Tymryg

Tymryg wasn’t your typical dragon. As the days tumbled on through her six hundred some odd years of life, she lay quietly in her cave high atop the mountain watching the stars at night, sleeping through the day. At times she would carefully roam the night forest on foot so as not to draw the attention of the villagers. She saw what happened to Maelogg. What they did to him, the day he ate two humans and burned the village to cinders.

Sure, Maelogg had anger issues. He was a typical dragon. Shooting flames from his gaping mouth and menacing helpless humans in their towns made of kindling. She missed his obnoxious ways, his bombastic approach to everything, his company. He was her mate, her only friend.

No, Tymryg wasn’t taking any chances. Those humans may be small but they are clever. She was content to stay in her cave and come out only on the night of the new moon to hunt, and drink from the river to douse the flame in her throat. Can’t breathe fire on everything. There are consequences. Dire consequences.

She was smaller than most dragons. Not all female dragons are small, some are very large and quite ferocious. When she was a little dragon she imagined that one day she would be huge and fearsome and awe inspiring, but she grew for a while and then stopped growing well short of her aspirations.

She watched the moon grow fat and round, her cache of small and medium sized animals well stocked, there was no need to do anything but watch the sky, chew on a plump raccoon, sleep and dream. She dreamt of flying to the stars. Brilliant and magnificent flames who never douse their fire.

At first she didn’t hear the rustling outside her cave. Dragons normally have very acute hearing when they’re not a million miles away in their dreams. What startled her from her dream was… what was it? It didn’t sound like a deer or a wolf. Not a boar. It wasn’t chirping, or tittering… What… was… that… sound?

She turned her scaly head and peered to one side of the entrance. The full moon cast faint shadows through the trees. Nothing. She shifted her bulk and looked to the other side. What is this?! A small human stumbled out of the forest into the clearing.

On catching sight of Tymryg’s glowing green eyes the child let out a shriek and a flock of bats, frantic little wings flapping, fled for their lives into the moonlit sky.

Oh dear… Oh dear… If she came any closer to try and comfort the tiny human, the poor thing will be frightened to death. If she did nothing, there would be a helpless little human wandering the forest in the full moonlight. The wolves would surely eat her. A ferocious snake could lift her off her feet and swallow her whole. She could go over the cliff...

There must be big humans nearby. She pricked her ears and listened for other sounds, but it was difficult to hear anything over the shrieking of the terrified child.

They will hear her cries and come looking for her... Tymryg anxiously laid her head at the cave entrance, careful not to look threatening or sinister, and longed for the child to stop her shrieking. The gentle dragon and the terrified child stood locked in a confrontation of gentleness and terror for some time.

Before long the shriek became a cry, the cry became a whimper, and the whimper became a sniffle. Perhaps she realized the monster was not going to eat her after all and it was too exhausting to sustain that level of shrieking for another minute. She sat down right where she was with a plop, fighting her heavy eyelids, she gestured towards Tymryg with a pointed finger, not quite pointed directly at her, uttered a questioning “heh… hmmm…?” in her little human voice, sniffled and whimpered and slowly… fell… asleep.

Tymryg watched the girl, her thoughts drifting, as they often did, into the past. She never had a fertilized egg, she never had a child. Maelogg was killed before any of that could happen.

Huge and shimmering in his blue-green iridescent scales. He was so handsome, so majestic. She didn’t know what made him eat the two humans. She wasn’t there, she heard the tumult and screams from a distance, she looked out to the horizon and saw Maelogg swooping, and diving, flame blasting from his open jaws. The black smoke rising into the atmosphere from the burning village below.

Every little thing sets him off, she thought. No. Maelogg enjoyed being a dragon. Maelogg embraced his power, generously shared his power… for better or worse. She saw him suddenly lose strength and motion in one of his wings, he fell a little, he dipped to that side, caught himself and pulled out of it. But she could tell something was wrong. His flight looked awkward and he appeared to struggle.

She projected a thought to him. Come home… come to me… no more of this… leave the humans and come home… But it was too late. She saw his other wing go suddenly limp and he fell. He fell fast and hard. She heard the thud and felt the small quake when he slammed into the earth. The ground shook, even on the mountain and in the cave. He always came back. He was a strong provider, he was her champion. Nothing could stop him. Nothing could stop him. Until that day. She’d always expected she would have little ones…

She snapped out of her thoughts. No humans have come looking for this one. She lifted her head carefully so as not to make a sound. The child startled awake, whimpered and sniffled, and nodded off again. So small…

Tymryg raised up silently and approached the sleeping girl. She softly sniffed her. She nudged the child gently with her nose, she didn’t wake up. She nudged her again… heavily sleeping child.

She’d never touched a human child before. So limp and squishy. How does this work? After a few tries, Tymryg lifted her wing, gently, successfully tucked the sleeping girl into it and went back into her cave.

She watched her vulnerable charge until after the sun had risen. Surely there must be humans looking for this one… echoed in her mind, feeling oddly comforted in the presence of this young one. The child’s eyes opened and she began to cry. Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama! …I have no food to give her….

Tymryg had been around long enough to know how humans ate, she knew this little human would not want to bite into a cold, dead rat. She knew the child would need human food and water. Soon.

She hadn’t gone down to the village in centuries, she hadn’t gone anywhere near it since Maelogg’s death. There were no other dragons around, after he died she was the only one. And she was big enough, but she wasn’t a really big, scary dragon. Not a really really big, really scary one. Not like Maelogg. If the humans could kill Maelogg, they could easily kill her. They’re so clever… She feared the humans. The big ones anyway.

She knew if she didn’t get the child back to the village before too long, the baby would perish. She could fly her to the river to drink, but how would it look in broad daylight to see a dragon fly across the sky with a screaming little human in her talons?

There would be a storm of arrows. Even if they saw her bring the girl back gently and safely, they’d hunt her down with, in their minds, a good reason to kill her. After much thought, under a cloud of dense dread… I must take her to the village…

The sun rolled across the clear blue sky, the little one slept fitfully in Tymryg’s wing. She woke up crying, cried herself back to sleep, woke up crying again, cried herself back to sleep again. This went on until the sky was well dark. It would soon be time to go.

The moon, high in the sky, one day past full. The silhouette of a graceful, somewhat smaller than usual, dragon glided through the night air with a bundle in her talons. She circled the village from high above so no one would hear the crying baby. Checking to make sure it was all clear, no one in the square, no one on the street. She quickly dove, gingerly set the child on the village green and rocketed back up into the moonlight unseen by all save for the hysterical and very hungry little girl.

Lanterns lit, doors creaked open, the voices of startled humans quickly faded behind her in the distance.

Tymryg returned safely to her mountain cave, snacked on a small possum, laid down to sleep and dreamt of burning bright in the night sky.