The Promise of Scales

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. We looked for them though. In the skies, in the clouds. We heard tell they were huge and beautiful when flying, but dangerous when hungry or upset. Our father left us a few years ago to hunt dragons. Only a few months before that we moved to the Valley, and we moved because Mother died. Father always said it was a dragon that killed her, but nobody ever believed him.

My brother Mykel always said the stories about dragons were only fairy tales to scare little kids like me and to lure gullible marks like our father into wild and dangerous adventures. Mykel didn't care for our father very much and always spoke ill of him. He often said, "Naylla, you only want us to have a father because your friend has hers." Which was probably true, but I also missed him terribly. When he left, he'd promised that he would bring back dragon scales for us to use as protection from fire and to sell to everybody else for lots of money. Whenever I reminded Mykel of that, he would frown, spit and walk away grumbling something I couldn't hear very well.

I don't think Mykel believes in dragons, but I do. I also believed that our father would return home with the scales he'd promised. It had been a long time though. We've had two birthdays go by. Mykel is sixteen, I'm thirteen and we're both sharing the sheep herding now. This morning I brought them out into the Valley so they could munch the sweet grass.

I sat under a tree at the edge of the meadow where I could see all the sheep while only turning my head. Usually, the danger was wolves. Today would prove different. There was a commotion over to my left, and I stood up to get a better view. What I saw made me drop the shepherd's crook and almost choke on the long strand of sweetgrass I was chewing.

There on the ground, almost right across from me, was a creature of a size I'd never seen before. In fact, my mind tried to figure out how I could have missed it when we came into the meadow. It crouched at the edge of the trees and its head swiveled back and forth like it was trying to decide which of our sheep to eat. It was a dragon! It had to be a dragon. Couldn't be anything else. It matched all the pictures I'd seen, except it was kinda pretty its shiny colors of green, blue and yellow, blending into the trees. I stood frozen to the spot and the sheep were all running toward me.

The sheep made it over to me. A few had kept going into the trees behind me. I'd have to go fetch them before they got lost forever. The next thing I saw almost sat me back down on the ground.

Three men came creeping out from the trees behind the dragon, all of them pointed weapons of some kind at it. They were all dressed in clothes like the man father left with had been wearing, kind of splotchy, drab green and brown with a splash of dingy yellow. I squinted hard trying to determine if my father was one of the men, but I was too far away to see their faces clearly. Then, one of them fired. The weapon shot a large bolt fitted with an arrowhead. It lodged in its shoulder. The beast roared in pain and spun around, tail whipping wildly knocking one man down and sending another back towards the trees. The third man fired again. This time he struck the beast in the eye and it fell to the ground with a blood-curdling scream which sent the rest of my sheep into the trees.

As much as I wanted to stay and watch, I had to go after the sheep. Wistfully prying my eyes away from the now grisly scene where the men were pulling scales and other parts off the dead creature. I whistled for the sheep, counting as I found them. We didn't go back to the meadow. By now it would smell of dragon blood and I'd never get them across it again, so we circled around to get back to the path we took to get here. When we climbed out of the Valley center, towards our village, I heard another new sound. Looking up I saw two more of the large, magnificent creatures, flying towards the meadow. They sounded angry and I hoped the men would be able to get away before the two arrived.

I got the sheep all back into the pens and ran to find Mykel. He was never going to believe me, but I had to tell him what I saw. "Mykel! Mykel! I saw one! I saw a dragon! At least that's what I think I saw."

Mykel turned around from milking one of the goats to eye me with suspicion. "You saw what?"

"I saw a dragon! There were men there hunting it. They actually shot it dead. Then, when I was bringing the sheep home, I saw two more fly overhead!"

Mykel shook his head, "You silly girl. There are no dragons. I don't know what you saw, but it wasn't a dragon. They're not real," he said, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

"You didn't see what I saw. It was huge and beautiful, and..."

"And nothing. You must be seeing things. Maybe it was an oversized cow, or a buffalo or something."

I stopped and glared at him. "Just because you didn't see what I saw, doesn't mean I didn't see it."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. I suppose our Da was there too, right?" he spat.

"I don't know. He could have been one of the men. There were three of them and one of them got thrown into the trees by the dragon's tail."

"Oh, better and better," he laughed. "You have quite the imagination there little sister."

Their discussion was interrupted by a ruckus at the front gates of the village. Mykel and Naylla turned at once to see three men come running through the gates, dragging something that looked heavy and shiny stacked onto a flatbed wagon. They stopped and crawled under the wagon, shouting at everybody to run and hide just as two loudly shrieking dragons flew over the village, buffeting everything with the wind from their wings.

Mykel stood, mouth gaping as I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into the barn. The goats and chickens were already inside, cowering in the back. We both peeked out through the slats in the walls to watch what happened next.

The dragons landed near the gates, dwarfing everything. The buildings, wagons, carts, and the people looked like toys next to them. The smaller of the two dragons used a claw and turned over the shiny sheets that were on the wagon the men had wheeled through the gate. Then it lifted its head and wailed such a forlorn note that it struck even my heart with pain.

"They killed their baby," I said through tears.

Mykel looked at me in horror. "You're crying for the dragon? What's wrong with you?"

I sucked in a breath and wiped my eyes on my sleeves. Trying to hold back a sob, I answered him, "They killed their baby! It was a baby dragon, Mykel."

"Naylla, a baby dragon is still a dragon. They killed a dragon. Considering a dragon killed our mother, I think one less dragon is a good thing." He finished with a growl. His voice was heavily laced with contempt for me.

I sniffed again, "Oh, yes. Now you don't like dragons and want them all dead. Only a few minutes ago you didn't even believe in dragons."

Mykel sighed, "Okay. You're right. I'm sorry I didn't believe you, and I'm sorry for thinking Da was an idiot. But, I'm not sorry that one dragon is dead."

There were more shouts from outside and they both went back to peeping out through the slats. In the courtyard, the two dragons had entwined their necks and the larger one kept raising its wings and then folding them. It almost looked like they were hugging each other.

The men under the wagon were huddled in the middle of the flatbed, and the scales were no longer piled on top but laying beside it, blocking them from view. One of them was craning his neck and seemed to be scanning the buildings, looking for something Or, someone.

Mykel gasped and grabbed my arm, "One of those men IS Da!"

"Did you see his face? Are you sure?" I strained against the planks and squinted, trying to see a face, any face, but Da's face is what I wanted to see.

My turn to gasp, "I see him!"