Dragon Legacy

Inhaling a deep breath, I open my eyes slowly. Seeing only bleary shapes, I blink a couple of times. Each time my eyes come into focus a little better, as my sight clears, I wish I could go back to not being able to see anything much.   Carnage, rubble, smoke rising slowly from a pillar. All parts of my home, now nothing more than a ruin.   I lie back and close my eyes, seeing everything happen again.  Earlier...  I wake up as screams rent the air. There is chaos all around me, people screaming in pain, soldiers letting their battle-cry fly from their mouths with such ferocity that I cannot begin to think what is happening.   I jump off my bed and run to the window. Their far below I can see that people have come into our castle and they are fighting with the soldiers below. Purple fire flies past my window as I see one of my brothers jump from his window, throwing a flame and changing into his dragon.   If my brothers are going to help, then it must indeed be a big threat that has come to our gates. As I turn to go to my mother and sisters aid, the motion of something glinting in the dark catches my eye. Turning back to the window I see someone shoot a large arrow and before I can react to more than a short intake of breath, I see that the arrow has hit home, right in one of my brother's chests. It is as though I see him falling in slow motion out of the sky to land in a heap on the ground. I see him change back to human form and run to see if he still lives, grabbing my jacket and blades on my way out the door.   As dragons, we can heal from near fatal wounds, but if our throats are slit and our dragon fire leaves us, then we die.   Leaving my room behind, I see that there are already people in the castle. I see one of my ladies in waiting being cut down at the end of the passage and stifle a cry in my hand. Turning into a nook by the window, I hide behind the curtain, hoping to become invisible.  I hear someone run past my hiding place and wait another minute before I peek out. I see nothing and move ahead slowly. Although I am trained for combat, my father has told us girls to always use combat as a last resort. We should use our stealth training and our ingenuity to outsmart anyone who would be foolish enough to mess with us.   Though, no-one has ever really known us. We have not been to court, as we are all young. I am the oldest of us girls and I am only a year away from being introduced into society. No man, other than my father and our brothers has seen us. Even when we were born, it was a midwife who assisted my mother.  My greatest concern now was to find my mother and sisters and find out what had happened to my brother. Strapping on my blades and shucking my jacket on while running is not easy. Hearing a thunderous roar, that could only be my father, I knew that he had changed and was fighting. Maybe he had seen what happened to my brother and was with him. I could see purple flames belching through the air onto the attacking party, and I froze as I saw that a large arrow was protruding from my father's chest. No! It couldn’t be! This can’t be happening. The tears I shed for the loss of my maid in waiting double as I know that both my father and one of my brothers is hurt.  My feet fly as I move towards my mother's room to see whether my sisters had gotten there yet. I hear sobbing as I open the door and realize that they had seen our father hit, but did they know of our brother yet?  “Mother! What is happening?” I ask her out of breath.  “I do not know who ordered the attack, but they know how to kill us. We have guarded this secret close to our hearts, letting the rumor spread that we could not be killed. It could only be one of our own who would do this!” she hisses angrily.  “But why? We have done nothing to warrant such an attack. We have only ever done good things for the people.” I say sadly.  “I think that humans want to take over and have bought a dragon to give them all of our secrets.” she replies.  "Who would do such a thing? For then they would know how to kill the dragon that has divulged our secret. Unless it is that dragon that wants to take over our lands?” I reason.  “That is all I can possibly think, but there are only two other dragon families left and we have no quarrel with them. They intended to come to your introduction party next year and see if you would suit one of their sons. It cannot be them!” she says vehemently.  “Then it must be one of our own family.” I say with regret. Hating to confirm that in our own family there is a traitor.  “I think you need to leave now and fly to your uncle. He is the only one that we will be able to trust.” she says.  “I cannot leave all of you mother!” I say shocked.   “You might be our only hope, your uncle and his sons could possibly save the day.” she whispers, as we hear heavy footfalls in the corridor.   "You will have to hide while I am gone, go into the secret chamber and let the girls drink the draught. I will run to the kitchen to pack a satchel of food and fly as soon as I am done.” I say to my mother.  “Be safe, my child and fly swiftly. Run beyond the fight before you change, so that they do not see you and stay low.” she says hugging me tightly. “If something happens to us, you need to hide your dragon fire and get to your uncle on foot.”  “I will be back before dawn with uncle and the cousins. I will move into the clouds once I am away, it will be faster that way and less tiring if I ride those air currents.” I reassure her.  As I walk from the room I hear my mother whisper, “Stay safe, my Evelyn.”   Wiping a tear from my cheek, I resolve that I must stay strong and make sure that I get the help that we need.   Swiftly as I can, I move down towards the kitchen. Listening carefully so that I do not run into someone as I will not know whether they are palace guard or attacker. None of the palace guards would have had time to dress in their uniforms, besides those who were on guard duty, and they were surely already dead. As they stood at the gate of the castle. A great sadness overcame me as I thought of those lives already lost in this battle. People who had died to try and protect my family.   Soldiers who had families and loved ones of their own. Was it really fair for them to lay down their lives when we had dragon fire? Although this had never happened before, if dragons had a quarrel, we kept the humans out of it. We would go to broken lands and fight on deserted earth, so that no one else would suffer for our quarrel. We firmly believed that we were put here to better the earth and fighting amongst humans or dragging them into our fights only depleted the human race and their resources.  I got to the door of the kitchen and heard a high-pitched scream from upstairs. That scream could only belong to my youngest sister, she was known for that scream. For when my brothers teased her, she let herself be heard so that our parents would know she had been wronged. I couldn’t leave them, surely she was screaming because they had been found. I would risk them all being murdered if I left them now.     Knowing that going for reinforcements were more important than going back and getting caught, I pushed open the door of the kitchen, checking to see whether it was clear or not and saw nothing. Walking into the kitchen slowly, I looked all around trying to see whether the attackers had been in here to look for food or not.  Seeing that everything looked to be in place, I went about looking for food that I could take with me and eat on the way. I would need a lot of strength to travel to my uncle and back before dawn, because I would not wait at my uncle's home for them to come back.  Hearing heavy footsteps, I moved to the pantry so that I could hide, in case it was someone I didn't know. Not having seen any of my other brothers, I didn’t know what was going on or where they were, or even whether they were alive. Listening intently to hear if my mother had sent one of them down to help me, I leaned forward an inch to see around the pantry door. Just before I stuck my head out, I heard a rough male voice.  “Not here. Wonder where the other girl would go. They have no help here, he assured us of that, and the poison laced arrows has downed the men. We have all of them, except for the oldest girl.” he said.  “I really don’t care. What can one girl do? She won’t make it on her own, she will probably die of hunger or get eaten by a wild cat. None of those girls that we have are above the age of five, she can’t be much older than that.” a gruff voice said.  “Not the point, being paid to kill them all. Look for her!” the male with the rough voice thundered.   Not that anyone would think to come to my aid, if they really had my parents and all my siblings, everyone else was fighting. No-one would know to see whether I am still alive. If my family is killed, then they would probably think that everyone is dead. They would only believe me if I showed them my dragon fire and then I could be putting myself in danger by revealing it.  “... gonna kill them all anyway.” gruff voice said.   Oh no, I had to hurry. Before they could kill my family. I had to get to my uncle and make sure that they came to the rescue.  I heard them both walking away and sneaked a peak out of the pantry. Odd that they didn’t come into the pantry to look. These were clearly not raiders and as the male with the rough voice said, they are being paid to kill all of us. So, someone had sent them, pity that they didn’t say a name. Can’t say a name if you don’t know it, the head of the attack probably new all the details and didn’t need tell these ruffians what was what, if he were paying them enough.  I grabbed a bag hanging near the back of the pantry and stuffed some bread and cheese in it, along with some fruit. This would have to do; I don’t have any more time to waste. Need to get going to my uncles and I still must make it out of the castle and the grounds without being seen.  I look down at my coat and realize that it’s bright purple, it would be sure to give me away as a princess of the castle. I would need some other clothing it I wanted to make it out of here alive. Going to the nearest door to the pantry I open it gently and see that it is actually a closet, not just a broom cupboard as I had thought it was. Inside are tunics and coats with boots, all brown in color. I sigh in relief and grab things, pulling the tunic over and re-strapping my swords and sliding my dagger belt on, before putting on a brown coat. Pulling on the thick socks and boots, and slipping my second dagger inside, I pick up the sack with food and make my way to the back door.     If I am lucky enough to make it through this mess, maybe I will be privy to some more conversations. With enough information I will be able let my uncle know and he will be able to find out who the culprit is.  I open the back door gently and gasp. There are bodies lying everywhere, and not all of them are whole. I have never seen such a thing happen before, is this why father did not want us to take part in actual combat? What must you feel when cutting down another person, as though they are just a simple animal to eat. But this is barbaric, this is something that no one should be capable of.   I try my best to look away from the bodies strewn over the courtyard, so that I can see where I need to go and whether there is anyone still out here alive, not that I will be able to help them, what if they are the enemy.   Not that I would know what to do either, learning about how to stitch a wound or stitching a deer hunting wound, like I did for my brother, are totally different than this. This m******e cannot be fixed, cannot be stitched back together, I don’t think I would know where to begin, which part went where on which body? Feeling bile rise I decide to focus on where I need to go and avoiding everyone. Squinting my eyes and looking to the corners and trying to see whether anyone is moving, I stay to the shadows. Only focusing on where I am going enough to not step on anything that I wouldn’t want stuck on my boots. Of course, I also don’t want to slip, so being wary of where and how I move is necessary.  I doubt that they will leave the main gate unmanned by someone, so I will need to escape through the magic garden. It’s not really a magic garden, but us girls call it that when we play fairies and forests. It has a door that blends quite well into the wall, covered with some ivy and the door leading outside also blends, so that anyone outside the walls will not even know it is there.   Making my way towards this door, I hear a low rumble of voices up ahead. I duck down as low as I can in the shadow and stay still.   “Taking his time to get here.” a nasal male voice says.  “We had to do all the hard work; Cookie still needs to stitch my arm up. Every time I loosen the bandage it starts bleeding.” a thick voice joins in.  “Since he is the only one who knows how to kill them, we need him here to do it. He better hurry up; I want my payment and I wanna get out of here” nasal boy says.  “Shut it!” the thick voice says. “What if he hears you? He will have your head and then who gets your money?”  Slowly I hear their steps moving off, I turn my head ever so slightly and see whether they are all gone. Hoping no-one has stayed behind to keep an eye out for this guy.   Seeing no-one, I realize that I am going to have to be very careful at this side door. Someone might be standing sentry to take this person to my family once he gets here.  I needed to move faster, make sure that I got to my uncle before this person got here, If my uncle could get here before my family is killed, they might still be able to save them.  Standing up slowly, I move towards the door where nasal and thick voice were chatting. Having it in sight, I duck down to a crouch and move only a centimeter at a time, so that I can lay down and play dead, literally, if I hear a noise or see any movement from the doorway.  I keep listening for the rumble of boots from the doorway, moving forward, keeping a look out as to where I am stepping, though it seems as though they have cleared space by the door, for I can see that there is blood on the cobblestones, and it looks like the bodies were dragged by the smear effect I can see that it makes. Trying not to wonder what they have done with the bodies that used to take up that space, I keep going.   One pilar away from the doorway, I move to the side of it that is closer to the wall so that I can keep to the shadow of the castle against the wall when I go to the door. Carefully looking to the far side of the doorway, I inch forward. Looking past the doorway with careful flicks of my eyes to see whether I will be able to make a short sprint without tripping over anyone. One side of the passage into the doorway is clear for at least three meters, now I need to clear the rest.   Thinking that a snail probably moves faster than I currently am, I look further into the doorway. Seeing that the passage is clear, and no-one is standing at the end of the passage by the door to the hunting room, I make a quick, yet silent dash towards the other side of the open doorway.   Boorish men, haven’t they heard of closing a door after themselves?   Standing with my back against the wall once again, I look all over the courtyard and keep my ears trained for boots thudding on the stones. Darting looks to my left; this part of the courtyard seems to be relatively clear.   I move slowly towards the secret door of the magic garden once again, my back staying against the wall. I cannot risk turning my back on the open doorway that I just passed. I look up to the sky to see how much time has passed since I left the kitchen and see that far to the East the sky is purpling.   I cannot believe it is taking me so long to get to my uncle. I have not even left the grounds yet, and I still have far to fly. Will I be too late? Can I at least save some of my family? No, I need to stay positive and stay focused, I will not allow negative thoughts to take my mind captive.   Hearing boots from the open doorway again, I roll my eyes and do a swift turn to stop right behind a pilar.   “Wonder if they found her yet, that last one.” nasal says.  “We won’t know then, will we? Haven’t been down to the dungeons yet. Only know that there's one missing. Can’t be that difficult to find a sniveling little kid.” thick voice scoffs.  “Bunch of places for her to hide here. Should have brought the dogs with. Would have had her long time ago.” nasal snickers.   “Wonder if he will get here tonight or if we will wait till evening again?” thick voice wonders loudly.  “Doesn’t matter, gives more time to find the brat. He won’t be happy she isn’t found.” nasal sneers.  “Whatever you do, don’t mouth of to him about how late he is! Don’t need him dulling his blade on our necks before he goes to the royal family.” thick voice says loudly as they start walking away again.  I wipe the tear that runs down my cheek. I seriously need to hurry up. If only I had reached my uncle already. Thinking about what they had said, I am seriously glad that they had not brought their dogs with. I would have been caught for sure.   “uuuggghhh...” I hear from a pile not too far from me.   I look closely and I see that there is a guy under a few other that has a helmet on, he is reaching for me. Panicked, I run towards the door of the magic garden. As I reach the door, I feel a hand on my neck, pulling me back. Grabbing my hand and yanking it behind my back, I feel his hand cover my mouth. Though who I would have screamed for I have no idea. “Quiet!! I hate blubbering women!” the same rough voice from the kitchen says. “I’m going to take my hand away and you are going to tell me who you are? Do you understand me?” he said angrily.  Moving his hand away from my mouth he waits for me to talk. I can’t believe that I am this close to getting away and I get caught. My family needs me to get to my uncle. How could I let me family down like this, so close, so close...   I keep sobbing quietly and rough voice looks disgusted at my show of tears and sobbing. As though he doesn't know what to do with me and if that can buy me some time, wonderful. I keep sobbing, not loudly, because I don’t want him to put his hand back on my mouth, but pathetically.  “What do you have there?” nasal says.  “A girl.” rough voice says shortly. “She won’t stop blubbering.”  “Is it the missing one?” nasal asks with excitement.  “Doubt it, looks too old, probably some Nancy from the kitchen that was too scared to join the fight and is now trying to make a run for it.” rough voice says.   “Bring her, might be someone who knows where the brat would hide. We could torture her for information if she doesn’t give it willingly.” nasal says.  They think that I am someone else. I might still have a chance to get away from them if I outsmart them. Rough took my elbow and forced me to walk towards the doorway that I had just recently run past. Why wasn’t I faster, I should have run all the way.   No sense to keep looking back all the time, I need to work on a plan to leave as soon as possible. I need to get out of here before that guy gets here.  As they push me down the passage, I try to be as relaxed as possible, although I do not stop crying softly.  I need to think of a way to get them to talk amongst themselves, and almost forget about me, but I don’t want to talk too much about anything. Keeping my head down so that I do not need to look at them. Suddenly going down a step I looked around and the realization hit me like boulder. Hoping that my mother would not give away that I am who I am, I kept walking with my head down again. Thinking that if I could hide my features from my mother, we might be saved. We got to the bottom of the steps and before I could keep my balance, rough voice shoved me to the floor and my face turned towards my family.  “Evelyn!” my mother said with shock lacing her voice.  I let my head fall to the floor and knew all was lost. If only my mother had not said my name, had pretended not to recognize me. They picked me up of the floor and shoved me into the cell with my family, locking the door behind me.   “What happened?” my mother whispered.   “I almost made it mother, almost. I was trying to find a way to escape these men, if only you had not said my name.” I reply.  “I’m sorry. I was so shocked that your name left my lips before I could think. I thought you were already dead.” she sobbed.  “You all will be dead soon enough.” nasal said gleefully leaving us in the locked cell.  “Why has no-one burned through the bars and freed everyone.” I ask my mother.  “They have Lilly.” she says simply, pointing to the other side of the room.  Looking the way she pointed, I say my littlest sister bound and crying with a burly man sitting next to her. His sharp knife was poised, ready to cut, but not by her neck.  “I don’t understand.” I say to my mother, will he kill her if we try to free ourselves.  “No, but he will cut off her fingers.” she sobs quietly.   Gasping, I turn my head back to little Lilly and see that her hands are bound on a piece of wood, her fingers all splayed out so that he would not have to fight her to cut them off. He gave me a toothy grin in which I could see that he had more teeth missing than in his mouth and those that were left, were black and broken. His beard was also filthy, filled with little bits of something, I would rather not know what. His hair looked to be so greasy, he probably hasn't washed it in a couple of months.  I could hear boots thunking down the steps towards the dungeon where we waited to see what would happen. I had not even had a chance to see what had happened to the rest of the family, they were all so quiet. It was dark in the dungeon so I couldn't see at a glance how they were.   “Why is everyone else so quiet?” I ask my mother.  “They are drugged with a blue poison. I don’t know what it is, but they have not woken up since they were thrown in here. I presume that they didn't drug me so that I would recognize you.” she said.  As the sound of the boots came closer, my mother put her arm around me.  “Drug them.” a gruff voice said.  “Reginald?” my mother whispered.  And I heard air moving through a pipe. They wanted to dart us, so that we wouldn’t be able to put up a fight for the next part in their plan. I never felt anything pierce my skin and looked down to see two darts in my mother. She had taken the dart meant for me. She was trying to save me.   I looked to my mother who started to sway and slumped over at the same time as she did, so that they would think that I was poisoned. Taking the extra dart from her I hid it in the folds of my cloak, maybe I would be able to stick it in one of the guys and get away.  The door opened and I kept my eyes closed.  “This is the fun part.” the same voice said, that told the man to dart us. “Slitting their throats to let their dragon fire free. Then we burn them, and they will be dead, leaving me to take over the land. Get it done.”  I could hear him leaving and a squeal as they slit Lilly's throat, they had not even drugged her. Throwing her on top of me, I could hear her fight to breath and stuck my dart into her shoulder so that the drug would take her pain. I let her blood flow onto my neck, maybe I could get away if they thought that they had already done mine.   They roughly shoved me to one side, rolling me over to half lay on my side, I moved my hand so that it covered my neck. I could hear them slitting throats and moving bodies, I had more than one of my siblings resting over me, suddenly I heard them talking.  “Did we get all of them?” nasal asked.  “I'm sure that we did. How many did you do?” rough wondered.  “We must have got them all, I'm not digging through this pile to make sure. This is disgusting.” nasal says with finality.  “Right, light the fire so we can leave. We don’t need to stick around for the grand finale.” rough chuckles at his sick joke.  Bright orange lights up my eyelids and keeps burning. Thankful that my family is spared from feeling this burning I lie still, waiting as the flames come closer. Trying not to cough as the smoke reaches me, slowly burning.