Dragon's Child

As a dragon, time is meaningless. Mountains rise and fall to me like the changing of the leaves. I have had to find new homes over time because the landscape around me has changed so much. However time still means nothing to me. I have never understood the fascination of the creatures who lived and died with how much they accomplish in their time. Perhaps it was being removed from the cycle of time and life that kept me from this fascination but it was not something I often thought of. However, something that I had spent much of my time on was medicine. I couldn't tell you why but I did. I knew the anatomy of every being that had ever lived as well as how to cure every plague or illness that had ever been.

One bright morning as I flew across a forest scanning for any food or wild rare herbs to gather I spotted a small human child wandering in a clearing. His clothing was ragged, I could see his scarlet cheeks even from my high vantage point, and he was dragging a small stuffed creature with him. My curiosity took the better of me and I swooped down into the clearing having to pull my wings in as I landed so as to have enough room for me to land. I startled the small child who began to cry though it quickly turned into nothing more than a pitiful whimper as he stared up at me. Getting a closer look at the child it was obvious that some form of illness had taken him. Language was also another of my hobbies and so I was able to speak in perfect Koraxan to the child, a language that I figured he should know since it originated from the tribes of this land, “Small one why are you here in the forest? You are obviously ill and you should be home with your family.”

The child shook its head and in a small voice responded, “My family is already dead. My whole village is dead. I left to get away from the crows because they seemed more interested in me than the dead around me.” I looked past him now and could see a murder of crows sitting in the trees around the clearing that had been pushed back my presence. I thought for a moment and then scooped the child into one of my brilliant golden claws before taking back off into the air and heading back towards my home.

As we landed back in my cave the small child looked up at me, “Why have you taken me? I will not be good to eat and I am ill. You are the dragon of these lands who has been here since long before my people came and will be here long after. I remember mother telling me stories of you. So I ask you again. Why have you taken me?”

I shrugged to myself as I carved out a small spot of my cave to place the child where he would be safe, “I don’t know myself to be honest. Something about seeing you helpless and alone being chased by crows. I decided that I wanted to help you. I don’t know why but I can promise you that I’m not going to eat you.” I grinned showing all of my brilliant sharp teeth as I settled the child into his new home, “You are right that you wouldn’t be very good to eat.”

The child stared up at me now in wonderment as I began to busy myself about my cave finding food and a way to give the child water. I had a small waterfall that I had carved out of the wall and drained into a pool. I found a large golden tub amongst my many things I had scavenged in my lifetime and filled it with water before gently placing it down in the child’s area, “Drink from that. I will replace it as I need to.” The child immediately waddled over and began to gulp from it as I went back to looking through my supplies for food and medicine. Without breaking my hunt for supplies I called out, “However do not drink too much or you will make yourself even more ill than you already are.” The slurping noises I had been hearing immediately stopped causing me to chuckle slightly though it came out more as a low growl than a humorous noise. I finally found some berries and a small piece of meat that I could cook with my fire breath as well as some herbs for the medicine. I dropped the food into the child’s area and began working on the medicine, “Now eat while I make you some medicine.”

I could hear the chewing of the child while I worked with my herbs and different other medications I had developed in my lifetime. I was fairly certain I knew what plagued the child but I wanted to start with something a bit broad first that I could then narrow down as I became more certain. I knew he had a fever, that his heart rate was elevated, and that his body was weak. His illness very much looked like another form of a scarlet fever that had plagued the lesser beings of the world for millennia. The fact that he was still alive showed that he had some form of innate resistance already in his blood which could prove useful for me developing any further medications. I soon had a blended mixture of herbs imbued with a small bit of my magic. I plucked a small cup from my hoard and filled it with the medicine before handing it to the child, “Eat this and then sleep. By morning you should be feeling much better.” The child took it with hesitation, the smell coming from it not being very pleasant but he did as I asked and as soon as he finished eating it all he curled up on the floor still holding the cup and passed out.

I watched over the child for a small amount of time and then went back about my studying. Pouring through my books with a level of fervor I hadn’t felt in many years since I had first started studying medicine. Something about this small child had captured my attention in a way that no other creature had and I could not understand why but at this point I couldn’t bring myself to stop. I justified my fascination with his unique blood but that didn’t explain why I had scooped him up in the first place. I buried myself into my books and tried not to think about it any further.

At some point I began to hear coughing from the child so I broke from my books to check on him. His fever had broken and his heart rate was down from where it had been but now he had developed a nasty cough that I could already hear inside of his lungs. I provided him with more food and refilled his water. I took the cup from his rinsing it out though he made a small cry at me for taking it. I looked at the child, “I will give it back with more medicine in a moment. Just wait.” The child ate and drank his fill staring at the cup in my hand the whole time. I began mixing more herbs together now seeking to suppress the cough and break up whatever infection was beginning to grow inside of him. I soon had a new concoction put together that I handed him and told him to eat. He finished it off and now began to gently tap the cup on the ground amusing himself thankfully as I went back to my studying. My cave was filled for the next several hours with a form of primitive music brought on by the child tapping the cup against any surface he could find in between bouts of stopping to stare at it. His coughing eventually died down which led to him falling asleep again however his breathing was still raspy and somewhat shallow.

I once again spent my time studying and listening to the child. I soon found myself staring at the child once again wondering what it was that I found so interesting about him that I had made this my own personal matter. I had existed for eons never interacting with another being with no issue and yet in less than two days time I had made it my own mission to try and save this child that I knew nothing about. As I watched him sleeping I realized he was still tightly gripping the cup and that he no longer had his stuffed animal with him. He must have dropped it when I scooped him up. After a couple of minutes thinking on this I suddenly found myself flying out of my cave back out towards the clearing I had found him in. When I reached the clearing I found the stuffed creature still laying on the ground and now that I could see it I found myself laughing as I scooped it up. It was a small stuffed dragon in at least somewhat of my likeness. Bright gold with a haughty yet demeaning expression etched across the face. I flew back to my cave now deciding that I must have thought to help him because I saw the doll even if I didn’t recognize it at the time.

When I arrived back at the cave the child was waking up again and already playing with the cup. I dropped his toy in front of him with a grunt and he jumped up grinning still not letting go of the cup. He grabbed the toy and looked up at me, “Thank you dragon. I thought my toy was gone forever. I’m really glad you were able to find him though.”

I shrugged, turning away so that the child couldn’t see the smile on my face, “It was nothing. I know that feeling better is at least partially a mind set. So it’s best to have all the things around you that you can to comfort you. Speaking of which, how are you feeling after that last round of medicine?”

The child coughed again though it sounded much drier than before, “My chest feels better but I think my fever is back.”

I turned to look at him, placing one scaled finger on his head and groaning, “You’re right it is and it is worse than before. I don’t understand why though. Now that the infection in your lungs has been dealt with that should have been the end of it. Give me the cup please so I can give you more medicine.”

The child sighed, “Do I have to though? I really like this cup. It’s my favorite toy besides my dragon.”

I looked at him for a moment before sighing to myself, “Fine I will find another cup for you to use. Go on about your music making.”

I went back to my books and fell into a rhythm of reading along to the tunes the child was creating though they were often discordant and thus distracting. Soon I once again thought I had my answer and so thus a new medicine was created and the child was taking it and falling asleep once again. This time I sat and watched him as he slept. Deciding that maybe I was missing something while he slept that would give me a clue as to what was happening. I began to wonder what I would do once I had healed the child. Would I take him to another village and try to let him integrate there or perhaps I would take him in and teach him about the same medicine that saved his life so he could take it out to the other people. I was lost in my own mind when the coughing returned, this time much worse than before. The coughs wracked his tiny body causing him to spasm violently. I watched in horror as he began to cough up blood now. He awoke from his violent coughing and looked up at me, “I don’t think the medicine is working.”

I scooped up his small frail body for the first time, truly noticing just how thin and brittle he felt in my massive claw. I could see thin tousled brown hair covering some of his face though it didn’t hide the brilliant jade eyes that stared up at me in a perplexing look of both fear and resignation. I lowered him into the pool at the base of my waterfall and held him just above the water, not even certain what I was doing at this point because I could feel his life force draining out of him. Soon the coughing stopped but I could tell that he was at the end of his brief existence. The child looked up at me and raised that little cup up at me smiling through his blood soaked lips, “Thank you for trying dragon. I don’t know why you did but still thank you.” With those words he slumped lifeless in my claw, almost dropping the cup before I caught it with a single talon.

I laid him down gently and decided to inspect the cup since I didn’t know what else to do. On the cup was a depiction of the life cycle of the lesser beings. To be born, then to waddle, then to grow, to fall in love, become helpful to your people, to bring more like yourself into the world, and then to perish. The child had taken to this cup because somehow he had known before I did that he was going to die. That this cup was the only representation he would ever have of what it would be to grow up and live. For a brief moment I felt the helplessness that came with being that small. To know your life is finite and that you can only do so much before you perish. In that moment I understood time and the desire to leave a mark on the world before you passed and then the moment was gone. The only memory of it left was the lifeless body before me and a single tear sliding down my scaled face.

I scooped the child up one last time and took his body back to the clearing where I had found him. I tore a hole in the earth to place his body, the cup, and his stuffed animal before covering the hole back up. As I flew back towards my cave I wondered for a brief second if I would ever perish as that child had and if I did would there be anyone to bury me.

I realize I haven't written in ages and honestly this was a last minute story thought of during a car ride. I hope you all enjoy it.