As we were looking through the town I started to feel pretty lucky that the village I was born in was peaceful. I saw children starving on the side streets, women trying to sell themselves off, men who were causing bloodshed in the middle of a street. It was a horror. The dragon, however, didn’t pay attention to all that, she seemed to have a set course which she followed. Soon enough we arrived at a house. She knocked few times and a young man opened the doors, his face brightened as soon as he noticed who visited him “Lady Arlene!”
She corrected “Arlene.”
He shied away saying “My apologies, please come on in.”
He smiled as the dragon entered his house but watched me very carefully with suspicion. For some reason, that smile gave me creeps. Once inside the dragon and I sat down in front of the table and the young man brought us some tea. He looked older than Arlene, however, the smile on his lips was boyish and playful. It was not pleasant though. If I met him in a dark alley I would have not hesitated to attack. Especially since his reddish hair gave him the look of a troublemaker.
Then he spoke, “This is the worst place I have seen so far.” So far? He looked about my age, how much of the world he could have seen?
“I assume though that there isn’t much I can choose from?” The dragon asked and the man sighed.
“Nothing. So on my front, anyone from the street is as bad as one another.” The dragon sighed getting a sip and the red-haired man turned to me “And who are you?”
“I am not sure myself,” I responded not sure what he meant and he laughed.
“Well, I’m Seron. A dragon of the fire.” That information hit me like a pile of bricks.
The dragon sighed “He is that special case I told you about, Darren.” She explained and Seron looked suddenly amused. Was I that popular among the dragon's friends? One thing for sure I didn't like how that newly met dragon was grinning at me.
“I see, cute little pet you got there Arlene.” He grinned as he tried to tease me.
“Very disobedient though.” She mumbled as if passing a perfectly natural comment.
I glared at them both and Seron chuckled “Relax, no one is threatening you here. I am only joking. Humans are entertaining to watch, just like pets but it's better to leave them alone and not control them.”
The dragon huffed “But train them before releasing.”
I growled, “So you do have an ulterior motive then?”
She glanced at me and smirked “I don’t, didn’t you hear? Entertaining to watch, only.”
Then Seron added “We are just trying to help, humans get into conflicts all the time. And wars are not the way to go. Not many creatures think this way anymore but there is still hope.”
The dragon nodded sadly and explained “Seron is one of the mystical creatures that is helping me out. I do gather information on the sinners, but there are too many to deal with at once, so I have few helpers here and there to narrow the choice down.”
I nodded trying to understand but the same question kept on popping back “But why? What do you gain out of it?”
Seron looked down and the dragon said “Nothing, I do what I want. And what I want is peace. And with fighting humans, it is not as easy. A lot of wars among humans is caused by mystical creatures. At least that’s what they claim. So the more ruckus among humans the more endangered we are because more of us will be willing to fight in our species' name.”
Seron then added, “So basically, if you get a war among humans, you then get a blamed species - like dragons - and then you get other species trying to eliminate us to make humans stop fighting or get on their good side."
I asked confused "But why? What should those creatures care if human fight and on which side?"
Seron grinned mischievously once again. That grin started to give me the creeps. He was a reptile even in a human form and I did not like that at all. "Humans are powerful, you might not be as strong as individuals but as an army, you are tough to kill. Hunters too are not easy to deal with. So if a conflict arises from dragons, at least from rumours, then, for example, werewolves might want to kill them off to win humans favours. Which in the end might cause an alliance."
I looked down to my cup, it did make sense. Fairytale creatures were rare compared to humankind.
Then Seron added "And of course there is the case of hierarchy among our species, so the more wars we have the easier it is to find a leader. Which is preferred for some.”
I nodded understanding that part completely at least. So from what those two say it seems like they ran away from the hierarchy and just want to live peacefully. Is that really all?
I asked “So, if you eliminate wars then the creatures won't have a reason to fight either? Is it really that simple?”
The dragon said “Not entirely, there will be small cases like who will be a leader, but otherwise we will go into a quiet period where we won't interfere with other species to fight. We won't have a reason.”
I hummed trying to make sense of it all. Dragons that like peace, is it a joke? I didn’t believe them but said no more. Seemingly satisfied with my silent acceptance both dragons started to talk about matters which I did not understand at all.
Soon we left Seron alone for his study and went back through this awful place which was like a mini-war zone.
We did, however, made one more stop at one of the houses outside of the village. This was home to one of the humans who was a sinner. She decided to move near Seron to help him around this dreadful place. It was an impressive commitment.
Once we entered the forest the dragon said: "Did you see anyone?"
I looked at her and understood what she meant "Everyone looked equally bad to me."
She nodded with satisfaction, then stopped and groaned in pain while holding her head, I didn't know what to do so I froze like a hare in panic. A few moments later horns appeared back on the dragon's head, she huffed and looked at my confused face.
She smiled slightly "This is why I don't use a full human form, going back to the mid one is painful."
I nodded as if I knew what that felt like, where in fact I couldn't even begin to imagine.
*********************************************************************
Writer's note: If you enjoy my writing consider supporting me on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/Zorion
Comments (14)
See all