No Longer The Last

Perched high up on a cliff belonging to a solitary mountain that overlooked the small unsuspecting village of Wierdlings, a being thought to belong only to a mystical past and lost to the ages surveyed the stretching land before her for her next meal. Bigger than a house, as fearsome as a wolverine and deadlier than the deadliest snake, she released an arrogant puff of smoke as she watched everything below her.

Nothing evaded her. With her keen eyesight, she saw everything, from the bouncing fleas on the black cat’s fur as it scurried down the street to the slight tremble of the blades of grass at the mouth of the forest from the gentle breeze. She inhaled deeply and even from high up above the ground all the way up the mountain, she could pick up the scent of cooked flesh from the garbage truck that moved through the village streets.

From where she surveyed, she knew everything, yet no one knew of her.

Her existence was unknown to many but of course, nothing is ever truly unknown. There were stories floating around the village and Dreaco knew them all.

“The biggest darn bat you ever did see!”

“Dinosaurs! A flying T-Rex it was!”

“The night came alive and just swallowed that sheep whole before it even managed a bleat!”

That one always tickled her. Her tough black leathery hide helped her blend into the darkness but it always amazed her how stupid the humans could be to even contemplate such a thing. Of course there were those that would guess correctly and try and spread their stories, but they were always rebuffed with howls of laughter.

“A Dragon!”

For thousands of years Dreaco had lived, and for several hundred, she had lived alone as the last remaining Dragon. Portrayed in tales as mindless destructive beasts, Dragons were anything but. True they were massive creatures of incredible strength, capable of setting the world ablaze and possessed a set of teeth and claws adapt for slicing flesh. But they were intelligent. Dreaco could speak as well as any human and could do so in a variety of languages. She had spent her life listening and studying and adapting to her surroundings.

She spread her large leathery wings that spanned over twenty feet in each direction and propelled herself high into the sky. They were so powerful that the gusts of wind that she created felt like a calming breeze to those down below. The fading light cast a faint looming shadow over the village as she soared above it but she wasn’t worried about being seen. The evening dusk allowed her to blend into the night but even on the brightest of days without even so much as a cloud in the sky, she knew there was nothing ever to fear. She soared so high in the sky that they seldom ever detected her, and when they did, they mistook her for one of their airplanes. If her ancestors had lived to see such things as humans taking to the sky, they would have seen them as convenient snacks.

Not Dreaco though. She knew better. She was the last of her species for a reason.

The reason for her longevity was down to her intelligence rather than might. Rather than going from village to village and burning each to the ground, she hunted with stealth, picking off the stray sheep or cattle from the local farms and even the occasional villager that wandered that little too far away from their homes. All done though without ever leaving a trace. As stupid as the humans were, they ruled the planet in numbers and had a knack for eradicating everything else.

She didn’t mind being the last of her species. All the other dragons had been too arrogant and were never smart enough to remain undetected. Dreaco spent a lot of her time praising herself for her cunning and being able to live so close amongst the humans for so long without them ever suspecting a thing.

But she knew she wouldn’t be the last Dragon forever and that was why collecting food tonight was more than just dinner. Back in her lair on top of the mountain, what one would guess as just a boulder was anything but. Though as tough as stone, a small crack had formed across its exterior shell and through the small opening that had been created, a curious eye peered onto the world. Dreaco’s life was about to drastically change. For the moment when she would no longer be the last of the Dragons had finally arrived.