by Lyn Worthen
Wings of Change
Stories about Dragons
Edited by Lyn Worthen
Copyright © 2019 by Camden Park Press
www.camdenparkpress.com
Distributed by Bundle Rabbit
www.bundlerabbit.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Here be Dragons
Lyn Worthen
Scales of Lapis and Jasper
Anj Dockrey
The Greatest in Iceland
Grayson Towler
Trial by Fire
Erin Fitzgerald
Two Against the Skitters
Jana S. Brown
The Prize
Melissa McShane
The Shadow Dragon
L.D.B. Taylor
Care and Feeding
Edward Ahern
Old Enough to Volunteer
Laura Ware
Touch of the Silver Dragon
Claire Davon
Blossoms in the Desert
Joni B. Haws
Dragon’s Hoard
Angela Penrose
A Most Unserious Dragon
Annie Reed
Dragon Jet Propulsion
David H. Hendrickson
Imuji
Liz Pierce
Green Camouflage
Jamie Aldis
Invincible
Stephanie Barr
Star Dragon
C.M. Brennan
The Soul By Which We Measure Ours
C.H. Hung
Of Dragons and Centaurs
Deb Logan
Claws of Change
Deanna Baran
The Last of a Thing
Douglas Smith
Saffron Dragon
Jodi L. Milner
A Dragon Bigger Than My Stories
Jonathon Mast
About the Editor
About BundleRabbit
Other Anthologies from Camden Park Press
Copyright Information
Introduction: Here be Dragons
Lyn Worthen
Dragons have existed in myth and legend around the world from our earliest histories to our most recent television shows, movies, and fantasy fiction. For some, they are a representation of good luck; for others, the embodiment of their deepest fears. Whatever the source of the legends, dragons are a living metaphor for the power of nature – and at least part of their enduring appeal comes from our desire to connect with that raw power.
In early 2018, a talented group of writers brought their own tales of dragons to a small town on the Oregon Coast, in the hopes that they would become part of a new Fiction River anthology being created by the event’s organizers at WMG Publishing. But as the selection of stories proceeded, an unusual pattern emerged: time and time again, the purchasing editor, Allyson Longueira, identified a story as “young adult” in nature and set it aside, often remarking that it was “…a perfectly good story, just not right for the collection” she was assembling.
Allyson also suggested – more than once – that someone should look at those stories and create a dragon-themed young adult anthology.
It was at that point that I started looking for artwork (a dragon hunt that eventually took several months before I found the dragons that grace the covers of Wings of Change and populate its pages).
The fourth time Allyson suggested that someone build the second anthology, I raised my hand and announced to the room that I was going to do just that, and anyone interested in submitting could contact me. Six of the stories in Wings of Change came either directly from that workshop or from authors I reached out to from that pool.
But six stories do not an anthology make, and I extended my search for the “right” stories for the collection I was building. I asked authors to show me dragons as active, participating characters, to give us a window into what the dragon thinks, feels, and why it does what it does, with behavior that is true to whatever dragon culture they had created. I asked for dragons from all around the world and in different time periods. Most importantly, for both human and dragon characters, I asked for a young adult sensibility and an underlying feeling of wonder.
The stories I selected for Wings of Change met this challenge. In these pages, twenty-three authors tell stories of teens and young adults (both human and dragon) overcoming adversity, evil, or ignorance and having a positive effect on their situation. They shine a light at the end of the tunnel, and let us know that it is possible, through our own efforts, to overcome the challenges that have been thrown at us.
Whether born as an explanation of the bones and footprints of the great lizards of prehistoric eras, a creation of religious or cultural significance, or from more fanciful imaginings, tales of wise, ancient dragons dispensing wisdom, hoarding treasure, terrorizing villages, and doing battle with noble heroes have long fascinated us. But dragons were not born old and wise, nor were heroes born brave and noble.
Wings of Change gathers tales of young dragons growing into their scales, and human youths making choices that shape their destinies – destinies that will be forever changed by their interaction with the dragons.
So, as one bold map-maker inscribed on a map over five hundred years ago, Hic sunt dracones – Here be Dragons. Come fly with us, if you dare!
– Lyn Worthen
Sandy, Utah
February 28, 2019
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Anj Dockrey is a Filipina-American author and illustrator of science fiction, fantasy, young adult, and middle-grade… which is to say, about whatever stretches her imagination or catches her fancy. She always puts at least one strong female protagonist (or antagonist) in her stories, because whenever she acted out stories or plays, it always seemed like the boys got all the good parts. While she currently lives in Texas with a beagle and a fellow human, she’s lived in four countries and eight states and hopes her wandering days aren’t completely over. Follow her adventures at http://anjdockrey.wixsite.com/anjdockrey
About this story, Anj says: “Like many of my stories, Scales of Lapis and Jasper sprang very nearly fully-formed from my head. I dreamt one night of a girl who could turn into a dragon like it was the most normal thing in the world, and knew I had to write the story – and that I wanted to incorporate a message of empowerment: that one voice can inspire many, and many voices together can achieve great things.”
The opening story for this collection of dragon tales had to convey a sense of wonder as well as illustrate the challenges the young people (and dragons) will face in these pages. Scales of Lapis and Jasper does both of these things beautifully, with the added bonus of being set in a world that feels both familiar and at the same time magical.
Scales of Lapis and Jasper
Anj Dockrey
My name is Willamina. My family – Mom, Dad, and my sister, Adabelle – live in a skinny, four-story house with our butler Shaorow… Shaorox…
# # #
“How do you spell your name?” I call out.
“S-h-a-o-r-e-a-u-x.”
“Thanks.”
# # #
…Shaoreaux. He’s nineteen, and has blue eyes and shaggy, black hair. He’s short for a boy, and not very muscley… athletic. Dad says he’s the smartest student he’s ever had. He’s good at cleaning and really good at cooking. He’s teaching me the ancient art of Dracongei.
# # #
“Why do you need to know how to write my name?” Shaoreaux asks suspiciously, coming out of the kitchen and drying his hands on a dishtowel.
I slide my textbook over my journal.
“We have to do an observational study of our family.”
“Well don’t write about me. The other kids might look down on you if you write about a servant as part
of your family.”
I roll my eyes. Shaoreaux has a chip on his shoulder about being a servant, even though he’s just doing it to pay his tuition.
“You could marry Adabelle, then you’d be family.”
I’m up out of my seat and dodging by the time he snaps his dishtowel at me.
“The teacher isn’t even going to read it!” I bellow. “She said it’s private.”
“Just be careful what you say and write. You don’t know who might—”
“I know, Shaoreaux!”
He stomps back to the kitchen, from which soon wafts the warm smell of sautéed butter and wild mushrooms. I pull my journal back out.
# # #
Legend says long ago everyone could turn into dragons. Long, snake-like creatures the length of an ocean-liner, with scales of every color of jewel. Feathery manes ran down their backs and tails, and they could fly.
But no one turns into dragons anymore.
Adabelle thinks it’s a myth, says it’s physically impossible. But if it’s a myth, why are there laws forbidding it?
# # #
Mom and Adabelle come in downstairs. Cold air wafts from the staircase, and I can hear Adabelle griping all the way up.
I don’t bother to hide my journal. When Adabelle is like this she sucks up all the attention in the room. She’s only a year older than me but looks like a grown woman. She’s curvy and pretty, with amber eyes that seem to glow against her dark skin. Adabelle got all the prettiness – I haven’t lost my baby fat, my skin is brown as a nut, and I still have freckles – but I got all the brains.
# # #
I didn’t turn into a dragon on purpose. Well… I wanted to, but I didn’t believe it would actually happen.
I was having a really bad day. I failed the algebra homework, and Mrs. Garvis pointed it out to everybody and assigned Marta Berenge to peer tutor me. Then to rub it in, Rika whispered that you’d think I’d be smarter since my dad’s a professor.
After that, nothing could improve my mood. Not even school ending early because of a fire drill. Shaoreaux was supposed to pick me up, but instead of waiting for him I cut back through the lower school playground.
Our house is behind the school, separated by nothing but a strip of woods. We’re not supposed to hang there because the drainage ditch floods, but everyone does anyway.
Before you get to the ditch, the trees open onto a field of yellow grass and shrubs. I kicked a crushed can and felt mad at everyone and everything. I couldn’t see the point of doing well in school. Marta Berenge wants to be a doctor and save lives, and everyone thinks she’s so great (I think she’s fake). But I don’t have a dream like that.
I looked up at the sky for so long it started to feel like I was looking down into it instead, into a pool of blue deeper than the ocean. My heart started to buzz, the way your foot does when it falls asleep.
I started to run, trying to shake the strange feeling, but it only got stronger. Suddenly, I was running faster than I ever had before, so fast that the world blurred around me. I neared the ditch, and even though it’s twenty feet across and just as deep, I didn’t stop.
I jumped.
And I didn’t come down. I streaked up like a rocket. It’s the best feeling ever, flying, like that moment your stomach does a flip when you’re on a roller coaster, but the feeling goes on and on.
I knew my body was different. Longer and bigger, but lighter at the same time. The cool air streamed around me, and I could feel the sunlight glinting against me as I twirled and flipped and spun.
“Willa, come down.”
It was Shaoreaux’s voice, as clear as if he were speaking in my ear, but I didn’t know where it came from.
I spun, and suddenly I saw him, looking small and distant in the field. I heard his voice again though his lips did not move.
“Willa, come back. It’s not safe.”
I shook my head and streaked away, the air whistling around me. I hit the tree line and flew into the pines, my body snaking through them effortlessly, with only a ticklish whisper of their waxy needles against my scales.
I made a game out of dodging trees all the way down to the harbor. A large shadow fell over me just as I reached the beach, which isn’t sand but rocks worn smooth as marbles. I looked up and saw a dragon with bright blue scales. Aqua fur, the color of the underside of a glacier, grew around his long snout like a beard and ran along his back. He wove around me in a spiral and forced me down till I was skimming the surface of the water.
“Willamina, we have to go back. It’s not safe out here.”
“Shaoreaux?” I thought.
“Yes, Shaoreaux. Let’s go back now.”
“No!”
“Willa!”
“No, this is the greatest thing ever. I’m never going back!” I shot forward.
But Shaoreaux was faster. He forced me lower till my belly smacked the waves, sending up cold salt spray. To my dragon eyes, each droplet was filled with rainbows.
I veered towards the open sea.
“No!” Shaoreaux yelled, but I didn’t listen. We flew under the highway overpass and into the busy part of the harbor. I upset a sailboat and nearly rammed a freighter before Shaoreaux forced me under water.
Holding your breath going high speed as a dragon isn’t any easier than doing it as a person. I inhaled water and passed out. When I woke up Shaoreaux was a man again and I was a girl, and he was pounding the flat of his hand on my back. We were on the beach just under the tree line; drenched, naked, and shivering.
“Avert your eyes,” Shaoreaux said. “Your parents will have me arrested if they ever find out about this.”
I blushed. It wasn’t like I meant to look in the first place.
“We’re still down by the harbor,” he said. “It’s too far to walk.”
“Can’t we fly back?” I asked.
“Not in the open. We need to get home before your mother. Can you change back into a dragon?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m too big to fly between these trees. I need you to carry me back to where our clothes are. Can you do that?”
“I’ll try.”
“What you were thinking when you changed?”
“I was mad.”
“What were you looking at?”
“The sky. I wanted to fly.”
“That’s it. Look up and remember that feeling. Clear your mind of everything else.”
I did as he said. I remembered that feeling of being buoyed in the air. Pine needles crackled as my weight increased, and Shaoreaux had to scramble out of the way.
“Good girl,” he said, rubbing my snout. He climbed onto my back, and seemed to weigh no more than my backpack. “Remember, stay low.”
I took off, weaving through the trees so fast that Shaoreaux gripped my mane for dear life. We reached the field too soon.
Changing back into a girl was a lot harder. The problem was I didn’t want to.
“I can’t blame you,” Shaoreaux said, patting my head. “This is our true nature. But if you change back, I promise I’ll teach you both how to be a dragon and how to not get caught at it.”
I was skeptical. You can never trust grown-up bargains.
“Plus we’re having mussel pasta today,” he said, pointing at the shopping bags he’d dropped when he’d come after me.
That convinced me. Shaoreaux wasn’t really a grown-up anyway. Plus, he’s a very good cook.
My clothes were ripped, since I didn’t take them off before I changed into a dragon. Shaoreaux lent me his coat and we cut through the woods to get home.
# # #
Adabelle goes upstairs to change and leaves her electric notebook on the table. I grab it. Shaoreaux told me that dragon colors were named after jewels, and that my color would be jasper, so I look it up. To my disappointment it’s a brown rock. I want to be a pretty color like Shaoreaux. I look up gemstones in general and find one that matches his color perfectly. Lapis lazuli.
; # # #
When Shaoreaux and I got home that first day, I changed into clean clothes and Shaoreaux put my ruined ones out with the trash on the curb. I followed him into the kitchen while he started dinner. Our kitchen is tiny, with yellow glazed tile on the floor and counter. I can still walk under the low archway between it and the dining room, but Shaoreaux has to duck. A long time ago there was a door there. The black iron hinges still are.
“Don’t worry, I intend to keep my promise,” Shaoreaux said, though I hadn’t asked. He tipped a spoonful of salt into the water and waited for it to boil. “There’s no telling what trouble you’ll cause if I don’t train you.”
“Who trained you?”
“My grandfather. He taught me how to not get caught. He also taught me the heritage of our people. There’s nothing shameful in being Dragon.”
“Then why do we need to hide it?” I stuck my finger into the top hinge of the doorway. I used to be able to swing on the hinges when I was little, but I’d probably fall on my butt if I tried it now.
“The law forbids even talking about it. If you get caught changing, they’ll lock you away.”
“But why? Why did we stop being dragons?”
“This is how my grandfather told it to me: A long time ago we were all dragons. We lived in caves, forests, mountains of ice. We were primitive and free. But then we met people from another world, people who look similar to how we look today. These people had clever machines, ships that could travel to the stars, powerful weapons. They told us all about the universe, about the wonders and dangers out there in the stars. Some of our ancestors wanted the starships, so that they could see the wonders the aliens spoke of. Others wanted their weapons so that they could protect our world from danger. But our bodies were too big for ships, and we didn’t have hands to build machines. So the strangers helped us change our DNA, and we learned how to change our shape to mimic theirs. We gathered together to build machines, and our population grew, and soon there wasn’t enough room or food for everyone to be a dragon.”
