“What were they like?” Drew began to fidget with excitement at this new revelation.

“What colors were they?” Alyssa pointedly ignored Drew’s glare.

I would’ve asked the same questions if my friends did not beat me to it. I wondered at Grandma Talya’s quick creativity in making up these stories.

Surely, not all could be figments of her imagination. After all, the best stories relied heavily on a version of the truth. I just needed to figure out which parts I should believe.

Talya smiled at the twins before she shifted her gaze to the rest of us. “Both very valid questions.” She nodded her approval.

Did her pauses help her attempt to create more fanciful stories, or did she really struggle to retrieve the details from the recesses of her vast memories?

My musings abruptly ended when she started speaking again.

“The royals kept all of the other dragons in line. The queens were deep purple with golden bellies. They ruled over their regions and could lay large clutches of eggs.” She pursed her lips, letting the seconds go by in silence, except for the crackles of the fire.

“The warrior class dragons were completely red, and they could breathe flame to keep order and defend the queens from anyone or anything attempting them harm.”

“Who’d want to harm the dragons?” Drew’s lowered eyebrows made him appear fierce even though the firelight highlighted the fuzz of his long-awaited facial hair.

“You’d be surprised, my boy, how jealous people can become.” She paused again as if waiting for her audience to absorb her latest statement.

Mere seconds passed before Drew’s best friend, Marcus, spoke up with his opinion. “So, the people thought they’d be better off without the dragons?” His soft tone spoke clearly of his uncertainty.

“You guessed it. They complained about how much the dragons took from the people; they did have large appetites, after all, requiring quite a bit to keep them healthy.”

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Talya’s statement sank in like a crushing lead weight. With how low our food supplies became, I could well imagine how the people would resist sharing with the voracious appetites of the dragons. But still, would I want them to leave?

While entertaining, I always thought she intended for her stories to teach the younger generations about the follies of our past. She wanted us to have hope for the future, yet also know where our ancestors went wrong in their thinking.

My gaze drifted over to the view outside the window. This house happened to be situated next to the dome, encapsulating our section of the world.

Beyond the dome, the barren land could not support life; the cracked, dry earth continually shifted as the winds blew unchecked across the plains. If only I could have seen the planet during the times of the fabled dragons; it must have been a beautiful sight to behold.

I rotated back to face Grandma Talya. “Did all of the dragons die, or did they simply go somewhere else?” I dreaded uncovering the worst, yet I needed to know the unvarnished truth.

“Nobody knows for certain.” Talya nodded as if to herself, her gaze glassy with a faraway stare. “Over the course of many years, fewer and fewer dragons were seen, until one day, no more remained. I’ll let you decide what might’ve happened to them as you sleep tonight.”

She clapped her hands once, her usual cue to indicate the end of storytime.

Standing along with everyone else, I stretched my legs until the blood began to tingle again in my toes. Noise filled the air with everyone talking and moving away from the living room. Tonight’s story created quite an exciting buzz among our small group.

The massive changes in the landscape and society of Heliok forced me to contemplate my life. How many more nights would I come here for stories? The tension of time slipped by where these days of idleness would fall into distant, fond memories.

Unlike our ancestors, who simply thought about their immediate well-being, I wanted something different. Our world required drastic changes if we planned to grow and thrive. If I could bring back the dragons, I’d do it. But that fanciful dream was merely that: a dream.

I didn’t want us to end up like the dragons. Already, our population kept decreasing. Pretty soon, we would all disappear along with our heritage. The stories wouldn’t matter if nobody existed to hear them.

I wanted to change the course of Heliok’s future for the better. We deserved the opportunity to step outside the domes and expect to remain alive.

The status quo didn’t sit right with me. Any idiot knew that our systems kept failing, our resources were low, and the infrastructure of our domes could not be adequately maintained.

I needed to do something audacious.

Something brazen.

Something worthy of my sister’s sacrifice.

I’d lead the Sword Dome to total victory in the Tatsu tournament. Maybe then, people would take us seriously.