Prologue

I had only been born a few short years when I saw him. The legendary Red Dragon. He was the one who won us our freedom. I had never seen him before, but my old grandparents used to tell me the tales of the Red Dragon. They had fought alongside him in the final battle to defeat the evil witch. I used to listen in awe every time they told me the story. I never tired of hearing it.
I decided to go and visit my grandparents on that awful day it happened. If I could change one thing in my life it would be that I never went to visit my grandparents on that dreaded day. But it’s not as though anyone can interfere with time. Not even the wizards can. If they could I would make them bring them back.
I was walking down to my grandparent’s house. It was a long walk and I had not yet learnt to fly. My parents had been trying to teach me, but I could not grasp the art of it. I now live in fear that I may never be able to fly. I wish I could. On the way to my grandparent’s house I have to walk through a dark forest. I hate the forest. It is one of the only places left where evil creatures dwell from the time of the evil witch. Thankfully I had never come across any of these creatures, but my grandfather had met them on many occasions and my grandmother had killed any that dared stray from the forest. I admired their courage, I would never dare to approach one; but then again my grandparents had fought in many battles against the creatures when the evil witch was in power.
I approached the forest full of fear. More creatures had been emerging from the forest these past few months. I’m not sure why they have suddenly decided to emerge. I didn’t really care; all I wanted to do was to get through the forest unharmed. This is where I would have loved to have been able to fly. I could just flap my wings and soar over the forest without having to worry about the creatures that dwell within. I stopped at the tree line with a look of apprehension on my face. I couldn’t see anything beyond the next row of trees because it was too dark.
I stood there for ages, I didn’t realise how long I had been standing there. The sun was sinking low behind the forest by the time I realised I was still standing there. I was angry at myself. “A dragon should never be scared,” my old dad used to tell me. I took in a deep breath and walked into the forest. Light was fading fast and it was even more difficult to see where I was going because the forest is very dark anyway.
I travelled on for some time not knowing that I was drawing close to the end of the long road. I was too angry at myself to notice that I was being followed. It wasn’t until I reached the edge of the trees that I heard some movement behind me. I didn’t think nothing of it at first, just thought it was the leaves rustling in the slight breeze that had picked up when I had approached the edge of the forest. But then I heard a twig snap as though someone had stood on it by accident. At that moment I realised that it couldn’t have been the leaves rustling and that someone or something must be behind me. I turned and saw them. I wanted to physically throw up when I clapped eyes on them. I will never forget what they look like. They stared at me with menacing black, empty eyes. Their faces and bodies were covered by black scaly, rotting skin; which was peeling off in many places. They had some dark green cloth around most of their body. Only their arms, legs and faces weren’t covered by the dark green cloth. I thought they look weird as they only had two legs. I had only met another species with two legs before; and that was the wizards and their families. But then again I had only ever met one wizard; he was a friend of my parent’s; so I still wasn’t used to seeing two-legged creatures. There was about ten of them and more were joining the group.
The one nearest to me took a step forward and raised his arm as though he was about to strike me. He suddenly ran at me and the blow came down hard and fast hitting me just above my wing joint. I cried out in pain; I had never been in so much pain. I never had time to block or move out of the way of it. The others joined in and soon I was being beaten to the floor. I came back to my senses when my head was thrown into the floor. I tried to get up, but failed badly.
Then through a gap in the circle of creatures I saw a blaze of red appear above the hill I had recently climbed over to get out of the forest; before I realised that I was being followed by the creatures. The red something roared and excitement flooded through me. Dragons are the only things in the world that can roar and if it was red it could only mean one thing…
The Red Dragon!