Nebby and the Dawn of Man: Capturing the non-human perspective

Nebby stretched and rolled in her nest without opening her eyes. Chips of precious metals and shiny stones skittered down the slope. The tiny avalanches piled up, forming drifts on the giant serpentine skeleton encircling Nebby’s mound. She breathed deeply through flared nostrils. Her eyes popped wide open. She slid down the pile on her stomach sending her treasured possessions scattering in all directions.

On all fours, she dug her claws into the stone walls and spiraled down through the tunnels to daylight. The air was damp, and the wind broke the up clouds against the mountain peaks just above her. Far below, in the sheltered crescent at the base of the mountain, herds of four-legged prey milled in the grass. Her mouth watered, and she poured out of the stone opening, flowing down the mountainside. She crunched on one then another before the noises hit her, high pitched and panicked.

Nebby sat back on her haunches and munched her meal. The herds of four-legged beasts scattered in all directions, but one of the hairless two-legged ones flailed about on the ground before her. When she extended a clawed talon at the creature, it jumped up and fled. The pursuit created a wide smile across Nebby’s snout. Her wings spread, muscles tensed, and tail swished. When the funny little creature had gone far enough, Nebby pounced. Her red scaled claw came down with a squish.

Nebby lifted her paw and frowned at the jellied mess. It was red and pink and a little prickly, but it smelled appetizing and a tentative poke with the tongue revealed that it tasted just as good. After licking her paw clean, Nebby rolled over, wings tucked tight and rubbed her back on the grass. Far above in the sky, a V of flying snacks caught her attention and she shot up into the clouds.

The moon chased the sun and Nebby chased the moon, until her wings grew tired. With heavy eyelids she slid back into her cave and burrowed in for a long deep sleep.

Delectable smells drifted down to Nebby and in this state between waking and sleeping, her mouth watered and she licked her lips. It was laborious to open her eyes, but her stomach rumbled, prodding her to get up. Wide awake now, she recognized the smell. Her eyes and ears flitted around the darkness. She launched forward, corkscrewing out into the sky.

A roar of noise, punctuated by high pitched squeals rose up from the valley. Circling in and out of the clouds, she examined the land below. An infestation! While she slept, the funny little two-legged creatures had torn down trees, unearthed stones and built nests in her valley. She needed to act swiftly. If they could build all this in one sleep, they would take over her whole mountain before long. Nebby pinned her wings back against her body and plummeted towards the ground. When she was just above them, she spread her wings and belched her fire. As she swooped low, their homes smashed against her scaled breast and fell onto the creatures below.

Now that she had sent them fleeing, she dropped to the ground to eat. Using her bottom jaw like a scoop, she caught up three at once and looked around while she chewed. They ran and scattered and screamed. Some attempted to put out her fire. A handful of others rushed her. Pinpricks of sharpened wood rained down on her and glanced off her hide. She finished chewing, swallowed, then belched fire in a wide arc around her, incinerating everything in her view. She jumped up and stomped on the remaining structures, rolling and bathing in the flames. Looking around one last time, satisfied that the infestation was dealt with, Nebby spread her wings and took flight.

She soared and twisted through the clouds enjoying the sun on her body, scanning for her next meal. Instead she found another infestation, far bigger than the one near her home. The creatures had taken over a whole hillside and ringed it in stone. She circled far above, listening, smelling, debating. Were they far enough away from her home? Did they pose a threat? For a creature that lived most of its life in the time it took her to nap, they were an incredible nuisance.

Nebby pinned her wings back and dove. The two legged-ones screeched and cried while she circled the base of the hill in flames. She swooped by, scattering the stones they had piled. Some of them rushed towards her, encased in metal shells, hurtling more pinpricks at her, but these, tipped in metal, pierced her between her scales. She reared up high, wings spread and roared but, a giant pinprick, tipped with metal, ripped through her wing, sending her tumbling out of control.

Falling and twisting she managed to land in the open field outside of their ring of stones. Her outstretched wing revealed a hole big enough to fit a talon through. The pain seared from her wing down her spine. Tears splashed on the ground. But her respite was interrupted by angry shouts. A hoard of the metal shelled invaders poured out onto the field. Nebby’s heart raced in fear, she inhaled deeply but her breath failed her. The fire was not there.

Wounded and crying, she lashed out with her tail. Bodies hurtled back into their colony. She roared again, a tense high-pitched roar that strained her throat. The invaders stopped in their tracks. Nebby leapt high, and though they stabbed at her with long branches topped with metal points, she stomped and swatted until they were crushed into the earth. Wounded and bleeding for the first time in her life, Nebby limped away. She found she could not fly more than a short distance without crashing to the ground, but in this way made it to the base of her home and climbed up the mountain to her cave. Sleep came with a heavy hand and the world disappeared.

When Nebby first woke, she wondered, hoped really, that it was all a bad dream, but the stiffness in her body convinced her otherwise. Slowly, cautiously, she stretched her wings. A scar remained. She took her time, moving her limbs and sniffing about. The familiar scent circled her.

This time she crawled out of her nest and peeked out of the cave to the landscape below. The ruins of the last infestation remained, but she flinched at the stench. She reached out with her claws and tested the stone around the opening. When she found purchase, she pulled herself out and climbed straight up the mountain. Perched above the clouds, she closed her eyes and listened. Their noise was all around.

She tested her wings. Although the muscles were sore, she took flight. Colonies of all sorts and colors dotted the green world below. They carved their way into hillsides and forests and the banks of rivers. Nebby’s heart fluttered in fear. She needed to learn more. She found ways to hide in the lowlands and listen and learned of a thing called language.

They called themselves, “men” and they spoke endlessly of things called “love” and “war” and “death”. It was “family” that drew her close. She watched parents care for their offspring and those children grow to adults and rear offspring of their own. Over time she came to pity them and wonder how creatures with such short fragile lives could risk them in fighting and in dying leave their children alone. These men are more than beasts, she thought. I will sleep and then decide how to deal with them.

When Nebby woke from her long sleep, she stretched her wings wide. For the first time, they reached the walls on either side. She inhaled then shook her head, but she could not get the smell of man out of her nostrils. She crept out of her nest, causing more destruction than she meant, uncovering an ancient skeleton. She lifted the skull, holding it nose to nose like a mirror and examined her fleshless reflection a bizarre emotion, new and unpleasant sat like a stone in her stomach. Slowly, with great reverence, she reburied the skeleton but the skull, she hung on the wall.

The tunnel to daylight felt tighter than she remembered. When she reached the opening, she hefted herself into the wide world. Although Nature had overcome the ruins of the first human colony in her valley, the signs of man surrounded her valley. She’d let the infestation get out of control and she would need to share her world with them. The sunlight glinted off the shell of a long metallic snake weaving through the open land. Flags and banners fluttered in the wind above. She circled and dove, alighting noiselessly on the ground in front of this train of men with the grace of a crane.

“I smell your fear but dare not draw your weapons,” Nebby announced. “I am here to address the one called king.”

Through the murmurs a man in white armor rode forward. “I am King Richard,” he said. “Son of King John. Son of — .”

“I am Nebby,” she answered.

“We know who you are. You are the Fiery Scourge, the Red Death from Above. You are responsible for the deaths of our ancestors.”

“I was a child then. I did not know –.”

“I must warn you. I have sworn vengeance upon you.”

Nebby smiled at the thought. “Do you see that mountain over there? That is my home. The valley below belongs to me.”

The man next to the king spoke up. “All the lands from the eastern shores to the western shores belong to King Richard — ”

Nebby tilted her head and the man froze in her glare. “He’s not my king. I’ve lived there since before your eldest ancestors were thoughts. If you do not come near my mountain, I will not feed on your people. But if you pester me, I will be left with no choice but to exterminate all of your kind.”

The men gasped.

She blinked several times. “I’m being more than fair. You are an infestation upon the land but . . . I’ve watched you tend to your offspring. There is a bit of goodness about you. I am agreeing to eat livestock instead of you. It is a mercy that I offer to you.”

“And what of the scores of men you have already killed?” King Richard asked.

“They are gone forever.” Nebby stretched her wings. “Your lives are short enough; do not be foolish with the little time you have.” The flapping of her wings startled the horses and blew debris into the air. She was in the clouds before the men recovered.

She surveyed the land far and wide safely above the range of their weapons. She flew to the eastern shore mountains and fed upon wild goats and birds. As much as she ate, she could not fill the void. The skull in her cave came back to her and with it fractured images of a great red dragon, her own mother perhaps? The humans had brought her more sadness than they could ever know, the knowledge of their lives bringing emotions she wished she could unfeel.

Tired and heavy, Nebby flew through the empty world above the clouds. Each stroke of her wings taking great effort. The first arrows of sunlight stretched over the horizon, torchlights and campfires lit up the dark world in front of her. Twisting into a dive she dropped into a forest outside the human settlement. I could creep up, show them I mean them no harm, show them I am gentle, more gentle than their kings. Moving forward through the trees proved difficult. Nebby’s shoulders and wings were wide and muscular and trees grew too close together. Finding herself caught she pushed forward. Trees snapped and fell with a great crash, Nebby’s neck extended out of the trees. Panic filled the air.

“I’m not here to eat you,” Nebby announced. “If, if I had wanted to, I would have crashed into the center of the your village setting it aflame. I just came to . . .”.

A mother ran, dragging a child behind. A man in coarse clothing ran out in front of her brandishing a wooden shield and a torch. “Run!” he called over his shoulder. “I’ll buy you some time.”

“You’ll die!” the woman screamed.

“Now, don’t be ridiculous,” Nebby said. “You can’t hurt me with fire, and that shield would do you no good.”

A bell rang, horns sounded, an arrow clinked off of her snout. Straining forward a tree cut into her shoulder where it met her wing.

“Calm down!” The command sent a ripple of terror outward. The brief void filled with sobs and panic. Arrows and spears splintered against her scales, piercing her deep inside.

Nebby rolled and thrashed sending trees flying. She pounced forward shaking the world. Her wings unfurled sweeping debris into the air. She lifted into the air, overturning carts and knocking the humans off of their two little legs. Her eyes watered. The drops streaked backwards as she flew.

Dipping down she found the floor of her valley filled with men and horses and metal. She dropped to the mountainside, sending rock and boulder to the shuddering valley below. Her talons struggled to grip the stone, she felt a weakness in her guts and feared she might fall from her perch.

“I have granted to you free use of all of the isle. This valley is my home. You are free to live your lives.”

“What freedom?” The king, covered in armor, sat on a horse amid a sea of men. “The freedom to live in constant fear of when the great serpent decides to end our lives? We live under your tyranny no more.”

A swarm of arrows, thick as smoke, darkened the sky. They stung her eyes and crept between her scales. Her legs gave way. She tumbled down the mountain, crushing a score of men and horses.

She rose and drenched the valley in flame. Men boiled and seared, popping inside their metal shells. Panicked horses scattered in all directions.

In a cracked voice she pleaded with them, “You make orphans of your children.” More men rushed forward, hurtling over their dead brothers in arms. Nebby’s tail thrashed, feet stomped and mouth bit.

A jagged metal ballista bolt tore through her wing, wrenching her body sideways, pinning her wing to the ground. A familiar panic ran through her limbs. She reared up, tearing her wing. She thought of her nest ringed in the dragon skeleton.

The onslaught continued, burying her alive. They came with chains now, like thorny vines, the barbs gripped her biting into the flesh under her shell.

A horn sounded followed by an explosion, a loud crack. An avalanche, destroyed the mountainside, bringing it down upon her and the men surrounding her.

Buried in stone, ringed by the dead, Nebby snaked her head out into the morning sunlight. Filled with thoughts of what could have been, Nebby transformed to a lifeless husk.

The king of men mounted the wall of dead soldiers surrounding the felled beast. Steaming, sulfuric air escaped the dead serpent’s carcass. The survivors hacked off scales and other trophies.

The king stood on the dragon’s brow. “The beast is dead. Our children will sleep well tonight!”

Originally published at petercalifanoblog.wordpress.com on January 25, 2019.