8Author's Note – This short two-shot is an idea that I have had bouncing around in my head for a while. I wanted this to be a celebration of lifting oneself from the aftermath of a dark situation. To rise from the ashes of a broken life and find purpose again.
Rise
Swirling, terrifying nightmares were all the youth knew.
Dream of falling and fire all around him.
A loud scream and growl that pierced his soul.
No... no...
Pain. So much pain.
Are you one of us, son?
Darkness.
A large swarm of... dragons.
Those eyes that had narrowed on him with malice.
Sleeping off the pain.
The screaming echoing in his thoughts.
Pain was the first thing he noticed when he finally awoke. Pain that almost drove tears from his eyes. But he gritted his teeth and focused on breathing.
He was in his own bed in his house. Someone must have carried him there after finding him. Where had he been before?
Falling to the ground...
Fires around him...
Someone catching him...
There was a whine from next to him. Then something licked his face. He opened his eyes and looked around his house.
"Ugh, hey bud..."
Then he wiped his face and slowly pulled off the covers. That was when he realized the painful truth. And he stared in horror as his life shattered around him when he stared at his stump.
Gone. Lost. Bitten off?
The memories started to come back to him. A dragon diving at him. All the fighting. Old memories of raids and those carried off in the night.
"Oh gods..."
He swung himself out of bed and warily took his footing after so long in bed. His best friend padded up to his side as he steadied himself against the bedframe.
"Thanks bud..."
Then he set his sights on the door and started walking, his faithful best friend at his side for comfort.
He rested a hand on the door, fearing what he would see once he opened it. What was the world that awaited him outside?
Then he pushed open the door and saw everything outside. He immediately slammed the door and turned away from it.
"No, I do not... believe it..."
But he knew that was a lie. He shut his eyes tightly and steadied himself as he caught his breath. As everything that he knew about the world changed around him.
"Oh gods... now what?"
The terrible truth threatened to burst through the wall that his young mind had flung up to protect itself. The fire and falling. Being grabbed and carried. The flashes of pain as his stump was treated to stop the bleeding. Howling as the heated blade burned him unconscious and his rescuers gave him the painfully necessary care.
His best friend at his side whined softly.
"I'll be... ok bud... I'll find a way..."
He closed his eyes and remembered seeing it all up in the sky. Dragons of all colors spinning in flight. The fear that had been there once and had gradually been replaced by wonder and hope as he learned more about them.
And now...
He wiped his teary eyes on a sleeve and slowly returned to bed. It was not yet time for him to go forth. He could not face everyone after what had happened.
But there was something growing in his heart. A strength and defiance that he did not know he had within himself before.
Not now, tonight though...
He lay down in bed, still being quite overcome with weariness. It was also hard to do because of his missing limb.
Sleep did not come to him as he sobbed. They were defiant tears.
He walked with purpose through the trees, all alone at night after leaving his best friend back at home. There was somewhere he had to go and something he had to do, painful though it would be. But pain was not foreign to him now. He only stopped to check the bandages on his stump. There was still a bit of blood, but not nearly as much as there had been before. It was also a bit cold now, being that it was late at night, so he kept his cloak wrapped around him as much as possible as he stumbled on.
Two different voices in his head. Two different paths he could take. But there was only one path he could take that would bring him peace now, knowing how much the world had changed.
Then he finally arrived at the hidden place. A secret little grove where something was likely hidden. Something that he had to meet now.
The stars wheeled overhead as he slowly strode out into the grove, leaning heavily to the side as he went. Missing a limb seemed to do that to someone.
There you are...
The dragon awoke at his approach. Its wide eyes fixed on him as it jumped to his feet. Then it rumbled in recognition, exactly as it had for months now.
"Where have you been?"
He stumbled toward the dragon, distantly noting that it was very tired also. That made perfect sense considering what had been happening in the recent past.
"I know what happened," he sighed.
The dragon tilted its head to the side as he stepped up before it. Then he pulled a hand out of his pocket and slowly lifted his hand to the dragon's neck. It rumbled softly at his touch and bent down in pleasure.
"You were flying."
Purr.
"None of this would have happened without you."
He sighed softly.
"I guess I should thank you. You gave me purpose in my life again."
The dragon trilled softly at his familiar touch.
"I will rise."
The dragon never saw the dagger that he drove into its neck.
It was as he stared down at the dying dragon on the ground that he clearly remembered all the pain in one eternal moment that tore his soul to pieces. The dragons diving from the sky and snatching up animals and people alike. Seeing a Monstrous Nightmare grab his older sister and carry her off into the night. Seeing his own father burned alive after hacking at the dragon that had bitten off his son's arm. His own arm. Now being the last living member of his family. His village had mostly burned to the ground.
Monsters. That is what dragons were. Not the wonderous, soaring, and majestic creatures he had thought they were. Not the dragon he had found in secret and given fish so that he could tame it. Even this one had participated in the raid. And now it was dead at his own hand. Even under this strange circumstance he was now a dragon killer. He had done what so few youths had ever done. He had done what many adults could not boast of.
He retrieved his dagger, pulling it out from the dragon's neck. He felt nothing about the deed. The dragon had betrayed him by being a monster. Killing a monster was not betrayal.
The grin broke out on his face as he forgot the pain and lost himself in the moment. He had been left with nothing, and in that nothing he still found purpose. The dying embers of his soul had sparked to life again in defiance of the world that had tried to break him. Suffering had been redemptive to him and had purified him of weakness.
Then he looked up at the dark skies and imagined all the sets of terrifying wings in the above.
"I am not afraid of you. I will rise above the fear of dragons, and I will free the people of the world."
He stared at his bloody dagger and his one remaining hand. His fist was covered in the dragon's blood.
The name came forth from the fire in his heart. The fire that had sparked to life at the memory of his dead family, lost arm, and burned village.
"I am Drago Blood-Fist."
