Okay, things are different this month. The prompt was ‘Slumber’, but as I got into this story I realised that ‘Dragonslumber’ was a much better title, so for the first time in this challenge, I changed the title.

Except the Slumber title did come back in a way. It came back because by the end of the month I realised this was going to be a two-part story, and my husband/prompt giver took pity on me and made the next word ‘Awaken’ so now, this month’s story is ‘Dragonslumber Part One: Slumber‘, and Part Two will be ‘Awaken‘, so I still have the title in tact.

After promising to have this story finished on time last month, I would normally be apologetic that I needed two months to tell this story. But I’m not. Because Slumber is 16,600 words long.

Yup, 16,600. When I cracked 9000 for Collective I couldn’t believe how much I’d written. But last month the words really flowed. I think it’s because I just went in wanting to tell a good story, and the story was so good that writing it became addictive. In my post about Judgement I said;

“We’ll just see what idea grabs hold of me first. My main goal this month is to get something really special cooked up, and posted on time.”

And in short, that is exactly what I did. I let an idea that had been sitting dormant for decades take hold, and as I wrote I realised I was writing something special, which made it so much easier to write. So even though I’ve deviated from the challenge format, I am still so, so happy to show off the first part of my newest story, Dragonslumber. It’s about the struggles of a royal family of reptilian beings who can turn into sleeping dragons, and I am so excited to share it.

2026 Monthly Story Challenge #8

Dragonslumber Part 1 (Wordcount 16,600)

By Jayde Holmes

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The Invader and the Egg

The Empire of Chaane never reached a consensus on whether it was better for the emperor to be asleep or active. Emperor Lacaan the Sixth had been a sleeping emperor, laying transformed from reptilian man to giant beast in the Dragon Chamber with his ten heirs.

There were no public viewings of the chamber in those days, but royal artwork suggests it was possibly even grander than it is today. Gold is needed for the transformation from reptilian to dragon, so Lacaan and his heirs laid on piles of it. But it was not just gold the royals were given for their dragonslumber. Jewels and tomes and magnificent clothes and artworks filled the circular room. Above the slumbering green dragons was the base of the dreamspire, and a giant pearl made from the ancestral dragon Chaane hung at its base, spreading Lacaan’s consciousness into the dreams of his subjects.

A sleeping emperor had an intimate view of his empire. He could come to his subjects in dreams, in a way, and was able to wake whenever he sensed a problem that needed his attention. Otherwise, the Council of Lords his mother Maarigee had formed during her reign handled the daily running of the empire, with a trusted representative of the emperor keeping them in check. 

One of the problems with a sleeping emperor was that the pearl could only link the emperor to other descendants of Chaane. There were blind spots in the empire that a sleeping emperor could not see, resulting in problems that only an active emperor, talking face to face with their subjects and leading armies or diplomats to troubled areas, could fix. And of course, foreign relations were neglected while the emperor was in dragonslumber.

Long ago, Lacaan’s sister Sama had been the preferred heir. She had planned to be an active emperor, who travelled to the outer provinces to smooth over tensions, and who would establish trade deals to refill a treasury depleted by three generations of sleeping emperors. A sleeping emperor consumed excessive amounts of food and gold, more than even the most decadent of active emperors.

The council at the time though were quite happy with an emperor who did less direct ruling, so they crowned Lacaan as soon as Maarigee died and married Sama off to the King of Nessa. The High Lord of the Council announced that if she wanted to secure an alliance with their neighbours, marriage was the best way she could do so.

Sama had gone along with her humiliation, believing it was necessary for peace within the empire. Her grandson, Tsvalai, proved to be less forgiving. He was denied the throne of Nessa due to his place in the birth order, but he could feel Emperor Lacaan in his dreams, lording it over the empire once promised to Sama. Before he even reached adulthood, he set out to avenge his grandmother.

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I’m really stoked about this one, and I am super eager to finish it. I’m a bit nervous about finishing it, since I know Part Two will have to be just as long, but I know how it should end, and it’s a story I really want to tell. As I said before, the word for next month is ‘Awaken’. I am not sure if that was the intended September prompt, but if it hadn’t been I would have needed to continue this story anyway, and I think its a good enough story to justify bending the rules of this challenge for.

The only question is, can I keep up this writing pace and deliver a conclusion that lives up to this first half.

I think I can, but this will be a busy month for me, so I’m going to need some luck. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy this first half of Dragonslumber.

~ Jayde