Beneath the Green Boughs

The great monarch drifted lazily on the cool evening breeze, wandering towards the reds and oranges of the sunset. Every flap of his elegant wings brought him closer to that painted sky. As the great orange ball of light descended, he drifted towards his roost in the forest. It offered protection for his kind, though he didn’t think of safety in the way that men would understand. He scarcely thought at all.

A creature pursued him, though he did not realize it. He did not flee but simply floated on the currents, as he had always done. His life was made of instinct and little more.

He dipped low in a swooping dive. The boughs of the first trees passed overhead, and the dying light of the sun cast long shadows in the wood. Even if sight should fail, he knew the way by smell.

A soft, blue glow from the forest floor drew his sight, and with gentle flaps he descended. The smell of the blooming night glories filled the air around him. Intoxicating him. The nectar of these flowers was sweet to the taste. His roost could wait a little longer.

Ever so tenderly, the monarch alighted on the great bloom of the night glory, stretching out its tongue to lap at the nectar within its petals.

The world shifted, tumbling to the side and the night glory fell. The monarch tumbling with it. How strange…the massive flowers had always held his weight before. But the flower lay next to him and the nectar was still there for the drinking.

— — —

“Got ya, flutterby!” Niri exclaimed as she closed the jar over the monarch. She’d been after the monarch for ages, but her little legs couldn’t keep up with the flying creature. Finally, after following it into the trees, it landed on the glowing flower and given her an opportunity.

Niri hoisted the jar to her face and examined her quarry. The insect fluttered in confusion as his world shifted around him, but upon finding the night glories, began to drink greedily. She’d broken off two of the flowers when she closed the jar.

The night glories still gave off their light, glowing in the jar and casting dancing light as the monarch feasted. They would glow for a few more hours, or at least until the tiny creature drank up all their nectar. Niri wasn’t worried about that. She’d caught the flutterbies with Papa enough times to know they’d glow until she got home.

Carefully, so as not to disturb her catch, Niri got to her feet and brushed the leaves from her skirt. Her only concept of time was the light painting the sky overhead. Precious little was left today as the sun dipped below the horizon, and the canopies of tall trees captured the last fleeting rays of light. She needed to get home, Mama would be angry if she was out past dark.

She looked around the clearing. Shadows crept in all about her as the dying light receded below the horizon. Only the night glories gave her light to see. Even a child of four years knew to follow the light, and so she did.

The mind of a child is a wondrous thing. Niri's was no exception. She knew the plants of the forest, which ones she could eat and which she could not. Those she could use for dye, and those made into medicine. But she walked through the darkening woods with the unfounded determination of one who knows where they're going. She merely followed the trail of glowing flowers. Every wandering step taking her deeper into the forest.

The last of the sun's light finally fled and with it, the trail of night glories. Niri lifted her jar again. The monarch drank from the severed flower, it's glow diminished but still enough to see by. She smiled. It would do. There were no flowers when she entered the forest, and now that they were gone, she assumed she must be going the right way.

Her small lantern gave enough light to avoid tripping over the roots. The trees pressed closer together here, and she hopped from root to root, careful not to rattle her delicate catch. The small creature continued its feast of nectar, uncaring as to the route his pursuer took.

Niri began to wonder when she would emerge into the meadow that lay between her village and the forest. She should have been there by now, shouldn't she? The butterfly hadn't drifted so deep into the trees.

The light of the first flower had dimmed to a faint aura, the last drops of nectar fighting off the dark. The monarch drank greedily at the second, its glow still vibrant...but diminishing. Niri began to worry. She couldn't see the Maiden in the night sky. How would she find her way if the light of moon and flower failed her?

The obvious answer struck her. Whenever she needed something, she just called for Papa. He always came to help her. She threw back her head and with all the might in her lungs, cried out for her father.

Her voice echoed back from the high boughs and faded into silence. She waited for him to call back. He always called back and always soon. Where could he be? Maybe he was down in the cellar, she told herself; it was hard to hear from down there, and she was far from the house...

Before she could call his name a second time, an answer came back through the trees. But it wasn't her father. A howl rose in the night air. It was something bestial...a predator. In answer to the first, other voices joined their howls to the darkness. From one side of Niri and the other, behind her from the way she had come, they answered.

Niri ran, deeper into the woods. The only direction leading away from the pack. Her meager lamp only showed a couple steps ahead of her, but she dared not slow. She'd seen what wolves had done to the family's sheep. The howls came closer, following her. She couldn't see the beasts yet, but they were coming.

She jumped over a root and emerged into a clearing. The Maiden shown down her violet hues as Niri looked desperately for an escape. The trees were tall but with branches too high for her to climb. Spinning in circles, there was no safe place to hide...only back into the trees.

A lone howl floated into the night air. This time coming from the edge of the clearing. Niri turned to face the sound. She saw shadows moving in the murk of the forest. The moonlight catching on gleaming yellow eyes...and snarling white fangs.

One by one, they emerged into the moonlight. Four black wolves and one large gray beast in the middle. The pack leader. Niri clutched her jar to her chest, the light now almost gone as the monarch finished the nectar of the second flower. The leader snarled, and his pack spread around the clearing, surrounding the young girl. They had no reason to hurry. She was trapped.

Niri sobbed as she looked frantically from the stalking shadows back to the pack leader. The beast padded slowly towards her, matching each backwards step of hers with one of its own. Niri thumped into something hard and almost dropped her jar. She'd crossed the clearing...nothing but more trees to trap her.

The wolves stopped their approach. They stood frozen in an arc around her, glaring but unmoving. Niri was tired, she wanted to give up. If she closed her eyes, maybe they would think she was dead and leave her alone. The pack leader growled again and she cowered away, shrinking into the trunk of the tree and hiding her eyes from the monsters.

The attack never came. The wolves let out whines, not unlike the dogs Papa kept for tending the sheep. Niri risked a glance and saw the shadows moving among the trees. Only the big gray remained in the clearing, and even he was retreating towards the opposite tree line. She rolled around and put her back to the tree.

How strange they would just leave...

Then the tree moved.

A huge branch snaked out from the canopy above her head, moving towards the pack leader. The glowing yellow eyes looked on and...amazingly...the big gray let out a whimper. A second moon shown in the sky for a moment, odd as there was only one moon, then fell to the clearing in a ball of fire.

Niri heard more whimpers and when the after burn of the fallen moon cleared from her eyes, the stalking shadows were gone. The branch moved again, arcing back towards her. No...not a branch. She saw the eyes, glowing wells of amber in the violet moonlight. She saw the green scales on the creatures head and neck. She knew its name, if only from stories.

Dragon.

She should be scared but couldn't find the feeling in herself. Those amber eyes studied her, and the great beast sniffed at the small creature lost in its den. The ground rumbled as the green dragon shifted from its slumber. Niri realized it wasn't a tree she had sheltered against, but the creature's great hind leg.

The dragon reached out with its fore limb and ripped a branch from a nearby tree, dropping it into the center of the clearing. The second moon returned, a bright yellow orb. Niri saw it came from inside the creature. Again, fire fell into the clearing, striking the branch and igniting the wood. It burned and crackled, giving warmth that reached to the small girl.

The beast lowered itself to the ground, and with a flourish of its wing, blocked the sky from Niri. Satisfied, the dragon curled into a ball with its head close to the fire and, after a deep huff, drifted back to sleep.

It was a long time before Niri could close her eyes, but when she did, it was under the crook of the dragon's wing.