The Toddler and the Dragon

Deianeira did her best to creep through the Enchanted Forest, the screams of the humans and the roars of her kin a resounding chorus urging her faster. Stealth was never her strongest ability, as she had reached full maturity several centuries ago.

Deianeira was small for a dragon, or so her elder brother had mercilessly teased her. But she was thankful for her size now.

The hunters that had attacked the sanctuary where her kin had resided needed torches to see through the oppressive darkness–a weakness she didn’t share. The deep green of her scales helped her blend into the pine trees surrounding her, but she avoided the outcroppings of aspen mingled in, adding splashes of orange and yellow to the endless walls of green.

Her brother had left the continent of Daria a half century back before the hunts started, and urged her to join him, but Deianeira had refused. Daria was her home and the Enchanted Forest provided more than enough land to hide from the human hunters, since it spanned more than half the northern part of the continent. She had felt safe there, despite his misgivings.

Now she wished she had paid more heed to his warning.

The ruckus around her helped hide the snapping branches beneath her taloned feet. Deianeira knew of only a small human village nearby where the hunters could have come through, so she took care to avoid it. Her breath clouded in front of her elongated snout, but the chill of the night couldn’t penetrate the fire in her chest that warmed her from the inside out.

Her senses on high alert, the dragon made her way through the trees, mindful of the underbrush. She couldn’t risk taking to the skys, not with it being such a clear night. She would stand out against the dark sky and be shot down or chased by the humans lucky enough to be counted among the griffon riders.

A rumble filled her chest as she thought about how they had been taken off guard not even an hour ago.

A flash of blinding light followed by human screams had Deianeira whipping her head to her left, nostrils flaring as she scented the wind.

Smoke and ash followed.

The light had vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and she would have wondered if she imagined it if not for the silence in the forest around her. Even the horrible sounds of the battle back at the abandoned outpost they had been attacked in several miles away seemed muted.

Deianeira had always been curious, much to her brother’s chagrin, and without him there to caution her against it, the dragon changed direction to head towards the vanished light.

Slowly as she went the forest came back to life around her. Animals shuffled, doing their best to avoid her attention, an owl hooted in the trees above her somewhere, the sound of a brook sang through the trees the closer she got.

Soon enough Deianeira came to the brook and the spot where the light had vanished. Being a dragon there was very little that could shake her anymore, but what she found was shocking enough to have the dragon’s heart twist in her large chest.

At the edge of the brook were the steaming bodies of five hunters, charred almost beyond recognition. But it was what sat in the middle of the bodies that had Deianeira pausing mid-step.

A small child, human, and no bigger than the palm of one of the dragon’s great feet. She had hair white as the snow of the harsh winters further north. The eyes the child raised to look at her were as blue as the winter sky and just as clear. Her round cheeks were red and tears ran down them in rivulets.

Deianeira wasn’t as familiar with human aging but if she had to guess the child appeared to be no more than 2 years old. The child’s sobs were the only sound Deianeira could focus on. She was so pitiful and definitely not large enough to harm her. Something about the way the bodies of the hunters were positioned around the child made the dragon suspicious that they weren’t trying to help her.

But how could one so young have stood a chance against those four times her size, unless…unless the child was one of the dragon-blessed line. Deianeira hadn’t met one herself but had heard plenty of stories from the elder dragons. Centuries ago a wounded dragon had been saved by a human with a pure heart and to thank him, the dragon had gifted magic to him and his heirs. The healer’s hair had turned to snow to symbolize his pure heart, a trait that had passed to his heirs along with the magic of the elements.

The child’s sobs slowly quieted and she raised her tiny arms up to Deianeira. The dragon knew then that she wouldn’t leave the child. Despite the fact that she was human, she wouldn’t survive on her own and she was too innocent for the dragon to leave unattended. A swelling feeling rose in her great chest, one she had not yet experienced as she had not hatched one of her eggs yet.

Deianeira scooped the child up in one large foot, cradling her close to her chest.

No one would harm her while Deianeira still breathed.

A day after finding a large enough cave at the base of the northern mountains to comfortably take shelter in, the child’s cries had not died down and was starting to drive the dragon crazy. The silver-haired child who continued to rub at her eyes had an impressive lung capacity for one so small.

Deianeira had affectionately called her Alaes, a name in the old tongue that meant fortunate meeting. Not that she could communicate with the small one in her own tongue. A deep sigh of defeat huffed out of the dragon as she once again tried to cradle Alaes in her foot, careful to avoid harming her with the curved talons on each toe.

It was obvious that Alaes was exhausted but despite everything Deianeira could think to do, she would. Not. Sleep.

The dragon was slowly coming to the realization that she had no idea how to care for a human child. Not that her lack of knowledge would keep her from trying. But the lack of sleep was starting to wear on the dragon as well. If only her brother could see her now, what would he think? Deianeira rumbled deep in her chest as her thoughts wandered. The sudden silence caught her attention and she glanced down at Alaes, comfortably snuggling into her, being lulled to sleep by her rumble.

Deianeira watched as she slowly fell into a deep sleep, careful to keep her rumble going so as not to wake the child. The dragon’s eyes slowly closed as well and soon she drifted off to sleep just as deep as Alaes.

Deianeira was beginning to think that Alaes’s only way of communicating was by screaming. But this time it was because she was hungry. While Deianeira and the other dragons had gone hunting the day before being ambushed and she would not need to eat again for another four days, the human obviously did not have the same appetite. But Deianeira was left with a quandary.

What did human children eat? The dragon had no clue.

Deianeira exited the cave, staying close enough to keep an ear open for Alaes in order to search for something to bring the child. She scoured her memory for any idea as to what the child could eat, but her knowledge of humans was severely limited. The next several hours were filled with the dragon bringing Alaes various things she had found in the forest, only for the child to throw them away from her, uninterested in eating the variety of potential items brought to her. Deianeira sighed, a great breath leaving her nostrils.

Alaes looked up at her with pitifully large, pleading blue eyes. The dragon let out a small grumble and once again left the cave in search of something for the small child. Deianeira ventured a little farther out than she had in the past couple hours and found several berry bushes, using her large talons to tear off several branches, her hope rising.

She awkwardly stumbled back to the cave on three legs, using one to hold the branches. Alaes glanced up when she came into the cave they now called home and watched in eager curiosity as Deianeira set the branches down and raked her talons along them, dislodging the blueish purple berries. Alaes crawled over, smashing into the berries with her small chubby hands, smashing some of them into a paste. One hand went immediately into her mouth and Deianeira watched carefully, breathing a breath of relief as she finally stopped crying and began to stuff the berries in her mouth and eat.

Deianeira had plenty so Alaes ate her fill, her mouth stained blue by the berries. Only once she was full did Alaes crawl towards the dragon and curl into her side to sleep. Deianeira curled herself carefully around the child and allowed herself to drift off, content that Alaes was full and safe in her care.

Several weeks of trial and learning about each other passed quickly. Overcast skies promised rain and a light drizzle had already started. Deianeira and Alaes remained warm in their cave. The dragon had figured out how to gather branches and sticks and light them with her fire to keep Alaes warm.

Deianeira glanced down at the child that had changed her whole world, watching her quietly play by herself.

The silent peace was broken by a snapping twig outside the cave. Deianeira instinctively moved in front of Alaes, her head canted to the side as she watched the forest. A low growl rumbled in the dragon’s chest as she snaked forward to the front of the cave. Alaes quieted behind her as if she sensed the danger that Deianeira slowly went to face.

Senses on high alert, the dragon paused at the entrance to the cave, watching and waiting to see what danger lurked in the trees. All the forest seemed to hold its breath with her, the birds quieting their singing, the crickets stopped their own symphony, no deer ran through the underbrush seeking shelter.

A twang sounded moments before an arrow bounced off the hard armor of her scales. Deianeira let out an enraged roar and shot a stream of fire out towards the right where the arrow had come from. She exited the cave in order to have more room to move around, but she ignored the instinct to take to the sky and disappear. She couldn’t leave Alaes behind.

If these hunters were planning to hurt the child, she would kill them all.

The hunters who had found her slowly came out of the bushes surrounding her in a semi-circle. Deianeira let out another warning growl, whipping her tail around and rising up on her legs, spreading her wings to appear bigger and hopefully intimidate the hunters. They didn’t seem fazed, which only angered her further. The one holding a bow drew back another arrow and she snapped her tail in his direction blindly while the one in front of her with a spear stepped forward and attempted to jab at her face.

Deianeira snapped at him but didn’t see the swordsman to her left as he stepped forward at the same time as the others to score a hit to her front leg. She snaked her head around, opening her maw wide and releasing a jet of flame in his direction. The shield he raised was covered in some fire resistant contraption which protected him from her flame.

Deianeira refused to back down from her attackers, her only goal to protect Alaes in the cave behind her. None of the hunters surrounding her appeared to be griffon riders, as no griffon joined their fray. Even without a griffon to contend with, Deianeira had trouble fending off so many at once. The hunters were a well practiced group, attacking at once and from all sides.

It wasn’t long before she had cuts all over her body.

Her strength was quickly failing and she didn’t have much left to give.

She once again reached for the fire in her chest and breathed it out, turning her head as she did to spray all of the hunters.

One she hadn’t noticed until it was too late had stepped closer to her and brought his sword up under her jaw, striking up.

The hunter, Calian, pulled his sword from the head of the green dragon he and his band had just killed, wiping the blood off on the charred grass beneath his feet. He studied the female dragon as he sheathed his sword, wondering why she hadn’t just flown off. One of the others slapped his shoulder in congratulations as his eyes slipped to the cave the dragon had nested in.

Calian shrugged off his comrade and stepped towards the cave. He only got a few steps in before he halted in his tracks.

In the middle of the cave was a young child, her snow-white hair a tangled halo around her head and her mouth stained blue from the blueberries she had obviously been eating.

Guilt flooded him as he realized that the dragon he had just killed thinking it a beast, had been protecting a child, not even a dracling, but a human child. Calian approached the child slowly, picking her up when her little arms came up and her fists imitated a grabbing motion.

Calian exited the cave with her cradled in his arms.

“We are done hunting dragons.” He said to his band.

“Chief?” One asked him. Calian shook his head,

“The female was protecting this child. If a beast such as that can protect one of our own, despite the fact that we have hunted them for so many years, then surely we can learn from the dragon and leave them to be.”

“But the other bands will expect us to join up. Where will we go?”

“What should we do?”

“And what of the child?” The others all asked him at once.

“I will adopt the child and raise her as my own.” Calian stated, his eyes wandering to the vast and wild mountains further north, covered in clouds and likely getting snow.

“We will go north and live in the mountains, off the land. We can build a good home there.” His gaze dropped to the loyal men around him as they nodded, agreeing to come with him and start new lives.

Calian and his men did indeed move further north, building the first clan. Calian raised the child as his own, naming her Dryallis after the fierce dragons he had hunted when he found her, and never again did he or any of his clan hunt the fierce beasts that once ruled the skies.