The Chinese Fireball
"Accio dragon eggs" commanded the sniveling voice of a human. Chu Jung's eyes flared open, fury immediately embraced her when she saw her precious clutch of eggs soaring out of her chamber. Mushroom shaped jets of flame erupted from her nostrils. With the eerie grace of a reptile, she slithered out of her lair with thoughts of burning, slashing and rending coursing through her mind. Her roar shook the foundations of the abandoned monastery that was served as her home. The clamor of her coming was more like a typhoon than an animal.
Chu Jung burst into the courtyard. Sunlight glinted off the mane of golden horns that circled the dragon's head. Her bulging orange eyes blazed like embers when she saw a troop of hairless apes before her, their little splinters of wood pointed at her unhatched children. She paused. Smoke still billowed from her snout, but she was keenly aware that the ruthless humans had the upper hand. She dug her talons into the stone as easily as if it were soil to keep from tearing the wizards apart.
For wizards these men clearly were. She recognized the spell they had just used. Once upon a time, no doubt, one of her forefathers taught them the Summoning Charm when mankind was still young. She knew that those splinters enabled the otherwise puny humans to perform feats of magic. She bitterly reminded herself that the cores of some of those wands were composed of the heartstrings of her kin, slaughtered for the potency of their physical beings. Chu Jung subtly weaved her head to and fro. Her white prehensile whiskers snaked rhythmically with the movements of her head.
"Don't look directly at her," cried an ugly red haired man. "She's trying to hypnotize us!" The humans quickly averted their eyes. The red haired man strode forward. The dragon hissed at him, but it was more a reflection of her frustration than a precursor to attack. Still, her menace hung like a palpable fume in the air. He did not look at her head, rather his gaze was fixed on her carp finned tail. This human was learned in dragon-lore.
"Reducto!" barked the red haired wizard, pointing his wand at a nearby rock. The curse struck the rock, and it exploded. The wizard then pointed his wand at an egg. The threat was clear.
"Now, dragon, I know you can understand me. If you give us any more trouble, it will be an egg that is destroyed next time. Believe it or not, we intend you and your young no harm. We merely require your services for a couple of days."
His voice sounded like the braying of an ass, but the dragon did indeed understand him. Dragons lacked the vocal apparatus that made human speech possible, but they understood every word of human language. The language of the Chinese Fireballs consisted of sound, sight (mostly the waggling of their whiskers), taste, smell, and touch (heat radiation being the primary source of this). The dragon could smell the stagnant odor of greed. She could feel the quickened heart rate of the human who spoke a lie. She could taste the pheromones of a human in love. It was an arrogant belief on the part of man that they were the only species capable of complex language.
Chu Jung held the red haired wizard in a baleful glare. His heart fluttered. He was not telling the entire truth. Though he appeared confident, she could feel the heat of his anxiety. She could smell the stink of his fear. She looked at her eggs. She could kill these impudent apes, but at what risk to her children? They would be her first successful litter of dragonlings. She looked at the cruel wands pointed at her young. Chu Jung bowed her head, accepting defeat. The wizards quickly clamped a massive metal collar around her neck, to which four chains were attached.
"Dragon, all you have to do is touch this rake. It is a Portkey, and will transport you to our destination instantly. Once our people there have secured you, we will Apparate with your eggs," the wizard promised. So it was to be by Portkey that she was to be transported to captivity. Chu Jung wondered if the wizards knew that a Portkey opened a hole in the space-time continuum. Through this rift, a being could travel instantly from place to place. The human mind was notoriously pitiful, incapable of such advanced thought. She decided that all they knew of a Portkey was a pull from their belly, a whirling light, and bam! They arrived. Their simple primate minds could not possibly handle anything other than a linear universe. She reached out and touched the rake with her talon.
Chu Jung found herself near a green forest in some unknown land. Wizards milled around like vermin. They immediately seized her chains. Others kept their wands trained on her eyes, which were her only weakness. She allowed them to lead her to a paddock where two other dragons were already imprisoned. One was a sleek black dragon with a lizard like head and a nastily spiked tail. The other was a short snouted blue dragon from the north. The black dragon lay prone on the earth. She must have been stunned. The other peered out of the paddock, keeping watch over her pearly blue eggs. Chu Jung waited for the arrival of her own eggs, and pondered how it had come to this.
When she was young, her father told her tales of a time when mankind worshipped the Chinese Fireballs. Dragons were considered benevolent gods of natural forces, like the wind and rivers. Her kind was flattered, and chose to work with the inferior species rather than to prey on them. Then the worship turned to hate as men from the West infiltrated China. In the West, man and dragons had always been at odds. The Western man hated and feared dragons. The Years of Slaughter followed, when cowards dressed in shiny metal scoured the countryside killing dragonlings. Before the dragons knew it, their numbers had been greatly reduced, with no young to keep the cycle of life going. Now man considered dragons to be little more than a renewable resource.
The red headed monkey and his troop appeared. They gently placed Chu Jung's crimson eggs next to those of the blue dragon. The flecks of gold that marked the Chinese Fireball's eggs glittered in the firelight. She stood by the blue dragon, making sure they were unharmed.
"They are beautiful, aren't they?" said the blue.
"They are. The Fire of Life burns strong in them still," Chu Jung agreed. All of her eggs were there. The wizards scuttled away. They were still afraid of the dragons' power, which brought mild relief to the Chinese Fireball's mind. Perhaps she could take advantage yet.
"You hint at an underlying sorrow behind the Fire of Life. Tell me, sister, have you had trouble conceiving as well?" asked the blue dragon. It was a personal question. Chu Jung briefly considered tearing her throat out, but realized that there was underlying sorrow in what the blue asked. It was evident that both females had experienced the anguish of cold eggs that would never hatch. Chu Jung released a scent into the air, the cinnamon-like smell of sympathy.
"I wonder why it happens," whispered the blue dragon. "What is wrong with us?"
"There is nothing wrong with us. My mate and I unraveled this mystery, and our conclusion is simple. There is something wrong with our world. The air is filled with poison. The water is foul from pollution. The earth is barren and toxic. Man is to blame. Their progress is our downfall." Flames billowed from Chu Jung's nostrils. The little apes hopped up and down in terror. They scrambled for their wands. The next thing she knew, a flurry of Stunning Charms blasted her body. The dragon roared, but not even she could withstand such a concentrated onslaught. She collapsed to the ground. Darkness took her.
A riotous din woke Chu Jung from her unnatural sleep. The other dragons (there was now a green dragon with them) were raising a commotion rivaled only by a volcanic eruption. The dragons heaved and tore at their chains. They vomited fire at the wizards who hurled their magic to retrain the epic beasts. The Chinese Fireball joined in. She knew not what made her brethren furious, but it must have been something egregious. Her thoughts turned to her eggs. She belched great clouds of fire into the air. If any dragon egg was damaged...
"A contest!" the blue dragon roared, "You hold our eggs hostage so that we perform as obstacles in contest for your young!"
The black dragon slammed her mighty tail on the ground, causing violent tremors that knocked the primates to the ground. The red haired wizard organized a group of his fellows, and they sent a combined volley of Stunners at the heads of the dragons. The other wizards joined in, and soon they quelled the chaos. Four dragons lay in a smoking heap in the paddock.
The next day, the dragons found themselves separated by massive partitions. They had been moved in the night by some powerful magic. Chu Jung heard the buzz of a huge throng of humans. She smelled their putrid reek. The air was charged with their self-centered excitement. The dragon blinked her protuberant eyes painfully. The Stunners were beginning to take their toll on her. She looked at one of her claws, and realized she was seeing double. She tried to clear her head, but to no avail. She heard the roars of the blue dragon, then the green. The shrieking of the human crowd was excruciating. She was sure her ears would begin to bleed before too long. The smell of brimstone hung in the air, for the other two dragons were breathing fire at will. She hoped they killed someone.
Six wizards entered her paddock. They were wary and afraid. They grasped her chains and led her out in the open. Chu Jung allowed them to lead her. She wanted this to be over as soon as possible. She kept her eyes closed to avoid the dizzying effect of seeing double. They came to a halt. She opened one eye a crack and saw that she was reunited with her eggs. Gingerly she felt around the ground, careful that she not lay on any of them. She gathered her eggs close to her. There was one extra, presumably it was the object of the human sport. By all the powers of fire, air, water, and earth how she hated mankind.
The crowd became silent. She sensed that a lone human was near. She quickly looked at him. He was young, and he was hunched over. He held a wand in his hand, and at this close proximity, she knew the core of his wand was the heartstring of a dragon. She breathed fire at him, even though she knew he was out of her range. She felt a curse whistle by her head. The dragon was beginning to get worried. The wizard was trying to strike her eyes. Her eggs were in harm's way. Again she wanted the ridiculous contest to end. She sat perfectly still, inviting the human to take his stupid prize and be done with it.
The ape crept forward. She could incinerate him now, but she held back. Just take your egg and go, she thought. Chu Jung did not move. She tried to remain unthreatening. But the human felt threatened. He was afraid. He was calculating. He took advantage of the dragon's passive tact. He blasted a Stunner in her eye. The dragon recoiled, howling in blind fury. Her eggs scattered about. She opened her eyes and saw that dozens of eggs were all over the place. She perceived the human running away with his prize. She tried to avoid landing on her eggs, but she could not tell which was real and which was an illusion caused by her double vision.
Her worst fears were confirmed when she felt shells break beneath her paws. The hot jelly that oozed up between her toes made her sick. Madness took. She wanted to kill as many humans as she could. Older wizards moved in to restrain her. They tugged at her chains and fired Stunners at her head. She breathed fire at will. Finally their combined magic defeated her. She crashed to the ground, crushing her surviving eggs beneath her serpentine body.
She heard voices in the void of her unconscious mind. The voices were human. She comprehended what they said, but her mind was unable to connect with her body. She could not react. She summoned all her will to overcome the affects of the magic, but she was impotent. Her mind wailed with agony when she remembered the fate of her unhatched children. She wanted the dark void to swallow her again, but the coarse human voices were relentless, like maggots burrowing in to rancid meat.
"The ripple effects of Voldemort's evil are infinite, are they not Charlie?" asked the voice of an old human
"What do you mean, Professor?" It was the voice of the red haired wizard.
"I have no doubt that Lord Voldemort is behind Harry Potter's name being put into the Goblet of Fire. If Harry's name had not gone into the Goblet of Fire, we would not have needed a fourth female dragon with eggs. The Chinese Fireball would never have been brought here. She would never have inadvertently destroyed her eggs. The Chinese Council of Elders would not be furious with the Ministry of Magic. The life of this dragon would not be forfeit."
"So she is to be put down, then?" asked the red haired wizard. There was guilt in his voice. There was sadness.
"Yes. There is little doubt that her vengeance would burn Peking before she could be stopped. She cannot return to freedom, and a dragon living in captivity dies a slow, tortured death." He paused, as if overcome with grief. "I am old, Charlie. And with age comes regrets, no matter how well thought out our choices are. One of my greatest regrets is my research in finding the Ten Uses of Dragon Blood. I opened the door even further for poachers. I furthered the philosophy that dragons are for wizards to use. We have overlooked that dragons are more than part of this world. They are the very manifestation of the forces of nature. These magnificent creatures deserve better."
The men stood directly in front of her. Chu Jung felt the heat their bodies radiated. She felt the wind of their breath. Grief and hatred blazed through her mind to the point that she would give anything for it to end. She wanted the wizards to follow through with their intent. Her life was now valueless. The old man spoke again.
"Avada Kedavra."