The Light of Shinto

Chandra was so old that she had outlived all of her kind. On any given day you could find her slumbering under the lambkin tree in the center of Little Mandreattica. When a dragon ages, like the humans that dared not roam the forests of Little Mandreattica, one could almost hear the creaking of the joints above the methodical rumble of the snoring beast. With every inhale, the spaces around the joints would open and the returning exhale would send the joints into a rattling drumroll.

On the 5th day or Rolliander, Chandra found herself rudely awakened by a tiny hand and a small squeaky voice, “Ticko, Ticko… ticko, ticko… TICKO, TICKO!” Chandra shook her head ever so gently above the small creature who appeared to resemble one of those human things in far smaller stature than she remembered ever having seen before. Chandra pointed her littlest dragon finger at the tike’s shoulder and quickly poked the black curly hair youngster with a return, “Tickoed!”

While dragons themselves do not speak any particular language, they spoke any language that presented itself. If ticko meant tickle in humanese, then tickoed meant tickle completed. Afterall, dragons were known to be the end of everything known to humans which was why no human had dared enter Little Mandreattica for some 300 plus years which had suited the other dragons, before Chandra, just fine.

However, Chandra as the last dragon of Mandreattica and Little Mandreattica, she was known to be quite lonely in the evenings and fired up in the mornings. But the middle of the day was nap-thirty for long hours as her dragon body blended into the forest like an odd sort of chameleon. She missed the other dragons. One day there were many, but suddenly there were few and now there were none but one, Chandra.

That quick poke had sent the tike’s face into a strange routine of gymnastics that appeared to present something akin to indignancy. Chandra did what dragons do best, laugh. The laughter of dragons is often misunderstood as something hateful or mocking, but if anyone could get beneath the rough exterior, one would find a heart filled with a fun-loving spirit who was always ready to share the peals of laughter. So with that laugh, Chandra pronounced the young man’s new name, “Indiago it is and Indiago is what it isn’t.”

“Indiago, don’t you know not to tickle a dragon on the 5th day of Rolliander? Go away and come back on the 12th day of Shiango.” Chandra went back into her sleeping position only to find that same now annoying sound rising more emphatically, “TICKO! TICKOED! NO!”

Chandra again opened her eyes and sighed knowing that today’s slumber party had met with the rising son of someone who should be drifting along in a frantic soon. But this time when she opened her eyes again, there was a glitter that made her stand up so fast she was forced backwards into sitting. “That child holds a splinter of the magical Shepherd’s Crook and that WAS NOT POSSIBLE! Not possible, unless… unless… no it couldn’t be…” thought the old dragon partially said aloud.

Swiftly traveling back in time through Chandra’s mind, she was back to her old young self. She was running through the tunnels of Mandreattica with her family and friends. The pitch black tunnel system that protected the nucleus of Shinto, home of the Shintoan Fairies who had guarded the magic Shepherd’s Crook since time had run out and began again used to be filled with dragon sparks and sparkling splinters.

When she was young, dragons were plentiful as the guardians of the Mandreattica corridors, uptop or down below. Every dragon upon the age of Saphino would be given one splinter from the Crook which would be woven into the one scale that would never fall. As the dragons raced about with their splinters, the splinters would glow brightly when another came close.

Had anyone have been able to see them racing through the maze, they would have felt like they had themselves been lost in the lagoons of the fire flies. They wouldn’t be able to see the dragons, only the sparkle of splinters. Just as one might come near enough to touch the light, it would blink away only to reappear far out of reach. Why would this young tike have a splinter, unless… Chandra misheard Ticko and Ticko was not really tickle but rather… Zicko. She knew that some children could not say the S or the Z sounds so well and they might come out like a TH which perhaps Chandra missed. After all, she was old, but Zicko? Could it be?

“Indiago, did you say Zicko?”

“Yes… Ticko!” said the child with a big grin, but this time Chandra could hear the TH sound much more clearly since she was awake. In the distance, another odd sound was heard and instantly, Indiago was doing the gymnastics with his face again, but this time it was fear. “Go! Go!” For someone so young who did not have many words, he could express himself all the same. “Go! Go! Go!” And he began to pull on that dragon finger who had poked him as he leaned his small body towards the entrances of Mandreattica.

Now, why would he know that? It must be a coincidence thought Chandra to herself. Normally, she would never think to allow a human into the tunnels, but this was not an ordinary day. This tike had appeared from nowhere and the sounds might have been getting louder. No one had come to the forest of Little Mandreattica in so long, something must be wrong or soon would be if she stayed where she was. Her mighty days of strength were far behind her lost in those tunnels.

When she bent down to inspect the child and his splinter closer considering what to do, both splinters began to glow more brightly. Hers had not glowed in so long, she almost forgot she still wore it. Here it was glowing and that wasn’t even possible without two dragons near each other. Chandra was old, but she could count. She was one and he was well… not one. So, there could not be two and hence, no glowing splinters. But here they were and the child broke through again with, “GO! GO!”

The Shintoan Fairies were the only ones who could answer the mystery of the dragonless glow. The journey of the maze would be too long for the tike to walk. So, before she could talk herself out of the foolishness, she scooped him up and disappeared through the invisible entrance into the dark tunnels. But knowing that most human children were afraid of the dark, she was not sure which surprised her most his excited laughter or the glowing splinter that lit the way through the narrowing spaces. It just should not have been. Yet, on both accounts there it was.

Back and forth they descended and ascended twisting their way through the seemingly empty maze until the darkness began to brighten. Minerals of many types began to spread the joy of the light filling the hallways with every imaginable color and a few unimaginable ones too. Yet, the boy didn’t seem to be any more or less happy, only excited as though he was keeping a big secret.

Suddenly, they were standing in the full light of Shinto and the tike had fallen out of her dragon arms because suddenly he was not small. He was not the tike at all, but his dark curly hair had become the scales of a … DRAGON! And it wasn’t ANY old dragon, it was Zicko himself! ZICKO? How could Zicko be standing in front of her? Zicko had disappeared last. One day there were many; then, there were few; then, there were one and that now wasn’t the one at all, because here were two, Chandra and Zicko!

Again, Chandra poked out her dragon finger, but this time her largest. “Zicko?”

“I’ll explain later. I knew I could find you under the lambkin tree. Where is the King?”

“No one knows. The King went to find the dragons… well, after you vanished… and never returned, but his daughter sits in his place after the Queen lost her light. The only reason I stayed perhaps is because each fairy tied a single hair to every scale and they replace them as the scale sheds. Do you know why the dragons disappeared?”

“Yes. I do. Where is Princess Tindy?”

“In the orchards”

The orchards were where the fairies gathered in the early mornings. Getting through the maze to reach Shinto always took far longer than one would desire and so the fairies would be in the orchards. That was why the disappearance of the first dragons were so shocking. It would take hours to reach the area of the first missing ones and that was only if one knew where one was in the darkness. Dragons need no light to find their way. They are as much at home in the light as they are in the dark.

The Magic Shephard’s Crook took in the middle of the forest providing the light for all of Shinto. It was brightest in the morning and with the light the fairies were at their strongest. The farther they drifted from the light the darker they themselves became. If they drifted too far away, they would cease to exist unless they had taken a splinter with them.

Just as the two dragons arrive, the fairies all stopped even their breathing. The air was heavy with silence. It might have only lasted a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Princess Tindy was the first to recover as all royalty must be. “Zicko? Is that really you? What happened? How did you get back? Where have you been?”

“Your Highness. We must go to the inner rooms before I can answer most of those questions, but yes to the first question.”

With that the fairies began to buzz about speaking fairy speech among themselves in low tones. Nothing had changed with Zicko’s ears as he replied equally softly: “I heard that Jeffney! I have not gained weight. A fat dragon… whoever heard of such a thing!” All of the fairies giggled, well, most of them anyway. Helsey did not, but then Helsey never giggled or laughed or enjoyed any part of fairydom. He was always the angry one.

The inner rooms were protected by the magic of generations of spun fair hair encapsulating the walls several lengths thick so that no amount of sound or secret could penetrate once the doors were shut. Once inside and Princess Tindy had taken her chair. Zicko began a tale that was hard to believe. It involved the ‘angry one’, the King and the King’s brother, Prince Alderhorn who no one had seen since the King had left. But after Zicko told it, it didn’t seem so hard to believe at all.

Zicko told of Prince Alderhorn’s jealousy fed by Helsey’s anger and the plans to lure the King away using the magic of the splinters to keep the fairy brother strong and the fairy King weak. He told of the Lurkins who were no longer found in the forests with no one wondering where they had gone all of these years. They were vile creatures that no one missed. Yet, somehow Helsey had convinced them to go with Prince Alderhorn promising them the magic of the splinters.

One by one they had captured the dragons by using their own potent aroma to weaken the dragon and snatch the dragon’s splinter. Once recovered the dragon would race after the Lurkin trying to get back their splinter. Once caught outside of the forest far away from the magic, it was too late for the dragon to return. They were too weak. It was the King’s own broken splinter that he had given to Zicko so that Zicko could transform him into a toddler that would escape detection and be able to escape to warn the fairies that Prince Alderhorn was returning to claim the throne. The King had given his last bit of magic and his life with it to the best of Zicko’s knowledge. The Queen had faded, but the King was dead.

As the story unfolded, Princess Tindy rang the fairy bell that only her most trusted advisors could hear. Once they arrived, she simply gave three quick instructions: “Hold Helsey in the golden cage. Bring the Queen here. Shut the gates. We must protect the light of Shino.” Zicko’s tale was not finished. Yet, there was too much to be done for the ending of it to be told.