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A Fiery Adventure!

Story

A Fiery Adventure!

 

The night was as dark as coal. There was no noise except for the chirping of the crickets and the squelching of my boots in the mud of the rainforest in west of Africa. Surrounding me were all sorts of beautiful and unique plants, some of which were even poisonous. Something could pounce on my back and swallow me whole. Something could be watching my every step, right this very second.

 

I saw my face in the clear pool of water in front of me- the same soft brown hair, pale skin, light brown eyes and a tired look on my young face. I was only seventeen, but my passion for exploring this wondrous world around me had caused me to leave my humble home in India and escape to the wilderness of the jungles and rainforests of west Africa. My parents would always tell me “Amara, you shouldn’t do something because you may be injured in one way or another!”, but did I ever listen? - NO!

 

I could get really stubborn at times, and I’m not too proud of it. If someone has a problem with me, then I burst into short tempers very frequently. I really try to control it, but it just doesn’t happen; people even think that I like to get angry!

 

I continued on the muddy path ahead of me, deep into the rainforest. I had heard many myths about the rainforest that I was in. Many people believed in a secret being lying in this very area. But I don’t let anything make my heart skip a beat. On the other hand, I was very curious, and wanted to see what was this secret and ancient being.

 

Soon, the sound of thunder boomed in my ears and I was getting too tired to go any further, so I began searching for a place where I could be sheltered for the night. I dragged myself along, till the mud reached my ankles to a big, rocky cave in front of me. It was abnormally large, and it was hard to see it clearly because of the trees shrouding it with their branches.

 

As I went closer to the cave, the louder became the booming of the thunder. When I stood in front of the cave, I realized that the booming was not coming from the thunder. But I made my realization a little too late.

 

The booming stopped abruptly. My blood ran cold as I saw two giant balls of fire open before me. They were eyes, focusing directly on me. A gush of wind and ash almost toppled me, coming from nostrils of this creature.

I saw its thousands of sharp, needle like teeth running down its upper and lower jaw, with a long, snake-like brown tongue in the middle.

 

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw red scales all over it, covered with a sheen of golden light, and beautiful wings lined in black.

 

It was a fire-breathing dragon!

 

 

I was speechless. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I now see why they said that whoever comes here never returns. I could do absolutely nothing. My legs were frozen into the ground. My face felt numb, and my arms felt limp. I just stood still as the dragon let out a deafening shriek.

 

I almost fell to the ground. My ears were still ringing with the sound. I got up on my feet, thinking of what I could possibly do to stop this beast from tearing me to shreds and turning me into its dinner. Now what?

 

 In a deep voice, the dragon spoke. “Who are you, and why are you here? I will not have anyone coming here to disrupt my spirits! Turn around and leave this haven of magic and spirits this instant, or be prepared to be removed from existence till the end of time!” boomed the dragon.

 

I didn’t know what I could do, I mean, I wouldn’t possibly be able to even make a scratch on this thing. Maybe, possibly, there was a chance that I could befriend it? It would maybe calm down, right?

 

I crept forward, trembling, looking straight into the dragon’s angry eyes, and said in a meek voice-

“I know that I am trespassing in your territory here, and I want to apologize about that. Can you forgive me and possibly we can become allies?”

I watched, my heart probably beating a thousand times a minute, and then put my hand on the dragon’s claw.

 

ZAP! I felt something rushing into me, a sort of ticklish sensation. My eyes widened as I saw a silver line rushing through inside the vein of my right hand.

 

 

I felt as though my emotions and strengths were multiplied. I looked at the dragon, and could even understand its thoughts and peered into its mind.

His name was Ash. He came from a line of rare dragons, as it was very rare to have black lining on a dragon’s wings. He was somewhat like me, with his fiery temper and arrogance. But, we both also had soft spots for our family. We both cherished their love.

 

Wait, I thought. If I can peer into Ash’s mind, then can he peer into mine? I thought.

“Yes.” Said Ash. I almost jumped back in shock. This was so out of the ordinary but amazing at the same time! To share your thoughts with a magical, mighty beast! Its like a special bond of some sort!

 

“Somehow, we have a unique connection, a close one, in both god traits and flaws. When you held my claw, you must have activated it somehow. We share each other’s strengths, too.” Said the dragon.

 

“If we share our strengths, then”- I looked down at my hand, and chuckled in awe.

“This is so cool!” I exclaimed.

 

 

There was a new vein in my hand- a glowing red one. I closed my eyes then concentrated and felt a tickle in my hand.

BOOM! CRACK! Little flames spurted out of my hand like fireworks. That was amazing!

I felt like a new person altogether. I felt confident, and felt power contained inside of me.

I decided that we would soar into the skies, do what we want! This was our world now!

 

I told this to Ash. He slightly wafted his wings, and we lifted ourselves off the ground and up to the skies.

It was a divine world up there. It was the crack of dawn, and we found ourselves surrounded by beautiful, cotton candy clouds, that were in beautiful shades of soft pink and gentle, glowing gold. The sun peeked from behind them, casting a yellow glow on my body. I breathed in the fresh air, and felt as it reached till my lungs.

 

Just then, I felt a little empty inside. I’ve always been a bit afraid throughout my life about what would happen if I lost whatever I had. I felt it again now. What would happen, if, by some way, this bond was broken? I’d never feel whole again, as though there was something missing inside.

 

Suddenly, lightning flashed. Thunder roared in the sky around us, and the clouds turned ugly shades of black and dark grey. How was this possible? It was raining? They were high up in the sky, but hadn’t noticed any storm coming their way.

What could this be?

 

 

I saw as the little droplets of water fell down, from up here till the forest far, far away. The forest from up here looked now like a little picture, which was stained with little blobs of green.

 

I couldn’t resist. I loved rain! I levitated below the clouds, letting the pure water fall on my face. It was a wonderful sensation.

 

I saw as the clouds wafted apart, but the rain didn’t stop. The clouds turned a milky white, and the sun shined through. I watched before my eyes as streaks of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet appeared in the sky. A rainbow!

 

Hold on just a second. When we merrily floated up to the sky, the sky was beautiful and sunny. Then, when I felt a little upset, it started to rain. When I felt a little better, the sun shone through. Well, then that must mean-

 

“We can control the weather!” Ash and I said in unison.

This was, by far, the best magical power ever!

 

 

“Woohoo!” I exclaimed, as we hurled in loops around the clouds. “This is so amazing! We can change the weather to whatever we want!” I shouted in delight.

This was something that I could have never even dreamed of. Controlling the weather? That is something that I’ve only read in comic books about superheroes. But now it was happening to me! My emotions were my power. They helped me control the weather!

 

After that, I think we got a little carried away. We swirled around the sky the whole day long, never stopping for a minute. We didn’t even know how we felt. It was like thoughts, and how many of them rush through our brain at the same time, but with feelings. The excitement was so much, that all of a sudden the weather became freezing and there was a giant snowstorm. The weather changed yet again, and this time it was a thunderstorm.

 

Just then Ash showed a new side of him, and said that I didn’t deserve this, and had nothing to do with this. I couldn’t control myself and burst out, saying things I didn’t mean to. I tried everything I could to apologize to Ash, but when he just ignored me I wasn’t able to cool down.

We couldn’t control ourselves at all, because after that lasted a boiling heat, and the sun beamed down so hard and we couldn’t stop it. If we didn’t do something fast, the water bodies could start to boil!

We were getting too cocky with our power, and needed to cool down, and apologize to each other, I know that, but I didn’t want to even talk to Ash. I know what happened was wrong but I couldn’t change it. We didn’t realize that this heat could melt the largest glacier on the planet, harm so many creatures, and human beings. We didn’t realize that there was anything bad about our bond, but our hot tempers and arrogance put together were really bad.

 

Suddenly, the ground caught flames, and the fire was spreading very fast, and it was getting close to the rainforest, where so many creatures lived!

 

“Ash, I think we need to stop this somehow. We could be hurting thousands of creatures right now!” I pleaded. I know that we weren’t going to talk to each other, but many lives were at stake, and that was more important than anything.

 

“I realize that too, Amara, but there is nothing we can do! We can’t stop it!” Ash replied.

 

I never realized that this one flaw of mine, one that I had had my whole life, could lead to something so fatal. We got so caught up about ourselves, we didn’t realize what harm we were causing to everything else!

 

 

 

Suddenly, I thought I saw something move behind a cloud near me. This heat is making me see things, I thought.

I thought I was seeing things, but suddenly I saw it again. Was this another winged creature? I didn’t know, as I didn’t see the creature that well, but I am sure I saw a large wing among the shadows.

“Um, Ash, are you seeing this?” I asked. “Yes, I now when there’s a fellow dragon around, and I feel that right now.” He answered. We looked around, waiting to see the dragon.

 

“Woah,” I exclaimed. “Ash, you have to see this.” “Wow! I’ve never seen one so large before!” Ash exclaimed.

 

The dragon was so large, even compared to Ash! What I thought was a wing, was a large, almond shaped eye of the dragon, that looked just like two gleaming sapphires. She had a dark, turquoise body, and snow-coloured wings. She let out a rumbling roar, which sent me flying across the sky, through the clouds.

 

My shock about seeing the creature ceased as I saw the fire spreading nearer and nearer to the forest.

 

“You two, have misused your bond. You have used it for your own happiness, not thinking about others. You need to understand that you need to be humble and calm about this, and not let your mere emotions affect the world. I am Zavdia, and I have made these bonds for over two million years, and given them the gift to control the weather cycle, but none have misused it as much as you two.” Said the dragon.

 

It was clear that the dragon was disappointed, and that we clearly had not done a good job with our gift. I felt ashamed of myself too, and so was Ash.

 

 

We watched as Zavida flapped her wings hard, and brought fluffy pearl coloured clouds to guard the Sun’s heat. Then, we saw her close her eyes in concentration, and saw as a huge, crystal like ball of water formed between her claws and drop down on the planet.

 

Watching her do so was a great experience. She was cool and calm, and she was experienced, unlike us. We felt so guilty at that moment, and we just wanted to apologize.

 

The fires were extinguished by the rain. She then gave us a very disappointed look, and vanished between the clouds. She taught us to use our power for good, and that was what we were determined to do from now on.

 

 

We did several good deeds with our gift, because heat has a lot of benefits too! We rescued a group of people trapped in a glacier, by using our heat to thaw it. We found a group of small children at the edge of a city who were shivering hard, so we produced a fire to keep them warm.

 

Doing this just made me so happy, because to see the happiness on the faces of the people we helped was just so satisfactory. I bet Zavida is watching us this very moment from the skies, smiling proudly at us!