Chronicles From the End of an Age

Let There Be Light - 17Yrs BTA

"Ego... I'm beginning to have second thoughts about this."

A scoff was the response as a man stepped back from a series of pinkish-orange wires coiling over the stone floor over a stone floor. His fuzzy brown and grey hair stood on ends, illuminated by the several firelit torches set along cave walls. His well-worn and dust-covered leather overalls were occupied by several tools, each with its own odd shape and purpose. A manic grin was stuck to his face as wild blue eyes took in what he had created.

"Don't know why you're so worried, Havel. I doubt any residue from a possible mistake will hurt you," responded the human.

On one side of the wires sat a slightly miserable-looking drake. Havel had the electric yellow scales and jagged wings of a lightning dragon. He was sitting on his haunches, several of the wires clipped to his body through various clamps. His tail was curled around his paws as he watched the human do some last-minute changes to the experiment.

"It's not me I'm worried about, you buffoon," Havel replied with a snort, "It's you."

"Aah," Ego gave a dismissive wave of his hand at the dragon as he turned to walk to the other side of the wires, "If anything goes wrong, you can protect me."

He knelt by a small glass globe, inspecting the far smaller metal wires within to make sure that everything was how he had left it. Two thin wires sprouted from the bottom of the globe, with a thin filament attaching the two together. The bottom of the globe was a metallic box, which all four larger wires lead into, attaching to the bottom. Everything seemed well in order. He took a step back, rubbing his hands together and turning back to the dragon with an excited grin.

Havel sighed, "I can't protect you from everything you know."

"I'll be fine Havel," promised Ego as he walked back over to his friend, "Since when have I ever been in danger doing these experiments?"

The drake narrowed his eyes accusingly, "All the time! You literally jumped off a cliff with some sad excuse for makeshift wings and I had to use all my speed to make sure you didn't fall to your death."

"The wings work now though," Ego tapped the dragon on the snout.

"I would hardly call gliding 'working'."

"Hey, at least I don't plummet anymore," the human replied, before turning around, "But my point is I haven't died yet, so why stop now?"

"So you don't end up dead!" the dragon replied with frustration.

"But that is no fun," Ego replied joyfully, spinning around to point at the globe, "But enough complaining my reptilian friend. Let's see if this works."

Havel grumbling unintelligibly in the dragon's language, before switching back to the human tongue, "You are impossible. Stand back so you don't get zapped like last time."

Ego saluted the dragon and skipped a couple of metres away, "Alright! Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be," was the muttered response.

"Three! Two! One! Aannnnddd... let... there... be... light!"

Havel narrowed his eyes as electricity ran through his body, bolts zapping out of him at random intervals to hit the ground. The metal coils conducted the electricity as it was sent buzzing down their length, the yellow bolts also striking out of them and into the ground. Ego's hair frizzed even further from the static electricity that ran through the ground. Then the lightning hit the metal box. The electricity ran into the globe, up the small metal wires, and into the filament, turning it a glowing white-hot. Light shone from the globe, forcing both dragon and human to cover their eyes at the sudden glare.