About the Contest

This story is an entry to @tristancarax’s 31Sentence Contest.

If you fancy participating, you can find the contest here.
-----------------------------------------------******---------------------------------------------------

Prompt

Here is the expected sentence order:
8, 14, 6, 31, 28, 30, 10, 13, 21, 2, 29, 1, 18, 16, 23, 12, 9, 20, 11, 17, 22, 24, 27, 25, 15, 26, 4, 3, 7, 5, 19

-----------------------------------------------******---------------------------------------------------

Penta Dragon

“Four thousand years and still counting,” Hydra said.

“You shouldn’t have messed with the wizard,” Erin, the wisest of the dragons, said.

The dragons were guardians long ago. They were the five-headed alpha dragons destined to rule over the dragon world and maintain peace with the other forms of life which also included the humans and other primates.

“The wizard took too much to heart,” Hydra defended, “it was the humans who wanted to rule the world when we were still charged with maintaining planet peace.”

They remembered the time when their powerful wings played in harmony with the winds, lifting them above the heavens from where they watched over the rocky plains and misty mountains. They were the rulers of rulers of the magical world.

“You took the life of the human ruler,” Shaaman added, “that was treacherous.”

“So, the human ruler could kill one of our kind but it was treacherous for me to uphold justice my way?”

“Your way?”

“Hydra, there was only one way and that was our way and all this mess started when you did it your own way,” Rimer chided, “the gods deserted us.”

“Gods?”

“Our decree was to maintain peace but your killing must have shamed the gods,” Ailena reasoned with Hydra. The other four embraced silence for the words to sink in hoping Hydra would see reason.

“That’s convenient thinking,” Hydra refused the argument which was something he maintained for the last four thousand years, “and we are still stuck.”

“Maybe we are stuck because we don’t repent,” Shaaman said, “you specifically.”

“The wizard is gone, so what for the repentance?”

“Repentance is for nobody but you, and the day you realize that maybe we will be free again,” Erin said.

“I repent and Tristancarax sets us free?” Hydra was oozing sarcasm.

“In so many years of origami, he is the first to create a physical five-headed dragon. That tells me that the gods have allowed our spirit to inhabit a physical form; lifeless but still a form,” Erin said.

“And that could only mean that the gods have shown mercy and have allowed us to come back to the physical realm,” Ailena said.

“If you think, Hydra, that human wizard wouldn’t have been able to curse us without the help of the gods in the first place,” Rimer pitched in.

“We were the rulers of the realm so it was impossible for a human to as much as scratch us, let alone curse,” Shaaman added.

“All great news but who lifts the curse,” Hydra smiled, “nobody knows we are here.”

“That’s not something we have to worry about,” Erin’s calm voice contrasted Hydra’s smile, “after all, we did not get ourselves out of the spirit realm.”

“Yeah, repentance shipentance did.”

“Yes, our repentance.”

“If only you did too,” Shaaman sighed.

“In the next thousand years.”

Hydra’s stubbornness, notwithstanding, Erin believed that they were close to freedom and it was just a matter of time.

-----------------------------------------------******---------------------------------------------------

Image Courtesy: @tristancarax