Blizzard, the Rouge Dragon

                   Blizzard

         The Rogue Dragon

Years ago a storm raged over a town, it seemed to beat harder as the days dragged on.

One day in the sky appeared two piercing red eyes shining through the blizzard.

As the eyes shown through the wind and snow, a roar rose and seemed to shake everything.

Just as the roar stopped, the storm stopped, as if by magic.

As everyone came outside to see what exactly happened, they spotted who/what had stopped the storm, it was a dragon.

Everyone was scared of the dragon but thankful for what it did.

The mayor asks the dragon to stay.

The dragon nodded, saying yes, and the mayor proclaimed the dragons name to be Blizzard, after the storm that it stopped.

Years went by and things changed including Blizzard.

Blizzard seemed to turn rogue and frighten everyone in town.

The mayor ordered the men of the drive the dragon out of town and toward the mountains.

Several years past and almost everyone had forgotten about the dragon.

~

The time came during the year, when the families from the near by mountains and beach came to town to get more supplies and catch up on the local news.

The children from both groups gathered at the town square to chat and play.

As everyone went around town, someone saw something and shouted ‘dragon’!

People began running everywhere and screaming.

All but two kids, a strong yet young mountain boy named Rocky, a tanned skinned and fasted footed surfer girl named Shelly.

They watched as the dragon flies over the town and stared in aw and amazement at the sight of it.

“Wow, that’s incredible. What did they call it, a dragon, ah wow,” remarked Shelly.

“That dragon looks pretty cool, but why is everyone freaking out,” asked Rocky.

Before either one of them could think about it any further, someone yelled, “What are you two doing, get inside now”!

A man ran out and brought them in doors for safety.

Rocky was the first to ask, “What’s wrong, why is everyone afraid of that dragon.”

“That dragon is a menus, it has been terrorizing this town for years. No one knows or remembers why it’s here at all,” answered one man with rage and fear in his voice.

While looking out the window, Shelly suggested, “why don’t we ask an elder, or the mayor, or look in some ‘history of the town’ books, they should have something.”

“Your not going anywhere till the guards chase the beast out of town” just as the man finished talking a group of men ran through town yelling and shouting at the dragon until it flew back to were it lived.

Everyone went back to what they doing except for Shelly and Rocky, who ran over to the town library to see if they could find out something about the dragon and why everyone was so afraid of it.

They started by asking the librarian were the town’s history books were stored, “Well, there is a storage room near the back that may have something but I haven’t worked on it in years, here’s the key to the room. Perhaps you could pick up a bit while you look, I would really appreciate it,” and handed them the key.

Rocky told her “thanks, and we’d be happy to.”

After hours of searching and cleaning, all they found were some history books that students used for schoolwork, but nothing on what they were really looking for.

Shelly sat down on a chair they had found and said, “I’m so tired, and we didn’t find a thing about who or why the dragon is here.”

“I think I just did,” said Rocky, as he opened up a book and set it on the table that had served as an all-in-one shelf, “it looks like a diary or journal, maybe from someone who knew or talk to someone and wrote it down. It says here:

`There once was a time when the people of the town and the dragon lived in piece and help each other when the need arose, but recently the dragon has been acting strangely.

It would see someone in need and ignore them.

Just a few weeks ago, someone reported the dragon scaring some local farmers, and it took several hours for the town to put out the forest fire the dragon started.

The mayor and several of the men in town came together to figure out how to get reed of the dragon.

They decided to send word of the dragon and what he had done to towns elsewhere and ask for their help, but they realized shortly after sending it that it could be weeks or more before anyone comes.

So they rallied the town at night to chase the dragon back to the mountains, where they say it came from.`

“But that doesn’t tell us who the dragon is,” stated Shelly.

Rocky commented, “I don’t think they cared at the time, considering what this book says that that dragon did. I know these mountains pretty well, maybe we could do our own investigating and find out for ourselves why that dragon is scaring everyone.”

As Shelly stood up and headed toward the door, she said, “well then, you get the gear and I’ll get the grub and we’ll meet at the fountain in the square.”

Rocky quickly followed her; “lets make some lists for what we need. We don’t know how long it well take us to find this dragon or its cave, we must/have to be prepared.”

They had their lists and head out to gather what they would need.

What they didn’t know was that someone was watching from afar and inside the library.

The person outside sneered at them and walked away.

The one inside seemed to ponder something, slightly nodded, and walked further into the library to do something.

When she had gathered everything on her list, Shelly sat and waited by the fountain.

After just a few moments a man in a trench coat walked by and dropped something, and walked quickly away.

“Ah, sir, you dropped something” Shelly said as she bent over to pick it up, but when she turned to hand it back to the man; expecting the man to be waiting to take it back; she saw that he was gone.

She looked at the paper, hoping there was a name or address.

The paper merely a statement, written in a hurry, said ‘please help the dragon, his name is a storm’, and on the other side, in nice print, ‘the tri-force of the four’.

Shelly understood one statement, mostly, though the other made no sense what so ever to her.

As she sat, trying to understand what it all meant, Rocky came up beside her and looked over her shoulder.

Rocky said, “It must mean the dragon is named after a storm, like tornado or hail.”

Shelly jerked slightly hearing a voice after such a long moment of quiet.

She recovered and said, “The only storms we ever get are rain storms, not a very good name for a dragon.”

Rocky thought fore a moment and said “there was another storm, it happened several years ago, as I remember the elders telling us; not much to do up in the mountains except tell stories; it was a fierce storm that had everyone in town trapped in their homes for quite some time, then one day everyone felt a rumble and heard a roar. When everything settled again and the sun came out everyone came out of there houses. As they looked around they saw a large orange beast sitting just outside the town. The man in charge approached the beast and asked ‘did you stop the storm’. The beast slowly nodded a yes. The man then asked ‘would you please stay here, and help us if the need comes. The beast seemed to smile and nodded yes. Then he turned toward the people and said ‘good people of the town this is beast is the one to thank fore stopping the storm, and he has agreed to stay with us and help us. And I decree that his name be Blizzard after the storm he saved us from. And the town rejoiced for days on end.”

“So his name is Blizzard, that may help us talk to him. But what about the tri- force four thing” wondered Shelly handing the paper to Rocky to get a better look?

“Well, tri- force means ‘three powers’, why follow that with the number four” questioned Rocky.

“Maybe we can ask the dragon or Blizzard if he has any ideas when we find him” She said as stood up with her bag on her shoulder and started walking toward the edge of town.

“Hey wait,” shouted Rocky as he grabbed his bag and ran after Shelly.

~

A man in the shadows watch as Shelly and Rocky headed toward some low-lying mountain with caves in them.

He narrowed his eyes and whispered “better tell the boss about this” and ran off.

The man ran into an old, rundown building that looked like it might have been a factory once.

In side were groups of burly, hulking men, standing in the shadows.

In the back was a setup of an office space.

The man walked in and stood quietly until the boss looked up and motioned him forward.

The boss placed his hands so his fingertips touched and ask, “What have you found out.”

The man spoke with a serious look on his face “two kids are heading to the mountain that the dragon lives in and may try to reverse what we have done.”

“Hmm, send some of our men with a mini device and watch them. If they get up to any thing have them use the dragon to scare them away but not harm them. Understood!” the boss stated.

“Perfectly sir” and leaves to find a mini and two guys willing to go and watch some kids for who knows how long.

~

As they headed up the path to the mountain, they continued to discus the strange note Shelly found.

“We know that the dragon’s name might be Blizzard. Does the ‘tri-force’ thing have anything to do with the dragon,” Rocky wondered?

“I don’t know, lets just focus on the part about the dragon,” stated Shelly.

Rocky shrugged “Ok, well, what if the dragon isn’t called Blizzard, what if it’s called ‘tsunami’ or ‘tornado’.

Shelly shrugged “if the story is about a dragon somehow stopping a storm, and the storm was in fact a blizzard, and he was named after that storm. I figure we stay with calling it Blizzard and see what happens.”

“Well” Rocky commented, “people may have called it ‘Blizzard’, but it might want to be called by some other name. I just think we should consider calling it something else.”

Shelly stepped on to a stone sitting by the path and said “we’ll call out names until it response. Its name won’t matter if we don‘t see, or find it.”

A few minutes later, they were at the base of the small mountain. Trying to decide which cave to start at.

Rocky scrunched up his face and said “I think the dragon would stay in the one high off the ground, pointing towards town, and possibly hard to get to if your not a dragon.”

Shelly suggested, “Lets start with the caves close to the bottom.”

Just as Rocky turns to argue with Shelly, they hear a roar come from one of the caves.

They run and hide in some near by brush, waiting for what might happen next.

The dragon soon emerged from his cave, looked around for a second, then took off in flight away from the town and the caves.

They emerged when they figured that the dragon would be gone for a while.

Shelly put her hands on her hips and put on her cockiest look and aimed it at Rocky.

Rocky looked at Shelly with one eye open and said, “that was lucky. Well, lets get going to the cave before the dragon gets back” and started the trek up to the cave.

When they reached the cave, they began looking for any sign that the dragon was sick or something.

All they found was a small pile of coins and other loot.

“There is plenty of daylight, why don’t we go look in some other caves” Rocky started back toward the cave entrance.

Shelly hung her arms limply in defeat by her sides and said “yeah ok” and went to join Rocky by the opening.

As they are about to leave, they hear the flapping of wings, and freeze not knowing what to do.

With in seconds they see the dragon out side the cave.

It roars loudly, then enters on the opposite side of the cave that they were standing.

They slowly start to leave as the dragon enters.

But when Shelly looks back, she sees something strange about the dragon’s eyes, and tries something.

“Blizzard” Shelly shouted, the dragon spun its head and looked right at her, “we want to help you, we are trying to help you. Please.”

Rocky grabs Shelly and pulls her out of the cave as the dragon swings its tail to try to hit them. “Lets get out of here before it tries again” suggested Rocky and quickly started making his down the mountainside.

Shelly takes one last look at the cave and then follows Rocky down the mountain.

~

On a hill a few hundred feet away, a pair of men watch as the kids started climbing the mountain, and enter the cave the dragon came out of to investigate.

The one holding a small gadget wondered, “Since the kids are inside the cave, that would mean they are getting to close right?”

The other guy pondered for a moment then said, “Give them a few minutes. If they’re not out by then, call the dragon back to its cave. When it does, it should get interesting.”

They both laughed at the thought.

Nearly thirty minutes later, they call back the dragon to scare the kids out and away so they wouldn’t come back.

When the dragon entered the cave, it seemed to move slowly around whatever was in its cave.

The guy looked at the gadget in his hand just before they both hear a high pitched call out a word that sounded to them like ‘Blizzard’ and sees the dragon almost go berserk.

They crank up the device two notches and regain control of the dragon and send it back in side to rest and wait for further orders.

They knew they had to tell the boss about what they saw and heard, but neither wanted to be on the receiving end of one of the boss’s rages from hearing bad news.

They head towards base and figure if someone the boss likes a lot tells him they would be less likely to get hurt in any way.

~

By the time they reached the edge of town, both Rocky and Shelly were out of breath.

Rocky, gasping for air, asked “what were you trying to do, he could have knocked you off the mountain.”

Shelly bent over and trying to breath, said, “I thought if I called his name it might trigger something. I think I saw something in his eyes; maybe he’s being controlled somehow. If we could…”

Before she could finish her thought, Rocky turned on her and said “there is no way I am going any where near that thing again. I am going back to town, and try to forget about all of this” and starts walking straight into town.

“Are you really just going to leave him in this state, not knowing why his is or how to help him” Shelly yelled at Rocky, staring at him, waiting for a response.

Rocky stopped just before he entered town.

He stood there for a moment then turned back to Shelly.

He saw her holding back tears and couldn’t walk away knowing he caused it.

He sighed heavily and walked back to her and asked “what do you suggest we do, ‘talk’ to the dragon, or Blizzard, since it went so well last time” he crossed arms his waiting for her answer.

“I was actually thinking of asking the mayor what he knew, if not him maybe his staff or people who might know more about this” said Shelly placing her hands behind her back and slightly rocking on one foot.

Rocky stared at her, realizing it made since, then gestured with his arms toward town and said ‘ladies first’ letting Shelly go first since it was her idea, and followed behind.

Most of the town was still shaken by the appearance of the dragon, and kept glancing at the sky every now and then.

It took several tries be fore they found someone that would tell them where the town hall was.

When they finally did find it, they headed over, trying to avoid people who only seemed to look at the sky.

In side the town hall was chaos. People were running in almost every direction muttering about ‘beasts’ and ‘security’.

Rocky and Shelly carefully made their way to the front desk.

The receptionist’s head was down looking at something, and didn’t see Rocky and Shelly standing and waiting for her.

They stood there for a few minutes, then Rocky tried to get her attention.

“excuse me, miss” Rocky said, a little louder then he wanted.

The receptionist looks up to see who was yelling, and saw Shelly and Rocky just standing there.

She said, in a rather rude tone “what is it that you want?”

Shelly replied “we would like to ask someone about the dragon, specifically someone who knows what happened when the dragon…”

The receptionist cut her short by saying “no one cares why the dragon does what it does, they just want it gone. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do” and went back to what she was looking at, and tried to wave them away.

Feeling defeated, Shell and Rocky start to head for the exit when they hear a ‘psst’.

They turn in every to find the source, then one of them sees a dark figure motioning to follow him.

Normally they would both run and find their parents, but they had a feeling this man could help and followed.

They followed the man through several halls and doors, until finally they emerged into a rather large room filled to the rafters with books.

The sheer size causes them to be speechless.

As they take a few steps in, they hear “you should be able to find what your looking for in here” they both turn and the dark figure standing in the hall for a moment then walk back down the hall.

They stood there for a while, staring at the place the figure had been, then started looking for a clue of where to begin.

They found books on planting seasons, reading clouds to tell what the whether will be for the day or upcoming days.

They looked until their muscles and eyes ached. Rocky found a cushy armchair and plopped into, “this is impossible. We’ve barely scratched the surface on the number of books here. I say we give up and forget about the dragon.”

Shelly sighed and said “all right” and put back the book in her hand, causing an already unsteady pile on the top to tumble to the floor in a heap, missing Shelly by a few feet.

Rocky walks over to look at the pile and the first book he sees is titled ‘dragon notes’ he then closes his eyes and sighs heavily almost moaning.

After only thirty minutes, they learned that the dragon was first honored for what he did as well as respected by several members of the town.

This went on for generations, then in a book dated nearly 85 years ago the dragon’s attitude and habits began to change.\

He knocked things over, ignored calls for help, and started fires in the woods/forest and farms.

The town mayor at the time asked the counsel to send out several calls/letters for help to send out to every town, city, village, county, and anyplace else.

But days later, the mayor realized that they may not get help in the near or far future, and made the decision to commission a group of men to chase/scare the dragon away from town one way or another.

After a week of planning the men executed their plan and chase the dragon back to the mountain.

Rocky sat down on the floor with a thud “well, we didn’t learn much else, and we’re no closer to finding out why the dragon is acting so strange.”

Shelly sat cross-legged with her elbows on her knees and chin resting in her hands “I guess your right, whoever lead us in here may not even know what’s in here let alone know what we’re looking for.”

As they sat resting, a woman with more books in her hands than she could handle, walks in and begins to stumble causing the pile in her hands to titer.

Both Rocky and Shelly jump up to help her, Rocky helped her regain her balance while Shelly moves the books to a near by table.

“Thank you for your help, but what are you doing in here” the woman asked.

Shelly says in response “we were looking for info on the dragon, like maybe why it changed.”

The woman looks at them both before saying “why it has changed is of no concern, we only need to bother ourselves as to how to get rid of it,” she turns towards the books and stands there for a moment before turning back and saying “there is a small section with some books that focus on a attempt to study the dragon and try to understand why it did what it did” she then turns and leads them to the area she mentioned.

This time it took only minutes to find some info. The books(s) mentioned that:

`for about three weeks the dragon acted in a somewhat normal fashion but only when not in town.

The dragon then did voyages out of its cave that would last up to 5 hours then returning with nothing in its position, we assumed that it was eating during some of the outings.

One member of our group has noticed that the dragon’s facial appearance had a somewhat blank look to it.

We continued our search by entering its cave to see if had brought back something small.

The search yielded nothing, not even a coin, jewel, or shinny stone and we knew from our knowledge that dragons should have some sort of collection of some kind be it coins or jewels, though we are not sure why yet

(all our info came from stories and fake drawings).`

Now they had enough info to start and try to help the dragon or find out what exactly made it change and help change it back.

They headed back out to start their ‘quest’.

Outside the town hall, a group had gathered and stood there muttering to each other.

Rocky walks over to a man he saw earlier and asked “what’s with the meeting.”

The man said “they plan on tracking the beast and getting rid of it for good.”

Rocky turns sharply to look at Shelly, they both had a look of fear for Blizzard.

They run off toward the mountain to try to get there before the adults found it.

~

Because they didn‘t find someone to tell the boss what they saw, the two of them argued about which one would have to tell the him and bear the brunt of his anger.

They did so until they hear him call them over.

“so, I heard what sounded like a roar. Did our beast scare those kids back to mommy and daddy“ he laughed at his own small joke.

The one still holding the device stepped forward and said, “we saw the kids. They went into the cave. We sent the dragon to scare them off but” then stopped and looked at the floor at his feet.

The boss leaned forward “BUT!”

Then his partner spoke up “but they caused something strange. The dragon at first started to go around them, then its tail went crazy, that made the kids run off. We weren‘t sure we would regain control for a moment.”

The boss ran his fingers through his hair “hopefully it scared those kids enough to keep them out of our hair. Have our tech guys check out all the units for any weakening in the wiring or the signal. We will continue as planed, call our carvers and tell them to start the next stage in three…WHAT IS IT!” he shouted as he turned to see the interrupter of his order giving.

It turned out to be the spy they put in front of town hall to monitor the citizens reactions to the dragon.

This time he didn‘t like the info he had to tell the boss.

He walked slowly forward until he was three feet from the desk “the towns people have gathered and plan to take care of the dragon, for good.”

Everyone with in earshot turned to see what the boss would do.

He stood up and commanded “call the carvers and tell them we are advancing the project, and if they question why tell them what we will do to them with the beast. Gather all the devices and tell the techs to put them all in the main unit and to power it up. Everyone else pack anything that could be used as evidence to put us in jail and either burn it, brake it into tiny pieces, or bring it with us, try to bring as little as possible for an easier escape.”

With everyone rushing to get out of the area, the boss walked over to one of the crates and looked at the contents. He furrowed his brow as he thought, ‘{}’.

He walked back to his desk and pulled something out of the only locked draw. “Just in case,” he said to himself, then walked into the shadows of the old building, waiting.

~

Shelly and Rocky ran through the woods as fast as they dared, trying to get to the mountain where Blizzard lived before the adults and try to hide themselves at the same time.

They emerged at a different location, were a path lead up to the same level as the cave, and started to hike.

When they reached a rocker part of the path, they hear roaring in the distance and turn to see the dragon coming around the side of the mountain.

They quickly climb up to hide among the rocks to wait and see what the dragon will do.

Rocky was first to look around the rock he was hiding behind.

He saw the dragon hovering in the air looking from side to side, but not down where they were.

He turned and saw Shelly looking in his direction and tried to motion to her what he saw.

She nodded and pointed off to the side close to her, indicating an opening in the mountain that the dragon may not know or notice.

He made his over to her, and they started to make their way over to the opening.

They soon realized that it was farther then they thought and that it got rocky as they went.

Every once in a while they would turn to see where the dragon was.

It had changed from being in the air to sitting on some rocks that rose higher then the others, and rocking its head from side to side.

Shelly gave it a long, hard look, then her eyes opened wide “something is messing with its head, it’s trying to shake it off. We have to find out what is causing that and stop it.”

Rocky nodded his agreement and they continued their accent.

When they were just a few feet from the opening, they hear roaring again and just in time to see the dragon begin to bear down on then.

The dragon opened its mouth to breath fire, but Shelly and Rocky didn’t wait for it and dove for the opening that angled downward.

As they fell down the opening in the side of the mountain, they could hear the dragon roaring outside looking for them.

When they finally stopped at the bottom, they could hear and feel a low hum that seemed to both be in the rock and echo through the cave.

As they slowly crept father in, they stated hearing voices.

“that thing is making a royal racket. How much longer till we’re done here, that sound is giving me a headache” someone said.

Then a stronger voice said, in annoyance “well you could go see what the dragon is doing. Anyway, we should be done in a few hours. Hey, go take a look at the mind control unit, make sure it doesn’t hiccup again like when the dragon went back to its cave to check on those kids.”

At that point Shelly and Rocky crept up to corner and peered around.

Inside, it opened up into a huge cavern filled with lights hanging from the ceiling, scanners, wagons filled with shinning martial.

The sound was also a lot louder, almost to the point of giving them both headaches, but they pushed on.

They walked as quietly as they could past the man watching the machine do its thing, and to the next room.

In there was a massive collection of some sort of gem vary from small jewel you could wear in jewelry to ones as big as a strong man, all hooked up to a machine that was causing the thrum.

Rocky and Shelly just stared at the machine for moment, then Rocky said “I know that stone, it puts out a frequency that can cause minor headaches and certain tools to vibrate. When climbers encounter it, they try to avoid it and go another way.”

Shelly turned to Rocky and stated “yeah, but that thing is hurting Blizzard and the town by hurting him. We have to stop it. Any ideas how.”

At that point they see other man walking around the machine, and hide behind one of the big gems to see what he’ll do.

The man grumbled as he checked the machine “why do I always have to check this thing. Well the wires look fine, and that whatever the boss called it looks like it’s in one piece. What did he say will happen if something happen to it,” he shrugged “oh well, it doesn’t matter, as long as it works and that beast out side is working for us, I don’t see any reason to worry” he leaves, not even noticing Shelly and Rocky.

With him gone, Shelly and Rocky approach the machine.

They look all over it to try and find some sort of access panel to get at wires or anything else inside to try and stop it.

Shelly found a panel, but is bolted shut.

Rocky gets out he pocket dagger and start to remove the bolts.

After what seemed like hours, he removed all the bolts then finally the cover they held in place.

Inside they saw wires and circuit boards, blinking lights, and who knows what else.

Rocky stared, not knowing a lot about tech.

Shelly moved forward and grabbed a hand full of wires, motioning Rocky to give her his dagger and cut the wires clean through, cause the machine to make a even worse noise.

Rocky covered his ears and said with urgency “hurry up and destroy this thing, before those guys come in here or this thing blows.”

She grabs another handful and does the same thing then starts pulling out anything with in reach and throwing it behind her, doing what damage she can.

After a few minutes of this, they hear shouting from the other room and turn to see the men standing in the entrance covering their ears.

The sound was so loud that no one could hear each other, so Rocky just grabbed Shelly’s hand and started to make there way to safety.

Unfortunately, Rocky didn’t know this part of the tunnels and just lead them to an overhang with no way down.

They looked everywhere for a way off the mountain before the machine blew.

They hear a familiar roar and turn to see Blizzard fling towards them.

Rocky first tries to protect Shelly from it, but sees it come up just below them.

They look first at the dragon then each other, then Shelly shrugged and jumps on to the dragon’s back followed shortly by Rocky.

The dragon took off moments before the mountain filled with smoke and debris.

Rocky and Shelly stare at the mountain as smoke billows up from some of the holes, then turn their attention to Blizzard.

Shelly said “thank you for saving us, I don’t know what we would have done.”

Rocky nodded “you really are true to the legends, ‘helping anyone who needed it’.”

The dragon’s eyes sparkled for moment, then it said “I should thank you for getting rid of that thing. The wizard that made just left it on before he vanished, and were those men could find and use it. With it off, I can go back to my duties.”

Shelly and Rocky looked at each other, they knew they had to tell him, so Shelly did “well, it may be hard for you to just continue what you were doing before” he look at her as she continued “the town has been through allot cense you were taken control of by the wizard, and think you’ve gone bad. I’m sorry.” she hung her head, felling bad for what she said.

The dragon glided while it thought over what she said, then Rocky asked “how can we hear you?”

Shelly looked at him realizing he was right, they were talking to the dragon.

The dragon flew to a cliff over looking the water and landed, letting them off so he could look at them properly, it said “the only way we could talk is if we are meant to do something together as a team. There is a tale older then even me, of the tri-forces that would link three beings together to fight for a greater good.”

Shelly and Rocky shared a look of excitement, the she stated “I found a paper that said ‘the tri-force of the four’, but that’s all it said about that.”

Rocky added “it did clue us in on what your name might be ‘please help the dragon, his name is a storm’. It almost looks like it was planed for you to find that paper Shelly, and for us to help the dragon now and later, if what you say is true that is.”

The dragon lowers its head to be level with Rocky and looked right at him with a deep growl, causing him to back up a bit and Shelly to laugh at them both.

They then hear what sounded like small explosions coming from the part of the mountain that was closer to town.

Blizzard raised its head and took a deep breath, he narrowed his eyes and said “you said the town has had to deal with me when I had no control, then it must be the town setting off dynamite to either trap me inside my cave or try and make me leave and find another place to live. Either way we must stop what they are doing, not only for me but also for their sake.”

Shelly didn’t understand, but Rocky did and asked “do you mean that if they close those caves, the structural integrity of the mountain will be lost, and possibly harm the town?”

Blizzard looked down at them and stated “not ‘possibly’, it will. I could feel that the mountain was unstable, and placed large rocks and stones in specific points to try and maintain it. When anyone needed anything by going over the mountain, I offered to fly them over so as not to unbalance it. But I fear that even I cannot save everyone.”

“but there must be something we can do!” Shelly blurted.

Rocky, trying to think things out, gathered some stones and started to stack them.

Shelly saw and asked, in an annoyed voice, “why are you playing with rocks. We have to figure out either how to stop them from destroying the mountain or stop the mountain from falling.”

Rocky looked up at Shelly from his pile and stated “I am thinking. When you go hiking, you watch for weak spots were the rocks might slide out and fall away. If you look at a pile of rocks, they have weak spots practically all over. In other words, take one rock away, and they will all fall.”

Shelly sighed and asked “is this going somewhere?

Rocky knelt next to the pile as he explained his idea “hikers play a game. If you want the pile to fall a certain way, you have to know which rocks will make it fall that way. In other words,” he pulled a stone out and the pile fell down to form a somewhat arrow shape, “make it fall where you want by weakening the side you don’t want.”

Shelly still looked confused, but Blizzard did and said to Shelly “we stop the mountain from falling on the town by weakening the other side, away from the town.”

Her eyes opened wide and her jaw dropped when she understood their plan.

They mounted Blizzard and they headed for the opposite side of the mountain of the townspeople.

Blizzard let them down on a hill that was far enough away that any debris should not hurt them, then began to attack the mountain.

He clawed into any small caves, knocking over any support pillars.

He slammed into the base by holding his wings close to his body and diving bombing it, shattering any small tunnels in the lower part of the mountain and even below ground level.

Slowly the mountain started to shake, and before it fell away from the town, it began to fall inward.

Shelly and Rocky looked at each other in concern, and started to call for Blizzard, ‘Blizzard, get out of there before its to late. Blizzard that’s enough, the mountain isn’t falling towards town, please come back’.

They watch as the mountain falls inward and sends up a cloud of dust.

When the dust settled, they looked at the now hole of rubble that was left, hopping to see Blizzard’s shining orange scales.

Shelly fell on to her bum after straining her eyes for several minutes “if he had gotten out, he would have flown back here to get us. The mountains gone and there is no sight of him, he’s gone” and started to tear up.

Rocky kept looking for any sigh that Blizzard made it out all right, but gave up when his eyes started to water from the strain.

He sat down next Shelly, but remained quite, because he didn’t now what to say.

They sat there for hours, but didn’t care.

Blizzard was gone, and they felt like they had failed somehow.

They hear shuffling behind them and turn to see Blizzard landing.

They both jump, but only Shelly hugs him with Rocky patting his nose.

Blizzard giggle deep in his throat at their reaction, they had been worried for him.

When they had their fill of hugging, he raised his head and said “I felt the mountain going and found an escape route at the last moment. I will definitely need a soak after that. Now you two should climb on and tell the town that…” but he then sharply turned hid head, “the men that found that machine, did either of you see where their hideout was?”

“we saw two men by the machine, but we didn’t think to look for their base camp, sorry” Shelly stated, with a shrug.

Blizzard’s eyes narrowed when he said “they are trying to run because you foiled their plans of finding something. I will drop you off near town and will deal with them myself.”

Blizzard lowered his head so they could get on, but they stood there.

Rocky shook his head and said “your not taking on those guys without us.”

Blizzard looked at them hard when he said “I can’t take you to a possibly dangerous place. I don’t know what those me might try and do to cover up what they were doing. Home is the best place for you, now get on so I can take you back” and ended sounding cross.

But both Shelly and Rocky held their ground, Shelly stated “we wont let you take on those guys alone. What if they have something that can hurt dragons? We are coming with you for back up, and that’s that.”

Blizzard looked from Shelly and Rocky several times before he sighed and ordered “alright, you may come. But I want you to stay together, you’ll have better luck against anyone who might try anything as a team then separate. Now get on before I change my mind.”

They jump on and head in the direction that Blizzard heard the noise.

They flew for several minutes, until Shelly spotted a rundown factory hidden between some high hills.

They landed on a small hill that was resting on one of the bigger ones, and made their way down.

Once they reach the side of the building they discussed a plan of attack.

“Blizzard, you make a racket and scare as many of those guys out, then we’ll go in once the screams die down and find out what they were doing here in the first place” stated Rocky.

Blizzard nodded and walked up a near by hill a few yards, before jumping on into the air and roaring loudly.

Even with their ears covered, they could hear screams from inside.

They walked down the side till they reached the corner and looked around to see grown men running and sometimes falling over each other to get away from whatever made that sound.

Doing their best not to laugh, they watched as the men ran, then entered the building when the screams were done.

The building was huge inside, with various stairways leading up to viewing platforms.

Shelly remembered rumors that there had been mining attempts for something, but couldn’t recall what.

As they walked past some steel getters that were lined up in a wall pattern, they see some boxes and do a little snooping.

Rocky found a crowbar and pride off the lid of one of the boxes, inside it was filled with a substance that looked dull when they brought a light over it but shimmered when the light was gone.

Shelly was about to ask Rocky what he thought, when they hear a gun cock.

They turn and see a man standing there, with a gun pointed at them.

They slowly back away from the box, as the man walked over to the box and put the lid back.

The man/boss looked at them and said “you shouldn’t be here. It’s off limits because it’s considered unstable. It was condemned, but never messed with. It’s also a treacherous climb to get here, but something tells me you didn’t get here on foot.”

At that moment they hear a roar from outside, and Shelly and Rocky catch a glimpse of Blizzard passing in front of some windows.

The man/boss though seemed to now what was going on and smiled manically at them both “so you’ve meat the dragon. He can be unpredictable though. He might turn on you when you least expect It.” and laughed at the looks on their faces at he statement.

But Shelly didn’t care for it and said “Blizzard would never hurt us,” but quickly covered her mouth, realizing what she did.

“so, it’s called Blizzard. Well, with my devises not working, I’ll try another way to control It.” he started to push them to the door when he catches one of them glancing at the boxes again, and said “its a odd substance that is common in the mountains around here. The thing is, no one knows what it does or what it can do. But I’ll get all of it, then once they do find out, they’ll have to buy it from me and it wont be cheap.”

They slowly make their way out, were Blizzard was waiting.

Blizzard growled, but saw that the man/boss had a gun couldn’t risk the chance that he might fire his gun and it hit Shelly or Rocky.

The man laughed loudly seeing the dragon holding back so he wouldn’t do anything to them “so the great dragon, free at last I see, or not. I have one last task for you. I want you to set fire to the town and scare everyone away.”

Shelly and Rocky looked horrified at the thought and Blizzard took a step closer and growled deeply.

But the man stood his ground and held the gun firm “if you don’t, I can’t promise what will happen to these two. They may fall down a hole or a cliff or even a river. Just do as I say or, HEY!”

Rocky managed to spin around and grab the hand with the gun while he was talking to Blizzard, giving Shelly the chance to ram him in the gut.

With his gun gone and the dragon mad at him for threatening his friends, he ran back to the building for cover.

But Blizzard was faster and took the man in one claw, then sat on the ground, making fake growling noises to scare him more.

With the trouble well ‘in hand’, Shelly suggested “we should take some of this stuff that he was getting from the mountains and show everyone in town what he was doing. At the same time show them that you never changed just used against your will.”

Rocky agreed and went back in side to find a dolly or something to wheel it outside more easily.

He found a trolley that had a small amount of the stuff and brought that out.

They got on Blizzard’s back and he carried the trolley in one claw and the scared stiff man in the other, and they headed for home.

Back in town everyone was celebrating that the dragon was gone.

The men who did it were considered heroes by everyone.

But the fun was short lived when a beach goers asked “where’s Shelly”, that was followed by a mountaineer asking “where’s Rocky.”

The librarian said “they were looking up info about what the dragon was like before it changed. I didn’t see what they did after that.”

Then everyone started to think of where they might be, when they here wing-beats.

They look up and see the dragon coming towards them.

They run for cover hopping he would just leave, but hear it land and someone giggle.

They all come out of hiding to see Shelly and Rocky on the dragon’s back smiling down at them.

They were more shocked by what they dragon had in its claws, a man trying to escape and a trolley.

The dragon gently placed the trolley on the ground, but held the man in the air and blew some smoke at him.

He screamed again then fainted.

Shelly and Rocky got off by climbing down Blizzard’s tail, and were greeted by their parents hugging them.

They asked “where have you been? we thought you were with the other kids?”

Shelly smiled and stated “we were saving Blizzard, the dragon that all of you said was bad. But a wizard made a machine that caused him to lose control of his body, and only regained control when he was near town.”

Rocky then stepped in and continued “he was using a stone that can cause some tools to vibrate, and in Blizzard’s case, lose control and be used by someone else.” he then turned and pointed to the man in Blizzard’s claw “he used Blizzard to scare everyone away so he could mine for a substance that is common in the near by mountains and sell it to the highest bidder. There is some of it in the trolley, be careful though, even he doesn’t know what it can do.”

The scientists gathered around the trolley, and the police took the man into custody.

Everyone stared at Blizzard, they had been afraid of him for years and now he sat there like in the old tales.

The men who used dynamite to destroy the mountain apologized for what they did, but Blizzard shrugged and tickled a child behind the ear with the tip of his tongue.

Rocky and Shelly stood to the side as the adults asked Blizzard a wide range of questions, until he opened his wings and flew off somewhere.

Everyone went back to what they were doing.

Shelly and Rocky made their way away from town and up a path to some caves that Rocky knew of.

After a few minutes of trekking, they finally made it to the opening and saw Blizzard sunning himself just outside the cave.

Shelly finally managed to ask Blizzard, “now that we’re away from the crowd, could you tell us what happened all those years ago. About the wizard, and anything else you might remember?”

Blizzard sat back on its hunches and began its tale/story:

“years ago, I protected the town and the surrounding territory from bandits, robbers, wolfs and other wild animal that would try and harm the people in the area.

I did so for several years, until one day I discovered a bearded man in a sparsely populated area.

I thought it odd and watched him for a few days, he then tried to attack me out of the blue with some kind of spell or charm, but he only drove me to a cave that contained a strange gemstone.

It gave me quite a headache when I went near any of the large ones.

I blocked the entrance with some big boulders, to keep others from finding them and possibly hurting themselves.

But the wizard had other ideas.

He found a cave with a bigger deposit of gems, and made a device to harness their power for evil purposes.

I tried to stop him, but he tested his early attempts at his device on me, causing me keep my distance just to keep my sanity.

He went into hiding to try and finish it, leaving the town and me alone.

I continued as though the wizard had never been for a few more years, then I started to have strange headaches and moments that I could not remember.

When I was able, I searched for the wizard for a few days, I found him in a building that at one time had been used for making household products.

I tried scaring him off, but he aimed his contraption at me, and took control of my body.

I was only aware of things that happened outside my body when is was far from that thing, that distance seemed to be the town, so when I had control I flew back to my cave and hid until he took over again.

When the town did their attempt to scare me away, I complied and flew away, but went to the wizard to try and fight him and his accursed machine.

I fought the effects of the machine as I attacked the wizard, and managed to drop him from a high place.

He died several days after our fight but left his machine on causing me to have headaches and bouts of amnesia, so I can‘t say what I may have done for all the years that I was under its control.

I hope you can fill in some of the gaps.”

Rocky and Shelly took turns telling Blizzard what they had read and heard.

Blizzard listened intently until they finished, then raised his head and looked back at the town as he said “looks like I have my work cutout for me to reestablish some kind of trust with not only the people but also the town and the surrounding groups. Can I rely on you two to help me with doing just that” he said as he lowered his head to look more eye to eye with Shelly and Rocky.

Rocky stumbles and lands on his bum at seeing Blizzard’s head so close and Shelly laughing nervously.

Rocky managed to say once he found his voice “yeah, of course we’ll help. But I, we, have one request. Would you let us ride you every so often?”

Blizzard moved his head slightly closer to Rocky, making Rocky’s eyes open wide wondering what he was doing, then said “of course, I would love to give you both rides, even if its for no reason. On that topic, would you two like to take a ride now and see the area that you call home.”

Shelly nodded like crazy and Rocky jumped to his feet with a big smile on his face.

Blizzard positioned his head allowing them to get on easily.

Once they sat comfortably he rose to his feet and spread his wings.

Taking a run to get some wind under his wings, he leapt into the air and flapped his wings so and soared a few hundred feet higher, then slowly glided over the town and everything.

Shelly and Rocky looked down with open mouths of aw.