Rookie

 As the ruins of the houses burn, sirens and screams can be heard, among the muffled voices of the rescuers, unintelligible, indistinguishable…

It hurts, I can barely move, but where’s my mother? “mom!” I shout, or I try to shout, I don’t remember, reality is hazy, the smell of smoke is intense… “mom? dad?” I shout again, but I can’t see anything, but I hear some rubble, a blurring light unveils the dark, I can now hear someone talking: “We found a child.”

I hear a woman’s voice, she might be a paramedic or a firefighter, I don’t know.

I think I could hear a response over the radio saying that it’s too dangerous… It feels like an eternity, yet my memory fails me, as if it was a nightmare. I blink and someone is carrying me on their shoulders and all I can set my eyes on is the one responsible for it.

A black dragon with red-ish embers, bigger than anything I have seen. It whips its tail smashing what remains of other houses, iron and bricks fall down as if they were sandcastles. It raises its head and roars skyward, its roar deafens and the dust burns my skin, as if it was a living volcano, flames spew and rain down around it.

“Mom! Dad!” I call them for the last time before opening my eyes…

SLAYING 10,000 DRAGONS

 A young man with silver hair wearing a black long coat, brown boots and brown fingerless leather gloves, reaches to his back for a longsword and a round metal shield. walks against the crowd of people screaming and running away from something, He smirks as soon as he gets his sight on the terror that caused the commotion.

ALEXANDER CAMELOT
19 years old
Self proclaimed dragon slayer

The dragon opens a car roof as if it was a cardboard box and sniffs out inside it. The dragon’s body seemed like a vintage dinosaur sculpture, a bulky wingless quadruped, a chimera of an elephant and a crocodile by the body alone.

“Hey sewer gator!” The lad with his weapons in hands provokes, in a vain attempt to gather the dragon’s attention. It raises its head skyward, revealing the snout, similar to that of an Allosaurus, with the brow ridges merging with two back facing horns, and two blood red frills adorning its face, the eyes, sky blue, with an iris similar to that of a snake, cut in the middle by a pattern as if a black lightning or rift slashed a clear sky in half, like ripped paper.

In between the teeth, what remains of a man’s arm, not only that, but faint cries from a dog can be heard. The beast opens its jaws and some blood splashes out of its mouth, faintly a small dog can be seen between the guts and bones. As soon as the jaws snap, nothing except a rumbling growl can be heard.

In shock, Alex grips his sword with a slight tremble, the monster crosses his sight, but the creature ignores the young man; It shakes its head and moves to another car, parked on another lane.

In his eyes, the image of the infernal dragon flashes for a moment, as a reminder of his impotence. Alex firms his grip and shouts.

“I AM HERE! FACE ME YOU COWARD!”

In anger, he charges towards the dragon and hits its leg with his sword as an attempt to get the beast’s attention, the dragon raises its head and growls. Grinding its teeth, the smell of sulfur rises, the yellowed scales on its throat lights up, a pale translucent eyelid covers the eyes, and then, after a growl, the dragon’s maw opens and a jet of flames erupts from the throat.

Alex promptly blocks it with the shield, the ground in front of him scorches, yet, the man still stands, the smoke clears and his shield still shines intact. “That ain’t enough to even light a cigarette.”

The dragon hisses at Alex, who changes his guard, holding his shield again and aligning his sword, point towards the enemy, with the edges aligned vertically

The dragon lunges its head, the jaw snaps shut in an instant, however, Alex manages to backstep without breaking his guards. He pushes the snout aside and bashes the sword in the softer leather of the throat.

“RESPECT ME!”

The piece of tempered steel flies away towards the sidewalk, leaving a broken blade in his hand, the only phrase he can think of is, ”oh shit!”

However there is no time to focus on the blunders. The dragon steps back, and stands on two legs, leaving its arms free.

The reptilian slashes with its talons, but Alex keeps parrying with his shield, while still holding what remains of his sword.

“I can’t hit it anywhere, and my sword can’t cut his skin...”

 Thoughts of a possible opening in the monster’s guard rushes towards his head, while not in an equal field, it’s a stalemate.

Neither fighters can break the other’s guard. However, the obvious advantage of the dragon makes it feel like it's playing with its prey. The beast prepares for another fire breath.

“The only option left is piercing the throat!” the adrenaline surges in, he bounces away from the claws range, forcing the dragon to go back to a quadruped instance.

The flames are again blocked by the shield, as the flames diminish and become a thin stream of concentrated heat again, Alex lunges his sword towards the maw of the beast.

“That’s it… I won!” Is his thought after he feels the broken sword pierce the flesh.

A mental image of a counter, going from 00,000 to 00,001.

“Zan… Kegare.” 

A deep, young sounding monotone voice whispers as Alex’s sword enters deeper towards the dragon’s head.

A mysterious figure, dark skinned, almond shaped black eyes and straight hair, fashioned in a ponytail with blunt bangs, giving a slightly feminine look, the swordsman wears a facemask shaped like an oni’s mouth.

He shakes his sword before sheathing again, in a traditional iaido stance. His strike was a clean cut, ignoring the dragon’s scales, the gap in ability was clear.

CARLOS “KARASU” KAWATA23 years oldSwordsman of the Dragon slayer order

The mental counter resets. Alex was in front of an actual dragon slayer. His clothes were merely an imitation of the actual uniform of the soldier in front of him.

Alex was kneeling and staring at the decapitated head, he was about to reach for the sword when he was interrupted. The silence is broken by the dragon’s corpse reaching the pavement, a stream of blood starts to flood the street.

“This sword is already gone, forget it, try to not touch the blood” Said the swordsman while scanning the surroundings.

A small crowd of onlookers gather around, but they are contained by people with the same uniform as the swordsman, “Tsk, let’s leave before the reporters arrive.” He hastes annoyed by the thought of giving interviews.

Alex nods and stands up.

Follow me. Karasu says.

They leave the crowd behind, Alex says “I had it under control, why did you steal my kill?”

“This is not a game, there’s no such thing as stealing a kill.” says Karasu without looking at him “Also, from all I know, you might be just a civilian who daydreams about becoming a hero.”

The comment was short, but precise. As Alex had no response, he switched the subject by asking “Well, am I getting arrested or what?”

“We are not policemen, unlike them we do our job.” The swordsman points out. “Well, I assume you intend to join the order, right?” he continues.

“Well, I tried, but I failed. Sometimes I think that I should have joined the military instead, as it seems that some soldiers join your ranks” Alex replies. He sighs “But I would be just a lowly ranked member this way, I wouldn’t see much action, since firearms don’t work on dragons. And I ain’t gonna be satisfied by being a just a usele-”

“You DO NOT open your mouth to talk about the members of the order!” Karasu interrupts, with a harsher tone. Finally looking into Alexander directly. Facing away again, he goes back to his usual demeanor. “...apologies.” he whispers

Alex says “It’s ok, don’t worry man.”

Karasu pauses, and looking back at Alex he says “Well, due to your behavior, you are under our custody.”

Confused, Alex says “But you just said you won’t arrest me!? Now what, you will arrest me for not being part of your order?"

Karasu says “...license.”

“License for what?” Alex shouts

Karasu sighs, faces away and says “Please, don’t scream…”

“Sorry.” is the response.

Karasu continues “Well, to be a dragon slayer you don’t need to be a member of the order directly, you just need to have a license. Private companies and other nations have their own organizations, the order just happens to be the one issuing the licenses.”

They reach a bar, a wide open entrance, where you can see almost the entire location, with a small glasshouse filled with snacks of many kinds, a couple fridges near the entrance, one with an American soda brand with a variety of drinks and another with a local beer brand, Karasu says while removing his mask “I’ll pay you a snack and a beer for the help.”

Alex nods and both of them enter the bar. Inside, there was a TV attached to the wall, being watched by the barman while the fry cook cleans the grill. Some blue collar workers are drinking beer and playing billiards in the back, where they almost can’t be seen, near a broken slot machine.

“According to some witnesses, the dragon is the same that was sighted last Thursday. In the river banks. We now interview an order member for more information” the news anchor announces, as the camera switches to a live feed of a middle aged man, with the same uniform as Karasu.

The young men sit down eating snacks, Karasu having a beer bottle, while Alex drinks a can of soda . Alex inquires “Is that your boss?”

“In simple terms, yes.” Karasu replies.

“Won’t you get in trouble?” Alex says as he munches on a coxinha.

“No. I just need to report the case formally.” Karasu replies before having a sip of his beer.

They keep their attention towards the TV.

They leave the bar shortly after. Karasu lights a cigarette and offers one for Alex, who refuses with his hand.

Karasu says while exhaling the smoke “Carlos Kawata… that’s my name, but call me Karasu.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Alexander Camelot.”

Karasu clearly strayed too far from the order members, but this occurrence is so common that they report whenever he goes back to the headquarters with the squad instead.

They walk around, occasionally breaking the silence with some chit chat, mostly by the eager Alex.

Karasu asks “After getting your license, what will you do?”

Upon entering the order’s gates, the clerk gives a room for Alexander, with a bathtub and clean clothes. As he lays down to sleep, he remembers what Karasu asked
His reply was simple:

No matter how, I will slay ten thousand dragons.

Chapter I: Rookie

NOTES: Coxinha is a typical Brazilian snack, deep fried dough shaped like a teardrop, filled with chicken meat.