The Dragon Sisters: A Fairytale
Sometimes, I dream of the mountains, just past Detani. My father tells me dragons live there. He says the mayor's daughter once disappeared into those mountains, never to be seen again.
Winter, daughter of the mayor of Detani was a very active child. She was known for running off when no one was looking and getting her caretakers into trouble. At age five, while climbing the walls of the shed, she sliced her arm open with a saw, leading her family to lock their tools up for several years after. At eleven, she disappeared for an entire day, only to return at night, having caught a wild goat in the mountains. And at fifteen, she almost accompanied a passing traveler out of town. By the time she was eighteen, she knew Detani and the surrounding mountains better than anyone else. But the townsfolk also said she was a wild child, and her father felt this looked unfavorably upon the family.
One day, he brought her into her office, where a young man, perhaps a few years older than herself, sat. He had dark brown curls, which fell to his shoulders, framing a narrow, brown face. He sat with perfect posture, and was dressed formally, as if for temple service.
The man rose when Winter entered the office, took her hand, and kissed it. She pulled back. She could tell he was frustrated with her behavior, but was trying to hide it.
"Winter," her father said, "this is Nutet. We've been discussing your marriage."
Winter knew the temple teaching that a woman followed the teachings of her father until she married her husband. She knew it was her dad's right by law to marry her to Nutet. But she also knew nothing about him. And she quite frankly wasn't all that interested in marrying. She wanted to travel and discover new places like the Laura Pfieffer had once done. "It's nice to meet you," she told him politely, "I hope I'll have the chance of getting to know you some before our wedding day."
"Of course," he told her, and they set about arranging a proper outing, with her father present of course, so nothing untoward could happen.
But Winter didn't wait for this meeting. That night, she fled from her house and hiked deeper into the mountains than she had ever hiked before. The full moon was high overhead when she began to hear voices.
"But mother, I want to know what life is like in Detani!"
"No. I have forbidden you to go! What would happen if they saw you?" Winter understood the speech, but it was a heavily accented dialect, perhaps spoken by some group that had once isolated themselves in the mountains? But she hadn't heard of any such people. Most people avoided the mountains because they were afraid of the dragons who lived there.
Winter heard footsteps approaching, and she hid behind a rock. She was not sure what these mountain people would think of her, and she certainly didn't want them taking her home. The person who approached was nearly as tall as Winter, though they walked on all fours. They had deep a reddish-brown hide and an elongated, lizard-like face. They also had wings. And a tail.
Winter audibly gasped. Unfortunately, it was enough for the dragon to hear. They turned. "Who's there?" they said. Winter clapped a hand over her mouth and tried to hide, but a ball of flame appeared over her head. The dragon's expression looked as shocked as Winter's. "You're from Detani!" they said.
Winter nodded, unsure what to say.
"Are you here to kill us, like mom says?"
"No!" Winter clapped her hand over her mouth again, worried that she had spoken too loudly. "No, I'm here to get away from a marriage."
"Get away from a marriage?" The dragon lay down in front of her and propped their head on one of their front feet. Despite the lizard-like head, the action was so human, Winter almost laughed. The people of Detani spoke of the demons in the mountains, but there was no way this person could be a demon. "Why didn't you just say no?"
"Because my people don't think like that?"
The dragon actually laughed. and it didn't sound like a demonic laugh. It sounded like a girl, almost like Winter herself. "I suppose they wouldn't."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Just that you humans are strange."
Winter found a flat space on the rocks and sat down cross-legged. "I suppose we are." She looked at the ball of flame above her. "That's not going to fall on me, is it?"
The dragon laughed again. "Are you kidding? I've had decades to perfect that?"
"Decades? But you're still living with your mother?"
"Dragons age slowly compared to humans. I'm one hundred twenty-six, and relatively young by our standards."
"I see." Winter looked around. "Well, are you going to tell your mother I'm here?"
"I don't see why I need to. It's not like you're the first human in the mountains. My name is Hana."
"I'm Winter." Winter and Hana shook hands. Winter noticed Hana's hand wasn't much bigger than hers. And it had five fingers, placed the way human fingers were.
"How long do you expect to be here?"
"I dunno. Until I find a better place to go, I guess."
Hana stood up, stretching like a cat. "Well, we don't have blankets at our house, but I'll come back when mom's not watching. I can keep you warm."
"Dragons live in houses?"
Hana laughed again. "Of course we do. Do you think we're animals?"
"I don't know much about dragons," Winter admitted. She didn't mention that her dad described them as demons.
"I'll tell you all about it when I come back."
When Winter's father discovered that she had gone, he sent out a search party for her. If he suspected she had run away so as not to marry, he didn't let on. Nutet, naturally, was one of the first to to volunteer to find her. As he had often gone hunting with his father, Nutet was actually quite a good tracker, and he soon picked up her trail going into the mountains. He found the cave where Winter had made her new home and waited.
When Winter returned, she stopped dead in the mouth of the cave. "What are you doing here?"
"Coming to bring you to our wedding." Nutet smiled broadly at her.
Winter crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not going." Nutet tried to take her hand in his and she backed away from him. "Go home, Nutet. I'm not marrying you."
"I don't want to." Winter felt a little guilty, as if she was telling Nutet that she didn't like him, so she added, "I don't even know you. And I'm not ready to marry."
"That's right," Nutet scoffed, "you fancy yourself the next Laura Pfieffer."
"That's right." Winter smiled at him.
"Befriending the cannibals?"
"Mmm... demons, actually." She tried to keep a straight face as she saw Nutet falter slightly. "So you should really leave before my new friend arrives. She won't enjoy seeing you at all."
Winter stepped to the side, leaving the mouth of the cave wide-open for him to exit. When he approached her again, a new voice spoke, echoing through the space. "She asked you to leave." A shaft of hot air blew into the cave, making Nutet quiver. It didn't scare Winter, who knew Hana wouldn't harm her, though the voice unnerved her a bit. She had never heard hew new friend speak with quite that level of authority. "Go now, or I'll cook you into a steak!"
Winter knew Hana must have been standing outside of the cave because Nutet looked over her shoulder and the color drained from his face. He fled to the sound of Hana's laughter. Winter laughed too, only she stopped when she turned to the mouth of the cave. The dragon there looked like Hana. She also stood on all fours and had an elongated, lizard-like face. Her reddish-brown wings were extended above her, and her tail lashed the air. She wasn't much bigger than Hana, but she was definitely a different dragon. "You're not Hana," Winter managed to say.
"No, I would be here mother, Cortenia. I wondered where my daughter had gotten off to. I certainly didn't expect to find two humans bickering in a cave."
"Yeah, sorry about that. Um..." Winter tried to sidestep the dragon, who despite being barely larger than her daughter, seemed to take up the entire area.
Cortenia's tail lowered and her wings flattened against her body. "Nonsense. You don't have anything to be sorry about. After meeting that chap, I can see why you ran away."
"How did you know I ran away?"
"Well, why else would you be living in a cave?"
Cortenia turned deftly. "Come on. You might as well stay with us, at least until you're back on your feet."
Winter followed Hana's mother back to the family's house, which was made of poles and canvas. Nearby, a large flat stone had the Calistian symbol for fire burned into it. Winter thought it might be a shrine to the magic lord. She could see similar homes on the other side of a ridge, and goats roamed the mountainside in between.
"Why are there so many goats?" Winter asked.
"We raise them." Hana, upon seeing her new friend, bounded up to her.
"Of course we do," Cortenia said. She turned to her daughter. "It's a good thing I found your friend out there. You were doing a terrible job educating her."
Winter shared a room with Hana. The dragons had little need for furniture, aside from a table, but the next time a group of Thisaazhou traders found their way through the mountains, they got a couple of chairs for Winter, as well as some new clothes. They asked if she wanted a bed, but by then she had become accustomed to sleeping with her new sister, who could warm her body magically. Winter helped care for the goats, and her family taught her how to roast and boil them. She got to know the other dragons in the neighborhood, and even the occasional humans who passed through for trade. The longer she stayed, the less she wanted to leave.
Years passed. Nutet gathered a group of fighters to rescue Winter from the dragon who held her captive, but when they reached the cave, it was empty. They staked it out for several days, but when no one came, they returned home, claiming Nutet a lovesick crazy man. He eventually married another woman. The mayor did not give up searching for his daughter, but fewer and fewer people volunteered to look.
One day, Nutet's younger brother, Nikut volunteered. In his early twenties, Nikut was often teased for being a "dreamer," but by then the Mayor was running out of volunteers. Many had gone into the mountains looking for Winter, but all had returned empty handed. One or two had mentioned demons, but most said they suspected she was long gone, if not dead. Nikut remembered his brother's tale and wondered if the town's representation of these demons was accurate. After all, he had heard stories of dragons from other cities which spoke quite favorably. Most people in Detani called this latitudinarian propaganda, but Nikut decided he had to know first hand. Finding Winter was the perfect excuse. So he set off into the mountains.
Nikut found Winter's old cave the first day, and made camp in it. He wrapped himself in a blanket and smoked some meat. Each day after that, he set off deeper into the mountains, in search of some clues, always returning to his original camp. On the third day, he didn't find Winter, but Winter found him. She and Hana sometimes returned to their cave when they wanted to be alone, and this morning, they found it full of things and Nikut asleep in his blanket.
Winter kicked him awake. "What are you doing here?"
Nikut rolled over and blinked up at the young woman. Her brown skin was darker than when he had last seen her, and her straight hair had been cut short, but it was Winter. "I've been looking for you."
"Well you've found me. Now you can go home and tell my father I do not. want. to marry."
"Wait!" Nikut scrambled up and tried to stop her as she was leaving the cave. "I want to meet the dragons!"
Winter turned. Nikut glanced toward Hana, who still had not spoken, but stood nearby, watching the scene. "You're friends with them, aren't you?" he asked. "I want to know if the stories are true."
Now it was Winter and Hana's turn to exchange a glance. Hana stood on all fours, but she dipped her head below her front shoulders in a sort of a shrug.
"Fine," Winter told Nikut, "come with us."
So Winter and Hana took Nikut back to their home. Nikut met Hana and Winter's parents and their neighbors and ate dinner with them. Before he returned, he asked Winter to go with him, so that the two of them could vouch for their neighbors in the mountains. After some debate, Winter agreed, for those she enjoyed living with her new family, she wanted her birth parents to know that she had not died.
But when they arrived, the people of Detani did not believe Nikut or Winter. They said the girl had been corrupted by demons because she no longer behaved like a proper woman. She had cut her hair short, and wore it roughly, so she did not have to brush it. She ate with her hands instead of using utensils, and complained that the walls of their homes didn't breathe. Though she agreed to stay for several days, she spent most of her time outside and refused to go to temple. The night before she was to return, her mother told her she would miss her. But it was obvious Winter no longer fit into the community.
Nikut intended to return with Winter, so that he might ask the dragons if he could visit again, but when he woke in the morning, there was no trace of her. Life in Detani became boring once again. But he noticed more people making visits to the mountains. Perhaps he had managed to bridge the gap between his people and the dragons. Maybe, in time, the communities could come to live side by side.
One day he asked his brother if could accompany the group into the mountains. "Have you seen Winter? Are she and her family well?"
"Her family?" Nutet asked, "her family is here." And Nikut realized he had made a terrible mistake. His people were not befriending the dragons, but going into the mountains to fight them, and Winter... was missing.
"Yes," Nikut agreed with his brother, hoping Nutet would not notice his mistake. "That's what I meant. How is her family? I can't imagine what they are going through. To have a daughter who's been corrupted by demons."
Nutet eyed his brother. "We thought you had been corrupted as well."
"Me? Why do you think I brought her back? I'm only concerned for her safety. If I could see her, perhaps I could convince her of her folly."
"You'll have to speak with her parents about that." Her parents? That meant Winter was still in her house, possibly even in her own room.
That night, Nikut crept to Winter's window and tapped on the glass. But of course it didn't open. And no one came to it. Why would her parents lock her in her room, if she could escape from it? But where else would they keep her? He walked around the house, wondering where she might be. He turned a corner and saw the family's shed, which often had a rusted padlock on it, hanging open, as most people in Detani rarely felt the need to lock up their things. But now the lock was closed.
Nikut spent several minutes breaking the lock open with a large rock nearby, and he was grateful it was old. A new one, he might not have been able to break through. He worried that he might wake someone with the noise, but no one came.
Winter held up a hand as if to protect herself when Nikut opened the door. But when she saw who it was, she walked toward him, until a chain around her ankle pull taut. He noticed the shed had been stripped of its tools, so she wouldn't be able to escape. Nikut also broke the chain with his rock, and helped Winter from the building.
She was weak from having been locked up, and, Nikut suspected, malnourished. She was also filthy. She struggled to walk, and the climb into the mountains was a slow one, but no one followed them, or so he thought.
When they neared Winter's cave, she stopped suddenly. Nikut did also, and they heard faint grunting, as if someone was climbing behind them. "This was the plan all along, wasn't it?" she whispered, turning to Nikut with the saddest look in her eyes, as if she had murdered her family. "I was supposed to lead you to the dragons, so you could kill them."
"No!" Nikut told her, "I never would do that!"
"Then they used you." It occurred to him then that he should not have been able to break the lock and the chain so easily. Nor should he have been able to trick his brother so easily. Because he had not. "Hide," Winter told him, and walked toward the cave. Nikut tried to ask what she was doing, but she was no longer listening to him. She closed her eyes. "Knight, please give me the strength to protect my sister, no matter what I must do." Nikut knew Knight was the Calistian god of fire, and wondered why she prayed to someone else's god. But he didn't have time to ask. Winter walked into the cave as several men crested the hill.
Nikut looked between them and the cave, and without stopping to ask, they knew where to find Winter. He searched for his brother among them, but he was not there. Nikut didn't know it, but Nutet's wife had gone into labor that night. The men ran into the cave, and after a moment, a roar rose up from it, like an engine starting. Fire lit the cave, and Nikut watched as it consumed the men, their screams echoing through the mountains. He could feel the heat coming from the cave mouth, and stepped back, worried he might also burn. Then the fire went out as suddenly as it had begun. Winter stumbled from the cave. Her clothing had been burned away, but she was unharmed. She collapsed, having used the last of her energy to summon the fire.
Nikut had never seen Winter summon fire before, but he suspected Knight had answered her prayer. He carried her to her dragon family and apologized for what had happened to their daughter and sister.
"We cannot let you leave," said Hana.
Nikut understood the danger was too great for him to return to Detani. But he would not be a prisoner. He turned to his new sister. "I do not want to," he told her.
My father tells me the mayor's daughter once disappeared with his brother in search of the demons who live in the mountains. He says he met the dragon sisters once, and he was lucky to survive because all that was found of the last expedition that went looking for them was charred bone. He warns me not to go into the mountains, lest they kill me the way they did the men of Detani but in my dreams, they are different. In my dreams, my uncle will meet me at Winter's cave, and take me to meet my family--human and dragon alike. In my dreams, we will finally carry out his vision of uniting our two communities and living peacefully. The day is coming.
