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Prisoner of the Stone is a working title for an on-going story, rough draft, that I am posting on my blog. About once a week, maybe more if I am inspired, I will post new chapters.
Chapter Six
“Are
you quite sure there are no other dragons?” Aron asked idly as the
two relaxed in a field that lowers into a swampy bog. The human had
eaten enough mutton, the dragon had brought it back from his regular
feedings, to keep him full all day.
The
dragon flicked its tail, banging it into the ground once which felt
to the human as if a tremor from the depths of the earth had become
angry, “I told you that I do believe I am all that is left of my
kind on this planet.”
“I
can understand your feelings about people, although I do not agree
with them. What I don't understand is why you eat humans?” Brother
Aron asked the annoyed dragon.
The
dragon sighed, “The real reason?”
“Yes,
of course.”
“Okay
then,” The dragon said, laying his head down facing the human,
“Humans are an excellent source of protein. Animals are spread out
and flee at the first sign of trouble, but conveniently, humans are
all gathered together in clutches. The fat layer is also good for my
brain, although regretfully, most of the time there are precious few
fat humans. Even then, they are usually the important people in a
society, your kings and princes, monks and priests and not easily
encountered. By the way, you should finish that mutton before we
leave.”
Aron
didn't feel like finishing this conversation, “I'm going to relieve
myself by that tree.”
The
dragon made some disturbing giggling sounds.
They
had traveled “too far” into the future. The dragon that lied
about its name being Grotiss seemed to have been quite spooked by
something. It had immediately turned on its invisibility and headed
for a nearby unoccupied island.
“Why
are we coming here?” Aron had asked. He was curious to see this
world of the distant future.
“There
are far too many humans, I can smell them,” The dragon had
grumbled, then he projected into the humans mind, 'We will rest here
before we go back.'
“We
stink, then?”
“You
wouldn't believe it if I could explain in words,” The dragon said
before shaking its head enough to make the human hide behind a fallen
log, 'They must be spreading like disease, like a plague.'
Brother
Aron laughed, “That does sound improbable. It suggests that
humankind has finally found new and more effective ways to grow food,
for one thing.”
“Maybe,”
The dragon said, “But something tells me to get out of here as soon
as I am able. There is a sulphuric smell in the air, it permeates.
There may be a high volume of volcanic activity on Earth in this time
period. The air might be turning poisonous.”
Then
they rested. The dragon seemed uneasy the whole time, at one point
the dragon poked its head up above the trees on the island and looked
around. Brother Aron was confused because the dragon was looking up,
but he admitted to himself that he did not understand how dragons
smell.
It
was cold but the dragon warmed up the rocks instead of allowing the
human to build a fire, as if it was afraid of being discovered.
“You
are a dragon, surely there is nothing here that should frighten you,”
Brother Aron said, “It's definitely not another dragon?”
The
dragon looked at him sharply, 'Stop asking that, I have already
answered.'
While
exploring the wooded area nearby Brother Aron made a discovery of an
old campsite. Rocks in a circle, gray ashes inside, logs on either
side for sitting. There had been people on this island within the
past few months. The most curious thing was that he found a
cylindrical metal tin, he'd seen nothing like it before.
There
was some sort of writing on it, letters that seemed familiar but also
not familiar. He had no ideas what the text was, there was only
legible spot near what looked like an illustration of an animal. The
animal looked a lot like a hound but different from any he had ever
seen. Could hound meat be preserved inside of a metal tin, he
wondered? If food, not just dry grain, could be preserved for long
terms then it would make sense that the population could swell.
Before
he could climb on the dragons back a sudden storm hit the island. The
rain did not touch the dragon, his magic forced it to go around.
Brother Aron sat on the ground next to the dragon and leaned on its
foreleg.
“Are
we staying?” Aron asked.
“Too
much electricity in the sky, it might have an adverse effect on my
transversion,” The dragon told him. Aron didn't know the word but
he assumed it meant the time traveling.
'Stay
near me and you'll remain dry. I'm going to take a nap.'
The
dragon only slept for short periods every two or three days, even
with all of the activity, hunting and time traveling that it was
conducting. It was amazingly little rest for such an enormous
creature.
Aron
laid down and used a dragon paw as a headrest. Part of him wondered
if that was wise, being in close proximity to sheathed foot-long
claws, but he was asleep before finishing the thought.
He
dreamed of giant cities with buildings that reached into the sky, of
machines that moved themselves, of great ships bigger than the island
he was on. Aron did not understand the things he was seeing and when
he began seeing large silver flying machines crossing oceans, he knew
it was some kind of nightmare that the dragon was having. It was
somehow being shared with him.
Then
he saw a city reduced to rubble in a flash and woke up.
Brother
Aron rubbed his face, it was sweat. The rain had not penetrated the
magic of the dragon, but the dragon was grumbling and moaning in its
sleep.
“It's
not real!” Brother Aron said loudly, “It is just a nightmare!”
Brother
Aron felt he could understand why the dragon would have such
nightmares. The dragon had seen a time when his people and humans had
been friends, then they had become enemies and the more numerous
humans had hunted them to extinction. At least in this realm.
Of
course there would hate and, in some ways, fear of humans. Those
memories and feelings would form a furious storm inside of the
dragons mind. It made some sense, as a theory. Brother Aron sat and
waited for the dragon to wake up.
The
dragon woke up in an hour.
“You
were having a nightmare,” Aron told him, “What was it?”
The
dragon shook his head, 'A dream of you eating me. Climb on.'
Aron
briefly laughed. “I don't think I would ever eat you.”
The
dragon growled, 'I'm sure you have my best interests at heart.
Brother Aron.'
Aron
was aboard and the dragon took to flight. Of course, Aron understood,
I should not delude myself into thinking we might become friends.
This dragon must be banished to its own realm or killed for the good
of the human race it wants to extinguish.
Dragons
live outside of time. Their path may weave through time and realms
but their life itself, while long, was linear. Aron did not
understand it, the dragon had said as much but would never answer any
questions on the subject. A dragon could not go back in time a
thousand years and be with its friends again. Those friends were
dead, and their presence in those times disappeared as if they never
existed.
No
wonder the dragon was so angry.
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