My body wasn’t responding, my mind refused to form a coherent thought. My entire being was focused on the blinding light that, like a raging river, was rushing towards me.

At the last moment, I was pushed to the ground, my face pressed against the scorched earth and ash. A great heat passed over my back while strong arms held me down. Terrible screams rose throughout the clearing as animals and men were engulfed by the jet of flames.

When the heat dissipated, I dared to lift my head, but at that point, a gigantic black shadow fell upon us, and we were thrown aside. For a moment, I couldn’t distinguish up from down, then I hit against a charred bush that scratched my face and hands.

When I finally disentangled myself from the branches, I looked towards the creature that had attacked us. Its long tail flicked from side to side threateningly. As a horse with a flaming mane ran for the trees, trying to escape, the monster hit it as it passed, and its great strength flung it against a tree with enough force to kill instantly. The thing’s membranous wings, when they flapped, generated gusts of wind that dispersed the smoke and sent men tumbling like leaves. The powerful legs capable of supporting its gigantic body ended in long, sharp claws that could disembowel an aurochs with a single swipe. The head, at the end of a long serpentine neck, had bony spikes like horns on top and jaws that swallowed men whole with the same ease as a dog gobbling up morsels left by banquet guests. At the feet of the beast, which stood there indifferent to the heat, lay horses and men caught in the first burst of flames, still engulfed in fire. There was only one word that came to mind looking at that beast, a word from legends and heroes’ stories.

Dragon.

Langmar, in an act that seemed more like madness than courage, tried to charge at the dragon using the boar spear, but when the blade designed to stop that mighty beast in its tracks struck the dragon’s bronzed scales, it didn’t even scratch. It was probably more Langmar’s scream than the spear that made the monster turn around. I barely had time to blink before the dragon spewed a torrent of flames, then its jaws snapped shut on him.

I tried to get up, but somehow, the beast turned its terrible gaze towards me. I could see myself reflected in its tremendous yellow eyes that watched me, almost intelligently.

An arrow flew towards one of its eyes, and although its third eyelid snapped shut, preventing the projectile from penetrating, the beast reared to the opposite side, spurting blood.

“Run!” shouted Aghiard, darting towards the trees.

I disentangled myself from the blackened branches and jumped into a small ditch, avoiding the river of flames that came after above me. Once the fire dissipated, without fully getting to my feet, I started running, plunging into the charred underbrush, ignoring the burns caused by the glowing embers. Almost all my attention was on the path ahead to avoid tripping while fleeing, only with my peripheral vision did I make sure my brother was still with me.

The forest was dense, too dense for such a large beast to move easily, and after devouring half a dozen bison, it shouldn’t have bothered too much with the two small morsels that we were. Yet, for reasons beyond my understanding, as soon as the forest opened up a bit, the dragon was upon us.

My brother and I were thrown in opposite directions, then the beast tried to turn to bite me, but the trees hindered it. No matter how much it tried to wriggle or even knock down the trunks, it couldn’t reach either of us, so in the end, it was forced to make its way upwards and take flight again.

For a moment, I thought of staying put, hoping that sooner or later the beast would tire of waiting, but then the dragon began to rain fire from above. I took cover under a fallen log, rotten and full of things crawling on its surface, which protected me from that first wave of flames. The treetops became torches, but the trunks were still full of water, and after charring the first layers, the fire went out. However, another two or three breaths of fire would be enough to roast me completely, and if the heat and flames didn’t kill me, its fangs would once the burning embers were swept away.

I peered in the direction of my brother, but the smoke and trees made it hard to see and I couldn't find him. A burning branch fell nearby and I knew there was no time to look for him. I slipped out of the trunk and ran toward the first opening, not caring what direction I was going.

The dragon tried again to get me with its fiery breath, but the vegetation hindered it, preventing it from getting me directly. Its breaths of fire were also less powerful and shorter, making me think it couldn’t do it continuously. However, I couldn’t run indefinitely on that rough terrain either, and I was starting to feel my breath becoming more labored. It was turning into a battle of endurance: would the dragon stop first, or would I be the one to give out?

The creature was faster than me since it was flying, so to keep up with me, it made wide circles, like a vulture. I couldn’t see it—I didn’t even dare to lift my head to do so—but I could hear its wings flapping and creating a wind that shook the branches as if they were being tossed by a storm.

I don’t know if it was fatigue or the dragon’s fire that prevented me from seeing it immediately, but at some point, the forest became less dark. When I realized the forest was thinning out, it was too late. Before I could turn the other way, the dragon lunged at me, trying to devour me in one bite.

I threw myself to the ground, narrowly escaping its jaws, then, without even getting up, I leaped behind a beech root to avoid its second attack with its fiery breath. I got up and ran in a zigzag pattern among the trees, trying never to be completely exposed and putting as much vegetation as possible between me and the much larger beast, which was much clumsier on the ground.

However, this game of chase wouldn’t last long: the dragon was between me and the densest part of the forest, and the trees were becoming sparser and smaller. To make matters worse, the terrain was sloping more and more upwards, draining my remaining energy even faster.

The forest ended sooner than I could have thought, and in the worst possible way.

A huge rock wall rose before me, disappearing upwards beyond my vision. It was almost perfectly vertical and bare, dotted with a few scraggly bushes that managed to take root on the bare rock. Without realizing it, I had arrived at the Giants’ Banquet, and now a mountain blocked my path.

Had the dragon driven me there, taking advantage of its much wider and freer view?

Without thinking, I ran against the wall and slipped into a crack just before the beast crashed down on me. It began scratching the rock with claws as long as swords. I held up my arms to protect my face, and a scythe-like talon caught my skin, easily tearing through the sleeve and the flesh beneath.

I screamed desperately, overwhelmed by searing pain, and pushed myself even deeper into that crack in the rock.

The dragon, unable to reach me, stopped scratching and returned to all fours, taking a few steps back to look at me. Its terrible feral eyes, one of which was dripping boiling blood, stopped the little breath I could gather, and at that moment I was certain of my death.

“Hey, over here!” I heard someone shout from afar.

An arrow struck the animal’s snout, very close to the bleeding eye. The beast turned in that direction, raising its neck high to see better.

“Come here, overgrown snake,” shouted Aghiard, whom I recognized this time.

“No, run!” I tried to shout, but I couldn’t get enough air into my chest and it came out as a sort of puff.

The dragon turned towards me for a moment, then was hit again in the eye by an arrow, emitting a sound so loud it felt like a lightning bolt had struck just inches from my face. My ears rang and my head throbbed as if I had been hit with a club.

The dragon sped towards my brother, leaving me stuck there alone. My head was a booming whirlwind, and in my dazed state, I tried to crawl out of my hiding place to do something, even though I couldn’t really do anything against such a creature.

My left arm hung limp and I could feel blood pouring copiously from the wound. I clawed at the rock with my left hand and tried to push with my legs, but I couldn’t move. I tried and tried with increasing desperation until finally, my clothes tore and the blood from my arm made the wall slick enough for me to get out.

I stumbled forward and tried to break my fall with my hand, but as soon as my palm touched the ground, a shock went through me and everything went black for a moment. When I came to, I was on the ground and in the distance, I could hear the dragon roaring.

With trembling legs, I got up and, leaning against the wall, went in the direction from which the sounds were coming, to a point where the mountain split, practically dividing in two. On the other side was a maze of boulders, some positioned almost vertically, where my brother was practically playing ferret with the mouse. Aghiard was taunting the dragon, shooting arrows at it and shouting before hiding behind one of the numerous stones. However, it couldn’t last long; he had only a few arrows left in his quiver, and even if he were showered with arrows by an entire army, the dragon would hardly feel it.

I approached, but the stone I stepped on crumbled, and being weak from all the blood loss, I fell with it, rolling onto a pile of debris. I landed facing the scene and saw the dragon turn towards me, but at that moment Aghiard took advantage of the beast’s distraction and planted an arrow in its eye, then ran towards a large stone pillar, positioning himself completely in the open.

For a moment, time seemed to stop as the dragon, in a blind rage, charged at him. 

Despite the enormous beast galloping towards him, Aghiard had his eyes fixed on me. In those eyes, brown like our father’s, I had seen everything: amusement at a dirty joke told at a party, impatience during one of our father’s many lessons, anger over a lost bet at the New Year’s games, genuine joy when I first showed him Berth. Deep shame, the day he showed up at our house with Wallia wrapped in swaddling clothes. But there was one emotion I had never seen in those eyes, and even at that moment, I did not see it.

Fear.

Aghiard looked at me calmly and moved his lips. I couldn’t hear him, he wouldn’t even have had the time to say it, yet it seemed to me that I heard his last request as if he were right next to me.

“Raise him.”

Then the dragon fell upon him.