Aathis the Redd Dragon (Ch. 1–4)

I recently put through 4 chapters on a new character, Aathis the Redd Dragon. These were released on my Facebook page. For your convenience and in case you missed them, I am going to put all 4 of those chapters here in one post. And because people seem to like Aathis’ story, I am going to write a prequel about him here!

So here we are, the first 4 chapters on Aathis in order of publication.

1-

I woke up that morning and set about my daily tasks. It’s not easy being a Redd but I take it one day at a time. My to-do list was still right next to me, though the ink had turned brown and faded. How long was I asleep?

I kicked the boulders aside that blocked my cave and looked up. The sun was directly overhead, I had slept till noon. I also heard screams as the boulders broke free from my cave’s entrance. Silly peasants!

I scanned my to-do list. I hoped that I wouldn’t have to change anything, as my quill had gone missing.

1. Collect 1,000 Gold Bar tribute from France

2. Drain water supply of insignificant villages

3. Intimidate a few peasants

4. Ignite passing pirate ships, unless they pay tribute

5. Fly to Cathay and eat a fellow Dragon for dinner

I couldn’t help but smile at my list of common, daily tasks. Such is the life of Redd! Collecting gold as tribute was never a problem for me. My claws and teeth alone saw to that. And occasionally my fire. But, what happened last night?

I decided a breath or two of fresh air would clear my mind, and maybe, just maybe, those peasants had called for a knight. Said knight would them haplessly try to fire a crossbow bolt at me. And then I could eat him. I tossed some more rocks aside and went out and –

Zzzzoom!

What was that?! I stared in awe at some sort of, iron bird! The creature flew away from me, leaving a trail of smoke behind him. The bird’s wings were made of iron as well and somehow remained unmoving! What was that?! Its roar rivaled mine as well. Does this bird have fire?

I had to find out who or what that was. I leapt into the air and flapped as hard as I could to catch up. It took a lot of work, but I finally got close to him. To be fair, I was still sleepy and famished. There’s a reason why another dragon was on the menu.

The bird descended to the Earth, so I nudged him with my claw and learned that yes, this was a bird of iron! What really bothered me though were the humans inside him! How was that even possible? The humans also screamed in terror as their metallic bird flipped and slid on the ground.

Their shouts did not bother me, even though it became clear that some sort of fighting force was en route. No, it was what they said that troubled me.

I have always been able to understand human speech, obviously due to my superior draconic intellect. A man who was controlling the metal bird said this, “this could only have happened in 2021!”

2021? I had slept for exactly 900 years! I, Aathish the Redd, could be the last Redd Dragon alive. Or even the last Dragon! What was I to do?

A group of humans emerged to stop me with a volley of some sort of fiery miniature spears, which bounced harmlessly off of my scales, of course. I flew up above them to think.

There was only one thing I could do. I needed a friend, so I flew to see if that young, talented wizard was still alive. I last saw him near the border of France and Albion. Perhaps he is still alive and will be willing to forgive that minor skirmish we had when I toasted half of his village. I needed a friend, desperately. And I needed something to eat.

2-

I flew West across the sea, hoping to find a friend. I was heading toward Albion. What was I — Aathis, the last Redd Dragon — even doing here, somewhere in Europe, year 2021? I can explain.

It was yesterday, err, what seemed like yesterday, that I was eating peasants as appetizers and collecting gold coins whenever I felt like it. And then, for some reason, I slept for 900 straight years, and here I am. Boy, am I hungry!

I reasoned that the wizard had to be there! He had to still be alive! Without him then, how would I get back to my own time?

I glided across the wind, which seemed to carry my wings and scales with ease. It did not take long for me to get back to the wizard’s home, at least from what I could remember of it. Albion had a gold coast with some mountains, and this was it.

The humans on the water seemed to be somewhat concerned to see me. Screams were everywhere, so were people speeding away on their boats. It’s great to be a dragon!

I am assuming that they were boats, that is. Sure, I had seen my share of human boats in my time, but these were different. These boats were swimming much faster that anything I had seen before, and without sails! How was this even possible?

I thought about staying to enjoy the “boat and scream” show, that is until a large boat arrived. It wasn’t the boat itself that scared me, I am a dragon after all. I could have toasted them quite easily. No, it was the humans on board.

These were men and they all wore matching uniforms. These were pirates, organized pirates no less, with a huge, fast boat. Somehow, they brought stone birds with them on top of their boat as well! It was time for me to leave. Where would that wizard have been?

The castle, that’s where he would have been hiding! Wizards cannot resist having their own castles, after all. Arrogant fools! Seriously wizards, you’re almost as bad as the royals.

Rather than let more “fire spears” bounce off my scales, I flew into the mountains and found the nearby castle. There were no humans around, but where was the wizard?

I called out to him, nothing. I roared, still nothing. Where was he?! I cried out in anger and set a tree or two ablaze, without the wizard I had no hope!

It was at that moment that a thought occurred to me. Yes, an old memory came back from before my 900-year-long nap. Had the wizard — whatever his name was — been there during my great slumber, and was he partly responsible? Perhaps, but what did that mean?

I would have thought about it some more but that was when more than a few burned trees toppled over and I saw a set of statues. These were ten people listening intently at an old man giving a speech.

The statues were of humans, goblins, a Minotaur, even two dark elves! Everyone was there, seemingly having listened to the old man tell his story. I had to get closer and investigate.

I thought the man was an ordinary statue, that is, until he spoke!

“Hello Aathis. It is I, Cromwell the Wizard!” The statue turned and looked at me. Only his lips moved when he spoke. “The magic that is known as Reverse Sleep will help you. Look beneath the waters of Ma-I, a country near Cathay.” And with that, the statue reverted back to its original position.

I cursed at him for abandoning me once again! I roared, I even engulfed his statue in flames but, stone does not burn easily, even for me. The trees nearby however, easily were toasted. Angry humans would soon be on their way.

I took to the sky again, and decided to search the waters of the land of Ma-I. It was the only lead I had. Besides, maybe it would give me a chance to go fishing.

3-

I dove down deep into the ocean near Ma-I. The hole at the bottom was quite low, even for me. The crevasse reminded me of a huge trench. Almost like the trenches the French dug to aid them in their fight against the Mongols. I’ll never forget that day or their cries for help. If you cannot afford the gold to pay a Redd dragon, then no help will come to you. Go back to France!

Something moved down there, at the bottom of the sea.

How? How could there be something down there, and large enough to get my attention? I looked around. Cromwell said the key to his “reverse sleep” would be down here. Yet, something huge was here and it clearly was about my size.

What was I even doing here, searching the bottom of the ocean for a wizard reagent? Can I even trust Cromwell? A wizard powerful enough to remain an immortal by transforming himself into a sentient statue and–

Wait, Cromwell was there that night, wasn’t he?! Yes, now I remember! He was there before my 900-year nap, he is behind all of this! Even a tired and hungry Redd dragon will be mentally foggy after a 900 hundred yearlong nap. And here I am, having nearly fallen victim to his lies. But why did he send me here?

I flapped my draconic wings to surface out of the sea. That is, as fast as a great dragon can swim. I nearly made it out into the air when — there right in front of me was — a water dragon.

Of course.

The great beast moved toward me, it swam insanely fast with its 4 triangular fins. Before I could react he lunged his long neck forward and delivered a good bite to my front leg and right wing. I tried to claw him back and get a bite in of my own, but he was just too quick. The water dragon swam around me, just out of my reach and kept biting. He bit at my middle, and like only a fellow dragon could, he made me bleed.

Water dragons are powerful, but they do lack one thing us great dragons have: fire. I puffed out white then bluish white flames into the ocean. Because we were still under water my flames did not burn but instead, boiled my water dragon opponent and blocked his vision with steam. He recoiled and dove down, much faster than I could hope to swim and catch him.

I got out of the water and flew just above the surface. Not an easy feat with a bleeding wing, but I managed. I am a Redd after all.

My imbecilic opponent swam upward as well, no doubt to look me in the eye. This was his last mistake — my fire rained on him even faster than he could swim!

Finally, something for Aathis to eat.

I chewed and swallowed all of his blackened and green flesh, the last thing we need is a silly human boat out here wanting to find other water dragons. The meal calmed me down and made things even clearer. Cromwell the wizard was no ally of mine, not then and not now. He needed me gone so somehow, he made me sleep. I took to the sky for Albion.

4-

It took twice as long for a wounded Redd to get there. But it got easier, the sky is a home to flying dragons and the winds have healing properties, at least for me.

I found Cromwell’s forest and sure enough, the arrogant fool was still there in statue form. I flew toward the dirt in front of the wizard and slammed into the mountain, leaving a crater around me.

“Admit it!” I yelled at the sorcerer. “You are responsible for all of this! Give me one reason not to engulf all of you arrogant humans with fire!”

The wizard shifted his eyes, which looked shocked. The only thing ‘living’ about this wizard in statue form was his eyes, after all. He lowered them now.

“You weren’t supposed to survive this,” he said. I puffed a three second burst of white fire into the forest, twenty-five trees went ablaze. “Wait! Stop this!” begged the wizard.

“Why?!” I demanded. He shifted his head and lowered his eyes again.

“Each creature has a ‘life force’ to them. And you, you have a lot. I needed that. You dragons are dying out, and your life force is dying with you. But as you slept there, from 1121 to now, I could harness your force. Thanks to you I could do many great things, more than I ever imagined!”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had to stop him.

“Silence! You deceived me for a while, like an uneducated scab-chewing peasant, but not anymore! Your friend nearly defeated me and–” Somehow, the wizard spoke over me.

“…moved your life force to me, transforming me into pure energy! And with that I would be immortal! No one would forget Cromwell the Great!”

“You have failed wizard. You will not defeat me.” I moved to pick him up and take him as far away as possible, somewhere like earth’s moon perhaps. But rather than accept defeat over his failed incantations, the wizard’s eyes opened wide. He shifted his head upward and I had to see what was going on.

Mountains descended upon earth. But these were mountains from the heavens, from space. There was only one thing I could do.

I grabbed Cromwell and flew into one of these flying mountains, with him as my shield. The stone collided with the wizard which sent rock flying all around me. Cromwell’s stone head was all that remained of him, which immediately fell to the earth.

There was another flying mountain coming toward me. I flew toward it hoping to catch it and throw into the ocean. I had never handled this type of flying stone before, but I thought a great dragon like myself could handle it. It was at that moment that I had miscalculated, and it slipped through my claws and into my skull.

And that’s when I fell asleep.

I awoke sometime later, inside a room I did not recognize. This was another cave, yet humans had clearly been here. I was nearly surrounded by rock. Where was I?

I looked around and saw some human notes on the walls. The ink was black and the paper was gray. “Great Dragon Saves Earth” it said in large letters. Is that what happened? The nearly immortal wizard summoned mountains from space and yet somehow, I alone saved the earth by using the wizard’s stone body to break apart one of these mountains? Yes, I had done that. So, this is what it feels like to be a hero.

If am a hero, then why am I imprisoned?! No, it was time for me to leave. This cave was lined at one end with copious amounts of thick glass and only one human watching me. Another sign was there that said, “royal laboratory.” Great, my reward for saving this planet was to be handed off to the monarchy. No, it was time to go. I tapped on the glass.

The man dropped a brown liquid that he was drinking and ran off screaming hysterically. Just because I woke up, he is doing all of this? I clawed the glass this time.

The glass shifted but after I added a little fire, it began to move away. By now there were red lights flashing all around me and a shrieking sound screamed about. I knew then, that they were coming for me.

I cleared away the glass and made way for the cave’s edge. By now however, some sort of wind was blowing. This was not the magnificent healing air however, this gas hurt me. I pushed through what was left of the glass and got into the air. The humans, now on top of an enormous mountain, just looked at me. The strange gas followed me out of the cave. I had to leave. The humans left as well and rode one of their stone birds into the skies.

I left. I would not be able to reason with these people, not here at least. I flew as high up as I could, just passed earth’s moon then came back down.

What was the last Redd dragon to do? There was no ‘reverse sleep’ so as far as I knew, no way to send me back to my own time. The wizard was dead. And these humans had some sort of poisonous air and tried to kill me. Merely resting was not an option either, not for Aathis the great that is.

I decided to go back and hunt pirates, in exchange for gold. But this time, I would not work with treacherous royals or humans with too much power. No, I needed to find the good and honest humans. Good humans are quite predictable and that is who I need to work with. Besides, I love making some gold.

So if you will excuse me, a group of pirates think they can run the sea south of Ma-I. I can’t wait to meet them, as they will make me rich again.