THE FALL OF ELANIA

eep up, Aiden! We don’t need to be out here all day. I’d like to make it back in time for the evening service." Personally, Aiden thought, I wouldn’t mind being out long enough to miss it. He couldn’t stand the priest’s monotone sermons, especially as they tended to be long. Searching the woods for a lost sheep was much more entertaining. Out here, at least, the scenery changed. Also, sitting on a horse was much better than sitting in a cold pew listening about the way of Aeomir and His Graces.

He had been caught daydreaming again and his horse had been taking advantage of it. Aiden sighed and pulled his horse away from the grass shoots it was eating and ignored its disappointed snort as he nudged it along the path. He caught back up to his father with a casual apology and started scanning the ground and surrounding woods for tracks, scat, or any other sign of their lost sheep.

“Father, do you really think it was wolves?” Aiden asked.

“Not sure, son, but it’s possible,” his father replied as he adjusted the old, battered shield on his back. “Like as not, it got separated from the flock and is hiding in a thicket. Either way, it’s best to be prepared.”

Aiden’s mother had been killed by bandits when he was only four. For the nine years since, his father never left the house without his sword and shield. Being prepared was his way of life now.

The two of them continued without luck for almost a half hour before they spotted some tracks meandering down the path for a bit before it turned and led into the woods. They moved much more slowly through the trees so as not to lose the trail. Some time later they came to a small clearing in front of a large cave entrance but the trail vanished just past the trees. They dismounted and tied their horses’ leads around a tree to get a closer look. They searched all over the clearing and around its edges but found no traces of the beast.

“Could it have gone into the cave?” Aiden asked.

“I doubt it," his father replied. “A solitary sheep isn’t likely to venture into a place like that, but we may as well take a look. If it did go in there, it won’t have gone far.”

They stepped into the cave but it was soon obvious that there were no sheep here. Despite the cave having a large entrance, it wasn't extensive, which allowed for light to almost completely pierce its depths. After only about ten paces into the cave they could see the back. Everywhere about them was a strange type of black rock, floor to ceiling.

“Let’s go, son," his father said. “We must have missed something outside.”

Aiden agreed with an uneasy feeling, and turned to leave when something caught his eye and he stopped. There was a single rock that wasn’t black on the floor—near the center of the chamber.

“Wait a moment," he said as he climbed down the few paces to where the rock was. “What’s this?”

It was light grey in color and as round as a melon. He lifted the stone and was surprised at its weight. He would imagine a stone of this size to be at least twenty pounds, but it had to be only half that. He carefully climbed back to his father to show him the stone but as soon as his father saw what was in his hands his eyes grew large and his body rigid.

“Stop!” His father quietly hissed. “Put that back where you found it!”

“What’s wrong with it?” Aiden asked. “It’s just a strange rock.”

“That’s no rock," said his father quickly. His voice just as quiet as it had been before

“If the tales I heard on your great-grandfather's knee are true, then that's an egg, one that belongs to the most terrible of beasts. Dragons are not to be crossed son."

“Dragons?” Aiden whispered with sudden horror. He had heard tales of such creatures at the annual summer fairs since he was a child, beasts of terrible power and ferocity, but had never heard of anyone that had actually seen one. He knew they were supposed to be very rare yet he still considered them to be a myth. Something about the egg he held convinced him otherwise. As he turned to climb back down the black rocks, he realized that these rocks weren’t naturally black—they were burnt!

This was the final clue that confirmed it for him. Now he had no doubt of what he was holding. It then occurred to him that not only was he holding a dragon egg, but he was in its lair! He started back down to where he’d found the egg, but in his panic his foot slipped. He tried to regain balance to no avail. His leg shot out from under him and the egg went flying. He landed on his side with a burst of pain as the egg crashed to the rocks below him and shattered, spilling a thick goo across the burnt stones.

Aiden froze but his father didn’t. He reached down and jerked Aiden to his feet dragging him towards the entrance.

“Run boy!”

Aiden snapped into action and fled like a scared rabbit. They clambered out of the cave and raced to their mounts. Drawing his sword, his father slashed the leads close to the tree then hoisted Aiden into the saddle before leaping onto his own mount.

The horses, sensing their master's fear, sprang through the trees back towards the main path. Aiden held on tight, bending forward as far as he could go to avoid low hanging branches. When they got to the path they went into full gallop, and it was all Aiden could do to hang on. They covered the same ground in almost a quarter of the time it took to reach the cave.

When they reached their house Aiden saw a large shadow pass quickly over the ground, heading back in the direction of the woods. He turned his head to see but caught no sight of it in the glaring sunlight. Maybe it wouldn’t return to its lair till later? As they approached their house Aiden reined his horse to a canter but his father soon passed him yelling “No! To the keep, son!”

☩

iden kicked his horse back into a gallop and chased after his father. A moment later there was a long, deep and throaty screech in the distance behind him. The fact that he could still hear its rage from all the way back at the cave terrified him. He spurred his horse again, trying to squeeze every ounce of speed out of the animal. After hearing the screech though, the animal needed no further encouragement for haste.

They came over the last ridge to the castle-keep—the portcullis lifted and the main gate opened. Thankfully times were peaceful here in the city of Elania in regards to the surrounding kingdoms. Otherwise they might not have been so lucky. They sped towards the gate with shouts of “Dragon, take shelter!” But as they rode past the guards people merely stared beyond them, slack-jawed. Turning back, Aiden saw that something else flew their way.

He and his father bolted up the streets and squares as they made their way through the twists and turns of the city. They shouted warnings to anyone that would listen, dodging past merchants and peasants alike, making their way ever closer to the keep. All the while they heard the sound of wings above, tracking them. Not tracking them, Aiden thought, tracking him! It was his scent on the egg. His father had never touched the thing. Surely this beast would be able to tell the difference.

As they reached the entrance of the keep they jumped from their mounts leaving them to flee in panic. Aiden raced for the door, his side still burning from his fall in the cave. The beast swooped down, intent on not letting its prey escape. His father threw him towards the door as he spun, hefting his shield to the beast. Aiden crouched against the door, seeing long black wings stretching out to their full length, thirty paces wide, at least, blocking the sun as the dragon came in to land.

The black scales of the beast glittered like iron the length of its long body and serpent neck. Its burning red eyes locked on Aiden as it opened its long snout with a roar, exposing a multitude of razor-sharp teeth. A jet of flame shot from its mouth directly at him as he scrambled to open the door. He was sure he was dead, but his father jumped in front of him at the last second, shield raised against the flames.

“Get inside! Now!” His father bellowed as he brandished his blade. “I’ll be right behind you!” Aiden wrenched the door open and jumped through. He spun to the side and looked back for his father, expecting him to follow. He didn’t.

Looking around the door Aiden saw his father raise his blade in defiance and slash at the creature’s head. The dragon pulled back, dodging the blow, and alighted upon the cobbled pavement. Its talons cut and crushed the stones beneath it, and it again shot forth flames. Once again Aiden’s father blocked the flames with his shield as he made to retreat into the keep. The beast was faster.

It snapped forward with alarming speed, shattered his father’s shield and took his arm with it in one swift motion. Aiden screamed as the dragon leapt forward and, in a split second, eviscerated his father with its talons just before closing its jaws over his head and effortlessly ripping it from his body. Aiden, still screaming, turned and ran into the main hall of the keep,passing soldiers, sprinting in the opposite direction of their doom. The dragon burst through the front doors as Aiden darted past tables, chairs, and a priest who was shakily holding forth a sigil of Aeomir as he spoke a litany.

“Aeomir protect us, Aeomir teach us, Aeomir show us the way…”

Aiden slammed the door behind him but not before he saw the priest engulfed in flames as he fell screaming to the floor, his prayer unanswered. Aiden raced down the corridor, wishing it didn’t have such high ceilings, towards the armory at the end of the hall. The sounds of screams and screeches filled his ears and boiled his blood as he ran. He wasn’t fast enough.

Before he was three quarters of the way down the hall, the dragon burst through the doorway behind him and most of the wall around it. Instinct took over and he barreled through a door beside him just as a gout of flames ripped past where he’d just been. The room appeared to be used for storage with random crates stacked against the walls and a few tables and chairs shoved into the corners. Casks of mead, or maybe wine, were stored in racks along the far wall. Aiden leapt behind the racks and found that there was space enough to walk behind them. Perhaps for access to the casks? Or maybe for access to the trapdoor he saw on the floor in the corner! He ripped open the door and as the beast thrust its head into the room to unleash another jet of flames, he jumped into the darkness.

☩

hat could have only been seconds later, flames lit the tunnel from the room above. He scrambled to his feet, the back of his head throbbing, and started down the tunnel. Only then did he notice the stench. This wasn’t a tunnel. It was a sewer. There were narrow walkways along the sides with a channel in the center of the sewer that carried all the filth and excrement with the flow of an underground stream towards the river. The door he had dropped through was just an access point. Looking back he saw the iron rungs forming a ladder set into the wall leading up to the trapdoor.

Shaking his head with tears still streaming down his face for both his father and his pain, he followed the sewer. After a short time stumbling through the darkness he found the end of the sewer. At the base of the wall was a shaft barely large enough to accommodate a grown man that let the sewage into the river some ways downriver from the keep. Bracing himself from what he was about to do, he took a deep breath and jumped into the channel.

He tried not to think about what he was doing or what he was swimming through. All he hoped was that the shaft wasn’t too long. After all this he couldn’t drown. Not in this. Not here. Not now that his father had given his life to give him a chance to live.

After what seemed an eternity Aiden emerged from the shaft into the slow-moving river and clawed his way to the surface. Climbing onto the bank he stood and looked to the castle in the distance. It was in ruins. Darkness had recently fallen but the orange glow of the burning castle illuminated the circling dragon. It was still searching for him.

He watched and could make out the figures of people fleeing the castle only to be chased down by the dragon one by one until eventually no one tried to run.

After a while, some time before dawn, the dragon settled into the castle and didn’t emerge for over an hour. Only then did Aiden turn and begin his journey away from Elania.