Earth's Custodians
Prologue
Overcome by exhaustion, unconsciousness had finally got her man, or in this case... DRAGON! Not so much asleep, as just not awake, the naive young hockey player trapped in his human persona, grunted, grumbled and struggled against the bonds that held his torso in an uncomfortable, upright position as events that had led up to this particular low point in his life played out deep within his mind.
A guilt-ridden sigh slipped through his cracked lips as he involuntarily shook his head. Memories of all the subterfuge raced rampantly through his subconscious as wave after wave of regret washed over him. If only he'd seen through all the tricks and lies. With all the opportunities he'd had, he, Peter Bentwhistle, could have stopped everything. Even right at the very end, he'd still had a chance, on that cold, frosty November evening on the Astroturf in Salisbridge, the one place on the planet he truly thought of as his home. Against all odds he'd battled the monster all on his own, stopped him from stealing the laminium deposits, and avoided death, albeit only just. But despite his best efforts, the evil dragon known as Manson had somehow escaped justice, something that had cost the planet and its denizens dearly. If he'd only been braver, stronger, smarter... then the scheming psychopath of a dragon could be in custody now and hundreds of thousands of lives might well have been spared. Deep down it tore him apart to know that he'd been so close, and yet so far.
Skipping ahead now in something of a blur, images of his friends Tank, Richie, Gee Tee, the king and of course FLASH, skittered through his mind.
That fateful day with the king was supposed to have been about him, but it seemed like a lifetime ago that anything within his sphere of influence had turned out okay. That day certainly hadn't. Being presented to Flash, the ex-Crimson Guard, who at the time was knocking hard on death's door, had also introduced the three friends to a world of danger and malevolence that would have seemed like fantasy to them before. But it had been done, and thankfully Flash had been saved, albeit at a cost. Sorrow, regret and a deep sense of loss welled up inside him as he thought about the price his friend had paid. To be stuck in a false human shape permanently, losing the ability to return to one's natural dragon form seemed like a punishment only the gods could dish out, if indeed they even existed. But that's what had happened, and at least outwardly, his friend had moved on.
Thoughts focused on Flash's predicament, his mind turned to events on that fateful Saturday... the one where he'd lost two of the things he loved the most. Adrift in the depths of his unconsciousness, it didn't stop the tears from dribbling down the cheeks of his bruised and battered body as he recollected with crystal clarity what had happened, the heartbreak from that day still tearing him up inside.
A terrific game of hockey followed by all the usual banter and shenanigans at the sports club with his teammates was how it had started. Not only that, but the love of his life, the petite blonde bar worker with whom he'd only recently engaged in a forbidden romance, had flirted with him throughout the afternoon, causing his heart to beat faster, filling him with a sense of contentment that he'd never ever felt before. Of course it didn't last. In fact, things went to hell faster than a dragon hurrying to the toilet.
Upon finding a bomb in their beloved clubhouse, one of many planted across the planet, sheer luck combined with Tank's outstanding magical knowledge had allowed them to save the residents of Salisbridge at the cost of the obliterated clubhouse. But that wasn't all. As events played out, he'd had to not exactly lie, but not exactly tell the truth. And this had come back to bite him badly a little later on, with his beloved Janice dumping him like a barrel of toxic waste. The world wasn't nearly so lucky, suffering one of the most outrageous attacks it had ever seen, with the death toll for both dragons below ground, and humans on the surface, in the hundreds of thousands. On top of all of that, he thought he'd lost one of his two best friends, Richie, in the Salisbridge blast. In fact, she had survived, but only just, and at great personal cost. Through a combination of magic, she'd been transformed into a human. Because of this, the dragon Council wiped her memories, forcing her to remain on the surface for the rest of her life. In conjunction with his friend Gee Tee the master mantra maker, he'd come up with a plan to save her, but he had no idea if it had worked. All he knew was that she was somewhere on the earth's surface, and just like the rest of the human population, was oblivious to everything that had gone on and the threat that events here in the dragon domain currently presented to the planet.
Imperceptibly, the pictures he had of Richie in his head wriggled and writhed, before once again forming a face, one that he knew only too well. So well in fact, that his body was currently chained back to back with the owner... Tim! Caught up in the explosion at the clubhouse with Richie, magical residues had caused Tim, a very normal and completely unexceptional human, to turn into a... DRAGON! Taking a little time to manifest itself, at first the medics treating his injuries hadn't realised quite what had happened. Soon enough though, they found out. And it wasn't just any dragon he'd transformed into. It was a totally white dragon, a complete anomaly, and something foretold in a prophecy thousands of years old. What were the chances? But here he was, out of his depth, with no knowledge of where or what he was, let alone what he was supposed to do to fulfil the ancient foretelling. Worse still was to come. Along with Peter, they had both been captured by Manson and his forces, and brought here, to the council building, as the effort to capture the current monarch of the domain continued in earnest. All in all, quite the predicament the two of them found themselves in. Right at this very moment, unconsciousness favoured reality for the pair of them.
Not a million miles away, other beings slept a slightly more peaceful slumber, but only through sheer exhaustion. Sitting upright against a rocky wall in an unfamiliar nursery ring, Tank, the third member of the dragon friendship trio forged in Purbeck Peninsula during their youth, snored slightly in his false human form, his huge tightly shaven head lolling to one side, his mind tortured by events of the last couple of days. Evading death by a hair's breadth thanks to Flash at the monorail station in Salisbridge, along with all the other passengers there, it was only when he'd awoken that he realised the true horror of the situation he and his friend found themselves in. Dangling precariously from a hastily fashioned gallows in the middle of the Salisbridge market place, surrounded by burning pyres piled high with the rotting corpses of dead and dismembered dragons, it was all he could do to swallow down the sick that kept racing up from his stomach. So realistic was the memory, the sense of smell from his time there made him involuntarily gag, despite the fact that he remained in the land of nod. Brutally tortured alongside Flash, with most of the skin flayed from his body, it was only the timely arrival of his boss, Gee Tee, the famed mantra maker, his best friend Richie, with her dragon memories intact, and unbelievably, a ragtag bunch of humans from the sports club above where he plied his rugby craft, that had saved him. After a chaotic battle, some ancient magic from the recesses of Flash's mind and a considerable amount of healing from some of the locals, he'd recovered enough to join what little resistance they could mount. But on finding out the true scale of the evil being perpetrated across not only the dragon domain, but the earth itself, things looked more than a little bleak. A surprise to be sure then that one of his two best friends, Richie, was tasked with leading the force that remained, despite being stuck in human form.
Cutting through any hint of bureaucracy, Richie instantly dispatched Flash to Antarctica, in the hope that he could rescue the naga king from his forced imprisonment, thereby nullifying Manson's blackmailing of the naga race. The hope was that the ex-Crimson Guard would find willing reinforcements on the way. In the meantime, they'd followed their de facto leader to the capital and found temporary sanctuary here, at the Hampton Court nursery ring. Fed and watered, the dragon force combined with a few human oddities slept, in an effort to regain their strength and stamina for what was to come.