The Vyvern Among Us

Part 1

And yet a shadow appeared over them. He looked up to see what it was, shielding his eyes from the bright sun with his hand. At the same time he heard sounds of amazement around him. From above, flapping its large wings a figure was slowly descending. A dragon!

He'd seen dragons before, but never in real life and this close to him. Only in movies, books and YouTube. Besides, these days dragon sightings were rare. Medicine had advanced enough to produce vaccines against the virus that caused the terrible mutation. What the hell was a loose dragon doing in the city?

He could now feel the air move by the beat of its wings. The dragon was descending slowly, in a controlled manner. Finally it touched down on the pavement. If the father stretched his arm he could touch the light brown leather scales. It was the size of a school bus, which meant that, as far as dragons were concerned, it was neither big nor small. He noticed that it was standing on its hind legs, leaning on its bent wings. No front legs – this was a wyvern type dragon.

People cautiously got out of its way. For many of them it was the first time they encountered a dragon, but they knew the rules. Usually a dragon wasn't dangerous, as long as you didn't stop it from taking what it wanted. They were generally drawn to gold, platinum, precious stones and pearls. The older ones also fancied silver items if they had intricate patterns, like watches or expensive jewelry. The young ones could mistake copper and quartz for expensive jewelry. As long as you didn't stupidly cling onto your wedding rings or grandma's pearls, you were more or less safe. And no sudden moves, especially if you were behind a dragon. A startled dragon could turn you to ashes in less than two minutes.

The wyvern straightened and took a careful step. Its large tail was in the street, blocking the ongoing traffic. Suddenly it grabbed the baby stroller in its snout and pulled it out of the stunned mother's grip.

- "Hey", the father cried and throwing caution to the wind, hurled the water bottle at the dragon while charging towards it.

The wyvern didn't feel the impact of the bottle with its head but the water sprayed it in the eye. More out of surprise than discomfort it let go of the stroller which began to roll slowly down the sidewalk into the street. From within you could hear the baby crying. Both parents rushed to the stroller but the wyvern was quicker. A large rear claw grabbed its handle. Then effortlessly, flapping its large wings it started to rise. In a split second the father made up his mind and rushed towards the wyvern's tail, trying to grab hold.

All of a sudden there was a deafening bang, causing the father to fall to the ground, his eardrums ringing. Two more bangs followed and the street was filled with a thick black chocking smoke in which one could barely see. There was a sound of breaking glass from a store front. The wind made the smoke disperse rapidly. But it was too late. The dragon was in the air, a few meters above. No one could reach it.

The mother started to cry. The father felt his heart sink and stared at the ascending dragon refusing to move his teary eyes. Maybe something could happen at the last moment.. If he'd only managed to grab onto its tail...

The dragon was gaining altitude fast. Suddenly it felt itself being jerked out of balance. Something had moved its tail. Startled, he flapped its wings desperately, barely managing to realign its center of mass with its center of lift. It recovered and turned around.

An enormous jet of flames came out of its mouth. After a few seconds it stopped, expecting to see whatever it was that disturbed it fall to the ground in flames.

- "Well, you know how they say you're supposed to fight fire with fire? I bet you they did not think of dragons back when they invented the expression."