The Silver Flame

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. But as far as I can tell, there are no dragons in the Valley. The giants go on and on about these dragons and get worked up into a fit over these myths. Maybe the see something I do not?

It has been seventy two moons since I arrived in the valley and now that the wet season has ended and moved into the hot season, I can resume my daily activities. I have taken to writing in the language of the giants to better help me understand them. Their words are easy and once I snuck a few of their word holders, I learned many things. I did return the word holders of course. The giants have tempers and they do not like to hear me or what I have learned about them.

I avoid the giants most of the time, staying out from under their feet, no longer try to talk to them or get their attention, and it is very important that I stay away from all of the giants pets. The only time I ever bother to make myself known to them is to preform and entertain the giants. I am a Firebreather and giants, they love fire.

They keep it in their strange outside caves. The caves made of sharp squares and triangles. The homes are shaped like cut crystal but made of far less smooth materials. Stone, wood, sometimes even grass. They color their strange caves with plant pastes and make painfully loud shades that shame clouds. I do not care for such bright wall and find it boring but the Giants like it enough they all try to make their own look better or bigger. Every one of their caves have a place where they keep a fire burning forever. The fires are small but they are warm enough.

Sometimes the giants take small trees and cover the roots in some sort of black paste to take fire with them in the night. I can not understand why they would need to do this once the cold season ends but it must be a passion for them.

I wait till enough of them are gathering and looking rather bored before I Swoop in to save them from their boredom. A few funny noises to get their attention. A small quick dance and a nice gout of fire. Their praises are excessive to the point they could shame the wind screamers. The smallest giants sing praises the loudest and I try not to get them excited. Giants have tempers after all. The Jealous and Angry ones come to investigate my performances if they are too loud or if the giants present feel the need to bring more to see the show.

Why do I entertain the giants when they can be so easy to anger? Treasure! They throw treasure and sometimes food at me when I preform and bring fire to their otherwise boring day. Sometimes I can not gather up all of the glimmering shiny metals they toss my way before the Jealous ones arrive and have to leave early but the food the giants throw, I do not know enough words to explain. You never know what the thing will taste like. Sometimes they throw a fruit, a colorful root, or something they made with their secret fire magic. Always worth grabbing something they made with their magic.

I do not need the Giants food but it is exciting part of the day or week. After I do one of my fire dances, I have to let the Jealous and Angry giants calm down. I think they are worried my fire will bring dragons but I have yet to see one show up. They must move like the sky screamers because many of the giants look up at the sky far more often after I sneak away. I learned early when dealing with the giants that I can not sneak up and on top of something to get away from them. I have to stay low and hide near their outside caves. They almost never look into their outside caves for me unless I am moving too fast and break something.

I can never run towards the Giant Pets either. The lazy-wolves are loud and do not like me. I am sure I would get bitten by them. I can leave the town towards the sleepy Sky-fire or I may spook the ground-clouds. The noisy smelly creatures move like a mad wet sky when I get too close or the wind changes suddenly. So many more Angry Giants show up with their sharp carved trees and often they bring metal sticks. I once got struck with a metal stick when I tripped over a root and I am lucky that it only left a mark. The other side of the stick hit a tree and pushed into it so far the giant could not get the stick back.

The giants are dangerous, this is true, but the treasures make up for it. I do not know where they get so much of it or why they shape it the way they do but it is like tiny puddles of water frozen by the cold season and still able to show you how you look. It is not big enough and water is still best for that, but unlike water, the glow they bring when the sun hits them just right is nothing short of magic.

My inside-cave has these treasures placed around it in such a way that I feel the warmth of the Sky-fire for as long as it is still awake. Sometimes the light of the Moon can be as brilliant as the Sky-fire but it does not happen all the time. Often enough that I count by how often the moon wakes me up this way. The first light is always the best as the lights glow sounds like music you can not copy. Not unlike the wind-sticks the giants hang in some places. The wind sings when it touches the sticks and it is not bad but it is messy and never the same. The treasure always sounds the same unless you move it, add more, or take some away. I can always tell when something has moved and it is an ordeal to get it reset but so worth it. Someday I will share this with the angry giants so they will be less angry all the time.

Soon I will write down the days as they happen so there is less to write. The giants are very moody about the word holders. The keep the black plant blood they use for the words hidden and High so I risk Angry giants when I look for them. Sometimes even the Tree-ghost Giant. That giant is the only one I worry I may not get away from. Unlike the Angry giants, The Tree-Ghost can run almost as fast as I can. The giant's eyes and ears are as sharp as their metal sticks, and one time I watched the Tree-ghost pull out a Death-Harp. I do not like the Death-Harp. He plucks the only string on it and it makes a horrible scream. Something always dies when he plays that Death-Harp. The Tree-Ghost eats the grass-eaters and the fast-things. I can never guess when the Tree-Ghost is hungry so I will never get close to either of those animals. Water breathers are slow and dumb, but worst of all they taste so boring without the right secret fire magic. I swim well enough so that is the only animal I can safely hunt.

Today after the first light woke me, I set out to see if the chatter about the dragons had calmed down enough for the giants to be bored again. It was the strangest thing that happened since I came to live near the giants. None of them had left their Outside-caves yet. There were no giant-pets, Not even small giants. I looked everywhere for them but all of the outside-caves were closed and filled with the giants. I had worried for a moment when I remembered the giants all run into the Outside-caves when they fear a dragon is nearby. I looked up and waited for a long time, listened, and could hear nothing of these myth's they chattered so much about. The giants are very silly sometimes. I could not tell what was wrong. I started to go back home when I heard it. One of the giants had finally copied me! The music of the light hitting the treasures just right and moving to glow other bits of treasure. This sound was different than mine however. It was small but it had a strong beat to it like the drumming of my heart. All I could think was a treasure I had not seen yet.

When I found the source in an empty and fake Outside-cave, I learned of something that should have been obvious. Sparkle-rocks. Sparkle-rocks make the sounds as well but somehow more intense. They seam to hold the light, eating it all up, glowing when the Sky-fire sleeps. The light they hold it greedy like Nut-eaters and the sound they make while they drink in the light is too interesting to pass up. I thought the giants had left it for me. Maybe they missed me? The only thing that made sense to me.

It should have been clear that I was being hunted, but I never thought the giants would be this mad to do something like this. I have not made a mistake and burned any of their Outside-caves in over twelve moons. I touched the treasure and started to move the Sparkle Rock to see if I could get the music to sound better when a giant I had never seen Shouted something about a dragon and ran into the fake outside cave with me. This giant was a big giant, and it looked like his skin was all metal. He would not fit well in this place with me. He was also much like the angry giants and very mad that I was here at all. This wasn't His cave, It was too small, but he didn't care. Before I could run around him he Kicked me right in the chest and flung me across the cave.

I thought I had died then and there as my breath did not return to me for an uncomfortable time. Too long for me to run well or try to climb out of the light holes. The Metal Giant had a metal stick too. A big one. So very big. His metal stick had treasure in it too and had he not been about to try and hit me with it, It would have been very pretty to look at. My day was ruined right there and I had no idea how to get away from him. I couldn't make this giant forget about being mad with a fire dance since I couldn't breath, and I couldn't hide since he was watching me. He didn't even need the metal stick to scare me away but he had it anyway. Instead of swinging it at me he did the only thing that was worse. He made the noises to summon the Tree-Ghost. Every time the giants make that noise, the Tree-Ghost shows up with his Death-Harp ready to play. The giants were trying to Kill me and this time they were trying very hard. He turned towards the now very panicked me and lifted his metal stick up. I could not think straight, I only wanted to make him go away and leave me alone so I did the only thing I had time to and Tried to talk out him. I am not proud of how poorly it sounded. My throat is not like the giant's throat. I do not make the same kinds of noises and it is hard to force them free.

Shame aside at my attempt to apologize, the fact that I screamed that at him spooked the Metal Giant. He flinched and his swing slowed down enough that I tried to slap his stick out of the air. I would lose an arm instead of my life and it would be less pitiful of a story. I did not lose my arm. I did not breath fire this time. In that moment I found my magic. I found fire magic, deep inside me it felt my need and burst from my hand and made a stick all on its own to catch his stick! I have seen the giants do this and while that was not what I had planned it worked! I hit the giant's stick too hard and it broke, throwing half of it into the cave wall and making the giant stumble backwards.

Another moment of weakness welled up inside me. I was filled with terror and the fear of death. I could not let the giant see me cry, as much as I felt it welling up in me so I shouted at him again. I would like to think I told him to 'Leave me alone' but the Giant's word holder and what comes off the giant's tongue do not match what I expected. I do not know where I am going wrong. The giant got some sort of meaning from my demand and he left very fast. The relief was intense and the pain of the kick edged back into my mind. Everything hurt and I needed to sleep. I never got the chance to stop for a nap though. I remembered as harshly as that kick threw me that the Tree-Ghost was coming. I would never smell him, he is like the forest, I would never see him... he looks like the trees, I would only hear him and if I could hear him then he can play the Death-harp for me.

I ran like a fast-thing running from an Angry giant after being caught eating their special colorful roots they grow. I have never ran so fast or left in such a hurry that I forgot to not leave towards the sleeping Sky-fire... I spooked the ground-clouds. It was like a fire going out of control, only getting bigger and angrier by the moment. Then my mind cleared as my thoughts turned back to fire. All I needed was to make the Giants care more about the ground-clouds than me. I lit a fire on the wall that kept the ground-clouds from wandering away and ran the other direction. The ground-clouds saved me with all the noise they made and all the giants that rushed to keep the pats safe. They were not going to be in danger, the fire would not spread that fast, but they thought the danger was real so I escaped.

I did not rest till I found the pond near my cave. Tired and sore, I had to check and see if anything had broken or twisted. The only good thing that happened today was the Sparkle-Rock. I grabbed it and did not let go. It did not break either but all of the glow inside of that beautiful little rock had vanished. The glow emptied out of it and now it sparkles the same as the gold but deep in it, I can see the glow faintly growing. I think I used the light to spark my fire magic. I will play with this idea tomorrow.

My reflection was a comfort tonight. The mark across my purple chest will be short lived. My back arms can not stretch fully but the pain is a small tenderness. My luck shines through best with my wind skin not being cut or having any holes in them. That pain is the worst and I nearly starve any time such a wound falls on me. My claws are filthy from the running and stained green with plant blood but the stubby almost-sharp ends will wash clean, eventually. I regret that I lost a single fang from the kick. My muzzle must have struck the wood of the cave and come loose, but I was near a fang-shed anyway so new ones will grow soon. Pride swelled in my chest as I gazed over myself. I fought a giant and lived! Not only did I live but I won! And just now I can feel my horns sprouting. They will be a thing of envy for all firebreathers to see! And just wait till I can tell one of my victory. I have seen the firebreather on the other side of the Valley but she is a strange one. She likes the water too much and swims in the deepest part of the lake. Maybe I can tell her of my victory? Tomorrow if the soreness has vanished I will set out and tell her the best story!