FicWad

As much as I would have liked to say otherwise, any memories I have from that morning are few, as I was too busy bawling my throat raw after being torn out of bed by my father before we rushed outside. What I would never forget though, was what I saw as we ran with a number of other villagers across the fields surrounding the village, towards the paths leading to the summer pastures further up in the mountains.

Too young to know the concept of a dragon, I was more facinated than afraid as my eyes were drawn to something shiny in the sky. Probably the fact that it was still quite far above us by the time I spotted it. Appearing no larger than the birds I was used to, I remember that I became too busy with looking at the pretty colors of the beast's scales than to remember that I was afraid.

A wide, curving wing spread out on each side of the dragon, the membrane displaying an almost confusing pattern of crimson and silver-- a sharp contrast to the pearly white of the glistening scales that were covering. Even as I watched, the dragon gave haunting cry, angling those almost hypnotic wings as it let itself drop towards the ground and the town below.

Despite that I never actually saw what happened, I can imagine, as I faintly recall that a blast of freezing air caught us. Then, as my father was knocked over, finding it quite impossible to hold on to the weight that was I at the same time as he fought to keep his balance. I can also remember screaming, because of the fall certainly, but also because the people around me were screaming.

So many of them injured, and with the town where many of them had spent most of their lives under attack, they could not possibly be blamed as another dragon landed close by-- the air in front of its muzzle freezing as it seemed to prepare for another attack. Perhaps, had a soldier or another sufficently foolhardy person been present, he or she might have been able to initiate an attack, as the dragon was not as large as the first.

As it was, it only took one death to send everyone running.

Turning a pair of cold, blue eyes at a young man laying on the ground close by, his foot twisted and broken, the dragon uttered a sound of deceptive beauty as it took a few quick steps forwards. And raising a slender leg, displaying talons equiped with elegantly curved claws, it used them to impale its victim-- before flicking him aside in much the same manner as a cat playing with a mouse.

Then I was alone, any others wisely fleeing as the dragon turned towards them, its first victim already dealt with and forgotten. I remember that it did not pursue however, as instead it turned towards me, lowering a wedge-shaped head that to be appeared to be gigantic. Although deadly afraid certainly, what three year old child wouldn't have been, but it did not quite occur to me to cry or try to run away.

Transfixed by its eyes, I hardly even noticed that the dragon was joined by a number of warriors of the Red Sword, one of them wearing an armor of that strange, glass-like material that I would eventually learn was worn only by the servants of the dreki, that was their name for dragons.

Later, I would learn that these were hardly those the 'enemies' of the Red Swords had to fear the most, but at that time-- they certainly appeared quite terrifying. In the end, I believe that I should be thankful that they chose to have the dreki make me sleep. While it was more of a matter of convenience, as they did not want to deal with a frightened child, it did at least spare me having to watch when they made sure that there would be no possible resistance to them in the future.

My life after I woke up days later was certainly turning out to be more interesting than I would have even chosen, had I been allowed to.