Dragons of War - Rising Storm

Chapter 1 (2/2)

I turned around mid step and walked backwards, my head to the sky and then I saw it.

Movement in the air, wings in all sizes filled the far darkness like a monster with tentacles. Then they got closer and I could see the form of each as they zoomed over my head. Some large enough their wings almost brushed the cavern walls, others, small enough to dance circles around them.

A wind rushed past me with them as countless others followed behind and then it was over. The group had past.

The thought flashed through my mind, would I ever be able to join them? But then the awe of the moment passed and reality set back in.

I would never be more then a Cleaner, till the day I die.

The thought was enough to sober my dreams and I turned back to walk forwards on the path. I noticed something in front of me on the ground and paused.

It was a large spot of wet dirt. I reached down to touch it and recoiled in horror. It was warm to the touch and bright red.

Blood. Why did that not surprise me. They must have been returning from a mission. A failed one, more than likely.

I wiped the blood away on my pants and turned off the main path onto a smaller one.

It lead to a single cave that was tucked away between two jutting rocks.

I pushed a cloth out of my way as I entered the dark cave.

"Lewis?" I called out.

There was nothing. Lewis was never at home anymore.

I sighed and fumbled about in the dark until I found my quarry; a lamp. I got a match from my pocket and carefully lit it. I looked around the cave and noticed that nothing had changed since the last time I had been there only a few days ago. Strange.

Once my work was done I left Lewis's cave empty-handed. The clothes I knew Lewis liked to sort through himself. He didn't like me messing around in his room where he kept all his important papers.

I sighed with relief as I left his cave, my stomach already anticipating the next task loudly. It was finally time to eat. With only one meal a day allowed, It was worth the work for that single luxury.

I followed the lit path that wound through the cavern but as I got closer to the entrance voices began to grow louder.

What was going on?

I crested a small rise and when I looked down into the slight valley that formed the entrance of the cave, I saw hundreds of people gathered around the food galley.

Arms raised, voices crying out, I didn't know what to think but I saw someone on the announcement stand and I knew something had happened.

A sickening thought came to my mind and I shoved it out of the way and ran forwards. Once I reached the edge of the crowd I could make out what the man on the announcing stand was saying.

"I understand your frustrations, but it simply cannot be helped! With this recent failure..."

"Screw your failures! We want real warriors to do the job right, not those freaks!" A voice rose above the announcement and the crowd followed suit with cries of anger.

I knew what had happened now and it was going to get bad fast.

It looks like they'd failed again. I would not be eating today either.

My heart sank and I took a few steps backward with my head down.

The Dragon Warriors were supposed to be our saviors and yet they had wasted more lives than any other soldier. They had lost more battles than any other. Many wondered how such magnificent beasts could lose against an enemy that had so little firepower and the answer was quite simple. Those magnificent beasts were weak.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a soldier stride past me to the crowd, armed to the teeth with guns and poles. I didn't want to get involved in what this was likely going to turn into.

The crowd noticed the approaching soldiers and lashed out with their words.

"You sum eat like pigs while we have to make up for your failures!" One of the closest people to me cried out.

"Useless waste of fodder!" Others followed.

"Dragon Warriors are a joke!"

"How can you live with yourselves knowing we starve for you?"

My heart wrenched in my chest and I shut my eyes to try and block out the words. I couldn't handle it anymore, my stomach turning. It wasn't from lack of food.

Whirling around I charged as fast as I could away from the screams of rage and fear. From behind me, I heard a bang and the screaming grew louder.

The Dragons Warriors were once our last hope. I remembered a time when they were praised as the highest honor. Now they were shamed for dying.

My biggest dream was to become a Dragon Warrior. But I didn't want to become that. I didn't want to just be another failure.

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(Author's Note:)

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed chapter one :) If you DID, please leave a comment or a rate and I will love you forever!

A note about my posting schedule: I will continue posting twice a week on Fridays and Tuesday or Monday. However, once this story is completed and all chapters are written, I will post the entire book. I write and finish roughly a chapter every two days so this story should be fully completed by the end of the month.