THE LAST DRAGON'S EXECUTIONER Chapter 1: The Dragon That Should Not Exist
THE LAST DRAGON'S EXECUTIONER
Chapter 1: The Dragon That Should Not Exist
The last dragon died when Kael was seventeen.
At least, that was what the kingdom believed.
The beast had fallen beneath a crimson sky on the frozen cliffs of Northreach. Thousands witnessed it. Bards wrote songs about it. Kings raised statues in its honor.
And Kael became a legend.
The youngest Dragon Executioner in history.
The man who ended an age.
For five hundred years, his family had hunted dragons.
For five hundred years, they had carried the same black blade.
A sword forged for a single purpose.
To kill creatures older than kingdoms.
Older than history itself.
And now there were none left.
The war was over.
The monsters were gone.
Humanity had won.
Or so everyone believed.
Ten years later, Kael hated every song written about him.
The statues were worse.
Every city seemed to have one.
Children played beneath them.
Merchants sold tiny wooden replicas.
Travelers asked him to retell the battle.
As if it had been glorious.
As if it had been noble.
As if they had seen what truly happened.
They hadn't.
Because dragons did not die like monsters.
They died like people.
The final dragon had looked him in the eye.
And smiled.
That memory never left him.
Not once.
The capital of Aurelion was celebrating.
The Festival of Ashes had arrived once again.
A holiday created to commemorate humanity's victory over dragons.
The streets overflowed with music and laughter.
Banners stretched between marble towers.
Bonfires burned throughout the city.
A giant dragon effigy stood in the central square, waiting to be set ablaze.
Kael watched from a tavern window.
Alone.
As usual.
A decade had passed since the last dragon's death.
Peace had made people forget fear.
It had not helped Kael forget guilt.
The door burst open.
A royal messenger stumbled inside.
Covered in mud.
Breathing hard.
Terrified.
The tavern fell silent.
Everyone turned.
The messenger ignored them.
His eyes locked onto Kael.
"My lord."
Something in his voice made Kael stand immediately.
"What happened?"
The messenger swallowed.
Then whispered words nobody in the kingdom should ever have heard again.
"A dragon."
The room exploded with laughter.
Someone nearly dropped their drink.
Another man shouted:
"Too much wine, friend!"
The messenger didn't smile.
Didn't laugh.
Didn't blink.
"A dragon crashed into the eastern district."
Silence replaced the laughter.
Kael felt his stomach tighten.
Impossible.
There were no dragons.
He had made sure of that.
Twenty minutes later he stood atop the eastern wall.
The crowd below stretched for hundreds of yards.
Soldiers struggled to contain them.
People climbed rooftops.
Church bells rang throughout the city.
Panic spread like wildfire.
And at the center of it all lay a dragon.
A real dragon.
Not a story.
Not a rumor.
Not a mistake.
A dragon.
Its silver scales reflected moonlight.
Its wings were torn apart.
Blood covered the stone streets beneath it.
The creature was dying.
Kael could barely breathe.
He had spent his entire life hunting dragons.
He knew every species.
Every scale pattern.
Every hunting method.
Yet he had never seen one like this.
The dragon was ancient.
Far older than any beast he had ever killed.
Perhaps older than the kingdom itself.
Perhaps older than his entire bloodline.
The creature's massive eye slowly opened.
And looked directly at him.
The crowd fell silent.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
For several seconds the world seemed frozen.
Then the dragon smiled.
The same smile.
The exact same smile.
The smile of the last dragon he had killed ten years earlier.
Kael felt ice run through his veins.
Because that dragon was dead.
He had watched it die.
The silver dragon struggled to raise its head.
Every movement looked painful.
Its breathing grew weaker.
Slower.
The creature was running out of time.
Kael stepped forward.
The crowd parted instantly.
People whispered his title.
The Dragon Executioner.
The Dragonslayer.
The Hero of Humanity.
The words felt heavier than ever.
When he reached the dragon, something unexpected happened.
The beast spoke.
Not in roars.
Not in growls.
In perfect human language.
A language so ancient that almost nobody alive still understood it.
But Kael did.
Every Dragon Executioner learned it.
Just in case.
"You're his blood."
The dragon's voice sounded like distant thunder.
Kael froze.
"What?"
The dragon coughed blood across the stone.
Then laughed weakly.
A sad laugh.
A hopeless laugh.
"You truly don't know."
The crowd watched in confusion.
Unable to understand a single word.
Only Kael could.
Only Kael heard the horror hidden inside the dragon's voice.
"What don't I know?"
The dragon stared at him.
For a long time.
As if deciding whether the truth was worth telling.
Finally it spoke.
"The prison is failing."
Kael frowned.
"What prison?"
The dragon closed its eyes.
For a moment he thought it had died.
Then it whispered four words.
Four words that shattered everything Kael believed about history.
About dragons.
About his family.
About himself.
"We were never prisoners."
A pause.
A final breath.
A final smile.
Then:
"We were the locks."
The dragon died.
Its head struck the stone.
The crowd erupted into panic.
People screamed.
Soldiers shouted orders.
Church bells rang louder.
Yet Kael heard none of it.
Because his eyes had fallen upon something hidden beneath one of the dragon's broken scales.
A symbol.
Burned into its flesh.
Ancient.
Forgotten.
A symbol he had seen only once before.
Ten years ago.
On the body of the last dragon.
The dragon he killed.
The dragon whose final words had haunted him ever since.
Suddenly, another memory returned.
A memory he had spent years trying to bury.
The final dragon.
Dying beneath his blade.
Looking directly into his eyes.
Speaking its final warning.
A warning he had never understood.
Until now.
"When the last lock breaks..."
"The gate will open."
Kael slowly looked up.
Toward the night sky above the capital.
And for the first time in ten years...
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He was afraid.
To be continued in Chapter 2: The Gate Beneath the Mountain.
