The Curse That Struck Glowery

Trigger warning: child kidnapping and abuse, gruesome violence and imagery, and implications of torture.

There was an unspoken rule between the humans and the Draconians: humans must never take an egg from the Draconians. The dragon folk were forbidden from taking newborn human children as it was, but humans taking eggs wasn't just about separating families. It was more than just the dragons causing rampages until the babies were returned. Depending on the color of the scales taken, it is said that taking an egg from the Draconians will bring a terrible omen. Very few people broke this rule, and unfortunately, for those who did, it came with a terrible price for them.

One night, a thief had gone into the den of purple dragons and had stolen an egg from their nest. He left the cave in a flash, not a trace to be found. As predicted, the dragons went on a rampage through the village of Glowery, destroying livelihoods while in search of their newborn egg that had passed through there. No evidence of the egg nor hatchling was found there, but its presence was felt by the dragons, nonetheless.

Meanwhile, the thief was hiding in a barn that was outside the village until the dragons went away as darkness fell for they were nocturnal. He sighed a breath of relief before he took his cloak and gloves off now that he was home free. He was a young man named Slade Dalton who was constantly upstaged by his cousins for their magical prowess. He had little to none of that and his accomplishments in bounty hunting had gone ignored in the eyes of his aunts and uncles. Slade wanted to be seen for what he was worth, even if it meant stealing a dragon child from the most magical yet vengeful of the Draconians.

He had heard from his comrade, Herry, who had studied the many kinds of Draconians for years. He knew that the purple dragon kin were blessed with so much energy from the Aether that magic came to them upon hatching. Purple Draconians, if they didn't use a ritual to rid themselves of their primal form, were destined to become scholars or mages. The current Archmage, Conolph Ushart, was one of these Draconians, so surely, a hatchling could bring out his latent magical potential, Slade thought.

However, his quest to raise a dragon mage came crashing down after the egg hatched the next night. When he got to the barn house, the egg had not only hatched, but there was no newborn lizard in sight. He had to look frantically for the baby dragon, or he would never get the thing he desired most.

Slade found the dragon in the chicken coop, feasting on the chickens and eggs inside, and had already grown considerably from the egg it came from. The tail was forked, the limbs were as long as a human toddler's and had dull claws, and the wings were stubby. Slade's eyes met a pink-eyed face that was curious at seeing such a strange creature. The dragon had hatched with no one around to welcome him into this world until now.

The baby was met with hostility as the man yelled, "You go back to the barn, little one! You gave me quite a scare!"

Slade chained up the baby dragon by the arms to a big plow that was being kept in the barn house. The man then went away, saying, "You shall show me your prowess so you can grant me my greatest wish!"

The next night, the baby had cuts and burns from the sunlight all over him and so he roared out a call as he tugged and pulled on the chains. The purple dragons had come back to do another search for the egg, hearing the roar of the tiny dragon coming from within the area. Slade had to navigate through the forest and Glowery. He moved quickly and carefully to avoid the panic and the magical energy breath of the berserk Draconians. He had to survive if he were to raise this dragon and give him magical power.

He came to find that the chains had been broken and the place in shambles from magical energy being spewed about. Slade's refuge had been destroyed completely so there was no way the dragons nor the villagers would be able to find him and the baby dragon now. Slade had to venture back into the village after finding no trace of the purple creature, which meant risking exposing himself to the Draconians and the terrorized villagers.

Speaking of whom, the Draconians were certain that the child was here because of the roar that had called out to them like a cry for help. They would raze the whole area if it meant procuring the child, but they had already caused enough damage as it was for the humans. The villagers of Glowery, meanwhile, were trying to survive the night after the first one had taken so much from them. Some of them wondered the same thing: who would dare incur the wrath of the Phryno Draconian family by taking one of them? They had no quarrel with the Draconians and were willing to offer some of the livestock that was deemed too old to be sold to market. A human taking one of their eggs was tantamount to the dragon folk taking a human child like the changelings would do in some parts of the world. The human who took this child would face retribution if these people ever saw his face.

Slade had noticed the purple hatchling go into where the sheep were being held, to be by whatever sheep remained in this chaotic battlefield of a town. It wouldn’t be long before the Heloderm Warriors came to resolve the quarrel between man and lizard. They were spiky-skinned, pink Draconians, warriors that were entrusted with the duty to keep tensions between the humans and the Draconians from sparking an all-out war in Acrodon by the Royal Family. They had toxic touch and breath, and yet chose the way of the human knights and their weaponry, opting to use their poison as a last resort in battle. Thus, the Dalton boy had to get this slippery creature and go home unscathed, lest he face a toxic, gruesome fate by the King's dragon men.

The dragon had grown even more since the previous night as he threw a net onto the child to immobilize him. They got out of the yard with Slade dragging the dragonkin out of town, but the child roared out a purple energy beam. It didn't hit Slade, but it was not the child's intention to harm his captor; it was to attract all attention onto the two from all sides. Man and lizard were appalled to find the one who started this massacre on the humans. The Heloderm Warriors arrived to find the fighting had stopped and the source behind what started and stopped it all. They too were shocked by the wounds they saw on the child, knowing that the purple Draconians were children of the night.

Slade had been caught in the act, dropping the net. He was outnumbered and outclassed by humans and two types of Draconians. The Phryno family and the villagers could try all sorts of things on him if the law of the land wasn't there.

The head Warrior, Macul Eublephar, commanded to the culprit, "In the name of the Crown of Acrodon, you will be placed under arrest for violent crimes against humanity and Draconians. You will remove your mask and come along quietly with us back to the Royal Capitol..."

Before anyone could approach him, Slade had decided to try one last tactic: he pulled out a knife to hold towards his catch, pressing it to the net quick as a wink. This surprised the villagers and purple dragons that someone would enact such a cowardly tactic after just surrendering to the frightening might of the Heloderm Warriors.

Slade threatened, "You lizard folk come any closer to me, and I shall spill this thing's guts wide..."

Before he could finish saying his ultimatum, a Heloderm Warrior named Moloch Horridian had snuck up behind him and grabbed him by the stomach, pressing a knife to his neck.

"You are the lowest of low, human," Moloch hissed, "Now go down to your rest. The poison will seep into you now."

Moloch scratched into the man, infusing his body with poison, making him go down and drop the net and the weapon. The purple dragons pulled the netting off their child and had comforted him from the harrowing experience.

The Warriors pulled the mask off as a villager recognizing the man as Slade Dalton.

Moloch hissed out to Macul, "A Dalton with no magical prowess, and yet he caused a curse onto this village when he took a newborn child from the Phryno family. The purple dragonkin have rapid growth and yet it was a miracle this didn't go on for long."

Macul told Moloch, "The Archmage will want to see this new child and also look into the Dalton family for their connection to this kidnapping. Having this man rot in jail with our poison might not be enough of a punishment for causing such civil unrest, but that's up to the Archmage and the King to decide, not us, Sir Moloch."

Moloch retorted, "We would've had a dead dragon child and a war if it weren't for me, Lord Macul."

The Heloderm Warriors then flew to the Royal Capitol with their catch. Slade was sickly from Moloch's poison touch, but he was slated for execution in the Capitol within the week for his crimes. He died from the poison within the next day, however. Moloch had done what he had to if it meant ensuring no more blood was shed, even if it meant the evildoer was the only one that had to be slain.

The Daltons' reputation was forever tarnished when word of Slade's actions spread throughout the Kingdom. Meanwhile, the child of Phryno was taken to Archmage Ushart to heal the wounds that were inflicted upon him and to offer solace from the harrowing experience. He would come back to the Archmage when his magical powers had bloomed in the years that came afterwards.

It has been twenty years since this happened. I, Komoden Phryno, was this dragon person who was taken to be used as means to an end. I am lucky to be alive to tell the tale. I am grateful that my story can be even told as a cautionary tale. The power of the purple Draconians isn't worth causing all this chaos and bloodshed, and it certainly isn't meant to be taken by those who are unworthy of it.