The story is set in a village named Rimrock. It was your typical village that consisted of struggling European immigrants looking forward to building their American dream. They escaped into ships hoping to find a land where they could develop prosperity, self-sufficiency and religious freedom. A visitor to Rimrock could encounter any resident of that village and easily see right through them -- struggles, and hope for a better future. This village was divided in half by a river of crystal clear water that led to a cave inhabited by the dangerous dragon. Tristan was a beautiful dragon -- he was about 17-feet long, dark red skin, and eyes that looked like they were always on fire. Those who gazed upon him were enthralled by his beauty, grace, strength, and power. Men feared him, because of his exceedingly great size and heat in his breath of fire. There were two types of men Tristan encountered: those who feared him and ran away from him and those who tried to slay him.
What the men didn't know, however, was that there was a lot more to Tristan than meets the eye. Anyone who encountered such a great dragon would assume he was dangerous and heartless. However, it wasn't yet discovered by man that dragons had emotions as humans do. Tristan's predominant emotion was loneliness. Although his physical stature qualified him as ruler of the Rimrock village and all the other villages nearby, he still felt inferior to its residents. You see, the residents of Rimrock had something to look forward to -- the American dream. They had families. They had friends. They had attainable goals. Tristan had no other dragons to associate with nearby that he knew of and he had no one to express his feelings to. He didn't even bother trying to interact with humans because they either avoided him or attempted to kill him. He's heard many humans point their fingers at his cave, warning each other of the monster living in it.
Tristan wasn't a monster, and he wasn't out looking to kill humans with his sharp claws or his fiery breath -- well, at least most of the time. Tristan was the culprit of only four deaths, which is a pretty good number for a dragon like him. He had a genuine desire to be accepted by mankind and not be seen as a monster, but every time anyone got close to his cave his survival instincts triggered fire in his breath and the sharpening of his claws that was so out of his control that he was given seconds to choose between killing someone or scaring them away. For some unknown reason to him, he just couldn't let anybody in his cave. And every time he heard footsteps of people running away from his cave, he felt his heart drop. This hurt him more than his mouth burned from all the fire. He felt empty. He knew he needed to let someone in, but he just didn't know how to without fearing being slain. "Maybe it's better that I'm slain than to feel this void." Tristan thought to himself, "What is the point of living if it is an unhappy state for me?"
As these thoughts were running through Tristan's mind, a virus infected the village of Rimrock. A virus so strong the death rate for Rimrock multiplied by ten within two months. As Rimrock lost its residents to death, the very first to die found themselves in a state of neither dead nor living. Their physical appearances changed drastically but were still recognizable. In this state, commonly known as becoming a Zombie, those residents were no longer human. Their blood turned cold, their thirsts were quenched by nothing but warm blood, their hungers were relieved by the consumption of human bodies (particularly the heart or the brain), they could no longer speak or form words or sentences, and their desires and needs were simplified. When they were humans, their schedules consisted of working, strengthening social bonds, and meeting their physiological needs. As zombies, however, their schedules consisted of solely meeting their physiological needs (which consisted of eating and drinking). They didn't sleep. They were incapable of feeling. Their long-term goals changed from fulfilling the American dream to eating a human brain.
Eventually there were no more live humans for these zombies to feast upon. They looked everywhere in the village for more without any luck. It got to a point where there were absolutely no humans inhabiting Rimrock - just zombies, animals, and the dragon. The lead Zombie, John, was the first man to be affected by the disease. Because Zombies were incapable of communicating through speech, they followed their leader John by his example. John could see there were no human bodies for him to consume. He decided to resort to animals. He saw a beautiful black stallion run across a field. Taken away by its beauty, he desired it for himself. Having much experience with hunting his prey, John successfully paralysed the stallion and aggressively started at its brain. The reason for zombies' preference to hearts and brains is they collect their preys' information such as memories, emotions, and hopes. This gave them much satisfaction because it made them feel accomplished. They felt like they finished their lives through the past of others. This form of vicarious living filled the void they felt from never having accomplished their American dream.
The downside to that, however, is these memories and emotions were only played for the zombies during consumption. As soon as they swallowed the very last bite of the heart or brain, that pleasure of living through someone else was gone. This temporary and immediate gratification made them crave for more in the least amount of time possible. The more brains and hearts they ate, the more they realized they lost their lives to this undead state they found themselves in, and thus the more craved for it. That feeling of consuming something that tasted so delicious and at the same time triggered so many emotions that could never be found any other way, was better than any feeling they had as humans. That was all these zombies sought for all day and all night.
As John took the first bite of the stallion's brain, he saw fields. He didn't understand this vision at all, and this confusion stood in the way of his pleasure. He hoped that taking another bite would clarify the vision so he could start enjoying his consumption. He took another bite, and kept seeing fields. He resorted to the heart, hoping to get some emotion. As he took his first bite, he felt nothing. He took another bite, and still felt nothing. He concluded that consuming this horse gave him no memories or emotions and thus no pleasure or satisfaction. He didn't even eat the rest of the horse, and just left the wasted dead body of what was once a beautiful black stallion, to decompose on its own. Had he known how undesirable this stallion tasted, he would've allowed to live. But it was too late; this was horse already and not benefiting anyone through this death.
Incapable of feeling, John, the zombie leader, felt no remorse and carried on, searching for the next available brain to eat. He dove into the river and allowed the current to take him away. He came across the dragon's cave and was taken away by how secluded yet beautiful it was. He had never seen something so bright before. Its beauty stemmed from its uniqueness. He was so used to breaking into homes, that he had no knowledge of what caves were. He recalled seeing it from a distance and avoiding it because it seemed like a difficult and distant target. This time, however, he was so close and it was so beautiful to him he just had to go in and look for the next brain. John made the decision to go in the cave and aim for the heart. He wanted to add feeling to this beauty he had just witnessed.
To be continued...
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