Russia, 15th century, Dmetry Aksenov Forest


The stealthy feet of a human silently run through the cool, dirt, bottom of the dark forest. The snap of a twig makes a red deer look up from its’ meal of grass. Everything goes silent again. The deer goes back to its’ grainy meal, as thwip, an arrow narrows itself into the deers rib cage, going down instantly from the force. The feet if the human return to clean his kill. As the deers skinned carcass is lifted, the young hunter hears something behind him. Off of instinct, he drops the deer, readies an arrow, and aims it at the source of the noise. Nothing. Nothing was there. He tries to clear his head of what he thought he may have seen. He had to clear his head of the horrors of the town, the horrors and remembrance of his mother. Picking up his deer and begins to walk home. He is: Holga.

Holga walked home, thinking of what he had seen, he called his father, Afansi, to ready the fire for their meal. They sit as his father spices the deer, cooks it, and readies the room for eating. He starts to remember of his past, as his father tells him that it is time to make the ocktoshka soup. He knows what he had encountered in the forest, he hadn’t seen it, but he knows what it was. The Dragorat. The most feared creature in all of Russian, and there petty little town was home of one in the forest. It had the body of a dragon, and face, feet, and tail of a rat. He shakes his head and clears his mind as he smells a delicious whiff of the cooked deer. His dog, Taiga, ran happily to the room as he had smelled it too. He gave his dog a piece and Taiga went back to his business. He went back to his thoughts. Oh how he wanted to just go to the forest and kill it, but he would need the help of the entire town to be able to a chance. And no one was willing to sacrifice there life for some kid. Many people had seen this creature before, but it only took one person to tell when the Dragorat came looking for you, and when the dragorat came looking for you, you didn’t stand a chance. Holga, on the other hand, had seen this beast numerous times. But he knows the bitter truth of what would happen to him if he told, so he kept his mouth shut.

Sleeping, he had nightmares of what had happened to her, his mom, the day she had went ‘missing’. He was six years old. He remembered her blue dress with stars swaying as she swung him around in the air. He had always hated to see her go, but she had to get berries and other vegetables in the forest. This time it was different. She had come out, with a scared look on her face, telling her family of what had happened, what she had seen. Everything was normal until nightfall, as she was taken… Screaming for help. But no one had gotten there in time. The scream was going and going and wouldn’t stop, then Holga realized they weren’t from his dream, they were from outside! Waking sweaty and panting, he dashed outside to see the origin of the noise. It was coming from the market. Getting dressed quickly, he ran to the market and saw a young woman screaming and crying on the floor. Holga asked one of the men standing around the lady what was going on. He got a chilling answer, the Dragorat had striked again.

This had many people worried. This was the fourth attack this month, and the latest person to be taken hadn’t said a word about any sightings of the beast to anybody. The Dragorat was now attacking for sport. A horrible realization went through all of the people in the village of what they had to do. They needed to take the fight to the devil its self. All of the men grabbed there weapons and armor. They left that morning, blood thirsty for the kill. The men marched, three hours passed, looking for its base. They hadn’t needed to, it found them. Everybody in the village waited anxiously for the men to comeback, smiles and cheers, waiting for a cup of ale. But all they could here from the forest was screams and roars from the fight, twenty minutes passed, when everything went silent. Walking out of the forest, a man ,bloody gashes and cuts all of him, walked further on to the middle of the village, looked around, and collapsed. Dead. Everyone looked at the man in awe, not believing what was happening. As they look, two yellow eyes gape through the dense forest. Everyone looked at them, to scared to move. A bone chilling roar hits all of them with enough power to force everyone back to the house. Everyone, but Holga. He stands there, watching them, until they slowly fade back into the trees.

Four weeks later, fifteen attacks had occurred, setting a record in a month then it ever could have in four. The creature was in rage now that they had attacked it near its home. The men that were left wouldn’t go back, not to suffer the same fate given to the ones who went there before. Holga was now sick of eating only berries for the past month. A stray bird or rabbit was the only meat he had had in a while. Against his fathers wishes, he grabbed his bow, and went to the forest. He took down a deer in no time at all. Picking up his kill, he smelled something rancid. He put the deer down, and followed the smell. His nose lead him to a large cave. The more he got closer to see what was making the smell, the stench got worse. Before he had gotten to see what was inside the cave, he heard the sound of branched crashing close behind him. He ran to a large rock near the cave and waited to see what was making the noise. He had his answer. A huge animal walked out of the trees and lumbered toward the cave. The realization of what this creature was hard to believe, but true. It was the dragorat. Standing at maybe ten feet tall, twelve feet long, and broad shoulders. Holga, not in anyway ready to take it on, tried sneaking away. Snap! The sharp noise made even Holga jump, as he saw that he had stepped on a twig.

The dragorat reacted immediately off of instinct, charging the rock Holga was behind. The sudden crack of the rock made Holga cringe, the Dragorat was about to break his cover to pieces. He bolted, faster then he thought he could, purely off of adrenaline, just to be tripped by a protruding root. Just his luck he thought. The Dragorat charged at him again, teeth bared. Holga readied and shot an arrow at the beast’ side, but was useless seeing the rock hard scales. He readied another arrow as the animal knocked the bow out of his hands, and charged him against a tree. Holga pushed the dragorats head away from his stomach, too late. The creatures teeth were already buried deep into his chest. He screamed. In a fit of rage, he grabbed an arrow from his pouch, and stabbed the ugly animals head a dozen times. Slowly, he pushed its head off of his chest, and examined his wound. It was deep, really deep, to the point of where he could see his ribs. He cut a piece of his shirt off, and wrapped it around his stomach. He knew he should’ve gone back to the village for medical help, but he needed to see what the thing was hiding in its home. He peered in. Skeletons, hundreds of them, everywhere on the ground of the cave. One caught his eye, so he crawled over to it. Something was different about this skeleton the all of the other ones. This one had something from his past, one memory from his childhood. He picked up a tattered piece of clothing from the body. And for the first time in ten years, he cried, more then his eyes could make more tears. In his hand, was a small, ripped, and dirty, piece of a blue dress with stars.