Earth Dragon reminds us of who we really are

Rochelle would like to indulge Tablo readers with a small sample as she writes her book 'Earth Dragon.' The full story will be available once published. 

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Copyright © Rochelle Angelique 2020

Gaia shuffled her large graceful body around her crystal cave feeling somewhat restless. 

She wanted to spread her ginormous dragon wings and take flight into the golden sunset.  

On summer evenings she loved gliding through the lush green mountains pollenating the forests below.  Earth dragons were the great pollinators of the planet ensuring regeneration of diminishing flora. Ancient wisdom guided Gaia through life to rectify the wrongs that human beings were doing to the planet. Humans were destroying the forests, polluting the air, polluting the water and living indulgently like there was no tomorrow. 

The only reason Gaia’s forest still existed was because the humans had sighted dragons there and sought to protect the forest from logging. The humans were determined to prove dragons were real by capturing the last colony and placing them into a Dragon Feature & Fantasy Zoo. Gaia shuddered at the thought of what would happen to the sacred forests if the last of her species were entrapped.

So as much as Gaia’s primal drive to fly out over the mountains pervaded her, now was not the time. The human dragon hunters were about. The human dragon hunters came in droves at random times of the year for the Earth Dragon Challenge. Their mission was to shoot a dragon, with a camera not a gun, to prove to mankind that dragons really exist beyond fantasy. It was like the space race to the moon, they were obsessed. Tribes of humans all shapes and sizes would hike through the mountains and ravines ruining her peace and tranquility.

When Gaia was younger she amused herself by using her camouflage to stalk and prank the humans. Nothing like pinning one down in the forest and giving it a good dragon licking until it was covered in green slime. 

But lately she had been feeling so tired yet restless all of the time.

Change was in her bones and she felt like something was shape shifting inside of her.

She wondered if her diet was causing this feeling in her body.  She was even having bouts of occasional nausea and dizziness.

Gaia’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud sound.

Rumble! Rumble! Clink! Crash!

Gaia froze at the sound of breaking crystal stones echoing throughout her cavern.

All of her senses peaked to alert.  Was she in danger?

Questions fired like guns shooting bullets through her mind ‘what was that?

Something’s here!

Had the humans finally found her lair?

Listen!

Be careful! 

Don’t get caught!

Is she in danger?

Could it be Andros?

No. Andros is not due back yet.’

She decided to creep along the cavern to see what was making the noise. 

Gaia camouflaged her body to blend in with the amethyst crystals as she crept along the cavern wall. Hardly breathing she moved towards the crumbling noise which had increased to sniffing and sneezing sounds. ‘Who is in my chambers?’ she wondered as she crept along. 

Her senses caught the smell of another dragon. 

Gaia paused and took more caution. 

Was she in peril of harm?

She listened whilst arming her mouth full of poison cells ready for battle. 

Ready to defend her territory with one almighty breath of poisonous fumes towards the intruder.

The sounds bounced across the cave from rock to rock and Gaia’s sharp eyes scanned the scene like radars. Honing in on what appeared to be a bizarre creature.

What was it? 

It was a dwarf like.

It had fluffy white fur with black spots.

It was a fuzz ball miniature dragon.

She burst out laughing at herself and the little fuzz ball dragon glanced up towards her.

It raised its small tail and wagged it back and forth flat out like an over excited puppy.

“Hello” said Gaia in the softest dragon voice that she could muster. 

The fuzz ball ran towards Gaia and snuggled itself into her large chest area, rubbing itself around and around oozing unconditional love.  Gaia’s heart strings fluttered and every maternal ounce of her being fell in love with this little fuzz ball. 

With all of her heart, Gaia desired to be the mother of a baby dragon. Right then and right there Gaia wanted to care for this little fuzz ball dwarf dragon, even if it wasn’t hers.

Then a thought struck her ‘what if this dragon’s parents were looking for her?’

So Gaia asked the question “Where’s your mother little one?”

“I choose you!  I choose you” yelped the little dragon.

“So you have no parents?” asked Gaia

“No parents.  I want you,” replied fuzz ball.

Full of love and maternal instinct Gaia assured the little creature she would be its mother. Little did Gaia know she was pregnant and her maternal hormones were driving her to nurture this little being in its time of need?

“What’s your name?” asked Gaia

“No name” replied the fuzz ball.

“Well…..you are here in my crystal cave on a starry evening so I will call you Gemstar and Gem for short. My little Gem,” announced Gaia. 

Gem flipped around like an excited bouncing ball and licked Gaia all over her large clawed foot.

Gaia laughed at her new affectionate childlike friend and said “You must be hungry little one.  Come with me.”

She guided the little dragon through the chambers of her cave until she reached her food stock. She stretched her long neck up to the shelf that contained delicious flowers, nuts, forest fruits and a selection of freshly caught salmon.  Gemstar was beside herself leaping on hind quarters and spinning around, wagging her tail and licking her young dragon lips.

“Here you go little one” crooned Gaia dropping the array of food at Gems claws.

Gem chowed into the food swallowing rather than chewing to the point she was re-gorging and then re-eating. “Ohh my…” cried Gaia giggling “you are a hungry one….slow down and chew your food or you will choke!” 

Gem ate so much food she looked like a bulging balloon with no legs. She was drunk on food and staggered over to some soft hay only, to collapse in a heap. The little fuzz ball managed to roll her fat little body over onto her back, Her tongue hung out with drool dribbling down. She was out cold and quite the sight for sore eyes.

Gaia thought to herself ‘only a mother would love that’ as she settled herself in beside her drooling little dragon for a good nights for sleep.

Andros had flown through the starry night and he was looking forward to arriving home to his Gaia and a well prepared meal of earthly treats.  His bones felt tired from the night flight as he glided through the lush green valley to land on the ledge before Gaia’s hidden cavern.

He was stretching his wings and folding them neatly into his iridescent mauve, blue dragon body when all of a sudden a shooting needle of pain jabbed onto his right hind leg.

“Ouch!” he yelped as he looked down.  Something was biting him. 

“Off with you! Stop” yelled Andros as he flicked around his large hind leg with a vicious fuzz ball firmly attached.

Gaia awoke to the commotion outside and realized Andros had just met Gemstar!

“Gaia!” yelled Andros somewhat annoyed.

Gaia moved into the entrance of the cave and laughed. There was dwarf Gemstar firmly attached to the large mauve, blue dragon’s leg being swung back and forth.

“I see you have just met our new little fuzz ball Gemstar”

“Who?....just get it off me Gaia!” yelled Andros tired and now more annoyed.

“Gem,” soothed Gaia “this is Andros….he lives with us,” she explained.

“Don’t you mean this creature may live with us Gaia. I’m not the new arrival here!” exclaimed Andros attempting to be the alpha of the cave.

“It appears our little fuzz ball has a territorial protective side,” laughed Gaia.

Andros unloaded his enormous cargo of freshly caught fish. 

He had been out at sea circling the isles on the wind gusts and diving into the ocean for his prey. The days had been glorious out on the wind, alone, sailing through the air with little to bother him. Now he definitely had something little to bother him! 

A black and white fuzz ball dragon!

‘Gosh,’ he thought, ‘Gaia would collect anything and bring it home.  Maybe he needed to get her pregnant so she would stop collecting strays.’

Andros looked down at the dwarf like creature. “Come on Gemstar.  Make yourself useful and help me drag the fish into the cave,” he commanded like a true alpha.

The fuzz ball, dog like dragon was too small to be of any use dragging the fish into the cave but it did give its best attempt by chewing on the fish to lighten the load.

~*~

Andros was not from Planet Earth. His royal lineage traced back to Planet Neptune where his elderly father, King Darya, and mother, Queen Helimada reigned over the Water Dragons. 

Andros knew one day he would be summonsed back from Planet Earth to uphold his royal duties to his kind and his colony. He also knew that if he did not return to Planet Neptune his royal rite of passage would be handed down to his sister, Princess Alixir.

Princess Alixir had been well groomed from birth to become a Queen. She was intelligent, witty, kind, generous, a master huntress that could converse in many tongues. You get the gist.  Princess Alixir was more like a Queen than Andros was like a King. Andros had even relinquished the ‘Prince’ title from the front of his name. Now that he was on Planet Earth he could for first time in his life simply be called Andros. 

Water Dragons had fantasy mauve, blue scales and the ability to absorb into penetrable things or become invisible in water, hence his ability to master the art of deep sea fishing. 

Water Dragons controlled water like the moon, they could reshape water at will and reshape their bodies at will. Andros possessed wisdom, telepathy and could freeze anything that threatened him.  His mauve, blue body reflected the scenery around him which made it easy to fly over a valley full of human hunters or fit in with the Earth colony dragons. They were none the wiser that he was from another planet.

Andros thought back to the day he had escaped from Planet Neptune.

On Planet Neptune every Water Dragon is initiated into adulthood at aged 160 which is 16 in human years.  Male dragons faced the challenge of a flying to high altitudes and then diving at lightning speed towards an ice crevice. The dragon had to maneuver through the ice crevice into the ocean under the iceberg. The Dragon would become as one with the water currents that flow beneath the iceberg.                                                                                                                               

The ocean currents flowed out into the bay where the Water Dragon colony resided and the dragon emerged from the water in the form of a pure alpha male.  From youth to adulthood through the initiation. Some dragons did not make it through their initiation and their bodies obliterated into the iceberg never to be seen again. With any great ritual came risk and Andros new the challenges that awaited him on the day of his royal initiation.

King Darya had flown with Prince Andros to the sheer tip of Neptune’s ice pinnacle. From the pinnacle Prince Andros could see a bay of glistening alpha dragons skirting the iceberg cliff side and the deep crevice through which he would dive.                                                               The alpha Dragon of each pride were there to witness his initiation just like his father and his forefather before him had surpassed.

The only difference between Andros and his ancestors was that Andros was a misfit. What his father saw as honor he saw as obligation and a ball and chain around his huge dragon hind claw.  Andros also knew that once initiated his whole life was mapped out for him and there would be no divergence or escape. 

Escape!

The word echoed in his brain. 

Escaping was his only way out.

Andros had heard stories of other water dragons penetrating into other worlds and now this was his one and only chance.  It took an extraordinary event for a dragon to shape shift through time and motion.

His thoughts were disrupted by large ice chimes echoing across the water stilling the air.

The chimes were enchanting and mesmerizing.

“Prepare yourself my son,” commanded King Darya. 

“I am ready father....” replied the young Prince Andros. Who really was ready to surrender to whatever became of him. This was his one chance to escape his royal destiny.

Andros took flight into the air flying straight up into the hemisphere at lightning speed. 

He whipped his body around into a pivoting stealth dive towards Planet Neptune. The wind whistled past him as the narrow crevice way below marked the opening into other worlds appeared in his eagle eye vision. His knew he could maneuver his body skillfully through the crevice of sharp ice knives then melt into water below the berg. 

The rest was unknown.

Faster than lightening he speed towards Neptune and the line of alphas that marked the opening. 

Such a dangerous maneuver, even for a water dragon who could penetrate into all things. Speed and penetration did not agree with each other and an unskilled dragon could be smashed into smithereens on the sharp edges.

No. Not Andros!

This was not his fate.

He pivoted ever so slightly to enter the ice shaft crevice like a bolt of lightning through its sheer depths entering the water deep below like a spear.

Andros visualized melting into water just as his body hit the ocean below.

He dissolved into pure water dragon energy.

Andros did not reenter his world to the waiting roars on the ice cliff above the bay. No.

His energy moved into the bottomless depths below where no dragon goes. The deeper he dived, the darker his world became. A world of darkness not lightness.

No iridescent mauve as Neptune is prized for.

His water planet was well beyond his reach.

There was no turning back now.

He used his dragon powers to absorb into all things, obliterating into a zillion micro particles. Deep Neptunian ocean currents travelling at speeds under the iceberg carried his essence towards the warming seas beyond the berg.

He felt his essence morph to vapor as the sunlight warmed the ocean currents.

He felt himself rising to the surface evaporating into the air and then the atmosphere above.

Micro particles travelling through infinite time and space. Prince Andros had disappeared.

~*~

Shimmering through the expanse of space the essence particles of the dragon raced.

Past Planet Jupiter with Wind Dragon tornados that twirl.

Bumping through the asteroid belt where unknown dragons rule.

Avoiding the flames of the Sun Dragons that scorch.

Breaking through Planet Earth’s gravity field to feel as one with the world.

To feel Gaia.

The mauve, blue shimmering dragon of Andros descended into a crystal clear mountain stream to softly float through colourful crystal caverns and caves.

Andros felt Gaia in the water.

Gaia with Planet Earth.

He felt a connection to all living things.  

He felt all of the Elemental Dragons throughout space and he felt her, he felt Gaia calling to him with her dragon soul.  Her call was for a fledgling, a dragon nymph and he knew his earth purpose was to sire with her and provide for her. 

His purpose was clear. 

To create Alchemy.

The Divine Royal Master of the Elemental Dragons.