The Guardian Of The West

• Max Maddox, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2022

People screaming, dragons roaring like a thunderstorm. The scaly beasts expelled magnificent red flames that lit up the cosmic black sky in the mystical lands… Malachite the great, colossal, guardian dragon that kept his watchful beady eyes on this blessed land for centuries could not believe the calamity that had fallen upon his home. I have failed he thought to himself. As the scorching orange sun rose above the horizon it revealed the damage that had been inflicted upon the villages and sacred gardens, great damage had been caused by dark forces that served an ancient magical being whose name struck fear in the hearts of the dragons and people of this mystical western land.

Malachite, with his gargantuan wings, glided down from the sky piercing mountains and landed on a patch of burned blackened grass. Whilst treading through the burned, smashed village of Raven Point, a beloved village in this land, he saw the tragic site of fallen fellow dragons, people and animals and worst of all the horribly terrifying mark of the ancient dark armies left on a charred piece of wood. He took off creating a massive gust of wind, there must be some areas of perfect untouched flower meadows and civilisation he hoped. The scents in the air reeked of fumes, the sight was no better, the once soft green grass was blackened with small flames that remained from the battle.

After hours of searching he landed on the only piece of untouched land, the Silver Plateau. A small area of beautiful, luscious flower meadows, emerald green grass and an old abandoned arch mage tower. What should I do? He kept asking this one question in his head. Malachite flew to the top of the arch mage tower to look for any old magic relics that could maybe help him fix the desolation of the dark army. He was chocking on the copious amounts of dust and walking through the sticky cobwebs. “This place has clearly aged” he coughed.

That’s when he thought, time is the answer. “Of course if the legends are true I can use the amulet of time to reverse the horrible events that took place” he stated with excitement. He took off at the speed of sound, faster than he has ever flown before. According to legends, the amulet of time was kept in the Temple of Infinity on the summit of the highest mountain.

Upon arriving at the mountain’s summit he glided through the open entrance and saw the amulet only several metres away. He snatched it off the pedestal it was floating above. “Now, how does this work?” he said scratching his head with his talon. “Amulet please help me reverse the damage”. Pleading with an ancient object was hopeless. He started poking at it and pressed a button, suddenly his vision changed, he could now see the flow of time. It turns out that the battle was a fixed point and couldn’t be changed…