Prologue: Dreams to Nightmares (cont.)

The older dragon continued through the woods, scanning every possible place an enemy could be. His ears perked for the slightest sound of danger. He heard one of the clan's dragons approach him. His eyes flitted to the side to see the brown ancient walk to his side. He was definitely an old dragon, undoubtedly the oldest in the clan. His scales used to be brown, but were now faded to tan and khaki colors. The wrinkles in his snout and brow were deeply defined and his brown eyes had replaced the brightness of youth with the soft glow of age.

“I see the young'un has finally had it in for the night,” the ancient said.

The father smiled. “Yes. The rain won't hurt him too much will it?”

“No. If he was alone, yes, but you generate enough heat to keep the nestling healthy.”

“I wish I could stop worrying, but that is not so easily done. He was asking about humans again today.”

“And why should that be reason to worry. We do protect humans. Why should he not ask about what he will eventually have to know?”

“Most nestlings around his age don't even know about humans.”

“Then you should be proud your son is ahead.”

“But I don't even know how he found out about humans. One day he just walked in and asked, 'Hey Dad, what's a human?'“

“He could've heard it from some other dragon. Besides, it is good that he knows about them.”

“Yes, except for the fact that he wants to see them.”

“What is the problem with that?”

“Miren, you and I may know humans hate dragons, but Thirwyn does not. He wants to meet them, talk to them, be friends with them. He does not understand that they see us as enemies.”

“Have you told him?”

“He is too young. I want him to enjoy as much of his childhood as he can. He has already had so much robbed from him. The least I can do is spare him that.”

“I don't think he is as deprived as you think he is, Arithoth” Miren said as he looked at the small nestling sleeping his father's head.

Arithoth didn't say anything. The two dragons continued to walk side-by-side. Arithoth slowed his pace down to accompany the old dragon.

“Do not slow for me.” Miren laughed. “I am old, but I can still keep pace with any young'un, including you.”

“Young'un? Do you still see me like that?” Arithoth asked with a smile.

“When you get to be my age, everyone is a young'un, young'un.”

Arithoth chuckled. His eyes fixed on a single spot in the woods. The bush shifted and twitched a bit with movement. He stopped and crouched slightly in preparation for danger. The clan saw this and followed his example. From the bushes, a cat with a bark brown back and a snow white belly walked up to the dragons. The cat's mint green eyes glowed with intelligence though his form seemed to say otherwise.

From behind Arithoth the rest of the dragons murmured with anticipation. Arithoth slightly lowered his head (being very careful not to disrupt Thirwyn) as a small nod of respect of the cat. “Drolin. It is a pleasure to finally meet you.”

The cat meowed in confusion, licking its paw.

Arithoth's ears twitched in surprise. “Errr... Miren, is this the cat?”

“Oh, yes it is! Stop playing with the poor boy, Drolin!”

The cat immediately looked up at Miren and Arithoth at Miren's comment. He smiled. “That trick never gets old!” he said. “Miren! Dear me, it's been a while.”

Miren smiled. “It's good to see you again, friend.”

Arithoth nodded to where Drolin just came from. “This way?” he asked.

Drolin nodded. “Not that far now, fortunately for you. I see you have had a rough set of travels.” Drolin then scaled Miren's leg, hopped on his back, ran up his long neck, and sat on his head. “I'll see it better from here. Keep going forward until you see a large oak.”

*                                                                           *                                                              *

Finally, after waiting for so long, Thirwyn felt Amy’s presence begin to break into the dream. Only, it wasn't exactly Amy's presence. Of course he knew she was going to appear in the dream, but the energy she set off was dark, terrifying, and violent.

“Amy?” Thirwyn called.

She appeared on the other side of the meadow. Thirwyn broke into a run to her. “Amy! What happened? Great scales I was so…”

She looked up, and as soon as their eyes connected, Thirwyn knew something was wrong. He stumbled to a stop. “Amy?” he called tentatively. The scene began to change. It was no longer a bright green meadow with a shining sun. Instead, the air filled with smoke that blocked out the vanilla sky; the sun dimmed to nothing; the soft grass became a hard, ash-covered, wooden floor. “Amy? What’s happening? What’s going on?” But the smoke closed in around him and concealed Amy from his sight. “Amy!” He charged forward. The only light to guide him was a flickering glow through the smoke. He heard Amy scream. He sped toward the sound, calling out her name. “Amy!” he called. “Amy! Where are you?”

What is this? he thought. The dreams weren't usually like this. Sometimes either he or Amy would have a nightmare, but there was always the other to fight it off. But this felt more real than a nightmare. The terror wasn’t easily broken; it felt as thick and powerful as it infect the air around him.

“Mom! Dad!” Thirwyn heard Amy cry.

Thirwyn heard other screams, different from Amy's. There was sobbing, begging, gasping. Thirwyn began using his small wings to bat away at the smoke. The smoke began to clear. Finally he found her on the ground, in tears and blood.

“Amy!” Thirwyn roared as he ran toward her.

She didn't hear him. “Please. Let them go!”

Thirwyn looked to what Amy was pleading to. There was so much smoke he could only see a vague outline of it. In front of him was a large silhouette of a broad head with ram horns and webbed wings expanding above the smoke. A dragon! But how could a dragon have done this? Thirwyn's father had always told him that dragons protected humans. They didn't cause destruction like this!

 At the feet of the dragon-like creature were two humans that Thirwyn did not recognize. One was a man, and one was a woman. The creature laughed at Amy and pick up both humans with one dragon-like paw.

“Don't! Please!”

Thirwyn could only watch in horror as the dragon tossed the two sobbing humans into the fire beside it.

“NO!” Amy cried and surged toward the fire, as if she could rescue them. The creature slammed Amy with its tail and surged into the sky with a single beat of its giant wings, taking with it the whole scene of terror Thirwyn had witnessed.

They were in the green meadow again. It wasn't as bright as it was before. There was a hue of darkness that hung in the air. The sun had dimmed, and the sky had darkened. It was as if the horrible scene had left its awful essence.

Thirwyn spotted Amy curled into a ball. Thirwyn hurried to her. “Amy! Amy, are you all right?”

Amy said nothing.

“Amy, it's all right. The nightmare's over.”

“It wasn't a nightmare,” she mumbled.

“What?”

“I said it wasn't a nightmare!” she snapped and sat up. “It happened, Thirwyn! What you saw back there just happened to my parents.”

“Amy, this is a dream. It couldn't have happen.”

“It happened just now. It happened when I woke up.”

Thirwyn stiffened. The small spine on the back of his neck lifted in anxiety. “What?!”

Amy roared. “Are you deaf or something? I said—”

“I know what you said, but that's…that's impossible. A dragon would never—”

“A dragon just did!” Amy snapped.

“So your parents are...”

“Dead? Yeah. They are. Thanks.”

Thirwyn felt a cold horror slip over him as he heard those words. Not too long ago he had lost his mother after a band of Dark Followers raided their clan. For days, Thirwyn had tried to crawl out of his morbid stupor. If hadn't been for his dreams with Amy and his father's persistent attempts to keep Thirwyn sane, Thirwyn might not have been as stable as he was.

He approached Amy, hoping to comfort her, as she had only a couple of years before. “Amy, I'm so sor—”

“Don't touch me!” Amy hissed, recoiling from Thirwyn.

Thirwyn stumbled back, shocked by Amy's words. “Amy...”

“Get away from me! GO!”

The sky became darker with rain clouds. Thunder and lightning mimicked Amy's emotions and lashed out in the sky.

“Why?” Thirwyn begged.

“You told me a dragon would never hurt a human! You told me that dragons always protected humans! I believed you! And now this has happened!”

“But that's what dragons do. We don't hurt people! We save them.”

“Then where were your dragons when this dragon decided to barbeque my parents.”

Thirwyn shuddered at her harsh tone. “I don't know. Our clan is just moving. Amy, I swear, I would've been the first to warn them if—”

“But you didn't! You heard the crash like I did! You didn't wake up to tell anyone.”

“I was waiting for you-”

“You should have been calling for help! But you didn't. Also, you didn't warn me about the dragon attacking us!”

“I didn't know. We don't even know if it was a dragon!”

“What else do you think it was?” she snapped.

Thirwyn tried to find something, but he came up with nothing.

“How can I trust you? My parents are dead because some dragon! So you lied to me! You didn't try to help me! You didn't even do anything to tell me! And how do I know you aren't just saying all that about dragons because you want to trick me?”

“What?! No! Amy, I'm saying that to trick you. It's the truth-”

“No it's not! My parents are dead.”

“Amy...”

“Go, Thirwyn!” she snapped. “Just go! I don't ever want to see you!”

“Amy! Please—”

“GET OUT! I hate you, and I hate dragons!”

“Amy...”

Thirwyn. Thirwyn! he heard his dad's voice call from outside the dream.

“No! Amy!” Thirwyn felt himself being pulled away by the sound of his father's voice.

“LEAVE! DON'T YOU EVER COME BACK!” he heard Amy scream before he reentered the world of consciousness.