[ IP ] Dragon

Slowly, my vision unblurred. The world was silent. The echoes of that roar thrashed in my mind. Coughing wetly, I tried to focus. I was slumped against the mountainside, luckily smacking into the steep cliff and not careening off the path into the endless fog. My breathing was slow, labored. Blood ran down the sides of my neck - from my still-deaf ears. The cramp in my side had not lessened from the minute's pause. My sword was gone. 
 
 Someone shook me on the shoulder. I glanced up slowly, sagging as a wave of nausea hit me. The man - I knew him, I was sure of it - was shouting something. `` Ca n't... hear...'' I tried to reply, but my throat was desert dry. Mouth still moving, the man - who was he?! - jerked forward and lifted me up onto his back. He stumbled forward. Ahead of us was the mountain path, dotted with men: some slumped over, some crawling or trying to orient themselves, some running for their lives, some dragging their dying friends. No one looked back. What was back there? I could n't remember anything... I strained, coughing again as my head pulsed in pain. What were we running fr- 
 
 The man stumbled, jerking to a stop. I felt him sag and buckle underneath me. I fell back onto the path. After a few seconds of effort, I managed to turn to look. He stood there, quivering. Something had impaled him - something connected to an enormous, grey, leathery tarp large enough to wrap around a cathedral... almost like a wing... 
 
 I jerked up as something finally clicked again and a wave of adrenaline pulsed through me and I could *think* again. The dragon! Lifting myself up to my knees, I turned to get my first look at the beast tearing His Majesty's Guard to shreds. It loomed over a circular outcropping of the mountain path, where a single guard stood there, frozen, staring into its eyes. Bodies littered the outcropping: dead from the roar, or was the beast killing them one by one? 
 
 I quickly scanned the path between and behind the outcropping: more men - none among the living. Part of the view was blocked off by the dragon's right arm resting on the path. Was someone squirming between the talons? I made as if to get up - and froze. The dragon's maw was opening slowly, revealing rows and rows and rows of razor sharp teeth and a massive pink tongue. Wider and wider it stretched, rows and rows of teeth and webs of drool a dozen men long and the overwhelming darkness of its throat. And then the beast's eyes gleamed and an unstoppable torrent of golden fire lit up the night. 
 
 I could feel blood running down my cheeks now as my eyes burned in horrendous pain. I trembled and shook like a tree caught in a storm. My body burned with terrible heat. I wanted to look away, to run, to throw myself off the cliff, but I could only only watch the golden blaze: so fluid it was like a sideways waterfall, a nonstop stream of rippling death, a beam of liquid sunlight. It lasted an eternity, a century's worth of light squeezed into a few seconds. And suddenly, just like that, it was over. The maw snapped shut, and the dragon lifted itself up, flapping its wings mightily, the wind smashing me against the mountainside, lifting its paws, sending rocks and men tumbling off the cliff, and opening its mouth again, as if roaring, although no sound came out. I felt something inside my ears burst and pop. Why was that? It was blissfully silent. My vision glazed over again. 
 
... 
 
 Where... Where was I? The sky was cloudy, peaceful. The ground below me was rocky. I sat up, shivering. I squinted, my eyes aching. My ears throbbed with pain. My head pulsed worst of all. I managed to make out a path along the mountainside. Golden fire slowly snaked up it, fire that hurt so much to look at, burning gravel as if it was dry grass. It was coming towards me inch by inch. Its source was a circular outcropping where it blazed merrily as if on top of a giant cauldron. I lifted myself to my feet, turning around as quickly as I could. Dead men were scattered on the path before me - but at least there was no fire. I limped forward, trying to think, trying to remember. Why was that fire so familiar? Who were these men?... Who was I?
