The First Dragon

"Do the math! Why don't you! Everyone knows it takes 300 days of spinning to get the liquid mixed correctly; anything short of that and it's gonna blow-up!"

She looked at him with contempt in her eye. Everyone knew it had to spin 300 days nonstop. Why would he even question that?

"The spin time is important, but what's more important is how fast it's spinning," he replied and folded his arms across his chest just to make the point that he was smarter than she was.

She frowned that you're not as smart as you think you are frown at him and sat down to do some figuring.

He pushed the paper aside and sat down next to her as he brushed the drifting snow away from her brown boots with the back of his hand.

"Yea, gotta keep it dry too. Why do you people put us up here in this damn think tank if you're not gonna listen to us?"

She looked at him again and her frown lines deepened.

"Hey, we're like slaves here. What else do we have to do besides think about stuff?" He dusted off her other boot and rubbed the brass buckle with the sleeve of his coat until it sparkled.

This time she laughed. "You are slaves," she reminded him. "I don't believe that's gonna change anytime in the distant future; do you?"

"Things change," he reminded her. "Life is like that you know."

"Life in general," she agreed, "but not in your lifetime will that situation, 'change.'

She stood, "I must get back to patrol and you must keep watch of the spinning. I realize that it will take 300 days of the spinning for it to be done." As she spoke she began gathering supplies, "but one day over..." she laughed..."just a minute over and we will all go up in a bang! Now, we can't have that can we?" She placed the radar scanner locator into her hip belt pouch and whistled for the wolf that always had patrol duty with her to come.

Before she left the tent she pulled her goggles down over her eyes. These goggles gave the security squad an advantage. They had been enhanced by the great magic users of the kingdom with the ability to see in the darkness. Whenever any group was sent to attend the spinning everyone on the patrol side of the expedition was given a pair. When they returned all had to be accounted for. Everyone guarded the pair they were given with their lives, because if they returned without the pair assigned to them they would pay with their lives!

He watched her footmarks in the snow as she moved away. He'd often wished he'd been assigned guard duty. However, it was well known that only the women were assigned such luxury. Men were always given the dullest jobs to do. He moved back toward the entrance to the cavern leading to the spinning process. He couldn't get anyone to believe him. He knew it was true. It wasn't the 300 days of spinning that mattered; it was how fast the spinning was that counted. In the first days the spinning had been 20 turns in one day. Now, it had increased. It was spinning 30 turns. This extra spinning had to make a difference. Why wouldn't they listen to him? Who knew what would come out of that harden rock once the spinning stopped. He was sure it wouldn't be the ale the king so desired and it was very possible it would all blow-up. Then he wouldn't have to worry about the process any longer; he'd be dead.

As he approached the spinning well the temperature rose. He stopped to put on the specialized suit one had to wear beyond this point near the well. The closer one got the warmer it became. The first visitor to this cavern had died from heat exposure, but they had also been the first to carry out one of the special stones which contained the specialized drink. It had taken years of spinning experiments to perfect the process. Many had died. Why the spinning process had increased was beyond his knowledge. Could it be that the well was going to produce something more? Could it be that the well was going to explode? He pulled the hood up over his head and stepped into the next level of the cave. He could see sweat running down the walls. He knew in the next level he would encounter a dryness that surface dwellers had never seen before. This is where many slaves, who committed crimes against the kingdom, were sent to do time. Most never came out of the cavern alive. He had served many years working with the spinning process. Why wasn't his knowledge of the cycle better respected than it was?

He passed into the next level and watched as slaves dressed in only shawls gathered salt crystals from the floor and walls of the cavern. He felt for their discomfort; yet, they'd committed the crime and knew the punishment. It was well known that these salt crystals were the best in the land and on occasion they could cure deadly illnesses. Still, that was one in a thousand; so, it was very rare.

He stepped into the last level and approached the spinning well. The process was more than half way completed. The counter he'd placed on the side of the well connected to the bag of special stones he'd placed in it days ago told him that the spinning per-day was now up to 50 turns and he had another 5 days left in the spinning process to equal 300 spinning days. What would happen in those last 5 days?

Outside the temperature had dropped another 5 degrees. She checked her counter. It had begun dropping a few nights earlier, but in recorded history it'd never dropped this low before. Bigger flakes of snow were also dropping and this had begun at about the same time. What could this mean?

Carefully she dipped her bucket into the snow and captured some of the new flakes. She'd show it to Logan once she got back to the tents and see if he had any ideas about why the temperature was dropping so low and why there was more snow. It didn't make sense. The colder it got the less it should snow.

Wolf barked at her and stood in attention towards the woods to her left. Quickly she pulled out her locator and pointed it in the direction he indicated. There was a bright light, a very bright light shining in the distance. What could it be?

"Come wolf," she smacked her leg and began the walk towards the light. Wolf fell into a trot beside her. He had been well trained and knew his place beside his master as she knew her place beside her master. Everything was right in her world in that order.

The darkness surrounded them. The closer they walked towards the light the darker it seemed to become around them. The sounds of wild life vanished and the snow seemed to thin out as if it were melting...

She looked around melting?

Deep underground the spinning continued. Logan checked the well again. The lava inside seemed to be rising. This wasn't possible. The lava never did that. If it kept rising at the speed it was raising it would spill out into the cavern and kill them all in less than 30 minutes.

He ran across the now very warm floor of the cave to the alarm bell and began ringing it. This bell was the signal for everyone to exit the caves. Danger was afoot. He stopped ringing the bell and listened after a short time. In the distance another bell sounded the chain had begun. Quickly, he moved around the room gathering up important objects he didn't want to lose to the lava.

Indeed, the snow on the ground surrounding her was melting and it had a warmth to it she wasn't expecting. What was Mother Nature up to? If she didn't know any better she'd say that the earth was about to give birth.

The bright light grew brighter and the snow around her was almost gone. She motioned wolf to run away from the light and she followed him as fast as she could run. It had to be the well! It was going to explode!

Logan and the last of the slaves emerged onto the snowy bank just as lava erupted from the caves. They climbed up the stone wall just a few feet in front of the first rush of lava. Not far from where they stood, on a shallow embankment, just above the well sparks of lava could be seen exploding from the ground below.

Some slaves stayed hoping for a miracle, other slaves ran scared of death, and Logan watched Interested in history in the making. Clouds of smoke rose from the new opening and spits of lava filled the air around him. Logan moved backwards carrying his backpack along with him as he went. Screams filled the air around him as pieces of lava hit slaves causing death and dismemberment. The ground began to shake. Rocks from the wall he'd just climbed for safety broke free and tumbled into the cavern area already filled with lava. Snow rained down upon his head. They were the largest flakes he'd ever seen. These were mixed with balls of lava already cooled in the freezing atmosphere, treasure!

Logan kept moving backwards away from the rising heat of the opening. What would happen next he wondered?

Wolf kept his pace at a fast trot. She kept her pace beside wolf at the same speed. When the ground began to shake they had to stop. Just 50 feet away she saw a low hanging rock face and was about to try move to that structure once she could stand again. But, this never happened. Without warning or cause the whole side of the rock-face exploded from within. Steam, smoke and lava poured out and covered the ground before them. It quickly dropped off the side of the cliff to the river below. She breathed a sigh of relief that they'd been stopped where they had been stopped.

Another tremor shifted the ground around her and just ahead of them the ground dropped away and filled with a steaming river of lava. She and wolf started backing up. She had no idea which way to go. Wolf barked and pointed towards the woods heading towards the mountains and home. She scrambled to her feet and motioned him in that direction. There was nothing else she could do.

Logan kept watching from his vantage point alongside the flooded cavern area. Near the opening something fluttered. Nothing alive could come from that lava he reasoned. Nothing...

Something brightly blue and shimmering rose above the opening. It had wings and a long, long neck. Its body looked to be covered in scales, and it spat out fire! The earth had given birth to a monster! Had the well been created to give birth to such a creature? Had they been drinking this demon's blood for years as ale?

With one wild puff the dragon wiped out all but one of the survivors. Logan sighed and fainted while the woods around him burned.