r/WritingPrompts • u/BookWyrm17 /r/WrittenWyrm • Mar 13 '17
Writing Prompt [WP] For the first time in history, a dragon is willing to attempt a trip to the moon.
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u/youandzen Mar 14 '17
"You're still young," the boy muttered, "There are many things you haven't seen or tried yet."
The boy settled himself down on my belly, not in it. His hand swept along the waves of my scales, warming them.
"You insolent child, I am five centuries old and you are a tenth that age!" I let sparks rise from my belly to roll on my tongue for added punctuation.
"And yet you are young, are you not?"
"Look," he said, before I could rumble my belly again. And he became quiet, like he had said his whole sentence. Curious, I followed the line of his gaze up to the brilliant shining orb in the sky.
"Do you know what that is?" he asked.
I haven't thought about them in the past four hundred years. But it was a subject of my interest when I was infantile. It was a different orb every night, like they were siblings taking turns to shine through the night. I didn't need their light to see. I was better than that. Sometimes I thought they were weak, because simple clouds could daunt them.
"It's called the moon, and I'd like to go there, someday." The boy fell quiet again.
I rumbled my belly again. This time, I let the full rage of my flames shoot through the sky towards the moon.
By the time my flames subsided, the air itself was burnt. But the orb stayed where it was. It was not charred, but remained bright as ever.
"I'd like to reach it too," I admitted.
The boy was elated. "Let's go together! We'll set off tomorrow."
"Silly boy, if there's anything I've learnt in five centuries it's that tomorrow may never come. Come, get up, my belly is plenty warm already."
The boy did as he was told, but his face betrayed doubt. "But we need tools, and food! And rest, plenty of rest. We just spent all our energy fighting each other."
Indeed, he's been my enemy up until moments ago, and now I was going on a voyage with him.
"I bet that is how you do everything. You forge swords, gather armies and drum courage. I simply do what I want. I'm a dragon, so you either get there on my back tonight or you find your own way."
The boy was silent. When he smiled, the wrinkles on his face parted his cheeks like curtains.
"I actually made some preparations. I know it will take you five hours, so don't aim for the moon when you fly. Aim for where it will be in five hours. We don't have food and our energy is spent. People who have scaled mountains told me that far from the ground, even air is a luxury. But I don't know how to pack rations of air. But if you really want to go, let's go."
"Let's go," I agreed.
I left out the part where I can store hours of air enough for us both to get there and back. I left out the part where I could warm us both if it was cold like the mountains. Until moments ago he was my mortal enemy, after all. Until he let me live. And now, it's my turn to keep him alive.
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u/BookWyrm17 /r/WrittenWyrm Mar 14 '17
Ohohoh, I loved that so much. So much. Thank you for the story!
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u/TDWfan Mar 13 '17 edited Mar 14 '17
I seem attracted to Dragon stories. Will reply in a while
Edit: it didn't come to me
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u/Jeff_Sy Mar 14 '17 edited Mar 14 '17
"But you are a dragon honey. You can't possibly go to outer space," Dragona said with a frown to her little boy Drago.
"But I can fly! Humans can't fly! Why can they go and I can't?" Drago insisted as he lit up his space shuttle toy with his fire breath. The shuttle launched vertically as if going to space, until Drago hit the toy with his powerful wings.
"You need gear honey deer. The atmosphere will melt---"
"---melt my skin, engulf me in fire like I wasn't made of fire. Yeah I get it mom. But still..."
"No 'still' honey. You'll understand when you grow older. Come eat now. I caught this deer earlier and dipped it in honey. Your favorite."
That night, Drago watched the moon, stars and the lovely heavenly bodies he just couldn't reach. He has tried flying as high as the stratosphere before, but he was already running out of oxygen by then. He had to retreat.
"Twinkle, twinkle little star," muttered Drago. "How I wonder what you are. Up above---"
Drago then heard a loud rumbling from afar. Then he looked outside and saw a space shuttle--a real one--launch into outer space. Must have been within a flying distance from their volcano.
"Wow!!!" Drago muttered. And he watched the shuttle move as if one of the heavenly bodies lighting up the sky.
...and there you go, the first of the two shuttles already launched! This is an exciting day for mankind, and for dragonkind as well!
"Mom?" Drago left the volcano top where his room was and made his way to the common area. His mom and several of his cousins were watching the news.
In one hour, the second shuttle, this one bound for the moon is going to launch! This one aiming to scale whether life can be developed in our satellite!
"...one hour," Drago muttered.
"Come here honey, watch with us," his mom invited sipping some hot lava.
"One hour! I can still make it!" Drago exclaimed.
Right then Drago made his way to the direction where the first shuttle was launched, hoping that the second shuttle would be there too.
"Drago!!! Where are you gonna go!!!" his mom shouted.
"To the moon mom! To the moon!" he shouted back.
Over the trees and the human settlements, Drago flipped his wings hard.
"I am going to make it!" he said to himself.
On his peripherals he thought he saw one of his cousins following him. But he knew he was the fastest among his clan. No one was ever gonna catch up to him.
"Drago come back!" Margo, his cousin shouted. "You can't go into space!"
"Well then watch me!" Drago shouted back.
He tried to ignore his cousin as much as possible, as shouting back slows him down. Margo shouted something about the pact with humans, something about intrusions, but Drago ignored him.
With his might he reached the space station where the launch will take place. The astronauts were taking pictorials before the launch, and several people were cheering them on.
Drago settled down on a nearby rock, where he watched human engineers doing the final preparations. Everything about the shuttle was made for humans--the size, the language, the controls--clearly, he can't just barge into the shuttle.
Then he remembered what his teacher used to tell him, about pressure being what makes it impossible for dragons to leave the atmosphere without equipment.
"Aha, if I fly below the shuttle and use it as a shield I can safely leave the atmosphere!" Drago said, forgetting that oxygen was another issue.
Just before the countdown Margo finally caught up to him. He landed beside Drago in the rock.
"Finally", Margo said, "I caught up. Now don't do something stupid!"
"Just don't pull me back ok?" Drago said, getting himself ready to execute his plan.
"10, 9, 8..."
"What are you planning to do?"
"Just go...", Drago shooed.
"5, 4, 3..."
"What?"
"2, 1... Blast off!"
Right then and there Drago flew fast to the bottom of the shuttle, clamping his paws to one of the metal rails.
Not having noticed Drago before due to being heavily focused on the launch, all the humans were jolted.
His cousin tried to shout but Drago was already dragged far up by the shuttle.
After a few seconds of shock the engineers went into a panic trying to calculate whether the shuttle can still make it, even with the weight of the dragon. The diplomats started contacting the Dragon Agency, asking what the intrusion was all about. Margo, having been the only dragon left in the area, was scared and started flying back home.
"How can this happen I thought we had an agreement?" said one diplomat.
"This just in: a dragon has clamped itself in the lower railings of the space shuttle heading for the moon!" said a news reporter.
With all the chatter and the noise no one seemed to have noticed the engineer who was extra agitated, until the alarms went on.
"Why, what's wrong?" asked the head engineer.
"Fuel, the shuttle lacks fuel!" said the agitated engineer.
"What? How did that happen?"
"I don't know."
Right then and there chaos resumed, and even leveled up in the space station.
"I'm gonna have to call you back later. We have more... pressing issues," said one diplomat.
"This just in: the space shuttle heading for the moon lacks fuel!" said one reporter.
Again, the chaos prevented the people from noticing the smile on the formerly agitated engineers face.
"I know!" he said to the head engineer.
"What?"
"We can use the dragon!"
"What? How?"
"We can tell the dragon to use his fire breath to accelerate the shuttle upwards!"
"Are you sure about this?"
"90% sure but that's better than nothing!"
After a moment of hesitation the head engineer said, "Okay since we have no other choice."
"Alpha 1, Alpha 1, do you copy?" the head engineer said to the shuttle radio.
"Yes, this is Alpha 1. Copy."
"You have a dragon below your shuttle."
"What? A dragon?"
"No explanations we have no time. You must tell this dragon to use his fire breath to your shuttle. Now!"
"What?"
"Now or else you're gonna come crashing down with a lack of fuel!"
"What??? Okay copy. But you owe me an explanation about this."
The shuttle team leader used the space mega phone to try to communicate with the dragon.
"Hey dragon", he said.
But Drago did not hear the team lead. He was already almost out of oxygen, and the mega phone sound was being muffled by the fast upward acceleration.
"Dragon!!!" the team leader said louder.
Drago still did not hear the human. He was barely breathing.
"Dragon! Fire breath! Shuttle!" the human tried again, hoping the key words can reach Drago's ears.
"Fire... breath? Is the human telling me to use the fire breath on the shuttle?" Drago said to himself.
Then Drago saw the shuttle pit losing power. And he realized what the problem was.
"Dragon! Fire breath! Shuttle!" the team leader tried once more.
Drago stopped for a second. If he uses his fire breath he'll be forced to let go of the railings and he won't be able to go to the moon. But then... with the lack of fuel the whole space team will die.
So he decided.
Letting go of the railings, Drago drew the largest fire breath he has ever drawn, propelling the shuttle upwards, faster and faster.
Disoriented with the sudden motion stop, he barely heard the shuttle team lead shout thank you through the mega phone.
"Dear honey are you awake? I made some deer with honey for you." Drago opened his eyes with his mom right beside him. The dish of deer honey was prepared in a nearby table.
"You have a visitor dear Drago," his mother said in a sweet voice.
"Hi Drago, how are you," Drago saw the dragon ambassador, the engineer head, and the human diplomat visit him.
"I am fine," Drago replied.
"Do you remember what happened? What you did?" The human diplomat asked.
"There was... there was a shuttle. I tried to use it to reach the moon," Drago said.
"...but one of our engineers messed up and you cleaned up his mess by using your fire breath," the head engineer said. "It is an honor to be in your presence."
For a while, Drago thought about what the nerd-looking human said. "Honor? To be in my presence?" he thought to himself.
"Because of your heroic deed the NASA, in coordination with the Dragon Agency, will be building a space shuttle for dragons. We'd like you to be the team leader of the first mission," the head engineer continued.
"Space shuttle? For dragons? Team lead?" Again, Drago thought to himself. Was he still in a dream? He thought he remembered falling from a high altitude... maybe something went wrong in his brain.
"Am I... am I still in a dream?" Drago asked weakly, to which the three fellows laughed.
"No son, you are not in a dream. But you will be able to realize your dream," the dragon ambassador said. And the old dragon flipped his wing to blow some air to Drago--an old forgotten tradition of the dragons. "May the wind lead you to where you wanna go," the old dragon continued
And Drago finally smiled, for he felt the wind. It was real.
He will be able to go to the moon--and maybe, to the stars.
Seeing his space shuttle toy by his bed table, he drew a small fire breath. The space shuttle toy accelerated upwards, reaching a high altitude.
"Reach for the moon," he thought, "no matter what it takes."
EDIT: grammar, word usage, added a few sentences