The dragon's den

   The dragon flew over us and then straight for the city. From our vantage point, we were able to see how the creature spew fire all over the place, making fires light up the morning landscape. The crimson color of the flames combined itself with the pink and blue hues of the morning haze, which looked beautiful but wasn’t any of the sort for the people in that place. Some had already died and others would die pretty soon, for sure. They didn’t even have the opportunity to wake up and see what was going on, as life had just caught up with them in the most awful of ways. Death was always an unwelcomed guest.

 The group overlooking the city soon split into two groups: some of them were responsible for the release of the creature and ran somewhere to try and contain it. Doing that was ridiculous and they knew it very well, but it would have been worse if they had stayed there, looking at the creature destroy the nearest center of population. They disappeared quickly and left the rest of the people there, only a handful of humans that had no real connection between themselves except the fact that they had learned of the other people’s plans and had attempted to thwart them, failing horribly in a matter of minutes.

 They had carried a bomb with them, hoping to seal the cave the creature had been sleeping in for centuries, but the device had failed and now they needed to know what to do. The destruction of their birthplace had begun and it was very possible that the creature would turn it all into ashes before they could do something to capture it or, of course, killing it. It was an obvious idea to have after seeing the creature for the first time. It was such a huge amount of flesh and bones, heavy, with fangs protruding out of its mouth and the deadly capacity of producing the deadliest fires one could ever imagine.

 The creature, to be fair, didn’t seem to have much of a mind, but it was precisely that what scared people so easily. They couldn’t know what kinds of things that beast was able to do. The only real problem was that one group of people decided to wake it up and find out, while the others only wanted to keep the creature away from the rest of the planet, sealing it away in order to protect them from a potential catastrophe, that ultimately happened. They had neglected to realized that some of nature’s creations cannot be controlled, no matter how much effort and money people could put into it. It wasn’t like that at all.

 So, the creature had awakened, as they had planned, but it had escaped in a matter of minutes and now death and more loomed over them. Several transports carrying personnel from the team that released the creature, cruised through the forest in order to get close enough to attempt some kind of trapping mission, which was obviously not the best idea to have but it certainly was one of the few things they could do, without losing the support of the people.

 But when they reached the outskirts of the city, they realized what the dragon had actually done: it wasn’t burning the city randomly, as it had seemed to them from the top of the mountain. The creature had created a perimeter of fire, burning houses, buildings and so on to create some sort of ring to protect its new home. As they couldn’t see it in the air, they sent robots and drones to check for the creature’s position, only to find out that the dragon was sleeping quietly in the center of the city, where a large square surrounded by ancient buildings enclosed a yard made with very old bricks and stones from many parts of the country.

 Apparently, the creature was exhausted and had decided to avoid looking for food, as sleeping to gain strength back was the wisest idea, or at least it felt like that. The creature did not seem dangerous at all, but the group behind its release was not going to let it go so easily. They had decided it was better to pretend there was a bigger crisis and use that to propel their own image in the face of such a strange occurrence. So, in a matter of hours, they helped evacuate the whole city by piercing a whole in the fire ring with the help of some very powerful fireman hoses that they had available for other emergencies.

 The creature did not notice the humans in the outskirts and slept all day, almost through sunset. Unexpected as they always were, a group of humans, not allies of those idiots that had liberated the creature from the cave, decided to infiltrate the city through another point that the dragon had not completely covered in fire. It was difficult and they risked their lives when doing so, but it was worth it as they believed the creature was not one to be disturbed and they needed it to understand that it was better for its well-being to fly away to some other place, instead of sleeping in the middle of a square, an easy target.

 Although many humans infiltrated the city, only three were brave enough to come closer to the creature. As soon as they got too close, the beast opened its eyes and looked straight at them. Then, two of those people ran away and only one remained. The dragon moved its formidable paws in order to get closer and the poor human shook nervously, but did not move from the position it had been when the dragon opened up its eyes. The creature grew as close as it liked and then sniffed the human for a long time. It was as if it was looking for something special, as if it knew something that no human knew anything about.

 The dragon then put his nose very close the human’s chest and started building up some fire. Of course, everyone in the vicinity thought that poor person was going to die in moments, burned alive by the fiery flames of a creature that people didn’t even thought existed. But the dragon did not kill the person, it just heated up its nose and then expanded its wings and flew away, somewhere where he wouldn’t be bothered, very far from those greedy bastards trying to make money out of it.

 The creature was never really seen again. Some reports came to the ears and eyes of the people in that region, but nothing could never be really confirmed. In time, the fires where finally extinguished and people were able to go back to their homes and enjoy their city again. The ones responsible for the destruction were brought to justice after some private citizens had formed a coalition who brought up proof that they had been planning for a long time the awakening of the creature to use it in many kinds of tests and medical investigations.

 The people of the city, however, never thought of the whole things as something inherently bad. After finishing repairs in many parts of the city, the mayor decided to erect a huge statue honoring the dragon, right in the middle of the square where it had slept. Most people in town were very happy about the idea and many children, as well as adults, submitted thousands of designs for the statue. It was unveiled a full year after the events of that day, when they had been awakened by the rumbling of such a majestic and mysterious creature. It became a legend of the region and a story to pass down through the generations.

 As for the dragon itself, no one knows where it rests these days. Some say it must have looked for another cave. Other claims that it now takes advantage of its freedom and roams the world changing its home from time to time. That idea is very popular with children, as they seem to enjoy a lot the idea of a travelling dragon. But the truth is that most people just want to see it once again, just once before they each return to the ground, as we all must do.

 And maybe it will happen… Maybe it has already happened. But that’s a story for another day.

Endurance

   The moment he reached the top, Finn sat down next to the yellow flag and removed his shoes. He knew that to be a stupid thing to do, because he had to go back down at some point, but his feet were hurting so much that he needed them to breathe for a while. However, he did grab the flagpole and removed it from the soil. He then opened up his backpack and put the flag there, leaving the pole outside in order to use it as a cane, in the case his feet hurt him even more as he climbed down.

 He then sat down still and enjoyed the beautiful view. The mountain was the tallest one in the vicinity and it overlooked a very deep valley filled with trees and a stream that could be heard from that summit. Birds and other animals could also be heard and seen. It was an idyllic place to be in and it wasn’t a surprise they had chosen it to be part of that year’s race. They always chose beautiful places and the flag was always in the most remote place of the area chosen for the contest. Good choices anyhow.

 Finn wiggled his toes to make blood flow through them. As he did that, he closed his eyes and raised his head at the sun. For some reason, the clouds that had been covering the area all morning had mostly dissipated and now the sun could shine and bring joy to everyone, including the race’s contestants. It was nice to feel warmth on the skin, just as it was nice to participate in such an event that made people use their physical skills but also their wit and intelligence to solve puzzles and riddles.

 The race consisted in every contestant receiving a backpack with various things. They chose the backpacks randomly and each one had different things inside. However, they all received some sort of clue in order to begin the event. It was fun to do it with friends or if you liked to compete with other people. Finn, however, loved to do it because he had fun by himself. He had no friends to invite to such a thing and he wasn’t the type to enjoy competitions. He actually thought they were only for brutes.

 But he did love to enjoy himself in the woods, by a stream or just walking up and down a mountain. The problem was that he had made too much of an effort this time and his feet were too sore to continue. The game did consist in people finding the flag but they had to come back to the area’s entrance in order to win whatever prize the organizers had. Sometimes it was some money, some other times it was something like a gift card or sunglasses or things like that. The point was that with his feet hurting so much, Finn wasn’t going to get anywhere near the entrance point. He would have to forfeit from the whole thing.

 He expected someone to at least solve the hints fast and come help him go back down from the mountain. He would give that person the flag and just say he had been just behind them. The pain was increasing slowly and he was also beginning to have these pinches on his legs. It felt as if a scorpion had walked into his pants or something. For a moment he did think that was the case but then he remembered he was in a cold climate and there were no scorpions around, for thousands of kilometers.

 The young man waited up there for an hour and then another hour. By the third one, and after finishing one of the power bars that were inside his backpack, he decided to go back down by himself. He would probably get to the entrance by night, but it was really necessary for him to just go back and rest properly or even ask if they had a nurse or a doctor in place. It wasn’t normal that his feet were hurting so much. He was used to doing these sorts of things and didn’t make any sense that he was feeling so awful.

 Putting his shoes back was not an option. He did try but it made no sense to do it, as his feet seemed to have swollen up as he waited seating down. So the trek had to be done barefoot. As the mountain was covered with small stones, it hurt like hell but he then realized there were small patches of grass on it, so he tried to walk only on top of those. There were still some stones there and his feet were making him cry and yell silently, but he continued. Finn knew very well it was always easier to go down than to go up.

 He had walked up the mountain in less than thirty minutes but it took him three times that to make it to the bottom, to the tree line. There, it was almost impossible to walk barefoot. There were too many things on the ground including leaves, branches, roots and rotten fruit that had fallen from the trees. After stepping on something that looked like blueberries, he decided it was time to be a little smarter about the whole thing. So he sat back down and looked for something to use in his backpack.

 Having found nothing that could work, he did think about ripping the flag in two and using a piece on each foot in order to walk easier or at least with much less pain. However, he decided against it because the organizers could see that as something else, as him not wanting for others to find the flag, for example. So he left it alone and decided to do what he was going to do with the flag but with his own t-shirt. He took it off, ripped it in two pieces and carefully wrapped each one around each foot, trying to make something similar to the early shoes used by cavemen.

 After this short stop, he decided to continue through the forest, walking by the river that he knew he had to cross at some point. The bad thing was he had to do it by walking on top of a gigantic tree trunk but he would only worry about it once he saw the crossing. His feet were still in deep pain but at least he wasn’t carrying any more dirt or little stones between his toes. He had to make many five second stops along the way. Not only he was in pain but he was also getting very tired of the whole day.

 He heard wolves and birds and even something that seemed to be a board in the distance. That’s what made him fall in love with the whole thing: he loved nature and how free one could feel in it. The forest always felt alive and thriving, it always seemed there were many possibilities for it to move on and keep being that awesome place were everything felt so far away and where everyone seemed to be on the same level. It was almost an utopic place to be in, even if it was only for a couple of hours.

 But, by the time Finn got to the tree trunk, the sun had almost completely disappeared from the sky. He tried to move faster, climbing the trunk as fast as he could in order to cross over the river. After all, the entrance was not that far from that place and he could easily push himself to the limit in order to get there and finish the whole thing for the day. He was even thinking that he might miss the next one, just to have a bit of a rest.

 Climbing the trunk wasn’t easy and it took him various attempts to finally make it on top. Once there, he tried to modulate his breathing in order to cross in one go, not stopping at all. One, then two deep breaths and then he went. He was more than halfway through when one of his feet got a cramp and he lost his stability. In moments, Finn slipped from the tree trunk and fell straight into the water. The backpack’s weight pulled Finn down, who was in shock for the first few moments of the incident.

 However, he then tried to pull himself out but the only thing he was doing was fight a force he wasn’t able to submit. His feet were useless so his legs couldn’t propel him properly to the top. He started panicking, knowing he could not hold a long time underwater. He had never been good at that.

 Then, he felt something pull him out. He was dragged off the water and then over the grass on the other side. The sensation went away but he couldn’t see anything, as he felt he could not properly move. Then, the face of a young man such as himself appeared in front of him, all drenched in water. He smiled.

Elipo and its eagles

   For some reason, the gigantic birds liked to fly around the volcano, doing many turns until they seemed to feel it was enough, and then they flew away to their nests, down in the base of the mountain. Many scientists had regaled for many years, visiting Elipo Island and watching the beautiful red birds fly around the mountain. It was one of those beautiful thing from nature you just had to see once in your lifetime and many had already did that from their comfortable chairs at home.

 Elipo was an island that, for many years, had been left alone by civilization. But as transportations got better and faster and communications made everyone accessible in seconds, there was an urge to discover everything there was to uncover in the world around us. So many scientists embarked for remote regions, trying to document in any way, shape or form, all the new species of plants and animals that they could find. It was a new age of discovery and every single person in the world was a part of it.

 The so-called eagles of Elipo were the most interesting species that had been found in recent years in that corner of the world. They were a strange animal, as birds would normally fly long distances to make nests or get food. But the red eagles did not do that at all. They liked to stay on Elipo, flying around the volcano and then getting food in the small patch of jungle that covered must of the island. They could feed on small lizards and tiny mammals that were very agile and would give up a nice fight.

 The eagle’s favorite food was the Elipo hedgehog, an especially large kind of hedgehog that fed on various smaller animals and fruits that it found laying around in the jungle. One of the best scenes to witness for a scientist would be the fight between an eagle and a hedgehog. The first one would be coming from above, just after locating its prey visually. It would come down at full speed, trying to use the element of surprise as a weapon. The shape of such a living bullet was just an amazing thing to see.

 However, the hedgehogs had lived there as long as the eagles and they had learned to notice the changes in the wind around them in order to notice any incoming dangers. So right before the eagle could grab them to take them away, the hedgehogs would turn into a very tight ball, with all its spines rising towards the sun. The eagle would then land on the ground, unable to properly carry its food, and proceed to attack its prey with its beak. You have to remember eagles in Elipo are at least twice as big as normal eagles, so the fight would be a very interesting sight.

 The hedgehog would then stay as a ball or sometimes open up and fight the eagle with the spines in its forehead, which tended to be longer and sharper. A fight between the two animals could last a few minutes or several hours. Many scientists would disrupt these encounters by making sounds, caused by an overwhelming fatigue. No one had ever seen a long fight between those two creatures in its entirety. And most times, none of the animals ended up dead. A draw was the most common outcome.

 However, eagles won enough times to feed themselves and their young with the body of one large hedgehog. It was more than enough for most of them. Elipo was a place of harmony and animals were never “bad” or “good”, they didn’t act on despair or anything like that: they had easy access to fresh water, to food and to places were they could take care of their families. Before the arrival of humans, they had nothing to fear. As you might have guessed, not every incoming human was a scientist.

 Hordes of hunters and animal traffickers had discovered these new places were they could go and get all the animals they wanted with almost no resistance from the countries allegedly controlling the area or by the local tribes that inhabited these remotes areas of the world. They learned soon that there was no way they could stop the cruelty of the white man with their weapons, so they decided to pull back and just be silent witnesses to the horrible things those men and women did in the jungle.

 So these horrible people soon got to Elipo and got to meet the beautiful eagles and the hedgehogs they ate. The first ones to get trapped were the latter ones, as they were craved all around the worlds as pets. Besides that, they knew that by depleting the food resources of the eagles, the birds would be weaker and they would be less willing to fight them the moment the hunters and traffickers started climbing the volcano to get them. The eagles noticed very soon that something was very wrong in the island.

 After a couple of weeks, the number of hedgehogs had dropped dramatically and eagles had no real way of supporting themselves and their young. That moment was used by the evil men to climb up the mountain and start grabbing eagle eggs and young chicks from their nests. Of course, that caused a horrible respond from the eagles, which tried to defend themselves against the traffickers but that was a lost battle. Those people had guns and many other weapons, so the eagles could only scratch some of them badly before been killed or having to escape from the area.

When the scientists came back from their period of rest, they noticed that Elipo was dying. Not only the eagles were very scarcer, the hedgehogs and other animals had almost disappeared from the island. They tried to do their best to help the species gain the territories they had once held, as well as their older numbers but that seemed impossible. The traffickers had done so much damaged; it was possible no one could ever make up for it, not even if they spent years working there.

 And the scientists could not just stay there, they had to leave for a while and, when the local government realized what had happened, they banned any ships from abroad to enter the area. They argued that it would stop poaching but it really didn’t, as most traffickers used local boats and were people from the region. They had to be in order to have all the information necessary to get all those animals and their young, as well as many plants, which they sold to the pharmaceutical companies.

 The scientist decided to talk to the regional communities, especially the indigenous ones, in order for them to better protect the area. It wasn’t really a surprise when they realized that Elipo Island had always been a sort of sanctuary to them. As per their traditions, a young man had to visit the island on his fifteenth birthday. Their only task there was to climb the mountain and get a single feather from one of the birds. That meant they had become a man and they should be welcome in their communities as such.

 The scientists learned from the local peoples and they learned from the scientists new things they didn’t know about Elipo. They made an alliance to restore the island to its former glory and to fight the poachers. No weapons were used, just a lot of very smart gadgets and traps to make the evil men go away and just never return.

 Their goal was achieved, many years later, when the government recognized its poor treatment of the situation. As for the animals, that was another story. The  eagle community had been severely damaged and recovering it would take a lot longer, if it worked at all.