The Dragons Daughter

The hour was late, and as the sun slept thousands of stars danced in the purple midnight sky. Large, dark wings sliced through the warm summer air; these same wings had carried the great dragon far far away from its nest in the mountains. The golden beast knew not why his wings had carried him thus far, only that they had not carried him far enough yet. In the great distance, due to his enhanced senses, he could still hear the cries and screeches of his own kind. He could still smell the destruction and dread that they had caused in the now far away land, the burning of fresh crops and the melting of grand castles. Though solitude filled his heart with sorrow, he found it preferable to the company of his fellow dragons. He was different to his scaly brothers and sisters. He wished not to dominate the comparatively weak creatures known as man, instead he desired peace between their two species and that they might thrive in symbiosis. His brethren did not share his aspirations, which compelled him toward his current journey. Far far away.

The black forest beneath him grew and grew, as the silence overpowered what sounds remained from whence he came. Nought but insects and forest critters knew these trees, no men or beasts or dragons. The dragon grew weary from his long flight and happened upon a large rocky perch with a grand mahogany towering above it. The tree was three times larger than he and would provide adequate shelter for his tiring scales, so he decided to take his rest beneath its leaves. He sat upon his newfound perch and looked across the grand forest, he found enough peace in a place so untouched by man and dragon that he could not withhold his eyelids any longer. And even though he did not sleep, he dreamt. He dreamt of himself gliding above a prosperous land with the sun beating above him. The people below, young and old, took relief in the shade created by his expansive wings and wept when it had moved past them. They looked up at him and saw not fear and dread, but beauty and comfort. And he felt the same as he looked down upon them. He also felt another presence in the sky with him, but not of his own kind, the presence of a man resting on his back. Though he could not turn to see the man, he felt his weight on his spine, his hands on his neck gently caressing his golden scales. Then he heard it, a voice, too soft to be a man’s. And though he could not understand the words it formed, the sound itself soothed him into absolute bliss. Then he heard another sound, not soft and not words, but a cry. He could feel the pain of this cry burying its way into his soul and knew it did not originate from his dream. His eyes opened, and they began to scour the vicinity. The cry was loud yet weak so he knew it could not be far. He took to the skies in his search for the crier, and then he saw it. A small cave at the foot of the perch where he had lay, and inside a tiny human babe having no more than 3 years behind it. They had long locks resting over their shoulders and down their back as orange and fiery as the flames that left the dragons mouth, and eyes greener than the grass upon which the dragon now stood. The dragon stared deep into the babes’ eyes and the babe stared back. The crying had ceased and the babe began to quiver, but not with fear, with desperation. The dragon knew not how long the babe had been here alone; only that it was indeed alone with none of its own kind to look out for it, much like himself. He began to approach but for every step the dragon took forward, the babe took one back. It was cautious of the beast fifty times its own size, an intelligent babe. The dragon halted his approach and lowered his head to the floor in an attempt to indicate his pure intent. He knew the babe meant him no harm, and that even if it did he would feel none. Suddenly, the crying resumed, but still the dragon sensed no fear in the cave. As neither the dragon nor the babe could form words the other would understand, he could not decipher the cause of the child’s distress. His stomach growled, louder than his voice ever could, and in that moment he was reminded that dragon and man were not so different, both must eat to survive. He knew what he must do and took to the skies with his new mission. The land was still dark, but it mattered little to the dragon, the foul scent of fresh dung on the air told him that food was nearby. In a small parting of the trees, the dragon found a small band of horses, three at least were in sight. The dragon swooped downward with haste, and before the horses could disband, the ground beneath their hooves was set ablaze by the dragons’ fire, cooking them live. The larger two of the horses were quickly wolfed down by the dragon leaving no waste, but the third was carried in the dragons’ clutches back to the cave where the babe still lay hungry. Dropped at the babes’ feet, the horses’ carcass lay still warm and fresh. The child gazed upon the charred corpse in front of her with confusion and a hint of disgust. Then the dragon realised, in his haste he failed to see that the babe could not eat a beast of this size as he did with ease, if humans even ate the same as dragons at all. Having failed his mission, he growled with disappointment and took to the skies once more in search of food for the child. And after but a few minutes of flight, he came upon a field of golden grass within which a herd of small goats dwelled. Goats are much smaller than horses and the dragon noted that, in the land he fled from, humans would herd goats themselves, so he concluded this to be a suitable meal for the babe. He also noted how his previous haste to catch the horses clouded his judgement, so this time he would be careful in his execution. The herd was quite large, but it was easy for the dragon to identify the smallest of the goats lingering behind his brethren, this would be his target. He glided toward the ground slowly allowing the goats to disperse across the field, but the small goat froze with fear at the sight of his golden wings. A small breath of fire was all that was necessary to perfectly toast the lone goat without setting the whole field ablaze, and now, the dragon hoped, the child would eat. He carried the goat back to the cave and once again dropped a charred corpse at the babes’ feet. As he had once looked at a dead horse with confusion and disgust, the child looked upon the goat with burning desire in her eyes and drool seeping from her lips. She began to rip chunks of hot meat from the corpse and shove them down her throat, barely taking a second between mouthfuls to breath. Watching the child destroy what was left of this dead animal brought a strange sense of joy to the dragon, one he had never felt while with his own kind. He had saved this innocent babe from starvation, and when bone and organ was all that was left on the floor of the cave, the babe smiled widely up at him with chunks of goat in between her teeth. The dragon gave a soft growl hoping the child would understand, and the child gave the same growl back. Though they did not speak the same tongue, it was easy to see they shared an understanding of one another, and the dragon felt a warmth in his soul hotter than any fire he had ever conjured from his lungs. The babe stood on her weak, little legs and approached him slowly. He lowered his chin to the floor, leaving them at eye level, and the child opened her tiny arms to embrace her saviour. As the dragon did not have arms of his own, he could not return this embrace, but he need not. He closed his eyes and, for the first time in his long life, felt truly accomplished. And for the very first time, a human had seen the difference between him and his fellow dragons. For beneath his grand wings and golden scales, behind his black eyes and all his destructive fire, this dragon desired only affection. And now he had earned it.