Drako

An original story, inspired by a large dragon skull I found at Value Village.

Discovery

The whole kingdom had been rocked by a rare, late autumn storm. For three days and nights the kingdom was subjected to fierce unrelenting winds, pelting rain, and the constant roar of thunder as the flashing lightning lit up the skies like fireworks. When the wind and rain finally died down, the King sent out his knights to survey the damage.

Winston and Matias were sent to the seashore to see what effects the storm had had on the coastline, where they came across something totally unexpected....

"What is that?" asked Winston as he hovered above it.

"It looks like the skull of a dragon."

"It must have been one giant dragon!"

"It probably was. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to run into that one when it was still alive."

Matias got down to take a closer look....

"I wonder how it got here."

"It was probably washed up in the storm."

"Or, maybe it's been buried here all along, and the heavy waves during the storm uncovered it."

"Anyways, I think we need to go and report it."

An Expert Opinion

Winston was very curious about the dragon skull on the beach, and wanted to know more. So he went to get Willie and the Wizard. He figured if anyone would know something about it, it might be one of them.

"That is one huge skull!"

"Do you have any idea what it might have belonged to?"

"Well, it's clearly a dragon. A mighty huge dragon!"

"There's legends of dragons this size that lived thousands of years ago. They were called 'Drako' and were as fierce and dangerous as they were big. This skull is likely from one of them."

"But, there's none of them around now, at least as far as I know," commented Winston. "So what happened to them?"

"Well, according to legend, they became extinct following some kind of major natural disaster."

"And dragons were a lot smaller after that." added Willie.

"But there aren't any of those around now either." continued Winston. "For the longest time I thought I was the only dragon. Until I met Saphira, neither of us had ever met another dragon."

"That's true." said Willie, "People were terrified of dragons, and for good reason. Most were very fierce, and terrorized the towns and villages, pillaging and burning everything in sight, so knights were sent out to slay them."

"And eventually they succeeded." added the Wizard, "And there were no more dragons."

"But, where did I come from then?"

Winston's Story

If dragons had all been slain into extinction, then Winston wondered how it was that he came to be.

"Well," answered Willie, "The knights may have thought that they had slain all the dragons, and in some regards they had, but there were still dragon eggs hidden about. And dragon eggs can still continue to be viable, even after a hundred years, or more."

"One day, the Lady Miho, came across what at first appeared to be an unusual egg-shaped rock."

"But being a Fairy Queen and a powerful sorceress, with a great respect and curiosity for all things magical, she recognized it for what it was....a dragon egg.

"So she took it home with her, and made a nice warm spot for it beside the fire."

"She had no idea if the dragon embryo inside was still alive, but it might be, so she was determined to make every effort to ensure that it might have every opportunity to actually hatch. So she patiently kept watch over the egg...."

"... and would turn it several times daily."

"Time passed slowly, and as the weeks went by she began to sense a life growing inside the egg."

"Then, one day her efforts and patience paid off, and the egg hatched."

"It was an adorable baby dragon."

"She named you Winston."

"She was like a mother to you,"

"..and raised you to be the wonderful dragon we all know and love today."

Saphira's Story

"So I wasn't all that wrong," said Winston, "When I thought I was the only dragon. But what about Saphira?"

"Well, as you can guess.." said the Wizard. " Her story is much the same."

"Yes," continued Willie, "Her egg was discovered far away, beyond the northern mountains, in the realm of the Elves,"

"It was Daisy, of the Northern Elf Kingdom." she continued, "She was the one who found the egg."

"Her husband and a town elder said it was just a rock, and told her to leave it."

"But I think they were just a little afraid, and wanted to discourage her. After all, dragons didn't exactly have the best reputation, and the last thing they needed was for some huge fearsome beast to be running amok terrorizing their kingdom."

"But Daisy ignored them, and took the egg home."

"Thinking it should be treated just like any other egg, she put it near the fire to keep warm, and turned it over several times each day. The other elves made fun of her, but Daisy had a feeling that is was truly a dragon egg, and therefore very special, so she quietly kept vigil over it."

"And she was right. One day the egg hatched."

"It was a cute little baby dragon girl."

"Daisy and her Mother named her Saphira, which means 'Beautiful Bright Scales' in the ancient elven language."

"Several days later when Daisy's husband came home from one of his army campaigns, she introduced him to baby Saphira."

"Daisy hoped that her husband would let her keep the baby dragon and let her raise it."

"He was a little apprehensive at first, but then realized that it could be a huge advantage to his diminutive army to have a real live dragon amongst its ranks. So he agreed to let her keep the dragon."

"So now you know why you and Saphira were the only two dragons we knew of..." said Willie, "...until of course, the two of you had some little ones of your own. Although I guess it's always possible that there are more eggs still to be discovered somewhere."

"Anyways, I think we need to go report this to the King. I'm sure he'd be very interested to see it for himself."

the King and His Men

Winston flew to Lawrence's castle, then led him and some of his knights to the discovery on the beach.

"That is one giant skull."

"It must have been some incredible beast."

"Willie and the Wizard think it's a Drako." said Winston.

"....one of the long extinct, massive dragons that once roamed the Earth."

"It must have been one truly fearsome creature."

"I certainly wouldn't have wanted to run into him back when he was still alive."

An Ancient Ancestor

Winston was excited to bring his family to see the skull on the beach....

...and the kids immediately started climbing all over it....

Saphira was not impressed...

"Get off of there immediately!"

"But Mama..."

"... it's just a skull Mama."

"No, it's not 'just' a skull."she admonished.

"According to Willie and the Wizard, it's a Drako, which means it's an ancient ancestor of yours."

"..and it deserves your respect. So get off of it immediately!"

"Yes, Mama."

"That's better!"

the Royal Family

Lawrence wanted to show his family the impressive skull on the beach..

The children had never seen anything like it, and found it fascinating...

Well, most of them did....

"That must have been one giant dragon!"commented Paige.

"Apparently, it's from a Drako, a long extinct massive species of dragon." explained her Father.

But Ringo wasn't having any of it.

"Don't you want a closer look?" asked Winston.

"Don't be afraid," added his Mother...

"It's just a skull, and can't hurt you."

"Come on down," Winston tried to encourage him, "...and have a closer look."

Ringo finally took a deep breath and got down off his horse....

"Wow! It's even bigger up close!"

Lawrence was happy his son had managed to conquer his fear...

..and quietly hoped that he might just make a brave young man some day.

the Elves

Saphira was eager to share the news of the giant dragon skull with her fellow compatriots, and several of them wanted to come and see it for themselves....

It was cold and very windy. Another storm was coming, but they still wanted to have a look....

"It's a legendary Drako." said Saphira. "Can you imagine if dragons were still this size?"

"No, thank goodness! You and Winston are already big enough compared to us."

"We can't even imagine a dragon ten times bigger."

The wind gusts were really picking up. They'd seen what they'd come to see, and the sand was being blown into their faces, so it was time to leave.
That night the storm hit, and a few days later Winston went to check on the skull ....

...but it was gone.