Here, There Be Dragons

By Elizabeth Jane Shelton

“Harmony!” Bennigan barked. “Quit running ahead! It’s not safe!”

“Then keep up!” Harmony rolled her eyes at the crew’s security officer. Like her, he wore the Borgian Union Exploration Corps’s teal, orange, and green uniform, but additional patches on his shoulders marked his military affiliation.

Bennigan grumbled and jogged a little faster. “We’re going to lose the rest of the crew. You’re a zoologist, Dr. Star, not a scout.” He managed to make her title sound like an insult.

“The captain’s with them. They’ll be fine.”

Harmony had dedicated her entire academic career to proving the existence of legendary dragons, and now that she might have the chance, she refused to wait around just because the others didn’t share her sense of urgency.

The crew had deployed to the planet of Cortaz in the Marquian System to investigate reports of a massive cave-dwelling, fire-breathing creature. As soon as they’d touched down, Harmony had hit the ground running, and only Bennigan had been able to match her pace.

She crested a small rise and glanced back the way they’d come. Her breath caught.

Maroon grasses nearly a meter high stretched far into the distance, rippling in the breeze and turning the plain into a rolling ocean. Above them stretched an endless cyan sky fading to lavender at the horizon, dappled with gauzy yellow clouds. The Marquian System’s three suns moved across it in a ceaseless rotation.

Bennigan finally caught up with Harmony and joined her in surveying the landscape. “Nowhere to hide,” he murmured. “If anyone approaches, we’ll see them coming.”

“Except from behind,” Harmony reminded him, turning toward the structure they’d been approaching all afternoon.

Bennigan glanced back and frowned. “Except from behind.”

The path continued through a series of jagged spires of black stone so smooth that Harmony could see her reflection. Each spire twisted into a cruel point, a violent scar on the otherwise idyllic landscape. Behind the spires rose sheer cliffs of the same material, glowing faintly orange in the suns’ light.

Several gaping cave entrances marred the cliff-side. Harmony spotted smoke trickling from a few of them, and the knot in her stomach tightened.

“Here, there be dragons,” she whispered.

To be fair, every world had creatures known as “dragons.” Most were merely lizards, some had vestigial wings, and some large ones were bred for their scales. But the stuff of legends—enormous winged beasts that breathed fire and inspired fear? No one had recorded a real creature like that.

Until now. Potentially.

Harmony started forward, but Bennigan grabbed her arm. “Slow down. We need to wait for the rest of the crew.” He nodded toward three brightly colored figures in the distance, picking their way up the path.

“I can’t just sit here! I’ll die of anticipation!”

“You’re likely to die of something else if you wander into the wrong cave alone.” But after several minutes of Harmony’s pleading, Bennigan relented. “Just a peek,” he warned, tapping a message into his forearm bracer. “I’ll let the captain know we’re scouting ahead.”

Harmony grinned and bounded down the narrow obsidian path that led to the nearest cave. As they approached its mouth, she remembered her training and took some scans. There was no evidence of life, so they moved along to the second cave. Then the third.

At the fourth, her bioscanner lit up like a supernova.

“It’s here,” she whispered, practically bouncing as she showed Bennigan the screen. The indistinct thermal image didn’t look like a dragon, but the life form was nearly two meters tall and flickered with additional heat signatures. Smoke trickled from some of the other caves, but it poured from this one. “We’re so close…”

Bennigan pulled her back from the entrance. “And we’re not going inside until Captain Aleksar gets here. Your dragon will have to wait.”

Harmony bit back her urge to argue, nodding instead. She tried to busy herself with scooting to the very lip of the cave and running more scans. Thermals—hot. Air quality—degraded. But none of them could answer the question: Was this the dragon she was looking for?

When Bennigan turned around to check the crew’s progress, Harmony couldn’t contain herself. She darted into the cave.

The odor of charcoal and brimstone immediately overwhelmed her. A hundred little fires flickered around a huge black mass.

“Harmony! Get back here!” Bennigan hissed.

Harmony took a deep breath and shone a flashlight into the back of the cave. She expected to see the reflection of two enormous eyes.

Instead, a myriad of tiny orbs shone back at her in the dark.

For a moment, all was still.

Then, with a noise like thunder, the two-meter pile of beings—plural— scattered, many flying directly toward her. Harmony shrieked, and suddenly Bennigan was there, a force field emanating from his bracer as he shielded her from the onslaught. He grimaced as dozens of bodies thudded against the barrier and zapped backward, deterred yet unharmed.

After what seemed like an eternity, the cavern quieted, and Bennigan lowered his shield. “Are you okay?” he demanded.

Harmony nodded, eyes wide. “I-I—”

“There you are! What happened?” Captain Aleksar had finally arrived.

Bennigan crossed his arms, glowering down at Harmony. “Dr. Star disobeyed a direct order and found a little more than she bargained for.”

“I’m sorry,” Harmony said, suitably chastened. “I should have listened.”

Bennigan glanced down, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “Well. It looks like you found your dragon, after all.” Harmony followed his gaze to one of the creatures sitting near their feet like a cat. It was the very picture of the majestic dragons of legend with wide, batlike wings, glittering scales, and sparks shooting from its nostrils.

And it was no more than a foot tall.

Harmony sighed. Here, there be dragons, indeed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Jane Shelton has loved stories of every kind since she was young, although fantasy is her favorite. She strives to write stories that are both entertaining and meaningful, and she hopes to impact others and honor her Creator with her writing. If she’s not working on a story, it’s probably because she’s writing code at her job as a software engineer.

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