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“It wasn’t as if anyone got hurt,” are the words Domhnall would use to describe the day’s events.
The day had started off peaceful in the nearby kingdom of Daventry. The kingdom was getting ready for their annual Summer Sun festival celebrating the Summer Solstice. Everything was almost in full swing.
Daventry sat in a valley surrounded by many tall mountains. To the north was a large water fall, from which flowed a large river that ran through the kingdom. The land of Daventry was peaceful and hardly anything unexpected happened until that particular summer day when something rather unexpected happened.
The mountains that surround the valley seem to stretch all the way up to the clouds, large mounds of rock and stone. Trees cover the bottom like a green skirt, and as you move farther up the mountain becomes nothing but greys and browns with the occasional cluster of trees or brushes. At the top they are capped with snow, at least for the most part. Like all mountains it is covered in crevices and cracks, holes, caverns and even some caves. Most are not very big but some, not many, are big enough to hold a dragon. These caves had high ceilings and numerous passages leading to different places in the mountain. One could easily get lost if not familiar with them.
Most in Daventry laughed at the idea of dragons. Flights (the term most use for a large group of dragon, usually about seven or more) of dragons had not been seen for ages. Most assumed they either had left the valley to live elsewhere or were otherwise extinct. But one must remember that just because you don’t see something, doesn’t mean it isn’t there, and today would be the day they would be proven wrong.
You see, up in one of the larger caves slept a young dragon. He was curled upon a small pile of gold. Dragons do so love shiny things you know, especially gold for they are attracted to it much in the same way moths are attracted to a flame. The slender red dragon was stretched out, a few pieces of gold covering part of his spiked tail. Giving a large yawn Domhnall lifted his head from within his hoard to where a pair of small horns could be seen before standing up.
He padded towards the mouth of the cave, blinking as he walked into the bright sunlight. He looked down the mountain and noticed excitement in the valley below. He always thought humans were such funny little creatures. He could never understand why they were always so busy, especially compared to the fact that dragons themselves don’t do all that much and usually spend the day sleeping. That is of course one is disturbed from its sleep which is a rather unwise thing to do anyway.
Dragons (especially young ones) are also known for their immense curiosity and Domhnall was no exception. His rather abundant amount of curiosity had often gotten him into trouble, usually with other dragons when they still lived in those mountains. On this particular day he found himself so filled with curiosity about what was going on in the valley that he thought he might burst if he didn’t satisfy it. So deciding to find out what the humans were up to on that particular day, he spread his wings and took off slowly make his way down towards the towns folk.
The majority of the festival was set up in a large open field where many of the events took place. Banners were being hung from tents, between them and everything in between, showing off the kingdom’s colours of green and gold. Tents and stands were set up throughout the field with merchants trying to sell their goods from toys to small flags to food to various souvenirs. Currently going on was a jousting match between many of the knights in the kingdom. Later though there was to be an archery tournament which was open to anyone who wished to take part. There was music, dancing, and even a couple jugglers wandering around, entertaining the sightseers and guests as they mingled. The tents were widely spread out so no matter where you were you were bound to find something of interest. In one of the larger tents a group of actors who would be performing three different plays throughout the day and occasionally switching up actors when one needed a break.
As he got closer to the festivities he could see children running about laughing as a group of people flew some kites, away from most of the main festivities of course so as not to get in anyone’s way or have their beautifully decorated kites get caught on anything. The kites were brightly coloured, one was shaped like a butterfly with wings of blue while another looked something like a hawk or an eagle and the largest kites were designed resembled that of a dragon.
Domhnall just chuckled before looking around for a spot to land. His eyes fell on a clear spot where he was unlikely to land on anyone or anything. He made his decent and got ready to land, Right in the middle of the entire festival. Needless to say it would not go as well as Domhnall had hoped.
The ground shook slightly as he touched down causing everyone to stop what they were doing and look around to see what might have caused the ground to shake in such a manner. Someone gave a loud scream upon seeing the young drake and that’s all it took for the entire festival to go into a mad frenzy. All the young dragon could do was look around him confused as people began to run about. Humans always over reacted to things, he though, even little things like him.
As the noise grew louder he began to back up, knocking down several stands in the process as his feet and tail bumped into them.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he told them. Unfortunately for him all they heard were what sounded like growls, as he’d forgotten that humans couldn’t understand dragon speech.
The sound of horse hooves from behind him caught his attention and he turned around to see what was going on. As he did so his long tail whipped about, knocking down a few more tents and got caught on one of the banners. Now one of the main attractions at the4 festival was a jousting tournament, in which many knights of the realm participated, and it was one of these knights, lance in hand, that was riding towards the young dragon.
“Stop!” shouted Domhnall, only causing more panic as he gave out what sounded to them a loud roar. Something poked his side, much like when he slept upon an annoying rock, and he looked down to see the knight stabbing him with a lance. Or at least he was trying to. Dragons are known to have rather tough hides, so to Domhnall it felt more like something along the lines of being poked with a rather large stick. Annoying yes, but that was about all it was.
Having finally had enough of the screaming and the poking, Domhnall stretched out his wings, pushed off the ground and took off in to the sky, flying back towards the mountains. The townsfolk cheered as the dragon left thinking that the knight had scared him off.
Domhnall landed at the cave entrance, head hung low and disappointed at the day’s events. He shook his head and sighed, “Never doing that again.” He removed the banner from his tail and put it aside, his only souvenir from his first and last trip in to the town.