Dragon Lords and Future Perils

A word from the author:

I am going to post the short story in its entirety here... however, i have in fact set up a blog working space for this short story. If you wish to view the short story in the blog working space then you are more than welcome to.
The Link is: http://dragonlordsandfutureperils.blogspot.com/

Here is the short story:

Dragon Lords and Future Perils

Prologue: The Format of This Account

This is an account of the efforts by two people to help future generations save the world from a ghastly death. I am referring to Alia Martison and Leila Ameise. They both grew up close and lived ordinary lives until they were in their mid-twenties, and I begin this account around the time of their descend into their late 20s. I am writing this from referencing historical documents as well as Alia’s journal entries.

I hear the legends every day about this valiant effort to help the future generations and both of them are spoken very highly of throughout the Lands. I shall now begin my telling of this account by describing the first vision Alia Martison experienced and I shall continue the story from there onwards.

Chapter 1: Alia's First Vision

“Earth no longer had water; it no longer had humans, animals or birds. All that existed and all that was to exist was FIRE! The fire of an ancient race of Dragon Lords was to swallow the earth and spit it out a raging ball of flame and torture. There was no peace or kindness just death and hatred.

On a hill that was no longer green, but dry and burning, there stood a figure, a figure in a long dark cloak. He had a face of pure contained flame and a body of insane rampaging embers. This was the being that was to destroy all that each one of us held dear. His name was Sovious and he was not to be reckoned with. He had no mercy, no care, no sympathy, only pure power and complete malice for all creatures that had the tiniest bit of happiness in their lives. Sovious was to become the undoing of God and he was to become the death of all human life.”

* * * *

Alia snapped out of her vision and burst into tears of horrifying fear and despair. Leila ran to her, “Are you okay?” she asked with a heavy tone of concern in her voice. “It was horrible!” Alia screamed in a hysterical voice, collapsing onto her. Leila caught her and held her close, “Calm down” Leila begged, struggling to keep the tears from slipping out of her own eyes, “Tell me what’s wrong”. Alia looked at her straight and said “We are going to DIE!”

Leila was shocked, “What do you mean? What’s happened?”
“I saw everything in my head! It was a vision! A vision of what the Earth is going to turn into! It will be fire! Nothing but fire and death and pain! All will be dead! Everything! Dead!” Alia then sobbed uncontrollably into Leila’s arms. Leila hugged her tightly and, after a while, Alia stopped crying as heavily and relaxed to a gentle sob. Leila motioned her to sit on a chair.

Alia reluctantly sat down and Leila sat beside her on the arm rest, gently rubbing her shoulder to comfort her. Alia looked around and saw she was in her house, she realised that during her vision she had forgotten where she was and had felt very dizzy and disorientated. Calm down Alia, she said to herself, rubbing her face. But when she closed her eyes, the image of the fiery being named Sovious came into her head and she panicked.

Alia jumped straight out of the chair yelling “Where’s Amy? I have to find Amy! Where is she? I have to protect her!” Leila walked towards her saying “Calm down. I put her to bed earlier.” “Why?” Alia screamed, “Amy! Come Down!” By now tears were streaming down her face. “She can’t come down,” Leila said calmly “She’s three days old”.
“But... But...” Alia kept beginning her sentence, “Its getting dark” she said before hurtling towards the ground.

After the vision and its aftermath Leila convinced Alia to keep a journal in which she would write down a log of every detail in her vision and of future visions, if they were to ever occur again. Alia thought that the vision might have been some strange side effect due to the slightly early birth of her child, Amy. However, one month later Alia was to have another vision just as frightening than the last.

Chapter 2: Alia's Second Vision

This is another direct quote from Alia’s journal detailing the exact events she foresaw in her second vision:

“Earth was on its last legs. The human race was to make one last desperate stab at survival. All races of humanity and other aligned species were to join together against their common foe in one last valiant effort for peace against a vast army of the dead summoned to life as demons.

But it was doomed!

During this great war two individuals were to face off in the most legendary battle for hundreds of years to come. One was James Wright. He was a human who was of great potential magical power, he was said to be “destined” to defeat the Dragon Lord against whom he was fighting. But he hadn’t been trained. He had no idea how to focus his magic and nobody else on that battlefield had any notion of the vast power that lay within him.

Except for one... The figure I saw in my first vision. Sovious! Except in this vision he wore a metal mask of some description. The eyes were carved at slight angles and he had metal horns which curved around the outside of his face. And the horrific empty space for a mouth which only made him more terrifying by the contained embers that dwelled beneath.

Sovious was standing above his army of tortured souls wielding a sword of flame. It flared an unholy hatred in the hearts of all who laid eyes on its burning destruction as if it evoked all that every human feared and hated. This was the weapon with which Sovious was to bring the world to its knees.

He knew of the boy’s powers. As soon as the two armies met, one of demons and one of humans, he searched for the boy; killing all in his way. He found the boy fighting off three demons in a desperate struggle for survival. Sovious snuffed out the lives of the demons with his sword and slashed at James, incinerating him into ashes.

This was the end of the battle. James’ death showed Sovious and the rest of the world that he could not be defeated. Sovious summoned all the power of fire he felt within him and unleashed a catastrophic explosion of fire. This killed all on the battlefield, including the tortured souls who had risen from the dead. He leeched all power from the Earth at his own will. He would continue doing so until the Earth ran dry. Sovious would be free to move to a different planet, perhaps in a different universe.”

* * * *

Alia screamed like she never had before. She dropped the groceries she was holding and looked around at the many staring and confused faces of the Stanton population. She was in the middle of Stanton Market Street, the horse-driven carts on the road stopped in the middle of the street and the horses were made uneasy by the scream. Alia burst into tears and ran off.

She ran as fast as she could to her home. She reached her house on the outskirts of Stanton and burst through the door. “Leila!” she yelled, collapsing onto the ground. She curled up into a tight ball with her back resting on the front door. Leila thumped down the stairs and came straight to Alia’s side. “What happened?” she asked, her voice seeming almost a whisper. “It was another vision!” Alia cried out, she got up and walked towards a desk which held her journal.

“I’ve tried to interpret the last vision in every possible way!” Alia said, faintly looking at the several scrawls of possible theories the desk was laden with. “The only theory that makes any sense is that it’s a premonition." Alia said, "But if it’s a premonition, it can be changed! Cant it?!”
“I think so” Leila said in order to try and calm her down.
“We must do this Leila because if what I see comes true then we will all be dead! Not just us but the whole of humanity and all the creatures that roam the Earth”.

“What was your vision exactly?” Leila asked, immediately regretting it as she realised Alia was only beginning to calm down. “It was horrible!” she screamed. “Sovious had raised an army! He was killing everything! The dead were alive! The alive were dead! An explosion of fire! DEATH!” Alia wobbled and keeled over and didn’t move until several hours later.

Chapter 3: Alia's Third Vision

Alia had been tossing and turning all night long. She woke up to find Leila sitting at her side, holding Alia’s hand and tugging on her own light brown hair out of worry. “Are you okay?” Leila asked through slight tears. “I’m fine,” Alia said “just a really weird dream.”
“What was it?”
“It was about Sovious and the other Dragon Lords… amongst other things”
“Yea,” Leila calmed herself, “Like what?”
“Well… the human army in my second vision, it was actually the League of Assora.”
“What’s that?” Leila asked very confused, but relieved that Alia was not in a panic.
“It is a league of humans and other beings that held magic powers.”

Leila and Alia sat for a long time, discussing what had been seen in the visions. Every now and again Leila would tend to Amy’s disturbed noises but eventually Alia insisted on tending to her child herself. They sat together for hours and eventually they came to the conclusion that something must be done.

“I believe that we need to write this down,” Alia said whilst gently rocking Amy in her arms “We need to make sure that James Wright and the League of Assora receive this information in the future.”
“Yes, we do” Leila said, “But in the morning. For now get some sleep.”
Alia pouted.
“Nope.” Leila said, “I may not be your mother but I know when you need sleep. Judging by the black under your eyes, I’d say you need it more than most.”

* * * *

After Leila had gone to bed that night, Alia stayed up and wrote in her journal about her dream. This is the journal entry she wrote that night:

“It was all a blur. There were humans, dragons, dragon lords, Draster, Sovious, James Wright, Kyra Kent, Saul Martison and The League of Assora as well as so many other species and people. It will take me months to write the information down. I believe I have to. If I want to stop what occurred in my other visions I must. In order to save all I hold dear and to save all that existed and all that will exist I must.

I shall hide the source of knowledge I intend to create somewhere James Wright can find it. He will need it in order to survive against Sovious. And he shall! Otherwise what happened in my other visions will come true. I should also give him protection, perhaps a sword and some sort of armour.

I will leave it in the cave me and Leila found when we were teens and hide it in the library. That would be a good place to keep it from Sovious. I will contact A.W. about that matter; she may be able to help. A.W. is a woman with many strange quirks. However she seems to know charms and such. I will need her in order to lure James to the book. This will be my last journal entry. From now on I shall write all I find in the book that will hopefully save us all from a grim and destructive death.”

Chapter 4: Alia's Book

Over the next couple of months, Alia and Leila worked together in compiling all the information from Alia’s dreams and visions into a book. Every now and again Alia and Leila would fall out from irritation or annoyance. But they would always make up and work further into the night. And finally after around two months of writing and very little sleep, they had finished the future textbook on the visions of Alia. Alia proudly looked at the thick book which lay on her desk. Leila stood beside her.

“What should we call it?” Alia asked.
“I know!” Leila proclaimed, leaning towards the book with a feather pen. She wrote on the front cover, the title:
“Dragon Lords and Future Perils”.
“Not a bad name,” Alia complimented her, giving her a cheeky nudge, “But I want to make one more addition.” Alia then took the feather pen and began to draw a symbol on the book. When the symbol was completed, it looked roughly like this:

(Picture of the Dragon Lord symbol which i am unable to insert here, sorry)

“What is that?” Leila asked.
“That is my symbol for the Dragon Lords. The reasons why are contained in the book.” Alia responded.
“Well?” Leila asked, giving Alia a grin.
“We did it! We finished the book” Alia said giving Leila a long hug, “thanks for your help.”
“No problem.”

They walked just onto the outskirts of Stanton and just before they entered the Tomeron Forest, they turned left and there they saw the cave. They walked into the cave and it was pitch black. Fortunately they had brought a wooden torch and a box of matches along just in case. Alia quickly lit the torch and the cave entrance soon brightened up.

The flood of memories came back to Alia and Leila as they walked through the cave together. They remembered many years of running inside the cave and having fun playing hide and seek. It was very dark so the seeker usually lost. Even as teenagers, they remembered visiting this cave to get away from the stress of their homes and their families. But as time went on they stopped coming here, they never quite knew why.

They saw the entrance to their favourite part. It was a big golden door; they never knew how it got there. They walked towards the door and pushed on it. The door resisted but after a bit more of a push it gave way. They entered a huge hall which they believed to be a very ancient collection of books, scrolls and other manuscripts written hundreds and maybe even thousands of years ago.
“So where do you want to hide it?” Leila asked.
“I want to hide it in a library reference,” Alia said.
“Which one?”
“AL-2625. Alia, Leila – 26, 25. Our names and our ages.”
“Okay, now we have to find that somehow.”

They spent several hours searching through the books. After a long time they discovered the section named AL. Then they both searched the whole section for the number 2625 and after even more hours passed by, they finally found it. They looked at the cover of the book in its place and it read:
“The Dismal Destiny of the Babbling Baker”.
They both giggled at the strangeness of the title and replaced the book with their own and set a sword and body armour underneath that particular bookshelf.

Satisfied by their efforts to hide the book they began the journey out of the cave. Upon exiting the library they closed the golden door and before leaving the cave Alia turned back. “I need to carve something on the wall opposite the entrance,” she said, “Wait here a minute.” Alia then rushed to the wall opposite the entrance and carved the symbol of the Dragon Lords and then carved the library reference of AL-2625.

They both left the cave, with arms interlocked, in a steady walk. But they were never to know the horror that lay outside the cave.

Chapter 5: Alia's Goodbye

They left the cave and were about to begin their journey home but they saw a sight more horrific than death itself. Sovious appeared outside in a swirl of flame and fire. He was wearing his metal war mask. Alia and Leila screamed when they lay eyes on him.
“You cower in fear of me? How very pathetic for those trying to stop me! I expected more.”
Alia stood back and took out her hidden sword and charged forward to strike Sovious. He just put out one fiery hand and the blade burst into flame.
“You thought that little toothpick could harm me?” He laughed.

“Now, tell me where you hid the book!” Sovious hissed through the crackling embers of his mouth. “Never!” Alia said with determination, “I have seen the future and it no longer reeks of fire”. “Very well” Sovious said raising his sword, bringing it down on Alia. “NO!” Leila screamed, putting her hands up from behind Alia. The sword impacted with a strange shield of some sort. Sovious stood seeming taken back by the sudden stop of his slash. “New trickery” he said, “I’ll show you not to trick with me!” His sword burst into flames and he pushed his sword down at Alia and Leila several times again and the final time he continued with the strike, pushing down on the strange shield with all his might.

“Leila, is that you?” Alia yelled past the sound of fire scraping against the shield. “Yes I don’t know how!” Leila screamed under the struggle to keep the shield up. “Run!” Leila screamed.
“Never!” yelled Alia.
“You always were stubborn.” Leila said giving Alia a smile and then she looked down.
“No! Don’t you dare! DON’T!” Leila then put her hands down and Sovious raised the sword again and slashed down at them. Leila dived towards Alia and pushed her out of the way.

Alia fell to the floor, looked up and immediately searched for Leila. She saw her, severed through the middle. Alia crawled to her body, she was still alive. “Hi,” Leila said with a slight laugh and then a groan of pain. Sovious blew fire at them. Alia fell to the ground, protecting Leila. “You idiot!” Alia screamed after the flames cleared. She picked up Leila’s remains and sprinted into the Tomeron forest. She could hear Sovious behind her, growling in anger:
“I will kill you Alia!”

After a long time of running, jumping, swinging and sliding through the forest Alia came to a stop. She set Leila’s remains onto the ground and looked at her, letting the tears swelling her eyes run free. “You idiot!” Alia yelled, “Why did you do that?”
“It was the only way” Leila said. “This world needs you more than me.” She gave Alia a smile. Before saying, “You will save this world, I know it. I have played my part and now it is my time to die.”
“No!” Alia blubbered, “I can’t live without you.”
“Yes you can,” Leila whispered, “Goodbye… my darling”
“Goodbye Leila” Alia whispered through floods of tears, before leaning down and kissing her on the cheek.
Leila took one final breath and whispered, “Lo….”, but she spluttered and fell still.

Chapter 6: Leila's Funeral

That day just before sunset Alia stood on a hill just beside the sea, holding Amy in her arms, looking down at where she had buried Leila’s body. She ached as she remembered the horror of it all. The sounds of the fire crashing against the shield and the scream as Leila pushed her to the floor. Her heart ached because she wasn’t able to hear Leila’s last words. She remembered her face though. Leila’s last smile… That is one image nothing and nobody could take away from her. She would always remember that!

She looked out to the sea and she couldn’t stand the thought of living without her. Amy babbled in her arms and Alia looked at her. Amy had a smile almost identical to Leila’s. Whether this was true or if she was just seeing things we’ll never know but nevertheless from then on Alia called her baby Leila in honour of the woman she knew and the woman who died for her.

Alia kneeled down to Leila’s grave and pushed a small necklace, glowing with a blue pendant attached to it into the soil that was covering the body. “This will protect you.” She said wiping away her tears. She sniffed and looked out at the sunset once more, feeling saddened by her loss. Then she looked to the grave and said in a determined voice, “One day I will have my revenge!”

Another word from the author:

Well, that is the end of my short story. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave comments or a review if you like. Any form of feedback would be very much appreciated.