Aryanna's Curse

“There weren’t always dragons in the Valley.” I heard my grandfather’s voice. I walked further into the foyer and navigated the familiar pathways until I stood at my grandfather’s door. I lowered my head in shame and walked up to my grandfather.

“Please forgive me for what I have done, grandfather, but I have no other choice.” Laying my head on the cold stone table, I kept speaking. “I hope you can believe me when I say that I have never done this if there were another way. But I needed the money for Lily. I can’t let her die because of me; she is all I have left.” The silence was all that greeted me though I didn’t expect an answer.

The weight of what I had done had sucked the life out of this place. Not that there was much, to begin with. It had been a while since I had been back home, and the neglect was visible. Usually, my grandfather and I would do our best to repair and clean anything in need. I would fix and clean while grandfather would sit in his favorite chair and direct me. His body wouldn’t allow him to do any hard labor in his old age. That meant all the work fell upon me to do; though it was hard work for such a young child, those times were still some of the best days in my life. My grandfather was a great man and had been most of his life.

He worked on a retired war General’s farmland as an adolescent boy. The General taught my grandfather all he knew about fighting and caring for the land and animals, as all his sons had died in battle. Later, when that General died, my grandfather inherited the land. He continued to work the fields and sold his surplus of goods to the nearby town of Greylock. And with his knowledge of combat, grandfather decided that instead of going off to battle the Barbarian hordes, he would stay and defend the people of his town from bandits, rogue warriors, or the occasional goblins.

During this time, Grandfather saved a group of travelers and met a girl named Cécile. He said it was like love at first sight. He married Cécile soon after. Grandfather had always wanted a big family since he was an only child.

Like the General had done for him, grandfather taught his children how to fight and run the land. Unlike their father, grandfather’s sons went off to join the battles and never came back home again. Their deaths devastated grandfather, but he held firm for his wife and daughter. When sickness took grandmother Cécile from him, he still kept going. It wasn’t until his daughter, my Mother, Soniya, got married to my Father, Jon, and had a little girl that my grandfather knew it was his time. He handed my mother and father his land and prepared to leave for the mountains. Grandfather had told me that he and my grandmother always talked about going to the mountains when their children grew up. They wanted to spend the rest of their life in the Eternal Flame Grotto.

A cave hidden behind a waterfall held a lush forest within its walls. The cave was said to be magical for several reasons. One being is that even when the harshest of winters hit the lands, the cave temperature never changes. It was like it Spring was trapped in time there. Another was that the magic current was so strong that even a babe could perform the most basic spells. And with these high levels of magic, many folks have spotted some of the most reclusive magical creatures, like the Seelie Fae and wisps. But the main reason it was named the Eternal Flame Grotto was that if a traveler were to get lost on the night of a new moon, they would see a blue flame that would lead them to the cave. Upon entering the cave, the traveler would have the urge to rest there among the trees, and when they awakened, they would find themselves outside of the forest with any injury healed and a pack of supplies. And for those who wished to leave the world peacefully, if the cave deemed them worthy, they could stay within it until their deaths, where their souls will turn to Wisps to live in the cave forever.

Grandmother loved that story and wished to see that magical place in person. So, grandfather determined to make her final wish come true. Before he left, my Mother wanted to make his favorite meal one last time. So, we went to the market in town to gather supplies when the attack happened. Out of the blue, a dragon descended upon our village. It somehow passed the Regiment without them letting us know and made its way into the mainland. The attack was brutal. It killed many people in town before the Regiment caught it and lured it away. Among the casualties were my Mother and father. I was only ten when that happened, but I understood that I would never see my parent again, and it was only my grandfather and me.

Grandfather did his best to take care of me. He taught me all he knew and told me stories of his past. He did his best to ensure I never lacked anything from discipline to parental love. He was always there for me. And nights, when I was lonely, missing my parents, my grandfather told me stories. Some of my favorites were those about dragons; even though it was a dragon that killed my parents, my grandfather made sure I had no hate for them. Because he said they were essential to keep balance in the world, without dragons, humankind would have been extinct. It took a while for me to accept that, but I did. And after I loved hearing about them, my favorite story about them was how they came to be. My grandfather would always start the story the same every time.

“There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. My flower. Humans once ruled the planet long ago but didn’t appreciate it. They stripped forests down for money, killed all the animals for sport, and polluted the air with their machines. They took from the earth with no regard for the planet’s well-being. Then one day, the earth itself had had enough and decided to punish humanity for their mistreatment of her. So she unleashed the dragons and gave them one order. “Destroy them all until they know nothing but pain.” And for years, that is what they did.”

“It wasn’t until a dragon called Dyri, who took pity on humanity, finally stood up to the other dragons and put a stop to the chaos. A brutal battle between the Dyri, the few remaining humans, and the other dragons ended with the Dyri dying. In its final moments, Dyri begged its Mother to stop her children from continuing their assault on humanity and give them a chance to show her that they could be better. And to prove its claims, Dyri pointed out the humans that had fought alongside it in battle. Gaia (mother earth), moved by her child’s sacrifice and pleas, decided to give humanity another chance but not without conditions. First, everyone must worship her by saying a prayer before taking any form of life from the planet, animal or plant. And second is that the dragons would stay as her guardians to watch over humanity, so if anyone were to kill one, the murderer would suffer a fate worst death.”

Whenever he told me this story, I would ask him the same question: What would happen to the dragon’s killer.

“I don’t know, lass, but I hope you never have to find out. Please promise me, Aryanna; you will never hunt a dragon.” He would say as he gently stroked my head.

“I won’t, Grandfather, I promise.”

For a moment, I swear I could feel his hand on my head like he did when I was a child as I wiped the tears streaming down my face. But I knew that wasn’t possible and hadn’t been for a long time. Not when my grandfather died five years ago, thanks to some bandits. They had ambushed my grandfather while he was walking home from town. They wanted to take the leather necklace that my grandfather wore around his neck that had the wedding rings of him and my grandmother and my parents. Even at his age, my grandfather was still a fierce fighter and fought the bandits, but it wasn’t enough, and they killed him. They took the rings and ran off.

I was returning from my beloved Salvador’s home when the bandits ran past me, but I didn’t know. I realized what had happened when I found my grandfather bleeding out on the ground. I screamed for help, and a couple of townspeople helped me get his body back home, where I burned it and his ashes put into a wooden box in his room until I finished the rest of his burial the way he wanted.

I was numb to the world for the rest of the day, but as it led to the night, I realized I saw the bandits who did this. One of them had a particularly nasty scar over his right eye. I could find them and make them pay for what they did. At that moment, I could think of nothing else. So, I grabbed my grandfather’s bow, arrow, and short sword and hunted for the bandits. As I was looking, Salvador found me and joined me. Eventually, we found the bandits’ hideout. We fought them and managed to get the rings back before the remaining bandits fled into the forests.

Afterward, we returned to Salvador’s home, where I stayed for a while because it was too painful to be at my home anymore. All the memories of my family that lived there and I lost there. A year later, Salvador and I got married and, not long after, had a little girl we named Lily. We were happy until the Barbarians’ war got worse and the King summoned all men to fight in the Regiment. Salvador joined the battle and never turned home. It was just Lily and me. I started tired my best for her, but it wasn’t enough. We had to leave my home with Salvador as I began to take jobs as a tracker to feed Lily and me. The pay wasn’t great; it was just getting us by. But soon, I had to forgo food, so Lily could eat more, but that wasn’t enough either. I needed money; I was desperate. So, I accepted without question when I was offered a hunting job that paid 1000 gold pieces. At that point, I was ready to do anything because the only thing I cared about was taking care of my daughter. I would regret my decision. Because what they wanted me to hunt was the one thing I should have never hunted—a dragon. But I did it. For Lily, I had to.

“And grandfather, I’m so sorry I broke my promise.” I placed my hand on his wooden box and gently ran my clawed hand across its surface. The dust that had gathered over time floated into the air. I tracked the movement with my sharp vision. As it passed by the mirror on the wall, I couldn’t help but focus on my reflection in the mirror and cringed at its sight. I stared at my tipped ears covered in golden scales that ran down the length of my neck to cover my cheeks partially, stopping midway under my eyes, then continuing down my neck, disappearing under my cloak. The tears fell from my eyes and streamed between the groves of scales on my cheek before falling from my chin. “I know now what happens to the person that hunts and kills a dragon. They become something this is neither dragon nor human but an abomination of both. Hunted by all.”