Akira
The air smelled of smoke and ash as I trudged down the mountain path. My eyes glanced upward in search of its source, but I found nothing except a few birds flying leisurely across the sky.
Smiling faintly, I continued on my way, slightly increasing my pace as I hurried back to the
village.
I couldn't wait to inform my father of the good news that had come from today's sales of the pills he had spent the entire week painstakingly crafting.
As I walked, I felt the bag shift slightly behind my back and grumbled under my breath while adjusting it, making sure it was secured properly before continuing the long journey home.
"Can't afford to spoil it. Sister Ayaka would definitely kill me if I destroyed what she made with her own hands."
A small smile tugged at the corners of my lips as I turned a corner, then froze.
My nostrils caught a scent stronger than before.
Smoke.
…But it didn't smell right.
Was something going on?
Or was Father experimenting with a new pill again?
A new pill would mean good things for us. If it succeeded, we might finally earn enough money to purchase the last rare ingredients needed to treat his worsening illness.
Nodding to myself, I began to hurry back, trying to shake off the ominous feeling creeping into my chest like a worm burrowing deeper and deeper.
The village was still about two miles away from my current location, but if I hurried, I could cut the time almost in half.
Five minutes into my brisk walk, I stopped briefly to take a swig from my water skin. I wiped my lips afterward and glanced up at the sky.
Hmm.
It would be late soon, and I had to get back in time for my mother's famous dinner night.
As I went to take another step, a sound echoed all around me.
I froze.
A roar.
Not just any roar.
A dragon's roar.
My eyes instinctively shot toward the sky as I searched frantically for the source of the sound.
Was there really a living, breathing dragon around our village?
It didn't make any sense. Our village was incredibly remote—so remote it wasn't even marked on most maps.
So how did a dragon find its way here?
I tried to shrug it off, but I couldn't. My mind kept racing with terrifying possibilities.
What if there was more than one?
Oh no.
The village.
I gasped loudly, the water skin flying from my hands and slapping against the ground as I threw it aside and broke into a run.
Smoke.
That was why the smell had been bothering me all day.
Was it possible that the dragon whose roar I heard had already reached my village?
My steps quickened even more as panic surged through my veins.
But the closer I got to the village, the worse my fear became.
The smoke that once rose gently from two peaceful chimneys now filled the sky above the village entirely, billowing into the clouds as if the heavens themselves were mourning a terrible loss.
Stop thinking like that, Akira!
Bursting out from the forested mountain path, I came face to face with a horrifying scene that made me stumble backward.
For a moment, my vision blurred.
Then it reset.
Black.
Red.
Yellow.
The colors mixed violently before my eyes as I stared into the distance.
My knees hit the ground before I even realized what I was doing.
The land before me looked like something out of a nightmare. Lava bubbled and spat from cracked earth, glowing ominously from multiple places.
Ashes covered everything.
Smoke filled the air.
Burning debris littered the ground.
Nothing looked the same as it had when I left that morning.
Nothing.
Forcing myself to stand, I staggered forward in disbelief.
"No… no, no, no… nooooo…" I muttered under my breath. "It can't be… it can't be…"
My voice trembled as I pushed onward, turning left
and right, desperately searching for anything, anything at all, that could be salvaged from the piles of ash and smoldering remains.
"Ma? Pa? Ayaka? Hikari?!"
Hikari was my little brother. Every time I left the village, he would cling tightly to my clothes and beg to follow me.
And every single time, I refused.
He was too young, I would say.
He shouldn't be wandering so far from home.
Ayaka would scold him until he behaved himself again.
Something caught my eye as I staggered deeper into the village like a man drunk on grief.
I rushed toward it, only to gasp in horror.
My legs gave out beneath me and I collapsed to the ground.
"A s–skeleton…!"
The scream almost tore out of my throat, but I forced it back.
Whatever had ravaged this place might still be nearby.
I couldn't afford to make reckless decisions until I knew where my family was.
Slowly, cautiously, I reached out and touched the skeleton.
The moment my fingers brushed against it,
It crumbled.
The bones collapsed instantly into dust beneath my touch.
I yelped in shock and fell backward, barely stopping myself from slamming my head against a jagged rock protruding from the earth.
What…?
Heart pounding wildly, I scrambled back to my feet and began running toward my house.
Maybe they escaped.
Maybe they ran.
Yes… they must have run.
I had to believe that.
Deep down, I knew I was clinging desperately to denial as I followed the familiar path home, though it barely resembled the place I once knew.
The warm, lively path had become something out of a nightmare.
Unrecognizable.
I sucked in a sharp breath as I skidded to a halt in front of what remained of our house.
What should have been our home was now nothing more than charred stumps and cracked earth, with thin streams of lava leaking through the ruins.
"Pa…? Ma…?"
My eyes darted wildly around the destruction.
Where were they?
Where had they gone?
What happened here?
Then I saw it.
Something that made my blood turn to ice.
Two skeletons.
Their bones were tangled together, almost as if they had embraced each other in their final moments—like some tragic love story frozen in time.
No….No…No….No
It can't be.
I refuse to believe it.
I don't want to believe it.
Slowly, I stepped forward, barely aware that I had
stopped breathing altogether.
It felt like even the smallest breath might shatter the fragile hope I was clinging to.
Then I saw it.
On the pinky finger of one skeleton.
A ring.
A black obsidian ring.
My father's marriage ring.
The same ring he had given to my mother when my sister was born.
"No…" I whispered.
My voice sounded harsh and broken as a burning sensation filled my chest.
"I refuse to believe it… no…"
My knees collapsed beneath me as emotions flooded my mind all at once.
Shock.
Denial.
Acceptance.
Pain.
Grief.
Realization.
"Mother!!! Father!!!"
Fresh tears streamed down my face as I lunged forward, trying to hold them one last time.
But the moment my hands touched the bones,
They cracked.
Then collapsed.
Turning into ash that slipped through my fingers like grains of sand.
"No… noooo… noooooooo…"
I tried desperately to hold onto them, but the ashes kept slipping away, no matter how tightly I tried to grasp them.
Like quicksand.
Like a lifeline I could never reach.
The last fragile pieces of denial within me shattered completely.
I slammed my forehead against the ground and sobbed like a broken child.
They were gone.
All of them.
Killed.
Murdered.
Something terrible had happened here.
Wait…
The dragon's roar.
It must have been the dragons.
They must have come here.
But why?
Why kill everyone?
Why take my family away from me?
What had we ever done to them?
Logic battled fiercely with my heart as I struggled to think clearly, but grief clouded my mind so heavily that I eventually gave up trying.
I cried until there were no tears left inside me.
Then I curled up beside the ashes and stared blankly into the sky.
They were right here with me.
No one was taking them away from me.
Soon, they would come back and tell me this had all been some terrible prank. A really, really big prank.
They did it all the time whenever I returned from trading in other villages.
With Hikari acting as their leader.
"They're not coming back," something whispered faintly inside my mind.
I slapped both of my ears hard.
"They'll be back… soon," I whispered hoarsely, my throat raw from crying. "I know they will."
But after sitting there for nearly an hour, the truth slammed into me again like a hammer.
No one was coming back.
They were all gone.
Mother.
Father.
My sister.
My little brother.
All gone.
Killed by dragons.
A sudden blaze ignited deep within my soul as I clenched my fists into the dirt, gripping the earth so tightly that sand spilled between my fingers while I slowly pushed myself upright.
I wanted to kill them.
Every single one of them.
I wanted to hunt down every dragon responsible for this and make them suffer.
Make them pay.
Make them feel the same pain that was tearing me apart from the inside.
But my vision blurred again as tears filled my eyes. I glanced at the ashes beside me, and my chest tightened painfully.
Once again, I cried.
And cried.
Until even my body began to feel weak and
dehydrated.
Finally, I threw my head back and stared up at the dark sky, which was still filled with smoke.
Then I screamed.
A raw, broken scream filled with pure, unfiltered pain.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"
The sound echoed through the ruined village.
And then,
Something answered.
A small roar.
My blood ran cold instantly.
My heartbeat slammed violently against my ribcage as the sound echoed again in my ears.
A dragon.
Was it the same dragon?
The icy fear in my chest quickly twisted into something far sharper.
Hatred.
Pure, uncontrollable hatred.
Slowly, I dragged myself to my feet, my body trembling as my eyes scanned the ruined village.
Where did it come from?
Where was it hiding?
Another sound reached my ears.
This time, it sounded different.
Not a roar.
A whimper.
My gaze snapped instantly toward the far end of
the destroyed village.
My heart began pounding as I started running
toward the sound.
My feet slammed against the burnt earth, faster and faster.
I didn't even know what I was planning to do once I got there.
Maybe kill it.
Yes.
Of course.
If it was a dragon,
I would kill it.
No matter what it took.I skidded to a sudden halt.
My eyes widened in shock as the sight before me came into view.
It was a dragon.
A living, breathing dragon.
Its body lay among the ruins, its massive form partially collapsed against the scorched ground.
Its scales shimmered faintly beneath the smoky sky, reflecting hints of silver and blue beneath layers of ash.
And its eyes…
Its slitted, cerulean-blue eyes,
Were staring straight at me.
Almost as if it had been expecting me.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
The world seemed to fall into an eerie silence.
This was the dragon.
The dragon that destroyed my home.
The dragon that killed my family.
The dragon that slaughtered my entire village.
My fists clenched so tightly that my nails dug into my palms.
"You did this…"
My voice trembled violently, filled with rage and grief.
"You did this!"
The dragon continued staring at me without moving.
Its breathing sounded uneven.
Weak.
But my vision had already turned red.
Every memory flooded my mind at once.
My father teaching me how to pick herbs.
My mother calling me home for dinner.
Ayaka scolding Hikari for stealing snacks.
Hikari clinging to my arm whenever I tried to leave.
All of them.
Gone.
Because of this monster.
Something inside me snapped.
"I will kill you!!!"
My scream tore through the ruined village as I
took a step forward, my entire body burning with fury.
I didn't care if I died.
I didn't care if I stood no chance.
All that mattered was revenge.
If I had to drag this creature down to hell with me..
Then so be it.
Because the moment I saw those cold blue eyes staring back at me, I knew one thing with absolute certainty.
Either the dragon would die today.
Or I would.