Children of the Stone

There weren't always dragons in the Valley, but upon later reflection, Jem would admit that it had been foolish to overlook the sign that there would be one day.

It was not really a valley but a sheltered cup in the mountains, it had contained a handful of hot springs and a collection of rough-hewn boulders that were too smooth to be natural and too old to have been made by human hand. At least that's what the Elders taught Jemima when she was a girl. Separated from the rest of the thermal waters by a jagged semi-circle of rock that seemed to have been thrust out of the earth by force, the Valley was contained and sheltered. Safe from wind and snow, warm even in the heart of winter, and full of haggard, stunted plants, and flowers that might never grow elsewhere. The Valley, in short, was a gold mine for healers, apothecaries, and poisoners and so it had to be kept secret. The winding path from the village of Heft to the nearest town, Port Keele, passed its entrance yet never bent in its direction. Travelers walked by it every day, remarking on the strange, craggy hill perched at the top of the Sulphur Plains and never seemed to think about whether it had a center of stone.

Jem and the small cohort of healers who were trusted to maintain and harvest the Valley used the cliff path that led around the gorse and bramble thorn bushes at the very edge of the plateau. At the top of the path, the seemingly whole hill showed its true face, or back as the case may be. Vast juts and crags of rock tapered down and down until there was a low meeting point, no more than five feet high at its lowest point, with a stone bridge to make passage easier. Here the air was thick and muggy with steam and the slight tang of sulphur in the air made the nose itch. In the heat of summer the hills' great back cast shade that brought relief. In the hardest winters, sickly babies and elders were brought to the herb drying shack to soak in the heat.

The day that it all started to change, however, Jem was alone, scraping bright green moss from the mineral-rich stones. It was chirping, at first, so quiet that she could almost have convinced herself that it was nothing at all. Except that the Valley had no birds or small animals. She stopped her work and narrowed her eyes, straining in the silence but it seemed to stop whenever she did. As the sun started to dip behind the spine of the Valleys walls, she gathered her skirt and pulled it through the loop hanging from her belt, pulling the material up and away from the ground for the walk home.

"I've told you, Yulia, it was chirping-" Jem licked her lips and worked her hands in the air as if she could reach out and pull better words from thin air,

"Like a cricket?" Yulia sighed and pressed her good hand to her forehead. The grey light of dawn was already seeping into the room.

"No," Jem said and shook her head, sending a bead of sweat rolling through her cropped hair, "like birds. Baby birds." She cupped her hands as if holding an imaginary hatchling. Yulia raised her eyebrows and puffed her cheeks, rolling onto her back,

"There aren't any birds nesting there."

"I know."

"The minerals-" She waved her half hand as if she could conjure the essence of it from the air,

"I know, Yulia, I know how it sounds but I heard chirping. I heard it."

"Ok, so a bird landed in the Valley and got confused. If it ate anything in there it's dead now." She rolled onto her side, back turned; a clear signal.

"I suppose so," Jem rubbed her face, "I suppose so."

But it wasn't dead, whatever it was, and the chirping was louder the next time she entered the Valley. Yulia allowed herself to be dragged, reluctantly, along the cliff path, half hand gripping the handle of her walking stick hard enough to make the dark scar tissue turn grey,

"I hate this path," she hissed,

"I know, we're nearly there," Jem said and helped her mount the last few steps,

"You've got sun flies in your hair," Yulia grunted,

"It's because I'm radiant." She raised her brows and looked up,

"It's because your hairs piss yellow." Yulia sighed and sat on a jutting rock, brown forehead beaded with sweat,

"That too." She smiled and crouched to rub Yulia's back, "are you ok?"

"Fine," she said and took a few deep breaths, "I'll be fine. I just need to let the leg rest." She stretched out her bad leg and dragged what little fabric was not already trapped by the loop over her knees to stretch it out. In the sunlight, the scar tissue was livid, despite it's age. How hard it must be, Jem thought, to go from scaling the rigging at speed, even in the worst storm, to struggling to walk a cliff path four feet wide. Yulia licked her full bottom lip and sighed, almost drowning out the tiny chirp that made Jem whip her head around,

"Tell me you heard that, love?" She whispered,

"I heard it," Yulia said with a wan smile, "so the bird has survived three days what-" another chirp, and then another sounded out above the hiss and bubble of the springs. Sweat beaded on Jem's brow as she crouched, hand on a jutting spike at the edge of the lowest point of the perimeter wall, "there's more than one," Yulia added and craned to look around, "I'll give you that."

"No," she whispered, "there wasn't. Not the first time. Nor yesterday." Yulia struggled to her feet after a particularly loud chirp and looked at the rock she had been perched on. More of a boulder, it was easily six feet tall with a bulging center and a tapered top. The Elders called them Stone Children - they decorated them and left offerings from the village at midsummer and midwinter. Now, it seemed that one of the children wanted to sing. The shelf of rock that jutted from its side, the one Yulia had so hastily perched on, cracked and fell away as she prodded it with the end of her walking stick. The freshly exposed rock was paler than the rest - it curved away from them to reach the earth, "what on earth..." Jem dragged her skirt up as she fell into a deeper crouch, knuckles so white that the blue lines and swirls inscribed on her fingers seemed almost black by comparison. Fingers shaking, she reached out to caress the side of the stone and hissed when the surface was burning hot. Dull throbs of pain echoed from her reddened fingertips up the length of her arm. Blisters had already started to form when she pressed them into her mouth.

Barely breathing, she pressed her hands to the ground and leaned forward, closing her eyes to count the hush-hush of her breaths. Whatever was inside the stone chirped loud enough to make her scramble back, eyes opening in time to watch a chip of stone fall away and inside, deep inside the stone, something moved weakly. Yulia moved as if to reach for it,

"No! No, Yulia, don't," Jem gasped and struggled to her feet, "stand back."

The Elders took longer to get up the cliff path than Yulia did, something that she gloated about under her breath as Jem helped her onto the bridge,

"They are elderly," Jem said,

"Just let me have this," Yulia whispered back with a roll of her eyes. The chirping had reached a fever pitch while they were away. It was a cacophony, now, joined by a percussive series of clicks and cracks and, more worryingly, a low rumble that seemed to come from everywhere. Ursla and Johan, the youngest of the elders, traced their way around the Valley, running their frail fingers along the perimeter wall and muttering as they went,

"The Children of the Stone are displeased," Ursula said when they returned,

"Displeased?" Yulia asked, lips twisted as if to hide a smile,

"Yes, displeased," Johan snapped and leaned on his cane, "perhaps we have allowed too many... non-spiritual elements into our fold."

"Meaning me? You sanctimonious old-"

"There was something moving in this one!" Jem pointed and her whole hand trembled,

"A trick of the light," Ursula waved her liver-spotted hand with a sigh, "we must cleanse the area, and the village, we have to make preparations and sacrifices-" The closest stone cracked from root to tip and a sheaf of rock larger than a man fell away and into a hot spring, sending a spray of hot water into the sky. Something moved in the darkness within the stone and sent the group scrambling to the herb drying hut. Once inside they peered through the rough-cut windows and doorway. The stone rocked and shuddered as if shaken by some incredible force, more and more chunks of stone falling away until a might crack sounded and the whole structure fell. In the rubble was a glittering, chirping animal.

Pale green and shuddering, it seemed to darken before Jem's eyes. She gripped Yulians hand tight and pulled her close. as it rolled and rubbed itself against the rubble shreds of thin skin seemed to be dragged from its body to reveal darker scales that glittered in the light. Claws scrabbled on the rocks as it turned and sniffed, then raised its head to sniff the air and let out a plaintive cry,

"Now do you believe me," Jem hissed, though she admitted to herself it would have been smarter to be silent, "that is... well I don't know what that is but-"

"That is a dragon," Yulia said and gripped her hand tighter, dragging her to the door with sudden and unbearable strength, "or a dragonling, to be precise, and we," she jerked her arm when Jem struggled, "Jem, we are leaving before the rest hatch."

"What?"

"Now."

Dragged out into the light, Jem forced her legs to work, craning her head to call to the elders,

"We must leave," her voice was lost in the chirps, shrieks, and cracks echoing all around her, but the Elders were squabbling amongst themselves. Only Rin, Old Rin, seemed to have got the message and flapped her hands at them as she pushed through the crowd to follow, "we can't leave them, Yulia."

"We can and we will," Yulia said, the sweat that had beaded on the back of her neck somehow showing more fear than her voice, "they're going to want food soon, Jem, and if there's none given they'll eat anything they can get their claws on. Including each other."

"I thought..." she trailed off,

"What?"

"I thought dragons wouldn't..."

"They're animals when they're babies, Jem," Yulia whirled to take her shoulders, eyes flitting to a nearby boulder. A nearby egg. "Nothing more, nothing less, big, powerful animals, all the riddles and the magic and the... that storybook shite- that comes later. And only to High Dragons." And she turned again, her grip hard on Jem's wrist until she broke free and scaled the bridge before her to help her cross.

"Where's their mother?" Jem asked and Yulia laughed,

"That's something I don't want to know." The Elders were crossing between the shaking eggs, some more slowly than others, but making their way finally, as the sound of grinding stone filled the air. The dragonlings were shrieking and squealing as new siblings tumbled into the world. Ursula hobbled over the bridge last, then staggered as the last step heaved under her foot. The chirping cries and shrieks were silenced as a lower sound - a rumble that seemed to shake the whole world. The thinnest part of the rock under the bridge had flicked outwards as if pointing at them. Jem froze, mouth hanging open as the roar become an earth-shaking crack and a colossal eye opened in the side of the Valley wall and stone began to fall away from the sleeping dragon like dead scales.

"Run." Yulia's hands, half and whole, gripped her and dragged her back before pushing hard enough to make her stumble. There was a roar in her ears and the whole world shook, throwing her sideways and off of the cliff path. The last snatch of sky she saw was marred by the sight of a great set of wings opening and two bodies following her off of the cliff's edge.