Dragon Dream

by Elena Van Peborgh

  “Sure, no problem. Then I can continue my work at the plantation.”

  “Wait a bit. Can’t we accompany him? If we let him wander around, he’ll get lost,” I reacted.

  “I need to head in that direction anyway, but I won’t wait for you. I have a steady pace.”

  Lilith walked past us and disappeared into one of the side passages. I followed her quickly and hoped Adam would do the same. Lilith almost ran through the hallways. It was pitch black, but she didn’t use her hands as a tool. She had been raised here and probably knew all the hallways by heart so she could run blindly through them.

  She waited a bit at the exit towards the apple and pear plantations until Adam and I had caught up to her, then she continued running again. I quickly pointed to the hallway to let Adam know he should head in that direction and then ran after her. She only slowed down when we were outside at the strawberry plantation. I could only see now she was carrying a bag over her shoulder. She took something out of it while she walked between several rows of strawberry plants. It was a small piece of paper. She handed it over to a man who was taking care of one of the plants. I couldn’t see clearly what exactly he was doing.

  “That message is now delivered. Now I need to wait until someone gives me another one,” Lilith said when she was standing next to me.

  I still didn’t understand what she did exactly as a messenger, but she was already on the way again before I could ask her anything. I kept following her for the rest of the day. I wanted to know what her tasks were. I wanted to know what it meant to be a messenger. Lilith wasn’t very chatty, but neither of us seemed to mind the silence. She never waited for me; she had her own pace, but I didn’t have much trouble keeping up with her. I was starting to memorise the halls and the rooms already.

  Lilith let me go first when the evening fell. It was almost dinner time and I ran through the hallways towards the mess hall. She made me turn into another hall first. There was a small alcove on the right side of the wall. A large pile of bags lay against the wall, and Lilith threw her bag on it. I knew what was in her bag: five red notebooks from which she could tear out the pages and three pens. We continued in the direction of the mess hall. The three giant dragons were already sitting at the table in the middle of the room. I recognised Zoran now. He sat at the head of the table. Lilith joined the tail of the line – which consisted of fire dragons – for the buffet while I went to the side of the room. I found Sil and Adam having a conversation with each other and went to stand next to them.

  “I saw you entering with Lilith. Have you settled your fight?” Sil asked me.

  “Oh yeah, she is trying to teach me how to become a messenger. I know she was being mean earlier, but would you mind sitting at her table again?”

  “Only if you assure me she won’t snarl at me anymore, even though I babble too much,” Adam replied.

  He crossed his arms over each other, but his stern expression became milder when I promised Lilith wouldn’t be mean or snarl. Eventually, we went to sit at her table. She looked quasi-surprised at me for a second, but then shrugged. Bernardus and Revan weren’t the only ones who joined us this time. Two girls asked Sil if they could join us. Sil glanced at Lilith with fear, but she wasn’t paying attention.

  “Lilith,” I whispered.

  We might have settled the disagreement from earlier, but I didn’t want to make her mad again. She finally looked up.

  “Oh. No, that isn’t a problem at all. Sit down,” she said when she saw the two girls.

  Sil introduced me to them. The girl with the short blonde hair was called Emma. She had rather tanned skin for a dragon, as if she worked outside a lot. The other girl was called Jenna and had long, black hair that reached over her back. She was very pale. I also learned Emma was an earth dragon, and Jenna was a water dragon.

  “What about you? What kind of dragon are you, Sil?” I asked.

  “Oh, I am an air dragon, just like Adam.”

  Suddenly, the group started discussing why an air dragon like Adam was working at the apple and pear plantations. But I didn’t care. I knew earth dragons had a bond with the earth, which was why they could probably take better care of the plants than other dragons. Adam often had to work high up. He often had to climb trees, so it made sense for him to work at the plantations. There weren’t enough earth dragons to take care of all those fields and plantations anyway.

  “Why does it matter? Adam can work where he wants to, right? You do the same, don’t you? This isn’t important at all,” I said.

  They all shut up. I had ended the discussion. I looked at Emma and Jenna. “Do you already know Sil has invited me to stay in your sleeping hall?”

  “Oh, me too,” Lilith added. “Maybe. Well, Sil has asked me to join you as well, but I can transform into a fire dragon any moment now. But I should keep an eye on my new student.”

  She nodded towards me when she said that last sentence, but no one looked at me. Everyone stared at her open mouthed.

  “What’s your opinion, Bernardus?” she asked.

  “I think you can go talk to your brother or to the fire dragons about this. I can’t decide anything, but they can tell you if you can stay with Sil, Jenna, Emma and Tatiana, once you become a fire dragon.”

  “I’ll ask them first. I’ll let you know later. I know where you’re sleeping.”

  Lilith picked up her tray, stood up and walked away. I turned around in my chair to see if she’d leave the mess hall or would go straight to the table of the giant and fire dragons. She chose the second option.

  “Sil, you’ll regret you’ve invited both Tatiana and Lilith to share a sleeping cave with you,” Adam murmured.

  He hadn’t said that loudly, but I had heard it anyway. I wondered what I had done wrong. Everyone remained silent during the time Lilith sat with the giant and fire dragons.

  Finally, she stood up and signed me to come with her. I cleaned up my tray before I left the mess hall. She had already left the room in the meantime, but I suspected where she would be. And indeed, she was waiting for me at the same spot where we had left her bag. She didn’t say anything, and I decided to keep quiet as well.

  We waited until two guys appeared in the hallway. I knew they were the other two messengers: Isaak and George. We greeted each other, and I introduced myself to them. They looked at me sceptically. They didn’t expect a tiny girl like me to be useful. They probably thought I wouldn’t be able to run very fast. Lilith noticed how the two guys were looking at me and drew the same conclusions as I had.

  “Tatiana could keep up with me easily. She has followed me for a half day, and she hasn’t bothered me at all,” Lilith said.

  “Okay, she might be able to run fast but does she have a good memory? Can you remember the way and the messages?” Isaak asked. He was the oldest of the group and therefore he was the leader of the messengers.

  “I think she can. Let her take the tests. I’m sure she’ll pass.”

  Tests? What kind of tests? Why would I need to take tests to become a messenger? But I decided I would take any test they wanted me to take so I could join them. I really wanted to do this kind of work. I had been made for this. I didn’t enjoy anything more than running around and orientating myself.

  “Okay, I’ll let her take the tests tomorrow,” Isaak agreed.

  Sixteen

  Lilith wanted to protest Isaak’s insistence on testing me tomorrow, but he gave her a stern look, so she decided to keep quiet. George and Lilith agreed on which routes they would follow tomorrow, while Isaak and I agreed to meet each other after breakfast at the apple and pear plantations. We split up after everything had been arranged. First, I thought Lilith had forgotten to take her bag, but she told me she could leave it there.

  “Nobody will take my bag, and this will be the first place I pass by tomorrow morning after breakfast,” she explained when she noticed my questioning expression.

  “What will we do now then?” I asked.

  “Now
we’ll go outside. Work time is over, and everyone has eaten. It’s now flying time, but we – you and I – can’t transform yet so, we just need to keep ourselves busy while the rest are having fun. You’d like to become a dragon, right?”

  I hesitated for a second. I didn’t know what kind of turn this conversation would take. It was weird she was asking this because she usually didn’t talk this much. But I still nodded.

  “You’ve probably never seen a dragon up close or one fly close by. I’ll take you outside now so you can see them. All the dragons are there.”

  She was actually very nice now I had gotten to know her better. I didn’t mind she didn’t talk much. In fact, other people annoyed me sometimes because they made so much noise.

  The wind hit my face as we went outside. I wrapped my arms around my body. It had started to become even colder. We walked upwards over a small, winding path at the side of the mountain. A dragon floated high above my head while another dragon raced through the sky to my left, with tons of speed. Another dragon did a couple of weird and risky manoeuvres high in the sky. They made it seem like they were trying to avoid mountains or a tree at the very last moment. I loved it.

  “Yeehaaa!!!” someone yelled behind me.

  I quickly looked back as a guy jumped off the mountain and suddenly turned into a dragon as he was falling. His gigantic body was grey, and his wings were white.

  “One day, you’ll get yourself killed like that!” Lilith shouted to him.

  I looked at her sideways and saw she laughed and shook her head. We continued going upwards. Dragons were floating and flying around everywhere in the sky; we were surrounded by them. After a while, Lilith thought we were at a high enough altitude. There was a flat piece where we could sit down. When I looked around me, I saw druids spread out everywhere alongside the mountain. Some of them were talking to each other, but a few of them stood separately, watching everything attentively.

  “Have you ever seen a dragon this close?” Lilith suddenly asked.

  I shook my head. I was lying but I didn’t want her to know I had seen dragons before. “No, but I can recognise all the dragons.”

  “Well, point towards a fire dragon then.”

  I pointed to an orange dragon with wings as red as blood flying just past us.

  “Do you know what a giant dragon looks like?”

  “Yes, they are gigantic. They’re the biggest dragons. I wouldn’t even have to see their colour to recognise one. But I do know which colours are typical for a giant dragon. They have a dark purple body and dark blue wings,” I answered.

  “But you’ve never seen a giant dragon. It’s not possible for you to have ever seen one, that’s just impossible.”

  I was confused for a minute. Why did Lilith react so strongly? I had never seen a giant dragon, but I did know what they looked and would be able to recognise one just like that. “No, I have never seen one,” I said.

  “But how? How do you know this?”

  I shrugged. I had studied the dragons for years. First, I had gotten my information from my books written by humans. Fire dragons were the most common in those books. An air or an earth dragon would sometimes appear in them too. But not everything written in those books was completely true. Flora had told me there was a library in The First Capital and that the books there were more accurate. I had asked Mary – Vera’s mom – several times to bring me some books from The Capitals.

  Zoran came towards us. I could see the frayed scar on his left cheek more clearly now we were outside while it was still light. A red-haired girl followed behind him. She looked a bit like Lilith. They could be sisters. The red-haired girl hid herself behind Zoran while he stood in front of me. She used his wide body as some sort of protection, though I didn’t know why she would need to be protected. She was rather small and young, but I was probably even tinier and younger than she was.

  “Marthe, sit down next to Lilith,” Zoran said to the girl.

  She was very shy. She took a few steps forward and quickly let herself fall right next to Lilith.

  “Marthe is my youngest sister,” Zoran said to me.

  “How many brothers and sisters do you have?”

  “I only have two sisters: Lilith and Marthe. Actually, most families here consist of four members: two parents and two children, but our parents decided to have three children. Do you have siblings, Tatiana?”

  I involuntarily thought of the story my mom had told me. I could have had a brother or a sister. I had been raised as an only child. I wondered what it would be like to have a sibling.

  “No, I think I was too much a bother to my parents,” I joked.

  I did have some disagreements with my parents, especially with my father, but I didn’t think I was a bother to them. I had always assumed I was an only child because I hadn’t been raised in a normal family situation with my mom being a bear and my dad being a lynx. We lived in a village far away from everything, especially far away from the other communities. We were actually outcasts. We were forced to live in that mixed community because there were no other communities which would want to welcome us.

  “Did you always want to be a dragon? I sincerely hope you like it here,” Zoran interrupted my thoughts.

  I actually wondered why he was being so friendly towards me and was trying to have a normal conversation with me. I wasn’t used to people asking me if I felt comfortable, because no one in my village had ever seemed to care too much about me or my feelings.

  “Oh, yeah. That’s my dream. This is actually paradise for me. I don’t want to be rude or ungrateful but… Why do you ask that? Why are you so friendly?”

  “Don’t worry, you can ask me anything. I’m the leader. It’s my duty to make sure everyone here feels well. I’ll remain friendly as long as the others are as well, but I can also be strict if someone breaks a rule.”

  “Oh, okay. Can I ask where you’ve gotten that scar? Do you also have that scar when you transform into a dragon?”

  I couldn’t help myself. I was very curious naturally and just had to ask. Zoran’s smile faded, and his mouth became a narrow line. I involuntarily collapsed a bit. I feared for a moment I had been too brutal.

  “Haven’t you heard the stories? I had to prevent a second war from starting. You’re from down there, so you probably saw the druids in The Capitals. You know how they treat you shape-shifters, so I assume you know what they’re like. They’re very traditional and conservative. They aren’t progressive at all. Don’t you feel the tension?”

  “Yes, I do. I know they’re very conservative while the mountain druids are more progressive. I know there’s still a lot of tension, but there’s also a lot of contact between the different kinds of druids. There are many ties between them. They lost a lot during the war, so why would they wage another war against each other?” I replied.

  “Do you know what caused the war? There was already a lot of tension and it went completely wrong when the humans abducted the previous dragon leader. I saw it happen all over again when Ariadne was taken. She wasn’t a giant dragon, but she was a fire dragon, and she was Iljas’ daughter. I got this scar during my quest to save her. That was the price I had to pay. But it’s not that bad actually; Iljas’ price was far greater. He has paid with his life.”

  Zoran sounded angry. I regretted ever asking that question. Why did I need to be this curious? I could hit myself. I was a huge idiot to make the dragon leader mad.

  “I’m sorry. I should never have asked that question. I... I don’t know what I was thinking,” I stammered.

  It was a lame apology. Maybe I should have been honest and said I was curious and that I wanted to know if the stories I had heard were true. But his attitude became milder.

  “No, you don’t need to apologise. I had told you that you could ask anything. Actually, it’s better you know now the druids are still on the brink of war.”

  “You didn’t answer my other question yet. Do you keep that scar when you transform?”
<
br />   “I don’t know. I’ve only transformed once in my life; that was when I transformed for the first time and officially became a giant dragon. I didn’t pay attention to my appearance then.”

  I frowned. Zoran was notorious even in the communities. He was a giant dragon and had become the dragon leader at such a young age. Why would he never transform?

  “Zoran, do you know I am training Tatiana to become a messenger?” Lilith interrupted the conversation.

  “I didn’t know messengers needed to be trained. I thought you were born with those qualities. That’s what the tests are for, aren’t they? You can see if someone can become a messenger because of those absurd tests you organise.”

  “Absurd tests?” I reacted anxiously.

  “I think those tests are absurd, but I am not a messenger. I have the qualities and traits a leader must possess.”

  That didn’t reassure me. I had already been wondering about what I would have to do for these tests, and I started to become even more nervous now. What if I failed? I had seen how reckless the dragons could be. I was still wondering if they were all secretly suicidal. What kind of tests would Isaak let me take? I had been so lost in my own thoughts I barely noticed when Lilith and Marthe stood up and wanted to descend the mountain again. I quickly stood up as well and followed them, but I didn’t listen to the conversation the other three were having. I was too worried.

  I was glad when I could finally lie down. I wrapped the blanket Sil had given me as tight as possible around myself. We all had to sleep on the hard, cold, stone ground, and each had one thin blanket and a small pillow. It was pretty cold in the sleeping cave and I got the impression it would only get colder. I placed my hand against my cheek and felt my fingers were as cold as ice. I tried to keep myself as warm as possible by rolling myself up into a ball.

  “Please give the shape-shifter another blanket,” Lilith groaned, seeming to talk to no one in particular.