Warning: This story doesn't have an 18+ rating for nothing! Please, be aware that the story involves EXTREME violence, as well as scenes of torture/self-mutilation/death. It may say fantasy in the tags, but be aware, this is no children's book! You've been warned.
Part One: The Colony
Chapter One: A storyteller’s death
The perennials were in bloom, illuminating the mountain valley with the violet splendor of a million purple lilacs under the springtime sun. The mountains, like great palisades, stretched to the blue sky; their grandeur unparalleled by any sight I had ever laid my eyes upon. Oh, what a beautiful day it had been! A day when a storyteller was executed for treason!
No great loss it was.
We stood in a semicircle at the base of a large cliff, about three hundred of us dragons. We stood and watched like dammed animals as he was paraded in front of us. An example he was, a fucking example! Something to show us who is in control, who possessed the power! But alas, at the time I found nothing wrong, for treachery was a crime unto us all, and oh what rapture I had for our colony.
The old drake snarled and swore at his captors as they led him round the clearing.
Quartzite. Quartzite was his name, and Quartzite he shall forever be. He was an older drake; a scarred, battle hardened creature, often to be found dozing in the sun of secluded alpine meadows. A storyteller he was, possessing the ability to seeming weave a tale out of thin air. Yes, what entertainment it was for us young to gather round the old drake and hear stories of war and love, of strange beings and distant lands!
...And what a fucking sight it was to see Quartzite the storyteller put on trial for conspiring against our leader!
---
Above us all a silver drake sat upon a large boulder, our dear leader, simple referred to as The Provider. From where I stood I could see his cold eyes surveying the crowd and the prisoner; they made my very hide crawl.
After he had been paraded in front of the crowd, Quartz was brought before our leader, shielded on either side by two large drakes, part of the Provider’s high guard; the Trilslet.
Quartzite was currently in the process of cursing one of the Trilslet, and he paid no mind to the silver drake that glared at him from his perch.
“SILENCE, YOU DAMNED SNAKE!” The Provider roared down at him before he could finish his insults. The silver drake rose menacingly. “You worthless piece of scum,” he snarled, “You don’t deserve your wings! You dare threaten me or my associates, I should rip your fucking throat out this very instant!”
He then paused, his voice suddenly taking a cooler tone. “But I am a fair and honest drake...”
He said it so quietly I could barely hear him, but I had little need to. The phrase had been drilled into our vulnerable minds since the day we were hatched. Our dear, all powerful, intelligent, enlightened, loved leader was a fair and honest drake! Such a creature would never bring harm upon his beloved people…
...right?
“...and I believe every dragon, no matter how low he is, deserves a fair trial.”
He now looked to us. “My fellow people, I provide for you. I give you protection, food, order; I care for you as a mother cares for her own clutch. And what do I ask for in return? Your simple compliance...”
He paused, sighing.
“...And yet some of you have grown greedy. You want all these fine things and want to be without my rule. This drake before you wishes to overthrow me-”
“Lies,” Quartzite growled, “the whole damn lot of it!” he was quickly silenced by a sharp cuff.
The silver drake seemed unwavered by Quartzites’ claims. “He wishes to take everything I have given to you! He want’s full control! It’s greed like this that brings down nations! Drakes like Quartzite will be the demise of our species, everything we have worked so hard for! So, what would YOU choose?” he questioned, looking down at us. “Safety, food, and order; or death, greed, and demise?” he paused, gazing over us with those cool, contemporary eyes.
Like good pets, we said nothing.
“I don’t believe we need to think too hard on that one, now do we?” said he with a malicious chuckle. “And lastly, let me remind you, Quartzite has been known to socialize with humans, the very face of destruction and demise! Humans are a disease, and Quartzite seems to have been infected! Infected with their ignorance, their greed!”
At this a murmur went through the crowd. Nary a drake in the colony had ever seen a human, let alone interacted with one. What dangers did they hold? What were they like? I was at a complete loss, all I knew of humans were the stories of old, and of course what our leader had told us. I mused over the subject for a moment.
“Quartzite, you've heard the charges against you, how do you respond to them?” he growled, rousing me from my thoughts.
Old Quartz turned slowly, at first it seemed as if he was going to look to us, the bystanders. Instead he gazed out past us, to the fertile mountain valley beneath the clear spring sky, his eyes possessing a great sadness to them, and yet something more… something I decided to believe was acceptance.
After a moment the old drake sighed deeply. “Yeah, I've socialized with humans, I’ll admit to that. And you know what I’ve come to realize?” He calmly muttered, shaking his head. “We’re making the same fuckin’ mistakes that they are. The same fuckin’ ones!” he snarled these words with such anger and hate that I was quite taken aback. He seemed nearly crazed!
“The humans, they told me things. They spoke of some sort of far off land known as Europe, where there was a great war. The leader of the the opposing force believed a certain race to be... less…. than the rest of the populous. They spoke of places called Con-cen-tration Camps where they would send these people! Of bodies being tossed into great fires! Of piles upon piles of dead! Too many to count, too many to imagine! Genocide is what they called it!” He spat, the madness in his voice quite apparent.
He turned back to our leader and narrowed his eyes. “And I believe that is where this... this colony is heading!” He now looked to us, “If you stay with this tyrant there will be blood and death! I say end it now! End it before it’s too late! Before you are completely under his control!”
Our leader remained quiet for a moment, before clicking his tongue and shaking his head. “My dear friends, I assure you everything I do is for the good of this colony, and I would never bring you any harm.”
His voice then took a deeper, more serious tone. “Quartzite, I thought you were smarter than to trust the humans, those who have brought such tyranny upon our glorious species.” He looked out at the rest of us, “Believe this lying snake if you wish, but mark my words, thoughts like these will destroy everything we have worked for!”
Looking back at Quartz he growled,“Now, Quartzite, before I read you your sentence, do you have anything else you wish to address?”
He glared at The Provider, then stood upon his hind legs and flared his crimson wings.
“KILL THIS TYRANT! KILL HIS WHOLE FORCE!" he roared the words with such ferocity that it echoed off the surrounding mountains. He then dropped to all fours once more, closed his eyes, and, for a moment, I thought that I saw him give a small smile.
“Kill me if you wish, you fucking crack-brained bastard!” Murmured the old drake.
Our leader glared down at him with absolute detestment.
“Very well.” he snarled. “For the crime of high treason, Quartzite, you are hereby sentenced to death!”
Before Quartz had time to react, the two large drakes had seized him.
The Provider leapt down from his perch and grabbed the drake's throat in his maw. He grunted, then twisted and pulled, sending a deluge of hot blood pouring onto the granite.
Through the whole ordeal Quartzite remained silent, completely and utterly silent. And at the moment his throat was torn out, and he lay there in a rapidly growing pool of his own blood, his eyes, so filled with rage, remained fixated on The Provider.
No great loss.
~Post chapter notes!~
Oh look, yet another violent, profanity ridden work by Cirute! Seriously, for some reason I can't write something without using the word 'fuck' like a comma. Also, more crappy sentences, run-ons, and other shoddy shit. I'd like to make it clear that I do very little editing before I upload works here. Once I get some reviews I'll make the adequate changes.
As some of you might know, I uploaded a similar short story called The Notch here a few weeks ago, and since today was a snow day and I was bored, I decided to start writing a novel about dragons. Yeah, yeah, there's a little bit of execution by throat tearing, but... what are you gonna do, it has f*cking dragons!
Oh, and here's how I envision the valley where this all takes place:
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