4 The Ashen Forest

I finally escaped the gloomy cave and stepped out onto the charred ground of the what used to be forrest. I took in a deep breath, which made the hot air flow into my lungs. Just that breath would have been enough to give an adult human pneumonia, because of all the ash floating through the air. After I had gotten used to the atmosphere, my siblings walked out of the cave and waddled ahead of me.

Pyro looked back and told me to catch up with a smile. He and Seraphina were the only ones that didn't completely despise me. He was also always really funny and not the brightest, may I add. But that did not matter to me. I liked him for that; it made us brothers.

Within the center of the ashen forest valley was a massive active volcano, seemingly about to erupt at any second. Occasionally lava would flow from its hungry, all devouring maw as if it was drooling and demanding sacrifice.

"Hey Cyrus." I said.

"What Scourge?", he said as if he was fed up with me after hearing me say two words.

"Do you know how to fly yet?" I always wanted to see dragons fly, but the only one I have seen fly is mother. I never really watch because she always looks like she is about to eat me.

"Yep Archon and I are the first ones to fly. Watch and learn… Oh, wait you can't hahaha!" After he said that he leaped into the air and unfurled his wings. The soft flap of a parachute catching wind rapped through the valley, and as it did Cyrus soared higher and higher. He made a few circles In the air before finally landing in a satisfied stance.

"Hmph! You can't breath fire yet, you scoundrels." Seraphina said with a renowned and cocky attitude.

"All you two know is how to fly away from a fight, while we learn how to breath fire and kill." Asmodeus added.

"I don't need to breath fire if I can kill everything with a swipe of my claws," Archon replied lackadaisically.

"We will see once you get back from the hunt just how good those arms of yours are," Seraphina said distastefully as she glared at her sibling. After she said that, she looked at me, a dragon almost two thirds her size, with a mysteriously loving gaze.

After I split up with everyone to hunt for my own survival, I started to get tired of walking. I sat down near a cliffside in a sitting dog position, and repeatedly thrashed my tail against the ground in frustration. 'Why is there nothing here!?' I thought to myself, which only added to my frustration. This charcoal forest was not going to harbor any form of life. How could mom do this to me? Why did she do this to us, her own family?

The sky was a dirty grey blanket that cascaded to the ends of the eyes. There were darker clouds of ash that slowly drifted through the nigh windless open air. Rivers of lava were inching their way down the slanted edges of the valley on either side.

As far as the eye could see, there was no respite from this ghastly barren wasteland. Or was there?

I shifted my eyes a bit to the right and saw a patch of green at the ends of my vision. It was almost covered by the boulders, seemingly daring to take their last step off the cliff. 'Trees!' I thought to myself and began a wild sprint like a mad dog. Rushing over as fast as I could might not be the smartest idea, but it was the best option I could think of.

Just when I was almost there, a sharp rock whizzed past my head and pierced the end of my tail, almost severing it from the rest of my body. Pain rushed through me, it felt as if I had nearly cut my finger off, and it was merely hanging from my hand. I quickly retracted my tail from the position it was in and accidently tore through the rest of it, completely severing what was left of the end of my tail off.

"ARRGHHAA!" I bellowed, making a deafening screech from the bottom of my powerful throat.

I looked back up to where the rock came from and saw a small monkey with mat black fur trying to blend in with the ashen trees.

"Oh come here you little fucker!"

I pounced onto a stump next to the tree he was on, but he jumped to the left landing on another tree. I picked up the sharp rock and was about to throw it at him, when another sharp pain tore straight through my left wing.

Another monkey appeared on a tree behind me and threw a rock at me. I angrily turned around, made my best baseball impression that this dragon body could handle, and hurled the rock at the one behind me. The rock went straight through the primate's skull exploding out from the other side of its head with a bloody rainbow of pink and red. The monkey dropped to the ground and collapsed in the pool of blood it had made for its final resting place.

The other monkey stared agape, realizing that the baby dragon had another rock. It prematurely dodged the projectile and ran for the trees.

I walked towards the dead monkey while holding my injured wing and grabbed it by the neck.

'Why does this not disturb me?' I thought to myself while wiggling its body left and right, making bloody brain matter drip out of the cavern I made of its skull.

Not minding what I had just done, I continued my walk towards the lush green forest, dead monkey cradled under my injured wing.