silverflight8 | brigits_flame week 1 April: Cliff

Prompt: Cliff
Word count: 787
Genre: fantasy/realism
Warnings: none applicable

Summary: Where did the dragons go?

"Tell me where the dragons went!"

"Are you sure, Annie? Daddy's feeling pretty tired and it's almost bedtime."

"Mommy said you would tell me."

"Oh, oh, all right then. But after this, you're going to sleep, yeah? Now, you know that the dragons used to live all over the world, right? All over the place, in the mountains and in the big plains. They used to hide in the caves and surprise prey that way. Some of them even used to spend their whole lives over the sea, flying forever and landing only once to lay eggs. Then they'd fly off again and make another lap over the oceans. I don't think sea dragons liked being mommies and daddies very much.

"There were some that liked the forests, but those ones were small. Bigger than you, though, Annie. A little bigger than me, which is very small for a dragon. These forest dragons would perch in trees and use the canopy to hide—they had brown and green wings, see. And then there were the sort of dragons which were snow-white, so that they could blend right into the snowy tundra. Those ones were the most fearless—they used to fight polar bears, and you know how scary those are. They were huge and had amazing wings, just like the sea dragons, because the tundra is so big and flat—you could probably fit twenty Annies on one!"

"Field trip, Daddy."

"Yes, if you could make an ice-dragon your friend, he could take your class on a field trip. At least where it was cold. They didn't like leaving their frozen lands. But I was saying—oh, there were so many dragons! Even on the slopes of volcanoes there were little ones. Humans like you and me got them mixed up with winged lizards. Dragons that lived in the tropics with silvery wings to deflect sun—if you looked at them too long you'd blind yourself, they were so bright. There were so many."

"Daddy…"

"There are more dragons. The only place we know they didn't like was the sea—the sea-dragons just flew over them, but they didn't swim in the sea except to get fish to eat. There were desert dragons that weren't afraid of wind and sand, and ones that lived in such rainy places that they even got close to being watery dragons…"

"But what, Daddy?"

"But then they began to diminish. They saw humans coming and had to leave when we fought them. Some of the dragons could breathe fire or blow down houses, but there were more humans, and the dragons retreated to where they could. All the dragons got mixed together. The tropical dragons that lived for monsoons had to fly next to big ice-dragons that took up all the space. Even the sea-dragons went along, because humans started filling the seas.

"Finally they flew away to a remote mountain chain which has no passes—you have to fly in. The winds are so strong and unpredictable and the air is so thin that our planes can't make it. The mountains there are a little funny, because they make a ring. They say that the inside of the mountain ring is like a perfectly steep, smooth bowl—you can't climb down. Like a bucket, Annie. It's a cliff on the inside. The dragons knew that this was their strongest shelter, because all of them, even the smallest, can fly and survive things that humans can't. If you want to meet the dragons, you have to climb up to the very top of one of the mountains where there's no air. Then—"

"Then what, Daddy?"

"Then you have to jump. There are dragons down there, but the only way down is to—to jump. The cliffs are as smooth as glass and just as hard as metal. And so far no one has dared, and so the dragons live in peace in their mountain circle. And now even humans have respected their claim and don't live around the mountains. That's where the dragons went, Annie. Nobody even knows what the bottom of the mountain circle looks like.

"Now, you really have to go to bed, or Mommy will have my head too. Tomorrow we have to get up bright and early to go to the aquarium, so—here's your teddy bear—say goodnight."

"Goodnight."

"See you tomorrow morning. Sleep tight."

"Daddy, can we go find the dragons?"

"I think they want to be left alone, and that cliff is too dangerous. But maybe someday when they're ready they might come out again to meet us—I don't know, pet. But it's bedtime. Goodnight, Annie."

"Goodnight, Daddy."

I am so sorry to perpetuate another HUMANS SUCK story, but I just love the dragons. :( Credit must go to Cornelia Funke's "The Dragon Rider", of whose idea is the dragons' retreat to the Himalayas. Her story is a true delight unlike mine, though.

Feedback and crit is always appreciated!