Unexplained Powers

                  Jonas first noticed a ringing in his ears. He opened his eyes to blurry dancing firelight, painfully trying to move his body. He could tell he had been tied up for an extended period. Besides the pains from lying on a rocky ground unconscious, he recognized several bonus bruises and scrapes from being dragged around. The ringing in his ears subsided. He could hear strange voices, in a strange language.

                  Yerik! He could hear Yerik screaming in pain.

                  Jonas rubbed his eyes with his tied-up wrists. Getting a better look, he could see Yerik tied up against a rock wall. A sickly-looking dragon shouted words at him, moving its hand up and down and towards Yerik. Yerik seemed to react in pain with the movements of the dragon’s hands. Jonas could see several other dragon looking figures, although he couldn’t see any details within the shadows.

                  The strange shouting words, the look of excitement on the dragon’s face as Yerik writhed in pain, filled Jonas with dread. He wondered how they would get out of this situation. The existence of a strange tribe of dragons surprised Jonas. He never would have suspected any beings other than the wildlife. He figured they came from a long-lost tribe that remained out of contact with any civilization for years. Jonas recognized the dragons could be a hostile tribe as he watched the dragon shout at an unresponsive Yerik. It made sense in the mind of Jonas. He could see that the tribe possibly never advanced with regular civilization. They remained in a tribal mentality, instinctively aggressive for self-preservation.

                  But the strange power connected to their movements confused Jonas. At first, he figured the dragon used a form of biological poison or gas to render them paralyzed. Possibly toxins harvested from deadly mushrooms in the area. As Jonas watched the dragon shout at Yerik and wave his hand around, it looked like Yerik’s body reacted to their motions.

                  Jonas wondered if it was a psychosomatic reaction from a powdered form of hallucinogenic agents the dragons threw on them. Other tribes in far remote lands have been documented to use similar techniques in worship, or rituals, but never for warfare.

                  Jonas blinked his eyes, trying to make sense of what he had witnessed. The dragon slapped the motionless Yerik in the face.

                  “Stop hurting him!” Jonas squeaked out in a raspy voice, parched from dehydration.

                  The ill-looking dragon with splotchy scales and sores turned to look at Jonas. Then several of the other dragon figures stepped out of the shadows. The other dragons looked different, with a range of different species and interesting biological designs. One looked smaller, one much larger. Both seemed to walk on their hind legs. He had never seen dragons like these before. Jonas’s mind tried to make sense of the confusion. If this were a tribe, the species would most likely all look the same, as tribes rarely blend with other species not of their kind. Then the mind of Jonas landed on a far more nefarious possibility to explain the strange dragons and strange behavior.

                  A cult.

                  He has read about them before. The mix of dragon species made more sense as a cult of dragons that still believed and practiced human sacrifices.

                  “Focus, focus, focus.” Jonas talked to himself to keep his mind alert.

                  If a psychosomatic compound affected him, he could try to focus past the effects, remain connected to reality. Just maybe he could rationalize with them, find something they might want he could give them. Jonas looked up at the dragon to speak.

                  The dragon looked at Jonas, cocked its head a couple of times as it looked into Jonas’s eyes. The dragon reached out its hands and spoke several strange words.

                  Jonas felt a strange tingle in his chest, then felt his body being pulled across the rocky floor, then slammed against a rock wall slab. Jonas, doing his best to keep his senses, looked around to see who threw him. But there were no dragons nearby. It appeared as though the dragon controlled Jonas’s body through an unseen force.

                  Psychedelic drugs could not create that great of an illusion. Jonas looked up at the dragon as it approached with the other two dragon creatures behind it. A far darker power seemed at work. Jonas tried to talk, but he couldn’t. The dragon stepped closer, holding its hand out, speaking strange words. Jonas felt a sensation in his chest, and a shock of pain spread throughout his body.

                  Jonas’s vision went blurry. He could see the dragons laughing. Then all went black.