Flight of Dragons

Night fell, and once again I had to face an empty sky, this time without even short buildings to frame the view and make it feel less enormous. More meteors streaked in and out of existence, though strangely some seemed to slowly float across the sky. Was it normal to have so many at once? I lay on my back and tried to count them, but the effect was similar to counting sheep, and I started to doze off.

Only to snap awake when a meteor sped right towards us.

I scrambled into a sitting position as it fell from the sky, split in two and, impossibly, slowed to hover above us with a rhythmic, whooshing sound. Then they lowered to the ground and I could make out their shape.

Dragons. Honest-to-goodness dragons, shining like the shooting stars overhead, lacy white veins spreading throughout their iridescent wings. Their torsos alone were as big as a bus, nevermind the wings and tails. Their heads were covered in boney bumps that somehow felt wrong, as if something was missing, and their eyes were cloudy. Each had a leather saddle with a dragon spirit seated on it, though calling them dragon spirits felt wrong after seeing a true dragon. One dismounted, bowed to Dschubba, and got on the other behind its rider so they were riding double. Dschubba mounted the now empty saddle and both dragons lifted off.

Dschubba's went straight up in a hurricane of wingbeats, but the other hovered over my cage, and grabbed the top. I gave out a strangled yelp as the cage rose into the air, suspended only by the shining claws that were extended disconcertingly far into my cramped space. We rose high enough that I could see a speck of a village in the distance; Haven? We rose even higher. I felt the air thin and started to panic. Then higher still, and I made the unnerving discovery that I didn't seem to need air after all, nor did the riders above me, nor the dragons themselves. How the dragons were flying in such a thin atmosphere, I didn't understand. And still we continued to go higher, until we were flying amongst the meteors.

Watching a distant piece of rock flash briefly across the sky is a beautiful sight. Having one zip by you at thousands of kilometers per second is terrifying, no matter the fact that most meteors are as small as or smaller than a grain of sand. The dragons didn't even flinch, though they did slowly swoop this way and that, far too slowly to be actually dodging. I started to notice other dragons around us. These ones had a myriad of horns adorning their heads, sculpted manes that gleamed like ivory. Their tails had fins as iridescent as their wings, but the fin tips had a slim tendril extending from each, stretching far behind them and ending in a fan-shaped fin that looked more decorative than functional. I squinted up at the dragon carrying my cage. Its tail was far shorter, in fact it looked-

Wait. I craned my head back and forth at the two saddled dragons, examining their tails.

They had been trimmed. I realized they must have also trimmed the horns on their faces, maybe in order to put the reins on more easily.

As soon as I had realized this, a dragon the size of a football field appeared out of nowhere, circling us like a shark. How I hadn't seen it coming, I had no idea. A scream of hatred struck me from above, making me gasp for air that wasn't there. I knew it was Dschubba. I don't know how. There was no sound. But I felt it, and I knew it was him. The enormous creature lazily twisted to face me. Three heads on long necks wound and unwound around each other like seaweed in an ocean current.

I am glad to see you again, little one. You seem to be doing better.

I knew it was the broader head with brown eyes that spoke, if you could call it speaking. The other two said nothing, one massive with an absolute forest of horns, the other more slender and constantly hiding behind the first two. Then I blinked, and the dragon was gone. I felt Dschubba scream again, a howl of unfulfilled bloodlust. I shivered. Dschubba's dragon dove straight down, and in a sickening lurch, the one carrying my cage followed.

I used to think riding one of those zero-gravity planes would be fun. Free falling through the upper atmosphere in a tiny cage made them sound less appealing. I don't remember the landing. I think I had my eyes closed. I only know that next thing I knew, I was out of the cage and Dschubba was holding me in the air by the neck.

"WHAT DID IT SAY?!" he screamed, spittle hitting me in the face as I clawed at his iron grasp. "WHAT DID THE BEAST TELL YOU?!"

I tried to speak. He released me and I dropped to the ground in a heap. Once I got a lungful of air, I babbled in my panic.

"I don't know, it said it was good to see me, said I was doing better, I don't know!"

He stomped his foot down next to my head with force that cracked the old tiles we were standing on. I scrabbled away instinctively.

"How. How do you know the beast," he ground out between clenched teeth.

"I don't! I told you, I've never seen a dragon before, let alone a three headed dragon the size of-of-the size of-" I sputtered into silence, at a loss for words. Dschubba slowly sank into a squat next to me.

"Do you know its name?" His voice was cold. I shook my head, not daring to lift my eyes from the floor.

He continued, "It's name is Meissa." He leaned closer until I could feel his breath on my hair.

"And it. Must. Die."

He leaned back slowly. Stood up. And walked away.

He spat over his shoulder at the two other riders, who were wisely keeping quiet off to the side.

"Make her comfortable."

They came over and pulled me up by my arms, and I got my first good look of Dschubba's home.