Artist's Scope

There weren't always dragons in the Valley…

Helios was beautiful with crisp air and partly sunny skies. The sun peeked through heavy grey clouds as they swept over the afternoon sky. For Tobias Morana, the Chancellor's son, the day shone brighter than most. The citizens crowded the square for an announcement that could change history.

The announcement never came.

Everyone looked around, trying to make sense of the occurrence. It was unbelievable, it was magical, but of all things, it was unnatural. A creature so fabled and fierce, cast aside into the world of mythology and fiction, loomed real before the people. An iridescent blue dragon with large magnificent golden wings hovered above the city. No one said a word as the enormous creature swooped down and grasped the Chancellor in its massive claws before it rocketed into the skies.

Tobias peered into the vast grey of the clouds, ignoring drops of moisture falling on his brow. He shook his head, squinted his deep green eyes, and watched as a pale red mist fell from above. Tobias licked his lips and tasted the tang of copper. From high in the mass of grey, a speck began to grow larger and larger. The people looked to the heir of their realm and followed his gaze. In an instant, silence swept over the square.

Tobias stepped forward onto the balcony where his father stood moments ago. Thoughts swam furiously as that speck quickly became a blob, then a figure of a man freefalling from heaven. Then, abruptly, the Chancellor's body came to a sickening stop. The citizens of Helios watched as Chancellor Thantos Morana's body plummeted to earth.

The crowd panicked as a wave of terror spread through the people, and like ants, everyone scattered except for one, Tobias. He grasped the marble rail with his hand, not paying attention to the blood falling like rain.

Tobias focused on the figure of his father as he swallowed the lump in his throat. He ran his gaze from the blood-soaked ground, then up the lamp post now slick with red from the man that came to a halt halfway from the top. The pit of his stomach flipped as he stared at the scene following his path up the pole. His mouth turned to sandpaper. Swiftly, Tobias tasted bile in his throat at witnessing the crimson dribble stream from his father's mouth. Tobias felt his own blood run cold as his eyes slid up to the sight of the victim's stretched, grotesque entrails hooked on the post's tip.

Tobias was ripped from the presence of his dead father by rough hands on his shoulders.

"Tobias, we have to leave!" shouted a man. Forcibly being spun, Tobias’s eyes were torn from the gore in the square by his longtime friend.

"Thomas, what…" Tobias did not realize shock had set in until he could not formulate a question. At a loss for words, Tobias nearly ripped his arm from Thomas as he grabbed Tobias's elbow to pull him into the safety of the estate. He caught a glimpse of it as he wrenched his arm free.

"Thomas, stop and look," growled Tobias, pointing into the square.

On the cobblestones of Helios Garden square was a replica of the beast that plucked Tobias's father from him and hammered fear into the lives of the citizens of Helios. Thomas, exasperated, peered over the railing quickly to indulge his friend but paused slack-jawed. Thomas's stomach sank to the floor, and the sight stunned him.

Tobias peeled his sight from the drawing to the skies. Tobias saw the fear written on Thomas's face like a book as Thomas shook. Tobias's eyes at that moment grew dark and treacherous as he walked into the estate with an eerie calm. Thomas watched his closest friend leave him on the balcony, then he looked back to the cobblestones of the square one last time. Thomas flinched as lightning forked across the sky, and an otherworldly roar erupted over the cries of the people illuminating the beast above. The heavens unloaded their purchase. The chalk of a child's drawing washed away into the gutters. With a terrifying shriek, the beast melted into nothingness.

Thomas turned and followed Tobias but the sinking feeling that captured his gut seemed to squeeze and not release. Fear had settled in. It was not the terror he witnessed nor the carnage below. The glimmer in Tobias's eyes struck Thomas with a cold dread. Thomas could feel the chains of an uncertain future coil around his chest, suffocating him.

He thought he was the only one.