Dragon’s Child

With my jaws parted in pleasure, I scented using my dark divaricated tongue to taste the wind. I banked towards the ocean, gliding across the bamboo forest and towards the scent of seabirds. Increasing my speed, I used my eyes, instead of simply scenting to enjoy the caress of wind. Concentrating, I felt the familiar sensation of my eyes adjusting, a light tingle, a slight pressure- from the effort of seeing the heat signatures of the world around me. The black night erupted into deep blues and luminous purples, with faint orange pinpricks for stars. As soon as I looked up in the direction of seabird, I saw bright orange forms heading slowly towards the coast. My tongue licked eagerly at the air. Just a little closer I waited until the glow of bright orange was just above me. Then I arched upwards, rending the air with membranous wings, curving my serpentine body and snatching three seabirds in one motion, quenching a small portion of my thirst. I took my time returning inland from out over the ocean. Angling into a smooth descent, I began to glide above the bamboo and tropical trees once more. It was bad form to fly openly on a night so well lit by moonlight, and I was relieved to be back above the labyrinth of mountains that was my home.

I was mindful of People settlements. One human may be a very minor inconvenience for beasts such as I, but a large group- particularly if skilled in fighting and hunting- could prove fatal.

A shout drew my attention. Another pause, then again. I might hear the coastal people rummaging through my woods during the day, calling to one another, but it was rare to hear distress cries, especially at night. Feeding my curiosity, as I had nourished my body, I let my underbelly brush more of the jungle canopy, producing warm strong gusts to add to the cool windy night. Decades later, I would wonder why I chose to go near the voices. Perhaps, it was a sort of sabotage.

“Solyu! Solyu, sweetie, where are you?” A desperate vibrato tinged that particular call, and I was certain she could sense me. Sense me the way animals sense danger, sense that they are being watched. I was some distance away but I could see her clearly. The steady orange of the woman’s heat signature lured me, and if I had not heard her voice I still would have spotted her from far away. It was then, lingering above the dense tree line, that I felt a possessive pull at my core- the way one feels towards a cleverly amassed and ancient hoard. Mine. I concentrated on the glowing form of the woman crying and adjusted my eyes until she shifted from a bright orb to a defined figure of orange light. I could see the blue outline of her cold hands and feet. It is not uncommon for parents- birth-givers, egg layers, and those that have nursed their young in particular- to have an instinctual draw to their offspring and often to other very young beings. I hoped this woman, this mother, had the same such connection. For it would save me time. I too am a mother; and you have mislaid your baby. And I find myself very much in want of one. With a gust, I accelerated away from the jungle’s canopy, arching up until I was nearly beyond the point of seeing clearly.

The orange glow of the searching mother was now a bright pinprick in a sea of textured blackness and even without concentrating to enhance my sight and see her more clearly I could tell that she was moving. She was… headed back to the jungle's entrance… back to her village. Does she not realize? I thundered internally, outraged that she was leaving behind something I could no longer physically create and carry. Her baby is as good as dead unattended out here. Pulling my eyes from her orange light, I cast my gaze over the vast multihued void, methodically sweeping my line of sight across the distant jungle as a near indescribable need gnawed at my core. Yes. I answered a whisper from my subconscious as a small hue of orange suggested itself in my periphery. I would not stop until this ache was soothed.

⧫

The young mother’s breaths came in shallow gasps. “Solyu!” she called, glancing between stilted houses as she made her way to the tropical forest that surrounded the fishing village in which she was raised. The furrow between her brows deepened and before she stepped into the forest, a voice called her name “Sayue, wait! Where are you going?” Sayue, in a high, strained voice, replied. “Mama, have you found Solyu yet?” The old woman shook her head grimly.

“No, not yet but I’ve let family and nearby neighbors know to keep a lookout.” Sayue, heart constricting, turned on her heel. “Solyu might have wandered into the jungle,” she continued, “I will search the forest until the edge of the mountain; if I don’t find Solyu then I will need supplies to keep looking.”

⧫

I relaxed my mind, letting the muscles around my eyes go soft. The heat signatures slowly faded as I padded forward. The darkness of the night, still much brighter to me than it would be to the eyes of any human, had progressed to completion and the moon was high in the cloudless sky. I saw a small form curled in a bushy patch of grass and the gentle rise and fall of its chest. It felt as if my soul was holding its breath or as if I were falling from the sky, wings bound and unable to open. I came closer to the human pip. Mesmerized by its delicacy, my breathing slowed matching the sleeping babe. I was a few feet away when my tail made enough noise to rouse the resting child. It lifted its head sleepily. Small arms, the color of sunlight through amber, supported a bare grass-speckled belly. The toddler shifted to its knees, looking around to find the source of the noise, and I lowered my body to the ground so as not to loom over the pip. Tiny hands pressed into grass and moss as the babe looked up. Our eyes met. Mine, as large as the human-pip’s head, and theirs the color of rich earth.

Barely a breath after our eyes locked, a jolt of electric fire penetrated my mind and flooded the reproductive and milk producing organs of my body. A spasm undulated through every muscle of my body, making my breath catch. Once the searing dissipated, I felt a pulse in my mind, a small fluttering heartbeat, and saw the babe in front of me reaching its hand towards my muzzle, sleepy expression contorting into an anguished sob. My mind was full of this new sensation, and I was unaware once the child finally touched their soft skin to the warmth of my scales.

The more I focused on this persistent pulse, the stronger it got, until It filled my skull and suddenly I could sense every bit of the human pip inside and out. I could feel its hands touching me, hiccupping sobs into my scales. Alternately, it nuzzled the warmth of my muzzle then beat the bridge of my nostrils with fisted hands and I swear that to an extent I could feel how the child must feel me. I sensed not only the near desperation for food from the baby but the gnawing hunger that accompanies it. I could feel the half-fullness of this being’s bladder and the weight and texture of the cloth diaper against skin. And I could sense the human-pip's emotional desire for comfort, for skin contact, for a mother or caregiver. It is that need for nourishment consuming, tearing mercilessly into the baby’s body and their emotional distress that spured me to scoop the weeping human-pip into my padded paw. Coiling my body close to the ground, I kept the taloned hand holding the babe even closer to my chest attempting to protect it from wind and cold as I sprung up into the night air with a gust.

It was a short flight back to my network of caves and I projected mental images of a cozy nest, a caring presence, the sensation of a full belly, and the promise that all of that would come soon. The cries from the babe ebbed slightly and I could feel the little one’s body relaxing against me. My heart throbbed with almost painful excitement. It understands what I’m saying! Hope, hesitation, and a budding euphoria simmered as I wheeled us in for a shallow dive to the top most entrance of my cave system. This human child… could be my pip… It already speaks mind to mind as infant dragons do. I angled towards the rocky opening that led to a section of cavern with a ground entrance facing the direction of the child’s village. It would be wise to watch for any other wandering villagers. I rocketed through narrow and occasionally winding tunnels until I flew into a giant hot chamber. Home. I settled the babe against my belly in my nest of furs, soft heather, and a couple of small piles of bright glittery coins and multicolored precious stones.

I set about the business of nourishing my new pip. The heat I had felt in my milk producing glands had faded from an uncomfortable throb to soft warmth and now that I was no longer flying I could see why. The closer we had gotten to the cavern the more I could smell the scent of my milk. I was lactating. It seemed to me that this newly established link and the baby’s need for milk stirred familiar changes in me. My milk producing organs, just under the surface of the scales of my underbelly, were slightly swollen and shimmering lavender hued milk ran down the soft scales of my stomach. ‘I will have to make a bowl for the babe to sip from, perhaps from a loose scale…’ I focused on sharing my thoughts with the babe, hoping the projection of the babe lapping the warm milk and the scent of it would entice the little one. Through the gentle pulse in my head I could feel my new pip processing my projected thoughts. Then the small human crawled closer, bracing themselves with soft tiny hands against my belly and began to lap at the shimmering milk seeping from between my scales.

⧫

The forest behind her was dark when Sayue returned to the village. She was consumed with the guilt of not having returned with her baby. My first ever and only baby… a choked sob left her lips. The farther from the maw of the forest the more despair seeped into Sayue limbs. Her steps were heavy and stumbling, slipping, in the sand as she made her way to the closest house on stilts, her cousin’s. Dragging herself up the three stairs that led to her newlywed cousin’s door, she pressed against it. Breath increasingly ragged, she pounded on the door, tight fist connecting on bamboo with a ‘thuwmp, thuwmp.’ The sound was startling in the sleeping night. A hastily clad form pushed the door open and sent Sayue reeling back, before collapsing hard on her knees with the effort of holding herself balanced and upright. Behind the bulk of the man who had flung the door open in alarm, peered a wide-eyed woman with dark disheveled curls. “Sayue?” The woman asked, voice lilting in confusion and worry. Despite the poor illumination of the moon, the shine of fresh tears over well-dried tear stains were clear. So was Sayue’s ashen face and unhinged expression.

“Your mom said you were looking for Solyu and then we went to find you…” She stepped past her husband with furrowed brows and reached for Sayue’s shoulder . “You were gone for so long… Did you find-” Sayue’s cousin was cut off by a guttural keening.

The color drained from the other woman’s face, “Osun,” She said with fear, speaking over her shoulder to her husband still standing in shock in the door’s frame.

“Go get my mother and her family, now!” The alarm in his wife’s voice jolted him back to his body and he turned from the ghost of a woman wailing in his wife’s arms. Osun vaulted over the railing of his porch, landing softly in the sand and sprinted towards houses in the distance, on high stilts and closer to the coastline. Bamboo doors opened around them. “Is that Mina’s house?” one voice asked into the quickly awaking night. “Mina and Osun’s?” Another faint murmur said. Then deep shouts came closer. And all at once, couples, families, and lone individuals of the village surrounded them. Drawn by the unadulterated fear and anguish twisting in the almost inhuman howl filling the dark. The group of increasingly distinct figures shouted and ran inland where some of the villagers fishermen, who at the sound of the first shriek abandoned their nighttime tasks.

“Is that Sayue?” “What- Huyli’s daughter?” The initially clear questions of the growing crowd turned to an inaudible susurration of concern. This murmuring was broken by three figures, parting the people as one might part a dense growth of young bamboo. An old woman, an even older man, and young person -whose sex, at a glance, was indistinguishable- carrying a stiff looking bag. The young person with the bag startled, swallowed, and with a moment more of hesitation leapt forward to produce a bamboo box from the bag. And from that, a hand-fashioned clay tray with several depressions to hold small glass bottles. Glass bottles filled with a multitude of different pigmented textures and shapes. With practiced movements, one of these glass bottles was uncorked in the tray then wafted once, twice, underneath the nose of the wailing young mother. The effect was gentle but instantaneous. The color of the radiant substance the village healer’s apprentice had administered to Sayue could be seen drifting up from the bottle’s opening. Circling around deep amber toned nostrils. The crowd of neighbors, relatives of relatives of relatives, friends, and the old woman and even older man who, together, had come last yet pushed to the front without resistance looked on with awe at the transformation. While Sayue’s pallor did not change, her wails did fade to heavy breathing and then something more controlled. She looked up and her eyes were not rolling in abject anguish. They were fearful and sad but she looked a little better all the while. A minute later when Sayue’s standing and about to address her mother, the old woman who arrived with the even older man, a village Elder, Huyli interjected, “Sayue, honey, you’ve been gone for hours.” Alarm filled every inch of her body though she does her best to keep it from her voice, “ Did you find any trace of Solyu?”

The apprentice healer, satisfied with the healing done, packed away the supplies and faded into the crowd. Sayue grimaced at the mention of her toddler’s name. Her breath hitched as she shook her head, “There… there was something in the forest.” She continues to lean into her cousin Mina, trying to drink deeply of the stability that physical comfort can provide. “I didn’t find anything that might lead me to Solyu…but, I think something took my baby! As I was calling and searching I felt an immense presence.” She paused, swallowed and looked the village Elder in the eye. “Something huge, and following me from above. I kept feeling rushes of strangely hot wind and with it came an almost unbearably earthen and fishy odor. There were moments where I thought I might choke on the scent of swamp, ocean, and sulfur. It was only when I was rushing back to the coast that I felt this awful presence leave.” There was a resounding silence once Sayue had stopped speaking. Mina covered her mouth in horror, stepping clumsily away from her cousin and back into her husband, who had reappeared at some point during Sayue’s recounting of her harrowing jungle search. “Is that what that smell is on you?” Mina asks with disgust. “That odor isn’t strong on you, but it’s in your hair…and just… I don’t know, you do smell wrong.” Sayue’s eyes began to water and she joined Mina in covering their mouths with their hands. For Sayue though, it was to stifle a fresh wave of wretched weeping.

Mina turned to her husband, eyes even wider than they had been when Sayue had first collapsed on their doorstep. “Osun, does this scent not mean that this thing is still out there?” Her voice carried to the increasingly panicked onlookers. Menfolk concerned and womenfolk seeming to sense the direction of Mina’s query. The tension in the impromptu gathering built with no peak in sight to assure a release of energetic pressure, only plateaus of unease amongst small valleys of fear and rolling hills of anxiety. Mina’s voice was well heard by all present as she directed her attention to the village Elder, including him in her address to her husband.

“If this daemonic creature is a baby snatcher then no child born or unborn will be safe! Something must be done, please. Most formally, I entreat you Elder, one of many- of past, of present, and to come-, hear me and take this to the council. Protect our future from this force!” All at once, the silence of the crowd ruptured and those that came with others turned to them in a clamor. It was easy to see the women in the crowd turn to the men that were the customary trained protectors of the village and, in particular, of those in the village that were unable to defend themselves. The women called on their brothers. On their fathers. On their uncles, their cousins, and their full grown sons. They petitioned the Divine Masculinity in all of them and they were heard. The first booming shouts came from some fishermen and the village tanner. “WE WILL HUNT FOR THE SAKE AND SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN!” Silence overtook the crowd's uproar. Then with the speed and ferocity of wildfire, this chant was taken up by every bellowing voice present. The village Elder, took the steps that lead to the porch of Mina and Osun home, creating a makeshift dais. Osun drew Mina and Sayue down those same steps the Elder had come up, aiding in creating order amidst the passionate horde. The Elder simply raised both arms high into the air and held them there. As most of those declaring vocal oaths of guardianship were looking towards where Mina, Osun, and Sayue had stood, they also saw the actions the Elder performed. They quieted and the rest of the shouts petered out. The Elder spoke, “We will have a hunt for this calamity.” voice grave he continues, “those trained in hunting, exorcism, and our oral history come to me.” He sweeps his gaze over the vast crowd as during the duration of all of this, residents from even the farthest houses on the coastline had made their way to the homes just a hundred meters away from the jungle’s dimly lit opening. “Those eager to be of service, men, women, and children alike, come to me as well. We will take this party of hunters and helpers to the community center to speak with the other Elders of the council and see what need be done for proper preparation.” Those addressed began to trickle away and still the Elder spoke, his voice now sad and kindly, “The rest of you…” he sighs, “get some rest. The wellbeing of all of those not in this party is our reservoir of strength that allows us to endure in the face of the ferocious unknown."

The hue of dawn is well painted across the sky by the time Sayue collapsed into the downy quilts of her cot. When the sky is lucent with the sun’s high noon rays she does not feel the shift of her husband rising beside her or the whisper of her mother at the home’s door, so deep in sleep is she. Only once the sun sets does she begin to stir and it’s not till dusk has well risen that Sayue wakes. Discomforted by the absences of her partner and the silence of the village, she fears she may have missed the hunting party. Flying out of the house, still in a nightgown, she ran to and inside the council’s lodge. At a desk, underneath a lantern, an Elder sat organizing what appeared to be wax sticks for sealing letters.

“Sir, I’ve been asleep all day. Have I missed the hunting party?” Sayue asks breathlessly.

“Ah, no miss. They’ll be here tomorrow, ‘bout noon.”

“Oh, good, thank you!” As quickly as she rushed in, she rushed out. Feeling exhausted, she suddenly made her way home and stumbled to bed. Images of a victorious search played in her mind until she was asleep.

It was late afternoon when she woke again. She dressed quickly and left her house. She saw her husband out on the water, fishing, far from inland by the looks of it. She made her way to the council’s lodge, only to be stopped by Mina and Mina’s mother. The two women locked arms with Sayue and led her to a nearby home- Mina's mother’s house.

"We know that you have not eaten yet, little Sayue. Before you do anything else you will come and have a meal with us." As it was said, so was it done. It was evening by the time Sayue made it to the council lodge. Still, she could see no obvious signs of a party readying to storm the forest. A deep ruddy pink darkened her cheeks and when she went to the Elders' meeting house this time, she stormed in. Feeling a woman wronged and ready to bring the world to its knees, she confronted the group of Elders. They were speaking amongst themselves and pointing at a large stiff paper.

"I am Sayue, mother of the stolen Solyue, and by the rights given to the innocent and wronged I demand to know why no party leaves tonight to search for my baby!"

There were fours Elders, one man, two women, and a third person, of ambiguous sex and gender. It was this last person who addressed Sayue, "Young mother, I answer you with all honesty… if we were to pursue this entity as we are now, it is certain we would face irreparable injury to our forces.” The longer the Elder spoke, the angrier the mother’s countenance became.

“We… truly are sorry, but, if we must suffer the loss of one child for the wellbeing of all the rest, born and those yet unborn, then that is what we will do.” The Elders’ hands are steepled in apology and with a snarl Sayue whirled towards the exit.

“All will be ready to storm the jungle in two days!” With those last words chasing and finding her, Sayue decided that come daybreak, she would find the Daemon’s lair. After a fitful night’s sleep, she woke at daybreak, filled a rucksack of hastily packed provisions and secreted herself away into the jungle. To search for her stolen child, she used her intuition, rudimentary knowledge of tracking large animals, and her sense of smell. Despite all of this, it took all day for her to feel confident in the direction her skills were leading her. A grassy covered mountain loomed in the not too far distance and Sayue swore she could see parts of its surface sunken into deep blackness. Once, when she looked up through stalks of bamboo to mark her progress she thought she saw smoke or steam coming from both high up on the side of the mountain and in front.

When night fell, she didn’t sleep. The night cooled the jungle and she noticed that her rucksack was substantially lighter than she thought it would be. ‘I am farther from the village than I expected…’ an uneasy musing forces itself to her foremost thoughts. Sayue could no longer see the mountain to check her progress, but she thought she saw a glimmer some way away in front of her. And when she could not even see that, the odor on the air told her she was headed in the right direction.

The predawn sky marked Sayue’s progress and the jungle air took on a strange heat. Sayue knew that this temperature change was not the true weather. Bursts of cool wind washed away the odorous heat and soothed stinging nostrils. Distracted by the pleasantness of the wind, Sayue didn’t react when she heard a faint peal of laughter. As a second bout of joyous warbling jolted her back to consciousness. She stumbled out from between two giant bamboo into a small clearing. Sayue scanned the space, searching for the location of the laughing child. She took in how sections of the forest floor sported gouges from where bamboo stalks had been ripped from the earth completely. She saw that along the edge of the opening there were stalks broken in half and flung aside in organized piles. She saw all of this but did not see Solyu.

She saw a cave framed by uprooted, broken, and whole bamboo and an oblong entrance about 10 feet tall. In the center of the cave's mouth a baby, back turned, chirped, whistled, and clicked.

Sayue bolted forward, adrenaline coursing through her. Grabbing Solyu up in her arms, she cradled the toddler to her chest and glared into the cave’s darkness. The young mother realized that she did see something in that gaping hollow. A vivid gleam of green silted with black. Heat closed in around her. Both from the tiny fire of a baby against her chest, nearly scalding her, and the hot humidity from the cave before her. Sayue staggered back as a large lizard-like creature slinked out of the mouth of the cave. The thick, choking scent assaulted her. Before she could flee with her baby, as instinct was telling her to, Solyu sank dagger-like teeth into her shoulder. Sayue pulled the child from her, looking down. Horror filled her as the morning light shone on Solyu. Her body froze and she fought the instinct to drop the child. Movement pulled her eyes, once again, to the fully emerged creature. Its shadow loomed over her, casting a great shade. Its sheer size was comparable to hills or mountains. Suddenly Sayue sees herself sitting snug in her grandmother's lap as she was told of a She-Dragon that once attacked the village. Sayue looked up and understood. This was that creature, standing before her. She stared at the Dragon’s intelligent eyes and then looked back at her baby.

Her baby that did not look like her baby. Or any human child. Sayue’s throat spasmed. Now that her gaze was on Solyu she could see that it was indeed the same child, only very different- she could suddenly feel all the grotesque changes. Solyu’s skin felt leathery and shone with a strong lavender hue. The child had grown nubby bony protrusions, on its back, in between its shoulder blades and along the length of its spine. It was then that Sayue removed the child from her body, seeing Solyu’s eyes as she did so. Gleaming orange eyes flecked with rust had replaced soft brown ones. Setting the babe down away from her, she doubled over and vomited violently. Recalling how the pupils of the baby’s orange eyes had become distorted and elongated, another wave of nausea tore through her body and came out as a torrent of sick. Above the eyebrows, there were two more bony protrusions, equidistant from one another and just forward from the temple. Sayue keened while Solyu babbled at his mother, seeming unafraid but completely unattached to her. Solyu stood up and tottered towards the Dragon. Sayue couldn’t even bring herself to reach out to the child. She wanted her child, not this Dragon’s child.

Sayue saw movement out of the corner of her eye and she backed away from the standing Dragon. Was that a satisfied glint in its giant viridescent eyes? Suddenly, the beast scoops up the chirping babe in a taloned hand. Her vision tunneled as she watched the Dragon crouch, gather all of its serpentine length, and launch itself into the sky with a horrifying athleticism. Scalding air scored her exposed skin and the strength of the gust knocked her on her back. Ears ringing and lungs seizing, Sayue’s darkening vision filled with the disappearing form of a Dragon flying up and away from the direction of the village.

By the time the hunting party crashed into the Dragon’s clearing, the beast was far from the mountain. They gently revived Sayue and carried her back to the village. The rest ventured into the mountain's opening, hoping to return with some clues to the mystery of the Daemonic force that stole a child of their village.