Wordcount: 361 words
Rating/Warnings: PG-13
Summary: An answer that isn’t an answer is better than nothing at all. In theory.
NOTE: This is the first draft of a story, so it will most likely contain plot holes, retcons, and other inconsistencies. I’ll come back and fix things once the story (or arc) is complete!
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From the Mouth of Snakes
The three of them woke the next morning and without a word confirmed the odd dreams.
“This was officially the worst idea ever in the history of bad ideas.” Flame sighed, trying to look everywhere except the hole. “That’s not an oracle.”
May was oddly glad she had not been the only one to have bad dreams, although Baron seemed to have come out worse for it than Flame.
“I know,” May said, unfazed. “It’s a dragon.” Dragons were older legends than even the oracle. Massive serpents that roamed the seas and skies, so mythical that they thought they might be real hadn’t occurred to anyone in generations. Dragons were enigmas, sometimes a help sometimes a hindrance, but rarely referenced as anything other than an impossibility in fairytales and folklore.
No one slayed dragons, or talked to them, or asked for help. That wasn’t how the stories went, much less reality.
“It’s a dragon that’s turning the land to dust.” Pointed out Baron with a yell. He was as far from the campsite as he could get without losing sight of them. “A dragon that could turn us to dust.” He’d dreamed something he would not talk about yet and was on edge in a way that made her teeth hurt.
“It only takes what you give it.” May objected.
“I don’t think the fish had a choice. Or the trees, or the grass, or the thousands of other things it has drained the life out of. It’s even eaten away at the rock.”
“I don’t know about you,” Flame said, “but that hole looks like someone was trying to get in not out.”
May looked at the hole again, noting the concave nature of the top, as if someone had set off explosives in an attempt to reach the dragon. “If I had dreams like that, I can’t say I’d blame them trying to kill it off.” May finished, “but I got the answer I came for, so it’s time to go. Not the one I was looking for, but it will do.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Flame said, as she climbed on his back.
“Not a clue.”
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