Of Scales and Skin

Prologue

I’m not a hero, I’m a coward that was in hiding for most of my life. But that’s not the reason why I’m in chains, in a dark, cold dungeon having my scales plucked out one by one. I’m here because I felt something in my cold, rock-like heart. Something I hadn’t felt since my mom and sister were alive. Something that was of more value than my dragon life. It was her. That tiny little ball of flesh. Her big brown eyes are the last thing I wish to see during these final moments. At least, I know she’s safe, back with her family. I drift into a painful sleep and that night I first came across her floods my mind.

Part 1- Camazotz

My name is Xochil. I’m no ordinary dragon. I’m one of the last of my kind. My scales are made of something that humans want. That humans kill for. They call it gold. There are other dragons in our world. There’s the Water Dragon, in which their scales are made of fresh water and seaweed. We have the Earth Dragon, their scales are made of thick bark. There’s the Green Dragon, they have scales made of bright green leaves, and I heard they turn orange when winter is approaching. Then there’s the Red Dragon, their scales are burning hot and made of hot coals. Mine are a dark yellow but in the Sun they shine.

Humans are not kind creatures. At least not the ones I’ve come across. There were other dragons too, but the humans killed them off. Their scales were made of precious stones, like ruby and diamonds. Unfortunately those breeds are gone. I’m probably the last of my kind. I haven’t seen another since my mom and sister. I was 8 when a group of hunters cornered us. I managed to crawl into one of the caves in our jungle. My mother and sister, were not so lucky. They were both taken and eventually had their scales removed one by one. I never saw them again. It’s been almost 20 years since then but I will never forget those humans. They had long light hair, fair skin, and all of them had a tattoo on their arm of a knife cutting a crescent moon. Later, I was told by others in the jungle that they are a known tribe of dragon hunters. I wanted to destroy them but I could never find their dwellings. Hurucan, my gorilla friend later explained that I should stay hidden. That I’m one of the very few left of my kind.

So that’s what I did. I stayed hidden. Hurucan is my only friend in this dense jungle. He too, like me, lost his whole family at a young age. We spend our days in the river, or in our cave, or sitting on top of our favorite tree watching the stars, or I take him for long flights in the clearing. We have to be careful though, it’s been a while since we’ve seen humans, over 10 years I’d say. But we still have them in the back of our minds. The jungle talks say that they’ve moved on because they took everything they wanted from our jungle.

It’s a very quiet night. I take a seat up on my favorite tree, it’s tall and old. You can see the whole jungle from up here. Hurucan is sleeping next to me. His loud snores echo through the trees.

Our world is called Camazotz, it means God of Storm and Rain. It’s fitting seeing as it rains almost everyday. Our jungle is full of lush green trees, beautiful color birds, and an infinite amount of insects that decorate our land in music and color. We get along as much as any other group of animals would, except the jaguars are not friendly. They kill anything in sight, for that reason, Hurucan is always close to me. I am a fire breathing dragon but I only use it in dier situations. It’s boiling hot fire and it burns my throat but I’ve had to use it more than I’ve wanted to on those jaguars.

As I sit on my tree and stretch my long wings, my mother and sister come to mind. It’s been so long but the pain is always there, and it rushes like burning hot lava when I think back to that night. I close my eyes and take heavy deep breaths in, inhaling the wet leaves and damp earth. When I start to drift to sleep I am startled by a rustling down below.

I sit up slowly and look at Hurucan who also has been jolted up. He rubs the sleep off his eyes and looks at me with concern. We both stay quiet as we hear whimpering and rustling below us.

It’s a human. A human woman. She has long dark hair and she is holding a bundle in her arms. Hurucan and I inch closer and see that it’s a small tiny human bundled up and strapped around her. I’ve never seen a human child before. As I start to distinguish her features, I sense something else. Fear. The woman is in a panic and I hear shouting in the distance. I slowly bring my giant head up past the tree line and see faint balls of light, torches. The woman’s fear increases, she starts crying. I look over at Hurucan and he seems to be in a trance watching her below us. She starts to unravel the human child from around her. Then the smell hits me, blood. The woman has been injured.

As I inch closer, I snap a twig below with my heavy scaled body. She looks up, startled. It’s dark, too dark for her to see me up here but for some reason I feel that she sees me. Her fear seems to subside as she looks in my direction. The child grabs hold of her face and the woman kisses her palm. The woman holds the child tightly and whispers into her ear. She wraps her in the fabric and places her in the nook of a nearby tree. The shouting comes closer. I can see about 7 torches. 7 humans hunting her. The woman looks up in my direction one more time and shouts something I surprisingly understand.

“Take care of her, golden one.” She says as she wipes tears off her face and takes off in a sprint. She starts shouting in the opposite direction and the torches change course and follow her in the distance.

The Child- Ixchel

Hurucan and I are still atop our tree in silence. The silence is then broken by a piercing scream from the direction the woman ran off to. ‘She’s gone’ I thought.

I look over at Hurucan and ask him “Did you hear her?”

He responds “of course I did, whoever was after her has found her.”

“No.” I say, “when she told me to ‘take care of her, golden one’”

He looks at me in shock or as if I’m insane. “You understood her?” He asks with bewilderment.

“Yes.” I respond with confusion in my voice.

The last time I saw humans, they were the ones that killed my family. I didn’t understand anything they said. I just smelt the greed oozing out of them.

We sit in silence staring towards the nook of the tree. I hear the child sitting up and wrapping the fabric around her, it’s odd but I don’t smell fear on her. Hurucan scratches his head and looks up at me. I close my eyes and say “we have to get her.” I was expecting a rebuttal from him but he quickly nods. I look over the tree line once again and see the torches walking away from our jungle. At least we don’t have to worry about those humans, for now. Hurucan jumps on my back and we scale down our beloved tree.

As we get to the bottom and hit the soft dirt, I slowly crouched down and Hurucan jumps off. I hear the child rustling in the nook, a soft humming comes from her and bounces off the hollowed tree.

I inch closer, Hurucan at the edge of my talons. As we get to the nook of the tree, I hear a slow growl coming from the branches above us. The jaguars. Hurucan has spotted them too, he whispers “There are four of them, Xochil, we have to go, now.” He says in a panic. I agree but first we have to get the child. I growl a menicing growl towards them, hunching in the shadows of the trees. Hurucan beats his chest with might and bears his sharp teeth. With that, one of them jumps off and lands on me, it sinks it’s teeth into one of my scales. I quickly turn and grab it firmly with my fangs, I fling it like dirt towards the thick bark. It yelps but stands quickly, the others start to snarl.

“Now!” I say to Hurucan. He dives his large paw deep in the nook and in one clean swoop scoops out the child. I grab them both gently with my talons and we fly away leaving the jaguars hungry and angry.

Hurucan had the child in one arm as he climbs on me with the other. They are safely on my back as we glide to the safety of our cave.

I land softly into our cave. This is the safest place in our jungle. It’s well hidden and Hurucan added an extra layer of thick leaves and vines in the entrance. It’s big enough in here for me to lay and stretch out my wings. My favorite part is that it’s cool and smells like fresh water. When it’s dusk, the walls take on this velvet purple color. Hurucan jumps off my back with the child in his arm. He lays her gentle on the soft ground.

We look at her for what seems like hours. She’s not that young. From up above she seemed almost baby-like. Now that I truly see her, she must be around 5. Her mother bundled her up that it made her look smaller from far away. She stands up wobbly and shakes off the fabric her mother wrapped around her. She has little brown shoes, a soft colored dress, dark hair that frames her chubby face, and large brown eyes. Her eyes are large and chocolate brown. She walks up to Hurucan who is sitting, she climbs on him using tuffs of fur as anchors for her small body. He holds her by her back as she places her chubby hands on his face. She slowly traces his eyelids and his stubby nose. She giggles a bit.

“What’s your name?” She asks Hurucan in a sing song voice.

Hurucan looks at me as if asking what to do. “She asked you what your name is.” I say to him.

With that, she looks right at me. Her piercing brown eyes bare into my soul and awaken something that has been buried deep. She hops off Hurucan and heads towards me. I lay still with my long arms laying straight on the ground. She slowly climbs onto my right arm and starts to make her way to my face. Her smell reaches my nostrils and she smells of fresh flowers and honey. She reaches my face and places her little hands on my snout.

“You can understand me. Huh?” She asks me in a matter of fact way. Her little hands feel soft against my rough scales.

“Yes.” I say. The thing inside me feels like a little burning ember growing bigger and bigger.

“What’s your name? What’s his name?” She asks as she grabs one of my scales with both her hands and caresses it.

“My name is Xochil, and that’s my friend, Hurucan. What’s your name?” I ask her. The feeling keeps growing inside of me. It’s been buried deep all these years I forget how it feels.

“My name is Ixchel. I come from tribe names Xpiayoc. We are the people of the land. My people talk to land and we work with land and creatures on it.” She says. She struggles putting some words together. People of the land? I think to myself. I’ve never heard of kind humans before. I translate to Hurucan what she just told me. He seems as confused as me.

“So her tribe doesn’t hurt our kind?” He asks. He rubs his temples as if rubbing away bad memories.

“Your people don’t kill dragons or other animals?” I ask her.

She looks at me with sadness coming over her young angelic face. “No. But something bad came to our place. Some bad people.” She manages to say with a whimper. “They came and they put fire to everything. They took my people. Us that speak to dragons. They took our dragons. They took everything. They took my mo..” as she tried to say mom she started crying. The tears swelling and spilling out her eyes.

I try to take in everything she said. She wipes the tears off her face but they continue to come in streams. She sits on my arm and rests her head on my face as she continues to cry. The ember growing inside of me.

“Your people talk to dragons?” I say wondering.

She continues to softly cry and she manages an answer. “Yes. We care for them. We work together in our land. Their scales provide our shelter, food, and water. We provide them protection and love.” She responds.

“What dragons do you work with?” I ask, hoping maybe that there are more of my kind.

“Earth, Water, Green, Red, and Black Dragons.” She responds.

I’ve never heard of Black Dragons before. How can they work together if when a dragon loses all its scales it dies? I wondered to myself.

“I’ve never heard of Black Dragons. How do you use their scales if they die after?” I asked her.

She looks up at me puzzled. “Black dragons have steel scales. We use them to make armor and arrows. Dragons don’t die when they lose their scales. They grow again, like the hair on my head.” She looked at me like I should know these things. I look at my own scales. Then the thought goes to my mother and sister. Then my thought goes to the other dragons I thought were gone, those of ruby and diamonds. My family could still be alive?

“My mother and sister were taken years ago by a tribe known as dragon hunters, I thought they were killed for their scales. Could they still be alive?” I ask her as if she would know.

Her eyes grow wide and they look like two full moons. “The dragon hunters are the ones that came into my land.” She responds with fear creeping into her tiny body.

“They take everything. They want more and more dragons. They sel..” she starts to say. She then places her little hand on my face. “Sell dragons to others in other lands and then they are kept as prisoners for their scales until they eventually die.” She says sadly. “My people have done everything we can to keep our land safe. But they found us. My mom was stabbed but she able to run with me and she hide me under tree. My sister and brother still out there. They got them. They want to force my people to talk out more dragons. Make prisoners of us too.” She continues.

Hurucan asks what is going on and I let him know of everything she has shared. My mind is still clouded with thoughts of my sister and mother. They could still be alive, I think. The ember growing bigger inside of me, that strange feeling I haven’t felt in years emerging.

Hurucan stands up and anger comes across him. “Ask her if it’s the people with the moon and knife on their arms.” I told him that it is. It’s the same people that killed his family. He is seething now, the anger coming off of him could ignite a fire. She looks at me with worry and I explain to her what happened to his family.

She slowly climbs off of me and heads towards Hurucan. She quietly waits in front of him and lets him pace back and forth in anger. He catches a glimpse of her standing there and comes to a halt. She places her hand out and walks towards him. I see his breathing slowing down as she reaches him and she grabs his large paw in her small hands. His breathing slows and the anger starts to fade. She nudges him to sit next to her and he obeys. I see her and the feeling bursting out of me, hope? Joy? Love? The feeling swirls inside of me as she slowly caresses Hurucan’s paw until his breathing is back to normal.

Hurucan looks at me and says “We have to find them.” Anger still rising behind his words.

“We will.” I tell him.

“I will help. We have to help my people, my dragons.” She responds.

She sits up and I hear a rumbling coming from her. Hurucan looks at her and then at me. “I think she’s hungry” he says.

“Are you hungry?” I ask her.

“I don’t remember last time ate. Mother and I running a long time.” She responds.

“I’ll get her some food.” Hurucan says as he walks out of the cave .

She looks as Hurucan walks out the cave and turns her head back to me. She comes towards me and sits in between my outstretched arms.

“What is your mom and sister’s names?” She asks me randomly.

“My mother’s name is Akna and my sister’s name is Dacey.” I respond. Just then the last time I played with my sister comes to mind. We were in the river and we had this game of who can find the biggest stone. I always won. But now I realize she always let me win. Ixchel looks at me.

“Those are pretty names. What are you thinking about?” She asks me as she gets closer into my arm. She rests her little head in the cervesas of my arm and starts scratching the scales on my chest.

“I was thinking about the last time I played with my sister. We had this stone game in the river we would play.” I respond.

A smile spreads on her face and she continues scratching. She looks up at me puzzled.

“You’ve never shedded your scales have you?” She asks me with her eyes getting wider.

Shed my scales? I thought. “Shed my scales?” I ask her.

“Yes. A dragon around 10 needs to shed scales. You scratch on tree until old ones fall off, shiny new ones come in.” She explains. “Your scales all old. No new ones comes in yet.”

I never thought of that. I guess mom left before she told me about my scales. She continues scratching one and then I hear a loud pop. She has a scale in her hands. It’s so large that she needs both hands to hold it. It didn’t hurt at all, actually it felt rather refreshing. I get up and go to an end of the cave where it meets with a tree. I start scratching all over and eventually loud pops start to burst all around me as some of my scales fall to the ground.

I look at her and she smiles. “It feel better, right?” I guess I never noticed but there was an itch and now it’s gone. I was always scared of losing my scales and dying like my mother and sister. But perhaps it’s something I have to do to have new ones. She comes running towards me and climbs onto my side.

She points to an empty spot on my shoulder where a few scales popped off. “See, here new scales will grow.” She points to the empty spot and I can actually see a little ridge coming from the top, it’s a bright shiny yellow peeping out. She places her whole two hands in the empty space and gives it a good scratch. I feel like a dog as she scratches, I never knew I needed any scratches!

She then stops as she hears Hurucan come through pushing the vines out of the way. She slides off my arm as if she’s done it countless times before. “Food!” She runs full force towards Hurucan and knocks him over. All the fruit he was carrying, apples, bananas, and sugar canes, burst out of his arms as she barrels into him.

Laughter erupts out of Hurucan and I join in. The cave echos with her giggles and our loud barking laughs as she tickles him into the ground. Our cave has never heard anything like this before. She finally settles down and runs over to grab the bananas and sugar canes. She offers a banana to Hurucan and comes running to me with a sugar cane.

“Here you go!” She says to me. I follow her and join them. We sit around the fruit and start eating. She smiles as she fills her belly with crisp apples and sweet sugar cane. I nibble on the cane and Hurucan is on his back enjoying an apple. After all the food is gone and we slurp fresh water out of our self made well. We settle back inside the cave.

“Play game?” She asks while looking at me and then back at Hurucan.

“She wants us to play a game.” I tell him. He nods and sits up as if he is ready to go.

“What game do you want to play?” I ask her.

“Look for me!” She squeals. I used to play that with my sister all the time. One dragon looks for the others. I tell Hurucan and a smile reaches across his face.

“Okay but we need rules. It’s already nighttime so only inside the cave.” She nods and gets up as she wipes her hands on her dress.

“I look for you and you.” She says as she points at us. I tell Hurucan and he’s already looking around for hiding places.

She goes to one side of the cave and puts her little head in her palms and turns away from us. We make a run for it. Hurucan hides behind our water well. I take a small flight and hide on top of the cave. There is a divet and I place my large talons on it making my wings as small as possible.

She then turns around and starts looking for us. She starts signing a song that echos though the cave.

“ I close my eyes and count to three

You are quiet and go and hide

I then will turn around and see

If I am to see your side.

Are you behind the big wall

Or under the table too small?”

She then skips around and finds Hurucan hiding behind the well. She creeps slowly behind him and let’s out a big “Got you!” He jumps up startled but burst out laughing. She puts up her little finger and shushes him. She signals for him to follow her and they start looking for me. I start to snicker from up above them. They won’t find me I think. I can’t hold it and the snickering echos through the cave. They look up at the same time. “Got you!” They both say. I fly down gently and we all laugh, the cave filled with joy. A cave in which it was silent for so many years. I look around at us. Hurucan and I do have fun but we’ve never laughed like this before. The ember ignites inside of me. Love, it’s love.

As the laughing starts to dwindle. Our new friend yawns so big it seems like she makes the walls shake. Hurucan and I follow her yawn with huge ones of our own. I lay on my side and Hurucan takes his place inside my arms and she follows him. They both stretch out and place their heads on my arm as I cover them with my other. Before I know it we are all sound asleep.

The Search

I awake to the sound of birds echoing in our cave. I look down to see Ixchel still sound asleep and Hurucan arranging fresh fruit and sugar canes near the fire. I stretch out my large wings and arms and Ixchel rolls right off. She wakes up groggy and looks up at me. A huge grin appears on her face. She gets up and runs towards my chest and gives me a big hug, I scoop her in with my arm and place her near Hurucan and breakfast. She gives him a quick hug and sits in front of the huge platter of fruit.

We eat until we can eat no more. Hurucan looks up at me. “We have to go today. If they savaged her land yesterday, they are still close.” He says while throwing an apple core outside the cave.

“I know. It’s time. Maybe my family is alive. Maybe yours is too? We have to at least try and now that we know they are close, we have a chance.” I look at Ixchel and she looks up at me giving me aggressive nods as she drinks water.

“They aren’t far away. We save them all. Find family.” She says wiping her mouth with her arm.

Hurucan gets up and walks out of the cave. “I’ll bring more food for the trip. We leave now.” He said with contempt in his voice.

I tell Ixchel what he said and she agrees. She looks up at me and has a weird look on her face.

“What?” I ask.

“Umm. I need to go somewhere. Umm too much water.” She says shyly. I understood immediately. I take her out of the cave and around. I tell her I’ll keep watch and turn my back to give her privacy. You can never be too careful with these jaguars. They attack whenever. She then runs around me and stands right in front of me.

“Done! Hurucan and you and me go now?” She asks.

“Yes. It’s time.” I say. We go around the cave and find Hurucan filling two large leaves with bananas, apples, and sugar canes. He looks at us and says.

“We go now.” Ixchel and Hurucan climb my side and take a seat on top of my back. Ixchel quickly scratches one of the spots I’m missing scales in.

“She points. New scales coming!” She yells in excitement. I smile and I take off out of the jungle and into the air.

Now that we know there are humans nearby, my fear starts to creep in. I know now that dragons can’t die with scales being plucked off. But how long can they stand it? These thoughts fill my mind as we go in the direction Ixchel tells me to. Hope brews inside of me with the thought of my mom and sister being alive.

I hear Ixchel try talking to Hurucan and pointing at things. He just grunts in agreement. We are in the air until midday. I need a break and my passengers and I are hungry. Ixchel says we are almost there but we should eat first.

I land in what still seems like our jungle. The trees are still the same lush color and insects adorn the floor. We sit and eat while I stretch out my tired wings. I then start thinking about what we are doing. How are we going to get through to these dragon hunters. My mind starts to swirl. They will take me. Take me for my scales. I can burn them all. What about the other dragons? My mom and sister? Ixchel’s family?

Ixchel looks at me and says “It’s going to be okay. The other dragons will help us.” I look at her and still don’t understand how that will happen.

“We will go to these dragon hunters and release our dragons. Find my brother and sister. Release our people. With all the dragons they will let us go.” She says.

I then realize that it’s not possible. She’s a young child and doesn’t know how brutal these humans can be. They won’t “just let us go” they will also catch us and make us prisoners.

I look at her and think of my life these last 20 years. I look at Hurucan, my only friend, my brother. I know deep down what I have to do. These dragon hunters haven’t seen another dragon of my kind. They want my scales for their greed. They kill for my scales. Perhaps my scales would be a fair trade?

I look down at her and give her a reassuring nudge. She smiles and sticks a sugar cane in my mouth. I look up and Hurucan. He has a puzzled look.

“It’s the only way Hurucan. These humans are not going to just let us walk out with everyone. We can’t fight them. It me, you, and a 5 year old kid.” I say as he shakes his head.

“What do you mean Xochil?” He says as he eyes fill with tears.

“These humans haven’t seen another dragon like me. They want my scales. I’m going to trade myself for everyone else. They’ve killed off all the other dragons, the precious stone dragons, the other of my kind. If they see me, they will want me. If I trade myself for everyone else, you can take care of her with her people.” I say surprisingly without fear.

“It’s been 20 years, Hurucan, my family is dead. I know it in my heart. I can’t let you and her die. You both are my family now.” I say.

She looks up at me and ask what I just told Hurucan. I explain to her my plan. I explain that those people won’t let us walk away, they want something.

She shouts and refuses “No! That’s not true. We can get everyone out and it’ll be okay!” She screams.

“It doesn’t work that way. You’ll be with your family and Hurucan. I’ll be okay. Eventually I’ll meet my sister and mom again.” I say. I start thinking about getting my scales plucked until I die. It doesn’t seem like much fun but at least my family will be safe and I’ll see my other family soon.

I grab her and pull her into my chest as she continues to cry. I then grab Hurucan and he cries into my scales. I’m strangely at peace in my decision.

The Trade

We finish our lunch and they solemnly climb onto my back. She points in the direction and I continue to fly towards my doom but at the same time, my freedom.

We arrive to the gates of the dragon hunters. They are huge with spikes at the top. I tell Ixchel that we must find one of her elders before, they need to translate and make the trade.

I drop them off at the entrance and I stay behind the trees. They are greeted by two armed hunters and the gates are opened. Hurucan follows Ixchel with a protective hand around her. It seems like eternity and perhaps the plan fell through. The plan was to find one of her elders, explain to the dragon hunters that there is a Golden dragon and make the trade.

Finally the gates open back up and a tribe of people who look like Ixchel emerge. Followed by them are dragons of all sizes and colors. Just then armed soldiers come towards me and they are accompanied by Ixchel and one of her elders. A soldier with golden shoulders looks at me with delight. I can tell now that he has gold scales on his shoulder. Looking at him now, his whole armor is made of golden dragon scales. Ixchel runs to me and embraces me. Her elder following close with tears in her eyes.

“Please no. You need to come with us. Please.” She cries into my scales. I hold back tears as her elder pulls her off of me. Hurucan comes right after hugging me in a silent embrace.

“I’m sorry. It has to be done. See everyone is free.” I look at both of them and then at Ixchel. I gently wipe a tear with the tip of my talon.

“Tell this man that if he ever comes near you, your tribe, your dragons or Hurucan, the deal is off. Tell him I won’t produce scales anymore if he touches your tribe again.” She looks at me puzzled then whispers, “That’s not true, you know that right?” She asks.

I give her a small laugh. “I know but he doesn’t know that.” I say as I nudge her with my snout.

She gives the man my warning and he nods as he waves them away. Just then his soldiers grab them off me and push them with the rest of their tribe. He looks at me with a sickly yet evil smirk.

“Tie him up! Get me all these scales off him now!” He shouts as his men clasp giant metal clasps on all my fours.

Ixchel and Hurucan are still shouting my name. I hear her say “I love you.” The embers inside me hurt but they burst into a full fire.

“I love you too!” I yell at her.

Her tribe is safe. She is safe. Hurucan is safe. And I will be okay. I say to myself as I’m guided by these soldiers into my doom.

They drag me into this cold dungeon. It smells of death. No trees, no sun, no birds. Death.

I lay down and they start plucking my scales one by one. This is different than when I scratched them off. This hurts. It’s a pinching pain followed by burning. I close my eyes and drift away with the thought of Ixchel, Hurucan, my mom, and my sister.