Amazon Apocalypse Shorts: Ben the Dragon (1/3) (Patreon)

A dragon hatched from an egg deep in a volcano. He was born into the magma flows, which were as soothing to him as a hot bath. He hunted the stone carp elementals that called the volcano home, and all was right with the world.

Or at least, it had been at first. But as he grew, so too did his mind. And as his mind grew, so too did his sense of self. As he grew, forgotten parts of him emerged like dreams and whispers.

At first, he ignored them. Chasing fish was good. Eating them was better. But day after day he did and ate the same thing. It wouldn't be so bad if not for these dreams he had of another life. One where he wasn't a baby dragon, but a man.

He felt an increasing need to confirm whether or not there was any truth to these dreams, so he emerged from the lake of lava. Now, he was a drake instead of a hatchling, and while he wasn't the tyrant of the skies he felt certain he would be one day, leaving the lava lake didn't feel like freezing to death.

There, by his old egg he saw a strange contraption. The name for it came to mind, but he wasn't sure where.

Minifridge.

He was certain there was a way to open it, and after a bit of nudging with his claws and snout, he opened it. Inside were stacks of what he realized were protein bars. He didn't know how he knew what protein bars were, but he knew he could eat them.

He tore into one like tearing into a stone carp. The silvery lining came away like shredded fish scales, and within was something hearty, crunchy, and filling in an entirely different way from the food he was used to. To a dragon that had eaten nothing but carp day after day, the change in flavors shook his entire worldview.

He feasted until his belly was stuffed, then fell asleep in the shallow lava near his old egg. As he slept, he dreamed.

In the dream, once more he wasn't a dragon, but a man. And not just any man, he was a smart and capable man named Benjamin. He and his people waged war in the courtroom and did battle against the dreaded beast known as the Eye-Arr-Us. That was truly a deadly and terrifying fiend, and a wielder of the terrifying and evil power of taxes.

He couldn't quite wrap his head around what these taxes were, just that they were bad, very bad. They were so dark and terrible that even a full-grown dragon would quake in terror as soon as he heard they were coming.

Ben the dragon realized he would have to be wary of these taxes in the future.

Time passed, and Ben began to ration the remaining protein bars. First, he had one for every stone carp he ate. Then, one for every three. Eventually, he was only allowing himself a single one before resting for the day.

Despite rationing his dwindling supply, he soon found himself savoring the last of them. It was tiny to him now, no bigger than a single claw, and he ate it in a single bite.

He closed the fridge for the last time, knowing there were no more for him here. He swam through the lava eating more carp, but the more he ate the sicker he grew of the taste. Perhaps if he hadn't gorged himself that first day, there'd still be some protein bars left.

As Ben dwelled on the memory, he grew increasingly certain there was more stuff like those protein bars, and other tasty food besides them. All he had to do was leave his volcano. Perhaps it was time to see if there was any truth to those dreams he'd been having.

He feasted on stone carp one last time, gobbling down thirty of them until he could eat no more. They tasted like nothing to him now, but he stuffed himself anyway. When he left his volcano, there was no telling when he'd return.

He climbed the walls claw over claw. It was much harder than swimming. Leaving the volcano would have been far easier if he could fly, but he was a drake, not a dragon, and he had no wings yet.

When he emerged from the volcano, the sun beat down on him. The air felt cold, but his body was like a furnace and burned away the chill. He'd imagined what it'd be like up here a few times before, but only now did he feel like he'd truly conquered his home.

These were his lands. Or at least they would be as long as he had the strength in his teeth and claws to keep them.

He spotted his first sign of life beyond the volcano. It was a small furry thing with a big fluffy tail. His memories told him it was a squirrel.

Ben approached the squirrel curiously. This was the first creature besides a stone carp he'd seen and he wanted to survey it.

The squirrel cupped its little hands and opened its mouth. A fireball went flying out of its face.

Ben blinked as the fire washed over him and failed to do anything at all. Could squirrels breathe fire? In most of his memories, no. But there was one that stood out. These squirrels hadn't always been able to breathe fire. They'd gained the ability recently.

The fire squirrel stood there on the rocks looking baffled. It was still baffled when Ben decided it was time to see how it tasted. The hair wasn't so good, and there wasn't much to the body, but the change in flavors was nice.

He spent the next few days roaming the sides of his volcano like that. He took bites out of various things, some tasty, some not.

When he slept, more memories crept up and came to mind. Some faces were more familiar than others, and one woman in particular came up again and again. She was important, he was sure of it.

As his hunting grounds spread past the volcano and to the surrounding lands, his understanding of the world grew. Eventually, he came across two-legged creatures of the sort he remembered from his dreams.

They patrolled through the desert lands surrounding the volcano and hunted the larger monsters. Upon seeing them, Ben felt conflicted for the first time.

His draconic instincts disdained their presence in his hunting grounds. To his dragon half, humans were just one more creature in a vast world filled with lots of them. But another deeper part felt a stronger connection to them.

That part of him wanted to walk up to the group down below, shake their hands, ask where they were from, and how he could get home from here.

Naturally, Ben did none of those things. He was a dragon and had no hands to shake with or voice to speak with. He could only watch from afar and try to understand these thoughts within himself.

***

Many months passed like this, and Ben grew in size and strength. When he emerged from the volcano, he would have only been waist-high to a human. Now he stood as tall as they were, and was many times longer.

This growth hadn't come easily. Many monsters and beasts had met their end at the hands of his teeth and claws, and he'd had a few close encounters. The life of a drake was not an easy one. To survive, he learned to stalk his prey with the skill of a true predator.

If he truly concentrated on his growth, he could visualize a screen in front of him. It listed several things which came to mind as he continued to focus.

Torchdrake (Level 95)

Cunning: 754

Constitution: 683

Soulstrength: 545

Note: Your draconic bloodline is extremely pure, and you will naturally evolve into a juvenile Torchdragon upon reaching level 100.

Note: Due to the anomalous nature of your soul, you may learn and utilize skillbooks intended for humanoid races.

He could feel a change coming upon him. When it finally happened, he was certain he would gain wings, and his hunting grounds would expand exponentially. Then, he could finally take some risks and get the answers he sought from the humans.

Until now, he'd kept his curiosity in check. Most of the humans who patrolled his hunting grounds were between levels twenty-five and a hundred, usually weaker than he was already. But he was wary about coming into conflict with too many at once and being unable to flee. The ability to fly would change things.

He made his preparations, but the best laid plans of dragons and men often go awry. In the distance he saw a flash of familiar hair. He would have looked closely to see who it was, but he could tell from her frantic steps that she was in danger.

The reason for that danger was obvious. A half-dozen humanoids who looked larger and rougher than her were chasing after her. Ben checked their levels and found them mostly around level 50, whereas the woman was level 25.

He rushed to cut them off, and when he emerged from the brush the woman froze in panic. Startled and terrified, she fell face-first in the dirt. He loomed over her as she stared up in terror, and to his frustration he realized he'd rushed over here for nothing.

This wasn't the woman in his dreams, just one more human of many. Because of a hasty and emotional mistake, he'd revealed his presence for nothing.

"D-dragon!?" the woman rolled over and scrambled to climb to her feet.

The men prepared their weapons. "A Torchdrake! Don't they grant a huge amount of experience points?" asked one.

"Wait. Crownhill says hunting them is illegal now, though nobody knows why," said another.

"Who gives a damn about the laws of Crownhill? Remember what they did to Craig?" said another.

They were clearly gearing up to attack, but so was Ben. He prepared a trick he'd discovered only recently, though it took him a moment to get going. Fire mana was drawn from his body, much like he'd seen squirrels do when they attacked him. He conjured fire in his mouth, though instead of a small ball, this was a mouthful of congealed inferno.

Roaaaar!

Ben bellowed, and with the bellow came a river of flames. Two of the humans lit ablaze, and the others were blinded by them.

Ben struck like lightning in that moment of weakness. His claws and teeth made short work of tender human flesh. By the time the flames quelled, there was only him and the woman shivering in terror as he stalked closer to her.

Her eyes were wide now, and strength left her limbs as she fell to her knees. The men chasing her had been no match for him, and she was the same.

The smart move would have been to kill her as well and continue to avoid human encounters until he was ready for them, but what the woman did next gave him pause.

"S-sorry for trespassing, mister dragon. If you let me go, I'll bring back something much nicer than me to eat..." the woman looked terrified as she trembled and shook.

Meanwhile, Ben perked up. Perhaps he would get something out of this after all.

He approached the kneeling woman and nodded at her. She didn't seem to get the message, so he went back to the men he'd slain and reached for a pocket. Several coins came spilling out. The money seemed unfamiliar to Ben, but he remembered it being important, so he gathered up a dozen metal coins with his teeth and dropped them in front of the terrified woman.

That was a much clearer message, and her human eyes met his draconic ones with the sudden realization that he was more than a mindless beast.

He nudged the coins toward her, then pointed a claw at his eye, and then to her. He would be watching her.

The woman nodded, hastily picked herself up, gathered the coins, and fled. Ben figured there was only a fifty-fifty chance she'd make good on her promise, but he monitored the nearby area anyway.

To his pleasant surprise, she returned a few days later with a heaping pile of raw meat, which she was pushing on a handcart.

She was scanning the forest around her, likely looking for him. He popped out behind her and cleared his throat to get her attention.

"Oh! Mister Dragon, there you are. I brought you food, just like I promised..." the woman seemed nervous once more as she hastily stepped away from the food.

Ben ate his fill, scarfing down about as much meat as was on a human in just a matter of minutes. Meanwhile, the woman sat off to one side shifting from foot to foot nervously.

Eventually, she quelled her fears by reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small foil-covered bar, which she unwrapped.

The sound of tearing wrapper was one Ben had almost forgotten. He turned to the woman and eyed her snack with keen interest before stalking over to her.

The woman jumped up nervously, but then realized he was interested in her food and held it out to him. Ben delicately plucked it from her grasp and ate it in one bite.

"You like human snacks more than raw meat?" the woman asked.

Ben nodded. Then, he tossed something her way. Ever since killing the thugs, he'd been looking for more dead humans. He'd forgotten about money, but now that he remembered what it was, he figured it was a good idea to acquire some of it. There were enough dead adventurers to give him a small hoard. The pouch he just tossed the woman's way was a portion of that.

"You want me to buy you things?" the woman asked.

Ben nodded again, then pawed the ground near the discarded wrapper.

"Alright. But I'll need money. Either more of those coins or something to sell. Plus a little more to pay off the Obelisk tax," the woman said.

Ben winced. There was that dreaded foe from his last life again. Taxes. But he'd have to face his old enemy eventually. He held out a paw and accepted the arrangement.

That was the beginning of a long partnership. Ben found money, and the woman would buy him things. At first it was just food, but after they worked out a way to communicate, she bought other things for him too.

First it was skillbooks, then books in general, and eventually a radio.

"This is how you use it. You push this button right here to turn it on," the woman explained.

"--And welcome to Crownhill's official radio station. I'm your host Margaret, and today we'll be discussing the political situation with the Kingdom of Camlaan. As you listeners know, Crownhill recently annexed both Camlaan and the Order of Sorcery, two historic rival polities. Dealing with them both will be tricky, and traveling merchants are advised..."

The woman on the radio spoke for a long time, but from the moment she began Ben was transfixed. This voice was so familiar to him. He'd been wrong before, but the familiarity this voice gave him was better than any false alarm he'd experienced before. This was her! The woman he remembered.

As he heard her voice, his memories truly cleared for the first time. That was the voice of his wife! He needed to get to her, to speak with her and tell her that he was alright.

Just as soon as it came, the clarity faded again. But the memory of it remained, and he knew more about himself now. He'd been human once, then he'd done... something to become like this. A brief flash of another world and a life after death appeared in his mind before the memories were suppressed.

His draconic brain was too different from his old one, and wearing it as he was had cut him off from parts of his own soul. Drakes like him weren't supposed to be as intelligent as he was, but when he gained full dragonhood, he knew his thoughts and old memories would come to him much more clearly.

"Something wrong?" the woman asked.

Ben pawed at the radio, pressing his ear against it. Then he drew on the ground with a talon to write.

'I want to meet her.'

<Note>

I've still been working on stuff in the background. I didn't realize how much stuff I had on hold until now. I've been having my copyeditor from this series go over Spellheart to help me clean it up a bit, since people still occasionally check that series out. I've got like 3 books worth of updates to review and upload, so I'm getting that done.

I will hopefully get back to book 7 content soon. Truthfully, I'm starting to miss the daily routine of waking up and putting in a few hours on the next Amazon Apocalypse chapter. It feels weird not to do it. I may write chapter 23 a bit early before we officially resume.

Anyway, part 2 of this will come out sometime this week. I've actually had this written for a few days but only divided it into two parts now since it's been a while since my last post.