Reaver Chronicles - Overtribe

Overtribe - Ch01

I hate inner monologues. The mind thinks what it wants, and yet I have to control the course of a one-sided conversation. I don't even know if you can hear me, or how many of you there are. I may be thinking at one or millions of souls as I stare into this glowing blue stalagmite which is making my eyes itch maddeningly. I have to make this happen, though! No matter how many days or years I have to suffer this crystal. I have to harvest enough energy to save my race!

It's complicated, but you're going to fix everything just by listening. It's a simple trade. You pay attention, and by doing so you focus mental energy in my direction. I harvest that energy to power the spell which will save my dergs, and in trade, you get to experience my story.

So, I'll start from the beginning. Back when life was simple. Eat, sleep, learn, ask questions I was allowed to ask, and avoid anything that would end up in long drawn out lectures. The hatchery school. I almost miss those days...

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I'll start with my favorite room of the school, the library. I don't know if you have libraries, or if you like them, but here the library was my turf. Well, mine and a lot of other dragons turf, but I was well known to be a crystal licker. A slang term for avid readers. Of course, we have to keep the crystals clean, but it's not like we actually lick them clean!

The library was massive! A huge underground cave structure where if I flew up to the ceiling in the center, I couldn't see any of the walls on any side! It was just row after row of raised shelving. That's saying a lot coming from a dragon because we also get ridiculously huge. A two-year-old hatchling is barely the size of a grown adult claw, who in turn is the size of the great Ur'Drak's foreleg! Side note, the Ur'Drak is our living god who's over one hundred thousand years old.

I was walking down an aisle so huge I couldn't touch both sides even if I stretched my wings out really hard. I glanced through the magic section when a crystal way out of its place caught my eye.

"That's odd..." I raised an eye ridge. "Some drak is going to get reamed for misplacing that. It's at least a ten-point loss."

The whole school system was based on points. You could earn points for just about anything from doing classwork, extra labor around the school, socializing the new hatchlings, or challenging and breaking an opponent mentally, physically, or emotionally. Of course, any challenge required a teacher to be present to mediate. 

I grabbed the out of place crystal. It was a light green which meant history, not blue for magic.

"Feeding time!" Breach, a big burly derg screamed into the library. His voice was so loud it echoed across to the farthest walls!

Of course, I had to be only two isles away so my head was ringing. I shoved the crystal in my side pack and leaped into the air. My wings beat downwards a few times before I got a little height going.

All around me were hundreds of dragons taking flight, and twice as many wingless drudgers scurrying in between the isles. We all funneled into the many tunnels leading out from the library. The one I chose at random happened to be popular today. Dragons scurried across the floor, walls, and ceiling. I could fly of course, so scurrying wasn't really my thing, but the air was thick with dragons too. You get used to it though. Keeping distance for a flyer in crowded tunnels becomes second nature after a while.

A moment later and light blindingly washed over me. The chill of the tunnels was dashed by the warmth of the sun high near its apex. I surveyed the only outside world I'd ever known in this life. A large obsidian bowl stretched in every direction ten times larger than the library and dotted with tunnels that snaked deep underground. The center of the bowl was flat, but the sides curved up at a perfectly rounded concave as if some massive dragon had magically carved it.