The Last of the Dragons-Set 1

179

Later That Night

   I couldn't sleep. I felt such a level of unease constantly flowing through me that I couldn't even lay still long enough to relax. I silently stood up and wandered outside the tent. I looked around, before locking eyes with one of the guards as he looked around over the small camp. He sensed that I wanted conversation, so he climbed down the wall and approached me.

"Can't sleep well?" He asked.

"Not really. I've got a lot to think about." I replied.

The guard looked back up at the wall, before sighing at the sight of the stars.

"How do you keep dragons out from this camp?" I asked.

"We don't. Well, at least not the larger ones. Theres only one dragon in this area that we know of, and we've had more than a few run ins with her. She knows better than to attack us now. Wade almost toke her down the first time she came by. If any smaller ones come by, it won't be hard to deal with as long as we see them coming." He replied.

"Yeah, I think we came across the same female the other day. She killed a young male with ease." I said.

"Young male? I'm surprised he came into this area. She's rather aggressive. He must have run out of food in his territory." The guard replied.

"Do you think any others have come into this area?" I asked.

"It's very possible. It wouldn't be the first time, though every time a dragon comes into this area it seems to be a smaller one. Not much bigger than a horse. We've killed any that come close, so long as the female who claims this area doesn't hunt them down first. And now with only thirty-four left alive, the odds of that aren't very great." He said.

For a moment, we both fell silent. We both seemed to sense something was wrong. Almost at once, the two of us looked up at the sky, to see four objects blocking out the stars, growing ever closer by the second.

"DRAGONS!" The guard shouted.

Almost immediately. Everyone came running from out from their tents, including Amy, Tahli and Bailey. The four dragons split up and circled around over head, as arrows started flying up at them. The four dragons spoke back and Forth to one another, before all at once, they dove on the camp, spraying flames aimlessly down on the camp. The dragons weren't very big, the largest being not much bigger than a large bear, the smallest being not much bigger than a person. Due to their small size, their flames didn't do much damage to anything they didn't directly hit. Amy, Tahli and Bailey huddled around me, kneeling down on the ground, unsure of where to run off to. All we heard were men and women shouting and screaming, along with children crying for their parents. 

"Now's our chance! Let's get out of here!" I Shouted.

The four of us stood up and ran for the gate, but before we reached it, one of the dragons spat fire down on that section of the wall, sending it up in flames as it passed over head. The dragon banked back towards us and started down towards us again, before an arrow flew over our heads and struck the dragon in the throat, spilling its blood out onto the ground and wall as it crashed to the ground off to the side of us. Before I even had a chance to process what had happened, the smallest of the four dragons dove down on a group of men firing up at one of the others, and breathing fire down on the men before grabbing one of them in his jaws and flying off into the forest, the man screaming for mercy as his burning body was torn apart by the dragon as he carried him off.

"Into the trees! They won't risk themselves getting cornered in a small space!" Wade shouted!

"What? Won't they just burn the trees down?!" I replied.

"They're not big enough to burn them down in mass, and if they follow us into the trees, they won't be able to fly off if we can corner them, come on!" He shouted.

All at once, everyone ran towards the trees, a few men still firing arrows blindly into the air. The crackling of flames couple with the sudden flashes of light shinning on the otherwise pitch black forest was disorienting as we made for the shelter of the trees. We all scattered deep into the trees, leaving lots of space between us and the forests edge. I looked back to where we had just come from to see a mother with her three children clambering for the trees. 

"We've got to help her!" Amy shouted.

"Bailey, stay here." I said firmly before turning to run back to the forests edge.

The women was carrying a baby boy, along with two girls who were running along side her. One looked to be a young teenager, the other was considerably younger. I ran out and grabbed the younger girl and made for the trees while Tahli took the baby, and Amy took the hand of the older girl.

"Look out!" I shouted.

The largest of the four dragons landed right behind the two of them, causing them both to fall to the ground. Amy rolled out of sight of the dragon, but the young girl only pushed herself towards us on her back, calling out for her mother.

"Mom! Mom help me!" She shouted.

I pulled back my bow, but couldn't bring myself to let the arrow fly. Just as I was about to bring myself to do it, Tahli put her hand on the tip on my arrow and pushed it down.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"We can't afford to kill them. You know that." She replied.

Several arrows did fly at the dragon, but by that point, everyone else had retreated into the forest and couldn't properly aim.

We both looked back helplessly as the girl rolled over on her stomach and started crawling towards us reaching out for any hand close enough to grab. But, the dragon had little patience, and grabbed the girls leg in his jaws before thrashing his head back and forth as the last dragon took off over the forest with the body of its victim in its mouth. The dragon with the girl pulled her back before spreading his wings and taking off over the forest, leaving behind the severed foot of the girl, along with a pool of blood. For a moment, everyone was silent, before the silence was broken by the ear shattering sobs of the girls mother as she ran to the spot where her daughter had been carried off screaming, and bleeding in the jaws of the dragon. The mother collapsed to the ground in the blood of her daughter, with the foot that remained clenched tightly in her hands. Tahli set the baby down beside her as the other child went to join, sobbing as she curled up with the mother.

"Why the hell didn't you let me shoot it?!" I shouted at Tahli.

"You and I both know that we can't afford for any more of them to die. And I don't think I need to explain why." Tahli replied before starting into the destroyed camp.

The whole attack had taken only a few minutes, the ordeal with the girl, just a few seconds, yet now, dozens of people were killed, some of them, eaten. I spotted wade, along with the other survivors walking towards the dragon they'd managed to kill, surrounding it and standing silently in a circle around it. Dead bodies were scattered all throughout the camp, but no-one seemed to be paying them any attention.

"They've never attacked in a group before, and those four dragons aren't even from this area. Not sure what they were doing here. Probably just searching for more plentiful food supplies." He said.

"I thought you said you could take them down if you saw them coming!" The distraught mother of the girl shouted.

"We've not been attacked by more than one before! We tried!" He shouted in reply.

"Bastards probably put their differences aside in order to best the female who claims this area as her territory. They don't stand a chance." One man said.

I sighed, before wandering off to be alone. 

"Doron.... What the hell are you doing..." I said.