Home

      Dragons are not all that mysterious. In fact, sometimes they are more human than humans themselves. Dragons are very much like people. Some like to live in cities while others prefer to live alone. Some have businesses while others work for someone more powerful. Some have families. And some must raise that family alone.

           Far away, farther than any human ship has ever gone and can ever reach, was a mountain. A mountain, rising out of the ocean and reached up past the clouds. With black sand and white wispy clouds, this mountain is where many a dragon called home. The dragons called this place, The Home, because all dragons return to it one way or another. And all dragons, even those who were not born there, know their way to it. And that is where our story begins.

It was a chilly, overcast day. Not many dragons swarmed the outer layer of the mountain, preferring to stay in the network of caves within. A few stragglers were on the beach or choosing to stay near the mouth of the caves, but they all heard the same thing. The beating of wings on still air.

And cutting through the clouds was a dark purple dragon. From a distance the dragons below cooed and awed at him. A purple dragon was unheard of! But as he approached and they saw his features, many opted to stay away. One of his horns looked like it was snapped in half, he was covered in scars from past battles. The back of his head to the tip of his tail were covered with spikes of a darker shade from his scales, as if he were a hedgehog or a porcupine. And his back right leg was completely missing. From one look at this stranger, the dragons wanted nothing to do with him.

The strange purple dragon landed on the sand, covering his purple claws. He quicky surveyed the area before turning back to the sky and letting out a roar. And out from the clouds came another, smaller dragon. This little dragon shared the same odd spikes as his father. He had baby blue scales and wispy white patterns that looked like air blowing snow all over his tiny body. The little dragon landed besides his father, but instantly started rolling around in the sand. Pushing it around as if this were the first time he saw it.

The dragons who lived in The Home began to crowd around the outsiders. The ones playing in the sea and sand stopped their activities to watch. Dragons poured out of caves to see these strangers. Some hovered in the air, keeping an eye out in case something bad might have followed them. And a big, bright red dragon emerged out of the biggest cave. “Who are you!” She demanded.

“My name is Emperor,” said the purple dragon, “and this is my son, Cyclone.”

“Why are you here?” Asked the big dragon.

Emperor casually reached out and pulled Cyclone to his side, maintaining eye contact with the big dragon. “I want to live here, and raise my son,” he answered.

The big dragon reared back and flared her red wings, smoke came out of her nostrils and between her snarling teeth. Emperor held onto his son tighter but did not move. “This is The Home is it not? If not I, my son would have found his way eventually,” Emperor said without thinking.

The dragon slammed onto her front talons and the smoke thinned. “Fine,” she barked, “but if we find out you brought any danger to us, we will not hesitate to kill you.”

Emperor simply nodded and watched the bright red dragon turn back into the cave and walk into the dark.

Over time, Emperor and Cyclone got used to The Home. But no matter how many times they showed up at the beach or in the labyrinth of caves, the other dragons gave them looks and avoided them. The big red dragon especially scowling whenever they passed.

One day, when the two of them were eating a dolphin Emperor caught, Cyclone looked up at his father and said, “It’s too hot here, why is there no snow?”

They were sitting off to the side of one of the passageways and the other dragons looked at the young-one with disgust. Emperor looked at the first dragon he saw and flared up his spikes and watched them back away.

“Because it’s hot there is no snow, my silly boy,” Emperor chuckled.

“I miss snow,” Cyclone admitted then took another bite of his chunk of dolphin.

“I know, Cyclone. I know.” Emperor sympathized with his boy, but there was nothing he could do. It was not as if the purple dragon could conjure up snow from his throat. But then he got an idea.

That night, Emperor left his cave and flew up and up to the very top of the mountain. He knew that most mountains had snow at the top, so this one should be no different. As he burst through the clouds and the mountaintop was within view, he saw a beautiful sheen of white, pure snow. The mountaintop was jagged, so he could not land efficiently, but Emperor grabbed as much snow as he could hold and flew back down.

As he reentered the mountain, he passed a grey dragon fiddling with the bone of a whale. They made eye contact briefly before Emperor wabbled back to his cave and dumped the snow onto his son before it could melt. Cyclone was ecstatic, burying himself in the melting snow before flinging some at his father. The next morning the snow melted, and none was the wiser.

Emperor ended up make it a tradition, whenever Cyclone began to miss snow too much, he would fly to the mountain tops and take more snow and play with his son. Another night, as Emperor reached the mountain top, he almost fell out of the sky when he heard a “Hello.”

It was that same grey dragon from a few months prior. Emperor caught the wind and flew in place. “Hello,” he said bluntly, “what are you doing here.”

“I just wanted to see why you keep bringing snow back into the caves. Be careful, that red dragon you talked to when you got here? She hates it when dragons do stuff like that,” she warned.

“What? Bring snow into the caves?”

“Show affection.”

Emperor narrowed his eyes, the cold wind blowing on his scales. “What?”

“Ever noticed how your boy is seemingly the only young dragon around? Why you never see any mothers with their eggs anywhere?” She asked.

“No…” Now that Emperor thought about it, he hadn’t seen any young dragons around. It was only Cyclone.

“She doesn’t like to deal with them. She brings them to the mainland and lets them run rampant until they’re old enough to come back,” the grey dragon explained,” she did the same to my daughter. I never saw her again.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

As Emperor began to grab snow the grey dragon gave him a puzzled look. “You’re still going to do that? You’re only going to make her mad.”

“Who is she anyway? The only reason she does things like that is because you dragons let her,” Emperor scolded, “I won’t let her ruin my relationship with my son.”

She watched him take more snow and she sighed, “Alright, fine.”

“What?”

The grey dragon began picking up snow and looked at Emperor. “You’re right. I don’t even know why I listen to her.”

“I never asked for you to help me.”

“I know.”

That grey dragon began hanging around Emperor and Cyclone more. She would show Emperor and Cyclone hidden passages and areas in The Home. They learned her name was Onyx, and she was by far the friendliest dragon on the mountain.

“Why did you come here?” Cyclone asked her once.

She shrugged. “Because I could.”

“Because… you could,” Emperor repeated.

“Well, nowhere else was better. And I already knew the way here, I guess I thought it would be better than what my life already was,” she reflected, “I’m starting to wish I stayed.”

“Why?” Cyclone asked.

“Don’t worry about it kid.”

Later that day Emperor found Onyx on the same beach he landed on not too long ago, Cyclone close behind him. “Not sure if it’s a good beach day,” she told them, “the weather kinda sucks.”

“We’re leaving,” Emperor said abruptly.

“Seriously?” Onyx and Cyclone said at the same time.

The purple dragon nodded. “I never should have come here. It’s beautiful, yes. But a home it is not.”

“Why tell me this?”

“Because you deserve better than this place. I’m sure there’s plenty of islands for you to pick from,” Emperor suggested.

Onyx shrugged and looked at Cyclone, who in turn looked excited to leave. “You got a good kid,” she said, “wish I knew mine.”

“You can go find her. No one is keeping you here.”

Onyx got up, and looked at Emperor. She never asked about his scars or missing horn. She never asked about his spikes or his lack of a leg. He was an outsider, but then again, wasn’t she? Weren’t they all?

“Alright,” she said, “I think I got the time.”