SciFi and Fantasy Stories: The Dragon Kingdom: Chapter 2

All that could be seen was darkness. Darkness, ever flitting yet as tangible here as any other solid object. Darkness all around, and in the middle of it all, a boy. The darkness enveloped the boy robbing him of all senses. Smell, sound, taste, touch, vision, he had none of those now. He just lay there wondering who or what he was and asking himself why he was there in that everlasting darkness tumbling for an eternity.

Then a light appeared. Although fickle at first, it seemed to grow and brighten as the seconds passed. Soon it became a blazing fire. Waking up he realized that he was staring into a large stone fireplace. As he looked around he saw that he was in a grand, yet dusty, cathedral. The soft oak floor underneath him seemed to pulse with life. Many benches, that seemed to grow from the floor, went down the aisles, and at the end, was a radiant altar, due to the fact that lit candles of every size and shape surrounded it. He stood, and walked down the row, felling the footsteps of many others who had walked down this same aisle long ago. He knelt slowly at the altar. For some strange reason he was drawn to it, as the tugging inside of his mind forced him to it. Atop the altar there was a large assortment of items of every shape and size.

There were bejeweled rings, many inlaid with priceless gems, dust covered tomes with leather bindings and gold colored runes on, thick tan colored parchment. There were also miniature statues of dragons hoarding treasure in their mountainside lairs, their eyes filled with greed and malevolence, and for some strange reason the sight of the statuettes infuriated him. There were many necklaces made of shells, bones, silvers and gold lying about, trying to hold onto a past luster. His gaze shifted suddenly as he saw movement from above. Just a raven, he thought, regaining his breath. The black bird landed on a ceiling beam, and watched him with its large black eyes. Then, quiet rapidly, he saw the enormous stained glass window towering above him and stared at it awe. It depicted a great kingdom with dragons flying about and breathing golden fire over the castle. Probably attacking it, the dammed overgrown lizards, he thought feeling the hatred in himself rise, but not knowing why. On the next section of the glass there was an elf, lean yet recognizably strong, leaning over a wounded young dragon his hand outstretched toward it. A green light emanated out of his hand and over the dragon. A cold satisfaction came over him as he saw the elf killing the dragon. Why? he did not know.

He lowered his head not wishing to gaze on the images any longer and his attention was attracted to the great mahogany door about thirteen feet away from the altar.

He had not noticed it before. It stood clearly three heads above him and was as wide as his outstretched arms. Its knob was cut out of diamond and gleamed eerily in the low-lighted cathedral. The intricate runes etched lightly along the rim of the door hypnotized him, making him keep his gaze on them, guiding him in with a firm grip, as they whispered of great power in his ear. He reached out and touched the door, which sent a cold shiver along his spine. A large brass knocker lay motionless in the middle of the door, and assuming by the looks of the place he didn’t think anyone would answer, so he reached out and, despite his better judgment, opened it. A chill breeze escaped from the door as soon as he had opened it, and he looked down at the stairs that lay before him. He couldn’t see the bottom, most likely because no torches hung on the wall, but a deeper darkness filled the air. What,he wondered, could lie at the bottom of these steps. As he walked carefully down the stairs they seemed to go on forever. Soon, it seemed, hours had passed and he was beginning to become weary. His eyes felt heavy and his whole body ached, as the cold bit at his fingertips. His stomach growled loudly seeing as though he hadn’t eaten for hours or even days. The cold was now dissipating and soon he was sweating. As he walked down more stairs he became aware of a light. His heart beat faster, and now the heat was so overly suffocating that he thought he was going to faint, when suddenly. SMACK. He walked right into a door. Ouch he thought, rubbing his sore nose, at least I’m finally at the end. Groping in the darkness for the doorknob was an arduous task but he finally found it, strangely in the center of the door, since the door opened upward. Opening it, blinding light pierced the darkness causing him to shield his eyes.

Fire he thought, vigorously wiping the tears from his eyes how could I have forgotten the brightness of fire Wiping his forehead with a damp sleeve he inhaled deeply, and was assaulted by a powerful smell. The stench of rotting flesh!

Removing his hands from his eyes, now adjusted to the light, he saw that he was in a cavernous underground lair. From copper to platinum, coins lay in heaps all around the room, while in other piles aquamarines, rubies, emeralds, pearls, moonstones, sapphires, blue zircon, peridot, diamonds, and many other different kinds of gems lie deposited among the coins. Closer to the heart of the chamber lie piles of wands, staffs, rings, pendants, amulets, and books all engraved with runes, the magics coming off of them so strongly that you could taste it. And swords littered the floor, they were well crafted and by many different races. There were cutlasses, broadswords, dirks, rapiers, flamberges, hunting swords, sabers, shortswords, greatswords, and longswords, there were bokken, katanas, sai, tantos, and scimitars. Well, there were swords from all around the realm! His mouth aghast he gapped at their beauty, and then clamped it shut remembering the horrid thing he had smelt not so long ago. Snapped out of the trance he heard a loud rumbling. Every few seconds a hot gust of wind, which smelt of death, hit him, coming from the center of the room.

And then he saw it, nestled up in the shadow of the treasure was a black dragon, its body curled tightly into a ball, it was about the same size of two full grown elephants. It was roasting the mauled, fungi covered, body of some unfortunate animal. Seeming to be caught up in its meal it did not notice him. Kill ita voice inside of him said, remember what they did to your father, they are evil kill it, you have to remember.But why, he asked, what did they ever do to my father. I don’t know, and I can’t remember anything. Why can’t I remember anything! This train of thought kept going through his head breaking down his will to live. Soon he was spiraling into the darkness within the darkest reaches of his mind.

“Hey, wake up.” He heard a voice in his head. “C’mon get up.” It said. He felt someone nudging him…. He awoke!