The Dragon Fields

I remember the day I escaped for the dragon fields of Zamunda, the place of my birth and home of my family.

I looked around with heavy eyelids, yawning and bored out of my mind. My cavernous room was comfortable enough. The walls were inlaid with gold and speckled with jewels. The ceiling had an oculus to let the light in, and the mirrors posted here and there on the walls allowed me to see myself, preen myself, and admire my shiny scales and jewelry. The sun was warm, the walls sparkled, and I looked marvelous with my platinum gorget and diamond-studded claw sheaths. Same shit. Different day.

Never let anyone tell you that all a dragon needs is a warm, shiny room filled with treasure. Not this dragon, at least.

A bristle broom scratched at the floor in one corner where a stooped, rail-thin man dressed in rich livery shoved refuse toward a hatch.

"Karvos, tell me it isn't the princess's birthday," I told the man. Karvos shrugged and continued sweeping.

"What good would it do you?" he asked. "I could tell you, but how am I gonna explain what happens later? You know today is that bitch's birthday," he grumbled. "And you know what kinda shit you're gonna do tonight for her and her friends." The sweeping turned violent as he pounded the broom onto the floor. "Hell, I know how the next week is gonna be afterwards, too." His eyes went to mine as he continued his cleanup. "You're gonna be the whiniest pet dragon on this whole damned planet."

I laid my head to the floor resting my chin on a gold fibered ottoman and huffed, the sound escaping as a hiss. "Karvos, are all the dragons pets?"

As always, he ignored my question, just shook his head in an indefinite gesture of speechlessness. "Come on now, Faust." He wouldn't tell me everything, but he was like a father to me.

I looked out through the oculus for perhaps the thousandth time, seeing the freedom outside, the birds flying by, and the playground of clouds. The memories of that playground brought pain and joy. My brother and I used to chase each other. We’d zip through the air, around and through the clouds, and sometimes through lightning-filled storms. Our mother would bitch at us, like that time we both plowed full on into Elder Fentosphyr and nearly knocked him out of the sky. I chuckled to myself despite the serious trouble we got into. Looking back now, that shit was funny. No wonder dad stayed quiet. He never could discipline us if deep down inside he thought it was just typical tomfoolery. Why is it always the trouble that ends up being the best memories, and the good times that become bland footnotes on our history?

"Faustiventil? How's my dragon today?" a voice sang, if singing involved whining.

I took my eyes over to where Princess Vana stood. "Delightful," I answered, giving her a toothy grin. "And how is my Princess today on the grandest day of the year, my Princess's birthday?"

"Oh, Fausty, you're so sweet! I have a grand feast coming for you later - it's a surprise!" she sang out again, her nasal annunciation shooting down my spine and kicking me in the gut.

"Princess Vana, you are too kind to me. I cannot wait to see what you have in store for me today."

"Now, Fausty, tonight is my party. You will wear the silver saddle and give my friends rides. But don't make them scarey this time," she sang out, her speech losing its sing-song quality. "They just want a nice view of the palace and gardens, and perhaps a little of the space port and their own palaces. You will not go too fast this time, either." Her tone had reached a lower deadpan now. "Poor Melindia had to go home right after her ride at the New Year celebration. I expect you shan't repeat that." Her chin had tilted downward, lowering her line of sight to peer from under stern, thin eyebrows. "Not if you expect any more to eat this month, Faustiventil."

Besides Karvos, Princess Vana is my family now: my spoiled rotten, vein, conceited, demanding, petty, petulant step-mother, you could say. I’ve been her pet now for ten years. I can remember the day I came to her. The mistiness caused by time and drugs cloud it, but I remember.

***

The huntercraft roamed the skies, sleek frames and stunted double wings jetting through the valleys. We wondered what the humans were doing, and figured that they were looking for more resources for their settlements. It seems that was their entire preoccupation since coming to our planet. Humans certainly use a lot of resources, but they paid in unimaginable treaures. The first thing they had done upon arriving was to contact us and begin teaching us their language. Oddly, they had very little interest in learning ours, but did send ten of their kind to learn. After they could communicate, it became clear what they wanted because it was the only discussions we had with them for a long time: the resources of the planet.

Their city was rising from nowhere fast, and we had heard from other lofts that there were other cities, as well. We liked the humans, and they found us to be so wonderous that they often paid to have us come visit them. Once we had learned their language, some dragons revelled in the attention, becoming performers or even live-in entertainment.

These humans in their huntercraft buzzed by the elders on their perches along the walls of the valley and hovered over a gathering of hatchlings before dragons took flight to their defense.

"This doesn't look right, Faustiventil," my brother whistled. "They're behaving different."

My brother and I went to check it out, figuring they came from the much larger ship that had landed in a furnace blast of planet-directed thrusters. Things went from odd to strange and dangerous very soon. We saw them chasing some of the younger dragons, and they fired nets. We were speechless.

"Vandilentus, let us see if they will discuss this," I whistled in reply as we soared through the air getting a higher perspective over the entire area. We found that they could hear our shouting, even over the throbbing and screaming of their engines, as long as we could get close enough. We approached the huntercraft at the front of their formation. It was smaller than either I or my brother. With us flanking it, we knew they would hear us.

"Humans, why for you take peace from us?" Vandilentus shouted, brows knitted in frustration of using the foreign language and its strange sounds. "Why for you eat our eggs?"

Despite the seriousness of the situation, I chuckled. Vandilentus was not as good at languages as some of us. I started on my side.

"Sirs, your actions are hostile. Which resources do you seek?"

The man inside glanced to either side of his ship through the angled cockpit canopy and made a shooing gesture with his hand as he smiled.

"Why is he smiling?" I piped to my brother.

"Maybe you're saying something funny," Vandilentus replied. "It sounded strange to me, too!"

From behind, we heard a blast. I turned and saw a large wad hurling through the air at Vandilentus, a puff of white smoke trailing the huntercraft that fired it. The wad exploded again in all directions, opening a large net that wrapped around my brother. It snagged his feet and forearms, and stopped his wings from making any but the smallest movements with his wings.

"No!" He was falling toward the valley below, and I raced after him, tearing at the netting.

"Get back, fool, before you tangle yourself, too!" He fought against the netting, but it seemed to be getting worse. The towering, sharp trees were growing at an alarming rate. "Go!" he shrieked, and kicked at me. "You're making it harder for me!"

I backstroked away, hoping upon the rivers and sky to see his escape. He fell into the trees, his heavy weight helping branches to pierce his wings and become tangled in the net. Trees crashed around him, and soon he hung suspended above the ground, a tangled, broken mess.

I flew toward the valley wall near our home, but they followed. They fired harpoons at me that sent me crashing to the ground and gagging from the heavy dose of drugs. I could feel my breath quickening and my muscles shaking. Then blackness surrounded me as I joined it.

Next thing I knew, I was being lowered into my current home, roofless at the time. The next day, I had recovered enough to look around the dwelling, and proceeded to wail and carry on for a good month afterwards. I never learned what happened to the others. Princess Vana nor her father answered those questions. Karvos didn't either, but Karvos was there in the beginning. He would bring me food daily and speak soft words about the weather and the new city. His particular take on the language had a lot of influence on me, though when I use his words, he gets onto me if he thinks about it.

***

The princess before me stood, shooting her gaze into me as though she were the larger one in the room. Her hands were on her hips, and she tapped her foot. The last time I saw this display and didn't take heed, she stopped feeding me and I didn't see her for three months. The king himself stopped by to look in on me and ordered that I be nursed back to health. He swore to her that if I died, she would not get another replacement. If it hadn't been for Karvos sneaking food to me before then, I very well could have died.

She relaxed then, and smiled her beautiful smile in an attempt to put me at ease again. "Oh, Fausty," she cooed. "We'll see you tonight, 'kay?"

"It is both my honor and my pleasure, my Princess," I answered, and bowed to her, cupping my wings around me and bringing my head down level with her so she could pet me if she so desired. My stomach ached at the thought of her touch, but I felt nothing. Next sound I heard was the door clicking shut, leaving me alone with Karvos and my thoughts.

"I can't take this bitch any longer," I stated after a five minute wait.

"Watch your language," Karvos scolded. "We don't need no Princess's Dragon talking like that."

"I just can't take her and her friends one more time. I'd rather be filleted than spend another evening shuttling their... shuttling them around," I corrected myself.

"She and her bitch friends can go find a damned fangfish-infested lake and jump in it," Karvos agreed. He had the silver saddle out and was polishing it to a high shine with a rhythmic swish swish swish. The polish stank of chemicals and filled the room. "What are you gonna do, play sick? She won't care. She'd ride you to the brink of death first."

"I don't know. But it ends today." I stalked around in a tight circle, flexing my wing and leg muscles.

Karvos stopped his polishing and directed his gaze to me, almost glaring. "What are you gonna do?" he asked again. "Don't get yourself killed. Not when you can live in this luxury the rest of the time she ain't here. Hell, most of the time it's just you and me, right Faust?" He smiled now, trying to cheer me up.

"I think you're gonna want to leave, Karvos."

"I got to finish this saddle, remember?" Karvos returned to his work. "This shit don't clean itself, you know."

Anger bubbled up within me. For ten years now, I realized again just how little privacy I was allowed. It was so obvious in the beginning, but somehow I had gotten used to it. Now, I didn't know which angered me more: the lack of privacy or my acceptance of it.

Rearing back onto my legs and spreading my wings, I let myself loose as I hardly ever did anymore. "Leave now!" I roared. Karvos' face drained of color and replaced it with naked fear. "Now!" I repeated, jumping toward him with my muzzle crackling with electric charges.

Sometimes I forgot how old Karvos was, but this time I was reminded. He looked frail and whithered as he shuffled toward the door.

Remembering that day, I had my fill of being caged up to be gawked at and pawed over by Princess Vana and her friends. I decided that day was going to be the first day of the rest of my life. My plan involved a certain coming of age I had within these last couple of months. All I had to do was bide my time. I watched out the oculus for the next several hours. Sure enough, my grand meal of an entire, live cow was being hovered overhead by a maintenance platform. The hover engines thrummed in a bass better felt in the soft tissue than heard in the ear.

A voice boomed into my cage, "Dragon! Step toward the wall. Your food will be lowered upon your compliance."

I disappeared from their view momentarily.

"Step toward the wall now and your food will be lowered. Please comply."

I stepped and leaned against the wall this time. Makes no difference, I'm pretty sure I know what I can do, and it has some range.

The platform workers started lowering my meal. I drew in a large breath and struck out, heaving air into my lungs. At the same time, I flexed the muscles in my throat and chest. I didn't understand the mechanisms that made it work, but I understood how to do it. In a flash, I was lashing the platform with the full power of my new lightning breath. The air sizzled and the smell of ozone filled the room. As the platform plummeted, the cow dropped through the oculus, and I was able to grab the cable and rip the platform down through the roof, smashing it through the oculus and leaving it a smoking heap on the floor. I looked up to see if it was enough. Blue skies at last!

I leapt from my confines, my wings feeling creaky and tired but soon knew what to do. The clouds loomed ever closer as I shoved air behind me, wings surging with new-found strength and freedom. The palace air guard followed but fell behind as the first one to approach got caught in my claws and flung back toward the rest, crashing in a delicious double explosion. If they had been willing to kill me, I would have been dead. Being the princess’s pet gives some protection.

From there, I followed my natural homing instincts back to the dragon fields, my home, Zamunda. I could see it clearly and recognized the mountains around me, the way the mists hung in certain valleys where we had always lived in the caves on the sides of the hills. I came down for a landing; an unexpected homecoming that I was sure would be filled with emotion, followed by good food and strong drink.

Now on the ground, I knew this was not my future. This wasn't even my past. The fields were leveled. Trees were uprooted and now gone. Large portions of the valley floor were covered in concrete domiciles and blacktop. The whole had been surrounded by fences that stood as tall as I did, twelve feet, and laced with razor wire. I was inside of that fence. Humans were racing toward me holding prods and harpoons. Air guard ships were hovering closer, their diamond shapes looking lethal as their weapons bristled at me. They had me flat footed.

"Attention, dragon. You are surrounded. You have no hope for escape. Your home has been destroyed and your only hope now rests with your owners." The voice echoed through my valley home, forcing me to flatten at the sheer immensity of its volume. The voice was very confident, like the ones that tell me where to stand in my cage, or the ones that tell me which way to move for the doctors' examinations, or even the one that tells me what saddle I will wear on a given evening.

Men's voices shouted. I heard snatches of their calls of, "bring the nets!" and "By the moons, look at the size of this one's claws!" I even heard at a lower level the voices cautioning about lightning.

It didn’t matter now. Oh, I could have used my lightning breath on them all, I imagine. Zamunda was gone. Replaced, it seems, by a military base. It was too much. I had to sit to take it in. My tail thumped on the ground as I slouched. The men screamed at me and the ships hovered closer. I gave them blank, unfocused stares. My brother did not come to me, or try to tackle me and pull my wings back like he used to. My parents did not swoop in to kiss me and bring me home. None of the elders held their places on the rocky outcroppings along the sides of the valley. Gone. It was all gone. They were all gone.

I sat mute as netting was cast over me. The men were silent after I flopped over onto the ground, curled up around the memories that made this place live again. A heard a pop and felt a sting. My eyes closed and my head buzzed until I knew myself no more.

Today, I look around my cavernous room with its gold and mirrors and shit. I'm back home in the only place I have left to call home. The voice was right - only my owner held any hope for me. Our world was gone to the men who came, and we were relegated to the position of pets and amusements. Princess Vana just left after commanding me to cheer up. She spent five minutes petting me and speaking low and soft to see if her Fausty might come around. When that didn't work, it was just another ultimatum. It seems I ‘m no fun at her parties anymore, and she felt this was unfair to her and her friends.