly with four stout powerful legs. Its body was coated with armor plate like scales. The creature’s blended into the bank of the river the men had been lounging by.

I pounced and slammed my weight down hard upon its steel hard skull. It did not stun the beast and with a crack of pain slammed a tail into my rear leg making it go numb. I kept my weight on it and rammed some claws into the side of its neck. I ripped and tore at its throat as blood poured from the wounds. It slowed as the pool of blood got wider. Soon it was still. My leg was battered from the repeated tail slamming against it.

I looked at the men as they watched the men torn apart with hollow shocked eyes. I felt an empty pit open in my chest. What had happened for them to be so careless? I always thought of them as great hunters. Will they never move again. They were as dead as the creature I had slain. I was so confused but I gingerly picked up the men. Their stillness they achieved in death haunted me. With the three men cradled in my wings the men and I returned to the cave.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The women they were bound to screamed and wept uncontrollably. I knew they were gone. They would not sleep off this damage like I could. I watched as the people did some strange ritual for the rest of the day. They called to a different god than the one that created me. I joined them and learned their ways.

Fear suddenly gripped me as I whipped my head around looking for the source of the danger I was feeling. As suddenly as a flash of lightning another dragon slammed into the ground with a spray of dirt.

He was nearly double my size, its scales were gray as stone. A collection of horns black as a moonless sky adorned its head like a crown. Its wings spread out and depictions of scattered bones covered them. Hanging from its neck were bloody unclean bones slowly decaying. Flies swarmed those necklaces eating away at the flesh.

The people screamed and backed away. I bravely stepped forward and grunted a warning trying to make myself as large as I could. In half a second the dragon's tail swung round and crashed into the side of my head knocking me to the side. The world spun at the blow as it walked towards the people I had sworn to protect. Recovering I charged and rammed horns into his side using all my weight to try and topple him over.

With a deft twist my horns skittered off their hard scales and they swiped my side with claws that tore at my scales leaving gashes down my side. With a head it of his own horns darkness almost took my vision as I stumbled and crumpled. I could feel the powerful dragon’s teeth begin to clamp on my neck and I knew my death was imminent.

A scream woke my brain as the storyteller charged with a spear in hand. She emerged from the people with a fury that inspired others to recover and come to my defense. Fear filled me as the dragon let go of my neck and started to breathe deep.

An instinct as deep and essential to breathing thundered in my head. It told me that they would all die if I let this happen. With all my sluggish strength I erupted from the ground and clamped my claws around their snout. I batted the people away and screamed a warning. The dragon fought and dark grey smoke began to pour from the sides of its mouth. My hands began to wither where it touched me and I twisted, slamming its head and body sideways. As I let go the smoke billowed out. It smelled like when the people would gut and process the animals, the musk of fear was overpowering my senses and I gagged. Where the smoke touched things withered and died instantly. If that had been my people I would be heartbroken.

I screamed at the people to hide. To avoid confronting this dragon, it would be the end of them. They ran and I felt grateful that they had listened. The dragon’s blood red eyes glared at me as I collapsed out of strength. If I died my people would live. They would tell stories of my sacrifice. The end did not come though, the beast picked up and ate the flesh of the fallen men and tied them to his neck with all the other bones. It was gruesome listening to the slurping and tearing of flesh.

Then two powerful clawed hands gripped my neck and as I blacked out I knew it was dragging me off. I could not know what was coming. My last thought was a hope that the people would survive and thrive even without my protection.

I awoke at the bottom of a mountain of bones. Creatures of all sizes lay within the mountain, stripped and consumed. Atop it stood the dragon. It looked balefully down at me and grunted in disgust. A Call filled us. I felt a new link connect my mind with the other Dragon.

‘You dare stand against me, Boneshaker!’ It was a mind shatteringly powerful scream in my head and I flinched back in fear and pain. The voice was like that of an angry woman.

‘I had to protect my people. I would not live without them.’ I tried to explain as the dragon walked down towards me.

‘You would deny me what is rightfully mine. The bones of this world are for me and me alone.’ The sheer power I could feel radiating off her was shocking.

I couldn’t help but cower as she approached down the mountain of bones. ‘I’m the first of our kind young one. You are just a babe suckling at a teat. Know your place.’

‘What do you want with me?’ I backed up until I pressed against a wall. She seemed even larger than before.

She sniffed at me and studied me intently, ‘what do you collect?’

‘Collect? What do you mean?’

"We are powered by collections, I collect bones of the dead that I have not slain. Each makes me more powerful. What has made you stronger?’ She pressed me against the wall with one powerful hand.

‘When people tell stories to me I get stronger. More so when the stories are about me.’ I did not want to hide the information if it would save me.

The dragon pulled back and studied me closer, ‘you don’t collect physical things? Why are we different? Only the gods would know, maybe they will tell me. Go now, and don’t ever stand in my way when I come to collect.’