Between a rock, a gem, and a hard place

FIRE ON GREY STREET WITH INFANT CASUALTY - POLICE SUSPECT FOUL PLAY

The electric billboard displaying the ominous headline faced a lush recreational park in the richest neighbourhood of Agraria City. Skyscrapers towered over the trees like crystal gems shining in the sun. In the park, a group of children pointed to the sky with animated cries of joy. At exactly thirty feet above the dark grass, flew a slender grey dragon. This young dragon was called Grrk, and he was in for the adventure of a lifetime - he just didn’t know it yet.

Grrk was so fixated on the headline that he almost slammed into the billboard, much to the disgruntlement of the tourists riding him. If there truly was a fire on his street, and possibly at his house, he had no choice but to hurry home this very instant - no matter the nasty review he would receive. As soon as the tourists stepped foot on the ground he took flight once again.

In normal circumstances Grrk would have felt embarrassed about his constant heaving when flying. The frantic, arrhythmic flap of his wings pushed him forward at discrete intervals, while drones and mail pigeons steadily flew over him.

It was only when landing on Grey Street that his anxiety passed - the fire wasn’t at his house! When he approached the crowd gathered around the blackened ruins, however, his relief subsided. Kneeling in the ashes was the sobbing mother that had lost her infant in the fire. Then, Grrk realised that his parents were there, too, laying down on a bed of embers.

“Luckily they extinguished the fire before it spread. I can’t say I always liked having dragons on this street but today they came in handy!” said an onlooker in front of Grrk.

“I wouldn’t be sure they aren’t just trying to cover their own tracks”, her friend muttered. “Just the other day I saw them set a tree ablaze with one sneeze.”

Before Grrk could explain that the tree had been infested and was burned down on purpose, a police officer turned towards the woman and said:

“We are still looking for the cause of this fire, actually. Would you mind answering some questions?”

Grrk quietly backed away and hurried to his house at the end of the street. It was settled, he would leave Agraria and become a fugitive. An investigation, no matter how misguided, would lead the officers to their house, where they would find it. And then, the blame would surely fall on his entire family. At this point Grrk had accepted that due to his secret, imprisonment was a very real possibility, but he could not handle his parents being implicated in his crimes.

Due to their size, dragon houses were twice the size of human houses. Nevertheless, Grrk’s home was decorated like any other respectable suburban dwelling, with deep mahogany furniture and plush red carpets across the floors. Whenever Grrk had tried to invite classmates over from high school, though, they had struggled to climb the stairs and eat at the dinner table. Now that he was expelled (for repeatedly breaking school equipment due to his size), he didn’t have to worry about trying to impress anyone.

Grrk walked into his room hesitantly. There, carefully opening his closet, he revealed a basket, in which lay a sleeping, grey-skinned, five-year-old girl.

Here was the source of all of Grrk’s worries, and the reason for his imminent escape. It all began when Grrk was expelled, and had to follow his parents to work. Agraria City was separated from the industrial district with a green belt, which protected it from pollution. His parents had left him at the forest edge to pass time, and it was there that he had encountered this very same basket, with the sleeping girl inside. Grrk’s first instinct had been to go ask his parents what he should do.

When stepping out of the forest, however, he had heard two approaching security guards talk:

“The hiker said something about a kid around here. I mean, with our luck one of the dragon workers has already devoured it and we’ve got a case”, said one.

“Right, I’ve always wanted to catch one and use it as my personal fire starter for barbecues”, chuckled the other.

That’s all it took for Grrk to hide, still holding the child. His expulsion fresh on his mind, he was terrified of attracting further complications.

From then on, Grrk hid the girl in his room until he could decide what to do. The task was surprisingly easy - the girl slept most of the time. Her lethargy and grey skin worried Grrk, and so did the lack of missing posters. At this point, he had started to think that whoever was capable of abandoning a child in a forest did not deserve to get her back.

Grrk’s biggest challenge was to decide where to go. He knew that beyond the industrial district spanned wilderness that Agraria citizens were heavily discouraged from entering. That would be his first aim, but beyond that, his plan became fuzzy. Although his parents had never told him much about the world outside of Agraria City, they had revealed that dragons originated from Elyseth, an exclusionist kingdom that no Agrarian had ever stepped foot in. When he was younger, his parents had explained to him that the dragons in Elyseth were feral and cruel, and that they had left with most sound-minded dragons to join the civilised society in Agraria. Perhaps, just maybe, the dragons of Elyseth would be understanding of his fugitive status… The only problem was that he had no idea where Elyseth could be.

He packed into his school bag all the preserves he could find in the kitchen. Then, he did his best to imitate the baby wrap carriers he had seen - using a grey mattress cover he was able to hide the girl between his front legs. With his wings tucked in, she was almost invisible.

And then, it was only a matter of saying goodbye to his childhood home. Although he would miss his parents dearly, Grrk found solace in knowing that his disappearance would protect his parents from certain imprisonment.

Getting to the industrial area proved seamless. Emerging from the forest, Grrk was greeted by a bleak sight of seemingly endless steel and brick factories, all covered in the same smoky grey dust - and reeking of fire. Grrk was able to do what humans couldn’t: smell fire itself, and know its origin. He recognised notes of coal, wood, wax - and flesh. He shuddered at the thought.

He braced himself as the smells grew stronger the closer to the warehouses he got. The girl stirred, expressing discomfort. Grrk pet her head reassuringly with his clumsy paw, while also picking up the pace.

Being near the factories was a great risk. Most of the on-site workers were dragons, since they were the only ones strong enough to lift even the heaviest of materials, and immune to the heat inside factories. If Grrk was seen, he would have an extremely hard time convincing anybody that he wasn’t a worker slacking off. As he hurried from corner to corner, he could see lumbering silhouettes of dragons twice his size, dragging piles of rocks around.

Suddenly the entire alley was lit ablaze with a white glow, and Grrk turned around to see that inside an open factory door, a dragon was blowing fire into a pit. The fire had a quality to it that Grrk had never witnessed - it was white, clear, then lilac, like shades of a gem. And the smell! It was the purest fire smell Grrk had ever smelled, like drinking clean, cold water on a hot day. This fire was nothing like the humble flames Grrk had sometimes produced, and he could not comprehend how this dragon had the stamina to blow such steady fire. The dragon’s eyes seemed to glow from within in rhythm with the emerging flames. And then - his eyes turned to Grrk.

Jumping back from the door, he quickly took strides to get behind a corner. But it was too late.

“Hey!” the dragon called, “You!”

Grrk jumped to take flight, but the dragon placed a heavy paw on his shoulder to pull him down.

“I see you’ve packed a bag. Any weapons?” the stranger asked.

“Excuse me?” Grrk was unsure whether this was some kind of test to link him to criminal activity, or if he had encountered an actual criminal.

“I mean, I was going to finish my shift to stay inconspicuous, but you might be right that it’s time to leave”, the dragon said, now walking, still pressing hard on Grrk’s shoulder.

Grrk had no idea how to escape now, so he decided to play along for a moment:

“What is your name?”

“Ah! I am Ungrg. Nice to meet you. I have to say, working in Agraria has been pleasant. I will miss it, but hopefully by tomorrow we will have our beautiful caves back, eh?”

Grrk’s mind was racing to find ways to escape this awful turn of events, but since Ungrg seemed to be headed out of Agraria, he figured that sticking with him for the moment might actually prove useful.

When they reached the river bank, the girl stirred once more, and Grrk’s stomach dropped. He cursed this silent child for deciding to be vocal now, of all moments. Ungrg immediately sniffed the air and saw the wrap.

“You aren’t planning on eating that, are you?” he asked doubtfully.

Now the girl was really crying, and Grrk had no choice but to take her out of the wrap and start opening food cans. Ungrg observed, dumbfounded, as Grrk spooned canned tuna and beans into her mouth.

“What’s your name, little one?”

Grrk then realised that for the months he had taken care of her, not once had it crossed his mind to name her.

“Tuna!” the child suddenly exclaimed while looking at the cans on Grrk’s lap.

Now both dragons were speechless. Grrk could not believe it - so far she had never even babbled. Was tuna her first word?

Ungrg burst into such a hearty laughter that both Grrk and the girl felt themselves laugh along.

“Tuna, you say? Well, Tuna, I don’t know what kind of grey-skinned little creature you are, but I have a feeling we will get along just fine!”

Grrk’s joy faded quickly when he spotted the strange congregation observing them from afar. They were human-like, but slightly smaller, and wispier. And they had wings. One of them started taking strides towards them, and the others followed. Grrk realised that some of them had grey skin, while others were sickly sallow. Their wings were beautifully translucent like those of a dragonfly, but they had tears on the edges. As they got closer, he realised that two of them were carrying the limp form of another person. He was dead. His skin was not only grey, but his entire body appeared wrinkly and cracked, as though he had dried out from the inside. His ragged wings were completely torn. Grrk instinctively covered Tuna’s eyes.

“Could it be…” Ungrg exclaimed, “are you fairies from Elyseth?”

Fairies? Grrk didn’t even know that fairies existed. In Agraria, dragons were the only things out of the ordinary. It was a fact he had always felt embarrassed about, as it made him stick out like a sore thumb.

“Indeed we are. Our search for our beloved prince has taken us far and wide. It is with great sadness that we have now found him dead. Would you like to assist us in honouring his memory?” the fairy who led the group asked.

And so they helped the fairies find a piece of driftwood to lay his body on, and watched as the fairies intricately embellished it with flowers and branches. They all had tears in their eyes as they said their final goodbyes and pushed him into the river stream. Even Tuna waved at the corpse, seemingly unfazed by its sickly appearance. Grrk, on the other hand, felt deeply unequipped to witness the sorrow of the fairies. He remained on the sidelines, awkwardly shifting.

When the fairies were done, Ungrg cleared his throat.

“Well, we better get going. We have… places to be”, he said, completely failing to sound discreet.

“Wait!” exclaimed one of the fairies. They all had strange, expectant expressions. The fairy spoke to Tuna in unfamiliar melodic words - and Tuna giggled.

Suddenly Grrk got a strange feeling.

“We better go. To make it in time for… tomorrow”, he said, directing Tuna away from the fairies.

“Put her on your back and let’s go”, Ungrg said.

“On my back? Why?”

“What, you prefer walking?”

Grrk would have been deeply embarrassed to admit his qualms about flying, so he simply picked Tuna up and followed Ungrg into the air. Looking back, he could still see the fairies observing their ascent with the same strange expressions.

Grrk was intrigued to see that Ungrg struggled to fly almost as much as him.

“It’s… the air... here”, he panted. “Agraria ain’t good for Elysethians. You saw how sickly the fairies looked, too.”

“Then why are we here?” Grrk asked, before realising he was revealing a fatal gap in his knowledge. Ungrg sharply turned to look at Grrk, and then began to descend. Grrk had no choice but to follow, afraid that this would be it, that Ungrg would turn against him. They landed in a small clearing.

“Alright, kiddo. You gotta come clean before we go any further. Why are you so clueless?”

“My parents just told me that we left Elyseth because of the brutal dragons there, that I would have a better life in Agraria… I hoped they might accept me there, I never felt like I belonged here”, Grrk stammered, trying not to reveal any suspicious details about the girl or his escape.

“What are your parents called?”

Grrk told him.

“Oh yes. Key members of our movement. Look, I see that they lied to protect you. I’m okay with taking you with me, though, you’ve got to see where you’re really from. What you need to know for now is that the route we are about to take is extremely secret, and that once we arrive, it’s showtime. For your parents’ sake, l hope you’ll hang back and avoid causing trouble.”

With those confusing words, Ungrg led Grrk and Tuna through the foliage until unexpectedly, they reached a rock wall spanning in both directions.

“Alright. Simply follow me, and you’ll understand in no time”, Ungrg said as he started walking along the wall.

Although it appeared as though Ungrg was simply walking, Grrk started to feel a pull that was perfectly in sync with Ungrg’s pace. Grrk could somehow feel, that only a few steps ahead now, there was an opening.

Suddenly, Ungrg took a sharp right and disappeared into the wall. Grrk stopped abruptly.

“Take a few steps still, and you’ll get it!” Ungrg’s voice echoed somewhere inside the rock. Indeed, when Grrk inched forward, he felt the opening. When he turned to the right just like Ungrg had done, Tuna yelped from surprise.

They were no longer outside, and had in fact entered a tunnel inside the rock.

“Poor girl, thought she was gonna smash against the rock. See, these caves can only be sensed by a dragon.”

They made their way forward in the dark tunnels, Grrk hesitantly following the sound of Ungrg’s steps. Right as he was about to comment on the darkness, he started seeing something. At first they were only faint glimmers here and there. But little by little, the light grew stronger, and he realised he was looking at a breathtaking array of gemstones twinkling in the soft light of ember pockets scattered all around the cave tunnel. Sapphires, emeralds, rubies, and other stones he didn’t recognise, all embedded into the cave walls.

“Beautiful gems”, sighed Tuna.

“All formed by dragons”, said Ungrg proudly. “Our sheer weight on the rock below, and our digging and fire breathing have, over thousands - if not hundreds of thousands - of years, formed massive amounts of gemstone reserves.”

And so they continued on, Grrk and Tuna in silent awe, Ungrg proudly sharing a dragon fact every now and then. Although Grrk sensed countless crossroads in their path, Ungrg seemed sure of their direction and kept up a steady pace.

What felt like many hours later, and many naps for Tuna, the tunnel started sloping up more dramatically. Little by little, daylight started leaking into the tunnel, and the gems got fewer and fewer. Ungrg had fallen behind, but Grrk barely noticed from his excitement.

The end of the tunnel was bathed in a light so bright that Grrk could not make out what was awaiting beyond it. Taking the final few steps, Grrk could not believe his eyes. What lay before him was a deep, vast valley, which spanned for hundreds of miles. All around were tall mountains, which in the south formed sharp, almost completely vertical needles. To Grrk’s left, he could see that distant mountain slopes converged to form one narrow bay, connecting the valley to a glimmering ocean. Far down below Grrk saw faint roads, which led to a walled city and castle built on the base of a mountain. It was clearly a human settlement, but it was unlike any of the glass-and-metal structures Grrk had seen in Agraria City. He was so high up that fields around the castle looked like nothing more than haphazard patches. Beyond the castle and all the way until the ominous sharp mountains of the south, was a thick and dark pine forest. This was his land. This was Elyseth.

Tuna, still sitting on Grrk’s back, gasped.

“It’s awe-inspiring, isn’t it”, Grrk responded.

“No Grrk! You!”

Unsure of what she meant, Grrk turned around to ask her. At first he noticed that his wings had turned from grey to milky white, almost translucent, and that Tuna’s skin was no longer grey, but a healthy pink. And then he saw it - his scales were exploding in a cacophony of reflections in the sunlight. Like crystals, they had a shine and translucency, but reflected light like a prism. In shock, he observed as with each movement his scales reflected breathtaking reds, pinks, blues and greens. Their true colour was incomprehensible: although at face value they appeared like translucent crystals, Grrk could not see the skin underneath them. Whenever he tried to turn to observe a specific scale, it would catch the light in such a way that he would only see the constellation of vivid colours within it.

While twisting himself yet another way, he put too much weight on his front legs - and the ground under him gave. For two breathless seconds, Tuna and Grrk were soundlessly dropping through the air. And then Grrk opened his wings.

The rush of the sensation made his flying experiences in Agraria pale in comparison. As soon as his wings caught the wind, Grrk felt completely weightless. By a turn of his head or a slight wing adjustment, he was able to change direction at will. He could not help but laugh from joy, and Tuna laughed with him. She did not seem to mind the high altitude at all, and in fact seemed to rejoice just as much as Grrk himself.

When he adjusted to the left, he suddenly saw familiar forms below him. It was a thunder of dragons - including his parents! But just like his, their scales had turned into crystal prisms. Seeing a dozen dragons gracefully fly through the air with their scales shimmering in the sun like a river, Grrk for the first time in his life felt immense pride to be a dragon.

“Mom! Dad!” Grrk called out while descending towards them. Perhaps they had escaped the investigation too?

Instead of displaying any degree of surprise at seeing him, Grrk’s parents simply fell behind from the group and motioned Grrk to join them. Realising that he was probably in trouble, Grrk sheepishly dropped to fly next to them.

“Did you read our note? Did you follow us?” his mother whispered.

“No, what note?” Grrk asked, not understanding their reaction.

“Grrk, love, you really should not be here. We haven’t told you everything about our origins”, his father said.

“You haven’t told me anything at all, it seems! Since when are we this colour?”

Like on cue, hundreds of dragons suddenly emerged from the mountain range, and took flight. Grouped together, the prismatic reflections were blinding, Tuna had to completely cover her eyes as it was unbearable for her. The ground below caught the thousands of dancing reflections, animating the landscape many miles ahead.

“Who is that girl?” Grrk’s mother asked.

Before Grrk could muster up a half truth, with her eyes still covered, Tuna chimed in:

“My name is Tuna and I am Grrk’s friend! And we are on an adventure!”

Grrk turned to face Tuna, who had now made an opening with her hands to grin at him.

“Well, Tuna, and Grrk, you really should take your adventure right back to Agraria. This is no place for children '', Grrk’s father said.

“Dad, I am nearly of age!”

There was no time to argue further. The thunder had begun its descent.

They were aiming towards a big cave opening with structures around it that were much like the factories in Agraria. Then, so many things happened simultaneously that Grrk had difficulty registering it all. At the cave opening, a dragon appeared, carrying a lump in his arms. This dragon was none other than Ungrg - who also had turned crystal. Then, from behind a hill appeared a group of people all dressed in varieties of velvet and fur, surrounded by an army of a thousand men. The lump - which turned out to be a person - leapt forward, only to be caught by Ungrg again. The dragons surrounded the army, Grrk landing close enough to see that the man dressed in the thickest fur was wearing a crown, and so was the woman next to him.

“Let him go!” exclaimed the King.

“This ends now”, responded Ungrg.

“He dies, and you all leave us alone”, added Grrk’s father, stepping inside the circle.

“Dad!” Grrk exclaimed, only to have his mother cover his mouth with her wing.

The King observed the menacing circle around him with disproportionately calm demeanour. Meanwhile, the captured man was able to once more wiggle out of the dragon’s grip, and this time succeeded in running behind the line of armoured men.

“Ha! Next time learn not to discuss your coup plans in a cave that echoes! Still want to try going against the King’s army?” he sneered.

“Cain, let me handle this”, said the King, “I completely sympathise with your cause”, he started addressing the dragons, but stopped mid-sentence.

Approaching the royal couple was Tuna. With stunned onlookers all around, she grabbed the Queen’s hem, and looked up expectantly.

“No! Could it be? Princess Marianne?” the King said, as the Queen lowered herself to greet Tuna, with tears in her eyes.

The King kneeled next to her, both now oblivious to the political conflict at hand.

“Our sweet child”, he muttered.

“I think you mean the child of the Queen and the Fairy Prince!” exclaimed a voice from the circle. With gasps all around, a crack in the crowd revealed the very same fairies Grrk and Tuna had encountered on the river bank, this time looking healthy as ever.

The King stood up.

“Your kind truly has the gall to hide for decades only to come out with this level of disrespect!”

Before anyone could react, a fairy flitted towards Tuna, and yanked up the back of her tunic, to her and the onlookers’ absolute horror. On her back, were two large vertical scars.

“These are scars from clipped fairy wings”, the fairy said.

“When you royals so much as breathe differently, word spreads! It didn’t take long for our kingdom to figure out the Prince’s affair, despite your delightfully discreet meeting spot in the woods!” The fairy waited for his words to sink in before continuing.

“Once he heard of the missing Princess, all caution flew to the wind and he made the journey to Agraria to find her. And that led to his demise - the way that soulless metal country seeps out magic takes a toll on anyone with even the slightest drop of magic in them.”

Grrk’s parents murmured in agreement, as did some others, seemingly forgetting their mission.

“We believe that the magic of dragons, who evidently do not die in Agraria, kept the Princess alive all these years, too. We knew it was her the instant she reacted to fairy speak!”

The King cut the fairy off with a smug chuckle.

“Quite the story you have fabricated there. But the scars on my daughter’s back are actually from the scuffle with the midwife who so cruelly stole our daughter. Right, honey?”

The Queen did not respond. Instead, she hugged Tuna tighter.

It was the fairy’s turn to be smug. He spoke a few strange, melodic words, to which Tuna immediately turned, and to Grrk’s surprise, responded with the same, harmonious sounds.

“You became so cold and distant after taking over the throne!” the Queen exclaimed. The King stared at her emotionlessly.

“I know I made a mistake, and all I wanted was to keep Marianne away for a few years, so that she could unlearn any signs of being a fairy, and return to us as good as any human child. How was I to know that the midwife would die from staying in Agraria for too long”, the Queen said, sobbing.

“I see… How curious it is to rejoice the return of my long-lost daughter, only to realise I have no daughter at all. Thanks to her disappearance, however, I have made other arrangements”, the King mused while glancing at Cain. Tuna looked at the King with eyes full of distrust.

“Naturally, you are to move out of the castle immediately. Now, onto more pressing matters”, the King said, turning his full attention back to the dragons, no sign of his familial tragedy in his stature.

“As I understand, you are unhappy with your working conditions. However, Cain’s business savviness has brought me considerable profits -despite the difficulties of trading with Agraria, seeing that we can only spend so long on their soil. Now, I recognise that our approach to starting production may have been brutish, but you must understand, with your violent tendencies…” the King trailed off while pacing around.

“Your inimitable ability to produce these gemstones is invaluable to us as a kingdom. I am sure Cain would be open to negotiating some kind of compensation with you, in exchange for continuing this operation…”

“No!” interrupted Ungrg. “You leave us alone, or we will kill you all.”

The tension was once again palpable, as the dragons revealed their fangs and closed in on the humans.

“We can still make the crystals!” Grrk said, to the outrage of every dragon around him. All eyes, confused and angry, were on him, and he swallowed nervously while stepping into the circle.

“We can take them to Agraria for you. Since we do not die there. But only if we don’t have to work with Cain!”

Now the dragons and the King looked at him with curiosity.

“Well…”, the King mused, “I suppose I wouldn’t mind having some bright diplomats like yourself representing us over in Agraria. Would you, the dragons, be willing to enter an agreement with us, the kingdom of Elyseth?”

A murmur went around, until Ungrg stepped up and shook the King’s hand.

“What about me? It was my innovation and hard work which led us here!” Cain protested.

“Indeed, which is why I need you for something much bigger than this business. Seeing as I do not have an heir anymore, I need to prepare someone else for the task.“

Grrk looked around to see that under their helmets, the soldiers displayed emotions varying from doubt to disgust, seemingly sharing the dragons' opinion on the man.

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” Grrk asked his parents when they were later walking away from the group.

“Oh honey, there is so much we need to talk about. Your father and I have been part of the resistance against Cain ever since he attacked our beautiful caves. We vowed to one day take our mountains back, and moved to Agraria to learn about their heavy machinery. The same machinery that he used on that fateful day to massacre and enslave so many of us. You were born on the journey to Agraria, and we decided that we would only tell you the truth if we won - if your father and I died in this battle, you would have been able to continue living a full life in Agraria. But now that this is all over, you will move back here with us, won’t you?”

The fairies stepped in from the side.

“And Tuna shall come with us, as the heir to the fairy throne”, their leader said while extending his arms towards her.

Grrk looked over at Tuna.

“I don’t know, what would you like to do?” he asked her.

“I want to keep flying with you!”

And so, Grrk promised to take Tuna wherever she wanted to go. Grrk looked back, where the dragons had slowly started to slither back into their caves to rebuild their once magnificent dwellings. Among the humans, a quiet unease had spread, and Grrk wondered whether the King might soon need to revisit the diplomatic relations with his own citizens.