Kaeris was an odd little thing, that is, if you were to believe what the townsfolk said in hushed whispers with their forked tongues. For Kaeris was different. In place of skin she had smatterings of iridescent scales, and atop her head where there was supposed to be hair there was nothing.
‘What kind of girl doesn’t have hair?’ gossiped mothers, speaking in a conspirators whisper as though dragon-kin didn’t have hearing far sharper than any human’s.
‘I heard it’s the parents fault. It’s practically abuse.’ and Kaeris would gently shake her head and laugh, for dragons have no use for hair when they are airborne. Silly humans.
But Kaeris kept to herself, she was quiet and soft spoken and would smile even at the boys who would throw stones at her from afar, for her skin was tough and she knew they mimicked their parents ignorance and hate.
Day after day, she tended to her treasure: a beautiful garden, filled with every flower known to man and those that were not. This was her hoard and she would protect it with her life. Though sometimes, on very rare days, some lost soul would wander into her garden and marvel at its beauty, oftentimes requesting a flower or two, and sometimes the dragon-kin would oblige. She only ask that the jewel of their choosing is properly cared for, for death due to neglect is the saddest kind of death. A preventable death.
These days are very rare indeed.
One day, Kaeris found herself returning from the marketplace, a basket in hand full of new seeds from foreign lands that filled her to the brim with excitement and adoration - if gardening was her love, travel was her mistress - she couldn’t wait to travel to all these mysterious places she’d heard of in books and tales from merchants, of course, she’d have to wait until her wings properly grew in, but she was a patient girl.
She saw the usual glares and heard the usual murmurs about the weird little girl with the scales on her skin and shaved head. She ignored them, as she always did. However, when she returned and found strangers in her garden, she knew ignorance was no longer an option.
What she witnessed when entering her garden; her sanctuary, her home, would’ve brought any individual to tears. For her treasure was being destroyed, flowers she had tended to for years trampled to the ground by none other than the children she greeted every day with warm smiles.
Gently, she set her basket aside in a little nook where they could not be harmed in the chaos.
All eyes turned upon Kaeris, the children welcoming her with nothing but sneers and upturned noses as they continued to rip at the ground and tear at what she loved.
“Or what?” Challenged one, their hands covered in dirt and stained with grass. “You can’t do nothing.”
“You ain’t even got a treasure hoard,” announces a girl in the back, kicking an amaranthine as she did so, watching as the small petals scattered in the light summer breeze.
“Get out.” Kaeris repeated, this time a little more forcefully with her eyes narrowed upon the offenders with disdain in her voice, though it carried with it a tinge of disappointment - why must children, even teenagers, imitate their parents ignorance with blind devotion?
“Yeah, you’re not even a real dragon.” Provoked another, stepping within arm’s reach, even going so far as to poke the girl in her chest.
Then, Kaeris, the odd little girl who smiled at everyone and spoke so softly as she tended to her garden, bared her teeth. She unleashed her claws and spoke in an unsettling growl; she was a dragon defending her treasure and she would not allow the likes of mortal creatures to destroy that which she loved.
She warned the children of their mistake and they scattered, they still spat venom in the streets and spoke of her weirdness to any child that would listen, but none dared approach her garden again, for there was a rumor of a dragon that lived there with mighty claws and a thunderous roar and teeth that could cut through metal.
But the rumor also mentioned a treasure, a treasure so beautiful that this dragon would defend it with her life. So, these rumours grew and spread like a wildfire, as rumors so often do. So much so that it lured travellers to seek out this mighty dragon and the hoard it protected… only to find a little girl in its place, tending to a beautiful little garden in the crook of a small town.
If you ask politely though, it is said the dragon might part with some of her treasure, in exchange for a promise that you will treat it well and tell her a tale of a foreign land.
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