Here, There be Dragons

"There weren't always dragons in the valley," Simeon whispered softly to his daughter Sage and gripped her hand. The storm was raging outside their weathered hovel, a sanctuary, but in the distance they could still hear the roar of a lurking monster. "What happened?" she whispered almost imperceptibly. They were huddled, hunched down away from the windows in the dark. Only the moonlight on the wooden floor created any visibility in the one room shelter. They were close enough that she could see her father's breath hanging in the air as he began "Time happened."

"Before the valley was cold the land was lush, the sky was blue and there were no dragons, but then one day a woman in a long purple gown touched something she shouldn't."

"What did she touch, Papa?"

"The woman heard tell of a cave at the edge of the valley, where a powerful emerald lay waiting just beneath the earth."

Sage had forgotten the roaring beast outside and was now enraptured by the soft, steady words of her father.

"Now, the woman in purple loved the idea of power and wanted to possess it at all cost. So she packed up her white steed and journeyed four days and four nights only by the stars. She crossed rivers, she waded through thick mud and she even fought off a bear just to arrive at the mouth of an intimidating cave. But she was determined, so she held her lantern out before her and cautiously took one step after another into the mouth of the great cavern. It was wet and smelly."

Sage wrinkled her nose as she imagined the stench. "Was it dark too? Were there bats?"

"Oh yes my love, bats and bugs and huge sharp rocks hung from the ceiling. The lady in purple had to squeeze down low in between them. She barely made it."

"Wow, she must have really wanted that emerald Papa."

"She did indeed my little one."

"Did she find it, Pa?"

"It took a long time but then the light of her dwindling lantern bounced off of something white and shiny."

"White? I thought emeralds were green."

"Yes, emeralds are, but skulls are not."

Sage's mouth opened wide.

"Just beneath the skull were two bones that made an x. So the lady in purple decided she best try digging there."

"Bones... she didn't consider that a warning?"

"No."

"And that's where she found the emerald?"

"Yes."

"But what does that have to do with dragons?"

Just then a shadow passed over the floor where the moonlight fell. Both father and daughter became silent. The roof creaked and dust billowed from the rafters. The dragon exhaled loudly from her smokey nostrils. Simeon's finger rested gently on his lips, his eyes wide with warning. Sage looked to her father for comfort and nodded in obedience.

The rustic hovel was still and no fire warmed its weathered bones. The dragon saw this and decided to move on. She turned slowly in hunt for the next shelter with some sign of life. Her tail dragged slowly behind her as she moved on.

When he was sure the monster had left, Simeon drew close to his daughter and said "So pleased with her discovery, she held the emerald to her chest and grinned magnificently. But then a beam of light broke from the emerald and pierced the world we know, and from that light a door opened."

"A door?"

"A portal to another world, another time."

"A world with dragons..."

"Aye, my love. From the doorway burst forth an almighty explosion of energy and consumed the woman in purple. When the woman lay dead, the emerald still in her hand, a monstrous creature emerged from the blue oblivion."

"Papa, how do you know all of this?"

"Because I was there... and the woman... was your mother."

Sage gawked at her father.

"I knew the emerald was wicked and I begged her not to pursue it. But she just loved power too much," he began to ramble. His steady tone had become a broken, shaking one.

"But papa!"

"The dragon reached its claws out of the mist and I panicked. I grabbed the emerald and ran. She chased me at first but only I could squeeze between the hanging rocks."

Dust fell from the rafters again. Sage fell silent but Simeon knew he had no more time.

"Listen, listen," he said hastily and without any measure of quiet. "We have to put it back Sage. It needs to be someone from our line. You need to undo what your mother has done. It has to be you."

Sage was trembling and staring aghast at her father, and then up at the roof. No, back to the door where she could see a silhouette.

"Here, here, Sage take this key. Follow the inscription and you will find the emerald's hiding place. Take the gem back to the cave and then we can set this right once a for all."

Sage did not take the key. Her eyes were on the doorknob that had begun to slowly turn.

"SAGE!" Simeon yelled, startling his daughter. She grabbed the key and hid just before a huge claw reached slowly inside the home.

From the crack inside the wardrobe she could see the enormous monster sink it's claws inside her fathers chest, survey the room, and not seeing her, leave.

With tears she held the key in her hands and whispered "There weren't always dragons in the valley... and there won't be anymore."