When a Dragon takes watch, the Butterfly will Awaken
The dragon, Infernium, swooped around the peak of the Ranco Mountains, where the coolness of the air allowed relief from the heat below. It dropped onto its roost and gently settled among its eggs. Infernium stretched her translucent wings out and covered her children as she looked down to the village.
On the water starved green most of the town’s folk had gathered. The women were dressed in ritual alabaster robes while their shirtless mages pounded on the big drums. They sang their ancient summoning spell, hoping to entice rain to fall.
Infernium carefully placed her feet around her eggs as she leaned forward to look below. She had seen that ritual many times over the years, but she had not seen such frenetic pounding and dancing.
Inferniumwould not help; it was better for her family if she looked down and silently watched. After all, to Infernium’s lifetime these humans were merely a hiccup. All would die in a speck of time, even the one they feared down at the manor.
The villagers below mumbled as they sat on the torched and bent grasses that had once been their gathering green. The goddess Nory was angry. She had prevented the cooling rains from refreshing the lands for many moons. The dirt was now crackled, many animals had died and fires had raged at the base of the mountain. Something must be done to appease her, otherwise they would die.
As the sun rays hit the horizon, and it began to rise in its splendor of gold and pink, the human’s ritual began. Screams rose as couples danced and twisted, intertwining their bodies with erotic fever, faster, hurried and desperate. But Nory did not take mercy on them. The seeress, looking up to the heavens, predicted the rain would not come for at least another thirty days. That was too long. The food was gone, they had no resources and they had no money. They no longer had a choice, they must deal with the man, Onyx Talon, in the stone manor, at the edge of the high cliff.
No one wanted to be the one chosen to go. Onyx, the man they called the Specter, was evil, and even the elders didn’t know how long he had reigned in his kingdom. They whispered of the screams that were heard filtering through the manor’s walls and the people who went in but never returned.
It was really the shadows in the valley, behind the manor, that scared the villagers the most. There, Onyx bound the spirits of those he killed, watching as they continued to suffer, and demanding their obedience. It was even rumored, that the Specter’s own son was seen floating above the water, in the valley one dark night.
Inside the manor, Angelika Moonglen, the Specter’s granddaughter, had been snatched from her carefree world and dropped into his hands. Amongst the hatred and violence, she dreamt of the day she would escape and leave Onyx behind.
High on the mountain, only Infernium knew that Angelika was there. The dragon, understanding an ancient prophecy, had watched for centuries for her arrival. When the Butterfly awoke, then the despair of both the dragon’s and the humans, would begin to shift and eventually would end.
Down at their meeting place the villagers trembled knowing they had to ask for mercy from Onyx. Little did they know that their salvation would come from a woman trapped inside Onyx’s home. The dragon knew but, it was not time yet to act.
Infernum draped her wings around her clutch protectively. Time, like drought, passed quickly and she would watch the valley, waiting for the Butterfly to awake. Then Infernum would stretch her wings, rise, and join the battle as the new age began.
⁕ The Story Gate ⁕ Choose Your Path ⁕ Dragonveil in Northwestern Ontario ⁕