Category : Stories
Sub Category : Fantasy
YEAR 3057
LINDSAY BARNES
"She was sent by the gods, or that's what I'm told." Nathaniel says to his companion as they watch the parade crawl its way past beneath their feet. "Sent to deliver us from the dragons."
"Especially equipped with deadly arts in the ways of killing dragons. I think its all bull-shit."
"Oh, really?" Nathaniel asks incredulously. "You think you could kill a dragon, Lindsay?"
"If I could afford all that crazy-cool dragon-killing weaponry SHE has, then I'm sure I could."
They sit in silence, then, as the only float in the parade idles by: a huge iron trailer, towed by one of those new Ford XXL Super-Duty trucks. Settled atop the trailer? A red-skinned dragon. A dead one, that is.
One of the last three of its kind.
"There are only two of those left in the world now." Lindsay declares sadly. "If she kills one more, they're extinct."
"Well, at least that'll be the end of them."
"But do you really think that it's moral to kill off an entire species? I still wish I could have seen a black dragon with my own eyes."
"You wouldn't have lived to tell about it."
"I think I might have."
"You can think all you like, but the truth is that the dragon-slayer," pointing to the woman settled comfortably on the dragon's spine, "saves human lives, and dragons forfeited theirs when they declared war on us."
It is at that moment that the parade stops, and the mayor of New York steps up onto the dragon's back beside the dragon-slayer to present her with her prize: a key to the city (her third).
Lifting a microphone to his mouth, the mayor addresses the crowd gleefully as he hands the key to the dragon-slayer. "My oh my oh my!" He says. "A red dragon, ladies and gentlemen!"
The crowd applauds heartily.
"So, tell me, Sophia, how DID you manage to kill this legendary foe?"
"Why is it that everyone calls her 'Dragon-Slayer' except him?" Lindsay points out. "It's kinda creepy."
The dragon-slayer smiles arrogantly as she responds to the mayor's question. "Well, it was certainly one of the most difficult dragons I've ever tracked, but once it came down to straight combat, there was no-"
She doesn't finish her sentence, because the dragon she's standing on suddenly swings its head around and bites off her entire upper body, coating the mayor in her blood and painting its long, sharp teeth a dark- red color.
The entire crowd erupts into chaos as the dragon rolls off the trailer and onto the asphalt, crushing the mayor to jelly on the pavement.
Lindsay and Nathaniel look on in horror as the dragon regurgitates a long, roiling stream of molten lava onto the crowd, melting dozens of humans into puddles of flesh in seconds.
Lindsay does not know what to do for a moment, until the dragon turns its back on the fleeing crowd and begins scaling the building beneath their feet.
"Nathaniel, help me unhook this sign," she says, gesturing to the large, neon Comerica sign they are currently resting their feet on.
"You want to drop it on him?" Nathaniel guesses.
"If we can!" She responds, and together, they swing down to try to do just that.
"Lindsay," Nathaniel says, "its fuckin bolted to the side of the building!"
"I didn't think of that!" She screams.
"Fuck this, let's go! We can't hope to kill a dragon!"
"Okay, fine!" She agrees.
But as she turns to climb back onto the roof, her foot catches on the metal rigging, and she loses her balance, pitching backward over the edge and into open air. She falls for several seconds, before landing painfully on a hard surface.
Feeling breath on her back, she tries desperately to roll off the dragon's snout. Suddenly, her fear becomes overwhelmed by an intense, fiery anger, and instead of jumping free, which probably would have killed her anyway, she swings her right fist over her shoulder and punches the dragon right in the eyeball.
The dragon releases its grip on the building with a screech of agony, and claws at his face with his paws as he plummets forty feet to the ground and lands on his back.
Lindsay lands only a few moments later, crashing hard on the dragon's semi-soft underbelly and bouncing off onto the pavement near the dragon-slayer's remains: her legs, to be exact.
Lindsay jumps to her feet, unable to feel the scrapes on her extremities as she charges forward and kneels beside the dragon-slayer's gear pack.
The dragon moans with pain behind her as she picks up a small, round object, and a larger, hilt-like cylindrical object with a switch on it, presumably a lightsaber.
Armed properly, though she has no idea how to use the weapons in her hands, Lindsay approaches the dragon, which is just now beginning to roll to its feet.
Still running, Lindsay presses the botton on the orb and chucks it at the dragon's head. The dragon doesn't percieve the orb as a threat, and it hits the dragon's cheek hard.
And then it explodes.
The force of the detonation knocks the dragon onto its back a second time and stuns it.
Approaching fearlessly at full sprint, Lindsay flips the switch on the hilt, and, sure enough, a blade of white-hot energy springs erect out of the handle.
Lindsay does not hesitate a moment. She merely jumps onto the dragon's head and plunges the blade into its skull.
She leaves the blade in its head as she jumps free and takes a seat across the street from the dead beast, propping her aching back against the cool brick of an office building.
"What have I done?" She asks herself, as the crowd begins to reappear to inspect the aftermath.
Comments
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Excellent descriptive writing. if it was not for a real lack of important details about how this all came about and maybe an understanding of the kind of destruction that has been going on world wide as a result of thier invasion/war. some important questions that should have been answered. First, how did the dragons appear? where they underground? are they space dragons from the 5th dimension? second, New york city is basically a beacon of arrogance and human pride. there is a reason the big invaders in the comics start there. General Zod decided that of all locations on the planet that it was the place to rip apart first, Loki used it as an invasion point for some reason when a farm in the middle of nowhere would have been an easy way to land the army and invade from. even traditional wars are fought in cities. the reason for this is the same reason why they say if you want to establish yourself on the playground you go after the biggest guy there. so having said that, why is it virtually untouched? Third, if the automotive industry is still in full swing producing archaic trucks from this century why is it the only float in the parade? if this is meant to be an impromptu parade then disregard, but if they are concentrating light through crystals to make superheated beams in hand held devices i feel like they should have like flying cars or even better methods of personal transport. we are talking 900 years in the future so i picture Elysium not 21st century NYC. Why a light saber? i get the sci fi / fantasy crossover but i mean there have been so many really cool weapons out there. Mono filiment blades, psychic guided projectiles, even nets that restrict back to the bolaces to varying degrees of damage from holding a target to literally slicing them to cubes. how about something sonic, that would be effective and have excellent range for handling a dragon. How come modern conventional weapons are ineffective. a CWIS for example can auto target a moving airborn entity and fire 1500 50 calibre rounds in 3 seconds (It is actually pretty cook to see) missiles with standard non nuclear payloads can obliterate entire buildings (like 2 to 3 story structures) and dont forget the hull mounted rail guns fitted onboard the most modern US ships with unverifies weapon velocities exceeding what was previously thought possible. a great deal of holes, i am sorry to offend you if i have so far but I also have a few good things too. as i mentioned you get descriptive writing, that will help you as you move forward. this was especially prevalent in the fight scene. you have a natural understanding that only equally matched opponents will battle for a long period. though it is REALLY unlikely she survived that fall like she did, its plausible and you SOLD IT so i bought it. i love that you included a point. you mentioned early that one of the characters felt that it might be wrong to make an entire species extinct and then justified it realistically one sentance later. this can be a tough issue to broach when the characters obvious feelings would be to hate them implicitly. You demonstrated intelligence and a questioning mind which made the character rich. This deserves more, i think you could write a short novella in this character set if you made the adjustments metioned above. maybe a ten chapter tragedy where the main character learns that in order to hate something you must also love it. maybe the idea that he fights to protect the remaining population of dragons and broker peace only to be betrayed by someone close to him. maybe a dragon demonstrating that sometimes nature can not be always overcome. Maybe it is a human, a close friend who delivers a device that kills the last remaining dragons in a particularly vulnerable moment that the Main character himself set up. imagine the fallout from that! You're on the right path. I love that you took the time to fix grammer and spelling before publishing. That is a sign you repect your readers enough to put the time in to refine a work. i make a great deal of comments speaking to this on other writings.
May 25, 2018