The first thing she heard were the bells, then came the screams. Dala had been flying over the Bohar Plains when she spotted the massive dark clouds in the distance. She landed her golden dragon to one of the hills near a village. Those black clouds covered the blue sky and shrouded the land in a shadow. Then, the sky filled with fire raining from those dark clouds as a powerful roar filled the air. The dragons were a day’s travel away but that didn’t stop the massive amounts of destruction they caused. It spread over the Bohar plains like an endless infection. Then, the bells sounded and the screaming began. Charise, her golden dragon, tucked Dala under her fire-proof wings. The hill was taller than the village, giving the teenager a full view of the carnage. While Charise enjoyed a nice little fire shower, Dala watched the rest of the village panic, unable to do a thing. Balls of fire landed on their wooden roofs, rapidly spreading across the tiny town.
As the orange flames danced, mothers and fathers gathered up their children and bolted. One man caught on fire and there wasn’t nearly enough water to set him out. His screams were the loudest, and she could see how he tried to put the flames out, only to quickly succumb to the fire. She was far enough away that she couldn’t see the burned flesh nor smell it but she still grimaced at the sight. Something snapped and one of the burning houses fell to the ground. The fire travelled beyond the village and into the plains, creating a hellish firescape for the villagers on flat land. If she hadn’t been on a hill herself with an overprotective fire-proof dragon guarding her, she would have been in trouble as well. Eventually the fire rain stopped and the flames themselves died down, though they still remained in some parts. The village was nothing but a pile of blackened ash. After checking on Charise's health, who was perfectly fine, Dala hopped on the dragon’s back and flew down towards the village from her spot in the hill. The smell of burned flesh and wood hovered in the air. She quickly hopped off the dragon, landing on something slightly soft and crunchy. Looking down at her feet, she realized it was a corpse. Dala jumped off and knelt down next towards the person. Black mixed with tiny spots of red, where there used to be blood. The body was almost skeleton-like, only with a thin covering of brown and black flesh. The was missing as were the eyes, leaving darkened empty sockets. The hair was gone and so were the lips, revealing horrible yellow teeth. Anything that would show who this person once was had been burned away, leaving a vaguely human figure behind. The smell was horrible.
Moving onwards, and doing her best not to puke, she began searching the quiet village for signs of life, or anything to salvage. Charise stood by her side, carefully moving around the village and never entering pathways too small for her to fit into. The majority of the houses were burned down, leaving little to go through. Burnt corpses littered the remains and charcoal covered everything. Some of the fallen homes were still burning while the rest had lost their flames. Dala went through each remains, trying to find something worth keeping. She found a half melted kettle, a silver heart-shaped locket, and an old bucket. She moved towards the edge of the village and found another corpse next to a soggy lump of dirt. This corpse was a man, only half burnt and even had a few hairs left on his head. The large soggy lump of dirt next to him began to move. Dala jumped back and drew her sword, believing this thing to be some sort of monster.
Instead, a high pitched wail pierced the silent air and cast a look of confusion on the teenager’s face. Dala sheathed her sword and carefully drew closer to the lump, only to discover it was a baby. Quickly removing it from the dirt, she began cleaning the baby off and cleaning out any dirt it had in its mouth, in fear of it swallowing or choking on it. Once she cleaned off her hand, she had a better look at the scene. The man had used that old bucket she found earlier and used it on the baby, making it harder to burn. Then he covered the child with his own body, or so Dala guessed, since he was far enough from grass or the buildings to avoid a fiery death. If he hadn’t protected the child then it probably would have been burned as well.
“Charise!” Dala called out, “Looks like we’ve got a survivor.”
The golden dragon leaned its head on Dala’s shoulder, reminding her that they needed to move on before some other storm caught them up. Looking towards the rest of the village, the teenager realized there wasn’t anything else left to do. The rest of the villagers were dead and the only remainder was a little baby. Dala decided she would send the baby off to Madam Whoozy until she could get a better idea on where to put the kid. Holding onto the baby, she hopped onto the dragon’s back and flew towards Adeluna. After dropping the child off, she looked towards the locket, hoping to find some sort of clue. Luckily, there was a tiny poem quoting a dwarf poet and signed by the mother of whomever owned the locket in dwarvish language. Her best bet for finding the relative was heading towards Baltil, where many dwarfs lived. She mounted her dragon once more and set off to the city.
The mountain range stood tall and beautiful, making the rest of the land seem small in comparison. She landed at the entrance of the city, leaving Charise on the outside in case the dragon wouldn’t be allowed. The teenager pulled out the silver locket from her pocket and began making her way towards the local blacksmith of the city. Dala gazed up at the massive gears of Baltil’s entrance, wondering how old this massive city truly was. She passed several dwarfs who were gossiping about the massive amounts of refugees pouring into the city from other places in the mountains. They knew about the dragons but believed their magnificent walls were far too strong to be destroyed, even for the dragons. Even Dala had to admit the city seemed much safer than any other place she’d visited since the disasters started. Worry lingered in the back of the young girl’s mind, but she shoved it away and tried to focus on her mission. She entered one blacksmith shop and asked about the necklace, then was pointed to a jeweler since dwarf blacksmiths only bothered with weaponry or real metal workings. The jeweler’s shop had an old, slightly worn sign and seemed to be shoved in-between two other stores. She pushed the door open and the little bell went cling clang, making the girl flinch at the sound.
“I’ll be right there!” The jeweler called out.
Dala leaned against the counter and observed the surprisingly empty room. The walls were bare and every piece of furniture had been packed into crates. Confusion ran across Dala’s face as she began to wonder if the poor jewelry would be going out of business soon.
“Hello dearie!” A short dwarven woman with bright red hair called out, “What can I do for yeh?”
“Oh um, I wanted to see if you made this.” Dala asked, handing over the necklace, “Are you going out of business or something?”
“My shop may be small but that don’t mean I’m goin out of business! No dearie. It’s cause of them dragons. The rest of Baltil thinks those walls are gonna keep them out. But I know better. It’s only a matter of time before one of the other dragons pick a fight with Zao. Then we’ll all be screwed. I’m gettin out of town while the gettin’s good.” She explained, “Now lets take a looker at this pretty thing.”
The jeweler picked up the necklace and inspected it closely, peering at it like it was a little mystery. Then she opened the locket and found what she was looking for. With a satisfied smile, she handed it back over to Dala.
“Yep! That’s one of my own necklaces! It’s one of my first, before I really developed my style. The only question is, what are you doin with it? I know that necklace wasn’t made for you.” The jeweler gave the young girl an accusatory look.
“I found it while rummaging through the remains of a village. It burned down a few days ago, there weren’t any survivors.” Dala explained stiffly, “The most I can do is return it to the person’s relatives and be on my way.”
The jeweler’s face fell and was replaced by a slightly sad look. The teenager quickly realized that the jeweler knew whoever was related to the owner. “The girl who owned that necklace was named Lacey. Her ma lives at this address- hold on lemme write it down for you. Now go one and get that thing where it belongs. I’ve gotta clean up this shop.” Taking the directions and the necklace, Dala quickly left the shop and traveled towards the house. It took her only a few moments before she found the mother of Lacey. When she told her story, Lacey’s mother fell into a fit of tears and clutched to her old husband, who was weeping as well. Feeling even more comfortable, Dala handed the locket to them and tried to be on her way, but the weeping father kept asking her too many questions about the event. Trying to spare the more gory details and the part about her dragon, she told them everything she knew and saw. Soon the parents had enough of the story and sent Dala off.
“At least that’s over with.” She muttered to herself.
The feeling of an uneasy helplessness swept through her mind as she thought about the past couple of days. These dragons were too strong and too dangerous to directly stop and the damage they caused felt too massive for one teenager to solve. But whenever she thought of those people, those burned corpses, she felt a growing guilt for not doing anything else to save them. Plopping down on a barrel, she took the time to watch the street and people, trying to find anything to keep her mind off of that village. Suddenly, she realized that the ground felt a little odd. A little…shaky. For a moment Dala wondered if her emotions had caused her body to become shaky but when she looked towards other people, they had noticed it as well. The signs on shops fell off and a bucket of water near her had tipped over. Then, a massive roar filled her ears, louder than anything else she’d ever heard. Dala quickly hopped onto a crate and climbed her way up to the roof of a building for a better look. In the distance, she could see the shapes of two dragons. One was the bulky Zao while the other was the flying serpent, Etanu. They both had gotten past the walls and were fighting each other in the middle of the city. Screams filled the air and people began running. Bells rang and people shoved each other out of the way, all trying to reach the exits of the city.
“Oh shit.” Was all Dala could say.
