A Dragon's Tale

by Peewee the Dragon

Lom

Chapter 2

4 weeks had passed and still I roamed, a nomad in search of a place to call my own. I had spent most of my wandering life in the air, however after flying for so long I began to feel the soreness of my wings so I landed in what seemed to be some sort of secluded forest, little did I realise something was watching me.

For the next few days I made a temporary home in a small cave until my wings had regained their strength. During that time I went out hunting and caught whatever I could find from deer to rabbits, I was growing stronger every day and had gotten more experience at hunting.

But while I was struggling to drag a young buck back to cave, the unseen being which had been tracking me, had finally caught up and it wasn’t alone. The leader crept up with a few more of his followers they were holding a chain link net in their grip. The leader gestured silently, and the followers threw the net over the top of me. The large iron balls attached to the end of the net, hit the ground trapping me underneath.

I roared in anger and fright as I tried to break free. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw the leader slowly walked towards me as he had smirked at me. He appeared to be some kind of satyr, I remembered hearing that certain tribes of satyrs would always try to capture young dragons and destroy them before they reached adulthood.

'Who are you?' I asked, as I tried to break free. 'I am Lom, chief of the Frosthorn tribe.' the leader said. 'And you my little scaly friend are my prize. Pick him up.' he ordered his followers. They came and picked me up still caught in the net and they carried me away.

We travelled for what seemed like days and yet no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t break free from the net.

Eventually we reached what seemed to their camp. Lom and his followers took me to the centre, for what? I was soon about to find out.

'Now.' Lom said, as his followers placed me in the center of the camp and began to nail the net down into the ground, as I looked up I saw Lom looming over me with a cruel smile on his face. 'You dragons are troublesome creatures but don’t worry soon you’ll all be dealt with…. Enjoy your stay.' He laughed a cruel laugh as he walked away leaving me to wallow in defeat.

I lost track of how much time had passed. Each day that went by Lom would check on me every morning to see I was still there and would tighten the chains as an extra precaution.

Soon, as everyone does, I began to grow bigger and soon the chains began to slowly sink into my skin. Pitiful cries escaped my mouth every night as my body went through such pain. Still Lom showed no remorse, he revelled in the fact I was suffering.

I knew it was only a matter before they disposed of me it was then I knew what I had to do to survive.

So one night I decided to act, as soon as the Lom and his followers went their tents I slowly and quietly used my tail to move the dirt behind me so the chains would be loose enough for me to slip out. It was a success and as I finally slipped out I noticed that the chains had done a number on my wings and it would take a few days for them to heal, however it seemed I wouldn’t have the time as suddenly I heard a commotion as one Lom’s followers saw me and alarmed the whole camp to what was going on as a bunch of Lom’s followers came rushing towards me as I saw Lom standing there with them.

'Well well well, aren’t we a brave one!' He said as he and his followers slowly moved towards me cornering me at the pit, 'What’ll you do now? You’re far too weak to fight or even fly away! You’re not even a real dragon, you’re just a scared little runt.' In that moment I felt something, a hot burning rage deep within me, they caged me, treated me like a beast… They wanted a beast so I gave them one.

I mustered whatever strength I had left, reared back, opened my wings, took in the biggest breath I ever took and released a torrent of flames at my captors. As I saw the flames engulf them all I quickly took this opportunity to leave, but with my wings out of commission I had no choice but to run.

I ran towards to forest, running as fast as my legs could carry me until I stopped at a nearby river, panting heavily as I went closer for a much needed drink but as I moved closer I began to feel woozy, my legs wobbled, my spine tingled and suddenly… I passed out from exhaustion.

The mass of flames I produced in the citadel had overworked my fire lung which in turn caused me to pass out in order for it to cool down.

As I felt my eyes slowly close I suddenly felt something was next to me, I couldn’t describe it as it was blurry but I all know it was something I had only heard of in stories.