The web site of bookratsculpturesAuthor note: Short story written after a nightmare where I had to wake up at 4am in a world where dragons manifested from pollution and got more powerful the longer they existed.
The first dragon spawned out in Idaho on a potato farm, but by the time the corruption was traced back to its source at least three more had popped up.
No one knew what they were at the time. The news cycle thought it was an overdose of pesticides until one of the men in hazmat suits fell into a hole in that dying potato field and was bitten in half. They tried to trap it, but after a few days of grieving families on the news demanding answers they finally brought out the excavators.
They tried to keep things under wraps, but a cell phone video was leaked. The creature shredded six people and dissolved a tractor before finally being brought down, at which point it melted.
There was a surge of interest in medieval literature and art, protests, endless speculating on the creatures’ biology… The site was locked down, but the owner of the property was eventually harassed into mentioning that the edges of the dead zone were looking more green now.
The next ones were spotted far more quickly once people were searching. A giant fin disturbed the glassy surface of a lake of battery acid in a flooded mine. A flash of lightning illuminated wings otherwise hidden in the smog of LA. Something rattled around in the pipes under Flint, until it became trapped in a water tower.
Potato farms were the easiest places to find them. Little ones; still growing, devouring each other, corrupting roots with the neurotoxin pesticide the field had been sprayed with.
There was an upside though. Kill the dragon and the land would recover. The big mining companies were ecstatic. Paying a team of hunters was much cheaper than trying to contain damage.
The thing was, all the medieval dragons in paintings were little things. The average potato field wyrm was easily twice the size of the biggest dragons found in manuscripts. The government said not to panic, but after the incident in Alaska it seized the off-shore oil drilling platforms and suggested those on the coast evacuate inland.
At least the oil serpents were easy to kill. The plastic ones could get a mile long and weren’t flammable. It was best to just limit shipping to avoid them.
Mine dragons were particularly bad as well. There was talk about dropping a nuke into the Bingham Canyon pit mine, but opponents argued that no one wanted to risk a nuclear hydra. Chernobyl had been bad enough.
Salt Lake city had to be abandoned. It wasn’t the last city lost because of a dragon too big or vile to take down. The army had to be called back to fight dragons, and no one really knew what was happening in China anymore.
But life went on. The big ones were all far away, and it was too bad about the loss of LA but we learned and adapted. We had solar and wind power, electric cars, great public transport, ate diverse foods grown locally… It wasn’t the end of the world, not over here.
The change wasn’t fast enough to stop Jörmungandr from spawning in the upper atmosphere and circling the equator.
They sent planes up to attack it. It’s beautiful, all covered in impenetrable diamonds and filled with sunlight.
The temperature jumped three degrees above average last month. This month it’s five. They’re still telling us not to panic, but they’re broadcasting from deep underground out west.