From a Forest of Bone and Blood | Chapter Ten
I was born in the rocky, wild northlands of the Mainland. Perhaps born is the incorrect term, for like all dragons, I came from an egg. I don’t remember scratching and chipping my way out of my egg but my mother did, and liked to tell me and anyone who would listen how I emerged tail end first.
Sentimental dragoness that she was, she kept a piece of my baby shell, had it polished, shaped, and set into a necklace that she could wear in her human form.
Childhood, for me, was idyllic. I was raised far away from humans. I remember fire-breathing contests and flying contests and just about any other competition a young dragon could come up with to prove ourselves better than our littermates.
I had no littermates, but I did not lack companionship. Despite being my aging mother’s last egg, there were plenty of other baby dragons to keep my company, and my mother doted on me. She lived long enough to see me assume human shape for the first time upon reaching adulthood, but passed away not long after.
This is the great secret we dragons have. We have two forms - our natural, winged, superior form and the smaller, two-legged, inferior human shape.
What would the humans do if they learned these secrets? Would they be even more frightened of us? The humans equate us with beasts, perhaps a little smarter than cattle since we are predators, but beasts nonetheless.
This is a lie, yet it is a lie we perpetuate in order to protect ourselves. Though we are bigger, stronger and mightier than the humans they outnumber us. We may win a battle, but ultimately they would win the war.
Imagine how much many of them would want us dead if they knew we were not simply beasts.
Murmurings came when I was still a youngling of a pack of rogue dragons that had decided to eliminate the human menace once and for all, starting with the magic users. The town of Veridia was full of them, living peacefully and never expecting the attack.
We were outraged. The dragon council condemned the actions of the outcasts and declared them exiles. They took away their ability to shift and thus took away their best way to hide amongst the humans.
We knew revenge would come quickly, and it did.
A survivor of Veridia formed an army and declared war on all of the dragons, and due to our code we were unable to defend ourselves properly. We were all beasts in the army’s eyes. The council elders declared it would be safer if we remained that way. We were not allowed to rally - to do anything that would indicate we were sentient creatures capable of thought patterns beyond common animals.
And so the slaughter began. We sent the young ones into hiding, sending them away on ships to islands past the Archipelago, into countries and continents foreign and strange.
A few were chosen to stay, as bait for the army. I volunteered to stay. I was young, unmated and had no family of my own. I flew, in dragon form, to the Archipelago where I set up my trap.
In human form, we spread rumors: that the dragons’ numbers were dwindling fast, that I was the last -- the one lone dragon making a desperate bid for escape.
I knew I would most likely die, but I had the advantage of magic on my side and the blessing of the council to use all magic at my disposal to rid the world of this army.
Even though another would probably come.
In Sheppardston I lay waste the countryside in true dragon fashion - at least as far as the humans knew. I waited for the army to come and feigned exhaustion.
And then I fought.
I fought to save dragonkind, the younglings and the elders, our way of life.
Oh, how I fought.
The clash of magics that night was like nothing I had ever seen, and hope to never see again.
Did I win?
I still don’t know. Sure, the army is gone and the wizard incapacitated. But what became of me? Where have I gone? I am a dragon spread amongst four human bodies.
I long to be whole. I long for the skies and wind, of being aloft in the clouds, to stretch my wings and take flight.
I should hate the humans. I do hate the humans.
No, that is a lie.
I do not know what the truth is anymore.
Chapter Nine | Chapter Eleven
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