I opened my eyes and gave a chuff. As I woke, I stretched out my claws and yawned to expose my twin rows of razor sharp teeth. I’d continued to grow and my bedding was getting cramped again. I’d need to get some more.
My eyes looked over at my Huntress. I could see her sitting at the table through the open door of the bedroom. I’d learned a lot about her, in the weeks since we’d met. I’d also learned some words that she liked to use. The prime amongst them was “Bad Dragon!” It had taken many uses of those two words for me to separate out their meaning.
I was a ‘Dragon.’ That title sounded correct to me. At first I thought it was a name my Huntress called me in particular. Bits and pieces I’d picked up from other things she said indicated that it meant what type of creature I was. Just like how there was ‘Rabbit’, ‘Bird’, ‘Deer’, and ‘Boar’.
I’d only seen one ‘Deer’, while helping my Huntress hunt. She’d considered using her tool that let her throw sharp sticks from far away, but the creature spooked and fled before she could. To my understanding, a boar was similar to a deer, but with the sharp pointy bits in its mouth, and much bigger. I’d never seen one, but my Huntress taught me about it so that I could avoid it.
Apparently they were massive and dangerous creatures, very protective of their territory. I’d wondered if it was what scared the prey away, but something about how it was described suggested it would have been fairly obvious if one was around.
‘Bad’ was a negative word attached to things. A ‘bad’ tree was rotten, no good for firewood. A ‘bad’ prey animal was one I’d gotten a little too carried away catching and flattened. I didn’t believe there was any such thing as a ‘bad dragon’, at least not when it came to myself.
My Huntress said those words a lot when I did something she disliked. Mostly it was in exasperation, but sometimes she was actually angry. It wasn’t very often.
Climbing into her bed with two bloody rabbit corpses was pretty far up on the ‘Bad Dragon’ list. So was: looking through my Huntress’s things without permission, not cleaning up after myself if I made a mess, and picking fights with the Bastard Bird when we were out hunting.
I wasn’t allowed to sleep in my Huntress’s bed. Most of the time. If I was clean and she was in a good mood, she sometimes relented. I think she actually liked snuggling up to me more than she wanted to admit, but she wasn’t going to forget the ‘Rabbit Incident’ any time soon.
There was also the factor that I was a steadily growing dragon and the bed was getting a bit small for the both of us.
It’s cute when a hatchling the size of a bunny rabbit rolls over in its sleep and smacks you with its tail. It is far less cute when one the size of a wolf does so. There was still plenty of sitting by the fire together, curled up on a fur rug.
My Huntress was softer at those moments. It was like a great weight was on her shoulders, but by the fire she could relax. She often told me stories at those times. I maybe got one word in a dozen at best, but I think it helped me understand her better all the same.
My Huntress had a name, but she’d only told me once. It was a long name that I had difficulty piecing together. So she remained ‘my Huntress’ in my head for now.
I had also learned that my Huntress was ‘female’. What exactly that meant remained unknown to me. Some vague instincts when it came to my own kind weren’t very applicable to the Huntress.
The first heartbeat from the nest was probably a female of my species. Further it could be called my ‘mother’. That meant a female which nested and raised young of its species. I wasn’t sure the word applied in my case. If the first heartbeat was a mother, it was a terrible one. My Huntress was female, but had neither a mate nor young of her own.
She didn’t like talking about others of her own kind. If they ever came up, she’d go silent for a long time before switching to something else. On the other hand, she had very firm opinions when it came to what was proper for a ‘young lady’.
Apparently a ‘young’ lady was still an adult. The ‘lady’ part seemed to indicate one that was particularly valuable. My Huntress referred to herself as a ‘young lady’ a lot.
As to how that mattered to me, dragon hatchlings were ‘bad’ if you went searching through a ‘young lady’s’ belongings looking for your precious gem. There were things inside those belongings which weren’t any dragon’s business, allegedly.
I wasn’t too concerned about that, truthfully. Nothing she’d had in there was interesting to me aside from my gem, so it wasn’t a hard promise to keep to not go looking again. I was far more interested in what she’d done to my gem.
Carrying it around was inconvenient. I could keep it in my mouth pouch, yes, but I’d learned that keeping things in there too long could damage them.
A choice bit of charcoal I’d been saving for a snack had fully dissolved into paste without me noticing. Therefore, storing anything in there was for emergencies only. My Huntress, clever as she was, had recognized the issue.
Rather than carry it around in her hand or my mouth, she’d fashioned some clean sinew into a cord and carved a small piece of wood. My gem slotted neatly into the amulet, which either of us could wear around our neck.
I sometimes liked to keep it close, but more often than not I left it with my Huntress. She was less likely to lose it dashing through the woods, for one thing. The other is that she seemed attached to it. Not quite as much as me, but sometimes I’d catch her looking at it and going a bit misty eyed, like she was sad.
Except, apparently she wasn’t sad. She didn’t properly explain it in a way I could understand.
There was another reason. I couldn’t explain why, but I quite enjoyed how the gem sat on her skin. It just seemed right. I never mentioned this to her or drew her attention to it, of course. That would likely be ‘bad dragon’ behavior.
My Huntress seemed to notice me watching her as I thought about that.
“Oh get up you lazy beast,” she called to me. “I can see you lingering in bed. We’ve got a busy day ahead of us, with the Thaw coming.” I yawned again. I’d caught enough of that to know she was chiding me, but that she wasn’t really upset.
Another oddity of creatures like her. Much of their meaning was in how they said a thing, rather than what they said. Truly puzzling.
Humoring her, I rose from my bed. I was careful to not flex my wings in the bedroom. They were coming in properly, at long last. The most I could manage was a couple of flaps to boost my jumping for now, but it was a start. Once I was in the den’s main room, I sat down next to her and carefully extended them outwards.
The thin membrane of my wings could be easily damaged by sticks and sharp objects, but unless the tear was especially large, it would soon mend itself. I’d learned that the hard way when I first practiced flying, and glided right into a dead branch.
My Huntress reached over and rubbed her fingers under the wing joint in a manner I enjoyed. When my wings spent most of the day folded against my body, that region could get itchy.
I only demanded a little scritching before folding my wings away and focusing on her. She liked it when I showed that I was paying attention to her. Sitting on my haunches, my head now rose over the top of the table. I knew better than to grab food off of it. Mostly. Unless my Huntress inexplicably decided to give me an extra snack without rhyme or reason.
Her pretty green eyes peered back at me. She’d finally taken the patch off last week. I was greatly relieved she still had use of both her eyes. It had taken her some practice, but she’d quickly proved that she’d lost none of her skill with her hunting tools in the time I’d been our primary hunter.
“Dragon.” I tilted my head, listening. “When the Thaw comes…”
She didn’t continue for a bit. Was something bothering her? When she didn’t show any signs of finishing what she was saying, I nuzzled my snout into her hand. She idly patted at it, looking at me, then away again. Back and forth as she chewed her lips.
“You’re… you’re getting really big, you know that?” Indeed I was. I sat up and posed a little bit, showing off the lustrous shine of my scales. That made her smile but it soon faded. “Yes. Such a handsome young dragon you are. That’s… that’s the problem.”
I flicked my tail back and forth. She’d been saying something positive about me. Was it not actually a good thing?
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“You took such good care of me when I got hurt. I’m very grateful to you. I always will be.” A twinge of regret passed through me. I didn’t feel our debt was satisfied, but that was ok. We had survived through the winter together.
“But you can’t stay here.”
That more than anything was a confusing statement. This place was Mine. My Huntress shared it with me. I nested alongside her. We hunted together. She wore my gem around her neck. What possible reason could she have to say I needed to leave?
My confusion rolled out of my throat, between a low growl and a whine. I asserted my claim. Had I upset her again, somehow? I had kept my promises and learned much about the art of the hunt from her. There surely was never a better hunting partner.
She didn’t understand my whole meaning, but she seemed to intuit the broad strokes. She reached out and placed her palms on either side of my head.
“Silly dragon. It’s not your fault… It’s just nature. The Thaw is coming and…” She bit her lip, so hard that I could almost smell her vitality. “The forest, something is wrong here. The animals, they should start waking up, coming back around now. But they’re not. They’ve all run away and won’t return.”
“I thought it was me, that I was just… a bad hunter.” I chuffed dismissively at that. There was none better than her. “Shush, yes, yes, I know, silly dragon. When I got back to using my bow and sling again, I couldn’t deny it any more. There just isn’t anything to hunt here. When I was a little girl, these woods were bursting with life. Now it’s as quiet as the grave.”
There were a lot of new words that I didn’t know, but I already understood the problem. I’d been tracking the Beast, as I’d taken to call it, since I had started staying with my Huntress. I knew full well it resided in the Dark Woods. Where exactly its lair was, seemed to defy all logic. Just when I thought I’d trapped it, I would lose track.
I’d lose track, not just of the Beast itself, but the lair’s location. The Dark Wood itself seemed to shift and move like a living thing. It protected its master jealously. Each time I’d come close, I would become disoriented and the trail would go cold. What was worse, the Dark Woods were growing. More and more of the forest I’d grown familiar with gave way to deep shadows and the creak of dead trees swaying in the breeze.
What little prey remained in this forest fled from the Dark Wood like it was a fire or a plague. Even with my Huntress’s great skill and my speed and savagery, it wasn’t enough to keep food stocked. Already I’d begun to skip meals when I thought my Huntress wouldn’t notice. I suspected she was doing the same for me.
Neither of us had wanted to be the first to admit this couldn’t last. It seemed my Huntress was braver than me and drew the line first.
“So when the Thaw comes and you can fly, my sweet dragon, you must. You must fly away from here. Far away. Far from me.” Those last words seemed to break something in her. She closed her eyes and looked away from me. I tried to press against her, but her hands pushed me back.
She stood from her seat and turned away, wiping at her face with her hands. She didn’t say anything else, but I could feel the pain coming from her in a way words couldn’t convey. Without saying anything else, she walked away. She grabbed her bow and her cloak as she walked out the door, stepping into the cool morning sun.
She didn’t look back as the door closed behind her.
My Huntress needed some time to herself. That was fine. Sometimes, when I had upset her greatly, or when some unknown memory troubled her, she would go into the forest and sit alone for a while. She always came back soon enough.
Her words troubled me. It was probably true that, even if I did track down the Beast and defeat it, these woods would not return to normal in a long time. Not soon enough to feed a dragon. Rabbits and forest fowl would not sate my hunger much longer.
What my Huntress could not understand, that made her more right than she knew, was that the vitality in these woods could not sustain me either.
I had long pondered on what ‘vitality’ was.
It was something untouchable, that made a creature alive in a way that plants were not. Most plants, anyways. There was the occasional odd one that made me question it, deep in the forest. My Huntress had far more vitality in her than any prey animal. I still remembered the taste of it from when I’d licked her wound.
How delicious it had been bothered me, if I thought too much about it. I possessed the most vitality of any creature I’d met. Maybe if I met one of my siblings, they would have more.
To contrast that, the Dark Woods was… not alive. Not just dead, but unalive. A tree did not have vitality, but it lived. The trees in the dark wood lived, but they seemed to sap all vitality from the world itself. Prey that got too close became sluggish and eventually perished, if not allowed to flee. I’d captured a rabbit and left it trapped in a cage near the Dark Woods while I observed.
That was probably cruel of me, but I’d been hoping to lure out the Beast. Instead I’d watched the poor creature wither like all the fluid had been sucked from its veins. When I examined the body, it had come apart like it was made of dry twigs and threadbare rags.
If I was a creature of great vitality, then it was possible the reason the Dark Woods was expanding was because it was hunting me. Encircling me, slowly and insidiously. That could very well mean that my Huntress’s suffering was once again my fault.
What I did not understand was that if I was to leave, why would she not go with me?
I rose from my haunches and headed for the door. My Huntress had been right about one thing. There was a lot to do today.
Snares, traps, and passive means of hunting were not my forte. My Huntress had taught me all of the kinds she used, enough to recognize them even when they were hidden. My body wasn’t suited to setting them up, but I could easily check on them with how quickly I could move. I knew all of my Huntress’s favored snare spots by heart. If I wanted to, I could move between them with my eyes closed.
I didn’t do that of course. Sometimes my Huntress got a ‘gut feeling’ to place her traps somewhere unusual. Surprisingly often, that led to one of the few catches we would get that day. Or that week.
However, my Huntress had a bad habit of forgetting to tell me where she’d placed her ‘gut feeling’ traps. If I wasn’t paying attention, it was very easy to land right in one. I was getting big enough that I could break my way out, but it annoyed my Huntress greatly when I broke one of her lovingly constructed snares.
Today was especially thin pickings. One lone ermine, probably as desperate for food as we were, had accidentally gotten caught in a rock fall trap. Bait was placed in such a way that a precariously balanced stone would fall when a supporting stick was touched. It was a ‘crude and artless’ trap according to my Huntress.
I considered the ermine for a few moments. The poor creature had nearly been squished flat. Even its fur, which my Huntress was normally quite fond of, was ruined by the manner of its death. Reluctantly, I considered my Huntress’s words. If I was to fly away from here, I’d need every bit of strength I could muster.
I was not planning to fly away without her gripped in my talons, even if I had to force the issue. She was Mine. Nothing would change that.
I was sure I could convince her to come with me, however. We wouldn’t need anything that would… strain the accord we had. I plucked up the ermine patty and dropped it down my throat. It was utterly missing both vitality and anything that made cooked food tasty.
The rest of the day would be spent hunting in my way. My legs carried me back and forth across the forest, occasionally lifted by a flap of my wings when the trees were far enough apart. Try as I might, I could not find prey of any kind. I was larger now, unable to fit into tight places where prey might hide. My sense of smell, on the other hand, had grown extremely keen.
Anything that lived would not be able to hide from me. My powerful claws and teeth could uproot trees. If I really tried, I could even move small boulders. That did not matter today. As if my Huntress’s words were a prophecy, there was no prey in any part of the forest I could reach before sundown.
It was with a mounting sense of frustration that I returned to our Den. My Huntress was right. Partially right. This place could not sustain me. But it couldn’t sustain her either.
She was every bit as skilled a hunter as I was. Perhaps even more so. But if there was nothing to hunt, how would she live? She had cooked things that were plants at times, back when I first started staying with her, but wherever those came from was not available around here.
Even if it meant demeaning myself by rooting in the dirt like a boar, I would have done it for my Huntress. But there was nothing left.
As I approached the Den, I felt something was wrong. I lifted my snout towards the wind. I couldn’t smell anything. But that was the issue. My Huntress had plenty of firewood. Why had she not lit the evening fire?
I sped up my pace towards the Den. When I arrived, I found that it was dark. No fire was lit in its hearth. I glanced up at the sky. The sun was touching the horizon.
My Huntress had always been very firm with me to return before dark. The furthest she ever went at night was a little shack a few meters away from the Den that I was definitely not allowed to follow her into. I didn’t need to be told what went on there.
Such thoughts were the least of my concerns right now. I nudged my way in through the unlatched door. Another ill omen. My Huntress always latched the door when she was home. She had taught me the trick to let myself in by extending a claw through the door crack a while ago.
Her scent was still in the Den. She had been here since I had left earlier today. But she was not there now. I checked the bedroom. She was not there… My eyes moved to the wooden box where she kept her ‘things for young ladies’. It was open.
My jaw tightened, heat building in my chest. My claws dragged across the floor, digging deep scratches into its polished surface.
‘She… couldn’t have, surely? It was impossible. She couldn’t have… left without me?’
Even in the solitude of my own mind, the words lit a fury in me unlike anything I’d ever experienced. My Huntress had spent long hours teaching me how to handle myself when I was frustrated, how not to bite and claw at anything in my vicinity. I had never again hurt her like I had the night I put that scar over her eye. I would remember the shame of it forever.
For a fleeting moment, I almost forgot it.
“SHE. IS. MINE.”
The words ripped out of my chest unbidden. They were a declaration and a scream, a primal roar daring any that heard it to defy the truth. The echo shook the house and the surrounding woods. If any birds remained, they would have taken flight from fear.
As the echo faded, so too did the anger. I realized that I was being foolish. My Huntress was not a cruel woman. Even if she’d insisted I go without her, she would have returned my precious gem to me first. She knew exactly how much it meant to me.
I felt hollow without it here. Without her here.
Should the chapter include short scenes from when the dragon is small?
