Hic Sunt Dracones draft two,

(This is the second draft, mainly focusing on adding extra details to help the story flow better.)

Grandpa Ted used to say: “ Little one, there is nothing more terrible in this world than the Dragons, If you see one, well, I’d tell ya to pray to God to save you, but even they couldn’t. ” On a cold painful morning in the fall of my teenage years, Grandpa Ted’s worst fears were realized. It was a lazy snappy September morning, The howling winds a grim portent of what was to come. The gray skies hung low overhead like an overbearing tutor, ready to strike with a ruler in hand. I shuddered at the weather but tried to keep my hopes up, I wasn’t about to let a little lack of sunshine ruin our family picnic. Cousin Petunia came all the way from the Countryside and I’d be damned if that was gonna stop it. My parents put me in charge of the food. After an hour of cutting, packing and seasoning, twenty delicious sandwiches and other simple goodies were ready for a classic day at the park. With our preparations complete, we all gathered outside our home as mom locked the door.

“Gotta keep the house safe from Dragons, right?” We all laughed.

The whole family strolled down on the way to the park. The children were snowflakes flying down in a blizzard, scurrying about excited for a fun filled day of games, good food, and family. The rest of the adults stood farther back, chattering about boring things like politics, with me in the middle of it all just trying to lose myself in nature. The fresh scent of apples clung to the air in stark denial of the sky, wrapping us in a warm hug of fall weather. The old bones of the trees creaked and listed with the wind like Grandpa Ted when he was sitting down in his chair near the front porch. The beautiful twilight years of nature settling in for winter. My trance ended when I heard a sharp cry from behind me. Uncle Jethro stumbled into a rough patch and fell face first into the mud. The adults brought him back up and I was elected to play the role as crutch. The thick scent of tobacco and lemon juice emanated from his coat gagging me, eau du uncle Jethro . His breathing was hoarse and ragged like the soft babbling of the brooks behind our home.

“Damn ankle, hey little one?”

“Yes uncle Jethro.”

“Whatever you do little one, don’t get old like me.”

And with that sage advice, we marched on in silence.

Nearly immediately I slammed face first into Aunt Gert’s enormous back, causing Uncle Jethro and I to tumble. Uncle Jethro angrily shouted:

“Hey! Watch where you are going Jerry! And Gertie! Why are you just standing there like a brain dead-!”

However, Aunt Gert completely failed to nervous Uncle Jethro’s colorful musings. She was a statue, transfixed forward, with a look of pure horror on her face that would have left Medusa herself impressed. Completing this gallery of horrified statues were the rest of my family, spellbound in fear by something up ahead. Standing on my toes I peered over the mountain of Aunt Gert’s back and saw something I had never even considered before.

Where the old park used to be had been completely decimated.The sounds of birds and the crickets went deaf, an unnatural silence fell over what once was the park. The trees, beautiful little streams, fields of flowers and grass had been exchanged for a completely alien Construction. It was huge. Like I was but a single wave within the whole ocean. A thousand, no a million times bigger than the small burrow the eighteen of us lived in. Incomprehensibly vast that no matter how much I strained and stretched I could barely even see two sides of the Construction. Unlike the simple comforting roundness of our homes, this Construction was built with harsh cutting angles and mathematical precision. The whole side we were on was a thick blood red. I only ever saw blood once when my brother James broke his leg while falling out a tree, the bone was sticking straight out and that thick red juice pulsed out in a way that made it queasy just to look at a similar color years later, with thick outlines of bone white.

My father was the first to react, he shook himself out of his stupor and said:

“What the, what on earth happened her-”

He was cut off by the most horrifying sound I had ever heard in my life. Raw squeaking and screaming noises to the rhythm of a sigh, as the construction morphed open to accommodate a massive hole in it. Suddenly, a horror I would see in my nightmares for years to come lurched out of the hole. The creature was a massive skyscraper, taller than a hundred of me standing on each others’ shoulders, It’s hide was thick and multicolored hues of cream, beige, and pink, with odd membranes in fantastical colors of Red, blue, and yellow. It’s stench was horrifying, I could smell blood and offal, mixed with waste and sweat. As it lumbered forward, It's massive jaw the size of me opened and I saw a row of teeth with an impossibly large number of them. It spoke in a language that was foreign and completely incomprehensible, made of harsh tones and dissonant cracks, the sound of which dropped my very soul into my body, like I was swimming within the ocean and could see but for an instant the whole vastness of it, reminded that no matter who I was or became, I would be but insignificant in the face of such sublime majesty and horror. My Granndpa’s warning echoed on my mind as the words barely managed to sneak past my tongue.

“D-d-d-dragon.”

The Dragon's head swiveled and it’s goliathian eyeballs transfixed upon us below, for a moment time itself was frozen in fear, as we stared back into the Dragon’s eyes. The spell was once again broken when the Dragon opened its mouth and spoke again, looking back behind it. The very earth began to dance with the fervor of an intense spanish salsa dance, as three more Dragons erupted from the hole in the Construction. Suddenly finding strength in our legs the family and I ran with all our might, I heard a familiar scream as I looked back and saw uncle Jethro tripping again, I started to reach out to him, but the booming roars of the Dragon forced my body to leave him behind, as all thoughts but my own safety were evicted from my mind.

Hours later I found myself at the front door of our home, by the act of some merciful god I found myself safe, even though I had now seen the face of a god and knew that they were not merciful. I reached for the handle and remembered that the door was locked, my Mother had the key. So I waited, ten minutes, an hour, two hours, five, after waiting so long with no sign of my family my worries got worse and worse. Dread filled my heart as I knew the only way back home, the only way to be safe again, was to find my family, and the only place they could be, was the Dragon’s lair.

I began my march into hell, trying to muster what little courage I could find in my heart, taking minor solace in the fact that it would take me a little while till I got back to the park. However Father Time decided to conspire against me, as I blinked and found myself back at the familiar entrance to the park. The world was silent, the land a barren desert devoid of life as I scampered my way through the thick grass, crouching lowly to the earth and gruelingly inched forward like a worm through the mud, a fitting position for a being as lowly compared to the Dragons as me.The Construction stood sentinel with not a single crack or hole in it’s armor, and so I approached hoping to see if there was some smaller hole or pinprick to sneak into. With my back to the wall of the sentinel, the Construction once again morphed to accommodate the hole and one of the Dragons thundered outside, it’s legs hammered on the ground around me and through pure adrenalyn alone I forced myself to rush into the Construction.

As the hole closed behind me, I found myself as Alice within Wonderland. An Alien world unlike anything outside of what my small mind could comprehend. The ground itself was coated in a thick layer of navy blue grass, so thick that they pillowed the ground to create a spongy, thick texture. I’d imagine that if we could walk on clouds, that they would feel like this. The empty space of the Construction was massive, yet empty. It was as empty as a racist’s head, so massive that smaller Constructions were strewn throughout the land in all shapes and sizes, some small, barely even larger than me, others were massive in their own right, though they shared that same mathematical, geometric design. The sickly sweet smell of lemons overcrowded the air, making it near impossible to breathe. This new world was filled with sounds of a new variety the likes of which I never knew before. Whirrs and beeps and growls and squeaks and bangs and creaks and grinds and screams, a pure symphony of chaos and noise that drove all logical and internal thoughts away; leaving just one behind, finding my family.

As I crawled through the forest of navy blue grass I heard a booming roar as a new Dragon turned the corner. I thought after seeing the Dragons earlier, that nothing else could faze me, but the mind numbing terror would not end. This Dragon smelled horribly, of wet fur and rancid meat. It’s body covered in an ocean of thick yellowish fur, it’s body sleek and standing upon all fours, it boomed with a roar so mighty I felt my own bones rattle, it lifted it’s snout into the air and siffed once, twice, a third time, and it’s massive eyes whirled around to fix itself on me, it bared its teeth and I saw rows and rows of knives sharp enough to cleave me in twain. It boomed once more and charged towards me with supernatural speed, how could a monster so huge move so fast? I turned around ran with all my might, my heart pumping with so much force I felt it was trying to leap outside of my chest and get away from the Dragon faster. I hurtled through the forest leading to a new biome, a sea of pure brown that shone brightly like the sun, as my foot hit the ground I was stunned to discover this water was somehow...solid. Each step I took was echoed, and later it would occur to me that the creatures had somehow made this ocean out of wood. As the Dragon continued to gain on me, I took a chance and hurtled myself underneath a large chocolate brown Construction made from some substance that looked buttery but as soon as you touched it it felt solid. The Dragon continued to roar, frustrated at its inability to claim it’s prize.

I waited in the pitch black beneath the Construction, everything was silent here, so silent I could practically hear the blood racing through my veins. Suddenly my ears pricked up as the harsh requiems of the Dragon’s language marched through the air. They chattered on and on for what seemed like an eternity, once again it seemed like Father Time had decided to personally punish me cause no matter how much I begged the nightmare to end they wouldn’t stop. Then suddenly the entire world filled with light, for a moment my heart felt elated, the bright flash of light made me think for a moment that I had finally shed this mortal coil and ascended to the skies. But to my horror I saw that the truth was far crueler, the Dragon had lifted up the Construction like it was nothing. Before I even had a chance to react another Dragon scooped me off of the wooden sea and slowly brought me to it’s horrifying mouth. This was the end.

_____________________________________________________________________


“Aw Daddy, he’s so cute! Can we keep him?”
“No Jenna, put it out back with the others, we already got enough mouths to feed.”

And so Billy watched on as his daughter went into the backyard with the dog to let the little fieldmouse go home.