The Forest of the Dragons

“Max, I’m just going to put Aislinn to bed and then we can eat,” Sally tells her husband, as she walks into Aislinn’s bedroom.

Sally lays her two year old daughter in her cot and whispers soothingly, “goodnight my sweet girl. I wish you sweet dreams and safe travels. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Aislinn opens her sleepy eyes, snuggles further into her bedding and smiles at her mummy, as she drifts off to sleep. Warm, happy and tired, snuggled up in her safe little world, as her mummy leaves the room.

In what seems like no time at all, Aislinn finds herself jerking awake and she looks around in fear. She knows she is no longer in her bed but where is she and how did she get here?

Sitting under a luscious green bush, hidden from view, she notices the tall trees surrounding her, the beautiful plants climbing those enormous tree trunks and the dead leaves cushioning her from the hard ground. She reaches up, both in awe and terror, to feel the leaves hanging over her, hiding her from view. She feels the silken veins threading the green leaves and realises they are wet from the light rain that is falling softly around her.

She cowers backwards as she hears a loud noise, fearful of the sound, she whimpers, “mummy, mummy, help.”

She doesn’t receive an answer as she realises she is alone. Lost in this plant haven. She guesses this is called a forest, similar to the pictures in her favourite book mummy reads to her.

Another loud sound, crashes, roars of a sudden wind swooshing around the bush she is hiding in. She looks up to see large red wings flying towards her. Wings and a large scaly head with yellow eyes. Mummy calls them dragons in her picture book.

The terrifying beast lands in the clearing near her and settles down on a bed of moss, drinking from the river nestled next to the moss bed. Aislinn watches quietly, until the dragon lifts its head and turns to spy her.

The dragon could hear her quiet breathing and tiny whimpers, as they look eye to eye, Aislinn shaking in fear.

Suddenly Aislinn feels an intrusion in her mind and quiet words whispered, as she realises the dragon is talking to her. Quiet words that cannot be heard out loud.

“Hush, dear child, you have nothing to fear from me. My name is Adalinda and I have a daughter that would be a similar age to you. I could no more harm you as harm my very own daughter.”

Adalinda moves closer to Aislinn and asks silently in Aislinn’s mind, “Little one how is it you’ve found you way or should I say, lost your way into the Forest of the Dragons?”

Aislinn whimpers a little more and she hears Adalinda whisper, “don’t fret my child as I can see the answers in your young mind. Your name is Aislinn and what a beautiful name that is too. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl child. Do you know that Aislinn means to dream? I guess that would explain how you are sound asleep in your cot, yet here you sit as you astral travel through your dreams. Welcome to my world little Aislinn.”

With these words Aislinn let’s a small smile cross her face. She has no idea what Adalinda means by astral travelling through her dreams, but she instantly feels that she is no longer a threat. She watches in awe as Adalinda lays her head down and allows Aislinn to stroke her scaly snout.

A small giggle erupts from Aislinn as she crawls closer and lays her head against Adalinda’s.

With this, Adalinda gently scoops this small child to safety, tucking her into her undercarriage and launches up into the sky. It’s only minutes later that she lands, with her precious cargo, into the colony of her dragon clan.

As Adalinda gently places Aislinn on the ground, she is surrounded by her clan of dragons. Large black and blue males and softer yellow, red and green females. Then suddenly, the dragons part and up waltzes a tiny red dragon, who lays down beside Aislinn.

The tiny dragon speaks into the mind of her mother, “Mumma, who is this girl child?”

As dragons cannot speak out loud, Adalinda in turn speaks directly into her daughter’s mind, “Kaida, this tiny child is the same age as you are dear and her name is Aislinn — meaning ‘to dream’ — she is physically asleep in her human world but has astral travelled through her dreams and into our world. I found her lost and cowering by the river in the Forest of the Dragons.”

Kaida was so excited as she was the only dragon child of the clan and as a result, very lonely. Here was a human child that she could befriend. Oh, the adventures they could have together. Kaida dances around Aislinn in glee.

Morning has come in the human world and Aislinn slowly opens her eyes to find her cot, her bedding and everything that had happened was all just a dream.

Aislinn and her mother spend a quiet day together, until the sun descends once again. After a delightful dinner, Aislinn begins to yawn and she is once more placed into her cot for a dreamy nights sleep.

Aislinn drifts off, only to find herself once more sitting on the green moss bedding of the dragon clan and little Kaida is waiting patiently for her to visit once more.

Kaida has their adventures all mapped out, ready for when Aislinn returns.

“Aislinn I have been waiting forever for you to arrive. I was so scared you wouldn’t come back and I have so much I want to show you tonight,“ Kaida gushes.

Before Aislinn could reply, a large snake, something Kaida calls a python, slithers into view. Aislinn flinches and Kaida chuckles.

“No need to fear Tongo, the python, as I arranged for him to come and give us a ride. I’m too little to fly yet and your little stubby legs will never be able to keep up, as I give you the grand tour of the Forest of the Dragons,” Kaida explains.

With that Kaida climbs astride Tongo and motions for Aislinn to climb up behind her and with that Tongo slithers his way into the forest, to show the girls all the adventure there is to be had, in the glorious rainforest.

Once more the sun rises on the humans’ world and Aislinn wakes in her cot. She spends each day with mummy and each night, when she closes her eyes, she’d astral travel into Kaida’s world, for more fun times and dangerous adventures.

The world of the dragon clan is set in a luscious rainforest, in which Aislinn and Kaida weave their mischief together time and again, each more dangerous as they grow older.

The ride that night on Tongo, shows Aislinn the layout of the forest and she even met some of the animals who called the rainforest home.

As Aislinn grew to understand this world better, she realises that the animals are not afraid of the dragons and she asks Kaida why.

Kaida explains the rules the dragons must abide by to live in the Forest of the Dragons. She explains that the dragon clan made a pact with the rainforest animals, the dragons would only eat the animals that the humans farm and never the rainforest creatures.

She went on to explain the hierarchy of the dragon clan. At any given time there are five male adult dragons. Two of these males are tasked with pilfering human farm animals for food. They raid the farms for sheep, pigs and cattle and this is what the dragon diet mainly consists of.

The other three males are strictly for breeding so the clan will never die out. The rest of the clan is made up of females with Adalinda, Kaida’s mother, the queen of the clan. One day Kaida will inherit the crowning and become queen of the clan.

As the girls grow older, they experience life in the rainforest in many different ways. They no longer need to ride on the back of Tongo, the python, because they can both run through the forest on steady legs. More athletic than stubby in the days that follow.

They do however ride on the backs of the monkeys as often as possible, as the monkeys swing through the trees because this is the closest thing to flying that either girl can experience. That is until Kaida grew her wings and was able to fly, with Aislinn on her back, through the forest at will.

Both girls would often trick the Cassowaries into given then a ride through the forest because the big birds can run so much faster than either girl. It was like riding a breeze along the trails that run beside the winding river.

However, their adventures are not always fun and games.

There is a time when they upset a couple of tigers, who they happen to be riding bare back, and the tigers throw them into a patch of quicksand. It is only because Adalinda is close by and hears their screams, that she is able to rescue them and chastise the tigers at the same time.

The girls spend every night exploring as they grow and when they both turn twelve years of age, Kaida tells Aislinn about the magic of the dragon clan.

Kaida explains that dragons are forbidden to mix with humans and the only reason that Aislinn is not included in this ban, is because she astral travels to their land. If she was to physically stumble across the clan they would have never met.

She explains that the clan is magical and can cloak their existence so they are always invisible to any human being that stumbles into their territory. Aislinn is the only human they have ever had any experience with.

Aislinn’s days are spent in the human world, her nights spent within her astral travels and she enjoys the time spent with her best friend, Kaida, the dragon.

Until that is, Aislinn’s thirteenth birthday. In the human world, her parents throw her the biggest, grandest party to celebrate her metamorphosis into a teenager. Worth celebrating for sure but she can’t wait for the night, where she will celebrate with Kaida.

However, when she lays down her weary head later that night, excited to see Kaida, something goes terribly wrong. She wakes the next morning, devastated because, for the very first time since she was two years of age, she did not travel to the dragon clan. What could have gone wrong?

Meanwhile, in the Forest of the Dragon, Kaida has waited patiently for her friend to arrive and she even has a beautiful dragon scale necklace to give Aislinn. Made with love from one of her own red scales, but Aislinn never arrives. Kaida is devastated.

It seems that on reaching the grand old age of thirteen and nearing adulthood, the ability to astral travel is lost to Aislinn and try as she might, she is never able to astral travel again.

She keeps her memories of Kaida close to her heart and Kaida, over in the dragon clan, treasures her precious memories of Aislinn.

The two friends never see each other again and they are both devastated that they never get the chance to say goodbye.

Thankfully they both have their precious memories of the times spent together, breaching the physical world and dragon laws.

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