He's finally done it.
He's fulfilled his lifelong dream of conquering Eukarya, albeit was no small feat.
Vulcan looks down from the jagged rock jutting out from the volcano behind him. It is the same color as his scales and allows him to see the smoking mountains south of his fortress that suddenly stop at the sea.
He had the stars to thank for this, for if the strange boxes hadn't descended, everyone would be setting his tail on fire with every move he made.
But because everyone had been distracted and was worrisome for their own scales, it was over in two seasons.
He was now awaiting one his most trusted dragons to tell of how the stragglers were dealt with. She was also the same dragon he sent out to spy on the "new" Undercurrents after their base was destroyed.
For that, he had to thank Surge, the true leader of the OceanWings.
Well, he didn't say he was the leader of the OceanWings initially, but after being tortured through some unique ways only Vulcan had in his mental arsenal, he finally squealed about a lot of things – including the fact that he was the biological father of Wave's children and was also the mysterious royal assassin of the deep. (Which explained some things considering his time in the StormWing palace, but not everything.)
Pain and fear were the things that turned tough dragons into puddles of slop.
That could also be said about average dragons, if one applied the same observation equally among others.
Before releasing the OceanWings into the waters of Bacteria, Vulcan had instructed his dragons to place a metallic collar around their necks that would track where they were around the island-made continent. Like the tracker that most of his dragon had inserted into one of their ankles, it would send a signal of where the dragon was in real-time. If a dragon passed a certain marker in the ocean, the collar would send a signal that would alert Vulcan and the dragons in his stronghold of the trespassing while also shocking the dragon, forcing them backwards back into Bacteria's waters.
The collar was the result of Vulcan and his dragons dissecting the sky-creature's technology and the technology from the stars, and putting it together with the VolcanoWing's technology to make a contraption that would keep the OceanWings together. It was purely experimental, but at least it was better than sending armored dragons down into the ocean to watch and guard them.
The collar did not apply to the other dragons of Eukarya. Instead, the tracker was placed inserted one of their ankles, and it worked similarly to the collar.
Even the dragons that personally worked for Vulcan had the tracker in them.
Behind him, footsteps padded. Vulcan turned, and saw that Scoria, the head of Bacterial affairs, had approached him.
"Permission to speak, Great Vulcan?" she asked.
He nodded, and she spoke.
"My dragons have reported to me that some of the new citizens don't want to be ruled by you. I must ask, how will you handle it?"
Vulcan scratched his throat with his black talons, appearing to her to be deep in thought.
He knew this would arise when he first started this a Turn ago.
But he had an idea on how to do it.
He stopped and put his talons back on the volcanic rock below him.
"Don't worry about it", he mused in his distinctive, low, rumbly voice. "I'll deal with it soon. For now, have your dragons guard the new citizens with brute force."
"Understood", she replied, bowing before she left, walking back into the stronghold.
As he watched her, he was reminded that his scientists determined that the volcano that the stronghold was carved into wouldn't erupt for several Turns. He'd get to that soon, after putting it off for so long. His first priority was making sure that the dragons of Eukarya knew where their place was in his territory.
The stronghold was the residence of the VolcanoWing's old leaders before he took it over, and rightly fully so.
The old leaders thought they were descended from some sort of god and only leaders descended from this god could lead the VolcanoWings. Many dragons, including Vulcan's family, believed in this theological monarchy and the god.
Vulcan never believed in both, since there was no proof that any god existed, including the StormWing deity "Caelum".
He didn't become leader to dismantle the idea of "God". He became leader to lead those who couldn't be led.
And sometimes you had to silence your opponents to lead, which including throwing them in prison or straight-up killing them.
He turned to look back out at his volcanic kingdom, and saw that a flying shape was heading towards him.
He tensed up, not sure who it was.
The flying shape got closer and closer until he saw that the shape belonged to no other than Ashes.
Relief fizzled through his body as she landed in front of him.
Ashes was smaller than Vulcan, albeit not that short.
She bowed.
"Great Vulcan."
She held her bow two heartbeats before looking up at him.
"Permission to speak?"
He nodded, not even noticing her sky-creature fiddling with the contraption used to strap him to the back of her neck.
"The remnants of Eukarya have finally been distributed over Bacteria."
"And how long did that take?"
"Seven days, Your Greatness."
"Seven days since when?"
"Seven days since the raid on the Undercurrents' marsh base."
As he studied, he noticed that there were two dragons missing.
"Where are Obsidian and Fumarole?"
"Dead, Your Greatness. Obsidian was killed by a TreeWing, while Fumarole was one of the first go down when she launched the attack."
"And yet you're unscathed."
"I used the reinforcements you gave me to back me up."
Vulcan gave an incredulous look at her. "What did you use them for?"
She sneered at him. "I used them to subdue the last heir of the OceanWings."
He raised at eye ridge at her. "Did they resist?"
"She", Ashes corrected him. "Did she resist? Nope, not after hearing the Undercurrents roar into the night and not after she, her sky-creature, and her TreeWing were tranquilized with the darts I had."
She opened the black leather sheath around her chest held her obsidian knife and let him peer inside.
Inside the sheath was a shoddily-woven-in secret pouch containing several darts used by the Containment Unit to subdue dissidents.
Usually, Vulcan would punish an act like this, but Ashes was too clever and knew the enemy well.
He let it slide, for now.
Ashes closed the sheath as Firehead squawked and squawked to be let out of the contraption.
"Your sky-creature", Vulcan noticed and pointed to the joint the connected a dragon's wing to their front leg.
Ashes followed his gaze, eventually landing on Firehead.
"I'll do it later; we have to inform the Council first."
Vulcan thought that sounded like a good idea to start his reign over Eukarya.
"Come", he told her, "let's see how we can improve the state of the world."
Originally published: 09/06/2023 (added text from final manuscript version of book 1's epilogue to page); edited: (WIP)
YOU ARE READING
These Alien Dragons
Science Fiction(Note: This is the old version. It is preferable if you read the current/new version.) For all their life, J. Pappas has been a reader and a writer. They have written about many things - cats, owls, humans, and dragons; they've read stories about di...
